A few weeks ago I was in Brussels visiting an old friend, Jonathan, who is retired but does voluntary work including teaching English to teenage students who have dropped out of school for various reasons. These students attend a school run by ABER. Their website states that their aim is to help 15-21 year-olds get back into school by offering a personal education programme. This includes English lessons. Most of the class were of Moroccan descent, all had fluent French. The class had various levels of English ranging from A! (very little) to A2/B1 - a certain degree of fluency.
My friend asked me if I would like to come along and join in with an English lesson, which I was very happy to do. Now Jonathan is not a trained teacher and he was pleased to let me take over the class of about 12 students. We had been given a somewhat dated article to use whose main aim was to get students using the future tense. To play along, I got the students to do some choral reading, pronunciation practice and instant aural gap-fill. But very quickly I knew that this was not that stimulating, even though the group went along happily with my well-rehearsed routines from the past. We put the text to one side after 20 minutes.
We then moved on the questions and answers about what their plans were for the future. Jonathan wrote up new words and phrases on the board, which some students carefully copied down. I tried to build up a connection with individuals and after about an hour we had had a very good time. I learned a good deal about what their future plans were. A couple of students came to thank me and engage in further conversation. We had definitely made a connection and they asked me if I would be coming back.
A few things struck me during the lesson. There was some 'translanguaging' going on as stronger students helped weaker ones by putting things into French for them. The fact that they all spoke French and I did too was an advantage — I could keep things comprehensible nearly all the time. But I was not not obsessed with staying in English all the time — that would have been counter-prodictive. The fact that the whole group spoke French made this possible. The students were attentive, very pleasant and interested. These were not disaffected drop-outs. They tried hard to express themselves and clearly liked me being there — I had the advantage of being a trained teacher used to interacting with teenagers so I could inject some humour and language teacher know-how. I found myself using my long acquired knowledge of language learning, applying principles like retrieval, repetition, concise explanation and not talking too much.
Above all I tried to respond to what they were saying. It struck me that this sort of lesson was in the Dogme style being quite off the cuff and, to a degree, students led. It was also a reminder that language learning is very much a social activity enjoyed in the company of others.
I did get the class to repeat future tenses in drill-like fashion at one point and the class liked the repetition and predictability that a drill provides. I do think that there is somethig in the idea of automisation (habit building as the behaviourists would have called it). So, if I recall, I would prompt them with "Tomorrow I shall go..." and they had to come up with 10 ways to complete the sentence — that sort of thing. That said, I was also reminded that lessons led by grammar are likley to be less enjoyable and less fruitful.
So overall it was a really uplifting experience. Although have often taught teachers and trainees in recent years, I haven't taught youngsters since I retired in 2012 and this gave me quite a buzz. We are lucky to be able to spend time with young people, helping them find their way. Not every classroom experience is this pleasurable, but let's not forget how privileged we are to be teachers.
otre structure a pour objectif la réinsertion de jeunes entre 15 à 21 ans, en situation de décrochage scolaire, vers une école ou une formation professionnalisante.
L’accompagnement au sein de l’ABER s’organise du lundi au vendredi sur le temps scolaire et comporte une dimension collective et une dimension individuelle.
Chaque jeune inscrit dans le projet reçoit un enseignement individualisé qui correspond à son niveau scolaire et est amené à construire un projet de réinsertion concret afin de mieux se préparer à un retour progressif dans un cursus traditionnel.
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