Well, today has been our first teaching day. It feels good to finally get to the part of the trip
where I have some experience to offer! My group was assigned the beginning English learners. I was expecting to get an intermediate level group, so that threw me for a loop for a bit, but my group has been champions about it. We had 5 students today, 3 girls and 2 guys. They all speak varying levels of English, and I would say that they understand more orally then they are able to put into words. This is something I have been able to totally sympathize with after trying to speak French for a week and a half.Our lesson this morning centered around food service and restaurants since that was an area that Songhai requested that we teach on. As always happens with teaching, we ended up adjusting our lesson on the fly as we discovered the lack of speaking vocabulary for our students. We spent our first hour this morning learning what different pieces of a
place setting were called, and we had our servers in the group explain to everyone what utensils are used during different meals at the restaurant. It was really fun, and our servers got to show off their expertise for the other two students who work in other areas of Songhai (secretary and agriculture).After a short break we decided to work on food names. We learned/reviewed the vocabulary using food we obtained from the restaurant and pictures. After we practiced for a little while, we taught our students how to play bingo for vocabulary practice. We had made game boards using the different foods we would be teaching. Once we figured out how to explain the rules, our students had lots of fun. We progressed the game from easy (we showed the word and said it, and our students matched it with the picture on the board), to difficult (they saw the picture and had to silently find the word without anyone pronouncing it). We had a ton of fun, and even our student with the least amount of English, Emilee, was winning games. After that we practiced using the words to order food, and then had time for them to ask us questions. Imelda and Diana wanted to know other animal words from the menu in English.
The lesson was great because our students learned some really useful vocabulary that they can use in the restaurant. They liked playing the game and winning our Tootsie-roll prizes. The girls reminded me of how important it is to learn vocabulary and content in fun ways when memorizing new things. By the end of our time, they could identify in English any of our foods using either the picture or the word.
I was also reminded again that you have to use all your language skills when working with students who may not be fluent in English. We drew, pantomimed, talked around a word, used sounds...all sorts of methods to get our students to understand what we were saying, and for us to understand what they had to say.
At the heart of our teaching is one of our purposes for being here: speaking Engl
ish is a valuable skill. Africa is a changing economy. For Benin to be able to grow and be a part of the international world, they need to have English as well as French speaking skills. 30 percent of the people who come to Songhai Center speak English, African and European. Those who work here need English speaking skills. Emilee, our limited English speaker said it best, they need English because it is important for the center but it is also important for all of Benin. This is something that I will think more about tonight, and will write about again.Off to afternoon class. I hope all of you are safe and well. I can't wait to be home with you all!
