Teachers' Needs in Language Development

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Comment by Ezana Habte-Gabr on October 16, 2008 at 4:06pm

It seems to me that your inservice training should first focus on meeting the language needs for the EU and looking at English from the perspective of a regional lingua franca.

Comment by Cleo MERINO on October 16, 2008 at 3:46pm

You're absolutely right, Manuel! Now the question is, how much of the in-service training currently available addresses these issues? And surely the needs will differ from Primary to Secondary School!

Comment by Ezana Habte-Gabr on October 16, 2008 at 2:59pm

Based on my experience, which tends to incline towards EFL here in Colombia, the expectations for the local teacher are often not well thought out – often accent is confused with pronunciation, the notion of being a non native speaker is also not conceived as everyone is in the only language spoken and Heard is Spanish and is native. I would suggest that experiences in teacher proficiency and strategies for improving speaking levels should perhaps be drawn from ESL contexts vis-à-vis, the native context. Here, I am referring to countries were English is used for instruction in the schools and universities and were teachers‘s accents are not confused with pronunciation and “science and business is done in English”. While many of these societies may be in Third or FOruth World countries, they have benefited from not being in a monolingual environment as is the case in Spain and Colombia and this has permitted them to come to grips with using the language within their context. I don´t know if I make sense - got to got to classs

Comment by Manuel F. Lara on October 16, 2008 at 2:35pm

Hi Cleo & Ezana,

What are the real teachers' needs in order to implement their content lessons in English? I think that's a question educational authorities should have asked themselves first. I think teachers will need first to manage AL (academic language),which means much more than acquiring content-specific vocabulary. AL is the language that supports content knowledge, thinking skills and literacy skills. Together with AL, I think teachers will need to know how to carry out a sort of shelterd instruction or specially designed academic instruction for our students.

For AL & SDAIE (Specially Designed Academic Instruction in English) go to the discussion group AL & SDAIE.

Comment by Cleo MERINO on October 16, 2008 at 11:51am

Hi Ezana,
Welcome to the group, and thank you for such an interesting contribution. Being myself a non-native teacher of English, I do agree with you that we have undeniable strengths in that we've been through the same process as our students, so we're able to identify and predict many difficulties more easily than our native collegues. As you suggest, good rapport with students and learner-centred activities are essential.

At the same time, in Spain different ambitious projects are being implemented to create a considerable number of bilingual schools. To some extent, it seems to be a top-down process promoted by authorities, and there is a number of teachers who, while being very enthusiastic about the project, feel the need to improve their language competence, both to feel more confident in the classroom and to make their teaching more effective.

I'm trying to gain some insight into exactly which those needs who be, as the place where I work at is a state-run School of Foreign Languages. We'd like to offer relevant contents for the demands of these professionals.

Comment by Ezana Habte-Gabr on October 16, 2008 at 4:38am

Focusing on the "non-native teacher" as being significantly deficient in language and requiring "different programs" does not seem to contribute to improving teaching and learning. I am teaching a course this semester in Spanish, which is a third language to which I have been acquiring as an adult. I have found considering my language problem calls for ameliorative strategies, such as providing my students with guides, having them present the work and above all showing them that I have a deficiency with a sense of humor has helped us so far. This process has enabled me to also understand my student’s struggle with English acquisition. In the final analysis, I think that both language and CLIL teachers must focus on establishing synergy with students and also having students play active roles in the learning process.

Comment by Cleo MERINO on October 15, 2008 at 1:48pm

Hi everyone,
I've seen there are other colleagues on this platform (for instance, in the Educacion Bilingüe in Andalucía group) who share this concern.
I'm uploading my research project, which I'm currently carrying out, for anyone interested.
All contributions will be more than welcome.

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