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GROUP DIAGNOSIS

 

ESCUELA NORMAL“Vicente Fatone”

U.N.S

MARIA SOLEDAD

GONZALEZ

Index

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Institutional characteristics 3

Characteristics of the group 3

Particular characteristics of this group 3

Type of work in class 3

Conclusion 4

Institutional characteristics

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I’m observing a group of students of 4 th year in Escuela Normal Superior. The studentshave classes during the afternoon. There are 17 students of 4th year “D”, they arebetween 15 or 16 years old. English is taught two hours a week and the level of thestudents is consistent. This group is called “advanced” since they sit for adiagnosis/placement test every year. The group I watched is the advanced, however they work with a pre-intermediate book and according to the teacher “advanced” is justa title but not an indicator of the level of the students.They are having a test just the class before I start my practicum, it is going to be thefirst test of the year.

Characteristics of the group

The atmosphere is quiet and seems quite friendly. The group of students is attentive sothere are no behavior problems. There are 12 girls and 5 boys in this class. They sit insmall groups. The classroom is quite small and there is an old board, the walls are

ruined and there are a couple of informal posters made by the students (drawings,phrases, lyrics of songs). Every class the teacher asks a student to go and look for aCD player. The students use their coursebook and workbook in class. Particular characteristics of this group

I arrived very early to the school so I walked around the corridors waiting for the class. Iidentify the classroom and saw the “preceptora”, she kissed me hello and weintroduced each other, she seemed to know about my practicum. I saw students werecoming back to the room slowly so I looked for a seat at the back. The classroom isquite small and many students were sitting at the back so I was pretty near them.The teacher came in, wave from the front desk and told the students I was doing my

practicum and immediately after that he reminded the students about the test, so theydid not really paid much attention to me.The teacher does not have a starting protocol of the class (like writing the date or askstudents how they are). He directly asked for homework and delivered some sheets of paper from previous homework. According to the teacher’s information there are around 7 students that have previousexperiences in English Institutes but after the observation I could not identify them so Ithink the difference in level is not considerate.Students are used to work with the textbook and workbook very strictly. They havelaptops from last year (the laptops provided by the programme conectar igualdad).Unfortunately the internet connection is very bad and in the English class they do notuse them.

The teacher uses English most of the time and students too. However there is plenty of translation as a way to help with new vocabulary. They practice the four skills in class:reading, listening, writing and speaking and they can handle them well.They are using the book “Solutions” Pre-Intermediate 1st edition. This is a five-levelEnglish course for teens that has an approach to teaching speaking and writing. Eachunit is divided into seven lessons (A-G) and has topics of interest for teens (sports,films, technology) and personalized activities. Every lesson has an outcome: 'I CAN'statements at the top of each page showing students’ achievements. Speaking is verymuch integrated in the lessons. The textbook “Solutions” uses presentation-practice-production methodology: lexis and grammar is presented in context, followed bycontrolled practice, free practice, and applied production. Practice is reinforced fromthe Vocabulary and Grammar Builder in the Student's Book, tasks in the Workbook,games on the Student's CD ROM and website, and 20 additional photocopiables per level.

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They started using the same book last year so this year they are doing the second partof it. They have just started UNIT 5 and the teacher told me I should work with this unitduring my practicum (8 classes). The unit I will be working with is about “Gifts” and thegrammatical topic is Present Perfect.

Conclusion

The classes are quiet; the behavior of the students is good. They pay attention to theclass although the class is very teacher-centered.The book is the center of the class; there is no introduction or contextualization beforegoing to the textbook. The activities in the book are respected although the speakingactivities that should be done in groups or pairs are avoided. He follows the PPPapproach to teaching. Grammar is not treated as a communicative resource; there isexplicit instruction of some forms. The teacher encourages self-correction or hecorrects them himself when they can’t find the mistake.

The classroom power is balanced and there are no behaviour problems. Thesestudents have a good level of English.

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