Hyeonseong Shin (Daniel)

Observation Statement
While observing the classes at UCR Extension, I saw how the teachers applied
approaches and theories that I learned in TESOL class to real classrooms. By observing ten
classes, I obtained two concepts that are the most effective and meaningful to me:
communicative language teaching (CLT) and scaffolding.
First of all, the most outstanding concept throughout my observations is Communicative
Language Teaching (CLT), which maintains that learners learn a language through using it to
communicate (Richards and Rodgers, 2010). As I observed the classes, all teachers seemed that
they wanted to give their students a lot of opportunities to communicate with each other by
sharing their ideas. For example, in Ridgens class (Observation #1), the teacher had students
discuss the listening topic, which was Living with parents, after doing the listening activities.
Since students were multicultural, they had diverse opinions and ideas about the topic. From the
discussion, I believe that not only they could share their diverse ideas but they also learned
English by communicating with each other in the class. Another impressive class as far as CLT
approach was Debbie Petersons class (Observation #2). Even though she taught her students
grammar, which focused on accuracy rather than fluency, she facilitated communication in her
classroom. The students were asked to communicate with their partners to find out the answers
on the handout. In other words, the teacher tried to establish situations likely to promote
communication (Larson-freeman and Anderson, 2011). In my future class in Korea, most of
students will be trouble in speaking even though they are knowledgeable about grammar and
vocabulary. As CLT argues, I think that authentic and meaningful communication should be the
goal of the classroom activities (Richards and Rodgers, 2010). Thus, I am going to try to set

communicative situation in my future classes so that students will be able to negotiate meaning
and discuss topics in English as communicators.
The second remarkable concept that I want to point out is the way the teachers interact
with students and help students to develop their language skills. While I was observing, in order
for students to reach their goal in the class, the teacher supported students by scaffolding, which
is the process of simplifying tasks for learners and of guiding learners in appropriate directions
(Brown, 2014). For instance, in Lindwalls class (Observation #3), students could grasp the goal
with her scaffolded help. When students were practicing transition words at the first time, they
were not able to use many transition words when they gave details. However, by giving a short
speech to different classmates, students eventually could use and put transition words into their
speeches proficiently. This was possible due to the teachers guided help; scaffolding. In Kutters
class (Observation #9), he also scaffolded the writing task step by step. Before beginning to write,
he had students take a look at the sample essay in group so that students could be aware of the
structure of the argumentative essay through discussion. If the students had begun to write an
argumentative essay individually, they might not have been able to grasp any idea about the
structure of the essay. However, they could achieve the desired outcome with the given relevant
scaffolded help from the teacher (Brown, 2014). When it comes to my future teaching, I am
willing to apply this concept in my future class. According to the ZPD (Zone of Proximal
Development) of Vygotsky (1978), the students can achieve their potential depending on how the
teacher interacts with students. I do not think that anybody can achieve their goals immediately
and independently from the bottom. Keeping in mind this concept, I will be the one who always
supports and guides my students in order for them to reach their potential development.

To sum up, CLT is effective approach in that one of the goals is to develop fluency in
language use through communication (Richards, 2006). Also, with the guided help from the
teacher, students can develop their potential skills, even though they will make mistakes and
errors while they are learning. I will keep these two concepts in my teaching philosophy and will
try to apply them in my future teaching.

References
Richards, J., & Rodgers, T. (2010). Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching (2nd
ed.). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Larsen-Freeman, D., & Anderson, M. (2011). In Techniques and principles in Language
Teaching. New York, N.Y., USA: Oxford University Press.
Brown, H. (2014).Principles of language learning and teaching(6th ed.). New York, NY:
Pearson Education.
Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Richards, J. (2006). Classroom Activities in Communicative Language Teaching.
In Communicative language teaching today. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.