HEIS Newsletter - March 2023 (Plain Text Version)

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In this issue:
LEADERSHIP UPDATES
•  LETTER FROM THE CHAIRS
ARTICLES
•  HANDCRAFTED LEARNING: MAKING TEXTBOOKS WITH GOOGLE SLIDES
•  TRANSITIONING BACK TO THE CLASSROOM IN THE EMIRATI CONTEXT: AN INTERVIEW WITH SEVEN FIRST-YEAR EMIRATI ESL STUDENTS
•  THE INTERNATIONALIZATION OF US WRITING PROGRAMS EDITED BY SHIRLEY ROSE AND IRWIN REISER, UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2018
•  101 EFL ACTIVITIES FOR TEACHING UNIVERSITY STUDENTS BY HALL HOUSTON, ITDI TESOL, 2022
BOOK REVIEWS
•  REVIEW OF COMMON GROUND: SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION THEORY GOES TO THE CLASSROOM
ABOUT THIS COMMUNITY
•  MEET THE TEAM
•  CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS
•  CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

TRANSITIONING BACK TO THE CLASSROOM IN THE EMIRATI CONTEXT: AN INTERVIEW WITH SEVEN FIRST-YEAR EMIRATI ESL STUDENTS

Toni McLaughlan, Higher Colleges of Technology, Abu Dhabi, UAE
Raya Sufyan Almenhali, Ayesha Saleh Alrashdi, Meera Yaser Alharbi, Reem Hasan Alhammadi, Afraa Hadi Alrashdi, Afnan Fadhel Alharthi, and Dana Khaled Alali

Introduction from the Instructor

Now that most COVID-related restrictions have been lifted and we’re back on campus in the UAE, I noticed a shift in the behavior and study habits of my students, and I’ve heard other colleagues express similar sentiments: a greater number of students seem more focused and more eager to learn. I’ve taught first-year students in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi for six years now, and I thought it might be interesting to get some of my students’ perspectives on transitioning back to the classroom, what instructional practices are helpful for them in their on-campus learning environments, and any other aspects of education that they’d like their instructors to know. Below are a few ideas, combined and edited for language, that seven female first-year Emirati students in English class brainstormed, drafted, and agreed upon together as wanting to share with the larger TESOL community.

Student Perspectives

Our teacher has told us that we are more active, competitive, and motivated than most classes. We are not sure if it is connected to being back on campus after so much time at home with COVID, but it’s nice to be able to make friends in person again. And we learned a lot of websites when we were online that are like games. This brings competition. It’s nice when teachers continue to use these websites even in person, like Kahoot and Nearpod and Quizizz, especially if the teacher has a lot of energy. The teachers have more energy in person too! And when the teacher has energy, it will give energy to the students. Also, these websites move very quickly, and we can see when our answers are wrong and what the correct answers are right away—the feedback is faster than with worksheets. At the same time though, for really important class material that we need to study again and again—it’s nice to also have this on paper, actually. If we run out of charge on our device or if we’re traveling, in the car, or anywhere, we can keep the paper with us and review. We also don’t have to worry about social media distracting us this way. We can switch our phones off and just focus on the paper. This is something we didn’t get in online learning.

There are parts of online learning that we prefer of course, like staying home, but we learn better in class. It’s difficult to concentrate online. Even if we’re doing the same activity, like a Quizlet activity, it helps us to do it in class compared to online because we have a teacher with us to help us stayed focused. In general, our parents give us independence when we learn online. They say that we are adults and that it is our responsibility to manage our time and our studies. Usually they aren’t very strict. But we’re not always very good at this! So it’s helpful to have a teacher encourage us in person and to make sure we pay attention.

The teacher helps us stay focused, but it’s also really helpful to get support from our classmates. It’s easier to create a What’s App chat with everyone in class and to communicate this way with any questions about dates, materials, and exams. Teachers should always give students the chance for students to get to know each other in class because this is a huge help for us. Also, because we are here every day, the college can provide us with laptops when we need them, and show us how to use technology. We can access books from the library and they can show us how to use the library website. These are some of the main benefits for attending on-campus again.

However, although we don’t recognize a big difference in the lessons of teachers from the UAE compared to other countries except for language, there are a couple things we would like our international teachers to know. For example, please know and remember that during Ramadan, our sleep schedules change a lot. We don’t sleep a lot, especially at night, and we feel really tired from not eating and not drinking coffee or even water. But also, Ramadan is for a whole month! It can be difficult to change schedules quickly, even after Ramadan is finished. Also, we don’t like to share our pictures or videos here. Sometimes teachers make assignments that require videos, but we are not comfortable with this in our culture. We welcome teachers here from all over the world—we are a very international country! But we are grateful when the teachers can respect our culture too.