Teaching Languages: Expectations in the Classroom
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Hello, my name is Maria DeLaFuente and I am a professor of Spanish in the department of Romance, German and Slavic Languages and Literatures. I am also the deputy director of the language center here at GW.
The one thing that I would like to talk about is Expectations in the classroom. Both expectations the student may have for my class and the expectations I have of the students. In terms of the student’s expectations, when it comes to language teaching and language learning, sometimes students have different expectations from the ones they had when they were in high school, especially when you are doing more innovative teaching. Sometimes your students expect classes that are very grammar oriented and very form oriented. And not as much content oriented language classrooms. This is why I think it is very important to explain to students right away in the beginning of the semester what expectations you have for the class and for them to understand what is going to be happening in the class and ways in which they are going to be learning the language which may be different from the ones they are used to.
By the same token, it is very important that I as a teacher make clear to the students what my expectations are in terms of the work. This is why I always have a contract written about my class, about the expectations including expectations in terms of academic integrity, expectations about homework, deadlines, exams, quizzes, etc. I call it a contract because my student read it and then they sign it. And when they sign it, basically they are saying they understand the expectations of me as a teacher, of them as students and they agree to the different requirements of this class. They also agree to conduct themselves according to the academic integrity code.
Finally, there is the issue of assessment in the classroom and there I also like to emphasize to students what my expectations are in terms of assessment and how will they be assessed on the work they do in the class. It is very important I think for every language teacher to align very well his or her teaching practices with his or her assessment practices. I think assessment is probably the most neglected area of teaching and in language teaching as well. It is important for students to know how will they be evaluated and with what instruments and for what purposes so I spend a quite a bit of time in my classes explaining to students all these things.
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