And the first week is over..!

25th April- 1st May, 2011: As I entered the school, for marking a formal beginning to my much awaited 'field work',  everyone around me seemed just too busy and excited, busy not to welcome the kids but the local MLA who had to perform the ribbon cutting ceremony and say 'open sesame' to open doors of learning for the forty enthusiasts (the kids) even in the scorching heat of April-May. The summer camp at the school is organised by India Literacy Project, Hyderabad chapter. And I intend to take up teaching of English at this camp not just for the kids but for the two teachers I chose from amongst the available 8-9 Vidya Volunteers(name given to the para teachers in Andhra Pradesh).


They both are seemingly quite motivated to learn English themselves but what about teaching of English! Is it possible to provide pedagogic understanding of the subject to teachers with low language proficiency themselves? Will they be able to adopt and incorporate the more communicative techniques of teaching English despite lacking in communicative proficiency themselves? I am looking for the answers during this one month. 


Of the two teachers one of them (Reethu Singh) seems to be quite comfortable but the other (Anji Babu)literally shivers when asked to deliver instructions or explain something in English. His personality undergoes a complete change when he teaches/ interacts with kids in Telugu and  when he is asked to do the same thing in English. I am trying to help him overcome his fears by providing him structures that can be used for a quick reference at different stages of the lesson. Like- how to open general conversations with the children, what all can we say while they are leaving for home, how to ask questions from a distracted child etc.  


With regards to children, for the opening week we three decided to expose the children to English in all possible ways- songs, stories, formal-informal conversation, videos (Karadi tales) etc. as the first and foremost thing for these children is the 'lack of exposure'. 


To enable the children for techniques such as self correction, meaning-making, making predictions on the basis of the context etc. it becomes mandatory that  we provide them enough language. However a week I know is too insufficient a span but the time at hand 'is' a constraint. The model that I am trying to create here can actually be called a miniature of the work that should actually be done over a span of at least about a year.  


My work here I feel will fall under two broad domains- one, ensuring that everyday the children take with them enough English and excitement to return the next day. Secondly, I also intend to make sure that the teachers feel valued and learn as much from each other as much from my being around. 


One thing that I know for sure is that whatever might be the outcome of this month long intervention- I am going there with a good intent and even if I am not able to add anything to this incomprehensible theoretical world of research I will still want to add fun and learning to the lives of these handful of kids and my fellow teachers .  


I feel really scared when both Reethu and Anji address me as ma'am; I feel very responsible and honestly I just wish for them and through them "good" to the children who they'll continue teaching. 


http://englishinindia.webs.com/

Empowering the agency of teachers!!!

As a part of my research program I am working on improving the model of teacher education at the B.Ed level. Here the teachers are learning the theoretical and practical aspects of teaching English to their learners while they also actually teaching. The teachers selected are both graduates with a degree in Education from Osmania University. One of them holds a B.Ed in Social Studies with English as his second subject of specialization while the other one has a B.Ed in English from the same teacher education college.

The current B.Ed English curriculum  aims to provide the teacher-interns an understanding of the four language skills i.e. Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing and also of the two elements of Grammar and Vocabulary.     There also exists units on 'Communicative methods of teaching English' but the delivery of lessons is so theoretical and rote based that even the teachers who graduate as specialized teachers of English are not able to think of language learning/ teaching as a skill.

At no point during the tenure of teacher education are they made to realize the ideas of integrating the language skills and elements for making the learning of English more naturalistic and a wholesome experience. In fact their own English language proficiency is very low. Expressing their own feelings, ideas, difficulties and views on a given topic in English impromptu is a struggle for many of these trained graduate teachers.

Sample Selection: The sample chosen for the study is small and not representative of the entire fraternity of Trained graduate para-teachers and to be able to generalize the findings of this study the study will have to be replicated at a larger scale. The participants as mentioned are TGTs working as Vidya Volunteers at the Zila Parishad Schools in Hyderabad. They were chosen on the basis of their Education background and communication skills in English. Before commencing the field work, formal interactive sessions were held with them to know how they feel in general about language teaching- learning at the primary levels in the government schools' set up. They were also given a set of questions to be answered on the basis of the education they received at the B.Ed college and understanding gathered through personal experiences as teachers.

The day in general begins with discussions between the researcher (who is also a teacher educator here) and the teacher where they are given handouts or exercises to perform. And lesson plan for that day is put in place. The teachers also decide on their respective roles for e.g. of the three teachers teaching who will initiate the lesson, ask questions, conclude etc. A support system is built as we three try to sit and discuss our viewpoints about an issue. For this kind of system to succeed the most important factor that needs to be developed is 'trust'. All the people involved in this process should feel valued and the notion of being judged is to be completely removed as the tendency to perform not for themselves or the benefit of the students will otherwise be taken over by the feelings of showcasing the teaching skills to the other two people involved.

It can be termed as an on-the-job training of teachers but as the stakes of students too are involved in this process it has to serve the dual role of enabling the students through the agency of aware and qualified teachers.

Given the findings of numerous researches conducted upon the effect of teachers own language proficiency on his/her ability to teach communicatively; through my research I wish to fill this void that currently exists. The basic linguistic structures that the teachers are required to know in order to give routine classroom instructions, were in the beginning discussed and given in the form of a handout to them. Time-to-time or whenever they ask, they are also given structures in English that they aren't able to create by themselves comfortably like- how to express to children that they can guess the story they are about to read by looking at the title and the pictures etc. The idea is to make them feel confident and empowered. And what can be a better way of doing this than by giving them a helping hand in the form of structures(handouts) that they can always keep with themselves for quick reference.
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