Khamseng Baruah Department of E nglish L anguage Teaching Gauhati University Background Engineering has become one of the most preferred career choices In the last 10 years as many as 8 new colleges have been established ID: 274875
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Slide1
Pedagogical Tasks and Learner Participation in the English Classrooms of Undergraduate Engineers
Khamseng
Baruah
Department of
E
nglish
L
anguage Teaching, Gauhati UniversitySlide2
Background
Engineering has become one of the most preferred career choices
In the last 10 years as many as 8 new colleges have been established
However, the concept of ESP is at a very nascent stage
Syllabuses, barring a few, are largely literature based
In some colleges administrators have felt the need to include additional courses on language proficiency
Learners are largely unaware of their needs
A general negative attitude towards English existsSlide3
In the classroom…
The communication situation in a language classroom mainly revolves around two sets of participants: the teacher and the learners.
The teacher intends to transmit a message, a pedagogic one, to the learners and expects a response from the learners. Slide4
The teacher may use some pedagogical tasks to effectively convey the teaching point to the learners
Learning takes place only when learners actively participate in the teaching-learning process
Though the learning that takes place may not be immediately observable, the amount of interaction that takes place between the teacher and the learners can indicate the effectiveness of a particular activitySlide5
The challenges in an English classroom of undergraduate engineers
The learners:
May not consider it to be as important as other core subjects
May not be interested in doing the task
May not find the task relevant for them
May find it
d
ifficult to accept the methodology as they are used to a different method of teachingSlide6
The study aims to investigate:
whether a clear explanation of the purpose of an activity encourages active learner participation
what kind of reaction can be observed in the class when the learners do not understand the teaching point
does a failure to correctly understand the purpose of a teaching point by the learners affect their motivation in the English classSlide7
Classroom observation 1
Target group: AEI, 4
th
semester
Number of students: 60
Teaching point: Group Discussion
Objective: to make them aware of group discussion
to enable them to participate in group discussions
Divides the class into 2 groups: Fruits and
C
olours
Further divides the 2 groups into smaller groups of 6 or 7 students All the groups in fruits will take part in a GD
All the groups in
colours
will become observers
Gives the topic to groups in Fruits
Asks them to think about it for 5 minutes individually
Gives a checklist to the groups in
colours
Asks them to go through it
One group from Fruits participates in the GD and the other group from
Colours
observes them Slide8
Observations
They do not participate in the GD very seriously
The observers too do not really observe
Some comments from the students:
We need to learn ABOUT GD, we don’t need to take part in a GD.
We are being observed by our friends, that’s silly.
We should be doing serious work, we are being made to discuss issues which are not academic.Slide9
Classroom Observation 2
Target group: ETE
,
4
th
semester
Number of students: 64
Teaching point: Group Discussion
Objectives: to make them aware of group discussion to enable them to participate in group discussions
Teacher announces the topic
Tells them to work in pairs and brainstorm on GD
Announces the objectives
Asks them to brainstorm on some personality traits that are looked for in a participant through a group discussion
Asks them about the importance of GD in their curriculum. She asks them when they need it.Slide10
Observations
More learners participate
They
a
re clear about the objective of the activity, so they do it more seriously
Slide11
Conclusions
Encouraging learners to participate in an activity needs a lot of effort
Explaining the objectives of an activity may
promote learner
participation
Learners may turn hostile and may not cooperate when they do not understand the relevance of an activity
Over a period of time learners do get used to a particular method of teaching, but it may be helpful to explicitly explain the objectives of an activity