On Sunday I conducted some more teacher training sessions for both public and private school teachers here in Ganja. Through visiting schools in Ganja I have learned a lot about how English as a foreign language is taught here. There is a heavy emphasis on learning and perfecting grammar which prepares students for the national exam, but does not always prepare them for communicating in a real world context. Through my trainings I have tried to deonstrate pracitcal strategies and activities for teachers to use that focus on comprehension and speaking, but that will not diverage too much from their current nationalized English curriculum. This has been a great challenge for me, along with desining tools and techniques that require no technology (computer, copy machine etc). Basically I took their English books and highlighted ways to supplement them (games, graphic organizers etc). using only paper, pens, markers and a chalboard. All the teachers I have worked with have been very open to trying new techniques, but I wish I had the opportunity to model them with students in their class. Some teachers have taken trainings on student centered and communicative language learning, but many have not so it would be more beneficial if these strategies were demonstrated with acutal students.
On Sunday I conducted some more teacher training sessions for both public and private school teachers here in Ganja. Through visiting schools in Ganja I have learned a lot about how English as a foreign language is taught here. There is a heavy emphasis on learning and perfecting grammar which prepares students for the national exam, but does not always prepare them for communicating in a real world context. Through my trainings I have tried to deonstrate pracitcal strategies and activities for teachers to use that focus on comprehension and speaking, but that will not diverage too much from their current nationalized English curriculum. This has been a great challenge for me, along with desining tools and techniques that require no technology (computer, copy machine etc). Basically I took their English books and highlighted ways to supplement them (games, graphic organizers etc). using only paper, pens, markers and a chalboard. All the teachers I have worked with have been very open to trying new techniques, but I wish I had the opportunity to model them with students in their class. Some teachers have taken trainings on student centered and communicative language learning, but many have not so it would be more beneficial if these strategies were demonstrated with acutal students. 
No comments:
Post a Comment