Exploring TESOL Practices in the Arabian Gulf

reviewed by Neil McBeath, Oman

Cindy Gunn (ed) 2009
TESOL Arabia
Pp. 147 ISBN 978 9948 8566 96

This book contains 22 short papers and, according to the blurb, "addresses the issues of current English Language Teaching practices in the Arabian Gulf". It consists of "contributions from practitioner researchers from a variety of teaching contexts in the Arabian Gulf" examining the challenges faced by those practitioner researchers and how those challenges have been overcome "through Exploratory Practice Research."

In a foreword (Pp. vii-ix) David Allwright explains that books like Exploring TESOL Practices are welcome because they can encourage other practitioners to understand their own teaching situations, and that this particular book is especially welcome because Exploratory Practice "is probably not familiar to most people" (P. vii). He does not, however, explain how Exploratory Practice differs (if at all) from Action Research.

Neither does this book really cover "a variety of teaching contexts in the Arabian Gulf." Cindy Gunn works at the American University of Sharjah, as do seven of the other contributors to this collection. Indeed, only four papers come from outside the UAE – two from Saudi Arabia, one from Oman, and one from Jordan – which is hardly a country in the Arabian Gulf.

Even so, the papers have merit. Seven of them are devoted to teaching in (mainly private) schools, but this is a breakthrough. All too often, practitioner research emphasizes work done in tertiary institutions, and the concerns of teachers of Young Learners – however defined – are ignored.

Shayma Naqi's paper, therefore, on Teaching Pragmatics to Young Learners (Pp. 17-26) is of interest simply because it proves that this can be done, while Hessa al Falassi's Big Sisters, Reading Buddies (Pp. 32-36) outlines how 25 year old girls can be used to aid and encourage English reading skills in 12 year olds, with beneficial results on both sides.

Two very similar, yet mutually reinforcing papers are Waleed Jawabreh's Webquests; New Learning Prospects (Pp. 66-70) and Hussam al Zieni's Webquests; A Magic Recipe (Pp. 71-74). Both men opted to use a footballing theme, but approached it from different angles. In terms of engagement , their choice was probably spot-on fort classes of teenage boys, and their methodology also answers Amanda Ward's question Why Does This Keep Happening? Plagiarism in the Intensive English Program (Pp. 88-93).

This is a topic explored by Yakovchuk (2008) who, like Ward, concludes that students often plagiarize if the topic set allows them to do so. Assignments which demand that students make personal responses, or where they have to combine different elements, are far less likely to be plagiarized.

Two other papers stand out on this theme of writing. Mary Anne John's Making Portfolio Assessment a Social Activity (Pp. 112-115) explains how the demands of a freshman writing class at the University of Sharjah were met by scaffolding a traditional five-paragraph essay format, but insisting that the first and second drafts be peer-reviewed, and the revisions and redrafts submitted in a portfolio.

Similarly, but at a higher level, Jason M. Ward's Teaching to Learn; Advantages of Student-Centered Learning (Pp. 124-130) explains how he created a genuine communicative purpose by introducing assessed peer reviews. He admits that this approach may not appeal to teachers who fear marginalization, but he explains for student-centered learning to be effective, the instructions have to be completely unambiguous. Learning can only be facilitated if the assignments are "broken down into systematic, achievable and assessable tasks, explained carefully and demonstrated with an example." (Pp. 129-130)

And that is the strength of this book. The practitioners explain their exploratory practice carefully, and provide examples. It is the reader's task to decide whether the approaches outlines can be transferred from the Arabian Gulf – or more exactly, from the UAE –to other teaching locations.

Reference

Yakovchuk, Nadezhda. (2008) Towards understanding the root causes of plagiarism among non-native speakers. IN Mark Krzanowski (ed) 2008 Current Developments in English for Academic, Specific and Occupational Purposes. Reading Garnet Education Pp. 39-54.

Please check the Train the Trainer course at Pilgrims website.