comprehensive coverage.

But the most important

piece of advice I would give about using music in the
EFL classroom is 'don't forget to plug in and switch
on!'
Madeleine du Vivier, Oxford College of Further
Education and University College London
References
Domoney, L. and S. Harris. 1993. Justified and
ancient: pop music in EFL classrooms in ELT
Journal 47/3: 234-49.

Classroom Observation Tasks

Ruth Wajnryb
Cambridge University Press
1992 145pp. 10.85
ISBN 0 521 40722 2
Classroom observation has become a crucial
component of 'client-centred' teacher development
programmes (Nunan 1989), which aim at helping
teachers develop into reflective practitioners (Schbn
1983) by encouraging critical thinking and selfevaluation as a basis for continued learning and
exploration about teaching. One way of facilitating
the process of becoming a reflective teacher is
engaging the teachers in classroom observation tasks
which have clear objectives (Nunan 1989; Fanselow
1990; Pennington 1990; Richards and Lockhart 1992;
Swan 1993.)
In this vein, Classroom Observation Tasks aims at
introducing in-service and pre-service teachers to
techniques and procedures for investigating
classroom processes through a set of focused tasks.
The aim of the book is to help teachers explore their
own teaching by observing other teachers and
classrooms in action by having their own teaching or
classroom observed, rather than to provide an
analysis of observation for assessment.
The book is divided into two parts: Introduction, and
Tasks. It also includes a three-page bibliography, a
task index, and an author and topic index. In five main
sections, Part One sets out the purpose of the book,
discusses who it is for, presents the five guiding

The aim of the book is defined as 'making

observation in the classroom a learning tool.' (p. I)
by giving guidance and structure to the process of
observation through 'discovery-oriented, inquirybased' tasks (p. 12). It is suggested that while the
book is addressed primarily to in-service teachers,
trainee teachers, trainers, and trainee trainers can also
use the tasks given in the book for their own purposes.
The five guiding principles that underpin this book
are: a model of teacher development, the nature of
help, the importance of the classroom, the trainability
of observation skills, and the importance of taskbased experience. These are discussed with reference
to the proponents of client-centred, reflective
approaches to ELT teacher education, such as
Richards and Nunan (1990), Fanselow (1990),
Prahbu (1987), and Freeman (1989), among others.
Hence, the book echoes current concerns of
progressive approaches to teacher development since
the early 1980s, and aims at helping teachers develop
critical observation skills, self-monitoring, and
reflection on personal values.
In Part Two, classroom observation tasks are
presented in seven major sections: The Learner;
Language Learning; The Lesson; Teaching Skills and
Strategies; Classroom Management; Materials; and
Resources. Each task in these sections deals with an
aspect of the central focus. For example, section 6
(Classroom Management) is divided into the
following subsections, with their related tasks:
patterns of interaction, managing pair and group
work, teaching and learning roles, timing, pace, and
classroom power. Each of these subsections follows a
pattern: a background statement about the particular
aspect of the classroom behaviour that is to be
focused on, then an explanation of the purpose of the
task, followed by a section on procedure. The
procedure section consists of three phases: 'Before
the lesson' gives instructions about various
preliminary activities related to a particular facet of a
lesson to be observed; 'During the lesson' gives
guidance for data collection through seating charts,
movement plans, and observation grids, to facilitate
data collection; 'After the lesson' includes guiding
questions for discussion, analysis, and interpretations, as well as short paragraphs providing
background information about topics related to the
particular aspect of the classroom selected for
observation in that subsection. The three phases in
each subsection are followed by another phase which
includes awareness-raising questions to encourage
reflection on one's own personal values and practices.
Reviews

367

Downloaded from http://eltj.oxfordjournals.org/ at The Library on December 11, 2014

The reviewer
Madeleine du Vivier works at Oxford College of
Further Education and University College London, as
a teacher of General English and teacher trainer on
pre-service and in-service courses. She previously
worked in London as Director of Studies at the
London School of English and Principal of Regent
Language Training. Besides her teaching and training
work she is currently involved in materials writing for
Longman.

principles that underlie the design of tasks provided

in Part Two, and the categorization of these tasks into
different foci, and finally gives specific suggestions
for how these tasks can be used in different contexts
for various purposes.

The observation tasks provided in Part Two require

active engagement in all phases of classroom
observation. Like other examples of their kind, (see
for example Nunan 1989; Pennington 1990; Bartlett
1990) the value of these tasks lies in the spirit of
reflection and exploration they engender. However,
as the author admits, due to the categorization of the
tasks into seven major foci of observation, topics are
not approached from every potential perspective, and
a particular aspect of the classroom might fall into
more than one focus area. On the other hand, the
alphabetical task index helps readers to find tasks
easily, so that they can select them on the basis of their
own needs or purposes.

In short, I believe that the main value of the book will

be as an introductory source book for teacher trainees,
in-service teachers, or teacher trainers to draw on
within the framework of practical pre-service or inservice teacher development programmes.
Ayse Akyel
Bogazici University, Istanbul

368

Reviews

The reviewer
Aye Akyel is an associate professor in the School of
Education, Bogazici University, where she teaches
courses in TEFL methodology. She has published
articles on teacher training, the teaching of literature
in the EFL context, developing language skills, and
ESP.

Downloaded from http://eltj.oxfordjournals.org/ at The Library on December 11, 2014

Like Understanding Language Classrooms by

Nunan (1989), the book's primary value lies in its
direct application for pre-service and in-service
teacher training courses. In this it is rather different
from other related works in the field of classroom
observation by Allwright (1988), Chaudron (1988),
and Van Lier (1988). The book is of a practical nature
and includes references for further reading in the
field, but the author could have extended the list of
references to include the books mentioned above
perhaps, in the background sections of Part Two when
discussing particular aspects of the classroom to be
observed, such as lesson phases and transitions,
lesson breakdowns, the language of questions, giving
instructions, openings and closures, etc. Moreover,
while the author emphasizes the importance of how
teachers' thoughts, judgements, and decisions
influence the nature of second or foreign language
instruction in Unit Four, she could have referred to
Nunan (1989) for more detailed information on the
cognitive dimensions of teaching and learning.

References
Allwright, D. 1988. Observation in the Language
Classroom. New York: Longman.
Bartiett, L. 1990. 'Teacher development through
reflective teaching' in J. C. Richards and D. Nunan.
Chaudron, C. 1988. Second Language Classrooms:
Research on Teaching and Learning. New York:
Cambridge University Press.
Fanselow, J. F. 1990. '"Let's see'": contrasting
conversations about teaching' in J. C. Richards and
D. Nunan.
Freeman, D. 1989. 'Learning to teach: four
instructional patterns in language teacher
education'. Prospect All.
Nunan, D. 1989. Understanding Language
Classrooms: A Guide for Teacher-Initiated Action.
New York: Prentice Hall.
Pennington, M. C. 1990. 'A professional
development focus for the language teaching
problem' in J. C. Richards and D. Nunan.
Prahbu, N. S. 1987. Second Language Pedagogy.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Richards, J. C. and D. Nunan. (eds.) 1990. Second
Language Teacher Education. New York:
Cambridge University Press.
Richards, J. C. and C. Lockhart. 1992. Teacher
development through peer observation'. TESOL
Journal 2/2: 7-14.
Schon, D. 1983. The Reflective Practitioner. New
York: Basic Books.
Swan, J. 1993. 'Metaphor in action: the observation
schedule in a reflective approach to teacher
development'. ELT Journal 47/3: 212-45.
Van Lier, L. 1988. The Classroom and the Language
Learner. London: Longman.