Hello for all of you teachers, students and members

As teachers and students of English language, it is our duty to make English teaching in our Syrian EFL schools better. Our students are in need for qualified teachers in order to teach them in the right ways that are suitable for their level and age . Every day we hear of some problems in some schools that face either students or teachers . What is the source of such problems and how can we, as responsible for English language, deal with such problems and try to solve them appropriately?

In this topic we'll deal with the negative points that happen frequently in our schools, discuss with each other such problems and suggest some solutions to avoid them and make our teaching style better

What do you think are the problems that might face our students when learning English? and in your opinion, what are the negative points that should be solved in our Syrian schools in order to make English teaching and learning run properly?

 
thank you for this interesting topic
first.I would say that most of us as mid school students did not have permanent english teacher (I remember that my first english teacher was in the seventh grade)
But the major reason ,I think , is the concentration on the grammer more than the speak and follow old styles in teaching.
In word, we must focus on pronunciation as the same as grammer

 
Really it is a good point to discuss
problems are many unfortunately
but the one that is worth mentioning is:

that students are not exposed to language very well
away from the logistic problems of the number of student and the level of teachers and so
Exposure is the main means in which the child learns another language and in my belief he\she may acquire it and you know what is acquriring and what is learning.

to give student materials and lets say an hour in a day for listening
We see the picture of a tap in the reading book but i have never been in a class and heard a voice of native speaker
i only heard my teacher's one which was so terrible and I am not blaming him
because he cant be a native, and it is not a must to be a native to teach the language although it you were it would be better.

this is one difficulty we face among many others and I hope you get red of them all

thank you for this thread very much it is really nice and helpful
I hope to see our teachers, lecturers and colleagues comments and participations. I will come back with another problem soon

 
i think that one of the problems is the limited time of exposure,as the guys here said..

another problem is the laziness of the most students and the stereotyped view of the difficult and non-needed English. you may remember lots students in even intermediate levels who had never taken the English class seriouslly. I don't know how this idea was appealing to their tiny minds. :roll ...... :
IN addition to the poor qualified and unreliable teachers of English in our schools. I remember that only till the 11th level that I met a good En teacher ! Imagine! though I've studied in the so-called best schools in my city. Anyway, I think that the Ministry of Education must issue some measures to improve the quality of their teachers, their employees.

 
Python, Really? what about the fifth and sixth grade? In this comment you raised three main issues actually
The first one is the focus on accuracy more than fluency which I regard as a very big problem for the teachers of English When students try to speak, if they really speak, teachers always let them down and try to correct their mistakes of grammar .. Although these students have many brilliant ideas in their minds, but teachers want them to speak perfectly This is a very big mistake because in this case those students might become shy and will not participate again because they might feel that they are stupid . Moreover, their friends also will think in the same way and the only one speaks in the class will be the teacher

The second point is following the traditional ways of teaching
I agree with you about this point because I myself hate such traditional ways and get bored of them what about the students especially the young ones?? Students, both adults and children, always want to try something new. They will become more motivated when there is the element of novelty in the class. When they find something strange and appropriate for their age they will participate more and show their enthusiasm for it and in this way learning will happen effectively. Once they are exposed to English in the traditional way, they will get bored and sleepy and they will find it difficult more than the other subjects.

The third point is that teachers should focus on pronunciation
Some teachers get bored of correcting students' mispronunciation. They might complain that they have a lot to do already in the classroom and pronunciation teaching will only make things worse. However, good pronunciation will lead to good speaking and students will become more proud of themselves when mastering the English words correctly. But of course, teachers should be very careful when correcting students' mistakes this is another problem that should be tackled

Thanks very much for your participation I'm waiting for your other problems

 
Obada Arwany, You are right Obada in this point If you notice that our schools have a limited number of classes per week; some of them have two, others have three .. I think that this is not enough for our students to learn the new language sufficiently. Even if teachers can't maximize the number of classes, they can give students activities to do at home especially the listening ones because as we know that our schools are not equipped with enough materials to support listening skil l, so in this case they can develop this skill by themselves at home and then discuss with their teacher what they have already done at home. Students have the right to improve the listening skill because once they receive good input they will produce good output. The resources that they should listen to should be authentic; i.e. they should listen to native speakers but unfortunately what happened in our school is that teachers don't pay much attention to this skill and marginalize it because they regard that the other skills, reading, writing and speaking, are more important. Moreover, we don't have in our schools enough materials like tape recorders, tapes, ...etc.
The teacher's accent is not necessary to be native .. It should be at least acceptable and understood in order for the students to understand what's happening around them.
Thanx for your participation

أندلسية, Thanks for mentioning this point The low level of students is a very big and sensitive problem that teachers should be aware of. It's not a problem for students themselves .. they don't know how to be good at English. It's the responsibility of all; teachers, parents and the students himself. We always notice that some teachers don't pay attention to the lazy students in the class because they regard that they will spend more time explaining the lesson or the rule for them Actually sometimes they are right because they don't want to spend time in vain and in this case they will not be able to complete the course. But they should do their best to solve this problem .. they can explain the lesson in a way that students like according to their age for example they can bring posters and big pictures .. they can use games in the class regarding the lesson and in this case students will not think about their low levels, they will think about how they can play this game and how to win Parents also are responsible for this issue because teachers alone can't do the whole work in just 45 minutes and with a huge number of students in the same class I'm sorry I didn't get your point well
Poor students! It is the responsibility of the school and the supervisors
I know some teachers who didn't study English before and they are teachers of English
There are also some teachers whose main concern is to complete the course without paying attention to whether the students understand or not

Thank you also for your nice comments

 
Salam

I guess this topic covers a wide spectrum of problems. I find it necessary to limit down the scope of tackling it to avoid over-generalization. From what little I know there are problems related mainly to students' age, level and motivation; others are pertaining to teachers' training, motivation and workplace; the educational system and the culture of society play a crucial role in affecting the learning-teaching process and not to forget whether the learning-teaching process takes place in a private or public institute. On the other hand, technical problems such as those related to the four skills still thwart the efforts of both teachers and learners.

For now, I'd like to spotlight age as an underlying factor undermining the performance of students and of course teachers. Teaching English for children in elementary schools is a little bit tough since it includes classroom management which is still a difficult technique for teachers - even the experienced. Usually teachers go to extremes when handling this technique. The result is unfortunately a teacher who is a dictator or lenient. It is more suitable to depend on a different approach toward such students who are still young. Such an approach would stir the class and then calm it down or it could really be the carrot and stick approach.

When it comes to teens, pages could be devoted to them. Teenage is characterized with a turbulent mood often very temporary which affects the performance. It is a time of delinquency and when things go from bad to worse a time of crime. Many of us heard of students who were overachievers throughout their school life but turned to underachievers in their teenage and in some cases they became high school dropouts. I guess solving this problem does not take place in the school only but in society as well with all its institutions starting from the smallest unit - the family.

Childhood and teenage are very delicate periods and frankly I personally -given the choice- don't like to take part in this. I prefer the students of the next age group, adults. Actually, adults have their educational problems but the teacher is at least still dealing with mature members of society not clowns behind desks. Teaching adults in private institutes is different from teaching them in the public sector since they are here now because the paid for it and need the certificate for promotion or getting a job. So they already have the motivation. This kind of learning English is called instrumental. English is a means of getting a goal. In contrast, if they don't get what they want they will be after trouble and of course there are many ways to get out of the murky waters of private tuition.

Like I said before, such a topic is variant and many pages could be devoted to discussing it and still the end will remain open for further discussion. I've tried just to raise awareness about some points in short rather than in detail.

 
Raghad,
I said: This means that lots of students didn't take the En class seriously because they think it's difficult and "unwothy" in everyday life; they think it's not as important as math, Arabic, physics,etc.
that's obviouslly wrong judgement, so _as you see_ I said : .......................................................
حسامي,
Your analysis is great. I like how you spread your ideas.