Classroom Observation: Report 4

Teacher Observed: O
Observer: Alejandra de Antoni
Date: September, 3rd 2009
Class: 2nd Year (Level 4A). School P (Buenos Aires City)
Number of Learners: 13
Age: 13/14 years old
Length of Lesson: 40 minutes
Level: Intermediate
Observer: Alejandra de Antoni
Teacher Observed: O

Observation Task taken from “Tasks for Teacher Education” (Longman)

Gener al C ommen ts :
It was, to me, a very particular lesson because, even though it was a school’s classroom, there
were only 13 students, they were all girls and they all had the same level. It was a very
interesting and, most importantly, favourable atmosphere to teach English. Most of the girls
were really keen on working and had a very positive attitude towards the lesson and the
teacher. In this report I am going to analyse the listening activity on which students worked and
both the activity’s components and the students’ performance.

Ana lysis of the Liste ning A ct ivi ty:

1) A) Wh at pre pa ration (i.e . pre -lis tenin g ac tivi ty) were the le arners giv en
before the y lis tened to the pass ag e? If the y had some prep ar ati on ans wer
(b ); if they d id n ot , ans wer ( c) .
B) How d id t he pre- list ening ac tiv ity help t hem to unde rst an d bett er ?
C) Wha t pre- listen ing act iv ity migh t have bee n done to help the m
unders ta nd the tex t be tter ?

C) Students were given no pre-listening activity and were directly asked to listen to carry out
the activity provided by the book (they had to listen to a woman talking about her last holidays
and they had to choose from four options what problem she had during her holidays). I think
that students could have been given a pre-listening activity, for example, in which they would
be asked to work, somehow, on the topic so as to give them some time to set their minds into
the topic. They could have been asked to discuss, in pairs or small groups, briefly what they
think are the most typical problems one may encounter while going on holidays. When they
finish the discussion, I would have asked them to listen to the text to check whether the
woman has one of the problems they have been discussing (this gives them a purpose for
listening and, at the same time, we are giving the students a global while-listening activity since
we are asking them to focus exclusively on the general idea of the text). It would have been
interesting and personal because they would have been asked to give their opinion and, at the
same time, it would have forced them to focus on vocabulary, ideas, and even grammar (past
tense to talk about their past holidays) related to holidays. It would have definitely activated
their holidays’ schemata and, therefore, helped them a lot to understand the text better.

2) A) Did the lea rners expe rience a while -listen ing ac ti vi ty, or more tha n one ?
If so, ans wer (b) ; if no t, ans wer ( c) .
B) Wh at were the a ims o f the wh ile liste ning a ctiv ity/ ac ti vit ies?
C) Wh at wh ile- list ening ac tiv ity migh t h ave helped the lea rners t o lis ten ?

B) Students were asked, as a while-listening activity, to listen to the woman’s explaining her last
holidays and to decide which one of the four problems listed in the book’s exercise was the one
the woman had. The aim of this activity was, I assume, to give the students a reason for
listening (even though answering a multiple choice is not actually an activity we do in real life
when we listen to something). However, it is true that it is not always easy (and necessary) to

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 Classroom Observation: Report 4
Teacher Observed: O
Observer: Alejandra de Antoni
Date: September, 3rd 2009
give our students all the time true-to-life activities because sometimes the aim of doing a
listening activity is not teaching comprehension. I decided to clarify this simply because I do not
know what the aims of the course are and, what is more, I do not even know what the aim of
dealing with this listening activity was.
When they finished the first listening, the teacher asked the students to tell her which one was
the correct option (“The woman had problems with the food”). When students provided the
correct option, the teacher asked them to tell her what were the problems she had with the
food and they were not able to answer. I think that, probably, at this point the teacher was
asking them something that she had not previously asked them to listen to. Since they were
asked to get the main idea of the text, they were not ready to recall the details the woman
gave about all the problems she had had with the food. Reacting to the inconvenience, the
teacher told them that they were going to listen to it again to find out what the problems were.
However, when she was about to play it again, one of the students asked the teacher if they
had to listen to carry out the same exercise again (the multiple choice) or if they had to carry
out exercise two (they had to complete the sentences). In response to this question, the
teacher told the students that, for this second listening, they had to carry out exercise two
(apparently forgetting about having asked them to listen to the different problems the woman
had with the food). Consequently, they never discussed what the woman’s problems with the
food were.

3) A) Di d the le arners expe rien ce a post -liste ning activ ity , or more tha n one ?
If so, ans wer (b) ; if no t, ans wer ( c) .
B) Wh at were the a ims o f the p ost listen ing a ct iv ity/ ac ti vit ies?
C) Wh at post -list ening ac tiv ity migh t have been do ne to help the m
unders ta nd wha t they he ard?

A) Here we have no post-listening activity either (taking into account that the post-listening
should systematise – personalise – what they have listened). The only thing they did after
listening was correcting the exercises.
B) A post-listening activity that I would have done would be a very simple one: providing
them with questions to discuss in small groups for them to relate the topic to their own
experiences. For example, “Did you ever have the same problems this woman had when
she was on holidays?” “Did you have any problems when you were on holidays?” “What
problems?” “How did you solve them?” “Did anyone in your group have the same or a
similar problem?” “Did you solve it in the same or a similar way?” and so on. There is
always that funny anecdote we are always ready to tell and to listen to. Just for them to
feel that what we listen to in the English classroom is not ‘alienated’ from the real world
because it is definitely true that we always react in one way or another to whatever we
read or listen to. We always find what we listen to interesting, funny, boring, thought-
provoking or even “opinion-provoking” and we should take listening tasks as a good
opportunity for letting our students share their reactions with the rest whenever they listen
to something.

4) A) Ho w ma ny ti mes di d the le arners listen t o t he tex t?

B) How much more wo uld the le arners hav e unders to od if the y had listene d
to the tex t a ga in ? Expl ain .
C) Di d the le arne rs hear the wh ole tex t at on ce? If so , was tha t hel pf ul ? If
no t, w oul d th at be m ore helpf ul ?

A) They listened to the text three times.

B) I think that listening to the text three times was enough. However, if they had been
guided differently they would have been able to exploit the text better. Since it was a very
long text and they had to listen to particular details to be able to complete the sentences, I
would have stopped the tape after each gap in the third listening for them to be able to do

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 Classroom Observation: Report 4
Teacher Observed: O
Observer: Alejandra de Antoni
Date: September, 3rd 2009
it. It was really a very long text for them to be able to concentrate so much time on details
and, furthermore, stopping after each gap would have helped the weaker students to
complete the sentences themselves and not to copy them when they corrected the exercise
afterwards.
C) They listened to the whole text at once. In general, to make it more real (we don’t stop
someone when he is speaking because they are saying something “too long”) I make the
students listen to the whole text at once. However, since it was a very long one and,
inevitably, students got distracted and bored when they have listening to its first half, I
would have divided it in two parts when they were asked to focus on detailed information.
So, instead of having to complete one long exercise, they would have to complete two
shorter and, therefore, easier and more successful-oriented ones. However, it is not
necessary to divide this listening in two parts for students to be able to solve it if we were
to stop after each of the gaps they have to complete in the sentences. Having these sudden
and regular stops during the listening makes the students be on the alert whenever they
come across necessary information.

5) A) What are three ad vant ag es for tea che rs and lea rners of using the mod el
of pre -, w hile - an d po st -listen ing a ct iv ities to tea ch a listen ing less on?

A) While using this model of pre-, while- and post-listening activities we are helping
students to make a connection between the type of listening we do in the English lesson
and the type of listening (together with speaking) we do in our lives. Providing a pre-
listening, we give students a pur pose for lis tenin g (as we do in real life since we always
have a purpose for listening), which will affect what they would pay attention to from what
they hear. The best that we can do would be to pr ovide them tasks th at resem ble
real lif e, i.e. tasks that would ask them to do with the text in the FL the same as we do
while we listen to someone in our mother tongue: resp ond ing to wha t we lis ten
(student’s feedback and response to what they hear, which can be verbal or non-verbal).
Then, with the while-listening, the students will be doing the same we always do while
listening to others: go ing for me anin g an d tr ying to get the messa ge . And finally,
with the post-listening, students will personalise what they’ve listened to and bring it to
their lives (for example their answering to questions the teacher may ask about the same
topic but focusing on the previous experiences of the students).