The Importance of Socio-affective Strategies in Using EFL for Teaching Mainstream Subjects

Ezana Habte-Gabr

Elzana Habte-Gabr teaches at Universidad de La Sabana, Colombia.
E-mail: ezana.habte@unisabana.edu.co

Menu

Introduction
What are socio affective strategies?
Traditional lecture based classes are unsuccessful
The need to distinguish between the EFL and ESL learning environment
Conclusions
References

While many university instructors are well versed in foreign languages and are able to use them within the context of what Cummins calls the Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skills (Cummins, 1989) there is a tendency, for several misnomers to arise in instruction when EFL is used as the medium. Misnomers such as the need to have native command of the language to teach and the need to be able to teach the subject in the same manner as in the native language often arise. Our experience of teaching English Content Based courses or mainstream courses at the university level have clearly shown that socio affective strategies play a major role in teaching mainstream subjects and demonstrate the fallacy of the misnomers.

The Foreign Languages Department as Universidad de La Sabana, has not only supported the teaching of mainstream courses through its English Proficiency Program (EPP) but also through directly supporting instructors and students with language strategies in the learning and instructional process. Through a permanent seminar which supported instructors who teach in English, we were able to identify the importance of socio affective strategies. The seminar permitted instructors to exchange views on the process of teaching in English in a homogenous language environment were all students are in a native Spanish speaking environment. Furthermore, the importance of socio- affective strategies became increasingly evident. As the semester progressed, instructors noticed several learning problems accompanied with misconceptions stemming from the homogenous environment. Unfortunately, given the absence of spoken English in the environment by non natives, language standards are highly set. In the EFL context there is far less intrinsic motivation given that the language does not have a high presence outside the classroom. (Anderson, 2004)

The Institutional Educational Project of the university notes that it seeks to provide personalized learning coupled with academic creativity and rigor, which naturally calls for strong socio-affective strategies. (PEI, 2004). Moreover, becoming bilingual is part of the university's development plan, hence requiring an astute analysis of strategies which enhance the process.

Socio-affective strategies are those which are non academic in nature and involve stimulating learning through establishing a level of empathy between the instructor and student. They include considering factors such as emotions and attitudes (Oxford, 1990). Socio-affective strategies strongly consider the student's relation to society as a whole ranging from family to the global community. In a survey on English Content Based Instruction we conducted in 2005, the following statements were classified as indicators of socio-affective strategies.

- I have worked closely with groups in my class who have helped me with language problems.
- I have worked with frequency in groups to solve and discuss tasks in class.
- I have used specific strategies suggested by my professor and others to overcome difficulties with language.
- I identified classmates who could help me with the specific English language problems.
- I have approached my professor for specific help with problems with the English language.
- I have tried to establish a level of communication with my professor which would permit me to ask him/her for help when I needed.
- I have a level of confidence to present and discuss topics in class as a result of practice.

I have noticed that students in Colombia tend to seek a mentorship relationship with their teachers and tend to learn more when they are able to share aspects of their personal life. Furthermore, teachers are much more successful when they bring in their own lives and experiences into the classroom. Socio-affective strategies ranked as the most effective strategies in terms of enhancing learning among students. More than 54%, statistically a majority agreed that the relationship between instructor and student is important.

Instructors who arduously prepared an hour long lecture utilizing power point and polishing their language tended to find out that they were doing most of the work. Most of their students were able to follow a lecture for no more than fifteen minutes and the use of a foreign language; English was an obstacle to acquiring content. Moreover, when students evaluated the course much emphasis was placed on the instructor's oral performance. Often instructors did not completely acknowledge the fact that their own university learning was distinct from that of their students.

Initially, there was a tendency to confuse problems associated with lecture based courses with the instructor's language. However, the seminar revealed that instructors were heterogeneous in their command of English. As there were no other activities to evaluate in the classes, students focused highly on the teacher's English in evaluating the course, immensely shifting away from the whole learning process. We found that instructors that diversified classes and who did place emphasis on socio effective strategies were the most effective in terms of learning. Furthermore, the success of classes did not depend on the proximity of the instructor's speaking to native English.

An instructor to who English is a third language and is fluent, but far from native like competence, taught business classes through diversifying his classes with workshops and cooperative learning activities, permitted him to have a highly personalized approach to teaching in spite of having classes with more than thirty students. The fact that the course is quantitative in nature coupled with being in a foreign language, make it much more difficult than others. By focusing on socio-affective skills such as interacting with all students as he observed group work interacted personally with students, he was able to simultaneously focus on skills in content and language.

Another instructor who teaches communication studies in English and studied English at the university's EPP proved to be highly successful as he taught his course using new media. He attributes the success of his class by using technology widely used by students such as email, yahoo groups and online video. A Similar approach utilized in Japan revealed that using computer technology familiar to students contributes to enhancing content acquisition (Ward and Karet, 1996). In such scenarios, the teacher is relieved of fulltime lecturing and being monitored for language performance, making him her facilitate the learning process. As the student is able to move around the classroom at his or her leisure, a collegial relationship develops between student and instructor.

There is a tendency for English Content Based instructors not to analyze the language context under which they are teaching and arrive at wrong assumptions about their students' learning process and the process of Content Based learning as a whole. The utilization of ESL approaches which are based on a much higher exposure to English tends to reduce overall teaching and learning performance in the EFL context as processes in writing and reading are less considered in addition to aspects such as motivation (Krieger, 2005) It is important to distinguish the difference between English as a Second Language (ESL) and English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in the process of teaching mainstream subjects in English in the Colombian context. Furthermore, it is argued that often many errors in the teaching and learning process are actually committed due to the fact that from the instructional perspective, there is a tendency to manage the language from the ESL optics as opposed to EFL. The fact that many instructors had studied in English speaking countries also contributed to obscuring the language learning environment and increase expectations. As seen earlier, instructors who had studied in the EFL context were highly successful as they employed language learning strategies.

Socio-affective strategies are even more essential in the EFL context as the student does not have the social and cultural environment as in the ESL environment. A content based course in EFL is highly successful if the student contextualizes the English environment. One strategy which has been highly effective is the sharing of experiences with the language and foreign culture in the classroom along with experiences. For example, the instructor who had acquired English at the university EPP, constantly shared reflected on his experiences learning English with his students and has no reservations about admitting language mistakes to his students. By putting himself in their shoes, students tend to be less shy when speaking and open to being corrected.

Likewise, instructors who studied English speaking countries have been successful by sharing their overseas experiences with students and constantly applauding their students for studying in a context much difficult then their own as they too put themselves in their students' shoes.

While, the role of socio-affective strategies in learning and teaching has highly focused on the primary and secondary levels, our research has shown that they are central to studying mainstream subjects when EFL is the medium of instruction at the university level. The enhancement of socio-affective strategies permit the student to eventually learn how to learn themselves utilizing the instructor as a resource for acquiring language and content as they are provided with options obtaining humane support.

Anderson, Neil (2004) ESL and EFL: Same or different? Interview with ESL MiniConfence - Japanese Association of Language Teachers (JALT)

Cummins, Jim. (1989) Empowering Minority Students. Sacramento, Calif.: California Association for Bilingual Education.

Krieger, Daniel (2005) Teaching ESL versus EFL: Principles and Practices English Teaching Forum. Volume 43

Oxford, Rebecca L. (1990 Language Learning Strategies: What every teacher should know. Heinle and Heinle Publishers. Boston Massachusetts.

Proyecto Educativo Instituccional (PEI) (2003) Universidad de La Sabana. Colombia

Ward, Dana and Karet, Juila (1996) The Content-Based Approach To Internet Literacy. Paper presented at the Asia-Pacific World Wide Web Conference, August 23, 1996 - Beijing

Please check the Building Positive Group Dynamics course at Pilgrims website.
Please check the Humanising Large Classes course at Pilgrims website.