Tales from the Desh

Download workshop materials here.

Every Monday and Friday for six weeks, English Language Fellow John Mark King hosted a two hour workshop for English teachers on teaching process writing and the American-style academic essay. To meet the schedule demands of busy teachers, the same workshop was held both days each week.

The workshop focused on the following process writing skills for students: 1) generating ideas, 2) analyzing sample essays, 3) outlining, 4) writing a first draft, 5) reviewing a peer’s first draft, 6) writing a second draft, 7) using teacher comments to write a final draft, 8) conducting research and using outside sources and 9) curriculum design. In addition, teachers were exposed to new theories of error-correction, proper feedback and relevancy of assignments as a way to further develop their students’ skills and interest in writing.

Concurrently with the workshop, the ELF also taught a six week Academic Writing course to 15 students at the Ashgabat office of American Councils. The students were screened before the course with an in-class timed essay and a short interview to determine that they had all of the following: 1) an interest in and need for learning the American style academic essay, 2) very good listening comprehension skills and 3) decent sentence-level writing fluency. Participants in the teachers’ workshop were encouraged to observe and contribute to the writing course, where the ELF employed the same skills taught to the teachers in the workshop. At least four teachers observed the course, but none felt comfortable contributing themselves.

When the teachers’ workshop finished, the ELF compiled in electronic format all of the materials developed and used in each lesson and has made them available to all interested teachers. The materials include outlines of each workshop, ready-made worksheets for students and several relevant English Teaching Forum articles. Hard copies of the workshop materials will also be published and made available for sale at cost at the POET office.

Some participants have employed many of the skills taught in the workshop in their own lessons, but as of November, 2006, it is too soon to tell if a lasting impact has been made. Because of heavy workload and fear of association with an American-supported institution such as POET, full-time teachers rarely attended the workshops. Most of the teachers who did attend were either student teachers or private tutors. Plus, attendance fluctuated from week to week and only a few teachers attended every workshop, despite the twice-a-week availability. However, the ELF’s current 5-week workshop on Teaching Reading is averaging almost three times as many participants as Teaching Writing did.

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