Student Perspectives- That's not an emergency.

In my evening class, we have begun to discuss tenants' right and responsibilities. The students read a letter  supposedly written to tenants from an imaginary apartment complex. The exercise was from Side by Side Plus Book 3. In the letter, management requests that tenants fill out a maintenance request form for "routine maintenance" and only call the maintenance number for urgent situations.  One of the comprehension questions read as follows:

4. Which of the following situations should a tenant NOT call (310) 555-2135?

a) There are cockroaches in the apartment.
b) The garbage disposal is broken.
c) There is no hot water.
d) The faucet is leaky.

There was some confusion and disagreement about this.  First of all, a colorful discussion about pest control issues arose. Everyone seemed to be able to commiserate, some incredulously; "This is the city life in America". The most interesting hypothesis offered was a conspiracy theory regarding exterminators. Several students agreed that cockroaches' ability to survive and return was suspicious and a few offered that pest control companies kill most but not all in order to stay in business. After all, what would happen if they really did exterminate all the roaches? They wouldn't have a job, that's what! Students reasoned that exterminators knowingly spare a few critters in order that their services will be needed and therefore called upon in the future. It's a delicate balance. On the one hand, this produced a fair amount of hilarity in my classroom. On the other hand, it shows a deep-seated mistrust towards others that was most likely fostered by their past experiences living in a society with rampant corruption.

 Later, it was reasoned that cockroaches in the apartment do not constitute an emergency- something some people I know might disagree with. "I suppose it depends on how many. What is you have an infestation?" I suggested. The student leading this discussion shrugged. Clearly, this was a first world comfort. In the context of the letter and comprehension question, it was true. One should not call the emergency maintenance number for pest control; one should call the pest control company. However, I thought that perhaps some students could have interpreted this as an urgent matter leading to the confusion. This was not the case.

The correct answer was c) there is no hot water . This was again met with some disagreement. "What about a leaky faucet?" Some students seemed to be more concerned with waste of water (aka money) or out-of-control water leakage than having hot water. Again, this question perhaps reflects a first world perspective on comfort but it is also the landlord's responsibility to provide hot water to the tenant. In the District of Columbia it is in the housing code, so "it's actually the law", I explained.

As an aside, it's interesting to note that the garbage disposal was immediately dismissed as a superfluous modern convenience.

Students acquiesced to my explanations but I'm glad they were able to express their perspectives. This discussion sheds light not only on cultural biases in comprehension questions, but also why immigrants sometimes run into disagreements with landlords.

Conversation Partners Program/ Volunteers in the language classroom

Last semester I tired to get a conversation partner program going for my students; the rationale being that my adult students get little to no practice speaking English outside of class and very few of them have English-speaking or US American friends.

Therefore, in order to facilitate genuine English conversation, cultural orientation and friendship, I attempted to match volunteers with students. In order to abide by our school’s non-disclosure policy, I gave the students the volunteers’ contact information (and not vice versa) and the students were given the responsibility to contact potential conversation partners.

This basically didn’t work because the students did not contact the conversation partner volunteers either because they were too shy or they just didn't have time.

This semester I’m trying a new approach. I am inviting the volunteers to come to my class to have a sort of discussion night or “English Party” as I’m calling it. This way there is less pressure and the students can pursue more time outside of class with someone they've already met. Also, those who simply do not have time to meet a volunteer outside of class have at least the opportunity to engage in English conversation once a month in class.

This will be an informal gathering, maybe with snacks. Students need unstructured English with native or near-native speakers. This will not be tutoring, rather an evening of conversation. Volunteers do not need any prior teaching or language experience to volunteer. This is an opportunity for students to engage in natural and genuine conversation with Americans and speakers of English. I will have conversation starters ready if the students and volunteers don’t know where to start. If a student and a volunteer would like to meet outside of class for more language practice that remains a possibility and having met in class will hopefully facilitate more exchanges.

In order to collect data regarding the students’ normal English usage I will have the students take the following survey:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/85VZXLZ

At the end of the semester the students will take a post/reflective survey to gauge the effectiveness of the program and measure the benefits of the volunteers’ participation.

This project is at the beginning stages and I will be tracking its progress here.

As a note to teachers of English abroad and teachers of other foreign languages, this sort of program is of course adaptable to your classroom.

More to follow.