Dr. Martha Clark Cummings, Associate Professor, The University of Aizu.
3 credits - No prerequisites. Open to all groups /TESOL IIIA/Elective (V)
P/F only

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course in classroom observation is designed to develop students’ skills in and understanding of observation as a fundamental professional development and research activity. The course has the following main goals:

• to provide frameworks for observing language teachers, language learners, and the interaction among them;
• to provide opportunities for guided practice in observing classes;
• to develop skills in observing and in recording data generated during observations;
• to develop an understanding of what it means to conduct ourselves professionally before, during and after class observations;
• to develop skills in providing perceptive and constructive feedback to others;
• to introduce language classroom research.
  

The course will also provide an introduction to some of the major observation instruments used in language teacher training, supervision, and classroom research. A number of experiential assignments will be completed in class, so it is important that you attend each class meeting. Class activities will include reading assignments, discussions, role plays, video-tape viewing, use of various observation instruments, transcript analysis, and actual “live” observations of teaching/learning events.

In completing the course, students will observe and document fifteen teaching/learning events (approximately ten hours of actual observing time). They will compile and submit an “Observation Notebook” in three installments. (A separate handout will be provided about this assignment.)

BOOKS TO BUY

Allwright, D. & Bailey, K. M. (1994). Focus on the language classroom. NY: Cambridge.
Fanselow, J. F. (1992). Contrasting conversations. White Plains, NY: Longman
Wajnryb, R. (1992). Classroom observation tasks. NY: Cambridge.

BIO

Dr. Martha Clark Cummings has a BA in French literature from New York University, MA and EdD in TESOL from Columbia University, Teachers College. Before moving to Japan in 2002, she taught at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, the New School Online University, as well as at Teachers College in New York. She writes about writing, language classrooms, sociolinguistics, and language and gender. Her current research interests include Computer-Mediated Discourse, first-person narrative in Second Language Acquisition Research, and the changing definition of Academic Writing. She is the author of a collection of short stories, Mono Lake, and co-author of the popular ESL text, Changes: Readings for Writers. Her new co-authored text, Inspired to Write, will be released early in 2004. She is the courseware leader for Academic Writing at the University of Aizu.