Mohammad Hafiz Azly Bin Halin

B. Ed TESL Otago January 2010

SK St. Gregory
Professional Statement While
During this practicum, I have learnt a lot of new knowledge as an English
language teacher. In particular, I have learnt a lot about the students and their learning,
and the effective ways of giving instructions.
First of all, I have learnt that different students have different styles of learning.
While some students are active in the classroom, some tend to be passive. However,
this does not mean that the passive students are not interested in the classroom activity
at all. It is just that these passive students need more encouragement from the teacher
to invite them into the activity and the classroom discussion. I believe that these
students may have a low level of confidence where they may think that they are less
competent compared to their peers, thus causing inferiority. However, after several
weeks of learning with them, I could see that the passive students have started to
change and become more active and passionate in their learning. I believe that the
change in the students is due to the support and the opportunity given by me. I have
provided them with more opportunities by directly calling out their names to answer
questions and state their opinions, and also praise them for their efforts. Besides, I also
use the reward system to motivate them in their learning.
Apart from that, in terms of giving instructions, I have learnt that my instructions
need to be simple and clear so that it could be easily understood by the students. I have
to adjust the level of language to suit the students by avoiding complex and challenging
words that may cause confusion in the students. Besides, I have learnt that as an
English language teacher, it is important for me to solely use the English language when
talking and communicating with the students. I believe that this method will provide
more opportunity for the students to further practice the language, thus help them to
better and improve their proficiency level. Besides, one of the important things that I
have learnt is that it is not appropriate to use direct translation when working with the
students. Instead of translating, it is more appropriate for me to provide more
explanation, elaboration and examples that will direct the students into the tasks.
In conclusion, I could see that I have achieved a lot of improvements compared
to the previous me. However, I realize that it is important for me to constantly improve
myself over the time so that I would become the greatest English language teacher.