JO 753
- 2005-05-19
Wuts the easiest way to get to the top uv a mountain?
Fight with every little rock, crevice, sheer wall, etc. or take a helicopter?
The great thing about technology is that a relatively small group of people will develop an idea till it WORKS. They will refine it so ordinary people can use it without spending major chunks of their lives learning how.
Language is technology, but unfortunately, most educators dont understand this. They see language as a set in stone tradition that must be worshipped. Any idea of improvement is a sacrilige.
English does not WORK. It has never been REFINED to make it user friendly.
Until we begin to simplify English, it will remain a huge gnarly trecherous mountain. When the finaincial incentives to learn it begin to fade, so will the motivation to climb.
Elephant
- 2005-05-18
When you were in college, RT, did your uni have a language lab? Mine did. I remember I had to buy a special lab textbook with its own matching tapes when I took a year of German in the early '90s. Twice a week, I was expected to take my lab booklet and tapes to this language lab for my own 'LSRW' practice. It was audio-only, with no visual input save for the text. It worked. It not only worked, but it was also hugely popular.
This would be a great tool to use in TEFL. With video upgrades, CD's and CD-ROMs, hi-res monitors, and interactive, user-friendly computer programs, a modern language lab would absolutely rule in a place like Thailand. If you allowed your students to control their own pace during practice, and also allowed them to practice in private cubes (to eliminate the inferiority complex), you wouldn't have to worry about your students getting in adequate practice. They'd fight over seats in the lab and go back for seconds and even thirds.
It would be flexible, too. You could do all sorts of things with a lab to fit your students' needs. You'd only have to build 'sturdiness' into it to eliminate vandalism, as young Thai kids are notorious at breaking things for fun, especially expensive things.
I have heard that AUA in Bangkok has an entire room filled with old language--lab equipment that's doing nothing but collecting dust. I don't know why places like AUA allowed this to happen, but I say we drag such equipment back out, add the visual component, and crank it up.
My students' lack of practice outside of class aggravates the hell out of me. I try to keep my classes a little 'fun', but I too realize they aren't moving fast enough to fluency in a world getting more competitive by the day. It's good to play Bozo sometimes, but not all the time or even most of the time. Learning English as an L2 means one thing--WORK. Boring or not, ya gotta work at it. Nothing is going to change this fact. A modern language lab would make it a LOT less boring.
So, problem solved.....I bet I'd have my kids eating out of my hand if I built a modern language lab at my school. It's too bad I've already given my notice. I'll try to start up an LL at my next school.
E
Howard Zinn, Historian
- 2005-05-18
There is one aggravating characterstic of Thai students you failed to mention that keeps them off that mountain--the colossal inferiority complex one sees in Thai society. When you go to
a Thailand beach and see the tide roll in twice a day, remember that it's caused by three things--the sun, the moon, and Thailand's collective fear that 'it can't do it', no matter what it is that needs to get done. Thai students won't study outside of class because they are simply bogged down with fear. Fear of being wrong, fear of looking bad, fear of losing face.....the list goes on and on.
Thailand's inferiority complex is so big it has its own gravity. I wish we Farang could help them, but from what I've seen only King Bhumbibol can save a society that's as afraid of its own shadow as Thailand is.
HZ
SiamSap
- 2005-05-18
I agree. Yes, 'Mt. English' must be scaled if one wants to land good jobs in places like Wall Street. But, the only way to scale a mountain is to first have the motivation, and then strap up and go do it. This is one reason I think 'fun and games' should be used minimally in the TEFL classroom, especially with older learners (high schoolers). TEFL students must become 'acclimated' with the fact that to become fluent in English, practicing outside of class is the only way. Yes, practicing English is BORING, but they need to become introduced to the reality that there are many boring, undesirable things in life we must do to get what we want. Students complain about boring subjects and classes, yes. However, I can't think of anything much more boring than manning a trinket stall all day long, day in and day out, in that 'trinket trench' you describe--Koh San Road. That's the life my students are heading for if they don't get it in gear and start studying/practicing on their own outside of class. Boring or not, my students, I know for a fact, have to motivate themselves, strap up, and start climbing if they are ever going to become fluent. And they'd better get started now...they've a LONG climb to get to Wall Street.
I had it easy when I was learning English. It was easy because I was surrounded by native speakers no matter where I went. Such is the story of the native speaker/TEFL teacher. Learning English was simply TOO easy for us. It was so easy many native speakers can use the language to express themselves clearly, even beautifully, yet not know a shred of grammar. Our learning curve was simply a gentle slope.
One thing anyone 'green' in the field of TEFL must understand is that learning English as a second language (L2) is like climbing straight-up a sheer cliff. 'Green' teachers are not the only ones who need to understand this. My Thai students need to understand it as well. During my stay here trying to motivate my students to practice English LSRW (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) outside of class, I've come to realize Thai students overall don't yet understand this fact. Indeed, I'd say they have nary a clue of its potential.
The main reason for this is the Thai education 'system' itself, which turns my Thai students into sheep when it comes to initiative and motivation. In other words, my students let school get in the way of their educations. I say this because my students (and their tuition-paying parents) blindly obide by old rules and methods and never accept new ways of learning things. My students never practice English outside of class. They believe, because 'higher-ups' have instilled it in their minds, that they don't have to do homework in English. If my kids KNEW they were scaling that sheer cliff that is Mt. English, they'd get their acts together and practice outside of class. They would practice at home, at the market, on the bus......ANYWHERE. But sadly, they don't know they are climing that wall. The classroom is the only place for learning and practice according to them.
Practicing English LSRW outside the classroom, no matter how boring, is the key to learning in TEFL. TEFL Students MUST let go of the notion that learning should take place only in the classroom or that learning takes place only at school.
You can play 'Bozo the Clown' in class all you want to motivate your students to learn. Until they start actually practicing English daily outside of class, they'll learn only enough to land jobs at places like Koh Sarn Road selling trinkets in that great 'trinket trench'. I want my kids to have a fighting chance for the finance jobs on Wall Street or those engineering jobs advertised in the want-ads of the Bangkok Post--the jobs that require 'Outstanding Fluency in English'.
RhenoThai