Class Observation Report
Instructor’s name: _____Zhang Laoshi___________
Class taught in: ______Chinese Class Grade 1____
Date of teaching: ________02/26/2015__________
Duration of teaching: ______65min______________
1) What transpired in class
The class I observed is the 1st year Chinese course taught by Zhang Laoshi. The topic for the class is about hobbies （爱好）. Before the class, Zhang Laoshi showed me the textbook used, which is a quite traditional form based Chinese textbook and told me that the language background of most students are English.
After Zhang Laoshi entered the classroom and asked students how they did in the midterm exam. Students thought they did well and Zhang Laoshi told them they need to put more effort on Chinese learning. Then they started to learn about 爱好. The way Zhang Laoshi used is quite traditional. First, they read all the new words together “同伴儿，业余，多才多艺，琴棋书画，很好，下一个，样样精通， 志趣相投， 各有所 （非常好）气氛， 十分， 活跃……”Then Zhang Laoshi divided all the students into 2 groups and asked them to read the words again to each other. She walked around to help when students got stuck.
After that, Zhang Laoshi started to explain new words and asked students to do some exercises of the structures. Take 爱好 as an example, T:爱好，就是大家平时喜欢做的事情。来，我们来说说大家平时有什么爱好，大家可以用我们上学期学过的“喜欢……也喜欢……”，老师在这里给出一组照片，大家可以看着照片，一个同学问，一个同学答。Ss practiced the hobbies given by Zhang Laoshi and some of them stated to talk in English. Then Zhang Laoshi pointed at each pictures and asked, students gave the answers.
When they finished all the new words in this way, they went to grammar. Take “想要” as an example, T: 过生日，你想要让大家送你们什么礼物？Ss took turns to answer this question. They also repeated the long sentences together if it was too hard for them to read fluently at the first time. They went over all the structures and came to the text. The class ended at that time and Zhang Laoshi asked students to finish their week diary and prepare for their dictation in next class.
As the whole class was taught in a very traditional way and pretty much like a drill, I do not list everything here and just give some typical examples.
2) Reflections
Zhang Laoshi knew that we are now learning TBLT at TCSOL so she said she would try to use TBLT in her class for my observation. Based on my observation and understanding, there was no TBLT in the class. It was only a drill class. There’s nothing called modified tasks. Tasks are tasks, and they are something students will do in the real world. A task is an activity that required learners to use language, with an emphasis on meaning to attain the objective.
She also told me that as they are all 1st year students, it’s actually hard to use TBLT. The Chinese program at Columbia is quite intensive, using TBLT for 1st year student is like giving time for them to make tons of mistakes. However, I have a very different opinion about what she said. Based on what we learnt, I think that TBLT can be used for learner with various proficiencies, and that’s also the reason why tasks can be recycled.
If I am the teacher of this class, I would like to have my students to express their true hobbies in this class rather than saying something that are assigned by the teacher. Today’s college students are passionate Internet users. There are many website and social media that group users by their hobbies, for example “Meetup”, which is a very popular website that let users with the similar hobbies organize offline events. I would like to have a “Meetup” activity in my class. Students write down all their hobbies and then talk to each other to see if they can find someone with similar hobbies to meet up. After they find their partners, they can organize an event that introduces the hobby or their experiences with this hobby to other groups. For me, I think it’s something students will do in real life. As they are 1st year students, they do not have to introduce something complicated. They can just introduce topics like how many years they have had the hobby, how they get started and what do they like about it, etc.