By mashod93
I recently received my placement of volunteer, which is working at an Oromo center in Old Maadi, Cairo, and I couldn't be happier!! I have been working with Oromo refugees that have been kicked out of Ethiopia and, most of them, smuggled across the boarders of Sudan. All of them forced to leave their families and sense of home behind, it has been amazing to see how willing and excited they are to learn English.
There is a very mixed group as far as levels of comprehension and vocabulary go so...
I've been doing lessons with themes such as means of transportation, buying clothes, place names/giving directions, ordering food/drinks in restaurants because I found it easier to adapt the lesson as I went and engage students with different levels that way. Lessons have mostly been speaking- and vocabulary-based, with very little writing/grammar - really only enough to become conversational with lots of practice. Because I am the only teacher for a class that varies greatly each day (sometimes only four men show up, sometime fourteen do), I try and incorporate as much group or partner work as possible. This is what I have found most effective and that way, I can give more one on one time to the students that need help with basics such as the alphabet.
Each time I have returned, it seems that the men have almost prepared questions or comments using what we have learned to the best of their ability, which is so encouraging! This is when I feel that yes, each lesson does make a difference. It's most rewarding when I notice one of the students truly understand a more complicated lesson or even word and then have him implement the rule or meaning into a sentence on his own.
The only frustrating part for me has been how difficult it is to be organized and communicate clearly about future plans due to the language barrier and the long commute. Because most of the students are on very different levels as far as comprehension of the language goes, it is hard to tailor one class lesson for everyone. I wish that I had enough time so that I could afford to have the lower level students come in for more one-on-one time to establish a better basic foundation of the language. That is something I would like to work on over the semester, maybe having a separate class for the beginners as well as having them attend the original class time.
I truly feel that all of this has been facilitated by the timing and the fact that I am also currently a student learning a language. I have been a student my whole life and have undergone learning several languages which I think will be my saving grace as that will hopefully continue to allow me to be empathetic and more intuitive about how to learn a language. To be continued...