Observe and Report

It's been a few weeks since I started my TEFL course and this week I began my observation hours. To complete the TEFL course you have to do a practicum of 20 hours in an ESL classroom (observing, teaching and/or tutoring). Luckily there is an ESL program at the Univ. of La Verne which is less than 10 minutes away from where I work. On Wednesday I woke up at 7 (that was so difficult to do!) and ventured onto the university campus. The campus is next to a residential area SIDE NOTE: I found a small house with a porch that looks like something from the south (which is what I want)!! Most of the buildings are brick but of course the newer buildings aren't. I observed 3 classes starting at 8am. 

The first class was small, 10 people, and it was at an advanced level. Everyone understood what the teacher was saying and the people who spoke up in the class had a great grasp of the language. I sat next to a guy who did not speak up a lot in the class but when he was writing for the assignments he understood everything perfectly. I can see how even though these people are in the same class they are at different levels. Some people might find speaking the language really simple and others might find speaking difficult but writing much easier. I understand them!! When I was at school learning German I found speaking easy (even though I knew I was making mistakes) and I found writing a little harder. I learned to not be afraid of speaking the language because the native speakers would correct me if I butchered a word or sentence. But when I wrote I was thinking in English a little too much. 

The second class I observed was a lower level and I immediately saw the difference between the two classes because everyone except two students were so quiet. The whole class lecture that day was about noun clauses. Most of the students did really well on the in class assignment but none of the students (except for two) willingly spoke up. Of the two that spoke up one of them had great vocabulary but I understood why he was in this level of class. He made sense when he spoke but he would get words in the sentence mixed up. 

Finally I observed an advanced class that wasn't specifically about grammar or the English language. I think this is a class to help them with their reading because they analyzed an essay and then had a debate about a current online article. I was in a group with half of the class and noticed that they spoke freely and most of them spoke with confidence. Once in a while some of them would resort to speaking their own language together but I expect that to happen because a majority of the students were from the same country. 

By the end observing I felt like I had been the one in class all day! I really liked getting involved with the students and helping them out when they needed it. Most of all I realized that I NEED to learn more about English grammar. As a native English speaker it's so easy to speak and write but it's difficult to explain why we speak and write this way. Why do we pronounce something a certain way? Why does this word go in front of this word? Can this word also be an adverb/adjective? I'm going to need to be able to explain these things and right now I can't. That's what I'm nervous about :///// I guess I'll get to studying right now.