Class Observation on EAP Class of MBA Learners (Teaching Practicum)

We observed the EAP class of MBA learners where there were a total number of 23 students and the class was a 1 hour class that started from 4:35pm. The teacher the class by asking who were feeling happy and students answered the teacher by explaining with reasons. The teacher made a review of the last class’ topic on summary and paraphrase and asked them for reviewing the topic.

Student reviewed summary and paraphrase by discussing on the characteristics - the gist of the text, no examples, no recommendations, no citations and references to be included. Then teacher asked what is citation and students answered that it includes the name of the author, the year of publication and other information. The teacher asked students the reason behind citation, informing that not following the citation will mean that their work is plagiarized. After this, teacher again asked about the characteristics of the summary and paraphrase, this time, he asked them to look at their class work copies. The teacher explained that, “There are overlapping areas in summary and paraphrase.” Hearing this, students spontaneously shared their previous class experience about summary and paraphrase. The teacher then moved to main discussion and informed students that summary comes for report writing and this is the reason why he reviewed on the last class’ discussion. He also informed them that summary helps in academic writing, then the teacher checked the booklet for schedules.

The teacher started discussion on the topic by asking students if they have ever written any report, if so, then what difficulties they have faced in writing the reports. Most students answered that they gathered information before writing a report. The teacher then asked both the working and non – working students if they have written any report and how different was their report writing. He also asked the working students if they have any prescribed report formats in their organization.

Following this, the teacher showed the students Powerpoint slides on report writing. This included the 7 ‘C’ principles of report writing – Completeness, conciseness, consideration, concreteness, clarity, courtesy and correctness. He asked meaning of each of these characteristics and students answered.

Suddenly, the electricity went off and the teacher became unprepared and stopped the discussion. He moved on to taking attendance of the students, waiting for the backup power to start. The electricity came and the teacher started showing students the slides of the different types of reports in short. He discussed about the Routine Operational Reports, Progress Reports, and Problem – solving Reports, Audit Reports and Meeting Minutes etc. The teacher asked the students. “In which organization they write these types of reports and who writes them?” As the students cannot answer, the teacher gave examples, even mentioned that he worked in Qatar Airways where he used to write and submit Routine Operational Reports.

Some students were speaking in Bengali, but the teacher said, “No Bangla in the class” and emphasized using English in class telling that it will improve their fluency. Then he wrote a few points on the board on the format, language and types of report writing. He explained and emphasized that, “Problem – solving reports are written before the problem arises and managers ask employees to write them.” Then teacher wrote on the board another name which was Audit report and asked students about it and few students answered. Next, the teacher asked students about Meeting Minutes, “What do you write? Is there any prescribed format?” Students could not answer so the teacher explained that the Meeting Minutes can be 1 – 3 pages long and they are written in the email format.

After this, the teacher asked, “Are you clear about the types of reports? Do you have any questions?” He also asked the students to help their peers who came late and did not understood the discussion, but there was no cooperation there for the late comers from their peers. So, the teacher had to explain everything again. He reviewed the topic and asked what type of language is used in writing report, the students answered that formal format is used and the teacher added a few examples.

Subsequently, the teacher moved on to group work and formed 5 groups with students based on situations given to them and asked each group to write a report based on their given situation.. He divided the groups by numbers – 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. Students formed groups in circles and teacher again instructed each group about their situations which he wrote down on a paper for each group, handouts with instructions, images and bullet points. Each group was given different types of report to write which were discussed in class and the teacher clarified again, “Write situation or questions in the page and start writing the report. Are the instructions clear?” Students started their discussion is groups and the teacher distributed test scripts from the previous class.

The teacher gave a total of 15 minutes for all the groups to write their reports. Meanwhile, he took their attendance and then moved on to each group monitoring their works, providing assistance and suggestion. He carefully checked what they wrote, corrected their errors in writing. One group was writing problem report rather than problem – solving report, so the teacher corrected them, provided them the right situation and examples to correct their report writing format.

As 10 minutes were over the teacher alarmed the students, “After 5 minutes, you will have to present your report.” So, he asked the groups to hurry. As all the groups were done writing, the teacher asked them to first submit their situations or questions and collected the questions or situations from each group. Then he exchanged and distributed the questions or situations between groups and asked each group now to write answers to the questions which they have received from other groups. Finally, teacher told them that they will have to write a full format report now answering all the questions or situations. He explained that the purpose of exchanging the group works was to give them opportunity in writing a different kind of report which they have not written before. As we were leaving from the class observation, the teacher informed us that students will then write these reports in groups again and present it group – wise in front of the class.