Universidad Catlica de la Ssma Concepcin

Facultad de Educacin.
English Teaching Programme
Teaching Experience I

OBSERVATION TASK 4
TEACHING SKILLS AND STRATEGIES
Observation Task 4.1:
The objective of this task is to be aware of the key components of a successful presentation
and it involves you watching the presentation phase of a number of different lessons.
a) Make yourself familiar with the chart below:
What teacher does
Greet / Chat with students

What learners do
Greet / Respond to T

Warm SS up by reminding them of Recall yesterdays lesson

yesterdays lesson
b) During the lesson, record what happens by completing the chart. Use a new chart
for each lesson. Record the chronological events in terms of what the teacher does
and what the students do.
c) Using the data you have collected and your awareness of the effectiveness of the
various parts of a presentation, prepare a list of the key components of a
presentation. Discuss your list in class with your classmates and teacher.

d) Considering your list of the various key components of a presentation, say what you
believe to be the purpose of each.
e) One element of the presentation phase is the teachers voice. A number of qualities
are relevant here:
Audibility;
Projection;
Speed;
Clarity;
Lack of distortion.
What do you understand by each of these terms?
f) Another element of the presentation phase is the physical position of the teacher in
the classroom. What comments can you make about teacher position and
movement?
As we can see, the teacher was near to the board at the moment of presenting the
topic, but at the moment of explaining something she moves around the classroom
in order to catch students attention. In addition, when students were working in a
specific task, the teacher walks around the classroom in order to monitor students
work and to clarify doubts. This is very positive, because she tries to help her
students giving them many opportunities to use the language.

Universidad Catlica de la Ssma Concepcin

Facultad de Educacin.
English Teaching Programme
Teaching Experience I

g) Using these observations of presentations as a mirror of your own teaching, what

comments can you make about your own presentation style and procedure? How did
you acquire this style and procedure? How might you improve or refine them?
From our point of view, our style and procedure comes from the classes that we were
observing this semester, we were received by an excellent teacher, who help us a lot at the
moment of planning our tutorials and also to clarify doubts. In addition, we tried to expose
our students to a relaxed environment in which they could feel comfortable and confident,
also we give them many opportunities to use the language in order to use and improve it.
Observation Task 4.2: Giving instructions.
A key time in the lesson is the transition period between one activity and another,
especially when this entails the students moving from group, pair or individual work. These
periods require clear instructions from the teacher to the students if the lesson is to flow
smoothly and effectively.
In this task we will examine the language of instructions.
a) If possible, have a look at a lesson plan for the lesson you will be observing. The
plan need not be exhaustive, but you should have an idea of the stages of the lesson
and any activities the students will be doing.
b) During the lesson listen carefully for the teachers instructions. Collect these by
scripting them as accurately as you can, using the following chart:

Phase of lesson

Predicted
instructions

Scripted
instructions

Comments

c) Try to notice whether there was any visual support, modelling or concept-checking
and whether the teacher had to repeat the instructions. Note also whether the
instructions were understood. Note information of this kind in the Comments
column.
Learn : How can you make your instructions effective?
First attract the students attention: Make sure everyone is listening and
watching. Dont give out any handouts which may distract the students
attention before you need to.
Use simple language and short expressions: Use language at a lower level
than the language being taught. Long, more polite language is timewasting, slows the lesson down and involves you in more complicated
language than the students can easily understand. Short instructions are
entirely appropriate to this situation where the students accept your
authority. Also, they usually realize that a firm directive manner is necessary
in order to make language practice efficient and to avoid confusion and
uncertainty.
Be consistent: This is especially important with low-level classes; use the
same set of words for the same instruction. Common instructions are:
Everybody; All together; Again; Try again; Look (at the picture); Listen;
Repeat; Say (X); Tell me; Look at the board; Stand up; Turn to page .
With beginners, spend time teaching them the language they need to follow
instructions.

Universidad Catlica de la Ssma Concepcin

Facultad de Educacin.
English Teaching Programme
Teaching Experience I

Use visual or written clues: Support instructions with visual clues wherever
possible: real objects, pictures, gesture and mime. It is often easier to give
instructions written on cards or pieces of paper that you have prepared.
Demonstrate: If possible, show them what to do- give a demonstration
example. Frequently, showing what to do is more effective than telling what
to do.
Break the instructions down: If the instruction requires a series of steps,
each requiring instruction, give simple instructions in segments and check
understanding as you go along, rather than giving out all the instructions in
one go.
Target your instructions: Sometimes, instead of giving complete instructions
to the whole class when the instructions dont concern everyone, you might
give each student a number, a letter, or some kind of symbol. In which case
it might be the number fives, or the Cs only who listen for what they should
do.
Be decisive: Use a signal, like the words Right or Listen, which students will
learn to recognize as a cue for an instruction. Make sure the students know
when to begin an activity; for example, say something like Everyone. Start!
perhaps accompanied by a downward hand gesture or a clap of the hands.

Observation Task 4.3: Managing error.

If teachers corrected every language error made in their class, far too much classroom time
would be given over to correction. This has negative implications in that it might reduce
learner willingness to take risks and experiment. Teachers necessarily differentiate between
errors that require immediate attention and errors that are better ignored or treated in
another way or at another time. This is one of the many choices a teacher makes in regard
to learner error.
This observation task is designed to help you become more aware of the issues involved in
error management. You will be attending to learner error, noting down some examples,
watching for how the teacher responds and noting whether correction is given and how.
a) During the lesson use the chart to help you record some
instances of learner error and teacher response. Capture eight such instances.
b)
Script the instance of learner error; this might be inaccurate or inappropriate
language.
c)
Note whether the teacher responded and if so, a brief note as to what was said
or signalled.
d)
Note down where roughly in the lesson it occurred. This is a prompt to help you
recall it later.
e) Note whether there was a particular focus at that point of the lesson, for example,
on accuracy or fluency: (accuracy: the extent to which a learners use of a second
language conforms to the standard form of that language; it is often contrasted
with fluency/ fluency: the capacity to be communicative in real-time conditions;
often contrasted with accuracy)
Learner error
The
student
mispronounce the
word birthday

Teacher response
Lesson phase
T writes down the Practice
mispronunciation
on a list in order to
check it at the end
of the class.

Accuracy / Fluency
Fluency

Universidad Catlica de la Ssma Concepcin

Facultad de Educacin.
English Teaching Programme
Teaching Experience I

The student said T makes student Production

can instead cant
notice his problem
with
the
final
sounds

The
student T writes down the Practice
mispronounced the mispronunciation
word subordinate
on a list in order to
check it at the end
of the class.
The
student T writes down the Production
mispronounced the mispronunciation
word first
on a list in order to
check it at the end
of the class.
The
student T said the word in Practice
mispronounced the order
to
make
word another
student repeat it
correctly
The
student T makes student Production
mispronounce the notice his problem
word followed
with
the
final
sounds

The student stress T writes down the Practice

the word result mispronunciation
incorrectly
on a list in order to
check it at the end
of the class.
The
student T writes down the Production
mispronounced the mispronunciation
word question.
on a list in order to
check it at the end
of the class.
After the lesson:
f) Did you observe any pattern in the teachers way of responding to learner error?
Teacher always tries to give them positive feedback and corrects students errors gently.
g) Looking over the eight instances you collected, is it possible to distinguish among
them, or perhaps rank them in order of importance? Which were very important to
correct and which perhaps might have been overlooked?
In our opinion, the most important mistakes are those which are related with the
final sounds. It is very important to correct these mistakes, because there are too
basic mistakes. Besides pronunciation mistakes are important, but in our opinion are
not as important as the mentioned before.

Universidad Catlica de la Ssma Concepcin

Facultad de Educacin.
English Teaching Programme
Teaching Experience I

h) How did other students respond to a students error and to the teachers response?
Was there any peer correction, or peer interaction, or discussion of the error? If so,
what did the teacher say or do to encourage this?
As far as we can saw, there are peer correction and interaction; even sometimes they
prefer to ask one of their classmates to clarify their doubts. Even though, the most
meaningful corrections are those that teacher gave.
i) Were there any opportunities for the students to self-correct? If so, do you recall
anything the teacher said or did to encourage self-correction?
Yes, there were. When students were working, teacher asked them to pay attention
to their own mistakes in order to evaluate and improve their performance.
j) When the focus of the lesson is on fluency there may be ways in which a teacher can
avoid interrupting the flow of the students language. Is error correction necessary
at such times in a lesson?
No, sometimes is not necessary, but in order to clarify all the doubts, at the end of
the class, teacher gives student some feedback in order to correct the errors that
were not mentioned.
k) Is it possible to correct in a non-obstrusive way?
Reflection:
Of course it is, as we said before, making a brief summary of the class and correcting
the mistakes that were not mentioned we can do a non-obstrusive correction.
What experience do you have of being corrected when speaking a second or
foreign language? Do you think this has influenced your teaching?
In our opinion, positives and negatives ways to correct have influenced us in our teaching,
because we could learn what we have to do and what we have not at the moment of correct
students mistakes. The most important thing is that we have to be gently, because the
worst thing that we can do is make students confidence disappear.
Adapted from Wajnryb, Ruth. Classroom observation Tasks, Cambridge Teacher
training and development,1992 and Gower, Roger. Teaching Practice. A Handbook for
teachers in training, Macmillan Education,2005