TEACHING PRACTICE RECONSIDERED: TARTU ANNELINNA GYMNASIUM PROJECT Natalja Zagura, Ülle Türk
Department of English Studies, University of Tartu
The English language seems to be everywhere, and, in most people’s minds, young people “catch” it merely by being exposed to the language through pop culture, social media and computer games. The reality, however, is somewhat different. Though many young people do acquire spoken English fairly easily through the out-of-school use of the language, there are others whose contact with English is mostly limited to the school context and who see this language just as a school subject, not as a means of communication. This problem of students having surprisingly little contact with the English language and limited motivation to study it came to our attention when visiting Tartu Annelinna Gymnasium, a school where most students’ first language is other than Estonian and where the Estonian language immersion programme has been used successfully for years. It is certainly understandable that with the focus on mastering Estonian, while also developing their Russian language skills, students might find it cognitively difficult to engage with yet another language. Nevertheless, having discussed the problem with the teachers of English, who struggle to improve their students’ language skills, we could see that, partly at least, the problem lies in students’ lack of an urgent need to study English as they do not see its immediate usefulness for them. It was hypothesised that students’ learning outcomes would improve if they were made aware why it is useful for them to be good at English, how to study the language more effectively and what use could be made of the English language skills outside the school context. To test the hypothesis, it was decided to develop a special elective course for tenth graders, as they would benefit most from some guidance and motivation for studying English, which would hopefully improve their practices and performance during the three-year period of studies at secondary school. To put this idea into practice, the Department of English Studies of the University of Tartu decided to cooperate with Tartu Annelinna Gymnasium and to apply for funding from the European Structural Fund programme geared to language learning for success in the labour market (Euroopa Liidu Struktuuritoetus). The project was set up in the summer of 2017. Within the two-year project, eight MA students of the Teacher of Foreign Languages programme would design a 35-hour conversational English course, develop materials and activities for it and teach it to tenth-grade students of Tartu Annelinna Gymnasium. Below, the course design process (focussing on the needs analysis), the course content and the most popular activities as well as the lessons learnt will be discussed. We share this information in the hope that our experience could inspire other teachers of English who experience similar problems with their students to supplement their courses with motivating materials and activities. The conversational English course is meant to supplement the compulsory course of English and 7
