how to improve writing in english class in afghanistan

7/30/2019 How to Improve Writing in English Class in Afghanistan

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Ministry of Higher EducationJawzjon University

Faculty of Education

English Department


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Contents

History of Jawzjon higher Education2

Introduction...4

Challenges5

Solutions5

Practice Makes prefect6

Keep it going.7

Write before you talk8

Giving meaningful feedback...9

Using email..10

Clustering.11

Conclusion...13


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History of Jawzjon higher Education

Jawzjan higher education institute was founded in 1976 under the title of Teacher

Training Institute and began training teachers up to the 14 th grade. After a few years in

1976, Its name changed to Jawezjan Pedagogical Institute and in 2003 It started training

teachers up to the 16th grade or B.A. Now The Jawzjan Higher Education Institute is

located in a former military camp.

At the present time it has four faculties:

The faculty of science has four departments.

Mathematics

Physics

Biology

Chemistry.

The faculty of social science has also four departments.History

Geography

English literature

Uzbek literature.

Geology/Mining

Technology/ chemistry

Many years ago this institute started In-service courses to improve the knowledge of the

teachers who couldnt follow higher education for whatever reason. Nowadays In-service

course participants are also admitted through the exam by authorities of the Ministry of

Higher Education.


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English was taught as a subject for many years there, but after it started training up to

the 14th grade, the English department was also established. It is combined with the

Uzbek language department under the name of Language Literature of Uzbek and

English. Unfortunately, during the three decades of war, most of the expert teachers

were forced to leave the country all over Afghanistan. During that time most materials

were destroyed. For this reason there was no attention paid to this department. The

Ministry of Education and Higher Education also faced the same challenges; Teachers

try to prepare materials by using the limited resources which they can access.

Nowadays people and students have more focus on English. Fortunately, the Ministry of

Higher Education pays attention to the development of its teachers and lecturers

knowledge and academic skills with cooperation of different governmental and non-

governmental organizations of other countries.

The higher education project (HEP) is run through USAID and provides very effective

facilities to most universities all over Afghanistan through the Ministry of Higher

Education.

Many lecturers were sent to different countries to improve their teaching skills.

Fortunately we are among those who have been sent to Singapore to attend a six month

course of methodology. During this time we can learn different skills of teaching. We

have learned many useful approaches and methods which we can use in our teaching

and share them with our colleagues in Afghanistan.

And also In 2006 HEP donated 22/computers, 22/desks, 44 chairs, a web cam,

equipped the room with air conditioning, and a satellite Internet connection to the

institute.

The faculty members are ambitious for the future of their students and themselves.

Professional development is a very important activity in the life of the institute. Although

the institute has relatively few resources, the faculty members do amazing work with the

little they have. Ahmad Fazli has arranged the teaching schedules of the 56 instructors

to allow everyone an hour a day for computer classes. Jawzjon also has a strong HEP

computer trainer who uses practical teaching examples to inspire the instructors. These

instructors have progressed a lot in the least amount of time. HEP is installing five more

computers at this institute because of motivation and progress.


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Introduction

The English language is one of the major foreign languages that has been

taught for a long time as a subject in Afghanistan. The system which was

taught in the past was American.

At the present time English is taught from grade four at school. The

teachers who are teaching English in Afghan schools are not proficient in

the English language. For this reason they face many problems and

challenges in their teaching, especially in writing. This challenge is one of

the basic difficulties even in other institutes.

As an English teacher I will try my best to bring some changes according

to the requirement of the department and students from what ever I

learned here.

In this case, I have decided to write my assignment about writing methods,

How can we solve this problem? Writing in the classroom relates to the

course syllabus and its objective which helps us to teach the students what

they expect.

As we know students who live in todays literate world need to learn how to

write for very practical reasons. Newcomers to a country soon have to start

communicating through writing. They have to fill out job applications and

applications for health insurance. They have to take down telephone

messages. Sometimes they have to leave a note for the mailman or write a

thank you letter. Students all the time need to express themselves in

writing to do well in school.


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Writing is a valuable skill for many other reasons as well. In a typical

composition, the class teacher will set a topic and students are told to

write. Sometimes the teacher may help students or give them a vocabulary

list/ or a short discussion on content or the approach. Students may write a

first draft which is read and commented on by a classmate or a teacher.

Then students are required of re-write, using feedback by the teacher

reader. The write and re write method is providing a vocabulary list and

ideas for content. In both situations students find out what is wrong with

their composition after they have written it and considered it finished In

both situations the teachers role might be more accurately described as

mistake finding than as teaching writing.

Writing is a valuable skill for many other reasons as well. Lonely people

find a companion in their diaries. Writing supports spoken language, and

many people claim that writing helps them to think.

At the end of this introduction, it is necessary for students to learn how to

write a topic, a passage and so on.

Challenges:

Lack of proficient teachers.

Lack of materials.

Limited time.


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Solutions:

One way of viewing writing, called the cognitive view, is that when we write

something whether a passage or a letter, we are engaged in making one

decision after another. We decide what to begin a text with, whether to

include or leave out an idea that comes to mind. Successful writing is the

result of making the right decision most of the time.

And also we can use the process of writing skills that we learned in

Singapore (pre-Writing, during writing, and post writing) in a short time. It

doesnt require lots of materials or a long time.

And the other possibility is establishing some academic training for

teachers to increase their knowledge and improve their teaching skills. We

can share our ideas that we learned about writing in our first two months in

Singapore.

Practice makes perfect

Both reading and writing demand a lot of practice. Our students need to be

comfortable with writing. To reach that level of comfort, they have to write a

great deal. As a matter of fact, they have to write every day and in every

lesson and in our classes, we can, if we plan correctly, give them that

opportunity.

Writing is needed not only for its own value, but also for its ability to help

us in recycling and internalizing all four skills. Writing ought to be combined

with the other skills-listening, speaking, reading and thinking. Speaking

and reading about a topic helps our students to rethink and formulate their

ideas, get new ideas from other students and gather vocabulary that will be


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used in their writing. Conversely, getting some ideas down on paper is

helpful as a prelude to speaking.

These activities are the examples of how other skills are combined with

writing.

1.1- Keep it going

Aim writing, reading, interpreting, reacting, sharing opinions

Level Intermediate

Time 30-40minutes

Students should have an interesting piece of writing-Perhaps an article that

you have already read and discussed.

Procedure:

1- Students read the article either silently or in pairs- reading out loud one

paragraph each.

2- Students underline the section/s that in some way interested them- they

may have agreed with it, disagreed, like it, or perhaps it reminded them of

something.

3- On loose pieces of paper students write their names and their reaction to

the section/s they have underlined( five to seven minutes time writing time)

4- Students pass their paper together with the original text to another student.

5- Students read the paper they have received and add their own reaction to

the comments.


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6- Students pass the paper they have received to another student and the

process is repeated.

7- Students again pass the paper and the process is repeated.

8- Students pass the paper to the original owner who reads all the comments

written.

9- In small groups, students talk about the comments on their paper and

whether or not they agreed with the writers who added on to their papers.

10- Finally, volunteers comment on how they felt about the whole

process, did it add to their comprehension of the article? Did they gain any

new ideas?

1.2-Write before you talks

Aim writing, speaking

Level Intermediate- Advanced

Time 10-15minuts

Procedure

1- Ask a Whyquestion for suggestions, and invite students to think of

otherwhyquestions as follow:

Why have there always been wars?

Why are some animals disappearing?

Why are people having fewer children?

Why do people need to study foreign language?


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Why do so many people travel?

Why do some people love living in the cities? Etc

2- Allow students to write as much as they can on the topic of their

choice. They need not write in complete sentences.

3- Circulate, helping out with vocabulary.

4- In small groups students discuss their topic and add comments to

what they have written as they hear new ideas from classmates.

5- The discussion continues in plenary as each group makes

contributions.

6- For homework students can develop their ideas and later post their

completed compositions on the walls of the classroom, so that classmates

can read and comment on the work.

Giving meaningful feedback

It is really both difficult and important for students to write every day, then

how do we go about giving students meaningful feedback?

We know that when people talk, they hope that some one is listening. By

the same token, when people write, they want someone to read, what they

have written. They write to communicate with someone even when that

someone turns out to be an older and perhaps wiser self. How ever the

reader of student- produced text need not necessarily always be the

teacher. Students who have been properly trained make excellent peer

editors. Remember that writing will flow much more smoothly without the

threat of the red pen hanging over it. Writing can mean re-writing It


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doesnt always mean re-writing. As a matter of fact, some writing needs no

feedback at all!(see activity 1.1)

The computer has turned writing into a truly communicative activity, where

feedback is an essential part of communication. On email, On websites,

and in interactive classrooms all over the world, people are saying things

to one another in writing. People are automatically and effortlessly making

corrections in their reporters spelling and grammar. They do naturally, and

in the best of pedagogical style, by simply repeating a word using its

correct form (1.3).

1.3-Using email

Aim writing exchange of ideas and information

Level intermediate advance

Time fluid

Preparation If necessary, teach students how to use email; establish

contact with a teacher in another community that also has access to email.

Get your colleagues List of students and make sure that there are enough

students to find a partner for each of yours .Ask your colleague to provide

a picture and a brief description of each of her/his. If you are teaching in a

non- English speaking country, this can be a great way to correspond with

students from English speaking one or students who speak a language

different from the one of your country and thus use English as the common

language.


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Procedure

1) Assign your students an email partner. Try to match interests.

2) Students will correspond three times a week, and once a week

Send you a brief summary of the topics and/or ideas covered.

3) Occasionally, ask volunteers to report on the project.

4) If possible organize meetings between the groups.

1.4- Clustering

Aim writing gathering ideas, fluency practice

Level all levels

Time 30-40 min

Procedure

1. Choose a topic with which the entire class is familiar.2. Write the chosen topic in a circle in the middle of the board.

3. Draw branches from the topic out to subsidiary circle.

4. Volunteers provide sub-topics

5. Choose one of the sub- topics to branch out from and continue the

procedure as above.

6. In small groups, students choose another topic and do their own

clustering.

7. Spokespersons from the group report on the clustering.

8. The class chooses one of the topics to write about.


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9. Individually students write the first paragraph of their compositions.

10. In small groups, students read out their paragraphs and receivesuggestions on how to improve them and how to continue the

composition.

11. Students complete the first draft of the composition at home.

-

Travel

camera

suitcase

passport

different foods

buses

umbrella

clothes

sight seeing

guide book

address book

raincoat

airplanes

train

crowds

Travel


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Notes

Students may include all the topics they have clustered in their

composition, or only a few of these. One good way to organize acomposition is to have students finish the ideas in one cluster before theymove on to another one.

Aim writing, fluency practice

Level intermediate-advanced

Time fluid

Procedure

1- Divide the class into groups of five or six students each.

2- Assign different tasks to different groups. The tasks are: character;setting; problems; and solution.

3- Groups brainstorm on the tasks.

4- Four secretaries go to the board and stand nest to four groupheadings.

5- Volunteers from the groups contribute suggestion, as the secretaries

write them on the board.

6- In groups, students construct stories based on the information collecton the board.

7- The stories are read to the whole class.

Conclusion:

The purpose in this chapter is to improve some skills of writing.

This is a teaching strategy that can be used to extend and develop text written during

independent writing. It involves a teacher: guiding a small group of students in their

attempts to create individual written texts; responding to students' attempts; and

extending students' thinking during the process. It also may be used to encourage students

to revise and edit their writing


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how to improve writing in english class in afghanistan

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