The curriculum is clear:
Oral language helps students build more
sophisticated understandings, explore relationships among ideas,
and explore questions in their reading and writing. (117; English
Language Arts 8 to 12: Integrated Resource Package 2007 published
by the B.C. Ministry of Education and implemented in 2008 for B.C.
Schools)
The Ministry suggests that teachers in senior
grades use between 15 and 25% of their marks allocation to evaluate
students’ oral language. In my classes, I have chosen the higher
figure (25%) in order to emphasize the importance of oral language
to a student’s eventual success. Based on the experiences of my own
children in B.C. universities, it is essential that a graduate
intending to go on to post secondary study is comfortable speaking
and listening in the English language.
And, if my son’s sympathy for those who struggle
is any indication, those who gain entrance to university without
these essential skills are at a serious disadvantage. He has said to
me on more than one occasion that he “feels sorry” for students
whose first language is other than English during a presentation or
class discussion. My wife, a Human Resources Manager, tells me
often that a lack of fluency in speaking and listening has prevented
an otherwise competent employee from gaining a higher, and more
highly paid, position.
What does this all mean for a teacher of English
in 2010? For me, it has meant a substantial change in my teaching
approach. I place students in groups extensively through the term:
to solve a problem collectively, to discuss a difficult text, to
respond to a multi-media presentation. No matter what the materials
selected, students will disagree and meet with a range of ways of
looking at the world and ways of interpreting meaning (especially
given the diverse ages and backgrounds in my classes).
Perhaps the best way to convince the readers of
this Weekly Feature of the importance of oral language is to quote a
former student expressing her feelings at the end of a recent term
(at our student blog): “I’ve never experienced a class that was so
interactive. I found myself speaking up in many of the class
discussions, when I have normally kept silent in the past.”
If she, and other students of mine, can experience
a positive change in confidence in a safe, teacher-led, classroom of
ideas, I have done my job in keeping with our Ministry’s resource
package. To other teachers I say that making these changes has lead
to improvements in the atmosphere of my classes and to students
truly getting to know what others think and learning, at the same
time, to defend their own interpretations (or to change their
thinking!).
I encourage all teachers to increase the oral
component in their classrooms, especially those working with the
diverse and complex population found in adult programs.
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