英语单词大师：Training Teachers in Places

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti and this week on WORDMASTER: another interview from this year's convention¹ of the group TESOL, for Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages.

ABOUBAKAR OUEDRAOGO: "I'm Aboubakar Ouedraogo. I'm a teacher-educator from Burkina Faso. In Burkina Faso, English is taught as a foreign language and it starts in secondary schools from the first year to the last year. It's also a mandatory² language that is learned at school."AA: "And which English do the students tend to learn: is it British, American? Burkina is a former French colony."ABOUBAKAR OUEDRAOGO: "Yes. British English. This is what we learn in secondary schools and at university."AA: "And what about American English, is it being adopted more by the younger people?"ABOUBAKAR OUEDRAOGO: "Yes. I think because of the influence of the media, young students like the American English. They try to imitate the American accent. And we have also the American Language Center which teaches the American language. Those who go there speak the American English."AA: "Tell me about the presentation that you're giving here at TESOL?"ABOUBAKAR OUEDRAOGO: "OK, it was a colloquium³, a panel⁴ of five presenters⁵. And it was about training teachers, English teachers, in areas where people lack resources. Most of our schools are in remote areas, in the rural areas. Students and teachers lack books, they lack audio-visual materials. They don't have access to Internet, I would say information technology, none of this. The only available resources are the teachers themselves, a chalkboard and a course book sometimes, and some print materials from time to time."AA: "How are the teachers trained, is there a national program to train the English teachers?"ABOUBAKAR OUEDRAOGO: "Some of our teachers went through a training college. We have some others who have never got training. So we try to catch up through in-service trainings.

"But here too we have problems because we don't have enough teacher-trainers to train all the teachers how it should be. OK, some will be trained once every two years and some will wait until five years before being trained. These are the problems."AA: "So you talked about some of the methodologies that teachers with few resources can use. Can you give us an example or two of what some of those methodologies might be?"ABOUBAKAR OUEDRAOGO: "OK, let's say the problem, we have a lack of materials. We have also the problem of overcrowded classes. So one of the things we teach our teachers is how to manage large classes. And this is very important because we have some classes where we have more than seventy students -- sometimes more than one hundred.

"So they need to know how to manage with large classes, how to make the students work in pairs and groups, how to handle disruptive behaviors within these kinds of classes."AA: "Do you have any advice you could give to any teachers who are listening right now who maybe have a problem with not being sure how to handle disruptive students in a class or how to handle a large class? Because that's a common problem, is large classes in a lot of countries. Do you have a specific bit of advice that you might offer teachers?"ABOUBAKAR OUEDRAOGO: "What I think is very important is the teacher's attitude himself. Because many of the teachers who did not get any initial⁶ training or in-service training, those have never been to a training college or very young teachers very often have problems with students because they deal with teenagers and these teenagers are very difficult. So first of all, they look at the teacher himself; what is his attitude?

"So we tell the teachers to have a good attitude, to be fair, to consider themselves as advisers⁷, as guides for these young students. Now at the same time when they face the disruptive behaviors of a student, they have to at the same time rely on the administration. It's not necessary to try to solve the problem alone, getting angry for nothing. And one of the things I learned as a teacher is that, never go in class without being prepared."

1 convention   

n.惯例，习俗，常规，会议，大会

参考例句：

• How many delegates have checked in at the convention?大会已有多少代表报到？
• He sets at naught every convention of society.他轻视所有的社会习俗。

2 mandatory   

adj.命令的；强制的；义务的；n.受托者

参考例句：

• It's mandatory to pay taxes.缴税是义务性的。
• There is no mandatory paid annual leave in the U.S.美国没有强制带薪年假。

3 colloquium   

n.学术讨论会

参考例句：

• He was not willing to attend the colloquium.他不愿参加这个学术讨论会。
• The doctor collectivity that attends colloquium stands up,applause ardently.参加讨论会的医生全体起立，热烈鼓掌。

4 panel   

n.面，板，专门小组，控制板，仪表盘

参考例句：

• The unusual control panel on the walls caught our attention.墙上不同寻常的控制板引起了我们的注意。
• The panel of judges included several well-known writers.评判小组中包括几位知名作家。

5 presenters   

n.节目主持人，演播员( presenter的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Each week presenters would put the case for their favourite candidate. 每个星期主持人推出他们最喜欢的候选人。 来自互联网
• Karaoke was set up to allowed presenters to sing on the stage. 宴会设有歌唱舞台，可让出席者大演唱功。 来自互联网

6 initial   

adj.最初的，开始的，词首的；n.首字母，姓名的开头字母；vt.标注姓名的首字母于

参考例句：

• After she'd overcome her initial shyness,she became very friendly.她克服了起初的羞怯之后，变得十分友善。
• The experiments have given initial results eventually.那些试验总算初见成效了。

7 advisers   

顾问，劝告者( adviser的名词复数 )； （指导大学新生学科问题等的）指导教授

参考例句：

• a member of the President's favoured circle of advisers 总统宠爱的顾问班子中的一员
• She withdrew to confer with her advisers before announcing a decision. 她先去请教顾问然后再宣布决定。