EEG402 - TEACHING IN A GLOBAL WORLD by Jess Higgins

Introduction

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This year in January, as part of the Global Experience Program, I undertook placement in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Not knowing what to expect, I found the placement to be such an insightful and worthwhile experience. It was during this time that I pushed myself to learn about different cultures and to truly understand the teaching which takes place amongst ESL/EAL students. From never having taught English as a second language, nor knowing how to do so effectively, I found a passion for teaching cross-linguistically.
This topic was covered throughout the second module in this subject, although only brief. As I have a lived experience of this, I found it essential to cover this area in my presentation, accompanied by two teaching strategies that I utilised during my placement.

Why is this topic relevant?

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This topic is important and relevant today as there is an “increasing diversity within classrooms and schools” (EEG402 Teaching in a Global World, 2017, Study Guide), with many students studying English as a second or additional language. In fact, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (2012) state that 19.3% of Australian citizens use languages other than English at home.
Furthermore, educational exporting is increasing, thus teachers from different nations are given the opportunity to teach English across countries. Cross cultural relationships are able to foster and grow, in turn creating greater learning opportunities between nations.

With that in mind, Intercultural Understanding is vital as there are many multicultural learners across the nation. Educators should be equipped with the knowledge and utensils to aid their cross-linguistic teaching.

STRATEGY ONE

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Knowing your students and their cultural backgrounds.
During my placement, I taught Form 4 and 5 English (equivalent to Year 10 and 11 in Australia). As Malaysia is a very diverse country, I soon realised that there were many students in both my classes of different cultures and religions. Before engaging in any teaching per say, I spent the first two lessons getting to know my students and their cultures. I did not want to make any assumptions about their cultures or religions, so an introductory lesson served as necessary for two reasons. One, it would enable me to learn more about my students and their backgrounds and two, I believed that this activity would allow relationships to foster and grow as I truly wanted to learn as much as I could about them in such a short time.

As educators, we sometimes make assumptions about our students, but I wanted to stray from that and enrich myself in a culturally diverse classroom. Knowing your students and their cultures will ultimately have a greater impact on your teaching and relationships with these students, as Gonzalez (2014) states how “taking the time to learn the basics of where a child comes from… tells the student that you respect her enough to bother”.

The aim of this strategy serves two major purposes. Firstly, it allows for an insight into the student’s cultural background and religions, as well as students getting to know their own teachers cultural background too. Secondly, this strategy serves as a tool for understanding how language is used by each student, as language is also culture. Witnessing at least 4 different cultures in my classroom during my Malaysian placement, there is a cultural overlay which may determine how language is spoken within the community.

Resources: Strategy One

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‘Who am I?’ poster activity.
I explained to the students that I wanted to get to know them and understand who they are as individuals. I gave them each an A4 piece of paper and explained that they had the lesson to either draw or scribe (allowing two options as through past teaching experiences I learnt that some students do not like drawing and prefer to write) whatever they wanted to, representing who they are and giving insight into their cultural background. The students enjoyed this activity as a more collaborative approach was used, allowing them to discuss between one another, and even asking their peers for advice on how they perceived one another.

‘Informal letter’ to the teacher.
This strategy worked well as I was able to incorporate their informal letters into their curriculum. The first part of the lesson was learning about informal letters; how to write them, the processes involved and what informal letters are used for. I asked my students to write an informal letter to their teacher (myself), introducing themselves to me. This activity was a follow up from the posters as students were able to go into more detail and have the freedom to write whatever they wanted to about themselves, their culture and religions, and facts about themselves. This was an insightful activity as the students were very excited to introduce themselves to an Australian teacher!

STRATEGY TWO

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Development of Vocabulary, Listening and Speaking through English games/challenges and activities.

The aims of this strategy were to promote a happy yet exciting learning environment for my students with the intentions of making learning experiences joyful. Through incorporating games and challenges into the classroom, I wanted to keep the students engaged and interested in the lesson content. The activities utilised in their lessons involve a collaborative approach between the students, either between two - six students or as a whole class activity.

Through the use of English games and activities, this strategy was successful in developing everyday skills associated with speaking, listening and writing amongst the students. There was also a social benefit of immersing the students in games and activities as they are encouraged to participate and talk to other peers they have not had much contact with.

Pim suggests that “multi-modal nature… makes it an effective tool for supporting the acquisition of oral skills, as well as for teaching learners about themselves and the wider world” (2012, pg. 79). English games can be implemented to assist in the acquisition of language to ESL students as they promote an accessible way for students to utilise casual language. Furthermore, students can broaden their vocabulary of the English language to a variety of situations and in a meaningful context, true to Gibbons notion that “language teaching is more effective when learners are presented with language in a meaningful context” (2002, pg. 119).

Resources: Strategy Two

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‘Ready, Set, Race!’ English challenge.
This English challenge is one which I made myself. I incorporated elements of their English curriculum into the challenge by giving each stage a sub heading, as seen in their text books. The class was split into two teams. The challenge comprised of 5 stages. Students were instructed that participation from all students was compulsory, and a penalty would occur if otherwise.
The five stages included:

1. Spelling Bee,

2. What am I?

3. Noun/Verb or Adjective?

4. Fill in the blanks,

5. Debate.

Shakespeare drama workshop focusing on figurative language.
This workshop was utilised when learning about poetry and figurative language. Scaffolding was also used as there were four components of this workshop.

Component 1: He says/She says. While learning about poetry, I used William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 as the set poem for examination. I read aloud each line, and the students read afterwards.
Component 2: Fill in the blanks. Students were to complete the blanks by filling them in with words from the Sonnet.
Component 3: Circle all the figurative language in the Sonnet.
Component 4: Students instructed to either write their own poems using figurative language, or to choose a poem of their choice and highlight all the figurative language.

Vocabulary games - ‘Boggle’.
Boggle is played with a tray of 16 letter dice, which is shaken to get 16 random letters. Players have three minutes (shown by the sand timer) to find as many words as they can in the grid, according to the following rules:

- The letters must be adjoining in a ‘chain’. (Letter cubes in the chain may be adjacent horizontally, vertically, or diagonally.)

- Words must contain at least three letters.

- No letter cube may be used more than once within a single word.

When the time is up, calculate your score.

References

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Australian Bureau of Statistics 2012, '2071.0 - Reflecting a Nation: Stories from the 2011 Census, 2012 - 2013', Australian Bureau of Statistics, accessed 9 February 2017, <http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/2071.0main+features902012-2013>

Gibbons, P 2002, ‘Scaffolding Language’, Scaffolding Learning: Teaching Second Language Learners in the Mainstream Classroom, Heinemann, Portsmouth.

Gonzalez, J 2014, ’12 ways to support ESL students in the mainstream classroom, Cult of Pedagogy, weblog post, 11 December, accessed 9 February 2017, <http://cultofpedagogy.com/supporting-esl-students-mainstream-classroom/>.

Pimm, C 2012, 100 Ideas for Supporting Learners with EAL, Bloomsbury Publishing, New York.

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An example of how English games and challenges promote active learning in the class

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