I am Aparna, teach English in a public school, run by the government of Nepal. Our schools are not so much resourceful but it is one of the model school in Nepal. For Nepal it is the school full of all infrastructure needed. Here, students do not know much about modern technologies and uses of computers. We have a computer lab with ten computers and we have to take every class turn by turn there for practice. I teach English from class six to class ten. For my project work I have chosen students of class eight. Their age group is of 13 to 15 years. This is the group who has learned English for eight years and can read and write English properly but has difficulties in listening and speaking. They can only do short conversations in English. In my class there are 45 students and they are of mixed gender, means we make girls and boys sit together,work together and co-operate each other. We have traditional system of class room management means teacher in front with a black board. We take students outside of the class room for group works,here we have good space and we can sit down on green grass for discussions, group and pair works.Similarly, we take them to computer lab to practice listening and speaking. We do not have any Wi-fi or intranet in our schools. We use internet with a modem. Very few students have internet access at their home, they go to cyber or use at school. Facebook is very much popular here with my students. Most of them have their account there. Very few do Google search or any other for project works, mostly use library. But yes my students are very curious to learn new technologies and they are creative learners.
In the second step of our project work I revised:
Volume 1, Number 2, Winter 2010, E-Teacher Projects Gallery
Course: Building Teaching Skills Through the Interactive Web, University of Oregon
Author: Tendouinde Bruno Nikiema, American Language Center, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
Overall project goal: Plan and conduct action research, which involves a change related to technology use in your classroom.
One of the basic aims was using new technological tools to activate the students in reading and writing,to make them more active in communicating and sharing opinion promoting their interest and motivation.
Her work was very nice, she was fighting against the traditional way of teaching and trying apply modern way slowly and steadily. She worked with students from 16 to 24 years old who were from low-class. They were taught reading and writing on the name of language rather then listening and speaking. Grammar was taught and even after seven years of learning of English students neither could speak properly nor write a simple paragraph. Actually, they were not taught writing in the class, just asked in the examinations. The books prescribed were old-dated and inappropriate, teachers were left to their own devices as to the
materials to use in their classes.
She had set two goals for the course: a broad goal and a specific one.
The broad goal was to help the students to develop their writing skills in English.
The specific goal was to help the students to develop letter writing and interactive skills in English through email, especially invitation letter writing.
What I like about the project?
I chose this one because most of the problems that she described are currently happening here in my school, in my country and we also have large classes with low class students, less infrastructures, no computers and the teachers just have to use the same outdated text books that are inappropriate and tough enough. More focus is on grammar, reading and vocabulary than on writing, speaking and listening. As a whole this project is appropriate to my class room teaching too.
Another thing that I liked about the project is her way of motivating. Most of them had never used a computer before. Then, she had an opened discussion with them about the use of computers and the Internet to improve their skills and gave them examples of what could be done with technology to improve learning. The students were motivated and students gained increasingly more confidence and interest in the project. At last she succeeded in her goal, she made students to use modern technology in their teaching and learning activities leaving the traditional way.
As, I described above, my class, class 8, is a large class with 49 students, mixed gender, we have traditional way of sitting, we do group works outside the class room on a grassland and for listening speaking class we go to computer room, only when its our turn. My students are of low class and they do not have any access of internet at home neither they know how to use computers. the students are depended on school for computer lessons and using computers. For them use of internet is to use Facebook and chat with friends. Mostly, for listening class we use CD-ROM and we teachers also do not have much knowledge of computers and use of computers for a language class.
This is the situation of my class, now I would like to tell the problem. My class hesitates to speak in English. For them, English has become only to learn the grammar rules and pass the exam. They can not talk in the real life situation. They hesitate to speak in the target language. They are good in reading and writing but can not speak. For this, I am making them talk in groups and pairs. I am creating different situations and making them talk. I am taking help of different websites suggested. Randall's ESL Listening Lab has helped me a lot. I take my students frequently to the computer lab and make them practice speaking in the target language. Now my students can listen what they are speaking and give them feed backs themselves.
There is changes in my class in a slow and speedy way. In my next blog post I would be writing all of my plans, rubrics, references that I am using and follow up..
In the second step of our project work I revised:
Volume 1, Number 2, Winter 2010, E-Teacher Projects Gallery
Course: Building Teaching Skills Through the Interactive Web, University of Oregon
Author: Tendouinde Bruno Nikiema, American Language Center, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
Overall project goal: Plan and conduct action research, which involves a change related to technology use in your classroom.
One of the basic aims was using new technological tools to activate the students in reading and writing,to make them more active in communicating and sharing opinion promoting their interest and motivation.
Her work was very nice, she was fighting against the traditional way of teaching and trying apply modern way slowly and steadily. She worked with students from 16 to 24 years old who were from low-class. They were taught reading and writing on the name of language rather then listening and speaking. Grammar was taught and even after seven years of learning of English students neither could speak properly nor write a simple paragraph. Actually, they were not taught writing in the class, just asked in the examinations. The books prescribed were old-dated and inappropriate, teachers were left to their own devices as to the
materials to use in their classes.
She had set two goals for the course: a broad goal and a specific one.
The broad goal was to help the students to develop their writing skills in English.
The specific goal was to help the students to develop letter writing and interactive skills in English through email, especially invitation letter writing.
What I like about the project?
I chose this one because most of the problems that she described are currently happening here in my school, in my country and we also have large classes with low class students, less infrastructures, no computers and the teachers just have to use the same outdated text books that are inappropriate and tough enough. More focus is on grammar, reading and vocabulary than on writing, speaking and listening. As a whole this project is appropriate to my class room teaching too.
Another thing that I liked about the project is her way of motivating. Most of them had never used a computer before. Then, she had an opened discussion with them about the use of computers and the Internet to improve their skills and gave them examples of what could be done with technology to improve learning. The students were motivated and students gained increasingly more confidence and interest in the project. At last she succeeded in her goal, she made students to use modern technology in their teaching and learning activities leaving the traditional way.
As, I described above, my class, class 8, is a large class with 49 students, mixed gender, we have traditional way of sitting, we do group works outside the class room on a grassland and for listening speaking class we go to computer room, only when its our turn. My students are of low class and they do not have any access of internet at home neither they know how to use computers. the students are depended on school for computer lessons and using computers. For them use of internet is to use Facebook and chat with friends. Mostly, for listening class we use CD-ROM and we teachers also do not have much knowledge of computers and use of computers for a language class.
This is the situation of my class, now I would like to tell the problem. My class hesitates to speak in English. For them, English has become only to learn the grammar rules and pass the exam. They can not talk in the real life situation. They hesitate to speak in the target language. They are good in reading and writing but can not speak. For this, I am making them talk in groups and pairs. I am creating different situations and making them talk. I am taking help of different websites suggested. Randall's ESL Listening Lab has helped me a lot. I take my students frequently to the computer lab and make them practice speaking in the target language. Now my students can listen what they are speaking and give them feed backs themselves.
There is changes in my class in a slow and speedy way. In my next blog post I would be writing all of my plans, rubrics, references that I am using and follow up..
You are fighting aome very tough odds. Still your students are very lucky to have you help them glimpse what is possible. -Robert
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