MIGUEL H. PANUGAN, JR.

EDTE 223
MAED-TE | YR. 1 SY: 2014-2015 Term: 2

Oral Communication for English Teachers: Playing the Voice Controls

Let me begin by pressing the REWIND control. . . During my first curricular year of
teaching in Sudlon Elementary School I remember a colleague once asked me with her distinct
tone, “Have you already made a valedictory speech and other addresses for your top students this
coming graduation?” Huh? I immediately gaped in awe considering that it was still in the middle of
February. We had not even tackled a half of the competencies for the last quarter then. Although the
cream of the crop of my graduating class had long been predicted based on the consistent
performance of my students, this would not mean that I could make an indirect premature
announcement. On that note, I just let the incident past my thought. Consequently, it was not until
barely two weeks before the graduation that I crafted manuscripts for the speeches of my students.
When I hit the PLAY button for training my students, I was even more taken aback by their
poor oral communication skills. Oops! I did not really see that coming. They definitely had
difficulty in the fundamentals of speech communication. Their articulation of words, enunciation,
phrasing, and other oral fluency attributes were at frustration level. In addition, their gestures,
speaker-audience contact, and of course self-confidence and other related requisites for effective
speech delivery were likewise frustrating.
I took a PAUSE. I started groping in the dark trying to look for the best first move in
teaching them to speak correctly. Then I found myself going back to the basic. I tried hard to lead
them from the correct production of sounds to words, phrases, sentences down to the use of their
body language and their inner self towards a full-packed, well-delivered speech.
The time had come to push the REPLAY button to test how far my students had gone. I was
overwhelmed by the progress of my students when they finally hit the podium. It was not a perfect
recital per se. But for me who had accompanied them along the way, it was a great
accomplishment.
As I move FORWARD from that moment, I have become more aware of the many-sided
tasks of a teacher, an English Teacher for that matter. I have come to contemplate the vital role I
hold in honing my students for them to have the necessary knowledge, skills and values to be
effective communicators in their own way.

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 At this juncture, I take a SKIP as another school year comes and goes. Another bunch of
varied learners are there that I have to deal with. I might not be mistaken that these new breed of
students want new styles of teaching. They might be sick and tired hearing the same old ways.
There might be much more to offer them than I have had given.
Along the line of that idea, I realize that I must not STOP here and stick to what I routinely
share to my students. I must jive to their level and dance to the trends of their music. This is
probably the reason why I have begun to keep abreast with the breakthroughs of today’s
educational milieu. Certainly this is why I pursue my studies not just for my own consumption but
more importantly for my students as well.
Let me end by hitting the final note. . . I think I hear the reverberating remark of that same
colleague saying, “I told you before! Our students’ ways of learning up here are far different from
their counterparts in the lowlands. Even our smartest may be outsmarted…” But if given the chance
to answer her, I would have told her that the way our students learn greatly depends on the way we
teach them, and I would have said my statement effectively by tapping the correct controls of my
voice. Oral communication after all is but a play of voice.

A reflection paper on actual teaching learning experience in relation to the Oral Communication for
English Teachers (EDTE 223) subject.