TEFL Middlebury Michigan

In each country there are different learning problems associated with the people. As tefl has demonstrated there is a noticeable difference between young and adult learners; in this essay young learners will be addressed. The greatest problems for young learners in Tanzania are lack of motivation, family/home issues, lack of supplies, and large classroom numbers. Unfortunately for the youth of Tanzania, corporal punishment is still in effect at home and at school. The teachers do not use positive reinforcement to encourage the students to do well – they use the stick. The children are not moved by thoughts of praise or “gold star stickers” they only fear failing. After a time however they even become numb to the pain of the stick. It's a part of daily life at home and at school. They receive no respect; they are the bottom of the food chain. In everything the child does they are most likely to get the stick and in turn they have no motivation to work hard for themselves. Also, once they finish that year of school – whichever year it may be – they may not even return to school. What motivates a child if they do not see a future in their learning? A lot of parents are old fashioned and don't even believe that what the child learns is relevant to success in life. english is not used in the field. english is not used at home. Perhaps their parents don't speak english and didn't have the luxury of going to school; they get by fine and they think school is just another institution to take money from them. Of course there are those parents who realize their child's studies can give them a better life – in that case they may get beat for having bad grades. teachers in Tanzania are very limited in teaching resources. They may be lucky to even have a classroom if not desks, paper and pencils. This gives them the opportunity to be resourceful and imaginative; unfortunately for the students most english teachers lack proper training and motivation. Students are faced with problems of boredom, distractions, and monotony. They have no learning materials to expand their minds. For the teachers, it's just a job to put food on the table. That being said even in such a situation as poverty there are those who take the time to create their own resources to inspire young learners. So the problem is this: with a lack of resources neither the student nor the teacher can learn properly. Besides resources being few, there are also few teachers in comparison to the number of students. Teaching is not a great paying job. Therefore one teacher ends up teaching 60 – 70 students or more in one class. Students do not have the opportunity to have their individual needs met. The teachers feel overwhelmed by the numbers and stick to simple teaching and testing methods so as to keep everything straightforward and easier. Students have problems learning in such an environment because they are uninspired, ignored, and not pushed to do well. One teacher cannot possibly look to the needs of each and every student. There are several more problems for learners in Tanzania that are similar to those problems each learner has no matter what country they're from. However, for the sake of this essay, the main problems of young learners in Tanzania addressed are lack of motivation, family/home issues, lack of supplies, and large classroom numbers. There are great improvements to be made for young learners, perhaps someday things will change – but there will always be problems for learners!