This is to inform the group that we have a colleague, fellow group member in Senegal so maybe if everyone knows Rachel is there we can keep her on our radar to help in any way possible. She is doing important work:
Hi Ben and Tina!
My name is Rachael Cox, and I am a CI-based teacher. I hope all is well with both of you! You may remember me – I reached out to you for some help last year in teaching middle school French language acquisition in the U.S., and you both were so generous in sharing advice and resources. I felt that over the year, my understanding of CI and my teaching abilities grew – just from reading posts on your forum, Ben, and even in reading your Facebook posts, Tina! I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your support. That’s what I’ve learned about the CI community – that everyone is so willing to help CI teachers grow in their teaching and help students make great gains in their journeys with language acquisition.
I am currently living in Senegal, West Africa and teaching English on a U.S. Fulbright grant at multiple institutions. As I’m sure you can imagine, the education system in Senegal is rough, at best. Teachers do not receive adequate training, and there is an extreme lack of resources – books, technology, and even paper. I assist in English classes at a public middle school, and the classes average at about 90 students each, which is insane. Language education is exactly what you’d expect: rote grammar drills, verb conjugations, and that’s about it. Yet, the students are so invested in learning English. They know that it is an opportunity for them to escape poverty and maybe even make it to the U.S. or the U.K. for higher education in pursuit of better lives.
Thus, I am working on a proposal for a workshop to be offered to language teachers in my region of Senegal regarding Comprehensible Input. I feel so compelled to find a way to help teachers here improve their teaching, and we all know that CI is the way to do it. Comprehensible Input can happen anywhere with minimal resources, and I think this might be a game changer for teachers in my region. I have been using TPR and MovieTalk with a language class at a local Embassy-sponsored community center called the American Corner, and my students LOVE it! They feel that they are learning so much faster and their engagement is unlike what I have seen before. My classes are growing week to week because students are telling their friends to join because it’s fun and exciting! (see attached photographs)
I have spoken with colleagues at our local Ministry of Education, one of whom completed his masters in the U.S. and has heard Dr. Krashen speak! He is totally on board with the idea and thinks it’s extremely important for teachers in the region to be familiar with the theories behind language acquisition.
All of this to say — I am writing to both of you because I have never planned a workshop before, nor have I been the facilitator of one. I am still so new to the teaching world and while I feel I have a decent amount of experience with CI and have received CI training, I think my qualification may be questioned. I will likely end up being the facilitator, unless I get extremely lucky and find a more experienced CI instructor to come facilitate – though I realize how crazy that would be. All in all, I am reaching out to experienced leaders in the CI community for any and all resources about CI, especially within the context of low-resource classrooms, and any handouts, plans, workshop outlines, etc. that may be useful in planning. This is such an important thing to do, and I want to be sure I do it right.
If you have any guidance, direction, resources, or other connections that might be helpful (or, though it’s a stretch, someone you know who might be a potential facilitator) I would so appreciate it! Thank you for taking the time to read my lengthy email, as I know you are super busy making awesome things happen for CI students everywhere. 🙂
Best,
Rachael Cox