Reflection on observing a colleague

The class I observed were doing conversation practice for the Cambridge ESOL speaking and listening exam which they will sit next week. The lesson took place on Friday afternoon at 2.30pm until 4.30pm. All the learners are male, all from Poland and all work for Princess Yachts. They have two lessons a week, on Wednesday evenings and Friday afternoons, and are often quite tired after work.
The aim was to revise conversation topics in preparation for the exam and the objectives were to practise asking for and giving personal information,(Sc/E1.3a and 4b )(Lr/E1.2e,4b ),expressing likes and dislikes and preferences (Sd/E1.1c).

The tutor started the class by asking the learners to introduce themselves to me, giving and spelling their name and saying where they come from. They did this well and the spelling was good practice for them.


The tutor then continued the lesson with a powerpoint presentation which she used as a revision activity and to " wake them up a bit " at the beginning of the lesson. The learners had been away in Poland for a month during the Easter holidays, so needed to revise what they had covered over the term.

The tutor used the powerpoint pictures to generate questions and answers about daily routine,likes/dislikes and preferences, freetime , clothes, shopping, food, travel to work and so on. The learners responded well to this offering answers as a class. Some were able to answer in full sentences , others had verbs or pronouns missing - the tutor handled this by modelling the correct version back, which they then repeated. It was a friendly and lively atmosphere, and the tutor had a very nice rapport with the learners.

The learners were then asked to work in pairs, if possible with the partner that they would have in the exam. They practised asking each other questions and giving information about various topics, according to some prompt cards that they were given. One prompt card, for example, gave instructions as follows:

You are going to talk about what you like to do at different times of the day.
Tell each other what you like to do in the morning/afternoon/evenig. Ask each other :
What's your favourite time of the day ?
What do you do in the morning/afternoon/evening /
Where do you go in the mornings ?
What do you do there ?
What time of day do you like to go out ?

The learners responded well to this activity and practised speaking together , whilst the tutor observed and helped where needed. I acted as a partner for one learner, who was able to understand and respond to most of the questions I asked him, and also was able to ask me some questions in return. He had some problems with using full sentences, but his questions were understandable on the whole.

There was a break at 3.30pm for about 15 minutes. After break the tutor gave each individual learner some cut up sentences which they needed to put back into order to make some questions on a particular topic. One set of questions , for example, were about asking someone to describe someone they like ( Sc/E1.4d ). I worked with a different learner this time. He struggled a bit to create the questions from the cut up sentences, but managed with some support. He then practised asking the questions , and I helped him with pronunciation, for example, of the word : colleague. Once he had practised once , I asked him to use the questions again, but covered half of them , so he had to remember the missing half of the question. He responded well to this and managed to remember the questions with a little support.

The activity was like an information gap activity and communicative because he had to use the questions to get information that he didn't know , and I think this motivated him. I gave him some free practice after this, so that he could ask any question he wanted, to find out about the person I had in mind. This also worked quite well. The tutor in the meantime was circulating around the pairs, monitoring and helping where necessary.

The learners were also given some revision handouts, which reminded them of what to practise for the exam, giving them examples of topics and questions.

The tutor finished the lesson by reviewing what had been done, and by letting the learners know that they would be practising some listening activities in the next lesson before the exam. The learners were then asked to fill in their ILPs, recording what they had covered in the lesson and any comment they wanted to make.

The materials the tutor had used were simple and effective, and were clear,(they had also been laminated, so were durable too ). The powerpoint presentation appealed to visual learners , and the cut up sentences to those who like kinaesthetic activities. The tutor gave clear instructions, and corrected errors sensitively,allowing for fluency too. The learners had done a lot of speaking and listening to each other and it had been good practice for the exam.

I found it very useful and interesting to observe the class. It helped me to gather some information about what is needed for the Cambridge ESOL speaking and listening exam, as well as being able to see how another tutor works with a class, including how she uses materials and resources. It was also interesting to observe a mono-ligual class, and i noticed how the use of L1 sometimes helped to support the weaker learners.