689. Pushing forward together




One day teacher of English A said to teacher of English B, “You can foster solidarity and comradeship among your students. I’ve seen the good results of a boy who was sitting next to another boy, pulling their desks together: one helped the other with an exercise from the coursebook. This latter student was not able to understand and carry it out, for example a drill.



The teacher said to the monitors not to say right the answers to their assigned classmates. The goal was that the monitor would help his classmate to find out what to do with that activity. The monitor explained the exercise, with his own words, which can be clearer than yours sometimes... I’d tell you that the monitors should explain in English, without shifting to their mother language.



However, reality is different: they explain in L1, anyway, from my experience. In the case I’m presenting now, I’d let the monitors talk in L1. Otherwise, and so far, the monitor may not have the necessary competence to talk in L2 now. The monitor must have his classmate try to understand the brief instructions of the activity, and have him focus on the example sentence - if there’s one. Thus, the monitor rises to the occasion and his classmate can see he’s advancing.” / Photo from: bobbies dailymoaner com


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