Teach English in Shuikou Zhen - Maoming Shi

This unit concerned teaching productive skills (writing and speaking). It distinguished between fluency and accuracy, introduced different types of speaking activities and provided examples, instructed how to create student interest and interaction, provided guidelines of free speaking activities and offered an example lesson, discussed factors in writing and offered an example lesson using creative writing, and, lastly, offered a list of potential games to use in the classroom. Like the previous unit, this unit was shorter and it was pretty straight forward. Because of my (limited) experience teaching, there was much in this unit that I was already familiar with, such as the distinction between a guided, controlled, and free-speaking activity, but it was helpful to read the general techniques, advice, and instruction. My biggest takeaway from this unit were the activities and games provided in the unit as resources or illustrations. While the theory in this unit was certainly valuable, the activities reminded me of my own language learning and will be helpful resources for my own teaching. Because of the listed activities, I was able to recall my experience learning French, step into my past teacher's shoes, remember what games and activities we engaged in, and realize why these were chosen. It is this which helps me visualize and remember the theory in the unit. As with the last unit, I have learned the importance of carefully choosing lessons which attend to the different skills involved in speaking, writing, listening, and reading, so that students do not practice the same skills over and over. This unit also impressed upon me the necessity of intentionally creating student-centered and driven lessons which emphasize fluency rather than accuracy as well as, in this, the importance of distinguishing between fluency and accuracy.