Global Voices: a short story describing a teacher’s unique experience

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Aliya, Saudi Arabia.

Not many of us teach on an island at a distance of around 70 kms from the mainland – with travelling being an issue during thunderstorms or sandstorms. The commute to the island is by a free-of-cost ferry. The college is a modern building and the classrooms are well equipped with projectors and podiums, etc. It is run by an all-women team: the dean, the vice-dean, the faculty and the cleaning staff are all women. All the girls wear a black coloured robe called an abaya when they leave the college. The education provided is totally free of cost. In fact, the students get a yearly stipend from the government if they maintain good grades.

My students are undergraduates whose majors vary from nursing to business and English. They are very smart and interested in technology and videogames. The level of students in a typical class stretches from around A2 to B1 and a handful of them come close to B2. Most students are first-generation learners of English and are both intrinsically and extrinsically motivated due to the vision of the country that aims to achieve the goal of increased diversification economically.

My students enjoy speaking activities and normally avoid writing. They usually voice the differences they observe in Arabic and English grammar and language. Unfortunately, most of them have fossilised errors which I work on in our one-to-one feedback sessions. They find listening quite difficult to comprehend as they are not used to contractions, slang and assimilation and catenation techniques. They often complain about how the spellings in English do not match the pronunciation and question the role and need of the silent letters. They also love role plays in the class, but refrain from performing in the auditorium unless they are allowed to read from a paper. Some of them lack confidence when they speak in English as they fear they would be ridiculed. They show enthusiasm in learning and improving themselves and help and correct each other in their assignments or projects generously.

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