Dr. Kundu’s response to (SIG) request:How to help low-proficient learners of English? [Archives:2007/1068/Education]

Dr. Manmath Kundu
Associate Professor,
Department of English
Faculty of Education
Hudeidah University
On behalf of the SIG (Special Interest Group) in ELT in Yemen we requested Dr. Kundu for some tips in helping our low-proficient learners of English. We state below what he wrote to us for the benefit of the teachers of English in Yemen.

Dear Abduh and all the members of your SIG group

First, I congratulate all of you for forming this group to help yourselves professionally. Especially, I thank you for taking the initiative to form this group. You are right ) our problems of education, more particularly the problems of teaching English are unique and special arising out of our socio-economic and cultural make-up. We cannot, therefore, expect the western ELT experts to solve our typical problems primarily due to the fact that they teach English in very comfortable circumstances but we, on the other hand, teach English in very very difficult circumstances. The problems can only be solved through our insightful understanding of the root causes of these problems and putting in more than average effort to solve them at our individual level through mutual help and support.

You, on behalf of your SIG, have asked me how to solve the problem of abysmally low English proficiency of our English learners. While talking about this problem which is a pan third world phenomenon (not merely confined to English but to all subjects of study). I would like to talk about the problems of mixed abilities classes also because they are closely linked. While talking about these two typical problems in our countries I will have to talk a little about the problem of large classes because the twin problems of low proficiency and mixed abilities are primarily the product of large classes.

The current explosive state of the problems

Let me first state how aggravated are these two problems at present and their serious, harmful consequences. To start with, may be four or five decades back, these problems were there but were not that serious. With the great increase in the number of students, the classes became larger and the quantity negatively affected the quality. To make the matter worse, there has been deterioration in our work culture. Teachers in the past were not highly educated nor professionally trained but the school and their students were uppermost in their minds. Our minds, in the present time, by contrast seem to be more preoccupied with a lot of other things not related to our profession. Our minds have little space for our school and our learners.

To start with, the low proficient learners were always there but their number was negligible. But their number kept on increasing with years and currently in most of the classes their number is about 80% to 90%, more so in English classes. With the increase of years the classes have become more mixed in the sense that the range of abilities across individual learners in a class has increased gradually.

Let me give an example:

Suppose I am currently engaging class XII and the number of students in the class is 100. About 90% of them, so far as the English language skills are concerned, are below the class level. Only the 10% of the students have the English language skills of class XII. And those 90% who are below the level of their class (class XII) are not at the same level so far as their English skills are concerned. They are at different levels. May be 15% are in class VI, 20% in class XI, 10% are in class VII. 12% are in class VII, 10% are in class IX and the like so far as their English language skills are concerned. There are also two or three students whose level of English is very good, above their level. Thus, although I am teaching class XII yet in reality I am taking a class VII to class XIV. Is it possible to do justice to such a class in which 90% of the students are below their level (low proficient) and their levels range from class VII to class XIV? What kind of material, method and test will suit them?

Currently this basic fact makes teaching totally deficit and teaching has failed to achieve any learning dividend in our learners. But our expert educationists fail to notice this problem and plug wrong holes. Some of them seem to be aware of this problem, but probably they do not have any solutions to offer as far as this problem is concerned and, therefore, pretend not to talk about it. Our seminars, meetings and conferences do not adequately address themselves to this problem. Our teacher-training, both pre- and in-service, are silent about this problem. Two or three decades back one international conference on Third World Education at Jamitan was devoted to the problem of low proficiency in the third world countries and the conference yielded the concept of MLL (Minimal Level of Learning). The view that emerged stipulated the third world countries to see that when their students pass from one class to another the stress should be given on achieving the minimum level of learning the specific curriculum. But nothing happened in reality. The number of low proficient learners increased by leaps and bounds. Things have reached a point of no return. It has really reached an explosive state.

Some harmful consequences

The harmful effects of low proficient learners and mixed ability classes are all pervasive. I will mention here only three very important effects arising out of this.

1- Effects on Teaching/Learning System.

It has already been stated that these problems make the teaching/learning dysfunctional. (The four important aspects of any teaching/learning system are the objectives of a course, the materials and methods used to achieve these objectives and the evaluation or test to testify whether the objectives set are achieved or not at the end of the course). All these are prepared keeping in view the level of the class but when 90% of the learners are found to be much below this level, all of these become dysfunctional – the materials do not work, the methods used do not produce any result and the tests are done as ritual (as we are forced to be too liberal to allow the majority of the testees get through even though their performance is disappointing). Thus all these means of producing learning become futile exercise and we have been engaged in this kind of futile exercise in the third world without ever introspecting ourselves.

2-Effects on the teacher

First, the teacher fails to handle such classes and develops a negative attitude to his/her own capabilities as a teacher. This s/he does not disclose to others and adopts some survival strategies. S/He pretends to know a lot or do a lot while, in fact, doing very little. S/He picks up some rules of grammar, for example, and shows off his/her knowledge of English while his/her English language competence is very low. The gap between what s/he says and what s/he actually does increases making them psychotic. Other survival strategies include making oneself part of several syndromes. For example, s/he falls a prey to the making-it-difficult-and-then-making-it-easy syndrome. S/He selects a difficult topic and then explains in English or in the mother tongue of the learners to make it easy. S/He sets difficult questions in examinations and then passes students through 'grace marks'. S/He also falls a prey to the syndrome of passing-the-buck. When the students of the college are found to be very low proficient, the college teachers pass the buck or responsibility to the secondary school teachers, the secondary school teachers to the preparatory school teacher and the preparatory school teachers to the primary and so on. No one takes the responsibility. Besides, the teachers develop a negative attitude to their learners and when learning does not take place, all blames are heaped on the learners-they are not writing, not motivated, not willing to put in effort to learn etc. Currently, of course, the teachers' negative attitude to students is the greater obstacle to learning in the third world countries.

3-Effects on the learners

The worst victims of low proficiency are, obviously, the learners. The low proficient learners know that they are low proficient, that they do not belong to the class so far as their proficiency is concerned. This very fact negatively affects their self-concept. Some of them become totally dependent on their classmates. Some of them drop out of the school because staying in a class with the feeling that one does not belong to the class is really difficult. Some just hang on without participating in the activities of the class. They are the ones who maybe termed 'in-school drop outs.'

The long-term effect of this is all pervasive. The education system does not have any provision to take care of these low proficient learners. The teachers fail to take care of them. If the parents are rich and educated they take care of their low proficient wards themselves or send them to private tutors or coaching classes. But poor and uneducated parents fail to help their wards. This adds to the already existing divide between the rich and the poor in the third world countries.

Major causes

Some of the major causes of the low proficient learners and mixed ability classes in the third world countries can be grouped under the following heads:

a) Social factors

Poverty and overpopulation, as stated before, cause large class and large class in turn, produces low proficiency and mixed abilities. Mixed abilities is also often a reflection of the social stratification based on class or caste.

b) Defective system of education

The best-planned and organized system of education can turn out to be the worst if it does not take into account its learners, particularly their level of proficiency. Our syllabus, materials, methods of teaching and evaluation are planned and designed taking into account the level of the best of our learners who constitute only 5-10% of our student population. Thus 80-90% of learners actually fail to get any benefit out of this system.

c) Principles of no detention

Currently the world trend in education is not to detain or fail anyone. Failure is wastage. In western countries, although, they pass everyone, they ensure that those who pass have achieved the minimum level of competency. But in third world countries we pass everyone, even those who have not achieved this level. This aggravates the problem of low proficiency and mixed ability.

d) No remedial measures

These are our indigenous problems and we should find some solutions to these problems. But none of us seems to bother about them. We pretend as if these problems do not exist. The German system of education has a built-in system of remediation for low proficient learners. In every two years the low proficient learners are spotted and put to special classes to make up the loss. The causes of their low proficiency are identified and suitable remediation provided. In other countries the teachers do so through informal evaluation and class remediation.

What is unique about these problems in Yemen ?

My knowledge in this regard is confined to teaching/learning of English. The number of low proficient learners in a class is the highest in Yemen and the exam most liberal. The main causes are wrong strategies of learning, learning English through grammar (for exams) and through memorization of rules. The current textbooks in school (The crescent package) are also greatly responsible. The expectations of the textbooks are very high and the achievement nil. This increases the gap between expectation and real achievement every year. In colleges the courses of English are tough. The students, as a result, take resort to memorization. The whole exercise seems to be an exercise in futility. This might be the case with other subjects as well. More than 80% of the students pass out secondary school after six years of study of English without achieving the skills expected from them at the end of the first year of English (class VII). They do also pass their graduation without learning to put full stop at the end of a sentence or begin a sentence with a capital letter. How they pass that itself is a miracle. Only 5-10% of the students achieve the skills and the rest go through the course as a ritual. They have the typical problems of spelling malapropism (spelling the word 'two' as 'tow', 'oxygen' as 'oxgyen') and making one word two ('useful' as 'use ful') and two words one ('a teacher' as 'ateacher'). They are very good in spotting errors from writing but equally good in committing these errors in their own writing.

Some possible solutions

The current problem of low proficiency and mixed ability has reached an explosive state, because of our not taking measures to set them right for long. With such an explosive state, easy solutions seem impossible. The rich, powerful and the educated people have found a way out by creating their own private and expensive educational institutions. But the poor who constitute 80% of our population, whose children attend government institutions suffer. Many of them have stopped sending their children to schools and some send with little hope.

A remedial measures should be implemented from the very first year of learning, introducing bridge courses in all the levels of the schools (the first month of the academic year) and providing special treatment to the final year of schooling. And all these should be done on a war footing.

My area of specialization is teaching low proficient learners. My heart is with them. Here are a few strategies I have very successfully adopted in leveling up the level of the low proficient learners, helping them improve their self-concept and learn from each other converting some of their disadvantages into real advantages.

1- Change your attitude to low proficient learners

High academic achievement and high marks/grades do not always go with high intelligence and greatness. More than 80% of the great men of the world are not academic achievers. Many of them either have not gone to schools or were school drop-outs. I have written a book (in my mother tongue) the English translation of the title is “Wise Tips From Low Proficient Learners”. Most of our high proficient learners are selfish. They look to their own interest only. But the low proficient learners, in contrast, are gregarious, sociable, helping by nature. But unfortunately, we teachers, are always full of praise for the best students of the class and are negatively prejudiced against the low-achievers.

2- Manage well the large class

We know large classes are products of societal factors as poverty and overpopulation over which we as teachers have very little control. But we can manage large classes well. Stated below are some tips.

– Make your voice clear and audible even to the last benchers. Speak slow, plan your teaching well (mentally) and manage your blackboard work skillfully.

– Make large classes appear small making horizontal and vertical roads in between students where possible. So the class is divided into small subsections. And you can come near almost all the students.

– Don't always stick to the teacher's place. Move around and teach. Don't always lecture and talk. At times give them tasks to do and you move around and help them individually to do the task.

– Take the help of your students to manage the class. Take them into confidence. Tell them how it is difficult to help everyone in a large class and they have to cooperate to get benefit from this difficult situation.

3- Let your focus be on the majority of the learners of the class (70%-80%)

These learners are often the low proficient learners. In such classes you have to adopt your textbook to their level and then slowly take them to a higher level. You may have to, at times, prepare your own materials if their level is very low. But unfortunately we focus on the best learners whose proficiency level suits the class level. These best learners who only constitute 5%-10% can be helped outside the class through special help. Inside the class they can be asked to help their low proficient brothers and sisters through peer help and peer-corrections.

4- Adopt the process approach (not product approach)

Process approach lays stress on the steps of processes to reach the product helping the learners at every step to reach the final product. But the product approach only wants the finished product, not the process. For example, a teacher following a product approach gives a task (writing an essay for example) and expects them to come up with the finished product. But the teacher following a process approach, on the other hand, helps learners step by step to reach the product. S/He helps the learners to generate ideas through brain storming, collect necessary vocabulary and structures and helps them to write paragraphs, and finally order these paragraphs to write an essay. Even tests can be based on the process approach where the mixed range ability groups have something to do at their level and get reward for their work.

All these tips are in fact one. Each one is related to the other. If all of us do something in this regard in our classes (Insha Allah) the change will come and our low-proficient learners will be benefited from our teaching.
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