LAHORE: When she landed amid travel advisories in Karachi in the first week of September, Dr Anne Burns was greeted by muggy and oppressive weather.

“But meeting the teachers, very competent ones with lots of desire to learn teaching techniques, was like a pleasant whiff of breeze to me,” she said with a smile in her eyes. “They’re so pretty and wear such colourful dresses.”

Dr Burns is the professor of TESOL at the University of New South Wales and Professor Emerita in Language Education at Aston University, Birmingham, UK. She was recently in Pakistan to deliver a series of lectures at various workshops and seminars. In three days, she made 10 presentations in Lahore and Karachi. At the 30th SPELT Conference, she was keynote speaker on action research and then conducted a workshop on teaching speaking.

“I think they (teachers) are learning more and more pedagogical skills in English language teaching,” she said of the Pakistani teachers.

Why lots of field such as TESOL (teaching English to the speakers of other language), EFL (English as foreign language) and ESL (English as second language) have emerged in teaching structure?

She said TESOL was relevant to Pakistan being a country to Urdu or other regional language speakers. ESL refers to when a student is living and being taught English in an English speaking country, such as the US or Australia. An English teacher who teaches English to speakers of other languages in a non-English speaking country is teaching EFL.

Most of the Pakistani teachers kept coming to Dr Ann seeking shortcuts to achieve perfection in speaking and writing English.

“Forget perfection. If you’re able to convey your expression, your language is ok,” she said.

English, after Mandarin, Arabic and Spanish is the most spoken language. The advantage to English, Dr Burns says, is it’s a global language, so no standard of perfection can be defined for it. Even, in Australia, the native speakers tend not to strictly follow grammar in verbal communication.

When it comes to teaching speaking English in classroom, Dr Burns comes up with a fun-filled regime.

“English teachers often feel that one of the most challenging areas for students is learning to speak English,” she said. Students may seem demotivated and reluctant to speak in class. “There’s no doubt that teaching speaking is challenging because speaking is a complex skill that must be acquired over time.” She suggested more and more activity in every lesson where students interact with each other and with the teacher. “When they’re tasked with performing and speaking, they will try to perform and speak to express their feelings,” she said. That is the core ideal teaching and a student-friendly classroom,” she says.

Despite her tight schedule, she kept on interacting with the teachers and getting their feedback on teaching techniques. One such teacher, Rabia Ali Randhawa from Beaconhouse School, Defecne branch, got tips from her on group work in classroom. “She is impressive and knows the classroom culture universally,” Ms Randhawa said.

Would you like to come to Pakistan again?

“Why not, Pakistan is so beautiful and colourful. I love colours.”

Published in Dawn, September 22nd, 2014