2.
JOURNAL Entry 2 TASK 1 The role of the teacher: Bibliographic research
Write down the sources you used for the bibliographic research you carried out. Remember to
use APA Norm.
As basis of our observation task we have done some researches about the techniques, and
strategies to teach a second language properly.
One of the bibliographic research that explains some techniques clearly was made by Naiman
(1978) in the book learning strategies in second language acquisition:
“Naiman et. al identified what they referred to as “techniques” for second language learning,
which differ from strategies….. The techniques with selected examples of each, as are follow:
Sound acquisition: repeating aloud after a teacher, a native speaker, or a tape; listening
carefully; and taking aloud, including role playing.
Grammar: Following rules given in texts; inferring grammar rules from texts; comparing L1 and
L2; and memorizing structures and using them often
Vocabulary: Making up charts and memorizing them; learning words in context: learning words
that are associated; using new words in phrases; using a dictionary when necessary: and
carrying a notebook to note new items.
Listening comprehension: Listening to the radio, records, TV, movies, tapes, etc; and exposing
oneself to different accents and registers.
Learning to write: having pen pals; writing frequently; and frequent reading of what you expect
to write.
Learning to read: reading something every day; reading things that are familiar.”
(O'Malley & Chamot, 1990, pág. 6)
Strategies as well as techniques is an important part into the learning process; so that, is
extremely important to know what they are in order to use them in our own work with our
students. Below, Cohen’s words about what a language learner strategies are
“Thoughts and actions, consciously chosen and operationalized by language learners, to assist
them in carrying out a multiplicity of task from the very onset of learning to the most advanced
levels of targetlanguage performance”
(Cohen, 2014, pág. 7)
4. JOURNAL Entry 3 TASK 2 Observation on a teacher in a university class
Observe one of your teachers at the university, using one of the Classroom Observation Tasks
introduced in classes. Insert below.
CLASSROOM OBSERVATION TASK 6: Teacher Questions
Monitor the teacher’s questioning techniques and answer the questions.
● How many real questions does the teacher ask? (These are questions for which the
teacher does not know the answer, such as what did you do at the weekend?)
The teacher makes at least 3 real questions to students such as how are you today? How
was your weekend? . Moreover, he also talks to students about their lives so he can know a bit
about every student. This strategy works not only as a engagement for students, but also
students can perceive that the teacher worries about them as people, not only as pupils.
Knowing students makes a difference in terms of the relationship they create and on students’
behavior, because students participate in the class actively.
● How many display questions does the teacher ask? (These are questions the teacher
asks in order for the learners to display their knowledge, such as what is the past of the
verb “go”?)
The teacher asks students at least 5 questions about the topic of the class, for instance,
what was the video about? What are the topics? What is your opinion about..?. As
consequences, students can display their knowledge or opinions openly, because they have
several opportunities to speak in the class generated by teacher. He has stated that in his class
students have to show their English and it is a good instance to improve and correct mistakes as
well.
● What is different about the stages in the lesson when there is a high proportion of real
questions, as opposed to stages which are dominated by display questions?
In this class, there are no big significant differences between stages where real or
display questions dominate the class, because in both real and display questions students are
invited by the teacher to speak in the class, give their opinions, and create a good atmosphere
to learn, where students feel confident when participating, and that is because the teacher has
been able to create a good relationship with their pupils as well as he has established that in his
class there are not wrong answers.
5.
JOURNAL Entry 4 Classroom Observation Task 1 Options and decisions
The term ‘classroom management” refers to the momentbymoment decisions made and
actions taken by the teacher in class, e.g. writing on the board, giving instructions, organizing
the class into pairs, etc. For every decision made, there will have been other options that the
teacher did not choose.
For each of the following headings:
1. Note one example of a classroom situation in the lesson you are observing. What does
the teacher do?
2. Note one or two options that the teacher had at that point in the lesson, but did not
choose.
Example: Dealing with unexpected problems
Situation: A student arrived twelve minutes late for the lesson.
Action: Teacher said “hello” politely. (The student then sat down quietly and found out
what was going on from his neighbor.)
Other options: Teacher could have asked why the student was late.
Teacher could have pointed out the time to the student.
Student participation in the lesson
Situation:
Ss are doing some exercises in a
worksheet. One of them asks to the
teacher about a specific sentence that he
can’t understand clearly.
Action:
Teacher answers that it would be better if
the student asks the same question to the
teacher to be.
Other options:
Teacher solves student’s doubt by
herself.
Teacher tries helping student to discover
the solution by himself. She can lead the
student in order to get a better
comprehension of the whole exercise.
Grouping of students; arrangement of seating
Situation:
Ss have to complete a long worksheet
related to the content.
Action:
Teacher arranges students in rows and
makes them work individually.
10.
CLASSROOM OBSERVATION TASK 3: Interaction
●
Observe the different interactions in each lesson and complete the table. Then answer the
questions.
● What is the predominant type of interaction?
Students working individually.
● Does it seem appropriate to the aims of the lesson?
No, it doesn’t. Teacher never declared the Aim of the lesson to the students; so
that, they don’t know about their final objective. However, students should learn
how to communicate with the language, and during the class their work mainly
individually in worksheet, which they need to develop in written form about
grammar aspect of the language, principally.
● In which interaction were the learners most productive?
Students work better with a partner or within a group. They help each other, so it
promotes collaborative work
Interaction pattern Amount of time spent
Teacher – whole class 16%
Learners in pairs 2%
Learners in groups 2%
Learners working individually 70%
Other 10%
13.
Taken from Scrievener, J. Learning Teaching. Macmillan Publishing Limited, 2005
JOURNAL Entry 7 Classroom Observation Task 5Error and Correction
Note down any instances of learner error, the teacher´s response (if any) and the learner´s
response, e.g. self – correction.
Learner´s error Teacher´s response Learner`s response
A student commits a
mistake in a specific
sentence in his worksheet.
He wrote down “ You like
eat ice cream”.
Teacher tells him that the
sentences is not right, she
says: “You need to fix that
one, the second verb is not
correct”. Student asks for
some help, and she
responds: “we have already
checked that, you must ask
to one of your classmates,
or to the teacher to be”
The student goes to ask to
the teacher to be, who
helps him with the doubt
explaining again why the
second verb must be with
ing. The student fixes the
incorrect sentence, and
others with the same
problem.
Students and teacher are
reviewing aloud a set of
exercise. Teacher asks to
Benjamin, who is one of the
students of 8A about a
certain sentence.
Benjamin’s answer was not
correct, he commits a
syntactic error “she do like
swimming?
Students and teacher are
reviewing aloud a set of
exercise. Teacher asks to
Benjamin, who is one of the
students of 8A about a
certain sentence.
Benjamin’s answer was not
correct, he commits a
syntactic error “she do like
swimming?
One of the students rises
his hand and responds
correctly. Benjamin fixes his
answer on his own
worksheet.
During the same
reviewing of exercises
described above, another
student commits a similar
mistake of the Benjamin’s
one. She said “ does like he
eating apples?
Teacher responds saying:
“again!, please be careful,
when you write down your
answers. Sacha ( the name
of the student) please
check the previous ones,
and try to identify the
The student “Sacha”,
checks the previous one,
and finds the correct form of
the sentence. She corrects
herself, and finally she
gives the appropriate
answer
14. mistake.” (Teacher waits 1
min)
Otoniel, a student, who
has special needs, asks to
the headteacher about a
set of picture ,which they
need to describe using “like
and dislike”. He tries to
create a list of sentences
describing what he is
looking in the images. All
the sentences contain the
same mistake, he writes :
e.g “ You dislikes read
books”
Teacher checks the
sentences, and the first
time she doesn’t realise
about the error; however,
she checks again and finds
that Otoniel generalises the
third person rule and he
had added an s to all the
verbs like. She says:
Otoniel you only use “likes”
when you are using she, he
or it, with the other
pronouns it is not
necessary. Moreover, you
had to remember that you
must add ing at the end of
the second verb.
Otoniel tries to fix the
mistake according to his
teacher’s indication. Finally,
he changes the answers,
but he still commits some
mistakes that the teacher
highlights in order to repair
them.
Taken from Thornbury, S. & Watkins, P. The CELTA Course. Cambridge University Press, 2008.
15.
JOURNAL Entry 8 Classroom Observation Task 6Teacher Questions
Monitor the teacher’s questioning techniques and answer the questions.
● How many real questions does the teacher ask? (These are questions for which the
teacher does not know the answer, such as what did you do at the weekend?)
The teacher does not make any real question to students. In fact, Miss Luciana talks to
the students when she enters to the class and greets them. However, she stops to speak
after that, and all the exercises and activities are guided by the teachers to be. So that, she
observes the class, sitting in her chair in front of the students, or sometimes she goes out of
the classroom to monitor the class of 6th grade, which is under her responsibility. Teachers
to be are who ask some real questions to the students. They ask about their previous
classes, their weekends, or their moods. All this questions helps the teachers to catch the
attention of the students mainly at the beginning of the class, because they feel more
engaged and more closer to the teachers.
● How many display questions does the teacher ask? (These are questions the teacher
asks in order for the learners to display their knowledge, such as what is the past of
the verb “go”?)
The teacher does not ask any display question to students. To follow the same line of
the previous question, the mentor teacher Miss Luciana Rojas does not teach to the
students content, at least while teachers to be have been present. She has delivered
some worksheet to the students; however, she has asked to the teachers to be to give
instructions. Moreover, display questions are not predominant into the class, teachesr
to be ask few questions in this term. During the session of “Like and Dislike”, they asked
about How is this verb carried out with the third person singular “she, he , it “? this
question was successfully answered by the students, who knew the response, and they
raised their hand in order to answer.
16. ● What is different about the stages in the lesson when there is a high proportion of real
questions, as opposed to stages which are dominated by display questions?
In fact, the mentor teacher, who was observed, does not achieve neither a lesson with
real questions, nor a lesson with display questions. These both lessons are so different
to our students, because the attitude that they show when they feel the teacher closer to them
differ widely to the attitude through a teacher who prefers to use grammar questions, and many
times she/he does not explain how to use the content in a real world. The stages also differ each
other, because these different teachers performing different roles guide their classes with a
variety of strategies. Real questions bring the content to a familiar situation, so it makes the
rules easier to follow by the students and with sense. On the other hand, when the class is
dominated by display questions the content goes far from the students and their interests. They
observe the class with distance and they do not get the sense to learn something that is not
important for them. The stages vary, because in order to open the class with real questions
teacher engages students, and gives them the possibility to introduce to the topic without
forcing them. This fact gives to the teacher a great advantage over another kind of lead in or
warmup, because the first stage of the class is essential to catch the attention and the interest
of our students.
