Reaching Real People

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Reaching Real People ( secondary)

Students run a radio programme and communicate

with pen friends
by Insa Antoine Camara

Teacher of English at Lycée Valdiodio Ndiaye

Kaolack, Sénégal, West Africa

Email : [e-mail]

Introduction

I started teaching English as a foreign language ten years ago in a small town in Kaolack, the central province of Sénégal. In our school system, English is taught as a foreign language. Students start learning English as early as the seventh grade. That is the first year of the secondary school.

Here almost all the students choose English just out of curiosity as it is a new subject for them and because English language is extremely popular now worldwide. For this reason there is a great excitement about the new language for the first year and teachers do not suffer from lack of motivation on the part of the students. At this level the approximate age is 13; they have six hours of English per week, which is enough for the teachers to establish a good base of language input. But as they go through the upper grades most students progressively lose interest in the subject and by the time they get to the second cycle of “ Lycée”, lack of motivation becomes a real obstacle to “the teaching/learning” process.

In Sénégal the second cycle of lycée includes “ Seconde, Première, and Terminale” classes. For these levels students have three hours of English per week (this is not enough compared to the academic curriculum we have to cover for the year). In my school, Lycée Valdiodio Ndiaye , one of the biggest in the country, the size of the classes varies between sixty five and seventy five students per classroom! So students are often difficult to manage in these over-crowded classrooms, specially when they lack motivation in learning the language. At this level we teachers feel that the students learn English for the sole purpose of passing exams.

I. Promoting learning English through a radio programme.
In the early years of my career, I became aware of all these difficulties and started to take individual initiatives in search of alternatives. I felt that I was bound to fight and find new sources of motivation for my students if I were to achieve any growth in my teaching career. We first tried with an English Club but still it didn’t draw as many students as we were expecting. Then in November 1999 I came up with the idea of starting a radio programme in English meant for the students. At that moment there was a boom of private FM radio stations in the country (three in Kaolack). When the idea was accepted by one local station I immediately consulted some colleagues in the school. We made up a listening programme with a phone-in. It was meant to bridge the gap for a much needed practice of the language. I started up with a fifteen-minute programme, and soon got half an hour and then an hour, due to the constant calls, mails and people asking to come to the studio. You wouldn’t imagine it, my audience includes students and non-students as well. The programme goes on even during the vacation period. Even the other schools in the neighbouring villages around Kaolack participate in the programme through mails or by invitation. “ English Fans’ Programme” is what we call it. Now we even have the support of the BBC English programme who gives us cassettes with English lessons to broadcast! The programme comes on air every Sunday from seven to eight pm.
English Fans’ Programme starts with a short English lesson followed by questions to the listeners who can either call to propose answers or show their work to their teachers the day after. I often invite students to the studio for interviews or debates. They are also encouraged to make short presentations. From time to time, I echo reports from seminars or the activities of the pedagogical cell of the Kaolack region. With every demanding audience, I try to vary the components of the programme and the categories of my guests in order to offer to largest number the opportunity to practice their English. Familiar to the programme are the English speaking community residing in Kaolack or simple visitors(Peace Corps Volunteers, foreigners working with NGOs etc.). Their contributions are really appreciated by the listeners. As a result, English Fans’ Programme has kindled a real interest for learning English among the students and non-students population of Kaolack region.

II. Promoting writing through pen-friendship

I wanted to promote writing skill with my students, just as much as oral ones. And in this area too, students needed motivation; I felt the need to find real-life situations (writing and receiving real letters to and from real persons) in order to make writing more communicative for students. That’s how, two years ago, I came in contact with an American colleague teaching French in Denver, Colorado. She needed a pen-friendship exchange programme for her students to practice more French as I wanted mine to have real English speaking friends from other countries. The experience triggered a real excitement in both our schools. Our lessons on letter writing became of necessity as everybody wanted to have a pen friend. We chose snail-mail as the mode of correspondence so they could include photos in their letters. At the beginning, most students would want me to “correct” their letters, because they didn’t want to make too many mistakes, which allowed more follow-up and practice in writing. We continued the experience with Denver students till the event of the “Anthrax” when we decided to try e-mail.

The year after, I renewed the experience with Julia, a Belgian colleague who came to Kaolack on a working visit. Once she got back home in Belgium, we began the pen-friend programme with our students and it’s still going at the time of writing this..
Dear reader, I hope to receive more suggestions from more experienced colleagues such as you, if you know better ways of promoting speaking and writing. Your suggestions will be most welcome.