A number of professional English teachers in the Kingdom discussed ways on improving English instruction in order to help children better understand and improve the language. The teachers from the intermediate and secondary levels represent various schools in Jeddah and other neighboring cities. They focused on different areas of English and teaching techniques during the English Language Teaching Professional Network workshop held at the British Council office in Jeddah on Feb. 9. Ibrahim Mohammed, EFL (English as a Foreign Language) instructor at Taiba University, stressed on the extensive use of storybooks in class while teaching children as it helps create a real-life environment. He also said that storybooks help children to master a language while holding onto the four important components—grammar, writing, listening and speaking—within the limited time of a class period. Waleed Hassan, Al-Anjal School's senior teacher, thoroughly discussed the issue of the mixed-ability class, which some teachers support as they said it helps them whereas some teachers thought it was extremely difficult. A mixed-ability class gathers students of different levels and requires the teacher to pitch a lesson in such a way that the whole class is engaged in the subject. The problem of independent writing without a teacher's intervention among Saudi students was also brought up. Mohammad Radwan, a TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) instructor, said that TOEFL is in great demand in the Kingdom as a large number of Saudi students go abroad to study. However, while preparing for the test, less than 20 percent know how to write. Radwan said that non-linearity, lack of syntactic variety and stipulated time were major areas of concern. He took a highly interactive approach on how to tackle students' common problems and how to properly intervene to address these issues. Zina Bowey, Teacher Trainer at the British Council, hosted the workshop. Before the program started, winners of the Learn English Challenge for Arabs were announced and presented with tokens. The winner received an iPad and two runners-up received a Dell computer each.
