Implementing "Active Learning" In Beginner EFL Classes

Introduction

            This is a performance for both Common Core and 1Bac students.  It is intended to directly involve students in the learning process and put them at the heart of the learning situation. It is also intended to engage, and stimulate the learners by giving them the opportunity to raise questions and participate in the making of the lesson. That’s what is referred to as “learning by doing”.

            The point is to go beyond the traditional usual (boring) type of EFL lessons which the students no longer feel like taking. This generation longs for new strategies which would help them construct meaning and become active learners for learning actively and creatively.

            The following activity is a kind of a true to life situation where grammar is integrated to sustain comprehension and subsequently natural English use in concordance with appropriate normal body talk, gestures and facial expressions. It might be a little time consuming activity, but the results are rewarding.

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Critical Writing for High School Students

Introduction

           

              High school students are not required to review or analyse books and authors’ ideas for which critical writing is basically used, they can instead be introduced to it through writing about the ideas they are the most familiar with and which they have to support or reject calmly and reasonably. Training on using logical evidence to prove or disapprove an idea is the start. In this early stage of critical writing, the students get to learn how to use solid arguments to support or rebut an idea or a notion. The students should bear in mind that critical writing is not descriptive or evocative, neither is it criticism for the sake of criticism.

              Critical writing is based on logic, evidence and persuasion where vague and common standpoints have no place within this type of serious work. No emotions, no opinionated attitudes, no conceit or weak evidence, no readymade authoritative assertions are allowed in critical writing. The students should learn to be unbiased, inflexible, steady, but also logical and reasonable in their methods. As they learn to evaluate everything they come across and not just accept it as it is, they also learn to write taking into consideration that the readers will most probably evaluate their product critically before they accept it. This is a valuable gain even for outside school situations. Once the students get acquainted with these conditions and regulations, they will have a much smoother access to higher academic education, and labour market.

              For a start, the learners should bear in mind that, at the University, critical writing is a tough task in the sense that it is almost scientific in its procedure. It is systematic and methodical. The students must make research to be able to “criticise” an author, a book or an idea. When criticising a literary work for instance, they must read a lot and conduct analysis to which results they have to commit. They also should check if the arguments have logical coherence or not and if they are supported by relevant evidence. Besides, they must check if the reasons are related to each other leading to a valid conclusion. They should go further and see if the author is biased. To be prepared for all this, the high school students should at least be trained through the basics of critical writing, but via academically approved models.

              At the first glance these conditions look excessive and very complicated for EFL learners. This might be true in part, but the more they practice it this way, the less stupid pieces of writing they do, and the more they accept to write. Teachers know how students behave towards writing, and the amount of despise they have for it. This is due to their ignorance of how to handle writing from the beginning to the end. Sometimes they write whatever they have in mind just like on social media. Without models to follow, they are like walking in the dark, they would stumble and fall and maybe give in. So, any procrastinating is an immense waste of precious opportunities.

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The Illusory Nature Of Life

         In theory, we are all aware that life is a mirage; nonetheless, fools as we are, we still run after it. We think we can get everything we want from life. In fact, we can’t get anything at all for one thing: it is naturally illusive. All its pleasures are not only temporary, but they are dreamlike as well, so why bother killing oneself for illusive momentary pleasures. Life’s temptation and seduction are so powerful and unbeatable that they can wipe out expectations and dreams cold bloodedly. Therefore many prudent people simply choose to seize the day.

          You are told that life is short, and you are advised to enjoy every single moment of it. This motivational advice is worth taking; however, are all the moments of life really enjoyable? It has some such stressful moments that we have just to accept and experience their sufferings helplessly in silence.  Well, I am talking here like someone who knows what life is really like. No, I don’t. It is true that I have a relatively long relationship with it, but Alas, I still don’t know much; All the same, I’ll try to share the little I know with you.

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Beyond The Usual Teaching Job

Abstract

                        The teacher gives examples, but the educator tries to be the example. The teacher who moves from teaching the syllabus to teaching the learners becomes educator. The teacher who dares to step beyond the usual job she does, and starts cultivating hope, at that very moment she is becoming a mentor and an educator.

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Saying « No » without uttering the word

         There are situations in life where we can’t get free from inconvenient obligations but only through saying “No”. However, there are ways to soften the blow especially when it comes to requests. This word no matter how little it is, it hurts badly. Therefore, this word can be said in a less shocking way. As the result is always declining the request, it’s better to do that positively and more tenderly.

            By “Saying ‘NO’ without uttering the word”, I don’t mean shaking heads or using the forefinger. The topic is a little more formal. Why does it matter not to say “No!” in response to questions in general but particularly for rejecting a request, refusing to give permission or turning down an invitation? Some people are shocked when they get a harsh abrupt “No!” as an answer. Subsequently, tactful and considerate people try hard to avoid being offensive, vulgar and rough, so they use mild language and very soft terms to decline a request without being rude. They are good at using other expressions that mean the same as “No” without uttering the deplorable word.

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The question of interdependence between Imagination and writing

Introduction

Imagination and writing are mutually dependent; each one feeds from the other. Imagination gives writing a soul and a spirit, while writing renders imagination tangible. In other words, imagination can be better expressed through writing, and writing can be improved through expressing imagination creatively. It is through converting it into writing that imagination gets a value and a meaning, and it is through imagination that writing becomes lively, alluring and more significant. It is thanks to understanding and mastering this combination that some writers become eminent novelists and famous authors.

            It is not out of insanity to believe that imagination is more important than knowledge. If the students become able to use writing to express imagination creatively, they can create knowledge or explore other parts of it. Imagination is always prolific and can add to knowledge as knowledge is limited. Narrow-mindedness is what limits imagination and bars the way for new discoveries. Many of what we consider facts today have been the outcome of science-fiction intelligent imaginative writers like “Jules Verne”, “Victor Appleton”, “Karel Čapek” who first talked about Robots, and “H.G. Wells” who inspired scientists to think about the positive use of Atomic energy. A great deal of what we take for knowledge today was only the imagination of some writers in the past.

            If the students succeed in combining their thoughts and dreams with their willingness to write, they will certainly broaden their imagination scope and sharpen their writing skills. This combination has to always be nourished and taken care of to reach high levels of transcendence. And this is feasible only through regular practice transforming the virtual world of imagination into words on a sheet of paper as artistically as possible. Writing revives imagination. It protects its valuable ideas from being wasted. Writing gives imagination the high admiration it deserves if it presents it fabulously. By boosting imagination through writing, writing also automatically boosts intelligence and creativity.

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Writing for Problem Solving

Foreword

            No one can deny the fact that problems constitute a great part of our life, and they often make it worth living. We survive through struggling against them. They are the main source for hope and dreaming of a better “tomorrow”. It is true that those problems exhaust us badly, but in the end we can defeat and solve the greatest part of them and carry on with life. It is always a great pleasure when we eventually solve our problems, and build up experience to go on with life. However, many people find it hard to keep thinking all the time how to solve a problem that has suddenly invaded their life without their consent, and that’s what happens most of the time. No one chooses to create problems for themselves, but this often happens involuntarily. They only see problems as mere troubles turning their life into hell.

            These people never want to admit that everyone is subject to different kinds of problems, and they keep complaining “Why me?!” You can smell objection but also defeatism in the phrase. It seems hard for them to deal with thorny problems which surpass their capacities. This is so because they don’t know how to treat them critically; as a result, they get irritated and worried. Those more experienced people can find their way to solve their problems effortlessly, whereas those with little or no experience, easily give up the struggle pretending that their problems are problematic, i.e. they are mixed up with other associated problems, so they get cornered and they surrender at once.

            Learners have their own problems as well, and they have to deal with them to survive. Their problems are as young as they are, so they are mostly simple and can often be solved when the learners could detect and follow the causes; which they don’t generally do because they still need the way and the tools. That’s why voices of practitioners in the field of education rise for the necessity to integrate teaching critical thinking for problem solving and decision making in the school curricula. The learners need to learn how to face their problems, no matter how they are, calmly and start thinking how to find a way out with those problems. Here comes writing to be a good tool to use in exploring and dissecting the possible causes of the problem so as to fix them and find suitable solutions; then pick out the most suitable solution among them. This can be done through thinking by writing.

            No doubt writing is a High cognitive complexity task due to the great number of elements included in its making. However, when it comes to using it for thinking, it is less formal and more a free writing. It has to respect the general rules for legibility only, but apart from that, it is no more than a way to stay tuned on your focal task. If the learners can just train on this process regularly they would gradually develop both writing and problem solving skills.

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