[MUSIC] Let's now explore the teachers' barriers. Remember, we're still focusing on the teacher here. By teachers' barriers, we refer to those situations or phenomena that can have a negative impact teachers' performance. We also show some ways of dealing with these barriers which can counteract the negative impact. Language teachers who teach migrants and refugees students in their receiving societies sometimes have to face barriers, which they need to anticipate as much as they can in order to be able to deal with them. Among others, language barriers, insufficient materials, and the lack of time can cause problems for a language teacher. Furthermore, students lack of motivation and lack of continuity may be obstacles to successful learning. Another challenge is the tightrope walk between teachers' empathy and their professionalism. Since many students are on personal and problematic situations or are coping with traumatic experiences. In addition, the group of learners are often very heterogenous, which is very challenging and demands highly professional preparation of the lessons. One of the most common obstacles in teaching migrant and refugee students is caused by linguistic barriers. Students only know a few words in the target language. So explaining new content can be challenging if teachers do not share a lingua franca with their students. Depending on the cultural background, sometimes not only the word, but also the subject itself is new to students. Therefore, explaining new words often only succeeds with the help of body language, facial expressions, gestures, etc., or by showing pictures. This means that teachers need to be well prepared, but also spontaneous and creative in class to help the students understand the meaning of words. The use of technology is a very good ally in accessing new vocabulary through images, translation, or definitions. Another language barrier is the reception of sounds. Altogether, all the languages of the world have 150 sounds of which each language uses approximately 45. The human ear has to be trained for these sounds in order to differentiate them. Otherwise, the brain will not be able to recognize or distinguish between them. Let us recall, for instance we talked before about the sounds of e and i, a and e, which in many languages can be clearly detected. Whereas in Arabic they are heard as two very close sounds that are not differentiated. If the students ear does not know a sound, the student will probably not be able to repeat the word. Teachers must be aware of the fact that not every student can immediately recognize sounds as different or directly repeat sounds or words correctly. Therefore, teachers have to be very careful with the pronunciation of sounds and words, so that students are able to learn, to recognize the differences. However, being aware of linguistic diversity is also a key element in overcoming the language barrier. Addressing language teaching in a way in which their strengths can be embraced instead of emphasizing the differences. Sometimes the barrier may be not so much the language. But the difficulties of learning how to build on individual plurilingual repertoires and groups' plurilingual skills to increase effectiveness in learning in the host language or languages. Furthermore, it needs to be understood that communicative competence involves much more than a linguistic dimension. Such as awareness of socio-cultural linguistic diversity as pointed out by the Council of Europe. Teachers can turn the communicative challenge into an opportunity to work on this awareness and to support the development of intercultural competent citizens. Migrants students are in fact, already better positioned because of their own migration experience. Their migratory experience has given them a great awareness of how communication works and how monolingualism is not the norm in our global world at all. They have also acquired awareness of how different languages have different uses and value depending on the context, and it can be very useful to explore these discoveries. Another barrier lots of teachers have to face is the lack of adequate material. There's still little literature on how to teach literacy to migrant adult students. And often materials and methods are not suitable for all students. Some learning materials are better suited for speakers of certain languages. Students often speak languages whose system is very different from the target language. So teachers commonly have to develop their own didactic material. This often takes more time than the actual teaching. However, the preparation and follow up time is often not paid for, or is highly underestimated. This may lead to a lack of time for preparing the classes. Moreover, currently many teachers work in temporary programs. This can lead to a degree of uncertainty about the future, which can have a negative impact directly on the students. Time is also an issue in terms of the length and the number of lessons of many language courses. If a language course only takes place once or twice a week, students have difficulties remembering what they have already learned. This means that contents may have to be reviewed at the beginning of each session. Therefore, time management is one of the most important tasks and challengings in teaching. Students in a study group change frequently. That hinders the learning efforts of the rest of the group. Teachers have to adapt to the situation and incorporate many repetitions, so that new students can keep up. Teachers also have to vary the repetitions in order to avoid boredom among those who take part continuously. Also, designing activities which are collaborative, non teacher-centered activities, and which give more prominence to students' voices, helps to combat repetitive activities focusing on the teachers' expertise. Another important aspect to take into account is that students' personal problems may also affect the learning. Often in a situation of uncertainty about resident status or having experienced traumatic situations lead to frustration and to emotional stress. This can affect students' concentration and may lead to a decrease in motivation to learn. This often affects the mood of the whole learning group. It is necessary for teachers to be sensitive and create motivating lessons according to the students' needs. This may help students learn in spite of personal obstacles. In fact, sometimes the language class can be also a safe space where the student relaxes and disconnects from the very serious concerns which the person has. But the teacher needs to be aware of the existence of these concerns in order to be able to create this kind of supportive space. Most of the time the teacher is not going to be able to provide a solution to these kind of concerns. But that can help by not adding more stress to the students' lives, and making them feel listened to and cared for. Good techniques might be, for example, to do activities which involve working in small groups, or to design ways of mutual support amongst students. It is well known in the teaching of languages as second or additional languages that the students needs to feel safe and relaxed to be able to learn. Sometimes it is not possible to hold a lesson as planned due to the emotional and psychological stress of the students. Teachers need to be flexible and sensitive and, must notice and accept if students are not able to concentrate on learning because of personal matters. Empathy is the key element as we already talked about earlier. However, all the emphasis and essential quality for the teacher and lesson plans of teaching always needs to be done with this quality. A professional distance from the students is also advisable. If not, the difficulties and the problems of the students can easily become part of the teacher's life. This is often difficult and therefore teachers must always consider that their function is to be a teacher. There are problems that social workers, lawyers or psychologists can solve way better than the teacher. Students sometimes talk about personal experiences, which can be very challenging for teachers. They need to decide if they can handle the sharing of sometimes even traumatic experiences by the students. If they decide they cannot cope or are not the right person to talk to, which is understandable and legitimate, they should advise counseling. Talking with colleagues or even professionals may help teachers deal with difficult cases or experiences. Let's now reflect on what this session has presented through the following questions. First, can you first write specific examples related to the most common barriers and try to imagine how they can be addressed? Secondly, take a look at the topics of your sequences of lessons and find pictures that may help you to explain the new vocabulary of each of your units, make a collection. And then finally, practice uttering difficult words in front of a mirror. Speaking very clearly and precisely needs to be trained and will help your students to get a better understanding of the sounds you produce. It will also help you to see how exactly a sound is produced. This makes it easier for you to explain the precise production of a sound to your students. [MUSIC]
