11.27.07 Teaching English - What it’s like to teach Tibetan refugee adults at “Tibet Charity” in McLeod Ganj, Dharmasala, India
It is a privilege and a joy! Although it takes some organization & planning for each session, we can tell that any effort is doubly rewarded by the student’s responses of ‘shining eyes,’ big smiles & lots of laughter!
Although some people come here to teach (for days, weeks, or months) without any teaching experience at all, nor any TEFL/TESL training either, being trained (TEFL certificate) or having been a teacher appears to be a GREAT benefit…to both students and teachers. Knowing how to put together a “lesson plan” for either a regular class or a “conversation” class is really a MUST! The rule about “85% student talk-time” and “15% teacher talk-time” constantly runs through my head! Good job Rodolfo! Thanks for being such a good TEFL instructor!
It is evident by the students’ response & their feedback IF the lessons are planned. Although they are very gracious if lessons are boring, they are so appreciative when the lessons are tailored to ‘fit’ the students. These students LOVE to learn & are eager to work hard.
Kirsten (our daughter who is also TEFL trained & has taught in Japan & India) says that her students request homework and want practice in everything – reading, writing, pronunciation, & conversation. The way she structures her classroom activities is with a 5-minute warm-up that may include music, a pronunciation poem, or a game of word pairs (minimal pairs) in which they practice listening & pronouncing sounds like “th.”
She also may give a 2-minute speech in which they listen & then discuss what they heard in pairs or groups. The students take turns in doing the speech as well. They also write in a journal every day for the last 10 minutes of class with no dictionary, erasers, or speaking with their friends. They may write about anything but Kirsten encourages them to write more every day. The thought is that they will increase there quality as well as their quantity and become more comfortable with the language. She has corrected the journals once with feedback, but it is mostly a tool to increase their skills & an outlet for their experiences! Their stories range from what they cooked to much more emotional topics. Some write about fleeing their homeland of Tibet in the dark to escape Chinese capture & prison. Others have had to leave family members behind and most will never be able to go back to Tibet. Some take the chance to help their family or friends.
Kirst also works with 2 private students & occasionally meets with them for tea, lunch, or a hike - just to have fun talking with them about what ever they bring up…they love the opportunity to talk with English speakers!
Ann’s private 1:1 student, as I have written about before, is a housewife with 2 boys, ages 13 and 5 years old. She is doing so well in writing English & then Tibetan captions in her photo album for her oldest son, who is in boarding school. We have taken pictures of her & her husband, their house, cooking momos & mushroom soup, getting dressed up the traditional Tibetan dress – the chuba, & riding her husband’s motorcycle! While we spend the hour discussing everyday life in English, she works on her photo album or other projects. We will also go shopping, visit the local clinic & hospital, & she might show me how to knit socks! All spoken in English of course! We have also watched a video her family took when they visited her family in Tibet and she explained in English. She says she will never be able to go back to see her mother – it is too dangerous. Getting together every day is so enjoyable! We hope to stay in touch by e-mail or phone.
Chuck’s 2 private (daily) 1:1 students includes a monk who wants to become a translator. Part of their lesson each day is going over vocabulary and also reading and discussing a book written by Nehru, “Letters to My Daughter.” The monk wants to be able to translate it into Tibetan. Another ‘lay’ student wants practice in speaking, reading & writing for his job as a cable installer in a small village. Both are becoming more confident every day!
Chuck & Ann’s daily conversation class: It is mostly ‘planned,’ but occasionally spontaneous, depending how many students show up, the English proficiency level of the students, & if we have any foreign visitors who also want to participate, etc – then we have to improvise & “read” the group. We had a woman Australian professor of English one day & man whose background was in yoga, music, & drama the next day. He was a good sport and participated in our ‘disaster’ lesson plan. He graciously returned to present a brief history of ‘hip-hop’ the next day, which as he explained, is a combination of poetry, ego, & social/political issues. He brought song lyrics that we could read along with the I-pod music of the Fugees (their name taken from the word refugees)! This group apparently writes about political/religious themes such as Buddhism & Tibet. The English may have been a bit of a stretch for many of them, but great exposure to an interesting form of music! And since several students write poetry and have expressed an interest in poetry, the handouts are great homework worksheets! We ended the last half of the class with breaking the 20 students into 4 groups. I played 6, 1 min segments of songs from 6 different countries. They had about 3-4 min to discuss what country did they think it came from & how did it make them feel! What GREAT discussions if provoked. It is good to have a world map on hand – many have not had much geography.
Daily class - We begin by writing the daily objective on the board & begin with a 5-min warm-up that usually includes a song or game. Yesterday, we sang the song, Apples & Bananas, practicing the vowel sounds. The day before we sang B-I-N-G-O, as it tied into the BINGO game we played last Thursday at our Thanksgiving party. One of the monks said he liked the BINGO song so much he was singing it at home. Some weeks, everyday is a different theme/topic, but this week is a ‘disaster’ and ‘planning/preparedness’ theme to go with the Red Cross “Game Plan,” (disaster preparedness) card game that Chuck helped develop with the Portland Red Cross.
Yesterday, for example, we started the day using our Tibetan names (Ann is Tenzin Dolkar & Chuck is Tenzin Lungrig). Per one of the student’s suggestions, we ended the class having students pick & use English names, while demonstrating an activity they like. The next person in the circle would repeat the last person’s name and repeat that activity (like soccer, dancing, etc) & then adding their own name & demonstrating their own activity like, “My name is Bob & I like to play basketball.”
We also write a list of vocabulary words on the board, pertinent to the theme & clap out the syllables. This seems to help with pronunciation. Since we have beginners and advanced students in the class, we try to cover all levels as best we can – the advanced seem to be quite patient & willing to help the beginners.
We have had a short 2-3 min listening activities – our US visitor talked a bit about a natural disaster he experienced & how he has generally prepared for them. (Here in Dharmasala, there have been earthquakes.) The students paired up and talked about what they heard. After a short discussion, we grouped them and handed out the “Game Plan” resource cards. They practiced pronunciation & discussed. Then debate - the top 3 most important resources needed, here in their city, should a disaster (earthquake) hit.
We have also had daily 5-10 min time for “polite conversation.” We pick a different topic every day, so they get a chance to work in pairs with different levels of English, talking about such everyday things as work, weather, sports, or family, friends, & holidays.
All these activities need to be carefully timed, so that there is also time for a game at the end. What used to be an hour class is now 1 ½ hours because the students love the card games, “Cheat” (Bullshilt) or “Apples to Apples” (nouns & adjectives), so much that they requested a longer class. Today, however, we will try using the disaster planning ‘resource’ cards to see who can acquire the MOST resource cards by saying & matching the cards as they turn them over.
This is just one day in the life of a TEFL teacher at the Tibet Charity refugee school. It is cliché, but true, that we as teachers get far more out of this than the students! We will miss them when we have to leave next week.
