Finding Out about the Language Classroom

School of Languages

3.2 Who and w hat to observ e in the classroom

3.2.1 Before we observe

When we observe a classroom for the first time, we are often struck by the vast array of
aspects that can be observed. If we try to observe everything, however, we will find that we are
not able to pay attention to all that happens in the classroom and the exercise becomes
overwhelming instead of productive. In order to prevent this happening, it is essential that we
go into the classroom with clear objectives related to our specific area of research.

This is an aspect that we have to start with when we want to do research

in the classroom.

We know there are many factors to reflect on in a classroom. In this

section we focus on some of the main ones, such as:

Our students: the way they work, the way they interact, the way they react to out teaching,
their on task and off task behaviour, and so on.

Ourselves as teachers: the techniques we use, our voice projection and quality, use of
gestures, management procedures and so on.

Context, including classroom management procedures.

Materials

YOU SHOULD CHOOSE TO COMPLETE ONE OF THE OBSERVATION ACTIVITIES IN THIS

UNIT THAT BEST RELATES TO YOUR AREA OF INTEREST AND YOU FEEL WOULD BE
USEFUL TO YOU.
3.2.2 Who

The learning community consists of learners and teachers, so the who here, refers to the
learners and the teacher who will be observed. It is important to be clear about who you will be
observing in the classroom.

The learner:

Activity FOLC315(A)

This observation task was developed by Wajnryb (1992 for the purpose
of learning about learners.

Task objective:

This task will encourage you to consider learners from the point of view
of their individual motivation for learning.

As it was said before, there are plenty of things we can observe in our students, depending on
the aspect we want to discover. In order to learn more about observation, lets focus on learner
motivation.

If we stop and ask ourselves, Why do people sometimes put so much effort and energy into
learning another language? We will find out that motivation is one of the main reasons.

According to Harmer, 1991:3, Motivation is some kind of internal drive that encourages
somebody to pursue a course of action. This means that if we wish to achieve something,
and it is sufficiently attractive, we will put a lot of effort into accomplishing it.

Motivation can be either instrumental or integrative:

Instrumental motivation, refers to ...wanting to learn a language because it will be useful for
certain instrumental and practical goals... (Wajnryb, 1992:31), for example, if we want to get a
better job which requires the knowledge of English.

Integrative motivation, refers to ...wanting to learn a language for reasons of understanding,

relating or communicating with the people of the culture who speak it... (Wajnryb, 1992:31),
e.g. people who want to study or work in a target language community.

READING

For more about instrumental and integrative motivation read Norris-

Holts (2001) article on motivation in second language learning from the
Internet TESL Journal.

Procedure

A. Before the Lesson:

1. Arrange to observe a class, preferably of learners who you know well (if you do not
know the learners well, you will need to ask the class teacher to answer some
questions before the observation).

2. Familiarise yourself with the observation chart on learners motivation. Click here to
download your copy.

3. Choose a range of about 5 students whom you consider you know well enough to
comment on their motivation for learning and write their names in Column 1. (If you do
not know the learners, ask the teacher to choose five students). Consider their
reasons for wanting to learn the language. In Column 2, comment on whether you
consider their motivation to be high or low, or otherwise. (Again, if you do not know the
class, ask the teacher to help you here).

B. During the lesson:

1. Consider these students behaviour/role in class and the degree to which they
synchronise and co-operate with the teacher.

For example, consider a students

Response to the teacher

Involvement in the class
Willingness to ask when uncertain
Tolerance of other students, etc.
 2. Make notes on their behaviour while you observe (Column 3).

3. There is room in the far right (Column 4) for any further comments. You may, for
example, wish to consider whether the motivation might be described as
instrumental, integrative or a blend of both.

C. After the lesson:

1. Consider the data you have collected. Can you see any link between your
observations in Columns 2 and 3? Make notes.

2. It is very easy to make assumptions, so it is recommendable to confirm your

understanding of the students motivation by interviewing them. Again, make notes.

D. Write up:

What have you learnt from this observation exercise? How important is it for teachers to
know their students and to understand their various motivations for learning the language?
How can observations help teachers to understand their learners?

Write a reflection on your observation experience and upload it to your folder on Eminus.
Note: You might also want to share it with the teacher whose class you observed.

READING

Read Wajnryb, 1992. The learner. pp. 28 to 42.

The teacher:

Activity FOLC315(B)

This observation task that will make you reflect on:

Decisions that are made about learning, both inside and outside the
classroom.

Who makes these decisions.

The balance of power that is most effective in terms of learning

goals.

The human element is very important in learning a language; that is why we

For more details about peer
observation go to:
http://www.teachingenglish.
org.uk/think/articles/peer-
observation
classroom.
have to take into consideration the following: eye contact, touch, motivation
for learning, cognitive, affective and physical activities, the learner level, and
the cultural factor to identify our learners. The teacher has to be aware that
he/she is dealing with a learning community that has a goal, preferably, a
common goal.
There are many aspects that may be observed in a teacher, for example,
eye contact, voice projection, or the image he/she projects among others.
However, we may also observe the different roles a teacher plays in the

When we observed a colleague giving his/her class what we are doing is peer observation.

Stop and Think

List at least five teachers roles you know

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
 READING

Read Wajnryb, 1992. Teaching and learning roles pp.113 to 114

Does your list match the authors?

How do you think a teacher can gain greater facility in switching roles
during a lesson?

(Flexibility will depend on the teachers understanding of the purposes of

different stages in a lesson.

Procedure

A. Before the Lesson:

1. Arrange to observe a class, preferably of learners who you know well.

2. Familiarise yourself with the observation chart on teacher and learners roles in the
classroom. Click here to download your copy.

B. During the lesson:

1. Observe role that the teacher and the students have within the class.

2. Observe a lesson from the points of view of the questions in the list. As responses,
write T (= teacher), S (=student) or T/S (=mixture of T and S) next to the questions.

C. After the lesson:

 1. Consider the data you have collected. Can you see any patterns in the roles adopted
in the classroom? Make notes.

2. It is very easy to make assumptions, so you may want to interview the teacher about
his/her perceived roles in the classroom. Again, make notes.

D. Write up:

Based on your answers to these questions, what general tendencies can you point to in the
lesson you observed?

What aspect of classroom decision-making would you like to share with learners? What
risks or difficulties do you foresee in putting this into practice in the classroom?

Write a reflection on your observation experience and upload it to your folder on Eminus.
Note: You might also want to share it with the teacher whose class you observed.

3.2.3 Classroom management

Activity FOLC315(C)

This observation task will help you reflect on classroom management, in

particular the seating arrangements of students within the classroom.

Sometimes the classroom is the only space teachers have to teach the language. Therefore,
the classroom is the most important place where teaching and learning take place.

Depending on the country, city, town, etc., the institution will be directed to a certain socio-
economic level, and this is reflected on the learning process and the resources available to
the school.
 Stop and Think

Write down the characteristic of an ideal classroom and tick the ones
that you have in your classroom or the classroom where you have done
your observations.

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

The quality of the classroom is not important in itself. Its importance remains in the way the
teacher manages the class, how he/she organises and controls the group. Classroom
management, according to Richards, et al (1992: 52), is ...the ways in which student
behaviour, movement, interaction, etc., during a class is organised and controlled by the
teacher (or sometimes by the learners themselves) to enable teaching to take place most
effectively. Classroom management includes procedures for grouping students for different
types of classroom activities, use of lesson plans, handling of equipment, aids, etc., and the
direction and management of student behaviour and activity.

Procedure

A. Before the Lesson:

1. rrange to observe a class, preferably of learners who you know well (if you do not
know the learners well, you will need to ask the learners to use name tags).

B. During the lesson:

1. Draw up a seating plan including students names at the beginning of the lesson (if
there is a regular seating plan, you may want to ask the teacher to help you with this
before the class). Make notes on why you think the students are sat like this.

2. As soon as students change places, draw up another plan. Make a note of why the
 students moved in the classroom.

3. Repeat this process as many times as the seating arrangement is changed in the
class.

C. After the lesson:

1. Consider the data you have collected. Can you see any logic in the seating
arrangements? Make notes.

2. It is very easy to make assumptions, so you may want to interview the teacher about
the seating arrangements in the classroom. Again, make notes.

D. Write up:

Does the seating make sense to you taking into consideration the roles of the teacher and
the students? Why? What would you do differently if it were your classroom?

Write a reflection on your observation experience and upload it to your folder on Eminus.

Note: You might also want to share it with the teacher whose class you observed.

3.2.4 Language

Activity FOLC315(D)

The following observation activity taken from Wajnryb looks at the

language used in the classroom.

The task requires you to collect some instances of the teachers

classroom meta-language. The aim is to get you to consider the relative
value of such language in a learning context.

The language a teacher uses to allow the various classroom processes to happen, is the
language of organising the classroom
At this point, we refer to the language used in the classroom not the one being taught.

Stop and Think

Write your own concept of each type of language:

1. The language of questions

2. Language as the negotiation of meaning
3. Language echoes
4. The language of feedback to error
5. Meta-language

READING

Read Read Wajnryb, 1992. The learner. pp. 43 to 57.

Do your concepts match those of the author?

Lets focus on meta-language.

Meta-language is the language the teacher uses to present the class. This is the language
...used to mean teacher talk which is not related to the language being presented, ...This
includes the teachers explanations, response to questions, instructions, giving of praise,
correction, collection of homework, etc. Wajnryb, 1992: 41.

Meta-language should be genuinely communicative. For example, when a teacher asks for
homework, praises a student, asks students to be quiet, etc.

Procedure

A. Before the Lesson:

1. Arrange to observe a class in which the teacher plans to present new language.

2. Make yourself familiar with the chart and the items you will be listening for.

B. During the lesson:

1. Use the chart to help you monitor the teachers classroom language.

2. Script a chunk of the teachers meta-language (do this about five times altogether
during the lesson). You may want to use a tape recorder to help you with this.

3. Make notes on the exact context relating to each chunk. In addition, write down what
you understand the teachers communicative purpose to be for each chunk.

C. After the lesson:

1. Consider the data you have collected. Was the communicative purpose of the
language immediately obvious to the students? Was the meta-language adjusted to
the level of the students? Make notes.

2. It is very easy to make assumptions, so you may want to interview the teacher about
the use of meta-language. Again, make notes.

D. Write up:

How appropriate was the meta-language used by the teacher? Are there any other ways
 open to the teacher to ease comprehension of meta-language?

Write a reflection on your observation experience and upload it to your folder on Eminus.
Note: You might also want to share it with the teacher whose class you observed.

3.2.5 Materials and resources

Activity FOLC315(E)

The following activity taken from Wajnryb can be used to observe

materials used in classes.

This task asks you to reflect on Stevicks materials criteria and then to
measure a lesson that you observe against them. Note that the focus
here is on materials rather than method.

As teachers, we know that materials are very important in our day to day work. They are aids
which help us to develop our classes. However, we teachers have to be aware of the kind of
materials we use, and we should make sure that they are suitable for our learners depending
on their age and interest. Stevick (1980 in Wajnryb 1992 p.126-127), ...believes that the adult
language learner has to be treated as a complete person, not seen in exclusively cognitive
terms. He puts forward six essential criteria for materials choice or development that allows
the learning process to be personally meaningful to the learner.

These are paraphrased as follows:

1. The material should be expressed in language that has some authenticity outside the
classroom, that means language that resemble that is used by native speakers among
themselves.

2. The material should treat the world and reality in such a way that the learner identifies
with them, and not through some sterilising filter. The material, for example, should take
full advantage of the adult learners rich knowledge of the world.

3. The material should contain something of intrinsic interest so as to touch the affective
side of the learner. Ideally, learners should be able to relate experientially to the material
in some way.

4. There should be a basis of disagreement so that the learner can make choices. Most
 groups of adults talking together would reveal differences of opinion so materials have to
cultivate this factor, not avoid or shut it down.

5. The material should allow learners to engage in meaningful interaction with one another.
This means interaction where there is a communicative purpose, not mechanical
repetition or perfunctory talk attending to form and not meaning.

6. The design of material should contribute to the learners sense of safety or security in the
learning context. The learner has to be aware of the fact that the environment will allow for
and even encourage making errors. All risk of humiliation in linguistic production or any
other area has to be eliminated. This in part relates to human resource management,
but it can also be a factor promoted in the materials themselves (Wajnryb 1992
p.126-127).

If you work in an Institution that is equipped with all the technology and is generous with its
support, you are very lucky, indeed. But if you dont, you have to be content with the simple
things such as: the board, visual aids, etc, which you will study at a later stage in your courses.

Procedure

A. Before the Lesson:

1. Arrange to observe a class.

2. Make yourself familiar with Stevicks criteria, as described above and also the chart
which you can use while observing the lesson.

B. During the lesson:

1. Observe the lesson from the perspective of Stevicks criteria and make notes about
the materials used during the lesson based on the criteria in the chart.

C. After the lesson:

1. Evaluate the lesson in terms of the six criteria put forward by Stevick. Specifically
mention to what extent the following questions were fulfilled.

a. Was the material expressed in real language?

b. Was external reality fairly reflected?
c. Was the affective side of the learner catered for?
 d. Was there a choice-generated basis for disagreement?
e. Was student interaction non-perfunctory?
f. Did the material contribute to a safe environment?

D. Write up:

How whole learner were the materials used in the class? What changes could be made to
the materials to make them fit Stevicks criteria better? To what extent would you wish to be
guided by the criteria Stevick proposes?

Write a reflection on your observation experience and upload it to your folder on Eminus.
Note: You might also want to share it with the teacher whose class you observed.

In this section, we have mentioned some concepts that you will study or look at deeper in
another subject. At the moment, we are just giving you an introduction.