APPENDICES

Appendix 1 Appendix 2 Appendix 3 Appendix 4 Appendix 5 Appendix 6 Appendix 7 Appendix 8 Appendix 9 Appendix 10 Appendix 11 Appendix 12a Appendix 12b Appendix 12c Appendix 12d Appendix 12e Appendix 12f Appendix 12g Appendix 12h Appendix 12i Laws and regulatory documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Structural breakdown of Lithianian education system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Financing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ministry recommended coursebooks . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 3 4 6

The map of the survey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 The questionnaire for school teachers. . . . . . . . . . . . 14 The questionnaire for tertiary teachers . . . . . . . . . . . 17 The interview questionnaire for school administrators The interview questionnaire for tertiary administrators 20 23

Lesson observation sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 School Teacher Salaries in Primary and Secondary Education Module II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Focus group interview with college and university lecturers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Focus group interview with university lecturers I . . . . 46 Focus group interview with university lecturers II . . . . 58 Focus group interview with iauliai and Paneveys university lecturers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 Focus group interview with school teachers I . . . . . . 84 Focus group interview with iauliai region school teachers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 Focus group interview with college students . . . . . . . 114 Focus group interview with university students I . . . . 128 Focus group interview with iauliai, Klaipda and Paneveys university students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

APPENDIX 1 Laws and regulatory documents

Since the period of independence began firm legal foundations have been laid for the Lithuanian system of education. In accordance with the General Concept of Education (1991), the Law on Education No. I-1489 to provide for the creation and functioning of the system of education was passed in 1991 with the following amendments in 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997 and 1999. In 2003 the Amendment of the Law of Education of the Republic of Lithuania No. IX-1630 was passed. The Law on Higher Education 2000 No. VIII-1586 replaced the Law on Research and Higher Education 1991 No. I-1052 and is currently replaced by the Amendment of the Law on Research and Higher Education 2002 No. IX-945. Law on Vocational Education and Training 1997 No. VIII-450; Law on Non-Formal Adult Education 1998 No. VIII-822 and Law on Special Education 1998 No. VIII-969 provide for the institutional responsibility of teaching. National Standards and General Curriculum Framework 2003 devotes a chapter to the languages and foreign languages at the basic school level (109311 pp.). Here goals, objectives, value orientations, skills, didactic concepts, and teaching structures for foreign language instruction are defined.

APPENDIX 2 Structural breakdown of Lithianian education system

APPENDIX 3 Financing
The main sources of financing for general secondary education are the state and local administration budgets. The Seimas allots budgets to the Ministry and local authorities in addition to sums received from local taxes. The budget varies from one municipality to the other and is controlled by local authorities. The teachers salary level is set by the Government and administered by local authorities. Financial reform started in 2001 with the Resolution No. 1520 of 14 December of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania. The key goals of the reform were the following: to improve the quality of education, to create a transparent system of financing, to give students the opportunity to choose an education institution, to assure universal access to quality education, to ensure the financial security of individual schools, to reduce the number of students who do not attend schools, to assure accountability from school administrations. Educational financial resources consist of the following components: students basket, means allocated to finance the teaching environment. The students basket consists of: salaries for teachers, allocations for teachers qualifications, allocations for textbooks and teaching aids. The reform defined the annual amount of resources that need to be spent on the education for one student depending on the type of school, location, number of students with special needs and the number of students in national minority schools as well as other indicators. The teaching environment (maintenance of the building, salaries of the technical staff, social insurance, etc.) is financed by the founder of the school, which can be the ministry, municipality, physical person, religious community, etc. The students basket defines the amount of resources to be spent on the education of one student when the average number of students per class is 25. For 2004 the sum 4

allocated for one student was 1555 litas per year. For certain areas of education the sum can be increased. Examples would be national minority schools, small rural schools, and schools integrating learners with special needs. Vocational schools and colleges are financed from the state. The budget of each individual institution is the responsibility of the central authorities. Higher educational institutions are financed from the state budget and managed in accordance with university statutes. For each state-funded student, universities may have one student who pays tuition. The fees constitute extra income for universities.

References LR vietimo ir mokslo ministerija www.smm.lt Statistikos departamentas prie Lietuvos Vyriausybs www.std.lt Summary on Education Systems in Europe www.eurydice.org

APPENDIX 4 Ministry recommended coursebooks

Coursebook V. Rupainien et al. Early School English I. Grade 2 V. Rupainien et al. Early School English II. Grade 3 R. Stokien, A. Timofejevien, V. Rupainien. School English I. Early language learning Year One R. Stokien, A. Timofejevien. School English II. Early language learning Year Two A. Stokien, A. Timofejevien. School English III. Early language learning Year Three R. Stokien, A. Timofejevien. School English IV. Early language learning Year Four R. Stokien, A. Timofejevien. School English V. Early language learning Year Five R. Stokien, A. Timofejevien. School English VI. Early language learning Year Six T. Kriliuvien. Hello! 1. Early language learning Year One T. Kriliuvien. Hello! 2. Early language learning Year Two T. Kriliuvien. Hello! 3. Early language learning Year Three T. Kriliuvien. Hello! 4. Early language learning Year Four T. Kriliuvien. Hello! 5. Early language learning Year Five T. Kriliuvien, S. Shaw. Hello! 6. Early language learning Year Six L. Bergman et al. Focus on Year 12 Kaleidoscope. Students Book. Materials for teaching British Cultural Studies in Lithuania R. imukauskien. What is what in the World of Catering. ESP for catering 6

Year of publication 2003 2004 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2002 2003 2003

Publisher viesa viesa viesa viesa viesa viesa viesa viesa viesa viesa viesa viesa viesa viesa viesa viesa viesa

Coursebook I. Rozgien, E. leinotien. Business English for Schools D. Crovitz, T. Ross. Classroom Literature Reader E. leinotien et al. Limelight 11. Grade 11 C. Skinner. Excellent ! Starter C. Bradshaw, J. Hadfield. Excellent! Pupils Book 1 C. Bradshaw, J. Hadfield. Excellent! Pupils Book 2 M. Herrera, T. Zanatta. New English Parade Starter A M. Herrera, T. Zanatta. New English Parade Starter B M. Herrera, T. Zanatta. New English Parade 1 M. Herrera, T. Zanatta. New English Parade 2 M. Herrera, T. Zanatta. New English Parade 3 S. Elsworth, J. Rose. Get up and Go! S. Elsworth, J. Rose. Go! 1 S. Elsworth, J. Rose. Go! 2 S. Elsworth, J. Rose. Go! 3 M. Harris, D. Mower, A. Sikorzynska. Opportunities Beginner M. Harris, D. Mower, A. Sikorzynska. Opportunities Elementary M. Harris, D. Mower, A. Sikorzynska. Opportunities Pre-Intermediate M. Harris, D. Mower, A. Sikorzynska. Opportunities. Intermediate M. Harris, D. Mower, A. Sikorzynska. Opportunities Upper-Intermediate B. Abbs, I. Freebairn, Ch. Barker. Snapshot Starter B. Abbs, I. Freebairn, Ch. Barker. New Snapshot Starter B. Abbs, I. Freebairn, Ch. Barker. Snapshot Elementary B. Abbs, I. Freebairn, Ch. Barker. New Snapshot Elementary B. Abbs, I. Freebairn, Ch. Barker. New Snapshot Pre-Intermediate

Year of publication 2001 2000 2004 2004 2003 2003 2000 2000 2000 2000 1999 1999 1999 1999 2002 2001 2000 2001 2002 1998 2003 1998 2003 2003 2000

Publisher viesa viesa viesa Longman Longman Longman Longman Longman Longman Longman Longman Longman Longman Longman Longman Longman Longman Longman Longman Longman Longman Longman Longman Longman Longman

Coursebook B. Abbs, I. Freebairn, Ch. Barker. New Snapshot Intermediate. Students Book. J. Copade, L. Mortimer. Get on Track to FCE A. Stanton, M. Stephens. Fast Track to FCE R. Acklam, A. Crace. Going for Gold Intermediate R. Acklam, A. Crace. Going for Gold Upper Intermediate. Coursebook J. Bell, R. Gower. First Certificate Expert. Coursebook

Year of publication 2004 2002 2003 2001 2003 2000 2003 2000 2000 2000 2000 1999 2000 2000 2000 2002 2002 2002 1997 1997 1998 1998 1998 1998 2001

Publisher Longman Longman Longman Longman Longman Longman Longman Longman Longman Longman Longman Longman Longman Longman Longman Longman Longman Longman Macmillan Heinemann Macmillan Heinemann Macmillan Heinemann Macmillan Heinemann Macmillan Heinemann Macmillan Heinemann Longman

R. Acklam, S. Burgess. First Certificate Gold

F. Scott-Barret. First Certificate Listening and Speaking J. Copage. First Certificate Use of English J. Copage. First Certificate Writing P. McGavigan. First Certificate Reading D. Evans. Powerhouse Intermediate D. Evans. Powerhouse Upper-Intermediate D. Cotton, D. Falvey. Market Leader Pre-Intermediate D. Cotton, D. Falvey. Market Leader Intermediate D. Cotton, D. Falvey. Market Leader Upper-Intermediate

H. Solozano, L. Frazier. Contemporary Topics 1 E. Kisslinger, M. Rost. Contemporary Topics 2 D. Beglar, N. Murray. Contemporary Topics 3 P. Ellis, M. Bowen. Way Ahead Level 1 P. Ellis, M. Bowen. Way Ahead Level 2 P. Ellis, M. Bowen. Way Ahead Level 3 P. Ellis, M. Bowen. Way Ahead Level 4 P. Ellis, M. Bowen. Way Ahead Level 5 P. Ellis, M. Bowen. Way Ahead Level 6

Coursebook J. Garton-Sprenger. Shine Level I J. Garton-Sprenger. Shine Level II J. Garton-Sprenger. Shine Level III R. Norris. Ready for First Certificate S. Kay, V. Jones et. al. Inside Out Pre-Intermediate S. Kay, V. Jones et.al. Inside Out Intermediate S. Kay, V. Jones et. al. Inside Out Upper-Intermediate S. Kay, V. Jones et. al. Inside Out advanced L. Prodromou. Rising Star Intermediate L. Prodromou. Rising Star Pre-First Certificate L. Prodromou. First Certificate Star S. House, K. Scott. Story Magic 1. Pupils Book S. House, K. Scott. Story Magic 2. Pupils Book S. House, K. Scott. Story Magic 3. Pupils Book S. House, K. Scott. Story Magic 4. Pupils Book M. Mann, S. Taylore-Knowles. Skills for First Certificate. Writing M. Mann, S. Taylore-Knowles. Skills for First Certificate. Reading M. Mann, S. Taylore-Knowles. Skills for First Certificate. Listening and Speaking M. Mann, S. Taylore-Knowles. Skills for First Certificate. Use of English S. Gika. You and Me Starter C. Lawday. You and Me 1 C. Lawday. You and Me 2

Year of publication 1999 1999 2000 2002 2002 2000 2001 2001 2001 2000 1998 2003 2003 2003 2003 2003 2003 2003 2003 1994 1994 1994

Publisher Macmillan Heinemann Macmillan Heinemann Macmillan Heinemann Macmillan Heinemann Macmillan Heinemann Macmillan Heinemann Macmillan Heinemann Macmillan Heinemann Macmillan Heinemann Macmillan Heinemann Macmillan Heinemann Macmillan Macmillan Macmillan Macmillan Macmillan Macmillan Macmillan Macmillan Oxford UP Oxford UP Oxford UP 9

Coursebook S. Maidment, L. Roberts. Happy House 1 S. Maidment, L. Roberts. Happy House 2 S. Maidment, L. Roberts. Happy Street 1 S. Maidment, L. Roberts. Happy Street 2 B. Bowler, S. Parminter. Happy Earth 1 B. Bowler, S. Parminter. Happy Earth 2 P. Shipton. Chit Chat 1 P. Shipton. Chit Chat 2 N. Whitney. Open Doors I N. Whitney. Open Doors II N. Whitney. Open Doors III T. Hutchinson. Project I T. Hutchinson. Project II T. Hutchinson. Project III T. Hutchinson. Project IV T. Hutchinson. Project Plus K. Gude, M. Duckworth. Matrix Pre-Intermediate K. Gude, J. Wildman. Matrix Intermediate K. Gude, J. Wildman. Matrix Upper-Intermediate D. Strange, D. Hall. Pacesetter Beginner D. Strange, D. Hall. Pacesetter Elementary D. Strange, D. Hall. Pacesetter Pre-Intermediate D. Strange, D. Hall. Pacesetter Intermediate R. Nolasco. Twist 1! R. Nolasco. Twist 2! R. Nolasco. Twist 3! R. Nolasco. New Streetwise Intermediate R. Nolasco. New Streetwise Upper-Intermediate R. O. Neill, M. Duckworth & K.Gude. New Success at First Certificate M. Duckworth, K. Gude. Countdown to First Certificate P. May. Knockout First Certificate J. Wildman, D. Bolton. Attain Intermediate. Students Book 10

Year of publication 2000 2003 2000 2001 2002 2003 2002 2002 1995 1994 1995 1999 1999 2000 2001 2002 2002 2001 2000 2000 2000 2000 2000 2000 1999 2000 1997 1999 1999 2003 2001 2001

Publisher Oxford UP Oxford UP Oxford UP Oxford UP Oxford UP Oxford UP Oxford UP Oxford UP Oxford UP Oxford UP Oxford UP Oxford UP Oxford UP Oxford UP Oxford UP Oxford UP Oxford UP Oxford UP Oxford UP Oxford UP Oxford UP Oxford UP Oxford UP Oxford UP Oxford UP Oxford UP Oxford UP Oxford UP Oxford UP Oxford UP Oxford UP Oxford UP

Coursebook S. Haines, B. Stewart. First Certificate Masterclass. Student s Book A. Capel, R. Nixon. PET Masterclass. Intermediate. Student s Book H. Q. Mitchell, S. Parker. Zoom a H. Q. Mitchell, S. Parker. Zoom c H. Q. Mitchell, J. Scott. Say Yes to English 1 H. Q. Mitchell, J. Scott. Say Yes to English 2 H. Q. Mitchell, J. Scott. Say Yes to English 3 H. Q. Mitchell, J. Scott. Channel Your English Beginners H. Q. Mitchell, J. Scott. Channel Your English Elementary H. Q .Mitchell, J. Scott. Channel Your English Pre-Intermediate H. Q. Mitchell, J. Scott. Channel Your English Intermediate H. Q. Mitchell, J. Scott. Channel Your English Upper-Intermediate E. Gray, V. Evans. Welcome I. Primary E. Gray, V. Evans. Welcome II. Primary E. Gray, V. Evans. Welcome III. Primary V. Evans, J. Dooley. Enterprise I. Beginner V. Evans, J. Dooley. Enterprise II. Elementary V. Evans, J. Dooley. Enterprise Plus. Pre-Intermediate V. Evans, J. Dooley. Enterprise IV. Intermediate V. Evans, J. Dooley. Upstream Intermediate B. Obee, V. Evans. Upstream Upper Intermediate. Student s Book V. Evans, J. Dooley. Mission FCE 1. First certificate V. Evans, J. Dooley. Mission FCE 2. First certificate E. Gray, V. Evans. Letterfun Primary E. Gray, V. Evans. Set Sail I. Primary V. Evans, J. Dooley. Enterprise III. Pre-Intermediate H. Q. Mitchell, S. Parker. Zoom b

Year of publication 2004 2003 2000 2001 2000 2000 2001 2003 2003 2002 2003 2003 1999 2000 2001 1998 1999 2002 1997 2002 2003 1996 1996 2001 2001 1997 2002

Publisher Oxford UP Oxford UP MM Publications MM Publications MM Publications MM Publications MM Publications MM Publications MM Publications MM Publications MM Publications MM Publications Express publishing Express publishing Express publishing Express publishing Express publishing Express publishing Express publishing Express publishing Express publishing Express publishing Express publishing Express publishing Express publishing 11 Express publishing MM Publications

Coursebook E. Gray, V. Evans. Set Sail II. Primary E. Gray, V. Evans. Click On Starter E. Gray, V. Evans. Click On 1. Beginner E. Gray, V. Evans. Click On 2. Elementary E. Gray, V. Evans. Click On 3. Pre-Intermediate V. Evans. Click On 4. Intermediate G. Gerngross, H. Puchta. Join In. Pupils Book 1 G. Gerngross, H. Puchta. Join In. Pupils Book 2 G. Gerngross, H. Puchta. Join In. Pupils Book 3 A. Littlejohn, D. Hicks. Cambridge English for Schools. Starter A. Littlejohn, D. Hicks. Cambridge English for Schools I. Elementary A. Littlejohn, D. Hicks. Cambridge English for Schools II. Pre-Intermediate A. Littlejohn, D. Hicks. Cambridge English for Schools III. Intermediate A. Littlejohn, D. Hicks. Cambridge English for Schools IV. Upper-Intermediate L. Jones. New Progress to First Certificate A. Capel, W. Sharp. Objective First Certificate M. Spratt-B. Obee. First Certificate Direct

Year of publication 2001 2002 2000 2001 2001 2002 2001 2000 2001 1999 2001 2002 2002 2002 1998 1998 2001

Publisher Express publishing Express publishing Express publishing Express publishing Express publishing Express publishing Cambridge UP Cambridge UP Cambridge UP Cambridge UP Cambridge UP Cambridge UP Cambridge UP Cambridge UP Cambridge UP Cambridge UP Cambridge UP

12

APPENDIX 5 The map of the survey

Alytus county 32 respondents Kaunas county 51 respondents Klaipda county 27 respondents Marijampol county 27 respondents Panevys county 39 respondents iauliai county 77 respondents Taurag county 23 respondents Teliai county 9 respondents Utena county 26 respondents Vilnius county 91 respondents

13

APPENDIX 6 The questionnaire for school teachers

Please tick where appropriate and write comments 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Location of your institution urban rural Please specify county and region ____________________________________________________ Type of your institution / school primary basic secondary Your age-range group: 1924 2530 3140 Gender: male female Your native language Lithuanian Polish Russian English other (please specify ____________________________ Your EL academic background secondary school English language student college Your qualification category teacher senior teacher teacher methodologist university expert 4150 gymnasium 5160 61+

7. 8. 9. 10. 11.

Your job as an English language teacher is full-time part-time Your English languge teaching experience in years less than 2 25 615 1630 The number of hours you teach English a week 19 1018 1924 2530 31+ 31+

14

12. 13. 14.

Number of students in your groups 511 1220 2129 33+ What grades do you teach English 14 58 910 1112 What is the title of the main course-book you use in the grades you teach? Please indicate the grade next to the book. ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ What motivates your choice for the textbooks? Tick the most important. students needs publishers advertising exam requirements syllabus requirements textbook availability other, please specify _____________________ price Are you satisfied with the course-books you use? yes no not always If yes, why all skills covered variety of activities attractive presentations reference to syllabus

15.

16. 17.

18.

What teaching aids do you use in the classroom? video internet tape recorder flipchart overhead projector posters computer other ________________________ What teaching aids do you lack in the classroom? video internet tape recorder flipchart overhead projector posters computer other ________________________ You find the support of the Ministry of Education and Science very good good fair poor You find the support of school administration very good good fair poor 15

19.

20. 21.

22. 23. 24. 25.

You find colleagues support very good good You find parents support very good good

fair fair

poor poor

The support of in-service taecher training centres is very good good fair poor Your participation in the international in-service teacher development events during the last 5 years 0 13 3+ Your participation in the national in-service teacher development events during the last 5 years 0 15 610 10+ Your participation in the regional in-service teacher development events during the last 5 years 0 15 610 10+ Do your school authorities encourage your professional development? yes no Why have you chosen teachers call for teaching family tradition wish to learn English career? friends influence good employment possibilities other, please specify _____________________

26.

27.

28. 29.

30. 31. 32.

Are you happy working as an English language teacher? yes no uncertain Would you change your job if you had a chance? yes no uncertain If yes, why? need for change lack of respect low prestige low salary other, please specify _____________________

16

APPENDIX 7 The questionnaire for tertiary teachers

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Name of institution ____________________________________________________ Type of institution university non-university Sector of education state private Faculty / department you teach at ________________________________________ Your academic degree university (grad. pre-1994) BA MA PhD Dr Hab. other Your title / position assistant lecturer associate professor professor

Your job as an EL teacher full-time part-time Your ELT experience in tertiary institutions (in years) 13 49 1015 1621 22+ Your professional development (last 5 years) number of seminars attended number of conferences attended number of articles published number of projects you were involved in number of published teaching materials other You find the support for your professional development by the institution authorities excellent good fair poor Number of students in your groups 13 49 1015 1621 22+ 17

10.

11.

12.

Is the current number of hours enough to achieve the goals set for ELT at the institution? yes uncertain no What should the optimal number of students in a group for ELT be? 13 49 1015 1621 22+ What do your students need more? General English English for Specific Purposes English for Academic Purposes The attitude of your students towards learning English is very positive positive indifferent negative Tick the resources and facilities you employ in your English textbooks internet board supplementary material computer flipchart tape recorder markers multimedia classroom: OHP video other

13. 14.

15. 16.

17.

Are you provided with the resources and facilities mentioned above by the faculty you teach at? yes partially no What percentage of students start EL learning at your institution with satisfactory command of English? 130 % 3060 % 6090 % Do you ask your students for some feedback on the courses provided and methodology used? yes no Your follow-up on the students feedback: ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ What were the problems the students addressed you in reference to English last year? ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________

18.

19.

20.

21.

18

22.

Tick 13 major problems in ELT low pay big groups lack of teaching materials insufficient number of hours

lack of students motivation poor attendance insufficient number of hours other

23. 24.

The attitude towards ELT of the faculty authorities you teach at is very positive positive indifferent negative What changes in ELT at the institution you teach at would you like to see in the future? ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ Other comments: ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________

25.

19

APPENDIX 8 The interview questionnaire for school administrators

I. GENERAL INFORMATION 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Location town region Type of school primary basic Authority state private Position of the respondent director deputy director Subject taught by the respondent _________________________________________ Number of students (total) ______________________________________________ Number of students studying English as the first foreign language ____________ Number of students studying English as the second foreign language _________ School teaching staff ___________________________________________________ Number of teachers of English full-timers part-timers native speakers secondary gymnasium

II. TEACHERS 11. What qualifications do EL teachers have (numbers) BA PhD MA retrainee University diploma holder no formal qualification EL teachers positions (numbers) teacher teacher-methodologist senior-teacher teacher-expert

12.

20

13. 14. 15.

EL teachers experience in ELT (years) less than 2 35 610

1120

20+

What do you think about ELT teachers qualification? highly qualified qualified underqualified How do you encourage EL teachers to raise their qualification? by attending teacher development events by organising in-house meetings / events providing / disseminating information other (please specify) What is your relationship with EL teachers? excellent good fair poor What do you think the working conditions of English teachers at your school are? excellent good fair poor

16. 17.

III. TEACHING PROCESS 18. How many grade 1 grade 2 grade 3 EL lessons per week do students have? grade 4 grade 7 grade 10 grade 5 grade 8 grade 11 grade 6 grade 9 grade 12

19.

Who designs ELT syllabi? teachers individually school administration chief-teachers other ELT board What resources are available at your school? tape recorder OHP internet access video recorder computer

20.

IV. PROBLEM AREAS 21. What are the main problems in teaching English at your school? ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ 21

22.

How do you intend to solve EL teaching problems? ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________

V. SUPPORT 23. How do parents support EL teachers at your school? ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ What support does the ministry provide your school in ELT area? ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________

24.

VI. FUTURE PLANS 25. What are future plans in ELT at your school? ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ Other comments ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________

26.

22

APPENDIX 9 The interview questionnaire for tertiary administrators

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Name of institution ____________________________________________________ Faculty / department ___________________________________________________ Title / position of the respondent ________________________________________ Number of students (faculty / department) Number of students studying English Number of terms for EL (mandatory) Number of terms for EL (optional) Number of academic hours for EL per week

Is the current number of hours enough to achieve the goals set for ELT at the faculty / department? yes uncertain no Number of credits for EL What should be the optimal number of students in a group for EL? What do your students need more: General English ESP Are you familiar with the students needs? yes uncertain no Types of resources / facilities provided by the faculty: textbooks tape recorders dictionaries video OHP software for a computer classroom What is the students final assessment in English proficiency? exam graded credit credit 23

10. 11. 12. 13. 14.

15.

16.

Are you satisfied with the EL results achieved by the students? Why (please specify)? ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ What was the number of students participating in international mobility (exchange) programmes last year? What were the problems the students addressed you in reference to English last year? _________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ What were the problems the teachers addressed you in reference to English last year? _________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ Do you encourage EL teachers qualification? How? ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ Should the students contribute financially to ELT? no partially full price What are the future plans of ELT at your faculty? ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ What changes would you like to see in the future concerning ELT? ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ Other comments _______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________

17. 18.

19.

20.

21. 22.

23.

24.

24

APPENDIX 10 Lesson observation sheet

GENERAL INFORMATION 1. Observers name ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ County (apskritis) ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ Location town rural Education sector state private Type of school primary basic secondary gymnasium

2.

3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

Number of students at school less than 100 101400 401800 more than 800 Native language at school Lithuanian Russian Polish other

Date of observation ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ Grade taught 4th 8th 11th

9.

THE TEACHER 10. Teachers age group 1924 2530 3140 5160 over 60 4150 25

11. 12. 13.

Teachers gender female male ELT experience less than 2 25 615 1630 more than 30

Teachers ELT qualification none requalification cert. BA MA PhD other: ___________________________________

THE CLASSROOM ENVIRONMENT 14. 15. Classroom ELT room just a classroom

Equipment available in the classroom (tick more than one if needed) chalkboard whiteboard flipchart display space OHP audio recorder video recorder computer internet access power point projector other: _________________________ Number of students in the group 5-11 12-20 21-29 more than 30

16.

THE LESSON 17. 18. 19. The lesson aims are clear unclear The lesson is divided into clear stages yes no This lesson can best be described as a grammar lesson a vocabulary lesson a reading lesson a listening lesson a speaking lesson a writing lesson a mixed lesson The lesson is well balanced with a variety of activities yes no Text book used Title _________________________ Publisher ___________________________

20. 21. 26

22.

Text book level beginners intermediate advanced

elementary pre-intermediate upper-intermediate proficiency

23.

Other learning materials used activity book dictionaries readers handouts audio cassettes video multimedia self-produced other: ______________________________________________ Materials are appropriate to the age of the students yes no Materials are appropriate to the level too easy too complicated

24. 25.

THE STUDENTS 26. 27. The students are actively involved yes no The students use English most of the time yes no

CLASS MANAGEMENT 28. 29. The lesson is generally teacher-centered

student-centered

a mix

Interaction patterns used (more than one is possible) individual work group work pair work whole class work Teacher is sensitive to the needs of individual students yes no The teacher speaks more than 75% of time as much as the students more than 50% of time not as much as the students 27

30. 31.

32. 33. 34. 35. 36.

Use of Lithuanian is justified not justified Teacher encourages and praises yes no Error correction encourages learning Error correction is overemphasized discourages learning just right ignored

General comments on the lesson ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________

28

APPENDIX 11 School Teacher Salaries in Primary and Secondary Education Module II

Maximum Salary / Minimum Salary Teacher ISCED 3 2002/2003

Source: Eurydice.

(:) No Data (f) No salary scale (see footnote)

Austria ISCED 3 Teacher Czech Republic ISCED 3 Teacher Denmark ISCED 3 Teacher France ISCED 3 Teacher

Data relate to Allgemeinbildenden hheren Schulen. The data correspond to average salaries for all teachers. They are estimates based on salary tables, including salary bonuses, increases and allowances. Supplements are negotiated at local level, so no definite maximum can be given. The data refers to professeurs agrgs. Another category of teachers, the professeurs certifis, can teach in general upper secondary education. Their salaries are shown in ISCED 2. 29

Germany ISCED 3 Teacher Hungary ISCED 3 Teacher Iceland ISCED 3 Teacher Latvia ISCED 3 Teacher Liechtenstein ISCED 3 Teacher Lithuania ISCED 3 Teacher Netherlands ISCED 3 Teacher Norway ISCED 3 Teacher Norway ISCED 3 Teacher Poland ISCED 3 Teacher

Given the complexity and wide variety of individual circumstances, the salaries of teachers have been calculated on the basis of the average age at the start of a career (related to age at the outset and the total period of study) and salaries in the Lnder of former West Germany. Basic salaries cannot be provided. The data correspond to average salaries for all teachers. They are estimates based on salary tables, including salary bonuses, increases and allowances. Only basic salaries are shown. Possible additional payments (for overtime, extra responsibility, etc.) can be considerable. Only basic salaries are shown. Bonuses and other additional payments constitute a major share of teacher remuneration, but they are not included as they vary in accordance with resources and the prevailing system in each municipality. Per capita GDP not available. The salaries are those of teachers with university-level education (ISCED 5A). The salary shown is that of a teacher on grade 1 (this qualification entitles its holders to teach in lower and upper secondary education). Data relate to VWO teachers. Salary level on 1st March 2003, after indexing. The salaries shown relate to a lektor teacher (five years of initial education, in some cases five and a half). An agreement was reached in 2001 which led to a considerable pay rise for teachers and school heads who, in return, had to accept a greater school workload. A new system of teachers remuneration was introduced between 2000 and 2002. It is based on the key concept of different position of the basic salary in the overall remuneration of a teacher. Thus, local self-governments should have greater decision power with respect to defining teachers salaries.

30

Portugal ISCED 3 Teacher Spain ISCED 3 Teacher Sweden ISCED 3 Teacher

Data refer to teachers with a Licenciatura diploma. Support for meals is included. Because of significant variations between Autonomous Communities, average salaries have been represented. Data are not based on a salary scale, but on collected information on salaries (autumn 2002).

Salaries shown include inner London allowance. Common pay scales are in operation across the rest of England, United Kingdom (E/W/NI) Wales and Northern Ireland. It is unlikely that a teacher ISCED 3 would reach retirement without receiving any additional Teacher allowances for specific responsibilities. Progression to the maximum is not automatic. United Kingdom Scotland ISCED 3 Teacher Under the terms of a tripartite agreement reached in January 2001 between the Scottish Executive, employers and teacher organisations, teachers and school heads are guaranteed a minimum salary increase of 23.1 % over three years from April 2001. The maximum salary is that of a teacher who has not been promoted.

31

APPENDIX 12a Focus group interview with college and university lecturers
28 October 2003, Kaunas L1: Im the local one from Kaunas. I have one of my colleagues here and my boss. Ive been teaching English for already 12 years and approximately the same level, because we used to be some time ago technical, something like Technikumas / technical college, then a high school and now we are a college, called college. But we always used to have the secondary school leavers. English was the first foreign language for all of them. So this is my practice. But, of course, I have some experience of teaching short-time courses: children and adults. L2: Im from Vilnius College. Actually, I have been teaching English not very long, for ten years and up to that time I have been working as a translator from technical English and now Im teaching students of Business Department. Actually, we have the same students, graduates from secondary school. How to define their level? It depends. Some of them may be defined as upper-intermediate, others may be as intermediate. M: But they are all secondary school leavers, thats the age? L2: Yes. L3: I teach at Kaunas technical college. I have already been teaching for twenty four years. My teaching is specific because we focus on technical language more, because its a technical college. And then it is very difficult to decide on the level and on the material, because the students come with different levels and technical language is already higher level. This is my practice. L4: I am from Kaunas College. Im a teacher and also Im the Head of the Foreign Language Department. As the Head Im quite young; its my second year in that position. Its a huge school, about seven thousand students and six faculties, so we have sixty teachers in the department. Ive been teaching for twenty years already and I started with two levels of students: first level was graduates from basic school and they used to take the final secondary school examination during their studies and then secondary school leavers. Now we have only this level, i.e. secondary school leavers. 32

L5: Im from Marijampole College. Our college has Languages Department and we prepare and train English teachers for primary and basic schools. There are other departments as well, but I work in this department and so I teach my students English language practice and the English language teaching methodology. We have teaching practice at school and so, I think, I know whats happening at school quite well. Im afraid to say for how long Ive been teaching English, because you can see Im the oldest here Ive been teaching for thirty four years already. At the same time, I also have lessons in the gymnasium one class. And also evening classes for adults, kind of courses. So, it seems to me that I work in different areas teaching English. L6: I work in the private college in Kaunas. I have students who study business, law, English as interpreters. I dont feel very comfortable to say that Ive been teaching English only for three years. So I feel as a chicken here. So my students are secondary school leavers and they are more or less intermediate, sometimes pre-intermediate, sometimes upper-intermediate. L7: Ive been teaching for six years and mostly Ive been teaching adults in a very specific field. But this time I represent Kaunas Business College and Ive been here just for a month, because this is my part-time job and I think Ill be just an information source and I dont think Ill make a great input to this meeting. L8: Ive been teaching at Kaunas University of Technology. Well, we have many students from different faculties and we are specializing in English for specific purpose. Personally, Ive been working with adult students in the Correspondence Department and we teach them typical language. L9: I work at Vilnius University, Kaunas Faculty of Humanities. Im of those young teachers; my experience is only three years of teaching. Currently, I work with Bachelor Degree students and I teach the advanced level undergraduates. L10: I teach at college. Like most colleges our students enter also after secondary school. All of them are secondary school leavers. I teach different specialties: for those, who study business, I teach business English; for those, who study law, tourism also, they have English for one year and they all study professional English. M: And how long have you been teaching? L10: Eighteen years. M: So what kinds of materials do you use in your lectures? Do you use course books? Do you use materials that you generate yourselves? L1: I think the situation is similar in all those schools or colleges. We have to teach English for purpose, specific or technical English, and it depends very much on the 33

course you are teaching. For example, I teach mainly about food: catering industry, food industry, business administration or business and again food industry. So, course for catering its possible to get some textbooks at elementary level in our bookshops, only elementary level. And food industry, equipment, mainly, and technologies, its very complicated no one writes in England this kind of books and for that we have to look for specialized books. My colleagues, some of them, do read English, they somehow manage to get those books, they travel somewhere or they have friends who send them, and then we lend, we borrow, we copy something and we try to apply somehow those materials. And as to my situation, its very useful in some cases to use different materials to prepare during the projects. We have a few projects: international projects about and in food industry, so its possible to use some of those materials, something about food ... requirements and applied chemistry, lets say, but, of course, its very complicated. You need a lot of time to prepare those resources to use them with our students who are very diverse. This is my situation. L5: I think its very different in my college, because its like a teacher training college. So, again its like language practice when we have to practice the language in different aspects: in speaking, conversation, then writing and textual analysis. And, of course, there are teachers who teach different subjects: separate teachers teach phonetics, grammar, British studies, literature and language practice and methodology, so thats different. But what we try to do isOf course, its a good idea to have some kind of a course book and we try to get one, but it never helps in all areas. So, we use a lot of supplementary additional materials, we use photocopiers for this of course, in the limits of law we use the materials from the Internet, we use videos, and in Marijampole we have the education centre, that is a teacher-resource centre, and we are very happy that weve got some materials there which both students and teachers can take and use. And as I have access to the British Council, sometimes I get some information, some materials from the British Council. And we were very happy to get more materials earlier. Now the library moved to another place, but still materials are there. M: Are you controlled by the Ministry because of the curriculum that you have to follow? L5: No, not my college. We prepare our own curriculum and we are free choosing the curriculum and the materials, but we are not free we have to follow the standard that is prepared for this type of college. M: Thank you. How much time do you spend developing your own materials? All: A lot. L3: Teachers work gets more and more expensive, because we spend hours in adapting texts, preparing tasks and whatever. Thats the most difficult part of a teachers life, I think. 34

L5: And, as I know these teachers for a long time, it seems to me that English teachers are never satisfied with what they have, willing to find new and new materials and to use them in their work. So, I think, a lot of time is spend looking for something new that it would be interesting for me, not only for my students. L3: Yeah. And most probably in some cases, you have the access to the materials and you kind of have lack of the material, but the level you are teaching is not up to that material, thats why you have anyway to decide how to tailor it to the students level. M: When you use other materials like course books, and course books very often have videos and cassettes, do you have all the resources to use? Do you have the technology? Do you have the computers? Do you have the videos? Do you have the tape recorders, etc.? L4: Yes, in some cases. L5: We have one video for the whole department, but its OK. We make kind of a timetable. M: Do any of you not have access to some of this technology? L5: Maybe some difficulties with the computers, because they are in another classroom, and another building, but it is possible. Just, you know, difficult. M: If you have access to Internet, how easy is it for you to do that? L7: Very easy. Many teachers have the access to the Internet at home; many have the access at the department, so that they can utilize ideas, all the material that is provided by the Internet. But I think one of the awkward things I tend to do is I never use the tests which are provided, for example, in teachers books, because they would probably be too easy. I prefer to design the test myself. M: Now lets assess your own development. Alongside that you are talking about developing your course material, you are talking about developing your students, how are you yourselves developed? Who supports your development and how? L4: As a teacher? M: Yes. L5: What you mean by who supports it? 35

M: Does your institution support you? Do you have a network that you use between yourselves that provides support for you? If you want to go on some course for personal development, how much are you supported by the college administration? Is it easy to do it? L4: There are certain formal requirements for raising your qualification, so the administration must support, because its their duty to support teachers and they usually do, at least in my college. M: What if its a non-qualification type of development you want to go on? Workshops? Would you get support for that? L5: You know, the support can come in two different ways. The principle is do they allow you to go or not. So thats one kind of support. And then, when you start thinking if they are going to pay for the trip, so thats another thing. The support concerning money is like two times per year. And I usually go more times and then I go using my own money. And if they just decide to pay me to go to Kaunas, its too problematic to go and get this kreditas. I usually dont go there. Another thing is if they let you go or not, for example, at our college there is a tradition: if I, lets say, went today, I left at twelve, and I still had two lessons and then I will have to have these lessons tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. Its not like I left and thats it. Even if I give them some work to do, still I have to be with them. L1: Yes, we have to invest a lot of our time and our money. M: How many of you have been on a development programme of some type in the last year? Where did you go? L6: Mostly the British Council things, events, courses. M: And is that convenient for you to get to these? L6: Yes. I think its important to get on the list in some British Council mailing lists and then they send you all the information and you can choose the useful course for you. M: And when you do this, is your institution supporting you? L6: It depends: if its directly related to your teaching, then usually yes; if its not directly related, then they say: If it does not interfere with your classes, then you can go. If not, you have to arrange your classes, but generally I feel the support. M: Who of you do not feel supported? 36

L8: Well, our Head, she doesnt allow to go anywhere and she pays attention only to our lessons or lectures. Who supports me? Its only my family: my husband gives some money and, of course, time goes from my own budget too. L7: And I represent business college which is private, and I know that all the language teachers are just part-time teachers, so I also think that if they want to go somewhere. they have to find funds for that and wouldnt get any support in terms of money. M: Are all of you able to get into some kind of teaching network, to share experiences, materials? Is there such a network in Lithuania for English teachers, no matter of what area or application they are? Is there an association of English teachers? L4: We were rather active two or three years ago. There was an association at our level and union associations were established four or five years ago, but then suddenly everything stopped and the financing was stopped. M: Is that a difficulty because very often within the EC founding what happens is to get things started, to get weapon running and then you carry on yourselves and, sort of, founding is redrawn. Well, the British Council does the same, doesnt it? It begins projects; it helps people to start moving, to make networks and then expects you to take the overall run of yourself. L10: In my opinion, our teachers, we are willing to have a network, because when we meet during courses its been a must to share ideas or experience, what we do, and then when you go back to your college, I think, the problem is that teachers are too busy and we have so many hours, and then you get back to your college and again jump into the lessons, in the routine of preparing additional materials and, again, no time. L4: I think college conferences are very useful, because we share ideas. But then again everything stops. L10: I wish I had one day-off for preparing materials, for meeting my colleagues, lets say, going to another college, talking face to face with my colleagues, but I have no possibilities. L5: I have one day-off. Twenty lessons and one day-off. So take fewer lessons. L10: They dont listen to you. It was my dream to have fewer hours, but there are no teachers and they are always asking: Can you take this group? Can you take this group? And then they ask you to give courses for the staff and teachers, other teachers, evening courses, and then its a full day, from morning to evening. 37

L5: I dont know how it all works in Lithuania, but, lets say, in Marijampole, as I mentioned already, there is an education centre. Its like a teachers resource centre or teacher-in-service training some time, Im also working there and responsible for courses for English teachers. Once a month we have a course for English teachers of different levels. And they all come; we share experiences about what is happening at schools, not at colleges. But its the same, its teaching methodology and things like that. And teachers come. The difficulty is that they are of different levels. Nowadays there are many teachers teaching English who are not teachers. And I see a very very big problem, because primary school teachers started working with young learners. And I can see a very big problem here and, I think, I dont know who, but maybe the Ministry of Education has to somehow control things like that, because what is happening is the teacher comes to an English language course and doesnt understand English. Thats a problem, because if they think they can pronounce the word This is a bag, a book, a notebook, they can teach English already. M: So notwithstanding all of these difficulties, what do you think are your strengths as teachers? What are you really good at? L4: You know, the subject we teach is the priority, I think, right now. Because I remember when I started working as a teacher, I used to come to a classroom, I had to prove that its very important, you have to learn, because you will need that in your life. Now I dont have to do that, because they know it, they are motivated. Well, maybe not all of them are very hard working, but they are motivated. They know that they will need English. M: And whats your particular strength in taking that motivation and turning it into learning? L1: For me, I think, its quite easy to establish rapport with my students. Conflicts? No conflicts, I think. Sometimes it happens that someone examines you and maybe wants to play some tricks, but somehow I manage to solve these situations. These are my problem students, I think. This is one of my strengths. And my students say that they like when their teacher smiles and this year it happened so that one of the previous year groups now they are the second year students have a different teacher now and they are unhappy, because she doesnt smile. She is young, shes OK, but she doesnt smile, she never smiles. M: Well, you have got survival strengths; you got rapport strengths. What other strengths have you got? L1: If we manage to survive that means that somehow we manage to plan our time. L6: to answer the question what my strengths are, I think that Im trying to give my students not only language knowledge, but some kind of cultural awareness and 38

certain knowledge. If not skills because they have to practice to gain skills then knowledge about intercultural communication. L3: Well, I think its very important when you see the result and when you think that you have taught for some years and, certainly, you see that they have made some progress. And especially when they feel themselves that they have made it and they have it. And our strength is in the students strength as well: if they feel strong in this field, we are strong too. M: You obviously talked about strength youve got in terms of manufacturing materials. So you are pretty adaptable. These are skills enough? L2: Flexible. But I think it can be done easily with the help of students themselves. If, for example, you give them an assignment to find information for topics which may not be included in the textbook and they search for it on the Internet, for example, and accordingly they adopt the data, tailor it to their own level, I think, it really works. M: When you do that, youre changing the whole teaching strategy, arent you? Because youre saying that the way Im going to teach you is not necessarily going to be teacher-centered, its going to be student-centered and youre going to take some responsibility for your own learning. Is this the way that English language education is going within your colleges or within your classes? L2: Yes, were trying to get them involved in the process and we will say that the motto of our teachers are our students to be treated fairly and being involved in the process of their education. M: And what kind of strategies do you use in the classroom? And do your classrooms by their layout enable you to do group work, pair work, dynamic work? Or is it settled like this and you cant move anything? L4: It depends. In some places yes, in some no. When youre working in older environment, you have older furniture, of course, you cant move anything. But in classroom like this I suppose we can move things. L10: Personally I am dissatisfied with the seating arrangement in my classroom, because some years ago we used to have about ten twelve students in a group and now the groups are much bigger, even up to twenty students in one group, and we are seated in front of each other and they are immovable. And group work forget it! L4: But you can arrange the work even if the furniture is, you know. 39

L10: But you see, the room is too small. Lets say, I have environmental studies twenty three students, they can hardly sit and use vocabularies, dictionaries. I talked to the administration, but they just say, Finances. With some groups, yes, we can do some group work, at least they can talk with their friends, make some small projects in groups of three-four students, but not with all groups. M: Do you use project work? L10: Yes, we do. M: Just difficult, isnt it, when the furniture isnt right? L10: Impossible. Everything is ruined then, because the setting there is just sitting and not comfortable for group work. L4: Cant you exchange classrooms with your colleagues then? L10: No, because we have part-time students who also come in for two-three weeks and we are short of classrooms. We talked to our administration and also through the students. M: What group sizes are you working with? L2: Twenty. Even twenty-six. And thats most probably not (good) for language teaching and learning. Thats too many. They usually stress the budget and its the main reason why they are pressed to do that, because, possibly, according to the requirements, groups should be small, but its money that doesnt allow us. L9: And those groups tend to grow bigger and bigger, right? L4: We are even loosing contact hours. More hours are devoted to self-study and thats again a kind of problem because of finances, because of money. M: So how using the communicative approach are you developing skills and getting them to practice speaking and role-play or whatever? Is that just a dream or does it happen? L10: Its reality. At least sometimes in some groups and then students are also very happy that they can communicate and its more interesting, of course. And they are active not passive. M: What kinds of language skills do you prefer to be trying to develop notwithstanding these problems? Very particular language skills that you prefer to develop, you favour developing? 40

L7: In my case its speaking most probably. M: Being able to speak more freely and more interactively? L7: Yeah. L1: I do like, for example, case studies. More advanced groups study a topic, then they are used to writing all the active vocabulary, and then they organize meetings, and then they try to make decisions, and then they make presentations, they try to use OHP, switch on, regulate everything. They are afraid to do it for the first time. Not all students can do it. L4: Presentations, I think, is a very good and very important method, because now its a tendency that they take exams in a written form and they still dont learn to speak in front of the audience, but in our department we are trying to give hours for self-study to the students to get deep into the subject to find material and be able to present it in front of the colleagues. L7: Yeah, its very helpful to break down language barrier. L9: But the problem with presentations is that sometimes as a stimulus to increase teamwork it happens that only one person works. I always ask them to ask questions and to make, you know, an assessment, so they are always aware of what is being talked about, to listen to that presenter. M: So in developing the speaking skills of an individual you are using that as a tool to develop the listening and comprehension skills of the others, as an integrated package? L4: Yes. And one more problem that we face is that teaching English for specific purposes, of course, we can adapt some texts and get material in that way, but, lets say, cassettes for listening that is impossible to get. So, thats a drawback, because they really cant hear that specialized language. M: How do you assess your students? What assessment methods do you use? L5: My college, we are supposed to give a kind of mid-term test. We finish one topic, we finish the vocabulary and so we give a kind of mid-term test and then afterwards there is the average of this mid-term test plus exam and this is the final mark for their term. So we have to give, lets say, not less than five and it depends on how many topics we take. It is sometimes, for example, at my college in a written form, sometimes its like speaking, they have to prepare a conversation; and presentations also are somehow evaluated. Also, lets say, teaching language methodology, they have 41

to prepare a kind of topic to present, kind of a seminar to have and they would be assessed: what was useful for us, what not. L9: To start, we have to approve the assessment scheme with the department, but we can include, you know, the assessment of written work or oral activities, the active participation, for example, in projects or case studies. M: And when you talk about the criteria and then you put a grade, how do you actually develop the grade? L7: There are some scoring scales like ballistic method or a multiple method so you choose one of them. L4: It depends upon a task. Sometimes one method, sometimes another. M: Could you give an example? L4: Sometimes I use self-assessment, and when we make presentations, students like to assess each other and then I put the final touch on it. Thats quite interesting, they like it. M: And do you find your students are able to reflect on their performance? L4: Yes, of course. And we have some teachers who discuss, design their assessment scheme together with the students during their first lessons when they meet. And we have agreed its up to the teacher to decide how he designs the assessment scheme, but the most important thing is that students should know it and follow it and be able to change something, if they think something is not very good. M: And do you within your institutions, within your departments as teachers, do you get together to talk about assessments, to see if youre assessing in the same way, so that students expectations could be kind of focused in the same way? Does that happen as well? L6: Yes, for example, in my college, I dont know if all colleges are required to do this, but we have to give at least sixty percent of the grade to the final exam. And the other forty you can its up to the teacher to divide it. M: How a lot of all does this final exam take? L6: The grade that the students get after taking this course, at the end of the semester, so, for example, if its ten, the best grade, then he can get six out of ten just coming to the examination. 42

M: And is that a written exam? L6: Yes. It can combine a listening test or whatever. But still you have to present a paper that he has written. Its like this in my college. And the other forty percent you can get for homework, for projects, for participation. M: Youve talked about motivating yourselves, but how do you motivate your students? How can they want to really be in your classroom? L9: Now its for the Net, for the Internet, for some interesting material that, you know, is really unusual, but relevant for something. I just give them, for example, a topic in advance for them to prepare, then I bring my material and we have a kind of seminar. But everybody is speaking, everybody is presenting their material that they have found. L4: My students sometimes get unexpected tasks, lets say, not related to the theme that we are analyzing. Sometimes I divide them in groups and give a task, lets say, to draw a map of ... . And then they give really funny pictures and really exciting explanations and we draw a total map, a combined map on the blackboard. I like it very much. L7: I have found that real life situations are very much motivating for them. When you give them freedom to discuss, to have debates, they find themselves very much involved, very much interested in, say, their mind. Selection of the material is based on the real life situations. M: Someone we were interviewing yesterday used the expression that the great thing about being an English teacher is that the whole world is your studio. Everything thats going on even if its the moods of the students in the classroom, thats teaching material. Its quite interesting, because its real life, its there and it has to be explored. Are you able to use that? L5: Im teaching my students to remember that a teacher is always carrying a bag. And there are so many things in the bag and you can have some ... out of your bag. And my students still remember, OK, we are still carrying our bag and Im so happy that about 97% of our graduates from the college work in schools and that is, I think, very important. They dont go to any other areas; they just go to school, because the schools still lack English teachers. Thats a good idea. M: Do they go further on then? L5: Yeah, there is an agreement with Vytautas Magnus University for extramural studies four more years. Life long learning: four years at our college and four more 43

years at Vytautas Magnus University, but then youll be an English teacher with university diploma. M: Can I ask you, if you could walk to the Minister of Education and you could say, and he is offering, what kind of help would you ask him to give? And what kind of help would you expect him to give you? L8: I would like to ask for motivation of the authorities of our university, because the authorities of our university are indifferent to the English language and our students are indifferent too. The only thing that motivates them to work is texts, specific words or phrases, lets say, related to their specialty. And they have always explained me that English its not the only thing that they are studying here. Thats what Id like to ask for. L9: I would like to ask to limit the number of students in language classrooms by law. Or, you know, by any other means. M: What do you think that limit should be? L9: 10. 12. 15. No more than 15. L4: I would like to ask the Minister to take care of the secondary school English teachers, to supply them with necessary resources and, well, everything what they need, because now we get students with really different levels of knowledge. L1: And those marks, the evaluations, they dont reflect the real situation. If a student, for example, has seven or eight, it doesnt mean that he or she knows that level and its really very complicated. And then those same people suffer somehow, because they think that they are at that level and it certainly appears quite different. L1: What I would ask the Minister about would be very closely connected with facilities . First of all, to change windows in the building, because it is very cold sometimes and my students are sitting there in their coats and anoraks, their fingers are cold, they dont want to do anything, they dont want to move, they sit like this aha. And the teacher too (laughs). I would also ask about a computer, and printer for our building, because maybe we will have one in our head office, but it would be nice to have one for each department, you know. M: Where you, teachers, work. L1: Yes. What else would I ask? And, of course, smaller student numbers, fewer contact hours, more hours for preparation, but they should be paid too, because its tiring work: you have to select material, to adapt it, and somehow our, you know, 44

authorities think that these hours should be paid less, because you arent so involved when you are preparing your materials. L9: And, for example, they do not pay for supervision of course papers, or BA theses. We are motivated, but not financially supported. L6: I also think that the Minister should put aside the idea that English teaching is not necessary on the university and college level, because the reality is that it still is very useful. I think the very very little minority teaches advanced English on the college level and that means if they are still in the intermediate or even pre-intermediate level, then they do need English or other foreign language teaching. L1: The overall depends very much on the popularity of the course. Every year our situation becomes worse. L7: And I would ask the Minister to provide money for teacher training. Especially to those teaching in high levels. They desperately need native speakers to be with them. At least occasionally, not on a regular basis, to consult and have consultations. M: I think that was interesting. The last question on my list: What changes would you like to face in the future? L4: The status of the teacher whatever he or she is, English teacher or mathematics teacher, should be much much higher. Because the requirements are we should be European teachers, but we cant be mobile, we are not supplied with really necessary things that we should have in order to meet that requirement. I think that they should not only raise the requirements, but give real material support for us to develop. L5: And I know how much paperwork you have to do. I have a lot to do everyday and not connected with teaching English, so it really is to reduce paperwork and to get me more time for teaching or preparation. I have to fill in different forms and analysis, what not. L2: Actually, we are working hard translating all the programmes, all the information and you work as a translators get more than teachers and we must just coincide and try to manage both. M: Now in a minute or two I will stop the tape. Is there anything that you wanted to say that we havent covered, havent got on the tape? L4: There were special seminars for teachers of English, teachers of English for specific purposes, by the British Council some years ago, but they stopped. I think many teachers would like to have them, to go on with this, because it was really good resource for new materials and methodology. 45

APPENDIX 12b Focus group interview with university lecturers I

29 October 2003, Vilnius L1: Shall I start? Well, I think we have a pretty uniform background, because we are of the same generation. We got pretty good English language training at Vilnius University. It was based, of course, on passive learning rather than active, because we did not have access to so many things. But with the little means that we had, we simply achieved a lot. And the reason why we achieved a lot, I think, was that the teachers, who were training us, in many cases, came from the pre-war tradition, from the tradition of the independent country and also some of them were very much motivated of leaving this country and they were translating the needs of the students through their own needs. And that was very important. They tried to get as much of that language as they could and so did we and the start was quite good. So, that is the background. I was lucky to start teaching immediately after my graduation from Vilnius University and I continued for a lot of years at Vilnius University. However, all the time I felt that my strengths, as you have asked, were in, say, in management, in discovering educational structures rather than classroom teaching. And I do not think I was a good teacher. I think as an educational manager I am much stronger than a regular teacher. As far as teaching concerns, I am very much interested in integrated teaching. As a teacher I see the future for language as a tool to achieve other purposes. And the sooner we implement the concept of integrated teaching into university curriculum the better it is for us and for our students. M: And tell me, what kinds of students have you taught in your teaching career? L1: Well, I am teaching the English language as a compulsory subject at bachelors degree, year 1 and 2; and it is 6 credits which means forty by forty by forty hours. That takes three terms. And we finish usually after six terms. M: Have you always taught years 1 and 2? L1: Yeah. That is right. Thank you. L2: All right, so, I have nothing to add to what L1 said about our background. She spoke with a kind of nostalgia these were the best years certainly. Now, what concerns my work, I work with the students of economics. Now, again we are 46

preparing them for bachelors examination and our examination is based on IELTS so, at least we are teaching everything according to this programme and together with business language. Now, what concerns teaching, liking or disliking it, I like teaching. I like working with students, I like being with them and seeing what they need. And the most important thing is when we meet them in some time after their graduation and they say that something was really good and something that has helped them. I remember when a student, I met him in , said: Thank you for the interview that we had during our classes. It helped him a lot in his new job and in taking part in an interview. I do not know what to say more. M: Thats fine. Thank you. L2: I am from the same generation, Vilnius University, from which I graduated in 1976, and about the types, the categories of students I had, these were the schoolchildren; now I have students and I teach adults as well. So, I have to deal with all kinds of learners. I enjoy my work and speaking about my present job, working with cadets, the main thing is to prepare them for their mission when we join NATO and they should be able to communicate and to operate on this military level. M: And how old are cadets? L2: They are after school, so that is eighteen. M: Thank you. L4: To start, I think I have the same background. Im a Vilnius University graduate. One of my teachers is here as well. What concerns types of learners that I have had, I started my teaching career as a secondary school teacher. The age ranged from 78 year olds to seventeen most probably. Then I taught at Vilnius University for a few years, students were eighteen, nineteen, twenty year olds. After that I changed my job and started working for public service language center and there our main learners were adults at the age range ordinary wide: ranging thirty, forty year olds as well as sixty, so that was a great variety of learners. So that was my experience with adults and now I am back to students and I teach first and second year students here at the International School of English. M: What kinds of materials do you actually use with your students? L2: We are trying to get in touch with, lets say, bookshops, Oxfords, then Longmans. And we try to encourage students buying M: What course books do you use then? 47

L1: As for me, the main book is International Business English by Jones. This is kind of a basic book. And then, a lot of additional books: Insights into Business, Business Today. We have a lot of books. L1: At Law University you immediately face the fact that lawyers are a very closed and nationally based community and the more they go into cases the less there are textbooks, especially textbooks on legal English. So we still struggle with two books only: English for Law and Law Today. Thats Fowell and Righley. However, having realized this, we do not attach ourselves any longer to the books that we have. Our main resource, I must tell you, I do not know whether that is good or bad, is the Internet, and, I would say, those are case studies maybe. We have several majors, so, especially if a student is majoring in law and public administration or public administration only they would not even quote what textbook they have got. This of course imposes a lot of pressure on us, teachers, because we have to develop those materials. And this is a very flexible subject: what is true today is not true tomorrow. Like Roman speech, you know, might be very important today, but it may be outdated tomorrow. Thats why, I think, we spend a lot of time at the Internet both students and teachers. Who spends more? Probably the teacher spends more time at the Internet because of materials that might be from the methodological point of view more appropriate to students than what students find, because students usually tend to bring you extensive reading material while you go into the detail for language. M: Thanks. L3: We have the textbooks for special, specific purposes, i.e. staff purposes, American English language course, and again we use the Internet, the materials that is on BBC News usually; the teachers just apply this kind of resource. And speaking about the Internet, lets say, Military English, the British Council online, so, we get the material from here. M: And this particular programme is called Peacekeeping English? L3: It is incorporated in our teaching. It is in the book for staff officers. M: Do you search a number of sources to get information to support the other documents that you have? When you are with the cadets, is it that you have a particular book that you will follow as a manual or do you actually supplement the manual and materials? L3: Oh, we supplement it. We have the main course book, lets say, and then we supplement. Each teacher just tries to find some extra material. M: Where do you look for that? 48

L3: That is mainly Internet, BBC News, for example; I like taking the latest news. That is because we have international relation, such a specialization for students. M: So in a sense youve got access to long case studies? L3: If we take, we only take the material we have here for discussions. M: Good. Thank you. L4: I think we are lucky to teach business English, because there is a variety of textbooks that we use. We also have main textbooks that we try to follow which is Market Leader. But the problem with books is that you like them very much when you first see them and then you start working and discover that something is not there or there are more things than youd like to teach and this is where the research most probably starts and you get into other books and the Internet, magazines or newspapers for authentic materials. I think that is the situation with most English language teachers. M: Can I ask, when you get some of these course books, some of these manuals, they come as part of an integrated package including video, most probably cassettes, there is the manual, there is the work book, there is the teachers book. Do you have the technology to use them? Do you get to use the tapes, do you have the video recorders, do you have access when you need it? All: Yes. We can use them. L4: I havent got a CD player, but its because we were so well supplied with tape recorders (laughs). So actually we rely on tapes rather than on anything else. But, as you said, this is probably common to all of us to record, say, BBC news in the evening or early in the morning and bring them in and have this, you know, very short introduction of whats happening in the world at the beginning of the class. So yes, we are able to use them. M: How about ISM? Have you got all you want when you want it? L4: In most cases yes. Sometimes you might have some problems, because other teachers would be using the thing, but it can be arranged. M: A kind of a booking system? L4: You just have to think in advance of what kind of equipment you would like to use and now, our students are very fond of using multimedia for presentations, more technologically advanced. 49

M: What about the Academy? L3: Im quite happy with what we have. The technology is on high level. We could even host an international event at our Academy and they were quite happy of using all the facilities and all the technology. M: Do your students have or get to use that technology in part of their learning? Is it something they receive? L4: The multimedia technologies are much more in the hands of students than ours, because when they get a project, for instance, if they do a project, they usually use the pattern of presentations, this multimedia is always on the wall, on the screen. This is the technology that we are fighting for. M: They seem much more comfortable using it than we do. L4: Very much so. M: So, in terms, you are trying to use this equipment yourselves, you use this technology, you use the various sources of information, how are you supported by your institutions? L4: It depends on finance, perhaps. What concerns, lets say, the faculty of economics, they try to provide us with something, but you see, I also work in International Business School which is considered to be richer, so, in this respect, we are using, lets say, even the same tape recorders what concerns University, it can not afford to supply teachers with tape recorders, so we are trying to borrow at the International Business School. The same with textbooks: they cant provide, our University can. L1: Well, being the head of the department and very well aware that there are several stages of computer literacy and this is something that really concerns me, because the University finds neither means, nor money to introduce us to those skills. Those of us who have brought those skills from somewhere else, like I was in private business for a while where I learned to use the computer, those of us who have brought those skills from somewhere, they have them, and, of course, they have all the advantage of using the computer and using the multimedia and using other things while there is a certain number of people who, sort of, stand, you know, at the wall, because nobody encourages them. And there is no encouragement for a teacher of English to use technologies except for my reminding, you know, that you should. But, you know, this personal you should would never come true unless the university really cares about its teachers. M: You talked earlier about integrated teaching, and, how about integrated staff development? 50

L3: Speaking about integration. For example, they have a topic, lets say, in tactics and later they come with this topic to the English lesson and we discuss it, lets say. M: And what about, if you want to apply a fitting technology to your teaching, is there some kind of staff development programme there that could help you to do it? L3: No, we dont have such a programme. I havent heard about the courses for example you just have to go to ask somebody who may consult you. We have a computer class and there is a person responsible and you may go and consult and ask him. M: And what about ISM? How do you manage that? L4: It is basically the same situation. We are just left to our own initiative and if we decide to develop our skills there are special programmes that would be offered for the staff. M: Thats quite interesting, Im just wondering whether there would be some staff development programmes within the institutions for which you work. L4: Thats may be because the institutions are quite new and there arent many people studying and working in. The thing is, that we are living in the period in the history of this country when everybody has to give as much as he can and very few of us can ask what this country can give us. So actually this is the period when we are pouring ourselves out and this is not the period of gathering the stones. M: Well, in terms of your own professional development are there expectations on how the institutions that you work in continue to develop academically or professionally? Even if they do not necessarily support. L4: Thats a good question. Actually you might remember that our load of training, our load for which we are paid, is divided into our teaching load and academic achievement load. And these two halves which are equal, well, these have to be developed side by side. Now your question would be probably how many hours are we due to teach? The answer is, about twenty hours a week, classroom time. Thats at the University, plus plus plus plus to make the living. Now, if you take twenty hours of university teaching plus plus plus other pleasant encounters with students, then you have these evenings during which you have to write your articles or develop, say, teaching materials, the students handbooks. Eventually we forget that we might want something else, because this takes actually all our time. This would be my answer. M: Same for all of you? All: In most cases yes. 51

M: What strengths do you have as teachers? L1: My strength as a teacher is that I combine several activities and that I dont close myself in the University, that my business activities and activities at other schools, my frequent travels abroad allow me to feel the pulse of language teaching. I have this pretty accurate idea of where English language teaching is going and this is my strength. If I stepped back for a moment and, you know, taught only, that would be very difficult. L2: Now, what concerns strength, it is a very difficult question. Our students, when they come to our university and whom I teach, at first when I meet them, in the first year, they are rather cautious because they simply think that we are going to repeat everything they had at school, because some schools prepare students really very well. The day when I explain them that we are not going to repeat everything, that our studies would be based on academic English, mainly on IELTS and when we start that course, they are really very cautious, but with the first test when they write it and see the results, they understand that it was not useless. And final results are real, final results when they take this final examination for bachelors degree and they manage.

L2: When they come to any universities they are really well prepared, majority of them, and they simply cant understand what can be done by universities. M: What about you? L3: Perhaps I find the pleasure and I find my strength in conducting discussions, lets say, and I involve them into international projects and I see how a person changes, becomes more confident, more open-minded and feels the spice of communicating with other students from other European countries. And they can assess their knowledge and, at the same time, present their country, so they find the spice in discussion and giving their own opinion, even being cadets, military people. L4: My strength is probably my experience with different kinds of learners and different kinds of ages, I mean, in terms of the variety of students I taught and now actually Im really happy to be back at working with younger ones. And since they are more open, more eager to do, to try new things I enjoy my teaching. M: How do feel about casting control from yourself more to the student? L3: Im quite comfortable, but I see such a kind of transformation in a learner, lets say, that a person wants to get a direct, quicker, rapid result. And usually it happens like that, so a learner is a bit lazy. He will say: I cant learn English at the Academy, if we go to a foreign country, so that is the place where I will learn English. Or, 52

another statement says: If we can express ourselves fluently, why should we learn more words and synonyms. So, all the time I ask the question: If you know two words, why should you know four words? And they try to give the answer to this question. I brought this question to different audiences. If a person feels comfortable knowing few words and every time gives another statement, it doesnt matter what I say or accuracy doesnt matter a lot, they will understand me. So that is what I see as a transformation of a learner. And it is difficult to deal with this problem. L1: You see, at the very beginning they cant understand what is the reason for all this and it seems sometimes that it is really useless, because they are sitting and it seems they are even bored. So, certainly, it is not very easy, I understand that it is difficult. But somehow when they start Let us take the very thing like how to write a proper essay. It takes a lot of time to teach them from the very beginning how to write a proper title, the introduction, body and conclusion. And I try to make them take some kind of interest in it. And when they start, when they start simply analyzing tasks not just reading, but critically evaluating everything, they start feeling the taste. And apart from this I am proud of the way they make presentations. So, first of all, this theoretical basis how to make presentations and then how they do it, is so wonderful, really. They are so inventive, they are eager to show off. And they really show their colleagues very very interesting things. M: Do your students respond to the more student-centered approach? L4: Well, I think they do. They just may at first, as my colleagues mentioned, feel a little cautious, they dont know what might happen here, what is the difference between what they had at school and what they have here and first two weeks are just kind of research on both sides: the students look at the teacher, the teacher looks at the students. But I think with time they get more and more used to that student-centered approach, although sometimes, as I feel, they dont want to take on the responsibility for their learning. Maybe its easier for them to rely on the teacher: the teacher told us to do this, we do this. They somehow dont want to put more effort. This is my experience. M: Do the students have to interact and communicate between themselves not just with you? L4: Actually this goes back to the eternal question of time and lack of time. In order to achieve as much as we can we introduce, first of all, to certain management skills. We teach them how to get in a team, how to choose a leader, how to do some brainstorming about what they would like to do in the future, in what projects they would be interested in, and then we together develop a plan for future that takes probably two classes altogether. And I have my teams set for future projects and I expect every group to present a major project at the end of the term starting 53

November 15th. Now, what helps me is that all that language input that they get is collected in the so-called portfolio. We havent got that, you know, registered officially, but I know that whatever the students find, what they have read, what they have included or not included into their projects will be in that portfolio. Another thing that I try to implement is that they themselves act without me visiting those institutions that are in one or another way related to language and language applications. For instance, we have here in Lithuania the EU delegation and on the first floor of the EU delegation building there is an information center. So I send my students to that information center always on the first day of their studies and I give them some tasks which later on help them in very many ways, for instance, they have free computers there and they can do free printing. They can very easily have access to things that they dont get so easily at the University. And also there are very helpful people, very good staff that helps them. So have I answered your question? M: Yes, very interesting. Teaching language for doing skills. How do you assess your students? What methods of assessment do you use with your students? L3: It depends, for example, what concerns reading. There are different tasks and usually 60% good answers, so this is the lowest, i.e. 5, and then upwards, going up to the highest point 10. The same with listening, writing and speaking. What concerns speaking and writing, this might cause some problems, because it might be very very Im speaking about writing partial on the part of the teacher. So thats what we are doing: we are trying to have the checking done not by one teacher but by two or three, so that we could discuss and be able to assess the person properly. The same with oral (assessment). M: So you are trying to establish common standards? L3: Yes, common standards. M: What about group work? How do you assess group work? L4: This is an issue how to assess that. Sometimes I just give the same mark to everybody based on the result they produce, how well they perform. Everybody who contributed to the result get the same mark. This is one way of doing it. Sometimes we just assess the student who pulls back on progress. Try to do it in a variety of ways. And I dont know which is the best one. M: How about self-assessment? L4: You know, speaking about assessment and self-assessment, Ive come to a conclusion that the more creative you are, the more you are into these innovative teaching methods the more disastrous your assessment is. If you have the cumulative 54

degree and you have everything divided into percents, nevertheless, eventually you finish up with 10, 9, 8 and the absolute bottom is 7. And that is the problem of all the universities, if Im not mistaken, because studying is so competitive, the groups are trying hard to achieve, people really appreciate the ability to be in the classroom and the fact that their parents are paying. And its very very difficult to differentiate between the minute differences of this or that student. For instance, in the group that I have now all the students had a 10 in their English, i.e. the top grade, at school. They are very good, very strong; they know whats expected of them. And then you dont have a full scale marks, you dont have a full scale of learners, you have a very uniform learner actually. And, especially, if you expect initiative from the student and you are operating on the level of the peers, then, actually, you get totally confused because, yes, they evaluate each other for the project, yes, I look through the portfolio, I evaluate whats in the portfolio and the result is: Yes, youre very good. M: Have you used criteria-referenced as opposed to non-referenced assessment? L4: Of course. Thats because we have this essay writing which is essay writing projects, we have debates, we have all kinds of activities. M: Do you ever assess in terms of specifying outcomes the student needs to achieve in order to be successful in an area of study that they know in advance as a general framework? L4: The very first lesson they come they have to know what is expected of them. The system that we use is that they get 50% of the total, the final mark, as the result of their exam that they take at the end of the term. And the other 50% is something that they can collect during the studies: they have to do assessment; they have to do the projects, to prepare their presentation that they make, the essays they write, so all these small things. M: So how do you motivate the students to do this? How do you motivate them to really be able to give of their best in the variety of teaching situations that you have with different strategies that you use? L4: Praising. And they dont want to be of, lets say, lesser qualification than their peers because, for example, they are doing some such practical activities presentations, negotiations, taking part in meetings, in conferences. Then all of them discuss just the participants; nobody wants to hear about himself or herself some negative description. So thats why they are trying their best; and what concerns criticism, I remember the interview activity that they had. Usually the panel for the interview is they, all students. They are interviewing and I am kind of an observer and their criticism is much stronger than mine in connection with weaknesses and strengths of the candidates. So thats why they understand what is needed and how to behave and act. 55

M: What about the Academy? Is motivation a problem? L3: I shouldnt say that it is such an extra thing that they try to be the best, because they are going to be the future leaders and they have commanders and they know, so that is a kind of a soldier who has to carry out his mission. Its just learning not only for him, but to show for his commander the good results and for his long-term future as well, i.e. to pass this level exam. Motivation is the thing which a person has in himself as a person. I think it depends more on a person himself than on a teacher. L1: I think that future career is the greatest motivation, because they understand a lot and without the language there will be no future. L4: But still, I think, that sometimes they find it a bit difficult to realize that, still the future seems so far away, and now its the daily life and there are so many other interesting things to do, not just the language. So I personally find it difficult to motivate, lets say, the students who have already very good knowledge level. So they think they know things very well and how to motivate them to continue to develop the language? M: So what do you do with them? L4: I think, what most of us are trying to do is just give them more challenging tasks, projects, give them more reading to do, so that they discover for themselves that there are still so many things they dont know. It is hard I think. M: Is there any kind of help that you think could or should be available to you as teachers of English from the Ministry or from your institutions or from other sources that you would like to mention? L1: Some training courses might be very useful. At the very start the British Council organized a lot of good projects. It was really really great encouragement. L4: Isnt it quite a paradox that the administration of the University would expect the students to leave the University with excellent English language skills and what students get is a year and a half, four academic hours per week, during which they of course develop ESP, professional language, but they dont have the chance of communicating. And then so many years pass and by the end of their masters degree the administration addresses them: Do you speak English?, and they say: No. How could they since they finished it two and a half years ago or even more? How could they speak good English at that time? It is the skill that has to be upgraded gradually. That is one. Another, the constant discussion whether foreign languages are needed at university level at Eastern and Central Europe. It really demoralizes the teachers as well as students, because we dont have the confidence in ourselves, we dont have the 56

feeling what we give and what we do is needed at all. This is really an abominable situation, I think, and Im very much, you know, for asking where do we stand, do we want those lawyers to go to the EU knowing Lithuanian plus some little English or do we want the lawyers to be able to participate in the social discourse as it is? Because the language is no longer the language. The language is a tool of social integration into the EU structures, of political integration. And since this is not recognized where do we get? We get it as a classroom subject which seems to be, you know, like secondary though obligatory but of less importance. And this is the key to the EU as computer skills. M: What would you like to see changed? L4: Attitude towards foreign languages. L3: On the governmental level, if they say that language is a priority, education is a priority, speaking about teaching English, I see international projects as a very beneficial thing. So why not to put money into this even to organize here in Lithuania? Communicating with the youth from other European countries when they see and they can assess their level of knowledge. We dont ask too much some money to put into the thing which is really beneficial for the students. L4: Maybe we need a different attitude, because recently, I think, there has been that shift, when students learn English at school, then at the universities, but thats not really true, because they start loosing the language if they dont use it so, to have a kind of programmes that maintain the language at the level that they have. I think, in most universities we have the same problem that we start with two years, four terms of English, and then it is not used. And case study based English is totally different from the textbook English and this what we are doing here at the universities: we are bringing people closer to political, cultural issues, as I said, to the discourse, i.e. discourse that is common for all the EU. If we close learning of English, if we push it away as a subject into English language teaching centers, in that case the academic education will lose a lot of...

57

APPENDIX 12c Focus group interview with university lecturers II

28 October 2003, Kaunas M: Tell us first about your professional background. How long have you been involved in teaching English and the type of learners youve taught? L7: So, Ive got university degree in English language teaching at Vilnius State University and it was long-long ago when I graduated from it, so I have over 20 years of practice in teaching English. I started with a secondary school on graduation of the university and in a couple of years I started working in Kaunas University of Technology, former polytechnic institute and I teach there all my life. We have been going through different ways of programmes we were having in this institution. When I started my work at this university we would teach reading and translating more; there were technical books, books of technical texts prepared or technical readers prepared and we would read with our students and try to translate and teachers would specify into fields their faculty was pursuing. So, some of the teachers would be learning mechanical engineering, some electrical engineering. But step by step our development in search of communicative English started and the university which turned into university after being polytechnic institute this university decided also to take up the approach communicative approach. Emphasis was made on spoken language, on communicative activities, on developing all skills, not only reading and translation, but also listening skills, which are so essential in communicative approach, and speaking, lots of speaking. So we would cover would take new ELT materials, which started appearing in Lithuania, which was not the thing before the independence, before 90s. Lots of ELT materials available on sale enabled us to take this material into our teaching. M: Im going to ask you about the kinds of resources that you can use or you are using. Can you tell what students you have, what age range? L7: Age range is not wide at all. Because mostly they are school leavers. So they come from school. They just take this university. Instead of going to work they evidently prefer studies and they come to the university. So they are just ages 18 to 20, usually. Except for correspondence students. In the Correspondence department we are having people the age range is wider, much wider. And I think thats it about the variety. Its not a varied audience I would say. L6: I think I am the least experienced here because I have been teaching English only for 4 years. After the graduation in Vilnius university I got into my masters studies 58

and I was invited to teach in Kaunas university of Technology, so while I did my MA I was teaching at the same time. And when I came here I got the students of economics department, economic management, and then they asked (me to take) the students of design and social sciences as well and basically these are the students who are freshmen and sophomores because I teach them sometimes for one academic year or two years. And the age would be 18, from 18 to 25 sometimes, because we also have evening department in the same faculty. So Im specialising more in economics, management, banking system, the issues connected with economics English for Specific Purposes. M: How old would your evening students be? The same 25 to 18? L6: The same, the same as the day time students. L5: My experience is 8 years, I have been teaching for 8 years already and I graduated from Vilnius university, Faculty of Humanities in Kaunas and after graduation I started my work at Lithuanian University of agriculture and the students were students of economics and forestry faculty that I had. What else to say? The students age so students also are school leavers. They start their studies at eighteen and we have English the same group we have for two years. Usually the age is 18 and 19 years. And we also have correspondent students, so their age is from 18 and it can be up to 50. Yes, we have adult learners. L4: I also graduated from Vilnius University, the Kaunas faculty of humanities and I have been teaching perhaps for 10 years as far as I remember. And also after graduating I started working at Vytautas Magnus University. And there we would have all students from all faculties because our groups are mixed. Those who are teaching the English language they are separated and all the others must learn English and English is compulsory at our university and after entering university students usually take placement test and they are divided into levels. The levels are from 1st one to 4th. and levels 5 to 6 are for specific purposes such as English for computer science, English for sociology and Myself I teach now this semester and last semester Ive been teaching before for 1 to 4 level and this semester I have students of the 3rd level. So much perhaps. L3: I have been teaching English at Kaunas Medical University for 3 years and this year in June I did my MA in English Philology through Vilnius University, Faculty of humanities. I teach English in the largest faculty thats it faculty of medicine. Our students Most of our students are school leavers of course, and they have two hours a week they have been teaching English for 6 semesters. Just this year, actually this spring, we have introduced so called the professional language module which consists of Latin, because we teach Latin, which consists of foreign languages: i.e English, German, French; and the third subject is Lithuanian language and culture. So its very 59

specific. And of course we teach our students medical English and sometimes our teachers are joking that we should be awarded a Certificate in Medicine, because we have to prepare lots of medicine. Perhaps thats all. L2: Perhaps Im the oldest here. I graduated from Vilnius University in 1965. I have got Doctors Degree, defended also long long ago at Moscow University in 1970. Ive been teaching English some 37 years or so. I started teaching English at Vilnius University and Id been teaching there for over 10 years. I taught practical English to law students there and some theoretical courses like theory of English grammar to would-be specialists of English. Then I moved to Kaunas, Kaunas Academy of Physical education. I have been working here for over 20 years. We are teaching as Ive already mentioned English for two terms to our students besides we are doing we have English language course, but mainly professional English, to teaching English to Master students, students doing studying for Masters Degree. So they have English for one term, 3 hours per week. We have got 4 directions perhaps in their studies. They are: tourism and sports management, physical education and sport, pedagogics that is would-be teachers of Physical Education at school and sports bio-medicine. So we are teaching them professional English, business English, business correspondence, things like that. I have been teaching mainly students of tourism and sports management and I am sorry to say that until this year until this year we had a lot of English. That is we are teaching those would-be tourism and sports mangers two languages one language is they continue the language they have been studying at school and the other language they used to start from ABC. Now the situation has changed drastically this year. As I have mentioned only two terms of English would-be tourism and sports managers include. I think that this will give bad results because simply our graduates will not find jobs as I have told to our rector, to our vice rector for academic I dont know how to say for academic affairs its not a good word perhaps, but nothing else you havent got anything else. So this is the situation. L1: Well, Im the same generation as Roma. Graduated from Vilnius State University in the soviet period of time when English was taught as ancient Greek without any possibilities even to listen on to radio due to those interfere sounds. We used to go to lingua-phonic, special cabinets as it was called then. And after that I had a few years experience in teaching at school and a gap, and its about 7 years that Ive been teaching art students. Well they study design, painting, graphics, sculpture, all kinds of trends in art. And age 18 up to 30 and even older students study sculpture especially sculptors. OK. Abilities are mixed. I am the only teacher of English and still they dont manage to give me full salary payment for teaching about 130 students. So the statistics also says something. Literature at our library well, latest issues are from Stalins period where they write about Konenkovs Mashenka Russian sculpture you can guess what I mean. Abilities mixed from students who dont speak at all. Its difficult to evokesome ideas in Lithuanian even let it alone English, and there are students who really have very good skills, and have finished special schools, 60

etc, so really very often I am very much confused about such situation. And now I have discovered that best of all they open their ears and eyes, everything they can, when things are related to the subject they are studying. And if sentences would be not Mr Smith travelled to London but Ghainsbourgh moved to some place then yes, they somehow adopt it easier. M: What type of resources do you use? Do you use coursebooks, do you design your own material? Where do you go for this? L7: Whatever we can lay our hands on L6: Coursebooks, Internet sites. L7: Well, libraries or methodical L6: Computer labs, bookshops M: How easily are they available for teaching needs? L2: Since finances are very scarce, so our students for instance do a lot of xerox and they pay themselves for their teaching materials. L3: Not just students but teachers as well. We have to pay for our own designed material. It costs. M: Who selects the materials for you? Is it selected for you? Or do you select it yourself? How much freedom do you have in it? L1: I am completely free, because I am the only one. L5: We have some guidelines, but we have freedom to use. L7: We ourselves decide what coursebooks to follow. L5: There are programmes. They are developed and we have them but our choice to change something. L6: We introduce the materials that our students need, well to meet their needs. L7: Its not authorised from above. No. M: You are given a curriculum or you have a curriculum to be involved in and then you find the resources to deliver that? 61

L7: Yes. We have. M: And what about in the field of medicine. How easy is that? L3: Its very very difficult. Despite the fact that our university has an access to the largest database, like PapaMidline, Cambridge University Press library, and lots lots of others, but we cant be our department of Languages and education cant be connected to our university centre of information for a very simple reason we dont have computers. M: What kind of facilities are available to you to gather your information? L5: If the teacher has such a possibility. For example I have a computer myself and I have access to Internet so I can use. My students they can do it only twice. M: Do your students have access to facilities that you dont have? L1: In many cases yes. M: Do they then make things available for themselves and for their peers? Does that ever happen? L1: Yes. That happens. L3: But its not enough. Our students dont have time, because they have to study their pre-clinical clinical subjects. They usually ask us teachers to help them to find materials. L5 They dont have skills for that, professionally L3: Yes, professionally L5: It takes a lot of time for them. They just get lost in that information and thats all. L3: I agree L5: Its better for us to find something for them than ask them to do it themselves. L1: Usually they like to have the material compiled by teachers. L3: Yes, sometimes I give such tasks for them to find something, but not always, only some tasks based on that. 62

M: And do they do it? Do they find? L4: Of course they find, but its difficult for them, so you know I cant every task cant include such amount of work. Sometimes I include may be one project which includes, you know, such work. M: Does that make them understand how its difficult for you to get the information for them? L4: Yes, yes, yes they evaluate our work. M: What kind of resources are available for you in the classroom? Do you have videos, tape-recorders, all the usual stuff? L1: Skeleton and a tape recorder available in the room I teach. L2: Tape recorders, no videos. L3: Only chalk and the board. But only one also. L4: We have tape-recorders. Video is available to use. L5: Only one for the whole department. We have one TV set and one video. L6: Everything. And even multimedia if we need. But we have to arrange. M: As a kind of share? You can book and reserve these? L7, L6: Yes. L6: Its usually in faculties, because each faculty usually has their own labs for that or other sort of material compartments. L7: We have a couple of computer labs. Also we use them for language teaching. We have just this software material installed in computers. Also we have one very committed teacher who has a special programme, kind of easy TOEFL for our students, so this is called Errors so just students have to correct sentences and they are given explanations, they need to find choices which are good choices. So we use computer labs for that, but we ask our students to buy their ELT material from bookshops. Also they have a small library in our university where they can find this material in English, in German, in French because these languages are taught at our university. So quite a range of 63

M: Do you have kind of a sharing force in terms of people generating information, sharing it with colleagues to help each other? L7: Absolutely, of course. L6: Especially with the younger ones. They sometimes ask for pieces of advice of our colleagues who have been indented? for a number of years, because they know our institutions better. L1: We too from time to time I occasionally take lectures at Vytautas Magnus university. And well there I have had better colleagues and later on we share. They help me and we meet we discuss things whenever we meet. M: What about if you are teaching just one particular topic highly specialised one like medicine? Where else can you go for resources? L3: Well, I have my own computer at home and internet so I can use it. But for instance we dont have in our department any copy machine as I have already mentioned and we have to go to the city centre and look for the cheapest you know copies and it makes me feel And sometimes I make material copied and ask my students to pay money, you know. Its very difficult to understand. M: And you are saying that you have tape recorders. You dont have video and you dont have television? L2: Just tape recorders and I wanted just to add that for instance if we have six or eight groups of English in the same faculty, we usually cooperate. The teachers and then we write the final test. So we usually gather all the groups together and they get the same test in a large room, so that there is quite close cooperation between the teachers. For instance there are six teachers of English at my faculty. M: How much do the books actually cost in terms of people trying to buy them as their own resources? Is that a major issue for you, let alone your students? L7: It is. It is. Its not cheap. Its not cheap. But if you think you can divide it through the whole year it turns relatively cheap. But its L1: If you dont teach one level, then its quite a sum. M: How much support do you get from your institution, from your kind of school administration for what you to do? Do they understand the problems that youve got and that you are trying to solve in order to teach your students? 64

L7: Our authorities do. They do understand. They try to be helpful. As much as they can handle the finance which is a lot of the institution actually, they are ready to help us. This is not a question of buying ELT materials for every student, but in general ordering books which are necessary for courses, theoretical courses so that they can be found in libraries for students. Then also trying to equip us with computers. Tape recorders. We started teaching translation and interpretation in our university in the faculty of humanities, so the necessity of good tape recorders And simultaneous or synchronic translation class was the issue and the authorities came with their help and now we have installed that class. M: The courses are designed for you to use different approaches to the language that develop different skills which require the technology which you may or may not have. Do you actually have this equipment? So many of you are saying that you dont. How do you get around those things? L1: Well, the students buy those who can afford it but only one third students perhaps can do that. Others copy it and they even even that beautiful design turns to sometimes insensible pictures or some places are omitted, which are printed in colour colourful. Those should be emphasised they are not seen in their copies. M: Designing course material. Have any of you have had any help with doing that? Does your institution help you, to think about ways of designing? Or have all the ideas come from yourself? L3: Yes, the ideas come from ourselves. L4: We compare what we have already done L6: Were simply trying to meet the needs of our students because the education is student-centred education. Well, are for L5: Comes from our experience what we know L6: We have to make better M: Do some of your students have access to better facilities than you have? L1: Yes. L7: Some L1: Last computers colour printers 65

M: Actually, its becoming interesting in the case of students beginning to have access to better facilities than their teachers and they expect you to know what they know, to have access what they have to. That can cause some interesting tensions. L1: What is most important they travel much more than we do in spending much more time in English speaking countries than we do and really have good command of natural spoken English. And this is I find it very very problematic issue. M: Is there support from your institutions to help you have access to those kinds of things? L3: Usually universities dont have any resources for such kind of improvement, qualification courses. M: Do they have facilities for putting you in touch with organisations that can fund you for this kind of development? L6: We are trying to find ourselves So we have our aims and our goals M: What do you see as your strengths? L7: Commitment into the teaching. We teaching. Because well, really people who working conditions, they leave universities. patriotic and once you are a patriot you try L6: If theres a way theres a will. L7: what is necessary and just it depends very much on the teacher. L6: I think its possible to add flexibility. Because we easily we are flexible people, I think. M: So, do you find it increasingly difficult to actually be more student-centred in your teaching than teacher-centred? L5: Yes we are trying to do it M: How do you do it? L5: With the help of such task, for example where they need to show their initiative, yes, they have to find the material themselves, they have to prepare for some projects or presentations or in this way. 66 are committed, we are patriotic about just search for bigger salaries, for better They dont stay here. So, we are kind of to find out.

M: In your institution, how do you manage with this? When students come and maybe they expect from secondary education a teacher-centred approach to learning, how do you help them to move away from that? To become more independent as learners? L2: I really dont know what to say. Attendance of classes is obligatory. Plus they are supposed to work at home. For instance in our curriculum one term is 48 hours in class, 32 hours at home. So we usually give them home tasks. In term one they do some revisional grammar. And we give, say, out of those 32 hours approximately 810 hours to grammar, refreshing their knowledge of grammar. And the other time they spend on preparing topics which they will have at the end of the term and during their final exam in the second term they are also reading special literature. I usually give a little bit of fiction. The first two months. They have got the so called private reading and they are supposed once a month to read 50 pages of fiction. It depends upon their level of proficiency, so usually adapted books, say from level 4 to level 6. It depends upon the students proficiency. So, that means 100 pages of fiction and starting with, lets say, November they have no fiction, they have professional, special things. M: Do they work individually? Do you get them to work in groups? Do they ever have home assignments? L6: Yes L2: Usually when I have this private reading, their choice is theirs, so they choose the book they like and there are 3 stages of getting a chapter for this private reading. So, usually I say them, you must present your vocabulary, pages numbered, let say page 3, page 4, page 5, page 6, 50 words underlined, words and phrases, I usually ask them to choose not separate words, but phrases, prepositions are very important. So 50 words and phrases underlined and if you dont know a single word, out you go, stage one, stage two reading and translating 4 or 5 passages. You dont know a word, I say, look it up in your vocabulary. Oh, you havent picked out this word, out you go. And Stage 3, short presentation of what they have read. About the author and a book, lets say 3 or 4 minutes, it depends upon the tempo of the student. So, the first two months and then special literature. M: Where do you see yourselves, what is your main problem area in trying to deliver English? In trying to teach English within this context? L3: Computers. L7: Facilities. L5: Access to computers. 67

L6: We would be very happy if we could have overhead projectors in every class. To have multimedia for presentations would be great. We are just gorgeous. L3: Copy machine, overhead projectors. Thats it. M: What about the students? Are they a problem? What about their level of English when they arrive? Their expectations of how theyll be taught? Do you have any problems with them? L1: We have. They want to learn everything being in the classroom, without working at home. They expect the teacher to teach them everything. L6: Sometimes they rather not finishing their activity because of critical thinking. L1: Our students also lack time. In the first year they strive to establish themselves as artists and all other subjects are afterwards. M: You mentioned critical thinking. Is there any opportunity working with your students to develop some kind of reflective capacity on their part? L4: We are trying to include such tasks that develop their critical thinking. Team work, decide which material is suitable, which is not, encourage to try to think new ideas. L6: Conferences. L7: Co-operation. Publishing of surveys. We usually distribute questionnaires to them. And some questions include what you liked and what you disliked about this module. What was easy or difficult, your level not your level. What suggestions you have? Was your teacher well helpful to you, was the group or classmates helpful to you? So usually we get that feedback and on the basis of this we can discuss this later. To decide if the material was good enough for this or we should switch to group work or pair-work more than teacher instruction teacher-centred work. These are tools for... M: What kind of language skills do you like developing, or do you feel whats comfortable developing? What are the skills that you favour in your teaching? L3: I would say speaking skills and reading skills assumption. And writing as well. But listening we do very little listening. Just because the material we have is very specific. But now we are going to introduce so called problem-based learning and I just on Friday got this material, I read it I like it very much and what I noticed that our teachers unconsciously are trying to introduce this method and I noticed that our students like it. Its very interesting. 68

M: How do you help students who have problems with speaking skills? Or reading skills? What techniques, what strategies do you have? L2: I usually say, if you havent learned English at school during 8 years, it is not my task to teach you speaking. My task to teach you to get information form your special texts, be able to summarise texts. Thats it what I say my students. M: So you focus on reading and writing skills? L2: Reading, writing, summarising. Speaking skills I dont know. If my colleagues achieve in this I say that they are wonderful then teachers. M: How do you assess? How do you assess these different skills that you are looking for? L5: We have tests for assessing grammar. We have oral examination for speaking skills. We have reports. Different reports. We have presentations for which also they have to account for. M: So use a variety of assessment tools? L1: Not much writing because they may rewrite, they may take from internet, albums. But speaking yes, speaking. When I have access to videos, it is very useful for them if it is their level. Sometimes the language is too complicated. They like to comment things like that. Then they really get interested. The problem is that groups are of mixed ability. M: How do you actually motivate your students? L4: Marks They dont have to take exam they dont have to pass it. They wont get a good mark if they wont do that. M: When I was a student, yes ok for now, because the exam is not for 6 moths 8 months, I can have some fun now. The question was how did my lecturers get me to realise I actually working through the year. Not simply try to cram everything in the end. What do you do with students? L4: We usually write many tests, many of them. My students during three months which is a term, they get usually 15 marks. So I think they have to they must work hard to pass the examination and to pass all these little tests. L2: And how do you punish them if they dont come and dont write the test? I for instance take 0.5 from the average mark. The average mark is 8.3, you have missed 3 tests say minus 1.5. 69

L5: I am not so strict. I try you know just to connect what I teach with the real life, try to show that for example this or that you know task will show them how to use this how it can be used in real life and try to connect. I try to show the benefit of that. M: Do you have to assume that because they learn medicine, they are motivated to learn about the English terms? L3: I was just going to tell that they are more motivated than my colleagues said because sometimes our English lectures help them to be motivated. For instance we give them lots of knowledge in anatomy and we are trying to match our subjects to the subjects they are studying. And they say that it helps them. L6: I think one of the best ways to motivate learners, well, integration into the European Union. This is a very good fact well they know that soon they will get a possibility to work abroad and theyll need English or German, or French or any other language. Well just competition, they wont be able to compete in the market. Thats it. M: What kind of help would you like to get to making you a more effective teacher? L1: Fully equipped class. Posters, all kind of material to have it at hand, not to carry to every lecture, well, lots of bags with myself tape recorders sometimes everything L6: Quite an issuemaybe courses in the United States or Great Britain just two months a year or three months a year. L1: I wouldnt mind this kind of help as well, assistance as well L5: More hours of English. We are short of time and we dont have enough time. L7: More advanced school leavers. M: What changes would you really like to see in the future as teachers of English? L6: To change dramatically towards science and education in general and lecturers, teachers, university teachers, professors. Its really hard work we have to do. M: So therere issues about status of teacher? L6: Oh, yeah. M: Anything else? 70

L2: Perhaps entrance exams in English, because the marks they bring from school are no good. Lets say 10 points usually 6 in our evaluation. M: Is there anything you wanted us to know today that we havent mentioned or given you a chance to talk about? L7: Fewer students in a group. Groups are too large. L2: Yes exactly. By the way I got some paper three weeks ago where the number of students in different professions in a group is given from above and foreign languages it used to be 15 students, now 20 students in a group its too many. L5: 22. L3: Its a surprise for me because an average is 11 students.

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APPENDIX 12d Focus group interview with iauliai and Paneveys university lecturers
14 January 2004 L8: I have been teaching English at iauliai University for over ten years. Right now Im a lecturer and the Head of the department of Foreign Languages. Actually all of those years I have been teaching at the Faculty of social sciences. First and second year students are studying major in business administration, public administration and economics. M: Could you also tell what students you teach in terms of the age? Is it a wide range? L8: Yeah, actually, in undergraduate programs, so, from the age of, most probably, 18 to 20, and post-graduate students studying for masters degree, so they are a bit older, at the age of 2324, and all of them are working, so actually they do have some experience in their working environment and certainly their needs are a little bit different because they already know whether they are going to use and actually whether they are using this English and ESP, so the situation looks like that. L7: Ive come from Paneveys and I teach at the KTU. Mainly right now Ive been teaching first and second year students for the last four years. When I started teaching we used to have four years of the foreign language so then I used to teach even such a course like life management which doesnt exist nowadays. Well, they are first and second year students, some of them study engineering, so they are at the Department of Technology, and then business administration, two groups of students and thats it. I started teaching at the university eleven years ago and that was through quite an unfortunate situation because when I came back from the US after Fulbright scholarship and after working in the US for one year my school, my secondary school refused to accept me and then I was all of a sudden with no job and I started looking for, well, I just knew somebody at university and I was interviewed and since then Ive been working quite successfully. L6: Im also from Paneveys, KTU. Ive been teaching students for four years and mostly students of evening department. I have two groups: also engineers and administration. Their age is eighteen to twenty and more. And there are many people, adults, who finished secondary school long ago, for example, over the age of 35. 72

L5: I joined the faculty in the early 1996 and before that I spent six years at Vilnius Pedagogical University, and before that a year with Paneveys school No5. Right now Im teaching public administration majors as well as engineering majors, both full-time and evening department students where I come across in type of different needs, the age range is between 19 through 30. All the students tend to study at evening department. Ill tell you more if you ask me. L4: I teach English here in iauliai University for about five years. I teach English to the non-English major students, students who major in the variety of fields: physics, mathematics, education, social sciences, business administration, business and economics and so on and so forth. Mostly Ive been teaching to the students of the 1st and 2nd year so their ages from19 to 20, something like that. For the last two years I teach only Faculty of Social Sciences plus the students of business administration so I specialize in Business English currently for both full-time and part-time students. Thats about it. L3: Well, I have been teaching English for non-native speakers just for two years. Currently Im working with two groups: economists and last year I managed to work with public administration students and economists. At the moment I do have some challenges just before me, quite a broad ... because Im working with extramural students. Its quite interesting challenge. If you have any questions, please ask me. M: What is your academic background? L3: I have BA in English Philology. M: Vilnius Pedagogical University? L3: No, iauliai University. L2: I graduated from Kaliningrad University and before joining Klaipda University as an assistant, as a lecturer, I taught English for college students and the age range was from 1819 up to 25, I guess. And these students were of law specialty and business administration and even of accounting. It was sort of a challenge as well to teach English for them because it was sort of English for special purposes. L9: First of all, I represent English Philology Department although I work in the English Language Center in Klaipda University. So here I taught English language for students of economics, Lithuanian language and informatics students. So they are first year students and I also give lessons to students of English Philology and I teach them social English. They are second year students. And Im working in language teaching for the first year after my studies in Vilnius University where I got masters degree. 73

L9: Ive been working at iauliai University for about twenty five years. Double qualification: English language teacher and teacher of the blind and visually impaired. Im Associate Professor. My students are mainly from Special Education Faculty. Their future qualifications are speech therapists and special educators, special educators and kinetotherapists, social educators and psychologists. Their age is 1819 year old students. Now Ive been doing some research work. My field of interests is special education terminology, in particular classification of terminology, compiling dictionaries and so on, and so forth. Thank you. M: So it seems to me that many of you actually teach English for specific purposes. Could we talk about resources, materials that you use? What kind of materials do you use? Are you happy with materials you use? How do you get materials? L9: Well, I think that the situation is getting better in comparison with the Soviet period. You being young people maybe dont know very much about the situation in the Soviet period but being an old man I can compare and tell you that Internet really helps us and it depends on the authorities of the faculty I should say, I mean the resource situation or any other things we need. We get from our International Department, from the Library of the International Department, books we need on special education, especially on educating, I mean, speech-impaired people or intellectually impaired or blind and so on. Great help is from Oslo University we receive books free of charge. And the strongest students are able to read. M: When you speak about all those books and help, are they books in English for specialists or are they English ESP course books? L9: For specialists. You see, our attention is to develop, perhaps, their special vocabulary. What concerns their everyday English, they can speak, they are quite well. I mean, my students about 90% are fluent at everyday English but special education terminology is the complicated thing. And as we get the materials we make copies and then, you know, lets say, we can divide students into three groups: those who can read and translate with the help of dictionary, those who can answer the questions and maybe join discussions, and those who can make extensive and comprehensive reports. L3: Honestly, the acquisition from Norway is quite a positive aspect, so I just would like to mention that this information is from time to time provided only for some teachers because students have simply to use the Internet just to search for the books we need, just to find out some information. But on the whole they do manage to use IT quite successfully and some professors even manage to organize some assignments from their English and account on them on the Internet. Also, just, multimedia is used at the Faculty of Social Sciences so students are able not only to improve their English but also again computer skills, they use some computer programs just to 74

develop their presentation skills so its a positive aspect. This thing hasnt been some years ago, as the Professor mentioned, so we couldnt use this equipment. L4: Well, first of all, I have to make photocopies for my students. We cannot afford to buy books. Of course, the ideal thing would be if everybody had the same course book and we could use it in our courses, lets say, I have many Business English textbooks which are great, Im very happy to work with them but unrealistic that everybody can buy them, at least in this town, so what I normally do I make handouts and we work this way. But basically Im quite happy with the materials that I have. Of course, it would be better if I had more resources to buy this material but thats another question. And students would also benefit from more access to this material. L1: I wanted to try the supplement to send from British university to give us some three or four books at the library, but the library cannot supply students. M: Do your students buy these books? L1: We make photocopies. L3: Well, actually, quite honest some students are eager, you know, to buy some textbooks. They just dislike those handouts. They say that it costs, then I just explain, I motivate them that its not possible to develop their English using only one textbook. They need just to photocopy some texts. L1: Still few students buy textbooks, of cause it costs a lot. L8: One more point might be added that somehow our policy is to use not only one book, one textbook, and actually, somehow, what we can suggest and what we can offer with our students needs and when we see that, for instance, they need some improvement then its quite advisable for students and for the teacher to change one or another textbook. One more thing probably might be added that teachers of iauliai University are encouraged to compile sort of materials by themselves and publish them and make use of them in their classes, for instance, our Professor Kapueviius has compiled already three books, me, as well, two books and I use them quite widely in my classes and students find them very useful. Actually, one more thing, we work in the Faculty of Social Sciences and have very good access to mass media, mainly the magazines and journals such as Business Week or The Economist and for their, for instance, home reading, or presentation development, of their presentation skills students are asked to read, to make copies and read those magazines and this way enriching their professional vocabulary. L3: Also I would like just to add that the same type at the library: they just collect some English books but, unfortunately, they do not consult some English specialist, they just compile. 75

L5: OK, all the young crowd that comes into university on the 1st of September they are streamed into two levels, internally we call it level 4 and 5 for autumn and spring semester terms and level 5 and 6. We have 3 and 4, 5 and 6 All of them are strongly encouraged if not forced to buy textbooks, we have an agreement within the Foreign Language Center that everybody buys there Students books and Work books which means that 60% to 70% they study the course in general English and the rest 30% to 40% depend on the student own work, its our own initiative. If we look at the curriculum, it is a big book published by Kaunas University of Technology Study Programmes we see that the courses we are supposed to teach is a good compilation of general English and ESP altogether, as I said a minute ago. There is very much room for our own improvisation while we use the assigned textbook as the main framework for the autumn and spring terms. M: Could you mention the titles of the books you use? L5: In the recent three years we used Cutting Edge intermediate for level 4 and 5 and upper-intermediate for level 5 and 6 which means too easy for certain number of students, good enough for another big chunk of students. But we do what we do. L7: We also use handouts. L5: Yes, as I said, we can really initiative and improvisation as always do. L7: And sometimes students make L5: 20, 30, 40 per cent. M: How do you decide what materials to use? L5: Just we know L9: Its very easy, it depends on the needs of the students. If I teach speech therapists so I try to look for the material, to compile, or something like that. M: So you have flexibility in what to choose? L9: Yeah. L7: And we have to follow the textbook but there it depends on our own initiative: if we feel that they would benefit from something then I go and try to find and give them. L6: Our colleagues at KTU, they use the same. 76

L5: And very much the same at Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas. L8: So the thing what makes our students just to have some content, general content for all students studying at iauliai University, is the program which is common for all but there are some peculiarities that are introduced depending on the faculty the students are studying at, for instance, specialization, the students at the Faculty of Education study and teachers are asked to introduce more texts and more materials on education. For instance, at the Faculty of Social Sciences I myself use such textbooks as Business Objectives, Business Opportunities, New Insights into Business English, New International Business English and text books like these. L2: Speaking about ESP purpose I should add maybe that living in Klaipda we are teaching such aspect a marine lexis, marine vocabulary, so we usually use journal Jra which is published in three languages, Russian, Lithuanian and English. And there are already articles so its quite easy to use them as comparing the same article in Lithuanian, English and, maybe, Russian. And another thing should maybe be mentioned, that using Internet we somehow feel the lack of new addresses, so it would be very nice if even British Council would provide us with upgraded, updated addresses about new resources. M: Many of you mentioned that you use Internet resources a lot. Is Internet or computers easily accessible? Are they available to teachers and students? L9: Yes, it depends on the faculty. Some faculties are richer. L4: It depends on the students also because I already for the second year connected all of my students to a virtual classroom and some of them do participate and some of them complain that they never have the access to the Internet and stuff like that. I just think it takes some enthusiasm on the part of the student to find the access to the Internet and to be more active, more technologically oriented like most of them are. M: Do your faculties have computer rooms? L9, L4, L8: Yes. There are several rooms at the university library and students do get access using those computers there. So they are encouraged that they do that. L4: Its a little problematic at the library because they have few computers there. Students have very limited access at the library. L8: I wouldnt agree. L4: I would rather take them, if there be computer labs, I would take them during the time of my classes and, lets say, the second half of the class we go and we do there tasks. 77

L9: Encourage them to by their own computers! L4: Thats another question. L3: Well, quite honestly, they do have at home so from time to time I distribute some handouts on the floppy, on the CD-ROM. Thats quite a nice approach. They just like it. L8: And they do the same thing, they do prepare quite a lot of material using the computer, lets say, when they are asked to write some sort of essay or sort of test, so they do that, instead in a written form they have it in a floppy. L9: It depends very much on the attitude of the student, I mean, if student is a brilliant. He finds the material in the Internet and sometimes he brings to the classroom I havent seen, Im astonished and happy that the student found such a thing. He can make a report and enlighten us, enlarge our knowledge and so on, and so forth. It depends on the student. And one of the things we are forced to make or compile our own manuals or teaching materials, even dictionaries. This is one of the ways out. M: In Paneveys do you have problems with computers? L7: No. M: Klaipeda? L1: No, but these computers are very slow. Its difficult to do something during the lecture. M: And what about support from the administration? Do you feel you have good support? What kind of support do you have from them? L2: Maybe I should mention that sometimes the university officials seem to be rather indifferent from some teachers. They dont to be very indifferent and maybe they should provide more freedom for us and should allow us to be more initiative because if we come out with new ideas, some new prospects, initiatives they dont feel any support and it brings us back. L9: Maybe we are happier at iauliai University because it depends on the faculty authorities. If the faculty is rich and if they have specialists who can work out, who can prepare, who can compile necessary materials, they simply supply us with evidence and they help us with publications. L5: Historically KTU as representing the technocrat of the academic democracy, we always felt as if been neglected from the politics of the Senate of KTU in Kaunas all 78

that regarding teaching humanities and teaching foreign languages and looking back to 1996 when I started when English language instruction lasted for eight semesters, eight terms, right now its only two or four terms depending on the level. I feel that we degrade in what Business Administration or Engineering students get in regards to all languages. M: And in terms of your personal professional development, do you have support to participate in different events? L8: Teachers should show initiatives and initiate various programs. Actually if you approach administration with some project they always support at least morally. But, well, when you get a moral support and it simply pushes us to do. So the idea is, but its again stressed by administration, teachers should work on their own and find their own niches, and this market economy and actually in this competitive world of even of our professional development, if you compete, if you show off, if you demonstrate, then you are supported if you are aggressive enough with certain projects. L6: Mostly moral support. Personally I participated in several seminars organized by British Council different from KTU and I was somehow left for myself. L8: Im sorry, if I could add, the university administration encourages us to do some research work, write articles, research articles, so it becomes a little bit stressful for a teacher to be a professional and to develop in teaching and also doing research, for instance, participating in conferences, organizing conferences, writing articles, compiling textbooks or some manuals for students. Well, the sphere is too wide for a teacher. M: I was going to ask you whether you feel pressure to develop? L5, L8: Yes! x 2, very big pressure! L5: In our university it is called a preparation of scientific production. L8: Its just the highlight in all visions, missions of our university to produce as much scientific research material and concentrate on it. Somehow our teaching practices should be done on teachers initiative. L5: If the requirements have not been fulfilled, you dont qualify as a teacher 5 years so you are honestly pressed to do this. M: What is the curriculum in your institutions? How many hours of English do the students have? And how many hours do you teach per week? 79

L8: So, if I may start, actually a teacher is paid for giving 680 contact hours per year. So thats what I do and these non-contact hours are included and calculated in a teachers workload. But how its paid is another question. M: And students, how many hours do they have to do per week? L8: They have four hours per week mainly for two semesters. L7: Four hours in the first year and then two hours in the second year. L5: Levels 4 and 5 five hours, five hours and in the second year two hours, two hours; levels 5 and 6 five hours, five hours. M: And your loads? L5: Twelve to fourteen teaching hours per week. L8: And how many contact hours per year? L5: Eleven to twelve hundred, something like that. L3: At iauliai University all lecturers have to sign one document just before the academic year and on that paper all lecturers may see the time allocated for English classes and the time allocated for students to work independently at home. So all this just stresses that they do have to work independently at home, just show that document, motivate them to study at home because the time allocated for their independent work, not in the class, is doubled. L2: Twelve, sixteen hours. Up to sixteen hours. And students have ESP which is six hours per week. L1: Students specialists have two hours a week and only one week. M: What do you feel about being a teacher? L8: Proud. Being a teacher at iauliai University (laughs). M: What are your strengths? L4: My strength is my realization that what Im doing is really useful, I mean, in practical terms. Its not something like Professor mentioned was twenty years ago it was like learning Latin or learning Greek which was no practical use almost. So what we are doing now we realize that it is really really necessary in life: they need to learn 80

English; and European Union; so this, at least for me personally, gives me enthusiasm, to help them, because I feel Im helping people because if they dont learn English they will be disadvantaged. Thats for sure. L9: Being greatly underpaid we are forced to sacrifice. L8: Most probably each year we see more and more self-motivated students who do understand that they need competence in English, communication competences, not only professional. So actually the competences, the skills in English are considered by them as start of their professional competence. So its again quite rewarding to see how conscious students are in their attitude towards learning and gaining skills in English. M: Underpayment was mentioned, so apparently this is already one of the problems. L9: My colleague receives ten times more in their payment for the same work I do here, or even more than ten times more. M: Any other problems you feel you have? Any other issues? L8: Somehow its again sort of stress, a challenge for teacher to do some research work but, on the other hand, are you paid for your research work? L9: (laughs) Never. L8: So its quite a problem for teacher to match those two challenges and to develop yourself as a teacher and also to do something meaningful in research area or even writing articles and publishing them, things like that, so most probably, it might be looked upon as a problem. L4: Another problem, I want t return we were talking about professional development, maybe Im not active enough in searching for opportunities but what I miss is our universitys Foreign Relations Department. I miss the supply of various opportunities of my professional development courses abroad. L9: You mean mobility schemes, exchange and professional mobility? L4: Thats right, thats right. Maybe Im not active enough, maybe I should be more, as the colleagues said, more aggressive in searching things. L8: No, its market economy to show yourself, reveal yourself, find your own ways, so thats what encouraged. In this sphere sometimes you have to use some entrepreneurial skills. 81

L7: I dont think that professional growth is very important in our place because, well, when I was deprived of that seminar which I believe would be quite useful for me, and maybe not only for me but for my students as well, because, well, it was pointed quite clearly, that doesnt count. All these seminars or workshops that you attend are less than zero. Everything that counts is your research, your scientific articles in a special journal, there is the list of those journals, and even the conferences where you have your report or when you prepare your students to participate in the conference is nothing. We just work and that doesnt count. M: OK. How do you do your research? Without developing, meeting new people L9: Nobody asks, simply nobody asks. Its up to you. L5: Be modest, just brand new text is out, not brand new any more came out last spring, compiled by Lucija and myself, designed for master students. One of pluses that counts into the research direction. L4: We dont complaint, yes M: How do you motivate your students? I mean, what kind of assessment do you use? L5: Im quite direct with my students, I say: Look, 60 to 80% after graduating do come back soon. Part sign evening courses, intensive or non-intensive, whatever you call it. Youll pay from your own money. If you dont learn now, youll pay more money when you graduate. Go to job, get your first job, now look guys how your English would look like. L7: I use European Union and their way of testing. I introduce the theory of testing and how they are going to do that and I keep emphasizing if you want to have a job in another country or to study, youll have to take exams. So that helps to motivate them. M: And how do you assess them? What techniques do you use for assessment? L4, L8: Tests. Presentations. Reports. L4: I, as the colleague mentioned, make a cumulative assessment many different assessments and then sum up during the course of examination, during the course of the semester. I dont have an examination as such; I only make this average mark. And then maybe we have some kind of examination to improve that mark. L8: Not maybe but for sure. L4: The most important point is the evaluation of the effort during the semester. 82

M: Do use lots of group work, pair work? L8: Right. M: How big are your groups? L8: 25. L5: Over 25. L8: Over twenty. Only group work, pair work. L8: Good attendance sometimes. We often have no more than twelve or fifteen students. L3: Well, going back into details, I just present a cumulative formula during my first lecture and just show them that they are given mark for academic achievements as well as for attendance. Also presentation and discussion groups. So during their first lecture they just form the bulk of what will be studied, what is required. So they just work. L5: This is very much based on the skills they learn. To demonstrate writing skills they do written assignments. To demonstrate oral skills they give a presentation or they give an oral exam. To demonstrate the general feeling of the language, the preposition, the article, the verb form, they do this formal test. L8: So actually the idea is this: we grade their competence in both oral and written form. And again its combination of various tasks mainly stressing and focusing on students skills and their abilities to communicate in their future professional environment. Here at iauliai University we are considering the possibly to have introducing and using this TOEIC Testing of English for International Communication but again we have some problems, because we know that Vilnius University has monopolized it, administrating this sort of test but we will manage and we are considering possibly to reproduce it. M: If you wanted to see any changes at all in your faculties, institutions, teaching situations what would they be? L5: Increase of hours. L4: Increase of years. 83

APPENDIX 12e Focus group interview with school teachers I

28 October 2003 T1: I graduated from Vilnius University, English langauge department, and Ive been teaching somewhere about 29 years. And a year ago I graduated from Kaunas technological university and acquired speciality of economics teacher. Before that I just participated in a number of courses in Lithuania and the United States especially, because they were greatly interested in the market here and what the parent/teachers welcome. I started working in a normal school, as I say, where English was not a most important subject at all, and then only 9 years of my career I moved to Kaunas Jablonskis school which is an English-biased school and where English is one of the most important subjects. I started with primary school, teaching students from the first form. And I am happy I had one generation whole generation of students that I started teaching, and finished with them the secondary school. It was really a great experience seeing how well they were doing, how they were growing and I was growing together with them. Now Im mainly teaching upper-intermediate, advanced level more or less, because, well, they say that I had too much input in teaching senior forms, though this year I have a new kind of a new experience for me six-formers who are beginners and, well, again Ill be learning how to teach beginners. Thats it. T2: I graduated from the same University, but only Kaunas evening department. As an English teacher Ive been working for 15 years since I came to Jonas Basanavicius secondary school. And almost as everybody I started teaching from the beginners level and then together with my school students I was going up, up and up. Also now its already, as T1 has already told, the second generation Ive reached the upper-intermediate level. For my qualifications I also have attended some courses in Lithuania, but I havent been anywhere abroad to make my qualification higher. T3: Well, its a shame on me, but I am at school already 40 years. So, you know, its a long career and I cant even remember where I worked. But I know that 27 years I spent in Jablonskis secondary school. Together with my younger son I finished Vyturys secondary school, so I stayed here for 12 years. At the same moment I was working at different schools, because I was doing a kind of experiment with a programme which I prepared for those elementary level pupils. English was not yet introduced just as it is now for 4 years it seems to me to be taught in all schools. There were only some schools with bias on English which had this beginner level. So I tried to prove 84

this is necessary, and I am happy now, but it is already done. But still there are very many problems. Id like to share my opinion about that later. What concerns my teaching work well, I remember myself being at Jablonskis school where I my son felt as a student and I was learning together with my pupils I should say. There was a very good atmosphere here, because that was the only school where you could have motivated pupils. Thats one point. And the other point there was a very good team of teachers working, I should say. Those teachers who were growing together. And I think that this experience helped me much in my work. And later when I moved to Vyturys school, you know, they also tried to do something like that, starting to teach pupils from the lower classes.. But the school was biased in music. It seems to me that these things are very much connected, music and English, but you know, its always a question about the hours we spend on teaching. What concerns integration processes its very difficult to well, inspire even, everybody to take it. Just sometimes we work very separately, I should say. Well, I see the ways of doing the things. But you know Sometimes its very difficult M: Where did you do your qualification as a teacher? T3: Well, at a various, you know, conferences, seminars, starting from, it seems to me, 1991. I was in Great Britain, but well, you know, the experience was not very long, we were 4 teachers of Jonas Jablonskis secondary school, we spent there a month. It was a good experience. Later I attended some conferences in Graz. T4: I graduated from Vilnius Pedagogical University some 20 years ago and Ive been teaching English since then. So, I work in Lapes Basic School and maybe its the first school where I worked, the only school where I work and I hope itll be the last one, because I live in that place and so far I am not going to move. So my students: I teach practically all grades, all forms from the second form to the tenth form. Earlier there was only one teacher at the school, now we have more students and there are two teachers. We are two and, well, the problem is that the second teacher is, as we call, none specialist. She has got a certain qualification. She is a teacher of Lithuanian, but she teaches English, because she knows a little well, she knows the language from some courses. T5: I graduated from Vilnius Pedagogical University some 33 years ago. And I have been teaching English untill now. I can say that I used to be participated in different courses, not only in Lithuania, but in the UK. This year I had a wonderful chance to be in the courses in the United States. I teach different levels, practically intermediate and upper-intermediate students and we use different modern technologies in our work. I can say it, of course. We have got computer classes, we use computers in our work and Internet is also of great help nowadays. I could say that it would be very interesting for you to know that weve got a very different system, an assessment system 85

M: Can I hold you there for now. Thats going to come up later. T6: I graduated from Vilnius Pedagogical University in 1976 and for 27 years already I have been teaching English, mainly in Kaunas Palemonas Secondary School. As I told you already I work with different levels. And, of course, its a pity that I work in an ordinary secondary school and all the gifted children go to gymnasiums and I think its really a pity. So, I like integrated teaching, integrating different school subjects and personally I had lessons integrated with physics, music, art and so on and information technologies, of course, and I attended a lot of courses, seminars, but in Lithuania here. Ive been the assessor in the state exam for two years. T7: I am in nearly the same situation, 27 years ago I graduated from Vilnius University. Ive been teaching English since then. First, Kacergine childrens sanatorium, or the recovery centre it should be called. Sanatoriums are for mentally ill children, and these are physically ill children. Ten years ago I was working with students at the university of agriculture and now I work both as a teacher at the school and as a university teacher. Ive been participating in courses and seminars here in Lithuania, at the British Council and others as well. I spent one month in the USA. There was a special excursion to Britain to London for teachers of English last year introduced to the system, education system of Great Britain culture. T8: Ive been working as a teacher of English for 22 years. I graduated from Vilnius University Kaunas evening department. And five years ago I got my Masters degree from California State University, Northridge, and as I work now at four-year gymnasium, the high school level, what we have there but before going to study in the United States Ive been teaching class five through twelve, the secondary level. M: What kind of materials do you actually use with your students? Do you use coursebooks? Do you develop your own materials? Do you get teaching aids from different centres? What do you actually do to get materials you need? T1: Actually, its not very difficult on the one hand. On the other hand its quite difficult, because of a very big choice of different kind of teaching material and sometimes you get lost among all those books and sets. In our school just a couple of years ago we decided to stick to two series and have them starting with the fifth formers, as our school is from the fifth form, we decided to have Enterprise series up to the tenth form and Fast Track to English for the third and fourth gymnasium forms. Its good because, well, Enterprise series have coursebooks, textbooks and separate grammar books for each level and its very easy for kids just to keep track of the things they forgot and come back to their previous books and read them again. Well, and of course, that set is supplied with cassettes and video cassettes and, of course, we have just a big chance to make our teaching more interesting, showing varying listening activities and video activities and, of course, they give 86

wide floor, as I should say, for different imagination activities for teaching. Because there are a lot of very interesting topics and a lot of interesting hints for teachers to work with students. M: Does anyone else use that particular series of books or do you use similar ones? T5: Yes, some of them are the same. We use the same. Fast Track to First Certificate for the eleventh and twelfth formers. Its rather a good book, because it has got all the exam techniques, all the exercises that are used at the state exam and school exam. Very good books, quite new, or brand new we may say. But of course, the same as you are using Enterprises, we are using, for example, Reward starting from pre-intermediate level, going to intermediate, then we have Fast Track. We used to have Reward for all classes and now we made a change because of the state exam. And at the same time we have Chatbox, thats again Macmillan publishers in the fifth and the sixth forms, so something similar and something different, you know. And at the same time I would like to say that Reward is a very useful book on the one hand, because it has got video tapes. Well, the textbooks are not so good for the exam, but those video are very big help and weve got them, for example. As weve got MacMillan center in our gymnasium, its some kind of a present, because they are rather expensive I must say. T1: The only drawback of these books is that they are very expensive. All: Very expensive. T1: Schools cant afford to supply all the students with books and they have to buy their own. T5: And thats why you are quite right. We want to have continuation, because students, for example, choose the higher level and then they sell the books to the previous classes for a lower price, because its very expensive for them to buy every year a new book. Very expensive. M: Does anyone use any other kind of material? T7: Most of them are similar. Now most of the new books that are appearing are built already for preparation I am talking about intermediate or upper-intermediate (level). This year theres a new book Upstream, and Im really fond of it we are using them with our eleven graders T2: Matrix. T1: Mission, yes very good. 87

T7: Upstream is pretty good. And other books. I just spend hours in the bookstore just trying to find out which to use. Its really important. But there are a lot of good, really good, textbooks for different levels, however, different teachers in our school we have 12 teachers of English and that is very important that we stick to a certain set because if somebody just suddenly T5: Too much mixture is not good. T7: decides not to work there any more, you just bring your textbook and you are lost. Continuity is very important M: Who decides what materials you use and what books you use? Is there kind of a school policy, is there departmental policy? T7: During the Soviet some years ago was the Soviet system you know There was the Lithuanian textbook, Stsiuleviciutes English textbook, there was no choice and the school library was full of these books and theyre still in my school library. And when students come from different parts of Lithuania, they come to this recovery centre they have either teeth or some trauma or stomach deseases so, they come with their textbooks. So I come across different kinds of, different series of textbooks and coursebooks and I have to take just to learn, study nearly every textbook. M: How do you manage in the village school for materials? T4: I teach students from the families with low income and they cant afford buying those modern expensive textbooks. So there are forms / grades where we use those Lithuanian outdated textbooks by Stasiuleviciute. Now we are trying, we already have got Shool English, its a textbook by Lithuanian authors T2: There are books from Education departments such as Compass. T4: Yes, Compass. T2: Even new edition books. Sometimes you can use (them) T4: Little by little we start introducing those new books M: Somebody said its really good that you have those books you get the books, you get the grammar books, you get the cassettes, you get videos. What technology have you got in your classroom to use all those additional materials? Do you have all these resources? T1: Available are just recorders. You can use those tapes. I dont know how it is in other schools, but in my school when I want to show a video film or so, I must order 88

TV and the recorder, so that nobody else could take it, and then when I take it, I monopolise it for a week or so. I dont have a TV in my classroom where I teach, of course, I wish I could (have one). M: Those books are so well integrated. Theres material in the book that links with the tape, links with the video You want to use it all, so how do you go forward with that? T5: I could say that practically if there is a video film, for example, its not for every lesson, I suppose. I think we can share this, for example, as far as I know. Weve got a technological centre. If I want, for example, to watch a video I tell I would like it for that lesson. If it is free, ok, you can come with your group or two groups. And no problem. Its very convenient by the way. Because weve got an overhead projector, video, computers. Very convenient. So we can have it, no problem M: So you have a booking system. You can say in advance what materials you want T5: Yeah, in advance Because we organise, we plan over. Nothing comes by chance, you know. T2: You see, its only available, lets say, in some ten schools in Kaunas and in other schools? they do not have computers, video, TVs and so on. T5: Perhaps, yes, perhaps. T4: We have a tape recorder, its OK (smiles). T2: And if the tape recorder is broken you have nothing to do, only your mouth to speak, chalk to write a blackboard and the chalk. T1: I am lucky I have that overhead projector, so I can use a lot of visuals during my lessons. T6: But its never enough to use textbooks. You still need to look for additional material. And its the internet, for me at least, the main source. Every night I print out something and then make copies, for reading, for grammar exercises and just talking on any topic. Its a great resource the internet. Plus the library, that each of us has. And its copying. Those who have sets of textbooks, then you have everything grammar, texts, reading, writing techniques, still you need additional material and handouts. Thats a must. M: So you generate quite a bit of your own material? All, T6: Yes, its a lot of time spent on it. But you need it, you use it once and you put aside for using it for next year or two. 89

M: Do you as colleagues within a school actually share materials between yourselves? T2: Not very much Id say. T5: It depends. T1: With friends. T5: We are trying, but sometimes, you know, say, I have prepared, I put so much effort into it, why should I give it to you? But not often, sometimes we do share. T2: We just put it on the shelves. T1: Inside schools. Its easier to do that than with other schools. M: Is there any kind of network between the schools? T5: Oh yes, there is. I hope so. If I am interested for example in Jablonskis gymnasium, I can come. I am quite sure that some teachers will help me if I have some questions. I think, (there is) no problem. M: How many of you know each other? T2: Practically we know all. T1: We know faces. T5: Recognise. If we dont know the names, practically we know by face. M: How much does your school support you in finding new materials or in terms of getting equipment? T3: They try to avoid this. T2: Its out of question. T5: Lets not be so strict. T1: As much as they can. But they cant very much. T6: Im very sorry to say, but at our school we get no support at all. For example, Ive got a tape recorder myself for my own money. We buy coursebooks and, as T5 told already, pupils buy the coursebooks from one another. And Im very sorry to say, but we have no support at all. 90

T5: I wont be so strict. I have to say, weve got tape recorders. Practically, there are ten teachers of English and all of them have got school tape recorders. And good enough, you know, some Sony or something like that. By the way, some video TV sets, three not one. I cant say no support, but not as much as we would like. T1: What concerns handouts and the material to get, everything is on the teachers themselves. M: What about access to photocopiers, photocopying paper? T6: We must pay. T5: But we pay not much, but still we pay. T3: We can make three hundred copies for free per semester. 600 copies per year for free. It takes a week to use it. T2: Its rather good. T6: Its a great plus, but not in all schools. We ask for those teachers teaching languages to give a number of copies to be done at school without paying. T6: Then that text is multiplied, copied by school expenses. We dont have to pay for that. T5: Not expensive for the students to pay some 10 centas for one copy T2: But they have to pay not only for the English classes, (but also) for history, for mathematics, Lithuanian, so it makes litas or two litas per day. T7: I make copies for the classroom. I dont take money from them, I pay myself. I keep those copies. If they want to have a copy of their own, they pay. But usually they give their answers on a separate sheet T2: But if you give them a test, do you pay or do they pay for the test paper? T3: Usually I pay. T2: Then its nice, you are a very rich teacher. T3: Usually they pay. I dont dare to ask, thats my problem. T5: The problem is the test that you ask about by the way. It can be like that You can give them a test and they can write on a special sheet of paper and dont write in the gap. And theres no need for them to pay. If they want to have it then they pay. 91

M: But there is another area of support. Would your school involve in your professional development support? T1: They allow us, they give us permit to leave, but just usually we write an application asking for a holiday on our own expense. At least we have an opportunity to go, lets say, for a week or so and spend time developing our qualification. So this is support already, but well, actually, they dont pay any expenses that we pay for the courses. T5: At the same time Id like to add that for example we particicpate in different internaltional projects and I cant say that we make profit out of it, but still a very great support. For example, we participated in one project with Norwegian Burgen Asane gymnasium and got great support. For example they brought us as a present a used copying machine or something like that. The same was with Sweden () again some support, yes, the exchange of students, large groups of 15 we stayed for a week there, four teachers came and stayed in our families with their students for more than a week again. So thats also a great support for the students. And by the way, for example, they even paid our travel expenses. They came on their own money, but they paid all expenses for the whole group, imagine 20 people, quite a lot you know. And I participated for example with our school in such a project 25 European countries Language Culture communication Every two years we arrange international conferences and it used to be in different countries of Europe. Its again a great support, because teachers and students go together, stay there for a week and we make some issues, project or something like that there. M: Thats good if you are getting involved in large organised projects. What about personal development? How do you find out if theres something available? Where do you get information? T7: The internet. All: The internet, yes. T8: Whats going on is very public. We get every month, we get a schedule of the events. All seminars, the workshops and all the stuff. The only thing, that you need is to take days off, if they last two or more days, and the other thing you have to pay for them, for some of them. T6: Usually the school administration want you to improve your qualification, but they dont want you to miss your classes and everything, so they make a schedule when you will have these classes if you miss them. Or they want extra schedule. T2: They require to find a person who works instead of us. 92

T6: A substitute, yeah. M: So they help you a little bit, but they also dont make it too easy. Thats what I am hearing. OK. What do you think your main strengths are as teachers here in Lithuania? What do you see as your strengths? T: A difficult question. T1: Well, I can say what my students say. They say, well, Teacher, you can do a lesson out of nothing. Just something interesting out of the smallest detail which comes to your head. Well, usually I know that learning the vocabulary is a very boring thing for students. They never want to do that. And whenever you give the task just to just new vocabulary or so, they always try kind of escape from doing the task. So then I have to find ways of making them do that. Usually I think of some role-play situations or whatever. Well, they have an amount of work and then after they come to school they have kind of create stories, create plays, create poems or whatever. They like it very much. Then I think, well, they always are busy in the lesson. T6: Its easier for us than for teachers of other subjects, because our lab is just everything. You open your eyes and its our lab. Or you can use the wall, you can use the weather, you can use anything, if you feel that they are not in the mood to do something special or something happens that your plan for the lesson and it has to be changed, you just can do anything, you are teaching communication. And the problem I am really jumping to some other question but the problem is that I really think we need to teach them talk, to express their ideas freely, to communicate. Not to be afraid, shy. But the problem lies in the exam. We lose the pleasure of teaching and learning, because of certain, well T2: Requirements. M: difficulty of the exam. But that may be another question that we could discuss. What I am hearing from you as teachers is you are quite resourceful. T6: We are teachers, we have to be. All: Yes. T6: You can work without being resourceful for a year or two. Look at our practise and thats it. T5: Difficulties are the same. Lets say, the state exam and I have to say, I hope you will share my opinion, especially in the 11th and 12th forms, our lessons of course they are sometimes very interesting and so on but very often they are not so 93

interesting As for example in younger classes. Because the requirements of the state exams are very high and we have just to stick to it, we have to teach grammar, different exercises, perhaps very often they are too boring, but nothing doing without it, you know. M: ... Whats your prefered style of teaching? Which way (student-centred or teacher-centred) would you rather teach? All: Students-centred. T8: Because they need this language not we. M: How much are you able to actually use it before the alarm bell rings in your head and the big red light flashes and says examinmations? T3: Up to the eleventh form. T8: Yes, up to the eleventh. T3: But most of all in the lower classes. Here you can find yourself. T5: But despite of this, we use, for example, projects. Project work We teach them to write projects. At the same time they present their projects, they show on they use overhead projector, they make research when they present and its very hard work. Just we give them practical long projects, for example, some three months, or four months. They go to different institutions, theyve got special questions, they make research, then they write their own opinion, use the internet material. So, its of very great use. And usually they present their projects, well, at school for teachers and students. T3: They are doing too much homework for different subjects, and sometimes they lack time even. They would like to work at English, but they say, well, Teacher, you know we havent got time. M: If they had this kind of communicative approach in the teaching up to age of eleven or twelve, and then suddenly they meet with another style, how do you put the kid back in the bottle? T1: Sometimes letting him out and then putting back again. M: Sometimes letting him out means getting to do project work, work in pairs? T5: Yes, or just some drama after school A lot of things, you know. 94

M: What do you think your main problem areas are? T3: I would like to share my ideas about that primary level teaching. I see here three main problems which are existing at the moment. Well, I mean early English teaching of the language. You know, just we have started doing this three years ago, it seems to me. It was already recommended by the Ministry of Education, but in our Ministry there are people maybe who are not practitioners at all. Because they gave us two hours for the starting level and no division into groups. So, imagine, we have 27 pupils or even more for two hours a week, and we should start early coursebook, because the parents want to have (one). So we introduce an oral course for just one month or two only, and at this moment we must teach them phonetics, you know, sounds, or something, because we dont use here transcription or something like that. Well, imagine you have not even a minute to spend on a child, when you must open his mouth, when you must teach him those things that are so necessary. Most often we just find that, you know, theres no individual work at all, so they work in chorus and just in small groups sometimes. Thats all. And it is very difficult for the teacher. Parents require, you know, the pronunciation of the words. They ask us to write them as soon as we can, because they want to follow how the process is going on. When we introduce the texbooks, those pupils are not used to such kind of coursebooks, because they are constructed in the way that they have the workbook and textbook. So, you must acquaint them with those textbooks, and it takes also much time. And on the whole, what concerns me, last year we turned to that Welcome book, because Enterprise is the continuation of it, and we decided that it would be better, but they give so much material that I cant cover it. In those two lessons. T6: I think we must be glad this year, because this year we have already groups and we have our new textbook and this textbook is written by our Lithuanian teachers and I think they know everything about the pupils, because they are the teachers of the elementary school. Primary school. I think that they decided to publish books for the third-formers, fourth-formers and so on. So I think its very good. The problem in the upper forms, I think the main problem, is the lack of time and it would be nice that we could have more lessons. T1: I remember we used to have five or six lessons a week. T2: And small groups of six or seven students. T1: Now usually we have four lessons, four-five lessons in the eleventh and the twelfth forms T3: Four lessons. Do you have five lessons? T2: In your school. But in my school, for example, three hours a week. And its all. 95

M: Is that an issue? Do you have problems with group sizes? T6: Last year we couldnt divide the classes into two groups. For example me, I had 27 pupils in the second form. It was awful. And two lessons per week. T5: At primary level. T7: Same with me. T6: But this year we can divide them into groups. T5: Beginning with the second form. T6: We only started in the third form because they say that music takes these hours. T5: Decision of school. M: What did you mean when you said then we had smaller groups? T2: You see, it was easier to teach them, because working in a small group you can pay attention to each child, divide the lesson asking him, telling him, explaining him. And now if you have a group of 16 or 17 sometimes a child says a sentence per lesson. T3: Or sometimes nothing. No chance to speak. T3: Avoid. Avoid to do this. T2: Sometimes they are afraid to speak. The same is with the teachers. There is a big audience of teachers. Some teachers are afraid to speak in front of the audience, because they have never been abroad, they have never spoken in big audience and they are elderly ladies now, they are afraid to speak. They can speak only in front of their students. And the same is with children. If he is not a very brilliant one, he is afraid to explain his opinion and the problem still exsists with explaining opinion even in own language, in Lithuanian, they cant express their thoughts. They have nothing to say and usually when you give him or her questions, I am sorry I dont know what to say. T1: Therere jumpers, who jump whenever you ask a question, they simply shout me, and some students are very shy, they simply stay behind them and sitting, and being quiet and happy that T2: And in a smaller group you force them to speak, yes. 96

M: Given that range of activity and these different styles, how do you assess your students? T5: I can say something, because I want to say that. Perhaps our gymnasium is the only one in Kaunas and perhaps the only one in Lithuania. Weve got a very different assessing system, because weve got one point system. And as weve got two semesters, it is divided 50 and 50. No average mark. And it is a very big job for the teacher, you know, to calculate the whole work and for the whole year. For example, some 7 points for this test, some 5 points for that one. And then we are summing up 7, 5 but what are the advantages of it: no gaps in knowledge. If there is for example the text everybody has to account for this, otherwise he gets a zero. So, thats like in a higher school at the university. Just they plan. for every topic. Of course its a very big job for me to think how and what. Sometimes I make some changes, you know T3: You do this while planning. T5: Yes, while planning. It takes a lot of time to think about it. But students know that they have to account. And no excuse for him. If he is ill, he knows he has to come later and, for example, in all the other schools, if he doesnt know the topic, he may not come to the lesson. No mark then. And he will get a better one for what he wants, for god knows what, you know. And so the average mark may be good for not the whole material. T4: What about the lack of time? T5: So, thats why everybody writes. Practically more or less we are giving written tasks and of course there are role-plays, topics... But they have to account. M: And what are you doing in village schools? T7: This is meant nearly the same. Or it again depends upon, as I said, my school one student has Enterprise, another student comes with Opportunities, so he has to account lets say for his homework or for the task in class, some grammar or maybe some retelling or expressing his opinion on some issue. T8: And we use ordinary ten points system. We give them marks from two to ten. T2: T1 usually gives one (laughs). She is very fond of one. T1: Well, I say if you want to get a one you might not do anything, but if you want to get a two, you must work for it. T3: I want to tell you that Ive been working for 3 years in the junior classes and there is no assessment with marks. So Ive got used to work without marks already. 97

And you know it is discussed before, you know, with the pupils. And we decide if you get such a task, for example, thank-you words, lets say, writing or spelling or something like that. So, if you make two mistakes, its one point. Because they know, so we decide. Now the oral work is done, also, I got those stickers for well done, perfect, bravo and so on. So I give them. T6: For my pupils I made some kind of money. I chose a small rabbit, and on the ear of the rabbit it was written, for example 50, 100 or something else. And when they did some job very well, I presented them with this money and at the end, for example, of the term we had some kind of an auction and I had a lot of presents and they could buy something for this money. T2: Imagine doing it with twelfth formers. T1: I think that this is really an interesting idea. And not only with primary students, because from time to time I do it with my eleventh and twelfth formers T2: But maybe with real money (laughs). T1: No no. Its not an auction, but different contests, let say, groups and different tasks for groups and then calculating points and then they get some prizes. And they are really happy and what I am happy about is, that my senior students never ask if I am going to write a mark for whatever they do. They know that they do it for their own sake, but younger students always ask Will you write a mark? and I ask If I dont, arent you not doing it? They say No, but well Its also very interesting, and those even bear-like, who are much bigger than me like those games very much and even while preparing for the exams, they dont feel so much frustrated working on grammar or whatever. And sometimes just saying Now I will sell you an exercise, and if you get on the crook like fish, then you will blame yourselves. And usually making some, well, very small mistake I know where I can catch them. And well 99.9 % I catch them on that crook of mine. M: Any other ways of motivating students that you use?... T5: As I am teaching literature, you know, and perhaps the teachers can share their experience we officially write no marks for literature, it is just like a module and just one lesson per week. And then students know that therere no marks for them, just a credit without any marks. Sometimes they try to escape, you know, to miss classes or something like that and the teacher has to be very inventive in order to make students come to your lessons. Sometimes I make prizes, you know. For example, especially when teaching literature or writing, when we read some poetry who invents or just creates the better poem, making special tasks to get a prize. Usually literature is the last lesson, the seventh or the eighth, at the very end, and I 98

know they are always hungry. I sometimes buy buns at the canteen they are so happy, but it is great fun and they say how interesting (the lesson) was, I hope the bun was the most interesting thing, you know. Because even big ones, the school leavers, they like some entertainment as you say, because everything is so boring. They are very tired at the end of the day, you know. Tests and all the answers and so on. They are very tired. T8: Its not only about putting marks, but to my mind its important to notice the person who grows. T3: You know, sometimes getting six is already good, but noticing and telling the student that you see that he or she has improved, thats the important part to my mind. Seeing not just the grades and seeing not the results of the test, but seeing the person the growth. T2: Its good up to the eleventh form, marks and evaluations and prizing, saying that you improved yourself, Its very nice of you, this time you did better But then but closer to exams T4: In September, I think, each of us prepares the syllabus. And the syllabus explains that we are doing this and preparing for examination that consists of this, this and that, and we will spend some time on just certain syllabus must be. And you explain what you put marks for and all that stuff and just getting back to the last year, I personally didnt have school leavers last year, but I was () as a teacher of English. Our students asked us many times what is included in the examination and we got explaining and practising letters and you know I need to get back to that because I feel some problems start here disrespect to the teacher. I was offended by my government, by the Ministry, because I didnt tell my students the truth. What am I if I dont know whats included in the exam? They say, We didnt say what will be but some hints This is not just the problem that they had to write an essay. Its a problem that we teachers dont know whats included in the exam. Its as if school-leavers dont belong to you, but its our result that is tested our and our students result. And we were teaching them to be proud of themselves. So the problem is somewhere high. T5: Yes. I want to continue, because as a state assessor of the state exam this year I dont know because all papers are coded and I dont know whose work it was, but a person wrote When will you finish experimenting on us? and there was nothing written. He said, I dont know what to write, either a paragraph or a letter or a composition. And nothing was written. By the way, all the other parts, I mean the listening part, the reading part and the use of English, were done perfectly well and I suppose that student, of course, passed, not with a high mark, but he passed. I suppose he could write something, but he was so offended, he was, you know, so nervous that he didnt write anything. 99

T4: Those who didnt know anything, wrote well. Weaker students did the task, but stronger students (didnt) It depends, of course, on the level of anxiety. These things, if they happen, we teachers lose points. T5: Yeah, some kind of protest. Nothing was written, just an empty page, you know. M: So what kind of help would you expect to have in dealing with this kind of issue? All at the same time: If we keep silent, this problem will grow. the Ministry should cooperate with school teachers teachers should talk teachers should know what is included this year? Who knows? T5: This year we are preparing everything, compositions, essays, because god knows. All at the same time: How much can a student Pictures to discribe Difficult to correct orally parctically no value Ive got to teach my students to communicate. There seems to be a conflict. With the system now. They say if a person can speak, they will write. () T5: But have you ever seen the tasks of our state exam? I showed I went to the United States this year and I showed the tasks (there). And the Americans were surprised. This is for a school-leaver? Is English your first language? No! they were surprised. Too high. M: May I ask you the final question? What changes would you like to see in the future? All at the same time: More classes. Less students. Easier exams. Fewer requirements for the exam. T2: only very celebrated students go to study to the universities. Not for the average student, its for celebrated ones. 100

T1: For example, I cant understand why a pupil must do three listening tasks, three reading tasks. If I want to check the knowledge () Luck. They are not gamblers. T2: Those who are somewhere in the middle from average to the most brilliant ones, they usually are the most successful. T1: I think we must give them what they will need in their future. For example, how many of them will become writers? But they will need to write letters official letters, personal letters application and so on. T2: Most of all they need application and some formal letters writing experience. T7: They need to talk. We need to teach them talking to American students they know what they want, they can say what they can do, they are ambitious, motivated You see, you asked us what are our strengths and nobody answered. We are shy I know we have them. But they are in the competitive society, they need to say I am bright, I am smart I am a good sportsman. You take me the university will be proud of me. This is what we are trying to teach. T1: If they write their application letters, especially. Putting their strengths first. And then not being afraid of showing what they are really good at T2: Its our national drawback, I would say M: What would you have father Christmas to bring you? T4: I dont even know. Maybe more financial support, not to be so poor. Sometimes we say We have no internet. We have no good computers. Three old computers at school. So, we want to be like other students. To have better conditions of working. And we try to do our best. We still work and our students go to gymnasia, go to Kaunas schools. And they show good results. T5: What I would say, I dont know, I hope you will agree with me just on the whole that not only English but our secondary education level is rather high. I hope, you wont be offended. According to the European countries because I used to be in many European countries we watch their lessons and, for example, I want to say when our students participate in those exchange programmes, they stay for some three last year we had some students who satyed some three or four months in Norway in Norwegian schools and lived in Norwegian families they sent us e-mail letters and they wrote, No problems with all those subjects except for computer classes or 101

English, or say Norwegian. So, I mean, not only English, I mean all (subjects) mathematics, physics, are rather high level. Our secondary education is very high T2: Yes, it will be the same as everywhere in Europe, in the United States T5: I want to say, the only thing is that we are destroying our system. Just to my mind, because it used to be very good and even people from all European countries that we meet and talk to, they say, Oh, dont destroy what you have got, but we are following them, we are following the European Union and we are destroying T2: Well have to do it if we want to be in the European Union, well have to have the same level as everybody has. T1: Yes, but on the other hand, while speaking and reviewing all the programmes and while remembering when I was a student, just a school-leaver, we were no worse, though we worked much less than they do now and all the programmes and everything were much on a lower level. But we didnt become worse than our students are now, they have so many things at school which they dont actually need at school. They are overloaded with a lot of things they will learn a lot of things at universities... Whats the good of teaching at school higher mathematics, if they go to universities and they are taught here (the same) again. Just the requirements, the whole syllabus of the whole secondary school and gymnasium is so very high that its very difficult to work on. T5: Yes. And thats why sometimes they go to universities and their level falls. They sometimes come to me and they say, Oh, give us the book that we read in the seventh form. Goodness gracious, you are a second year student, so what are you doing there? () T5: Students from our school when they go to university they say, We dont have anything to do in our English lessons Those who study English. They could take French or Spanish or whatever. Why should they learn again? () M: Thank you very much for your coming. () Is there a last thing that you really wanted to say? T4: Our students would be healthier, if they were not so overloaded and we are healthier than our children. T1: And we will be healthier. 102

APPENDIX 12f Focus group interview with iauliai region school teachers

14 January 2004 T1: I have been teaching English from 1981, that means 23 years. I have been working at the same school for 23 years and I work for secondary school and I teach usually profiled classes. The junior students are tenth formers and the senior students are twelfth formers. I graduated from Vilnius Pedagogical University. T2: I have been working for about seven years as an English teacher. I work at Radvilikis basic school with all forms and I graduated from iauliai University. T3: Ive been working for twenty four years as an English teacher. I have been in iauliai just from the very beginning and iauliai is my birthplace thats maybe why Ive come here and started my career here. Now I work in profiled school and teach senior forms, I mean eleven-formers and twelve-formers. The junior formers I have are nine-formers. I have graduated from Vilnius Pedagogical Institute. T4: Ive been teaching English for twenty five years since 1979. I graduated from Pedagogical University. Now Ive been teaching at the secondary school. Im teaching different forms but, yes, teaching the 12th form, because maybe its difficult to do that but, its more useful for me to teach to the younger forms because, you know, I know what I should do in order to achieve results. T1: And when teachers change its difficult sometimes, because they dont know the student. T3: Yeah. It takes some time especially in senior classes until you know his or her problems. And you have the same students for some years and you know their problems and how you can help them at once, experience to explore whats new. M: Can I ask you how you made a decision to become an English language teacher? Is it inherited, your mothers, fathers were teachers? Is it the call from the heart? T3: Maybe it is because we had started learning English from the second form and we just got used to it (laughs), because it was very close to our hearts maybe, I dont know how to express myself. 103

M: Do you agree? T4: My parents were teachers, both of them, but they didnt T3: As for me, I could remember my first English teacher. I loved her very much. Maybe that was one more reason why I have chosen this. M: A good model? T3: Yes, that was a good model. T4: I liked my English teacher very much T2: It was a call of my heart, but there were a lot of other ways I have chosen when I graduated, but my English teacher suggested after some years to start again. T1: Maybe my English teachers influenced me. I had only two of them. And I wasnt so practical as you were; I wasnt thinking at that time that I would be a teacher. I thought about studying English, but I wasnt thinking about working at school, about being a teacher and wasnt thinking that, oh, English is better, because of the groups, smaller, and of course, at that time studying English maybe it wasnt as popular as nowadays, because after graduation students usually went to work in kindergartens, especially if they wanted to stay in bigger centers. So we had problems. So, I think, my English teachers influenced me. M: Can you tell me a little bit about the resources available in your schools? What do you have in your classrooms? What is there at school that you can use? I mean everything equipment, books, materials? What is the situation? T3: The situation, I could say, is not very good. In our secondary school we work in very small rooms because they usually think that we have half of the group and we could work this way, having very small space. The other problem we have is that usually all our students, nearly all our senior formers, have to buy textbooks themselves parents must pay for the textbooks. Well, we havent got something special, lets say, some special center in our school for foreign languages, lets say, copying material, collecting books. Everything is put in our library and we go and take, if we need the books we have. And the choice of books, I mean, literature, lets say, encyclopedias, dictionaries, is not very big, the choice itself. Usually each English room has got a dictionary or two, but not more. Teaching materials are not available for our students. Usually we teachers make copies, if we want to give some additional material. Or students just have to pay M: Do you use videos, tape recorders? 104

T3: We usually take video recorders from English Center weve got in Siauliai, Janonis [school]. There is the association of English teachers and theyve got the library at the Center and if we need we go there and take everything we need. Just we could say that the choice of the material they have in this library or centre is usually not very modern, outdated, charity. T2: I think that the situation depends on the school authorities, because this year we bought sixteen dictionaries, the biggest dictionaries for our English classes, four good tape recorders and this year our students didnt buy course books, only work books. And we can see that the situation has changed a little. T2: At school weve got one video and each class has got a tape recorder. M: A copying machine? T2: We have got two copying machines for both teachers and students. T1: Im happy because I have got the English room, because not all teachers at school have got their rooms as we are short of them. So I am happy, even if it is not big, I have a lot of space. Nowadays equipment at school is of low level, but I have new furniture, we bought it a year ago, when I worked with a volunteer of Peace Corps (USA) and there were projects, then we earned four thousand litas, we bought furniture, so the furniture is new now, I am very happy and the students like sitting (there). M: But it is new just in your room? T1: Yes, yes, In second year we also had a project, so I could buy two cassette players, books, maps and textbooks. So now we are a little better of, but of course I work in a very small place where are no British centres, no libraries. Our school has many connections with many countries, so we get a lot of books from charity. Of course, these books are quite old, but you know, everything is different and it is difficult to use sometimes. Our school has got a copying machine, which a couple of years ago we didnt have, so the work is easier, I dont pay money, somehow students are not used to this, so I take money and I copy for them. What I need for myself, of course I pay. Textbooks are very important in teaching every subject. Of course, it is impossible now to look and find a text book that could be good, one for one class. You have to find a textbook and then to copy, that is what I wanted to say. T3: Our students do not copy Somehow they want to obey the educational laws and require that the students get money for textbooks. Therefore our students dont buy textbooks. What we have we give to them, but if we dont have then, here is the new textbook, please go and buy it. We think the students dont understand what they 105

need, so they usually buy one. I have worked on Socrates projects for three years, so, from this money you can buy textbooks, and I bought one copy of many text books and now we are copying and trying to solve the problem. M: Who is paying for the copies? T3: Students. M: Isnt it more expensive than to buy a book? T3: No, we dont use every page in the book. When you copy, you may take two pages together. It makes one copy. And we think, of course, we take one the textbooks and give them for their homework usually what the students dont know. T2: Senior pupils are who copy. In junior classes its better to work with the book. Each unit contains material and it is the same in each unit you have to follow T3: Continuation. Well, but I think its quite a clumsy situation when you dont have the senior formers dont have a textbook. T1: One has! T2: Everyone has! T1: Each student has? Sorry, I didnt catch it. T3: It is impossible to study from one textbook. T2: Well they have each T4: In our secondary school there are some English teaching traditions and the students have already got used to buying textbooks themselves, though some of them dont wanted to buy. They try to sell their books to other students who will be learning this material as well, and also we take the book and read or study from it for two years and that costs less. T3: We have those backups as well, buying one textbook for two years, because usually they take any book course in the textbook this year. M: When you use modern textbooks, modern course books, usually they have supplementary materials like videos, sometimes they ask you to use Internet, search for certain things in a certain website, so what realistically are you able to use in your classrooms from these things like audiocassettes, videocassettes, Internet, software for teaching English? 106

T2: Of course we use audio materials and as to video, its not popular at our school and we plan it... M: Do you have video? T2: Yes, we have. But we plan to have video lessons maybe at the end of May or at the beginning of June, but its not very popular. We havent got enough lessons. M: And computers? T2: Computers, sometimes, but M: Do you have a computer class? T2: Yes, we have it. T3: We have even two computer classes and sometimes, not every week, we practice there, students do I mean. We have got a video and usually we take it when we need it, because it is mobile, its just put on special shelf and every teacher can take it and have it in his room. Its very useful. T4: Speaking about videos, we have got one video in the reading room, one in the physics room, and weve got one video for English teachers, for all of them. M: Do you use it? T4: We used to use it in the reading room, but I think that when we have got it for us only, now we do this more often, because we had to arrange things with this reading room. T1: Weve got one personal video in the reading room, one in the French room and one in the school board. If we want, we come. And it is quite big, so we can do that. M: Internet? T1: Yes, of course, weve got two classes of new computers and two classes of old computers, with old computers no Internet. Weve got four computers plus one in the reading room and, of course, the Internet, but usually Informatics [computer science] teachers take these rooms, they need computers and usually with internet, so we used to have some extra lessonsthe background [programmes] of this computer is in English which is for English classes and we used to have such a lesson for students of the 10th form and of the seventh form. We work in this room. M: Can you mention titles of some of the course books, main course books? 107

T1: Welcome, Happy Earth, Happy School, Enterprises, School English. T3: We work with Opportunities and the senior forms with Fast Track. T4: We use also Matrix as the main book and have got Fast Track, but not for every student in different class to work. Opportunities, junior classes School English, Welcome, some other course books. M: Id like to ask what support you get from the school administration in terms of resources. And is the English language considered to be an important subject at your school? T1: When the students choose the exams, the state exams, I try to show how many students choose English and then I say to pay attention to this, to those students, so they should have got maybe more money from the school basket and maybe they get more money. And when we look at the list of the books, recommended text books, usually we change but if they werent recommended by the Ministry of Education, these textbooks, maybe we should buy new ones or (get) some copies. But its very difficult, because every teacher of every subject wants something new, because of a lot of titles, new textbooks for every subject... T4: I can tell that this year our director, because she teaches English as well, knows the situation and she supports us in every way giving more lessons if it is possible, if there are some lessons that she can get more, on the decision of the school, of the school authorities... of course, she would finance some grammar books, for example, this year weve bought some grammar books, some sets of textbooks, video, a new tape recorder and one computer for the classroom. T3: To tell the truth, our authority pays attention to English teaching process at our school, but its not enough, we think so, the English teachers. But each English room has got a tape recorder for sure, it is out of question but the Headmaster says that we ourselves, English teachers, should be more active, initiative, doing some work on projects and this way trying to get money and buy something. We are very active, to tell the truth. But there are some problems and we cant solve them with our Headmaster, because he is a physics teacher and he pays more attention to science. But we hope that in the future the things will move somehow in a positive direction. T3: Integrating we are thinking about it. This year already weve made some plans and they are starting with the next year, having some Economics English. In this way maybe we shall find the solution of some problems. T2: Im very proud of our situation. Its quite good. But I should add, that our English teachers are very active. We show a lot of English projects and some lessons to our authorities and they can see that we work. 108

T3: I want to say that all of us work. Its not the question of T2: But we are not shy to go and to ask for money and we do it every year. T1: I think that its important to have a good team of English teachers as well, in order to share things. T3: To share, thats the main idea, we usually do this. M: What is the support in terms of your developments? Is your administration supporting your development? When you need to go to seminars, do those projects, are you encouraged? T4: Especially the projects. M: Lets say you want to attend some seminars, conferences. T1: Sometimes they say, you should go once, only once and you will share. But, you know, they knew, for example, just one thingfor example, one thing is important for me and the other for you. T3: We have to join groups if one teacher of English is leaving, so we have to join to have a lesson, and on the whole, to arrange the things, if the colleague goes to a seminar. T4: If you work with senior classes, you have more chances to go to seminars. But according to the law we must go to seminars, but somehow we have to arrange it ourselves. If we must and if there is such a law, so maybe the authority should organize (things) for teachers to come and it has to be their law, such a law, they should observe, because its very important for both the teacher and the students. They count how many days we have attended in seminars to show it for a special programme. T3: And our Headmaster is for attending seminars, courses during summer holidays, during your free time. M: Some of you mentioned that you have to join groups if your colleague goes away. How big are the groups? T1: It depends. I have one containing twenty students. T2: At our school we dont have (split) groups, so its 26, 27 students. Thats a problem. They have one lesson. 109

T3: We have two plus one: two separate groups, just about thirty, plus the third lesson which is joint. I also would like to mention that in senior forms students can choose the teacher. For instance, when my students came to the eleventh form, they wanted to work with me, because I was their first English teacher. And according to the list of names the division was made in the way that they came to my group and the others had to go to the other group. T4: We dont have this problem. If I have been teaching those students from the start, I go on teaching whether they want it or not. However, students may change groups. T2: There are situations when some parents come to school and ask for one or another teacher, but our authorities dont let to choose a teacher. T3: Because the student has to mention the reasons why they want to change a teacher. If you give serious reasons, then you are allowed. I cant say it happens very often, but it happens sometimes. M: Can each of you tell me what you feel your strength as an English language teacher is? Is it using new teaching methods or finding resources for projects and facilities and equipment or networking with other teachers? T1: Maybe the project making. I have some experience. T4: As for me, experience in working with students. T3: As for me, I like using different teaching methods: I like group work, especially, in junior forms and in the senior forms I try to apply this. Working more on communicative tasks. I enjoy it when I see the result. T2: Im also experienced, but I think that my strength is that Im creative and, I think, I love my work. M: What skills do you favour teaching? What is your favourite skill that you teach? Speaking, writing? T1, T2, T3, T4: Speaking. T1: Speaking. But nobody pays attention to your good results. T3: We can pay much attention to speaking. It is a plus. M: But why do you all love teaching speaking? 110

T1: You know your students better, even your relationship with the class becomes closer in the course of this process. T2: When I start teaching in the eleventh form, I always think no (speaking), when the exam comes I always think no (speaking), next time when we start with the eleventh-formers no speaking at all, I wont teach them. Whats the use if they get four out of ten, if they are required only to know a lot of words, to read very quickly, to know a lot of structures. I bring listening tests, but again its too boring. M: How do you motivate your students? How do you motivate them if you have unmotivated students? Or even if you have motivated students, how do you encourage them to develop their skills outside the class? T1: Im happy when I see that my students are busy during all lesson motivate them with my work. T4: Final goal, maybe. They know that they should use English in their studies and future, maybe at work, with computers, the Internet. T1: And they saw job advertisements in newspapers. M: And what about the assessment? How do you assess? Do you use criteria? Is it unified? Do you ask them to make presentations? T2: With junior students we use self-assessment. T3: For students its the most serious problem. They usually want to have good evaluation for each work they do, because of the results, they want to have the final mark, lets say, 10, but for us teachers its very responsible. We should be very very responsible for putting down the mark of evaluation. But, well, somehow we understand each other and the mark is the best assessment for them, but sometimes we have this praising or just spoken feedback, some written down. T1: Sometimes we encourage them. Yeah, both project work and communicative tasks require understanding of the student. And sometimes words written after the test, lets say, work more than the mark. Its not difficult to write a mark, if the student writes a test, but if he writes an essay or a composition, its very difficult sometimes. M: Are you in favour of using group work? Well, what is the balance between individual work and group work? T3: With the senior formers we do more individual work and with junior forms its very popular to do group work, because they enjoy it. 111

M: And individual work in the senior classes? T3: More or less, each of them has to show his own result on, lets say, grammar or use of English. M: So if I asked again each of you individually to tell me what you see as a problematic area? What would you say? T3: Teaching materials. M: Acquiring them or choosing them? T1: Financial problems. We should ask the British Council somehow to sponsor (laughs). M: You should ask publishers. T3: Publishers? I dont know how it should be arranged T1: And Ive seen that all the French teachers went to France and they had special courses. So wed also like to go to England and to have some courses. I think, if a teacher had worked for twenty years, he or she should have studied in England, because weve visited England only just for fun. M: Do you have your techniques how you cope with your problems? T4: Sharing resources. Some time ago we used to get some materials from the British Council Library. But now, as we have to bring books back in a months time, its too expensive to go to Vilnius. It is difficult, and, of course, we have this English Center and we have got some things there and we are glad about what we have got in Janonis, because we have got some . M: If you could change some things in your teaching situation what would they be? T1: Mainly speaking and writing, not listening and reading. T3: Im not against reading. T1: They need more writing and speaking. T4: Somehow we must teach lots and lots of things, I dont think we are so good. Programme is not good, letters for instance all kinds of essays, the writing of letters if you can write an application letter of the courses, a complaint letter maybe, get information 112

T2: And more lessons, more English lessons. M: How many lessons do your students have? T2: Three or four. T3: In the senior forms they have four plus one additional lesson and in junior so-called specialized classes those who studied English from the second form they have three plus one in the sixth form three plus one, just one additional lesson. T2: In each school students start English classes from 2nd form. Its 25 or 20 of English lessons, but it depends. The number of (classroom) hours depends also on the authorities. T4: I think we should teach something, at least pronunciation. M: Is there anything that you thought you would really like to say, but I didnt ask you? Anything on your mind that you really want to say, express your opinion? T3: I wanted to and I was asked to ask you to arrange / organize more seminars with, lets say, with native speakers if there were such possibility, and to arrange courses for English teachers giving us a chance to see, to study, to work at some school, get more experience. As usually we have seminars with people we know more or less, who are not native speakers (of English). We appreciate the information, their knowledge, but wed like to meet native speakers.

113

APPENDIX 12g Focus group interview with college students

28 October 2003, Kaunas S1: I am learning now in Kaunas Technical College. M: How old are you? S1: I am 19 years old. M: Thank you. S2: I came from Marijampole and am studying in Marijampole College. M: How old are you? S2: I am 22. S3: Im studying in Kolping College. Im 19 years old. S4: I am studying now in Kaunas College. And I am 19 years old. S5: I am studying in Kaunas College now. And I am 18 years old. S6: I am a student of Vilnius College. I am 20. M: How long have you been learning English? S1: I am learning from the 5th form. So its 7 years and now Ive been learning for a year in Kaunas Technical College. M: So thats 8 years. S2: In secondary school I studied English for 8 years. Then in Kaunas Management College I sudied for 2 years and now its the second year. Im studying again English. 12. S3: In secondary school I studied English for 12 years. Since the first form and now Im still studying English. Its my specialisation. Im trying to get my English specialisation in Kolping College. 114

M: So how long have you been studying in college? S3: Only 3 months. S4: In secondary school I studied for 4 years and another 4 years I studied in Kaunas Food Industry School and now I study in Kaunas College for 2 months. S5: In secondary school I learned for 7 years and now in Kaunas College for about 2 months. S6: My situation is a bit different, because I learned English in London for 1 year and now I just started to study English in Vilnius College. 2 months. M: And did you study English before you went to London for one year? S6: No. M: How do you feel about learning English? Does it make sense to be learning English? S1: Of course, because if you want to travel somewhere, first of all you have to know English, Russian, German, and maybe French, but the main language is English. And you can find a lot of information in English and so, I think its necessary to speak English and to learn a lot. S4: Computer language is English and we must know something to use it. M: Are you able to use English outside your colleges or schools very much at the moment? Do you have to? All: No. / Yes. S4: Sometimes we write letters to English speaking people. S3: Sometimes we meet people from England, from America. Its a very little time you spend talking in English. M: Do you all think that learning English is going to be important for your careers? All: Yes. S1: Very important. In Lithuania you almost cant find a job. You must go abroad and you need to know English, I think 115

M: Are your English courses general or for specific subjects? Are you doing a course which is, for example, English for business or English for business and management? or English for computer technology? S4: We really study for technologyn and its something about food. S1: In the secondary school lessons I had general English and now in the college I have it for specilization, specific language, technical language. M: Is it easy to get the materials in English for subject areas? English for food technology? S4: Yes. M: Where do you get it from? S1: Literature. Internet. S3: Books, a lot of books. There are a lot of books in English about those things that you are interested in. M: What are you interested in? S3: I am interested in gliding. Paragliding, base jumping and other extreme stuff. M: The things that they dont teach you at school. And you have easy access? Magazines, internet? Is it mainly internet? S3: Mainly on Internet, I think. M: Do you all have access to the Internet? S4: Yes. M: At college? S4: At college. At home. M: What kind of teachers have you had so far? Young teachers, old teachers, interesting teachers, boring teachers What have your teachers been like? S4: Strict. I had a very strict teacher at secondary school. She always put me very bad marks. How hard I tried, but she always put five and five and five. Its hard to learn then. 116

M: When you were learning English what was the major stress was it on writing English, on listening, on speaking? S4: Grammar. S3: Sometimes the teacher was very boring. Students were sleeping in the lecture. M: What about the teachers you have got now? Are they more exciting? S5: Yes. Interesting. M: So did all of you had education in English that was very strictly about grammar in secondary school? S5: Our English teaching was not very interesting, because our teacher was not an English language teacher. She was a Russian teacher, but she has a certificate of English teacher, I think. She always talked to a school girl who was not very good. And all other There were no other classroom at all. M: How did you manage to learn? S5: I took private lessons. I paid money. M: What do you think of English that you have now? Teaching that you have now? Id like to talk a little bit about the kind of resources that are available for you. What are your lecture rooms like? What is the equipmet like? S5: We have a video equipment in our classroom. When we need to listen, the teacher brings a tape recorder. She uses many materials not from our school. She has her own library. She brings everything from home. S6: CD player and thats all. S4: A lot of dictionaries. S2: We have a lot of dictionaries. But when I wanted to find a word, I couldnt remember the preposition or something and I couldnt find it. There wasnt that word in the dictionaries. Weve got cassette recorder or CD player, I dont rrmember now. S3: In Kolping college we sometimes use visuals, like product or cinemas. M: A video? S3: Yes. 117

M: What kind of technology would you like to see in the classroom that you dont have? S6: I think a video recorder would be useful maybe, sometimes for people to watch a movie, English movie. English and leisure. Thats what we used to do in London and I learned a lot. M: The rooms that you study in Whats the furniture like? S3: We sit in groups of 4 people. We can do tasks together. M: So you can arrange the room how you want it. Is it true for all of you? S6: In our classroom we all sit like here, around. Only during exams we do rows of tables. Because like this we can do group work. M: How many people are there in the group you are learning in? S6: 13. S1: 6 or 7. S3: Maybe 12. S4: About 15. S6: About 15. There should be about 15, but it is about 10. I dont know why. S4: Well, our group is Some students are learning German and some English. M: Tell me about the course that you use? Do you have coursebooks you work with? S1: Workbooks. M: Can you remember some of the titles? S5: Landmark. S1: English Grammar in Use. S4: Snapshots we used in Kaunas College. M: Headway? 118

S3: Yes, in secondary school. M: Cutting Edge? S: No. M: International Express? S: No. M: Do you have cassettes with these books? S: Yes. M: Do you have copies of the cassttes? S3: Yes, only the teachers. S2: I have. M: Do you have many things that are copied? Do your teaches give you photocopies? S5: Yes, we have to photocopy ourselves. We just borrow the book from our teacher and make photocopies. S1: Cheaper. M: What about these dictionaries? Are they all old dictionaries that dont have all words or are they quite modern dictionaries that you have? S6: Some are modern, some are old. S1: Some are very old. S2: Some are very new. Some new ones are in the library. There are new ones, but in the classroom we have old ones. M: And is there a library in your college that you can go to? S: Yes. S2: But I dont think I can take dictionaries home. I think we should use them in the library. 119

S4: We can read here. M: You can read only in there? S4: You can borrow for one day. Another day we have to bring back. M: What are the libraries like in the city? In Kaunas? Do they have good sections of English books you can use? S3: There are lots of books in the libraries. In public library. I dont know, you can find any book in English that you want to find. S1: Not always. Im learning technical specialisation. And you cant find a lot of technical books in English or in Lithuanian. Its impossible. A lot of books are in Russian in technical world. In English there are some, but not a lot. S3: But in English language there are plenty of them. M: Do you take books from the public library youselves? S1: Yes, if its possible. M: Is it possible? All: Yes / No. M: Why is that? S1: We have all in our school. We dont need. M: So you have a good library in your school? S1: Yes. M: What are your teachers like now? Are they anything like the teachers you had in secondary schools or are they different? S5: Very different. M: How are they different? S2: For example, if you dont understand or something is wrong, you can just ask and theyll explain everything. They wont say I dont explain, go away even if you have personal problems, not only about English. 120

M: Is that true in the college you are in? S1: Its easy to communicate with our teacher now. She is not so strict, very smiley, always smiling. Nice to talk with her. S3: It depends on the teacher. If she is smiling, not very old M: So whats your teacher like that you have now? S1: 75 years old. Its horrible. All the lessons are very rude, like I dont know how to say that. M: Are they like the lessons that you had in secondary school? Are they any different? S1: theres difference from secondary school. I dont know how to say, but it is hard to sit in the lesson, its hard. Because the teachers always sad. Somethings wrong with her. M: So you wish you had a different teacher? S1: I wish I had. M: Are you OK with your teacher? S6: When I compare my teachers now with the teachers I had in London, London teachers were very friendly and helpful. And our teacher now is very formal. We communicate in a very formal way. Every time. She even calls us in English, I know, its the same you, but in Lithuanian its different, there is friendly you and formal you so she calls us the formal you. I dont feel very good about that. Id like more friendly way of communication. M: Do your teachers use the informal form when they speak to you or whether they use the formal form? S1: Formal. S3: Informal. Friendly. S4: Our teacher calls us not by surname but by name and I think its better than calling by surname. M: How important is English within all the subjects that you are studying? Is it considered as important as some technical subjects or some of the special subjects in food technology? Is English equal in value? 121

S2: For me its the main subject. I am studying English pedagogy. Ill be maybe a teacher. So its most important. The second subject by importance is Russian. S3: But if you want if you finish the studies and if you want to find a job in some kind of technical stuff and something like that, you must learn English. The employee who knows English very well is more popular, than the one who doesnt. M: Do you think that going into the EU is going to make difference? Thats going to make English more important? Its going to happen very soon, isnt it? S5: In my college English is not very important. But as I study business management, I think it should be more important. There should be more English lessons or... I dont know, because business management I might need to communicate with the English or people from other countries, business people. There should be more English. M: What do you think about your strengths and weaknesses? The good things and the bad things where you are, what you are learning? Are you satisfied with the English language teaching that you are getting? Is it good quality teaching? S4: I think so. Our teacher tries to make us remember better all that we are learning. When we come in the morning she always gives us questions about the last day and we must remember everything we learnt and recall it. In the first course she made a game to remember our names. And we must talk, we introduced ourselves and she was first and she must say what her name is and where she is from and we must remember. And the last one must tell all (names). M: Do you think you are learning as quickly as you can? Or do think you can learn more quickly, if the teaching was somehow different? S1: If it were more important, if it were more necessary, I could learn faster, but I dont think its necessary. When you are learning slower, you can find more things that you wouldnt hear or you couldnt learn, if you learn faster. M: How much do you contribute to your learning of English? Does it all come from the teacher or do you go up and search for English? Do you watch English programmes on television, do you see English films? What kind of things do you do to improve your English? S4: I have a computer at home and also internet. We now see all the new films and they are in English and we must know English to understand what we are talking about. 122

S3: sometimes I watch TV like CNN or BBC to know what is going on in the world right now. S1: If there are some friends in America, so you have to talk in English. M: do you send each other e-mails? S1: Yes, e-mails and sometimes phone each other. S5: We have pleasure reading and we must read English books. Not adapted to learners. M: what kind of books have you read? S5: Now I am reading Love Is Always True, but I dont remember the author. I read not only love romance, I prefer adventure books. And today I bought a new book by Sharlotte Bronte and Ill read it. M: what kind of books do you read or what do you do to improve your English? S6: Its hard to say, but I dont do a lot to improve my English. But sometimes I write a letter to my friend in Germany, but in English. M: What was the last time you did that? S6: Maybe two weeks ago. M: When you are studying English in your classes do you ever work in teams? Groups? Do have opportunities to learn from each other? S4: We are working in groups a lot, a lot of discussions and its all in English. S2: We usually work in pairs. We write dialogues. M: Do you ever do presentations? Do you ever get involved in having to make a report? S5: Yes. M: And do you have to stand up and tell what you found out? S5: Now we can choose to stand in front (of the class) or (speak) from our place. M: And how often do you do that? 123

S5: Last year we did it for one a month. This year we started with a report and now we are preparing (one) again. M: What about the food technology? Do you do a lot of group work? S1: Maybe dialogues, talk to each other and in our workbooks there is another page, 2 pages, or maybe a lot more and we practise, I know some information and my friend knows the information I dont have. We must talk. S6: Fill the gaps. M: And do you ever do projects? All: Yes / No. M: And what kind of projects do you do? S1: Like socialogical projects. Asking people what they are doing on their free time, how they spend it. Only socialogical. S2: Yes, we do pedagogical projects and now we started a new project about adaptation at school. M: How many would be involved in the project? S2: Two persons. S1: We have chosen about 12 people. Students. We are going to ask them what they are doing on their free time. M: How many of you are involved in asking? S1: Only four. M: And at the end will you have to report? S1: Yes. M: Do you have to use OHP? S1: Yes, we can also make a film. We can do whatever we want to present that project. M: In technical areas do you have a lot of project work? 124

S3: Well, I dont think its like a project. Not in English, but I had to write one project and I found literature only in English. I had to translate first of all. Last year I think we had one project. We had to represent one technical firm. We worked 3 people and we wrote and we had to present it to some class, to some groups. M: When you were doing these projects, where do you think? Your English is very good in some areas, not very good in other ares. You have speaking skills, listening skills, writing skills Where do you think your best skills are in using English? S3: Maybe in listening. S4: Yes, listening. M: If you could improve your skills, which is the skill you would like most to improve? S5: Talking. M: When you come out of class do you straight away switch into talking in Lithuanian? All: Yes! M: Do you use English outside? S1: Not always, but we had in secondary school one delegation from Poland. They came to our school, we had to tell them all about Lithuania. And they didnt know Russian, well the language that we spoke was English. Then I translated everything into English for them. Sometimes I forgot I came home and started talking to my sister in English. She said You are in Lithuania not in England. Wake up! M: When you are in your English classes, do you feel comfortable using English? All: Yes. M: Do you feel that you are improving, that you are getting better at using English? All: Yes. S1: As you talk, you have experience in talking. M: Do you think that your teachers are accurate when they assess your level of English ability? Do you think they get it right? Is their assessment of you accurate? 125

S1: She asked for our marks from secondary schoool and gives us tests and is checking what we can. Compares with our marks M: What kind of a teacher would you really like to have? What would your ideal English teacher be like? S3: Teacher should be very funny, interesting, not old, married (laughs) M: Thinking of the teachers youve got now, would it be a kind of teacher who would make you speak more? Would it be a teacher who would be able to provide additional resources? Would it be a teacher who would be a bit harder with you? Stricter with you? To push you more? S1: I think its enough what she is teaching and what she wants from us. M: Are you very happy with the teachers that you have right now? S5: Yes, very happy. M: Do your teachers make you laugh? All: Yes. Sometimes yes. M: Is it important? S1: Playing games and stuff. Interesting to learn, study. M: Do you find you learn more easily when its fun? S1: Yes. If your teacher is strict you must to do it, you dont want to do it, but when its funny you want to do it. S2: Its funny to do it. S: Studying like a game. M: What kind of changes would you like to introduce, if you were responsible for English teaching? What kind of chages would you make in the way English is taught? S4: More examples Im talking about technical. She could show some films on technical in English, of course. Because not everything you can find and not always it is interesting to read. Sometimes its more interesting to see. 126

S1: Meetings with interesting people, maybe from England or America, to talk with them in the English language. S2: Now I think about my secondary school, and I maybe I would change the lessons. Make them not so monotonical, more different sources of literature, I dont know. Not only reading, speaking and listening and thats all maybe more relationships with children, more close. S1: Maybe more exchange programmes with students from other countries, Its very good. S5: Maybe more programmes. M: What kind of programmes? S5: I dont know. I think like S2 said. Knowledege, I think, was very poor. Its only reading, writing, listening, thats all. S6: Id like my teacher to be more informal. And I would like to get more information not just from the cooursebook, not just answering the questions, only exercises, but more discussions, more talking, more talking in groups. I would like to change my classroom, because in my classroom there are only two rows of tables. I think the langiage classroojm should be The tables should be around and see other persons and communicate. M: Is there anything that before you came you thought you want to say it? You thought that is important and you havent had a chance to say it? Anything you thought important that you knew and we hadnt asked you? S1: Two main things that the teacher has to have are knowledge and to know how to communicate with students. We have one teacher he has a lot of knowledge, but cant communicate very very poor. M: So its about communication skills and the ability to use them? S1: Yes.

127

APPENDIX 12h Focus group interview with university students I

29 October 2003 S1: I was born in Vilnius and Im 19 years old. I have been learning English for seven years, at first as second (foreign) language and now as the first. S2: I have been learning English eight years. S3: Im not sure, but Ive probably been learning English for eight years. S4: I have been learning English for ten years and thats it. S5: Ive been learning English for seven years. S6: I am learning English for ten years. S7: Ive been learning it for seven years. S8: I have being learning for eight years. S9: I have been learning English for eight years. S10: I have been learning for nine years. S11: I have been learning English for years. S12: I have been learning English for twelve years. M: OK thats great! So, tell me what do you feel about learning English. Do you think it is important? Do you think its not important? Why? S11: Its important M: Why is it important to you? S12: For me, for example, I like English as a language. I think its easy, not too difficult as a language to learn, and I think its important to learn languages. Its important to learn any other language... 128

S3: because its one of the major languages and the most frequently spoken in the world and, actually, English is like a first language for most other people in the world. S12: And its the science language. The English language is the language of science. S6: I can probably say its becoming the international language of the world, like the global language. S12: And the thing nowadays is necessary to know to learn English. M: Do you think next year it will make any difference to learn? 2004? Is that going to change peoples ideas at all about learning English? S12: Not about English. It will change the ideas about all languages. All languages are important, not only the English language, but also French, German and so on. S6: Its probably not that fast. It will happen gradually. It becomes more important to know the global languages M: Is it going to be important for you as you go out looking for jobs? When you finish the university? S6: Sure it will! S12: Actually for us, it s important first, because we are studying this language. So its like our job will be like the English language, you know. So its our future, actually. M: What kind of jobs are you hoping to do when you finish university? S12: We are studying the technical English language, and (will be) translators and interpreters of the English language, but not at schools a teacher M: If someone came up to you in the street and say, Why are you bothering to study English? You should be studying more Lithuanian, what would you say? S6: Lithuanian is important, but to study English means to expand your view, to expand your knowledge, because lots of things are going on in the world lately, all the information, most of the information probably, comes here in English. M: Where do you get that information from? How does it come to you? S6: We can look at media, Internet. Probably you could say that English is the language of the Internet. 129

S12: Yes it is! Cause I prefer chatting, so (does) almost everyone. You can go to talk to a Chinese pupil or a French pupil All, almost everyone knows English and you can talk with them. M: Tell me about the teachers of English that you have? What have they been like? Have they exited you? What about school? How were they? S6: None of them excited me, I should say. Because what you are learning is less practical and more theoretical. Like, I dont know, those things that you are doing you have to do, like, you know, the grammar and stuff. That is important, but more important is still just to know how to use the language, not the exact rules of the language. S12: For me, I started English from seven years old and my first English teacher excited me so much, that till my second form I knew that my future studies would be English studies. Because, she was so she was not the real Lithuanian, you know, she had lived for several years abroad. She knew all the things, not as Lithuanian teachers, and she was, how to say, teaching us not some theoretical things, but she showed a lot of examples. We were trying to do conversations And my last teacher at the gymnasium was awful and I always had to go to another teacher after school, and she was wonderful, she was great, she was that person who persuaded me to go into English. But at school all my classmates hated English, you know. M: Who hated English when you were taught in the school? S1: Me. M: And what was your teacher like? S1: Well, my teacher was very good, the first one, and she left quite a good impression for us. I perfectly understand why. But still, I dont like learning English and its not just English, its other languages. So she couldnt inspire me. Its just because of me, not of her. S3: As to me, the teacher is not the most important person It actually depends on the person. If you want to study something then you study it. And in my case it was like that. I actually like English, and I like studying it. My teacher was quite OK, lessons were interesting, but I had also attended an English school and there lessons were more exiting, because in schools we are learning English in big groups, its a group of 2024 people. And its too difficult to study English in such a big group. M: Were all of you learning English in large groups when you were at school? ?: No. 130

S7: 14, maybe 12 students. Usually my class was divided in two parts, one group (had) English at one time and another group at another time. S12: In my case, as I went to gymnasium after another school, my English level was very high. But in gymnasium my English level was very low, and all my classmates were like beginners, you know And my English teachers level was like mine, you know. And there was nothing for me to do. I was just sitting almost for two months, and (when) I went home, I cried, because there was nothing for me to do. The teacher was angry with me, because I was angry with her also. I was saying my truth, and I wanted more exercises. I was talking in some difficult way and so on, and my classmates didnt understand me. So, she was angry; and I hated her and she hated me. S11: For example, I had a teacher who I can say knew English as us. Actually, sometimes we taught her. I can remember there was a text and nobody could understand it and when we asked the teacher what a word meant, she said, Well it means it means Look in the dictionary. And that teacher I mentioned said, OK. Ill look in the dictionary and Ill tell you tomorrow. S8: And my teacher was a workaholic. She had no personal life, so that was very easy for her to teach us, but she was too hard, and there was too much pressure on us, and we were doing a lot of grammar at school, but no talking lessons. I mean, she was thinking that we were talking fine, that we were excellent at talking, but we were not. But we couldnt tell her, Look at us, we arent speaking. M: Were you sitting at desks as opposed to having discussions? Did you ever work in groups when you were at school? S4: Well, for the last two years I had really a great teacher. We did everything in our classes, and we discussed a lot, and we did grammar, but when it comes to young years, I had such a teacher who was very interested in various performances and plays, and we were making various plays like Prince and the Pauper and something like that. And I noticed that I began to forget my vocabulary. So that form wasnt very good. S12: With my teacher we were not talking at all, you know. For example, when I came to gymnasium we were going past simple or something like this. So, for example, there was one example of a sentence and all the class was telling the same sentence, you know. Just changing maybe a name, maybe instead of the theatre used to the station or something like this. Well, talking, for example, of grammar, we had lots of exercises, but there was the teachers book on the teachers desk. She was going out, you could look at the teachers book, write all the answers down and no problem. All the tests were 10, 10 OK, everybody learned English perfectly (well). 131

S7: When I entered the gymnasium my English teacher was a great person. But she wasnt a very good teacher. She knew English very well, but she wasnt able to control us, to force us to learn it, so we just passed through And when I was in the 12th grade, I went to another English teacher, Olia, to prepare for my examinations. M: Are you happy with your learning facilities that you have at your universities? Is there anything that you would like to see different from the way it is now? Do you have access to things that you really need to help you learn English? S7: Its quite different learning in the university and learning in school. Here English teachers always give us a lot of work, a lot of tests, a lot of activities. She forces us to work in groups and that is very interesting. Its quite different. We make presentations, we use computers, we use all the equipment. S5: We are actually learning at school and the universities two different things. Because at school we learn for the examinations and at the university we are studying for ourselves to learn to speak fluently and easily. To communicate, to continue our studies somewhere abroad and something like that. S12: What I like here at the university about our teacher is that she makes us talk. For example, if a person doesnt want to talk, she tells to talk. S11: It doesnt matter if he wants or he doesnt want. Its a discussion and two or three of us are talking and all the others are sitting and just listening, and she asks us What is your opinion? and if the person just says Yes, I agree, (she asks) With what? M: Theres an opportunity for the individual speaking? And you tell you are working in groups as well? S4: Presentations and discussions were exactly the way I was learning English at school not the university. Of course, we do discuss a lot, but more about various companies than at school, thats why I am so happy. I really enjoy it. M: What kind of materials do teachers use for you? S9: Well, we got news, TV. She types CNN news and then she brings it. So thats interesting. S8: We watch films. News. And discuss. S7: Our teacher gives a lot of handouts. She orders us to read magazines and then write summaries and then present it to the whole group. She shows us some TV for 132

making presentations. And for something else. Its two different things from school English and here. I am studying business management, so whole English here is business English and exact words for the English which I will need to use. And in school it was only preparation for examinations. S6: At the university you like using the practical English which you will, might, need in life whatever you are studying. And at school you know you just had to know the basic stuff, like the theoretical English, like what is present simplelike the train arrives then and then, you know. Nothing you could use They werent teaching what we could use actually in free life. S11: For example at school we had one lesson for grammar, one lesson for speaking, one lesson for reading. And now we have discussions, news, terms S12: At school we are just going through programme which is made for all schools, so its not very interesting. M: Do your teachers ask you to get the information yourselves? All: Yes, sure. S1: As for us, we had to make, for example, a presentation and we had to prepare the material, because she didnt give us anything. But still it was very useful. M: What was the topic? S1: Endangered species. M: So where did you go for the information? S1: Well, I have the Internet and some National Geographical magazines. And for example, next month we are going to make another presentation on genetics, so I am going to rely on the same sources. M: How many were there in your group? S1: Ten. S12: For example, in our university in our faculty we all know about the holiday of Halloween and so on. Our English teacher asked us what Halloween is. We said, well, pumpkins and so on. She said, but what is it? What is the history of it? Wellwe dont know. So she tomorrow we are making a Halloween party. Our not club, but how to say, our group. And we had to find a lot of information about Halloween and 133

when we found we understood that we knew nothing about this celebration of Halloween. It was a surprise We are making the pumpkin pie and we are making everything. S7: Our teacher ordered us to read 15 pages of home reading, and we needed to choose it by ourselves. So I went to our library and copied Business Week issues, several issues. And I made summaries. S3: But it depends on what we are studying. For example, we study philology and our English is more linguistic and we read some linguistic materials about English and we study grammar, tenses and all this. But more sophisticated English, on a higher level. S12: Especially phonetics, BBC English pronunciation, all those consonants and vowels. Aspirated and so on. M: So, the materials that you get from your teachers are they very useful? All: Yes. M: What do you find for yourselves? What proportion of information do you think you are finding for yourselves? Is that increasing as your course goes on? ?: Sure, yeah. M: So you are having more control, more responsibility? S12: Yes, at schools the teacher comes to you and she tells... The teacher is like a god, you know. You dont want to but just you have to do exercises and thats it. At the university you have to look for information by yourself and its interesting for you and its useful for you. You have to do it for your own, for your better. S7: We can choose the article we would like to read, which is interesting for us, not the article we are just given. M: Do you think you get good education in all skills? Now. S6: Lecturers are giving us the skills on speaking, probably more work is done writing and talking. S11: As for us as we are in a lesson we are listening, we are speaking, we are talking about a topic, we are writing something. In sequence. 134

M: After classes do you speak in English or do you speak in Lithuanian? What language do you use? S12: There was a very funny thing that I noticed the first lesson this year we all went to the English lesson and there was a discussion. The first lesson and while the teacher was writing on the blackboard, we started talking in Lithuanian. The teacher stopped writing and she turned to us and she said, What? In English please. We said, OK OK. Then we forgot and we started talking in Lithuanian again and she said, Am I hearing Lithuanian again. We said, No no. And after that we never talked in Lithuanian again. M: You talked about several projects that youve done. Tell me to get feeling for the range of projects, for the range of activities. S2: I am in the same classroom. I have also done the same project on endangered species and just now we are doing a project on genetically modified fruits and vegetables. A lot of such things. Here at the university we study English mostly that is related to our profession. Many special words. M: Is it possible to do projects as a group when you study English philology? S3: We are from one group of English at the university and actually we dont do projects. S5: Actually we are from the same philology and she is from a different philology. English group for Lithuanian and classical philology. Now we are just learning to see something in a text. For example, a text or a novel. And when we are reading it, we are learning to see what is in it, about the characters and so on. S3: Its more linguistic. And we speak a lot. Actually all our lesson is like a discussion. S4: Yeah, but when it comes to a text we pay a lot of attention to all the structure and all these parts... M: You are business English? What was the last project you did? S6: The last project we had to do a presentation on, I think, any topic. S7: I picked bugging the world. About bugs, computer bugs. Phone devices. S6: I was presenting Coca Cola and aspects of International marketing. I was using digital aids: computer and projector. Yeah, I did a powerpoint presentation. 135

S8: I am from public administration and I have written the essay about the possibility of higher education in the European Union. And our teacher sent us to the European Commission Centre which is not far from this building. Well, we went there, we listened to the information, we took books from there and we just wrote. M: Were they happy to give you those resources? Did they give you the information? S8: It wasnt so interesting there, but we got what we needed. M: Did you have to present the findings of your essay or you handed it in? S8: It had to be written. And the second project was about our university and our specialisation about public administration, so I had to invite other students, that was the point I had to say how good our speciality is and just to do informative work. S9: We study ethics. We are not doing any projects. We are just learning different things of ethics, etiquette. S10: Home reading. We can choose different books about it. M: What kind of topics are you studying recently? S10: At this moment about education in Lithuania and Britain. And we do exercises of grammar. Conditional sentences S12: We are not making our projects. We are going deeper into translation. S11: We are writing compositions, news, summaries, and we do a lot technical translations. The texts making into something else. M: Do you learn in groups or individually? S11: Sometimes in groups, sometimes individually. We are making it individually and then we discuss it and we are searching for a better idea. S12: Actually, we speak a lot, discuss and we find one version M: Now, it sounds from what Im hearing that by large you are quite pleased with the teachers that you already have. If the teachers could be changed in any way, could be improved, what would you like to see? S12: Not so boring. At school, for example. M: Are your teachers models of teaching? 136

S1: Our teacher is very good, but one thing that irritates me is her English accent. She is trying to speak in the English language and somehow its really irritating me. As I am used to American English. S6: Probably the best teacher is a foreign teacher, I think, because when you use English in your class and there is something you dont understand you can ask in Lithuanian. But if the teacher is foreign, you have to try to explain that in English in other words. So, it makes you actually speak English. S12: It depends on the teacher. Our teacher never tells us (things) in Lithuanian. We have to find a better, the best version among us. S6: I mean, its like motivation to speak English. I wanted to say that. M: Do you have much access to native English teachers? S6: I do. Well, I was learning one year in the United States last year, so I got many friends and I am still talking to them quite a lot. S12: I often go abroad, not for work just for travelling. When I was young, every summer. When I was travelling alone and I coming back to Lithuania, it was always strange for me to start talking Lithuanian, because you get very used to speaking English. And it is so interesting, for example, when you are talking to a foreigner who knows English not very well and you have to explain him what you need. Its very interesting when he doesnt understand you and you are trying in every way to show what you need, to tell him what you need. Its very useful. S7: Its very nice to find a person who speaks English very fluently without accent. Its mostly like English, real Englishman. My father has a friend in England and he comes to Lithuania sometimes. Its very interesting to speak with him, just he has perfect English and he uses English so interestingly. Speaks very nicely. S12: And then you see that your English is very poor when you are talking with a foreigner who knows English very well M: One final question. Imagine its Christmas Eve and you have a chance to change English teaching, what change would you make? What would your Christmas present be? S12: If its for my English teacher, for my English class, it may be technical equipment in the class. Like television, like computers for all students, maybe if you want to watch a film in your class, you dont (have to) go out. We have to go to other faculties to search for free space and watch there. I think more equipment would be more interesting, more important. 137

S11: I would like to hear more interesting topics for the lessons. Various kinds various things from science, from politics, from everywhere. S10: I think about computers. It would be good if there were more computers for each person. S9: Really, I also think more computers. Maybe to see more films. S8: I am happy about the equipment at our university. The only thing I wish for is our teacher is unstressful, but she is very absentminded, she is very easy to talk to, she is like our friend, but I never understand what she wants from us. When I come back next lesson, I ask her for our whole group, Teacher, sorry, but what is your about this or that? Thats the biggest problem for me. She has to say what she wants exactly. Not just oh, like this like that, do it. S7: I am absolutely satisfied with the equipment here. Id like to have more contact with foreigners speaking good fluent English. S8: Probably my present would be a chance for everyone to live in English environment and that would be the best learning. S5: Probably mine would be the technical equipment and communicating with foreigners, with Englishmen. S4: As to our classes I think it would be useful to write more and listen as well, because we discuss a lot, but no listening and no writing. S3: We can listen to each other. I am satisfied with my teacher and it would be great to have a chance to go somewhere to an English speaking country. I had been to England, to London, and I had been studying there two weeks in a college. And it was very good for my English. I expanded my vocabulary and speaking skills. S2: I actually would like to go back in time to the fifth form and have really a qualified good English teacher, because I didnt have. I sometimes miss basic skills in learning. S1: Well, I am quite satisfied now, but we are studying molecular biology and this is specific field even nowadays, so we dont have special literature and I would like to get useful latest. Especially the vocabulary. M: Is there anything you really want to say? That you think is really important? S7: I think learning English at school or university wont give the result if you dont learn in England for a moth or two months. It improves skills a lot. A whole of a lot. 138

I have been to England for one month when I was 14 or something and I was too young for that and now I would like to go to England to study there for a month. That would be a great thing. M: Did any of you have access to exchange programmes? S6: Yes. Its a possibility from the third year at the university.

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APPENDIX 12i Focus group interview with iauliai, Klaipda and Paneveys university students
14 January 2004 S7: I have been studying English for nine years. I started to study English in the fifth class and I think that knowing at least one foreign language is useful, so thats why I like this language. Ive chosen to study this language at university, because I think that it will help me in future, maybe in travelling or job. S6: I have been studying English from my second class. Besides, when I was in the eleventh form I studied in International Baccalaureate class in Vilnius Lyceum and I studied all subjects in English. Thats why now I know this language a bit more than my friends do. But what about English, is it useful for me? Yes, it is because, well, perhaps, I like to learn languages in general, because I know not only English language. Besides, for example, when I do not have money enough for something I can teach some people the English language and then I get some money. Besides, when I meet people from different countries I can speak with them of course communicate, thats why I like English. S5: Ive been studying English from fifth class, until now, and I think English is very useful because this language is everywhere. S4: I started the English lessons from fifth class. Ive chosen this language because I know that this language is the most popular in the world and I like this language because Im often watching movies and listening to songs in English. I learned English watching Cartoon Network when I was little and movies. S3: I began studying English from the fifth form as well and now as Im in the second course I think that English is very useful for me because it helps you not only to communicate with people, it helps to get acquainted with many interesting people, to learn more about other countries. It seems that it is the most popular language. S2: Ive been studying English for nine years starting from the fifth form. Language is very useful for me and I think its very important to learn languages, especially English, because it is an international language. S1: As my friend has mentioned, I also study English from the fifth class and I also think that it is very useful language, just it helps us to communicate with others, to 140

understand other people from different countries and it gives us an opportunity to travel, to talk with others. M: What kinds of teachers have you had so far? Are you happy with your teachers both at school and university? What methods do they use? How do they teach you? S7: When I was learning at school my English teacher was very boring, and lessons were boring and not interesting and schoolchildren skip her lessons because it was boring and we used not to go there because everything was the same everyday, the same paragraphs, the same things and no new things, thats why I had to go to the English courses because I wanted to study this language. And now my English lecturer is very good and interesting person and she makes all these lectures very interesting and I want to go and study there even if its sometimes harder or easier. S6: I was always satisfied with my English teachers because some of them were very strict and we were not allowed to skip the lessons and the last teacher was from Argentina, so her lessons were really very interesting, not the same as from the ones from Lithuania. S2: We also had at school a teacher from America. And the lectures were really very, how to say, interesting and we wanted to not to skip the classes and we waited for each lesson. During eight years at school I had five teachers. The first was very good because she laid foundations, perhaps I should thank her for my knowledge, but two teachers, to my opinion, were under qualified, not qualified enough. And especially one whose manner of teaching was quite, I would say, stupid. He organized such games as crosswords and even he wrote marks for it. It was to my mind, easy to get marks that do not reflect knowledge. S3: Im very satisfied with my English teacher which I had when I studied English at my school because she gave me the basic knowledge. I suppose, usually it depends not only on the teacher: if you want to learn language the teacher gives useful information, the basics but if the students or pupils do not want to learn then I think no one can teach them. S7: But its hard to learn when a group of students wants to study and others do not want because, Im talking about my school studies, in our class were pupils who didnt want to learn, they were happy because the teacher let them only sit and look through the window and others who wanted, I also wanted, my friends, we just had to ask the teacher to give us maybe some reading, maybe some plays, not role-plays, because we knew that we had to prepare for the exams and knew how we have to study for software courses and it not only depends on those who want to study. S4: My teacher at secondary school was very strict and we practiced mostly grammar. Its good too as it is very important as speaking. But in secondary school I was very 141

lazy and didnt learn very good for this grammar, so I think that in the university I can learn to speak like if I can write in grammar. S6: During my last two years at secondary school I can say that I really forgot the English language because our English teacher, her lessons were very boring and we only go through the book and did the boring practice and she always, it was bad that she was always talking in English only with the pupils who were clearer talking in English. M: And you were neglected S6: Yes. M: What do you actually study now? Could you explain? S7: Economics. S5: Special pedagogics and logopedics. S6: Public administration. S4: Business administration. S2: English Philology. M: How do you feel about course books that you study from? Are they easily accessible? Do you like them? What books do you use? S7: We have many copies from different kind of books. So we have just to copy. M: Do you have to make copies or teachers make copies for you? S7: We have to. And I had to buy books because those which were written by my lecturer (laughs). M: What about others? S4: I dont like these books too, my English lecturer copies for me and from different kind of books, idioms, grammar practice, reading. M: Do you like the situation? S4: Yes. 142

S2: Well, we get the books for lexis and for other subjects we have either to make copies or to buy a lot of copies... (laughs). M: So could you mention a few titles of the books that you use? I mean, even if the copies come from the books, can you mention where they come from? S4: My lecturer gets books from Internet. I know one book at idioms. Thats all. S7: Headway and those which are written by my lecturer, Censoring by Education of persons Environment and other S3: I dont know the real title but it is from Longman publishers for advanced students. S5: When it is necessary to tell something, we should copy some articles from various magazines for net group administration, for example of business, e.g. Business week, Economist, because my studies are connected with. M: What about other things? I mean, do your teachers use tape recorders, videos, other things? S6: We used to watch many films in English which our teacher brought from the British Council. S1: We are doing listening, thats we are listening and then answering questions. During the lectures we use Internet during the lectures. M: You use Internet. Do you have access to the Internet, computer rooms? S1, S2, S3,: Yes, we have a class, a .special class. M: Do you have computers at home? S1, S2, S3, S4,: Yes, we have. M: Do you like using Internet? S1, S2,: Yes. M: So, in general, are you satisfied with the situation in English language teaching that you are in at present? Your teachers, your materials, your course, what do you think? 143

S2: Im unsatisfied because certain sections are separated, for example, phonetics, lexis, syntax and morphology and we go deeper in that subject. S6: I see that my lecturer really works hard to prepare for his lessons because he needs many copies and so on but sometimes I feel that he doesnt understand me because when I speak about some article or something, he says: OK, consider on, you got 10 or 9. (laughs) But he doesnt understand or he doesnt catch my mistakes because when I speak, well, I remember that I made this or that mistake but he doesnt catch it. M: And you want feedback? S6: Well, yes. But, perhaps, hes too young because hes still a student (laughs). M: Perhaps you speak too quickly. S6: Yes. M: OK, so, do you feel that in general in your universities English is considered to be as a very important subject to study? S7: Not really. Of course, in the first course yes, it is important because for me this year it was may be the hardest subject. S2: As I study English, it is very important language to us. S4: I think English is very important for me too, because I want to go to study in other countries for I think third course or fourth. M: Yes. So I understand that all of you feel that you need English professionally, but what about the university level? Do you feel that the university policy really is the one that states that English is a subject in the curriculum? Does English really matter? S4: In university all lectures are very important. M: And was it the same in secondary schools? I hope you remember. Was English a very important subject then? S3: Even our Lithuanian teacher said that for us English was more important than Lithuanian and she was not satisfied. Every teacher said that his or her subject was the most important. M: The same experience here? 144

S3: Yeah. M: OK. You mentioned that youre not really happy when the teacher doesnt indicate the mistakes? S6: Yes, he only catch when I pronounce some words incorrectly. M: Can you tell a little bit about assessment and how teachers write marks? If you can, try to remember your secondary school how you were assessed and how you are assessed. What system do the teachers use? What criteria do they use? S5: Well, I think, its very objective because my last mark was nine from English, here in University and it was only because I was making a presentation and I had a slide and I wrote not t but d instead. And because of this mistake I got a nine. So, I think, I dont know its very objective. It depends upon the lecturer. M: Do you know how you are assessed? Do you know when you will get 10 and when you will get 5? S1: Sometimes we dont know how much we can get from that or this subject. S6: If Im writing a test I dont know what will be in the test so then I dont know. But if Im preparing at home so I can imagine. Yes, imagine how much I will get. M: But do your teachers explain you how they write marks? S1, S5, : No. Sometimes. M: What about school? Was it the same? S1: At school it was very different because you knew how much you can get, you knew the teacher, you knew the methods, what she wants from me. And now when you have four-five teachers of English and every one use different methods are used now. S5: At school there is no problem because you feel like closer to the teacher and sometimes the teacher knows that you are a good girl (laughs) so she always writes you a high mark. And if sometimes you have a seven, she says: Oh, perhaps you slept not good and she doesnt write any mark. And at university it is different. M: And what are you given the marks for? Do you have to make presentations, write tests, to read a book and retell? What do they write a mark for? S2, S3: Translations, talking, letters and paragraphs writing, dialogues, presentations. 145

S1: We have to read a book and then to write a report on it and then represent it. We also make topics and also write essays. S7: Sometimes we may discuss some topics. But I think there should be more discussion on search or that topic. M: Do you do project work? Or is it mostly a teacher teaching you in the classroom? Do you do group work? S5: Yes. We do the work in groups. e.g. we discuss about what situation in Lithuanian or in English and then we should find, we did the project about work and our topic was lang? work, and we need to prepare to have a lesson, to quit the topic and to do it. M: So, individual, group work? S7: Individual. S1,S2, S3: Both. M: Which one do you prefer? S4: In groups, I think. S3: In groups it is more interesting. M: Do you like doing projects, those who have experience? S4: I have never done a project. Most of time we are talking, reading, translating, sometimes we make presentations and I like presentations mostly. M: Do your friends, other students give you feedback after that, when they listen to you in the class? Are they commenting on? S4: No, they are not interested in that. M: Only the teacher? S4: Yes. S6: Once we did it and our lecturer said that we have to get only negative impact (laughs). So it was a little bit, I dont know, because one person standing in front of all the class and everyone has to say what was wrong. So we didnt like this. 146

M: Do you do projects? S3: I cant say that we do projects. Teachers do group work, we present our works on the course books, we just discuss some questions, topics from our course books. S7: I think we should do more debates. S6: I remember one interesting lecture. Then we hadnt what to do exactly in the lecture and then our lecturer asks us to choose one word and when this word becomes a topic and we should talk about it for three minutes. And if we talk for three minutes then, for example, we pass the exam. It was very interesting because then you had to think, quickly what to tell about one word and it was very interesting. M: So what language skills do you feel you would like to use more? For example, where are you good at: speaking, writing, listening, reading? Which is easier for you and which skill is problematic and you would like to improve? S5: I think we all should improve grammar. S5: Well, Im good in essay writing. Well, I think so. And what should go, maybe reading because there are really some difficult books, for example, we were reading from Proficiency and it was hard to answer the questions after the text. So may be these. S6: And I would like to improve my speaking. I would like to talk more. S2: I dont distinguish any skill. Id like to improve all of them together. M: Next question. What do you do to improve? Do you do anything else except for making your teachers work hard? Do you do anything on your own to help yourselves to improve your English? S7: Just one more thing. When I listen to music and if I hear an unknown word I find it in the dictionary or somewhere. Also even if I know all the words I try to translate everything in mind from Lithuanian to English, from English to Lithuanian. S1: When I find a new word and if I like it I just write it on the sheet of paper and I stick on the floor and learn it. And its easier to remember then. S4: Im watching films in English and sometimes I at first watch the film in Russian or Lithuanian and then the same film in English. M: Where do you get English versions? 147

S4: From the Internet. S7: I have a friend who just three months ago went to London and he wouldnt know this language very fluently so he asked me to talk with him everyday in English, doesnt matter if he understands it or not. So it was also interesting and even if he did not understand such a word like buy and I had to explain him what is to buy, to go to the shop, to pay money and it was interesting. I remember that. S5: I also have friends from some part of the world. We are writing letters to each other. They live in England M: Regular letters or e-mails? S5: E-mails and regular letters. M: Do you use chat rooms? S5: Yes. S3: And another one way how I learned English language is perhaps to participate in an international conference where there are no Lithuanians and you have to speak in English. M: Have you ever tried this? S3: Yes. As I remember now, three years ago, when I was at secondary school I went to Lithuanian Cristian College which is in Klaipda and there were summer course and we had to talk, to communicate with native English speaking teachers so it was a good opportunity to develop my speaking skills. M: As you study English as a subject, do you speak to each other in English when you are not in the classroom? S1, S2, S3: No, sometimes, some words in English, some words in German, some words in Spanish and the rest in Lithuanian. We dream at night in English. M: If you could change anything at your universities now what would you change in terms of English language teaching? Would you like to change anything in your teacher, in the materials or in the curriculum? S4: I wish our teacher was from other country, for example, from England or America. 148

S3: Well I think if there was any teacher from English speaking community, I dont know, perhaps from Australia or somewhere else it would be more interesting and useful. S2: I would like to have more than six classes in order to advance my level. S1: I would like to have more debates (laughs). M: Do you have your debate club? S1: No, just at school we had a debate club. S7: I dont know maybe that at school those who knew English better were in one class and those who knew less or were not so fluent were in other classes and now in my group all the students are very different. Some even are afraid of speaking and others know and our teacher, for example, for me she says: OK, I have a question, you be silent, I know that you know and for others and he asks, and I know everything what to say and he doesnt let me to talk, and that girl whos asked just looks at him and thats all. M: So you mean you would like to see groups for different levels? S7: Yeah. S6: And the level in our faculty cant develop high due to the fact that people who are in my faculty are better in mathematics, another subjects but not in English because our faculty is the Faculty of Social Sciences, thats why and their knowledge of English is very poor. M: And if you go back to your secondary schools now, if you had a chance to meet your secondary school teacher, and you had to tell her one thing, what would you tell her? S2: Thank you. S3: Interesting but be more strict. S7: If your lessons were a little bit more interesting. S5: Why dont you communicate with these pupils who think they talk in poor English. S2: Id like to say that English is not only grammar. 149

S4: The last two years in secondary school we were learning different practices: reading, listening, grammar... I think that our teacher should be more strict. M: Can I ask you to tell the towns where you come from? Klaipda, Palanga, Maeikiai, Palanga, ... region, iauliai x3, Panevys.

M: For the very end of this discussion I would like to ask you to tell whatever you would like to tell. What you didnt have a chance to say. Anything that you would like to say or you wanted to say but you were not asked? S7: Its said that in my university, in my specialty English is taught only first year and it would be better if I could study, others could study maybe for two, or three, or even four years. Because when you are in the third course you have more free time, you can maybe exchange, you can be asked to student exchange programs, to go abroad and if I study English only this year, then no practice and I can forget something. S1: And Im happy that I had a chance to participate here and to meet you all.

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