Amaranto, Damaris 1

Observacin y Prctica de la Enseanza II

UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL DE CRDOBA

Observer: Amaranto, Damaris
TEYL Observation Task 2

Amaranto, Damaris 2
Observacin y Prctica de la Enseanza II

Task: TEYL Observation Task 2

Observer: Amaranto, Damaris
Course: 6th grade, section B
Name of the teacher in charge: Evangelina de Kurt
Institution: Colegio San Pablo Apstol

This observation task was carried out in a 6 th grade, section B, at San Pablo Apstol
School and the teacher in charge of the forty minute English lesson was Miss
Evangelina. The group consisted of 28 students of ages ranging from 10 to 11 years old.
As regards the patterns of instruction-giving observed, the majority of them were in the
form of imperatives. For example, Copy the matching activity from the board and do
it, Look at the timetable and answer, and so on. In order to make sure that her
instructions were effective and to accommodate students level, Miss Evangelina
sometimes used body language to represent the actions stated in the instructions. For
instance, she used her hands to represent the action of matching. Moreover, some other
times she resorted to the use of L1 to translate or paraphrase the instructions. For
example, when the instructions were: Make a drawing of what it is stated in the second
paragraph she said then: Tienen que hacer dos soles saliendo y ponindose y abajo la
hora a la que esto pasa. However, these were exceptional cases since she spoke almost
entirely in English during the class.
In relation to the activities designed by the teacher for the context, they were suitable
and varied. The activities included matching, drawing, listening, ordering and fill-in the
gaps, which I consider appropriate not only for the age of the learners but also for the
topic they were dealing with (The time). Also, the fact that students took the time
planned beforehand by the teacher to do the activities says a lot about the suitability of
the activities. For instance, she said you have two minutes and then we correct
together and when time was up all students had finished.
Concerning the techniques used to correct mistakes, they were many and of all sorts.
Sometimes the teacher used gestures in order to make students realize that their answer

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Observacin y Prctica de la Enseanza II

was incorrect, and some other times she guided students to the correct answer instead of
just providing it herself by repeating the wrong answer. For instance, students had
pronounced /taim/ as /tim/, therefore, the teacher using gestures to signal that the
pronunciation was incorrect, repeated /tim/? and then said: No!!, it is /taim/!.
Furthermore, when students were ordering everyday activities according to a listening,
they ordered one in the wrong way, so the teacher said: Does Teo say -I go to schoolor does he say -after school I go to ()? Therefore, such was another example of error
correction in which the teacher gave students two alternatives and they had to choose
the correct one. Moreover, the differences I have noticed as regards the correction of
mistakes are related to the fact that sometimes Miss Evangelina did provide the right
answer herself, mostly in the case of mispronunciations, and some other times she
guided students to the correct answer by making them realize, by means of facial
gestures, that their answer was incorrect.
With reference to the interaction patterns followed in the lesson, it was a whole group
class where students seated in orderly rows. However, some students were allowed to
work in pairs when doing the activities since they behaved very well and were peaceful
and respectful.

Therefore, the work climate was favorable and the classroom

environment pleasant and friendly.

Last but not least, with respect to my learning outcome, I can say it was essentially
positive. Miss Evangelinas clarity when giving instructions and her use of varied
activities and techniques for the correction of mistakes constitute very significative and
valuable learning experiences to me. Unfortunately, these aspects are usually ignored in
many classes since they are very often considered as a waste of time or obvious.
However, I do believe they are very helpful for both students and teachers since they
show, from the part of the teacher, that he or she does care about his or her students to
take the time to plan different activities and to explain again and again concepts that
may be difficult and confusing and, from the part of the learners, that their participation
in constructing knowledge and the ability for self-correction and self-evaluation are an
essential part of both the lesson itself and the learning experience as a whole.

Word Count: 711

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Observacin y Prctica de la Enseanza II