ELT Journal Advance Access published online on April 13, 2007
ELT Journal, doi:10.1093/elt/ccm019
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
© The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press; all rights reserved.
Exploiting transcriptions of identical subject content lessons
Gary James Harfitt was a secondary school English teacher and department head in Hong Kong for ten years before joining the Faculty of Education at The University of Hong Kong in 2002. He teaches methodology courses on the Postgraduate Certificate of Education (PGCE) programme and also teaches courses on classroom interaction
Email: gharfitt{at}hkucc.hku.hk
| Abstract |
|---|
This article describes a strategy employed on a teacher training course in Hong Kong involving the use of lesson transcriptions. Transcriptions from two course participants' English lessons were used to arouse greater classroom language awareness and promote reflection in one of the teachers, who was initially very reluctant to accept comments and suggestions on her teaching and interactive decision making in the classroom. Her attitude underwent a transformation following her exposure to lesson transcriptions taken from another teacher working in a different school but who was teaching the same subject content as she was. The article will document the changes in this experienced ELT teacher and will also show how emphasis upon lesson transcriptions as an alternative to the more conventional video-recording can promote self-reflection and raise awareness of classroom interaction, and exert a powerful influence on teaching and learning.