Reflections based on filmed debate class from last week

I’m going to base this reflection on the video I made this week of myself teaching an afterschool debate class.  The class only has two students and I had asked them to bring in a list of issues they would care enough about to debate. The students giving opinions was a focus of the class, as was personalization since they’re internalizing issues they care about and so was pair-work since I wanted one student to challenge the other by coming up with counter-points to the other’s chosen issue. The students would ask each other questions about their chosen topic and then, even if they didn’t necessarily oppose those ideas, they would have to construct a coherent counter-argument as an exercise in critical thinking. I believe we engaged in a lot of useful dialogic discourse and I believe they enjoyed the class, because while they were employing English they were using it to express opinions they were passionate about. I think when an EFL student uses English as a conduit for self-expression it makes it a lot more enjoyable and easier for them to absorb than when they’re using it as part of a teacher’s pre-scripted or textbook lesson plan.

 The main thing I believe I accomplished was getting the students to formulate their own ideas and express those to me, and each other in open display questions that emulated more casual every day conversations than the usual strict environment of the EFL classroom. I think casual classes, such as this one, allow me to have a more free and engaging lesson with the students where I can interact with them on a personal and more relaxed level. I think one of my strengths as a teacher lies in providing a counterbalance to the strict student-teacher roles they have come to expect from local Korean teachers, in that I bring a more casual, equal and interactive tone to the classroom through exercises that focus on the dialogic. On the other hand, I think one of my weaknesses is that I have a bad habit of tending to cut off my students with corrective feedback instead of waiting for them to verbalize a difficult word or sentence. I have to keep myself in check and remember the parable of catching a fish and feeding a person for one day or teaching them to fish and enabling them to feed themselves for the rest of their lives.   
Next class they will have their first mock debate with each other over one of the issues they brainstormed about this week. I’m not going to interfere verbally at all except if to remind them of the debate rules and the clock. I look forward to seeing how they conduct themselves in an interference-free environment.