Learning difficulties

My experiences and tricks

Short information

I tried to teach a Standard 6 class consisting of 27-30 learners from the age of 9 to 15 years. The director wanted the teachers to teach English only and despite that, I do not really speak Chichewa.

I teached Science, Life Skills and English Grammar. The class teacher was present to help me with translation, if necessary. It was a small class, but good to observe.

Bloody beginning

Nothing works out. The learners are not pointing up not taking other active part in the lessons. All of them ignore my homework tasks and fail in my tests. I seak help of the teachers – their response: „These children are African children, not European […] they are stupid […] they are not interested and too playfull […] you Europeans are not showing enough authority because you don´t hit them […]“.

The reasons

Time passes by and I am observing the learners carefully, trying to understand their background… I am not a psychologist nor a professional teacher, but this is how I explained to myself my learners difficulties, and the feeling that I understood them helped me to help them:

• Problem English language
• Many of the learners do not understand much of the English language. This also lowers their interest in my lessons. (imagine them teaching you in their language – how much interest would you be able to show?)
• Even if they understand, they can not express their answers or questions
• They are afraid or ashamed to speak English
  
• No early childhood intervention (early learning in nursery)
• Because they have never visited a proper nursery school, they often lack skills in logical thinking, making logical connections, sensitiveness (for example when cutting out something with a scissor or when doing a puzzle), being creative (when painting, drawing, writing stories) brainstorming.
• They can´t imagine that learning can be fun.
• No working materials
• The learners do not have exercise books, pens, scissors, glues, rulers, rubbers
• This prevents variety and activity in the lessons
• It prevents that the learners take notes regularly
• The learners do not learn to appreciate nice handwriting and continuous note-writing
• They have little skills with materials like scissors, glues, rulers, rubbers.
• Domestic problems (the learners´ homes)
• The parents do barely know how to speak English, how to read, write, calculate
• The parents can not help not check the homework of the learner, nor do they know the principle of homework and home-learning for school
• The family is not aware of the importance of education
• reading books, newspapers is not common in the learner´s house
• in the afternoon, the learners are often left alone and are very bored
• the learners have to do child work on the fields, in the house, with the cattle in the bush
• domestic problems like illness, alkohol, drugs, violence, family conflicts, superstition, jealousy (siblings or cousins can be jealous of the learner because he/she can go to school)
• Girls
• Menstruation: The girls often don´t have hygenical pads to catch the bleeding, so they don´t come to school.
• Learners live in a small world
• The learners seldom leave their village
• They only know 2-3 places in the world (their village, the beach, their grandmother´s village)
• They have maybe only once seen their countries capital
• They only know rural life.
• Freetime and interests
• The learners are teenagers and of course interested in hobbies, drugs and sex
• My eleven years old learners already smoke Marihuana
• They love violent Asian low budget movies and treat each other violently too.
• No teaching materials
• The school lacks books, scientific models, posters etc.
• The existing teaching materials are not used, because the learners don´t know how to explain them and how to teach with them
• unprofessional teachers
• the teachers lack motivation. They are underpaid and have more than one job to earn their living
• the teachers lack knowledge and education
• the teachers have never done a professional training, but only have secondary school education
• the teachers have never had good example teachers themselves

Successful teaching methods

I start viewing my learners as children with learning difficulties. That means they need a eaching style with very low pace and a lot of repetition. That means I have to forget about the teachers guide and its rediculously high-set aims.

(1)   Question-Answer Principle

• I structure every lesson into 1-3 simple English questions and answers
• For difficult answers, I use Multiple Choice questions.
• I repeat these questions during the lesson and at the beginning of each lesson
• Old questions are given as homework.
• Every Friday, we write a test. In this test, I simply ask the questions from the lessons and homeworks.
• I introduce Oral Marks à see the post „Oral Marks“

(2)   Fun-Makers

• I create demonstrative objects: I make scientific models, draw posters
• Homework trick: I reward well done homework and well done tests with a sticker! If the homework was not well done, the learner gets a second chance to do it again and gain a sticker
• I come up with memorizing games, especially for learning answers and facts by heart
1. Example: I write a sentence on the board; I let the whole class read aloud the sentence. Then row by row has to read the sentence. Then girls. Then boys. Then I rub some words of the sentence from the board and let the learners fill in the gaps again. After that, I rub the entire sentence and ask them if they still remember it.
• Rediculously easy group work
1. Example: After learning the parts of plants, I tell the groups of 4 learners draw a flower plant with crayons and label as many parts as they can.
• Rediculously easy working sheets, which we do together
1. Example: see „Global Warming“
• Easy learning songs, that teach the important vocabular
1. Examples: Brother Matter (Brother Jacob), Flower Song (Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes)
2. Speaking in choirs, clapping hands and making movements while speaking
3. Copying sketches that I have drawn on the board, for example see „Information and Communication technologies“
• I invite guest speakers which are experts and can speak the local language
1. For example a telecommunication engineer
2. The girls crew from the „No means No“-campaign
3. Asks the teachers and local people for tips and always exchange phone numbers, when you meet interesting people on your trips or in the minibus.
• Short dramas
1. My learners loved acting (although they were not really talented). It was the ultimative way to make them learn English sentences by heart, voluntarily and with motivation, even as homework. Actors and audience also learn a lot of new vocabular.
2.  My class teacher wrote short plays with very simple plots, for example: A young girl marries an older man. She leaves school and they have children. Then the man meets another, still young girl. He insults his wife: „You walk like a duck“ – „You can´t even cook“ – the audience (parents and other learners) found those remarks very funny. In the end, the man leaves his wife and children and marries again.
   I believe this is a typical plot for African storys – it´s not very fanciful, but teaches the learners a lesson.