IEI Observation Report

General description of the class

The course is 100 reading. The class is instructed by Anna Kasten. The course is designed to accommodate students in beginner level of reading. The course really adjusts the teaching techniques, materials, activities, choice of words in order to synchronize not only with students level of proficiency but also schemata. Consequently, the lesson does not become an alien to the students. Thus, the goal of todays lesson which is to enable students identify the member using English language will be achievable.

Comments about the class

A. Lesson design As the lesson is designed to meet the needs of the students who are still in the beginner level, the teacher carefully crafted the lesson in the slow rate yet still progressive. In a way, the lesson always moves forward gradually in a slow but sure way. For example, the class discussed about the family as a theme. The teacher attempted to build students prior knowledge by connecting it to the previous lesson. However, some students seem to have difficulty recalling it. Therefore, the teacher paraphrase her explanation with easier and simpler explanation then drew a diagram to explain about the family relation and have her own family drawn in the chart and orally ask the students about their own families. As the class grasped the bigger picture about what family is, the class moved toward the reading materials with family as its theme. In my opinion, it is an effective strategy to engage with the beginner level students due to their limited capacity

of knowledge in English. They are able to recall something from their own experience in their loves with the assistance of concrete example more easily compared when they need to recall an abstract concept such as what is son in law?. B. Activities and materials The activities in the reading 100 course is structured in a progressive and goal oriented way to keep the pace with students understanding. The goal of that days class is to enable students to identify the member of their family using English vocabulary. In order to achieve the goal, the activities are carried out using the combination of teacher and student centered learning. The instructor provides the materials and gives explanation about it to build up students understanding. The materials are adapted from various textbooks with simple vocabulary and lesson supporting illustration and real world materials such as newspaper and magazine. The instructor utilizes those textbooks and real world materials simultaneously to support each other. The teacher picks a text from the textbook. Then pick another textbook which discusses about reading techniques to engage with the reading effectively. While explaining about the techniques, the instructor has them practice the techniques independently using the text. In the section of independent exercise, the instructor adds speaking and writing exercise by asking the students to interview their adjacent friends to fill in columns about their members of the family. In my opinion, working with Saudi Arabian and South Korean students who have different orthographic system than that of English, it is crucial to provide supplemental writing exercise to support reading instruction. At last, the instructor had the students practice using their own real world material. Therefore, this combination of teaching

techniques of student centered and teacher centered really work to provide students more understanding about the material. C. Teacher talk The teacher talk is mainly in English since both the teacher and the students do not share the same language. The salient part of the instructors talk is the slow rate of her speech and the simple and understanding vocabulary that she utilized in her explanation. She often paraphrased her sentences to create simple ones whenever the students seem to have difficulty in understanding her talk. The instructor also often used gesture, pictures, or facial expression to assist her to get her meaning across. She often attempted to elicit students responses by connecting the materials to their background knowledge. For example: Do you know what brother in law means? No For example, If mother has a brother. You call him uncle but your father calls him brother in law because your father is not related in blood with your brothers mother. He connects with your uncle through the marriage with your mother. That is why, your father calls him a brother in law. So who is your fathers brother in law? Instead asking a direct question without an explanation, the instructor constructed simpler utterances about the concept, connect it with the real life, then ask the students. This technique really accommodates the needs and the difficulty of students with limited English proficiency. When she felt that the students need the assistance of L1 during the instruction, the instructor had a more capable student to talk with her friends who need L1 explanation. However, the instructor keeps reminding the students by moving around

so that they used English mostly instead of chatting using their L1. The students basically group the students randomly, just make a small group based on the adjacent friends. Nonetheless, whenever it is possible and if the students are able to handle conversation using L2, they are grouped with those who do not share same L1. Personally, I like the more capable peer approach to use the L1 because for less proficient learners, explanation using the L1 is still necessary to build their understanding. The way she controlled grouping and maintain the use of L2 by making heterogeneous group is also encouraging the students to practice their L2 usage. D. Student participation Although it seems that the instructor was too dominating during the talk, I think, it is justifiable for me because it is the way she equipped students with more knowledge and linguistic input in L2 in order to be able to use them during the independent practice. Students participation is highly encouraged in the class, the instructor often to ask trivia but lesson related question to the students. In my opinion, these trivia questions are crafted to build the connection between students schemata and the instruction. Occasionally, after the explanation of the instructor, the students randomly speak out one or two utterances about their daily life which is related with the materials or just ask a question about the unclear materials. Inter-students interaction is carried out as post reading activity to reinforce the comprehension about the reading. Instead of using comprehensive questions about the text to measure their students understanding, the instructor facilitates independent learning by grouping the students to interview each other in order to fill in the form about the material. In my opinion the percentage of speech in class was 60% for the instructor and 40% for students. Nevertheless, the

instructor was still able to maintain low filter learning atmosphere for students to participate and not only giving students a space for them to work cooperatively but also individually by facilitating students individual presentation of their interview. During the individual presentation, the instructor still intervened by giving oral stimulation about what the student wanted to say whenever the student was stumbled upon articulating what they mean so that the student can sustain their speech fluency. Positive verbal reinforcements are constantly given to strengthen the low filter fluency. Personally, the way the instructor constructed lesson scaffolding to move the class toward the goal of the todays lesson from instructors presentation of the materials, cooperative work to exercise the students lesson mastery and the independent exercise has paramount importance to be applied in the EFL context. Instead of rushing the students to produce linguistic output for the sake of the communicative learning, it is necessary to patiently assist the students gradually before producing linguistic output for the sake of lesson mastery. The benefit The students with 100 level capacity will certainly benefit with the scaffolding that the teacher conducted in her lesson because: 1) Rushing students to produce linguistic output in L2 will cause difficulty towards the students. Especially for the reading and writing class in which the students have different orthographic system. 2) Slow rate with simple vocabulary in the teachers talk also facilitates students understanding of her instruction.

3) Synchronicity with students schemata allows the students to integrate the lesson into their lives so that the lesson will be meaningful for them.

Lesson modification

If I were to teach the class, I would

1) Bring a piece of authentic materials for the students so that the students will have concrete image of the lesson for an example a movie about the family. The teacher may think that the students who are in ESL setting can find myriads of authentic materials in their daily life. However, for particular lesson such as the family, it is hard for the students to encounter such authentic materials about it. 2) Although the lesson is reading 100, it would be great if the students are encouraged to interview native speakers about the lesson and make a composition about it for a homework. Because interviewing, fill in the blank, complete the paragraph as in class activity should be reinforced by opportunity to encounter authentic activity such as interview with native speakers.