JOURNAL WEEK 3

It was a great disappointment in me as well the pupils in my class. I admitted that

I was not good in teaching the language grammar and I had confused them, however I
had tried my best to bring them back to the right way of understanding the concept. But
now, the main problem is no longer with the teaching. It is with the concept. Pupils do
not learn through the concept of grammar. They have read and understood the rules, but
they did not know how to apply the rules at all. Although grammar is not explicitly tested
in the examination, this does not mean that grammar is not important. I am very insisting
in making pupils learnt grammar especially the different tenses.
In the previous lesson, I mislead the pupils to the concept of Past Continuous
Tense. Because pupils do not learn through concept, I used a chart to show the
differences and patterns of tenses to the pupils. Pupils were actually confused with
Simple Present Tense, Simple Past Tense and Present Continuous Tense before they got
to learn Past Continuous Tense. I asked pupils to copy in their Exercise Book 2 whatever
I had written on the white board. When pupils write when learning, it is the best drilling
could happen. Pupils can remember what they have written during the learning.
Besides, instead of telling the pupils that Past Continuous Tense is events that are
continuously happening in the past, I would rather tell them that every Continuous Tense
(does not matter Present or Past) must firstly add an ing at the back of the action verb.
Only then pupils just decide whether to put present or past verb in front of the action
verb.
After doing practices for more than two lessons, pupils finally caught up with the
tenses, for at least they see the difference even though they do not understand the concept
much. As what the English proverb said, Rome is not built in a day. I believe practices
make perfect. As long as I give them enough practices every week, one day, they could
understand more about the concept though different skills (listening, speaking, reading,
and writing).