Knowledge of English is an essential skill of a good specialist. This is a common assumption in this country and learning English is boosted by our Ministry of Education on different levels.
In the vocational colleges the number of hours of English classes has increased from 70 to 171. Future cooks and plasterers are considered to become qualified specialists with the knowledge of English. Yet, future railwaymen will lack this knowledge as they do not have English classes from now on.
At the same time it has to be acknowledged that not everyone has a knack for learning and, as flogging is forbidden, noone can be compelled to learn some foreign language.
Thus, the teachers will have to do with untalented, low-motivated teenagers who may have undergone hardships and consider humanities as an old tale far from reality.
In this case not all methods of education will be of use. All attempts to motivate the students by means of games, films, music will be regarded as unnecessary entertainment. There is a way of work that is familiar to them, that is text translation, the translation skill being the one mentioned in the educational standard.
The leading method of teaching students of the vocational schools (or colleges as they are now called) English is the grammar translation method in combination with conscious-oriented approach.
- Deemer's blog
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Comments
You are quite right: these are unnecessary expences on the part of the state. I used to teach mathematicians at the University and the lack of interest in the subject made me want to cry. They considered English an obstacle they had to overcome on the way to their diploma. It was partly understandable: the textbooks were older than they themselves were. The books were boring, but I as a teacher, tried to make the students involved (in vain). They saw no immediate necessity in the subject.
As for grammar-translation, it's widely used not only in vocational schools, as you have said, but at schools and Universities. And it is not going to die out in the nearest future.
And where to you teach?
At the Vocational and Teacher Training College. Grammar translation is the only posible means of teaching in our schools so far and it should not be rejected because noone is going to invest in what we call a material base of our educational establishments. Our schools are simply not ready to realise higher educational standards. There is a gap between what is needed on paper and what we have. The educational standards of the third generation will not be realized. In our case it would be a way out to reprint the English textbooks published in Soviet times. Authentic textbooks are hard to understand for a number of students.
Agree, but up to the point. I just can't imagine a group of 15 totally unmotivated students. I used to teach English to Economics students at university. It didn't take long to see individual priorities. So I usually split my groups into subgroups: 'have-to's and 'want-to's. The materials were mainly the same but the requirements were different. I also brought lots of supplementary materials for my motivated learners. Luckily nowadays we've got plenty of them on the net.
Hi Deemer,
Thank you for mentioning the problems you have faced at school. I am so sorry that you are not so happy about the situation you are in. I am not a vocational high school, but I believe there can be ways to help you to become a bit positive.
Do you think , watching 'beautiful Mind' and doing some discussions, sharing some expressions used on the movie, then asking them to share their feelings as Mathematicians can help our colleague who is teaching English for Maths students. Is it possible to have meetings with their major subject teachers? Did you ask them to write their expectations from their English lesson? Then perhaps you can do some changes depending on the feedback you get from them. Did you try Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL). Do you think it works?
It is all very well but there is an ideal model and a real one. The reality is that cultural and mental or moral state of the modern man, is, in general, low. This is a status quo. Something can be learnt even if a person does not want it. The student will have an idea of the English language but our hopes must not be too high, but why do the Ministry of Education have such hopes, or do they really have them?! We may try different techniques (at least we have to and we are paid for it) but the solution of the problem lies in a more fundamental, and to some extent more simple, thing, that is personal attitude to moral obligations, such as respect to older people, labour, honesty, politeness etc.