~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Observation Record~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Date：24/04/2004 Saturday afternoon
I. Basic information of the observation
A. unit：Lesson Four, Book Six, The Standard English Textbook for Junior High Schools
B. Class：308 in a public junior high school in Kaoshiung City
C. Class period：Five periods；I observed the first one.
D. Time：forty-five minutes
E. Demonstrator：Ms.Nancy
F. Analysis of the demonstrator：
1. She is a young English teacher.
2. She is the supervisor of this class. And, she is very familiar with students’ characteristics and English abilities.
G. Analysis of the students’ background：
1. They are in the third grade of junior high.
2. Their English level is even but quite good.
3. Most students are willing to take part in the teaching activities of this class.
H. Teaching aids：Textbook
I. Teaching methods：oral practice, Grammar-Translation Method
II. Observation
In this school, there are nine curriculums a day. This class that I observed is the third one in the morning. Most students are energetic and absorbed in the class. They all are the students of Group A of the third grade in this school. So, their English ability is above the standard. For the good relationship between the teacher and the students, the teacher could catch their attention easily through saying an English joke. Then, she started to pronounce twice of each word at first and explained the usages of every new vocabulary step by step. For example, she explained the different usages of ‘while’. She introduced the phrase ‘for a short while’ and made a sentence as follow. ‘You are busy, while Peter is not.’ Through them, she compared the usages and its different meaning. After that, she quickly got into explaining the text of lesson four. This text is a performance of epistolary style. Therefore, she explained the form of the letter. ‘Who are the sender and the recipient of letter? And, what is their relationship? She asked students.’ One of the students quickly answered the correct ones as expectedly. She eulogized him by giving a big smile on her face. Next, she led the students to declaim the letter. Also, she analyzed the grammar structure of each sentence as below. ‘It was really good to hear from you again. I was surprised to learn that you started smoking soon after you went to the U.S.…….’ Suddenly, the campus bell was rung. She announced the time was over and the students could dismiss. It was also the terminus of my observation.
III. Analysis－about the teaching style
First, I think the teacher’s teaching focused on her lecture too much. Due to the compact schedule, she hardly had time taking some interesting learning games or activities when teaching. Second, she always stood in the front of the class. It might lose the opportunity to catch some back students’ attention when they didn’t pay attention to her lecture. Third, she was good at explaining the grammar rules. She would explain them by making many different sentences and compared them very clearly. The way she explained made students easy to understand and memorize. Fourth, her voice was very clear and could be audible. I sat at the back of the classroom and had no problem to hear her voice. Fifth, I found her teaching process was under a set of order. She will prepare her class in a certain order to make most students get involved deeply. Sixth, she had few time to interact with all students, but she will notice whether the front students pay much attention or not. Dealing with that kind of matter, she would give an eye’s contact to that student in order to draw his or her attention back. Seventh, the most commonly used way is to translate the new English words into Chinese. Usually, she taught students how to pronounce correctly and translated them into Chinese. When some important vocabulary showed up in the context, she would make students be familiar with some related phrase or usages. I think it is alike the Grammar-Translation Method. All in all, she taught in a traditional English teaching way.
IV. Reflection
After this observation, I had a talk with her. And, I found that she had many interesting teaching plans, but they can’t be applied to the teaching of third grade students. She usually showed them in a meeting to view and emulate once a semester. What worse, for the coming of Basic Achievement Test for Junior High students, most of the English teachers always focused their teaching in the grammar involved. It is so called ‘Testing leads the way we are teaching.’ I wondered does test really benefit the students’ English learning. Does it have any other way to improve the English learning of the third grade students under the enormous test pressure? Probably, the question may catch my thought into deep thinking for a long while.
*後記:這是我第一次觀摩英語課程教學的觀摩紀錄與心得，對我來說，觀摩這次英語教學的意義非凡！
文章定位：
