Tatjana Glusac of Serbia, standing left, Alpha Agri of Guinea, center left, and Ali Al Agri of Yemen, center right, listen as Karns City High School 10th grade English student David Pesci talks about poetry Monday morning. The three foreign English teachers visited the school to learn about English teaching methods from the perspective of students.

KARNS CITY — In a classroom with curtains on the windows, students on Monday sat on the floor and tables to hear three foreign English teachers say that type of informality doesn't happen across the world.

Tatjana Glusac of Serbia, Ali Al Agri of Yemen and Alpha Camera of Guinea visited Karns City High School to learn about English teaching methods from the perspective of the students. In the process, Karns City English teacher Patricia Bell said the students learned about the guests' countries.

The three nationals are on a yearlong fellowship program to Penn State University to learn about teaching English. Bell first met them at a conference in Harrisburg, and then saw them at a second conference, before inviting them to visit Karns City.

"What we have is rows of students with more than 50 students in a classroom. In big cities, there's more than 80," said Camera, an inspector of education for English language teaching for the Ministry of Education. He also said all lessons were formal and teacher-directed.

In turn, the students in Bell's 10th grade English classes told the three about projects on John Steinbeck and fairy tales they worked on during the year.

Each teacher, during an assembly, also presented information about each nation, its educational system and customs.

Glusac was interested how language can be taught to individual needs. She told a story to the class about a woman she met who said she had studied English for 10 years, could pass a written test, but couldn't speak or understand the language.

"How can language be humanized?" she asked. The students used examples from their English classes, including allowing students to write about a subject they are interested in and encouraging students to talk with a group as they work.

Al Agri said he's been impressed in Karns City and other schools he visited during his trip by the level of work students complete.

He walked into a sixth grade classroom and watched them working on Web sites and animation projects.

"It's just amazing," he said.

Bell said while news reports will show American students performing below that of other countries, she hopes hearing from the three guests will show how lucky they still are.

The three will finish their stay at Penn State in June. They are among 14 chosen from around the world for the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program.