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Felicity Harwood
Name: Felicity Harwood
Background: English teacher
VSO role: English teacher trainer, Universidade Pedagogica, Beira
My job is to train future secondary school teachers to teach English. Mozambique is the sixth poorest country in the world and as it's surrounded by English speaking countries (the official language here is Portuguese), it's aware of the need for English if it's to enjoy its slice of the globalisation cake.
Methods in schools are very traditional - many of the teachers will stand at the front of the class and lecture over students, who'll sit for 45 minutes and not open their mouths. So they'll do years of English at school but won't be able to say 'My name is...' or 'How do you do?'
Part of my job is to encourage trainees to try more communicative approaches, with greater interaction between the students and the teachers. I want to get them to take risks in the classroom. I'm trying to wean them off their traditional methods.
My students take my ideas on board in theory, but then produce lesson plans that are basically 'chalk and talk'. But then, the conditions they work in are hardly conducive to communicative methods. Classes in a typical secondary school may have as many as 70 pupils.
Some of the activities I'm teaching aren't always suitable - they're great for small groups of 14 but not for 70 secondary pupils. So I have to adapt my ideas; I have to be more creative and varied.
Despite the huge classes, the desks fixed to the floor, the lack of course books, I do believe the teaching of English is improving. There really is a huge motivation to learn English amongst the population. I'm delighted when trainees see the value of the different methods I teach them.
And it's great fun teaching Mozambicans. They have a superb sense of humour and they're very appreciative of me being here. My interaction with the students is the best thing about my job. I enjoy my students and the challenge of adapting my teaching to suit them and to suit their future pupils.
I really believe that education is the best investment people can make, whether it's sending a dictionary to a trainee teacher or sponsoring someone like me to come out here and train others. Money really couldn't be better spent.
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