Teaching English as Foreign Language - Assignment Example

Teaching English as Foreign Language Introduction English as a second language for foreign students in English speaking countries has become essential primarily because it helps them to adjust in a foreign land. English has also become a global language and written and speaking proficiency in the language greatly facilitates the foreign students or immigrant to improve his or her social networking and thereby promote better understanding of the cross cultural values. Language is found to be the major barrier in the advancement of a foreign student or an immigrant. It is for these reasons that Teaching English to Speakers of Other Language (TESOL) and Teaching English as Foreign Language (TEFL) have increasingly become highly sought after courses across the globe. Thus, various aspects of these courses, especially the teaching and learning methodology and the assessment criteria for passing are critical factors that need to be studied for making it more effective. The critical analysis of two qualitative research articles is an attempt to understand the more intuitive paradigms that impact the learning process. Critical analysis of 1st article ‘Allowing for Practice: A critical issue in TESOL teacher preparation’ by Caroline Brandt is highly relevant in the present climate of rapid globalization when people need to travel across the countries for myriad reasons like: pursuing higher studies; jobs; business expansion etc. A qualitative research was chosen because study need to evaluate the impact of these courses on the participants including tutors and trainees which were influenced by emotions and feelings. Qualitative study was preferred because it needed to be conducted under natural environment where real life situations are the focus of the study and no assumptions or presumptions are made. The researchers are inclined to get deeply involved into the natural setting so as to better understand the complex nature of social life and the behavioural pattern of the subjects. Summary Teachers training courses in TESOL are conducted by various institutions and around 3000 certificates are awarded annually after successful completion of the courses which are validated by one of the two UK based examination bodies: Trinity College, London and Cambridge ESOL. The course curriculum is prepared by the validating institutes and implemented locally. The courses are pre-service, short and intensive. They encompass teaching skills and language awareness development components. The length and the schedule of the courses are normally decided by the tutors locally. The courses are conducted through organized inputs, feedback, supervised teaching practice and guided observation by experienced teachers. The main objective of the study was to investigate the factors or the problems faced by the participants; trainees and the tutors, with especial focus on trainees who were speakers of other language. An ethnographic approach to enquiry was developed to evaluate the impressions of the participants. 95 participants comprising of 63 trainees and 32 tutors in 9 countries were studied for 4 years and included two fieldwork phases. The participants were from part time and full time courses. Various data collection tools like questionnaires, interview schedules, journal keeping by he participants as reflective tool and shadowing one group of trainees. Ethical considerations were adhered. The participants’ consent and their anonymity and confidentiality were guaranteed. The limitation of the study was that only problems and factors faced by the participants that considerably impacted their performance were taken into consideration. Outcome from 23 participants from 12 week, part time courses of the first phase was used to improve and improvise the questionnaire of the second phase to elicit more data. Generative networking approach was used in the second phase to garner information from the prospective respondents across the world. After rejecting many issues which were not supported by new data and using only those which were supported by both the fieldwork, 26 critical issues were identified, ten of which were related to TP (teaching practice). While the course duration was normally 120 hours, teaching practice comprised of only 6 hours. The study showed that tutors found TP language learners to be more cooperative and tolerant as against those attending regular classes. The trainees were much dissatisfied by the attitude of the tutors. The relatively short teaching practice was fraught with tensed moments where the trainees were required to stringently follow the schedule, most of them agreed that TP should have two tutors so as to reduce biased attitude and also give the trainees an opportunity to improve his score of assessment criteria. The continuous observation of TP was also considered non essential and as an obstruction for the trainees to develop confidence while teaching. Critique The qualitative study for evaluating major factors that adversely impact participants of TESOL courses is important because it has brought out critical issues which are important ingredients of TESOL objectives and aims. TESOL facilitates people of foreign origin to adjust in new surrounding and therefore, needs to incorporate better mechanisms and tools to generate confidence amongst the participants. The tutors and trainees both need to inculcate broader perspective of learning outcome. The study has revealed that the biased attitude of the teachers that does not bode well for the TESOL objectives. While it is true that the concept of two tutors during TP would enhance the trainees’ chances of improving their grades, it is also important that the tutors must also take into account the genuine desire of the trainees for language development. When foreign national is taking the course, it is imperative that teachers’ biases and attitude is tempered with tolerance and keener observation so that they are not exploited by other participants and used as ‘guinea pigs’ for teaching practice! Another very important fact that has come out is the necessity to introduce more effective assessment tools. The assessment mechanism should not only help the trainees to improve and improvise their teaching and learning skills but it should also help them to become confident. Indeed, continuous observation during Teaching Practice may be one of the factors that could be significantly impacting their performance. 6 hours of practical teaching is a short time to develop and learn the necessary skill of connecting with the students and successfully delivering the goals of TP. Hence, trainees need few hours of teaching without observation so that they are able to development necessary rapport with the class and students. They will also be able to become more confident in their knowledge and skills and therefore they will be able to perform better during the actual assessment by the observers. Another very important aspect of the study was that the participants had spread across 9 countries which had provided it with more credibility and wider scope of cultural diversity where the need for TESOL was observed to be an important factor to pursue their personal and professional goals. Hence, the outcome of the research needs to become an intrinsic part of course curricula. The tutors and the institutes must take cognizance of the various problems that are detrimental to the trainees’ development of teaching skills and language learning outcome. Use of technological gadgets in the classrooms has also helped improve the basic learning skills of the students. The students, with technology in the classrooms, have shown better results in overcoming their uncertainties and have developed self confidence. Their learning process regarding reading, writing and comprehension, has been faster than those who have had to make do with the traditional ways of teaching. Use of video tapes would promote reflective practices to improve performance. Thus, use of technology within the TESOL curricula would greatly improve the performance outcome of the participants of the course. The study has failed to take into consideration of the most vital aspect of teaching that is intrinsic part of TESOL objective. The empirical relationship of course curricula including teaching methodology and the emerging changes are critical for a given situation and therefore, the TESOL methodology of teaching needs to be dynamic to incorporate the changing environments of the countries where the courses are conducted. It is also true that while the validation may not be the main concern of qualitative research, it is nevertheless, important ingredient of research. The present research has sample that is spread across 9 countries and thereby greatly reduces the authenticity of the research outcome. Last but not the least important is the fact that the study has shown that TESOL teaching methodology lacks the most significant factor of education which promotes creativity of ideas. The stringent schedule of the tutors not only inhibits the creative inputs from the trainees but it also does not give them opportunity to build good relationship with the students. Building relationship with the students is the most vital part of teaching which the tutors’ stringent behaviour, especially during TP, does not allow trainees to develop. Critical analysis of 2nd article ‘Investigating peer tutoring’ by Jo Mynard and Imam Almarzouqi is another very important journal article that gives important insight into language learning techniques. Both the authors had hands on experience in teaching English in the Women’s University in United Arab Emirates where the qualitative study was undertaken. It is true that qualitative research methodology sometimes seems to become less reliable, especially in terms of its validation by a small number of data as compared to the quantitative research which is backed by a large ‘number’. But in the current case study, it helps to delve deeper into the emotional psyche of the students’ moods and attitude and thus try to identify the root cause for their current trends. Consequently, the numbers become irrelevant for the researchers and the emotions and feelings that dictate the attitudes and views of the students become primary criteria to the final selection of the research methodology. Summary Participants from Women’s University in UAE were chosen to evaluate the English language peer tutoring programme and identify the major challenges and benefits of the same. The Women’s university boasts of male and female faculty from predominantly western countries. The students need to develop minimum required standard of English within two foundation years before they can be registered for degree courses. Since the students primarily come from conservative background, the peer tutoring programme is envisaged to give them more liberty to choose their tutors to improve their language skills. The western style university gives the students a glimpse of the West and presents them with the challenges of the unknown. Hence, new students with limited English language ability are often unsure of what is expected of them. Thus, peer tutoring is expected to improve their language skill. The research approach is interpretative in nature so that impact of interactive learning could be assessed. This is highly relevant for research as the broad spectrum of knowledge gained through this methodology would greatly facilitate in realizing the aims and objectives of the study. Interpretivism broadly interprets the various elements of inter-related factors within the human interaction to improve and improvise the performance outcome of the language learning goals and objectives. The purpose of the study was to know about the benefits of peer tutoring as perceived by the participants and the problems faced by them. 59 participants comprising of 20 tutors (11 active and 9 former tutors), 34 tutees and 5 instructors were taken. Questionnaires and interview schedules were used, most of which were not answered by the tutees. Open ended interviews were conducted which gave opportunities to the participants to share their problems. Grounded theory was used to analyze the data and personal observation during interview helped to strengthen and give important clue that significantly contributed towards the outcome of the research. Tutors were appreciative of the programme and agreed that it contribute towards the enhancement of their skills and self confidence. The tutees remained confused about the programme but agreed that their classroom performance was significantly improved. The instructors were generally much impressed by the peer tutoring programme as saw positive results in the students who had attended the programme. The main limitation of the study was the small number of participant, especially the instructors and teachers who were not able to take part. The peer tutoring programme had positive results and reflected in the improved grades of the tutees and active tutors who were studying. Critique The methodology is not only an extremely effective way of getting general, observation based information but it also helps us to come to common but logical assumptions about things and events that are observed and directly and indirectly affect people and event. The necessary awareness and feedback procedures and subsequent observations of the events lead to conclusions based on the evaluations of the same. These evaluations often give us a new and fresh insight into the phenomena or events that are being studied for the purpose and facilitate improvements. The peer tutoring programme greatly facilitated the language learning through personal interaction. Another major issue that has come out is the need for personal touch that serves as the most effective motivating factor for improving language skills. The article has used the research and theories of too many scientists and academicians that sometimes, it is confusing as to what actually the authors are trying to prove! The article has been quite expansive on the research of various academicians and scientists which had carried research in the various aspects of the socio-psychological aspect of human behavioural science. But while the mention of so many research was redundant, the highlight of the research remained was that peer tutoring is indeed, a effective tool for language learners. Observation and interview techniques were extremely good that were able to elicit important information from the participants. Researchers had followed systemic observation where observation schedule was made according to predetermined criteria of the behaviour of the subjects. This allayed the fear that they could get confused with hordes of other issues that might clash with their primary objective. Indeed, with specific categories to observe, reliability is enhanced and the chances of misrepresentation is also reduced. Informal interview also created an atmosphere of trust and mutual respect that established the rapport which in turn helped the subject to freely express her views and thoughts facilitating better understanding of the attitudes and behaviour of the subject. The study has many flaws and the research itself is confined to such small sample that it may not actually represent the true state of the issue in question. Another factor that goes against the authenticity of the research is that it is only localized to single university and the sample is devoid of proper demographic representation in term of age, class, status etc. The study was carried on the small homogenous group with little variance in terms of length of association with each other. This is important criteria because the students might be having previous association and therefore, there dependency level, especially by tutees, could have greatly influenced the outcome. It should also be noted that the peer tutoring programme was devoid of any specific teaching tools that were designed to improve and improvise the learning abilities of the participants. The peer tutoring primarily relied on inter-personal skills to deliver the desired results. The study shows that the tutors were the major beneficiaries because they were able to practice on the tutees and thereby, enhance their own language development. Indeed, the programme shows that it strengthens the concept of life long learning! Another critical factor that is exposed is the increase in dependency of the tutees on the ‘help’ of the tutors who are increasingly seen as necessary support system to complete their class-work. Small localized sample has also significantly become a constraining factor for the validity of the research outcome and has diminished the importance of the issue at hand. One can, thus conclude that the researchers have been able to raise the most relevant issue and to some extent, they were able to establish the imperatives that encourage participants in the language learning in the informal environment. But the study cannot be claimed to establish conclusively that peer tutoring programmes will necessarily have positive outcome. The peer tutoring needs to develop and follow a defined structure that would not only help improve language skills of the participants but also inculcate independent thought to improve and improvise their skills to suit their situations. Reference Brandt, Caroline. (October, 2006). Allowing for Practice: A critical issue in TESOL teacher preparation. ELT Journal, 60(4). Oxford University Press. Mynard, Jo and Almarzouqi, Imam. (January, 2006). Investigating peer tutoring. ELT Journal, 60(1). Oxford University Press. Read More