Skip to main content Skip to main content

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 see the role of the teacher in providing corrective feedback?
  • What might grammar instruction look like in a communicative classroom?
  • What are some strategies you might use to maximize communication among students in class?

Watch the Video

As you watch “How We Spend Our Free Time,” take notes on Ms. Quackenbush’s instructional strategies, particularly how she sequences activities, how they relate to the objectives for the day, and what techniques she uses to remain in the target language. 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:

  • How does Ms. Quackenbush introduce and model the various activities while staying in the target language?
  • How did the warm-up game prepare the students for the subsequent activities?
  • How did Ms. Quackenbush design the information-gathering activity to ensure that students were exposed to new vocabulary words?
  • How did Ms. Quackenbush sequence the activities in the class to ensure that the information gathered by the students would be used authentically in the subsequent activity?

Take a Second Look

Watch the video again, but this time, focus on the following teaching practices: contextualizing grammar and providing corrective feedback.


Practice: Contextualizing Grammar

Ms. Quackenbush integrates the study of grammar into the conversation-based activities.

  • How were grammatical structures introduced and practiced in the class?
  • What are some of the benefits of practicing the target grammatical forms through contextualized communicative activities rather than through direct, rule-based grammar instruction?
  • How did Ms. Quackenbush approach grammar mistakes while using this approach?

 


Practice: Providing Corrective Feedback

Ms. Quackenbush actively listens to student conversations and offers corrective feedback on mistakes such as speaking in English or making grammatical errors in a manner that does not discourage students.

  • What types of errors led Ms. Quackenbush to decide to intervene and offer corrective feedback? What strategies did Ms. Quackenbush use to correct her students?
  • How did this method minimize negative emotional and motivational factors (i.e., the affective filter) among her students?
  • How did the students respond to teacher feedback? Cite evidence to support your answer.

Series Directory

Teaching Foreign Languages K-12: A Library of Classroom Practices

Credits

Teaching Foreign Languages K–12: Teaching Arabic © 2016 Annenberg Learner and Qatar Foundation International. All rights reserved.
  • Closed Captioning
  • ISBN: 1-57680-731-2

Programs