Teaching English Radio Live from Gafsa!

This month the Teaching English Radio programme reached the town of Gafsa,down in the south west of Tunisia. Gafsa is the home of the Tunisian mining industry,phosphate mining started here way back in the late 19th century.It is the first time that Radio Gafsa has broadcasted a non-Arabic programme! In the studio there was Nigel Bellingham,the British Council's Country Director for Tunisia,and Tunisian teachers:Hatem Zitouni,(Higher Education),Telehom Shinni (Primary),Nabil Ammar (Secondary),Chihem Khlifi (Secondary).
The presenter as usual was Hayet and on programme 2 of series 2 the topic was 'Finding and Creating Resources'. When teachers do not have access to books and resources,or access to the Internet, it can be a challenge to find and create resources but with a bit of resourcefulness and imagination they can be created! Just look at the realia around you for inspiration!
Also,don't forget to use your own creativity and the students as a resource!

On the topic of using flashcards  Nigel said it would be a better idea if the students created them,and later on he mentioned that some teachers can over-rely on resources and it would be better to focus on their teaching techniques and using their creativity.On the topic of realia one of the Tunisian teachers mentioned a  lesson in which he'd brought in a cauliflower which provided an interesting lesson!

Some interesting comments from the live listening audience at the CREFOC centre in Gafsa: one of the teachers mentioned that 'having a fishing rod is no good if you don't know how to use it!' in other words it's not much good having lots of resources if you don't know how to use them, in fact a couple of  teachers commented it wasn't a problem of finding resources but knowing how to adapt and use them.

Hayet summed up the main points of the programme by mentioning that there is a rich resource with our students,they can bring in materials which reflect their interests but emphasised that it important to consider that the material is appropriate.She went on to say that teachers could club together but pointed out that unfortunately  that many teachers are reluctant to share their resources.That's a real pity!
So to those teachers with good resources - start sharing!

click http://www.radiotunisienne.tn/rtci/sounds/anglais/anglais07122012.mp3 to listen to the programme!

We'll be having a break in January but listen out for programme 3 in February when the topic
will be 'Using group work in practice'.

Well,this is all until the next programme! Bye for now!

Patric Fawcett