The next class of teachers comes into the room as the previous class departs. These are teachers completing two weeks of training at the end of the Rwandan summer, before school starts up again in September. Emilee gets them started right away. 

“We’ll be doing a Parent Teacher Conference Scenario today,” she says, pointing at those same four words, written in large yellow chalk letters across the board. 

She explains that they will be working in small groups of three or four, and hands out different scenarios to each of the groups. In a short paragraph, the scenarios describe a student who has been having some sort of an issue in class, perhaps with discipline, with motivation, or any of the other issues we see with our students on a regular basis.

The groups read and discuss the scenario as Emilee and her partner teacher, Christine, listen to the teachers, provide a bit of clarification, and smile encouragingly.

The program is in English, which is a second language for these native Kinyarwandan-speaking Rwandan teachers. These are some of the strongest English speakers in the summer program, they can communicate in English quite well. 

The first group moves to the front of the classroom and starts to role play a scenario. The teacher is speaking to the mother and the student at a simulated meeting in school. I can’t quite make out what the specific issue is that they are role playing, because the group of teachers next to me is still planning their own role play and can’t stop talking. Emilee and Christine ask them to listen, but the teachers are quite intent on getting their roles straight and can’t help themselves but to keep planning. 

The second role play gets underway. The issue is that the child, played by one of the teachers, isn’t interacting with the other children. The teacher counsels that it is important to play with other children, to collaborate. They discuss the problem, the teacher and the student, as the parents listen. Then one of the parents suggests that their son try to teach the other students a game. The teacher playing the student has gotten quite into his role now and says, petulantly, “But they don’t want to learn any of my games!” 

I often write about how we can do simulations with students in order to create real conversation. Simulate to get real, I advise. Here is evidence again that this advice might be pretty helpful. The students in this class, the Rwandan teachers, could just be led in a conversation about parent teacher conferences, but here they are fulfilling two goals … getting a sense for how the conversation might really go and practicing English without a script. Because they don’t know what the others will say as they play their roles, the language they use is authentic.

When I completed my MA in language instruction in the 1990s, there was quite a bit of talk about using authentic language in the classroom. Maybe there still is. Back then, after debating the nature of authentic language with Professor Ruth Larimer, she pulled me aside after class and told me that I was ready to pursue a PhD. I cannot remember what either of us were saying, I just know it was about authentic conversation when teaching non-native speakers. Now thirty years later, I can feel how I’ve settled into my own philosophy of practice, this notion of simulating to get real. This notion that we can create situations for authentic language use through role plays. Exactly what I am seeing Emilee and Christine lead here. 

After all the small groups have presented, the trainers lead a quick summary. “You as a teacher have a really big role,” says Emilee. “Yes,” says Christine, reviewing a few points from each group, affirming that the teachers have done well in their role plays, that they are ready for real parent teacher conferences. “It is so important to remember that every child has unique talents. 

We need to remember that when we are talking to parents.”

Sage advice!