El asunto de la etnoeducación

Most of the students said they preferred a variety of teaching approaches. They said that varied techniques such as pair work, individual work, presentations and group work, gave them more ways of interacting with the teachers and with their peers. They clearly appreciated interactive styles of teaching that involved them personally in the English lessons.

Some of their comments were:

I like a variety of approaches; we used to do a lot of group discussions based on selected topics in pairs and individually. This was done in form of writing essays. The teachers assigned us to write a topic about Oman or write an essay in English relevant to our law studies. As undergraduate students we miss this now… The focus now is on pair work and individual work only. No more handouts or use of dictionary and often the lesson is lecture based. I think the problem here is that the teacher uses the textbook only. We rarely use other materials and hardly use the dictionary because we depend on the teacher to spoon feed us (S2).

It depends on the activity…I think I would like to work in groups and in pairs because mixed approaches would bring life to the class and make us more devoted to the lesson. Working collaboratively in groups and in pairs I think would inspire us positively towards learning English. We then would feel a real language setting. Unfortunately, sometimes teachers would dominate the activity by lecturing without giving us an opportunity to students to take part in the activity, which turns the classroom into a tedious place (S3).

Student S8 said:

I like presentations, group, individual, and pair work. Presentations give us a chance to talk freely and gain self- confidence. I can deliver my topic freely and openly. It is a new approach for us as college-level students …

My second preference is group work because students would share ideas and thoughts and so everyone can help each other in a different way.

What happens in the class currently is that the teacher gives us some tasks to talk about. These tasks sometimes are done individually, in pairs or in groups. He sometimes asks one student to present a certain topic in front of the class.

Student S9 said:

I like presentations because we can choose our own topics to talk about. We feel confident and responsible by talking in front of the class. Pair work is suitable for reading conversations or asking and answering questions. Group work is beneficial

too, because it assists students to work together to solve problems related to activities but my preference goes to individual work (S9).

Student S10 said:

I believe in-group work. This allows everyone to take part in the class

discussions and they could exchange ideas and views. I noticed here at the college that monolingual teachers make a good use of the available visual aids and over- head projector. I think this is an important transition to us as undergraduate students shifting from the very simple/ traditional way of teaching to using such new ways and techniques. Using such visual aids and new devices promotes learning quality and in turn suits learners’ styles and so these approaches should be used

accordingly. We feel inspired by the teachers and their methods in English lessons. Learner- centered and pair activities should replace traditional ways of teaching, such as teacher- centered activity. I think it is the teacher’s role to increase students’ motivation by creating lively techniques (S10).

S12 said:

My first preference is group work. In the beginning of the semester, our teacher put us in groups…we learned a lot from group work because every student

participates and contributes to the discussion and brings something to talk about. Every one benefits from the group and develops language skills. ... I was shy and lacked the basic generic skills, but after I worked in groups I became more open- minded. I can now ask questions freely. I gained self-confidence by working in groups. Then gradually we became independent learners (S12).

S13 said:

I believe that new techniques such as group work are a really good way of maintaining students’ positive attitudes towards English because they enable each one of them to give his/ her opinion over a certain topic or task. Group work is not good for students only but for the teacher too because he could go around the class to check the students’ work. The teacher could monitor the weak students as well as the good ones (S13).

Student (S1) articulated clearly the need for active, motivating teaching, and that the teacher’s way of teaching shapes students’ attitude towards participation in the class:

Some students feel dull and passive with their bilingual teachers… it depends on the activity; for me group work is the best way to discuss topics or a reading paragraph. We feel responsible towards each other in working in groups. I don’t really like teacher- centered activities because this makes us passive recipients only. Individual and pair work are also suitable for us; however, my preference would be for group work. When a teacher becomes a lecturing device, the class then becomes tedious and students become absent minded and loose their focus. I believe that teaching methods determine the whole class situation either positively or negatively (S1).

The students all said that they like a variety of classroom activities and would prefer any approach that allows them to take a positive part in activities and maintain their interest in learning English.