Part One:  Needs Assessment

The Instructional Problem and Goal:

My instructional problem is that many students have a lack of confidence in their English learning especially in oral expression.

I regard this situation as an instructional problem because it meets the two criteria.  First, my students are having difficulties in expressing their thoughts or ideas because they lack the knowledge (vocabulary or grammar) or skills.  Second, the problem can be solved by teaching something or teaching in another way.

My school is the best primary school in Shanghai.  There are three departments in it.  They are the local department, the international department and the PYP department.  I teach Year 3 students in the international department.  These Year 3 students have Chinese faces, but they own foreign passports.   It’s no doubt that these students have a good competence in English and problem solving due to their living environments when they grew up, however, their basic grammar and pronunciation are worse.  I think in my previous daily teaching, I seldom supplied my students with a communicative learning environment, which suppress their motivation.  Besides, I often corrected my students’ grammatical and pronunciation mistakes in no time, which suppress their confidence. 

So I decide to restate my instructional goal as:  Year 3 international students will be encouraged to speak or to express in a more communicative and democratic learning and teaching environment.

l  Year 3 international students will learn to say something on certain topics as fluently as possible.

l  Year 3 international students will learn to be more expressive in their oral work.  

 

Learner Profile:

I have 71 Year 3 international students.

1. Ability Levels (especially speaking ability)

English native speakers: 12.7% (9 students)

Fluent English speaking: 21.1% (15 students)

Intermediate: 40.8% (29 students)

Unconfident Struggler: 25.4% (18 students)

2.      Preferred Learning Styles

  Dominant Auditory: 12.7% (9 students)

  Dominant Kinesthetic: 5.5% (38 students)

  Dominant Visual: 33.8% (24 students)

I named Ability Levels and Preferred Learning Styles as two characteristics analyses of my learners that are related to my instructional problem.

 

 Instructional Setting and Context:

The instructional setting and context I chose have a close relation to my teaching situation.

Setting

Equipment: Computer, tape recorder, DVD player, TV set and overhead projector, blackboard, chalk and four pin boards with lots of learning resources on it. (Data source: survey of classroom)

Context

Faculty: The staff team in international department consists of local Chinese staffs and foreign staffs.  They often share teaching strategies and experience one another.  Local Chinese staffs often observe other staffs lessons and share ideas or notions.  They compare the strengths and weaknesses of each lesson. (Data source: interview of faculty; personal experience)

 

Related Research and Expert Information:

Based on my instructional problem, goal, setting and context, I chose the following articles from research and expert opinion.  I think these articles can help me solve my instructional problem.

l  Topic 1:  Nunan, D. (2000).  The Nature of Speaking and Oral Interaction. Designing tasks for the Communicative Classroom, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

This article addressed the nature of speaking and oral interaction.  It makes me clear that how well students will learn in a communicative learning environment.

l  Topic 2: Brown, G., and G. Yule. (1983). Teaching the spoken Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

This article provided a large number of speaking activities to the teachers, which are important for me.

l  Topic 3: Pattison, P. 1987. Developing Communication Skills. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

This article helps me to cope with different kinds of students by theories and treatment approaches in the classroom.

l  Topic 4:  Lawtie, F. Teaching speaking skills 2 - overcoming classroom problems. Retrieved February 25, 2007 from http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/speak/speak_skills2.shtml  

This article gave me some useful solutions to the students who have encountered some similar problems during speaking activities in their classroom. 

 

 

 

 

Part Two:  Instructional Solution:

Instructional Models: 

According to the needs assessment, appropriate instructional models need to be considered.  I try to use Direct Instructional Model and Cooperative Instructional Model.

My Year 3 international students haven’t mastered adequate grammar and or speaking skills to express their ideas freely.  So it’s necessary for me to provide some expressive words, phrases, sentences for my students to speak, practice, reinforce and memorize.  Most importantly, practice and reinforcement are very practical in the Direct Instruction Model.  Therefore, I identify that Direct Instruction Model is a very useful tool to develop students’ English speaking skills, especially in fluency and accuracy.

Direct Instruction Model helps my students review previous learned language materials and have them get familiar with the target language.  Besides, my students will have enough time to do the guided and independent practice with the help of the corrective feedback from me.  Moreover, my students will form a solid basic grammar and skills when I use Direct Instruction Model.  In addition, in order to achieve accuracy, I will provide my students rigorous language training both in class and out of class.  As a result, my students will grasp speaking skills on the basis of understanding the language context with a good balance of accuracy and fluency.  

In my opinion, Direct Instruction Model serves as a way for students’ mastery of basic knowledge and skills.  It’s the prerequisite for students’ further learning.  Blended with Direct Instruction Model, Cooperative Instruction Model is another effective instructional model that can develop students’ speaking and communicative skills.  In addition, with the Cooperative Instruction Model introduced, students, in learning process, will learn new knowledge by learning from others.

According to intended learners’ preferred learning styles, I know most students are dominant kinesthetic learners, they will learn better with more involvement of their different senses and compromise with one another through different cooperative classroom activities.  Besides, there is a huge gap between the English native speakers and unconfident struggler students.  I regroup these students constantly so as to enhance their speaking skills based on different rubrics, and also motivate them to speak to different peers in English.  In the end, on one hand, those unconfident struggler students will rebuild their confidence if they are assigned to work with similar level students; on the other hand, those students will learn from native speakers if they are streamed in the same group.  At the same time, those who are very aggressive and dominant will learn to compromise well with other.

After analyzing setting and context, I can adopt Cooperative Instruction Model in my teaching with the support of the equipment and facilities.  Jigsaw Model and Think Pair Share Model are effective models, which help me to arouse my students’ interests and increase instructional effectiveness after acquiring the basic language knowledge and skills by Direct Instruction Model. 

 

 

Instructional Media: 

First, I’d like to use graphics and flipping charts to help students focus on the steps of instructions and highlight the notes. Second, I will use DVD or software, which helps me present new language materials and gain learners’ attention.  Third, I will select students’ reading materials or texts for students’ cooperative activities such as Jigsaw Model or Think, Pair, Share Model.  Fourth, I will share students’ individual work and cater for the visual needs with overhead projectors.  Finally, in order to create a learning environment, I will put up useful teaching resources on the pin boards. 

 

Assessment: 

The improvement of students’ spoken English ability is a continuum, which is an ongoing academic development, so I prefer evaluating my students through students’ portfolios and final-term exams. 

Students’ portfolio is a very effective goal-based, formative assessment, which helps both the students and teachers see the continuity in learning and teaching.  It also motivates students to apply what they have learnt in the real world.  It is more objective to evaluate students through collective daily data, journal response, performance and observation. 

The final oral exam provides some diagnostic information for me to adjust instructional design as well as evaluates students’ academic achievement.

 

Summary:

The two instructional models that I’d like to adopt have both strengths and weaknesses. 

My instructional goal is that Year 3 international students will be encouraged to speak or to express in a more communicative and democratic learning and teaching environment.

In order to achieve this instructional goal, students need to learn vocabulary, phrases, and grammars before speaking and communicating in a real situation.  Direct Instruction Model helps me focus on basic language knowledge and skills, which is very necessary to my students.  However, as we all know, language learning is not just acquiring skills by rigorous practice; in fact, spoken English learning and practicing are more vivid and flexible.  So Direct Instruction Model is less likely to meet different students’ learning needs and preferred learning styles.

Cooperative Instruction Model is an appropriate model for me, which is classified as a social constructive model.  It can help my students achieve group goals and help on another learn, develop my students’ social skills, encourage my students to apply what they have learnt into the real world.  Besides, students’ mistakes which are corrected in a non-threatening atmosphere encourage those reticent students to enter the discussion.  But Cooperative Instruction Model makes the high-level students not try their best to work on the same project with these low or average students.  In the long run, the abilities of these high-level students may become lower.

Based on what I analyzed above, I still think Direct Instruction Model and Cooperative Instruction Model fit well in my students’ English language learning.

I applied the whole components of Instructional Systems Design: the needs assessment or front-end analysis, the selection of instructional models, the selection of media and materials and a formative evaluation in my final project designing.

The examples I mentioned in each of the component of ISD are more likely for me to solve the instruction problem.  I am very confident of adopting this new trial through analyzing the whole process in my teaching situation.  It also makes me clear that a good educator should not lose the balance between knowledge or skills acquisition and application.

Instructional Systems Design is an intellectual process for analyzing the needs of learners and provides features to encourage a teacher to ponder, reflect, modify and revise the instructions. As far as I am concerned, ISD helps me to improve my professional development, to assist my students in finding their own way of learning and to teach them based on their preferred learning styles in my future teaching.