On Wednesday, I did my second classroom observation. It was of a level 2A speaking class. I noticed many of the things we have talked about in class such as Asian students talking less often, but more accurately, and more Hispanic/Middle Eastern students talking more often and confidently. I also noticed that (at least in this class) the women talked much more than the men. The teacher intentionally slowed her speech and simplified it a little bit. She often asked the class questions about what words/phrases meant and tried to give ample speaking opportunity to all of the students whenever she could. The entire class was supposed to start on a presentation about an aspect of their culture so most of the class was spent discussing the project instructions and also analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of an example presentation done last session. In this class, only a few students were really attempting to speak often-basically two girls-and with the exception of the teacher walking around helping students decide on their presentation topic, most of them simply sat and listened (although one was always on the phone and she was always having to tell him to put it away). For a speaking class, it seemed strange that most of the students were content not to participate for whatever reason. I'm not sure how in a classroom situation I would deal with this. The teacher in this class kept giving opportunities and only the two students were taking them. I wonder how to get around such a problem?
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