Teaching Portfolio

Fall 2010 Sookmyung Women’s University Masters Degree of TESOL Teaching Portfolio Lee Jung Ok

Table of Contents Introduction p 3 1. Personal and Professional Documents p 4 ~ p 11 1.1 Curriculum Vitae 1.2 Teaching Philosophy 1.3 Certificates 1.4 TESOL MA courses I have taken 1.5 Letter of Recommendation p 5 p 6 ~ p 7 p 8 ~ p 9 p 10 p 11 2. Teaching Practices in GEP class p 12 ~ p 30 p 3 p 14 ~ p 17 p 18 ~ p 24 p 25 ~ p 30 2.1 Introduction to GEP class 2.2 Syllabus of GEP class 2.3 GEP Teaching – Week 4 2.3.1 Lesson plans 2.3.2 Classroom activities & student work 2.3.3 Reflective journal 2.4 GEP Teaching – Week 12 2.4.1 Lesson plans 2.4.2 Classroom activities & student work 2.4.3 Reflective journal 3. Action Research p 31 ~ p 49 3.1 Introduction to Action research 3.2 Action Research Paper p 32 p 33 ~ p 49 Epilogue p 50

Introduction This portfolio is designed to show how I have developed myself as an English teacher in and out of the classroom. The evidence in this portfolio will give you a chance to glimpse into the processes I have been through in my previous work and during Sookmyung MA Tesol Program. Becoming a professional teacher and evolving myself as a mentor for my students is surely a long way I should go along in my life not only for intellectual knowledge but also understanding the development of human beings. This portfolio will demonstrate the viewer how I think and work for that.

1. Personal and Professional Documents This Section is all about myself as an English Teacher and my view of teaching. • Personal and Professional Documents • Curriculum Vitae • Teaching Philosophy • Certificates • TESOL MA courses I have taken • Letter of Recommendation

1. Personal and Professional Documents 1.1 Curriculum Vitae • Jungok, Lee • xxxxx@dreamwiz.com • Korea • OBJECTIVE • To show and check myself as a developing and evolving teacher • EDUCATION • Mar. 2008- Presesnt MA in Tesol, Sookmyung Women’s University • Mar. 1989 - Feb. 1993 BA in English Literature, University • EMPLOYMENT • Mar. 2004- Present English Teacher, Foreign Language Dept. School • Mar.2003-Dec.2003 English Teacher, Kids club in Hwa-jung • Mar.1996-Aug.1998 English Teacher, Gwak’s English Institute in Myungdong • Duties as an English teacher • Developing the curriculums • Teaching about 26 students in Grade 1 to 8 • Class conference with each homeroom teacher • Consulting students and parents about English learning • Evaluating the curriculum every year and upgrade it • Writing the reports about each student • Interpreting and translating for foreign visitors to school • Dec.1994-Jan.1996 Translator and interpreter, Fiordland travel in New Zealand • QUALIFICATION & TRAINING • Aug. 2010 Mate Rating training workshop in Sookmyung University • May 2009 Asia Pacific Waldorf Teachers’ conference in Philippines • May 2005 Asia Pacific Waldorf Teachers’ conference in Taiwan • 2004 ~2006 Waldorf Education Certificate • (900 hours) Korean Anthroposophy Association and Stuttgart Waldorf Teachers’ college in Germany • Feb. 1993 2nd Grade Regular Secondary Teacher License (English) • Ministry of Education and Human Resources

1. Personal and Professional Documents 1.2 Teaching Philosophy Fun and Joy of Learning English As a learner, I loved learning English since I first encountered English. It was a new, fresh, different, and fun experience for me. English gave me confidence at school and naturally led me to major in English and become an English teacher. I want to help my students experience the joy, have the fresh view of the world, and get the skills they can use to communicate with the world through English learning as I did. Teaching is not always easy but rather energy-consuming. Teachers are required to be considerate, reflective, and responsible, so I want to keep my principles in mind on my teaching journey, while upgrading them through reflecting on my teaching so that I don’t cloak myself in its comfort. Teaching Principles The principles I have in my class lie in three interconnected areas and influence each other. They are the Student-centered, Cooperative learning, and Function-based approaches. Motivation and Student-Centered One of the most powerful elements to make learning effective and active must be the students’ internal motivations. To allow this to happen, I like to put my students at the center of the learning. For this, I administer some surveys to understand their interests and concerns about the curriculum. I also try to meet them as often as possible through written letters, e-mails or journals regularly. At the end of the semester, I always have some review time over the course of the semester. These activities with them help me understand them better and allow me to apply the improved methods to the next class.

1. Personal and Professional Documents 1.2 Teaching Philosophy Cooperative and Communicative Learning Cooperative learning is also putting the student at the center of the class. Pair work and group work give much more chances for students to practice what they already know or what they wanted to experiment with based on their background knowledge. These kinds of activities don’t allow them to stay as passive onlookers but stimulate them to move and use the language. Role plays are also good activities to realize cooperative and communicative learning. Through role plays and dramas, students interact with each other, share situations, negotiate, and solve problems they face, together through communication. They are real performers, and are not just listeners. These cooperative, but not competitive activities facilitate students’ learning and the feedback from peers also gives students a very good source from which to make them changes. However, a common pitfall teachers should be careful to avoid is forcing heavy interaction from the students from the beginning. At first, they can have time to observe and get small roles to get used to the atmosphere of cooperative and communicative surroundings. Also, teachers should give various ways for shy and introverted students to participate such as pantomiming and being a passer-by with a humorous or fun character. Function-based approach The function-based approach makes the lesson come to life. The situations should be real, understandable, and interesting to students in order to stimulate their motivation. Real social situations with authentic texts can awaken the passive students and keep them at the center of the lesson. This gives students the chances to really act, listen, and day-dream. Therefore my class has many real tasks that are given to the students to solve with their friends, such as making their graduation trip schedule, helping some friends’ shopping, discussing their cultural night events, etc. with presentations. A Helper and a Friend With these primary principles, I would like to move forward as a teacher. Along the way, I know that I can continue to learn a lot from my students as well. What one learns from their students is the real beauty of teaching. It is said that he who speaks two languages possesses two souls. I hope my students can gain wider and deeper views and thoughts of their lives and world through English learning and I would willingly like to be the helper and friend on their journey.

1. Personal and Professional Documents 1.3 Certificates

1. Personal and Professional Documents 1.4 TESOL MA Courses I have taken Certificate Program (1 semester) Methodology I – Listening & Reading Second Language Acquisition for EFL Teachers 2008-1 2008-2 2010-2 2006-1 2010-1 Elective courses (3 semesters) Learner-Centered Teaching Human Learning and Cognition Discourse Analysis Children’s Psychology and Literacy Development Teaching Writing Second Language Learning Theories Final Option (1 semester) Practicum I – GEP class Practicum II – Action research and portfolio

1. Personal and Professional Documents 1.5 Letter of Recommendation

2. Teaching Practices in GEP class This Section is all about my teaching experiences through GEP class. • Teaching Practices in GEP class • Introduction to GEP class • Syllabus of GEP class • Lesson plans / Reflective Journals

2. Teaching Practices in GEP class 2.1 Introduction to GEP class The primary objective of the GEP II course is to give the students an opportunity to develop skills and strategies for global writing proficiency in English. This course, in effect, will also focus on developing the skills necessary for attaining an acceptable score on the MATE Writing Test and will be linking reading with writing skills. The basic philosophy underlying the course is that meaningful practice generated in an environment of facilitative feedback is the most efficient way of developing communicative competence. As a result, in this class, each student will be generating large amounts of language which will be closely monitored. Each student will be given help and feedback on a continual basis. During the last semester in Tesol MA in Sookmyung , I had GEP class as a teaching group and helping group to Sookmyung university students. I met 27 students every Thursday night from 7:50 to 10:30 sometimes as a teacher and sometimes as a friend especially for my three little sisters in my group. We also met through on-line writing board. I joined them in their journey of English learning for 15 weeks. I tried to help their English writing but I was also a student in GEP class learning about English learners and learning about co-operation with my colleagues.

2. Teaching Practices in GEP class 2.2 Syllabus of GEP class Stephen van Vlack Sookmyung Women’s University Graduate School of TESOL/General English Program GEP II - Writing and Reading (영어쓰기와읽기) Syllabus - Fall 2010 Syllabus - Fall 2010 GEP II - Writing and Reading (영어쓰기와 읽기) Week 1; September 2 Introduction to the course, persons and materials involved. *Group 1 teaches GEP - ICE BREAKING ACTIVITIES In this the first week of class we are going to try to get to know each other through the medium of English and some basic reading and writing. We are going to focus on the simple functions related to introductions and personal information embedded within the forms of highly formulaic presentations of information. Fun is to be had by all. Homework: Go to the Practicum/GEP website and checkout the site. Do the writing homework for week 1. This is posted on the homework assignment board. Week 2; September 9 Student survey Sample Writing Test (Preliminary test) Student groups MATE - Task 1 *Group 2 teaches GEP – GROUP BONDING This week we focus on getting the students to make sentences to inform about themselves personally. The level of the writing will focus on meaningful listing and sentence creation. Homework: To be announced. Week 3; September 16 MATE Writing - Task 1 *Group 3 teaches GEP - 1st time For this week and the next few weeks we be working on the basic component of composition - the paragraph. We do this first by working on basic paragraphs and their structure through the here and now. Students will be writing about concrete, here and now, topics of a highly personal nature. That is they will be writing highly contextualized memos in order to make excuses and/or offer an explanation. Homework: To be announced.

2. Teaching Practices in GEP class 2.2 Syllabus of GEP class Week 4; September 23 (Holiday – Class to be rescheduled) MATE Writing - Task 2 **Group 4 teaches GEP – 1st time – 1st Videotape This week we take a quick look at writing about highly personal and familiar topics for the purpose of informing or giving advice in paragraphs in the form of an email. The level of formality is again, rather low, but the writing is expected to be more carefully structured and somewhat longer than that we did in the previous week. Homework: To be announced. Week 5; September 30 MATE Writing - Task 2 This week we are going to focus on writing descriptive emails composed of essentially one main paragraph. Descriptive writing can entail descriptions of people, places, objects, or processes and as such form an important mode in many different and varied instances of writing. *Group 1 teaches GEP – 1st time Homework: To be announced. Week 6; October 7 MATE Writing - Task 2 *Group 2 teaches GEP – 1st time For the next two weeks we will be working on developing skills in writing narrative paragraphs, but with some elements of presentations thrown in. This week we will be working on familiar, personal topics in the narratives we will be writing. It is important to note that while few of us are ever going to be professional story writers, narratives play an important role in many different types of writing. Homework: To be announced. Week 7; October 14 MATE Writing - Task 2 **Group 3 teaches GEP - 2nd time - 1st VIDEOTAPE In the second week of linking essays and presentations through narratives we will try to work with topics that are less familiar and hence much more difficult. The trick here is to accurately describe while retaining comprehensibility and suitable accuracy and much of this is achieved through careful organization. Homework: Prepare diligently for the Midterm Exam. Week 8; October 21 Midterm Exam *Group 4 teaches GEP - MIDTERM EXAM After the midterm we will take some time after the exam to engage in a little review by doing some fun communicative writing practice. Homework: To be announced.

2. Teaching Practices in GEP class 2.2 Syllabus of GEP class Week 9; October 28 MATE Writing - Task 2 **Group 1 teaches GEP – 2nd time – 1st VIDEOTAPE This week, we turn to the writing of specific types of essays. We will also be moving away for very personal topics to those which are less known and more content-based. This week we will focus on formal letter writing. The writing will, therefore, be situational but the situation will not be personal or familiar. Homework: To be announced. Week 10; November 4 MATE Writing - Task 2 **Group 2 teaches GEP – 2nd time – 1st VIDEOTAPE While much of what we have been doing in this course to date involves dealing with familiar information of some sort, this week we start to work with more formal and abstract types of information. This week is therefore important as a transition to the abstract from the concrete and is also because it is stereotypical of task 2 of the MATE Writing test. We will focus on describing graphs and other kinds of visual representations of complex meaning. Homework: To be announced. Week 11; November 11 MATE Writing - Task 2/3 **Group 3 teaches GEP – 3rd time - 2nd VIDEOTAPE This week we jump into writing opinion essays, one of the most important genres for students taking the MATE. This week we will jump into this by looking at topics that are more personal and familiar. Homework: To be announced. Week 12; November 18 MATE Writing - Task 3/2 **Group 4 teaches GEP – 2nd time – 2nd VIDEOTAPE This week we look at writing effective comparison and/or contrast paragraphs/essays. The most important element here is in the organization of the information to be presented along parallel points and specific ordering practices. Homework: To be announced. Week 13; November 25 MATE Writing - Task 3/2 **Group 1 teaches GEP – 3rd time – 2nd VIDEOTAPE This week we take a look at writing about a well-structured opinion paragraph. The trick here is finding not only enough but the best type of possible support. The support is everything here thus the planning part is very important. This will give us an opportunity to go back and review a lot of what we did in the beginning of the course as relates to planning and gathering ideas. Homework: To be announced.

2. Teaching Practices in GEP class 2.2 Syllabus of GEP class Week 14; December 2 MATE Writing - Task 3 **Group 2 teaches GEP - 3rd time – 2nd Videotape This week we are look at persuasive essays. This kind of writing can be a lot of fun but is also tricky. There is a fine line between what is persuasive and what is pushy. Doing this requires both the use of specific grammatical structures on the micro level as well as specific macro level structures. Homework: Study for the final. Week 15; December 9 Final Exam *Group 3 teaches GEP - FINAL EXAM Let’s have a little party or do something fun after the final exam.

2. Teaching Practices in GEP class 2.3 GEP Teaching – Week 4 2.3.1 Lesson plans Topic: Healthy Well-being Life Functions: Giving advice in a paragraph form Objectives: By the end of the class, students should be able to… • Use modal verbs • Use proverbs, vocabulary, terms and phrases related to health • Form advising sentences • Compose an advising paragraph

2. Teaching Practices in GEP class 2.3.1 Lesson plans

2. Teaching Practices in GEP class 2.3.2 Classroom activities & student work Evaluation of ‘Well-being’ lifestyle Students pair up and evaluate how well-being the partner is by interviewing each other with a checklist and discuss the results of the group members. Finally each group composes two sentences that best describe their problematic conditions and present them with the graph uploaded by teaching group according to the result of the survey.

2. Teaching Practices in GEP class 2.3.2 Classroom activities & student work Wisdom Master Half of the students in a group are advice collectors and the other half are advisors. All the advices are written in sentence level and each group present the best three wisdoms and select a ‘wisdom master’ among them. Students can practice to make advising sentences using some modal verbs.

2. Teaching Practices in GEP class 2.3.2 Classroom activities & student work 1P&3A Peer Counselling Students write down their main concern or problem in 2~3 full sentence forms and get some advice in a paragraph form from the other members of the group and share the most helpful advice with others. In this activity students can compose an advising sentences.

2. Teaching Practices in GEP class 2.3.3 Reflective Journals The first time as a leading teacher. My group, group 4’s topic was Healthy Well-being Life and the function was Giving advice in a paragraph form. Julie and I prepared three activities, Activity 1. Evaluation of Well-being Lifestyle : checklist, interview, evaluate each group’s physical, mental, and spiritual well-being using graphs, sentences describing the group’s condition. Activity2. Wisdom Master : Get as much advice as possible for each group’s problematic condition and choose the wisdom master. Activity3. Peer counseling : Reflect own individual problem and get advice from the members in the group. Each activity was followed by a presentation. For Activity one, some of the checklists were not clear to the students. They felt confused about the negative questions and some unfamiliar words. We should have checked that more carefully and put them in the reading assignments. For Activity 2, since there were some absentees, big siblings had to join as advisors. Students were confused about who is just a helper and who is an advisor so they were wandering around sometimes looking for where to go and who is available. We could have made some name cards for advisors. For Activity 3. Even if it seemed to be the similar activity as activity 2, it surely helped students reflect on themselves and write focusing on the content. Which means we gave them the real situations with some guidelines such as the expressions for detailed description and for useful modal verbs they can use. Overall, I feel it was good for students to feel some reasons why they have to write and present with those topics but each activity was a bit long. Next time we might try four activities more speedy and dynamic. One thing we overlooked was that we didn’t prepare power point for basic instructions. We thought our oral instructions might be clear enough but in reality, when they didn’t finish all the work at the same time, some of them couldn’t focus on instructions. In that case they need a guideline to follow. I realized again the important roles of big siblings in this kind of task-based and communicative activities. We as big siblings all need to be much more awakened and ready to help them. We also need to know the appropriate line where to go and where to stay for making students more active and involved.

2. Teaching Practices in GEP class 2.3.3 Reflective Journals As a leading teacher today, I was nervous so sometimes I had some problems to get involved dedicatedly and selflessly during the class. Especially at the beginning, when I was stepping aside, I was just watching the students, not helping them. I wasn’t awakened enough at that moment but later on I became more natural visiting each group and talking with students and big siblings. Not only the students but also I are learning the teamwork and learn from peers. I appreciate all the big siblings and my special partner, Julie.

2. Teaching Practices in GEP class 2.4 GEP Teaching – Week 12 2.4.1 Lesson plans

2. Teaching Practices in GEP class 2.4.1 Lesson plans

2. Teaching Practices in GEP class 2.4.2 Classroom activities & student work What’s in your mouth? In groups, all the members are blindfolded except big siblings, eat and taste the given two snacks and students are asked about the taste, texture, and shape. The students can practice their vocabularies(adjectives) to describe some food. Compare and Find Differences and Similarities Students are given two kinds of cereal and asked to talk about the differences and similarities between the two and write down them in sentence forms using some conjuctions, comparative and superlative forms of adjectives and adverbs for comparing.

2. Teaching Practices in GEP class 2.4.2 Classroom activities & student work Open up a restaurant in Chung-pa Students are asked to design own restaurant near Sook-Myung University using some categories – location, design, style, menu, price range, special services, and occasions. Students brainstorm each idea with group members and write in full sentence forms. Using magazine scrapping and adding drawings, students present own group’s dream restaurant to class. Café Chungpa vs. Café Ba-Ba-Reeba Students compare their own dream restaurant and Ba-Ba-Reeba, the most highly rated restaurant in Chicago. With the comparison points, students write a full paragraph that compares the two restaurants focusing on topic sentences and detailed supporting ideas. They switch writings with other groups and go through peer revision and present. .

2. Teaching Practices in GEP class 2.4.3 Reflective Journals It was the second teaching for my group in GEP class with the topic of food to have them practice comparison and contrast paragraphs and essays. Every time I stand in front of the students I feel kind of pleasant nervousness and excitement with some burdens. I had the same feeling this time again and the class went okay overall and it was a good experience and learning for me as a teacher too. The topic, food, was interesting to motivate the students in the first place and the organization of the lesson was good for students to practice from vocabulary, through sentences, essay draft, and writing the final in the end. However, the time arrangement of the whole lesson didn’t go as I expected. Activity 1 and 2 were vocabulary and sentence level activities as a warm-up and activating their schemata but it took longer time than we planned. It took a long time in tasting all the food for them to talk and write about them. That caused the shorter time for the next actual main activities so we didn’t have enough time for revision and feedback and we had to be in a hurry to wrap up the essay. The teaching group needs to be more careful in time arrangement for the whole harmonious and organized lesson. One more thing we should have considered more was the materials the students tasted. My teaching partner, Julie and I thought and talked a lot for that but our snacks were a bit short for good comparison and contrast, I guess. Something more similar but different enough to bring their rich vocabulary and interest were needed. I hope their experience with the food was memorable and helpful for their writing and their English studying journeys and left as good reinforcements in their long-term memory.

3. Action Research This Section is all about Action Research conducted in GEP class under the title of what strategies are the most helpful for boosting students’ confidence. • Action Research • Introduction to Action research • Action Research Paper

3. Action Research 3.1 Introduction to Action research The basic idea behind this action research project is to try to glean information about our teaching from the student’s point of view in a somewhat more empirical nature. The focus here, following the action research paradigm, is to analyze elements of classroom teaching and to see how such elements could be improved. This is all about problem solving and making our teaching better. Starting from our concerns about the students in GEP class, we observe, do the survey, suggest remedies to the problem, and have discussion for better teaching. All the processes here are to become more responsive and insightful teacher to our students.

3. Action Research 3.2 Action Research Paper The Most Effective Strategies on how to Promote Students’ Confidence in English Kim Mi-hyang, Lee Jung-ok, Nam Jee-ye Sookmyung Women’s University TESOL Master’s Degree Fall I. Introduction General English Program II course at Sookmyung Women’s University, hereafter GEP, involves the students in a variety of reading, writing, and presentation related activities focused on meaning and purpose. The objectives of the GEP are to give the students an opportunity to develop strategies for writing proficiency in English and the skills necessary for attaining an acceptable score on the Multimedia Assisted Test of English Writing Test, hereafter MATE, and to link reading with writing skills. Students are expected much of the in-class interactions which will improve their reading, speaking, and listening skills as well as their writing skills through communicative and interactive activities. The students of GEP are assigned in 9 groups of 3 members with a group leader. Most of the undergraduate students are seniors who have full time jobs and are situated in a stressful circumstance due to the pressure to get best grade for the graduation. The group leaders, graduate students in their final semester of TESOL MA program at Sookmyung Women’s University, are called ‘big siblings’ who play roles as facilitators who guide group members to follow the right track and encourage them to enjoy the class. They also teach the whole class as a team of two or three in turns under the supervision of the professor.

3. Action Research 3.2 Action Research Paper II. Identification of a concern We found a concern that the students in GEP class seem to have difficulties in expressing their ideas in English. According to our observation, students who were silent, shy, and inactive not only in a formal classroom discourse but also even in an informal small talk during the break time, showed frustration through their body movements and facial expressions. In the classroom which asks all the students speak only in English, some of them even expressed the fear or hatred of English when they are asked to interact with others in order to complete the tasks assigned to the group. The findings from interviews with the other big siblings also convinced us that most of the students from each group are not confident enough to express their opinions in class. Furthermore, according to the results of a student needs survey, half of the students received almost a score of over 800 on TOEIC, which indicates they have good control of English in listening and reading comprehension (Survey question number 5, appendix 1). The results of the survey regarding self-confidence, however, demonstrate rather contrasting implications. 16 out of 27 students marked they are poor at English and only 2 out of 27 marked they are good at English (Survey question number 15, appendix 1). This indicates that they have relatively low confidence about their English proficiency compared to the scores of English tests that they have taken such as TOEIC, TOEFL, TEPS (Survey question number 5). In addition survey question number 19 describing students’ attitude toward English and their confidence (Survey question number 19, appendix 1). For example, one comment responded that “I am afraid that I might be not helpful to my group members.” another student wrote that “I want to cry every Thursday due to this class. (I have a lot of stress about this class.)”. The other response was “I don’t like presentation.” Students’ low confidence seems to make them less involved and less motivated in GEP class where pursues communicative and interactive task-based activities throughout the whole lesson. In this regard, it is necessary to highlight how we can assist GEP students to boost up their confidence in English.

3. Action Research 3.2 Action Research Paper Self-confidence is regarded as one of the most significant variables in second language learning. It provides learners with the motivation and energy to become positive about their own learning. It also creates the drive in them to acquire the targeted language, enjoy the learning process, and experience real communication. “At the heart of all learning is a person’s belief in his or her ability to accomplish the task” (Atsuta, 2003). Lack of belief in one’s ability hinders him from achieving the task, pursuing a targeted language accomplishment. Moreover, it is widely believed that once students gain self-confidence, it progressively expands, in conjunction with experiencing success and satisfaction as well as good relationships. Learners’ belief that they indeed are fully capable of accomplishing a task is at least partially a factor in their eventual success in attaining the task. (Brown, 2001, p. 62) The results in the survey conducted at the beginning of GEP class led us to believe students’ matters that cause low confidence in English can be depicted as three dimensions: lack of experience in communicative and interactive learning, fear about making mistakes and keeping silent about the feelings of fear. The first thing this study focus on as the reason of students’ low confidence is that they may be unfamiliar to the ways of the GEP classes in which they are expected to be much more active to produce the target language all the time such as speaking and writing in English. They may have had classes which were more receptive rather than being productive or communicative. Another reason of their low confidence seems to be related to a common feature of second language learners: fear of making errors. When second language learners produce the target language, they generate ‘interlanguages’ (Selinker, 1972), errors or mistakes, which are regarded as the developmental stage of second language learning. The learners, however, usually consider their errors as embarrassment to avoid. Moreover, we also can assume one more cause of their low confidence has been derived from absence of sharing their feelings, fear of making mistakes or errors in communication, with their peers or big siblings. Learners who express the emotions that they feel from their flaws to others may relieve their distress because they can discover that most of second language

3. Action Research 3.2 Action Research Paper learners would follow the development of ‘interlangauges’. The goal of our action research is to find out if the roles of big siblings are helpful for students’ self-confidence and what kind of strategy is the most effective for students to promote their confidence and result in more effective language learning. At the end of the course, we expect to see the students being active and confident, not hesitant in negotiating to solve problems with assistance of big siblings to facilitate their little sisters’ difficulties. III. Preliminary Research The action research starts with a question as to “How does the role of big siblings affect students’ confidence in GEP class?”, and then followed by “What kinds of strategies are helpful for students’ confidence?” First, we discerned that the students generally have low confidence compared to their scores of English proficiency tests from the observation in the first three classes and the preliminary survey at week 2. The concern led us to decide to explore why they feel unconfident about their output of target language compared to their overall good test scores and if the big siblings’ role could be efficient for improving students’ confidence. Interview and Survey Big Siblings To answer our research question, we interviewed the big siblings by asking their observation on the students’ confidence and found that their ideas about students’ confidence were similar to our assumption. We also requested big siblings to answer the questions through a survey paper (appendix 2) including two different parts: the big siblings’ opinion about their students’ confidence and strategies they are using to boost up their students’ confidence. The result (Table 1) shows that at least half of

3. Action Research 3.2 Action Research Paper the students have relatively high confidence in English except three students who seemingly struggle to produce English. Table 1. The Big siblings’ opinion about students’ confidence Degree Poor---1------2------3------4------5------6------7------8------9------10---Good Students Numbers 2 0 3 3 3 3 2 1 Furthermore, the big siblings are found to being using very diverse strategies (appendix 4) to promote little sisters’ confidence. Based on their answers, we try to categorize them into four positive reinforcements: verbal praise, positive physical reaction, scaffolding, and affective strategies (appendix 5). One of the most common strategies that big siblings are utilizing in current GEP class is the verbal reinforcement such as short and simple verbal complements or praising specific achievement. They are usually praising students’ work by saying “Good job!”, or “Excellent!” The strong positive agreement is also one of their methods when they provide a good cue or suggestion such as “I love your idea.”, and “That is a very good sentence.” Moreover, group leaders try to praise a lot when the students make an attempt to actively join the activities or share their ideas in the collaborative activities. Some of them show physical reactions such as showing genuine pleasure, forming a thumb up or patting on their students’ back in a positive way. Big siblings are found to provide specific directions by asking question, prompting, showing specific steps and repeating directions of the given activity, all of which are categorized in ‘scaffolding’. Second Survey The little sisters were required to evaluate their own confidence in English after the midterm in the Week 8 of the semester. They were supposed to choose one of the scales from one to ten, which indicate their confidence from low to high on a

3. Action Research 3.2 Action Research Paper continuum (appendix 3). Comparing the preliminary survey in the beginning of the semester; it shows that students’ confidence has been comparatively improved even in a short period. Figure 1. Comparison between the preliminary survey and the second survey Based on the findings mentioned above, we decided to provide the students with the positive reinforcements.(Appendix 6). Bloom (1976) claims that positive reinforcement is more effective when congratulatory words and actions are varied and intermittent. Thus, we suggested to the big siblings to utilized them helping students to raise their confidence. The positive reinforcement was categorized into four different sections: verbal praise, physical recommended the big siblings to utilize the listed strategies to help the students to raise their confidence. First, as for the verbal praise. Harmer (2007) suggests that praising students is one of the pivotal elements to encourage learners. Additionally, Petty (2004) suggests giving praise not only learners’ outstanding works but also small achievements in order to reinforce them. Thus, providing verbal praises may be able to amplify learners’ confidence. The second section of the treatment is “Physical Reaction”. One of the important reasons of nonverbal behaviors such as eye contact, facial expression and gestures, is to reinforce students’ learning. Moreover, nonverbal reaction could increase the degree

3. Action Research 3.2 Action Research Paper of the perceived psychological closeness between teacher and student. According to Tyson and Wall (1983) the nonverbal positive reinforcement is beneficial to the learners rather than some spoken words, which means transmitting supportive non verbal signals might be able to enable the students to lower their anxiety on their performance and motivate them to learn. Therefore, positive nonverbal reinforcement may be one of the efficient tools to improve students’ confidence. Third, according to Harmer (2007), scaffolding is a supportive framework for the construction of knowledge. Thus, we are expecting the scaffolding to play the roles of boosting students’ self confidence in class: especially giving prompts might enable learners to promote their confidence. Lastly, as one of the strategies the big siblings are required to utilize is “Affective Strategies”, or sharing emotions. Krashen (1985) claimed that the affective filter is one of the most important factors that influence second language acquisition. If the mental block that prevents acquirers from fully utilizing the comprehensible input they receive for language acquisition is up, the learners cannot acquire the target language even if the input is fully comprehensible. The causes of the high affective filter are seemingly anxiety, lack of confidence and motivation. Thus, we encouraged big siblings to help the students to share their difficulties and anxiety about learning English by expressing their feelings to lower students’ affective filter. Third Survey For the next step, we conducted the third survey about their confidence to compare the effectiveness of the given categories of reinforcements to help their confidence and interviewed the big siblings about their roles for student’s confidence in the same way as the second survey. (Appendix 7) Compared to the results of the first or second survey, it is evident that more students showed improvement of self-confidence. Fifteen out of twenty three students marked at the numbers more than six, as shown in Figure 2. As shown in Table 2, fifteen out of twenty three students marked above six on the continuum, which seemingly can be indicated as positive evidence of self confidence. Four out of twenty three students evaluated their self-confidence as being five, which can be still interpreted to be promising, while four students showed comparatively low confidence. Given that Korean students are likely to be prudent when they express their self confidence, even the students who chose low indicators may possibly have more confidence in their actual performance.

3. Action Research 3.2 Action Research Paper Table 3 Students’ Opinion on their English Confidence Degree Poor---1------2------3------4------5------6------7------8------9------10---Good Students Numbers1 3 4 5 8 1 1 The second question which we asked to students was to find out which strategies worked well for boost students’ self confidence. The majority of the students, eighteen out of twenty three students responded that prompts, elicitation, and reminding of their homework were effective. Two of them answered that they felt more confident when they got compliments such as ‘Good job!’, ‘Excellent!’, and ‘What a great idea!’. Also a student expressed sharing feelings to understand the difficulties of studying English worked well for her self confidence. Figure 2. Students’ Opinion on their English Confidence

3. Action Research 3.2 Action Research Paper Ⅳ. Discussion and Implications The findings of this action research shows that the strategic scaffoldings – verbal praise, physical positive reaction, giving prompts, and affective strategies - by the big siblings who are more knowledgeable and experienced are very useful and efficient ways to reinforce students’ self confidence and the most efficient way to facilitate students’ confident performance was prompting, elicitation and reminding them of reading assignments. As the findings of this action research indicate, students can get help from more knowledgeable and experienced people for their confident performance and one of the most effective ways to give more self-confidence is through giving prompts. Therefore teachers in the class can try more prompting and elicitations such as giving examples, giving clues and cues, and reminding them of what they learned before in order to increase their self-confidence.

3. Action Research 3.2 Action Research Paper Reference Atsuta, H. (2003). Improving the motivation of unsuccessful learners in the Japanese high school EFL context. ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 476 750. Brown, H.D (2001). Teaching by principles. New York: Pearson Education, Harmer, J. (2007). The practice of English language teaching. New York: Pearson Education. Johnson, M. (2004). A Philosophy of second language acquisition. Yale University. Krashen, S. D. (1985). The input hypothesis. London: Longman. Selinker, L. (1972). Interlanguage. IRAL 10(2): pp. 209-31.

3. Action Research 3.2 Action Research Paper Appendix 1 Survey5. Have you ever taken any standardized exams? Indicate which one(s) and the approximate score received. Survey15. I think I am good at English (1=strongly agree, 5=strongly disagree) Degree Good---1---------------2---------------3---------------4---------------5---Poor Students Numbers …0………………2 ………………9 ………………7………………9 Survey19. Do you have any concerns about this class? Write about it. S1. I am afraid that I might be not helpful to my group members. S2. I want to cry every Thursday due to this class. (I have a lot of stress about this class.) S3. I don’t like presentation.

3. Action Research 3.2 Action Research Paper Appendix 2 The Survey Paper for Teachers

3. Action Research 3.2 Action Research Paper Appendix 3 The Survey Paper for Students Result of Students’ Opinion on their English Confidence Degree Poor---1------2------3------4------5------6------7------8------9------10---Good Students Numbers 1 1……1…… 4 …… 2…… 7…… 2 …… 2…………… 2…… 1

3. Action Research 3.2 Action Research Paper Appendix 4 The Result of Teachers Strategy

3. Action Research 3.2 Action Research Paper Appendix 5 The Suggesting Strategy Category

3. Action Research 3.2 Action Research Paper Appendix 6 What kind of strategy can boost Students’ Confidence most in GEP II Class? 1. Categories of feedback that big siblings are using now Based on the results from the survey, we could find out most of big siblings are now using positive feedback to boost the confidence of their little sisters. We tried to assign each feedback into in three different categories like the table below. 2. Treatment The following are what you are going to use to boost students’ confidence as remedies related to students’ confidence: 1) to use effective praise, 2) to show positive feedback through physical reactions such as ‘thumps up’ or ‘give a big smile’. 3) to prompt to facilitate students’ work 4) to encourage students’ elaborate their feelings when they express their low confidence verbally. * Effective praise verses Ineffective praise Adapted from Brophy(1981) cited in Brown

3. Action Research 3.2 Action Research Paper Appendix 7. 1. 첫 번째GEP 수업과 비교하였을 때 전반적인 영어 실력에 대한 자신감의 정도를 써주세요. Degree Poor---1------2------3------4------5------6------7------8------9------10---Good 2. Big Sibling의 역할이 여러분들의 영어실력에 대한 자신감을 높이는데 도움이 되었다고 생각하나요? 1) 예( ) 2) 아니오 3. Bing Sibling들의 어떤 역할이 영어에 대한 자신감을 키우는데 효과적이었는지 하나만 고르시오. 1) 구두로 칭찬하였을 때. (예를 들어 ‘Good job!’, ‘Excellent’, ‘What a great idea!’ 등의 표현을 말하였을 때) 2) 제스처로 격려하였을 때.(예를 들어 ‘어깨를 두드리거나’, 혹은 ‘ - 3) 구체적인 도움이나 힌트를 주었을 때 (예를 들어, 가. 문장의 일부분을 제시 해주었을 때 나. 예를 들어 주었을 때 다. 배운 내용(혹은 숙제)를 상기 시켜 주었을 때 4) 영어공부의 어려움을 심적으로 이해해 주었을 때 5) 그 이외 ( )

Epilogue Sookmyung Tesol MA course for two and a half years is just about to finish. It has been a refreshing and unforgettable journey for me. Sometimes I struggled and sometimes I was tired, but it was exciting and fascinating. What I have learned the most from this course is how to manage my time among all the responsibilities around me and how to be a reflective and organized teacher. I appreciate the professors and classmates I met along this journey. They were all my teachers, friends, and inspirers. I would like to keep being a reflective and challenging teacher all the way through my teaching and my life just like I learned here in Sookmyung Tesol MA course.

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