Final Blog Entry

After Rodrigo's presentation, professor Litman told us to choose one relevant topic related to education. In view of the fact this last Friday and Saturday Mary Spratt gave a free seminar in our University; "Methodology is Central", I decided to focus on the most important aspects of the seminar.

Mary Spratt has taught EFL in Cyprus, Algeria, Italy, Portugal, Belgium and Hong Kong. She also has extensive experience in teacher training, teacher development and assessment. She worked at the University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate for 5 years on the production of exams, including IELTS and the revision of FCE. She has written EFL course books and supplementary materials and is currently working freelance as an ELT writer and consultant. Mary Spratt is a co-author of a course published by Cambridge University Press, "The TKT Course" which is a teacher trainning course for teachers and and trainee teachers preparing for the Cambridge ESOL "Teaching Knowledge Test",

This test is about teaching English to speakers of other languages, it aims to increase teacher's confidence and enhace job prospects by focusing on the core teaching knowledge needed by teachers of primary, secondary or adult learnes, anywhere in the world.

The main aspects that TKT seeks to evaluate and aid are:
different methodologies for teaching
the 'language of teaching'
the ways in which resources can be used
the key aspects of lesson planning
classroom management methods for different needs.

I decided to choose this topic because taking the TKT test would help future teachers in order to obtain better work opportunities. On the other hand, getting extra knowledge about student's motivation and the diverse methodologies we are able to employ in the classroom, are very important to improve our teaching performance. And finally Mary is an inspiration for many English teachers by the view point of her vast experience and the commitment she has shown trhough her work.

During the second day of the the seminar Mary Spratt made us the following question:

What does a teacher need to know to be a good teacher?

Many answers were given but at the end we got to the conclusion that being a good teacher is to combine the received knowledge such as the general principles of teaching and learning and the mamagement of resources and learning, as well as the understanding of the facts and concepts of a subject disicipline (phonology, lexis, grammar, discourse) and how we represent the subject matter to make it more comprehensible to students (language learning strategies and language teaching strategies) with the previous experimential knowledge, it means what we have learnt from doing. We evaluate both through practice, but at the same time we need to reflect on what we have done in the classroom. Being aware about the knowledge we have, about our experience and how we reflect on our practice will make us professional competent.

As a conclusion I can say that methodology is an essential part of teaching and teaching knowledge, in addition is the embodiment of collective experience and research findings. On the other hand, we can only evaluate it in context and taking into account the teacher's responsivenss to an awareness of students and their needs.