Job Discussion Forums

[canukteacher]

What are some of the biggest classroom challenges facing university lecturers at uni's in the UAE? Secondly, what topics are taboo in the classroom? I have some thoughts on these two questions, but would like to hear those of you with experience here.

Thanks in advance.

CT

[veiledsentiments]

Canukteacher,

I assume that you are referring to teaching EFL, not an academic subject area. The answer to what is taboo is that it depends... first on how well you understand the culture and second it depends upon the institution. (for instance, a place like American University in Sharjah would likely have more freedom of topic covered than say... UAEU where there are more village kids and a more conservative student base) It also depends on whether your classroom is all the same sex as you - and their level of sophistication.

The one general taboo is any discussion of the local politics and/or ruling families. World politics and current events were not a problem and commonly covered in reading and writing classes in the higher levels. Even religion could be covered - carefully - if it comes up in a reading text, for instance. With my all-women classes, marriage - women's rights - divorce - and all related to that was discussed quite openly.

I found that topics were more restricted by their naivte and lack of vocabulary at the lower levels. My first years were spent teaching writing at low intermediate to low advanced. Later I taught the academic essay at 1st year level.

As to the biggest classroom challenge, in the Middle East the biggest challenge is the unrealistic expectations of the system. The vast majority of students reach university with extremely basic English skills - none of which are academic English. They may have spent 10 years taking English classes, but those classes rarely go beyond beginner levels. They can communicate to various levels verbally, but have no skills at all in reading or writing. The 'system' expects us to get them from this very low level to Academic English levels in a year or two at maximum. In my experience, other than about 5%, most do not succeed - but the challenge is that we all have to pretend that they do.

Having taught academic business courses too, it was only a rare minority who could handle the texts to any extent and the academic teachers' biggest job is getting the subject down to the level of their English. It all begs the question as they why they are studying in English in the first place within a country where most of them spent their first 12 years of schooling in Arabic. (does provide us all with jobs though... )

VS

[spicegirl]

Canuckteacher, if I remember rightly, you're up for an interview with UGRU soon, and are thinking about the kinds of Qs they might ask you.

As usual, I agree with everything VS says. Perhaps I might modify what she says about discussing religion. If you were to be teaching in the UGRU system, you probably wouldn't find any texts which led you to discuss religion. I think the biggest piece of advice I'd give is to steer well clear of anything connected with religion. The students might ask you if you're Christian, in which case you'll say yes. Nothing more. When you've been in this environment for a few years, you'll instinctively know when you can or can't mention something.

Don't be deceived by a class seeming to enjoy a discussion about e.g. religion, the Gulf War, the World Trade Center, etc. There will be one, or maybe more, in your class who will mention this either innocently or not so innocently to either a parent or someone with an axe to grind. I've managed to keep well out of trouble so far, and long may it last, but there are stories, some embellished, but nevertheless not without foundation, of teachers 'leaving' because of something they've brought up for discussion in the classroom which has been 'reported' to somone somewhere.

If you're new to the Gulf you can't imagine the way your students' minds work. For example, female students (and males too) will gossip about everything: your clothes, your hairstyle, your marital status. What you say to students in one class will soon be common knowledge among the student body. Everything you say will be dissected and put back together again ..... but the students aren't very good at puzzles, and you'll find that your words have been put back in the wrong order, or worse still, changed.

No need to be paranoid, though, if you just steer clear of religion, politics, s-x and flirting. The students are lovely, but not very worldly wise, as VS says.

[younggeorge]

VS and spicegirl have covered it all pretty well. I just have one addition and one "yes, but..."

The addition is that it's, at least initially, a challenge to get students to think independently, never mind critically. They're mostly acustomed to memorising and trotting out what they've been taught before. Once they realise that opinions are OK and more than one answer is possible, they generally get the hang of it but it's sometimes a bit of a struggle getting to that point. One way of approaching this is to give them reading texts with contrasting opinions or ideas and ask them to, first, see where the differences are, then discuss the differing viewpoints and how they are argued.

The "yes, but ..." is about VS's view of the success rate (she mentions 5%). That very much depends on your definition of success. If you had 95% of your students failing the programme, you'd be in deep trouble (ZU's Readiness programme was heading that way at one stage!), so the official definition of success has to be passing the course. I'd hesitate to get involved in discussions of success at the interview, though it might be a good idea to ask a question along the lines of "Do you have any feedback from the higher level courses about the performance of students coming out of UGRU?" Expect a somewhat hesitant response!

[well-travelled]

I don't disagree at all with what's been posted above in answer to your question, but, to get down to the nitty-gritty, I'd make the following observations about low-level entry, male Emirati students at HCT.

First - they're generally lacking in motivation and have limited attention spans. If they're allowed a prayer-visit to the mosque, for example, then don't expect them back within the allotted time-period. (If there is an allotted time-period, that is. Where I worked, this was kept rather vague ....!!)

Second - don't expect them to arrive on time to the first lesson of the morning/afternoon. Most won't. They're also meant to attend college for a certain percentage of time during each semester. Most push that to the limit.

Third - unless you clamp down immediately, you'll have mobile phones ringing during the duration of your lesson. Of course, when you do clamp down, they'll put their mobiles onto silent-mode, but they'll still have the vibration-mode (sic!!!) going and will try to text-message surreptitiously in their dishdasha pockets...

Four - a good number of them will not bring books, pens,pencils etc.. to the class

Five - they will constantly talk amongst themselves during your lessons.

Six - etc...etc.....

well-travelled