Humanising Language Teaching
Year 1; Issue 5; August 1999
The Dread of Boredom
What follows is a transcription of three voices from a feedback session at the end of a one-week total immersion, humanistic English course in an Italian university.
The 10 participants were all members of a doctoral program and were mostly in their late twenties. There were two trainers P and M who had come from UK for the week's training.
The feedback session was videoed by C, who had been the group's regular teacher the year before.
(This is a linguistically "unweeded" transcript )
| W. |
I was impressed by both you….Of course, it wasn't our first lesson of English, strictly speaking, and we…. last year we enjoyed very much the lessons of C. We enjoyed very much the way C teached… taught us English…. It was more or less your style. She tried to teach English without be boring and she successed on it, she was very good. A lot of the easy way we spoke to you in English is due not only to C but to her way of speaking…. of TEACHING English. However I am really impressed on how many different ways of teaching English you have. Everyday there was something new. Everyday you had new ideas involving all of us with something that………., we say in Italian, is not even in the Devil's mind!. (peals of laughter). No, but seriously, you had always new ideas, it was really stimolante. You know we had to decide where to hold this intensive week. We don't have the money to go somewhere in the mountains and maybe we thought: "Ok, but one week, full immersion, almost 24 hours a day , IN THE DEPARTMENT, would be boring."Instead, at least for me, it was not boring, not at all. I think this is…we really should thank you for that. And it means also that you are very good professionalists of what you did, but…but… to be professionalist without the heart is a little bit cold, it's surely cold and you weren't cold with us. |
G. |
This week we had the opportunity to know not just English teachers but very, very, interesting persons. Er….you were able to touch with your experiences our inside….but doing this you had the ability to…….to…..make us be in English…….into English… to go deeply into this language. Also, you had the ability to make us feel very, very, important. I think this was really good because this stimulated us in improving our English but in a very easy and natural way. |
J. |
To speech in public, in Italian….or in English is difficult, but I want thank you for your friendship, first of all, because I don't feel this week like a seminar, like a course, like a boring course….. I feel another way to improve my…my English. In particular I want to thank….thanks……thank P when I had my one-to-one conversation because she gives me a lot of suggests, interesting suggests about my personality…. the way of… to be in English context. And I want to thank M because I spoke a half…. an hour and an 'alf ……I don't feel how the time goes on….. |
M. |
Me too. I felt the same. |
J. |
And when you gave us information about the different cultures and the different way to write……. when you suggest me not to write in a passive way*…, not in a baroque way ( makes ornate gesture) but direct… in a Gothic way. So thank… thanks a lot. * "in a passive way" here means using passive grammar structures |
Editorial comment: The two trainers could well have been moved to tears when they were told that "you had the ability to make us feel very, very important…."
If teachers don't hear, see and feel their students as centrally important what are they doing in a classroom?
And yet these students were grateful for what should be seen as their minimum right.
