Editorial
Rosie Norman is a teacher trainer at Pilgrims Teacher Training Courses.

Straitjacketed Classrooms

Ripu Daman Singh, Germany

Ripu Daman Singh is a journalist by profession and a teacher out of curiosity. Having worked for a couple of English dailies in India, she has developed a good sense of language, words and their creative usage in day-to-day situations. That is what she wants to bring into classrooms, possibly starting by teaching with a creative approach. Currently, she is teaching at the Language Centre, Germany and is very inspired by the methods used at Pilgrims. She thoroughly enjoyed doing “Certificate in teaching English to Business people” course in 2010. E-mail: ripu10@gmail.com

When students come in the avatar of no-nonsense, would-be CFOs, showing signs of midlife crisis, you know you have to go by the Book. And the Book says, “Follow the textbook.” Teaching becomes tedious, like a business protocol you follow day after day without questioning.

Such is my situation. I am dealing with some well-groomed, top notch business and logistic managers, who come with fixed annual targets to a classroom. They like to focus on nothing but business and business. Not to mention, they obviously expect good returns. Time spent on any irrational fun activities is considered a bad investment by my particular students.

So when I say I am bursting with new ideas and techniques of teaching, I mean I am itching to take risk in my classroom. Blame it on Rosie Norman, the English entrepreneur as I like to call her (she in turn blames it on getting the Pilgrims bug!), who’s totally changed, or rather brainwashed my idea of teaching within four walls. She inspires and impresses me almost every other Friday with her input sessions that entail inventories of uniquely fun methods of teaching.

If nothing, I am always left enthused to apply the same in my classroom. But sadly there is a world of difference between Rosie’s students and mine. She teaches a bunch of boisterous trainers, who are ready to do anything to break the textbook monotony. While I, on the other hand go to a classroom, where a lone figure in his 40s, drained after his day at office, awaits me with his hard bound copy of Business English, dog-eared at page 78, Chapter 13.

With students, who are actually bosses or team leaders at their workplace, it’s safe to follow a fixed routine and method. Because that’s the way they like it. It’s not easy to get them out of their cushioned cocoons. I know for a fact that my students from the corporate world seek one-on-one sessions only to talk business. And business means slogging your way to the last page of the volume. Speaking from their perspective, it’s a valid representation of concrete results.

So when you try to bend the rules, you can’t expect the expected. The “Tell me about it?” application is a testimony to my failed attempt at trying something out of the box (book). It’s a method I learnt at Rosie Norman’s session, wherein the teacher/ partner picks questions from the answers given by the student.

It goes like this. Student: My Company is the biggest producer of cellphones in the world. Teacher: Tell me about cellphones? Student: Cellphones make communication a lot easier. Teacher: Tell me about communication?
And so on and so forth.

The idea is to get the student thinking on his feet and get him to answer spontaneously and change direction more easily. However, the idea bombs when you see your student sulking over being interrupted again and again. Agreed. Let’s try another method. This is called “Life Cycle”. Here the student is asked to explain his various stages of career with the help of Cuisenaire rods (different colored rods normally used in maths).

In this case, I learn that my student has been working for the same company for the last ten years and would appreciate if we finished chapter 14 by the next semester. Message taken. I turn to page 79 and make a mental note of warning signals that should not be ignored in a classroom. Remember it’s not so easy to break the ice with people entrapped in suits and ties. They need time and demand patience.

Surprisingly, activities like running dictations, picture persona, object persona et al work wonders in groups. And that’s what makes you think, why not in one-on-one sessions too? After all it boils down to innovative learning. But you wouldn’t know the road blocks until you try these methods in your own classroom.

So I suggest, go for it. Smooth or bumpy, it’s worth a ride. There’s nothing to lose, for it’s a game of hit and trial and a case of if at first you don’t succeed – try, try again!

The Creative Methodology for the Classroom course can be viewed here
The How to teach English to Business People course can be viewed here