Problems for Arab Learners

8/9/2019 Problems for Arab Learners

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• The social Context:

We need to widen our scope in relation to English Language Education to

achieve a better methodologies in classroom. In this lecture we are going

to focus on why the social context of language teaching and learning is

important.

• In search of what happens between people:

We are searching for the value of looing beyond the immediate

classroom to the wider society!classroom is lie a mini culture and it

re"ects the wider culture outside in society# and at some of the

implications$ this accounts for the development in English Language

Education in search of what happens between people !lie between

students$ teachers$ and students and teachers#.

% great deal of research has been done in all aspects of English Language

Education. &et$ there are still signi'cant gaps in our nowledge which

prevent us from achieving classroom methodology appropriate for

di(erent situations !this is why we need further research on that#. It is this

area of what really happens between teachers and class that we need to

be concerned with. The social context with which we shall be concerned

of is the social interaction within and around the classroom language

teaching and learning which a(ects and therefore explains what reallygoes on. The classroom is the place where the multiplicity and complexity

of interaction taes place. )owever$ is it important to argue that it is not

su*cient to loo only within the classroom to understand this interaction.

This is because much of what goes on within the classroom is in"uenced

by factors within the wider educational institution !university# and the

wider society.

• The division vs. the profession:

There are two basic problems to which this lac of information of what

really happens between teacher and the class.

+. ,oreign students and foreign methodologies:-n one hand there are curriculum developers or teachers trying to a(ect

appropriate English Language Teaching with students who are foreign to

them !they are foreign even at home or abroad. They are trying to

understand their attitudes and ways of doing things which are oftenobscure to the outsider. -n the other hand$ there are teachers and

curriculum developers who are native to the country where they wor and

the same nationality as the students they teach but who are trying to



mae sense of the methodologies developed in ritain$ north %merica$ or

%ustralia for ideal teaching and learning situations which are very

di(erent from their own./. The instrumental vs. 0tate:

% probable reason for the di*culty of the text boo used in English

language teaching methodologies is that the boos are designed with a

particularly instrumental approach in mind. 0o$ designing methodologiesis instrumental which means that there is a relatively clear contact

between institutes and adult groups who come speci'cally to learn

English. This can be found in the institutes which tend to be either private

language schools or universities.

• The social context:

% distinction should be made between the micro and the macro aspects of

social contexts. The macro includes the wider societal and institutional

in"uences on what happens in the classroom. The macro view holds thewider community lie home and school relations$ learners1 attitudes$

reference groups$ and so on. In contrast$ the micro social context consists

of the socio2psychological aspects of group dynamics within the

classroom. It involves an interactive context. The focus will be on the

macro more than the micro because it is concerned or the in"uences of

outside the classroom which are very important for the understanding of

what happens between people. %lthough the 'nal focus is what happens

between people which is the micro$ these relationships can only be fullyunderstood in terms of the wider macro picture. it is the attitudes derived

from relationships of status$ role and authority brought by students and

teachers from outside the classroom that in"uence those aspects of

classroom interaction.0tudents vs. Learners:

It is necessary to refer to the ma3ority number of the classroom as

students and not learners. This is because the a learner carries the

implication that the only purpose for being in the classroom is to learn. Itwill become apparent that there are other purposes for being in the

classroom$ amongst which learning may be minor. The student on the

other hand implies roles and identities outside the classroom. The classroom and its environment:

% macro view of the social context of teaching and learning re4uires that

we loo at how the classroom relates to the world outside. There are

many ways in which what happens re"ects the world outside. The

classroom is a microcosm which re"ects in fundamental social terms theworld that lies outside the window. 0ome discussions place the classroom$

as a culture$ within a wider complex of cultures between which there are

many complex channels of in"uence. The way in which classroom mirrors



the world outside suggest that the classroom possesses special features

which crystalli5e the social world. The complex interaction between the classroom and the world

outside:+# The classroom is situated as a host institution$ which could be anything

from a state school$ to a private language institute$ to a university or

college. The host institution is in turn situated within a host educationalenvironment. The host educational environment is any type of

environment which in"uences the host institution and in turn the

classroom. In state education$ the host educational environment

provides strong in"uences from parents$ employers$ and so on in the

local community which bear on the classroom. In private language

institutes$ this might consist of the maret2 client companies who send

students$ potential clients$ the whole population of customers and

potential customers$ and other institutes in competition./# esides these di(erences types of in"uence$ in all cases the host

educational also includes in"uences on students and teachers from

their respective peers and reference groups. % reference group is the

group of people which an individual loos to for self2evaluation who

provide the individual with values$ standards$ and goals. ,or students$

these would include other students and other parties such as the family

groups who provide role models. There would also be expectations

brought to the classroom from other classroom experiences$ perhaps inother host institutions. ,or teachers$ the ma3or peer and reference

groups would be colleagues$ both in and out the host institution6 these

would be in turn be in"uenced by professional institutions$ as well as by

training and other sources of attitude towards expertise$ such as

universities.7# % third important participant in the classroom is materials$ the contents$

and the methodologies which they carry:

They are of course created by teachers$ to greater or lesser degrees!lie libraries# through interaction with students. we get our materials

from boos and libraries which are hosted in universities and this is an

indirect way to say that they a(ect our classroom.,inding out what we need to now:

In order to arrive at appropriate methodologies$ practitioners need time to

investigate what happens in the classroom. They need to incorporate into

their approach to the classroom to the capacity to loo in the depth at the

wider social courses which in"uence behavior between teachers andstudents and to tae a broad view of how these are in turn in"uenced by

social forces from outside the classroom



,or extra information$ you can have a loo at this boo:

Appropriate Methodology and Social Context

By Adrian Holliday

Documents

Problems for Arab Learners