Job Discussion Forums

[Skeletor]

Did they sign the new contract with TVTC yet?

Last time I heard TVTC wanted a curriculum from them. Have they managed to create a curriculum or is it the same old rubbish as last year?

[Skeletor]

Terrible company. Stay away.

[LPKSA]

I interviewed with them. They harassed me for weeks trying to get an interview with me via skype. You could smell their scam weeks in advance towards the interview. Shady shady shady.

[Beast]

Avoid, Don't go, Avoid, Don't go. Listen, Pay attention. Avoid

[ttxor1]

it is clear to avoid this company. there has been much written on the contractual issues regarding INTERLINK , but I was wondering about the teaching and learning situation. In an email exchange, I asked what commercially published textbook they use. the response was:

INTERLINK does not use commercially published textbooks. We believe that learning is independent of an author's ability to predict student learning needs. It is the obligation -- the art and the science -- of the teacher to observe what students need and to guide them in discovering it. Most of the teaching materials used in class are created by, researched by, or brought in by students. We discourage teachers from explaining, telling, modeling, and lecturing. We encourage teachers to design learning experiences that enable students to discover for themselves the relevant language components (pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, register, etc.) as well as the other, higher order thinking skills (describing without judgement, analysis from multiple perspectives, prediction, creativity, flexibility, tolerance for ambiguity, etc.). Additionally, as most students expect to work in Saudi Arabia, where command of English and Arabic is an employment advantage, the multicultural aspects of language in context are also considered.

based on my understanding, it seems like interlink at least partially follows the Natural Approach:

Objectives:

Designed to give beginners and intermediate learners basic communication skills. Four broad areas; basic personal communicative skills (oral/written); academic learning skills (oral/written)

Role of materials:

Materials come from realia rather then textbooks. Primary aim is to promote comprehension and communication;

Syllabus:

Based on a selection of communicative activities and topics derived from learner needs;

Activity types:

Activities allowing comprehensible input, about things in the here and now Focus on meaning not form...

(Designing Tasks for the Communicative classroom, by David Nunan, CUP)

I was just interested to get feedback from my fellow instructors about how this type of approach might actually work in their classrooms. What kinds of materials do the students bring in? What are some of the steps/procedures in this type of lesson? How would you transform their materials into work in communicative and academic learning skills? I imagine students perhaps bringing in a local (English language) newspaper clipping on something interesting to them, and then perhaps me encouraging them to develop a written response to it, give a presentation on it, ...and then maybe wrapping up with a mini lesson on frequent difficulties in meaning, pronunciation and form...? I am a relatively new teacher, and would like to learn more about methods to address the difficulties of students in the Gulf. Elsewhere on these forums it has been noted that reading and writing should be a focus, as well as issues related to Arabic-English interference. Does the approach described by the Interlink administrator help improve students' reading and writing skills? I guess having a range of "tools in one's methodological toolkit," is perhaps the best way to go...?

thanks!

ttxor1

[veiledsentiments]

The teachers that I knew from there over the last few years said that they taught as they did anywhere else, but you have to be able to talk the talk (the touchy feely approach) with admin... and then you go to class and teach the way you like. They used the materials they preferred to reach course goals. These were teachers with enough Gulf experience to know how to teach Arabic speakers.

VS

[Beast]

Don't go!

[mashkif]

[rollingk]

[cultofpersonality]

Communicative tasks with beginner level Saudi students could get very tricky. They need to be very motivated at first. If you're teaching at university level, motivated students are very hard to come by.

[scot47]

Saudi students are smart at BS-detection. They see through all this nonsense about "Communicative Teaching" !

[sicklyman]

[Skeletor]

Unfortunately INTERLINK's system has no input and therefore you are constantly trying to get the students to express themselves with a limited knowledge of the language and no way to expand upon that limited knowledge base. It's crippling and useless for beginner students.

[mashkif]

[scot47]

It is dispiriting to watch the newcomers with their enthusiasm for "Communicative Language Activities" try to cope with the realities of Saudi classrooms.

Saudi students can and do learn - but not necessarily in the way teachers have been trained !