Observation Statement

Throughout observing lessons at UCR Extension Center, I could see how

theories and principles that I learned in TESOL methodologies classes are practiced in
the real classroom. No matter what level students are, and no matter what skill the class
aims for, successful lessons seem to have similar factors in common, which are focusing
on students production and utilizing scaffolding.
First of all, by observing lessons, I realized that the teachers tried to give a lot
of opportunities to talk for students. Specifically, teachers asked questions rather than
just giving answers, and devised activities even from one picture on the textbook so that
students could have a lot of time to use English in the classroom. In other words,
teachers provided students with opportunities for output. According to Swain (2000),
learners can build new knowledge by actually saying aloud and reflecting what they
said. That is to say, in learning a second language, it is useless to just sit down and listen
to teachers. Therefore, in most of the lessons that I observed, teachers stressed on
students production. To illustrate, Yalcins lesson (#2) was full of students interaction.
Even though the class was reading and writing class, she let students talk in pairs or
groups a lot. Besides, she grouped different students every time. As an additional
example, Lindwalls lesson (#5) was based on pair work. She asked students to talk with
their partners first, and then, she asked them to share their ideas with the whole class. As
the research shows, output is significant for every student learning English as a second
language. In particular, I think that Japanese learners, who will be my future students,
need many more opportunities to use English because many of them are struggling in
speaking, despite of the fact that they can show a high ability in understanding grammar.
Although I know that Japanese students are shy and quiet, I would like to try to allot a

lot of time to using English. Also, I would like to tell them that they cannot learn
English without making mistakes. The reason for the aforementioned idea is attributable
to the fact that Japanese students tend to think that they can speak after acquiring
accuracy. However, accuracy cannot be achieved easily in a short time.
Secondly, it was remarkable that teachers executed their lessons step by step.
By showing an example, teachers helped students to understand grammar or do
exercises, and they gradually let students do the activities by themselves. Put in
pedagogical terminology, teachers expedited scaffolding in their lessons. The concept of
scaffolding is deeply related to the theory, Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) by
Vygotsky (1978). He describes the distance between learners current ability and their
potential ability that they can accomplish a task along with others help. The term,
scaffolding, was first used by Wood, Bruner and Ross (1976), and according to
Hammond and Gibbons (2005), the key characteristic of scaffolding is its
temporariness: since scaffolding aims for students automaticity in language learning,
support by teachers or peers decreases gradually. As a case in point, in Petersons lesson
(#1), she presented new grammar rules, adjective clauses, and showed how to interpret a
sentence by using the board and analyzing each word in the sentence. While showing
enough examples, she asked students to find relative pronouns in sentences by
themselves. In the process, she moved around the classroom so that she could help
students to do so. When it comes to my future teaching, the concept of scaffolding will
be one of the most important principles in my teaching philosophy. My preference for
the concept stems from the fact that nobody can immediately attain a skill from the
beginning. However, generally speaking, when people gain a skill, they are likely to
forget how they learned and struggled. Therefore, I would like to be an English teacher

who can understand learners feeling, especially anxiety, by keeping the aforesaid
concept in mind.
In a nutshell, by observing lessons, I realized that the lessons were organized
well with a lot of students production and the idea of scaffolding. Having observed the
lessons, I could expand and foster my philosophy in my future teaching.

References
Hammond, J., & Gibbons, P. (2001). 2 What is scaffolding?. Teachers voices 8:
Explicitly supporting reading and writing in the classroom, 8.
Swain, M. (2000). The output hypothesis and beyond: Mediating acquisition through
collaborative dialogue. Sociocultural theory and second language learning, 97, 114.
Vygotsky, L. (1978). Interaction between learning and development. Readings on the
development of children, 23(3), 34-41.
Wood, D., Bruner, J. S., & Ross, G. (1976). The role of tutoring in problem solving.
Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, 17(2), 89-100.