Professional Development
Reflect on Your Teaching Skill ThroughObservation
Risa Aoki
Dokkyo UniversityIntroduction
In this paper, I will report how effective it is for first-year teachers
to observe experienced teachers’ classes to develop professionally.
First of all, I would like to ask you to remember how the first year ofyour teaching went. In my case, after classes I constantly reflected
on what I taught and sometimes wondered if it was truly effective
for my students. Theories I learned in my master’s degree program
and teaching experience in the U.S. were helpful, but I wondered
how I could better my teaching skill even though I thought I knew
what I should teach; if the American way of teaching is effective,
would it be likewise in a Japanese context?
For example, when completing my master’s degree, I wasdetermined to adopt more group work to change my way ofteaching in Japan into a more communicative approach. I wasconvinced by the theory of interactive language learning to try
more group activities. According to Brown (2001), group work
gives students more opportunities to speak and engage in faceto-face communication than does a class where teacher talk isdominant. Thus, overall communicative competence will improve.
In addition, I saw students improve their speaking abilities throughpair and group work in ESL classes in the U.S. This is very different
from English education in Japan, where students expect more
221

Aoki

lectures and explanations from a teacher.
Even though I knew it was worth trying group work, I sometimes
did not feel comfortable using it in my classes in Japan. My internal
voice asked, “Is it difficult for Japanese students to do group activities
because they did not do that in their previous education?” “If theycannot do group activities well, will they be embarrassed, and will I
create a negative atmosphere in the classroom?” In short, I was afraidof students’ reactions to group activities.
When I encountered this problem, I realized that in the university
workplace, there are not enough opportunities for part-time teachers
to talk freely about their problems and get suggestions from othercolleagues. When I was a graduate student, I observed other classes
and invited other teachers to my classroom. These interactions amongteachers were very helpful for improving my teaching skill. Therefore,
the purpose of this paper is to describe my discovery about how
observation was beneficial to me, a novice teacher. In this paper, two
research questions will be investigated:
1. What are the advantages for a novice teacher in observing anexperienced teacher’s class?
2. Can a Japanese teacher lead group activities successfully in Japan sothat Japanese students improve their communicative competence?

ProceduresFirst of all, I needed to decide whose class I should observe. I
selected one teacher from whom I might be able to find the answers
to my research questions. Since I wanted to focus on observing one
particular element—using group work well—I chose Tim Murphey
at Dokkyo University, who successfully leads group work in Japan.
Through talking with Murphey and reading his articles, I was sure that
he had students interact, speak a lot, and learn from their classmates,
who were their “near-peer” models. According to him, near-peer rolemodeling is “modeling peers who are close to the learner in age, ethnic
222

Reflect on Your Teaching... OnCUE Journal, 2(3), pages 221-227

origin, living situation, and proximity” (Murphey, 2001).
The class I observed was Murphey’s advanced speaking class of
20 students. Murphey had students talk in pairs about “three people
you admire.” As homework, the students had already written about thethree different people. In addition, he videotaped every student—twoat a time—conversing for five minutes, while the other students spokewith other partners, changing pairs every five minutes.
As Murphey suggested, I did not sit as an observer in the back of theclass, but participated in the class as a student and did all the activities
with students.

Findings
I found that playing a student’s role and experiencing a student’s
point of view, I was able to clearly see what the students were actually
doing during the pair activities. From a student’s perspective, I would
like to mention what helped me to improve my own English during theactivities. First of all, I monitored and modified my own speech and wasable to improve speaking after interactions with other students. In total,
I was paired with three students in pairs. Each time when I changedpartners, I realized I spoke better than in the previous conversation. For
example, because one partner showed by her puzzled facial expressionthat she did not understand a certain part of my story, I noticed I needed
to correct that part and did so with the next partner. The more partners
I practiced with, the better I summarized what I really wanted to say. I“progressed” in quality of speaking through the negotiation of meaning
in real conversations.
Moreover, I learned a lot from near-peer role models. Some students
seemed pleased with taking the risk of making mistakes and spoke
English with enthusiasm. Usually, Japanese students feel shy about
speaking and are afraid of making mistakes, so I was very impressed.
The energy of Murphey’s students affected me. In this ideal classroom
atmosphere, I enjoyed the process of improving my speaking. I223

Aoki

learned to have a positive attitude while learning English from my peer
models.
Furthermore, I felt comfortable trying out English with other students
because Murphey had created a safe environment for them to speak
English. During the activity, he sometimes shouted and had students
repeat the expression, “Relax! Be happy!” He also asked students,“What time is it now?” and had them answer, “It’s time to be happy!”
Everyone smiled and laughed at those moments and I felt my affective
filter was lowered thanks to these humorous expressions.
As I mentioned above, Murphey’s class showed me that it is effective
for Japanese students to practice speaking English in group activities.
Then I considered where my fear came from in incorporating group
work and why group work seemed difficult. Now I understand thatfear came from lack of experience. I am new at this so do not have alot of teaching experience yet. In addition, my own students felt thatgroup work was different from lectures they had had in their previous
classes. Because of the lack of experience with group work from boththe teacher’s and students’ sides, I worried that group activities might
not work well.
In addition, one reason group work seemed difficult is that ateacher cannot expect to know or to plan exactly what is going tohappen in the classroom in advance. Depending on students’ reactionsin the classroom, teachers have to think on their feet, be flexible, help
students, and solve their problems. In this sense, a lecture is easierthan group work. In a lecture, teachers can plan what they are going toteach in advance and simply follow that plan in class.
Back in my class, I came to feel confident in using group work.
This was because now I strongly believed that group work is effective
for Japanese students and thus worth trying. Through the observation,
I was convinced that students would be able to benefit greatly fromgroup work.
Moreover, I came to believe that someday I will be able to lead group224

Reflect on Your Teaching... OnCUE Journal, 2(3), pages 221-227

activities as well as Murphey. His class is my “model.” The memory ofparticipating in the class remains vivid in my mind. With that image, I
can visualize how I would like to incorporate group work in my class.
To that end, I also set a clear goal, which is to improve my teachingskill to his level. To begin with, I will take a first step of helping students
feel relaxed by making jokes and showing I care for them. A second
step will be to believe that they will improve in speaking English andto let them speak with that belief as well.
In fact, it is even helpful for me to recognize why group work
seems difficult in Japan. Since my students and I do not have a lotof experience doing group work, I find there is nothing wrong withfeeling it is challenging. In this way, I can take the pressure off myself.
I, a first-year teacher, cannot lead group activities successfully all thetime, but I am willing to try, make mistakes and improve day by day.
Another positive change is that now I send messages to my students
such as, “I believe you can speak and improve your English throughgroup activities.” Even though the message is unstated, students may
realize what a teacher is thinking (Dornyei, 2001). For example, whenmy students speak, I listen to them very carefully, smiling, making eye
contact with them, and nodding in order to send non-verbal messages,
which are “I’m listening to you. What you are saying is interesting.” In
this way, students and I will be comfortable enough to do group activitiesand confident enough to improve our respective performances: myteaching and their English abilities.

Conclusion
Going back to the research questions, I found that observing anexperienced teacher is very advantageous for a novice teacher. The
observation was very helpful for me to come to believe that group
work is worth trying in Japan, and also that I will be able to conduct
it as well as the experienced teacher did. As for the second question,
it became clear from this experience that a Japanese teacher can lead225

Aokigroup activities successfully so that Japanese students improve theircommunicative competence. Playing a student’s role in the experienced
teacher’s class, I modified my own speech, took a positive attitude frommy near-peers, and progressed in speaking ability. I believe Japanesestudents can do likewise. As a matter of fact, in my class, as I havebegun to conduct group work better, my students have begun to do it
better, too.
However, I think I could not have learned as much if I had notplayed a student’s role and seen what was actually going on during thegroup activity. A student’s eyes are different from a teacher’s. Througha student’s eyes, I was also able to reflect objectively on the classes
I taught. Then I was able to modify my classes. On the other hand,
Murphey mentioned that he thought a good deal more about his own
class with an observer present. He told me that he reflected on what
and how he was teaching during the observation. Therefore, I thinkobservation is advantageous for both the observer and the observed.
I highly recommend that teachers observe others’ classes and also
accept observers in their own.
For further research, I would like to observe other Japanese teachers
using group activities. This is because I expect that they would be closer
models for me because we Japanese teachers share the same kinds ofdifficulties in doing group work. I also think this research would havebeen better if other novice teachers, experienced teachers, and I would
have discussed mutual observation sessions.
Risa Aoki has been teaching English since April, 2006 and is currently
teaching at Dokkyo University and Tokai University. She has also
been interpretering at Tokyo Labor Consultation Center. She holds aB.A. in French from Niigata University and an M.A. degree in TESOL
from San Francisco State University. Her research interests include
interactive language learning, learner motivation, computer assisted
language learning, and materials development. She can be contacted
at lissaao@yahoo.co.jp226

Reflect on Your Teaching... OnCUE Journal, 2(3), pages 221-227

References
Brown, H. D. (2001). Teaching by principles: An interactive approachto language pedagogy. (2nd ed.). White Plains, NY: Pearson
Education.
Dörnyei, Z. (2001). Motivational strategies in the language classroom.
New York: Cambridge University Press.
Murphey, T. (2001). Videoing conversations for self-evaluation inJapan. In J. Murphy & P. Byrd (Eds.), Understanding the courses
we teach: Local perspectives on English language teaching (pp.
179-196). Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press.

227