What Is There to Observe? An Analysis of Hungarian Teacher Trainees’ EFL Classroom Observation Reports

In Hungary, classroom observation is an integral part of teacher training programmes. As part of their teacher education, students have always been required to visit and observe classes taught by experienced in-service teachers. The system of teacher training has undergone several changes in the past decades, now enabling teacher trainees to observe classes as early as the fourth semester of their studies. While this certainly has a lot of advantages, it raises the question of what trainees can really observe at this early stage, without extensive training on EFL teaching. Thus, this is the main research question of the current study. In this research, teacher trainees from a Hungarian university (N = 42) were asked to report on their observations of English classes. The thematic content analysis of the teacher trainees’ observation reports shows a detailed account of student and teacher language and behaviour as well as of the teaching environment and material. An additional factor that appears is the trainees’ self-reflection in the form of recalling their past learner experiences and reflecting on their future teacher selves.