[etni] [FWD: The modular unseen]
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- To: etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 23 Jan 2005 12:51:48 -0700
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-------- Original Message --------
Subject: The modular unseen
From: "Itzik" <im-meron@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
I have been teaching English at highschool level for 30 years now. With
every periodical change in Bagrut formats, I have managed to adapt my
teaching techniques to the new requirements and thus successfully
prepare the students for their Bagrut exam in particular and for
tertiary education in general.
It goes without saying that a learner of a foreign language, who is, on
the whole, not exposed to the language itself outside of school,
requires tools with which to "climb" the linguistic ladder in order to
tackle the English exam. That required an ability by the teacher "to
enter" the mind of the exam writers, discover the skill being tested
and pass it on to the student with directed teaching of the various
techniques required to master those skills.So if, for example, there
was a completion question which tested the passive, the student
recognized the structure being tested and was then able to apply and
use his knowledge of the structure in answering a question of
comprehension.
With the modular Bagrut, the student requires none of these tools, at
least not in direct use. In other words, a student may very well answer
all questions in the unseen correctly without having to use ANY of the
grammatical structures acquired throughout his schooling. He will not
need the conditional, the passive, phrasal verbs, special structures,
relative clauses, reported speech, most tenses, etc etc Even in his
"composition" (which has been reduced to paragraph writing), there is
no need to include these structures in order to attain a high mark.
Now, we, English teachers, are told to teach a whole global language
without the provision of helping tools which are the student's crutches
when it comes to acquisition of a second language. Teach a baby to walk
without his legs.How on earth do you teach a child to comprehend if you
don't supply him with the tools to do so? Under the New Bagrut, these
tools are redundant! How do you teach one to be intelligent, which is
what is asked of the English teacher now?
I understand the need to prepare students for academic studies where
they need to grapple with professional bibliography in English, but the
New Bagrut requirements will not do the job, for they do away with the
whole English language edifice that has been systematically built for
years only to be replaced with an exam in which the good students will
do well in without any need to even study English at school, while the
unintelligent ones will fail miserably even with the best teaching, or
else will suffice with module A or B or C at best!!
I do hope that these comments are taken into account next time an exam
is written.
Sincerely yours,
Liora Meron
email: liorameron@xxxxxxxxxxx
Phone No. : 09-7716355
Mobile: 054-6860063
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