ENG 402.

Language Planning and Language Management.

Project.
What the "real problems" are: a discussion of the problems faced in class by English teachers teaching Grade 6-8.
Student's Name – G.A.Pathirana (A/03/363)

Instructor's Name – Ms. Nayomi Rajakaruna.

Date of Submission – 2008.05.08
1 Introduction: a Brief Outline of the Premise. The Sample. The Process.

The medium that links the "prescribed" education of any subject / syllabus with its recipient – the student – is the teacher. The teacher, in that respect, functions on behalf of the administrative authorities in incepting the "education policies" at the classroom level. Therefore, the teachers' insight regarding what they find as problematic and as to what, they feel, hampers the teaching-learning process in class demands our attention. This paper is based on a research aimed at identifying the "problems" encountered by English teachers teaching Grades 6, 7 and 8.

The project focused on the views of a group of seven teachers chosen on the following basis:

1. Urban Government School – a teacher each for Grades 6, 7 and 8.

2. Rural / Semi-Urban Government School – a teacher each for Grades 6 and 7.

3. Urban Private School – a teacher for Grades 6 and 8.

The sample consisted of five females and two males. The teaching experience of the participants ranged from three years to twenty six years. The Urban schools were selected from Kandy and Colombo. The Rural School is from the Hewaheta Educational division, approximately eighteen kilometers from Kandy.

The classes chosen for the examination did not include "English Medium" classes. In instances, the same teacher taught more than one Grade considered from a particular school. On such instances, the teacher was interviewed on separate days, focusing on one specific Grade a time. For instance, in the Rural Government School, the same teacher taught both Grades 6 and 7. Hence, she was interviewed twice.

The interviews were "informal" and unstructured – in that sense, they were "open ended" discussions, leaving the respondents room to cite whatever they considered as "problems" in their classroom engagements. The teachers' responses were either noted down or recorded. In three instances, the teachers volunteered to submit their responses in writing. Upon the completion of the interview, the teachers were also given a questionnaire (which is attached to this paper) for us to form an idea of each individual's attitude to textbooks, students, teaching etc. The questionnaires were not necessarily answered "on spot".

2 The Problems in Teaching Grades 6, 7, 8: the Evidence of the Sample.

The "problems" the teachers encounter in teaching Grades 6, 7 and 8 can be broadly categorized along the following lines:

a) Infrastructural deficiencies:

•Lack of textbooks

•Lack of teachers' guides

•Cramped classroom conditions

b) Syllabus structure:

•The syllabus not being able to "reach" the weakest and brightest students in class.

•Primary school syllabus as not giving the students a sufficient foundation.

•Group work being unable to address or remedy issues of weak vocabulary and grammar

c) Student Attitudes:

•Lacking of interest in / motivation by students.

Table 1, below, records the individual responses of the participants in detail. The key to the Table is as follows:

Key to Table 1; the "columns":

U = Urban.

R = Rural.

G = Government.

P = Private

6/7/8 = The Grades represented.

Ex – "U/G/6" represents the teacher from Grade 6 of the Urban Government School.

Key to Table 1; the "rows":

1. Lack of interest /motivation by students.

2. The text being deficient in its reach – it being unable to address both the "brightest" and the "weakest" elements in class; which, in turn, results in only a small section participating in the class.

3. Primary school being unable to give sufficient foundation. The gap between primary and Grade 6 being too wide.

4. Want of / late arrivals / insufficiency of textbooks.

5. Lack of teachers' guides.

6. Cramped classroom conditions that disallow group work to be conducted effectively. Difficult to give individual attention to students.

7. Some lessons being "unimaginatively" presented.

8. Group work being unable to address or remedy issues of weak vocabulary and grammar.

According to Table 1, the most cited problems faced by the sample are

1. The lack of interest / motivation by students

2. Want of / later arrivals / insufficiency of textbooks

3. The lack of teachers' guides.

Six respondents cite the above as affective of his/her work in class. The students' lack of interest is recorded by both Urban and Rural school respondents alike. The U/G/8 teacher, however, is less direct in making this judgment. The lacking in students' interest, he states, is only "at times". Yet, the other respondents are firm in their opinion.

However, in contrast to the above claim, while answering to the questionnaire, the respondents unanimously agree that "students are keen to learn the subject". I personally found this contradiction, to say the least, baffling. This, however, demands our attention, for it records a complete reversal of the respondents' voluntary opinion given at the interviews. We will discuss this point further in a later passage, as we analyze the questionnaire.

Another main issue evoked by the respondents was the dearth of textbooks and their late and insufficient arrival to schools. Similarly, with the exception of U/G/8, the teachers found the want of teachers' guides problematic as well. R/G/6 points out that the lack of textbooks has left certain Grades sharing the same set of books. In her mind, too much class time is lost with students having to borrow books from neighbouring classes. This "patch up", too, fails in instances where two parallel classes have simultaneous English periods. The lack of textbooks, R/G/6 further points out, is not peculiar to English, but is common to many other subjects as well. Even subjects such as Science and Religion, she states, are conducted with books being borrowed from neighbouring classes.

Akin to the lack of textbooks is the "evil" in the want of teachers' guides. The lack of guides and the lack of textbooks within the current "student-centred" approach, to me, defeat the purpose of "student-centredness". For one, the students, as noted, do not have enough textbooks. Then, the lack of teachers' guides leaves the teachers at a disadvantage. As it functions as a mediator of the interaction between the teacher and the class, its absence leaves the former without a sense of direction. In any case, it estranges the teacher from the official goals and instruction/s of the syllabus-setter.

"Many attempts to implement change in language teaching" Jack C. Richards observes, "have failed because insufficient attention [is] given to preparing teachers for change" (Richards, 13). According to U/G/7, the lack of seminar programmes for teachers and awareness camps leave the teachers at a complete loss. "You can't [practically] do group work for each and every section" says U/P/8. "And if they want us to do it, they [have to] direct us or [conduct] seminars". R/G/6 points out that the ministry has failed to "[formulate] a teachers' guide that can be effectively used in class". She states that whenever they have teachers' seminars they point out the shortcomings of the "prescribed" method to their superiors; and even the superiors, she claims, don't have solutions on offer. Thus, the system is in want of what Richards calls "the consumer input": the consultation and views gathered from within the teachers' as an active group. Since they "work" the system their views need to be incorporated in the policy making and the setting of evaluation methods – which, as our case suggests, does not happen in the English classes of Grades 6, 7 and 8.

Other issues raised during the interviews were:

1. The textbook being inefficient in reaching the "weakest" segment in class; and it being "too easy" for the "brightest" student.

2. The Primary School being unable to give a sufficient foundation to the student.

3. Cramped classroom conditions.

4. Lessons, at instances, being unimaginatively presented.

5. Group work being unable to address issues of weak grammar and vocabulary.

U/G/6 claims that the textbooks don't cater to the "brightest" and the "weakest" students in the class. As a result, he points out, only a small group would be "learning anything at all" to merit his lesson. This inefficiency of the textbook is also seen to partially reinforce disinterest and lethargy in the student. The content of the textbook itself, then, can be seen as a demotivator of student interest.

There were three respondents who felt that the primary school did not give a sufficient foundation for Grade 6 students. This was equally felt by both U/G and R/G sectors. According to R/G/6, the "jump" from Grade 5 to Grade 6 is too much for the average student. In her view, the student is abruptly exposed to a "heavy" course that includes difficult vocabulary and grammar which demands from the student a higher proficiency than what s/he was trained for in the primary school.

The focus on "group work", according to U/G/8, doesn't facilitate the students in ironing out issues of grammar and vocabulary either. Thus, the teacher is seen to be pressurized of having to simultaneously satisfy the expectations of the System as well as well as those of the school. Group activities do not meet with the desired effect when conducted in classrooms that are cramped and overpopulated. R/G/6 is of the view that classrooms with 45-50 students are not spacious enough for the group-activities of the prescribed format. Often, there is too much confusion with one teacher having to attend seven or eight groups. In addition, the work done in groups, according to R/G/6, does not necessarily bring out the "individual's input" into assignments. The "grouping system" is seen to affect the teaching-learning process in two ways:

1. The student's attention being easily distracted.

2. The teacher being unable to pay sufficient individual attention to the student.

The statistics indicate that the cramped classrooms are an issue common to teachers of both the Government and Private sectors. As U/P/6 points out: "either the classes have to be made small [in terms of the number of students], or the classrooms have to be made bigger".

Based on research done in the 1970s, Thiru Kandiah observes that English in schools are taught in conditions where "the classrooms are overcrowded; making concentration impossible". He further notes that these classes often lacked "equipment of the kind language classes need[ed]" (Kandiah, 130). Kandiah, in his work, also discusses the unavailability of (and the inability of rural students to purchase) textbook material.

There is a striking agreement between the "problems" Kandiah locates in the Sri Lankan Secondary School English classroom in the 1970s and some of the issues raised by the sample of the present inquiry. This, in turn, shows how little attention has been paid to remedying key issues in Secondary School English teaching in our country for the past three decades. The same set of issues keeps haunting the system irrespective of syllabus changes and differences in the modes of implementation.

Thus, the teachers' problems in classrooms – in their opinion – are mainly centred on issues to do with textbooks and infrastructural deficiencies. These claims were further established by their responses given to a questionnaire provided them. The questionnaire consisted of a set of statements that the candidates had to either "agree", "somewhat agree", "disagree" or "totally disagree" with.

Some of the responses received are tabled in Table 2.

Key to Table 2:

A – Agree

SA – Somewhat Agree

D – Disagree

TD – Totally disagree.

Table 2 indicates a consensus in opinion among the respondents that the textbook is both "satisfactory" and "useful to the student". However, R/G is of the opinion that (while being satisfactory and useful) the text is neither "relevant" nor "comprehensive" for the students of her class/es. Her views are the only negative feedback recorded for these claims, as the U/G and U/P teachers feel that the books are both relevant and comprehensive. Except for R/G, the respondents also affirm that the textbook in use is "not difficult" for the "average student".

The teachers do not appear to have any misgivings regarding the "quality" of the prescribed material. The overall "usefulness" of the text is not the issue. The U/G and U/P have no strong resentments of the book's relevance and /or its comprehensiveness either. R/G, however, indicates that the Rural / Suburban student is disadvantaged by the textbook; that s/he does not benefit from it.
In spite of the differences of opinion, the majority of the sample (5/7) agrees that the textbooks are prepared by a group of people who are "unaware of the real proficiency level/s of the students". U/G/6, U/G/8 and U/P/8 are in partial agreement with the fact, while U/R/6 strongly supports the statement. U/G/7 and U/P/6, however, disagree with this view.
