Ethnographic Observation: English Language Learners

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This ethnographic observation took place on September 22, 2017 at ELS Center in West Haven. ELS is an English school for students who learn English as a second language. In twelve class levels, students can choose one of three different programs; English for Business, General English, and Academic English. Each level last for four weeks. I observed thirty minutes of a class that started at 11:00 am. The class was a mixed-level class that has ten students from level 103, 104, 105, and 106. The students are all adults from different countries and speak different languages. Their gender is equally divided five males and five females. Five students from Saudi Arabia, two from Colombia, two from Brazil, one from Spain. The mother tongue of the …show more content…

I thought it is going to be like any other class I have attended as a student; however, I was fully paying attention to every single move the teacher made in the class trying to figure out what technique he used. Since it was a mixed-level class that has beginner levels and intermediate levels, the students have different levels of English proficiency. Therefore, the teacher was speaking very clearly and slowly with lots of repetitions to give the students equal chance to understand. The teacher started with a quick review for the previous lesson by giving the students three sentences to change them from active voice to passive voice. While, the students were working individually, the teach walked around the class to help them and answer their questions. After he made sure that they all have no question about the previous lesson, he moved to the main new lesson which was about causative verbs. I liked the way he used to introduce the lesson which is telling them something about himself to explain the meaning of causative verbs. He told them that “Alright, I want to tell you something about myself. so.., when I was in college, I did not enjoy writing essays. When I had an essay to write, my friends would know that I had an essay to write because I looked miserable” (line

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