My Experience as a Teacher Trainee at the CPR

It was in the early summer of 2008, after getting my Deug diploma, when some of my family members started asking me to look for a job in which I would make use of this humble diploma. At that time, I did not think of any other opportunity, but to apply and sit for the entrance exam to the CPR. Though at first I did not feel satisfied with it, due to some personal reasons, I at length was forced to go for it and be one of the applicants. My dissatisfaction with this position was mainly due to the fact that most of my professors constantly encouraged me to pursue my studies. However, one should be realistic about the economic conditions under which we graduates are living.

A few weeks later, we the applicants were called upon to go to Marrakech, the location of the nearest center for us, and sit for the written exam. More precisely, it was at Ramadan when two of my classmates and I traveled to that city where we spent two days before the day of the exam. Psychologically speaking, we were afraid and nervous. Hence, we set ourselves to some revision which was in the form of some light activities in the main skills of the English language. Of course, we devoted the night before the exam to some walks and strolling in Jamaa El Fena square. We did this on purpose so as to get rid of the haunting idea of the exams. On the early morning of the following day, we headed towards the center to finish our task.

It took us 5 hours to finish the exams and we immediately went to the bus station to go back to El Jadida. In fact, we still attended the classes at university because we had not known about our fate yet. We spent nearly a month waiting for the results of the written exams, which eventually appeared towards the end of October. Very happily, I made it and was ecstatic about this achievement. To my two classmates’ dismay, they failed. But, they knew that they would one day or anther make it as they are very good at English. I also advised them to work hard and get their B.A. which is normally better than my humble diploma.

When I was called to sit for the oral exam, I was this time alone. But, I tried to pluck up courage and travel by myself. Every one encouraged me to make a great effort in this last phase. I was greatly determined to make this dream come true at last. As usual, once in the city, I checked into a hotel and spent my last night there, reflecting upon the circumstances and the questions that the interviewers were going to pose. On that morning, at 8.30, I was the fourth interviewee and finished my last task. Though I did not feel the same felicity that I did when I passed the written one, I still had faith on myself and expected success.

At last, my name appeared on the final list and I could not express the ineffable ecstasy I felt at that very moment. After this great success, I started to collect the necessary papers to register at the center to get my training before becoming a full and real teacher. Nearly 8 months had elapsed when I one day sat to relate my experiences and the problems I encountered during this training. In general, it was a great success. My experiences, though not exhaustive enough, run thus:

I would say that I can not measure how beneficial this training has been to me as a teacher trainee. In this experience, I have developed at the level of my personality, my performance and of course my teaching methodology. Of course, this training has taken different forms and has resulted in so many positive effects with regards to what we have been trained in. I particularly appreciate the training even if we have led a hectic life. Actually, our trainers have made so great efforts to help us reach our goals and become qualified teachers by the end of this training. Therefore, I am deeply indebted to them.

To begin with, though the training was very short, I have benefited a lot, especially at the level of my teaching methods. At the early start of this training year, I was introduced to the basic assumptions and principles that underlie the most important learning theories. This was done as an introduction to the field of learning and teaching. Here, I came to realize what both learning and teaching involve. Theoretically, I have gained a lot of particulars and information which I have used and will use in my classroom to fully understand how students undergo learning a new language like English. Likewise, as a teacher, I have become familiar with how my teaching process develops and flourishes with time and experience.

In fact, this training helped me know about some learning theories like behaviourism, nativism and cognitivism. In this latter, I came across and investigated different hypotheses and theories about learning and teaching. Some theories are still new, whereas others are very old and no longer applicable in today's classes. Therefore, I had the chance to use my critical mind to see which theory best suits my own methodology. Of course, one might use proofs to argue for a particular theory and to turn down others. As a teacher, knowing about these played a very formative role in that I have become aware of what I should do to promote the learning process of my students and my teaching profession.

More importantly, what I liked in this training is when we contrasted L1 with L2. Here, I came to know the main differences of my mother tongue and the second language. Hence, this has raised my awareness of the students' L1 and L2. Since I am teaching L2, my students and I should be conscious of how we learnt the L1.

The objective behind this is to help my students learn the new language and to help myself teach them the language more effectively and efficiently. Also, knowing about the humanistic approach helped a lot in establishing a good teacher-student rapport. In the same vein, Krashen's theory of L2 acquisition has paved the way for me to easily make my students fluent speakers of the language.

As far as the ELT methods and approaches are concerned, I have developed an awareness of the most common ones. In my practical experiences, I have made use of many of them to teach English as a foreign language. I do not need to enumerate them all, but what have intrigued me most are the communicative language teaching, the competency-based approach and the content-based instruction. Of course, I was trained to adhere to these approaches in my classroom as they are widely used worldwide nowadays. Getting familiar with these methods , I have known how to go about teaching and which method is more effective. Efficacy of a certain method is determined by how successful students are at learning the newly taught language. I strongly believe that this part of the training has greatly developed my teaching career.

With respect to language awareness, I have been trained to constantly improve my general linguistic competences. By so doing, I went through different classroom activities. This latter include various materials that are connected to our teaching career. The activities range from developing our reading skills, getting familiar with authentic materials, writing different types of essays to enhancing our speaking skills through class discussions, group work, etc. In general, I have been trained in the four main skills of the English language. Also, this part of training helped me feel linguistically secure and confident whenever I am in my classroom.

Though training in language awareness was not sufficient, I do not think it is that important when compared to the teaching of methodology. But, studying it helped us brush up on our grammar and vocabulary knowledge.

One of the best and most important part of the training is knowing how to teach language skills. We explored the four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing and used different approaches to teach each one of them. We did this in peer teaching. I had the chance to teach my colleagues as if they had been my students. This helped me enrich my methods and steps as each skill is different from another. As soon as I have become well versed in these teaching skills, I always attempt to apply them in the classroom context.

Last but not least, each one of us experienced teaching an activity in which these skills are integrated. This experience was very intriguing in that we unconsciously learnt how to make the transition from one skill to another very smooth. In this respect, as I have experience, I applied different approaches like presentation, practice and production in my teaching of some grammar points. Furthermore, I designed my own activities and tasks. In the case of teaching possessive pronouns, I used as many activities as possible for the sake of variety. Variety is the spice of life. For instance, I involved my students to facilitate my explanation of possessive pronouns.

As for classroom management as a module, I acquired different skills that enabled me to become a very effective classroom manager. Initially, we quickly went over some theoretical books that are about this discipline so that we could have a general idea about it. As there is a certain number of rules
that must be abided by, I have always applied most of them in my classes. In the case of disruptive behaviour, I have learnt that a teacher should never insult a student in front of his or her partners. Rather, he or she should talk to that student in private to resolve the problem. These tips have been of great value to me as a prospective teacher.

In the same field, I have also learnt some procedures whereby I can easily monitor group work, class discussions and giving an anouncement. As a result, students have become more cooperative and willing to interact. Once I got familiar with these tips, I no longer had problems in the following teaching practicums. Knowing these points greatly helps a teacher assess and evaluate his or her students' performance.

As a future scorer of students' exam papers, I have benefited a great deal from the module of testing and evaluation. In this latter, I have studied some terminology related to testing, assessment and evaluation. Of course, we have opted for and investigated certain methods of testing and evaluation. As a test designer, I should always take into account some criteria by which tests are successfully devised, such as validity and reliability. I also learnt that there are different types of tests. Preferring one to another depends on the purpose, the level of the students and the subject matter on which students are going to be tested. Basically, we have a better understanding of what tests and exams should look like and what language areas should be embodied

Another part of the training includes the project work that I conducted in the module of civic education. At first, our trainer introduced us to the basic principles of this field, such as the Human Rights and gender equity. Of course, this field is closely related to our career, teaching English as a foreign language. I learnt some of the human rights the USA Congress declared. Since these principles are applicable in any school setting, I have done a humble two-page research entitled, Implementing the Principles of Civic education in the Junior High School. In it, I investigated the extent to which I as a teacher can do to help improve the quality of our school life and the lives of our students as well. In fact, I have acquired some civic education skills.

Unfortunately, I did not have the chance to study Information and Communication Technology for ELT. As we all know, this is due to lack of materials, technological gadgetry and sophisticated computers in this center. Our teaching would have been more effective with this technology, especially Data Show as we will get introduced to authentic speeches by expert methodologists and teacher trainers in the teaching field, of course. No one can deny how important the contributions that this ICT make to help us be professional and competent teachers.

My personality and attitude towards language learning and teaching are comparatively speaking the most influenced aspects of this training. From the very early start of this year, I was a bit diffident whenever I stood in front of an audience. I did not have the audacity to face the public and to feel open to them. I would assume that this was mainly due to my unsociability, reclusiveness and aloofness towards my colleagues. Of course, I was completely sure that this was not attributed to my linguistic or communicative competence, but rather to the nature of my personality.

For example, whenever I was asked to deliver a presenation or speak in public for two minutes, I always got at a loss, stagefright-stricken and nervous. However, as the saying goes, "where there is a will, there is a way", I immediately set to overcome my problems and thus to gain a great deal of confidence and courage. By so doing, I always went for every presenation or exposé at my disposal so as to get rid of my shyness and timidity.

My trainers have made so many efforts to help me feel relaxed and confident. Later on, I felt that their efforts had a very positive effect on my performances and I did extremely well on all the tests I sat for. The very good practicums that I experienced reflect this progress. Most of my mentors appreciated my teaching and my presence in the classroom. And this is due to all what I have got at the center from a lot of preparedness and constant training.

Notwithstanding, there are so many things that I would like to change about the way we received our training. First and foremost, I am not totally satisfied with how our performances are assesed and evaluated. For instance, in the case of the exams administered, we are only asked to write what our trainers taught us. That is, we have unconsciously been trained to memorise things and give them back to our trainers on paper. One of the bad ramifications of this act is that we will no longer be encouraged to use our critical mind and to be good thinkers and critics, particularly in this field where it is highly needed.

As a proposal, since we are mature practitioners of the English language, I think it would be better for us to be given some sample articles about a certain topic related to teaching and asked to criticise it and give suggestions to solve the problems it expresses and states. In this way, we will be able to put all that we have learnt from theory into practice. And this is the main aim behind any training. Sometimes, we are not provided with concrete solutions to the problems we encounter in the practicums. Instead, we are given recipes and pieces which are not very often universally agreed upon even among expert trainers and supervisors. The problems range from class control to classroom management.

Despite all the complaints I have uttered and the proposals I have suggested, I can never deny what our trainers and the supervisor have done to make us excellent and qualified teachers by the end of this training. I strongly believe that without this hectic life that I have led at the center, I would not have become what I am today. I have become a completely different person. This training year has made a great difference in both my academic and personal life. Last but not least, I would like to warmly and deeply thank my trainers Mr Mohamed Bamhamed, Mr Ayad Chraa, Miss Fatima Drifi and my supervisor Mr Nejrane for the indelible favour and the enjoyable moments that we spent together.