The weekly column

Article 66, July 2001

TEACHING ENGLISH TO "MY" ADULTS

By Nilda G. Chorolque

Why do people learn English?

" People who wish to learn a foreign language may have any one of a great number of reasons for doing so. We can make a tentative list of these reasons: target language community, English for Special Purposes, School curriculum, Culture, Advancement, ..."(1)

I have been working at a school for adult students for more than ten years and from my experience I can say that eighty per cent of them learn English not only because it is included in the School curriculum, but also because they cannot choose if they want to study English or French when they are registered at school. The decision is taken by the school monitors whether they are appointed to learn one or the other language just because it is a question of a number of students in a list.

During these ten and more years I have been working there, it has been difficult for me and for my students to carry classes out, probably because the groups are very heterogeneous, not only for their ages but also for their social background.

Their social background is the factor that really influences the teaching and learning processes the most, for many reasons:

• The school is situated in Palpalá, a city where it is difficult to survive nowadays. In the past many students or their parents used to work for A.H.Z. which was one of the most important factories of the province, now it has been privatized, with aproximately eighty per cent less personnel than in the past. As a consequence, there is unemployment and a kind of depression in the population, worsened by the closing down of other small companies or business in the area.

• Older students start school again ten or twenty years after they have finished their primary school, and as it is known, the learning of a foreign language is more difficult as time passes and the person grows older.

• Younger students (16 +) come to this school mainly because they have to repeat the school year and they are not accepted anywhere else as there is lack of place at secondary schools in the city.

• They attend an evening shift : from 7.30 pm to 11.15 pm, adapted to them because they work during the day; their working conditions and the fact of having to attend school at this time make them very tired after 10.00 pm.

• Most of the girls, it does not matter their age, are mothers. Many of them work as maids and an important number are mistreated by men or relatives. Pregnancy is also a big problem.

• There is a struggle between younger students and the adult ones because their interests are not the same, their behaviour or expectations for attending and finishing school are different.

• Some of them have physical problems, visual, hearing or dental.

• Alcoholism is also a big problem to take into consideration.

How do I motivate them?

For all the reasons listed above, I have to accept that it has been quite difficult for me to motivate them.

Besides the school does not offer them comfort, probably because the authorities are tired of repairing what they destroy (two thousand and a half students attend this school in three shifts : morning, afternoon and evening), those from the evening shift are always found guilty for what happens at school.

The blackboards are in terribly bad conditions. Lighting is extremely poor, they cannot listen to cassettes because there are no plugs, they do not have a computer lab; they cannot watch videos because the video room is always closed or adapted to the schedule of other teachers.

In general the school facilities do not suit the needs of students nowadays; and if they do, they are not available for the adult students of the evening shift. They do not have the opportunities that a school should give its students or that teachers should create for them. In a certain way I think they are discriminated against by the institution. They feel discriminated in many aspects of their lives, I believe they really are.

"It has often been said by people involved in language teaching that a student who really wants to learn will succeed whatever the circumstances are under which he studies. It is certainly true that students learn in unfavourable conditions..."(2)

If it is true it does not certainly work concerning my experience.

Therefore, how can I motivate my students? They know that after school there are no jobs for them except the "Planes Trabajar" where they have to clean the streets or offices of the Town Hall to earn no more than one hundred pesos monthly.

Many of the girls know that they have to work more at their homes - attending school is a release for them, they have the opportunity to meet other people, to participate in different activities, organized not only by the school, but also by themselves, the socialization aspect is an invaluable advantage offered by the Institution.

Very few students are interested in continuing their studies at Universities or Terciary Level Institutions because the economic situation will not allow them to do so or simply because they have finally fulfilled their objective: to get their secondary school degree. Some of them just think that they will not be able to study any more.

In spite of this I have tried some ideas to convince them to learn English, or at least to participate in class. I have had to use a lot of "teacher talk" and I hope it has not been useless.

Some of the reasons I give them why they should try and make an effort to learn are:

• To help their children with their homework: I have explained to them that with the new system of education their children will start learning English from primary school and they will need their help.

• To understand the advertisments or just to know what magazines, newspapers, trade marks, intend to mean.

• To understand some words from the films or even from the cartoons that their children watch.

• To understand some computer programmes or instructions when working with computers.

What do they learn?

"Adults will find progress more difficult to perceive. Much of the time they may not be learning anything "new" but learning better how to use what they already know".(3)

"My" adults learn in different ways depending on their inner conditions. The younger or more gifted are fast learners, sometimes they get bored because they finish earlier. I see my older students from the same group constantly trying to remember what they have learned in March, making a great effort to pronounce words, or comparing structures of the foreing language to their own. The same happens in Fourth year, in spite of the fact that I myself was their teacher in the previous years, they do not remember practically anything they were taught before. I always wonder if I or my colleagues have done the correct things since they started learning the language, probably we have.

To tell the truth, it is very disappointing to say that after four years’ learning, they have not acquired any grammatical competence and most of them do not even know how to use the verb To BE properly. How can we speak of language competence then?

But this is a generalization; it does not happen only to me, at least not in this school. You can hear the same complaint coming from all the other teachers of the department. So, how can we speak of language competence in cases like this?

Considering this, I talk to them.

Why and what do I talk?

"I was led to believe that teacher talk causes great difficulties because teachers have a tendency to talk about themselves and use the class as an audience to air their views about anything "talkable". They generally forget about students’ interests and the generation gap that separates them..."(4)

Although I have attended many conferences and seminars for professional development I have never thought about "teacher talk" before. I have always thought that what I said was correct. When I came to think about it, I asked my students their opinion about my talk, and one of them from the Fourth Year looked at me and answered "we’re really bored with your talk" , I was so surprised and angry with the answer that I could not react. Later I started thinking about what I say to my students during the classes. I have always considered that due to their conditions, they needed some kind of advice and guide for their future life. During the four years of classes, in the English lessons, we have approached many items that have nothing to do with English, but with life, especially topics like alcoholism (many of our students – men and women - drink a lot) , drugs, AIDS (Palpalá has the second highest rate of Aids in the province) sex, birth control, future careers, recycling, illnesses, etc.

I have never thought that this kind of talk would get my students bored or would be useless to them. Now I am trying to convince myself that they have been useful.

You may think that my students do not learn English because the teacher is constantly talking about anything else. I do teach English, "I try to be sensitive and flexible, I try to avoid being boring, I try to find out what topics students are interested in, I try not to compare them...", (5) but I must accept that I understimate my students in their way of learning. I teach them only written tasks and forget about the spoken language. It is true that it is difficult for me to teach and for them to learn, but it is also true that I have not changed my methodology to improve their learning and I have not done enough research to adapt my teaching to their levels.

"The teacher must strive to make his classes interesting and treat the students fairly, the teacher must be a good model as a speaker of the target language, and must be technically adept at ways of getting the students to learn and practise". (6)

This has really moved me to reflection: reflect on my teaching, on their learning and principally on what solution I can find. It is me the agent and it is now the time to begin passing the way to better results.

Nilda G. Chorolque

nildach@cootepal.com.ar

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Harmer Jeremy, "The Practice of English Language Teaching" (1983) – Longman

2. Harmer Jeremy, "The Practice of English Language Teaching" (1983) – Longman

3. Harmer Jeremy, "The Practice of English Language Teaching" (1983) – Longman

4. Renart, Laura: " An action research based professional development course for teachers of English as a Foreign Language: Looking into teacher talk"

5. Tice, Julie: " The Mixed Ability Class" (1997) - Richmond

6. Harmer Jeremy, "The Practice of English Language Teaching" (1983) – Longman

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