Tesol Arabia forum

Six Sharjah Women's College students present a paper on the challenges of learning English

We have all written term papers in college, but seldom do we get a chance to present our work at an international conference. Six students from Sharjah Women's College (SWC) have proved that this is not impossible.

Salwa Huwair, Fatima Al Marzouqi, Mariam Al Hammadi, Amani Al Ali, Hajar Al Echtibi and Maitha Al Tunaiji not only presented their paper on the challenges of learning English at the recent TESOL Arabia conference held in Dubai, but also received a certificate for The Best of TESOL Arabia 2005.

The students' work focused on their personal experiences related to learning English as a foreign language (EFL), and provided feedback for EFL teachers.

The idea was conceived by Geoffrey Stout, a higher diploma English teacher at SWC.

Speaking to Notes, Stout said, "After attending every TESOL Arabia conference I know that virtually all the time it's teachers speaking to fellow teachers. I thought it would be different and interesting to hear the voices of some learners."

Stout's assumptions proved right, for the conference proposals committee voted his students' proposal among the top five per cent. The students shared Stout's enthusiasm about the topic.

According to Amani, a business administration student, they selected this issue because "English is an international language and students should learn it to communicate with people, especially in the UAE, which is a multicultural country".

They presented their work as a session titled Learners in the Spotlight. The paper was divided into three sections, namely, Effective and Ineffective Learning Strategies; Effective and Ineffective Methods of Teaching English and Suggestions for Teachers and Learners.

After discussing personal language acquisition experiences in the first two sections, the students provided pointers for both educators and students. Maitha, a business information technology student, shared part of the presentation with Notes.

"Teachers must keep trying to find new methods that help students remember the vocabulary."

She suggested making a connection between the words and "a special situation or picture".

Educators should be encouraging

Further, educators should be encouraging and "make them [students] love the subject," Maitha said, "by being creative and compiling different tools together to make the class interesting."

She cited the use of graphics and sound through Microsoft PowerPoint as one way of doing so.

Finally, there should be "some variety in teaching," she said, so teachers should assign students different tasks.

According to the students, learners can improve their command of English by concentrating on five areas: reading, vocabulary, writing, listening and speaking.

"Avoid reading anything that you know is too difficult for you. Reading should be a pleasure, so the texts should be within your range," said Maitha.

To develop vocabulary, she recommended using a dictionary whenever you are reading.

Writing can be improved by summarising anything you have read.

"Keeping a diary is an excellent way of improving your written English," said Maitha, "as it is constant practice, you are writing about true experiences and [students learn] three writing styles: telling, description and reflection."

Listening to the dialogue instead of reading the Arabic subtitles in English movies and watching talk shows and news are other pointers for learners.

The students also recommend the constant practising of English by finding a conversation partner or speaking to family and friends.

"Keep in mind that learning a language is a gradual process - it does not happen overnight," said Maitha.

The writer is a mass communications student and editor of the university newspaper at the American University of Sharjah