Hargreaves, E; Mahgoub, M; Elhawary, D; (2016) An investigation into improved primary school English language learning in the traditional classroom: pupils explain what children and teachers can do to make progress (An Egyptian case study). (ELT Research Papers 17.01 ). British Council: London.

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Abstract

This research set out to investigate the active voices of primary pupils in the government schools of a developing country (Egypt). Despite their traditional background in the classroom, the children had valuable insights about the classroom and how to improve it to enhance the learning of English. The pupils in this study described learning two Englishes: the bookish English of the classroom, leading to university; and the spoken, evolving English which pupils acquired mainly at home and through the internet. Pupils desired to achieve both of these Englishes in order to belong to the ‘imagined community’ of global English speakers who both spoke conversational English and had the high status associated with bookish English (Norton and Kamal, 2003). These Englishes seemed to represent the two cultures referred to by Holliday (1994) as collectionist on the one hand and integrationist on the other. Pupils believed that the teacher who helped their learning of both Englishes was the patient teacher who supported them, rather than punished them. As barriers to learning, pupils conveyed that teachers’ harsh words and their tendency to beat pupils made pupils afraid, upset, angry and unable to learn fruitfully. Pupils blamed themselves and their peers for not behaving well or studying hard. Pupils suggested that teachers should use more visual and audio stimuli in the classroom, including digital resources where native speakers could be heard. Teachers should support pupils to practise English together in pairs and groups. This way, the two Englishes would be supported more equally.

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