[etni] Fw: The problem of levels

----- Original Message ----- From: byk - byk@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: The problem of levels

Dear List,

i would like to address several problems which I see cropping up more and more frequently in my private practice.

The first one is teachers assigning material which is way beyond the level of the class they are teaching. I don't want to mention the name of a story that was assigned to a 9th grade class, in case the teacher is on the list and take offense. It is a brilliant story, which I wouldn't be ashamed of assigning to university students of English literature. What is the point of giving students something from which they can learn nothing, because it is way above their heads?

The second problem is that of projects, the darling of the new curriculum. More and more students are spending days of precious time, when they could be improving their English, improving their computer skills. they hand in delightfully professional looking projects, but have acquired very little English in the process. Iknow that many of you out there are very happy with the projects, but I'm afraid that many teachers out there - probably not the ones on the list - are completely at sea when it comes to asking students to do projects.

The last problem is the teaching of grammar. I am not against teaching grammar; I am not even against teaching it out of context (horror!), but I believe it should be taught extremely carefully, otherwise the students come up with the most dreadful misunderstandings, and what is worse, when they can't make head or tail of it, it tends to create a barrier to their learning the language. Nevertheless, many teachers are devoting a great deal of teaching time to grammar, and what is worse, often giing as much as 40 points to it on tests. Some students, whose English is quite competent, end up with low marks because of this, and then start devoting an inordinate amount of time and their parents' money, to overcoming this barrier.

I can't help feeling that the new curriculum doesn't give teachers enough guidance as to what to expect at what level. I know this is difficult, because of the heterogeneity of today's students, but nonetheless, and despite tv and the internet and travel abroad, a great many students are floundering, and need more attention paid to basics.

I appologise for this very long posting, and I do hope that it stikes a chord, because I see boththe teacher and the student population suffering for lack of clear guidelines.

hag Sameach
Jennifer Byk

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