Class Observation Report: Three Consecutive English Language Classes at a Private University | ASM Mustafizur Rahman

As a prerequisite of the course ENG_517: Practice Teaching at East West University, I have observed three consecutive English language classes of English Department named “Composition” (ENGL 101) at a private university of Bangladesh. The course has especially illustrated by two skills of English language – Reading and Writing. The course instructor is a Senior Lecturer of English Department.

Summary

The course teacher has covered fragment, capitalization, skimming, scanning and creative writing as well as a presentation on creative writing while I have observed three consecutive classes. On the first day of class observation (May 21, 2017), the teacher has given a lecture on fragment and capitalization along with some activities where all 12 students have taken part effectively. Teacher has used real-life examples to describe both fragment and capitalization. Some students have asked some questions about fragment and teacher has replied with some examples to make it clear. To justify students’ understanding on fragment and capitalization, teacher has given a task (from English Skills with Readings by John Langan) which has required to find out fragment lines and to correct capitalization. After completing their task, students are asked to match their answer and to correct it while teacher has been giving feedback. Later, students are asked to make three groups by changing their seat arrangement for creative writing where teacher has given instruction and provided three topics for three groups. Teacher has given 25 minutes for this group work and students are asked to submit it on the next class.

On the second day (May 22, 2017), teacher has introduced two new topics – skimming and scanning by using the real-life example. After that, students are asked to find out some places and to identify some specific locations which have acknowledged to test their understanding. Again teacher has asked the students to tell some facilities and location of their house and teacher has written a paragraph on board by using students’ reply. Teacher has also written a title (The House I Live in) of that paragraph with the help of students and clarified the skimming and scanning from the paragraph. After completing this task, teacher has declared that there will be a group presentation on the next class (May 28, 2017) where each group has to present one topic from the two given topics (1. Advantages and disadvantages of living in the urban area; 2. Advantages and disadvantages of studying abroad). Teacher has also clarified the criteria for marking the presentation.

On last day of class observation (May 28, 2017), students have presented on two selected topics by using multimedia projector where two groups consist of four members and other two groups have formed with two and three members respectively. Teacher has observed each presentation carefully and gave instant feedback as well as presentation mark. At the end of the class, teacher has given an overall feedback about the presentation.

Methodology

In all three classes, teacher has focused on different activities which assure that teacher has applied CLT (Communicative Language Teaching) approach for conducting the classes. Most of the time, teacher has interacted with students and used real-life examples for their better understanding. Teacher has asked questioned after introducing a topic and students have replied. For making the class effective, teacher has also given group works and monitored the works. Besides, students have asked different questions and shared their opinion with teacher. At the time of group work, students have asked questions about their queries and teacher has replied. In some cases, teacher has given instant feedback especially, on the day of presentation. Moreover, the teacher has used Bangla at the time of explaining the meaning of some words (synonym means ‘somarthok shobdo’ and antonym means ‘biporit shobdo’).

Strengths

Teacher has entered on time and also left on time in all three classes. At the same time, it has been noticed that teacher is more concern about time while the teacher has given group works. Teacher’s language, voice projection, verbal and non-verbal things have been produced excellently that helped students to learn effectively. Classroom size, classroom environment and seating arrangement have appropriated for teaching. Greetings have been seen in every class. The writing of the teacher on board has suited for the classroom. On class time, some students have asked some questions in Bangla but the teacher has replied in English which encouraged the students to speak in English. Teacher has encouraged the students by saying ‘very good’, ‘thank you’, ‘excellent’ etc. while students have replied the correct answers. The use of real-life examples (E.g. location of English Department, description of students’ house etc.) has helped the students to understand the topics easily. From the lecture and classroom activity, it has been assumed that teacher has good command and knowledge on this subject. Teacher’s instant feedback is another strength side that has been especially seen on presentation day. Moreover, the teacher has summarized and given advice in every class at the end of the class.

Weaknesses

At the beginning of class, the teacher has not given any review about the previous class and only focused on the particular topic of that class. On the first class, teacher has asked the students to submit their group work on the next class but the teacher has not taken it on that day. Another problem with the teacher is that students have asked the teacher to repeat some parts of the lecture because of teacher’s fluency. Teacher has gone too fast at the time of describing a topic which has created some problems to understand the topics. In spite of having availability of multimedia projector, teacher has used board too much. Though students have used multimedia projector on the presentation day, teacher has not used any technology in any class. Teacher has not provided any course outline that is why some students have asked teacher about their examination topic. On the other hand, both teacher and students have felt bore due to the noise of one fan and the door of the classroom.

Recommendations

The course has been designed based on Reading and Writing skills. So, it would be better if the teacher gave a short review about the previous class so that students can understand the link between two classes. As a teacher, she should check the group work that has been given at the last class. Teacher could speak normally which helped the students to understand the topics clearly. As we know, course outline is an important thing in a course from where we can get idea about the topics, marks, evaluation system etc. Teacher could provide the course outline at the beginning of the course so that students would have some ideas about those areas. Nowadays, technology has become one of the most important parts of modern classroom. So, the teacher could use technology to make the class more interesting and fruitful.

Note: This report was submitted to Professor Dr. Muhammed Shahriar Haque, the course teacher of ENG_517: Practice Teaching at East West University, for grading.