Making Distance Learning Interactive and Engaging: Training Teachers in Jordan and Lebanon

We know that English language skills are important for refugee populations, particularly young refugees. Learning English affects people’s access to sources of livelihood, training opportunities, higher education and online learning platforms. English language learning opportunities can be difficult to come across in emergency contexts because of high demand, lack of ‘teaching materials’, such as textbooks, and a lack of digital equipment like laptops. In addition to these challenges, the emergence of COVID-19 means that classes need to be taught online due to restrictions on meeting in-person and travelling. 

Mosaik’s Dogme Training (DT) programme aims to address these challenges by cultivating open resources and communities that are adaptable to different contexts, as well as partnering to enhance existing formal and informal programmes. The training programme aims to equip teachers with the skills to leverage technology themselves and build resilience during  COVID-19 lockdowns. Dogme is an approach to English language teaching that emphasises the use of emergent language in the classroom and learner interests over standardised materials. 
In this blog post, we share reflections from interviews with Abeer and Hadeel, two teachers in Jordan, who were part of our initial DT cohort.

What was the most beneficial aspect of the DT programme?

Abeer: One of the things that I've learned is that you can let the students find their mistakes, and you shouldn't, correct them right away. I noticed that most of them had a problem with the number and the singular/plural thing. So they used to say, I have “three sister'', instead of “three sisters”. Or they used to say “I have brothers five”, instead of saying, “I have five brothers”. I wrote three sentences, the sentences were wrong from what they had said. So I asked them to look at the sentences and tell me if there's any mistakes in them. And actually, that was so good, because I was shocked, they found the mistakes themselves. 

Hadeel: It was so practical at first, and not just theoretical information. We do activities together and I then applied these activities with my students and I really see the outcomes. The students like these activities, they became more interactive in the class. Especially you know, that teaching online, sometimes students feel bored. So, these activities really were interesting for my students. Especially as I have two levels [of English classes], these activities are suitable for both of them and I can adapt these activities with the higher level and lower level.

What was your favourite activity from the course?

Hadeel: One of these activities, I like it so much, it's called dictogloss. The teacher will say a story and then the students will write what they understand from this story after they finish hearing from the teacher. They will write what they remember and understand. Then the teacher puts the students into groups, and they will reconstruct the story. And I like it so much, because from this activity, I figured out my students' problems that they face, for example spelling, and I found some grammatical mistakes. So that lets me handle this problem, and try to find a solution for this problem.

Abeer: One of the things that we learnt is that you can use models, which means that you can take sentences from what one student is saying and you can let other students use it. So one of the students was saying in English, she was trying to use only her English, so she said, ‘can I answer?’. I quickly remembered that we'd been told that you can use that as a model for the students. So I told the class, now that you’ve heard her say, 'can I answer?' which is a sentence that you can use whenever you want to answer instead of saying it in Arabic.

How has your online classroom experience changed as a result of attending the DT programme?

Hadeel: First, for the students, [teaching online] isn’t an interactive [environment] like their classroom. So I couldn't see most of them. The camera will be offline, so I didn't know if they are focusing with me always, or not. That's why that's a challenging thing for me, teaching online. But after taking the course, I found ways to make it more interactive, and to get the students more involved and engaged in the lessons. The students like the classroom. And they told me, ‘teacher please make it more than one hour’ and ‘make it more than two days in a week’. 

Abeer: It's a really huge difference. I can't even compare between, before and now. I used to hate it to be honest, using Zoom. And I hated online teaching. I'm not gonna say I love it now because I prefer seeing my students and being with them. But there's a huge difference. And, now I can give my classes in a fun, communicative way. Now, my students, most of them are not absent from their classes, they attend all the classes, the way that they, they want to answer you know, like, ‘please, please feature our answer!’. ‘Let me, let me give you this answer!’. 

If you’re interested in registering for a future cohort of the dogme training, visit our website for up to date announcements or email Miki Aristorenas on [email protected]

About Mosaik

Mosaik (www.mosaik.ngo) is a non-profit organisation that supports refugees to reach university, through programmes that focus on academic guidance and English language training in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. All of our programmes are co-designed with refugees, leverage technology and are open for local community organisations to lead. In 2020 we reached over 300 young people, despite the Covid-19 pandemic.

The views expressed in this blog are the authors’ own