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Facultad de Educacin.
English Teaching Programme
Teaching Experience I
OBSERVATION TASK 4
TEACHING SKILLS AND STRATEGIES
Observation Task 4.1:
The objective of this task is to be aware of the key components of a successful presentation
and it involves you watching the presentation phase of a number of different lessons.
a) Make yourself familiar with the chart below:
What teacher does
Greet / Chat with students
What learners do
Greet / Respond to T
d) Considering your list of the various key components of a presentation, say what you
believe to be the purpose of each.
e) One element of the presentation phase is the teachers voice. A number of qualities
are relevant here:
Audibility;
Projection;
Speed;
Clarity;
Lack of distortion.
What do you understand by each of these terms?
f) Another element of the presentation phase is the physical position of the teacher in
the classroom. What comments can you make about teacher position and
movement?
As we can see, the teacher was near to the board at the moment of presenting the
topic, but at the moment of explaining something she moves around the classroom
in order to catch students attention. In addition, when students were working in a
specific task, the teacher walks around the classroom in order to monitor students
work and to clarify doubts. This is very positive, because she tries to help her
students giving them many opportunities to use the language.
Phase of lesson
Predicted
instructions
Scripted
instructions
Comments
c) Try to notice whether there was any visual support, modelling or concept-checking
and whether the teacher had to repeat the instructions. Note also whether the
instructions were understood. Note information of this kind in the Comments
column.
Learn : How can you make your instructions effective?
First attract the students attention: Make sure everyone is listening and
watching. Dont give out any handouts which may distract the students
attention before you need to.
Use simple language and short expressions: Use language at a lower level
than the language being taught. Long, more polite language is timewasting, slows the lesson down and involves you in more complicated
language than the students can easily understand. Short instructions are
entirely appropriate to this situation where the students accept your
authority. Also, they usually realize that a firm directive manner is necessary
in order to make language practice efficient and to avoid confusion and
uncertainty.
Be consistent: This is especially important with low-level classes; use the
same set of words for the same instruction. Common instructions are:
Everybody; All together; Again; Try again; Look (at the picture); Listen;
Repeat; Say (X); Tell me; Look at the board; Stand up; Turn to page .
With beginners, spend time teaching them the language they need to follow
instructions.
Use visual or written clues: Support instructions with visual clues wherever
possible: real objects, pictures, gesture and mime. It is often easier to give
instructions written on cards or pieces of paper that you have prepared.
Demonstrate: If possible, show them what to do- give a demonstration
example. Frequently, showing what to do is more effective than telling what
to do.
Break the instructions down: If the instruction requires a series of steps,
each requiring instruction, give simple instructions in segments and check
understanding as you go along, rather than giving out all the instructions in
one go.
Target your instructions: Sometimes, instead of giving complete instructions
to the whole class when the instructions dont concern everyone, you might
give each student a number, a letter, or some kind of symbol. In which case
it might be the number fives, or the Cs only who listen for what they should
do.
Be decisive: Use a signal, like the words Right or Listen, which students will
learn to recognize as a cue for an instruction. Make sure the students know
when to begin an activity; for example, say something like Everyone. Start!
perhaps accompanied by a downward hand gesture or a clap of the hands.
Teacher response
Lesson phase
T writes down the Practice
mispronunciation
on a list in order to
check it at the end
of the class.
Accuracy / Fluency
Fluency
The
student T writes down the Practice
mispronounced the mispronunciation
word subordinate
on a list in order to
check it at the end
of the class.
The
student T writes down the Production
mispronounced the mispronunciation
word first
on a list in order to
check it at the end
of the class.
The
student T said the word in Practice
mispronounced the order
to
make
word another
student repeat it
correctly
The
student T makes student Production
mispronounce the notice his problem
word followed
with
the
final
sounds
h) How did other students respond to a students error and to the teachers response?
Was there any peer correction, or peer interaction, or discussion of the error? If so,
what did the teacher say or do to encourage this?
As far as we can saw, there are peer correction and interaction; even sometimes they
prefer to ask one of their classmates to clarify their doubts. Even though, the most
meaningful corrections are those that teacher gave.
i) Were there any opportunities for the students to self-correct? If so, do you recall
anything the teacher said or did to encourage self-correction?
Yes, there were. When students were working, teacher asked them to pay attention
to their own mistakes in order to evaluate and improve their performance.
j) When the focus of the lesson is on fluency there may be ways in which a teacher can
avoid interrupting the flow of the students language. Is error correction necessary
at such times in a lesson?
No, sometimes is not necessary, but in order to clarify all the doubts, at the end of
the class, teacher gives student some feedback in order to correct the errors that
were not mentioned.
k) Is it possible to correct in a non-obstrusive way?
Reflection:
Of course it is, as we said before, making a brief summary of the class and correcting
the mistakes that were not mentioned we can do a non-obstrusive correction.
What experience do you have of being corrected when speaking a second or
foreign language? Do you think this has influenced your teaching?
In our opinion, positives and negatives ways to correct have influenced us in our teaching,
because we could learn what we have to do and what we have not at the moment of correct
students mistakes. The most important thing is that we have to be gently, because the
worst thing that we can do is make students confidence disappear.
Adapted from Wajnryb, Ruth. Classroom observation Tasks, Cambridge Teacher
training and development,1992 and Gower, Roger. Teaching Practice. A Handbook for
teachers in training, Macmillan Education,2005