Job Discussion Forums

[flutterbayou]

Okay, I've decided to take the plunge and shall go to Sur after stopping home for Christmas in the States.


Veterans and current teachers alike: what sort of ancillary reading material do you suggest I take along with me?!?!

I'm traveling 'light' and can afford to fill a carry-on bag with entertaining reading for college level students, but want titles, authors, and topics all of you know are both acceptable and desirable to the young people in Oman.

Please, no negative threads on what is haram, just let me know what is workable and a delight.

[veiledsentiments]

You will find that their reading skills are extremely low and they HATE reading. Finding materials that are at their low elementary level that is relevant to their age group and interests approaches impossible. Add to that sexually integrated classes... trying to find something that either the men or the women don't turn up their nose? Oh yeah... and the cultural issues that you touched on.

Now you know why I avoided teaching reading. Because I never figured out the answer to the questions.

To be honest I would fill that empty space with stuff for you to read. Hopefully this issue will have already been addressed and there will be materials there that you can try to convince the students that it would be great fun to read in their spare time. (that sound you hear in the distance is all the ME teachers laughing... in 15+ years teaching over there, I had exactly 2 students who would read for pleasure when I wasn't standing over them making them do it). Reading is not a part of the culture - even in Arabic - and they approach it as something that they are forced to do in English class. The best readers in even the advanced classes read at about 50 WPM with poor retention of detail.

I'm not really trying to be negative... just realistic... I found many delights in teaching these students... but teaching reading didn't provide any. I found that my reading teaching was in my writing classes where I tended to be more focused on helping them to decode the academic texts that they have to use way before they are ready.

VS

[Geronimo]

Bring along a few low-level "easy-readers"...The "Ladybird" series, for example. Bear in mind, too, that books can be ordered straightforwardly through the Manahil Resource Centre after you have arrived in Muscat.

[flutterbayou]

Thanks.

Think quality magazines like The Smithsonian and National Geographic might go over well, that is, if they contain no objectionable photos?

I'd never expect students to sit down and read anything that takes more than 10 minutes to sieve through, but thought if I could get them to browse, we could talk about stories or articles in small groups. Don't the girls like to get together with their teachers outside of class? I'd think they might enjoy a little girl talk now and then.

[Neil McBeath]

Bring single copies of the lower level books from the Penguin Graded Readers series.

That way you can set up what could loosely be defined as a "class library".
The White Oryxin that series is completely suitable for Omanis; it's set in Oman, there's a feisty female lead, the good end happily and the bad unhappily.

The Terry Fox story is also very useful, particularly if you introduce it about a wek before the annual Terry Fox Run. That way you integrate the book with what's happening in the widser community.

Forrest Gump, Rain Man and About a Boy all have protagonists who have little or no understanding of rhetorical devices like irony, so they work well, and they have good film tie-ins. Female classes usualyy love Rebecca, and the Hitchcock film adds to that. My current class at Sultan Qaboos University have just finished Oliver Twist, which they seemed to both enjoy and understand - judging y the quiz results!

Other books I've used with Omani students have been The Story of the Internet and Management Gurus, but the winner of all time was Washington Square. The retelling softens the James' original, so that the reader wonders if Catherine appears to be dull simply because, secure in her own wealth, she doesn't need to put on a show and capture a "good husband" - i.e. a rich man.

[flutterbayou]

Thanks for the ideas, Neal. This is not the first time you've responded with some creativity.

These kids get so much academic reading for writing assignments that I figured they'd hanker for a sympathetic protagonist - who wouldn't fall for Forrest Gump?

I am surprised, though, that they were interested in Rain Man, as I figured they wouldn't sympathize with anyone outside the parameters of 'normal'.

I'm now in the Shanghai area, and the students here also like Oliver Twist and Gump. Interesting.

[veiledsentiments]

The reality of large families is that many of them have a sibling or a cousin with similar problems. The traditional preference for marriage to first cousins is a large part of the reason... and my students in Muscat were aware of this cause. The smaller towns in the hinterland will still be more traditional on this issue. Another tale that relates well to the women's lives is good old Pride and Prejudice.

But, again, I found success with using videos rather than readings with female students... never tried P&P with the boys. Another fav is "Anne of Green Gables."

Every place I taught had plenty of graded readers... the problem was getting them to actually 'read' any of them. (and not just share summaries with each other...) Supervised reading is about the only way to know that they are actually reading them.

VS
(PS: a 'factoid' about Sur... it is one of the only areas of Oman where the women have traditionally worn facial veils - other than the nomadic Bedu who wear the mask-like 'burqa'. Many of them were quite upset when they arrived at SQU and learned that they were not allowed to cover their faces in classes)

[Geronimo]

The Arabic speaking teachers that I interviewed for an e-learning project stressed the importance of the part that their own daily reading regimen played in their language acquisition.

I would endorse Neil Mc Beath's recommendation of the Penguin series. Penguins are more sensible than Ladybirds.
Here is a link to the Academic Word List -AWL:-
http://language.massey.ac.nz/staff/awl/awlinfo.shtml

[veiledsentiments]

Ah, if only the incoming students had the maturity reached by these teachers. In Kuwait I happened to have an appointment with the Western trained Kuwaiti doctor who ran the heart department. We got into a discussion of the difficulty of getting the students to read and he told me that his biggest mistake as a student was not being serious about the need for reading. I tried to get him to come and talk to the Pre-Med students about this issue, but his time wouldn't allow it.

The problem is motivating them to do something that they hate... and the lack of maturity of so many of them to even believe that they need it or English for that matter. I have had so many students come back after a couple of years of content courses and admit that they should have listened and worked harder in those first level classes.

VS

[lostdegaine]

My university students liked the graded reader versions of Brat Ferrar and The Silver Sword. Heidi was also a big hit, which you will realize after you've had it told to you for the twentieth time in mind-numbing detail by students doing oral book reports. They also like non-fiction; for example, a reader on the sinking of the Titanic was popular. I would like to find a easy reader on Helen Keller and tie it in with the old Patty Duke movie, "The Miracle Worker" because, when I told the story in class, the students were fascinated. One of the students who has actually read a real book likes Paulo Coelho.

Magazines have been more of a problem. Most women's magazines are not suitable for the girls. They aren't interested in the latest skimpy fashions and they certainly don't want to read articles about how to keep your guy happy in bed or how to have buns of steel. Borders has recently opened in Muscat and I asked one of my students, who's interested in reading, to look at the magazine selection and report back on the ones she liked. She couldn't find anything that she really wanted to read.

[flutterbayou]

with the input we're getting here.

Looks like they like biographies of courage... Terry Fox, Helen Keller.

Anyone with more tips and titles, please share.

[Insubordination]

Photocopy and scan so you don't have to carry anything.

[veiledsentiments]

Are we to assume that the MoHE is ignoring copyright rules?

...still...

VS

[lostdegaine]

In general students like stories where the good guys triumph, adversity is overcome, and virtue is rewarded. Students hated The Talented Mr. Ripley because Tom got away with murder. They like plucky orphans, hence, posters� recommendations of Heidi, Oliver Twist, and Anne of Green Gables. They dislike ambiguity, irony, and satire. They don�t usually �get� Roald Dahl and Saki.

[Duffy]

Excuse me folks,

I may have stopped teaching English in favour of Computer Skills, but before I left the English Department in my college, I know that there was a very strict reading regime that took in none of the resources you are talking about.

Otago, the NZ Uni are contracted to the MoHE and use their own resources. If you are teaching English, be it Foundation, 1st or 2nd year, that is what you must use.

IF you are using the other resources mentioned on this thread, it follows that you are not following the curriculae and other colleges are, so what makes you so special???

Oh yes VS, the MoHE are not ignoring copyright rules, that is why they contracted the NZ University to provide the material. It is this stuff that is being used by the other teachers who are infringing copyright laws!!

In the case of my College, the LRC put some of those readers mentioned in other posts, in the library, as extra reading, not course work.

Duffy