Friday, March 07, 2008
Ferhat Abbes University, Setif. Algeria
A wonderful week in Algeria! I was kindly invited by the linguistics department to contribute, in February, to the students' teacher training programme. The students will be leaving university this year and most will apply for teaching posts. The first language of people in Algeria is Arabic but most people also speak French fluently. French is taught as the main, second language and English as a third language.
Three hundred 4th Year university students joined me each morning for a lecture in the auditorium, and this was followed by workshops in smaller groups of about 30 students with a teacher/lecturer in classrooms. There was much enjoyment when practical activities were the plan for the day!
The students were enormously generous, enthusiastic, warm, friendly and very keen to learn. A wonderful group of people.
I was also extremely well looked after by two colleagues, who joined me for meals and from whom I learned much about Algerian culture. They also organised and took me on many site-seeing visits. We walked through Setif shopping area and market, visited the countryside where I saw the very 'French' villages, and travelled further afield, with appropriate security, to Djemila to see the extensive, well preserved ruins of a Roman city. Absolutely amazing!
Yes, what a wonderful week! Thank you so much everyone.
Three hundred 4th Year university students joined me each morning for a lecture in the auditorium, and this was followed by workshops in smaller groups of about 30 students with a teacher/lecturer in classrooms. There was much enjoyment when practical activities were the plan for the day!
The students were enormously generous, enthusiastic, warm, friendly and very keen to learn. A wonderful group of people.
I was also extremely well looked after by two colleagues, who joined me for meals and from whom I learned much about Algerian culture. They also organised and took me on many site-seeing visits. We walked through Setif shopping area and market, visited the countryside where I saw the very 'French' villages, and travelled further afield, with appropriate security, to Djemila to see the extensive, well preserved ruins of a Roman city. Absolutely amazing!
Yes, what a wonderful week! Thank you so much everyone.
