Microlesson on 'Introducing the Notion/Idea of Collocations to Engineering Students'

Self Feedback on Video Mediated Micro Lesson: “Introducing the Notion/Idea of Collocations to Engineering Students”

Topic                           : Introducing the Idea of Collocations

Level of Learners       : Engineering

Class size                     : 6

Duration of the Class : 13 minutes

The objective of my class was to raise awareness among the students on the concept of collocations which was totally new to them. I started my lesson by posing questions to them to test their knowledge on collocations. Assuming that the students are unaware of the term, I gave them a handout consisting of two conversations spoken by the students of the same class which had collocational errors in it. I read out the conversations and asked them to translate the collocational errors in English into Telugu, their mother tongue. When the students provided the translations in Telugu, I asked them if they were acceptable word combinations and questioned them furthermore if the combinations appeared natural or unnatural. Later, I referred to the English combinations and found out from them if the word combinations were common or uncommon. Eventually, they responded to me saying the English translations were unnatural. Finally, I tried to drive home the point that a collocation is a natural combination of words.

My Strengths:

• I used the conversations among the students in the class as examples to introduce the idea of     collocations. This helped the students to understand the concept easily.
• The usage of Telugu in the class to teach collocations helped the students to grasp the notion   quickly and resulted in better retention.
• The students interacted with me well in t he class.
• Though the concept of collocations was new, the students did not feel any boredom in the class   and so I was able to engage the class fully.
• I cited the examples on the board that helped the students register the chunks in their mind.

My Draw-Backs:

• I started my class by eliciting information on the concept of collocations. Instead of waiting for an answer from the students, I hastily posed another question that made the students rather confused.
• I ended up teaching two wrong collocations in English such as: ‘take a head bath’ and ‘pick the call’. Though the first collocation does not exist in English, I taught them with great confidence.   I failed to correct the wrong collocation ‘pick the call’ mentioned by one of the students   into ‘pick up the call’.
• I tried to emphasize the concept of collocation time and again which resulted in redundancy.
• I did not use the board effectively in the class as I did not check the quality of the marker pen. As a result, the information on the board was illegible and could not be read clearly by the students.

My Plan of Action:

•  I shall wait patiently for the students to respond to my question.
•  I shall avoid over explication of the concept.
• I shall research thoroughly on the collocations I would like to teach in the class by referring to a standard collocation dictionary there by avoid wrong teaching.
•  I shall check the quality of the teaching aids before I use them in the class.
• Teaching more microlessons regularly and reflecting on them for further improving my pedagogic skills.