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Monitoring teaching acts 307 used in this or that episode? What mismatch could have been antici-
pated and avoided?
13.1.6 After your week-long period of monitoring and logging, take a close and critical look at all your entries. Without being oversensitive or hypercritical, try to get a clear and coherent picture of your teach- ing acts during the week of your observation. Consider questions such as: What aspect of my teaching would I keep or change and why? What have I learned from this process of keeping a log? Etc.
13.1.7 Repeat the logging exercise at least once a semester for as many semesters as you like, varying the class you wish to observe. Over a period of time, you will have collected a rich body of information about your own growth and development as a teacher. This body of informa- tion may be used to begin to construct your own theory of practice.
Project 13.2: Analyzing Input and Interaction
13.2.0 Below are transcripts of two episodes of classroom inter- action. Both episodes occurred in the same intermediate level class (i.e., same group of learners featured in both episodes) in an English Language Institute. Episode 1 is from a speaking class taught by Teacher 1 (T1); episode 2 is from a grammar class taught by Teacher 2 (T2). Both T1 and T2 have an M.A. degree in TESOL. T1, a male, has been teaching for 3.2 years, and T2, a female, has been teaching for 4.1 years. On the day of data collection, fifteen international students were present in class. Since the data were in the midst of an eight-week term, the learn- ers were familiar with their teachers and their teaching style, and also with each other.
T1 was fully briefed on the theoretical and pedagogic aspects of macrostrategies and was asked to design classroom microstrategies using as many macrostrategies as possible. T2 was not aware of the macrostrategic framework and was told to use whatever techniques she would have normally used. The classroom activities were videotaped and transcribed.
Episode 1 starts with a simulated conversation (not included in the transcript) between a man and a woman. The woman was not inter- ested in the man; she just listens to him without any interest, not even looking in his direction. After the simulated conversation, T1 seeks the students’ response to the conversation.
You may do this project individually or in small groups. If you are part of a teacher education program, form small groups of three class- mates. If you are a practicing teacher, try to do the project with one or two other colleagues. Here’s what you have to do to complete the project: