The first class I observed was an advanced oral communication class. The class comprised of adult learners from various countries.
Right from the beginning, I found it interesting how some students would turn on their mics to respond to the teacher orally, without being prompted. It is not something I see in my classes. I was interested to know if the teacher had asked students to in a prior class, or it was the students themselves taking initiative. Continuing from that, some of the students appeared to be quite receptive when directly engaged with as the teacher went through the attendance. I thought that was a great idea of the teacher to take the attendance this way. It ensures to the teacher the students are paying attention since they cannot physically see them, and it also gets the students conversing and talking right from the beginning and breaking the silent barrier. Some students appeared to need more prompting than others, and I was wondering if this was because they lacked confidence in their speaking skills, or were just simply shy. Moving on from that, when discussing homework I noticed the teacher was not accusatory when addressing the students who had not done their homework, and instead reiterated the assignment’s instruction. This approach allows the students who may not understand what was being asked of them to hear the instructions again, without having to be singled out in the class.
Throughout the lessons I noticed that the majority of class was spent with students talking, either to the teacher one one one, or with their peers. The had the opportunity to talk with both, and I think it’s important for students to converse both with themselves and with the teacher. While some will feel more comfortable talking with the teacher and shy with their peers, or vice versa, it’s important to build confidence in both areas. I noted that when having class discussions, such as when difficult words in an article were being defined, the teacher did not stop and ask if the students understood the new definitions. Is this to make the quiet students speak up if needed and push them out of their comfort zone?
The last particular thing I noticed happened in the study rooms when the students were in small groups. They were all quite quiet, with one main student talking. However, after a period of silence near the end when the main speaker had nothing else to add they all started to slowly leave the study rooms one by one. They didn’t say goodbye, or come to any conclusion in the meeting. I thought this was very strange. I’m not sure if it was only the group I’m in or if it is a common thing. I will have to observe more groups to see.
