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“When language becomes a school subject…”
Donald Freeman was with us in our research methods class last month. We had a chance to meet and talk to him. He shared a lot of things, one of which I liked very much. He said: “When language becomes a school subject, it gets strange things”.
Is it possible not to agree with that? It is so much fun to learn a language and use it to interact with other people. However, we have motivation problems with our students. For them, language class is not that different from another class. Actually, it is different at the beginning. When they start learning English in primary school, they are very enthusiastic. English class is like physical education class for them, they have fun. But what happens then? What makes our students’ perceptions of the English class the same with math or science class?
There could be a lot of reasons for making something entertaining in nature an ordinary activity; burned out teachers, our methodology, or the way we test them! “Teacher, this was a very difficult test!” one of my students told me after taking their 2nd exam in this term. It was a bad moment for me. I mean, it isn’t my primary goal to test them. But it turns out that I am a traditional teacher who cover a lot of things one after another and test his students. Maybe the school culture made me do that (a book could be written on that culture!). So I have been thinking of possible improvements. Should I prepare the tests easier? I don’t think that helps. Spreading the assessment throughout a process during the term maybe by using portfolios could work. And that may also help them realize their own improvement. But I should plan it conscientiously. Otherwise, it would be an errand for students which again can make the class an ordinary one.
Posted in ELT, Life
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Methods are dead, but still necessary?
Questioning the concept of method has been one of the areas which gained importance in the last decade. This week, we discussed an article examining teachers’ beliefs and perceptions of the concept “method” (Bell, 2007) in an MA class.
In the study, the researcher asks various questions to the teachers in the sample about their definitions of methods, their own teaching methodology, the notion of post-method etc. Most of the teachers described their methodology as ‘eclectic’. In their words, ‘they don’t want to stick to one thing, and they prefer using a little bit of everything’. They defined method as ‘a set of techniques, principles, or systematic way of presenting a material or subject’. In contrary to the theorists or experts in the ELT field like Kumaravedivelu (writing the name is as difficult as pronouncing it) who emphasizes the limitations of the concept “method”, teachers in this study didn’t mention the restrictive aspect of the concept. But, when describing their methodology, you can see the context sensitivity or flexibility which is important in the post-method pedagogy. So, according to them, methods are not dead, they are necessary, especially for those who have just started to the profession because they will base their own methodology on those methods. Otherwise, how could you be eclectic?
Although the study has some limitations (in my opinion) since the participant teachers are MA students who probably have a certain level of awareness on this issue and were assessed through the data instruments used, we couldn’t help thinking what result we would get if we conducted such a research in the Turkish context. What if we ask Turkish EFL teachers to define method and describe their methodology? I think a considerable number of them don’t know what they are doing. They just randomly carry out some activities. They are not aware of what is behind their actions in the classroom. At this point of the discussion, somebody said “They would probably have some difficulty in explaining their purpose for a particular action they carried out in the class.” Then the discussion came to another reality of our context: “Our teachers believe that the theory (our university education, in-service trainings, seminars, methods) is a world, the practice (classroom environment) is another world. They are completely different. We all know those things you discuss, things written on the books suggesting what we should do.” I witnessed a teacher saying this just after an in-service training seminar. As a matter of fact, they do not struggle to try because randomly doing something without thinking what they are doing and trying to do something to improve their teaching is much easier. In my opinion, the problem is laziness. (I exclude all the teachers who do a great job.) On the other hand, not having enough autonomy as a teacher is another reason for this.
What do you think? What if you asked the same questions in your own context?
P.S. The study I mentioned is; Bell, D. (2007). Do teachers think that methods are dead? ELT Journal, 61(2). 135-143.
Posted in ELT
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Hello World!
When I first created this blog, the title of the default post was “Hello world”. I deleted that post. But I preferred to keep the title since this is my first blog post.
Once upon a time I had this strange idea of “Blogs are useless. What do people do on Twitter? I don’t get it.” However, I have recently encountered so many fascinating blogs and useful tweets created or shared by teachers. This motivated me to have my own blog. And I am here.
On my blog, like other teachers do, I want to reflect on my experiences and share my thoughts as a teacher and a future EFL teacher trainer. I would be grateful if you could join me and share your ideas. I am waiting for your help to learn more about and use what you call PLN (Personal Learning Network) which is a buzz-term lately.
Let’s wait and see when I will blog again!
Posted in Life
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