Departure from chalk-and-talk helps some students get a leg up with English language programme

US embassy and SIE initiated a 410-hour modular language training programme in Oct 2010.

KARACHI:

The manner in which the English language is taught to students in Pakistan makes it hard for them to speak and understand it. Their teachers appear to be more fixated on the use of tenses, nouns and verbs than helping students effectively communicate.

These views were expressed by Haris Hashmi, who recently completed a two-year English Access Microscholarship Programme. On Sunday at the Beach Luxury Hotel, Haris was among over 1,500 graduates who had gone through the two-year language course sponsored by the US embassy.

“I hope that you will take what you have learned over the last two years to make your world a better place,” said US Consul General Michael Dodman, who was the chief guest. “I know it has not always been easy as some of you had [to make] long trips from home to the class.”

Dodman added that the students had learned a skill that can open great opportunities for them in the future, and that he hoped that they will also make a difference in their communities. “Through this programme you have learned about working together, resolving conflicts, and giving back to your communities. The US Consulate could not be more proud of you.”

The US embassy had partnered with the Society for International Education in October 2010 to design a 410-hour modular language training programme, which was taken across the country. Pakistan, at present, has the largest English Access Microscholarship Programme in the world, with over 5,000 students in 16 locations.

“A large percentage of the country’s population is under 30, and education should be the highest priority for them,” explained Joëlle Uzarski, director at the US State Department’s Regional English Language Office for South Asia. The state department has spent up to $2,000 on each student during the course of the programme. Since the programme’s inception in 2004, more than 70,000 students from more than 85 countries have participated.

“The programme provides basic to intermediate level of language proficiency to underprivileged high school students through afterschool classes,” said SIE executive director Farah Kamal. “In non-elite communities located in nine towns of Karachi, SIE has established access centres where programme coordinators worked with 60 teachers - one teacher each for a group of 25 students - to implement the English Access Programme.” The teachers hired for the programme were paid Rs1,500 for an hour of teaching.

The programme included intensive learning during the summer, with workshops, online projects, team building, life skills, integration of technology with language, activity-based reading and writing and interactive speaking and listening sessions.

Uzarski told The Express Tribune that the objective of the programme is to identify socio-economically disadvantaged youngsters who have the potential to succeed, and then help provide local schools with a programme that will allow the students to achieve their goals. She added that by being able to converse in English, the students will have an opportunity to pursue higher education at prestigious institutions and also land better paying jobs. “Just because they have some disadvantages does not mean there is no hope for them,” said Uzarski.

A matric graduate, Haris, who resides in Landhi’s Rehri Goth neighbourhood, has now started working as an English language instructor at an institute near his residence. Another student, Annie Abdul Samad, said that the language programme did not focus on completing a specified syllabus. Apart from interactive learning sessions, students attended jazz concerts, watched movies at the Atrium Mall, visited Dream World and Arena and also completed community service assignments, said a gleeful Samad. “For the first time in my life, I had the chance to travel on an airplane, and stay at a five-star hotel,” added Harris. Around 15 students from Karachi and 85 from other parts of the country travelled to Islamabad as part of the programme’s summer activities.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 15^th, 2012.