LSP Language Conference

Little Nerd

A little recap to start. The LSP (Language Support Programme) is run jointly by the NDOE (National Dept of Education) and VSO and is the primary project on which I work, supporting lecturers in two teachers colleges in Port Moresby, PNGEI (Papua New Guinea Education Institute) and Bomana Sacred Heart Teachers College (SHTC). All the 13 teachers colleges in PNG have a volunteer attached if not in residence.

One of the outcomes of LSP is to hold a language conference every year. The first one was held at Holy Trinity teachers’ college in December 2012 before I arrived and the second has just been held in June, at Kabaleo teachers’ college, Kokopo, East New Britain.

It was a wonderful celebration of VSO facilitating and capacity building – two strategies that I must admit I have at times been dubious about although I agree with the approaches in principle I was not sure wether in reality they truly bore success.

At this conference ach teachers’ college had the responsibility of giving a presentation for 1hr 15 minutes on an aspect of speaking and listening. The responsibility of the volunteers was basically to make it happen. At the previous conference reading was the focus and all the presentations were made by VSO and other stakeholders. This was the first time the teachers’ colleges had the responsibility of giving the presentations themselves. Kabaleo teachers’ college had the added feat of hosting the conference which after losing our LSP team leader proved an exhausting task for the poor volunteers in East New Britain! (Who by the way did an amazing job!)

The vast majority of language lecturers had never before had the opportunity to present to an audience of over 100 people, including members of the department of education, college principals and university heads of department. They all did so confidently and knowledgeably, discussing aspects of language learning that a year ago were unknown to them. Due to the LSP the language lecturers were behaving like a team of professionals knowledgeable in their subject. I realise this may sound like an outrageous claim to make with hints of colonial, expatriate, patronising dribble. I will try and explain why it is not.

Opportunities for professional development in PNG are extremely rare. All language lecturers have degrees and most have masters qualifications from either PNG, Australian or New Zealand universities but very few have experience of teaching in primary schools and their knowledge is extremely theoretical. Hence their love of Blooms Taxonomy for example! The in-service training we take for granted in the UK is by and large nonexistent.

What the LSP has done is given the opportunity for language lecturers to get together to share experience, ideas and concerns. A wealth of teaching and learning strategies combined with many years of experience in primary school teaching in a variety of settings have been presented by VSO volunteers from across the English speaking countries of the world. There is a consistent approach in methodology as language lecturers have been brought together from all regions of PNG and when back in their colleges across the country continue to be drip fed, slowly but surely with the same messages by the volunteers. This access to current teaching and learning strategies combined with the theoretical knowledge and invaluable cultural understanding that the language lecturers already have has undoubtedly led to changes, all be it small changes, in practice.

All the VSO volunteers are chosen for their expertise in their field but perhaps the greatest impact they make is in providing the platform and giving the opportunities for the people who know the most about education in their country to make a difference.

Getting meetings together, providing morning tea, organising transport, making phone calls or providing the credit for phone calls to be made, sending and receiving emails on behalf of others, putting toner in the printer, writing up and distributing minutes and many other simple, taken for granted tasks in our world make an immense difference to the development and progression of ideas in this world. This is successful facilitation.

Capacity building I believe is very much a two way street. I most certainly would say that I have contributed to language lecturers in PNG having a greater capacity to teach student teachers in the last six months. I would also say that my capacity to operate effectively in PNG would be zero without the constant support of lecturers in my college who guide me through the maze of protocols and procedures necessary to make things happen. It is and has to be a partnership.

So in a roundabout way I have explained to myself and hopefully to other perhaps doubting souls how facilitation and capacity building do work. The LSP language conference provided the evidence needed for me to see this and accept that the incredible feeling of frustration all of us suffer from time to time is worth it.

I’m going on to give an example of how facilitation and capacity building worked (or didn’t!) at SHTC and PNGEI. If I’ve bored you to tears already now might be a good place to stop reading!

The plan for the facilitation/ capacity building process for lecturers at SHTC and PNGEI was:

Ø  Meeting 1: Both colleges together discuss areas of interest within the given themes and come up with a working title and research question for each presentation. Provide initial background materials for lecturers around the themes and ask them to come to the next meeting with an abstract draft.

Ø  Meeting 2: Question and review abstracts, rewriting where necessary, confirm understanding and agree. Establish outcomes ‘What do we want the participants to learn?’ (each college separately)

Ø  Meeting 3: Create a power point together: question, check for mutual understanding, write, confirm. Suggest activity ideas: teaching strategies, groupings, resources. Give a session outline scaffold. Hand over the writing process and support the writing of the writing of the session outline referring back the power point. (each college separately)

Ø  Meeting 4: Talk me through the presentation: who’s leading which activity/ check resources/ timings/ space (both colleges together)

Ø  Conference: each college presents their presentation whilst I control the power point and help with activity organisation.

Lessons learned from this process were that scaffolding and confirming understanding are essential. Explain everything, no assumptions should be made at any point. It is easy to forget that everyone you are speaking to is working in their second or in a lot of cases third language and on top of that the version of English they are working with is not necessarily UK English. I have always been a firm believer in the simpler the better; if you can’t explain it without academic jargon then you don’t really know what you are trying to say. However this is not a popular approach here where the more academic and ‘sophisticated’ the language is the more respect it will command; never mind if anyone understands or not.

As could easily be imagined things didn’t always go exactly to plan! But we did get there , the presentations went ahead, everyone felt empowered and good about themselves with an eye to next time we will…A change in perception has been made.