Cambridge CELTA

Written Assignment Four

LESSONS FROM THE CLASSROOM

Word count: 940

I acknowledge that this paper is my own work.

Trainee: Mariya Yordanova
Signature: MY

Date: 3rd July 2022

AVO Language & Examination Centre, Sofia, Bulgaria

1.A student’s perspective

A2 student
Maria s overall a good teacher who knows what she is doing. She usually offers
interesting exercises and often puts us in groups to work together on assignments.
This is not bad, although there are some classmates I do not always get along with.
What also irritates me sometimes is that although she has a good accent, she
speaks a bit too fast and uses some words I do not understand, I have to ask her
twice to understand what she means, and her instructions are sometimes long and
confuse me. On the other hand, she jokes with us and makes the lessons fun, and I
enjoy them.

B2 student
Maria's lessons are OK. She explains everything in detail and gives interesting
assignments. I like that she puts us in groups, makes us work together, and gives us
feedback on our mistakes. What I do not like so much is the fact that sometimes she
talks too much, making it unclear what she wants from us. Also, she sometimes
rushes us by giving us less time than we need in the breakout rooms. But her classes
are interesting, we do useful exercises and she answers my questions. I am satisfied
with her classes because I feel I am learning something new every time.

2.Strengths and Weaknesses

2.1.Strengths

Materials and tasks

I think that one of my strengths in class was the materials I used and adapted and
the assignments I prepared. It is true that I benefited from the Empower Student's
Book from Oxford University Press, but I also spent time modelling and adapting my
own presentations and assignments that were appropriate for the level of my
students. And not only were they relevant to the goals of each lesson, but my self-
created materials allowed my students to practise the skills I wanted to develop in
useful and fun ways.

The relationship with the students

Another area of my teaching that I am very pleased with is the good relationship I
have built with my students. In my opinion, building a positive and respectful
relationship with the students is crucial to the quality of teaching, which I believe I
have succeeded in doing. I believe this is extremely important because it reflects how
the students view their teacher and therefore how they view the learning process with
him or her.

Observation and feedback

I think I manage to effectively observe my students' tasks in the break rooms, help
them with their tasks or note their mistakes to discuss them in the feedback period.In
addition, my friendly approach to the students helped me to make the feedback stage
a positive and useful experience.

2.2.Weaknesses

AVO Language & Examination Centre, Sofia, Bulgaria

Teacher's talking time
I think that sometimes I talk too much, depriving my students of the opportunity to
use that time to complete their assignments or speak on their own. I also tend to give
longer instructions, which also lengthens my TTT time. For this reason, I have started
using gestures instead of words when possible and writing down clear and quick
instructions that I give during class.

Adjusting my language
This proved to be a problem with the A2 level, as their vocabulary is rather limited
and the teacher had the difficult task of adapting her language to the level of the
students while effectively conveying the message at hand. However, towards the end
of the sessions with them my language was much more up to their level than at the
beginning.

Giving clear and unambiguous instructions

Sometimes I seemed to have a hard time giving clear instructions, as I did not always
manage to convey the task in a simple way without including unnecessary details.
Fortunately, by the end of the course, I had already started to significantly reduce the
content of my instructions, limiting myself to the essentials and using simple ICQs.

3.Lesson’s learned

I observed one lesson of my tutor Daniel and one of my other tutor Albena and was
really impressed with the degree of control they had over the process. In addition,
they both offered topics that were interesting, not just aimed at teaching English. It
was very helpful for me to see their teaching, which was based on clear instructions
and a structured flow of the lesson. I have tried to follow their example in my teaching
in order to provide quality instruction to my students.

I also observed my colleagues' lessons. They were all very well prepared. Overall, I
find their lessons interesting and useful, with relevant exercises and helps. For
example, they all used additional study aids such as PowerPoint presentations,
which made their lessons much more structured. I like the calmness of Anita and
Gabriela, which made for a relaxed atmosphere in the classroom, as well as
Mariana's positive and friendly attitude towards her students. They all used different
types of practices and techniques such as ICQs and CCQS as well as visuals. In
summary, I can say that we all developed our teaching skills tremendously during the
CELTA course, even if there is still a lot to work on.

4.Action plan

- Write shorter and clearer instructions before each lesson and use them during the
lesson.
- Use more CCQs and ICQs.
- Plan the schedule for my assignments before each lesson.
- View recorded lessons.
- Read published materials on teaching practises and techniques.
- Practise gestures that might help me substitute some instructions and reduce my
TTT time.

AVO Language & Examination Centre, Sofia, Bulgaria

- Gain experience teaching different groups - monolingual, multilingual, business
English learners, etc.
- Establish a personal base of lesson plans.
- Pursue a university master's degree in teaching.

AVO Language & Examination Centre, Sofia, Bulgaria