Issues in Writing Articles for Teachers: Suggestions for Language Instructors

Ezana Habte-Gabr, Ethiopia

Ezana Habte-Gabr is a teacher from Ethiopia. He teaches at Universidad Externado de Colombia and was based at Universidad de La Sabana for several years. His name comes from the founder of the Christian empire in the Fourth Century. Last year he presented a paper titled "Teaching Geography Electives in English to Native Spanish Speakers" at the Integrating Content and Language in Higher Education in Holland (ICLHE 2006).E-mail:ezana.habte-gabr@uexternado.edu.co or habterod@rocketmail.com

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Abstract
Introduction
Specific problem solving
Could the topic be researched in the classroom? - An action research approach
Does your solution repeatedly solve the problem?
Conclusion
References

Abstract

Insights into how teaching oriented academicians could publish their classroom experiences are discussed in this article. It is noted that local experiences are often lacking at the international level. Possibilities for establishing an action research are also addressed in the paper as an approach for formalizing an approach to identifying the effectiveness of teaching strategies in the classroom. Emphasis is placed on the efficiency of online teaching journals as publication sources for teaching academicians who often lack time and resources for documenting teaching experiences and research. The article provides examples and contents of leading electronic language journals which seek teacher experiences from around the world.

Introduction

Often teachers, who are dedicated to teaching and developing activities which are student oriented, tend to distance themselves from publishing their research or even for that matter reports on experiences in teaching. There are two reasons for not orienting our work towards publications. First, teaching loads take up most of their time. Four student groups or more leave teachers with very little time to write as energy is geared towards grading, advising and planning. The second reason for not publishing is that many teacher are not aware of the fact that their ideas are very much sought after and do contribute to the world of teaching. Moreover, there is a tendency to be convinced that teaching is merely the reproduction of instructional techniques and that language teachers have very little to contribute to the literature and if we do not have any worthwhile experiences, of relevance to others. Cochran-Smith and Lytle(1998) discuss a teacher research movement which has highly influenced US education going back to the 1980’s and stress, among other factors, that the dissemination going beyond local level and evolving into a factor for teacher research. As constructivism has increasingly gained acceptance, we seem to be undermining it in the teaching process and discarding the fact that teaching methodology is also contingently constructed based within a time and space framework. Hence, a diversity of experiences is naturally generated in the teaching sphere and would be of interest to teachers around the world. Furthermore, teachers in developing regions could also embark upon the teacher research movement which seems to be largely restricted to developed countries through access to several web based journals and magazines, which are readily accessible in any part of the world and eager to develop their international coverage. Okunoye & Karsten (2003) cite in their discussion on electronic media in Sub-Saharan Africa that “spatial, social, discipline-related and temporal barriers” (p.353) are much easier to overcome through electronic publishing and benefit those in developing countries in terms of expressing ideas and academic observations. Therefore, electronic media is a venue to for providing information on classroom experiences from any part of the world. Increasingly, teachers around the world tend to access the internet in order to search for classroom solutions and research.

Most academic writing and publishing takes place at tertiary educational levels, mainly by researchers who dedicate themselves to publishing articles and books in a specific area of research for years. However, it is important to realize that teaching oriented academicians are developing their approaches based on experience and observation which is the essence of action research. Kinchelo (2002) notes the importance of teachers’ participation being an important component of a participatory democratic society were the actual subject of research, in this case, the teacher and student participate and report finding. Should we overcome the barrier between teaching and research and not view them as inseparable entities, the language instructor or teaching academician will naturally be inclined to publish. In the end, if teaching academicians are thoroughly convinced that our teaching experience does contribute to methodology and research and hence experiences that should be shared through writing. As members of a global community of educators, who benefit from ideas obtained from other teachers, we also owe others our ideas. Publishing ideas electronically seems to be the most efficient and rapid approach to diffusing ideas. I would suggest that the situation in Colombian universities is comparable to that of colleges in the United States were more emphasis is placed on teaching as opposed to Publication given that research has only recently been prioritized in terms of accreditation and furthermore, most higher educational institutions. However, that teaching oriented colleges in the United States have been less successful in developing writing oriented faculties in spite of higher teaching loads has been questioned as many have demonstrated large volumes of publications. (Boice, 1993) Therefore, it seems that fostering a culture through university and school tenure track systems would enhance publications on teaching experiences.

In Colombia and indeed other developing countries, which have generally had centralized educational systems, teacher training has been highly theoretically based and “divorced from practice” (Jimenez, Luna, Marín de Otálora, 1993 pp.9) Ethiopia until recently has been a centralized country, had a top-down approach to teacher training whereby theory was generally based on experiences from outside the country. This for example has lead to the use of books culturally designed for other African societies as local teachers did not participate in the text design and selection process.¹ In many EFL or ESL contexts around the world, teachers and instructors use foreign texts which have been adapted to the context of the country. However, teachers who utilize these texts are often not part of the selection process. This approach tends to distant the teacher from writing about practical experiences based on the classroom given that writing in the profession is associated with experts in education who are generally not in the classroom context. As a result, writing is not a habitual part of the academician’s life misconceptions about the process along with ameliorative approaches towards writing are generated, culminating in the language teacher only teaching writing without actually undergoing the process.

Specific problem solving

Teaching academicians are used to expressing ideas, opinions and concepts orally and rarely do so in writing. Their minds are full of ideas about teaching, effective strategies and positive experiences. Often they just do not know where to start when it comes down to selecting a concrete teaching issue to write about. It is not uncommon to begin jotting down ideas which are frequently interrupted busy schedules. Therefore, selecting an area of strong interest is important. This is the action research perspective, when observations are systematically organized to identify effects of interventions in methodology has greatly facilitated a smooth transition from teaching to research as the actual research is conducted in the classroom context, involving students (Kemmis and McTaggart, 1988) Hence, the teacher is not only at the centre of the research, but also is reporter of the results. A glimpse at the electronic journals mentioned in this article reveal a breadth of research results which have been obtained through this approach of identifying a problem, testing a solution in the classroom and finally determining the solution based on observations or a survey. Nunan (1995) provides a framework for conducting action research in the language classroom. This can be illustrated through a simple example of teaching propositions through maps.

Example: Table 1

Could the topic be researched in the classroom? - An action research approach

As teaching academicians, we are often not sure if our ideas are worth publishing. We tend to feel that our ideas are extremely simple and only adequate to our institution. However, a brief look at published articles on web journals goes to show the simplicity of ideas and on the other hand their effectiveness. A simple idea is much easier to communicate and use. The action research approach permits the teaching academician to work within an inductive context which does not require a sophisticated epistemological framework to justify a teaching interest. However, given the systematic nature of action research, teaching instructors should be aware of the fact that training is required. Moreover, it requires a series of observational and intervention phases which require time and negotiating class loads. Here are some examples.

A. How writing has improved in classification exams over a particular period of time

Suggested Procedure: Look at about ten exams from a particular school or region of Colombia over a period of time. Identify factors such as vocabulary, grammar structure, length.

B. Documenting the effectiveness of weekly tutorials – a case study of one or two students

Suggested Procedure:

Identify two or more students who frequently attended tutorials. How did their learning compare with that of others? Did having a close relationship with the student and monitoring their work improve their skills? Was this evident in a portfolio or scores?

C. The effectiveness of an ITC in TOEFL or IELTS preparation

Suggested Procedure:

Identify a group of students who have been using ITC to prepare for one of the international exams and ask them questions related to the advantages of studying at the centre. Do they think their score would have been lower had they not used the centre? Did the format of the questions prepare them for the computerized exam version? Did working autonomously make the process more enjoyable and easier?

D. Team work – in which areas has it proven to be most successful in EFL Teaching?

Suggested Procedure:

Identify tasks you have participated in a team, such as planning, grading, quiz designing and setting dates. In which tasks did team work prove to be successful? Why? In which tasks did it not work? You can give some specific examples and also look at teacher evaluation forms

E. Working in multicultural or gender teams – issues to consider

Suggested Procedures:

Think of instances in which culture or gender issues have been a factor in the cohesiveness of a team. Perhaps they have been from the outset an advantage and have actually been enlightening. On the other hand, they may have generated misunderstandings, creating obstacles. Write a narrative of the event (maintaining of course, anonymity of individuals)

F. How did a particular game prove to be effective to teach an aspect of grammar, spelling, pronunciation etc?

Suggested Procedures:

Describe a game you use in class. What is the objective of the game? How do students react to the game? How has the game impacted the learning of a specific subject?

G. Effects of course schedules on the teaching of English?

Suggested Procedure:

Think about the schedules and times that you feel have benefited the learning and teaching of English. Identify categories of schedules – blocks, alternative days etc describe how they affected your course. How have students reacted? How did you have to modify activities to accommodate a particular time of the day?

H. What are some suggestions for maintaining continuity in learning throughout the levels of a proficiency program

Suggested Procedure:

If you teach a higher level in the proficiency program, what problems have “fossilized problems you have noticed? Identify three or four problems in grammar, pronunciation, writing or listening and describe why they are problems. Perhaps you could use responses on previous exams as examples.

I. Problems with recorded listening comprehension

Suggested Procedure:

Identify the areas that you have noticed students having problems in listening such as listening for the main idea or listening for specific details. How do the outcomes of these results generally relate to other language areas? In what specific areas do your students have problems? Do multiple accents affect comprehension? Are the strategies suggested in the book appropriate for this context?

L. Strategies which have improved listening scores on tests

Suggested Procedure:

List the strategies you and other teachers in your level have used to improve listening scores. Try to look for listening quiz results in which the strategy was applied and compare them to others scores. How did the strategy work?

M. Creating a cultural setting for EFL

EFL often lacks the cultural setting and atmosphere needed for learning a language. What are some ideas you may have?

Suggested Procedure:

Think of a cultural event or activity such as a reading, speaking or documentary that you may have used. What did your students learn from the event? How did the event reinforce a specific aspect of your syllabus? How did students react?

N. Meaningful approaches to teaching EFL

Suggested Procedure:

Think of a speaking or writing activity that you planned and was related to student’s majors. What was the event? How did it impact students learning? What were student’s reactions towards having an activity related to their field of study? What other meaningful activities can you schedule?

Does your solution repeatedly solve the problem?

If you have noticed that the same strategy repeatedly solves problems, it is worth writing about it as others would greatly benefit from this experience. There are many EFL-ESL journals online which invite practical experience from around the world. Several editors are interested in receiving articles from Colombia as this is a part of the world which seems to be underrepresented in the literature.

While all these journals are somewhat research based, they invite pragmatic articles which are not too overtly based on linguistic and pedagogical theory. Furthermore, they very much lack reports from teachers in developing regions. The author of this article has received positive feed back from several of these journals and has published articles in the area of CLIL at the tertiary level. Electronic journal or magazine editors tend to respond very promptly and do provide authors with instant guidelines.

Table 2

Conclusion

It is important that language instructors, particularly from developing countries because methodology and teaching material has generally come from developed regions, realize that they are able to contribute their ideas through the electronic media at a faster pace and are also part of the teacher research movement which is becoming easily facilitated by the electronic media. The a-spatial natures of many these journals tend provide a level playing field for teacher researchers irrespective of their location and socio-economic situation. Moreover, the practicality of these journals enhances the exchange of classroom ideas and solutions in a pragmatic format in that normally, they do not require full-fledged research which tends to require more time. However, they must be convinced that they too are innovators in teaching methodology and do have much to contribute to the teaching community. Moreover, it is important for native English speaking textbook writers and editors to be aware of the experiences of teachers around the world in order to adapt exercises to cultural and learning contexts. Finally, being aware of the action-research approach, which is largely, based on the classroom experiences what is the action research approach? is important in that its stages permit the teacher to contingently organize ideas on paper and as the research draws to an end, actually have a written manuscript.

References

Boice, Robert Ferdinand Jones (1984) “Why Academicians Don't Write” The Journal of Higher Education, Vol. 55, No. 5 (Sep. - Oct)

Marilyn Cochran-Smith, Susan L. Lytle “The Teacher Research Movement: A Decade Later” Educational Researcher, Vol. 28, No. 7 (Oct., 1999)

Jiménez Bonilla, Sonia; Luna Cortés, Myriam and Marín de Otálora (1993) Action Research Guide. Thames Valley University. London

Kemmis, S. & McTaggert, R. (1988). The Action Research Planner Victoria: Deakin University Press.

Okunoye, Adekunle and Kasten, Helena (2003) “Global access to knowledge: findings from academic research organizations in sub-Saharan Africa” Information Technology & People Volume 16

Kinchelo, Joel (2002) Teachers as researchers: Qualitative inquiring as a path to empowerment. Routledge Palmer

Nunan, David (1995) Research Methods in Language Learning. Cambridge University Press

1 This information was obtained from Interview with and Ethiopian high school teacher on text selection during a visit to the country in January 2006.

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