Ban Sikeud primary school is declared “Model School” of Vientiane Capital province
Many years of supporting education for children in Laos by the Angels for Children foundation led up to a great distinction awarded last Friday: The primary school in Ban Sikeud was given the title of “Model School” for the whole Vientiane Capital Province in an official ceremony with high-level Laotian officials. The primary school is now the first model school in the Naxaythong district and one of six model schools in the province, which is home to roughly 700,000 inhabitants.
The ceremony was opened by some students performing songs, dances, and hula hoop-shows, and a karate performance conducted by Vixay “Sai”, national karate trainer of Laos and teacher for sports at our Foundation schools.
Following this, Mr Veelasack Nam Monty, Head of Naxaythong district, praised the high quality of the school, which shows in both the pupils’ education and their sense of duty, tidiness, and carefulness, seen every day at the schools. He emphasised that reaching the status of “Model School” was only made possible by the support of Angels for Children, particularly of Gerlinde Engel, Chairwoman of the foundation, who has been continuously promoting this development over a long time. Thus, the appointment to Model School” was well deserved, as the school serves as a good example and role model for all other schools in the district, the province, and, indeed, the whole country.
The historical review presented by the Head of the school, Souphaphone Vongphachane, traced the development of the primary school. In 2003, when the Foundation started supporting the school, it had only 150 pupils. Today, there are more than 440 pupils attending the primary school in Ban Sikeud. Here, children have access to outstanding education by the means of competent teachers and a wide variety of leisure activities like karate, dancing, soccer, and music. Volunteers from the University of Education Karlsruhe contribute to the development of English language competencies by offering additional English courses within the program “Teaching English in Laos” for both pupils and teachers. Additionally, the school educates children in matters of personal hygiene, for example brushing one’s teeth and washing one’s hands. By being made a “Model School”, the primary school is now more independent in organizing and designing its timetables, e.g. incorporating more English lessons.
At the end of the appointment ceremony, all 440 pupils formed the word “Sikeud” with colourful balloons in their hands, and then let them rise up concurrently. Afterwards, Gerlinde Engel, Veelsack Nam Monty, and Xomphou Keopanya, Director of Education and Sports Authority of Vientiane Capital, uncovered a prominent sign which indicates the model school status of the school. The entire ceremony was filmed by a camera crew of the public Laotian television.
So another milestone of the Foundation’s endeavours was reached on Friday. Nevertheless, the next steps and aims are already targeted – the secondary school and the primary school in Ban Phang Heng shall also reach model school status. The work towards these aims is already on track with the ongoing commitment of the Angels for Children Foundation.
Press release by the German embassy
Text & Photos by J. Zeck, translation by N. Blechschmid & H. Müller
We are the new volunteers: “Team II” 2016!
We are Jule Reissig, Jana Brecht, and Isabella Stryj from the University of Education Karlsruhe, Germany. At the moment, we are preparing for volunteering in Laos in February and March 2016. Since their intriguing info session about the project „Teaching English in Laos“, Prof. Dr. Isabel Martin (University of Education Karlsruhe), Johannes Zeck (Angels for Children Foundation), and the first team of University of Education Karlsruhe English graduate volunteers Tobias, Alessandro, Julia, Franziska, and Laura have been patiently answering our questions about working at the schools and staying in Laos.
As all project partner and participants agreed at the beginning of January that the good work at the Ban Sikeud and Ban Phang Heng schools needs to be continued without too much of a gap, the decision to send more volunteers as early as February/March 2016 was quickly made. Prof. Martin and Johannes Zeck advertised and organised a new application process as soon as they got back to Germany, and the good news that the three of us were granted the opportunity to teach in Laos reached us two weeks later, right after our interviews on 28 and 29 January.
Over the last two weeks, Prof. Martin organised several preparatory meetings and workshops for us and gave us lots of material, amongst other things to help us prepare a hand puppet and a picture book workshop for the English teachers in Laos – something new that our team can try out and contribute to the development of the project.
We discussed many other things with Prof. Martin and the prior volunteers regarding organisation and special tasks, e.g. our teaching time at the schools (what should we focus on when teaching there, what material do we have on site), who will continue developing the Lending Library (Jana), the Blog (Jule), and the audio- and video-documentation (Isabella), how can we help the teachers to prepare for their stay in England this summer, and what special events are going to come our way, e.g. Richard Martin’s Storytelling Workshop and the festivities around the Award for Ban Sikeud as “Model School” – next week!
We also participated in a “Singlish” workshop led by Heike Müller, lead singer of Prof. Martin’s Singlish band (more information about Singlish: click here), and co-led by Julia Bauer, Prof. Martin, and Sandro Pola (piano). Also, another workshop and visit by the hand puppet dog “Mister Mopsy” and his author Leonora Fröhlich-Ward was part of our preparation and an inspiring surprise for the three of us (more info about working with Mister Mopsy in Laos: click here). The icing on the cake: We are now the proud owners of Mr Mopsy’s twin brother puppet, who will make his first appearance in Ban Phang Heng shortly!
After finishing all the paperwork and organizing the essentials (new teaching and reading material, donations, presents, mosquito spray, ear plugs, and of course walking sandals as the previous volunteers highly recommend wearing that kind in Laos), we feel well prepared, super excited, and ready to start our adventure of contributing to the project „Teaching English in Laos“!
We are looking forward to meeting our prospective cooperation teachers and the AfC team – and of course to teaching at the schools in Ban Sikeud and Ban Phang Heng and making new experiences. We’ll keep you posted!
Your new Blog Mistress,
Jule
Text by: J. Reissig
Photos by: I. Stryj
Closing summit and information session on “Teaching English in Laos” at the University of Education Karlsruhe
After nearly three months’ of pioneering work the project leaders, board members of the Angel foundation, university administration, and our first five volunteers of the pilot teaching project met up on 27 January 2016 for a full-day conference in Karlsruhe to look back and also forward: What happened since October and what is going to happen in the future? How should the program be shaped or reshaped, in which aspects can it be improved, which ones are just right as they are? What were good and bad experiences for the different players, with whom should we cooperate with in the future? All cards were put on the table.
Since our time schedule was very tight, statements had been formulated beforehand for a lot of the questions. They were then presented and discussed so that decisions could be made.
The first and main objective of the pilot project, i.e. the instalment of a continuous program to improve English language skills and teaching methodology in Laos – the reason why chairman of Angels-for-Children Christian Engel and his Laos delegation came to visit Prof. Isabel Martin in July 2015 in the first place – was already achieved: Prof. Martin submitted the project for inclusion in the new teaching degrees (new Examination Regulation 2015), successfully ran it past various university committees and is currently waiting for the final administrative seal of approval.
This means that from autumn 2017 on, students studying under the new 2015 regulations can choose “Teaching English in Laos” as an official internship for an entire semester – the so-called “profile window”, in which students broaden their focus by engaging in a professional working area which is related to, but not congruous with their chosen fields of study. For this, they earn 15 to 30 credit points. By making this an official part of the university degree program, we secure the long-term continuation of the project and contribute to the ongoing internationalization of our university.
Now it was up to the volunteers to shape the details of the program further. They related their experiences in trying to achieve the goal of teaching English in a communicative way and to strengthen the communicative skills of both teachers and students. They corroborated the idea that the schools should not be seen as singular components, but as an educational center subjected to a holistic reform. This approach had been suggested by Prof. Martin in the very beginning, so now the next step would be to make this plan plausible and transparent to our Laotian cooperation partners so that communication between the schools, school administration, and our project team and leaders could run more smoothly henceforward, and to ensure that both the exchange of information and knowledge and the community of the teachers of the different schools were our new shared goal. Everybody involved needs to know, understand and support this, to avoid, as Christian Engel put it in economic terms, the dead-end “silo effect”.
During the lunch break the project was presented to the Chancellor of the University, Mrs Ursula Woell, who showed great interest in our work and promised her support. We agreed to work out an action plan for the next steps in the short-, mid-, and long-term future, for which we will have a follow-up meeting with the Chancellor at the beginning of April.
Thanks to the delicious catering, we had a nice (and, needless to say, short) lunch break, after which we continued our summit and collected more suggestions for improvement concerning, e.g., additional material to be purchased, future tasks for volunteers and their preparation in Germany. Also, the volunteers, project coordinator, and Angel staff in Laos are to have regular meetings in the future, in which information is shared and the planned measures are continuously reassessed. It also was agreed that six volunteers would be needed to fit the specific current needs.
Last, but not least, an opportunity for studying the Lao language should be an integral component for the future German volunteers. Communication works both ways.
After a long day of intense exchange and debate, we held a press conference at 5 o’clock, which seemed to fascinate our guests, and the same can be said of the information session we held at 6 p.m. for students. Our volunteers spoke about their experiences for about an hour, showed some photos and a film that they had made, and the room was full with 30 spell-bound students, of whom a dozen or so lingered for another hour to ask more questions. Some of them already submitted applications for the next round of “Teaching English in Laos”, and by the sound of it there are more applications to come.
Text by T. Mayer & I. Martin
Photos by K. Buttgereit & J. Zeck
Review: four ways of teaching
During our time at Sikeud Primary school, we implemented four ways of teaching. In this article, I share my personal review.
- Teaching pre-schoolers with Mister Mopsy:
The pre-existing concepts of education and communication challenged us in working with the pre-schoolers. The hand puppet dog Mister Mopsy soon became very popular among the pre-schoolers, and helped us to overcome some of these concepts. For details, check out the two articles on teaching English with Mister Mopsy. (Mopsy article 1 & 2) - Teacher training I – language competencies:
For the teacher training, every one of us English education graduates from the University of Education Karlsruhe was paired up with two Lao English teachers. My fellow teachers were Mit and Noy. Working with them was a great pleasure as both are lovely Laotians with great charisma. Sitting face to face with them and seeing them smile while working together was definitely a daily morning highlight and I could not have wished for better students. Sometimes they came late or forgot their homework, but usually they worked hard and ambitiously. As I had never taught adults before, it took us a while to adjust to each other, and to find a good way of engaging. We worked with the book “New Headway Elementary” and its companion book on pronunciation. Soon I realized that many exercises were too easy for Mit and Noy, so we skipped them. Their English pronunciation, however, was a huge challenge. Working on it required a lot of patience from both sides. They were able to form most of the sounds but sometimes it seemed as if that they had forgotten what we had practiced just the day before. - Teacher training II – English education:
The second part of teacher training focused on implementing concepts and methods of English education. Therefore, I followed Mit and Noy to their English classes and observed their teaching. A major problem with teaching English in Lao schools is being hogtied to using the school books. All classes, except the pre-schoolers, have to use the school books which take on a predominant role in the Lao classroom. During my observations, I took notes about what went well and what could be improved and gave Mit and Noy feedback afterwards. Sometimes observing became really boring and even frustrating, for example when the whole class mechanically recited from the book and I could not think of good ideas to improve the learning situation from this basis. I tried to support Mit and Noy with tips and tricks of the trade to help them create more motivational settings for language learning. I think the outcome was quite alright. Even before our arrival, Mit had been working with songs and aspects of the Total Physical Response method from time to time. Total Physical Response (TPR) is a language learning method that conveys meaning through actions. By doing what is said, the learners can learn language chunks in a playful way.
To create a more lasting effect, I prepared a 3-page handout for my fellow teachers, in which I summed up all the things we discussed during feedback time. I hope it will come to good use. - Activity
In the afternoon, it was activity time. During activity time, the students get to choose from a variety of activities like clubs or sport teams. Naturally, we decided to offer English activities, and this went quite well. On some days, I just started talking to a group of students. Shortly after, a whole crowd had gathered around me, taking part in whatever I presented to them (colours, numbers, songs…). Some weeks later, mostly pre-schoolers joined in the activities – I guess because they liked me from our class with Mister Mopsy. Their high motivation made teaching a bit more difficult, because some of the little keen ones loved to overdo the body movements, especially during the popular “Hokey Pokey” song. During the chorus (“Ohhh, the Hokey Pokey”) the students hold hands and run towards the centre of the circle and out again. This usually is great fun, but the keen ones were so eager to get to the centre of the circle that some students tripped and fell and others pulled them over the ground. Sometimes the whole circle collapsed. Luckily, no one ever got hurt. At such points I sometimes got frustrated because it was hard to explain to them to remember that despite all the fun this was still an English lesson – they would just not understand. They kept on asking for the Hokey Pokey over and over again.
Learning words and phrases during activity time was very fruitful, as it gave us the opportunity and freedom to implement teaching methods that are suitable for children.
Text by T. Mayer
Weekend trips and holidays
Besides our work in the schools, we also had some time to explore some tourist attractions of Laos.
Vientiane
We spent most of our weekends in Vientiane exploring the city, since the capital of Laos is only a 40-minute car drive (15 km) from Ban Sikeud. Besides shopping opportunities on the night market and several little shops in the city centre, Vientane also offers some of the most famous attractions in Laos. We found that the best way around the city is renting a bike or a scooter, as these vehicles allow you to explore the outer districts and attractions as well.
Sights, points of interests, and tips:
- Bicycle trip: One of the easiest ways to explore Vientiane is by bike. The rent for the day is around 10.000 Kip (1,13 €) and the only thing one has to be aware of is that lockers are provided. If you take the bicycle tour recommended in the Lonely Planet travel guide you pass most of the tourist attractions in Vientane: the National Museum, That Luang, Patouxai, the Presidential Palace, different temples or the COPE Visitors Centre.
- The top of Patouxai: Climbing the stairs to the top of Patouxai is definitely worth every single step. The view over the city from up there is incredible and gives you an impression of how far Vientiane stretches out.
- Night market and morning market: The morning market at the Talat Sao Malls offers mainly goods for everyday life. These range from electronic devices, fabrics, and household goods to souvenirs. The big shopping outlet is open daily from around 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The night market in Vientiane stretches along the riverbank and offers souvenirs, clothing, and Chinese knick-knacks. It is usually set up every day between 6 p.m. and 10 p.m.
- Massage: A not so secret insider tip is the herbal sauna which also offers massages next to Wat Sokpaluang near the German Embassy. It is easy to reach by bike or with a tuk tuk (rickshaw). Although Lao massages are rather rough compared to massages in Germany, it is a nice place to spend some relaxing hours.
Vang Vieng
On our third weekend in Laos we went on a 3-hour trip up north to visit Vang Vieng. Vang Vieng is a small city next to the Nam Song River. It is surrounded by limestone karst mountains, setting the city into a breath-taking scenery. In the past, Vang Vieng was known for tubing, but one can also enjoy beautiful attractions like the Blue Lagoon, numerous caves and small hikes leading up to scenic views.
Sights, points of interest, and tips:
- Hike, cave and Blue Lagoon
One of the best options to explore the surrounding area is by motorbike. While we stayed in Vang Vieng we hired one for a day and rode the “West Vang Vieng Loop” motorcycle tour recommended by the Lonely Planet travel guide. However, since we started late in the day, we only managed to explore three of the recommended stops.
First we started with a hike up Pha Ngum – a rocky cliff with an observation deck on the top that provides an incredible view. The hike is very steep and the path is very rocky, so we recommend wearing proper hiking shoes. The scenic view from the top over the area is absolutely worth the effort.
After this exhausting hike we spent the afternoon at the Blue Lagoon. There we hopped into the water together with two coaches of Korean tourists. Although it can be very crowded, the Blue Lagoon is a nice spot to cool down and relax for a while. After our swim and some jumping from trees into the pond, we climbed a steep path up to Phou Kham Cave. Bringing your own flashlights or headlights along is a good idea. However, it is also possible to rent them at the entrance of the cave.
Unfortunatly, we did not have more time to finish the tour. After exploring the three stops, we all agreed that starting earlier in the day and riding round the whole loop in order to explore some more caves would have been best.
- Tubing, kayaking, climbing
In Vang Vieng several tour operators also offer trips to caves and waterfalls, rock climbing tours as well as tubing and kayaking on the Nam Song. If you want to take one of these tours, you can find many different offers for tours and tour combinations in the city centre of Vang Vieng – or ask at your guesthouse.
Luang Prabang
Luang Prabang, the former city of the King of Laos, is a must-see attraction for travellers. Although it is a rather touristic place, it has kept its small town charm and atmosphere. This might be mainly due to the fact that Luang Prabang became an official UNESCO World Heritage site in 1995.
Sights, points of interests, tips:
- Old city
To get a good overview of the city, we rented some bikes and cycled around for a day. Although we focused on the old city with its attractions like the Royal Palace, different temples, especially Wat Xieng Thong and the top of Phousi at sunset, leaving the old city and adding attractions like the UXO Lao Visitor Centre, the Traditional Arts and Ethnology Centre and Wat That Luang to your bike route is worth it.
- Night market
The night market of Luang Prabang is great for finding souvenirs to take back home. During our stay in Luang Prabang this market was set up every night and the vendors started selling their products at around 5 p.m. It begins near the Royal Palace and goes all the way to the tourist office at Inthasone Road. Concerning nice souvenirs, this night market is definitely preferable over the one in Vientiane.
- Ock Pop Tok
A very interesting place for anyone interested in textiles is the Living Crafts Centre of Ock Pop Tok (“East meets West”). One can catch a free tuk tuk from one of their stores in the old city. Free tours are offered at the centre, showing and explaining traditional textile techniques of weaving or batik techniques. It is also possible to take a class or workshop on natural dyes, weaving or batik there. These can take from half a day up to three days. But even if one just comes by for a tour, the centre also has a café, a little shop and a nice terrace with a wonderful view over the Mekong river.
You can find more information here: Ock Pop Tok
- Big Brothers Mouse / Traditional Storytelling
Concerning the English language and our teaching approaches we found two very interesting institutions in Luang Prabang.
The first one is Big Brother Mouse. Big Brother Mouse is an organisation that aims to improve literacy in Laos by publishing picture books in Lao and English and taking them to schools in remote areas. Besides their shop in Luang Prabang they also have one in Vientiane. Tourists can come to their shop in Luang Prabang at 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. to help young Laotians practise their English.
You can find more information about the organisation here: Big Brother Mouse
One evening we went to listen to a 1-hour session of traditional storytelling. A young man and his uncle told old traditional folk tales from Laos, mainly concerning Luang Prabang, for about one hour. The uncle was playing a traditional instrument and the young man was telling the stories directly in English. However, the small one-room theatre can be tricky to find. It is on Kounxoa Road near Wat Sene. Just look out for a sign on the corner of Sakkaline Road and Sisaeumasack Road between Wat Sene and Wat Sop Sickharam and follow the directions.
- Excursions / tours
To visit the sights and attractions outside Luang Prabang, like the Pak Ou Buddha Caves or the Kuang Si waterfall, many agencies offer half-day or one-day tours, often combining different attractions. Although it might take more organisational work, organising a tour yourself by renting a tuk tuk or a motorbike for a day can be cheaper and more fun. Visiting an elephant camp is an amazing experience but should be considered under ethical aspects. “The Elephant Village” can be a good option, as it is regarded as the most ethically responsible of the many elephant camps surrounding Luang Prabang. You can find more information here:
Text by: L. Kringe
Photos by: L. Kringe, T. Mayer, S. Schaedlich
The Sinh
While strolling through the different markets and little shops in Laos, one cannot help but notice the amount of colourful fabrics in innumerable varieties which are used to sew the traditional Laotian skirt – the sinh. Since a sinh is part of the school uniform for both female students and female teachers, the girls in our team decided to find some fabric on the market in order to get a sinh for ourselves and integrate our outer appearance into this part of Laotian culture.
Traditionally, women in Laos and Thailand wear the sinh. While it has become a piece of clothing mainly worn at official and special occasions in Thailand, the sinh remains more of an everyday garment for present-day Laotian women. Nevertheless, one might rather see young Laotian women wearing the traditional skirt in rural areas than in the urban centres. Also, combining it with a Western-style shirt is more common than wearing the entire traditional outfit with a special blouse. The latter is regarded as very traditional and remains for official and special occasions.
Traditionally, the fabric of the skirt is either made of silk or cotton or a combination of both and woven on a loom by the wearer herself. Although mass-production and synthetic fibres have found their way into the market, it is still common for Laotian girls and women, especially in rural areas, to weave their sinhs themselves or at least add their own twist by embroidering certain patterns and motifs onto the fabrics. The designs and patterns of the skirt distinguish various ethnic groups. A handmade sinh can therefore identify its wearer in different ways, especially regarding her regional background as well as her belonging to and identification with a specific ethnic group.
We found the fabrics for our first traditional skirts on a market in Vientiane. Back in Ban Sikeud, a local seamstress helped us with measuring and fitting the pattern to our Western bodies. Also, she seamed the fabric up for us. After only three days we could pick up our sinhs. As a special memento Franziska and I also received fabrics for sinhs from two teachers we worked with. These very personal gifts were something truly special for us and we enjoyed wearing the skirts in school and on special occasions like the baci.
Text by L. Kringe
Photos by L. Kringe & I. Martin
Modern Western Square Dance Workshop 13/12/2015
After our own introduction to the world of Modern Western Square Dance in a workshop at the PH (read report here) we were very keen to see the Lao reaction to it. Dancing Modern Western Square Dance is a very effective way to learn English words and chunks, as it is both fun and motivating because the language is taught through movement. The underlying language learning method is called Total Physical Response (TPR). The learners are shown and then respond to the Caller’s English commands to show that they can connect the words with meaning by dancing whatever she/he calls them to do. Even small children and non-English speakers can learn to dance the first choreographies in very little time (for more info on TPR click here). This is why we invited all the teachers of the schools to our Modern Western Square Dance Workshop, not only the English teachers. We were also delighted to hear that the English staff of the Teacher Training College which Prof. Martin had visited during her first stay were also going to join us.
The workshop started at 2 p.m. on the first day of Prof. Martin’s second visit. We wanted to give a first impression of Square Dance without too much input. Therefore we performed our first dance: “Train to Boston”.This dance is actually quite complex as the dancers have to follow ten different calls. Additionally, there i s a partner change every 32 beats.
Subsequently, we gave a short introduction to Square Dance, addressing questions like: What is Square Dance? Where are its origins? Why and how do we use it in the English-speaking classroom?Following that, we started our first joint dance called “Jump Start”. This simple choreography was to get the whole crowd dancing. There are three different calls in this dance which is performed in a big circle. It was very nice to see the Lao teachers and the College staff (and their Head!) dancing with so much pleasure and joy. When everybody felt comfortable with the movements, we split up the circle to form smaller groups. Within those groups of six teachers, everybody got his or her chance to call the dance for the other group members. It was just as difficult for them as it had been for us when we called this dance for the first time. However, everybody managed at least a few beats.
To increase the challenge, we introduced another dance, “The Maine Mixer”.
Our Young-Caller Alessandro Pola introduced the different commands to the dancing group. Half an hour later the choreography went quite well so Prof. Martin decided to include a partner change in order to step up the challenge and augment the fun – and it worked!
At the end of the workshop we handed out booklets (pre-prepared by our professional Caller-Teacher Andreas Hennecke) about the different dances. All in all it was a very successful and enjoyable workshop for everyone, so we decided to try this with our pupils at Ban Phang Heng secondary school next.
Text by J. Bauer, stills by I. Martin
The Baci
During our time in Laos, we had the opportunity not only to witness but to be the guests of honour at one of the most important ceremonies for Laotian people – the Baci.
Besides Buddhism, Animism and ancestor worship play important roles in Laos. The main function of a Baci is to reunite the body’s multiple souls. This ceremony plays an important role in everyday life, especially on occasions like birthdays, weddings or farewell parties. The central element of the Baci is the pakhuan – an elaborate bouquet-like “flower tower” made from tightly and artfully wrapped banana leaves as a scaffold, which is splendidly decorated with yellow and orange flowers on long spikes, candles on the top and draped with orange and white knotted threads or bands. The pakhuan serves as an offering to the spiritual world. It is the centre of the Baci, with offerings of food and drinks for the surrounding apostate souls spread on the table around it. The guests of honour sit in a circle around this table while they hold long white threads in their folded hands which are tied to the pakhuan. An animist priest begins to invite the absent khwan (souls) to return, in a mixture of Lao and Pali chants. Once the souls are back in their right places, the threads or bands tied to the pakhuan are removed and used by the congregation to ‘tie down’ the souls by tying them around the wrists of the guests of honour while personal blessings like ‘health’, ‘luck’, ‘happy life’ or ‘safe travels’ are added.
The first Baci we witnessed took place just 10 days after our arrival. It was celebrated in Sikeud Secondary School and was held for the family of the foundation’s chairman Christian Engel, the coordinator Mr Fürst and wis wife as well as for us, the English graduate volunteers. While this Baci was a farewell ceremony for the Engel and Fürst families, it was a welcoming ceremony for us at the same time. After the Baci, the opening ceremony of the Phang Heng Primary School took place. For this, the teachers and pupils had rehearsed a choreography: Every child, teacher and guest received a balloon and in the end all the balloons were sent to the sky with good wishes.
The second Baci we were invited to was held at Sikeud Primary School. For us, this Baci was the most personal. It took place on 17 December 2015 and was meant to be our farewell Baci since Prof. Martin was to leave on that day (of her second visit) and two of our team were also getting ready to leave Laos just before Christmas. As the guests of honour we sat around the pakhuan, holding the white strings tied to it and wearing some traditional Lao clothing. After the chanting of the priest, officials and elders from the village and the district, our colleagues, pupils as well as the Angel for Children team tied threads around our wrist. After the ceremony, everyone gathered around two long tables which were set up in the school yard and were loaded with traditional Lao food.
The last Baci was the smallest one and organized by our colleagues at Ban Phang Heng Primary School. It was a farewell ceremony for the three of us who had remained in Laos over Christmas and New Year. This Baci was also a very personal and emotional one and was rounded up with a joyful lunch consisting of grilled fish, vegetables, spicy dips, and fresh fruit. Prof. Martin was also invited, as she had arrived just after Xmas for her third visit to collect the results of our pilot project, to receive the Minister of Education and the German Ambassador at our schools, and then to return home with us.
Text by L. Kringe
Photos by I. Martin, D. Hartmann, J. Zeck
Students celebrating the opening ceremony of the school after the renovation by Angels for Children
“My personal highlight” by Julia Bauer
It is quite difficult to make out one special event or one special moment which is supposed to be the best one as I had so many of them. However, one of my favourite days was a normal school day. In our daily activity time, we always had a lot of fun. The kids were motivated and enthusiastic. Nevertheless, I hadn’t expected what was coming up. We always chose a different activity each day but repeated them now and then.
One day we wanted to repeat an activity from the week before. Normally, we said the first lines and the students repeated them. This time we decided to show the corresponding movements without saying a word. All of them started to say the rhyme without any help. We even stopped making the movements. It didn’t matter: they just went on in their enchanted way. Even though it was just one moment during a regular school day, it showed me that the project would work and it showed the Lao teachers who were present that learning through rhymes, games and communicative tasks would be successful.
Text by J. Bauer
Mopsy: final review
It has been a while since our last Mopsy report and we have taught many lessons with Mister Mopsy since then. This article aims to compare our first observations, concerns and hopes with what we have learned and experienced in the meantime.
Contrary to our initial concerns, the dog hand puppet Mister Mopsy became quite a star among the pre-schoolers. Every time Mopsy appeared, they started calling his name, grabbing for him wanting to shake his hand. At some stages we even had to comfort the students in order to be able to continue our teaching.
The worries concerning our outlandish origin in combination with their shyness proved wrong, too. It took some days, maybe even weeks, for the Lao pre-schoolers to get used to us, and us to get used to this whole new situation, too. However, the pre-schoolers became keener and keener about the Mopsy lessons and their foreign teachers. Here is one example: we divided the classes into four groups each. Now each time we called the first student of a particular group, the others from the group already stood up, ready to run to the meeting point. Very funny to see! They liked us a lot, too, permanently calling our names on the schoolyard, running around us, trying to play hide and seek or holding our hands.
One cultural barrier persisted until the end, though: the repetition drill of words or sentences. Sometimes, when we asked the students to repeat a word group (chunk) or sentence in English (e. g. “This is my hand”), their internalized habit of doing repetitive drills was truly helpful as they did exactly what they were asked to do (repeat). But in other situations it was a major hindrance. Especially in the beginning, they answered the question “What is your name?” with repeating the question instead of telling their names. Even though it got better, from time to time there were some students who regularly fell back into the old pattern.
Another challenge was producing certain sounds of the English language. Some sounds were really hard for the pre-schoolers to produce, for example the s-endings (e.g. plural –s). Working with Mister Mopsy definitely supported the improvement of pronunciation issues. One of the benefits of working with the Mopsy programme is the small size of the groups, allowing us, at least to some extent, to focus on pronunciation aspects individually.
Teaching English with Mister Mopsy was a great success! It might have taken a bit more patience and some extra empathy from our side than we would have expected (and probably some extra effort from the students, too), but these amazing kids were absolutely worth the hard work and the energy we invested.
In the end, the Lao pre-schoolers were able to ask for names and tell their own names. They knew some of the body parts and other basic vocabulary items as well as short and useful patterns featured in the Mopsy handbook.
Good job, Mopsy, and keep going!
Text by T. Mayer
Photo by A. Pola
Spotlight: Gestures
Gestures are the everyday movements we use to support our spoken communication or to convey non-verbal messages, for example “come here”. Not all gestures mean the same all over the world. Some supposedly harmless gestures can be downright offensive in other cultures. Many people would be aware of this when visiting a foreign country.
Personally, I would count myself amongst the people who realize such differences. Nevertheless did I not fully reflect my teaching regarding this assumption during one of my lessons with the Lao teachers. This was the group of beginners who wanted to learn a little bit of English to be able to communicate with foreigners.
Every day I taught 50 minutes of English to this group of Ban Phang Heng Primary School teachers. Some of them already knew some English words and knew how they could use their limited vocabulary to try to express their thoughts.
One day I fell into the trap of which I foolishly had thought I would never even come close to. We were talking about new vocabulary, including the words “leave home” and “get home”. I noticed that some of the teachers in my group had problems with those two expressions. Therefore, I talked about each of them for a while, also mentioning what one might do when one “gets home” or ”leaves home”. While explaining, I was always moving my hands, showing the students the difference between “get home” and “leave home”. After a while – they had taken some time to discuss the matter in Lao – they seemed to agree that they all had understood what the new words meant.
For practicing the new vocabulary I then asked the group to write a few sentences about their daily routines. Afterwards, as the first teacher read her text aloud, I noticed that she had switched the expressions “get home” and “leave home”. When I asked her some questions about her routine, the confusion in the whole group was great.
The only way I could solve this problem was to act out what I was explaining. So I acted like I was getting ready to go to school and left the room saying “I leave home at 7:30 in the morning”. The same in reverse with the term “get home”. Through this demonstration the group noticed the misunderstanding, which I must have caused by using my “familiar” gestures when explaining the meaning of the two new expressions. That day, I learned that enacting words as real as possible is superior to relying on gestures in foreign language teaching.
Text by F. Frister
English “Lending Library” in Ban Sikeud Primary School
In the teachers’ room of Ban Sikeud Primary School we now have a Lending Library with many English books. There are books for reading for pleasure during free time as well as books for explicitly improving one’s English skills. The Library also hosts many didactic books on teaching English as a foreign language, some of which are geared towards the interests and needs of children, whilst others respond to the needs of adult learners. Furthermore, the Library features monolingual English dictionaries for both children and adults. Working with monolingual dictionaries is an important step in language learning and teaches the correct usage of words, fosters the underlying cultural concepts that are connected to language and supports the learners with semantic organization.
One of our cooperation English teachers in Laos, Mittaphone from Ban Sikeud Primary School, has taken on the librarian’s tasks since we left. She helps the other teachers when they want to borrow a book and makes sure the books are returned after 4 weeks
Over 170 books, more than 30 CDs, around 5 DVDs, and the hand puppets Sally, Mr. Mole, Mopsy and Little Birdy inhabit the new library.
All of the items in the English Lending Library were donated by various parties. We would like to thank
Angels for Children,
Pearson Education,
Finken,
Oldenbourg,
Cornelsen,
Hueber,
MacMillan,
Helbling,
Oxford University Press.
Additionally some private donations were also made, by Prof. Dr. Isabel Martin, Leonora Fröhlich-Ward, Monika Schellberg, Susanne Frister, and D. Gray.
We are all really grateful for this enormous support from so many different parties. Without such a contribution, the project of teaching Lao English teachers and students could not have had such a successful start.
Text by F. Frister
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