The Inspiring Teacher

An Hoai Nguyen, Vietnam

An Hoai Nguyen is a freelance lecturer and teacher trainer in South Vietnam. Her interest is in creative writing. She has conducted workshops about applying creative writing in class. Her teaching focus is on encouraging students to be autonomous in their learning. E-mail: anhoaing@gmail.com

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Introduction
Background
Suggested activities
Dramatising reading texts
Story writing
Conclusion
References

Introduction

Once I came across a power point template of candies in different sizes and colours. I loved it immediately as it made me think of my students. This idea has stuck in my mind as a reminder that my students are so different from each other though they are in a similar learning environment. No matter how they are mixed in one class, each student is an individual in his or her own world. The teacher needs to familiarize himself or herself with dealing with each student accordingly, making sure that their needs are responded to and their feelings are respected. When the teacher is able to see and accept differences among students, he or she has also learnt to treat them as “human beings” with all their advantages, disadvantages and emotions to be cared for. Humanism in a language class starts with this concept and the focus on students has become the main scope of the teacher’s work. It is obvious that humanism in language teaching is strongly relevant to learner-centredness and learner autonomy. In several places in Asia, although learner-centredness, learner autonomy and a learning-friendly environment have been advocated for years, it is still not easy to apply these concepts to create motivation among students. However, the teacher needs to recognize that necessity of classroom application to enhance their teaching.

Background

Teaching English as a subject in large classes of a heterogeneous population without facilities like CD players, supplementary materials, classrooms with enough space for both students and the teacher to move around, etc. presents challenges that make teachers easily feel demotivated. These difficulties do not include other factors such as time and exam pressure, lack of support from colleagues due to insufficient means of communication, no access to the Internet or whatever else! On top of all this, the students themselves also put teaching and learning in a dead end when they come to class without, or with very low, motivation.

In schools where the curriculum and textbooks are prescribed for teachers and students and must be strictly followed and timing is tightly controlled by a hierarchical system, the teachers have to improvise while delivering their lessons. Students are expected to be active but at the same time, a quiet learning atmosphere is considered desirable so that other classes are not disturbed, so the teacher has to look for ways to give their students opportunities to practise.

However, this grim overview does not stop teachers in these places from making all kinds of efforts to ensure that they can carry out their teaching duties and help their students to make progress, not only to pass their exams but also to gain and apply knowledge.

In order to do that, the teacher should be aware of the importance of looking at their students as “different pieces of candy” that need help for their own sake. It is not uncommon to have students in a class who have no idea why they should be there, except that it is a requirement from the educational system, the school management, and maybe, from their parents. To boost their learning spirit, interaction between students - students, and students – teacher must be the focus of each session. A precise concept of students can be found in an excerpt by James Davis, “The students can be young or old, bright or below average intelligence, "normal" or physically challenged, highly motivated or "turned off," rich or poor, male or female” (from the Internet, 2011). This shows a concern for all students with an insight of different levels of cababilities, characteristics and needs the teacher has to think of when designing classroom activities. Herbert Putchta and Mario Rinvolucri write in their book Multiple Intelligences in EFL, “Your students’ motivation depends on how “addressed” they feel in your class and how meaningful they think the activities in your class are to them”(Puchta and Rinvolucri, 2010:16). Their idea confirms that classroom activities must be meaningful to each learner.

Suggested activities

Teachers need to be detail-oriented when selecting activities that can meet several students’ needs and capabilities. Clear objectives for knowledge and skill training are definitely essential. Timing is another important factor to make the activity feasible. Practicality contributes a great deal to the activity success. The content should also be challenging enough but not beyond students’ levels. After using the activity once or twice, variations must be put in for novelty. Nothing can create boredom faster than an activity that is used and re-used unchanged! The teacher’s provision of opportunity for students’ curiosity in a new activity will certainly help to avoid tediousness. Most students, even weak and shy ones, have amazing ability for creativity and imagination…. Creative activities can inspire students to strive for better language production of their own. And their reaction to various activities is described interestingly by Jane Spiro “Leaner reactions to these activities have been so diverse and unpredictable that I have learnt to expect nothing” (Spiro, 2008: 12).

Here are some suggestions to inspire your students, mainly for those who are teaching English in an environment similar to that in Vietnam.

Dramatising reading texts

Objectives: to help students apply the knowledge of language just learnt and practice speaking
Level: from elementary
Timing: 20 -25 minutes

This can be used for any reading texts in your textbook. Exploit the text by letting you students read the text, explaining all the new vocabulary and correcting all the comprehension questions. Before doing this activity, ensure they all understand the text.

Then put them in groups, depending on how many students you have in the class, and ask each group to write a short conversation based on the text. Help them with vocabulary and grammar to eliminate the possible fear of making mistakes and also to maximise other students’ understanding of the conversation when the conversation is acted out. After finishing the conversation, students will rehearse in their groups before acting in front of the class.

This activity has helped my students, even weak ones, to have an opportunity to contribute by trying to write one or two sentences in the conversation. They can also select the part in the conversation they like and practice it in their group. Some are still too shy to act it out but after watching their friends, with a lot of encouragement from me, they are able to join in.

One thing we need to plan for carefully is timing for the activity. And if you have a large class with a heavy curriculum to cover, you may not be able to do this often. However, once or twice for each semester should be enough.

Story writing

Objectives: to help students apply relative clauses and to practice writing
Level: from pre intermediate
Timing: 25-30 minutes

After explaining the use of who, whom, which, whose, and let the students do some practice exercises, put the students in groups and ask them to write a short story. Give them some kinds of story to choose from: detective, love, horror, etc. Each student will write one sentence, connected to the sentence their friend has just finished. For example, the first student starts by writing “ Yesterday evening, while I was watching TV, my dog suddenly barked loudly”, the second may want to continue with “ I went to the door to see why”. And the group goes on with their sentences. Each student may have to write 2 sentences. The requirements are that they need to give an introduction, the body of the story and a conclusion. They also have to use as many relative clauses as possible. Each group can write down their story and submit for correction.

I can assure you that such an activity does not take you any time to prepare. The students may find it hard at the beginning, so you should facilitate this by providing them with some ideas or vocabulary. Each student can arrange the story in accordance with his or her own intention and the twist is usually amazing when one student suddenly puts in something nobody else has thought of. Sometimes, the idea may be silly or strange but that is also the point of this activity: students enjoy that! The story can make them laugh.

Conclusion

Learning a foreign language is not something easy! As a teacher, our job is to make it enjoyable by showing each student that he or she is a unique and valuable member of the class, who can contribute, and that his or her contribution is appreciated.

Each individual student also deserves the teacher’s attention, care and support. They have their own characteristics and needs and if the teacher does not look at these essential factors while teaching and facilitating, how can we create and maintain our students’ motivation and desire to learn more and more?

The inspiring teacher can lead and let his or her students find out their own ways to study.

References

Davis, J. online [accessed November, 2011]. Clear Thinking about Teaching, the Internet, 2011 www.ntlf.com/html/lib/btml_bio.htm

Puchta, H. & Rinvolucri. M. 2010. Multiple Intelligences in EFL. Cambridge: Helbling Languages Spiro.J. 2008. Creative Poetry Writing. Oxford: Oxford University Press

Please check the Creative Methodology for the Classroom course at Pilgrims website.