Over the course of the semester, you will observe a classroom in 5-hour blocks and record your observation in an observation log. After each 5-hour block, the observation log must be submitted, for a total of four separate submissions. Because you will each complete your hours at different points during the semester, please submit each of your logs here.
The observation log (4) must include the following information:
Introduction
Name of school
Name of cooperating teacher
Number of ELL students in the classroom
Their home countries
The languages spoken by their families at home
Specific notes in each of the following areas:
I Phonology Errors (IFE: Observation Log 1)
Production of consonants
Articulators
Air column
Voicing
Production of vowels
Production of suprasegmental features
Syllable- vs. stress-timing
Intonation
Word-level and sentence-level stress
II Morphology Errors (IFE: Observation Log 2)
Errors related to nouns
Error related to verbs
Errors related to adjectives and adverbs
III Syntax Errors (IFE: Observation Log 3)
Phrase structure
Clause structure
SVO word order
Transformations
Negation
Yes-No questions
Information questions
Other structures
IV Issues Related to Other Language Features (IFE: Observation Log 4)
Semantics—the encoding and decoding of meaning
Pragmatics
Direct and Indirect speech acts
Grice’s Conversational Maxims
Cross-cultural pragmatics
Patterns of participation
The silent period of second-language development
Dialectal variation
After you complete each observation block and submit the corresponding observation log, make an appointment to talk to your IFE teacher about your observations. This discussion will be especially helpful in identifying patterns of error within the data you collect. It will also help you in selecting the particular language issue, either oral or written, that you will address in the IFE lesson plan.
If focusing on oral production, record the students during your observation times, if possible. If not, note words that present pronunciation problems or phrases and sentences that are not native-like for some reason.
If focusing on written production, procure copies of students’ written work.
