What the teacher does

1. SUPERVISING. While the class is happening you are not teaching anything, you are setting tasks and supervising work that will be mostly in languages you can't understand. I don't feel there is much point spending a long time with different language students working on cross-cultural projects in English as for none of them is it a goal to acquire cross-cultural knowledge. Their goal is to improve their language, therefore they must work with others who study their language or by themselves if they are the only one. 

2. TEACHING. The exception being the three students who are following the scheme of work we have written for native speakers without tutors. Therefore you are teaching three students and supervising 13 students. I sometimes feel as though there is not enough of me to do this effectively. While I'm teaching a lesson to a minority of the students, how can I be watching what the majority are doing? I think an answer would be to create an ISLE course with all the resources on for the native speakers without tutors. This would mean that they could work independently at their own pace on this without me needing to introduce it each time. This said I am glad I am having a more hands-on approach in teaching it this first time round so I can find out what works and what doesn't work.

2. ORGANISING. Outside of the class there is a lot of organisation to do. Firstly the lessons for the three native-speaker students have to be planned. Secondly dialogue with individual students and parents has to happen to ascertain the students' language needs, then liaison with tutors, booking rooms etc. It is really important that any GCSE level student has a tutor.

4. ASSESSING. When the students have completed the work, unless you happen to speak the language they are studying you can't assess it. You can see if they have done something on their blog, but you can't judge the quality of the work. Therefore you can't see any improvement, or give them advice on how to improve, which can be frustrating. Therefore you are relying on getting comments from adult native speakers to give you a clue as to what to say to the student to help them improve.

What do the students think?

Natalie is studying Korean - She thinks her vocabulary is improving, but not so much grammar. Liked most tasks, but speaking task hard because hard to speak out loud. Likes writing in Korean because it's always being polite and very different to how you speak, she also likes the exclusivity of being able to write in Korean, as it 'looks cool' and not many people can do it. She would find a tutor useful but would dislike doing speaking as she is not a confident Korean speaker. This said she is keen to have a tutor for one of the three lessons. 

Kaori - Likes having more chance to write. She has learnt how to write a news article - and about how the Japanese language does this. She tends to use vocabulary she already knows, not new vocabulary. Favourite topic so far: music - able to research about Japanese music.  Having another Japanese student of the same level would be good. Having a tutor with textbook would be better - so that the course is structured properly. Used to go to Japanese Epis here in Hong Kong, but it's made for people who go back to Japan to study and this is not her plan. She has been in HK 3 and half years - in Australia for 3 years before. For two years went to Japanese school in Australia but attended the English stream. 

Victor - He is studying Polish. He was born in New York (to Polish mother and Danish father), moved to Poland at 3 years of age. Lived in Poland until 3 months ago. Stepdad's contract moved the family to Hong Kong. Still speaks Polish with six year old brother and sister who is three. It is useful to practise Polish, helps keep up the language. Liked music topic, also art, cultural norms.  Likes the format of the lessons, interesting, new, different from the other lessons, breaks up the boring sameyness of lessons. Is strongly opposed to having a tutor as he sees the Hebrew students having to do a lot of dry, book-based work for their tutor who is quite strict with them.

Rushabh - Is studying GCSE level Spanish. He says he is definitely learning a lot of Spanish. No tutor outside of school but planning to get a tutor later. He thinks that not having a teacher makes him more independent with his learning, he is quite happy about how the course is going. 

Emma - Studying GCSE level Spanish. She feels she is getting to grips with the basics - clearing up everything. Feels like she has to motivate herself. First two lessons does whatever has been set by me. Third lesson doing tutor set work. 1 hour a week with tutor, doing past papers and building vocabulary. Wants to do GCSE this year, but if does not mind doing it again next year if she does not get a good grade first time round. 

Daniel - Studying GCSE level Spanish, but has not studied Spanish previously so starting from scratch. Now has a tutor to work with him 2 lessons a week during the Elements course. 

Hana - Studying GCSE level Japanese. She thinks it is good. She enjoys working independently but thinks that sometimes it's hard when you don't understand without tutor there. It's working well being tutored by Mayumi. She thinks it would be better to have the lessons scattered throughout the week. 

Ada -  She is studying Norwegian on the Norwegian government portal. She sometimes finds it hard to do everything. It's hard to ask questions as it takes time for the online teacher to reply because of the time difference. The online stuff is interesting - sometimes reads the news and learns about Norway.  Was 6 when came to Hong Kong. Hopes to go back and live in Norway. Would like to study in England or Australia. 

Nir - Hebrew. He thinks it's good because better than having lesson after school - now they have time to take part in after-school activities that they couldn't do before. Work with Riki helps him to improve. Groups are uneven his group doesn't feel as good as the other one. He sometimes finds the work too easy as he is the best student in the second group. Thinks he is in the middle of the native speakers in terms of level. Needs to work on spelling and most of grammar - and making his writing more descriptive. 

Barak - Hebrew. Bookwork - reading comprehension is easy, some of it is medium. Good structure. Discusses work with other students. Wants to do Hebrew self-taught. 

Nini - Hebrew. She thinks is it good. She thinks she has improved Hebrew. She is not a native speaker. Her heritage is American-Moroccan / South African. She feels like she is being pushed a lot being with native speakers. Classes are challenging. Riki speaks only in Hebrew. Needs Hebrew for IB, Bottom set Mandarin. 

Carol - Hebrew - she thinks it is good, but she feels as though doesn't speak enough. Would like to have more speaking work. The level is appropriate. Looking at IB self-taught.

Noa, Oded, Michael, Maya - All doing Set 1 Hebrew were having their lesson with the Hebrew tutor when I carried out these interviews.