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Appropriate methodology: The content of teacher development activities
System, Vol. 23, No. 3, pp. 347-357, 1995 Copyright © 1995 Elsevier Science Ltd Printed in Great Britain. All rights re~rved 0346-251 X/95 $9.50 + 0.00
Pergamon 0346-251X(95)00022-4
APPROPRIATE METHODOLOGY: THE CONTENT OF TEACHER DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES STEPHEN BAX
Department of Language Studies, Canterbury Christ Church College, Canterbury, Kent CT1 1QU, U.K. The current concern with "Appropriate Methodology" is leading to a reappraisal of numerous aspects of English Language Education, aiming at making our teaching more responsive to the needs of recipients. However, in the area of teacher development (TD) activities, although the form and structure tend to allow more trainee participation than previously, content is still largely determined by trainers. This article looks at one means of deriving the content of in-service TD activities from trainees themselves to maximize relevance and interest. It illustrates this approach with reference to a group of South African teachers, and concludes with wider discussion of the trainer's role in this kind of "negotiated" approach to in-service TD. One of the key areas of current debate in international English Language Teaching (ELT) is linguistic and educational "imperialism", and the extent to which it is valid and useful to transfer educational techniques and methods from one culture (e.g. the West) to another (such as the developing world). A number of authors have suggested recently that attempts to transfer methodologies in this way from the West to other countries have been at best misguided and at worst disastrous (see e.g. Phillipson, 1992; Holliday, 1994a). A fundamental problem, according to these discussions, appears to be a failure to take full account of the social, cultural and/or educational needs of the "recipients" of the innovation (cf. Holliday, 1994b), which results in what has been called "tissue rejection" (Holliday, 1992, following Hoyle, 1970), namely the failure of the innovation to take root in the target context. There is evidence, however, that these worries about past attempts at methodology transfer are leading to change in various aspects of educational programmes and projects, aimed precisely at increasing the responsiveness to recipients' needs. These attempts could be said to reflect an enhanced concern in the profession in general for what has been called "Appropriate Methodology", namely the concern for ensuring that methodologies are not simply transferred wholesale from one context to another. At the level of project design, for instance, projects tend now to aim for less "top-down" structures, and emphasis is placed on involving trainees as much as possible at every stage of the process. The culture of the Jet-in-Jet-out trainer has gradually been eroded. At the level of in-service Teacher Education and Teacher Development (TD) activities1, there has also been an increased focus on recipients. Experiential models [as opposed, say, to the Applied 347
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Science model (cf. Wallace, 1991 ] encourage teachers in training to reflect on their own practice by experiencing it, often through role-reversal. One example is "loop input" (Woodward, 1991) in which the trainer attempts, roughly speaking, to devise activities which themselves model the experience which the trainer wishes to concentrate on.
READY-MADE TEACHER DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES As I have suggested elsewhere (Bax, 1995), although the form of in-service TD activities has become more trainee-centred, content is in almost every case still largely decided by trainers, with relatively little consultation. One example cited in my earlier article was that of Woodward' s reading maze, of which she says: "I had written the maze for [the trainee teachers] before I had even met them." (Woodward, 1991: 105). In similar vein, Parrott (1993) (for example) offers a book of readymade TD tasks and worksheets. The usefulness of such ready-made activities to busy trainers is not in question. Both the authors mentioned have produced well-conceived ideas and materials which are rightly popular. But what they gain in practical convenience they lose in relevance to the trainees' particular teaching situations, since they are by definition designed without attention to the specific social and educational contexts in which an individual trainee works. And they may also, as a consequence, be less motivating. In the terms of my earlier paper, they fail to be "content-negotiable" and may therefore fail to effect as real and lasting change in trainees' thinking and practice as might be achieved by tailor-made activities. It may be, of course, that a sensitive trainer could take a ready-made activity and adapt it in a training session, by negotiation with trainees, so as to make it relevant to their own contexts. It may likewise be that trainees themselves glean aspects of general value from such ready-made activities, which will then to some extent inform their practice. This does not, however, alter the fact that activities which are by design "content-negotiable" are more likely to engage the preoccupations and practical realities of each trainee's working context in ways which no trainer or ready-made materials could predict. In the first place, they will be more motivating (since they derive from real problems experienced by the group) and will secondly be more realistic than any ready-made activity, since they will frequently include unpredictable issues and forces.
AIMS OF THIS ARTICLE My earlier article (Bax, 1995) offered as an example of"content negotiable" activities the use of case studies produced by groups in training. Those examples were, however, limited to a particular kind of TD activity, the raising of teachers' awareness of social and organisational aspects of their institutions, and of how to deal with them to effect change. There was no attempt to consider how the content of activities with a more "educational" or "language" focus could be negotiated with and made more relevant to trainees. This article therefore describes an attempt to develop "content-negotiable" activities for TD sessions in the teaching of skills, specifically listening and speaking, to demonstrate the argument
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that a range of TD activity types might benefit from recasting in the ways described, to ensure maximum relevance and impact. It also offers a practical example of activities of this type.
BACKGROUND The activities in question took place as part of the EASL (English at Secondary Level) project for South African teachers, described by Taylor (1992) and Bax (1995) 2. Its design is based on a "cascade" model in which the initial training takes place in the U.K., but trainees then proceed to hold in-country training sessions for their colleagues, and U.K. tutors visit South Africa (SA) regularly to assist with seminars, amongst other things. Teaching ideas and skills are intended to "cascade" from one teacher to another with the help of training packs devised by SA teachers themselves.
PROCEDURE During one of the U.K. training modules, in advance of sessions on "Teaching speaking" and "Teaching listening" I asked for volunteers to come and talk to me about their own teaching of these skills in South Africa. When they came, they were asked to talk in some detail and at some length, and were recorded, with their permission. This gave valuable real data on actual practice in South African schools. Moreover it derived from members of the group itself. The exact words used by the trainees were then transcribed. At this point I was able to think about what aspects of listening and speaking I might focus on in the sessions. My own concerns as trainer were determined by (a) my own views on teaching these skills and (b) the concerns expressed by the participants--a point we will return to. I then selected excerpts from the transcripts and used them in the following ways.
Listening Step 1. I was keen to contrast traditional approaches with more communicative and interactive ones to heighten awareness among trainees of the latter. For this I was able to choose a passage about traditional approaches to listening and to use it as a listening text to teach a lesson in a traditional way, with formal instructions and standard comprehension questions (Appendix One). This means that the approach was experiential since trainees could actually experience and comment on a traditional approach to listening. In addition, the content was relevant to the trainer's aims (being on that very topic) and--most important--it was derived from the group itself," the words themselves were not those of the trainer nor an outsider, but of a participant in the group who was present during the session, and therefore, presumably, of more interest to the participants.
Step 2. Although the participants knew that the text was provided by one of them, Sidney Nxala, I avoided highlighting this fact; I did not, for instance, question Sidney or invite questions. The
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aim of this was to ensure that the target concepts were highlighted without the distraction of more personal discussion. In the event, the text stimulated a flurry of responses, all identifying with the situation described. Discussion was organized into several stages; participants were guided to discuss (a) their own experience, as listeners; (b) my approach as a teacher of listening, (c) their experiences of teaching listening in their own schools in SA. By this means both the approach and the content were used in a structured way. In particular, discussion revolved around the shortcomings of teaching listening by this means, and how--in their own contexts--the method could be improved. The key point is that the recommendations were not about teaching listening in the abstract, but about teaching listening in each participant's own teaching context. Step 3. At a later stage in the sessions, I used more excerpts from the transcripts (Appendix Two, Texts 1-3). The aim now was (a) to suggest to trainees ways of varying interaction patterns in their listening classes (which Sidney had described as very traditional, in general, involving extensive teacher-student interaction, and little student-student interaction) so that they might consider the advantages and disadvantages of using groupwork and pairwork3, (b) to offer an activity type which would probably work in their context, with large classes (exemplifying an activity which Sidney has used himself) (c) to illustrate and exemplify the point that skills work may be taught in an integrated way. In addition, the content of the activity was chosen to stimulate discussion of real problems faced in SA-in this case, large classes, uncooperative pupils, pupils' concepts of language education and of the role of the listener, the value of competition, of groupwork, and so on. The procedure was as follows--a kind of "jigsaw" listening: (a) participants were divided into three groups; (b) each group read and discussed one of the three texts; (c) groups then divided so as to be with members of other groups; (d) each participant then reported what his/her text had said; (e) listeners asked questions and took notes; (f) selected participants reported back to the class what they had heard. Step 4. Again, discussion after the activity was organized into several stages; participants discussed (a) their own experience, as "pupils"; (b) my approach as a teacher, (c) the content of the texts. As before, this allowed use of the form of the activity and also the content of the text as stimulus for discussion. Results As in the previous activity, then, the key was to use experiential approaches-but also to use content which would be maximally relevant and motivating, because it was derived from one of the group. A key result of this was that the response to TD activities described by Nolasco and Arthur (1986) and Bax (1995)--namely, "That sounds good but it wouldn't work in my class"----could not realistically be offered as a reason for resisting the proposed innovation, since plainly the ideas couM work--they had worked in Sidney's class.
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Likewise the content was, I suggest, interesting, and in fact led to a fascinating discussion of these areas: Text One. Using groupwork, getting students to prepare in advance, listening as a skill to be taught gradually in a structured programme, how to include all students in the class, jigsaw listening techniques, student-centred approaches, getting student feedback. Text Two. Modes of encouraging students to listen (e.g. competitions). Text Three. Why the girl had reacted as she did, whether it was common, what teachers could do about this response, large classes, preparing for listening through discussion, the style of exams in SA, students' concepts of the nature of listening and of learning, etc. As a result, I suggest that the discussion raised awareness in the group as a whole of many important aspects of the teaching of listening, concentrating on aspects which were important to their context, derived from themselves, but which could lead to the offering of positive suggestions from members of the group and from myself as trainer. Speaking The activity for the session on teaching listening has been described in some detail. A similar session was delivered on teaching speaking; a similar procedure was followed in which the words of a group of volunteers were used to prepare activities on speaking. Two examples, of two discussion sheets and an information gap activity--can be seen in Appendices Three and Four, respectively. For reasons of space it need only be mentioned here that these activities aroused a good deal of interest, the first since it described problems very real to participants, and tried to elicit realistic solutions, the second since the concept of information-gap activities was a new one for most of these trainees. As with the listening task above, this allowed discussion of the experience and then of the content, so that we were able in our discussion to cover new concepts (such as information gap activity types) and concerns specifically related to their home contexts.
FEEDBACK As noted in my earlier article, thorough evaluation of the effectiveness of such sessions as these would need access to these trainees' own classes in South Africa, which was not possible. An initial, informal impression, however, was that the sessions had been highly motivating and aroused lively and intense discussion. It seemed to me, however, that although a complete evaluation was not feasible, further evaluation of the activity was important in order to ensure that (a) the informants felt that their role in the group had not been compromised, (b) that they had gained something themselves, (c) that the group had found the experience as interesting as had appeared and (d) that there was a possibility that it would affect their practice in their own schools. For this reason, I interviewed one informant and two other randomly selected participants a week after the sessions, using an informal and open interview schedule to ensure minimum intimidation.
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Here is a representative selection of the comments which were recorded (I=informant; P=participant):
Question 1: Do you think that this training technique is a good one? Why? 1.1 I: "a good i d e a . . , you actually get what is happening in the case of the people themselves." 1.2 "you're not imposing a theory" 1.3 "you're dealing with something that's been tried out" 1.4 P: I did not think that listening could be taught. [I thought] it developed naturally. Now I've changed my mind. Question 2: (To the informant) Did the texts I presented actually represent your experience? 2.1 I: Y e s . . . it's true, everything that's here. Question 3: What did the activity give you, if anything? 3.1 I: It gave me more idea of how to go about teaching listening skills. Even in primary schools they don't do enough about listening skills. 3.2 P: In a class of 10 only two or three speak. We never put them into groups. In that way you find yourself speaking more, letting two or three speak. So groups are a good idea. 3.3 P: I took down a lot of notes from what the others said and what you said. 3.4: P : . . . interesting that last night we were thinking of trying out some of the ideas on listening immediately when we get home. [her emphasis] 3.5 P : . . . a good idea and it is practical. Question 4: Did you think anything we did was irrelevant to your teaching context? 4.1 P: No. You could use all that we discussed. I'm going to try it. I saw it working in the schools we visited, It will be noted that the comments offered above are uniformly positive. In fact, no negative comments were recorded. This may in part be due to the cultural background of the speakers, and the context, in that they may not wish to appear critical in the presence of their tutor (even though my questions attempted to encourage negative as well as positive comments). For this reason it is important not to accept these comments as necessarily implying a resounding endorsement of the whole procedure. Nonetheless, they do at least suggest that the technique was generally well received. Specific aspects of the feedback worth noting include: -----endorsement of the attempt to derive content from trainees (e.g. 1.1 and 1.2) ---~e practical value of the session (1.3, 4.1) ----~e validity of using texts in this way (i.e. they genuinely represented the SA teaching context) (1.4) ----~e value of the activity in changing attitudes and (perhaps) behaviour (3.1 to 3.5) --the trainees' linking of the session with observed practice elsewhere on the course (school visits), which often implies acceptance of innovation (4.1).
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ROLE OF THE TRAINER It has been argued in this article than an approach more sensitive to trainees, deriving content from their own contexts, might be more motivating and might therefore lead to more effective change than trainer-derived approaches. This point has been argued by others, most notably Ramani (1987). It might be supposed from this that the trainer has abrogated all responsibility for offering input and suggesting change. Is s/he in danger of becoming a mere organizer? Analysis of the sessions as described above will show that this is not the case in practice. Furthermore, as I have argued elsewhere, there is no reason in principle either for the trainer's role to be so restricted (Bax, 1994). His/her function may indeed be different, in that s/he could now usefully ensure that content derives from trainees and that the activity is experiential, but s/he also has an important role in: (a) selecting, from those raised by participants, issues for discussion, (b) directing the discussion to cover topics which in his/her view are important for the participants' development. (c) challenging, and otherwise stimulating reflection, in interactive debate. The third of these is particularly crucial, and difficult to illustrate through mere description of sessions such as those outlined in this article. A new "negotiating" model of training therefore alters the roles of participants in significant ways: for example, it allows the trainees more say in determining content; it expects the trainer to select and filter content to some extent, and then, most importantly, to encourage change through classroom discussion. The trainer must therefore develop these s~lls in particular, to ensure a balance between concentration on trainees' preoccupations, and feeding them with ideas for innovation. This is an important caveat to attach to approaches of this kind. If the trainer does not challenge participants, and propose innovations during the session itself, there is a danger that this technique will merely repeat and reinforce participants' preconceptions. While drawing content from their own teaching contexts to enhance relevance, s/he also has a responsibility to ensure that participants look afresh at the practices described, to cause the kind of reflection which might lead to development of their practice.
CONCLUSION The technique described above is a simple one in principle. It involves no more than asking teacher trainees in advance of a training session for their own views on teaching in their context, then devising the task so as to focus on both trainees' preoccupations and the areas considered important by the trainer. To make the content more motivating and relevant, their words are selected and used in the task itself. This focus on content is then complemented by an experience of the technique in question. As a result, the trainee is exposed to an experience of an approach which stimulates reflection, as well as to content maximally relevant to her/his teaching context. The resulting experience-motivating, clearly appropriate, yet provoking thoughts of innovation--should in principle afford the ingredients for productive educational change. As such, I suggest that although this approach
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m i g h t n o t b e f e a s i b l e o r a p p r o p r i a t e to all T D a c t i v i t i e s w i t h all g r o u p s 4, it r e p r e s e n t s a p o t e n t i a l l y valuable way of enhancing the relevance and effectiveness of teacher development sessions, by e n h a n c i n g t r a i n e r s ' r e s p o n s i v e n e s s to r e c i p i e n t s ' n e e d s .
Acknowledgements--Thanks to all participating teachers from the EASL project.
NOTES ' The distinction between Teacher Education and Teacher development has been discussed in Bax (1995). This article follows the definition given there. 2 The EASL project was funded by the ODA and managed by the British Council. The UK institutions involved in this project were my own, Canterbury Christ Church College, and Thames Valley University. 3The intention was not to "recommend" procedures, merely to raise awareness of possibilities and discuss options. Teachers could then decide for themselves whether to introduce new interaction patterns in their own classes. ' Clearly, this approach is easiest with groups whose members come from a single culture and/or teaching context. As I argued in my earlier article, however, there are good reasons, and feasible techniques, for using such techniques with groups whose members come from a mixture of contexts (Bax, 1995).
REFERENCES BAX, S. (1994) Language across the Curriculum in an ESL Context: how teachers deal with difficult texts. Language, Culture and Curriculum 7(3), 231-250. BAX, S. (1995) Principles for evaluating Teacher Development activities. ELT Journal 49(3), 262-271. HOLLIDAY, A. (1992) Tissue rejection and informal order in ELT projects. Applied Linguistics 13(4), 403--424. HOLLIDAY, A. (1994a) The house of TESEP and the communicative approach: the special needs of state English language education. ELTJourna148(1), 3-10. HOLLIDAY, A. (1994b) Appropriate Methodology and Social Context. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. HOYLE, E. (1970) Planning organizational change in education. Research in Education. May 1970, 1-22. NOLASCO, R. and ARTHUR, L. (1986) You try doing it with a class of forty! ELTJourna140(2), 100-106. PARROTr, M. (1993) Tasks for Language Teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. PHILLIPSON, R. (1992) Linguistic Imperialism. Oxford: Oxford University Press. RAMANI, E. (1987) Theorizing from the classroom. ELTJourna141(1), 3-11. TAYLOR, R. (1992) The production of training packs in in-service teacher training. ELTJourna146(4), 356-361. WALLACE, M. (1991) Training Foreign Language Teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. WOODWARD, T. (1991) Models and Metaphors in Language Teacher Training. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
APPENDIX
ONE: A TRADITIONAL APPROACH COMPREHENSION
TO TEACHING
LISTENING
Instructions
I will read a text. Listen and be ready to answer the questions afterwards Text Now a common situation in South African schools in that listening is ignored, because the most important thing is the exam at the end of the year. Listening... there is no listening in the exam--maybe that is a pity. So teachers tend to ignore listening to concentrate on other things. An ideal way is for the teacher to record a tape, maybe on his own tape recorder, and bring it into class. But this doesn't often happen. No, I've never done it actually, because it's too difficult. It's an ideal.
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A common way of doing listening is for the teacher to read a passage out--not a long passage--then ask questions for the students to answer, to see if they have been listening. This passage may be from a book the teacher has--not the textbook, as the textbooks don't really have texts for listening--but a book of listening comprehensions, or from a newspaper or magazine.
Comprehension Questions QI : Q2: Q3: Q4: Q5: Q6: Q7:
What is a common situation in SA? Why? What does the speaker think of this? What is an ideal way of doing listening exercises? How do teachers often do listening exercises? Why do they ask questions? Where do the texts come from?
APPENDIX TWO: TEXTS 1-3 Text one
Now my class are used to being involved in the lesson, because most of the time I give the passages to them and t h e n . . . for example part of a story, I let the group deal with a section and another group deal with a section and another group, another section---or if the stories are very short I give them each a story to r e a d . . , and usually I do this over a period of, say, 2 or 3 days and then, the following day they read as a group and discuss and then they choose somebody in the group who is going to present everything, and then he presents the things to the class--the summary of what the whole thing is about and what they think about it, and then the others in the class who are not in the group will be listening and will start asking them questions. Now the questions which arise are not confined to the group as such, but anybody in class who can answer that question, is allowed to. Now I found t h i s . . . I find this quite interesting, and I find it quite helpful. I think it helps the students to rely more on themselves than on me. Of course t h e y . . , they run into difficulties, they ask me questions and 1 try to answer them as I c a n . . . Text two
Question: And do you find that when you do a listening activity in your class that the students actually listen and do things? Answer: Yes, in t h a t . . , well, I try to "force" them to listen in a way, because I, most of the time, I get them into groups and then we have a kind of competition. And then I read out, say, a passage, and I tell them, look, I'm going to read out this passage twice only, and before I do that I first group them, and then I say "we are going to have a competition, and if you answer your question you will get four points. But if you miss, then the other group will get eight points plus their own question. So their points will be up to twelve. Students normally like to compete. So I read the text, read it the ftrst time, read it the second time, and then I start asking questions. Now each one of the groups would like to win, so I usually get their undivided attention. Text three
But I was at one time asked to take on other classes that belong to other teachers and when I got in there I remember I was supposed to present a lesson. It was a short s t o r y . . , but I just forget i t . . . it was by Alan P a t o n . . . and t h e n . . , it had something to do with different political groups in South Africa---on the extreme right, on the extreme left--and the governing party. Now, before getting into the text I started talking about the South African situation--the government, and then those on the left and those on the right, I mean--I simply said they should talk about it--ail I did was simply write down on the board what they were saying. Now, think there were 3 or 4 classes involved, and it was in the hall-quite a big group, and out o f . . . I think there were more than 150, but out of that many I got, I think, 4 or 5 really participating, and now I simply at one time decided to "jump" on somebody else who had n o t . . , and it was a g i r l . . , and I asked her this question and she simply stood up and said "I don't know" and sat down. And then I went on with these 4 or 5 participating--all the others sitting there, getting drowsy!--and then the same girl I had asked the question, I found her-she had a file open--and when I looked, I went to her and looked into the file I found that she was reading something on education--not English. And then I asked her why she was doing that and she said, well, even what is here is about South Africa. She meant that what I was doing was irrelevant to the lesson as such. She thought the content is the thing-and I think that many of them--why they were not participating, not involved--they had the same feeling. What they wanted me to do was to discuss the text, the content in the book. Go through the story, finish with it, and they can go on to the next. And just, as a point of interest, the student who did that failed at the end of the year. I didn't do that--I didn't fail her because I wasn't marking her scripts, but she failed at the end of the year.
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THREE:
TWO
DISCUSSION
SHEETS
Instructions Read these problems, which are described by South African teachers in their own words. Then, with your neighbour, try to define them in your own words. Then, with your neighbour, discuss solutions. Write them down, and we will all discuss them together afterwards. Discussion sheet Problems with teaching speaking in South African secondary schools. Sometimes teachers in the lower classes, in Standard Six for example, tend to talk too much, and not let students speak enough. In many cases they start concentrating on speech either when they are in Standard Nine or Standard Ten, but they could start much lower. Problem ? Solution ? I used to teach only at the top and I couldn't understand why I always had problems, so I went right down to Standard Six and I found that teachers because students are slow and they want to get through the syllabus--tend to start a sentence and then, if the student is too slow, they complete it, instead of trying to give the child time to speak. Problem? Solution ? And they tend to correct students a lot, so they lose confidence. There is a tendency amongst teachers now, and other people, to laugh at somebody who makes a mistake, when he talks. It just developed and it seems that many students have got that attitude, which results in them not feeling comfortable in speaking English for fear of breaking some rules, language rules and being laughed at. It becomes a demotivating factor. Problem ? Solution ? And also the environment: I come from the rural areas, where there are not many English speakers, and I think it does contribute to their shyness, because they are very shy. You tell them to speak but you get problems. They just wouldn't speak. Problem ? Solution ? They are a problem in the sense that you only get a few students who are able to speak and if you are not careful you might find yourself giving them all the time a chance to talk, because they are ready each time you want. Say you want a volunteer to say something, they will do it, those few, and the others simply hide because of the large numbers. You may not be aware of them. Problem? Solution ? Instructions Now, here is some advice given by South African teachers in their own words. With your neighbour, try to define them in your own words. What advice or tip is the teacher offering? Do you agree? Write them down, and we will all discuss them together afterwards. Discussion sheet Suggestions for teaching speaking in South African secondary schools. So you as a teacher need to devise methods which will make them comfortable in the first two or three lessons when you get there, and thereafter you'll find they will even speak English to you on their own, outside, on the sports field or whatever, even completely away from the school. TIP? The kids are quite comfortable in speaking English provided that you encourage them and that you do not rectify their errors all the time, but allow them to speak whether it's right or not. Just allow them, initially, you just allow them to say anything, it doesn't matter bow it comes out. T I P ? . . . what we did is actually to form contests, speech contests, we have debates and speech contests where they get prizes. We start from the lower levels, the Standard sixes. They are given their own topic, and it's also done regionally, and nationally, so that has motivated them to actually have an interest, because even at school when it's done we do it
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publicly, where all pupils are involved, and we learnt that they really appreciate that, and in a way many pupils got motivated.
TIP? I've tried it with standard six, matric and they like i t . . . I let them come and dramatise, (some of them even record it if they have the facility at home or they'll use the school's facility and stay back and record it from the radio.) It's advertisements. The kids love the advertisements. So three or four will come and imitate the toothpaste advertisements •.. and that also helps with the proper pronunciation, and also takes away the shyness, because it's something they know, and they know how to do it.
TIP ? Another exercise that I do with them, especially when it's very hot, we can move the desks just where they want to, and they can sit where they want to, in, out, on the floor, wherever, and they have to close their eyes and relax, and then I ask questions, they have to clear their minds, they just have to listen to what I say. I move around the class, asking, for example, if you were a tree, what would you like to be . . . . is it a tree that sheds its leaves, an evergreen, does it have big branches, and I give them all those questions, so afterwards they are forming a picture of what they want to be and they know what they want to do. So then they have to describe that to me, because it's a very individual thing . . . . and the reasons for selecting that tree, so they have to be able to explain everything in order for me to understand•
APPENDIX FOUR: I N F O R M A T I O N GAP ACTIVITY Instructions You and your neighbour have the same passage, but with different things missing from it. Yourjob is to talk to your neighbour and find out what is missing--your neighbour has your missing pieces, you have his~hers. First, write down the questions you will have to ask to find out the missing information. Then ask your neighbour your questions and try to get the answers Then fill in the spaces on your sheet. You don't need the exact words, only the ideas. Passage A Problems of teaching speaking in South Africa. Yes, er, the problems that we are faced with are more to do with (1), because you teach them many concepts which are not applicable or which do not have room for practice. After school they just (2) -. This is the biggest problem that we encounter. They only speak English at school. And the time is very short because usually we've got (3) . Other teachers do not mind a lot about English. They're more interested in the content of the subject rather than the language as a whole. Questions 1
2 3
Passage B Problems of teaching speaking in South Africa. Yes, er, the problems that we are faced with are more to do with the background of the children as Second Language speakers, because you teach them many concepts which are (1) . After school they just speak their mother tongue. This is the biggest problem that we encounter. They only speak English (2) . And the time is very short because usually we've got one period, or a double period. Other teachers do not mind a lot about English. They're more interested in (3) rather than the language as a whole. Questions 1
2 3
Pergamon 0346-251X(95)00022-4
APPROPRIATE METHODOLOGY: THE CONTENT OF TEACHER DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES STEPHEN BAX
Department of Language Studies, Canterbury Christ Church College, Canterbury, Kent CT1 1QU, U.K. The current concern with "Appropriate Methodology" is leading to a reappraisal of numerous aspects of English Language Education, aiming at making our teaching more responsive to the needs of recipients. However, in the area of teacher development (TD) activities, although the form and structure tend to allow more trainee participation than previously, content is still largely determined by trainers. This article looks at one means of deriving the content of in-service TD activities from trainees themselves to maximize relevance and interest. It illustrates this approach with reference to a group of South African teachers, and concludes with wider discussion of the trainer's role in this kind of "negotiated" approach to in-service TD. One of the key areas of current debate in international English Language Teaching (ELT) is linguistic and educational "imperialism", and the extent to which it is valid and useful to transfer educational techniques and methods from one culture (e.g. the West) to another (such as the developing world). A number of authors have suggested recently that attempts to transfer methodologies in this way from the West to other countries have been at best misguided and at worst disastrous (see e.g. Phillipson, 1992; Holliday, 1994a). A fundamental problem, according to these discussions, appears to be a failure to take full account of the social, cultural and/or educational needs of the "recipients" of the innovation (cf. Holliday, 1994b), which results in what has been called "tissue rejection" (Holliday, 1992, following Hoyle, 1970), namely the failure of the innovation to take root in the target context. There is evidence, however, that these worries about past attempts at methodology transfer are leading to change in various aspects of educational programmes and projects, aimed precisely at increasing the responsiveness to recipients' needs. These attempts could be said to reflect an enhanced concern in the profession in general for what has been called "Appropriate Methodology", namely the concern for ensuring that methodologies are not simply transferred wholesale from one context to another. At the level of project design, for instance, projects tend now to aim for less "top-down" structures, and emphasis is placed on involving trainees as much as possible at every stage of the process. The culture of the Jet-in-Jet-out trainer has gradually been eroded. At the level of in-service Teacher Education and Teacher Development (TD) activities1, there has also been an increased focus on recipients. Experiential models [as opposed, say, to the Applied 347
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Science model (cf. Wallace, 1991 ] encourage teachers in training to reflect on their own practice by experiencing it, often through role-reversal. One example is "loop input" (Woodward, 1991) in which the trainer attempts, roughly speaking, to devise activities which themselves model the experience which the trainer wishes to concentrate on.
READY-MADE TEACHER DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES As I have suggested elsewhere (Bax, 1995), although the form of in-service TD activities has become more trainee-centred, content is in almost every case still largely decided by trainers, with relatively little consultation. One example cited in my earlier article was that of Woodward' s reading maze, of which she says: "I had written the maze for [the trainee teachers] before I had even met them." (Woodward, 1991: 105). In similar vein, Parrott (1993) (for example) offers a book of readymade TD tasks and worksheets. The usefulness of such ready-made activities to busy trainers is not in question. Both the authors mentioned have produced well-conceived ideas and materials which are rightly popular. But what they gain in practical convenience they lose in relevance to the trainees' particular teaching situations, since they are by definition designed without attention to the specific social and educational contexts in which an individual trainee works. And they may also, as a consequence, be less motivating. In the terms of my earlier paper, they fail to be "content-negotiable" and may therefore fail to effect as real and lasting change in trainees' thinking and practice as might be achieved by tailor-made activities. It may be, of course, that a sensitive trainer could take a ready-made activity and adapt it in a training session, by negotiation with trainees, so as to make it relevant to their own contexts. It may likewise be that trainees themselves glean aspects of general value from such ready-made activities, which will then to some extent inform their practice. This does not, however, alter the fact that activities which are by design "content-negotiable" are more likely to engage the preoccupations and practical realities of each trainee's working context in ways which no trainer or ready-made materials could predict. In the first place, they will be more motivating (since they derive from real problems experienced by the group) and will secondly be more realistic than any ready-made activity, since they will frequently include unpredictable issues and forces.
AIMS OF THIS ARTICLE My earlier article (Bax, 1995) offered as an example of"content negotiable" activities the use of case studies produced by groups in training. Those examples were, however, limited to a particular kind of TD activity, the raising of teachers' awareness of social and organisational aspects of their institutions, and of how to deal with them to effect change. There was no attempt to consider how the content of activities with a more "educational" or "language" focus could be negotiated with and made more relevant to trainees. This article therefore describes an attempt to develop "content-negotiable" activities for TD sessions in the teaching of skills, specifically listening and speaking, to demonstrate the argument
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that a range of TD activity types might benefit from recasting in the ways described, to ensure maximum relevance and impact. It also offers a practical example of activities of this type.
BACKGROUND The activities in question took place as part of the EASL (English at Secondary Level) project for South African teachers, described by Taylor (1992) and Bax (1995) 2. Its design is based on a "cascade" model in which the initial training takes place in the U.K., but trainees then proceed to hold in-country training sessions for their colleagues, and U.K. tutors visit South Africa (SA) regularly to assist with seminars, amongst other things. Teaching ideas and skills are intended to "cascade" from one teacher to another with the help of training packs devised by SA teachers themselves.
PROCEDURE During one of the U.K. training modules, in advance of sessions on "Teaching speaking" and "Teaching listening" I asked for volunteers to come and talk to me about their own teaching of these skills in South Africa. When they came, they were asked to talk in some detail and at some length, and were recorded, with their permission. This gave valuable real data on actual practice in South African schools. Moreover it derived from members of the group itself. The exact words used by the trainees were then transcribed. At this point I was able to think about what aspects of listening and speaking I might focus on in the sessions. My own concerns as trainer were determined by (a) my own views on teaching these skills and (b) the concerns expressed by the participants--a point we will return to. I then selected excerpts from the transcripts and used them in the following ways.
Listening Step 1. I was keen to contrast traditional approaches with more communicative and interactive ones to heighten awareness among trainees of the latter. For this I was able to choose a passage about traditional approaches to listening and to use it as a listening text to teach a lesson in a traditional way, with formal instructions and standard comprehension questions (Appendix One). This means that the approach was experiential since trainees could actually experience and comment on a traditional approach to listening. In addition, the content was relevant to the trainer's aims (being on that very topic) and--most important--it was derived from the group itself," the words themselves were not those of the trainer nor an outsider, but of a participant in the group who was present during the session, and therefore, presumably, of more interest to the participants.
Step 2. Although the participants knew that the text was provided by one of them, Sidney Nxala, I avoided highlighting this fact; I did not, for instance, question Sidney or invite questions. The
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aim of this was to ensure that the target concepts were highlighted without the distraction of more personal discussion. In the event, the text stimulated a flurry of responses, all identifying with the situation described. Discussion was organized into several stages; participants were guided to discuss (a) their own experience, as listeners; (b) my approach as a teacher of listening, (c) their experiences of teaching listening in their own schools in SA. By this means both the approach and the content were used in a structured way. In particular, discussion revolved around the shortcomings of teaching listening by this means, and how--in their own contexts--the method could be improved. The key point is that the recommendations were not about teaching listening in the abstract, but about teaching listening in each participant's own teaching context. Step 3. At a later stage in the sessions, I used more excerpts from the transcripts (Appendix Two, Texts 1-3). The aim now was (a) to suggest to trainees ways of varying interaction patterns in their listening classes (which Sidney had described as very traditional, in general, involving extensive teacher-student interaction, and little student-student interaction) so that they might consider the advantages and disadvantages of using groupwork and pairwork3, (b) to offer an activity type which would probably work in their context, with large classes (exemplifying an activity which Sidney has used himself) (c) to illustrate and exemplify the point that skills work may be taught in an integrated way. In addition, the content of the activity was chosen to stimulate discussion of real problems faced in SA-in this case, large classes, uncooperative pupils, pupils' concepts of language education and of the role of the listener, the value of competition, of groupwork, and so on. The procedure was as follows--a kind of "jigsaw" listening: (a) participants were divided into three groups; (b) each group read and discussed one of the three texts; (c) groups then divided so as to be with members of other groups; (d) each participant then reported what his/her text had said; (e) listeners asked questions and took notes; (f) selected participants reported back to the class what they had heard. Step 4. Again, discussion after the activity was organized into several stages; participants discussed (a) their own experience, as "pupils"; (b) my approach as a teacher, (c) the content of the texts. As before, this allowed use of the form of the activity and also the content of the text as stimulus for discussion. Results As in the previous activity, then, the key was to use experiential approaches-but also to use content which would be maximally relevant and motivating, because it was derived from one of the group. A key result of this was that the response to TD activities described by Nolasco and Arthur (1986) and Bax (1995)--namely, "That sounds good but it wouldn't work in my class"----could not realistically be offered as a reason for resisting the proposed innovation, since plainly the ideas couM work--they had worked in Sidney's class.
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Likewise the content was, I suggest, interesting, and in fact led to a fascinating discussion of these areas: Text One. Using groupwork, getting students to prepare in advance, listening as a skill to be taught gradually in a structured programme, how to include all students in the class, jigsaw listening techniques, student-centred approaches, getting student feedback. Text Two. Modes of encouraging students to listen (e.g. competitions). Text Three. Why the girl had reacted as she did, whether it was common, what teachers could do about this response, large classes, preparing for listening through discussion, the style of exams in SA, students' concepts of the nature of listening and of learning, etc. As a result, I suggest that the discussion raised awareness in the group as a whole of many important aspects of the teaching of listening, concentrating on aspects which were important to their context, derived from themselves, but which could lead to the offering of positive suggestions from members of the group and from myself as trainer. Speaking The activity for the session on teaching listening has been described in some detail. A similar session was delivered on teaching speaking; a similar procedure was followed in which the words of a group of volunteers were used to prepare activities on speaking. Two examples, of two discussion sheets and an information gap activity--can be seen in Appendices Three and Four, respectively. For reasons of space it need only be mentioned here that these activities aroused a good deal of interest, the first since it described problems very real to participants, and tried to elicit realistic solutions, the second since the concept of information-gap activities was a new one for most of these trainees. As with the listening task above, this allowed discussion of the experience and then of the content, so that we were able in our discussion to cover new concepts (such as information gap activity types) and concerns specifically related to their home contexts.
FEEDBACK As noted in my earlier article, thorough evaluation of the effectiveness of such sessions as these would need access to these trainees' own classes in South Africa, which was not possible. An initial, informal impression, however, was that the sessions had been highly motivating and aroused lively and intense discussion. It seemed to me, however, that although a complete evaluation was not feasible, further evaluation of the activity was important in order to ensure that (a) the informants felt that their role in the group had not been compromised, (b) that they had gained something themselves, (c) that the group had found the experience as interesting as had appeared and (d) that there was a possibility that it would affect their practice in their own schools. For this reason, I interviewed one informant and two other randomly selected participants a week after the sessions, using an informal and open interview schedule to ensure minimum intimidation.
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Here is a representative selection of the comments which were recorded (I=informant; P=participant):
Question 1: Do you think that this training technique is a good one? Why? 1.1 I: "a good i d e a . . , you actually get what is happening in the case of the people themselves." 1.2 "you're not imposing a theory" 1.3 "you're dealing with something that's been tried out" 1.4 P: I did not think that listening could be taught. [I thought] it developed naturally. Now I've changed my mind. Question 2: (To the informant) Did the texts I presented actually represent your experience? 2.1 I: Y e s . . . it's true, everything that's here. Question 3: What did the activity give you, if anything? 3.1 I: It gave me more idea of how to go about teaching listening skills. Even in primary schools they don't do enough about listening skills. 3.2 P: In a class of 10 only two or three speak. We never put them into groups. In that way you find yourself speaking more, letting two or three speak. So groups are a good idea. 3.3 P: I took down a lot of notes from what the others said and what you said. 3.4: P : . . . interesting that last night we were thinking of trying out some of the ideas on listening immediately when we get home. [her emphasis] 3.5 P : . . . a good idea and it is practical. Question 4: Did you think anything we did was irrelevant to your teaching context? 4.1 P: No. You could use all that we discussed. I'm going to try it. I saw it working in the schools we visited, It will be noted that the comments offered above are uniformly positive. In fact, no negative comments were recorded. This may in part be due to the cultural background of the speakers, and the context, in that they may not wish to appear critical in the presence of their tutor (even though my questions attempted to encourage negative as well as positive comments). For this reason it is important not to accept these comments as necessarily implying a resounding endorsement of the whole procedure. Nonetheless, they do at least suggest that the technique was generally well received. Specific aspects of the feedback worth noting include: -----endorsement of the attempt to derive content from trainees (e.g. 1.1 and 1.2) ---~e practical value of the session (1.3, 4.1) ----~e validity of using texts in this way (i.e. they genuinely represented the SA teaching context) (1.4) ----~e value of the activity in changing attitudes and (perhaps) behaviour (3.1 to 3.5) --the trainees' linking of the session with observed practice elsewhere on the course (school visits), which often implies acceptance of innovation (4.1).
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ROLE OF THE TRAINER It has been argued in this article than an approach more sensitive to trainees, deriving content from their own contexts, might be more motivating and might therefore lead to more effective change than trainer-derived approaches. This point has been argued by others, most notably Ramani (1987). It might be supposed from this that the trainer has abrogated all responsibility for offering input and suggesting change. Is s/he in danger of becoming a mere organizer? Analysis of the sessions as described above will show that this is not the case in practice. Furthermore, as I have argued elsewhere, there is no reason in principle either for the trainer's role to be so restricted (Bax, 1994). His/her function may indeed be different, in that s/he could now usefully ensure that content derives from trainees and that the activity is experiential, but s/he also has an important role in: (a) selecting, from those raised by participants, issues for discussion, (b) directing the discussion to cover topics which in his/her view are important for the participants' development. (c) challenging, and otherwise stimulating reflection, in interactive debate. The third of these is particularly crucial, and difficult to illustrate through mere description of sessions such as those outlined in this article. A new "negotiating" model of training therefore alters the roles of participants in significant ways: for example, it allows the trainees more say in determining content; it expects the trainer to select and filter content to some extent, and then, most importantly, to encourage change through classroom discussion. The trainer must therefore develop these s~lls in particular, to ensure a balance between concentration on trainees' preoccupations, and feeding them with ideas for innovation. This is an important caveat to attach to approaches of this kind. If the trainer does not challenge participants, and propose innovations during the session itself, there is a danger that this technique will merely repeat and reinforce participants' preconceptions. While drawing content from their own teaching contexts to enhance relevance, s/he also has a responsibility to ensure that participants look afresh at the practices described, to cause the kind of reflection which might lead to development of their practice.
CONCLUSION The technique described above is a simple one in principle. It involves no more than asking teacher trainees in advance of a training session for their own views on teaching in their context, then devising the task so as to focus on both trainees' preoccupations and the areas considered important by the trainer. To make the content more motivating and relevant, their words are selected and used in the task itself. This focus on content is then complemented by an experience of the technique in question. As a result, the trainee is exposed to an experience of an approach which stimulates reflection, as well as to content maximally relevant to her/his teaching context. The resulting experience-motivating, clearly appropriate, yet provoking thoughts of innovation--should in principle afford the ingredients for productive educational change. As such, I suggest that although this approach
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m i g h t n o t b e f e a s i b l e o r a p p r o p r i a t e to all T D a c t i v i t i e s w i t h all g r o u p s 4, it r e p r e s e n t s a p o t e n t i a l l y valuable way of enhancing the relevance and effectiveness of teacher development sessions, by e n h a n c i n g t r a i n e r s ' r e s p o n s i v e n e s s to r e c i p i e n t s ' n e e d s .
Acknowledgements--Thanks to all participating teachers from the EASL project.
NOTES ' The distinction between Teacher Education and Teacher development has been discussed in Bax (1995). This article follows the definition given there. 2 The EASL project was funded by the ODA and managed by the British Council. The UK institutions involved in this project were my own, Canterbury Christ Church College, and Thames Valley University. 3The intention was not to "recommend" procedures, merely to raise awareness of possibilities and discuss options. Teachers could then decide for themselves whether to introduce new interaction patterns in their own classes. ' Clearly, this approach is easiest with groups whose members come from a single culture and/or teaching context. As I argued in my earlier article, however, there are good reasons, and feasible techniques, for using such techniques with groups whose members come from a mixture of contexts (Bax, 1995).
REFERENCES BAX, S. (1994) Language across the Curriculum in an ESL Context: how teachers deal with difficult texts. Language, Culture and Curriculum 7(3), 231-250. BAX, S. (1995) Principles for evaluating Teacher Development activities. ELT Journal 49(3), 262-271. HOLLIDAY, A. (1992) Tissue rejection and informal order in ELT projects. Applied Linguistics 13(4), 403--424. HOLLIDAY, A. (1994a) The house of TESEP and the communicative approach: the special needs of state English language education. ELTJourna148(1), 3-10. HOLLIDAY, A. (1994b) Appropriate Methodology and Social Context. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. HOYLE, E. (1970) Planning organizational change in education. Research in Education. May 1970, 1-22. NOLASCO, R. and ARTHUR, L. (1986) You try doing it with a class of forty! ELTJourna140(2), 100-106. PARROTr, M. (1993) Tasks for Language Teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. PHILLIPSON, R. (1992) Linguistic Imperialism. Oxford: Oxford University Press. RAMANI, E. (1987) Theorizing from the classroom. ELTJourna141(1), 3-11. TAYLOR, R. (1992) The production of training packs in in-service teacher training. ELTJourna146(4), 356-361. WALLACE, M. (1991) Training Foreign Language Teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. WOODWARD, T. (1991) Models and Metaphors in Language Teacher Training. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
APPENDIX
ONE: A TRADITIONAL APPROACH COMPREHENSION
TO TEACHING
LISTENING
Instructions
I will read a text. Listen and be ready to answer the questions afterwards Text Now a common situation in South African schools in that listening is ignored, because the most important thing is the exam at the end of the year. Listening... there is no listening in the exam--maybe that is a pity. So teachers tend to ignore listening to concentrate on other things. An ideal way is for the teacher to record a tape, maybe on his own tape recorder, and bring it into class. But this doesn't often happen. No, I've never done it actually, because it's too difficult. It's an ideal.
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A common way of doing listening is for the teacher to read a passage out--not a long passage--then ask questions for the students to answer, to see if they have been listening. This passage may be from a book the teacher has--not the textbook, as the textbooks don't really have texts for listening--but a book of listening comprehensions, or from a newspaper or magazine.
Comprehension Questions QI : Q2: Q3: Q4: Q5: Q6: Q7:
What is a common situation in SA? Why? What does the speaker think of this? What is an ideal way of doing listening exercises? How do teachers often do listening exercises? Why do they ask questions? Where do the texts come from?
APPENDIX TWO: TEXTS 1-3 Text one
Now my class are used to being involved in the lesson, because most of the time I give the passages to them and t h e n . . . for example part of a story, I let the group deal with a section and another group deal with a section and another group, another section---or if the stories are very short I give them each a story to r e a d . . , and usually I do this over a period of, say, 2 or 3 days and then, the following day they read as a group and discuss and then they choose somebody in the group who is going to present everything, and then he presents the things to the class--the summary of what the whole thing is about and what they think about it, and then the others in the class who are not in the group will be listening and will start asking them questions. Now the questions which arise are not confined to the group as such, but anybody in class who can answer that question, is allowed to. Now I found t h i s . . . I find this quite interesting, and I find it quite helpful. I think it helps the students to rely more on themselves than on me. Of course t h e y . . , they run into difficulties, they ask me questions and 1 try to answer them as I c a n . . . Text two
Question: And do you find that when you do a listening activity in your class that the students actually listen and do things? Answer: Yes, in t h a t . . , well, I try to "force" them to listen in a way, because I, most of the time, I get them into groups and then we have a kind of competition. And then I read out, say, a passage, and I tell them, look, I'm going to read out this passage twice only, and before I do that I first group them, and then I say "we are going to have a competition, and if you answer your question you will get four points. But if you miss, then the other group will get eight points plus their own question. So their points will be up to twelve. Students normally like to compete. So I read the text, read it the ftrst time, read it the second time, and then I start asking questions. Now each one of the groups would like to win, so I usually get their undivided attention. Text three
But I was at one time asked to take on other classes that belong to other teachers and when I got in there I remember I was supposed to present a lesson. It was a short s t o r y . . , but I just forget i t . . . it was by Alan P a t o n . . . and t h e n . . , it had something to do with different political groups in South Africa---on the extreme right, on the extreme left--and the governing party. Now, before getting into the text I started talking about the South African situation--the government, and then those on the left and those on the right, I mean--I simply said they should talk about it--ail I did was simply write down on the board what they were saying. Now, think there were 3 or 4 classes involved, and it was in the hall-quite a big group, and out o f . . . I think there were more than 150, but out of that many I got, I think, 4 or 5 really participating, and now I simply at one time decided to "jump" on somebody else who had n o t . . , and it was a g i r l . . , and I asked her this question and she simply stood up and said "I don't know" and sat down. And then I went on with these 4 or 5 participating--all the others sitting there, getting drowsy!--and then the same girl I had asked the question, I found her-she had a file open--and when I looked, I went to her and looked into the file I found that she was reading something on education--not English. And then I asked her why she was doing that and she said, well, even what is here is about South Africa. She meant that what I was doing was irrelevant to the lesson as such. She thought the content is the thing-and I think that many of them--why they were not participating, not involved--they had the same feeling. What they wanted me to do was to discuss the text, the content in the book. Go through the story, finish with it, and they can go on to the next. And just, as a point of interest, the student who did that failed at the end of the year. I didn't do that--I didn't fail her because I wasn't marking her scripts, but she failed at the end of the year.
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THREE:
TWO
DISCUSSION
SHEETS
Instructions Read these problems, which are described by South African teachers in their own words. Then, with your neighbour, try to define them in your own words. Then, with your neighbour, discuss solutions. Write them down, and we will all discuss them together afterwards. Discussion sheet Problems with teaching speaking in South African secondary schools. Sometimes teachers in the lower classes, in Standard Six for example, tend to talk too much, and not let students speak enough. In many cases they start concentrating on speech either when they are in Standard Nine or Standard Ten, but they could start much lower. Problem ? Solution ? I used to teach only at the top and I couldn't understand why I always had problems, so I went right down to Standard Six and I found that teachers because students are slow and they want to get through the syllabus--tend to start a sentence and then, if the student is too slow, they complete it, instead of trying to give the child time to speak. Problem? Solution ? And they tend to correct students a lot, so they lose confidence. There is a tendency amongst teachers now, and other people, to laugh at somebody who makes a mistake, when he talks. It just developed and it seems that many students have got that attitude, which results in them not feeling comfortable in speaking English for fear of breaking some rules, language rules and being laughed at. It becomes a demotivating factor. Problem ? Solution ? And also the environment: I come from the rural areas, where there are not many English speakers, and I think it does contribute to their shyness, because they are very shy. You tell them to speak but you get problems. They just wouldn't speak. Problem ? Solution ? They are a problem in the sense that you only get a few students who are able to speak and if you are not careful you might find yourself giving them all the time a chance to talk, because they are ready each time you want. Say you want a volunteer to say something, they will do it, those few, and the others simply hide because of the large numbers. You may not be aware of them. Problem? Solution ? Instructions Now, here is some advice given by South African teachers in their own words. With your neighbour, try to define them in your own words. What advice or tip is the teacher offering? Do you agree? Write them down, and we will all discuss them together afterwards. Discussion sheet Suggestions for teaching speaking in South African secondary schools. So you as a teacher need to devise methods which will make them comfortable in the first two or three lessons when you get there, and thereafter you'll find they will even speak English to you on their own, outside, on the sports field or whatever, even completely away from the school. TIP? The kids are quite comfortable in speaking English provided that you encourage them and that you do not rectify their errors all the time, but allow them to speak whether it's right or not. Just allow them, initially, you just allow them to say anything, it doesn't matter bow it comes out. T I P ? . . . what we did is actually to form contests, speech contests, we have debates and speech contests where they get prizes. We start from the lower levels, the Standard sixes. They are given their own topic, and it's also done regionally, and nationally, so that has motivated them to actually have an interest, because even at school when it's done we do it
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publicly, where all pupils are involved, and we learnt that they really appreciate that, and in a way many pupils got motivated.
TIP? I've tried it with standard six, matric and they like i t . . . I let them come and dramatise, (some of them even record it if they have the facility at home or they'll use the school's facility and stay back and record it from the radio.) It's advertisements. The kids love the advertisements. So three or four will come and imitate the toothpaste advertisements •.. and that also helps with the proper pronunciation, and also takes away the shyness, because it's something they know, and they know how to do it.
TIP ? Another exercise that I do with them, especially when it's very hot, we can move the desks just where they want to, and they can sit where they want to, in, out, on the floor, wherever, and they have to close their eyes and relax, and then I ask questions, they have to clear their minds, they just have to listen to what I say. I move around the class, asking, for example, if you were a tree, what would you like to be . . . . is it a tree that sheds its leaves, an evergreen, does it have big branches, and I give them all those questions, so afterwards they are forming a picture of what they want to be and they know what they want to do. So then they have to describe that to me, because it's a very individual thing . . . . and the reasons for selecting that tree, so they have to be able to explain everything in order for me to understand•
APPENDIX FOUR: I N F O R M A T I O N GAP ACTIVITY Instructions You and your neighbour have the same passage, but with different things missing from it. Yourjob is to talk to your neighbour and find out what is missing--your neighbour has your missing pieces, you have his~hers. First, write down the questions you will have to ask to find out the missing information. Then ask your neighbour your questions and try to get the answers Then fill in the spaces on your sheet. You don't need the exact words, only the ideas. Passage A Problems of teaching speaking in South Africa. Yes, er, the problems that we are faced with are more to do with (1), because you teach them many concepts which are not applicable or which do not have room for practice. After school they just (2) -. This is the biggest problem that we encounter. They only speak English at school. And the time is very short because usually we've got (3) . Other teachers do not mind a lot about English. They're more interested in the content of the subject rather than the language as a whole. Questions 1
2 3
Passage B Problems of teaching speaking in South Africa. Yes, er, the problems that we are faced with are more to do with the background of the children as Second Language speakers, because you teach them many concepts which are (1) . After school they just speak their mother tongue. This is the biggest problem that we encounter. They only speak English (2) . And the time is very short because usually we've got one period, or a double period. Other teachers do not mind a lot about English. They're more interested in (3) rather than the language as a whole. Questions 1
2 3