This week I used  pronunciation exercise found on page 253 in the Harmer book.  The exercise was quite easy to set up and can be used when teaching students how to pronounce different sounds.  The pronunciation exercise is easy for students to follow as well, which is evident in my attached video.  It is also not very time consuming so the exercise  doesn't require much class time which allows the teacher can move on to different lessons,  The  exercise  focused on  the pronunciation differences between  "ch" and "sh"   (Ship vs Chip/ Wash vs Watch) although, in hindsight, I think that focusing pronunciation difference between "L' and "R" would have served my Korean students much better. Since Harmer's the instructions were quite easy to follow, there seemed to be little trouble when executing this exercise.

As for the rest of the class, my goal this week  was  lowering the affective filter of my students while at the same time trying not to appear as an authority figure in the class.  At the start of the  class I  had the students work in groups, then in pairs, as they reviewed the material which we have covered throughout the semester.  My feelings are quit  mixed on taking this approach, although, I must admit that the students  respond to this style very positively.  There was a lot to like in regards to student participation, as students were quite eager to talk to their classmates without feeling the pressure of having to produce perfect output , in front of class, when addressing the teacher.   As a result, I heard many funny comments, and once the ball started rolling, most of the students participated without having to be coaxed by me.  I also heard a few students correct their classmates when errors were made.  There were other times when a particular group asked me for clarification on a particular word or grammar rule as well.  The students also seemed to give honest replies to their classmates as opposed to just worrying about their grammar, as they do when reply to me.  I often heard questions which I never covered in class, which i found even more encouraging, (one boy asked a girl about her first date).   

Now for the bad...  Since this was the first time I allowed the students to "run the start of the class" the procedure did not flow smoothly (at first).  I had to give many instructions since the students seemed to be unfamiliar with a class being conducted in such a way. I, myself, also had trouble with being so hands-off in my class. I did roam from group to group to both monitor and at times, participate in a conversations when I was invited in.  l had to fight the urge to make immediate corrections when I heard mistakes as well. Once the group and pair work was finished,  I wrote some of the mistakes (i heard) on the board, and as a class we analyzed what the errors were and then corrected them.  I made sure not to pinpoint which student made the mistake, nor did I use an exact quote as to ensure that no one could identify whom made the error, not even the "guilty"party.  None the less, this did not seem like a natural way to begin class for me, since I didn't start the class by activating the student's schema.  And this is where my dilemma lies.  How do I lower the students affective filter by minimizing my role as an "authority figure", while at the same time activating the class's schema at the beginning of class?  I must admit that I was  quite pleased with how eagerly the students spoke with their classmates, however, I feel as though the students output could had been  a bit more accurate if I had done something to activate their schema first.