Observing an English teacher

This reflection seeks to give evidence of the most meaningful experiences, strengths
and challenges that an English language teacher can face in a classroom. Firstly, will be
mentioned the way that in-service teacher teaches simple past in a public institution from
Pereira with 9th graders. Then, it will be mentioned teacher and students´ trends with
possible challenges that a teacher in development could have. Finally, strategies that
teachers could use to address challenges related to Language teaching methods and
language assessment in classrooms.

The in-service teacher claims that the purposes are established at the beginning of
every course are three: comprehension, progress, and achievement. To begin with, every
time she has covered a topic, she gives students a test (quiz) to determine if they understood
the target topic. Additionally, she practices grammar asking students for affirmative and
negative sentences and questions, in this case, was for simple past. As stated by Brown
(2004), achievement tests (stated as comprehension tests by the teacher) are intended to
measure students’ abilities within a topic covered during a course. Furthermore, the teacher
assesses to see progress and specific topics that need to be rehearsed; she argues that this
kind of assessment does not include scores because the goal of this assessment is to give
students feedback and help them reach the competencies.

During the English class, I have observed that the teacher has a good classroom
management developing her lesson plan thus, she is able to communicate with their
students in English language and students looked motived to learn a second language, they
showed interest for grammar explanation and new vocabulary they are getting through
explanation by using those words in a simple sentence also, the teacher asked one student
for clarification in Spanish to confirm if pupils understood the instructions, however, a fact
of interaction between the teacher and students have shown me that interacting in English
inside the classroom continues to be a challenge for many educators or future educators in

Alejandra Reyes Tapasco 1088320634

our country. Moreover, along with the class, I noticed that students spoke mostly in Spanish
or they translated almost every word that the teacher said using their dictionary.

To conclude, it is important to highlight that the teacher uses assessment for

formative and achievement purposes, assesses students through written tests and oral
presentations. On the other hand, one strategy that teachers in development could apply is
discussing with their pupils how and why the target language should be spoken inside the
classroom. Additionally, teachers can monitor students' processes using assessments.
Moreover, as part of their lesson implementation, they created or focused on meaningful
contexts for students to make the language more understandable. Combining the previous
strategies, participants tried to involve pupils in a friendly English speaking environment
inside the classroom.

References

Brown, H. (2004). Language Assessment: Principles and classroom practices. White

Plains, 
NY: Pearson Education. p. 1-24

Alejandra Reyes Tapasco 1088320634