English course
Professor: A.W. de Vries, MSc.
Participating institutions: Centralamerican Institute for Biological Research and Conservation (CIBRC).
Duration: approximately three months.
Introduction
Garabito, a small neighborhood in Leon XIII, is one of the most deprived areas of Tibás,
About one year ago an initiative to improve part of the neighborhood was initialized by Maguil Céspedes Castro, the academic coordinator of CIBRC. The illegal garbage dump in that particular street and the nearby playgrounds was cleaned by him and some of the inhabitants. The ground along the street was cleared and trees and shrubs were planted. Nowadays you can find a colorful, lush garden with birds and butterflies were there were once only heaps of smelling garbage. The cleaning of the playgrounds is still in progress. Garbage has been removed and the grass has been cut, it will be just a matter of time before trees and shrubs will be planted.
The children of this area participated strongly in this community development project by picking up garbage, cleaning the gutters and recovering the green areas with ornamentals and endemic trees. As a reward for their contribution the boys of Garabito have been taken on a field trip, which took them outside of
Course description
The couse was set up as a reward for the girls who participated in the community development project in
In a period of approximately three months with two classes a week, the girls will acquire a thorough knowledge of the basics of English, which will enable them to have a basic conversation in English and to provide them with a consolidate basis of grammar and vocabulary to continue their studies in English at their schools.
The focus in this course is on the reproductive skill speaking. Grammar plays an important role, although the communication criterion is considered more important than the correctness criterion. Listening is the second most important skill in this course. Due to lack of audio materials, the only source available is the teacher. Nevertheless, during speaking practice the students have to listen to what the others say in order to be able to respond.
Organization
This course has been organized by the CIBRC under the supervision of M. Cespedes Castro and funded by Jan Atwood and friends of the Garabito youth . The course itself is coordinated and developed by A.W. de Vries.
Programme
The English course for the girls in Garabito started August 26, 2005. The course was scheduled for three months with two classes of one hour per week, which equals about 26 classes. However, the teacher decided to change the time set-up to thirty classes, fifteen of one hour on Friday mornings and fifteen of three hours on Saturday mornings. Only three out of the five girls were able to attend the classes on Friday morning, which is why it was decided to teach more hours on Saturdays. The course was scheduled to end around the middle of December.
Objectives
The objective of this course is not only to offer the girls an opportunity to learn or improve there English, it is also meant to build up their sense of self-esteem. In addition the children will develop a sense of community development and teamwork by joining forces not only in class but also by doing physical work in the immediate area of their houses.
The students
At the first day of the course, seven students showed up. After two classes one of the girls did not show up anymore without giving any explanation. After the first series of eight classes, one of the girls had to be expelled, although much to our regret. She could not combine her religious obligations with the classes.
The remaining group of students was very motivated. Although none of them were quick-witted, they were rather inquisitive. Since the beginning, they have asked for learning specific vocabulary, more practice and more classes.
The ages of the students ranged from nine up to thirteen years. There is a huge difference between the learning abilities of a nine-year-old and a teenager. For there are only five girls in this group, it was possible to approach each student on a personal basis and help them with their specific weaker points.
Materials
All course materials have been developed by the teacher herself. Two methods have been bought and parts of them have been used to create course materials. For the rest the teacher has used her own experience and imagination. Internet has proven to be a useful resource for any kind of materials. The used materials vary from simple fill in exercises to scrambled words and crosswords. Also playful methods like board games are used to test and review the students’ knowledge.
Methodology
The focus in this course was on the reproductive skill speaking. Grammar played an important role, although the communication criterion was considered more important than the correctness criterion. Listening was the second most important skill in this course. Due to lack of audio materials, the only source available was the teacher. Nevertheless, during speaking practice the students had to listen to what the others said in order to be able to respond.
The course was set up with the idea that the students would study at home in order to achieve the optimal result. This meant they were expected to study the treated subjects at home after class. After eight classes it became clear they did not study at home at all. It was not unwillingness, the girls are simply not used to or stimulated to study on their own. Therefore it was considered that the moment for them to learn is in the classroom. The pace was slowed down dramatically and more time was spent on reviewing subjects. And although the course is not about marks, the girls themselves asked to be tested, so they have had two tests so far.
All course materials have been developed by the teacher herself. Two methods have been bought and parts of them have been used to create course materials. For the rest the teacher used her own experience and imagination. Internet proved to be a useful resource for any kind of materials. The used materials varied from simple fill in exercises to scrambled words and crosswords. Also playful methods like board games were used to test and review the students’ knowledge.
Progress
Although all girls are taught English at school, none of the girls, except for one, were able to utter a single word, let alone a full sentence in English. The only one who dared to say something in English was Malory, the oldest of the group with her thirteen years. Out of the five remaining girls, she was one of the three girls who has shown obvious progress. Despite learning English at school, Malory’s level of English at the beginning of the course was not what it was supposed to be if you saw her course book. She should have been able to form the simple past tense of regular verbs, but she was not even familiar with the simple present of the verbs ‘to be’ and ‘to have’. And although she could say some things in English, her incorrect pronunciation made it almost impossible to understand her. The course offered her the change to review what she should have learned at her school and even better, the chance to improve her pronunciation. She has done very well and at school her marks for English have gone up. Her pronunciation has improved as well as her sense of grammar.
Conclusion
Although the focus of this course was on communication, none of the girls was able to have a simple basic conversation in English when the course finished. It would have been possible if the girls had worked harder at home and if the level and attendance of all girls had been the same, but in the end it worked out differently. Nevertheless, all girls have shown progress in their English, although it was not what the teacher had opted for at the beginning.
Out of the five girls, four upgraded at their high schools (note: In
Recommendations
The community development project with the course as a spin-off has shown the girls of Garabito that if you join forces you can create a better environment and the English course was highly appreciated as a reward for their input. As a matter of fact, it would be worthwhile to set up another course in this area. The English the children/teenagers are supposed to learn at school is not sufficient and parents cannot afford to send their offspring to private schools or language institutes to learn better English. Being able to communicate in English will become more important in the future with the upcoming Free Trade Agreement with the