CLASSROOM OBSERVATION ACTIVITIES

ENGLISH LANGUAGE

PRIMARY & NURSERY EDUCATION

ASPECTS TO WORK ON
1. Language teaching methods
2. Learners characteristics
3. Syllabus and objectives
4. Activities
5. Classroom management and oral communication
6. Reading, writing and listening skills
7. Materials and resources
8. Evaluation
9. Assessment of the teaching practice (TP)

1. Language teaching methods

Look at the list of approaches to language teaching below and circle those you think are
used by the school teacher. Then give reasons or provide examples of activities and/or
techniques used in class to justify your answers.
A. Grammar-translation
B. Audiolingual
C. TPR (Total Physical Response)
D. CLT (Communicative Language Teaching)
E. Multiple Intelligences
F. Content/Project-based teaching
2. Learners characteristics
2.1 Have you detected any differences between the children in the initial stage (age 6-7)
and the ones in the final stage of Primary education (11 to 12 years old)? Briefly
comment on each group as a whole, considering these individual features and factors:
i. age
ii. sex
iii. personality
iv. cultural differences
v. anxiety
vi. self-esteem
vii. motivation
viii. learning styles
ix. learning strategies
2.2 You will probably find some pupils that could be described as good or poor
language learners. Pay special attention to one or two pupils in each of the two
classifications and note down some of the things they tend to do. You may also ask them
about their study habits. Do you think that certain learning habits can enhance or
prevent learning in any way? If so, how could teachers encourage their pupils to
develop good learning practice?
3. Syllabus and objectives
What kind of syllabus is the teacher / school working with? Mention the general
objectives they pursue or summarise the structure of a typical lesson plan according to
the classification of objectives and competences.
4. Activities
4.1 Make a list of activity types used by the teacher which you consider particularly
interesting. Classify them into different groups according to each skill or objective that
is being aimed at (writing, pronunciation, vocabulary, culture awareness, grammar...). It

may be useful to organise them as a table, or set of separate cards, possibly including
details like:

age group
level of difficulty
seating and organization (pairs, groups...)
materials and resources needed
estimated time
source or reference
short comments on efficiency, possible problems...

Keeping a bank of activities such as this, which could be completed with your own
ideas or findings, can save you time in the future.
4.2 How varied are the activities employed by the teacher? If you could, what activities
would you change?
4.3 Choose one kind of activity which you have seen the teacher use (game, song, film
viewing, role play...) and observe how it is presented. Briefly describe the procedure.
Would you follow the same order or change some aspects? Why (not)? Does the teacher
adopt different methodological approaches when introducing different activity types? If
she or he does, what can the reason(s) be?

5. Classroom management and oral communication

5.1 Describe the teaching/learning conditions and environment. How is the classroom
space used? Are pupils given some responsibility in the preparation of materials and the
organization of the lessons?
5.2 How does the teacher control the class? Have you witnessed any discipline
problems? If you answer affirmatively, could you describe any such situations?
5.3 Does the teacher always speak in the target language? What elicitation techniques
are used? Does the teacher use the target language (TL) for purposes which are not
directly related with the teaching? Can you give examples? When the teacher uses the
TL, does she / he always check the pupils correct understanding?
5.4 When does the teacher use the pupils L1 / mother tongue? Are the pupils allowed to
use the L1? When?
5.5 What use does the teacher make of non-verbal communication? Have you observed
any significant changes in the quality of the teachers voice? Could you tell the purpose
of those changes? Devote some time to paying attention to the way(s) the teacher makes
eye-contact with the pupils. What effect does it have?
5.6 Does the teacher interact with the pupils? Do they seem motivated to participate? Is
there a real exchange of information? How does the teacher help them to get their
meanings through?

5.7 Do you think the pupils feel more comfortable doing whole-class work, pair work or
group work? Justify your answer. Do the pupils interact with each other in the TL? Is
there a balanced rate of teacher talk (TT) to learner talk (LT)?
6. Reading, writing and listening skills
6.1 Is there any logic, in your opinion, in the order in which the language skills are
presented to the pupils?
6.2 Give more than one examples of pre-, while- and after-listening activities. What is
the purpose of distinguishing these three stages? Do the listening tasks used in class
sometimes involve perceiving differences in sounds/stress/intonation?
6.3 What procedure/techniques does the teacher use when introducing a written text?
What types of reading tasks can you mention?
6.4 Analyse the listening and reading activities done in class. Does oral or written
production follow? Do you think that each skill can / must be practised separately?
Reason your answer.
6.5 What kinds of written work do the pupils do? Make a shortlist with the most
common types of written task. How would you classify the activities considering
degrees of independence from the teachers guidance?
6.6 Is written work done mostly in the classroom or at home? Do they ever practise
collaborative writing in class? Can you describe any such activities? Do the pupils
always get feedback on their work? What kind? How important are spelling errors? Do
pupils read what other pupils write? What effect can this have on their motivation?
6.7 Does every pupil have plenty of opportunities for speaking practice? What
importance is given to oral production as compared to written production? Justify your
answer. Do the pupils receive feedback from the teacher? What kind?
7. Materials and resources
7.1 Do the teacher and pupils follow a textbook? Ask the teacher why she / he decided
to adopt that book (or no book). Analyse its features and fill the main information in a
grid. Remember to include the reference. Add a few lines with your opinion of it.
7.2 Does the teacher use a variety of published materials and resources, such as graded
readers, video recordings, songbooks, educational software, websites...? Does she / he
use materials made or adapted by her / himself? What for? Mention all those you have
seen her / him use, describing ad-hoc, hand-made materials in some detail. Are they
effective?
7.3 How about you? What materials have you used in your TP? Have you created and
used your own materials? How useful have they proved?

8. Evaluation
8.1 How is evaluation carried out? Does the teacher use continuous evaluation? What
exactly does she/he do? Say which of the following items are considered:
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
f)
g)
h)
i)

Oral interaction and speaking

Listening
Reading
Writing
Sociocultural aspects
Homework / projects
Discipline
Participation / interest
Effort

8.2 Does the teacher use the European Language Portfolio as a reference?
(http://culture2.coe.int/portfolio)
8.3 Do the students take tests? How often? What aspects are involved? Who designs
them, the teacher, the head of department or a team consisting of the form teachers?
What kind of grading does the teacher use? Are the oral test grades very different from
those of the written test?
8.4 Does the teacher / department analyse the pupils scores with statistical tools? Is a
record kept for future reference?
9. Assessment of the teaching practice
9.1 Do you feel TP has improved your teaching ability? In what sense? Reason your
answer. What aspects do you think still need improving?
9.2 In your opinion, is the preparation received in the Faculty of Education appropriate?
Is there anything that you would change?
9.3 How helpful were the tutors and supervisors involved? Specify.
9.4 What is your general impression of the TP period?