I had no idea that YUC had an e-learning platform--although I probably should have known since Hamid did mention it in his email. I'm eager to learn more about it/utilize it/possibly work on it. Although it's true that not all students will immediately adopt it wholeheartedly, I think there is a segment of the student population (the ones who show consistent interest and participate rigorously) that would significantly benefit from the additional resource. Anyone who's worked on it, I'd really appreciate an intro/details.
On a side note: I have to say, I appreciate and admire the willingness of the students here to read out loud despite (sometimes marked) difficulties in pronunciation, comprehension, etc. Students rarely seem to feel threatened or embarrassed in the presence of peers--and besides being immensely grateful for the above, I'm wondering why/how? Is the school-culture here really that different from the US where in a similar context, the ones with lower proficiency basically keep their ears tucked into their shoes the entire class session? (At any rate, they certainly don't wave their hands and compete to participate.) Or maybe...the difference is in the stakes between the two contexts. In any case, how can I further harness this advantage, as I see it? I'm still assimilating (to YUC, to the student population, to EFL), and I've noticed that certain strategies that were effective back home are not so here and vice versa....
This post raised more issues than one and I will try to touch upon each at a time without delving into much details.
ReplyDeletee-Learning is live and well in YUC and it needs is for teachers to enrich in content and inform their students to visit the portal. New faculty members may not be aware of this it is not quite late yet. Please visit the YUC e-Learning portal at: http://www.elearningyuc.edu.sa/
On Each campus there are trained faculty members who could assist you with the basics of developing and posting Moodle compatible content.
As far as we are concerned, one of the objectives of the English Language Centre (ELC)is to develop interactive content both for Engl 001 and Engl 002 students. Last year some teachers developed their content individually, this time around we would like to collaborate our efforts and produce one e-Learning content for each of the two courses(Engl 001 and Engl 002). As I mentioned in one of my comments on this blog, we could use for instance Hotpotato and Quiz maker software to develop interactive and interesting content.
As regards the reading aloud technique, it has proved to a very useful teaching in more ways than one for my studenst here in the Saudi context. First, students get to overcome their fears and inhibitions by reading out loud knowing full well that they can't speak it well enough. They get used to hearing what they sound like in English and therefore gain self-confidence which motivates them further. Second, reading aloud provides an opportunity for teachers to correct their students' pronunciation. Third, students start competing with each regarding who can read better and this point is crucial to Saudi students who enjoy classroom competitions.
as far as as the mixed ability class issue is concerned, a lot could be said about it and that would require a separate tread. However, it would suffice to say that in the ELC we consider multilevel classes an advantage for both teachers and students. For teachers it is a challenge that encourages reflections, discussions or even action research which would finally contribute to their professional development. On the other hand, students learn from each other by seeking their peers assitance and this promotes interaction and cooperation in the classroom.
At this juncture, it would be useful to address the issue of making use of high -achieving students to explain to the ones that are not. This technique is a double edged sword as it could be counter-productive if the teacher does not know what the ‘assistant teacher’ (student) explained to his peers. Usually, this so called bright student would use Arabic to explain the idea or instruction and if the teacher does not understand Arabic, s/he wouldn’t be sure of what was conveyed. In my personal experience I have witnessed this. I would explain the meaning of an abstract word for example and I would ask who would provide the equivalent in Arabic. More often than not students get the meaning wrong. Simply put, even the bright studens can sometimes misundertand what is said in the classroom. One way of getting around this is to recommend students to use bilingual dictionaries. Another way is to go around asking each low-level student whether they have understood. Sometimes, they would just stare at you and that simply means they did not understand.
Of course all that was said above remains debatable except the link to the e-learning portal and I would therefore welcome any comments.