By Hira Nafees Shah
If given the opportunity, many instructors avoided teaching the Electrical Engineering class at a local university. The students had become notorious for being boisterous, outspoken and over confident.
But one morning in November, there was an unusual silence in the class, broken only by the melody of a well-known English-language song. With rapt attention, more than 80 students listened to the recording and then provided input as the teacher led an exercise to identify the verbal and non-verbal messages in the song, as well as the emotions it invoked.
The instructor Noshaba Sajjad learned about this unique strategy for teaching English through music, while attending a three day “Teachers Technology Training Workshop” in Bahawalpur. During the workshop, participants learned how to incorporate technology and English Language Teaching (ELT) instruction into their regular university classes.
“My semester has been great, as a result of using the strategies that I was taught at the workshop,” Sajjad said.
Teacher Training Program Alumnus Arfan Lodhi spearheaded the workshops which the Pakistan-U.S. Alumni Network funded with an Alumni Small Grant.
With English being the most spoken language in the world and one of the official languages of Pakistan, classes that increase students’ English proficiency are highly sought. Professors feel the pressure to include the latest developments in this changing field in their lectures, and produce good student results.
In this highly competitive environment, Lodhi—who was a part of the curriculum development team at Iowa State University—stepped in to fill the gap.
“I wanted to make learning fun and this is exactly what the State Department’s English language teaching material provided,” said Lodhi. “Initially we wanted to train only 50 teachers, but the response was so enthusiastic, that we ended up enrolling 72 teachers in our workshops.”
For Tahira Ashgar, a teacher at the Islamia University of Bahawalpur, workshop was particularly useful because the strategies shared were student-centered and aimed to develop the confidence of the pupils.
“My students will be able to communicate more effectively in real life situations, whereas before they were just cramming their lectures,” she said.
Lodhi also conducted another teacher training workshop in Multan on his own expense, because he felt so passionate about giving back to the society.
“I believe there is no better community service then training teachers, as the society can become peaceful by their positive contribution,” he said.
As for Lecturer Noshaba Sajjad, the music learning technique became so popular, she was inundated by requests from her students to hold similar sessions in the future. So one Saturday, she organized the same music activity, thinking only a few students would show since it was an official holiday. To her surprise, the classroom was packed.
