A typical TEFL host family story…

 …with one shocking difference.

“There’s a hubbub at the front door. The girls are very tired after their long journey. Speaking a few words of English is a major effort…

The girls’ latest model mobile telephones prove to be a lifeline to parents and friends at home…

Although Charlotte and Margaret are shy, particularly when it comes to speaking English, Josephine and I have little trouble communicating with them. We noticed that when the girls talked to each other in their own language they use many English words including fork, spoon, colours, numbers, non-native animals and anything mechanical…

We break lessons to go grocery shopping. The girls cannot read road signs and are embarrassed to be the only people on the street unable to do so. It is soon evident that shopping for sweets, chips, trinkets, cosmetics, clothes and electronic gadgets is a passion that could take up all their time in Sydney…

Returning to school in the afternoon, their writing is very neat and clear. They have been copying words and numbers from the blackboard and in early childhood and primary language workbooks for years. These are based on large laminated textbooks… children are evidently not entitled to their own copy of a school text. The present text The World That We Want is a booklet about marine life for five to nine year-olds. Charlotte and Margaret know phrases and passages by heart from The World That We Want but cannot read the text. They have been taught to identify an initial letter then guess at a word but not to read it… because they have been badly taught…

We try watching television, without success. Going to the cinema is not a great success because of the girls’ limited English. When they watch films in the evening on the computer in their room, they turn the sound down so as not to be disturbed by the English voices…

they are unable to read menus. They head for the familiar KFC or McDonald’s where they can read chips and other items, though not the recently introduced health foods…

…the best way for them to catch up is likely to be to sit with immigrants or foreign students coming to Australia to learn English. The girls are not alone. There are at least 20 teenagers in their situation in their community alone…”

Which would of course mean that they are not immigrants or foreign students…

If you haven’t guessed the shocking piece of information I have left out here yet, have a click on the original story.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 26th, 2008 at 11:11 pmand is filed under Phonics, TESOL in Australia, Teaching reading skills. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.