ACTIVITY 9

A.        I’ve been teaching my four C2 students for the past year and there are still many things I’d like to know about them. Apart from information on the environment they live and spend most of their time in (school and home) that I already have since the beginning of the year (I run a series of interviews during the first week of the school year), I know a lot of things regarding the people they spend a lot of time with, their best friends etc.

            Many times though, I feel I need to learn more things regarding their feelings in the lessons. Now that sometime has passed I feel my students have a very accurate picture of the lessons. I also feel one of them has a negative affect of herself as a learner. I’d like to ask them how they feel when they enter the class. Is this an environment that pleases them? Do I actually help them learn anything? Do they like working with people from other places around the world? Or do they feel uncomfortable? Do they feel the level of the class is too high, or too low? Can they co-exist with the other students in the class? Would these people be their friends after the end of this year? This last question is very important for me. I base a lot of my work on the fact that the class is one team – united. A small unity in which, we are all equal and all treated with the same respect.

B.                                            QUESTIONNAIRE

Please read carefully and tick the correct answer:

		I disagree	I somewhat disagree	I somewhat agree	I agree	I totally agree
1.	Every time I enter the classroom I have positive feelings.
2.	Every time I enter the classroom I feel I am in a secure environment where I can talk about anything that bothers me.
3.	It is very easy for me to discuss in the classroom things that bother me in my personal life.
4.	I sometimes feel I don’t know enough in order to actively participate in the class’ activities.
5.	I sometimes feel ashamed of “my English” when I have to talk to people from the UK or the IS.
6.	I’d prefer it of I weren’t asked to participate in activities that involve my speaking to people I don’t know.
7.	I’d prefer it to be able to prepare at home before I have to discuss on an unknown subject.

            After designing the above questionnaire, I gave it to my students to answer at their own ease. Here are the results:

		I disagree	I somewhat disagree	I somewhat agree	I agree	I totally agree
1.	Every time I enter the classroom I have positive feelings.				50%	50%
2.	Every time I enter the classroom I feel I am in a secure environment where I can talk about anything that bothers me.			25%	25%	50%
3.	It is very easy for me to discuss in the classroom things that bother me in my personal life.	25%		25%	50%
4.	I sometimes feel I don’t know enough in order to actively participate in the class’ activities.	50%	25%	25%
5.	I sometimes feel ashamed of “my English” when I have to talk to people from the UK or the IS.	50%	25%		25%
6.	I’d prefer it if I weren’t asked to participate in activities that involve my speaking to people I don’t know.	75%				25%
7.	I’d prefer it if I could be able to prepare at home before I have to discuss on an unknown subject.	75%				25%

           

C. & D.  After I received the results I tried grouping the students in two pairs. I grouped together the one that answered he would preferred to have time to prepare at home on question number 7 with the one that answered she felt ashamed of her English.  Then I gave the students the Readings of Practice Test 1 to study at home before they would have to talk about them to people from the US they didn’t know. I noticed the students felt more confident and used their English more.

            On another day I grouped a student that answered “I agree” on question 3 with the one that answered “I completely disagree” and started a discussion on personal relationships. I found that the student who had answered “I agree” urged the other one to speak more during the activities.

            In general using different groupings I understood that deeper and more meaningful understanding on the students’ emotions and feelings is vital for DI and I will surely be using the approach a lot in the future.