Smart Ideas

       “Less teaching and more learning” it’s an attractive title for someone like me. I have always been skeptical about the traditional way that the language is taught. I am convinced that for the language to be learned, the student should be part of it. It’s quite hard for any thing to be leaned, whether it be a language or any thing else, unless you make the learner feels as part of that thing.

We see in Gaer’s article how she managed to make her students part of the learning process. She stated at the beginning that she used to use the traditional way of teaching, which is obviously used by most English teachers, but that did not work with her group at all.

She said her students were kind of mixture of different people from different countries, who came to US as immigrants or refugees. Now those people apparently are adults and they need to indulge in the community to live normally, which means the desire is already there. But at the same time it’s hard for such people at this situation and at this age to learn a new language and we all know what learning a new language means. I could picture those people occupied with lots of concerns e.g being away from home, heading to unknown future, adapting to a new life, culture..etc. How possibly could a teacher make such group learn a new language..?!!

Susan Gaer, I think, has answered this question practically in a perfect manner. In the first example she made students talk about folktales. This is a smart idea.. why..!? Because she noticed how those students felt homeless, so she triggered something that would generate information and let them speak elaborately. She made students indulge deeply into the learning process.

Likewise the second group, with which she issued the newspaper, they showed a good extant of success because they were given the chance to talk about what they feel like to talk. In other words, they became part of the learning process, that’s why they participated enthusiastically.

I wish I could talk more about this, but for the reader not to get board and acting upon Roberts’ word “a reflection, not a lecture”. This what I hope to be done in my home country, instead of the traditional military-like education; "I say, you do". I have a dream that our students come to the classroom with the feeling that they are going to a meeting, where their opinions, words, thoughts, will be respectfully heard. I have a dream that the teacher will shift from his old and antique ways to the environment where he becomes a friend, a helper ..whatever,, you name it. I have a dream that students will enjoy the learning process as if they are going to a picnic or so, rather than feeling they are going to a prison, where they start counting the minutes down… Could these dreams come true by any chance..?! Hopefully, InshaAllah (God Willing).

One last thing we learned this week is the webQuest. It walks you through the basics to create a simple but fruitful lesson. You might not even need to create a lesson if it’s already there. For example, “Hamlet” is a play by Shakespeare. It’s an absolute theoretical model to let your students read the original text “which some literature teachers still do”. Rather, you can grab it from the WebQuest, take what you think suits your students best, and make use of the materials and resources given there.. And the same could be applied to any thing else other than literature. Generally speaking, it’s a wonderful and formative website.. thank you Robert.. and thanks to all who posted to it ..

Peace and Love