Internship
description
From the 3rd of July until
31th of August I taught English to young adults in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Part
of my job was to prepare the classes by creating new teaching material,
preferably digital material with a lot of multimedia features. Also, I took off
intake interviews to determine the students speaking and listening level and
was a test controller. The focus of my classes was mostly on pronunciation and
increasing the student’s vocabulary level. By focusing on
pronunciation and increasing vocabulary, the students become more accustomed to
the western (perhaps European English) pronunciation and increase their
listening skills. As welcome side benefit, students become less shy and more
eager to talk to western (or Caucasian) people.
My classes were scheduled from 5.30
until 7.30 pm. I taught classes with an average class size of twenty
students. The classes were taught in
cooperation with Sjuul Coenen and most of the time a Cambodian teacher. In
total I cooperated with four different Cambodian teachers and taught four
different classes.
Internship
experience
Before
my first day of real teaching, which occurred on July .., I was extremely
nervous. I had never been one for public speaking, and so didn’t know how I
would do positioned at the front of the classroom for the whole period. But, as
soon as I began my first class, it became clear to me just how nervous my
students were about speaking English. When I realized this, that they were more
nervous than I was, I felt more at ease and my apprehension was replaced with a
desire to see become better and less shy.
From that first day on, each class period was
a test of my creative skills and ability to work around language barriers.
Although sometimes, the Cambodian teacher had to jump in to translate whole
sentences I put on the blackboard. I had
no prior information about my students, except that I was teaching the “young
adults”. In the first week I asked every student in every class I taught to
introduce his or herself. “Young adults” apparently means the age of ten up to
twenty-three. In the last two weeks we even had a student who was at least
thirty-five years old. However, this did
nothing to help me assess their English abilities or give me any foreknowledge
of what to expect. When I first addressed my students, I was met with a roomful
of blank looks. I realized that I couldn’t speak as easily and quickly as I
would with a native English speaker. I also employed more body language than I
normally would in everyday conversation. The combination of these adjustments
made for smoother communication and also caused me to reevaluate my own speech
patterns.
The
classes were meant to be conversational with only a little emphasis on writing,
in order to build the students’ listening comprehension and fluency. Sjuul Coenen, the student with whom I
taught together, received three books: Takeaway one, two and three. He also
received a one week schedule wherein it said which page (only one or 2 pages) we
had to teach to which class. After the first week, it was up to us to create
lesson content and choose appropriate
lesson material. As long as we incorporated the general idea of what they were
learning in the textbook. We decided to choose themes for every week and build
lessons around those themes. Examples of themes we used are: the zoo, packing
for holiday, sports, etc. For the classes that we had to teach about Time for
example, we combined conversations about the zoo with different times and made
games wherein they had to guess the time. The lack of a real schedule made the
class more informal than what I was accustomed to in the Netherlands. But, on
the other hand, it helped to strengthen my organizational and creativity skills
as well.
The
first question that popped up in my head when preparing classes was: “how can I entertain them for hour?”. I thought back to the numerous
classes I had attended during my schooling, and had a sudden appreciation for
the preparation those teachers put into their own lessons. Students with
similar internship experiences had advised me to just be creative and have fun
with my students. Using this advice, I searched web sites for interesting
activities and lesson ideas. After the first few weeks, however, I resorted to
the Internet less and less, as I was able to find inspiration within my
students and myself. By assessing my students’ weaknesses, I was able to plan
my lessons around improving them.
Specifically,
I noticed that my students had trouble using the tenses correctly. To address
this issue, I did several activities with them. During another class, one
student asked me to explain the differences between could, should and would.
This was one of the most difficult concepts for them to grasp. But, fortunately
for me, such difficulties gave me a focus for my lesson plans. In another
class, I noticed that the large majority of the students didn’t pronounce the s
to make the plural of words. I addressed this issue by making “the snake game”
out of it. When you use the s on the correct moment you are still in the game,
when you do not use it at the right moment you are out. The last person in the
game wins. Sometimes, even the Cambodian teacher asked me what certain words
meant. By translating these words into Khmer I picked up some Khmer vocabulary
along the way. My students really appreciated it when I addressed them by their
Khmer names and when I tried to use Khmer words sometimes.
This
internship experience
brought with it many minor obstacles. My initial lack of confidence and dislike
for public speaking was the first hurdle. Because of these two things, I was
proud of how well I adapted to the role of being a teacher. By expressing
outward self-assurance and filling the room with creative energy, I was able to
successfully lead my classes. As a student, I have always enjoyed a passionate,
active teacher and so wished to bring that to the classroom.
Another obstacle, due to my
inability to speak Khmer, was the constant language barrier that accompanied
each class. If my students lacked the English vocabulary to understand
something, I couldn’t translate the word into their own language. The existence
of this difficulty forced me to supplement my speaking with hand gestures and
body language. As a result, I implemented body language to a degree never reached when speaking
with a fluent English speaker. When this did not help, I asked the Cambodian
teacher to join in.
As with any experience, the internship had
both positives and negatives. The main downside was the lack of guidelines for
teaching material. Since I had no prior experience with teaching, I had little
idea of what to expect. Furthermore, without any schedule, I sometimes doubted
myself and wondered what I might have been overlooking. Luckily, the use of a
textbook in class gave me some foundation to build upon. On the other hand, I
generally thrived in the freedom with which I could construct my classes and
enjoyed the unique responsibility. Another point that often annoyed me was the
transport arranged by the school. We were supposed to be picked up at 17.00
everyday but sometimes, there was no tuktuk-driver at all and sometimes he was
just late half an hour late. I had the same problem on the way back.
I
also liked that the internship was a great opportunity for me to improve my
communication abilities and tactics. I was also able to gather a better
understanding and appreciation for intercultural communication. Interacting
with my students and Cambodian Teacher taught me about the Cambodian culture as
well as my own, since I was able to look at my cultural practices from the
viewpoint of my students. For example, I noticed a lot of non verbal
communication: Cambodians never say no, they will just evade the question or
give a vague answer.
My
presence in the form of public speaking has grown more confident and capable.
The
most enjoyable part of this experience, however, was the fulfillment of it. It
was
satisfying
to not only see my students make progress, but to know that I had been a large
part of the source of their growth. Learning others to communicate in English is
the most worthwhile thing I have done so far with my English knowledge. I had
the idea that it will greatly benefit them in the future to get the career they
want.
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