Join us for conversations that inspire, recognize, and encourage innovation and best practices in the education profession.
Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and more.
Teaching Foreign Languages K-12: A Library of Classroom Practices
View & Analyze The Video
As you reflect on these questions, write down your responses or discuss them as a group.
Before You Watch
Respond to the following questions:
- How do you approach teaching different dialects or registers of Arabic in your classroom?
- What are some different methods of giving feedback to your students? On what basis do you choose to use one method instead of another?
- What are some of the methods you use to incorporate the Presentational mode of communication into your curriculum?
Watch the Video
As you watch “Comparing the Weather,” take notes on Mr. Fawzy’s instructional strategies, particularly how he enhances a lesson about weather using dialects, builds in activities that promote both oral and written proficiency, and offers feedback during instructional assessment time. Write down what you find interesting, surprising, or especially important about the teaching and learning in this lesson.
Reflect on the Video
Review your notes, and then respond to the following questions:
- What was the benefit of having the students present in small groups rather than to the entire class?
- How would you describe the balance between teacher talk and student talk?
- Describe Mr. Fawzy’s classroom. How does the classroom itself contribute to a supportive learning environment?
Take a Second Look
Watch the video again, but this time, focus on the following teaching practices: teaching dialects and questioning techniques and feedback.
Practice: Teaching Dialects
Students in Mr. Fawzy’s class practice multiple dialects in speaking activities. An everyday topic such as the weather provides an opportunity to use them in writing activities as well.
- Mr. Fawzy addresses a variety of dialects in his lesson. What are the advantages of exposing students to multiple dialects?
- How did the students react to learning words in multiple dialects?
- What was the purpose of the final writing activity? How did Mr. Fawzy approach the writing of dialects?
Practice: Questioning Techniques and Feedback
Mr. Fawzy employs different questioning techniques with his class and varies the kind of feedback he gives students.
- What kinds of positive feedback and encouragement does Mr. Fawzy give his students?
- How do Mr. Fawzy’s students respond to his feedback?
- Mr. Fawzy sometimes uses an Initiation/Response/Evaluation (IRE) communication pattern, in which he poses a question, the student answers it, and Mr. Fawzy immediately provides an evaluative comment to the student response. At other times, Mr. Fawzy uses an Initiation/Response/Follow-up (IRF) communication pattern, in which he uses the student’s response to move the conversation forward. What is the benefit of switching between feedback techniques in this manner?
