Teaching English as a Foreign Language, Second Edition

1 What is the nature of the social interaction that is taking
place?
What is the general social atmosphere of the class? What is
the relationship between the pupils and the teacher? between
pupil and pupil? Is the interaction teacher-dominated? Is the
teacher teaching the whole class together as one, with the
pupils’ heads up, looking at the teacher? Does he ask all the
questions and initiate all the activity? Or are the pupils being
taught in groups? How big are the groups? How many of
them are there? Are they mixed ability groups or same ability
groups? Are all groups doing exactly the same work, or
different work? Or, are pupils working in isolation, each on
his own, with head down looking at his books?
2 What is the nature of the language activity that is taking
place?
This is on the whole a simpler question than the first one
since it is essentially a matter of asking, ‘Are pupils reading,
writing, listening, or talking?’ But at a slightly deeper level it
is also possible to ask, ‘Are they practising the production of
correct forms or are they practising the use of forms they

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In the Classroom
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have already learnt? Are they operating a grammatical rule, a
collocational pattern, or an idiomatic form of expression?
Are they using words, phrases and sentences in appropriate
contexts to convey the message they actually intend to
convey? Are they concentrating on accuracy or fluency, on
language or communication?
3 What is the mode by which the teacher is teaching?
Is he using a purely oral/aural mode? Talking and listening?
Is he simply talking or is he using audio aids as well? a tape
recorder? radio? record player? Are there sound effects for
the pupils to listen to or is it just words? Or, is the teacher
using a visual mode? Is he using written symbols: written
words, and sentences and texts, numbers, diagrams, charts
or maps? or is he using things that represent reality in some
sense: actual physical objects, models, pictures, photographs
or drawings? Or is the teacher using a mixture of aural and
visual modes? Can they be disentangled?