Job Discussion Forums

[Insubordination]

I agree with what you said to some extent. We provide an environment (hopefully) conducive to learning. Choose materials which might interest and motivate and hope they want to learn.

We can make a difference I think. I had some one-to-one and small groups of students within a literacy project. I taught them to read from nothing. I made a difference. They couldn't have done it without me, nor I without them. I've also built people's confidence, got them jobs, listened to their problems and referred them to places that could help and got a class going for the homeless. I even referred a sexual abuse case to the department.

The kind of work I do now, I don't get a chance to do this stuff very often. I sometimes think it's easier but it's certainly less rewarding.

[Justin Trullinger]

By the way- the whole "kid in Bali versus kid in Tokyo" argument is just weird.

A kid in Tokyo with a good English teacher will tend to speak better than a kid in Tokyo without one.

But heck. IF you think it's valid to compare two totally different circumstances, and assume that you can discount a variable (teaching) as having impact, when in fact there are literally hundreds of differences in the situations...

Why don't you compare the kids in Des Moines, Iowa, to the ones in Tokyo?

Kids in Des Moines NEVER get English classes. Kids in Tokyo get LOTS! Yet the Des Moines kids almost always speak better! Clearly this proves that English teachers are counterproductive.

Geez,

Justin

[gaijinalways]

[spiral78]

I know that on our teaching team, there are teachers whose students write better (statistically speaking) than those of others.

However, I think they key is clear communication and the focus and interest to spend the energy to try to communicate clearly with the whole class, groups in it, and individual students.

Overall, though, if I could somehow inject the knowledge into them without tremendous effort and energy on their part, well, I'd be very, very rich!

[Chris_Crossley]

There is absolutely no question in my mind that somebody who has been there, done that and got the T-shirt is essential when it comes not just to helping learners improve their English-language skills, but also to helping them make the transition from their own educational culture to that which they wish to enter, i.e., crossing over from the didactic educational culture to one of social constructivism.

My own students are present at the private education training centre I work at in order to prepare themselves for life as postgraduate students in England. When they enter, they have absolutely no real idea what they are getting themselves into, but they soon discover that it is a question more of honing and perfecting skills of reasoning and examining matters from all manner of perspectives rather than just improving their English skills. Until they come to our centre, they would have been used to the kind of one-dimensional perspective, namely the one drummed into them by their teachers as being �the right� one, that they usually approach each and every issue with. Trying to wean them off that one-dimensionality is a real challenge for them, yet, slowly but surely, they begin to start challenging perceptions � and they might even start actually enjoying it.

Only the other day, I had students actually arguing points about a particular controversial issue � in English. There seemed to be a period of about five minutes when I just let them argue across the room in English and did not intervene until I thought it necessary to do so. The other students did not sit back passively, though, because I could tell from their faces that they were genuinely interested in what was going on.

Without my being there and having guided them to approach controversial issues (including previous ones discussed) in a multi-faceted way, such a state of affairs would have been virtually impossible. So, yes, teachers can make a difference to the way in which students learn, in this case not only in learning how to improve their language skills, but in learning how to expand their thinking and analytical abilities, which they will definitely need once they get to England to begin their master�s degree studies next September.