Seventh Observation - Defence International Training Centre: Laverton Base

This observation is focused on adults and these people are there for their teaching training. A note in advance, this place is a military base and it does not allow any photography unless permitted to do so. The 'students' are those military soldiers that were sent from their respective countries (South East Asia and Pacific) to Australia along with the funding from the government. They were here for the next six months and they will be thought about the metalanguage and the methodology on teaching military students back home.

In the base, the militarily-to-be-teachers were seated in a circle. There were no straight rows or lines from what we saw from movies. They were more expressive rather than being vivid. The class started off brightly as we were to introduce ourselves to the soldiers. Very surprisingly, they were not very strict and they told us a lot about their stuffs. We also have the opportunity to know the soldiers background and why they would like to be teachers to teach military students back home. The teaching of that lesson was in an intermediary level (vocabulary) for teachers. I have taught vocabulary to students before but this was the first time that I have received that sort of training. The lesson then followed the methodology of teaching. I would have no comments towards the teacher on her way of teaching. To the in-service teachers (soldiers), the two from my group did not enjoy /like what she was doing as they told me that the method that she was teaching would never happen in their classrooms back home. In a normal classroom, the students would not follow the teachers method and the two of them suggested that they would do it their own way in the class.

To conclude, I think it is interesting to see a military base where military personnel, mostly from South East Asia come to a place and had their training to become teachers. The teachers methods to students could not be commented however I think there are some students (military personnel teachers) do have an opinion but are unable to say it out. This is because they think that the teacher is too one-sided, too teacher-oriented. As what I have heard, the teacher does all the talking and the students do not have the chance to speak due to the different cultures at their respective countries. I think it is best to have a resolution or clean-the-air talks with their teacher so that the teacher could understand the students' situation back home.