SOBRE LA TÉCNICA COMO REQUISITO PARA LAS CIENCIAS POSITIVAS

The data shows that NES lecturers adopt a student-centred approach using teaching practices such as group and pair work, discussions, debates and presentations.

These lecturers also stress the importance of student feedback in improving their teaching. These practices are implemented to encourage student participation and active involvement in the classroom. For example, LD describes (see below) how he organises his students into groups in order to discuss and debate topics among each other. This lecturer uses this practice to develop the students’ communicative skills and confidence in using English. This teaching practice also allows the lecturer to overcome the problem of large class sizes.

I encourage my students to work with each other in groups to discuss and debate topics. My goal is to make them practise speaking in English by using very simple phrases, simple sentences, just to push them to use English, because that is their biggest challenge.

NES Lecturer D, Interview, Tuesday DHth October BCDH

The point of developing the students’ communicative skills and encouraging them to use English in their interactions is further elaborated in the quote below. LD expressed his disapproval with regard to the use of Arabic in teaching. He clearly stated that using Arabic in explaining the meaning of concepts and ideas was unhelpful for the students. He believed that lecturers should give their explanations in English and provide students with plenty of examples in order to deduce the meaning. The lecturer also advised his students to always “use an English-English dictionary when studying rather than an Arabic one” as this method allows students to learn new words and further develop their skills.

What you will sometimes find is that some lecturers are using Arabic in the class, because it’s what they can do… they believe the only way to explain the ideas is to explain it in Arabic...but I think this is a wrong approach in teaching. Lecturers should explain new concepts in English and give students plenty of examples to comprehend the meaning. I encourage my students to use an English-English dictionary when studying rather than an Arabic one. This way students are able to build their vocabulary and learn new words.

NES Lecturer D, Interview, Tuesday DHth October BCDH

Another practice highlighted by NES lecturers is the important role that student feedback plays in their teaching. NES lecturers regard student feedback as a valuable source of input to improve their teaching practices and address each student’s

individual needs. Schweisfurth (BCDJ) believes that a key difference between learner-centred and traditional teaching methods is that in the former, there is a collaborative effort between teachers and students, since students are closely involved in the decision-making process regarding their learning. In the following quote, LE describes how listening to the students’ feedback gives him a unique perspective about them and their learning habits:

During classroom activities I try to go around and listen to understand how the students learn, what they care about, and what they don’t care about, what they don’t think is important. This gives me a unique perspective about the students and their learning.

NES lecturer E, Interview, Sunday Bnd November BCDH

Moreover, NES lecturers using the student-centred approach work on developing the students’ critical thinking skills. LJ describes (see below) his teaching role as helping students develop these skills. Here, the lecturer reflects on the best strategy to make students broaden their perspectives and develop their critical thinking. In addition to the basic language course this lecturer teaches, he teaches an advanced literature course. In this quote, LJ describes the challenges he faces in helping students critically analyse a given text and understanding different literary themes. The lecturer attributes this lack of critical analysis to the students’ cultural attitudes and their unfamiliarity with “different forms of critical thinking”. This is mainly because the students’ prior education did not emphasis the training and development of these skills (Kafe, BCC]; Al-Sagoube, BCC])

How can we get the students – how can we get young Saudi men – to think outside of themselves? To put themselves into another person’s perspective. That’s…I think that is a direct cultural thing. And I don’t think there’s a short answer, solution to that, I really don’t. Their cultural attitude towards a given text is profoundly literal. So they’re not accustomed to working with different forms of critical thinking as it relates to literature, and art, and symbolism…I don’t just work on improving their skills, but also helping them to understand some of the great themes. You know, Bildungsroman and narratives of education, because they are at the point in their lives when they could benefit from some of those themes.

An important issue can be inferred from the above data. It seems that NES lecturers tend to try and understand the students’ home culture and the way it may impact their learning. They exemplify the student-centred approach by seeking to engage with the students to understand the way they learn consequently identifying any barriers that may hinder their learning. Troudi (BCCP) argues that it is important for language educators to develop a critical understanding of the students’ cultures, attitudes and learning experiences, as this will provide a more meaningful learning opportunity for the students.

In contrast to NNES lecturers who follow the textbook step-by-step in their lesson preparation and teaching, NES lecturers using the student-centred approach do not rely completely on the textbook. For example, LD describes (see below) how he uses the textbook in his teaching. The lecturer considers the textbook as a suggestion- based guidebook that gives him an overview of what needs to be covered. He then selects the appropriate topics according to his knowledge, experience and student feedback. LD then tries to simplify the new concepts and ideas by using language that is understandable to the students. He also checks for comprehension throughout the lesson.

I use the textbook as a suggestion-based guidebook. I will look at what I need to cover. I mean, the first thing I’m going to do is I’m going to look at the things that we did for accreditation, which are: goals, learning outcomes, learning objectives of each course… So, I have a book in front of me. It’s a guidebook, and I’m the tour guide. The students are on the trip, and I’m going to take them on a journey. I will choose what I should teach and what I should not teach from my experience, knowledge and student feedback…So I take a complicated idea, and I break it down into concepts that they will be able to understand. And I check through, checking for understanding to make sure they do understand. If not, I simplify it even more…

NES Lecturer D, Interview, Tuesday DHth October BCDH