Observation
This was an elementary level English class in Simin English Language Institute in Lahijan. This was a coeducational class with eight boys and seven girls.
Entering the class this was a class with walls which were covered by many English posters and pictures. A white board and teacher's desk were in front of the class and students desks were placed in two rows, each row included four desks.
After greeting the teacher ask students about the book that they were going to study that day.Bravo 5, lesson 39. She asked the class " What is the title of the lesson?" One student responded " it isn't any title" and teacher correct him and said" it hasn't any title". She continued and asked about what had been written under the title , the class responded "read and deside" and she asked the class about the meaning of it. The class responded" بخونید و تصمیم بگیرید.". The teacher called one of the girls, Fatemeh , to read the instruction of the first part of the lesson and Fatemeh started" Here are the letters for ….اینجا هستند نامه هایی برای " and Fatemeh continued and read the first letter" Dear kids, I would like to stay off untill….", and in the following she started to translate." She said," چی میشه؟would". Teacher said to her "look in your dictionary". All students had an Oxford Elementary Learner's Dictionary. But one of the boys shouted " will شیوه ی مودبانه پرسش زمان گذشته", at the same time one of the girls was shutting repeatedly, …پرسش پرسش , teacher didn't care and just listened to the boy and told him "آفرین"and Fatemeh was still looking in her dictionary. Teacher stood up and explained in Persian about "would". After her explaination Fatemeh continued her translation and once again stopped and asked " تو جمله چه معنی ای می ده؟would". One of the mobile phones rang. Teacher responded " به نظرت چه معنی ای می ده؟ من دوست داشتم همون گذشته است " .Fatemeh continued" مادرم فکر می کرد اون است دیر بنابراین اون اجازه نمی داد به من". The teacher said her thank you and called Sina, and he did the same thing, reading and translation just like Fatemeh. While he was translating stopped and asked " مخفف چیه؟I'd". Other students shouted" I did, I would ". After that teacher said "I would". Four students read and translated , and then the class answered the question page.
The teacher asked the students" what is the question in number one?". Students responded wrongly. Teacher repeated for three or four times, at last teacher showed them the book and repeated " question number one." In this part all the questions had been read and were answered , all in English without one Persian word.
The next activity was regarding the answer page, the teacher again called Fatemeh and she read the assigned sentences without any translation , then teacher asked her the meaning of "stair" and in reponse students gave her the transltaion"پله". " switch off?" "خاموش کردن " teacher said them " switch off or turn off", "?روشن کردن" " switch on". Then she asked them about the new words that they learned in this lesson.
Another activitywas answering to a set of questions that students should respond in the classroom. There was time to answer , so class was silent for 5 to 10 minute. At this time one of the girls asked "چی میشهadvice?". The teacher," look in your dictionary" and at the same time she whispered ""نصیحت . Then was the time of reading answers , Sina asked" Advice? What's the meaning it?" One mobile phone rang. The teacher said"نصیحت" Students again asked "نصیحت یعنی چی؟ کدوم نصیحت توش؟", some students were still looking in the dictionary.
Teacher said" volenteer میخوام" ,"Mojtaba number one", Mojtaba: "because he always give", one of the girls:"because he always I hate doing my homework, No, he always too tired", Fatemeh:" he hate doing his homework because he likes to watch more TV." Teacher " Yes, that the complete". Sina suggested another correct answer but the teacher rejected him by saying "NO". After doing some such an activity teacher explained about the differences between "I'd" as "I had" and as "I would" in a mixture of English and Persian; " after had, have, has اسم مفعول, have, has, had+pp(pronouncing پ پ)). After her explaination one of the girls asked"?would مترادف had" and teacher said "NO NOهیچ ربطی نداره ".
Following knocking the door teacher left the class for five minutes for an interview, in this gap students checked their answers , a hubbub, and Sina shouted
" چه معنی ای میده؟ خواهم رفت نزد تو؟!would آخه این " The teacher came back and continued the exercise and started matching activity. Students read , translated and matched. Teacher asked students" do you have any problem?", and students replied"No".
Teacher" این دفعه من میگم شما ترجمه ش بگید.", موزیک """music"" امتحان""test". Teacher asked students if they had had any problem, then she said that the next part would be speaking. She said" Speaking بریم سراغ " ,then she adressed the class and asked them to say month of the year, days of the week, and seasons. Then she asked one by one and the students repeated them. Next, she adressed Fatemeh, " what's your name?" "where do you come from?" etc. and Fatemeh answered then, Fatemeh asked the same questions from Melika , Melika from …, and in this process students made some changes in their questions and asked some new questions.
After these short convesations teacher said pronouns and students said the appropriate "to be" verbs, in both present and past tense, she showed by her hands up, down, left, .. and students told her the words. She told them the words and asked students to spell them orally..
Then teacher asked the class to open the book"پنجره ای به باغ بهشت " . This book was a translation of the holy book Qoran. While students were opening the book, suddenly the teacher asked Melika some questions from the previous book. Then she said"من میگم شما متضاد بگید", after ten minutes spending class in this way she asked students to recite some verses of Hamd from the Qoran in English. She said"میخوام مثبت بدم کی میخونه؟ اول با هم بعد تک تک" , then asked students to read the new verse of Hamd in Aabic, then its meaning in Persian , and afterward she said translation of words in English, words like, Thou, Hast, Blest. The two new verses were practiced and they went to their story books. Some students changed their seats to find a story book and class was noisy. Some pages of the book had been assigned to each students. Every student read the assigned parts and translated them. And from time to time teacher helped them regarding the meaning of some words or reminded them some impotant phrases for instance" earn money", and even some rules of tranlation from English to Persian like" از اون ور باید ترجمه کنید عروس زیبای مرد ثروتمند". In one part of the story it was a letter and teacher reminded students some letter writing rules that she had told them in previous sessions.
At the end the teacher detemined their next sessions' assignments and checked homeworks and the students should write under four " Dear,.." titles,and read their story books.
Critiques
In this class there were some positive and some negative points. Regarding positive points it should be mentioned that most of the students felt free to express their questions, answers, and even their comments, for instance, one of the girles said to the teacher about the inappropriacy of one exercise. Students easily shared their information and had interactions with each other and with the teacher and sometimes suggested some activities. The class setting had provided students a condition in which they could be exposed to some English words and phrases unconsciously. In the speaking part of the class students' ability in changing words and phrases was acceptable. The teacher motivatiated children using words like"آفرین " or giving them rewards. But despite these merits, there were some demerits as well.
The observed class in general was a traditional class. Nearly all activities were teacher-fronted. It was obvious that the teacher had no plan for her class , and as it was mentioned above, teacher suddenly changed the activities despite her decision to start another book, for exapmle in the case of the Qoran. And this lack of plan was also seen when students said to the teacher " check our writing, check our homework". As it is as clear as a day it is a translation class and even in those parts that students practice the so-called speaking it seemed most of them had memorized the phrases and sentences, though a few of them had the ability to change some words.The teacher some times correctly insisted on speaking in English , using repetition, showing pictures but despite her success in convincing the students to give her the correct answer, some other times she easily switched in Persian and let the class to speak in Persian and the most part of the class went in an illogical way , for instance teacher said" four تا", "NO NOهیچ ربطی نداره". "volenteer میخوام". Her pronunciation sometimes was wrong and sometimes used sentences which were grammatically wrong or incomplete. The teacher was not tolerant enough to let students find the new words, despite her own suggestion she easily provided the answers. Even when students were looking in their dictionaries they just read footnotes where the translations had been provided and teacher said nothing in this regard, and it was obvious when students asked the meaning of the word so many times.Teaching students the holy book as a matter of cultur was an acceptable idea but the way of teaching was inappropriate. The students who didn't know the meaning and usage of words like "would", had to memorize the archaic words like "thou". It was clear that the teacher's grammatical explaination about "would" was not clear for students and they asked repeatedly a same question. Students easily interupted each other , told the answers, and this put the students who were responding in trouble and made the classroom noisy. Two students one boy (Sina) and one girl ( Fatemeh)were the center of the teacher's attention, while younger and less knowledable students like Hossein was always shy and silent, and most of the students looked bored. Some mobile phones were on and rang and this made the class noisy.
And it should be noted that it seemed my presence as an observer had affected the class. The teacher tried to show me her students' knowledge and somehow reviewed the whole term assignments in just one session, and even I guessed the walls had been covered by posters before my arrival because they knew I was doing an academic observation..Anyway it was a good experience fo me, though it was disaapoiting to see classes like this in 21th century.
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