English Department Workshop

[ymislam]

Dear Members of the English Department,

Our first workshop on "Finding ways to help our students develop English Language Skills" is tomorrow, June 22nd from 3pm to 6pm.

This is a participatory workshop where we will use our collective experiences to look at how the English Language Skills of students attending ENG113 can be improved and develop an implementation plan for Fall 2009.

Looking forward to seeing all of you listed below. Pls use this forum to record your thoughts as the workshop progresses and feedback.

Dr. Binoy Barman
Prof. Dr. Shusil Kumar Das
Ms. Irina Ishrat
Ms. Umme Kulsum
Md. Mustafizur Rahman
Ms. Asma Alam
Ms. Nahid Kaiser
Ms. Shamsi Ara Huda
Ms. Nusrat Jahan
Ms. Lina Ferdous
Kh. Atikur Rahman
Ms. Fatema Begum
Ms. Sushmita Rani

As you know the workshop will be in 306 and the workshop dates are:

June 22nd, 29th, July 6th and 13th.

As we would need our full concentration, it would be great if all mobile phones are on silent. Pls use the tea-break at 4:30pm to make the calls you need.

Thanks.

-Yousuf.

[Kh Atikur Rahman]

Dear all,
Day 1 of the workshop--
We-
       Md Mostafizur Rahman Sameen
       Ms Nahid Kaiser
       Kh Atikur Rahman
fell under group-3 bearing the title"Student activities".
In our title we jot down the following ideas:
1.Students MUST speak in English.
2.Student-Teacher communication MUST be in English
3.Student-Student communication MUST be in English
4.Frequent Extracurricular activities should be held.the medium of communication and interaction MUST be in English
5.Everyday 30 minutes English reading & listening.
On the whole, we must ensure and encourage Students' exposure to English.

Kh Atikur Rahman

[md]

Good, keep it up.

[ymislam]

Dear Atik,

Thank you for your post!

Could you pls help the other two groups to upload their presentations also could you pls elaborate a little on your bullets. If the other members of your group could also elaborate, i.e. explain the bullets it would be helpful.

Thanks.

-Yousuf

[Kh Atikur Rahman]

Dear all,
Day 1 of the workshop--
We-
       Md Mostafizur Rahman Sameen
       Ms Nahid Kaiser
       Kh Atikur Rahman
fell under group-3 bearing the title"Student activities".

In our title we jot down the following ideas:
1.Students MUST speak in English.
2.Student-Teacher communication MUST be in English
3.Student-Student communication MUST be in English
4.Frequent Extracurricular activities should be held.the medium of communication and interaction MUST be in English
5.Everyday 30 minutes English reading & listening.

By point 1,2,3,4 we mean students' only means of communication in the campus MUST be English.We know it is difficult but they have to make it.As teachers we should give them motivation.We must inform them It does not matter even if they make silly mistakes, they should not worry about that. Rather they should carry on their conversation anyway.They should be motivated saying eg-"Don't worry if people laugh at u when u make mistake.U can certainly learn through mistake."

Point 5  refers to students' getting enough Input. According to Great linguist Krashen--Output in case of language learning is possible only when enough Input is ensured. Sufficient Input helps learners immensely in having Output.

On the whole, we must ensure and encourage Students' exposure to English.

Kh Atikur Rahman

[shibli]

When we are learning English, it is important to use and practice our English as often as possible.
All we need to do is
                                1. Practice
                                2. Practice
                                3. Practice

Let us consider the 4 skills that we need to use a language well.
            1. Listening
            2. Speaking
            3. Reading
            4. Writing

The more we listen, speak, read and write in English;
The more we will be able to be comfortable in using this language.

Listening: We don’t need to try too hard to understand everything.
We just have to listen and we will soon understand.

There are cassettes and CDs available in the market.
We can listen to BBC, CNN and Voice of America.
On television, we have a big choice of programs: films, chat shows, documentaries, news.

Speaking: Speaking is one thing that we cannot do alone.
So we should practice as much as possible where there are people to speak to.

Nobody will create English speaking environment for us unless we do it for ourselves.
We should choose a partner or a friend with who we can practice speaking English everyday.

Reading: We can make a habit of reading English newspapers(like The Daily Star) and Magazines (like The Readers’ Digest) daily.
We need to read the right level of English. If it is too easy, we will make no progress. If it is too difficult, we may become discouraged.
Also, we can become a member of the library of the British Council.
There are short stories and classic texts in english.com English Reading with notes to help us.

Writing: The medium of instruction in our university is English.
All teachers of each course are giving a lot of assignments.
So there are lots of scope of developing written skills for students.
In effect, we can keep a diary and write at least one page everyday and students must do so and get it checked by respective teachers.

This is how we can improve our English.

[ymislam]

Dear Shibli,

Your suggestions are very valuable. According to Krashen, without extensive reading and listening, speaking and writing cannot be developed.

So we are looking for ways in which our students can listen and read more so that they can speak and write better.

We are looking for implementation ideas across the university.

Would be delighted to hear your views.

-Yousuf

[nusrat-diu]

Hello everybody!

This is Nusrat Jahan, Lecturer, Dept. of English, DIU. With all other faculty members, I attended the workshop on "Finding ways to help our students develop English Language Skills" on June 22 from 3pm to 6pm. It's always enjoyable attending such workshops. We were talking and sharing our classroom experiences and thus we were actually trying to find out some ways to give our best to the students. Our main concentration was the students of Level 1 term 1.   

We were divided into three groups and I was in Group 1. In this group, Ms. Fatema Begum and Ms. Shamsi Ara Huda were also with me. We, the trio, proposed the following points to be stressed for classroom management:

1. Knowing individual students,
2. Motivating them towards English,
3. Identifying the weaker students and arranging their seats,
4. Encourage them to participate in conversation,
5. Maintaining noise-free teaching environment with interesting teaching materials,
6. Introducing language inputs ( news paper, poster, story books, e-books, websites etc.)
7. Making students respond,
8. Introducing pre-reading activities,
9. Extended activities must be encouraged ( Home work, assignment etc.),
10. Presentation should be given importance,
11. At the end of the class, let them to sum up the topics covered,
12.Using technology in the classroom.

We focused on classroom management that can ensure a better learning environment and we think better environment in classroom can break the ice between new students and teachers and It will certainly create an opportunity for the students to improve their communication and expression skills. 

Nusrat Jahan
Lecturer,
Dept. of English

[ymislam]

Nusrat,

Thank you for posting your group's presentation. It would be great if you could elaborate, i.e. explain each point in a bit more detail.

Also, can you bring your posters to the workshop tomorrow. Thanks.

-Yousuf

[nusrat-diu]

Dear Sir,

U r welcome!

And thank u for your suggestion.

We'd started our points from the first class of language course. That's why we included knowing every students. The second task would be motivating them towards English through which we'd be able to identify some shy and comparatively weaker students in class. We should rearrange their seats i.e. the first row will be reserved for them. In question-answering session teacher may ask for opinion from them so that they can understand how much important  they are to their teachers and that feelings can encourage them to participate in conversation. Next, we said that interesting teaching materials should be introduced that at the one hand will meet students' needs and on the other hand help the teachers to make the environment cool and calm.  After that we stressed on introducing language inputs ( news paper, poster, story books, e-books, websites etc.) that will make students respond. We believe, pre-reading activities are the way that can also grow students interest. As we generally meet twice a week with our students, we need to focus on extended activities ( Home work, assignment etc.). To improve students' presentation capabilities, more presentations can be introduced in a course. At the last part of the class, students will be asked for summing up the topics covered and finally we said that teachers should use technology in classroom to make the class more effective.
 
nusrat

[nusrat-diu]

Dear sir,

I enjoyed yesterday's session that was our second session of the workshop. The stress-reducing part was very useful for us 'coz we, the English teachers, need to keep patience all the time and keeping patience may generate stress. Thanks a lot for your tips!

nusrat

[raju]

Dear Sir,

Can you please send me stress-reducing tips?

Regards,

raju

[shibli]

Dear sir
I do agree with Krashen that without extensive reading & listening, speaking and writing cannot be developed. But the thing is very often an intructor finds it difficult to improve the students' reading skills. so, i think an instuctor of English should keep on motivating his/her learners all the time. Most of the researchers say learners hardly make good process if they are given intensive-reading. Real process takes place when they are motivated to read extensively and if they read for pleasure. So i think students should be encouraged to do self-study, which has paramount importance. Alongside, they should be incited to read their text books and reference books thoroughly. Nothing can help them more than self-study, i suppose.

Regards    

[ymislam]

Dear Participants of the English Department Workshop,

This post is made on behalf of Asma Alam,
 

Steps for Ensuring English speaking environment in the Campus:


   1. Speaking English compulsory for Counselors:  At the very beginning of the admission process, if the students get the impression that an English speaking environment is prevailing here that will be a positive and effective step.
   2. Admission Test: The system of Admission test should be introduced and it must have a positive psychological effect on the students.
   3. Attitude towards English Department: It is essential for the inspiration of the teachers of English Department.
   4. Involve other teachers of other departments to speak English.
   5. Campus language should be English.
   6. Any kind of presentation on any topic must be in English.
   7. For the proper practice of speaking English: Teacher- student, Teacher-teacher, student-student conversation should be in English.
   8. All official programs (especially orientation program) should be in English.
   9. Self access centre should be introduced: In students’ common room TV set can be set and there various interesting and instructive programs (such as: Discovery channel, BBC TV, National Geographic channel) can be shown to the students.

This will indirectly contribute to enhance students’ speaking capability.


Steps to be taken to involve all (Teachers, students & even the authority):

 

  1. Arranging Teacher-Student mock debate in English. This will provide pleasure to all,

     Create a harmonious relationship among the teachers and the students and will help   

     students to speak English fluently.

 

 2. Arrangement of various English programs (staging English drama, poetry recitation,

    creative writing competition) in semester break.

 

  3. To encourage students about growing reading habit- Reading session from

    12:45-1:00 everyday in the varsity.

 

  4. Classes should be well equipped with multi-media and internet facilities.

 

  5. The effort of the teachers should be acknowledged by the authority. This

    appreciation can inspire others also.

Over to the others for comments.

-Asma

[ymislam]

Dear All,

The workshop dates have been shifted to:

Monday July 13th, July 20th and July 27th.

As you all know, the VC is looking forward to implementation of the results of the workshop. We will invite him to the final presentation of our implementation plans.

If you all agree, we can invite VC on July 27th, 4pm to see the final implementation plan. He can give his comments and support for the entire university.

Pls post the THREE action plans we decided to implement.

-Yousuf.
-Yousuf