Observation (1) ECA Level 2

 As I wrote in my previous post,yesterday, I have started to observe an ECA2 class ( Egyptian Colloquial Arabic, Level 2) and take some notes. This is a kind of documentation to what I see and experience in this class.

 Yesterday was the first day in the third week for this group, they are three students from different nationalities from different backgrounds. Yesterday's lesson main objective was to talk about daily routine. The focus was on verbs used to describe these repeated actions, and the time he/she used to do this or that. 

 In general, the lesson was well planed, materials were very clear and simple for understanding, drilling and practising were there all the time, pace of learning was very balanced, activities used for practising were checking their understanding. The movement between phases were very smooth, it was crystal clear while moving from the controlled practise activity to the freer one at the end of the lesson, thus, giving students more time to practise talking about their daily routine and allowing much  time for producing language.

 The start point in the lesson was checking about the students, asking them what they have done in their weekend vacation? (عملتوا إيه في الأجازة؟). This was a kind of a lead in to the lesson, asking them when they wake up in this day compared to other days in the week. Starting from the verb (بيصحي). Pictures were always there to convey the meaning of the verbs introduced in the lesson. The verbs used in this lesson are (بيصحي، بيفطر، بياكل، بياخد دش، بيليس ،بينزل، بيركب، بيروح، بيشتغل، بيتغدى، بيرجع، بيتفرج، بيتعشى، بيعمل، بيذاكر، بينام، ). Verbs are used in simple short sentences and it is used to build the daily routine of (he) or (هو) from the moment he woke up to the moment he goes to bed. A clock model was always there to emphasize the idea of the daily routine by setting the time he used to do this and that. 

هو بيصحى من النوم كل يوم الساعة ستة، بيفطر وبياكل سندوتش، بياخد دش، بيلبس هدومه وبينزل من البيت، بيركب تاكسي وبيروح الشغل، بيرجع البيت، بيتغدى في البيت ، وبيتفرج علي التليفزيون، بيتعشي بيتزا، بيذاكر درس العربي، وبيعمل الواجب وبينام الساعة حداشر

 Problems found in this phase was in pronunciation of some letters such as (ص، ح) in (بيصحَى) they were pronouncing it like (بيسهي) the (ع) in (بيرجع), the (ز) in (بينزل). Peer correction is used to solve these pronunciation issues. Connected speech in some sentences such as  in (بيتفرج على التليفزيون), drilling and practising has solved this issue.

The activity used helped the students practise the sentences used to build the daily routine. One of the activities was using the pictures by sticking them onto the board, asking them to look at the pictures carefully for one minute. Turning them over and asking them about the pictures randomly what is he doing here and at what time?

The second phase of the lesson turned from focusing on the (HE) to focus on other pronouns and their usage with the verbs introduced in the first phase. Using the same pictures they started talking about themselves using (أنا، أنت، أنتي), asking and answering questions, further, reporting about their friends' daily routine using (هو، هى).

 The only thing I want to add to this lesson if it were me, is a listening part, so I could highlight the verbs used in daily conversation in real life, and enrich their listening skills and help them familiarize with these verbs if they encounter hearing them in any context.

 

 In the upcoming post I will be writing on today's lesson, until then have a good day!