by Anna Shlipatska.

Arts
What makes a good lesson in my teaching subject?
Studying the foreign languages has always been a very important part of
any educational programme. The only difference is that earlier the ability to
communicate in another language was a sign of a well-educated person from an
upper social class. Moreover, considering that there didn’t use to be so many
opportunities to talk to foreigners, speaking English/ French/ German
(depending on historical context) was a mere tool to separate oneself from the
common working class. Nowadays, however, with the borders easily crossed
and social classes difference evaporating, people have encountered with the
phenomena of globalisation and multiculturalism. It means that the
communication, which includes both linguistic and cultural awareness skills,
has to be in the focus nowadays. That is also the reason why the Council of
Europe is “concerned to improve the quality of communication among the
Europeans of different language and cultural backgrounds” (Council of Europe,
2001). Thus the Common European Framework puts new educational tasks in
terms of language acquisition claiming that “language learning is necessarily a
life-long task to be promoted and facilitated throughout educational systems,
from pre-school through to adult education” (Council of Europe, 2001). As one
can see the definition and aim of language learning has changed. Therefore, it
would not lack logic if we have to shift the focus of language teaching as well.
With the increasing importance of the foreign languages in 21 st century, it
is crucial to enhance the students’ motivation in mastering foreign languages so
that they can become effective mediators of the intercultural dialogue. That is
why the modern teachers have to change their teaching style and shift from
“knowledge transmission” to “knowledge creation” pattern (Lonka, 2018). A
German sociologist George Simmel partly reflects the modern direction of the
education process saying that “A man is well educated when he knows where to
find what he doesn't know”. I would also add that a well educated person also
knows how to find information. And this is what every teacher should set as the
main goal while planning their lessons. Basing on the new concepts of National
Core Curriculum and my personal deductions, the modern lesson should be the
one where a student wants to build the knowledge themselves, not simply get it
straight from a teacher. In other words, one can consider the lesson an active
and dynamic interaction between a teacher and the students, as well as between
students themselves.
 As far as a good lesson is concerned, one cannot but dwell on the Content
as one of the main elements in the Teaching-Studying-Learning process (along
with the Student and Teacher). The Content can be regarded a product created
by a person/group of people for people, grounding on other people’s needs and
experience. And taking into the account the abovementioned, I consider that
Finland has found a good solution to avoid as much subjectivity as possible by
introducing both National Core Curriculum and local level curricula. To begin
with, the Core Curriculum rightfully states that the “language is the prerequisite
for learning and thinking” (FNBE, 2016). It means that through language
acquisition the students also acquire both critical and creative thinking skills.
Moreover, the Core Curriculum reflects the Common European Framework’s
idea of lifelong language-learning skills that can be gained by “recognising
ways of learning languages that are the most suitable for the learners, assessing
the progress of their learning, and perceiving language proficiency also as a
working life competence. Language learning and language choices strengthen
gender equality by encouraging the students to be open-minded and dealing
with different topics in a versatile manner” (FNBE, 2016).
We can see that the National Core Curriculum establishes the general
guidelines of what must be present in the studying content and sets the bar for
the education. On the other hand, the local authorities/education providers are
free to find their own ways of achieving the common goals, basing on the “raw
material” they have (“By tradition, the Finnish core curricula express norms
concerning aims, focal content and guidelines of assessment (in terms of objects
and reporting), but no straightforward rules are given on how to implement
these regulations” (Kantelinen & Hildén, 2016)). The Core Curriculum claims
pedagogy moral in nature and establishes the values behind it (Tirri & Toom,
2020), and the teacher is autonomous enough to adjust their own personalities to
the means they can use to reflect those values. This also leads to the issue of
how the teacher sets their personal purpose for the work. As it is rightfully
mentioned by Tirri & Toom (2020), every teacher has to realize they are doing
something meaningful both for themselves and society. Only then they are able
to personally involve themselves in the work and find inner resources to cope
with the amount of responsibilities laid on their shoulders. As a consequence, a
personally involved teacher has more chances to trigger the students’ personal
interest in the matter.
As far as the English language is concerned, every lesson can be unique
and differ by its contents every time. While one lesson is dedicated to grammar
issues, another can dwell on vocabulary; listening and reading skills may be the
focus of today’s lesson, whereas the following can practice speaking and
writing; new material learning is replaced by recapping the previous one.
Everything depends on the goals the teacher puts and on a particular learning
context. Nevertheless, there exist certain laws that condition every lesson, no
matter what its aims and content are.
According to numerous researches, the students who have interest (either
personal or situational) in the lesson’s topic, who are actively engaged in the
learning process, and enjoy the activities provided at the lesson, are likely to
achieve more successful results. A famous British teacher and trainer Jeremy
Harmer outlines three constituents of a successful lesson, namely: Engage,
Study, Activate (Harmer, 2007).
The first element is self-explanatory and implies that the learners have to
be actively engaged in the process.
No matter how much fun the lesson might include, there must always be a
place for the Study element. Whatever the topic of the lesson, the students must
acquire some new knowledge or a new skill by the time the bell has rung, i.e. to
know something they had not known before.
The Activation element is suggestive of the implementation of the
learned/ built knowledge in the exercises that reconstruct true-to-life English
language situations. That will also contribute to the knowledge meaningfulness.
It is a well-known fact that it is not enough simply to learn grammar and
vocabulary in order to master the language. Sooner or later the skills should be
applied into practice. Moreover, the modern language education “emphasizes
meaningful learning that is based on personal experience, social interaction and
reflection. It aims at all-around human growth” (Kantelinen & Hildén, 2016).
The combination of all the three elements makes the lesson effective and
creates a successful environment, which conditions the students’ further
motivation to master even more new words and grammar patterns.
The competences-oriented approach to education marked in the National
Core Curriculum highlights among the others the communicative competence
while foreign languages acquisition, which allows to apply the whole variety of
methods, technologies, and types of work that enable the learners to use a new
linguistic material while solving crucial tasks by reading, speaking, writing, and
listening.
Along with this, self-regulation skills are also considered. The students
have their bit in setting the goals and aims of the lesson, plan their work, choose
the tools and means to achieve the goals, and take an active part in assessing
their peers’ and own activity. Thus the task of a modern school is to create an
entity of learning activities that will make up the main competence, i.e. to learn
how to learn.
Talking about the skills that are to be developed during the foreign
languages classes, the teachers tend to forget about cultural awareness, which is
an integral part of every language acquisition. “In foreign language education, a
language has been seen not only as a skill subject and means of communication
but also as a cultural subject” (Kantelinen & Hildén, 2016). To prove this idea
one should remember the connection that the language and culture share. Some
of the researchers of the contemporary linguo-culturology define the connection
as homomorphism. It means that not everything present in the culture is
reflected in the language, while everything that exists in the language can be
found in the culture, in this or that form («…не все, що наявне в культурі,
відображене в мові, але все, що є в мові, тим чи іншим чином існує в
культурі» (Selivanova, 2008)). Therefore, while learning the language one
studies the culture, which leads to a better understanding of the native speaker
of a different language, not only in terms of vocabulary, but also mentality. In
my opinion, culture is the most interesting part to teach, though it is not the
easiest one. A lot of interactive and engaging activities can be implemented, that
would have a positive response from the side of the children. But on the other
hand, the teacher has also to be cautious while choosing the activities and
approach. The foreign culture might not always be comprehensible enough
(especially for the young learners) and imply somewhat biased attitude from the
representatives of diverse ethnicities in the classroom. Hence, the teacher’s task
is to teach the students to percept the foreign culture in a positive way, accept it,
and realize that it is not necessarily something better or worse than their native
culture.
And surely, not a single lesson will be successful without the teacher’s
own personality and ability to improve. In my opinion, there can be no space for
development if the teacher does not stop to reflect about their work. Creating
successful lessons requires from teachers thinking in three tenses: what are my
lessons like now (present, simultaneous)? What did I do wrong/ right during the
previous session (past, retrospective)? How can I improve my lessons (future,
prospective)? Analysis of one’s own actions (i.e. self-reflection) is a crucial
stage for all the teachers, regardless of their experience. But anyway, the young
professional should first of all set in their head the four skills required for a
good post-lesson reflection (“setting learning goals for students, assessing
whether the goals are being achieved during the lesson, developing hypotheses
about why the lesson did or did not work well, and revising the lesson on the
basis of these hypotheses” (Hiebert, Morris, Berk & Jansen, 2007)), so after
some time they go without saying and there’s no need to waste time considering
them separately.
To make a conclusion, I would like to mention that a successful lesson is
always a combination of different factors: the teacher’s preparation and
planning, personality and ability to engage the students, meaningfulness of the
content, and, of course, the learners’ positive response which inspires the
teacher to move forward and never to stop improving.

References:
1. Council of Europe. (2001). Common European Framework of
Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
2. FNBE. (2016) National Core Curriculum for Basic Education 2014.
Publications 2016:5. Finnish National Board of Education.
3. FNBE. (2016). National Core Curriculum for General Upper
Secondary Schools 2015. Publications 2016:8.
4. Harmer, J. (2007). How to Teach English: An Introduction to the
Practice of English Language Teaching (2nd Edition). Pearson Education Ltd.
5. Hiebert, J., Morris, A. K., Berk, D., & Jansen, A. (2007). Preparing
Teachers to Learn from Teaching. Journal of Teacher Education, 58(1), 47-61.
6. Kantelinen, R. & Hilden, R. (2016). Language Education – towards
transversal intercultural language proficiency. Miracle of Education: The
Principles and Practices of Teaching and Learning in Finnish Schools (pp.
157–177). Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.
7. Lonka, K. (2018). Phenomenal Learning from Finland. Helsinki:
Edita Publishing Oy.
8. Selivanova, O. O. (2008). Suchasna lingvistyka: napriamky ta
problemy [The Contemporary Linguistics: Approaches and Problems]. Poltava:
Dovkillia.
9. Tirri, K., & Toom, A. (2020). The Moral Role of Pedagogy as the
Science and Art of Teaching. Pedagogy in Basic and Higher Education -
Current Developments and Challenges.