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Nowadays schools are very boring, I like staying at home and playing computer games" I remembered one of the sixth-formers words when I sat down at my desk to finish the letter to a friend of mine.

Suddenly an idea came to my mind. What if I start a thread in the forum about school in general and particularly teaching English in the school of the future.

1. What do you think school will be like in the future?

2. Do you think on-line English schools will become more popular?

3. Is it real to see computers in the classrooms instead of teachers?

The list of the questions can be very long. I'd like you to write your own questions and then we could discuss the most important ones. I hope the issue is urgent. I look forward to hearing your ideas soon.

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[quote name='Harry Smith' post='7912' date='5.3.2009, 0:22'

1. How do you think school will be like in the future?

2. Do you think on-line English schools will become more popular?

3. Is it real to see computers in the classrooms instead of teachers?

Well, I've got a couple of ideas, but of course any such prediction will not work in the long run as long-term predictions require a much deeper knowledge of the entire situation and the latest developments in technology. But anyway, here ome some of my ideas:

1. I think that it is quite possible that schools - or, rather students - will become much more mobile. On the one hand, they are more prepared to move around, use new technology such as handhelds and mobile phones for learning. On the other hand, schools also need to change to better face the depopulation problem. If we talk about profile aschool, there are very few schools at present which can provide high-quality education in several profiles, fo some schools supporting even one profile is a problem due to the lack of teachers. So it's very likely that student in the near future will start their day at one school and then move on to another one to have whatever classes their own school could not provide. More and more of study materials will be delivered through modern technology, which leads on to your next question.

2. I am not sure that online English language schools will be very popular as such. There are some subjects that can be learned through online and other forms of distance learning, but foreign languages are perhaps the hardest subjects for independent and distance learning due to the simple fact that you need to cummunicate while learning a language. Communication applications like Skype are now all the fashion, but they ar emore suitable for delivering a lecture or a presentation, or for one-on-one teaching rather than for quality teaching of a class. So I'd say that in spite of the increase in popularity of such forms of learning, in the next few years they'll still be a rare thing at our schools. But, as I said earlier, students will be getting more access to online resources and information, so the share of independent work and distance teaching of English will increase, although it is not likely to fully replace face-to-face teaching any time soon.

3. I can very easily picture a situation when for some lessons or training sessions students will be working with computers more than with a teacher, or a lesson (e.g. test preparation) could be done entirely through computers. But I do not think that it is yet possible to learn only from computers. Ideally, I'd think, a lesson will incorporate ICT component, like, for example, multimedia supplements (in this forum you can download some files from the supplements to the "Enjoy English" textbooks, and also there are links to online downloadable supplements to Millie Starter and New Millennium English 5 textbooks, which could be easily used both in the lesson and for homework), but still a teacher will be indispensable for steering the lesson, making decisions on the mode, tempo and direction of learning, helping students overcome their difficulties etc. Does that answer your qquestions? of course, this is only my personal opinion based only on my own, somewhat limited experience.

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...But anyway, here ome some of my ideas:

1. I think that it is quite possible that schools - or, rather students - will become much more mobile. On the one hand, they are more prepared to move around, use new technology such as handhelds and mobile phones for learning. On the other hand, schools also need to change to better face the depopulation problem...

2. I am not sure that online English language schools will be very popular as such. There are some subjects that can be learned through online and other forms of distance learning, but foreign languages are perhaps the hardest subjects for independent and distance learning due to the simple fact that you need to cummunicate while learning a language...

3. I can very easily picture a situation when for some lessons or training sessions students will be working with computers more than with a teacher, or a lesson (e.g. test preparation) could be done entirely through computers. But I do not think that it is yet possible to learn only from computers...

 

Thanks a lot for your answer! Actually we have a lot in common in this matter. I'd like to hear some other members, too.

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Thanks a lot for your answer! Actually we have a lot in common in this matter. I'd like to hear some other members, too.

I totally agree with Alexey`s point of view but would like to point out that in this question a lot depends on how far that future is!If one-to- one lessons via internet are a reality today, why don`t you think it possible that there may be lessons with groups of pupils in future?I can easily imagine a group of pupils listening and speaking to the teacher on the screen.Why not?

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I totally agree with Alexey`s point of view but would like to point out that in this question a lot depends on how far that future is!If one-to- one lessons via internet are a reality today, why don`t you think it possible that there may be lessons with groups of pupils in future?I can easily imagine a group of pupils listening and speaking to the teacher on the screen.Why not?

 

 

I am having some of my private classes with a help of skype. We write, speak and discuss different topics... Moreover they do tests and it doesn't take much time... I think that in 30 years time English won't be taught at school as a school subject...Children can learn English watching their favourite cartoons, films and playing games....But some of the main school subjects will be taught in English... Teachers of English will be different too. They will study at English speaking countries to own the language fluently.

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Sorry, but I don't think so! For what purpose should teachers of English study at English speaking countries - only to own the language fluently? Do you think that's the main thing to broad up primary school and secondary school pupils? Dont you think that in 30 years the Russian or the Chinese will be the international language? :lol:

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Sorry, but I don't think so! For what purpose should teachers of English study at English speaking countries - only to own the language fluently? Do you think that's the main thing to broad up primary school and secondary school pupils? Dont you think that in 30 years the Russian or the Chinese will be the international language? :lol:

What you've written raises a broader problem of English as a Global Language, by which most reserachers mean that nowadays there are no "righr" or "wrong" varieties of English, and RP has just the same value as any of American regional variations. Even more so, Russian English is a variety of English as well, because we have certain culture-based idioms that will be easily understood by any Russian speaker of English and will be lost on any non-Russian speaker who does not share the Russian cultural knowledge. Likewise, certain British idioms will not be understood by people who grew up in the USA and vice versa, although both for the British and the Americans under consideration English is a native language.

But from the point of view of methodology, no matter what the forecast for any language may be, a good teacher is not necessarily a native speaker, but rather a person, who is familiar with teaching methodology, psychology etc and has a good command of the target language. You will probably agree that not every native speaker will necessarily make a better language teacher than a foreigner who speaks English well and has been trained to teach it. Apart from many other extralinguistic factors, the quality of teachers' education seems to be more important than the countrythey got it in.

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What you've written raises a broader problem of English as a Global Language, by which most reserachers mean that nowadays there are no "righr" or "wrong" varieties of English, and RP has just the same value as any of American regional variations. Even more so, Russian English is a variety of English as well, because we have certain culture-based idioms that will be easily understood by any Russian speaker of English and will be lost on any non-Russian speaker who does not share the Russian cultural knowledge. Likewise, certain British idioms will not be understood by people who grew up in the USA and vice versa, although both for the British and the Americans under consideration English is a native language.

But from the point of view of methodology, no matter what the forecast for any language may be, a good teacher is not necessarily a native speaker, but rather a person, who is familiar with teaching methodology, psychology etc and has a good command of the target language. You will probably agree that not every native speaker will necessarily make a better language teacher than a foreigner who speaks English well and has been trained to teach it. Apart from many other extralinguistic factors, the quality of teachers' education seems to be more important than the countrythey got it in.

Wow! Your English is so perfect and your methodology knowlege is so deep that... I thank you a lot and I'm so impressed that I ...don't know what to say :D

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Wow! Your English is so perfect and your methodology knowlege is so deep that... I thank you a lot and I'm so impressed that I ...don't know what to say :D

Thank you very much for the compliments, but I'd say that my English is, let's put it this way, colloquial, and it is so only because I do a lot of reading in English for research and teaching on a daily basis.

As for the methodology, I believe that you don't really have to be a native speaker to teach Eglish well, although, of course, a certain level of proficiency in English is a must here. What is more important is a good knowledge of methodology, pedagogy and sociocultural information to be able to explain to children in a way that they will easily understand how a language works and why. Often I am asked questions or face issues in linguistics that I cannot answer and explain. I always tell my students that I am not sure what the correct answer is, or why something in the language is the way it is, but I always try to look it up somewhere, ask questions here in the forum, find some information on the internet etc. Withe the multitudes of information resources that we have access to now it has become so much easier than, say, when I was a student and I treasured every video or audio material recorded by a native speaker. I would not a gree that we as teachers of English - or as interpreters, for that matter, are facing a bleak future because although students have more exposure to native speakers and authentic materials both inside and outside the classroom, they still need us as "facilitators", as a helping hand that will assiste them in choosing the resources, show how to use language for certain purposes and generally help them not only to make their first steps but also all the way to fluency in the language. Although the internet increases learner autonomy , the role of the teacher will still be just as great, if only somewhat changed. I, for one, welcome this transition from the role of an instructor to that of a facilitator because it makes my own work a bit easier and more interesting too.

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You don't really have to be a native speaker to teach Eglish well,

 

Reading this sentence in Alexey's post I remembered a friend of mine (His name is Ray Reeder. He was a Peace Corp. Volunteer in Armenia and was teaching English with me in the same school.) Whenever the children asked him to explain this or that grammatical structure he used to say: "Ask Harry Smith for help. I can speak English fluently but I don't know how to teach you." So very soon we changed the methods of teaching at school. As he was a volunteer and didn't get any salary at school we started teaching together in the same classroom. The children had two teachers in class.... I think that in future there will be two teachers of English in class. One of them should be a native speaker... Nice idea, isn't it?

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\ I think that in future there will be two teachers of English in class. One of them should be a native speaker... Nice idea, isn't it?

 

the nicest ever! :ph34r:

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I think that in future there will be two teachers of English in class. One of them should be a native speaker... Nice idea, isn't it?

The idea is good, although it's not so easy to realise at the moment, what with all the legal and bureacratic issues involved.

Team teaching is an interesting way of teaching, and I've experienced soe as a student in an American university. Like with any other teaching, some lessons were pretty good, and others not so good. With team teaching it's very important to distinctly draw the borders between the roles of the teachers. That is, either each teacher teaches on his own at a particular stage of the lesson, or both teachers work as facilittaors, thus breaking the class into smaller, more manageable groups and providing support to more students. With the situation that you describe, that is when one teachers is a native speaker, but not a qualified teacher, and the other one is a qualified teacher but not a native speaker, I'd allocate the following roles: 1. The "teacher" teacher introduces new material and provides all the necessary explanatrions and some controlled practice

2. The 'speaker" teacher offers conversational practice, where he can correct some of the studnets' mistakes but does not have to do the main explaining which requires a deeper level of linguistic and methodological knowledge.

 

Perhaps a more viable idea now would be to use skype and involve native speakers in some parts of the lessons?

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Perhaps a more viable idea now would be to use skype and involve native speakers in some parts of the lessons?

 

I myself use skype to improve my English... I have a lot of friends in different English Speaking countries and from time to time we share ideas on teaching English... I hope I'll have some on-line lessons in my schoolin the near future...I haven't got Internet in my classroom yet...

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Perhaps a more viable idea now would be to use skype and involve native speakers in some parts of the lessons?

 

I myself use skype to improve my English... I have a lot of friends in different English Speaking countries and from time to time we share ideas on teaching English... I hope I'll have some on-line lessons in my schoolin the near future...I haven't got Internet in my classroom yet...

Do you use a webcam or headphones? I am studying Spanish with the help of Skype.

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Do you use a webcam or headphones? I am studying Spanish with the help of Skype.

 

I use both and of course the chatboard.... I have started teaching English with the help of skype... The result is perfect....

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1. How do you think school will be like in the future?

2. Do you think on-line English schools will become more popular?

3. Is it real to see computers in the classrooms instead of teachers?

I think schools in the future will be different from modern ones. There will be everywhere computers, Internet, smartboards and other technologies. The teachers will use social serveces Web 2.0 (blogs, wikis, forums, chat, skype ...) and Web 3.0. We already know some exsamples using virtual world Second life at schools (not in Russia) :blink:

And I belive that on-line English schools will become more popular.

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3. Is it real to see computers in the classrooms instead of teachers?

I think education and self education are different things. :blink: :blink:

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I think education and self education are different things. :rolleyes::blink:

 

I agree to what you say, but sometimes self-education is much more effective...

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I agree to what you say, but sometimes self-education is much more effective...

That's true, but not for all students :rolleyes: And what about school buildings then? We won't need any classrooms, will we?

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That's true, but not for all students :rolleyes: And what about school buildings then? We won't need any classrooms, will we?

 

Of course, we will.... I don't think schools wiil disappear forever.... It's really hard to predict what will happen in 20 or 30 years.

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That's true, but not for all students :rolleyes: And what about school buildings then? We won't need any classrooms, will we?

..., but sometimes self-education is much more effective... self-education and distant education (distant learning) are diferent things, though distant learning needs independence, independent research, self-education, but with help of distant teachers. Is this form of education possible today? - Yes, especially, the model of integration of classroom and distant leaning.

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Alexey, some questions for you...have you ever been to an English-speaking country? Do you consider it necessary to have English language courses in some of these countrues?

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Alexey, some questions for you...have you ever been to an English-speaking country? Do you consider it necessary to have English language courses in some of these countrues?

 

I'm sure Alexey will reply soon.... As for me I think English language courses aren't so necessary. You can attend them with native speakers in Russia... But one thing is obvious. You should visit an English speaking country in order to check yourself or go sightseeing or just speak only English for a short period of time... I remember my first visit abroad.... I could understand everything but my English was completely different from theirs...

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Harry, if you dont mind me asking, what nationality are you? As far as I understood, you are neither English nor Russian, as you say your both languages are not perfect. So...? Unveil the truth pleeeease :huh:

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Harry, if you dont mind me asking, what nationality are you? As far as I understood, you are neither English nor Russian, as you say your both languages are not perfect. So...? Unveil the truth pleeeease :huh:

 

If you answer me ,what you mean saying perfect, my answer will follow immediately.My Russian isn't perfect and I know why. When a foreigner speaks Russian you always try to find mistakes. Then why don't you pay attention to those whose native tongue is Russian and their messages are full of mistakes... As to my English I haven't met a native speaker whose English is perfect.... Writing this sentence I remembered one of George Bush's speeches. The last sentence in your message shows how perfect your English is! My congratulations!

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