Teacher Roles And Teaching Materials

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

This chapter sets out the results of the questionnaire, initially assessing the descriptive statistics to establish the findings.

The findings will be discussed under the headings of (1) Teacher’ Training (2), Teaching Practices (3) Teacher Roles and Teaching Materials, in the same order as of the questionnaire. Each section will be directly followed by a critical discussion of the findings as they relate to the existing literature

TEACHER TRAINING

The first question of this section was used to establish the type of educational training teachers received on their journey to becoming a teacher.

Teachers from both countries have received formal post-secondary education in their target language. All four Barbados-based teachers involved in this study received a degree in Spanish or Hispanic Studies which they obtained before pursuing teaching careers. One of these teachers also received overseas training as a second language teacher. Two were born in Colombia and speak Spanish as their mother tongue while one was born in the United Kingdom and another in Barbados; the two latter speak English as their Mother tongue.

Two teachers in Spain hold degrees in Spanish language and literature, while another two received an MA in Teaching Spanish, one has a teaching diploma and one received overseas training as a second-language teacher. All of these teachers were born in Spain and speak Spanish as their mother tongue.

All ten teachers from both countries are completely fluent in the target language, Spanish, and feel very confident and comfortable conversing with others and also teaching students. Three participants from Barbados have nineteen-twenty five years teaching experience; while one has one-two years teaching experience.

All participants that pursued educational training as a second language teacher were very similar in many ways even though that training was obtained in very different environments.

The second question of this section was used to established, the types of teaching methodology and approaches the respective teacher training received were based on.

The results showed that among Barbadian teachers, two received paper-based theoretical training and two received a combination. Out of the latter, one person highlighted that their training consisted of mostly paper-based strategies, but was not excessively theoretical, being more oriented towards a communicative approach to foreign languages teaching". Responses from participants in Spain yielded similar results about their training as second language teachers. Their results showed that one person received paper-based theoretical training, three participants received combination training and two received other forms which they highlighted as "Communication Methodology with some computer resources and Teaching in Competence. The Common European Framework" The results are displayed in table : 0.00

Reference to published research on training only partly determining teaching practices It was found that the type of training does not necessarily make a decisive impact on teaching practices; most second language teachers develop their own teaching approaches during the years of their teaching careers. It also has been observed that teachers who have participated in this study had already changed their approaches to teaching from how they were taught themselves, sometimes even before receiving teacher training. Their views of second language teaching are now based on modern views of language acquisition as a result of observations of traditional teachers and their personal experiences. In an interview conducted in Spain with Paula González, she shared her experience: "I remember my professor taught different teaching approaches to second-language teaching but it only made sense after I became a teacher. Now, I use a more fun approach than the ones he discussed in the class".

Some of the participants in this study that were trained using the traditional method, realised later in their teaching careers that it was not the best method to teach a foreign language. Indeed, numerous researchers have found that currently teachers are trying to integrate various communicative methods in language teaching. As a result of this, teachers of second language teaching are shifting from teacher-centred towards a more learner-centred atmosphere and methodology. This approach seems to have brought positive results in second language learning.

INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGNS

The following four questions (questions 4-7) were designed to establish the frequency of the use of target language in the classrooms and the importance of using it. Accordingly, question four sought to establish how often the target language is used in the classroom.

Interestingly, three of the four Barbados-based participants "often" used the target language in the classroom while one "always" uses the target language. By contrast five Spanish participants always use the target language while one often uses the target language.

Turning to question five, regarding how frequently they rely on English, three UWI lecturers "sometimes" use English in the classroom while one "often" relies on English in the classroom. By contrast, three Spanish participants "seldom" use English while three "never" rely on English-language instructions in the classroom.

Regarding question six, concerning which part of the course is conducted in English, three Barbadian participants responded by selecting "Grammar" and while one participant stated that all components should be taught in the target language. Two participants out of the three that selected grammar stated reasons such as: "I [also] sometimes use the English for complicated activities when Spanish would be likely to cause confusion"; in comparison, all Spanish participants agreed with the one Barbadian participant that none of the syllabus components should be taught in English.

In accordance with question seven, regarding the importance of using the target language in the classroom, the Barbadian participants stated that it is important and when asked why, explained by giving reasons such as:

In the great majority of language-teaching environments, the use of the target language for at least a substantial proportion of the instruction (the exact amount will vary) is necessary to maximize student exposure and practice opportunities and to encourage students to associate the class environment with the use of the target language to the greatest extent possible. Increased exposure and practice are self-evidently correlated with improvement in the language.

Other Barbadian lecturer stated that "F1 students have to be able to understand and communicate in the FL and the students will get acquainted with the grammatical terminology in Spanish and should be able to interact in the foreign language. One Barbadian lecture also indicated that "the more exposure to the language, there will be better users and listeners". In contrast the Spanish lectures gave indicated reason such as "it is much more effective", "students are learning a language (Spanish in this case) in an immersion context, the rest of the class comes from different countries (multicultural groups) and not everyone speaks English. Another reason for the importance of using the target language was indicated as" the language students want to learn the target language the more they are in contact with the language the better".

The amount of the target language used by the teacher during classroom time determines the level of comprehension of the language by students in the class. It has been observed by some researchers that the constant use of the target language during the lesson increases "efficiency, effectiveness and relevance" (Briggs, Gustafson, Tillman 1992) of good language teaching.

It is evident that all teachers from UIMP and UWI shared the same belief about the importance of maximum exposure of the target language in classroom. Also it is evident from their comments that they also try to do their best in conducting classes in the target language and to only use L1 only in situations where the comprehension of concepts are difficulty to understand. On a theoretical level, the teachers appeared to use the Audio-lingual Method , in this method the assumption is that the teacher is a model of the language and through the language transmission the learning will be achieved.

In further analyses of this study, it will be evident that the methods mentioned above but a few out of a wide range of approaches used by language teachers in their classrooms.

Note:

ICraig: "If I were teaching in the UIMP context – with a varied mother tongue class group and in a full immersion context, in this case in Spain – I would tend to give different answers to those based on my UWI experience. Speaking English in class would be a much less practical option, since some wouldn’t understand, and the full immersion context would likely lead me to assume that "Spanish-only" would be the rule for the classroom. In the UWI context, the overwhelmingly Anglophone environment and the common mother tongue shared with students means that I "resort" to English, sometimes admittedly out of a desire to simply get something done quickly or less labouriously. It does feel like a little laziness sometimes…".