Zelalem and I rewrote the English for Secretaries using more student-centered speaking actviities and began the 5 week course. Most of the secretaries have limited English skills, but have to deal with teachers from India, Britian, and the U.S. We cover subjects such as greeting, Western naming systems, titles, nationality, numbers, and taking messages. We tried to stick with reality and what the secretaries would be expected to do in the Ethiopian context. We designed a lot of speaking practice since our goal is to develop speaking skills. The only problem is that the teachers we gave the lesson plans to, rushed through it ( 3 or 4 days of lessons in 2 days) and I am sure there was very little speaking being done in class. We even went to the first couple of classes to model, but tradition took over once we left for Hawassa for the ELIC conference! We'll finish writing the lesson plans for the curriculum and send them out to all ELIC's.
No comments:
Post a Comment