Saturday 7 March 2009

Professional Dev. 4:6 Mac 2009: Effective Teacher Talk & Questioning Techniques Course for SM Agama English Teachers, State Level, Selesa Hotel, JB





Salam and hi to everyone,
I was indeed privileged to be a part of the above course recently. The participants were thirty teachers of different ages and experiences from SM Agama from the state of Johor. I enjoyed my five hour session with them tremendously. It is always rewarding to be able to share teaaching and learning matters with other teachers. With me was Pn Atiffa Atim, our new English GC from SMK Belitong. She delivered a two-hour session on the PMR. The course coordinator, Pn Sahmsiah, from Jabatan Agama was very accomodating and efficient. I was impressed with how well the course was organised and was touched by her hospitality. Such a teacher to teacher iniative will undeniably provide the oppportunity to share and extend our repertoire as English teachers. To the course participants, I hope you will be able to use the knowledge gained for the benefit of your students. All the best!

5 comments:

teachuhman said...

Mak hj Rahmah

Great topic. do you know something, I wrote a thesis on "teacher talk" for my degree.
I used three techniques to gather data, namely, classroom observation, structured interviews and a questionnaire.
I observed trained and untrained teachers in a lower secondary school.
I tell you my findings really showed how important 'teacher talk' is.
Generally trained teachers were better equipped .The untrained teacher was a graduate in English literature but failed miserably in
providing enough exposure and content matter in English.
As the learners were also quite challenged in their mastery of English, the teachers almost always relied on "L1" to carry out the instructional process.
Questioning techniques were also wanting, teachers never provided enough wait time and resorted to answering the questions themselves.
Furthermore, questions were not evenly distributed among the learners .Frequently only students sitting in front or near the teacher are called upon to answer.On top of that only a select few students were repeatedly questioned and the rest of the class neglected.
I think the workshop/course you conducted is really important in helping teachers to realize their role in the process of language acquisition
Okay lah, better chow before i sound intelligent and boring.

Rahmah said...

Alamak Naim,
I got promotion to mak hjh laa hehe. anyway tx for ur feedback. for one moment i thought you were my lecturer:) btw hope nothing untoward happened after the artcle eh?

teachuhman said...

The article on the stadium has not drummed up the support I wished it would, hoping some newspaper people will pick it up. Sad thing is that not many people responded to the article, many read and just said "goodlah naim".......Hmmm apathy!
I think I got that Hj thing right din i?
It's Mak Hj always n not Mak Hjh right?
Anyway always liked the sound of Mak Hj better.
your lecturer? Phew...., remind me to tell you of the time when some other folks thought I was their lecturer.
So sorry, I think I shall stick to being the clown

kak sue said...

salam, puan, I was 1 of the participants. I just drop by to thank you cause I think u've made my life even busier as I can seek for more materials for my students.. n find out better ways to improve my teaching techniques n stategies..thanks..

Rahmah said...

hi kak sue,
just saw your message. welcome to my blog. i will try to update with better things. only snag is time!!