At Sonlight, we have a rule that students have to speak English while at school. Initially, it sounds forceful to demand students to speak another language other than their own. However, it is required so they improve their understanding of English which in turn improves their understanding of the lessons. Since the teachers who volunteer to teach are English speaking, and the better academic books are in English (as opposed to the available Creole text books) it is necessary for the students to speak English. Further, if students want go to universities in the U.S., it is going to be necessary for them to be fluent in English.
Well, we had tried a positive method to motivate their English speaking and to prevent them from speaking Creole to each other while at school. Though we had incentives, they didn't seem to be working. We would give out friendly reminders, but it was blown off. This lead us to switch to the negative reinforcement. We had to begin enforcing "sentences" for anyone who is caught speaking Creole. Immediately, we saw a decrease in Creole use at school. Well, one of my freshman students, Baradina, was caught speaking Creole one morning before class (the rule is that you cannot speak Creole while on school property). She opened a folder and pulled out a page of prewritten sentences. I started laughing because she had already taken the time to write them "just in case". She told me that she was writing them and selling them to other students. It cracks me up when students do these entrepreneurial type tasks.
Our conversation had taken a turn and changed to Digicel, the cellular provider here. Baradina was going on about how you can get free minutes and how Digicel has a window at night where you can talk for free. She was telling me how people will make a lot of calls at night when it is free. Since all cell phones here are prepaid, minutes are a big deal. Well, she told me, "Free nights are for people without money, but not me, because I write sentences and sell them!" She is one funny student.
About Me
- DJodts
- I have created this blog to share the stories of my trip to Haiti as a missionary at Sonlight Ministries as I will be teaching Algebra, Geometry, Adv. Math as well as 6th grade math. Sonlight Ministries was started by Roger and Norma Alexander in 1985 after their second year in Haiti. Before moving to Haiti I have visited four times on one week trips to volunteer with anything that was needed. This mainly consisted of construction work as groups from my church, WRCC, have helped build a new multipurpose building for Sonlight which will be called SonCenter. Construction isn’t the only type of work. Some like to spend time in the classrooms interacting with the students as teachers aides or sitting in the hall with a student one-on-one to help with grammar, math, etc. Groups have also helped with numerous tasks such as painting inside houses, outside houses, and rooftops. If you enjoy helping others and would ever consider visiting please let me know; it is a life changing experience.
1 comment:
Our office in South Africa is required to speak English. I thought it was a little odd at first, but in all honesty, it helps them with their career. More and more US companies are branching out to African locations and these people will have better qualifications since they know English. Great work! We miss you!
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