Class Visitors

Last Friday, for my “Let’s Speak English”/Language Practice class, I invited five students from School #19, a.k.a. “The German School” (as there are four Swiss teachers that teach there) to help me teach my lesson.

Side Note: School #19 is known for being one of the better schools in town to send your kids if you want them to have good English. Additionally, I am good friends with one of the math teachers at the school (she, Naraa, is also the Peace Corps Host Family Coordinator during the summers and has incredible English). Recently I have gone to participate in Naraa’s English book club. Of the students that attend the weekly class, five have amazing English, English that exceeds almost all of my counterparts.

To begin class, I had the three 8th graders and one 9th grader (one was not able to come) introduce themselves. As they each took their turn, I watched the expressions of my attentive students. Their reactions were mixed. I could see most thinking, these are the visitors Teacher said would come to class today?

When each of the girls had finished speaking, I broke the class into 4 small groups. I divided each group of 4, placing each of my stronger students in different groups. Our visitors then chose a group at random to join. As they got to know each other, I wrote four questions on the board:

1) What are the best ways to learn English? Why are these ways good?
2) What do you need from your English teacher(s) to improve your English? Explain.
3) Is it better to study English alone or with friends? Why?
4) Why do you study/practice English? What do you want to do with English?

I assigned a question to each group and explained that, with our 8th and 9th grade visitors as leaders, they were to discuss their question using as much English as possible.

As I walked around the room, listening to conversations, I noticed quite quickly the reactions of the students. The group’s leaders were doing a great job of keeping my students on task, but my students had varied responses to the exercise. Some were excited and active. Most, however, as I had expected, were either shy or embarrassed. My two male students gave me the strongest reactions. One had completely shut down and the other was insulted. Both looked at me as if I had betrayed them.

Of my four best students, three thrived in this environment (the fourth was the insulted student (he eventually turned his frown upside down after I spoke to him in private that he should act like the class leader he knew he was)). Another quarter of the class also took advantage of the opportunity.

About half of the class was just confused why I would bring in 14 and 15 year olds to help me teach and went along with it because they had to.

After fifteen minutes, I brought the groups back together. As we discussed the four questions as a class, I was again impressed with the way that the four younger students took charge, how they employed critical thinking skills and how comfortable they were with their second language. As for my students, most participated, many reluctantly, some eagerly. A few even, who have of late been excelling, gave moments of inspired speech.

After class, as we walked back to my office, the four girls expressed their opinions about the lesson and their frustrations with my students. I listened attentively as they explained that my students need to relax more, that they shouldn’t be so shy when speaking English. Each had explained to her group that speaking English shouldn’t be difficult; it simply requires practice and confidence.