A REPORT BY MS MARGARET HEATHER

This is the report by Ms Margaret Heather who just conducted the Train The Trainer's program with us

ROTARY REPORT KUPANG PROJECT JANUARY 2011 – MATCHING GRANT 71103

INTRODUCTION

The project commenced on Sunday 23 January 2011 when I arrived in Kupang and it was a great success.  This was attributable to the support of the Buparti Dr Mr Titu Eki and the enthusiasm of the partici pants.  The Buparti not only advertised the Rotary project but arranged for the English language teachers, who lived a reasonable distance away from the chosen venue, Budi and Peggy’s  Christati Hotel near Roslin Orphanage, to be given leave from their teaching jobs to attend the daily English language sessions.  Budi and Peggy also generously provided free accommodation at the hotel for 5 girls who lived a distance away from the venue.  They also ordered the stationery and equipment as provided by the Rotary budget.

THE PROGRAM

The first session was held in the evening of Sunday 23 January which was more of a getting to know you session.  This was necessary to find out the background of the participants and what they expected to get out of the course before I could offer appropriate structured sessions.  It was during this time that I realised that most of the participants were English language teachers.

To accommodate the working hours of some the teachers who were at schools nearby, we decided on daily afternoon sessions from 2 until 5pm, as school finishes at 1pm.  This gave participants time to travel to the hotel site.  In addition to this, an evening session from 8 to 10pm was also agreed to.  This allowed office workers and business people to participate after their work commitments.

We commenced this program on the Monday but by Tuesday I realised that the size of the class, 25 participants, was too large to effectively encourage all participants to participate in conversation.  Consequently I proposed a third session to be held each morning from 10 until 12.  This session proved to be very effective and the smaller group size of around nine participants meant more confident participation in conversation.

The structure of the afternoon sessions was aimed at giving the teachers the greatest benefit of not only my English language skills but to incorporate skills used in Australia to teach a language.  Consequently the teachers were introduced to teaching theory and practice used to teach languages in the Australian classroom.  This also included games, songs and humorous poems.  A copy of a typical lesson plan is included at Attachment A.

I also decided it was essential for the participants to conduct micro-teaching sessions and we had an average of three per session.  These sessions were encouraged to be interactive and they gave me a chance to further evaluate the teaching and language skill levels of the teachers.  It also gave participants the opportunity to incorporate strategies they had learnt from our sessions, into their lessons.

In addition to the daily sessions at the Christati Hotel, I participated in two lessons at a local high school, SMA4, which I had attended on two previous visits.  This was again very successful and the the only time students have been able to interact with native speaker.  It was also another opportunity to introduce language games into the classroom.  One of the language teachers from this school also participated in the Rotary funded language lessons at the hotel.

COMMENTS

The location of the hotel is a little isolated from the main city of Kupang and a long way for some of the participants to travel.  One young woman in the evening session, which concluded at 10pm, had to travel for an hour and a half back to her home by motor bike, arriving home at 11:30pm.  Other participants had an hours journey by motor bike.  This demonstrated the enthusiasm of the participants and their commitment to the classes.

If I wanted to use the internet I had to go to Kupang and it was necessary to arrange transport to do this as the public bus stop was too far away from the hotel to be viable.  Arrangements for a car and driver had to be made the day before.  The isolation of the hotel and the lack of an internet facility to keep in touch with friends and family was a little disconcerting, particularly as I was on my own.  It is essential that this facility be available on an ongoing basis in the future.  It is also provided for in the Rotary budget.

The lack of an internet facility allowing access to English as a second Language (ESL) sites also means that the teacher has to bring all materials with them.  Fortunately I had downloaded a lot of material from the internet, and prepared a number of lessons back in Australia.  This is easily stored on a USB.  I also brought with me a selection of stationery items as I was not sure what would be available.  This is essential to ensure a successful program.

I would like to thank Pak Frans for all the photocopying he organised for the classes.  His assistance was greatly appreciated.

While the workload was a little more than I had expected, it was necessary to accommodate all participants and it was also necessary given the limited amount of time I was there.  I did however recharge the batteries over the weekend and stayed in Kupang city Saturday and Sunday, in the middle of the visit.

In future, greater communication between the people at the Kupang site and teachers going to Kupang is essential, as I was not aware that a data projector, screen, computer and printer had been purchased.  It was also obvious that if anything is to go wrong with any of the equipment, technical support is not readily available.

However the hotel does provide basic accommodation with meals and a suitable venue to conduct the program.

Successes

I would rate the program, which lasted for nine working days, as a huge success, far beyond what I had anticipated.  The participants also agreed that it had exceeded their expectations.  Many had not heard a native English speaker before and found this very beneficial.  Not only did their English language skills improve but the teachers very much appreciated the teaching theory and practice, games and humour incorporated into the afternoon sessions.  They were keen to put their learning into practise.

The morning and evening sessions were very successful with the evening sessions producing topics of great interest and from which I learnt a lot more about Indonesia.  All sessions were very enjoyable and overall it was a very rewarding experience.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Equipment, books and other material, left in Kupang, need to be stored in a secure location so that they are readily available for each stage of the program.

I recommend the purchase of several English language dictionaries as there are none on site.

It would also be beneficial to have an internet facility available at the Christati Hotel.  It is possible to do this as it was available on the first Monday while Budi was there.  However it was not available thereafter and I was unable to connect via the computer that was there.

It is necessary to continue to have the support of the buparti Dr Mr Titu Eki as I feel his support added greatly to the success of the program.  He did his PhD in Adelaide, living there for four years, and is very much aware of the advantages and greater work opportunities available for the people of Kupang, if they have good English language skills.

I recommend that a letter of thanks for his support be forwarded to him from the Rotary Club of Armadale.

I would also like to thank Budi and his wife Peggy for purchasing the equipment and items necessary for the program, Peggy’s mum for all the delicious food she prepared for me, and also her husband Opah.

ATTACHMENT A    A TYPICAL LESSON PLAN

1.            Roll call

2.            Review and comments on last lesson.

3.            Teaching tip for the day.

4.            The value of pneumonics.

5.            Micro teaching 1 and evaluation.

6.            Grammar Banging.  Fill in the blanks with the best word option. Students to mark each others with a prize for the top marks. Teacher reviews results for common errors.

7.            Micro teaching 2 and evaluation.

8.            Reading comprehension and conversation.  ‘Poor Cat’.  Students to read a humorous passage. Teacher reads, students listen for correct pronunciation.  Discussion on why the passage is funny.  Students in pairs retell the story to each other then answer written questions to check understanding.  Discussion on a proverb associated with the story.

9.            Parts of speech.  A poem written about the parts of speech with examples.  (Great teaching aid.)

10.         Games – language games for the classroom.

11.         Reading comprehension and conversation.  ‘Women and Gadgets’.  Similar to item 8 above.

12.         Micro teaching 3 and evaluation.

13.         Game.

14.              Song, reflection and close.