Core Curriculum

English Language Teaching Methodology

Bachelor’s Level

School Experience
Observation Task Bank

Modules 3 and 4
Contents
Module 3 Preparing to Teach 2 .................................................................................................. 3
Unit 3.1 Language Skills – Teaching Listening ....................................................................... 3
Task Twenty........................................................................................................................ 3
Unit 3.2 Language Skills – Teaching Speaking ....................................................................... 5
Task Twenty-One ................................................................................................................ 5
Unit 3.3 Language Skills – Teaching Reading ........................................................................ 7
Task Twenty-Two ................................................................................................................ 7
Unit 3.4 Language Skills – Teaching Writing ........................................................................... 9
Task Twenty-Three ............................................................................................................. 9
Task Twenty-Four ............................................................................................................. 11
Module 4 Preparing to Teach 3 ................................................................................................ 12
Unit 4.1 Planning Teaching ................................................................................................... 12
Task Twenty-Five .............................................................................................................. 12
Unit 4.2 Working with Materials ............................................................................................ 13
Task Twenty-Six ............................................................................................................... 13
Unit 4.3 Error Analysis and Dealing with Errors .................................................................... 14
Task Twenty-Seven .......................................................................................................... 14
Unit 4.4 Testing and Assessment ......................................................................................... 15
Task Twenty-Eight ............................................................................................................ 15

Students undertake school practice throughout the whole methodology course. There are three
phases to students’ school experience:
• Guided observation
• Teacher assistantship
• Observed teaching.

Guided observation takes place in Semesters 3 and 4. It gives students an opportunity to

observe experienced teachers at work and to make connections with their learning during the
first year of the methodology course. To help in this process they complete observation tasks.

During Teacher assistantship in semesters 5 to 7, students act as teacher assistants, planning

teaching, undertaking microteaching and generally supporting the English teachers. Modules in
these semesters also include observation tasks aimed at linking methodology classes to school
experience.
 Module 3 Preparing to Teach 2

Unit 3.1 Language Skills – Teaching Listening

Task Twenty

Task focus: Sequence of activities with the focus on listening

Observe at least 3 lessons focusing on the sequence of listening activities. In Table 1, note
down what teachers and learners do, type of interaction, duration of activities and their
purposes.

Summarise your observations in Table 2.

Table 1

Time What the teacher does What the learners do Interaction Purpose
3:20- During the class it was They were doing the Group develop
6:30 while the teacher gave task together work. supportive
the task to find relationships
correspondent words between them
The teacher gave a The student was trying Individual Developing
15:10 task(exercise)and after to cope with the task work independence
- that she was waiting
20:15
The teacher explained It was during practice of Improving
11:09 the task and was dialogues and during Student- collaboration skills
- observing how did it go playing games Student
16:20
the teacher provided Was listening Learner- Teaching getting
05:10 feedback and explained attentively Instructor information
task

1:10- During whole Listening attentively Teacher Explaining unknown

15:30 lesson(explanation, giving and processed the -Full-class material(listening
feedback) information attentively)

The teacher tried to The learners were Teacher talk Improving listening
17:10 explain unknown words trying to get the main skills
idea

It was when the teacher The student tried to Explanation for

09:10 provided feedback understand (writing Learner- better result
encouraged learner. It something down) Instructor
also took place when a
learner asked the teacher
questions.
Table 2
Observation summary

Observations ✓
1. Purposes of listening:
• listening for gist +
• listening for detail/intensive listening
• listening for specific information +
2. Learning strategies:
• top-down
• bottom-up +
• metacognitive
Listening materials used by the teacher
• audio +
• video +
• podcasts +
• internet-derived materials
Questions
1. What problems in listening did learners have?
 lack of control over the speed at which speakers speak ,
 not being able to get things repeated,
 the listener’s limited vocabulary,

2. What were the ways of solving the problems?

 Listening activities should be provided based on the students’ needs and teachers
should provide authentic listening materials for students that help them understand
better the natural speech uttered by native speakers.
 Teachers should design listening tasks that arouse students’ interest and help them
learn listening skills and strategies. These tasks not only test the students’ listening
comprehension but also motivate them to use various
 types of listening strategies in order to gain the maximum benefits in doing their
activities.
 Teachers should provide students with different types of input like lectures, radio
news, films, TV plays,announcements, everyday conversation, and interviews.
 Teachers should familiarize their students with the rules of pronunciation in order to
help them hear the different forms of rapid natural speech and ask them to imitate
native speakers’ pronunciation.

3. What ways of assessing learners’ listening skills and giving feedback did the teacher use?
Teachers can assess students' listening skills by conducting a few simple activities. Record
the results from the activities and develop an action plan addressing how to improve listening
skills if needed.
4. What didn’t go well? Why?
I really didn’t like some things during the lessons, the are:problems that learners had during
the listening, inappropriate classroom arrangement .All these factors in some ways made the
lesson worse.
 Language Skills –

Task Twenty

Task focus: Sequence of

5. Are there any other issues you find important to mention?

 Finding Balance in the Classroom
 Controlling reactions
 Creating respectful environment

6. What have you learned about teaching listening from this observation?
Listening skills are vital for your learners. Beginners, should be given more listening practice.
There are many types of listening activities.Good listening lessons go beyond the listening
task itself with related activities before and after the listening. Here is the basic structure:
Getting ready to listen is like getting in the zone or warming up. A good first step in setting the
stage is to tell students the purpose for listening. A second step is to prepare the
environment. Eliminating background noise, sitting in an appropriate configuration.

Adapted from the British Council CiSELT course assignment template.

Unit 3.2 Teaching Speaking

-One
activities with the focus on speaking

Observe at least 3 lessons focusing on the sequence of speaking activities. In Table 1, note
down what teachers and learners do, type of interaction, duration of activities and their
purposes.

Summarise your observations in Table 2.

Table 1

Time What the teacher does What the learners do Interaction Purpose
3:20- Gave the topic for They were developed Pair work giving more
4:50 discussion and the topic and students the
observed discussed it using opportunity to
Table 2

personal experience share ideas

Helped students to Discussing the previous Individual make own
12:10 revise the previous topic work decisions
- topic
15:30
1:20- Explained the task and Explained their own Work group Refine
5:40 observed feeling through personal understanding
experience through discussion
and explanation.
6:10- Gave some pictures Trying to guess the Pair work the opportunity to
8:30 connection with them intervene and help
students increase
their knowledge
and confidence
2:10- Gave some new words Trying to guess the Learner- Student getting
4:30 meaning Instructor information

6:30- Storytelling activity Some were sitting in a Group work Developing stronger
8:15 row, and one stand communication skills
behind them and act as
a controller
2:10- Explained the new Were trying to get it Teacher Explaining unknown
5:20 material -Full-class material

Observation summary

Observations ✓
1. Type of speaking:
• spoken production +
• spoken interaction +
2. Learning strategies:
• metacognitive
• cognitive +
• social +
3. Tasks and activities used to facilitate spoken production and spoken interaction:
structured output activities:
• information gap +
• jigsaw +
communicative output activities
• role play +
• simulation
• discussion +
 Language Skills –

Task Twenty

Task focus: Sequence of

• storytelling +
• story completion
Questions
1. What problems in speaking did learners have?
-feel nervous and are afraid of making a mistake while speaking
-lack of vocabulary and knowledge
- words can be difficult to pronounce
- Lack of Confidence

2. What were the ways of solving the problems?

- teacher has to make the environments that the students can feel comfortable in speaking
the English language and asking questions.
- teacher has to focus on oral communication in learning the English language instead of
learning from books and exercises.

3. What ways of assessing learners’ speaking skills and giving feedback did the teacher use?
- Participation
-Speaking confidently and with little hesitation (fluency)
- Accurate use of grammar
-Use of vocabulary
-Pronunciation

4. What ways of integrating listening and speaking skills were used (e.g. selection of tasks
and activities)?
- practicing the skills through information gap tasks

5. What didn’t go well? Why?

I didn’t like that fact that during students speaking the teacher tried to correct mistakes
immediately and didn’t give an ability to express thoughts.

6. Are there any other issues you find important to mention?

It’s important to show student that it’s impossible to make the speech perfect at once. There
should be a lot of practice to have really good result.

6. What have you learned about teaching speaking from this observation?
Without communication skills, the ability to progress in the working world and in life, itself,
would be nearly impossible. Public speaking is one of the most important and most dreaded
forms of communication.

Adapted from the British Council CiSELT course assignment template.

Table 2

Unit 3.3 Teaching Reading

-Two
activities with the focus on reading

Observe at least 3 lessons focusing on the sequence of reading activities. In Table 1, note
down what teachers and learners do, type of interaction, duration of activities and their
purposes.

Summarise your observations in Table 2.

Table 1

Time What the teacher does What the learners do Interaction Purpose
5:10 Observed the process Skimming the Individual Developing
and helped some text,getting the main work independence
students words and aim

8:20 Listened and observed Discussion the text,the Group work Improving
aim and main idea collaboration skills

Helped in translation Scanning the text, Pair work Developing

12:05 some unknown words looking for important supportive
information for the future relationships
task between the
students
Explained the task and They were trying to Individual concentrate and
13:40 gave worksheets cope with the exercises work work faster
based on text

8:10 Turned on an audio Reading after speaker Pair work Enabling students to
and translating learn from each
other.

Corrected mistakes in Reading aloud Individual Improving speaking

15:30 pronunciation work skill

Helped to coped with the Getting the main idea Pair work giving students a
25:40 material degree of privacy
and allowing them to
try ideas in a less
public forum

Observation summary
 Language Skills –

Task Twenty

Task focus: Sequence of

Observations ✓
1. Purpose of reading:
• intensive reading +
• extensive reading +
• skimming +
• scanning +
2. Approaches to reading
• reading aloud +
• reading in chain +
• reading after the teacher
• other
Questions
1. What problems in reading did learners have?
-a lot of unknown words(incorrect pronunciation)
-difficult text (inappropriate for age)
-low speed
-shyness

2. What were the ways of solving the problems?

In the early stages, the actual reading should be done mostly outside of class, thus
eliminating the urgency and stress of the classroom situation.Little by little, as the student
becomes more skillful, speed in reading.

3. What ways of assessing learners’ reading skills and giving feedback did the teacher use?
Teachers tested students, analyzing student work samples, observing students performing
literacy tasks, or interviewing students on their reading skills. Teachers gained the most
information by administering all of these methods to collect data.
4. What ways of integrating listening, speaking and reading skills were used (e.g. selection of
tasks and activities)?
Different tasks;presentation;games;discussions

5. What didn’t go well? Why?

Sometimes, the teacher didn’t pay attention to that fact that, not all students advance at the
same speed. Individual cases should be contemplated as far as possible, and special
exercises, more or less advanced, depending on the particular case, should be given to them.

6. Are there any other issues you find important to mention?

In the early stages, the actual reading should be done mostly outside of class, thus
eliminating the urgency and stress of the classкoom situation.Little by little, as the student
becomes more skillful, speed in reading should be emphasized and special exercises given
to that effect.
Table 2

6. What have you learned about teaching reading from this observation?
It is our obligation to guide our students in the acquisition of the reading skill; we have to
make them meet the pleasure and challenge of reading in a foreign language; and it is only
by understanding the nature of the reading process and the problems involved that we will be
able to acquire the flexibility and resourcefulness to achieve our goal.

Adapted from the British Council CiSELT course assignment template.

Unit 3.4 Teaching Writing

-Three
activities with the focus on writing

Observe at least 3 lessons focusing on the sequence of writing activities. In Table 1, note down
what teachers and learners do, type of interaction, duration of activities and their purposes.

Summarise your observations in Table 2.

Table 1

Time What the teacher does What the learners do Interaction Purpose
 Language Skills –

Task Twenty

Task focus: Sequence of

Observation summary

Observations ✓
1. Approaches to writing:
• process
• product
• both
2. Strategies for developing writing skills
• student motivation
• instruction in writing processes and rules
• writing practice
• constructive feedback about students' writing
Types of texts
• postcards
• invitations
• CVs
• personal letters
• formal letters
• e-mails
• stories
• reviews
• articles
• essays
Table 2

• recipes
• reports
Questions
1. What problems in writing did learners have?

2. What were the ways of solving the problems?

3. What ways of assessing learners’ writing skills and giving feedback did the teacher use?

4. What ways of integrating listening, speaking, reading and writing skills were used (e.g.
selection of tasks and activities)?

5. What didn’t go well? Why?

6. Are there any other issues you find important to mention?

6. What have you learned about teaching writing from this observation?

Adapted from the British Council CiSELT course assignment template.

 Task Twenty-Four

Task focus: Integrating skills

1. Observe 2 or 3 lessons and note down how language skills are integrated in an activity or in
a sequence of activities.

2. Interview the teacher (if she/he agrees) about the techniques she/he uses to integrate
skills. Take notes.

3. Examine 2 or 3 units in a course book and decide whether language skills are integrated or
not. Note down how skills are integrated if they are.

Observation summary

What have you learnt from this observation?

 Module 4 Preparing to Teach 3

Unit 4.1 Planning Teaching

Task Twenty-Five

Task focus: Lesson planning

1. Before observation, ask the teacher to give you a copy of his/her lesson plan.
2. Observe a lesson to see how the lesson planning principles that you worked with in your
methodology sessions are put into practice. Write a 100-word summary.

3. While observing the lesson, compare the actual lesson to the original plan. Make notes.

Timing The original plan Timing The actual lesson Reasons for changes

4. Have a post-lesson discussion with the teacher about the changes she/he made to the
original plan.

Observation summary

What have you learnt from this observation?

Unit 4.2

Working with Materials

Task Twenty-Six

Task focus: Materials

Observe a lesson focussing on the materials used and how they are used. Tick (✓) the most
appropriate answer. Add comments where necessary.

No Question Yes To some No Comments

extent
1. Is the content appropriate to the group?

2. Does it promote intercultural

understanding and awareness?
3. Is the material engaging?

4. Does it meet the abilities and needs of

the group?
5. Does it promote a variety of learning
skills and strategies?
6. Does it include opportunity for sharing
or interacting?
7. Is the language suitable to the level
and age of the group?
8. Is the amount of the material
appropriate to the time allocated?
9. Are the tasks/instructions easy to
follow?
10. Is it up to date and visually attractive?

11. Does the teacher change any of the

procedures envisioned by the book?
12. Does the teacher adapt any texts in the
book?
13. Does the teacher exploit the potential
of the book to the full?
14. Does the teacher supplement the book
with any other materials?
15. Are all the changes for the better?

Observation summary
What have you learnt from this observation?
Unit 4.4

Error Analysis and Dealing with Errors

Task Twenty-Seven

Task focus: Error correction techniques in a particular context

Observe 2 or 3 lessons and see how learners’ errors are dealt with.

Note down any learner errors and identify reasons for them. Make notes of error correction
techniques which the teacher uses at different stages of the lesson.

Lesson stage What learner(s) Learner errors Possible reasons Correction

and activities does (do) techniques
(use the list below
for reference)

Error Correction/Awareness Raising Techniques

1. Clarification request 7. Gestures 13. Reformulation

2. Correction diary 8. Metalinguistic feedback 14. Underlining/highliting
3. Correction slots 9. Mouthing 15. Using correction code
4. Dictogloss 10. Noting down errors 16. Using fingers
5. Elicitation 11. Recast (Echoing) 17. Visual reminders
6. Explicit correction 12. Recording

Observation summary

What have you learnt from this observation?

Unit 4.5

Testing and Assessment

Task Twenty-Eight

Task focus: Assessing learner progress

Observe several lessons and note down ways the teacher assesses learner progress.

Evaluate the extent of appropriacy for particular learning contexts and the curriculum as well as
the effectiveness of assessment.

Extent
large certain limited

appropriacy

appropriacy

appropriacy
effectiveness

effectiveness
effectiveness
Type and way of assessment

Observation summary

What have you learnt from this observation?