Half time review at the LGTC – when students become teachers and teachers become students
Sabaidee!
Perhaps you have seen our names on the Team VI page already: We are Anna Hajek and Tasja Reule, and together we are responsible for teaching different levels of English to different learner groups at the Lao-German Technical College (LGTC). Besides teaching, we take care of the Lending Library and the new Didactics Room. We have lived and worked in Vientiane for about five weeks now… and we cannot imagine departing in less than two weeks!
It feels like yesterday, when eight German students met up at Frankfurt Airport, waiting for their plane to depart. Of course we had met before in our preparatory Global English course of the University of Education in Karlsruhe in the summer of 2017, and we spent quite a bit of time together over the winter preparing our journey, too – but if we review this day from today’s vantage point of friendship, we can say that we know each other a lot better now and are very close today. On 17 February 2018, for us new volunteers “The Laos Experience” was only about to begin.
New beginnings
After a long flight, many interesting conversations, and some hours of sweet dreams in Bangkok Airport, we finally landed in Vientiane. We were heartily welcomed by Lea Herrmann (a member of Team V), Akina Yadsadahuk and the driver, the latter two from the LGTC. After a short but intensive farewell, we, the Lao-German Technical College team and the other group, which was headed for work at the Ban Phang Heng primary school, Bang Phang Heng secondary school and the Sikeud primary school, had to separate our ways to drive to our new homes.
After a short exploration of our bungalow near the College, we could not sit still for another second. We wanted to explore our new environment! Everything was strange and new and exciting. Anna had already been to an Asian country, but for Tasja it was the very first time. We were very surprised by the stark contrasts in the city: Some houses were built out of corrugated metal and wood, and just some meters away one could see grand buildings. On each corner, there was a shop, which looked to us like the owner was sitting on the front porch of his or her appartment, which also happened to be a little corner shop. We were amazed by the way the houses were being built: We could see a lot of construction sites which only used wood and/or bamboo. The scaffolding for a new construction in some cases seemed to be a combination of a tree trunk and two horizontal logs. The power supply lines are hung up very low and sometimes we could spot some bare wires, hanging down to the pavement. People with two huge baskets suspended by a long bar over their shoulder were walking past us. There were, and still are, so many things to explore. This was all very thrilling for us.
Exploring Vientiane
Scaffold
Construction site
We found a map in the bungalow, left by our predecessors, who had kindly marked different relevant locations such as eateries, restaurants, shops, and ATMs. This is how we tried to find the nearest ATM to begin with. When we did find it, we realised that this ATM was no longer in use – perhaps a foreshadowing of yet another facet of “The Lao Experience”?
Since we were incredibly hungry from our journey and had no “kip” ກີບ (official currency “LAK”: Lao Kip) in our purses, this excursion turned out to be more difficult than it seemed at first. After a big detour to find another ATM, which luckily worked, we stopped at “Romantic City”, a lovely restaurant which offers a large selection of Lao dishes, along with some foreign ones. In the evening there is some live Thai pop music you can listen to. That night, we slept like a log.
First contact
Early on the first morning, at 8 a.m., we were welcomed on campus by Ms Moukdala Keomixaj. She showed us around, gave us short explanations about each of the five different “Sections” (departments), and introduced us to several teachers we met on campus. The teachers were all very accommodating, but some were also a little bit reluctant, though all were very curious to meet the new team.
The students seemed a little bit shy at first. When Johannes Zeck introduced us to the ones working in the Agro-Machinery Section and assigned them to our evening classes – for the BHS-stipendiaries – which were new for them too, each of us earned loud applause and cheering. They seemed very happy about their newly-to-be-installed lessons. This was very revealing and motivating for us, since we did not expect such a reaction, especially not during our very first days. We were rather prepared for a more cautious behaviour.
In the next few days, we arranged our timetables, taught our first lessons, got to know some of the teachers and students and tried to get orientation on campus.
After an exciting first week and lots of new impressions, we had everything sorted for ourselves. We had lots of heart-warming welcomes and were even asked to join a traditional wedding.
Finally we were ready to start our daily school routine.
BHS-evening class
Dominoes for learning the simple past
Our first Lao wedding
New books for the “Lending Library”
Besides organizing, re-organizing, and then learning to master our school days with many different classes, the two of us redecorated the bungalow and expanded the Lending Library as well as the Didactics Room: We checked the inventory, added the new books, organized regular opening hours and are about to organize a new librarian.
We made this place a home. By now, we feel incredibly comfortable and found ourselves a daily routine.
One of the first things we did was to start a new “Easy Readers” section in the Lending Library from the supply we all brought in our suitcases. Easy Readers are simplified and shortened novels. They had been generously donated to the AfC foundation by Ms Angela Bauer-Seekings (Pearson Deutschland GmbH), who had visited the project before, to help our tandem-teachers develop their reading skills. We first asked them to try to read one on their own at home, but – as Prof. Martin had already hinted in her feedback to our first weekly reports – we soon realised ourselves that this task was too difficult for the Beginner and Elementary classes. This is why we decided to read a novel together in the two Beginner courses and the one Elementary course.
The Technical English class, of course, consists of much more advanced learners, i.e. the English teachers. For this group the focus of our tandem-lessons needed to be on the use and implementation of completely new teaching material, so there was no time for anything else, but they, too, were very excited about the new opportunity and a little bit of a challenge to read a book for pleasure.
Discovering the world of Robinson Crusoe
Easy Reader “Walkabout” in Elementary class
Preparing a new unit in the coursebook “Technical English””
In our upcoming workshop we will show the English teachers and all others who are interested how to work with the Technical English coursebook/workbook/audio-material now. Tackling such a comprehensive new programme is a challenge in any Lao teaching scenario, so assistance is necessary and very welcome.
Ms Akina Yatsadahak’s lesson with a poster
Mr Thavone Sunavong’s newly-prepared flashcards
Obstacles – “The Laos Experience”
Of course, we had some problems which called for a solution, and some obstacles to overcome, too, like every new team (“The Laos Experience”). First of all, our bicycles needed repairing because of a dysfunctional break and several flat tyres. Therefore, we brought them to the Automotive-Section of the LGTC. With the help of the students, our first problem was fixed quickly, and we were finally able to cover longer distances to explore our environment further.
We also had to find solutions for different organizational problems that came up during our school day.
In the first week, we were only able to start teaching the teachers, but not our students, because the students did not know about the start of classes with the new team. After we assigned them to our different learner groups with the help of Johannes Zeck, they attended numerously. When we had finally sorted everyone and the students knew in which course they were assigned, we sometimes needed to search for another classroom to teach in. The ones assigned to us were locked now and then, so we needed to change rooms spontaneously. After two weeks, we received a key for some of our new classrooms. As for the others, we found some spare rooms that were open and free during the time slots we needed, so we could finally start all our lessons on time. But not only were the rooms occasionally locked, but also sometimes occupied. Luckily, most of the teachers are always very easily reachable via phone, so we were able to continue class without further delays. Since then, we understand a little better why Lao teachers pick up calls on their mobiles during lessons.
Another difficulty turned out to be the combination of our special tasks and the school day. Since we brought some new books – not only the Easy Readers – for the Lending Library, we needed to reorganize the shelves so that every Section would have enough room for all their books. We wrote a “How to” for lending the books and introduced new “Lending Sheets” for the new teaching material in the Didactics Room. Since we wanted to help the teachers as much as possible, we also made sure there were free shelves in the Didactics Room to be able to also store all the newly prepared material there. Now, everyone in the English department has access to different flashcards and illustrative material, ordered by unit. It is rewarding to see the shelves in use now, and we hope they will continue to be used also after we leave.
Free time and weekend adventures
In the meantime, we had the opportunity to see many new places and learn lots of new things about the Lao culture. For our weekends, we decided on visiting as many places as possible. Therefore, we travel whenever we can and visited places like “Buddha Park” near Vientiane, Luang Prabang and even some islands in Thailand, where we left our footprints.
Family trip to “Buddha Park”, with Prof. Martin and Ms Julia Friedl (our Foreign Affairs Officer in Karlsruhe)
Weekend in Luang Prabang
Exploring Thai islands with the “Sikeud girls”
On weekdays, we spontaneously meet with our tandem-teachers, invite them to our bungalow or cycle into town to grab something to eat. Sometimes, when we are lucky we can even welcome one of the Sikeud volunteers to our place!
Fabian visits from Sikeud
In the name of a happy Team VI, we can say that we are very thankful for this internship and for the opportunity of meeting such lovely and heart-warming people!
Happy!
Text by T. Reule & A. Hajek
Photos by A. Hajek, T. Reule, J. Grüttner, S. Röhm & S. Insarn
Mathematics – the latest addition to the project
The project “Teaching English in Laos” has come a long way.
I remember when Prof. Martin told us about her first visit to Laos during my first semester in the winter of 2015/16 in her lecture on foreign-language teaching methodology. She had just started the pilot-project in Laos with Team I and shared impressions and even some curious food with us. Ever since, Laos and the project got stuck in my head. I then got more first-hand information when started to work for her as a tutor in the following semester. Ever since I became more and more involved and attached to the project and the ideas behind it.
It first started out with a visit of AfC to the PH Karlsruhe and then five graduates who were chosen to be part of the first team. The “teach-the-teacher” project expanded quickly. Right now, we are in Team VI, and a lot has happened.
Additionally to supporting the English teachers, the project leaders were asked to include the science teachers in the programme in 2016. Therefore, a new plan was devised, which AfC instantly agreed to sponsor as well. Team IV therefore had the new task of introducing the Science teachers to the project. In the academic year of 20176/17, supporting the English teachers of the Lao-German Technical College was a new challenging task added to the programme.
Now, in Team VI, I was asked to take on the next new task, i.e. working with the mathematics teachers to help develop their lessons, because there was a need and because my other main subject next to English is mathematics. Right now, I am working with the mathematics colleagues Ms Toukham (grade 1), Ms Chanpen (grade 4), Mr Noy (grade 2) as well as the Computer Science teacher Ms Nalee (grade 2). Additionally to the tandem and observation lessons each of them has with me, they now also get English lessons from my co-volunteer Julia.
Beginnings
In the beginning, it was quite difficult to sit and observe a Lao maths lesson without understanding a word of what was said. I could now fully understand what Veronica and Rebecca (Team IV and V) told me about their start with trying to help the science teachers.
Lao mathematics book
After the first week, though, I felt more comfortable and optimistic. Surprised and fascinated by how much I was able to understand only by observing and seeing what happened in the classroom, I gave each teacher individual feedback and examples to show my ideas about how their lessons might develop. (We communicate in English, but when we cannot understand each other we use body language or modern technology to help out.) As the universal language in any maths classroom is mathematics, I could grasp the topic without speaking the Lao language or being able to talk to the pupils.
My feedback is based on what I see during my hospitations and job-shadowing, and the upcoming lessons are based on the book that is used in class. The Lao mathematics books are set by the Ministry of Education and written by the RIES (Reseach Institution of Educational Sciences), under the auspices of the Ministry. These books are mandatory and the only ones to be used at school. Looking at the examples in those books I was positively impressed by how much content and how many nice examples they contain.
A good book is important. How it is used in the lesson, however, is the crucial requirement for good mathematical education. If too much time of a lesson is misspent by pupils copying content either from the book or the board into their exercise book without understanding what they are doing, then the best book will not produce the desired results.
Mathematics lesson
One of the first recommendations I gave to my tandem-teachers was therefore always to consider the question “why?” when they prepare a lesson. In my opinion the teachers’ job is to show the pupils why something is the way it is. This question can be examined by looking at the school book. Theoretically, a pupil has all content in his/her possession with said book. Theoretically, it would be possible to work through it alone and absorb all the knowledge. But what if there are questions or something is not clear by just reading it?
This is when the teacher becomes indispensable. The role of the educator is to guide the pupils and provide them with the essential tools to understand new content. The magic of mathematics unfolds itself in using known facts to prove new ideas. Take a look at geometry for instance. First the pupils learn the basics about a general triangle, and then they can use this knowledge to prove more facts. One example: The pupils learn how to use a compass to find the absolute middle of a line. Once they know how to do this, they can find all of them in all triangle sides. The point where those three lines meet has the same distance to all corners of the triangle and is therefore the middle of the outer circle triangle. In order to wake the pupils’ interest and tickle their inquisitive minds, teachers should make use such spiral teaching techniques, i.e. building, deepening, and then building up on knowledge. This way, mathematics can be a great joy for both pupils and teachers.
This is what I wanted to achieve with my work here: Helping my tandem-teachers to get away from the habit of only referring to the book and the same basic lesson structure of
– teacher writes content from the book on the board while pupils read in the book
– teacher explains the content
– pupils copy the content
I therefore decided to work on this:
– interaction between teacher and pupils (classroom management – rules, how to engage with pupils, how to activate pupils)
– lesson preparation
Interaction between teacher and pupils
During observation time I found that there is not much interaction happening between teacher and pupils. The teacher reads and explains what is written on the board and the pupils answer or repeat, usually loudly in chorus. This goes on for 50 or 90 minutes.
In Germany, teachers complain about full classes with 25 to 30 pupils – here, each class has about 50 pupils. This is very different and also difficult to handle. I usually sit in the back while observing a lesson or sometimes walk through the rows to get a better idea of what the pupils are doing. Some pupils pay attention to the lesson and the teacher – the majority, however, is either talking to their neighbors, sleeping, or doing work for other subjects. In my opinion this happens for two reasons: Firstly, there is a lack of classroom management, and secondly, lessons are teacher-centered and therefore not very interesting for pupils to follow, especially as there is also not much variety between the different subjects.
When I think back to my education in mathematics, a large part of a lesson consisted of a direct teacher-pupil conversation, especially the question: “Why is it like this?” – either initiated by the teacher or a pupil. That was what awoke my love of mathematics and my enthusiasm for it. This is what I want to teach my pupils.
Surprisingly for us Westerners, typical curiosity in children to connect up with is not a big part of the teaching culture in Laos. The pupils are not encouraged and therefore not used to thinking for themselves – let alone critically – about content, but only told to absorb it.
In order to improve the interaction and create a more productive learning scenario during a lesson, I would like to help the teachers to engage in conversation with their pupils. Instead of writing on the board until it is full and then have the pupils copy that content, I advised to do only one example at a time, explain it, answer questions and then give the pupils time to copy it. This way the new content can be thought about and dealt with in a more structured and sizeable way.
I would like to tell you about one noteworthy example that one of my tandem-teachers came up with to improve her lessons regarding classroom management. She asked me what she could do about a pupil who told her that he just does not understand mathematics and has a hard time of it in her lessons. I advised her to get general feedback from the whole class by handing out little pieces of paper to them. This way, the feedback is anonymous and nobody is in danger of losing face – and this is one of the most important values in Laos, which makes it more or less impossible to have an “open and honest conversation” about “problems” – as we Westerners would approach this.
The result was that the pupils did not understand the content because – they wrote – that they talked to each other instead and were distracted.
As a solution in the next lesson, my tandem-teacher handed out the little papers again and told the pupils that if they felt like talking to each other again, they should write the topic down on the paper and save it for recess. The pupils were much quieter in that lesson. I am very proud of my tandem-teacher to have come up with such a great idea and to have followed it up!
About this project, Ms Toukmam says: “The first of all I would like to say thank very much for this project to make other teacher develop us. Last team they’re made me got more knowledge to know the English with my object [and now] the volunteer teacher they make material with me they help me everything with lesson.”
With Mr Noy, one of my other tandem-teachers, we are going to try out flashcards to enforce different rules, as “Be quiet” and “Listen”. With 50 pupils in a room it is very demanding for a teacher’s voice to talk to them loud enough for a period of 90 minutes.1 Other flashcards can also be used to test the pupils’ knowledge and memory skills.
Flashcards
Especially in grades one and two I find it necessary to do a little “wake-up call” in the middle of the lesson to get their attention back. 90 minutes is a long time for anyone to just sit, listen and write, for pupils anywhere in the world. Apart from that, it is hot in Laos. In order to show to the teachers what I mean, I did one or two “waking-up activities” in a maths lesson. Therefore we decided that the teacher would give me a sign during the lesson when (s)he thinks it is time for it and I would do the activity with the pupils. I started a little collection with such activities for the secondary school that I handed out to the teachers.
Here is a little list and sample video of a wake-up call:
- ” […]
- Mexican Wave: Teacher starts a Mexican wave from somewhere in the classroom
- Color touch: Say a color and a body part; pupils have to find a thing in the classroom in that color and touch it with the chosen body part
- Teacher says: […]”
Lesson preparation
In our “teacher lessons”, we talk about the content and topic of the next lessons. By asking some questions about the examples in the book, I found that sometimes the teachers themselves did not fully understand the topic they were going to teach. So we talk about the content, I explain it to the teachers and encourage them to think about the examples and how to explain it best to the pupils. I also ask them how we could improve some examples from the book. The book is a great basis for lessons, but it should not be the limit – so I want them to use more, and if possible real life examples to make it easier for the pupils to grasp the topic in question.
Just two weeks ago I started to introduce the idea of lesson plans in the individual teacher lessons. This can help the teachers to get a better overview and structure of the lessons coming up. My tandem-teachers had already heard about the concept of lesson plans from the English teachers, but they had not tried to use it themselves yet.
Especially for hands-on topics like geometry it is crucial for the pupils to construct structures – e.g. triangles – themselves. Thanks to the Angels for Children Foundation and a donation by Rebecca from Team V, the school has sets of triangles and compasses that can be used in lessons. There are also the oversize ones to use on the board. However, those items were put in storage and then half-forgotten. Now, all mathematics teachers use those materials in their lessons whenever feasible.
We also have a lot of colored chalk and the teachers are starting to use that more often as well now. I gave them pointers and explained how to use them in a way that makes sense. My tandem-teachers are very motivated to do so and improve their teaching.
Additionally to my work with my tandem-teachers I also started a “Maths Club” twice a week during “Activity Time” for the pupils.
Ms Toukham is generous enough to come with me to translate for the pupils every time. Most of the pupils there are in grade one, which means they are ca. 11 years old. I try to do content that is related to what they deal with in their lessons right now. When I started we did some exercises about scale. We measured some pupils’ heights and converted the measurements so we could draw them in our exercise books.
My favorite lesson so far was when we “travelled through Laos”. I brought a map of Laos for each table on a sheet of A4 paper. We started by talking about what we see on the map. Then I asked the pupils about the little box on the bottom left and what it could mean. They found out that on this map two centimeters stand for 100 kilometers. Afterwards, I asked them where they would want to travel first, starting from Vientiane. The majority voted for Luang Prabang. Then they had to find out how long the direct distance was between those two towns. They had a great time working with the maps – the pupils are not used to having their own working material to use. Together we did all the calculations. Mental calculation is not a strong suit of the pupils to date, as they have a hard time to come up with content by themselves and are also really afraid of failing.
Counting paper clips
Maths club compass 1
Maths club compass 2
Maths club triangle 1
Maths club triangle 2
Now we are working with compasses and triangles. I really enjoy working with them. The club is also a little showcase for my tandem-teachers to observe my lessons and see how I teach. Ms Toukham, for example, already uses some of my ideas and taught her class with the Lao map.
Mathematics lesson on scale
On Tuesday, 20 March 2018, I also offered a workshop for the mathematics teachers on how to correctly use the triangle and compass. I created a geometry booklet to work through and my goal is for the teachers to use it in class with their pupils. Ms Nalee helped me to translate all the exercises into Lao so all teachers and pupils can benefit from it.
I could go on and on about all the great moments I have already had in the lessons and all the interactions and the improvements that I can already see, but this is best elaborated in an academic paper at a later stage.
For now, in a nutshell: I thank my tandem-teachers for the trust and motivation they bring with them. Kop chai lai lai!
I can only help them by providing suggestions, advice, and ideas – but they are the ones who do the work and effect the changes!
Let me finish with a quote by the great Albert Einstein. “In [a letter from] 1943 he answered a little girl who had difficulties in school with mathematics. ‘…Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater.’ “
Text by F. Stober, I. Martin, with comment by T. Chanthavong
Photos & videos by F. Stober
Note
1 Editor’s note: A university colleague from NUOL informs me a teacher needs to fulfil 3 formal conditions to become a “state teacher“: He or she needs to have a teaching certificate, a loud voice, and cannot be shorter than 1,60 m.
Workshop on 16 March 2018 – “Techniques of Teaching and Learning”
On 16 March 2018 we – Shirin Ud-Din and Isabell Kaemmer – invited all the English teachers as well as the “Non-English” teachers from Ban Phang Heng Secondary School and Ban Sikeud Primary School to our workshop “Techniques of Teaching and Learning”. As many teachers were sick on that day, we offered our workshop again on March 26 and 27 so that every teacher had the chance to participate.
Our main goal was to introduce new teaching techniques that focus on the start and the end of a lesson. Through our teacher training at the University of Education in Karlsruhe, we were made aware of the importance of good ways to start and end a lesson, and we wanted to share this insight with our Lao tandem-teachers.
We organised our workshop as cooperative learning, which means that the teachers had the possibility to try out the techniques themselves that we introduced to them. Therefore, we prepared diverse teaching material so they could experience the effect of the techniques for themselves directly in the workshop. We offered five different techniques for them to test with our guidance.
The workshop was also structured according to the “Sandwich Principle” (developed by Diethelm Wahl, a German psychologist). This means that in a lesson (or workshop) the teacher’s presentation(s) and the individual and collective work done by the pupils constantly alternate. Just as a sandwich has different layers, so does the lesson: A variety of teacher-oriented phases and learner-oriented phases with added changes between individual and collective work.We explained the idea and then showed how it works by doing it thoughout our workshop.
The sandwich principle
All of the techniques we introduced and carried out are based on Wahl’s book on how to design successful teaching and learning scenarios.¹
The science teachers
English and “Non-English” teachers from Ban Phang Heng Primary and Secondary School
Starting the workshop with our agenda gave the teachers an overview of the content of our workshop.
The agenda
First, we asked them how they usually start a lesson and which techniques they might know from their participation in the project so far. After two minutes we summarized the contributions of the teachers on the whiteboard: A lesson can be started with questions, pictures, mind-maps, videos, or music, for example.
The first technique we tried out with our tandem-teachers was the sandwich principle. The constant change between teacher presentation and phases of activities and tasks for the pupils – carried out individually, in partner work, or in group work – guarantees a varied lesson as well as motivating and activating the pupils. The sandwhich principle also ensures that the content is continually revised throughout the lesson. The deepening of the content is the goal of this technique, as is the use of different strategies of learning.
Before presenting our very first technique, however, we conveyed the importance of a good lesson start by introducing the “Agenda”. An agenda is a written plan of all topics that are going to be covered in the lesson which is announced by the teacher at the beginning of the lesson. After showing the example of the agenda for our workshop, we talked about the main goals of agendas generally. At the same time, we also addressed the challenges regarding the implementation of this technique in Lao schools: More often than not, there is no time or “no time” to write an agenda before a lesson. Lesson preparation time does not seem to be included in the overall workload, or if it is, then other things will turn up to fill that space. On the other hand, we drew attention to the fact that teaching can get more effective when the pupils are confronted or activated by the goals of a lesson and they also know what will come up during class. It raises their curiosity!
Shirin explains the “Agenda”
The next technique we tried out together was the “Structure Application Technique”. With the help of prepared fragments, the teachers were asked to construct a logical structure on the topic of teaching techniques. Every pupil gets 15 to 20 fragments with words that are connected to one topic. Each student will work on their own to create a structure that makes sense for them. When all pupils finish their structure, they can explain it to the others. As there are up to 60 pupils in a Lao classroom, we recommended to split the class into 5 groups. The technique is not about having only one answer or solution, it is about constructing a structure of one’s own ideas. In the end there should be connections between words so that you can see and understand the set structure. By using the structure application technique, contents of past lessons can be explained again, but it can also be used for collecting ideas for a new topic.
The teachers try out the “Structure Application Technique”
Daovone – a “Non-English” teacher and not part of the project – joined our workshop because she was interested
Souk explains her structure on the topic “Teaching Techniques”
Another nice technique to start a lesson with is the “Partner Interview”. It is an interview between two pupils who ask each other pre-formulated questions about a topic that was discussed before, or a text that was read in a previous lesson. First, the pupils answer half of the questions alone, so there is partner A and partner B who answer three questions each, and when both have finished, they will meet up to start the interview. In the EFL class we call this a “gap-filling activity”. Both A and B become “specialists” for their questions and are responsible for taking care that their partner understands the content. At the end, both pupils should complete the other half of the questions individually, after having been instructed by their partner. This leads to an atmosphere that is comfortable for the pupils and makes learning more interesting and effective.
Another striking benefit is that the social competence is strengthened, too. Our tandem-teachers tried out a pre-set partner interview after reading a text about a music club, and they really liked the interview because they experienced that they understood the text better with the help of their partner.
The teachers try out the “Partner Interview”
Isabell and Daovone do the “Partner Interview”
As a last big topic we talked about the end of a lesson and how the teachers could design it. Ending a class should be used to revise and “secure” the content, and to open a space for questions. For this, we introduced three techniques.
The first technique was the “Small Basket Technique”, in which questions or key words that are based on the teaching content are placed in a basket. Every pupil draws one fragment out of the basket and gets at least two minutes to think about it. Then every pupil presents what comes to his or her mind when he or she thinks of his fragment. This way the whole content of the lesson is presented once more, this time by the pupils through their joint presentations. Our audience tested this technique based on the text they had read before. They got key words like “orchestra”, “violin”, “instruments”, “play”, “exciting”, etc. and had to think them over. In the end the whole content was reproduced.
The main goals of this technique are the repetition of the lesson content, the joint development of knowledge during the lesson, and the overview of the content. However, in a Lao class with 50 to 60 pupils this would take forever, so we recommended to split the class into at least five groups so that the last minutes of a lesson would suffice for this technique. On the other hand, this means bringing 5 baskets and 5 sets of word cards to class. Seeing as as Team III installed a Didactics Room at Ban Phang Heng Secondary School exactly for this purpose last year, everything could be prepared there and could be re-used and shared between the teachers.
The teachers draw a note from the basket
The last techniques we introduced were the “Traffic Lights Method” and the “Wish Marble”. The traffic lights method enables the investigation of the level of knowledge of the pupils by asking them questions about the lesson. Every pupil gets three traffic light cards in the colors red, yellow, and green. Again, it is time-consuming to prepare the cards, but the teachers can create the material together in the Didactics Room, where it can be stored and re-used for many years and in many lessons. What works well, too, is the use of colored pencils, which the pupils mostly have in their pencil cases. Teachers who cannot create or buy their own material can ask the pupils to help make it, and they should then also make sure that the pupils have a safe place somewhere at school to store it.
During this technique the pupils will find questions on the blackboard, on a worksheet, or in a power point presentation, with three possible answers, which are shown in the colors red, yellow, and green. After the teacher sets a count-down, the pupils must decide which answer is correct by showing the correct color. This technique promises fun as it is checks knowledge in a playful manner. We suggested to our tandem-teachers that they could maybe use this technique before the “monthly test” so that every topic for the test can be repeated in an enjoyable way.
The teachers “vote” with their traffic light cards
The wish marble, on the other hand, is an emotional ending of a lesson because it strengthens the bond between the pupils. One pupil gives a marble to another pupil with a wish for him or her for their future, and this continues for a while. The pupil who gets the marble at the end of the lesson may keep the marble as a lucky charm and can remember this moment whenever he or she sees the marble. Since we know that there are no marbles in Lao schools we recommended using stones or shells, which the students can also color individually later, maybe in their arts class. The teachers came up with the idea to use this method in graduation classes on their last school day to remind the graduates of their time at school. In this case there should be one stone/marble/shell for each pupil, of course.
As we wanted to know if our tandem-teachers understood the content of our workshop, we also ended our workshop with the traffic lights technique. The teachers were very enthusiastic about trying out this method and had lots of fun answering our questions. We were all agreed that this was the perfect way to end our workshop with our Lao tandem-teacher-friends.
The teachers try out the traffic lights technique
Text by S. Ud-Din & I. Kämmer & I. Martin
Photos & video by I. Kämmer, S. Ud-Din & S. Walschburger
Reference
¹Wahl, Diethelm (2013). Lernumgebungen erfolgreich gestalten: Vom trägen Wissen zum kompetenten Handeln. Bad Heilbrunn: Julius Klinkhardt Verlag. This could be translated as Designing Learning Environments Successfully: From Lethargic Knowledge to Competent Action.
Karate Kid(s) – how Mr Sai ignites a spark for karate in his pupils
Coming to Laos, I was overcome with several impressions during the first weeks. There were a lot of new scents while riding down the street to the schools where I would be teaching for the next seven weeks. There were also a lot of new tastes from the delicious Lao cuisine. There were especially a lot of new faces. During my first week in the project, one of the new people I met in the office of Ban Phang Heng primary school was Mr Thavixay Salichanh, who everyone knows as Mr Sai. He is a the 50-year-old sports teacher of Ban Phang Heng primary school and Ban Sikeud primary school, where he teaches eleven hours altogether every week. Additionally, he teaches the karate “Activity Time” and sports at Ban Phang Heng secondary school for seven hours a week. Therefore, he is responsible for the training and karate education of the pupils at these schools, or, as I like to call them- the karate kids.1 (The 1984 American martial arts drama film “The Karate Kid” deals with the topic of a good karate mentor who is really inspiring to his student, so the movie reminds me of Mr Sai. You will see why I make this connection.)
On top, at the weekends, he teaches karate classes at the Lao-German Technical College as well as mentoring karate classes at the National Sports Training Centre in Sikeud, which is linked to the Phonsavanh Highschool. I noticed immediately that he was really open and eager to talk to me – so I felt very welcomed at my new school.
Despite some language issues – Mr Sai did not learn English at school – we were able to talk about karate, the sport he is very passionate about. Since I practiced karate in my childhood, I wanted to know more about Mr Sai’s life and passion, so I conducted an interview with him to talk about sports.
Special thanks go to the wonderful Ms Bounpheng, who was kind enough to act as an interpreter during our interview.
Svenja and Mr Sai, who holds a copy of a book he wrote about karate
Ms Bounpheng, the interpreter of the interview, and Mr Sai
Mr Sai’s job as a sports teacher
Mr Sai’s motivation as a sports teacher is for the children to be strong, and for this he also believes that they need to learn the rules for sports. When his pupils go home, Mr Sai believes they spend a lot of time with their family and therefore sit a lot. There are no organized free time activities for children in the village like in Germany. So, additionally, before holidays, he tells his pupils that they should exercise at least 15 minutes per day. Mr Sai wants to prevent his pupils from gaining weight and getting back pains.
Another way to motivate the students, he tells me, are sports competitions with other schools. This happen about two or three times a year. These matches take place at different schools in Naxaithong District like at the Phonsavanh school, Ban Phang Heng school, or Sikeud primary school.
During our interview, I quickly found out that Mr Sai has a lot of responsibilities that come with his teaching at many different schools: He is “an old man who does sports for five or six hours a day”, he joked. At the primary schools, he teaches basic exercises for class 1 and 2. Mr Sai’s hope is that good pupils will pick up karate for the future.
I was lucky enough to be invited to one of his karate lessons at Ban Sikeud primary school. There, I noticed that a sense of competition is always present in his lessons. This can be observed at the end of the karate lesson: Mr Sai picks two pupils to do the same karate routine. He checks the movements and posture of the pupils. The “winner” can leave for their classroom. The other pupil stays in the room and helps to clean up the place. I noticed that the 16 children in this class are of different ages, so I asked how he chose them. He told me that at the beginning of the year, all the pupils can come. Then he picks the best ones for training.
However, despite the competition, the atmosphere in the lesson is appreciative and positive – you can sense the good relationship Mr Sai has with his pupils.
Two pupils of the karate class at Ban Sikeud primary school have a competition
The karate class at Ban Sikeud primary school
Mr Sai and his karate class at Ban Sikeud primary school
At Phang Heng secondary school he also personally chooses his pupils.
After pupils graduate from the Ban Phang Heng lower secondary school, Mr Sai chooses the ones who are invited to go to Phonsavanh Highschool to learn more karate. He always gives his students advice and functions as a mentor. He even wrote a book about karate for the Phonsavanh school in 2015. Mr Sai proudly showed me the messenger group of his karate teams at Phonsavan Highschool and a group photo of him and his students.
The karate book Mr Sai wrote for his students at Phonsavanh Highschool
He went on to tell me that after graduating from Phonsavanh school, even more opportunities are waiting for talented and ambitious students: When the students are good at karate, they can continue their karate training in Vietnam or Korea. I was very impressed that there seem to be so many opportunities for children that do well in martial arts. This must be a highly motivating factor for students to be ambitious and work hard on their skills and techniques. However, it is also really inspring to have a mentor like Mr Sai, who believes so much in his pupils and that they can reach their goals.
Mr Sai’s career
This is where I got even more curious. When did Mr Sai start to learn the martial art karate? When he was young, karate was not offered at Mr Sai’s school, but he learned karate with a Chinese teacher in his village when he was 16. He continued with karate, and when he was 30 years old he went to Vietnam, where he was able to get his dan (rank to indicate level of karate ability) – because one cannot get them in Laos. By now, Mr Sai is the proud owner of the highest dan – the black belt.
In 2008, Mr Sai went to China to get his license as a referee for karate. Since then he has been part of three different Lao teams as a referee, which means he is based in Laos. Here he also meets people from other countries, because sometimes Japanese and French people come to Laos to learn more karate.
Mr Sai’s opinion
I wonder whether, in Mr Sai’s opinion, Lao people are interested in sports. “Yes”, he told me, but mainly in football and boxing, not so much generally, e.g. in other sports like swimming. In Laos, swimming is not wide-spread, and people learn to navigate the long-boats for fishing and commerce rather than to swim for leisure. There, a lot of improvement need to be done in Mr Sai’s opinion.
Older men in Laos seem to be very fit and enjoy exercise, and they are rarely overweight, but Mr Sai mentioned that “a lot of young men are lazy and drink beer a lot”. According to Mr Sai, watching sports seem to be a highly popular part-time activity, with the most popular sports by far being football and Thai boxing.
Mr Sai’s wishes for the future
Mr Sai’s real passion, however, reveals itself when he tells me what he wishes for the future. He wants his students to be successful internationally. Additionally, he wants to see more variety of martial arts in Laos such as judo, taekwondo, karate, and Thai boxing. Since it is hard to learn these sports by oneself, there should be more money from the government to support teachers. Ultimately, he wants to see more Lao athletes represented in the Olympic games.2
Group picture of the sports class at Ban Sikeud primary school
Team work is key at the sports lesson at Ban Sikeud primary school
The pupils count in unision 1,2,1,2 (“ning,song”) to run at the same pace
Pukee – a success story
Mr Sai was very enthusiastic when he told me one specific story. It is about a girl named Pukee (/pu’ki:/). Pukee was a pupil of Mr Sai’s, starting at Ban Sikeud primary school. There, Mr Sai taught her karate since she was little. He could tell from a very young age that Pukee was talented in sports and had a special interest in karate. Therefore, he was eager to support the girl’s talent. Now, Pukee is a young woman of 19 who studies at the National University of Laos to become a sports teacher. Mr Sai says that he is very happy to help the students with their careers. Some students want to have a job as a doctor, in law, or as a mechanic. Mr Sai can help the students when they choose a career in sports.
After what I heard in my interview, I am certain Mr Sai is not only passionate about his own career in karate, but he is also a great teacher and mentor for the pupils he teaches. He wishes for all the children he teaches to be able to be successful and happy in what they are doing. Therefore, high standards are an important part of his teaching, but a good relationship to the students and good team work are crucial as well.
In the end, I had one important question left for him. I asked him if he also enjoys supporting sport teams. First and foremost, he cheers on his own team, of course. However, he also likes Thai Boxing and watching the Lao football team. “What about the German football team?” – I needed to know! Yes, he admitted with a smile, the German football team is good. That was the moment when I knew Mr Sai also appreciates what is good in sports outside the world of karate.
Text by S. Walschburger
Photos & videos by S. Walschburger, I. Martin & B. Singhalath
Notes
1 “Kid” in English means “baby goat”, but is also a colloquial expression for “children”.
2 Laos was part of seven Summer Olympic Games. The country has not yet appeared at the Winter Olympic Games and they have not won any Olympic medal yet. The National Olympic Committee of Laos was formed in 1975 and officially recognized by the International Olympic Committee in 1979.
Lao “Activity Time” at school (& blog article no. 200!)
Our time here is flying by. Every day is another adventure with different tasks and challenges to manage. It is very rewarding and a lot of fun to work with the teachers and the pupils. Additionally to the tandem-teacher program, where we plan lessons together with the teachers and observe their work to give feedback and help with their professionalization, we also offer different clubs during “Activity Time” from Monday through Thursday between 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. My team (VI) took over the “Science Lab“, “English Conversation Club“, and “English Games Club” from Team V, and, newly, offers a “Maths Club”. The pupils can choose between the different activities freely.
Before coming to Laos, I was not aware of how many other activities are offered by the schools themselves. In our first week I got to visit those activities. I enjoyed what I was able to see and took photos and videos. Madame Engel told me that it all started with the highschool graduate volunteers from her homestate Bavaria in Germany, whom she had invited to spend some time in Laos and work in Ban Sikeud Primary School back in 2012. They had the idea to offer some activities for the children after school at Ban Sikeud Primary School. Madame Engel was more than happy to set things in motion, and very soon they offered dancing, drawing, and sports for the children. This was so successful with the children that it was expanded to all three AfC schools and is now a regular part of every school day.
Let me start with Ban Phang Heng Secondary School:
Ping Pong
Karate
Sepak Takraw: This mixture between volleyball and soccer is an amazing sport to watch. Find out for yourself in the video:
Art: Take a closer look at some of the art projects of the students – within his project, the teacher implemented the idea of recycling.
Lao Dancing: Here you can see the pupils practising for a dancing competition, which takes place next month between schools in the Vientiane District.
Also there are volleyball and basketball, but at the moment the court is used as another Sepak Takraw field. This depends on what the pupils want to do.
At Ban Phang Heng Primary School and Ban Sikeud Primary School the teachers offer the following activities:
Lao Dancing & Free Excercises
You can find more videos on the Angels for children website.
It is nice to see how engaged the pupils are in the different activities and clubs. Only how they are able to do sports in that heat I will never understand.
Text by F. Stober
Photos & videos by F. Stober, J. Grüttner & I. Martin
Letters from Laos – “Hello, Germany” by Akina Yadsadahuk
Hello, my name’s Mrs. Akina YADSADAHUK. I am twenty-six year old.
Ms Akina Yadsadahuk
Saying goodbye to team V at Wattay Airport
Enjoying time together after the goodbye-thank-you “Baci” for Team V
Tandem teachers Sandra and Akina
I was born in Watnak village, district Sisattanak but now I live in Xaysavang village, Xaythany district, Vientiane capital. I graduated from National University of Laos. I also have 2 diplomas. The first diploma is computer engineering and the second is English teacher. I studied very hard because I studied 2 subjects together. I started at 8:00 A.M and finished at 8:30 P.M. After I finished my study, the first year I was a volunteer teacher at the primary school for 1 year. I was very happy to teach children. And the subject that teaching was computer. The year after I started to work at Lao German Technical College. So I have worked here for 4 years and I have been there for teaching 3 years.
In my family , there are 8 people as: my parents, my aunt, my younger brother, my nephew, my hunsband, my son and me. My parents are teachers. So, my father does the same as me. He is a head of Automotive Section. My aunt is a housewife, he take care my baby at home. My younger brother is a student. My husband is an accountant at the southern bus station in Vientiane.
In my dream I want to go to Germany for visit my tandem teacher Sandra. I got so many didactics from her. She has so many activities and game.
I like this game very much which name is “What’s missing?”.It’s a memory game that the students can remember easily words (The rule for the game is: First of all teacher shows flash cards on the board. Teacher tells students close their eyes. Teacher takes out one or two things and asks them (what’s missing?) and then they answer. She helps me about the tests such as she chooses the questions for they can understand easily. When I teach the readings she can help me which she reads the first and they repeat after. Next they read by themself. And they have also to repeat after. Next they read by themself. And they have also to repeat many times. Afterwards she also teaches me how to make flash cards how to find the better pictures, worksheets and can laminate for use longtime.
Akina teaches English to the “GM2” students
“What’s missing?”
If I have an occasion, I really want to go to Germain when It’s the christmas’s day because I want to see snow, people celebrate it and etc… And the second country, It’s England to speak the native speaker to improve English language.
Finally I want to know more skills for teaching. I think if I have an occasion I feel very happy and my teaching will be better than now.
Editor’s note: We will continue sending teacher-volunteers to the LGTC as long as there are such motivated teachers! We all wish you a productive and enjoyable time with Tasja and Anna (Team VI) now!
Text by A. Yadsadahuk
Photos & videos by A. Yadsadahuk, S. Uhlig & I. Martin
My first impressions – by Shirin Ud-Din
Arrival
Sabaidee Laos! Our journey started on Saturday 17th of February, when we all met at Frankfurt airport to fly to Vientiane. After 30 hours of travelling we finally arrived in Vientiane, where Lea Herrmann (one of our predecessors from Team V) and the AfC driver Mr Viengkham picked us up at the airport. 20 Minutes later we – Team VI – arrived at our new home in Ban Sikeud. I was thrilled when I saw the “villa” we were supposed to live in and I was excited about the prospect of spending the next seven weeks there. The accommodation is very beautiful, spacious and well-equipped. These luxurious conditions will make our work here even more pleasurable.
Our accomodation: “The Villa”
After we had moved into our rooms – one room for each volunteer – we grabbed the bicycles to visit the local market to buy ingredients for cooking our very first dinner in Laos. Lea showed us around the village we live in and where we can find the market. Before heading back to the villa, we made a stop to get to know Mrs Bouangeun Hanthavong (aka “Linda”), one of whose jobs it is to take care of our needs during our stay. She is an assistant to Madame Engel and employed by Angels for Children, like the AfC General Manager Mr Khamsing.
Market in Ban Sikeud
Back in the villa Lea and Magdalena (her helper in Sikeud Primary School for a few weeks and the daughter of a friend of the Engel family) prepared dinner for us. Both had learnt to prepare Laotian vegetables and make delicious curries during their stay in Ban Sikeud and surprised us with water spinach, also called “Morning Glory”, which I had never eaten before and which was really delicious. On top they prepared a variety of vegetables and sticky rice. They also told us to fight our jetlag and stay up as late as possible so we would be fit the next day – which worked very well.
Dinner in the villa
First day at school
On Monday our team went to school by bicycle and got to know the Laotian teachers. Ms Bouangeun and Lea showed us around the school, and we tried our first “real” Lao dish in the cafeteria, which is run by Mr Khamsing’s wife Ba. The kitchen staff cooks with fresh ingredients every day, which looks very advanced in contrast to German cafeterias. At the second glance, however, one understands not many cafeterias and households own fridges and are therefore not used to the concept of storing food. We all chose noodle soup and were excited to try it. We were not disappointed and I am sure that we will visit the cafeteria for lunch more often. We put some sprinkles of chili powder on top and noticed later how the pupils heaped it on until the soup became bright red.
Noodle soup in the cafeteria
Shirin tries the noodle soup
… at the school entrance
The teachers’ room
We received a warm welcome when we entered the teachers’ room for the first time. All of the Laotian teachers were very friendly and showed great interest in our future work. In contrast to German staff rooms this teachers’ room is very small, but all of the teachers are able to arrange themselves. The Lao teachers also made room for us so that we also have a place where we can work and enjoy our break.
The teachers’ kitchen
On the second day I was invited to join lunch in the teachers’ kitchen during the lunch break. The teachers prepared a bamboo soup, papaya salad, and green salad, which were all delicious – but also very spicy. They cook in this kitchen every day and we are welcome every day to join them. I am grateful for their hospitality, which makes me feel welcome in Laos.
Green salad
Teachers’ kitchen
Ms Khamsee and Ms Donekeo prepare a bamboo soup
First “English teacher lesson”
I held my first English lesson for teachers on Wednesday to the “non-English teachers” Ms Chanmany and Ms Khamsee, who both teach science. I had read the weekly reports of their previous English teacher Veronika and now wanted to hear for myself at which level they speak English. So we first played a conversation game in which they had to talk to each other about several topics. Both liked the game and it was fun for me to see that they had fun doing this task. After that I showed them flashcards of colors and numbers to check some basic vocabulary. Two hours later our first “teacher lesson“ was over and I was happy how well it had worked. At this point I would like to thank Veronika (Team V) for her excellent work during her two stays – I am looking forward to tying in with her work!
We figured out together what my tandem-teachers would like to focus on because they still struggle with pronunciation issues like omitting consonants at the end of syllables, and grammar issues like the formation and usage of tenses. As I have two single lessons with each tandem-teacher and two lessons with both of them together we agreed on using the time together with revision of tenses, vocabulary, and doing new conversation games as well as role plays, and the single lessons to go on with the course book.
Ms Khamsee and Ms Chanmany in my first teacher lesson
Day trip to Vientiane
On my first weekend my colleagues and I decided to visit Vientiane, the capital of Laos. Together with Johannes Zeck (AfC/BHS project leader) and Ms Bouangeun we drove to Vientiane. Our first stop was the “Morning Market“, where one can find clothes, food, jewellery, everyday objects, and, behind the mall, an abundance of stalls selling food, fabrics, electronics, and kitchenware. The reason why we visited the Morning Market was to find fabrics for a sinh, which is a traditional Lao skirt. We wanted to have sinhs for school because every female teacher wears one and this way the pupils know that we are teachers, too. I experienced Vientiane as a lively city with lots of tourists – a contrast to Ban Sikeud, which is a small village.
Morning Market in Vientiane
Vientiane
After the visit to the Morning Market, Johannes Zeck and Ms Bouangeun drove back to Ban Sikeud, but we stayed on to meet our colleagues from the Lao-German Technical College to spend the afternoon together. We walked around the city, had lunch in a Vietnamese restaurant and enjoyed a massage in a spa. In the evening we decided to go to the famous “Night Market”, where we went shopping again. We arrived in the villa with lot of bags and happy faces.
Team VI in Vientiane
Night Market in Vientiane
I am glad that I applied for this project because already after three weeks in Laos I see the big chance that lies in working together with other teachers from Laos – not only for them, but also for me: The preparation for the lessons, the creation of worksheets and flashcards as well as using the Science Lab to do experiments are all helpful for my upcoming teacher-training after I finish my studies. On top I am able to strengthen my intercultural competence. I am excited about what will come up over the next weeks.
Text by S. Ud-Din
Photos by S. Ud-Din & I. Kämmer
Workshop on 25 December 2017 – The new “Didactics Room” at the LGTC
The initial “library situation” at the LGTC
When we arrived at the LGTC in September 2017, the notion of a “Didactics Room” was still unknown amongst the teaching staff. We as members of Team V were assigned with the special task of establishing a Didactics Room for the teachers at the LGTC, as Team III had done for the teachers at the AfC schools one year before. A Didactics Room does not only contain didactic material, but also consumable material useful for the preparation of a lesson. It is thus the place where teachers can create their own teaching material such as flashcards and language games and then also store it. Furthermore, consumable material like markers and sticky tape can be found there and used for teaching purposes.
Since the library of the LGTC was very spacious, it was possible to set up a “Didactics Room” there by rearranging the furniture of the library. For the library this meant a great change compared to what it looked like 18 months ago, and initially nobody seemed entitled to make that decision.
Prof. Martin had checked out the library situation to find out what to do with the collection of English books she had brought along with Team III in September 2016, and she had made several suggestions for revamping the library. As it was, it seemed to be more of a defunct archive, with its dusty shelves, uncomfortable chairs, and the sparse lighting.
Vacky Wangyeng shows Prof. Martin the library (September 2016)
She suggests 3 bins: “Yes? No? Maybe?”
Here is the result!
Empty clean shelf for new English books…
… new “storage” of books and documents removed from the library.
College-pilot-team III’s main task had been to test/implement the new English course system, and Team IV’s task had been to consolidate and/or adapt it. Our main task now was the establishment of the new Didactics Room: Clearing out old and seemingly unused and forgotten books and papers (from the 60s and 70s), painting the shelves in colors chosen by the teachers, and purchasing various items for the equipment (printer, laminator, laminating foils, projector, PC, speakers, etc.).
Furthermore, we did not only provide little labels for every kind of material to establish an order, we also created objects like pen holders out of recyclable material like cans. To lend a friendlier and warmer atmosphere to the room some of our student- and teacher classes designed small colorful posters around the topic “English means…”.
Ms Viengkhom in action
Sandra paints…
…and students help
Sandra presents the new wall decoration to Prof. Martin
DIY pencil holders (“do-it-yourself”)
In order to ensure an effective and sustainable use of the newly-established Didactics Room, but also to provide a wide range of ideas about how to create and how to eventually work with extra teaching material, we decided to offer a workshop on these topics for all teachers of the LGTC.
On Monday, the 25th of December 2017, we (Sandra and Ariane of Team V) officially opened the Didactics Room of the LGTC by holding our workshop, which started at 4 p.m. with about 25 teachers participating.
The workshop was divided into three parts: Firstly, model lessons were used to demonstrate the effects of a bad lesson (without any material) in contrast to a good lesson. By the negative example – introducing vocabulary with no material/visual support – we underlined the importance of using precise body language and appropriate materials. To prove our hypothesis about the effects of inadequate teaching, we chose a language for our model lesson that nobody knew beforehand: German. Setting a uniform total Beginners level for the demonstration also enabled us to produce/simulate the genuine experience of students learning a foreign language with no prior knowledge.
The two model lessons were followed by the introduction and effective usage of material, as well as suggestions of many different ways of integrating this material into lessons, for variety.
Eventually, in the third part of the workshop, we officially opened the Didactics Room by practically demonstrating to the participants how to actually make their own material, and how/where to file and store it in the new room. This was done with a view to efficacy and sustainability: When teachers make their own material which gets laminated afterwards it can be easily shared with other teachers, who in turn prepare different materials, etc. Furthermore, we showed them how to use the consumable material provided in the Didactics Room in a sustainable way so the stock would not need to get filled up every week, but would last for a longer period.
The bad example: Lesson without material
Ariane of Team V introduced various German words for farm animals like “cow = Kuh [kuː]”, “goat = Ziege [ˈʦiːɡə]”, “sheep = Schaf [ʃaːf]”, etc. Two factors caused aggravating circumstances for the students in their attempt to understand: Imprecise body language when teaching the vocabulary, but also introducing vocabulary from the same word field like “sheep” and “goat”, or “cow” and “buffalo”. As we have often observed the difficulties that Lao teachers have in using precise gestures when introducing new words, we wanted to prove to them how much more important it is in this case to use visual or other material to semanticise the vocabulary in question.
Next, whilst teaching the pronunciation of the words, Ariane also introduced the written form of the words, which helped students to pronounce the words, but not to guess/imagine the respective animals. After a few repetitions of the pronunciation drill it was the students’ turn to repeat the vocabulary, this time using gestures or sounds themselves for semanticization. As expected, none of the students was able to reproduce the vocabulary, or give descriptions of the animals in question.
Editor’s note: If this also happens in your classroom – whether at pre-school or university level – it means that despite your teaching there is not enough learning. And even if there are students who can repeat some of the new words, they very often do not know what they are saying. To initiate a change, ask your students what they understood, and then try again with clearer gestures and/or better material next time instead of translating the word into Lao.
The good example: Lesson with material
The “bad lesson” example was followed by a good example, which made use of flashcards. Flashcards are laminated cards bearing pictures which are held up for students to see, and used to semanticize, or “translate” the new vocabulary.
Ariane introduced the same vocabulary once again, but this time by simultaneously showing big flashcards of the animals and pronouncing the words to go with the pictures. Additionally, she used precise body language this time to help students visualize the vocabulary even better. Furthermore, the pronunciation practice of individuals was reinforced by giving each student enough time to pronounce the words correctly and by allowing time for plenty of repetitions.
Ariane in action
Afterwards, Ariane held up word cards with the written form and once again practised the correct pronunciation with the class. Then, some students came to front and placed the word card of the animal under the matching picture. This technique helps the teacher to directly check the understanding and knowledge of the students. The results were tremendously different from the first time: Students were able to connect the words with the pictures and were also capable of separating similar content words from each other.
Using flashcards – examples
We did not only want to tell and show our students how to use flashcards theoretically, but also practically. The best way was to actually use the newly created material in various language games.
Therefore, Sandra used some games to help students to practise the understanding and the pronunciation of the new words. All the flashcards were fixed on the board with sticky tape. Then she pointed to different flashcards, and our teacher-students had to say the words. The speed was increased after a while. Gradually, the flashcards were removed one by one, and a big dot was drawn instead, so the flashcards became “invisible”. After removing the cards, the participants were supposed to continue as if the flashcards were still visible. As this game is usually quite motivating and enhances participation, it is a good way to to consolidate words and can easily and effectively be used in the EFL (English as a Foreign Language) classroom with learners of any age.
Next, we played the game “What’s missing”. Again, all the flashcards were stuck on the board. Sandra asked everyone to look at the cards, say the words to themselves or to their neighbour, and then to turn around (you can also ask everyone to close their eyes for a few moments). She removed one of the flashcards before asking the students to turn around again. Then she asked: “What’s missing?”. (You will notice when you play this game that these words do not require any pre-teaching: The class understands what this means from the look on your face and where you point.) The teacher-students who knew the answer shouted out the answer and said the missing word. This procedure happened a few times before a student took over the teacher’s role and asked the fellow-students to turn around, etc. Even though this game is mostly used for children and teenagers, it also works very well with adult learners. The game can be made more demanding by increasing the number of cards, by removing more than one card at a time, by rearranging the order of the cards on the board while the students are not looking, etc.
For the game “Catch the fly”, all the flashcards needed to be attached on the board again. The class was divided into two teams, who were asked to stand in two rows in front of the board, facing the board (make sure that both groups stand about two meters away from the board). Then Sandra named one of the words and the first student of each row had to run to the board and hit the right flashcard with a fly-swatter. The team of the student who did this first scored a point.
Sandra practises the new words with the teachers
“Catch the fly”
These games all had the focus on flashcards. Therefore, we now created a mindmap on the whiteboard to collect other ideas, for different kinds of materials. The students came up with ideas like realia and board games, and we added more ideas like posters, worksheets etc.
We then presented bases/”work-stations” displaying samples of the diverse teaching material that had been collected on the whiteboard beforehand. Students were now to walk around the classroom and stop at the different “bases/stations”, where they would get the task of, e.g., thinking about and trying out the teaching material in question.
Mindmap of different kinds of teaching material
Opening the “Didactics Room”
The last part of the workshop dealt with the actual introduction of the new material in the Didactics Room. The first “work station” was the computer: We presented some websites which provide pictures which can be used without violating copyright laws. Ariane gave an example by finding a picture on www.pixabay.com and demonstrated the whole process from the download of the picture over the insertion into the Microsoft Word and Open Office programmes for documents to the print-out of the picture. Then the groups had to do it themselves. Some of the teachers had to leave at this point because they had other obligations. This had the advantage of enabling all participants to actively create material and not have overloaded groups.
In the beginning, we gave a short guided tour of the different sections and their uses – work places, shelves with electronic devices, consumable material, didactic material – to provide a general overview and to make teachers understand the versatility of the Didactics Room. Then, the participants were divided into three groups. Each team received one topic (jobs, general tools, fruits) for which they were supposed to create different didactic materials. Unfortunately, we started to run out of time, which is why we decided to just focus on creating flashcards and getting routine in using the laminator. This procedure entailed finding appropriate pictures on legal websites, and practising the usage of both the printer and the laminator. As many of the teachers neither have their own computer nor Internet at home, it was necessary to allow easy access to the new subject by starting with the basics. This way, in the end, all teachers were able to create their very first own flashcard.
Participants work with Microsoft Word
Teachers work in teams at the computers
That is how the prints are put into the laminating foils.
The laminator and Mouk = dream team!
Bounkham proudly presents his first flashcards
After the workshop, Ms Akina said: “I am so happy about the laminator. I can’t wait to make my own flashcards.”
WE OPEN THE DIDACTICS ROOM!
At the end of the workshop every teacher received a handout containing the most important aspects of when, how and why to use material.
The handout
Why use material?
- to visualize words
- to activate the students
- to draw attention
- to make lessons more interesting
- to make objects more authentic
- to improve your teaching skills
- to stimulate senses (auditory learners, visual learners etc.)
- make students learn vocabulary more effectively
- enable the students to take part
When to use material?
- when introducing new vocabulary
- when continuing working on the topic
- when students are supposed to work independently
What kind of material?
- flashcards
- word cards
- worksheets
- picture cards
- (board-)games
- poster
- realia
- etc.
What to keep in mind?
- use pictures and words/text that are big enough
- keep it easy and understandable
- use clear pictures
- think sustainable/long-lasting (if laminated -> can last for years)
- make sure the cards are not transparent
- use colored pens but also various colored paper
- use colors thoroughly (bright colors like yellow are hard to see)
- not every topic is appropriate to make flashcards for
- the advantage of making your own:
- cheap
- adaptable to what you need
Editor’s note: After taking all of this into consideration, please now avoid the”flashcard-trap”: Nobody can build a sentence only with nouns. You need to teach verbs and adjectives and pronouns and conjunctions as well, e.g. by acting, pointing, using action songs, etc.
As a follow-up – if you want to read more on the subject – we would like to recommend the other articles on this topic on this blog. You can find them by entering “workshop” or “material” or “Didactics Rooms” into the search window on the start page. Start with the workshop how to create material which was held at the AfC schools not too long ago by our fellow-team members Lara and Hanna!
Text by S. Uhlig, A. Kummetz & I. Martin
Photos and videos by S. Uhlig, J. Adelberg, I. Martin & J. Zeck
Workshop on 18 December 2017 – “Practising Pronunciation” and Lao-English interference
I invited all English teachers from Ban Pang Heng Secondary and Primary school as well as the science teachers Mr Sackbong and Mr Phit to join my workshop “Practicing Pronunciation” on the 18th of December 2017. I put the focus on common pronunciation difficulties for Lao EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners by contrasting the structure of the English language (L2 or L3) with the structure of the Lao language (L1 or L2)1 in two notable examples. Interference mistakes2 in pronunciation usually occur in two cases: When phonological features from L2 do not exist in L1, or when features in L2 exist in L1 but are subject to different rules.
One such problem that springs to mind immediately when one thinks of Lao EFL learners (or Southeast Asian EFL learners in general) is the /r/ sound, since it does not exist in their phonology.3 Another difficulty that might occur stems from the Lao syllable/word structure, which is different in English: In Lao there are never two or more consonants following one another in one syllable/word, whereas a lot of English words include two or more consonants successively. These consonant clusters can occur in front, medial, or end position: e.g. “Sprite, splash, clock, glass” (front), “chickpea, tenderly, lighthouse” (medial), “mugs, hand, soft, texts” (end).
The consequences of these dissimilar language rules are in the first case that Lao speakers tend to substitute or omit the “alien” phoneme(s) (single distinctive sounds in a language), as in “Eulo” for “€”, or, in the second case, that they add vowel phonemes in between consonants in clusters (“mos(e)kito”, “s(i)kirt”), as their L1 does not tolerate more than two consonants in a row in one syllable. Regular syllable-words in Lao are, e.g., “Sa-bai-di” (“how are you”, i.e. “hello”), “Khob chai” (“Thank you”), or “Thao dai?” (“how much is it?”).
Another key issue is that fricative4 and affricate5 consonants are often often used interchangeably by Lao learners. Therefore, there is a high risk of misunderstanding in English. If for example the affricate sound /tʃ/ (as in “chair”) is uttered as the fricative sound /ʃ / (as in “she”), the sentence “I will wash your sweater” takes on a different meaning, namely “I will watch your sweater”.
I (Marie) explain the production of the /l/ and /r/ sound
Word dictation worksheet for the /l/ and /r/ sound
Ms Souk and Mr Phit work on drill lists
I prepared different worksheets for our Lao learners to practise the sounds that are difficult for them. The worksheets consisted of drill lists of different phonemes (/l/, /r/, /s/, /z/, /∫/, /t∫/ /ʒ/, /dʒ/), the exercise “Odd one out”, and word dictations.
As a warming-up activity I invited the teachers to brainstorm in groups of 2-3 persons and think about a) sounds they find hard to pronounce and b) what might be the reasons for this. They collected the sounds that present difficulties, and it turned out that – as I would have expected from the former research I did on Lao and Thai pronunciation problems in English – the central issues were the phonemes /r/ and /l/, as well as the distinction of fricative and affricate sounds (such as /s/, /z/, /∫/, /t∫/ /ʒ/, and /dʒ/).
In order to perform the /r/ sound with them I showed a flashcard of a roaring lion and encouraged them to roar like a lion. We had a lot of fun practising this sound in this playful way and it was pleasant to hear them producing the /r/ phoneme correctly. For the distinction of the /r/ and the /l/ sound I asked them to describe the tongue position during the production of both sounds. When uttering the /l/ sound the tongue touches the teeth and therefore should be visible. With the /r/ sound the tongue is pulled right back and should not be seen in the front area of the mouth. After this introduction they read aloud drill lists with the /r/ sound in pairs: One read out a word and the other one watched whether the tongue was visible or not.
Imagine the following question, in a restaurant: “Would you like that with lice (rice)?” Also, at the hotel, “I need to lock my room!” would depend on the same distinction, in two words. “I will fish your aircondition” would be an example of substitution, which can also sometimes be found in print, as in the “General Culliculum”, the “Faily-tale” book, or the exhibit in the Royal Palace in Luang Prabang that commends the “Loyal tailor”.
The following recording gives you examples of minimal pairs with the /l/ and /r/ sound.
A more tricky excercise was the word dictation. In partner work the teachers read out different words with the difficult sounds /l/, /r/, /s/, /z/, /ʃ/, /tʃ/, /ʒ/, /tʒ/, and their partner would write down the words. Afterwards they checked if they wrote down the correct word. The added difficulty here was that there are no separate graphemes in English for each phoneme. For example, /s//z/ are both often written with the letter “s”, as in “house/houses”, and /z//ʒ/ can also be written with an “s” (his television).
In “Odd one out”, the participants read out minimal pairs, of which one was printed twice in that line. One teacher read out the words while his or her partner listened carefully and had to say which of the three words had been read twice. This forced participants to pay attention to each phoneme in each word.
Practice should be fun, too!
“Roar like a lion!”
The IPA chart and an illustration of the production of the /l/ and /r/ sound
Following this, we discussed the second issue, the consonant clusters. In the Lao language, the phonological structure of a syllable/word is fixed: Consonant-vowel-consonant. (There does not have to be a final consonant sound, but there cannot be two.) Interference mistakes therefore occur in clusters, i.e. substitution, omission, or addition of sounds in the English word. For practising the pronunciation of words with consonant clusters I provided drill lists again. I noticed that problems mainly occured with consonant clusters (especially in addition with the /r/ or /l/ sound) in the beginning of a syllable/ word (e.g. “Sprite”, “cry”, “three”, “glass”). Consonant clusters starting with “st” were much easier for them to pronounce (e.g. “stone”, “style”).
The last aspect to cover were the different post-alveolar and alveolar fricative and affricate sounds /s/, /z/, /∫/, /ʒ/, /t∫/and /dʒ/. For this I asked the group to give example words that contained one of those phonemes, and I explained some rules when to use which phoneme:
- s : usually for the letter “s“ (sun, snake, cats, slide)
- ∫ : usually for “sh-“, “-iss“, “-tion“, “s“ before “u“ (she, mission, education, sure)
- ʒ : usually for the ending „-sion“, „-sual“, „-sure“ (pleasure, casual, vision)
- dʒ : usually for the letter „j“, for “-age” (jungle, jump, message)
- t∫ : usually for „ch“, „tch“, „tu-“, „ti“ (chain, butcher, nature, question)
This video shows me and the teachers collecting example words for the /s/ phoneme:
Finally the teachers worked on a partner word dictation with these sounds and also an “Odd one out” list.
At the end of the workshop I handed out small IPA-charts,6 a picture of the production of the /l/ and /r/ sounds as well as a guide when to use which post-alveolar and alveolar fricative or affricate sound.
Ms Bounpheng and volunteer-assistant Maggy work on a word dictation
Examples of fricative and affricate consonants
Ms Mittaphone and Ms Phovang (“Noy”) brainstorm about pronunciation difficulties for Lao EFL learners
All in all I am very satisfied with the workshop: It was rewarding to see how the teachers were keen to learn more not only about the practical but also the theoretical background of English pronunciation, especially regarding the contrast to their L1, the Lao language. I hope to have given them a small insight into some of the differences between the Lao and English language so that in the future they will be better able to understand the interference issues they are facing and this way have a more solid basis for continuing their – challenging – work on their pronunciation skills.
And maybe our readers can now also finally figure out what “Sapalite” refers to and who “Kak Mak” and the “Kemelush” were? Or, at the airport, what you should answer when asked if you have a “thu-sek-bek”?
Text by M. Kirsten & I. Martin
Notes
1 In Applied Linguistics, L1 refers to the very first language one acquires naturally in social interactions while growing up. Any further language(s) learnt (mostly in an instututional context) is called second/third etc. language and abbreviated as L2, L3, etc.
2 The linguistic term “interference” relates to speakers and writers transferring linguistic features from their first language (L1) into a foreign language (L2). The application of knowlegde from one language to another can either be positive, or negative. If if the linguistic structures of L1 and L2 are similar, the transfer often results in a correct language production, and therefore the interference is positive. However, the more different the two linguistic structures are, the more likely will the interference end up negatively, and minor errors occur in the language production.
3 Surprisingly, there used to be an “r” letter in the Lao alphabet. It got excluded from the Lao alphabet in the course of a language reform since most speakers pronounced it as /l/. However, it is still used to spell many country names (e.g. “Europe”, “Australia”, “America”), or in new loan words.
4 Fricatives are consonant sounds that are produced by inhibiting the airflow somewhere in the vocal tracts so that a hissing sound is audible (e.g. /z/ as in “zoo” or “s” as in “sun”).
5 Affricates are consonant sounds that start with a stop (a consonant sound in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all air stream stops, e.g. /t/or /d/) and end with a fricative (e.g. /ʃ/ as in “she”). Examples: /tʃ/ as in “church” or /dʒ/ as in “jungle” or “jeans”.
6 The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic transcription system for languages that root in the Latin alphabet. It functions as a standarized representation of each sound within a spoken language, as opposed to the letters of the written alphabet. This helps learners to pronounce a word correctly when they read it (with the IPA transcription) in a dictionary. Today, pronunciation help is provided by online dictionary audio tools as well. English orthography is notoriously difficult for learners to read correctly (and also to write, even for native speakers) because a) one phoneme can be written by different letters/graphemes, b) one letter can be pronounced in different ways depending on the position in the word or even the context, and c) English has more loan words from other languages than most other languages. This situation fossilized through Dr Johnson‘s Dictionary of the English Language in 1755.
References
English – Speak like a native! Thai pronunciation problems in English
(URL: http://englishspeaklikenative.com/resources/common-pronunciation-problems/thai-pronunciation-problems/)
Furman University – Phonology: Fricatives
(URL: http://facweb.furman.edu/~wrogers/phonemes/phono/fric.htm)
Furman University – Phonology: Affricates
(URL: http://facweb.furman.edu/~wrogers/phonemes/phono/affric.htm)
Wikipedia: Definition International Phonetic Alphabet
(URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet)
New places available for internships in autumn 2018 (Team VII): Apply now!
Students from all subjects from the University of Education Karlsruhe and PH graduates can now apply for an internship in the project “Teaching English in Laos” for autumn 2018, by 15 April 2018. Interviews will be held on 02/03 May 2018. The announcement can be found on the the AAA homepage, the internship page on this blog and the StudIP course Akademisches Auslandsamt.
Address your applications to the International Office of the PH Karlsruhe (Akademisches Auslandsamt). Details on the general application procedure can be found on the AAA homepage.
Please also send your letter of motivation and CV to the project leaders Prof. Dr. Isabel Martin (martin01@ph-karlsruhe.de) and Johannes Zeck (johanneszeck@engelfuerkinder.de).
For any further questions please contact Johannes Zeck. You may also visit the International Office (AAA) to read some reports of students who did an internship at the schools and college before. Further reports can also be found on this blog.
“Wissenschaftliche Hausarbeiten” (ZuLA) and Bachelor theses can also be written within the project. There are many subjects for research.
We look forward to your applications!
Prof. Dr. I. Martin & J. Zeck
Call for Applications: Team VII
A wish for a better education – an interview with Mr Khamsing Nanthavongdouangsy
When I met Mr Khamsing Nanthavongdouangsy, the School Manager of Ban Phan Heng Primary and Secondary School and also Lao General Manager of the Angels for Children Foundation, for the very first time, I was delighted with his positive mindset and drive. He is a charismatic and open-minded man and you can tell from his face that he has experienced a lot in his life. I decided to conduct an interview with him and was very happy when he accepted my request rightaway.
Mr Khamsing and me (Marie) on the school yard
When I prepared the interview I forgot one basic “Laos rule” that had been taught to us previously by the former volunteers: Even if you have a good plan, it does not mean that it can be implemented as you planned it. Very likely something else will happen instead.
My plan was to ask five well-formulated questions one after the other. But as soon as I asked my first question I realized that the interview would not go as I had planned – welcome to Laos!
Instead of the classic question-and-answer dialogue we ended up having a lively and personal conversation. As a result, what you are about to read is not an interview, but a glimpse into the life of Mr Khamsing before and during the project “The Laos Experience”, and his three wishes for the future.
Mr Khamsing’s life as a teacher
Mr Khamsing has a special bond to the village Sikeud and Ban Phang Heng Primary School since it is his home town and he used to be a pupil in this primary school himself. When he finished school, he went to the Teacher Training College in Vientiane, where he studied the Lao language and also acquired knowledge and competencies in pedagogics, a little bit of methodology, school politics, and the school curriculum.
Not many Lao of his generation speak English. Mr Khamsing learned the language as a child, from monks and American soldiers who were based in and around Vientiane in the 1960s and 1970s for the so-called “Secret War” (1953-1975). Members of the communist resistance movement Pathet Lao fought against the Royal Lao Government that was supported by the US Army.1
After his studies Mr Khamsing worked as a Lao and English teacher for 21 years in total. He taught children from kindergarten to high school and gained a lot of experience as a teacher, but also regarding administrative tasks.
In 1972 he started teaching in the Naxaythong district. After the revolution in 1975, when the communist organization Pathet Lao had seized power, there were only few teachers left in Laos, as many teachers who had been employed by the now obsolete Royal Lao Government fled to Thailand or the United States. Mr Khamsing decided to stay in his home town with his family and continued working as a teacher. But as life holds many suprises, he was eventually given the possibility to work for Danish investors in the mining sector, and then also to study abroad.
Beyond being a teacher
Around 1980 the Lao government opened the country bit by bit for investors and tourists. A lot of investors started to come to Laos in order to do business in different branches. At that time Mr Khamsing stopped working as a teacher and got employed by the government as an administrator and manager at a mining company specialized in sapphire in the north of Laos. There he worked with experts from Denmark for around seven years. His job was to make sure the investments proceeded correctly and in accordance with the law.
Mr Khamsing has a special relationship to Germany, too, as he went to East Germany in 1987, where he studied in Karl-Marx-Stadt (today known as Chemnitz) for six months how to work with investors. In 1989 the government sent him to Moscow, where he studied culture for two months. He learnt about different cultures, politics, and educational systems. In both countries he had an interpreter who helped him to get along since he did not speak any of these two languages.
Back in Sikeud
After he had finished the project for the mining company, he stopped working for the government and returned to Sikeud. There he was asked to work for the parent-teacher-association in Ban Phang Heng Secondary School. The idea was that the students’ social and educational development could benefit from a closer collaboration between the teachers and the parents.
At the same time, Ms Ingrid Engel, a former head mistress of a vocational school in Germany, was visiting her sister-in-law, Ms Gerlinde Engel, who used to be the manager of the Trio Export factory in Sikeud. Both had reached retirement age, but were not prepared to retire – the prospect of slowing down and achieving little in a small Bavarian town for the rest of their lives had no appeal. Instead, looking around, they saw that their future work was right in front of them: To help improve the lives of the local families. Ms Gerlinde Engel, also known as “Madame”, had already remarked the poor education of the Lao Trio Export factory workers regarding reading, writing, even counting. So the two ladies set themselves the aim to provide a better school education, equal opportunities, and also an improved overall health for Lao children in this very same area – the idea of the Angels for Children Foundation was born!
In order to give Lao children access to a better educational system, Ms Gerlinde Engel, Ms Ingrid Engel, her husband Paul Engel, and their sons Christian and Lars Engel co-founded the Angels for Children Foundation (AfC) in 2003. (The family name “Engel” happens to mean “angel” in English.) With the help of Ms Ingrid Engel’s expertise in teaching, education, and the running of a school, and with Ms Gerlinde Engel’s managerial expertise and her experience with Lao administration and customs, Ban Sikeud Primary School was the first school in Sikeud to be restructured, equipped, and renovated in 2003. It functioned as a “role model school” for the two Phang Heng Schools – and later was declared “model school” for the area of Vientiane Capital province.
Because of his experience in working with foreigners and his English skills, Mr Khamsing held good qualifications to operate as the Lao counterpart for AfC. Therefore Ms Ingrid Engel invited him to little conferences in Sikeud for the purpose of working on the AfC project with her, i.e. to support her with the development of the school. In this context Mr Khamsing was introduced to Ms Gerlinde Engel. They both shared the wish to support and help the local workers and their children in Sikeud by giving them access to a fundamental education.
In 2006 they decided to work together to achieve this goal, even though it would not always be easy (and still is not): Ms Gerlinde Engel got arrested by the Lao police more than once, and the two of them could not always count on the willingness and support of either the teachers or the government.
But thanks to Mr Khamsing’s “home advantage” and previous involvement with the communist party he knew a lot of powerful administrators and politicians who helped him every now and again to surmount bureaucratic and other difficulties to fulfil his and the two Ms Engels’ dream about a better future for the children in Sikeud.
Together they planned to invest in a higher teacher salary and therefore in a better secondary education at Ban Phang Heng Secondary School in 2007. Thanks to the money of the AfC foundation, the teachers were no longer dependent on a second job as harvest hands during the rice harvest, but could work as teachers solely. It also meant that one could ask them to show up to work every day now. Due to this change, the quality of education started improving. AfC also began rebuilding the school buildings in 2010. The reconstruction was completed in 2011, but very regrettably Ms Ingrid Engel passed away only two years later. Mr Khamsing wishes she could see how successful the project is now, almost fifteen years after she co-founded the foundation.
Mr Khamsing chats with some of the volunteers of Team V
The beginning of “Teaching English in Laos”
In 2015 Mr Khamsing visited Germany again – this time he went to West Germany, as the Lao manager of the “Angels for Children” foundation. Mr Christian and Mr Lars Engel, now the CEOs of AfC and BHS, had invited him as well as the director of the secondary school, Mr Kampheng Bounthalavong, and the English teachers Mr Souvanh Navong and Mr Bounleud Sengsavangvong, to take a look around the German firm behind the foundation and the people involved. Mr Johannes Zeck was also on the scene: He had just begun to work for BHS as the new AfC assistant.2
A visit to Karlsruhe was also on the agenda, to get to know Dr Isabel Martin, professor of English at the University of Education Karlsruhe. The idea was that after having rebuilt three state schools to make them modern and attractive on the outside, the real transformation inside was still to be achieved. Another AfC board and Engel family member knew her creative work and had recommended the contact. Prof. Martin invited the delegation to accompany her on her day’s work – which included a “Singlish” workshop in the Castle Garden park with school children, work in the Language Laboratory and her Lending Library, and a seminar with students – and Mr Khamsing was amazed by the different techniques and methods he experienced in just one afternoon regarding both teaching and learning practices. Towards the end of the afternoon, Mr Engel asked her if she could imagine creating a new project with him – “Teaching English in Laos” – and this is where our project began, in her university office on a very hot summer day in Karlsruhe, on 2 July 2015.
Mr. Khamsing Nanthavongdouangsy, Johannes Zeck, Christian Engel and Elke Sieber…
… at the tercentary in the Castle Gardens Karlsruhe
… after the “Singlish” workshop…
… and in Prof. Martin’s office at the University of Education Karlsruhe
Prof. Martin noted down her very first cross-cultural Laos-related observation that day: “Mr Khamsing was wearing a long-sleeved shirt plus a woollen pullover on top – “a very hot day in Karlsruhe”!?
For Mr Khamsing, the main difference between Lao and German schools lies in the amount of pupils per class: In Laos there are around 50-60 pupils, whereas in Germany there are only 25-30 in one classroom. Another difference is the diversity of methods and techniques that are being used in German schools. The methodology in Laos is outdated and not suitable for children. There is little encouragement to learn to think for oneself, to say something indvidually, and there is no opportunity for the children to move around. They sit patiently still all day, day after day, week after week, year after year, with their brains trailing off.3 Therefore, Mr Khamsing wants to help the government to change this, and he would like to help qualify more primary and secondary schools in the Naxaythong district like the the three schools in Ban Sikeud and Ban Phang Heng. He is highly appreciative of the good on-the-job education his teachers are getting from the German teams thanks to the support of the AfC foundation and the University of Education Karlsruhe, and he will always continue to fight to achieve his goal of a better education for the children in Sikeud and beyond.
Mr Khamsing’s wishes for the future
His three wishes for the future are to invite ever more volunteers from Karlsruhe to support and help, to employ more motivated and motivating Lao teachers, and finally to build a high school (upper secondary school) for the pupils who finish (lower) secondary schools in the area.
Along these lines I wish Mr Khamsing all the best for his future and the future of his school. May your wishes come true!
Text by M.-T. Kirsten
Photos by L. Malchow
Notes
1 To block traffic along the logistically important Ho Chi Minh Trail, Laos was heavily bombed by the United States. For nine years the country was the target of aerial bombs, and within that time period an amount of 2 million tons of bombs were dropped. There is an American Embassy in Vientiane today, which hosted the visit of the first American president to visit Laos, President Barack Obama, in 2016. The American Centre opposite now offers language classes to aspiring young urban entrepreneurs and hosts a library with books on American history, politics, and culture.
2 In 2011 Johannes (“John”) Zeck visited Laos for the first time as a traveller; during his studies in political science he came back to Laos in 2014 as a volunteer of the AfC foundation. Currently he is the “Teaching English in Laos” project coordinator of the foundation and responsible for organizing the programme, logistics, PR, field work, and official appointments in Laos.
3 Editor’s note: It can take pupils weeks to understand our questions, because they first need time to understand that we are really asking them real questions. “What is your name?” prompts the rote reply “what-is-your-name”. The parroting indicates that there cannot have been much conversation in foreign language classrooms up to this point. It takes up to two weeks to elicit the first correct reply from a new classroom of 50-60 children. This is a key moment for us teachers! And after about two years of insisting on real communication, we started to perceive changes in classroom interaction in the classrooms generally – not only in the English lessons…
“From Laos with love”: Language twists and how not to lose your pet – by guest author Beate Pinisch
A post on facebook by a Lao friend got me thinking. It started with finding two words funny and ended with my theorizing about linguistic quirks of the Lao and German language.
My Lao friend had sent an article and added we should “lie” and “sae” (transcribed from original Lao spelling).
“sae” and “lie” on facebook
Why would they write (and speak) “lie” instead of “lie-K”? After all, there is a “k” (actually more than one) in the Lao alphabet. Are the Lao not able to pronounce a “K” sound at the end of a word? But they are! Take muak (hat), nok (bird), viak (work), or luk (child). Why not like? Well, while there are lots of Lao words with a “K”-sound at the end, none of them have an [aι] sound prior to it.
Chugging along my train of thought I also found the same after an [au] sound, as in [hau/s].
I think I found a similarity to the German language. Are you a cinema buff? Do you know how foreign movie makers characterize a German? Right, by letting them pronounce the [ð] like a [z]. “Look over zere, zey are already in ze building”, etc. Are we Germans not able to pronounce a correct [ð]? But we are! However, I remember thinking, when I was in ze school, and ze teacher introduced ze “th”, how awful zat sounded. Actually more like a lisp. And I did not want to sound funny or like having a speech impediment. No way. So of course I started out, like so many of my friends, pronouncing the [ð] as a [z]. That sounded so much better! Maybe it is the same feeling preventing our Lao colleagues to speak a [k] at the end of a word following an [aι] sound?
Different for the “sae” (share). There just is no sound such as [ʃ] in the Lao language. People quite successfully substitute that by speaking an [s]. So the transcription [sae] for “share” was quite logical. As far as I remember the Lao were quite able to pronounce such sounds that do actually not exist in their own language. When my children were small and we were quite poor I used to moonlight as an English teacher (giving private lessons for students who really really wanted to pass their exams). After a few tries all of them mastered sounds that had no equivalent in the Lao language. I also remember my first Russian lessons from my own childhood – very impressed at how they roll their “rrrrrs” I tried it, too. I could not do it. So in the course of the next few days and weeks I tried and tried and tried until I was proudly able to roll the [r].
What are your experiences in your work as teachers? Is it easier for you to teach sounds that are completely new? Or is it easier to train sounds that are already used, but in different combinations? How do you manage to teach complex sounds? What if there is more than one “strange” sound in one word?
Coming back to my very short experience as an English teacher, I confess I was quite unsuccessful in teaching when it came to more complex “sound-scapes”. Actually, having lost a dog to thieves I then decided to name our pets so their names were impossible to pronounce. I still have to see the thief who is able to call a cat that is named “Urlaub” ( [ˈuːɐ̯laʊ̯p], German for “vacation”). I was even meaner: I used “Strolchi” [strolçi] and “Maxl” [maksl]. Thus I was able to make up for my lack of teaching success and change a frustrating situation into an extremely pleasing one.
Text by B. Pinisch
Photo/still from video by V. Golla
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