Describing a Class I teach

Conferencing Topic: 

Week 2: FINAL PROJECT - 

Step 1, Describe a Class

I have my own private language institute where I teach English as a Foreign Language (EFL). I've chosen a basic level class where I teach 25 students in a class who are very weak.

Setting:

A private English language institute (Popular English Language Institute) situated in a city called Birgunj, Parsa (Nepal). I have a bit well-equipped class-room where 25 students study in a batch for an hour everyday from Monday to Friday. It's well-lit and airy. It has a tape recorder (cassette player). The students practice listening as well as record their voice on a blank cassette when they get to the level to understand foreign accent and communicate in English a bit. There's also a desktop computer-set equipped with multimedia and internet facility. They watch video-clips and other language materials on it off and on.

The number of girls (8) is less than that of the boys (17). The students, age group from 18 to 30, come to learn English of different levels. The learners are generally from college level to professional groups.

Study Program: English as Foreign Language

i. Basic Level

ii. Intermediate Level

iii. Advance Level

Mission: To enable the learners to write correctly and speak fluently.

Learners of Basic Level:

– learn the patterns of various sentences like simple, complex as well as joint sentences (no specific grammatical items except the use of articles, prepositions, auxiliary verbs, etc.)

– learn ready-made sentences so that they make similar sentences of their own.

– learn new vocabularies and their use with correct pronunciation

– learn how to make new sentences with Grammar Translation method

– learn how to introduce themselves in front of the class (with mic in their hands).

Allocation of students:

– Entrance test is given them to measure their skills in English and thus, similar types of students are kept in a batch.

Teaching Strategies:

– Lectures

– Asking vocabularies, checking their homework

– Demos

– Audio-visual

– Grammar Translation (esp. to weak groups)

– Homework

Assessment:

– Assignments

– Class Test

– Aptitude Test

– Weekly Test

– Monthly (final) Test

What learners want?

– They want to learn many things in English especially the grammatical items they don't know. Many of them want to develop their writing skills much more than speaking because they simply want to pass their academic (college) exams. However, they show eagerness for spoken (conversation) classes.

– Professionals come to make their spoken strong to communicate with their seniors, colleagues fluently. They also show interest in professional writing like formal letter-writing, report writing, job application writing, preparing for job interviews, corresponding emails, etc.

Problem:

Since all the students do not have computers and those who have it, don't have internet connection, it's difficult to make them familiar with technology. It's also difficult to make them computer literate in a short period (2 months) of time for Basic Level Course. That's why, I generally have to explain everything in details with no cross-questions from them which sometimes makes me feel as if I teach to the objects which cannot interact. It also sometimes makes the situation frustrating.

Regards,

Dipendra,

Nepal