2 Find out how much English your students know
Your students might already know more English than you think they do. In Case Study 1 a teacher finds out what his students know.
Case Study 1: Mr Nagaraju learns what his students know about English
Mr Nagaraju is a teacher of English in Class I–III in a tribal school in Orissa. He speaks Oriya and Hindi, but only has a little knowledge of the local language, Savara.
The students I teach are from a very poor background and many come from environments that are not ‘print-rich’. If I taught in the city, I would expect that students might hear English spoken at home or that their parents might read English newspapers. I didn’t think that the students I taught in the village would be exposed to much English in their local environment. I was wrong!
One day I asked the students about the games that they like to play. Not surprisingly, all of them responded with ‘Cricket!’ What surprised me was that the students knew a number of cricket-related English words. So I started writing these words on the board. After some time, the list got so long that I started to use a notebook to keep track of all the words they knew. Within a few days, this list grew from words and phrases about cricket to other sports as well.
By the end of that week, I had made a list of more than 100 English words and phrases that the students already knew: words used in the market, words for professions and words relating to transport and vehicles – the latter because their parents or other family members were often truck drivers, guards and transport workers. They knew words like ‘Jeep’, ‘tyre’, ‘brake’ and ‘lights’, and words relating to the maintenance of vehicles and any associated tools: ‘wash’, ‘polish’, ‘water’, ‘air’, ‘petrol’, ‘nut’, ‘bolt’ and ‘pana’. I didn’t know the last word. Then from the students’ gestures and description, I realised that this was their word for ‘spanner’. I then introduced them to the equivalent English word.
Soon I had many lists. I started to think of ways that I could use them with students to help their learning. First I went through the lists, looking for words that also appeared in their lessons. I started to think more and more about how I could remind the students of what they already knew when teaching the lessons from the textbook.
Pause for thought Mr Nagaraju started to compile a list on the board of words that students knew. But this list grew and grew. Can you think of ways in which you could compile a list of English vocabulary that students are familiar with from their communities? How could you draw on this list to consolidate students’ learning?
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Activity 3: Find out what English words and phrases your students are familiar with
Have you noticed that your students are already familiar with some English words and phrases? Look at Table 1 and think about what words or phrases you use to speak about one or more of the topics in the left-hand column.
Topic | Examples of English words or phrases |
---|---|
Cricket or other games | Bat, ball, game, out, team, point, score, stadium, field |
Jobs that people have | Police, teacher, guard, driver, doctor, nurse, engineer |
Vehicles we use, and related | Bus, car, scooter, train, cycle, petrol |
Houses and the things in them | Gate, door, bed, TV, computer, kitchen, phone, bulb, light, current |
Tools we use | Hammer, tape, pencil, rubber |
What we eat and drink | Cool drink, juice, bread, biscuit |
Forms of entertainment | Film, actor, dance, music, singer |
Computers, technology and mobile phones | Computers, text message, mobile phones |
Medicine | Prescriptions, cough syrup, vitamin, tonic |
Ask your students to list the words and phrases that they know, in any language, that are related to these topics. Are some of these words and phrases from English?
Compare your students’ contributions with the examples in the right-hand column of Table 1. Using a copy of Table 1, tick a word that the students say – even if they say it in a different way, as in ‘pana’/‘spanner’ in Case Study 1. Did they mention any other English words?
To support this kind of activity, you might find it interesting to talk to teachers of particular subjects within your school. Sports teachers often use English words and phrases such as ‘Run!’ or ‘Stand in a line!’ Similarly, science teachers often refer to equipment using their English name (e.g. ‘microscope’), and a teacher who talks about health and hygiene may mention words like ‘antiseptic’ and ‘bandage’. In this way, students learn English and another subject at the same time.
Based on the English word list you and your students create, you can make a word wall. Write out six to eight words in big letters and display them in the classroom. Looking at the words frequently will help all students become familiar with them. You can change or update the list once a week.
1 What is everyday English?