1st International Conference on Teaching English as a Foreign Language
28-29 November 2008
FCSH-UNL, Lisbon
Alexandra Isabel Leite Martins Vicente
PQE- grupo 330
Agrupamento de Escolas da Guia
Pombal
This paper is divided into two parts, the first dealing with a critical
overview of the conference and the second focusing on the content of
three presentations.
I-First International Conference on Teaching English as a Foreign
Language
TEFL: theory, practice, and methodology- The theme set the tone for the
first international conference of teachers of English as a foreign language.
The wide range of speakers, with their different origins and professional
backgrounds, allowed to embrace such different yet interrelated aspects
of the subject. This conference had the diversity of English teachers in
mind, providing new approaches and innovative methodologies for all levels
of English learning and teaching , and thus allowing a reflection and the
subsequent upgrade of one’s language teaching practices.
a)Different English levels
This conference met the different expectations and needs, even the
speakers who are used to teach
advanced levels of English
presented
innovative ideas that can be used with students of intermediate levels of
proficiency.
There were also teachers who centered their speech on professional course
students, a new challenging reality in our schools.
There were others who teach primary students, and therefore shared their
experience with the audience, giving important teaching
ideas . These
teachers were mainly from Madeira, and came with a urge to share and
learn with the continental teachers.
2
b) Innovative methodologies
Although technology is not new, it is continuously evolving and new names
appear at the speed of light- i-pod, mp3, mp4, podcasts, blogs… these are
all new words that many of us know quite well but… have you ever tried to
use them as an educational tool? It seems rather difficult, and we tend to
put them aside and keep on using our book and our voice. We have a syllabus
to teach, and have no time to waste on futilities. However, some of the
speakers showed us how a learner can effectively learn through blogging
and other forms of e-learning, such as through the use of Moodle, without
spending the precious minutes of a lesson. Although the explanation was not
exhaustive due to the lack of time, it gave us a glimpse of how (and why) to
use them. Another speaker showed us the benefits of interactive books,
which was also a very appealing subject.
To sum up, I’d like to state that this conference was a success, not only for
the themes presented but also for the friendly environment, the comfort
of the place and the opportunity to listen to native-speakers and purchase
new teaching materials which, for a teacher in a village in the centre of
Portugal, was very important.
II- “Communication in the classroom” by Dave Rowlands (FCSH/UNL)
and “Blogs and Moodle- Pedagogical tools or post and run! By Allyson
Roberts
(FCSH/UNL);
Maria
Clara
Cunha
/Graça
Bigotte
Chorão
(ISCAP/CLUN): “Case study at ISCAP- Could English be taught
professionally?”
After glancing down the list of speakers and the subject of their
presentations, I decided to choose three that I hope will help me
3
achieve my goals of improving my learners’ skills. Therefore this section
is divided into the following sub-sections: Dave Rowlands (FCSH/UNL) “Communication in the classroom” ; Allyson Roberts (FCSH/UNL)- “Blogs
and Moodle- Pedagogical tools or post and run!”; Maria Clara Cunha
/Graça Bigotte Chorão (ISCAP/CLUN): “Case study at ISCAP- Could
English be taught professionally?”
a) Dave Rowlands (FCSH/UNL) “Communication in the classroom”
My experience tells me that our lessons are usually full of grammatical
rules, which are better explained in Portuguese. We all know that it is
easier to teach grammar because students want to learn it to achieve
better marks. But we all know that grammar lessons are usually boring
lessons. Grammar is something that we study and learn like Mathematical
exercises. In my school students are not good at languages. They don’t
need to use it in real-life situations, as they don’t live in a tourist area.
Their family can usually speak some French, since many of them have
already worked in France, Luxembourg or Switzerland. Many students think
it is more useful to learn that language, so that they can easily
communicate with their cousins in the holidays. And so our lessons become
duller and duller with grammar overload. It’s difficult to make them speak,
so we tend to make them write. But we know it’s a mistake, and that’s where
conferences enter - this teaching refreshment has obviously positive
effects on the English lessons. We reflect, we write about it, and then
comes a lesson which makes us feel fulfilled.
Dave Rowlands had a brilliant idea to use when teaching grammar. His
guessing game gave the chance for everyone to communicate while
4
practising Past Simple Yes/No-Questions: he was a machine that could only
answer Yes/ No questions. We had to guess why a man who entered a field
with a pack on his back died instantly. And in a minute all the teachers in
the room were focusing their attention on the teacher, eager to find out
what the man was doing and why he died instantly. No doubt it is a
stimulating and challenging way of using and practising the structures they
have learned. Moreover, it is a fun way of widening their lexical knowledge
and of using the target language for effective communication. The teacher
knows something that they want to know but for that they need to speak.
As they are all curious, they are not afraid of making mistakes.
That’s why I am working on a lesson where I can introduce the Present
Perfect and train by means of the following guessing game:
First, I ask my students to write about things they have already done:
Student’s name:……………………………………………………………
What have you already done? Tell us about your experiences with….
.
(food)I have already eaten
(sport/game)I have already played/watched
(famous people)I have already seen/ spoken to
(school)I have already
Finally, I collect all the answers and choose one of them .
They have to guess who that is, but I only answer Yes/No questions.
For instance , this is the card of the student they have to guess:
5
Student’s name:……………………………………………………………
What have you already done? Tell us about your experiences with….
(food)I have already eaten frog legs
(sport/game)I have already played/watched korfball
(famous people)I have already seen/ spoken to the Pope
(school)I have already taken part in the Halloween contest
I say: Who am I?
-I have already eaten something green.
They try to guess what it was: “Have you eaten rotten food?” No, I haven’t.
- I have already played a sport with a basket and a ball.
-I have already seen a famous person who lives in Italy.
-I have already taken part in a school contest.
This game can be played in three teams , to make it easier. I read the card
but they know they are about someone from a specific team, and the other
two teams try to guess. The first team to guess 3 times wins.
Another example, this time to train simple Present Questions is to show
the pictures of famous people and choose a student to be one of them. For
instance, we show J.K. Rowling, Cristiano Ronaldo, David Beckam, Madonna,
Tom Cruise, Angelina Jolie. We ask why they are famous and what they
know about them. Then a student is given a card at random. Students ask
“Where do you live? “ “How old are you? “Do you sing?” Do you have
children?” And the first team to guess gets a point.
These examples are not as interesting as the one presented in the
conference, but I think they are a beginning.
6
b)Allyson Roberts (FCSH/UNL)- “Blogs and Moodle- Pedagogical tools
or post and run!
I chose this conference because it focused on a theme that I would like
to explore as a teacher. All students love computers and they just need
an excuse to use them. I speak to my students on MSN and Hi 5, but my
wish is to use Moodle and help them learn outside the classroom while
having fun. We know that we can lead horses to water but we can’t make
them drink. Moodle seems to be the motivation to learn. And when we
want to learn, we really do. Unfortunately it is not very user-friendly
when we don’t know anything and have little time. With this presentation
I have already had a glimpse of it, as I tried all the links provided by
the speaker, but it isn’t enough. I think I’ll need some help! I also tried
to create a blog, where I can write some fun stuff and encourage my
students to write too. They will like to see their texts posted, and it is
an easier way to use technology in the teaching of English. As far as I
can remember, there were other speakers who mentioned this new tool,
so I really hope to have the chance to learn how to use it as soon as
possible.
c) Maria Clara Cunha /Graça Bigotte Chorão (ISCAP/CLUN): “Case
study at ISCAP- Could English be taught professionally?”
7
This presentation made me think about my own students. Many of them
learn English to pass in this subject, they don’t see it as something
useful that opens many doors, especially in their future. They manage to
succeed, and yet they may not be able to express themselves in real-life
situations. Our syllabi and our books prepare them to write and answer
grammar exercises, but they tend to forget communication. Aware of
this problem, our school has adopted good books, which integrate the 4
skills in a balanced way. If the teachers use all resources, students will
have better language skills than their elder brothers and sisters. But
many of them still can’t speak English. As a matter of fact, this problem
was in the basis of the Teachers Clara Cunha and Graça Chorão’s
experimental course as much as it was in mine. I must say it has a lot of
differences, as I don’t have a language lab or an online course for my
students to follow. But, despite all these constraints, I do have a
splendid class for experiments: they are five teenage girls who are in
their
second
year
of
a
professional
course
called
“Animação
Sociocultural”. We don’t have a school book and, despite having a
syllabus, it is not as extensive and demanding as the common syllabus
for the eleventh form. Besides, my students lack the ability to speak
fluently and they feel unmotivated very easily. After a year in which I
tried to follow the syllabus as close as possible, I finally realised that
this was my chance to try new methodologies and new ways of assessing
their skills. So I started using my laptop and some educational and
recreational sites in my lessons. Besides, I tried a new way of assessing
their achievements, by preparing small tests on writing, reading,
listening or speaking skills. The test on speaking skills was something
quite new for me, as we usually have big classes and think that is not
possible. But this experience made me change the way I see it, since it
came out to be the moment in which I noticed they have learnt real
English. With a larger class it would be more difficult, since I had to
“rehearse” with my students, but it’s worth the effort. And the
feedback is positive, since students say they like my lessons and would
like to have them more often instead of others, which , they say, are
quite monotonous.
8
Finally, I’d like to thank the leading team for this event and hope these
were just the first steps of other
events of the kind. We really need
opportunities of development. We need to exchange experiences and see
how the other teachers do, to try it too. The conference had really
positive effects upon me. It made me want to try new methods, new
ways of improving classroom interaction, new fun ways of asking for
homework. My new blog is in http://blogginginguia.blogs.sapo.pt.
9