UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES
FACULTY OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING
REFLECTION PAPER
Student’s name: Nguyễn Duy Phương............................ Student Code: 2257011094................
Class: 2421NVA138.4L02 (Tuesday afternoon)......... Group number: 01............................
Please answer the following questions to show what you can learn during the course.
1- How to correct students’ pronunciation mistakes? Give examples to clarify your answer.
In speaking, teachers can correct pronunciation mistakes after students have finished their speech.
Teachers should not correct immediately whenever students make a mistake. This can ensure that
students speak with fluency and confidence. Correcting too much can interfere the flow of students’
speech.
After students have finished speaking, teachers can choose to use the three correction methods
depend on the situation. If the mistake is minor, careless and easy to recognize, teachers can ask
students to do self-correction, that is, teachers highlight on the board some words or phrases that
students pronounced incorrectly and ask them to repeat those words or phrases. For common
mistakes, that is, mistakes that many students have, teachers can ask for peer correction. For
complex mistake, teachers can present the mistakes and give examples.
2- What kinds of vocabulary that are suitable for us to use explanation and situation? Give
examples to clarify your answer.
To give explanation, it is best that teacher apply the method called rough-tuning, that is, when
students don’t understand a concept in the lesson, teachers should use simple language to paraphrase
and explain the concept. For situation, teacher can make role-play activities, for example:
“Cashier” – create a shop role-play.
“Doctor” – use a hospital scenario.
“Apologize” – act out a situation where someone says sorry.
3- Name some techniques to check students’ attention in class? Give examples to clarify your
answer.
Teachers can call students’ name randomly and ask some concept checking questions. For younger
students, teachers can involve some aesthetic activities, for example, teachers can make a prompt
like “Everyone, stand up if your answer is B”
4- Write an essay in about 500 words to reflect what you can learn from the course, what you
want to make the course better, what qualifications you need to develop to become a good
English teacher, what suggestions for this course lecturer and for the Faculty of English
Linguistics & Literature and USSH.
From the course “Teaching practice 1” lectured by Dr. Tran Thi Minh Phuong, I have had the
chance to review some knowledge from the course “Teaching methodology” as well as to learn
some new and practical techniques in teaching English. First of all, I have learned to distinguished
between some key concepts in language teaching such as coursebook and textbook, tasks and
activities, group and team, etc. Secondly, I have reviewed and applied some modern teaching
methods and approached in my required teaching practice, most notably the direct method, lexical
approach, task-based learning, communicative language teaching, ESA, etc. Thirdly, I have learned
some techniques and some sample activities to use in teaching language skills (reading, writing,
listening & speaking) and in teaching language aspects (grammar, vocabulary & pronunciation). For
examples, in teaching productive skill like writing, the procedure can include controlled, guided and
then free writing activities . Teachers should also teach receptive skills before productive skills
because it can serve as input for production while language aspects like grammar, vocabulary and
pronunciation should be taught in pre-teaching stage of receptive skills to serve as input. Fourthly, I
have learned to deal with some common problems in classroom, for example, if students make too
much noise: Teacher can give punishment (not always a good idea), give them a test (where they
can focus on) or present some funny pictures that relate to the lesson; If students are too passive:
Teacher can make engaging activities (music, missing info, tasks in competitions, relevant funny
stories/pics), riddles, etc.
To become a good English teacher, it's important to understand my own teaching style so I can make
the most use of my strength. Moreover, it’s also important to recognize the leaning styles and
learner’s needs so that I can effectively adapt to the situation. I also need strong communication
skills, patience, and a passion for helping students grow. It’s important to make lessons interactive
and relevant, using various activities and real-life situations to teach language in an authentic
context. A good teacher also creates a positive and supportive classroom where students feel
comfortable making mistakes and practicing English. Most importantly, teaching is a lifelong
learning journey—no one is perfect at the beginning, so being open to feedback and keeping up with
new teaching methods is key to growing in this profession.
To make the course better, I think that this course should let students practice more instead of
presenting much theoretical knowledge. Some knowledge presented in this course is already learned
in the “Teaching methodology” course so it may become redundant and students may become bored.
Teacher can introduce and give examples of some modern of new method of teaching English
instead of presenting outdated methods or common activities.
In terms of suggestions for this course lecturer and for the Faculty of English Linguistics &
Literature and USSH. I think that the lecturer did a good job in presenting well-paced and relevant
lessons. However, I would like to point out some areas for improvement. Firstly, the teaching
method of the lecturer seemed to be quite traditional, that is, the lecturer present and students listen,
so there is not much students’ talking time, and it’s quite teacher-centered, so the lecturer can make
more discussion activities or quiz games on the class. Moreover, the lecturer did not quite successful
catch students’ attention → the lecturer can make various activities in class: take turn to demo a
short stage in the lesson plan to get more insight into the theory, discussion, etc. Moreover, the
lecturer can use videos, pictures, audio, handouts to capture more students with different learning
styles.
