LCB Teachers Training College Rodrigo Rouco

Taller Didáctico p. la Enseñanza de Inglés en N. Medio

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Observation Report # 7: The Learner as Doer

Class: 3rd year N° of learners: 10 Age of learners: 15 approx.

Length of lesson: 40 min. Level: Pre FCE Teacher observed: G
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A) Overview of Lesson: Teacher greeted sts and asked them to set up their desks in a circle.
She asked one of the sts to read out one of the quotations/maxims they usually do at the
beginning of the lesson. Afterwards, the class moved to the computer lab and sts worked
individually with exercises from the accompanying CD ROM from Activate B1+. T monitored.

B) During the Lesson: In the following chart, I have included some of the activities the sts did
from the CD ROM. As you will notice, I have classified all of them as cognitive activities - see
below for more details.

What learners do What this Teacher’s purpose Comment

involves
Completing a film - Identifying correct - Revise Passive Voice Cognitive
review with verbs in form/use of verbs in (recognition level)
passive voice by passive.
choosing correct - Referring to
option. Grammar pp. in St’s
Book.
Dragging a line to - Identifying correct - Revise Gerunds & Cognitive
connect two halves of form/use of verb Infinitives (recognition
sentences in different patterns (+ ing or + to- level)
columns. infinitive)
- Referring to
Grammar pp. in St’s
Book.
Completing a - Writing crime-related - Activate /revise Cognitive
crossword. vocabulary. crime-related
- Referring to vocabulary (production
Vocabulary section St’s level)
Book.
Completing sentences - Writing phrasal verbs. - Activate / revise Cognitive
with phrasal verbs - Referring to phrasal verbs
from verb given. Vocabulary section St’s (production level)
Book.
C) After the lesson:

1. All in all, there was a clear prominence of cognitive activities. As the teacher’s main purpose
for the lesson seems to have been to do a general revision before the following week’s tests,
learners had to focus on the more systematic aspects of the language (language systems:
grammar & vocabulary). As a result, there was an intended load of cognitively demanding
activities.
However, there may have been an affective element in the activities the sts carried out, if not
explicitly set out by the tasks. This has to do, in my opinion, with the very fact of working with
the computers. It is possible that, as computers are a huge part of today’s teenagers’ lives and
worlds, doing the activities with the PCs may have encouraged them more or made the work
more interesting. Basically, the activities were the same as those which could appear in the
workbook. Yet at a computer they turn up into a realm which sts are familiar with, where they
feel at ease, and which responds to their (everyday) way of dealing with information, interests,
and cultures. I observed that most of the sts were very active, really concentrated and involved
in what they were doing, and stopped quite rarely to chat or get distracted. Only a few did, and
when they did, they never took off their eyes from the computer screen and went straight back
to their work, so in fact they were not actually losing interest or concentration - paying
attention to different stimuli, changing, and going back is their natural way of working!

2. It is hard to say which of the many activities were the most valuable for sts in general. One
of the special features of this kind of language work is that each st is free to work at their own
pace and to choose which exercises to take up, in the order they want. So some began with unit
9, others with unit 10. Some began with grammar, others with vocabulary. Two of the most
hard-working girls finished all the exercises and the teacher suggested taking up others from a
different CD, which they did!
If we consider the work at the computer lab as a whole activity in itself, it was indeed valuable.
However, there is a kind of ‘risk’: that sts will do the exercises at random, probably without
having revised any rules, notes, or previous mistakes. When they tackle these activities they
will be doing them without following any rules or checking the grammar or vocabulary pages.
Then the activities can turn into any other online quiz that you try out to see how it goes.
Ultimately, we want sts to use this as valuable revision which is done in a conscientious
manner, paying attention to the rules and the ‘theory’. On the other hand, sts may actually be
attracted to this kind of work precisely because of that : no ‘serious’ marking or evaluation
hovers over them and they are using the programme because it is just like any other computer
quiz or game. They approach the activity not as that, but as a ‘fun’, ‘more relaxed’ pursuit. In
fact, the teacher reminded sts that this was revision for the upcoming tests. She also directed sts
to check with the St’s Book (grammar & vocabulary pages) whenever they asked her about a
word they did not know or something they did not understand. By the end of the lesson, when
the teacher asked sts to turn off the computers and head back to their classroom, one girl said:
‘But Miss, this is helpful for me!’ It seems that teachers sometimes expect sts to think carefully
about what they do (revise, check with the grammar pages, etc), but sts may also be learning in
another way, not so focused on language awareness, but in a more holistic way - as they learn
to play computer games or use any new software (the overall enjoyment of the activity!)…

3. Going on with what I have been discussing above, it is true that most (all?) teachers have
faced this at one time or another. There will always be some incongruence between the
teacher’s and the students’ learning style, and among sts themselves - here perhaps even more.
But that is a fact of life, I believe. There are no two people who think and act exactly the same.
Each person in the classroom thinks, feels and acts differently. No matter how much we agree
with someone, or how close we may feel to others, each of us is an individual who is making
her or his on way. With the help of others, sure, but in a unique way. And the work these
students did reflects this somehow: they were all working with the same materials, topics and
exercises, but they worked individually, at their own pace, and in their preferred order. They
stopped to chat to their mates, to ask questions and show their results, but each achieved
different outcomes. So I believe that the learner’s process and what they achieve is more
important than how much thought we put into matching learning styles. We try to bring
different activities to class, we attempt to think up of varied activities, so that different sts profit
from different tasks. But one of the aims of school is not only to learn in your way, but to learn
that there are other ways which you can discover. And that makes you more flexible, able to
adapt to different needs and tasks, which is something learners in the XXIst century will need
to develop (to learn, unlearn, and relearn!). It is very hard for a teacher to adapt to 25 different
learning styles, to cater for everyone, and to satisfy everyone‘s demands! What we can do is try
to vary our approach throughout a period, throughout a course, and ensure that different styles
are catered. In this particular lesson, as I said before, I believe that computer assisted learning
did answer this group of learners’ needs. In the end, the best way to be aware of this is to listen
to our sts, try to know what they like, and what they think is the best way they can learn, and
find a compromise between our way and the other 25! It is a question of finding a balance
between teacher’s and learner’s expectations.

Reflection:

In general, I must say I base my lessons in cognitive activities. The fact is that I always think
about the topic and skills I am about to teach (we will talk about a certain topic, then elicit a
grammar point, work with the vocabulary connected with it, etc). And all this involves thinking
(carefully) about language. I guess the moment I think about the affective element is when we
tackle the skills. Speaking, to me, is definitely the moment when I expect learners to engage in
talking about their feelings (personal likes, dislikes, opinions, experiences…). So this involves
a lot of negotiation and interacting and sharing with others. With the receptive skills, I try to
ask them questions which can help them react to the texts, not just the comprehension part.
With songs and videos I try to follow the same pattern. I also often ask sts to change partners to
work with, or stand up and mingle (asking questions, for example), which would cover, to a
lesser extent, the physical domain of activities.
However, I feel that sometimes I lack the ability to really engage my students in one of these
forms of language learning: involving them affectively. What matters is not how much grammar
and vocabulary you know or transmit, how well you follow the task cycle, or the marks at the
end of the term/year. Sts look for the person behind the professional, and learning and teaching
a language imply opening up to others. If an activity is not interesting enough, or sts feel tired,
nervous, or uneasy, the first place where to look for flaws will (may) be in the teacher. I feel
that I need to develop my skills in creating and sustaining that affective aspect of my teaching.
What I have come to notice - and which I probably feel most handicapped about - is that the
teacher’s personality (extroversion, sociable traits, etc) is what influences a great part of the
affective atmosphere in a classroom. Some sts do help teachers a lot, by interacting, supporting,
and ‘leading’ others. But at the end of the day, the teacher is the one prominent figure who has
to lead the group, encourage, support, give advice, motivate, prepare what the class will do…
And that requires someone who can manage both the cognitive and affective aspects equally
well. A heavy burden? Perhaps… maybe being aware of this difficult part of our job is a start to
try out some changes…