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8/12/2019 Class Observations
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University of Banja Luka
Faculty of Philology
Department of English language and Literature
Class Observations
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Table of Contents
Introduction1
Teaching vocabulary...1
Teaching grammar..3
Teaching speaking..3
Motivation and discipline...4
Conclusion.5
References.6
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Introduction
There are many key points that need to be considered during a class observation. We need to
focus on the teaching methods, overall class organization, clarity of explanations, student
participation / attentiveness, student comprehension and enthusiasm.
I observed six classes in elementary school Petar Petrovi Njego in Tesli and four
classes in high school, two of which I observed in the school Nikola Tesla and the other two
in the school Jovan Dui, both of which are in Tesli. In the elementary school I observed
two classes in the sixth grade, two classes in the seventh grade, one class in the eighth grade
and one class in the ninth grade. In high school I observed one class in the electrician school,
two classes in the school of economics and one class in the school for catering and hotel
management.
This paper will cover three teaching methods which I observed and compared in
different grades. I will focus on teaching vocabulary, teaching grammar and teaching
speaking. Later on, I will elaborate the differences between different approaches to teaching,
different grades and also different schools. Finally, in the last part of the paper I will focus on
certain problems which I noticed during the classes.
Teaching vocabulary
In the sixth and ninth grade of elementary school teachers were focusing on vocabulary. In the
sixth grade the teacher started the class with a warm up exercise. She asked questions about
things from the classroom. For example she asked what is this, pointing towards the window,and the students were guessing the names of the classroom equipment and furniture. The
student who answered correctly had to write the word on the blackboard so other students can
copy the word down in their notebooks and learn how it is spelled. Later on they were doing
an exercise in their books. They had to use their skills of listening and comprehension to fill
in the gaps in the sentences. The teacher called out some students to read out loud their
answers. She focused on pronunciation and corrected them whenever they made a mistake.
Then the teacher explained that they are going to learn the days of the week, both the correct
spelling and pronunciation. First the teacher wrote the days of the week on the blackboard,
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and slowly pronounced them. Then the whole class together repeated after her and then in
turns they pronounced the days one by one. After this the teacher divided them into five
groups, and each group got a set of seven flashcards with the days of the week written on
them. She asked questions such as: Today is, and the students showed a card with Monday
written on it. The group with the highest rate of correct answers got a prize.
I liked her explanations before every activity, she was talking slowly and using hand
gestures to draw and maintain attention. The students were asking questions if they did not
understand the purpose of the exercise. While the teacher in the ninth and the eighth grade did
not give any explanations before moving on to the next exercise. She would just say open
your books, for example, on page 34 and do the exercise number 3. When the students were
checking their answers it was obvious that they did not understand the exercise many of them
were just guessing randomly certain grammatical and vocabulary elements. What I did not
like was that the teacher from the sixth grade did not provide a definition when learning new
words related to classroom equipment and furniture. She could have put the words into
context, or write down the definition like the teacher in the ninth grade have done. The
teacher in the ninth grade asked for explanations about certain words. For example, she
said:Tell me something about the word raven, is it a bird or a flower? Then the students
would give a simple explanation in their own terms, and the teacher would write on the
blackboard the definition from the book. In this way the teacher from the ninth grade could
examine students understanding of the words unlike the teacher from the sixth grade who
only provided the translation.
Nevertheless, the two classes in primary schools were quite similar. Vocabulary
teaching was based on memorizing and translating new words as well as doing listening
exercises and filling the gaps. However, students in high school were independently learning
vocabulary. They had to read the new lecture individually and find and underline the
unfamiliar words and write down the translation in their notebooks using dictionaries. They
also did exercises from the book on their own. There was much less teacher-student
interaction as well as student-student interaction than in primary school. The class was
monotonous, and I noticed that some students were drawing in their notebooks and not even
trying to copy down the new words because they obviously knew the procedure, and the
teacher did not even check their notebooks she just continued the class with exercises.
From what I noticed in my class observations learning vocabulary is quite underrated.
Utmost importance is given to grammar. However, all these skills such as reading, listening,writing, speaking, comprehension, grammar and vocabulary are interrelated and mutually
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dependent. As such they should each be given equal attention. Because in the long run The
important point is that the study of grammar as such is neither necessary nor sufficient for
learning to use a language, (Newmark, p.165).
Teaching Grammar
In the seventh and the eighth grade I observed two almost identical classes where focus was
on grammar. Of course the level of knowledge and the complexity of the material was not the
same but the procedure was very similar. Students were divided into groups and were
supposed to talk about activities they do on a school day using present simple. After that the
students from the seventh grade had to write a short story based on their conversation, while
the students from the eighth grade were also divided in groups and had to write a short story
using past simple about the way they spent their summer holidays. When they finished the
teacher in the seventh grade called out some students to read their stories out loud. They were
very eager to participate. However, the teacher in the eighth grade called out some students in
advance to read their stories out loud so the other students knew they do not have to finish
their stories because no one is going to check their work so they were not really paying
attention to what their friends were reading. I also observed one more class in the sixth grade
where focus was on grammar. The students were doing exercises from the book related to
reflective pronouns, and the teacher was checking the accuracy of their answers by calling out
names in the order entered in the roll book. Since each of the students knew what their
number was most of them only did exercises which they knew they will have to read out loud.
It is not a good idea to tell students beforehand which parts are they going to read or
who is going to talk during the entire class. Especially when they are doing group work,
which is supposed to encourage studentsparticipation in class. It is always useful to arrange
seating so that students can all see each other and talk to each other. Also, it is not a bad idea
to use facial expressions and gestures to encourage students to speak up in class.
Teaching speaking
In the seventh grade I observed a class where teaching speaking was emphasized. Students
were learning how to introduce properly themselves and others. They were divided into
groups. In the first half of the class students were listening to a dialogue and based on thatthey were talking among themselves. In the second half of the class students were given five
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minutes to think about terms for a happy life. When the thinking time expired every group
gave their answers by acting out a dialogue. They had to start by introducing themselves and
then elaborating their answers. One person from the group was asking questions and the other
was answering. Students did not know in advance that they will have to improvise a dialogue
so it was very interesting to listen to their answers. They used their imagination and created a
relaxed class atmosphere.
While observing a class in high school the teacher also tried to introduce more student
talking time. However, she failed completely. Students were divided in groups and were given
pictures based on which they had to write a story and the whole group was supposed to
present a part of the story. Students were talking in their first language and only one or two
members of the group were actually writing and talking about the story. The teacher did not
monitor their work she was writing notes in the roll book. When the time came to present
their stories they were completely indifferent to what they had to do. In every group there was
one notebook that was passed around and each student read a paragraph not even trying to
slow down and make it comprehensible.
Speaking is a very important part of language teaching and learning. Students should
be encouraged to speak more in class. In most of the classes I observed the teacher was
talking much more than the students were. Teachers should limit their talking time and allow
students the time to think and process their answer and finally to speak without being
interrupted. I liked how the teacher in elementary school allowed her students to express
themselves, and how they improvised and not memorized and then repeated the dialogue.
Motivation and discipline
Of course there are many differences between teaching processes in primary schools and
elementary schools. Apart from the level of knowledge and class requirements I noticed that
classes differed in teaching methods used by the teacher, overall classroom atmosphere, the
number of volunteers, discipline and motivation of the students. Primary school students were
more eager to participate in all parts of the lesson, while high school students were less
interested in certain parts such as grammar and writing exercises. Also, there were no major
differences among classes in primary school while due to different types of schools the
situation was quite different among classes in high school. The students in the school of
economics were doing all the exercises but there were not many volunteers in class. Theteacher had certain authority but she did not make much effort to make the process of learning
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pleasurable. She did not ask additional questions or for studentsopinion, she only followed
the questions and exercises from the book. However, the students in the electrician school
were not at all interested in language learning. The atmosphere was everything but friendly.
The teacher was constantly shouting and trying to calm the students down but without results.
Even if some of the students wanted to learn something they could not resist the clamor and
noise. When a student would make a mistake in pronunciation others would laugh at him and
mocked him and sometimes even the teacher was very impatient and unpleasant.
Conclusion
It was quite unusual to go back to school, especially elementary school. Nevertheless, it was
useful to observe all these ten classes and to compare various methods and techniques used by
different teachers. We have to bear in mind that every student has a different approach to
learning, but there are some universal things that can be applied to all learners. Teachers need
to be positive, to engage students in conversation, to ask additional questions, to improvise
sometimes and not follow the book strictly; give students time to think about their answers,
increase peer interaction and use visual aids. Students should not feel ashamed when they
make a mistake, instead they should be encouraged to learn from their mistakes. I am glad
that there are still teachers who realize that teaching a foreign language is not all about
grammar and vocabulary and that the teaching process can be pleasant for both, the students
and the teachers.
.
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References
1. Ur, Penny.A Course in Language Teaching.Cambridge, 1999. Print
2. Larsen, Freeman, D. Techniques and principles in Language Teaching, 2ndedition. Oxford,
University Press 2000. Print