“A thousand teachers, a thousand methods-” Chinese proverb
Through the history, teachers and educators have adopted lots of different teaching methods and approaches such as the grammar teaching method, the audio-lingual method, the direct approach, the reading approach, and many others. However, the traditional language teaching approach (sometimes called grammar translation method) and the communicative approach have been the two most widely used ones by teachers for long. Since teaching a second or a foreign language is different from teaching a first or native language, teachers, educators, and linguists are in constant search of new methods and approaches that would result in more effective teaching. After all, the ultimate aim is to satisfy the learners’ needs and help them learn a second/foreign language. For this reason, it is suggested that linguists and educators stop looking for a better method and start looking for teaching practices or strategies that have been designed to satisfy local needs and experiences.
Approach, Method, Technique
For the purpose of improving the quality of language teaching, the American applied linguist Edward Anthony identifies three important concepts called approach, method, and technique the arrangement of which is hierarchical. Approach, method, and technique are among the most frequently used terms in any academic curriculum. For the purpose of avoiding any confusion, Anthony defines each term as follows:
Approach-It is a set of correlative assumptions that deal with the nature of language teaching and learning describing the nature of the subject matter to be taught.
Method-It is an overall plan of the orderly presentation of language material, no part of which contradicts, and all of which is based upon the selected approach. A single approach includes several methods.
Technique-It is what actually takes place in a language teaching classroom such as a particular trick, strategy, or plan for accomplishing a specific objective.
In other words, “the organizational key is that techniques carry out a method which is consistent with an approach.” Besides Anthony, it is suggested by Celce-Murcia and Brown that among the three concepts defined above, method is the most fundamental in teaching ESL/EFL. It is a set of “systematic presentation” that teachers use in their classes for the purpose of keeping their students comfortable, pleased, and not bored.
English as a World Language
“The first among languages is that which possesses the largest number of great works.” Voltaire
As stated by The Economist, English has become the global language that has influenced the whole world. It is estimated that one-sixth of the world’s population speaks or uses English. Besides being used as a language of communication, English is used as major language of the United Nations and NATO, official language of international aviation, unofficial first language of sports, radio broadcasts, writing mail, rapidly developing technology, films, scientific research and its literature and internet-supported job opportunities.
Today, English is taught in 3 different settings: first language or mother tongue (L1), second language (ESL), and foreign language (EFL). Kachru describes these 3 settings as inner-circle countries, outer-circle countries, and expanding-circle countries. In the inner-circle countries, English is taught and used as a first dominant language or mother tongue. It includes the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. In the outer-circle countries, English is taught and used as a second language. It includes countries like India, Nigeria, Malaysia, Tanzania, and many others as a result of the British colonialism. In these countries English is used parallel with their mother tongue. As a second language, English is considered essential for commercial, administrative, and educational purposes. In the expanding-circle countries, English is taught and used as a foreign language. It includes countries like China, Russia, Spain, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and many others where English is considered fundamental for international news, popular culture, and advanced education.
Lately, it is argued that the number of non-native speakers of English is more than that of the monolingual native speakers of English. According to Savignon, the ratio is more than two to one. Hence, as the global language of the 21st century, the Cairo Egyptian Gazette proclaims that English is the property of the entire world and not just Americans or other inner-circle countries.
English as a Second Language
In addition to what has already been said, in a second language setting English is significantly present in 4 different domains. First of all, English is the main language of the mass media that is the language of newspapers, radio, and television. In addition, English is the language of official institutions such as the law court and the government (local and central). Moreover, it is the language used at the educational institutions especially schools and universities. Last but not least, English is considered an essential component of the commercial and industrial organizations. In the outer-circle countries, an excellent command of English as a second language provides people with a smooth passage towards social development and economic progress. It goes without saying that English as a second language is not only learnt in the outer-circle countries, but also in the inner-circle countries. Immigrants in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada or Australia learn English for “integrative” purposes which allow them to identify with the native language community of the host country and to use it as a lingua franca with people from other linguistic backgrounds than theirs.
English as a Foreign Language
It is believed that people learn a foreign language for 2 different purposes. On one hand, they learn a foreign language for “instrumental” purposes. This group of learners includes tourists, salesmen, and science students. They need the foreign language for “operational” purposes such as reading a book in the target language and communicating with other speakers of that language. Based on this, people learn English as a foreign language either to visit England, to communicate with other tourists who speak English, or to read English books and newspapers. On the other hand, some people learn a foreign language for “integrative” purposes. Learners of this group have the urge to identify with the speech community of the target language (foreign language). By knowing the language, they feel at home and understand the attitude and world view of that speech community. According to Broughton, Brumfit, Flavell, Hill, & Pincas, unlike English as a second language, EFL is only taught in schools; it has nothing to do with the national or social life of the learners.
Recently, the more global English becomes thinner does the line between ESL and EFL become. Besides, the status of English has started changing in many countries. For example, with the decreasing role of English in countries like India and Sri Lanka the emphasis has shifted from being a second language to more of a foreign language. At the same time, the opposite is true to other countries. Linguistic and political decisions in many European countries such as Sweden and Holland have facilitated the shift from a foreign language situation to a more second language situation.
Whether first, second, or foreign language, Savignon argues that the emergence of English as a global language has had a great impact on the whole concept of language teaching. For Broughton, Brumfit, Flavell, Hill, & Pincas, English is either the language of a “neighboring” country or that of a language of global importance as a result of which educators allocate more teaching hours for English rather than other languages or subjects of the curriculum. Regardless of the methodology used in language classes and the wide range of educational settings used worldwide, all good language teaching classes share some basic principles that are derived from the interaction of aspects that contribute to the theory and practice of EFL.
This chapter looks at the concerns facing Volunteers teaching English inside or outside of the school system. The chapter outlines the reasons for a needs assessment, some of the people to be approached for information, and some of the questions to be raised in a needs assessment. In addition, this chapter looks at some of the constraints facing Volunteers teaching English, from the demands of large multilevel classes to the limitations of individual tutorials. Solutions are suggested which require the practical application of skills presented in pre-service training.
In recent years teachers of English as a Foreign Language (EFL), or English as a Second Language (ESL), have been paying increasing attention to identifying the needs of their students, to students’ attitudes towards English and their reasons for learning it. This attention to learners’ needs can be seen in countries such as Zaire or Peru where English is regarded as a foreign language and is largely treated as an academic subject in the school system and is not widely used outside of the classroom. The same attention to learners’ needs can also be seen in countries such as Malawi and Sri Lanka where English is taught as a second language, where English is widely used and is perceived as essential to success.
For you, as a teacher stepping into a new educational system, it is important to inform yourself of your students’ needs and attitudes towards learning English so that from the beginning you can play an effective role in your classroom. Conducting a needs assessment, even an informal one, is therefore an important first step in your job.
For those of you who are teaching English as a secondary project, perhaps by tutoring coworkers or coaching their children, a needs assessment will help you establish a purpose for your classes. It may also help you distinguish between would-be learners who are serious and those who are more casual in their approach. An accurate assessment of your learners’ commitment could help you avoid frustration or an unwarranted sense of failure.
Assessing Needs in School
Much of your fact-finding can be carried out through a series of interviews and conversations with colleagues, the school director, the head of the English department, your Peace Corps program manager, other Volunteers and your students. In asking your questions you may want to make it clear that you are not evaluating or passing judgment. Your purpose is to inform yourself so that you can serve your school community in the most effective way possible. Your cross-cultural skills will come into play as you both gather information and set the framework for a good working relationship with your colleagues and supervisor.
Creating the opportunity to talk to your students before your first classes will enable you to get an idea of their level of English. You do not need a detailed analysis at this point, but it would be good to know how much they understand when you talk to them. This will help you pitch your language at an appropriate level in your classes. These talks will also be a useful way for you to gauge your students’ attitudes towards learning English and to explore their perceptions of what they need from you. If past records of students’ performance in English are available, these will also help you build a picture of what to expect in the classroom.
This informal approach to assessing levels is particularly effective with primary school children. These children are usually friendly and delighted to meet an American. Take advantage of their friendliness to talk to them and to assess their level of English. A few questions about their names, ages, brothers, sisters and homes will help you ascertain how much they understand and how capable they are of handling English. When you are asking these questions, remember to use different tenses. For example:
What class were you in last year? (past)
When did you learn to play football? (past)
What will you do when you leave school? (future)
What will you do this evening? (future)
What’s your favorite subject? (present)
Who’s your best friend? (present)
How long have you been at this school? (present perfect)
How long have you been learning English? (present perfect progressive)
Listen carefully to the answers you get. They will give you important clues about your students’ ability to use verb tenses in English. In conducting a needs assessment in a school you are looking for answers to the following general questions:
What do your students expect from an English class?
What are the English language requirements of your school and of the national educational system?
What materials are available?
For each of these general areas, you will have a specific set of questions.
Expectations
Set up your questionnaire as simply as possible. For students who are beginners in English you might even consider using your students’ native language. For more advanced students, you could use your questionnaire as a basis for a first getting-to-know-you lesson. Here is an example of the type of format you might use in a secondary school, a technical college, a teacher training college, a university, or in classes with adults. Do you agree or disagree with each of the statements below? Put a check under the number that indicates how you feel.
If you do not have access to photocopying facilities to reproduce sufficient copies of this questionnaire, you could write the statements on the board, ask your students to respond in their exercise books, and then lead a discussion on reactions to the statements. In primary schools your students are less likely to articulate their expectations. However, it would be worth your while to talk to fellow teachers about their perceptions of what primary school children needs and expect from an English lesson.
Requirements
You may have gained a lot of information on national requirements during your Pre-Service Training, particularly in countries where there is a centralized system of school leaving examinations and the requirements are clearly laid out by the Government. However, you may have questions, like the ones below, about your school’s track record in the national examination system. These questions will probably best be answered by your head of department or school director.
Do you have copies of past national English examinations that I can see?
If the national English examinations are based on oral interviews, can I talk to someone who is experienced in giving these examinations?
What do students think of the national English examinations?
Do you have records of students’ national English examination results?
Do the students have any particular weaknesses which show up in the national English examinations?
Do inspectors from the English language teaching section of the Ministry of Education visit the school?
If so, are their reports available?
What is the grading system within the school? How often am 1 expected to give tests? How often am I expected to give homework assignments?
Are copies of past English tests available’?
Are student reports available’!
Be careful while you are asking these questions. If you think that you are coming across as pushy, or if you think your informant is becoming uncomfortable, be prepared to let the questions drop, and to gather the information you want gradually during your first few weeks on the job.
Materials
Once again, your head of department or school director will probably be the most useful in answering the following questions about the school’s English language materials.
What English language textbooks are used in the school? When were they published? When did the school obtain these books’!
Are there English books in the library? If so, what sort of books are they? Simplified novels? Technical texts?
Are there tapes, films and visual aids for use in English lessons?
Does the Government supply hooks’! Or do students have to pay for their books?
Do students share textbooks?
Does the school receive gifts or loans of books from organizations such as the United States Information Service?
If not, would you like me to see if such gifts or loans are possible to arrange?
Are funds available to buy more materials?
How does the procurement system work in the school?
Do you have any photocopying or stenciling facilities? Can I use these facilities? Are there any restrictions on their use?
Assessing Needs Outside of the School System
For those of you conducting a needs assessment outside of a school system, you will be looking for the following information:
Why do your students want to learn English? What tasks do they hope to accomplish with the English they will be learning?
What is their current level of English?
Specific answers to the first questions will help you meet the needs of your students. For example, prompted by your questions, an engineer may come to realize that he needs English to read articles on engineering, and that he has little need to speak or even understand spoken English. Or a group of medical technicians may decide that they want English classes in order to understand the spoken English of expatriate doctors. You can get at some of this information by asking the following kinds of questions:
1. Do you need English for your job?
How many hours a week do you use English?
When was the last time you spoke English on the job? What were the circumstances?
When was the last time you had to understand spoken English on the job? What were the circumstances”
When was the last time you read English on the job? What were the circumstances?
When was the last time you wrote English on the job? What were the circumstances?
Do you think you will be using English in the future for your work’?
Do you use English outside of work? When do you do so”
Do you think that knowing English increases chances of getting promoted?
Do you enjoy learning English?
Once you have an idea of your students’ needs you can focus on the appropriate skills of listening, speaking, reading or writing.
Using Informal Can-do Assessments
An informal assessment of current levels of English should be as non-threatening as possible. A simple conversation about your future students’ needs and about the times and frequency of classes will help you ascertain their level of comprehension and ability to communicate. You may also want to structure your conversation by using a Can-Do self-assessment scale. This technique has been found to be very effective with adults. Basically, in a Can-Do assessment you are asking your students to judge for themselves their abilities in English. If you have the option, you may want to consider using your students’ native language for this assessment. A possible format is as follows.
Speaking and Listening
Please read the following paragraphs and decide which paragraph best describes your ability to speak and understand spoken English.
My speech in English is limited to a few words. I have great difficulty in understanding English, even when it is spoken very slowly.
I can ask and answer questions about very familiar subjects. I can understand simple questions if they are spoken slowly and sometimes repeated. My vocabulary is limited to basic needs, such as food, asking directions, greeting people, etc. 1 make many grammatical mistakes, but people can usually understand me.
I can talk with native English speakers about myself, my family, my job and current events. I can understand the main ideas in most conversations, except when speech is fast. My grammar is fairly good, but I make mistakes with complicated constructions.
I can understand almost everything spoken by a native speaker of English. My grammar is good, and my mistakes are usually with very complicated constructions. My pronunciation is good, but I speak English with an accent.
I can understand native English speakers, even when they are speaking quickly and using slang. My vocabulary is extensive even for technical matters. I make very few grammatical errors, and my pronunciation is good but not completely native.
Reading and Writing
Please read the following and decide which paragraphs best describe your ability to read English and your ability to write English.
Reading
I really cannot read anything in English, or can read only a few words I have memorized.
I can recognize the letters of the alphabet. I can read some personal and place names, street signs, shop names, numbers and some isolated words.
I can get the general sense of business letters, news items and articles on subjects with which I am familiar, but I need to use a dictionary to do so.
I understand the basic meaning of most newspaper articles, routine correspondence, reports, and technical material in fields with which I am familiar, without using a dictionary. However I need to refer to a dictionary to get the exact meaning of the entire text. I sometimes have difficulty with complex sentences.
With only the occasional use of a dictionary, I can read without difficulty any prose directed at the general reader, and all materials in fields with which I am familiar.
Writing
I cannot write in English.
I can write a few sentences in English, using very basic vocabulary and grammar.
I can write relatively simple items, such as a short note to a friend, that communicate basic messages, but usually containing lots of misspellings and grammatical errors.
I can write fairly long personal letters, as well as uncomplicated business letters and simple technical reports, which contain relatively few errors.
I can write complex personal letters, reports and business letters. There is only the occasional hint that I am not a native speaker of English.
For additional ideas on assessing needs, consult ESP: Teaching English for Specific Purposes, in the Peace Corps Information Collection and Exchange (ICE), Manual Series No. M-31. The Whole ICE Catalogue also contains texts in its TEFL/TESL/ESP section which may be of particular use to those of you who are teaching English to professionals.
Constraints and Solution in the Classroom
The major constraints facing TEFL Volunteers are:
large multilevel classes
insufficient numbers of textbooks
strict adherence to a rigid curriculum
limited hours and low motivation for English instruction • special needs of students
Large Multilevel Classes
Teaching a class of fifty or more students requires considerable organization. In many cases students will be used to teachers who use drills, choral repetitions and rote learning as a means of teaching large classes. These techniques may achieve their purpose of keeping students busy, but their effectiveness as a learning tool is limited. However, there are other options at hand, all of which will require organization and planning in the initial stages but will offer more satisfactory results in the long run. These options fall into two main categories: group work and peer coaching. Both of these options require a sense of cooperation among your students. Your task will be to foster this sense of cooperation.
Cooperation in Group Work
Group work should be introduced gradually and used for teaching all of the language skills-listening, speaking, reading and writing. Exercises from Jazz Chants by Carolyn Graham can also be used very effectively to build up a sense of dialogue and cooperation as well as to generate fun and energy in your classroom. In working on a jazz chant, Graham suggests that the following steps be taken:
Make sure that your students understand the context of the chant. This may entail explaining necessary vocabulary items and cultural items.
Give each line of the chant once or twice as needed. Ask your students to repeat in unison.
Establish a rhythm by clapping. Repeat step 2 with a firm heat.
Divide the class into two large groups. Using the beat you have established give the lines. The two groups of students alternately repeat the lines as they are given.
Take the first part in the chant dialogue; ask the whole class to take the second part.
Divide your class into two groups again and give the first part of the chant to group A and the second part to group B.
A good beginning jazz chant is “Do You Know Mary?”
Small-group work: Once your students seem to he comfortable working in large groups, you will be able to introduce more sophisticated group language tasks. For this level of group work choose a task that allows different students to make different contributions, that does not have a single right answer, that does not involve rote learning, and that cannot be done more efficiently by one person than by a group. A good example of this kind of task is “Are You Sitting Comfortably?” from Recipes for Tired Teachers edited by Christopher Sion.
Project work: Project work can stimulate your students with its variety. These projects can include a classroom newspaper posted on the wall, with reports on the school farm, the school sports teams, or the activities of extracurricular clubs. You may also want to explore the possibility of tying these projects in with other subjects. For example, if your students are studying precipitation patterns in their geography classes and keeping track of local precipitation, you could cover the same topic in your English class. In this way your students have the advantage of transferring the concepts they learn in geography to their English classes.
Peer coaching: Peer coaching means using the strengths of the more advanced students in your class to help other students. One version of this approach, called “each one teach one,” was advocated by Dr. Frank Laubach, who used it to promote literacy in the Philippines. To be successful your advanced students need to be prepared. Their coaching task must be clearly defined and they should resist the temptation to do the work for their “students.” Both students in a pair should be given credit for successes and care should be taken to prevent the weaker student from falling into the trap of dependence on the more advanced student.
This peer coaching can take place for approximately half an hour a week at the same time as the rest of the students are busy on some form of group work. An example of peer coaching would be to ask the advanced student to read a passage while the second student follows the text in his or her book. The two could then work on comprehension questions on the passage. Multiple choice or true/false questions are good since they test comprehension and not writing skills.
Insufficient Numbers of Textbooks
TEFL Volunteers frequently face the problem of insufficient or nonexistent texts, or the problem of trying to work from out-dated or poorly designed books. The basic strategy developed by many Volunteers consists of supplementing the books through creative use of other media. Rejecting the books outright may dismay your students, who consider their books their passport to educational success and who measure their progress by the number of pages covered in your classes. By supplementing these books, you can respect your students’ needs and at the same time accomplish your goal of offering good EFL classes.
Supplements can take the form of displays of the classroom newspaper or other group project work of the type discussed in the previous section. In addition, introducing real objects whenever possible will ground your classes in the physical reality of your students’ world. A TEFL Volunteer in Nepal brings agricultural tools to his class and uses them to teach comparatives, possessives and prepositions of place. (“Shekhar’s scythe is bigger than Indra’s. He’s just put it on the floor in the corner.”)
A creative use of your blackboard skills will help your students. Stick people and simple diagrams are tried and true ways of explaining grammatical structures. Action English Pictures by Maxine Frauman-Prickel is available through ICE (Manual No. ED 123). This book contains 66 reproducible picture sequences designed to provide stimuli for listening and speaking while texts created by students provide reading and writing material. The Audio-Visual Communication Handbook, also available through ICE (Manual No. M-20), emphasizes locally produced materials and provides examples and methods for producing and using a variety of audio-visual aids, including flipcharts, filmstrips and puppets.
Where appropriate, that is if your students need oral communicative English, you can shift the emphasis away from books to aural/oral activities. For example, while following the structures laid down in the curriculum you can add songs, story telling sessions and role plays. Chapter Two discusses the method Total Physical Response (TPR), which can be used effectively in situations where textbooks require supplementary activities.
Strict Adherence to a Rigid Curriculum
Despite the fun and energy you bring to your classes, you may experience resistance to your innovations. Because of your different approach, you may have problems in maintaining discipline in your classes. You may hear that students say you are not serious in your teaching. For your students, their educational success is seen as vital to their economic advancement and to that of their families. And their definition of educational success is getting good marks in school and passing national exams. While not denying your own need to improve and innovate in your EFL classroom, you will need to take into account your students’ perceptions of their needs and to be sensitive to the burden of family expectations they are carrying.
AreYouSittingComfortably?
BeforeClass
Prepare the story by reading it quietly to yourself and then going through it several times aloud so that it will be “alive” when you come to present it to the class.
InClass
Teach any unknown vocabulary and set the mood for the story: quiet, calm, and comfortable.
Read the story. You will find the text at the end of these instructions. Use any pauses or simple dramatic gestures for effect. Make sure you look up from the book. It will be far more difficult to hold the group’s attention if you bury your head in the pages.
As the story is finished, ask the students in groups or pairs to write their own endings to it. Most students seem to want happy or trick endings such as: “The princess bribed the lion keeper to feed the lion up so that it wasn’t hungry,” or “The King saw it as a sign from God when the lion turned away.” Others may prefer a more twisted ending: “He fought the lion, won the fight, and then married the other woman anyway!” Circulate, helping the students express their ideas in writing.
When the groups have finished their versions, read or let a student read: “…acting on the decision she had made after days and nights of weighing the awful choice, she nodded to the right. The young man saw and without hesitating walked to the right-hand door and opened it.” The groups then read their versions in turn, and share their feelings about them.
This may lead to further discussion about why they wanted their particular end to the story, what kinds of stories they liked as children, or the fascination of ghost stories and fairy stories. Moreover, some students will probably have some stories they would like to tell or favorite characters they want to describe.
TheStory
Many years ago in a country in North Africa there lived a king who had some very strange customs. One of these was the way he decided if a prisoner was guilty or not guilty. Whenever one of his subjects was accused of a serious crime, the king decided that the fate of the accused would be determined in front of the people. On the chosen day, the king, his followers, and all the people gathered on a small hill. In front of the hill was a big building with two doors, exactly alike, set side by side. At the king’s signal, the accused would walk to the doors and open one of them. Behind one door was a hungry lion which would eat the prisoner as a punishment for his crime. Behind the other door was a beautiful woman to whom the prisoner would be married immediately as a reward for his innocence.
The plan seemed most fair to the king. The accused could choose his own fate. He simply opened a door and was at once either eaten or married. Now it happened that the king’s beautiful daughter, whom he loved above all things, had fallen in love with a poor but handsome young soldier. When the king found out that they loved each other, he put the young man into prison and set a day for his public trial. Then the kind ordered the whole kingdom to be searched for the biggest lion and the most beautiful woman.
Finally, the day of the trial arrived. The young man entered the field. He was so handsome that the crowd greeted him with a hum of admiration and fear. How terrible this was for him! Advancing into the field the handsome young soldier turned, as was his custom, and bowed to the king. But he fixed his eyes on the princess, who was sitting on her father’s right. The young man saw in her eyes that the princess knew on which side the lion was and which the lady. There was not a moment to lose. His eyes asked her, “Which door shall I choose?”
The princess knew that the woman her father had chosen was the loveliest in the land. In the past she had seen this woman throw admiring glances at the soldier. Sometimes she even suspected that these glances were returned. How could she bear to lose her lover to another woman? How could she bear to see him torn apart by the lion? The princess paused. Then acting on the decision she had made after days and nights of weighing the awful choice, she nodded to the right. The young man saw, and without hesitating, walked to the right-hand door and opened it……
Author’sNote
This is an adaptation of the well-known story, “The Lady and the Tiger,” by Frank R. Stockton. It appeared in an examination set by the Ministry of Education of the United Republic of Tanzania. (Mo Strangeman)
Showing that you are familiar with the curriculum and the format of the national exams will reassure your students of your seriousness. You can demonstrate this familiarity by knowing how to explain simply and clearly the rules of English grammar, by teaching examination strategies, by holding mock exams, and by giving feedback on performances in these exams.
If sticking to a rigid curriculum leaves you feeling frustrated, an out-of-class English club could provide a good outlet for your creativity. A play can be produced and presented to the school or even to other schools in the area. Debating teams within the school could challenge each other. Or you may be able to work with other TEFL Volunteers to set up series of debates with teams travelling from school to school. If you have the connections with schools in the United States, an international pen-pal club can also be a popular addition to extracurricular activities.
Limited Hours and Low Motivation for English Instruction
In countries where English is taught as a foreign language, as opposed to a second language, some classes? particularly those in the science or technical sections, are allocated as little as one hour of English a week. This is typically the case in countries in Francophone Africa. Providing meaningful lessons and stimulating motivation in this context is a challenge. But it is important that you should help your students understand the necessity of learning English. Those of your students who will be going on to university or college will find that especially in the sciences, many of the textbooks and articles they will be asked to read will be in English. If possible, you could try to invite outside speakers, such as a librarian or science teacher from a local University. Their testimony should go a long way toward convincing your students that learning English could be very beneficial.
Remember that in classes with such severe time constraints, your emphasis is likely to be on reading or listening comprehension. The opportunity for developing speaking or writing skills in approximately thirty hours of English a year is very limited. In teaching classes with limited hours and low motivation, a good strategy is to work closely with the science teacher to develop simple materials which mirror the materials covered in the science class. Textbooks such as Basic English for Science by Peter Donovan, provide a model of how you can do so.
Special Needs of Students
Some of your students may suffer from some form of physical disability, and in mild cases of disability the problem might not have been spotted. For example, students with mild hearing or visual impairment often unconsciously develop coping strategies, and the only clue you have is that their performance in class may not be up to standard. You may be able to help these students. First, when a student is obviously struggling to keep up, check that this struggle is not caused by visual or auditory impairments. Sometimes moving a student to the front of the class where the blackboard is easily seen can be helpful. Or taking the time to stand near a student who has hearing problems and repeating your instructions clearly can make a difference. If it seems appropriate, you may want to contact the family of a student with disabilities, to see if the family will consider getting professional help. Glasses or a hearing aid could transform a student’s performance.
Second, you can also help by building up the confidence of students with disabilities. All too often these students have a low self-image, brought on by being told that they are poor students and not good enough for an academic career. By identifying and acknowledging the physical problem, and by being patient and by setting them up to succeed, you can help these students build up their self-image.
Third, you can expand your own professional ability to assess your students’ needs, identify problems and develop solutions. If there are programs for special education in your country, the Volunteers working in these programs will be an invaluable source of information. The ICE catalogue also has a section on Special Education-Specific Disabilities. Many of the manuals in this section offer practical and relevant advice on how you can help students with disabilities move into the mainstream. Disabled Village Children by David Werner (ICE No. SE 046) is available free to all PCVs working with children with special needs.
Constraints and Solutions Outside of the School System
Two major constraints in this situation are:
tutoring
no suitable textbooks
Tutoring
Language involves communication. Teaching one-on-one classes restricts the amount of communication. A learner in this situation also frequently becomes dependent on the teacher and has difficulty in understanding anyone else speaking English. A teacher in this situation has no opportunity to gauge how the learner interacts with others in English and may have difficulty in establishing the “space” in which to deal professionally with the learner’s demands. For instance, a learner might insist on being corrected immediately after every mistake, despite the fact that this interrupts the flow of work and the learner has little intention of internalizing the correction.
However you may be obliged to give one-on-one lessons since many high level officials are reluctant to take classes with junior officials. If this is the case, two features should be remembered: keep classes to a maximum of one hour per session and keep materials closely related to the learner’s needs.
In tutoring, a little and often is far less demanding on both teacher and learner than long sessions once a week. Establishing a system whereby the learner matches time in class with assignment work out of class will help the learner work independently and give you, the teacher, a way of assessing your student’s motivation.
Nosuitabletextbooks
If there are no suitable textbooks, the materials covered should relate to the learner’s professional interests and needs. This strategy also gives you an opportunity to use your student as an informant on projects and decision-making processes with the bureaucracy, and can help you be more effective in working in your office. Where possible, set up “real” communicative situations. Your student can write in English to agencies outside of the country for publications of professional interest.
In some cases your students may tell you during your assessment of their needs that they simply want to learn some conversational English for a vacation in the U.S. or U.K. To meet the needs of these students try to imagine the situations in which they will need to speak English-at a hotel, in a restaurant, at an airport. Set up some role plays and build up some dialogues, for instance between a receptionist and some newly-arrived guests. Your students will enjoy working with you when they see that you are meeting their needs, and the lack of textbooks will not be a constraint on their learning.
“A thousand teachers, a thousand methods-” Chinese proverb
Through the history, teachers and educators have adopted lots of different teaching methods and approaches such as the grammar teaching method, the audio-lingual method, the direct approach, the reading approach, and many others. However, the traditional language teaching approach (sometimes called grammar translation method) and the communicative approach have been the two most widely used ones by teachers for long. Since teaching a second or a foreign language is different from teaching a first or native language, teachers, educators, and linguists are in constant search of new methods and approaches that would result in more effective teaching. After all, the ultimate aim is to satisfy the learners’ needs and help them learn a second/foreign language. For this reason, it is suggested that linguists and educators stop looking for a better method and start looking for teaching practices or strategies that have been designed to satisfy local needs and experiences.
Approach, Method, Technique
For the purpose of improving the quality of language teaching, the American applied linguist Edward Anthony identifies three important concepts called approach, method, and technique the arrangement of which is hierarchical. Approach, method, and technique are among the most frequently used terms in any academic curriculum. For the purpose of avoiding any confusion, Anthony defines each term as follows:
In other words, “the organizational key is that techniques carry out a method which is consistent with an approach.” Besides Anthony, it is suggested by Celce-Murcia and Brown that among the three concepts defined above, method is the most fundamental in teaching ESL/EFL. It is a set of “systematic presentation” that teachers use in their classes for the purpose of keeping their students comfortable, pleased, and not bored.
English as a World Language
“The first among languages is that which possesses the largest number of great works.” Voltaire
As stated by The Economist, English has become the global language that has influenced the whole world. It is estimated that one-sixth of the world’s population speaks or uses English. Besides being used as a language of communication, English is used as major language of the United Nations and NATO, official language of international aviation, unofficial first language of sports, radio broadcasts, writing mail, rapidly developing technology, films, scientific research and its literature and internet-supported job opportunities.
Today, English is taught in 3 different settings: first language or mother tongue (L1), second language (ESL), and foreign language (EFL). Kachru describes these 3 settings as inner-circle countries, outer-circle countries, and expanding-circle countries. In the inner-circle countries, English is taught and used as a first dominant language or mother tongue. It includes the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. In the outer-circle countries, English is taught and used as a second language. It includes countries like India, Nigeria, Malaysia, Tanzania, and many others as a result of the British colonialism. In these countries English is used parallel with their mother tongue. As a second language, English is considered essential for commercial, administrative, and educational purposes. In the expanding-circle countries, English is taught and used as a foreign language. It includes countries like China, Russia, Spain, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and many others where English is considered fundamental for international news, popular culture, and advanced education.
Lately, it is argued that the number of non-native speakers of English is more than that of the monolingual native speakers of English. According to Savignon, the ratio is more than two to one. Hence, as the global language of the 21st century, the Cairo Egyptian Gazette proclaims that English is the property of the entire world and not just Americans or other inner-circle countries.
English as a Second Language
In addition to what has already been said, in a second language setting English is significantly present in 4 different domains. First of all, English is the main language of the mass media that is the language of newspapers, radio, and television. In addition, English is the language of official institutions such as the law court and the government (local and central). Moreover, it is the language used at the educational institutions especially schools and universities. Last but not least, English is considered an essential component of the commercial and industrial organizations. In the outer-circle countries, an excellent command of English as a second language provides people with a smooth passage towards social development and economic progress. It goes without saying that English as a second language is not only learnt in the outer-circle countries, but also in the inner-circle countries. Immigrants in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada or Australia learn English for “integrative” purposes which allow them to identify with the native language community of the host country and to use it as a lingua franca with people from other linguistic backgrounds than theirs.
English as a Foreign Language
It is believed that people learn a foreign language for 2 different purposes. On one hand, they learn a foreign language for “instrumental” purposes. This group of learners includes tourists, salesmen, and science students. They need the foreign language for “operational” purposes such as reading a book in the target language and communicating with other speakers of that language. Based on this, people learn English as a foreign language either to visit England, to communicate with other tourists who speak English, or to read English books and newspapers. On the other hand, some people learn a foreign language for “integrative” purposes. Learners of this group have the urge to identify with the speech community of the target language (foreign language). By knowing the language, they feel at home and understand the attitude and world view of that speech community. According to Broughton, Brumfit, Flavell, Hill, & Pincas, unlike English as a second language, EFL is only taught in schools; it has nothing to do with the national or social life of the learners.
Recently, the more global English becomes thinner does the line between ESL and EFL become. Besides, the status of English has started changing in many countries. For example, with the decreasing role of English in countries like India and Sri Lanka the emphasis has shifted from being a second language to more of a foreign language. At the same time, the opposite is true to other countries. Linguistic and political decisions in many European countries such as Sweden and Holland have facilitated the shift from a foreign language situation to a more second language situation.
Whether first, second, or foreign language, Savignon argues that the emergence of English as a global language has had a great impact on the whole concept of language teaching. For Broughton, Brumfit, Flavell, Hill, & Pincas, English is either the language of a “neighboring” country or that of a language of global importance as a result of which educators allocate more teaching hours for English rather than other languages or subjects of the curriculum. Regardless of the methodology used in language classes and the wide range of educational settings used worldwide, all good language teaching classes share some basic principles that are derived from the interaction of aspects that contribute to the theory and practice of EFL.
This chapter looks at the concerns facing Volunteers teaching English inside or outside of the school system. The chapter outlines the reasons for a needs assessment, some of the people to be approached for information, and some of the questions to be raised in a needs assessment. In addition, this chapter looks at some of the constraints facing Volunteers teaching English, from the demands of large multilevel classes to the limitations of individual tutorials. Solutions are suggested which require the practical application of skills presented in pre-service training.
In recent years teachers of English as a Foreign Language (EFL), or English as a Second Language (ESL), have been paying increasing attention to identifying the needs of their students, to students’ attitudes towards English and their reasons for learning it. This attention to learners’ needs can be seen in countries such as Zaire or Peru where English is regarded as a foreign language and is largely treated as an academic subject in the school system and is not widely used outside of the classroom. The same attention to learners’ needs can also be seen in countries such as Malawi and Sri Lanka where English is taught as a second language, where English is widely used and is perceived as essential to success.
For you, as a teacher stepping into a new educational system, it is important to inform yourself of your students’ needs and attitudes towards learning English so that from the beginning you can play an effective role in your classroom. Conducting a needs assessment, even an informal one, is therefore an important first step in your job.
For those of you who are teaching English as a secondary project, perhaps by tutoring coworkers or coaching their children, a needs assessment will help you establish a purpose for your classes. It may also help you distinguish between would-be learners who are serious and those who are more casual in their approach. An accurate assessment of your learners’ commitment could help you avoid frustration or an unwarranted sense of failure.
Assessing Needs in School
Much of your fact-finding can be carried out through a series of interviews and conversations with colleagues, the school director, the head of the English department, your Peace Corps program manager, other Volunteers and your students. In asking your questions you may want to make it clear that you are not evaluating or passing judgment. Your purpose is to inform yourself so that you can serve your school community in the most effective way possible. Your cross-cultural skills will come into play as you both gather information and set the framework for a good working relationship with your colleagues and supervisor.
Creating the opportunity to talk to your students before your first classes will enable you to get an idea of their level of English. You do not need a detailed analysis at this point, but it would be good to know how much they understand when you talk to them. This will help you pitch your language at an appropriate level in your classes. These talks will also be a useful way for you to gauge your students’ attitudes towards learning English and to explore their perceptions of what they need from you. If past records of students’ performance in English are available, these will also help you build a picture of what to expect in the classroom.
This informal approach to assessing levels is particularly effective with primary school children. These children are usually friendly and delighted to meet an American. Take advantage of their friendliness to talk to them and to assess their level of English. A few questions about their names, ages, brothers, sisters and homes will help you ascertain how much they understand and how capable they are of handling English. When you are asking these questions, remember to use different tenses. For example:
Listen carefully to the answers you get. They will give you important clues about your students’ ability to use verb tenses in English. In conducting a needs assessment in a school you are looking for answers to the following general questions:
For each of these general areas, you will have a specific set of questions.
Expectations
Set up your questionnaire as simply as possible. For students who are beginners in English you might even consider using your students’ native language. For more advanced students, you could use your questionnaire as a basis for a first getting-to-know-you lesson. Here is an example of the type of format you might use in a secondary school, a technical college, a teacher training college, a university, or in classes with adults. Do you agree or disagree with each of the statements below? Put a check under the number that indicates how you feel.
If you do not have access to photocopying facilities to reproduce sufficient copies of this questionnaire, you could write the statements on the board, ask your students to respond in their exercise books, and then lead a discussion on reactions to the statements. In primary schools your students are less likely to articulate their expectations. However, it would be worth your while to talk to fellow teachers about their perceptions of what primary school children needs and expect from an English lesson.
Requirements
You may have gained a lot of information on national requirements during your Pre-Service Training, particularly in countries where there is a centralized system of school leaving examinations and the requirements are clearly laid out by the Government. However, you may have questions, like the ones below, about your school’s track record in the national examination system. These questions will probably best be answered by your head of department or school director.
Be careful while you are asking these questions. If you think that you are coming across as pushy, or if you think your informant is becoming uncomfortable, be prepared to let the questions drop, and to gather the information you want gradually during your first few weeks on the job.
Materials
Once again, your head of department or school director will probably be the most useful in answering the following questions about the school’s English language materials.
Assessing Needs Outside of the School System
For those of you conducting a needs assessment outside of a school system, you will be looking for the following information:
Specific answers to the first questions will help you meet the needs of your students. For example, prompted by your questions, an engineer may come to realize that he needs English to read articles on engineering, and that he has little need to speak or even understand spoken English. Or a group of medical technicians may decide that they want English classes in order to understand the spoken English of expatriate doctors. You can get at some of this information by asking the following kinds of questions:
Once you have an idea of your students’ needs you can focus on the appropriate skills of listening, speaking, reading or writing.
Using Informal Can-do Assessments
An informal assessment of current levels of English should be as non-threatening as possible. A simple conversation about your future students’ needs and about the times and frequency of classes will help you ascertain their level of comprehension and ability to communicate. You may also want to structure your conversation by using a Can-Do self-assessment scale. This technique has been found to be very effective with adults. Basically, in a Can-Do assessment you are asking your students to judge for themselves their abilities in English. If you have the option, you may want to consider using your students’ native language for this assessment. A possible format is as follows.
Speaking and Listening
Please read the following paragraphs and decide which paragraph best describes your ability to speak and understand spoken English.
Reading and Writing
Please read the following and decide which paragraphs best describe your ability to read English and your ability to write English.
Reading
Writing
For additional ideas on assessing needs, consult ESP: Teaching English for Specific Purposes, in the Peace Corps Information Collection and Exchange (ICE), Manual Series No. M-31. The Whole ICE Catalogue also contains texts in its TEFL/TESL/ESP section which may be of particular use to those of you who are teaching English to professionals.
Constraints and Solution in the Classroom
The major constraints facing TEFL Volunteers are:
Large Multilevel Classes
Teaching a class of fifty or more students requires considerable organization. In many cases students will be used to teachers who use drills, choral repetitions and rote learning as a means of teaching large classes. These techniques may achieve their purpose of keeping students busy, but their effectiveness as a learning tool is limited. However, there are other options at hand, all of which will require organization and planning in the initial stages but will offer more satisfactory results in the long run. These options fall into two main categories: group work and peer coaching. Both of these options require a sense of cooperation among your students. Your task will be to foster this sense of cooperation.
Cooperation in Group Work
A good beginning jazz chant is “Do You Know Mary?”
Small-group work: Once your students seem to he comfortable working in large groups, you will be able to introduce more sophisticated group language tasks. For this level of group work choose a task that allows different students to make different contributions, that does not have a single right answer, that does not involve rote learning, and that cannot be done more efficiently by one person than by a group. A good example of this kind of task is “Are You Sitting Comfortably?” from Recipes for Tired Teachers edited by Christopher Sion.
Peer coaching: Peer coaching means using the strengths of the more advanced students in your class to help other students. One version of this approach, called “each one teach one,” was advocated by Dr. Frank Laubach, who used it to promote literacy in the Philippines. To be successful your advanced students need to be prepared. Their coaching task must be clearly defined and they should resist the temptation to do the work for their “students.” Both students in a pair should be given credit for successes and care should be taken to prevent the weaker student from falling into the trap of dependence on the more advanced student.
This peer coaching can take place for approximately half an hour a week at the same time as the rest of the students are busy on some form of group work. An example of peer coaching would be to ask the advanced student to read a passage while the second student follows the text in his or her book. The two could then work on comprehension questions on the passage. Multiple choice or true/false questions are good since they test comprehension and not writing skills.
Insufficient Numbers of Textbooks
Supplements can take the form of displays of the classroom newspaper or other group project work of the type discussed in the previous section. In addition, introducing real objects whenever possible will ground your classes in the physical reality of your students’ world. A TEFL Volunteer in Nepal brings agricultural tools to his class and uses them to teach comparatives, possessives and prepositions of place. (“Shekhar’s scythe is bigger than Indra’s. He’s just put it on the floor in the corner.”)
A creative use of your blackboard skills will help your students. Stick people and simple diagrams are tried and true ways of explaining grammatical structures. Action English Pictures by Maxine Frauman-Prickel is available through ICE (Manual No. ED 123). This book contains 66 reproducible picture sequences designed to provide stimuli for listening and speaking while texts created by students provide reading and writing material. The Audio-Visual Communication Handbook, also available through ICE (Manual No. M-20), emphasizes locally produced materials and provides examples and methods for producing and using a variety of audio-visual aids, including flipcharts, filmstrips and puppets.
Where appropriate, that is if your students need oral communicative English, you can shift the emphasis away from books to aural/oral activities. For example, while following the structures laid down in the curriculum you can add songs, story telling sessions and role plays. Chapter Two discusses the method Total Physical Response (TPR), which can be used effectively in situations where textbooks require supplementary activities.
Strict Adherence to a Rigid Curriculum
Despite the fun and energy you bring to your classes, you may experience resistance to your innovations. Because of your different approach, you may have problems in maintaining discipline in your classes. You may hear that students say you are not serious in your teaching. For your students, their educational success is seen as vital to their economic advancement and to that of their families. And their definition of educational success is getting good marks in school and passing national exams. While not denying your own need to improve and innovate in your EFL classroom, you will need to take into account your students’ perceptions of their needs and to be sensitive to the burden of family expectations they are carrying.
Are You Sitting Comfortably?
Before Class
Prepare the story by reading it quietly to yourself and then going through it several times aloud so that it will be “alive” when you come to present it to the class.
In Class
The Story
Many years ago in a country in North Africa there lived a king who had some very strange customs. One of these was the way he decided if a prisoner was guilty or not guilty. Whenever one of his subjects was accused of a serious crime, the king decided that the fate of the accused would be determined in front of the people. On the chosen day, the king, his followers, and all the people gathered on a small hill. In front of the hill was a big building with two doors, exactly alike, set side by side. At the king’s signal, the accused would walk to the doors and open one of them. Behind one door was a hungry lion which would eat the prisoner as a punishment for his crime. Behind the other door was a beautiful woman to whom the prisoner would be married immediately as a reward for his innocence.
The plan seemed most fair to the king. The accused could choose his own fate. He simply opened a door and was at once either eaten or married. Now it happened that the king’s beautiful daughter, whom he loved above all things, had fallen in love with a poor but handsome young soldier. When the king found out that they loved each other, he put the young man into prison and set a day for his public trial. Then the kind ordered the whole kingdom to be searched for the biggest lion and the most beautiful woman.
Finally, the day of the trial arrived. The young man entered the field. He was so handsome that the crowd greeted him with a hum of admiration and fear. How terrible this was for him! Advancing into the field the handsome young soldier turned, as was his custom, and bowed to the king. But he fixed his eyes on the princess, who was sitting on her father’s right. The young man saw in her eyes that the princess knew on which side the lion was and which the lady. There was not a moment to lose. His eyes asked her, “Which door shall I choose?”
The princess knew that the woman her father had chosen was the loveliest in the land. In the past she had seen this woman throw admiring glances at the soldier. Sometimes she even suspected that these glances were returned. How could she bear to lose her lover to another woman? How could she bear to see him torn apart by the lion? The princess paused. Then acting on the decision she had made after days and nights of weighing the awful choice, she nodded to the right. The young man saw, and without hesitating, walked to the right-hand door and opened it……
Author’s Note
This is an adaptation of the well-known story, “The Lady and the Tiger,” by Frank R. Stockton. It appeared in an examination set by the Ministry of Education of the United Republic of Tanzania. (Mo Strangeman)
Showing that you are familiar with the curriculum and the format of the national exams will reassure your students of your seriousness. You can demonstrate this familiarity by knowing how to explain simply and clearly the rules of English grammar, by teaching examination strategies, by holding mock exams, and by giving feedback on performances in these exams.
If sticking to a rigid curriculum leaves you feeling frustrated, an out-of-class English club could provide a good outlet for your creativity. A play can be produced and presented to the school or even to other schools in the area. Debating teams within the school could challenge each other. Or you may be able to work with other TEFL Volunteers to set up series of debates with teams travelling from school to school. If you have the connections with schools in the United States, an international pen-pal club can also be a popular addition to extracurricular activities.
Limited Hours and Low Motivation for English Instruction
In countries where English is taught as a foreign language, as opposed to a second language, some classes? particularly those in the science or technical sections, are allocated as little as one hour of English a week. This is typically the case in countries in Francophone Africa. Providing meaningful lessons and stimulating motivation in this context is a challenge. But it is important that you should help your students understand the necessity of learning English. Those of your students who will be going on to university or college will find that especially in the sciences, many of the textbooks and articles they will be asked to read will be in English. If possible, you could try to invite outside speakers, such as a librarian or science teacher from a local University. Their testimony should go a long way toward convincing your students that learning English could be very beneficial.
Remember that in classes with such severe time constraints, your emphasis is likely to be on reading or listening comprehension. The opportunity for developing speaking or writing skills in approximately thirty hours of English a year is very limited. In teaching classes with limited hours and low motivation, a good strategy is to work closely with the science teacher to develop simple materials which mirror the materials covered in the science class. Textbooks such as Basic English for Science by Peter Donovan, provide a model of how you can do so.
Special Needs of Students
Second, you can also help by building up the confidence of students with disabilities. All too often these students have a low self-image, brought on by being told that they are poor students and not good enough for an academic career. By identifying and acknowledging the physical problem, and by being patient and by setting them up to succeed, you can help these students build up their self-image.
Third, you can expand your own professional ability to assess your students’ needs, identify problems and develop solutions. If there are programs for special education in your country, the Volunteers working in these programs will be an invaluable source of information. The ICE catalogue also has a section on Special Education-Specific Disabilities. Many of the manuals in this section offer practical and relevant advice on how you can help students with disabilities move into the mainstream. Disabled Village Children by David Werner (ICE No. SE 046) is available free to all PCVs working with children with special needs.
Constraints and Solutions Outside of the School System
Two major constraints in this situation are:
Tutoring
Language involves communication. Teaching one-on-one classes restricts the amount of communication. A learner in this situation also frequently becomes dependent on the teacher and has difficulty in understanding anyone else speaking English. A teacher in this situation has no opportunity to gauge how the learner interacts with others in English and may have difficulty in establishing the “space” in which to deal professionally with the learner’s demands. For instance, a learner might insist on being corrected immediately after every mistake, despite the fact that this interrupts the flow of work and the learner has little intention of internalizing the correction.
However you may be obliged to give one-on-one lessons since many high level officials are reluctant to take classes with junior officials. If this is the case, two features should be remembered: keep classes to a maximum of one hour per session and keep materials closely related to the learner’s needs.
In tutoring, a little and often is far less demanding on both teacher and learner than long sessions once a week. Establishing a system whereby the learner matches time in class with assignment work out of class will help the learner work independently and give you, the teacher, a way of assessing your student’s motivation.
No suitable textbooks
If there are no suitable textbooks, the materials covered should relate to the learner’s professional interests and needs. This strategy also gives you an opportunity to use your student as an informant on projects and decision-making processes with the bureaucracy, and can help you be more effective in working in your office. Where possible, set up “real” communicative situations. Your student can write in English to agencies outside of the country for publications of professional interest.
In some cases your students may tell you during your assessment of their needs that they simply want to learn some conversational English for a vacation in the U.S. or U.K. To meet the needs of these students try to imagine the situations in which they will need to speak English-at a hotel, in a restaurant, at an airport. Set up some role plays and build up some dialogues, for instance between a receptionist and some newly-arrived guests. Your students will enjoy working with you when they see that you are meeting their needs, and the lack of textbooks will not be a constraint on their learning.
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