how to improve writing in english class in afghanistan
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Ministry of Higher EducationJawzjon University
Faculty of Education
English Department
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Contents
History of Jawzjon higher Education2
Introduction...4
Challenges5
Solutions5
Practice Makes prefect6
Keep it going.7
Write before you talk8
Giving meaningful feedback...9
Using email..10
Clustering.11
Conclusion...13
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History of Jawzjon higher Education
Jawzjan higher education institute was founded in 1976 under the title of Teacher
Training Institute and began training teachers up to the 14 th grade. After a few years in
1976, Its name changed to Jawezjan Pedagogical Institute and in 2003 It started training
teachers up to the 16th grade or B.A. Now The Jawzjan Higher Education Institute is
located in a former military camp.
At the present time it has four faculties:
The faculty of science has four departments.
Mathematics
Physics
Biology
Chemistry.
The faculty of social science has also four departments.History
Geography
English literature
Uzbek literature.
Geology/Mining
Technology/ chemistry
Many years ago this institute started In-service courses to improve the knowledge of the
teachers who couldnt follow higher education for whatever reason. Nowadays In-service
course participants are also admitted through the exam by authorities of the Ministry of
Higher Education.
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English was taught as a subject for many years there, but after it started training up to
the 14th grade, the English department was also established. It is combined with the
Uzbek language department under the name of Language Literature of Uzbek and
English. Unfortunately, during the three decades of war, most of the expert teachers
were forced to leave the country all over Afghanistan. During that time most materials
were destroyed. For this reason there was no attention paid to this department. The
Ministry of Education and Higher Education also faced the same challenges; Teachers
try to prepare materials by using the limited resources which they can access.
Nowadays people and students have more focus on English. Fortunately, the Ministry of
Higher Education pays attention to the development of its teachers and lecturers
knowledge and academic skills with cooperation of different governmental and non-
governmental organizations of other countries.
The higher education project (HEP) is run through USAID and provides very effective
facilities to most universities all over Afghanistan through the Ministry of Higher
Education.
Many lecturers were sent to different countries to improve their teaching skills.
Fortunately we are among those who have been sent to Singapore to attend a six month
course of methodology. During this time we can learn different skills of teaching. We
have learned many useful approaches and methods which we can use in our teaching
and share them with our colleagues in Afghanistan.
And also In 2006 HEP donated 22/computers, 22/desks, 44 chairs, a web cam,
equipped the room with air conditioning, and a satellite Internet connection to the
institute.
The faculty members are ambitious for the future of their students and themselves.
Professional development is a very important activity in the life of the institute. Although
the institute has relatively few resources, the faculty members do amazing work with the
little they have. Ahmad Fazli has arranged the teaching schedules of the 56 instructors
to allow everyone an hour a day for computer classes. Jawzjon also has a strong HEP
computer trainer who uses practical teaching examples to inspire the instructors. These
instructors have progressed a lot in the least amount of time. HEP is installing five more
computers at this institute because of motivation and progress.
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Introduction
The English language is one of the major foreign languages that has been
taught for a long time as a subject in Afghanistan. The system which was
taught in the past was American.
At the present time English is taught from grade four at school. The
teachers who are teaching English in Afghan schools are not proficient in
the English language. For this reason they face many problems and
challenges in their teaching, especially in writing. This challenge is one of
the basic difficulties even in other institutes.
As an English teacher I will try my best to bring some changes according
to the requirement of the department and students from what ever I
learned here.
In this case, I have decided to write my assignment about writing methods,
How can we solve this problem? Writing in the classroom relates to the
course syllabus and its objective which helps us to teach the students what
they expect.
As we know students who live in todays literate world need to learn how to
write for very practical reasons. Newcomers to a country soon have to start
communicating through writing. They have to fill out job applications and
applications for health insurance. They have to take down telephone
messages. Sometimes they have to leave a note for the mailman or write a
thank you letter. Students all the time need to express themselves in
writing to do well in school.
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Writing is a valuable skill for many other reasons as well. In a typical
composition, the class teacher will set a topic and students are told to
write. Sometimes the teacher may help students or give them a vocabulary
list/ or a short discussion on content or the approach. Students may write a
first draft which is read and commented on by a classmate or a teacher.
Then students are required of re-write, using feedback by the teacher
reader. The write and re write method is providing a vocabulary list and
ideas for content. In both situations students find out what is wrong with
their composition after they have written it and considered it finished In
both situations the teachers role might be more accurately described as
mistake finding than as teaching writing.
Writing is a valuable skill for many other reasons as well. Lonely people
find a companion in their diaries. Writing supports spoken language, and
many people claim that writing helps them to think.
At the end of this introduction, it is necessary for students to learn how to
write a topic, a passage and so on.
Challenges:
Lack of proficient teachers.
Lack of materials.
Limited time.
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Solutions:
One way of viewing writing, called the cognitive view, is that when we write
something whether a passage or a letter, we are engaged in making one
decision after another. We decide what to begin a text with, whether to
include or leave out an idea that comes to mind. Successful writing is the
result of making the right decision most of the time.
And also we can use the process of writing skills that we learned in
Singapore (pre-Writing, during writing, and post writing) in a short time. It
doesnt require lots of materials or a long time.
And the other possibility is establishing some academic training for
teachers to increase their knowledge and improve their teaching skills. We
can share our ideas that we learned about writing in our first two months in
Singapore.
Practice makes perfect
Both reading and writing demand a lot of practice. Our students need to be
comfortable with writing. To reach that level of comfort, they have to write a
great deal. As a matter of fact, they have to write every day and in every
lesson and in our classes, we can, if we plan correctly, give them that
opportunity.
Writing is needed not only for its own value, but also for its ability to help
us in recycling and internalizing all four skills. Writing ought to be combined
with the other skills-listening, speaking, reading and thinking. Speaking
and reading about a topic helps our students to rethink and formulate their
ideas, get new ideas from other students and gather vocabulary that will be
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used in their writing. Conversely, getting some ideas down on paper is
helpful as a prelude to speaking.
These activities are the examples of how other skills are combined with
writing.
1.1- Keep it going
Aim writing, reading, interpreting, reacting, sharing opinions
Level Intermediate
Time 30-40minutes
Students should have an interesting piece of writing-Perhaps an article that
you have already read and discussed.
Procedure:
1- Students read the article either silently or in pairs- reading out loud one
paragraph each.
2- Students underline the section/s that in some way interested them- they
may have agreed with it, disagreed, like it, or perhaps it reminded them of
something.
3- On loose pieces of paper students write their names and their reaction to
the section/s they have underlined( five to seven minutes time writing time)
4- Students pass their paper together with the original text to another student.
5- Students read the paper they have received and add their own reaction to
the comments.
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6- Students pass the paper they have received to another student and the
process is repeated.
7- Students again pass the paper and the process is repeated.
8- Students pass the paper to the original owner who reads all the comments
written.
9- In small groups, students talk about the comments on their paper and
whether or not they agreed with the writers who added on to their papers.
10- Finally, volunteers comment on how they felt about the whole
process, did it add to their comprehension of the article? Did they gain any
new ideas?
1.2-Write before you talks
Aim writing, speaking
Level Intermediate- Advanced
Time 10-15minuts
Procedure
1- Ask a Whyquestion for suggestions, and invite students to think of
otherwhyquestions as follow:
Why have there always been wars?
Why are some animals disappearing?
Why are people having fewer children?
Why do people need to study foreign language?
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Why do so many people travel?
Why do some people love living in the cities? Etc
2- Allow students to write as much as they can on the topic of their
choice. They need not write in complete sentences.
3- Circulate, helping out with vocabulary.
4- In small groups students discuss their topic and add comments to
what they have written as they hear new ideas from classmates.
5- The discussion continues in plenary as each group makes
contributions.
6- For homework students can develop their ideas and later post their
completed compositions on the walls of the classroom, so that classmates
can read and comment on the work.
Giving meaningful feedback
It is really both difficult and important for students to write every day, then
how do we go about giving students meaningful feedback?
We know that when people talk, they hope that some one is listening. By
the same token, when people write, they want someone to read, what they
have written. They write to communicate with someone even when that
someone turns out to be an older and perhaps wiser self. How ever the
reader of student- produced text need not necessarily always be the
teacher. Students who have been properly trained make excellent peer
editors. Remember that writing will flow much more smoothly without the
threat of the red pen hanging over it. Writing can mean re-writing It
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doesnt always mean re-writing. As a matter of fact, some writing needs no
feedback at all!(see activity 1.1)
The computer has turned writing into a truly communicative activity, where
feedback is an essential part of communication. On email, On websites,
and in interactive classrooms all over the world, people are saying things
to one another in writing. People are automatically and effortlessly making
corrections in their reporters spelling and grammar. They do naturally, and
in the best of pedagogical style, by simply repeating a word using its
correct form (1.3).
1.3-Using email
Aim writing exchange of ideas and information
Level intermediate advance
Time fluid
Preparation If necessary, teach students how to use email; establish
contact with a teacher in another community that also has access to email.
Get your colleagues List of students and make sure that there are enough
students to find a partner for each of yours .Ask your colleague to provide
a picture and a brief description of each of her/his. If you are teaching in a
non- English speaking country, this can be a great way to correspond with
students from English speaking one or students who speak a language
different from the one of your country and thus use English as the common
language.
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Procedure
1) Assign your students an email partner. Try to match interests.
2) Students will correspond three times a week, and once a week
Send you a brief summary of the topics and/or ideas covered.
3) Occasionally, ask volunteers to report on the project.
4) If possible organize meetings between the groups.
1.4- Clustering
Aim writing gathering ideas, fluency practice
Level all levels
Time 30-40 min
Procedure
1. Choose a topic with which the entire class is familiar.2. Write the chosen topic in a circle in the middle of the board.
3. Draw branches from the topic out to subsidiary circle.
4. Volunteers provide sub-topics
5. Choose one of the sub- topics to branch out from and continue the
procedure as above.
6. In small groups, students choose another topic and do their own
clustering.
7. Spokespersons from the group report on the clustering.
8. The class chooses one of the topics to write about.
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9. Individually students write the first paragraph of their compositions.
10. In small groups, students read out their paragraphs and receivesuggestions on how to improve them and how to continue the
composition.
11. Students complete the first draft of the composition at home.
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Travel
camera
suitcase
passport
different foods
buses
umbrella
clothes
sight seeing
guide book
address book
raincoat
airplanes
train
crowds
Travel
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Notes
Students may include all the topics they have clustered in their
composition, or only a few of these. One good way to organize acomposition is to have students finish the ideas in one cluster before theymove on to another one.
Aim writing, fluency practice
Level intermediate-advanced
Time fluid
Procedure
1- Divide the class into groups of five or six students each.
2- Assign different tasks to different groups. The tasks are: character;setting; problems; and solution.
3- Groups brainstorm on the tasks.
4- Four secretaries go to the board and stand nest to four groupheadings.
5- Volunteers from the groups contribute suggestion, as the secretaries
write them on the board.
6- In groups, students construct stories based on the information collecton the board.
7- The stories are read to the whole class.
Conclusion:
The purpose in this chapter is to improve some skills of writing.
This is a teaching strategy that can be used to extend and develop text written during
independent writing. It involves a teacher: guiding a small group of students in their
attempts to create individual written texts; responding to students' attempts; and
extending students' thinking during the process. It also may be used to encourage students
to revise and edit their writing
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