Proud to be tvmbo - Kortlopend Onderwijsonderzoek

Teacher skills
The students also mention teacher behaviour which helps them to learn English. For
example, ‘If you make mistakes… you are allowed to make mistakes’. ‘The teacher
encourages us to try to speak in English.’ They are very happy when the teachers use a
lot of English and as little Dutch as possible and if they correct their pronunciation. It
helps them, too, if they see demonstrations – if the teacher models something.
Materials
The students did not have very much to say about learning from books. In the interviews,
they said that they believe that they learned more when they were not working
from a course book. This opinion contradicts what the larger number of students says
in the online survey (see Chapter 6).
Outside school
One surprising but perhaps obvious aspect of learning which we added to the interviews
after the initial interview with students was the idea that students believe that
they learn a lot of English in their daily lives, outside school. They play English games
on the computer (GTA 4, Black Ops). They watch films with subtitles but say that after
a few months, ‘I don’t look at them any more’. Their favourite television programmes
are in English, for example programmes on Comedy Central, Oprah Winfrey,
CNN or Dr Phil. They exchange funny films with each other in English on You-
Tube. They also mention that they follow famous people (e.g. Justin Bieber) on Twitter
and play games on Facebook in English. They learn songs and raps in English: one
student said ‘I want to be a DJ. I am a DJ already’: he needs English to understand the
songs he is playing. Students also download games in English and read sites about
their idols. They create dances to English music or look up lyrics and sing the songs
with the music. One student does Tae Box, which has many English terms which he
learns.
Students also ‘chat’ on Internet, either live or in writing. For example, one student
‘Skypes’ with her aunt in English; others chat online on MSN with English-speaking
peers, for example about online or Wi-i games they are playing. They also speak to
people all over the world with their headsets. Sometimes students send text messages
in English. The students also encounter English-speaking people in their environment;
for example ‘We had American people on a visit and I had to talk English to their
children’. Most of the students interviewed were in the first or second year of tvmbo;
all of this shows that tvmbo students are very capable of communicating with native
and non-native speakers, even after only a short while in a tvmbo stream.
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