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Between a hard place and a rock

By: Phillipa Date Posted: 13 Sep 2018

In one situation I found myself teaching students of English as a third language. I was in the first stream of international teachers to be engaged in this at this school. I had exciting and frustrating moments. Bearing in mind the schools' frowning upon the use of mobile phones in class, I was torn between actively promoting mobile phone use for the sake of the language, and going the traditional way with explanations and examples. The use of mobile phones was certainly easier, for both myself and the students. So I promoted this and also used it extensively. Students liked it. I was happy. Those with mobile phones could quickly translate words and quickly help those without mobile phones. Until, of course, the games virus descended upon my classes. Once they started using mobiles for games, I did not catch this early as I thought they were translating. So now I got caught up between promoting and banning the use of mobile phones in class. This is just an example of the many catch-22 situations that teachers find themselves in. What would you do as at this point in my situation?

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