Israeli EFL has a Lot to Learn

This morning I posted about this topic more from the aspect of parents' responsibility to demand change. EFL Teaching in Israel, Sigh... Now I want to write about how the Israeli EFL teachers and the school administrations must demand change.

When I was teaching remedial English in a yeshiva high school I didn't expect my students to know much in terms of basic language skills, but when I started getting regular and even top English groups I was really horrified. There were almost no actual English speakers in these groups; they were the elite, the success stories of the system. And not only were they above average in English, but they were supposedly good or excellent students in other subjects, especially, those to do with Hebrew.

The standard, non-remedial, English curriculum expects/demands that the students write compositions in the 9th grade, if not earlier. One of the early chapters in the book from which I taught aimed to make the students aware of the difference between fact and opinion, objective and subjective. I was very excited by the high level and relative sophistication of this text book. But then I was shocked and rather devastated to discover that:

• They hadn't a clue as to how to write a composition.
• They had no idea of what the concept of "objective" meant.

That was just the beginning of my disillusion. I "reported" the problems to the administration and was brushed off.

Me: "How can it be that my top 9th grade students can't write compositions in Hebrew when they need them for English already?"
Boss: "Don't worry. They will learn how in the 12th grade for their Hebrew Composition Bagrut."
Me: "Duh?"

Then I discovered that even these "top" students barely understood the brilliantly simple and logical Hebrew grammar, which is easily divided into active and passive verbs and even adjectives. My horror only grew. These unfortunates had to learn Hebrew grammar from yours truly. So I tried a different "campaign."

If you want the students to do better in English, improve their Hebrew Language skills. 

For that idea, I was basically persona non grata.

The English Department in the Education Ministry also noticed the low level of basic language skills, including how your typical Israeli student has been learning literature. But, unlike my suggestion that this be remedied in their native tongue, the English Department has developed a curriculum that mimics an English language country. They pretend to be in "New Jersey."

You don't have to be a PhD, or maybe it helps not to be, in Linguistic Pedagogy to know that language skills, grammar, literature, composition etc are most easily taught, learned and kept in the brain when it's done in one's native tongue. When these things are taught in native tongue, then they internalized and are easily transferred to foreign languages. But the opposite isn't true. If someone learns these skills in a foreign language, they usually stay in that part of the brain. You'd be totally horrified to know what percentage of my students insisted that "there's no passive in Hebrew."

I titled this post as "Israeli EFL has a Lot to Learn," because there is something very crucial that the heads of the Israeli EFL bureaucracy must learn, and that's Hebrew. They must raise their Hebrew to a level in which they can enter the regular Hebrew-language system and teach all of their wonderful ideas and language skills in Hebrew to teachers and students.

Then the EFL departments can do what they should be doing, teach English.

Teaching, Reasons I Just Left

It's no surprise for me to hear that Israel's teaching shortage is getting more and more serious. I'm one of those teachers who left this year.

Even though I'm of retirement age for a teacher, I started my pension plan late and actually have five more years to go. But I decided that my health was more important.

No, thank G-d, I'm not sick, but I had no doubt that one more year of having to hitchhike to and from work, standing in the searing sun and pouring rain, and my good health would be a distant memory. By the time I'd get to work, I was already dreading the trip back. No energy was left for my students.

I taught English as a Foreign Language, EFL. But in actuality, I taught all of the basic language skills, grammar, literature and composition. Few of my students were grounded with the foundation of their native tongue, Hebrew, so I had to teach nouns, and verbs, active and passive, reading comprehension skills, composition structure and more, much, much more.

The administration of the high school and its junior high didn't like hearing that the students weren't properly prepared. I felt sorry for these kids who were struggling, because even though the Hebrew term for elementary school is בית ספר יסודי , beit sefer yesodi, "foundation" school, these kids didn't receive the foundation of good education.

I just couldn't juggle my roles as teacher and diplomat, trying to deal with students, parents and administration, plus I'm a human being, too. I have a husband, children, grandchildren and elderly parents.

Some schools are better and some are worse. I also taught the weakest students in my school. In earlier years I really enjoyed it, but the recent students weren't cooperative. Teaching is interactive. I felt like I was serving tennis balls into the ocean.

Good luck to all those still in the system, students as well as teachers. Parents, don't trust that the staff knows what they're doing. Check things out. Be involved.