Page 31 - The SpeakTeach method - Esther de Vrind

teacher from the self-evaluation was that the student would like help from her with grammar. The teacher was pleased that the student plans to draw up a vocabulary list herself before the speaking exercise and she included this in her final feedback. The initial feedback on improving her grammar and learning more vocabulary had been elaborated into a more concrete plan tailored to the student’s needs as a result of the self-evaluation procedure.
These two cases show that the teacher’s feedback shifted, became more specific, more tailored and covered more levels (cf. Figure 1).
Is the self-evaluation procedure also practical in the opinion of the teachers? It emerged from the interviews with the three teachers that using the questions from the self-evaluation to systematically make a mental check on each student did work well. The teachers found that their own feedback was more evenly divided over the different aspects of speaking and the ratio of positive points to errors was also better. Furthermore, the teachers said that the self- evaluations gave them more insight into how the students saw their own performance and this meant that the teachers were better able to guide them. The teachers were enthusiastic therefore about the usefulness of the evaluation procedure.
A disadvantage of the self-evaluation procedure would seem at first sight to be the time that needs to be invested. In comparison with the current classroom practice of the three teachers which is based around exercises from the course programme and in which speaking skills have a relatively minor role, this systematic approach would spend more time on speaking skills. However, improving speaking skills was exactly what the teachers wanted to do, because that was what the students needed. The priority should be the other way around: exercises from the course material could be used if it becomes clear from a student’s plan that they are needed. With respect to timesaving, the teachers observed that it was not necessary to listen to a recording of each student. They experienced that walking round the class in combination with the students’ self-evaluations was sufficient to give them a general picture. Only in cases of doubt would it be useful for the teacher to listen to the play-back. Nor was it necessary, according to the teachers, to read all of the evaluation forms in detail. A quick scan for things that stand out would be enough. If, for instance, a digital tool could make the students’ evaluations and plans available in a handy visual summary for the teachers, the teachers would be able to tailor their feedback and instruction very easily.
28
29
2