So next week is my last chat cafe with the group. I am so grateful to Sweetland for giving me this opportunity to be a part of this class and facilitate sessions for international students. Not only did I meet a great bunch of people, I got to learn so much from each respective culture whilst enlightening them with my own. I have even prepared an anonymous feedback form in advance so that I can send it to those who had 70% attendance. Given I will be facilitating again next year, I need to know whether I did an adequate job of being a facilitator and whether I had any shortcomings.
I will say that from my first attempt at being a facilitator till now, I have changed my style of conducting dramatically. The first meeting consisted of my group member introducing themselves while I made an 'inconspicuous' attempt at noting down their incorrect usage or mispronunciation, mind you that they had no issues whatsoever. Even before the session was held, I had sent out a form asking which part of English they wanted to me focus on and how should I give them feedback. With that, I was already violating the main principle of leading a chat cafe - not to treat it as a class. It took me a while to realize that I was overdoing things a bit and that reflected negatively when I sent out a passive-aggressive email to the group when the attendance was low one time. Ever since then, I have let loose and made my sessions more relaxed and dynamic in terms of discussion. I am fortunate that I had all my members attend enough sessions so none of them had to be taken off the list.
One thing that lacked in my group was that there wasn't a great level of camaraderie that I hope to achieve. I am not sure whether the sporadic attendance of individual member was the problem or that I suck at facilitating an all guy group. They weren't any hostilities between members from what I had observed which I think is good. I hope my group in the next semester would be more engaging in terms of knowing each other better than me trying to do that every session.
For the future facilitators, all I would say that don't turn a one hour chat session into an ESL class. Although chat cafe is where one can practice English, it should not be done by keeping a constant check on different linguistic aspects of the language. Chat cafe is informal and casual and should be reflected by the facilitators attempt to make so. Have topics prepared but wait until there aren't any initial voices raised by the members. Be open minded, be tolerant and definitely be ENTHUSIASTIC! I wouldn't want to attend an event if the host looks unhappy and remains like that the whole time while I am there.
Ohhh I am done now right ? I shall take my leave and wish all the future facilitators (and my peers reading this) the best of luck and may our paths cross at some point....till May 2016 I mean (Imma getting the falafel out of here after graduation).
Hi Irfanul,
ReplyDeleteI really liked your blog post, and agree with many of the statements that you made. First of all, I am also very thankful to have had this experience. As this was my first time leading a chat circle, I really learned a lot about the cultures of my group members, and gained many valuable skills in conversation and facilitation. I think that's a great idea that you are sending out a feedback form! Often, we don't realize what our own strengths and weaknesses are in leading conversations, so I think that it will be very useful for you to gain constructive feedback from your members.
I also had the similar issue of trying not to make my sessions like a class. At first, I tried to incorporate some teaching material into the conversations, but I found that what they truly appreciate and benefit from the most is casual conversation. This makes sense, because often, in classrooms, they focus too much on grammar and technicalities, without giving the students enough time to simply practice speaking the language. That's why I feel that opportunities like this one are valuable and unique, as they give students the chance to improve upon a skill that is useful and relevant to their everyday lives.
In terms of the camaraderie, you are definitely not to blame! There are many factors that could have gone into this. First of all, because attendance often varies, there are always different people at every session, and this can affect the group dynamics. Also, some people might have felt shy or reserved, so they didn't branch out as much in a group setting as they would have if it was one-on-one communication.
I think that you have done a great job as a facilitator this semester! It seems like you have definitely learned many valuable skills that will help you in leading a new group next term. I hope that you have another great experience like this one!
Sincerely,
Mena