Terrific TEFL Times

22:30 20 January 2009

After the last day of the IST conference, which ended in a somewhat disappointingly low-key get together- I think we were all exhausted from an entire week of late nights followed by way to early mornings (breakfast at 7:15), I find it a good opportunity to reflect on some of the changes in my work environment already. If these aren’t just temporary changes, which I desperately am hoping they are not, then I think my service over the next 20 months will be more successful than my original expectations over the first four months of service.

In the first few days following this conference, I have found my relationship with my counterpart incredibly improved. The goal of the TEFL Program in Kyrgyzstan is to introduce a sustainable component by having its volunteers team teach in the classroom, work with the other English educators in the classroom, and introduce skills transfer. We are taught to teach in the communicative method, a method that stresses the learning of the ability to express oneself and understand others in the language above grammatical accuracy, writing, and reading. In general, communicative method can be said to emphasize fluency over perfection and is vastly different from the Soviet-era translation focused method in use in most schools here. While many of the English teachers in Kyrgyzstan have a better understanding of English grammar rules than I do, I often can speak better in Russian than they can English. Hopefully, with my presence in the school and the skills-transfer this brings in working with my counterpart and the other teachers in the school, this will begin to change. In the wake of the conference I am incredibly hopeful of this potentiality. As I began earlier, my relationship with my counterpart has improved to such a degree that we are now lesson planning together several times a week, our lessons are truly being team-taught, and I think the students are learning more successfully. Hooray!