Teaching English to English Teachers

As part of a new plan, the ministry of education in El Salvador requires english to be taught in every school. It's a good idea, but the majority of the english teachers don't know english. In a lot of schools, the former math teacher or social studies teacher or whoever was simply chosen to be the english teacher. So, as part of training, myself and the 7 other youth development trainees put on a 4 hour english 'taller' (workshop) for local english teachers. We actually got a pretty good turnout (about 40) with levels ranging from very very low to nearly fluent (although most were on the low side.)

The taller was brokent into three sections--pronunciation, grammar (beginning and advanced), and vocabulary. We split the four lessons up and worked in groups of two. Unfortunately, my partner has been sick for the last week, so I had to prepare for and give my entire grammar lesson by myself. I do enjoy working by myself, but I was very nervous about being alone in front of a class. However, after yesterday, I'm not so nervous. My class went quite well. For the most part, the games I played were well-recepted, and my lesson, at least I think, was pretty clear (despite being given first in English and then in Spanish.

I really felt for these teachers, because they are put in a tough place. I'm sure they are all happy to have jobs, but working in schools here in El Salvador is amazingly difficult. Teachers in the states complain about overcrowded classrooms, lack of supplies, and little administrative support (and those complaints are justified), but the obstacles faced by the teachers in El Sal, dwarf those in the states. And on top of all that, the teachers I worked with yesterday are asked to teach a subject that they themselves are currently learning. And the turnout yesterday, for 4 hours on a saturday morning, to a non-required taller shows these teachers' enthusiasm and desire to learn.