Page 25 - ELG2104 Apr Issue 475

FEATURES & COMMENT

grade we had one Palestinian teacher working
WORDS NICK BILBROUGH in tandem with an English teacher from
another location in the world. Typically, the
two teachers would focus on areas of language
from the course book English for Palestine.
They might propose personalised practice
activities for the students to take part in the
comments and they might talk to each other,
perhaps demonstrating the activity.
These conversations between the teachers
provide excellent models for the learners, but
also expose them to natural conversational
English, something which is often lacking in
standard classrooms.
In one of these sessions, lead by Sahar
Siam from Gaza and Lauren Edmondson
from Australia (see screen shots, opposite
page; facebook.com/917350095017969/
videos/815479105930117), the two teachers
discuss their hobbies as a way to review the
Local classroom teacher Attiyeh helps to reinforce the present simple tense. They then invite the
vocabulary of Michael (on screen), who is in the UK students to write what their own hobbies are
in the comments. Notice that the same type of
scaffolded interaction discussed earlier is taking
place in the comments, albeit written rather
teacher provides a scaffold in which the 3) Students can potentially get support than spoken.
student can experiment with vocabulary, and from family members with English or
the meaning and form of the present perfect the technical aspects of accessing the What the local teacher can bring to
versus present continuous tense. sessions. In some situations, where the table
children have a higher level of English, 1) In-depth knowledge of the curriculum
Ahmed: In the village we have another home in the and/or more advanced technical skills (thereby more easily catering towards
village is away from the home we are living in. He’s than their family, this support process success in local exams).
to my brother and my dad he’s build the a home up may work in the opposite direction. 2) Knowledge of classroom practices which
our home. [The classroom teacher provides him with 4) Since all the recordings are stored on the learners in Palestine are familiar with.
‘second floor’. ] A second floor. Hands Up Project’s Facebook page (see 3) Knowledge of both Arabic, the L1 of the
Remote volunteer: Aha. examples at https://www.facebook.com/ learners, and English.
Ahmed: For me. watch/handsupproject/), students can 4) Knowledge of the learners’ personalities,
Remote volunteer: Your dad – did you say he has re-watch sessions for extra practice or their strengths and their weaknesses.
built it or he’s building it? He has built it? watch them when it’s convenient. 5) Local cultural knowledge.
Ahmed: He’s a builder. 5) Students can write comments as a way
Remote volunteer: No, but did you say he has built to practise and develop their written What the foreign teacher can bring
it or he is building it? English skills. to the table
Ahmed: He is building for me a home for me. 6) There are many teachers from different 1) Knowledge of classroom practices which
Remote volunteer: He’s building it now? When countries present in the sessions who may be new and motivating for learners.
will it be finished? can provide the kind of scaffolding 2) A motivating stimulus for the learners to
Ahmed: Next year on the summer. outlined above to the learners’ use English, due to a lack of L1.
comments. It also serves as a teacher- 3) A source of exposure to more
A post-Covid-19 example development tool, as teachers see other international/non-Palestinian forms
In March 2020, as Covid-19 struck in the ways of working and may get new ideas of English.
West Bank, schools all over Palestine were for their classes. 4) A reason for the local teacher to use
closed until July. We couldn’t do any of the 7) Since the sessions are free and open to natural spoken English.
things that we’d been doing and would have anyone, there are opportunities for 5) Sharing inter-cultural knowledge.
to completely reinvent ourselves. We did this learners in Palestine to meet and
by moving all our operations to Facebook Live. interact with other learners of English
This meant that we could no longer see or around the world. Nick Bilbrough is a teacher,
hear the participating children and the only teacher-trainer and author.
way they could engage was through writing We didn’t lose anything in terms of the He holds an MA in Drama in
comments. On the other hand, there were also benefits of team teaching. In fact, there Education, and is particularly
certain advantages to this way of working. was another kind of team teaching going interested in the role of drama
on, where one teacher was delivering the and storytelling techniques in
Advantages of doing sessions on session, and others who were watching were second-language learning. He
Facebook Live responding, clarifying and scaffolding what is the author of two books in the Cambridge
1) Students can access the sessions from was written in the comments. Handbooks for Language Teachers series:
their own homes, using weaker internet During the second lockdown, which began Dialogue Activities (2007) and Memory
than is required for Zoom, and just a in August 2020, we introduced team-taught, Activities for Language Learning(2011),
mobile phone if they don’t have a laptop. curriculum-based Facebook Live sessions. and wrote Stories Alive, published by the
2) A far greater number of students could For these, we went live on Facebook through British Council, Palestine. He now devotes all
access sessions. Some of our Facebook Zoom, so the two teachers could be visible his energy to the registered charity he set up,
ones have had thousands of views. and audible to the participants. For each handsupproject.org.
editorial@elgazette.com 25