CELTA Online Unit 4 Task 7 - How to monitor

Now watch a clip of Maureen, an experienced teacher, monitoring the students while they are doing
a speaking activity. As you watch, make notes on how she monitors in the table below.

Your notes:
1. Where is the teacher when she is monitoring the students?

The teacher is not in her original position. She is not in a fixed place in the classroom. She is moving
around the students. She stayed in different pairs to listen, to observe what they are saying.
Basically, she is among the students to listen, to observe, to check the progress, to find any mistake,
and to provide support.

2. Does the teacher interrupt the students?

The teacher never interrupted the students in the first place. Later on, the teacher interrupted only
to provide a little support. She never interfered about their opinion, the language, and vocabulary.
She only corrected as one of them made some mistake.

3. Is the teacher available for students to ask questions?

The teacher is available for the students. The students can ask questions, concept. She was moving
around around every group equally divided with the purpose to find any problems using the target
language, to check the progress, to set the stage for better feedback for every student, pair.

Answers
1. Where is the teacher when she is monitoring
the students?
2. Does the teacher interrupt the students?
3. Is the teacher available for students
to ask questions?
The teacher walks behind the students and
listens
to them unobtrusively.
No. The focus of the activity is for the students
to practise speaking so the teacher does not
interrupt the students.
Yes. Although the teacher does not interrupt
the students, she is clearly available if they have
any questions or doubts.

Commentary

As was shown in the clip, when students are working together the teacher needs to use this time to
monitor their progress. In this case, the focus of the activity was on communication so it was not
useful for the teacher to interrupt. However, when learners are working on language tasks where
the focus is not on communication, such as adding the correct verbs to sentences, then the teacher
can monitor more closely to help and guide students who are struggling.

Many teachers will monitor from behind the students’ desks whereas other teachers may approach
students from the front. Either way of monitoring is acceptable but it is important not to stand over
the students too much as they work because this can be intimidating.