Professional Documents
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English Teaching Professional 60 Jan 2009 - PDF
English Teaching Professional 60 Jan 2009 - PDF
January
2009
Tprofessional
EACHING
The Leading Practical Magazine For English Language Teachers Worldwide
Confidence tricks
Malcolm Griffiths
Mixed ability or
mixed blessing?
Marta Essinki
Meet the Twitterati
Nicky Hockly and Gavin Dudeney
From ‘me’ to ‘my profession’
Duncan Foord
• practical methodology
• classroom resources
vk.
com/
engl
ishl
ibr
ary
• new technology
• teacher development
• photocopiable materials
w w w . e t p r o f e s s i o n a l . c o m
Contents MAIN FEATURE BUSINESS ENGLISH PROFESSIONAL
TEACHER DEVELOPMENT
FEATURES
FROM ‘ME’ TO ‘MY PROFESSION’ 49
AN AUTHENTIC DEBATE 8 Duncan Foord circles in on professional development
Geoff Perrin considers the ‘authentic versus standard’
question and champions spoken prose
TECHNOLOGY
MIXED ABILITY OR MIXED BLESSING? 12
Marta Essinki looks at the practical and positive MEET THE TWITTERATI 57
implications of differentiated classrooms Nicky Hockly and Gavin Dudeney recommend
that we start tweeting
WICKED RHYMES 15
Mark Almond describes how he got his INTO THE BEEHIVE 59
students rapping Sotiria Koui combines textbook and technology
THAT WORD! 20
Alice Chan tackles the technicalities of that
REGULAR FEATURES
BALANCING ACT 29
Purificación Sánchez combines the teaching ACTIVITY CORNER: 37
of language and literature THREE EARLY-ELEMENTARY
COMMUNICATION ACTIVITIES
TALKING ABOUT VERBS 34 Jon Marks
Johanna Stirling believes we need to terminate
our current terminology PREPARING TO TEACH ... 40
Permission, warnings, obligations and prohibitions
THE READING EXPERIENCE 46 John Potts
Bruce Milne thinks a coordinated effort is needed
to get students reading EYE ON THE CLASSROOM:
SNAPSHOTS OF A LESSON 52
DON’T TAKE IT PERSONALLY 56 John Hughes
Paul Bress reveals the reasons for teachers’
reactions PITFALLS IN TEACHING LISTENING SKILLS 63
Rose Senior
IT WORKS IN PRACTICE 42
TEACHING YOUNG LEARNERS
REVIEWS 44
MEET THE PARENTS 23
Caroline Linse advocates paying particular attention
SCRAPBOOK 54
to parental involvement COMPETITIONS 41, 64
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Confidence
support so-called ‘marginalised’ English
teachers – here you don’t have to look
far to find those – in eight countries in
Central and South Asia. Helping
teachers to pull off the confidence tricks
they need in order to enjoy their work
tricks
and to make the most of the very
difficult conditions they face is one of
the main aims of our project. It is also a
major focus in the ‘Classroom English’
training materials which we are using,
and on which this article partly draws.
E
very day in our lessons, we teaching. On the other hand, those who
come from and how can we gain it? It
teachers have to pull off a big do stay on and become dynamic
may be useful to start by thinking about
confidence trick: if we want teachers, whose classes really brim with
what can give us the confidence to do
our learners to make progress creative energy and learning, will
our job well. This applies to any job, of
in their learning, one of our most probably have plenty of confidence in
course, so I’d like to start outside the
important jobs is to give them the their own ability. In fact, they often face
field of teaching and think about a few
confidence they need to feel positive exactly the same problems as the others,
other professions, as we might well be
and successful. This is why coursebooks but they have been able to find ways to
able to learn from them.
are graded at different levels and, where move on.
As an example, what gives
possible, teaching groups are, too. It is My own experience in teacher
professional footballers the confidence
also why a sensitive teacher may try to education seems to bear this out,
they need to play well? Perhaps one key
give a simplified explanation such as especially in my current role, working
factor would be belief in their own
‘The present continuous – that’s for what with teachers who definitely find
ability – knowing that they have the
you are doing now’ to an elementary themselves with real challenges to their
necessary skills and can employ them
learner, rather than to present the full confidence: little or no training in
under pressure. They will also be
syntactical context and all the various teaching skills; often very little chance
confident if they can trust their team-
aspects of use. to develop their own English beyond the
mates to perform well, too, and if they
The dictionary describes confidence most basic level; few or even no
understand their own role in the team;
as ‘the quality of being certain of your resources – school buildings and
and naturally, they probably won’t feel
abilities or of having trust in people, plans classroom furniture are often a rarity;
confident unless they’ve had plenty of
or the future’. This is surely something and, in addition, there are constant
practice and training with the team and
that is also important for teachers concerns about personal security. It
unless they feel fit and well at the start
themselves, as well as learners. But just would be easy to say that few teachers
of the match. Perhaps you can see
who pulls off the confidence tricks for in Afghanistan have much to smile
similarities with a teacher’s role here.
the teacher and how can it be done? about, yet a surprising number still do
manage to get that buzz which keeps
The question of them motivated, just like teachers ! I’d like to take two more very
different professions –surgeon
confidence and long-distance bus driver, but before
Dynamic teachers, reading on, please take a minute to
No one ever said teaching was an easy consider what you think the factors are
job. There are plenty of studies to show whose classes that would bring confidence to people
that less successful teachers are often in these professions.
the ones who are less confident, not really brim with
really sure how to move forward and For surgeons, we might talk about the
who never manage to feel fully on top
creative energy and following: confidence in their ability;
of their role. Those who don’t have learning, will probably thorough knowledge of the subject and
confidence are more likely to suffer techniques and the flexibility to apply it
from early burn-out and won’t stay very have plenty of as needed, years of training and lots of
long in the profession. ‘I couldn’t cope confidence in their practice at carrying out operations.
with the pressure; I didn’t really know A confident long-distance bus
what I was doing and I had no support’ own ability driver, as well as feeling well-rested and
are often given as reasons for giving up knowing the bus is in good condition,
tricks
… to see myself in various situations, way relationship – and number 4 –
what I’m going to say, and the faces being able to form a mental picture of
of the students. yourself teaching confidently. In fact, if
I can, I try to picture in my mind a
However, increasingly, teachers who are Demostene, Brazil: To be movie of myself in the actual teaching
fortunate enough to have access to the nervous at the beginning is a natural situation. I find this especially useful if I
internet are turning to the web, feeling. I have been teaching for am preparing for a challenging or
particularly teachers’ sites, as a source about 40 years and I still have such complex task. Trying to see the
of support. The question below feelings when beginning a new students’ actual faces and hear their
appeared recently in the Talk section of group. You have to be confident and voices and rehearsing what I need to say
www.teachingenglish.co.uk: have a well-prepared lesson. I mean, – especially in terms of the speed and
prepare it in great detail for the first pitch of my voice – are all techniques
Mike, Cambodia ten minutes. This will raise your that have helped me get through
Hello. My name’s Mike. Although I confidence. Good luck! situations that might otherwise have
have been teaching English for nearly been scary, such as speaking to a very
two years, I sometimes still feel Jiri, Czech Republic: From my large audience. Admittedly, I found
nervous in front of the students. Is own experience: conjuring up this movie quite a strange
there anything I can do about this? a) build your overall self-confidence thing to do at first, but I soon got used
Thank you. (might be sports, training in your to it.
subject, ...)
Any advice or ideas for Mike? b) find what situations made you feel
Do you feel nervous in class? nervous or relaxed and avoid the
What do you do? bad ones and go more often to I think most people probably do get
those good ones. Don’t worry, be nervous at some stage about some
happy :-) ! aspect of their professional role, but
Six answers Domício, Brazil: When you
these aspects are likely to be different
for each of us. As a result, we will find
! Before reading what other visitors
to the site suggested, why not
know a lot about your subject matter,
there is no reason to be anxious.
different approaches more or less
helpful. So, if lack of confidence is a
spend a few minutes thinking about it
problem that you sometimes face, I
yourself. What advice would you give a (Adapted from www.teachingenglish.org.uk/
suggest you try out for yourself any of
teacher who suffers from nerves? talk/questions/nervous_teacher.shtml )
these techniques that may be new to you
Now compare your thoughts with what and see what effect they have. You may
other people in different parts of the Teacher tricks be pleasantly surprised! ETp
world have said. And finally, here’s a summary of some
ideas for feeling confident and avoiding
Jill, USA: I used to be nervous nerves. References
speaking in front of people. I finally ‘Classroom Language’: a teacher-training
lost these feelings when I started to Teachers’ confidence tricks course produced by the British Council
care so much about my students that 2008. This material is being used as the
basis for the project ‘English for
I stopped thinking about my 1 Care about your students: find out Teaching: Teaching for English’ which the
embarrassment. I totally focused on about them. British Council is running with the
them and their needs and problems Ministry of Education and with ELTAA.
2 Focus on what the students say
and how I could best help them. TeachingEnglish website:
Being very well prepared always and do. www.teachingenglish.org.uk
helps, too. Good luck! 3 Anticipate things: know the students
well; know the material well. Malcolm Griffiths
Ursula, Peru: My first suggestion currently works on
4 Before you start, imagine yourself teacher education
would be to be always prepared for projects for the British
in the classroom teaching the
your class. The more prepared you Council in Afghanistan.
lesson. Throughout the 1990s,
are, the more confident you will feel. he worked with teachers
Try to anticipate things. We teachers 5 Prepare in more detail for the and teacher educators
have to know our students pretty well in the Czech Republic,
beginning part of the lesson. and prior to going to
so that we can anticipate anything 6 Build your own self-confidence – Afghanistan, he was a
that may come up in class. You have freelance trainer and
eg through sport or social activities. consultant in China,
to give them a lot to do so that you Egypt and Iraq and also
get time to breathe and think about 7 Know yourself: what situations for the British Council in
the UK.
the next thing to do. make you nervous or relaxed?
malcgriffiths@hotmail.com
An
authentic
debate
I
Geoff Perrin speaks up found Chris Rühlemann’s article also available to teachers: all they needed
‘Authentic versus standard’ in ETp to do was look in the right places and
in favour of speaking prose. Issue 57 a very stimulating read. read the right things! For example, over
As a teacher trainer, I am myself 40 years ago, David Abercrombie
often surprised at how quite experienced pointed out that when engaging in oral
teachers of English tend to be unaware work with their classes, most teachers
of the fact that spoken language has a are in fact encouraging the production
grammar all of its own, radically
different from – but not inferior to – the
grammar of written language, and I am often
Chris has performed a valuable task by
dealing with the topic in such an easily surprised at how
accessible and well-argued fashion. I
hope he won’t mind, then, if I take up
quite experienced
one or two of the points he raises and teachers of English
possibly disagree with him – after all, as
teachers of English, we no doubt all tend to be unaware of
hold the view that discussion and the fact that spoken
debate can only be a good thing!
language has a
Debate grammar all of its own
Perhaps I misunderstood the point that
Chris was trying to make in his article,
but I did get the impression that he of what he called ‘spoken prose’. This
largely attributes our current awareness he did not necessarily feel to be a bad
of the essential differences between thing: first of all, it means that written
spoken and written discourse to the work is reinforcing what has already
advent of corpora in the fields of been covered orally, and secondly – as
linguistics and applied linguistics. Chris himself observes – we do at least
Actually, I think many of these insights have a fairly comprehensive model (or
have been around for many years and models) of the written language,
Mixed
inevitably applies to all classes, to a
greater or lesser extent, we should also
remember that this term can just as well
be used to describe individual learners,
and that it refers to more than just how
‘good’ or ‘bad’ they are at English: a
student who may be a confident speaker
ability
may not be so good at writing; similarly,
a student who has an excellent awareness
of language just might not be interested
in making progress.
This is because our students are
influenced in their learning of English
by a whole range of factors, including:
or mixed
● Linguistic ability
● L1 (mother tongue) and
social/cultural background
● Prior learning, educational background
and awareness of the learning process
blessing?
● Motivation, reasons for learning and
wider life goals
● Learning styles, preferences, interests,
age, maturity and gender
● Learning speed and attention span
● Other individual concerns, such as
dyslexia, physical disabilities or
Marta Essinki offers some
emotional problems
practical help with differentiation. ● Distractions, problems and
responsibilities, and the impact of
B
y the very nature of the teaching may lead us to an these on attendance.
institutions where we work, we understanding of the rewards this more
are given classes, not individualised approach may reap,
individuals. However, as without necessarily requiring extra
Differentiation
teachers, we often find ourselves preparation work for us as teachers. If these factors seem far away from the
oscillating between relating to our class reality of your teaching, think of
as a homogenous group, and being something you recently said to a
aware that these classes are made up of
Mixed-ability classes colleague about your students. Can you
individuals with their different In English language classrooms the identify how what you were describing
characteristics and needs. Treating them world over, there are discrepancies in corresponded to these factors, even if
as one group may feel like the obvious learners’ abilities. This is particularly you were not directly using the specific
solution, but by doing so, it is easy to apparent in primary and secondary terms outlined above?
forget that taking into account students’ schools, where students are grouped by Here are some comments I made to
individual needs can make for more age rather than level. These differences a fellow teacher about a class we share:
interesting learning and teaching. Until are felt all the more in larger classes. ● ‘Fidel’ is pretty good at speaking. He
recently, I myself had to some extent But even in more focused EFL or ESOL always picks up on any new words I
ignored differences between students, contexts, where students are grouped use, but he still uses so many Spanish
imagining my dream class as a uniform after an assessment of their level, there words.
group with the same ability and needs, is always a range of abilities, however
who would then inevitably achieve the accurately the placement is made. The ● ‘Tomoko’ doesn’t speak in class, though
same progress. My move to teaching bottom line in any of our teaching her grammar is very strong and she
ESOL (English for speakers of other contexts is that whilst thinking of our really likes those activities where she
languages), where the concept of students as a group for practical has to analyse texts.
difference is discussed and valued a lot purposes, we also have to recognise that ● ‘Fatima’ misses many classes, and
more, has made me reconsider. Practical this group is made up of individuals who when she comes, she’s late. She’s
suggestions for incorporating our will, naturally, have different strengths worried about her kids. It’s like she’s
students’ differences into our everyday and weaknesses for a range of reasons. not really interested in learning.
ability
of their common spelling mistakes or train students to assess their own and
false friends. The students can then each other’s progress. Use checklists
test each other regularly. from which students choose aims at
or mixed
the start of lessons and then assess
5 Providing skills tasks their progress at the end.
There will be divergence in skills ability ● Remember that students have
blessing?
across the class, and between each different expectations of you as a
student’s own four skills, so provide teacher, so discuss feedback and
tasks where students can progress error-correction methods openly and
accordingly. consider how directly to express
4 Focusing on language
● Use differentiation in two ways: same feedback to each student. When
For grammar, vocabulary and task for everybody (eg writing a correcting written or oral work, do so
pronunciation, think in terms of the key horror story) but different outcome at that individual’s level, identifying
knowledge which all students need. This (some students will write longer/ errors enough to be challenging
might be using comparatives, but with shorter/more complex/accurate without being discouraging.
individuals understanding and applying stories); or different tasks (listening
this construction with differing degrees to a longer extract/with
of fluency, accuracy and confidence. prompts/tapescript) with the same
By employing these techniques, you will
● Appeal to different learner-types by outcome (eg listening for detailed
understanding of a radio report). realise that your students’ linguistic,
varying the ways you present the
cultural and personal differences are
target language. Use guided discovery ● Many activities can be differentiated what creates interesting learning and
and other student-centred approaches without preparation, just careful teaching. True, you may encounter
to develop individuals’ involvement consideration. For example, allocating initial resistance or surprise when you
with the language. roleplay roles by ability, interests or ask students to do things differently.
● Encourage students to ‘notice’ age. Explaining to your students that you are
language in any written or oral text, ● Write up prompts for a reading or thinking of their individual needs will
training them to choose items and discussion, arranging the seats so that quickly turn the tables. Some might
chunks that are interesting or useful only the weaker students can see the even start intuitively using
for them. board, or have post-its with differentiating techniques themselves,
● Build up a collection of activities challenges for stronger students. For such as going through a text for new
which recycle the particular target dictation activities, provide sentence words if they finish early, or asking a
language in different ways. Use these outlines to support less literate partner to explain something they have
to challenge stronger students, students. missed.
support weaker ones or occupy fast- Next time you have a new class, or
● Pre-empt early finishers by providing an old one, open your eyes and ears and
finishers. Differentiated extension slower students with support (check
activities need not require consider the students as a group of
them at the beginning, give time mixed-ability individuals. By
preparation: train stronger students limits, push them on). Slower students
to mark the stress on new words; recognising and playing on their
could do less of the task, or choose differences, you will be developing
students with literacy problems can five out of eight questions to answer
copy out sentences. individuals who are more interested,
(early finishers can then do them all). motivated, challenged, aware,
● Refer to the students’ L1, eliciting Faster students’ answers may be collaborative and independent. Your
from them any differences or incomplete or inaccurate, so train students’ reactions will show that
similarities between the target them to check. Correct faster individual differences are more than a
structures in English and in their own finishers’ answers, then get them to mixed blessing, they are a blessing in
language. Even without necessarily correct their classmates’ work. disguise! ETp
referring to all the languages in a
multilingual group, doing this appeals 6 Managing learning Marta Essinki teaches
to and raises the students’ linguistic Students should feel they are making EFL, ESOL and literacy
at Ealing College in West
awareness. Organise one-off sessions progress at their own pace, but should London, UK, where she
where students choose a grammar also be encouraged in developing their is also involved in
Professional
point of difficulty for their L1 and areas of interest. Development. Before
then share what they have learnt with ● At the start of a course, the students
that, she was an English
teacher and trainer with
the class. could identify three things they want the British Council in
West Africa. She is an
● Maximise opportunities for to achieve and how. Allow them some IELTS examiner and has
personalising learning. Your students class and homework time, using written for the BC/BBC
teachingenglish website.
might record themselves making counselling sessions to ask them
marta.essinki@gmail.com
polite requests, choose how to present about progress.
Wicked
including slang and swear words;
● have a strong rhythm and beat which
suit stress-timed languages such as
English;
● contain lots of examples of connected
speech and opportunities to practise
it because they are spoken at a
natural pace, eg the assimilation in
rhymes
could you …? –/kPdjP/;
● provide lots of scope for learners to
experiment with prosodic features
such as pitch, pace, volume and tone;
● allow students to play and be creative
with language and pronunciation,
which can be empowering for them;
● are usually about subjects which
young people can relate to, eg
I
Mark Almond gets his was recently charged with relationships, possessions, family,
providing a weekly one-hour school, social issues and politics.
students slapping, clapping creative writing class for a group
of young adult learners over the
and rapping. course of a ten-week term. Having Many young people
exhausted my initial ideas of getting my
students to write the obvious kinds of from almost all cultural
texts, such as mini sagas, poems, haiku, backgrounds seem to
short stories and sketches, I thought it
might be interesting if I tried to get them enjoy and to be able
to write a rap song, which they managed
to do in one of these one-hour lessons.
to relate to rap music,
For the uninitiated, rap music, which is the initial
which is spoken rather than sung, began
on the streets of New York in the 1970s reason I thought I’d
and reflected African-American, tackle it in my classes
Jamaican-American and Latino street
culture. As it developed over the
decades, rappers such as Dr Dre and I soon discovered that learners often lack
more recently Eminem, Plan B and the confidence and self-belief that they
Bubba Sparxxx have been using their can write anything creative of reasonable
songs as a platform to sing about their quality in a foreign language, not least
own personal life stories. By the 1990s, because they claim they struggle to
a sub-genre known as gangsta rap was produce such texts in their first
born. Gangsta rap tends to be more languages, so I had to design a procedure
controversial in that many of the songs that allowed for maximum support and
are about rival gangs, violence, sex and guidance. This is what we did:
drugs. However, what is undoubtedly
true in my own experience is that many Step 1:
young people from almost all cultural
backgrounds seem to enjoy and to be
Lead-in
able to relate to rap music, which is the We had a brief brainstorm on the roots
initial reason I thought I’d tackle it in and history of rap and exactly what
my classes. More often than not, when I constituted a rap song. Features
ask students what is on their iPods, it’s students suggested included the fact
rap music. As I started developing my that they are spoken rather than sung,
ideas and material, I soon realised that they are often about personal and socio-
there are other valid pedagogical and economic issues, they often contain
linguistic reasons why embarking on swear words, they have a strong beat
this could be useful and enjoyable. and rhyming scheme, they can be
Wicked
Phillip Burrows
the same sound value.
We then repeated the exercise with
consonants in final position. I gave
rhymes
them the word told, which they rhymed
with old, cold and gold.
Step 3:
Word stress, sentence stress
misogynistic and they are graphic. We and connected speech
then went on to discuss some well-
known rappers such as Eminem and We then moved on to a discussion of
Snoop Dogg and how their songs how rappers (and indeed all of us in
reflected their own personal lives, eg everyday speech) have to squeeze and
Eminem sings very negatively and stretch words to fit the rhythm of speech
aggressively about the way he was as English is a stress-timed language. We
brought up by his mother. played the following game:
● With everyone standing up, start
Step 2: beating a rhythm in 4/4 time by
Vowels, consonants and slapping both thighs (count 1),
clapping your hands (count 2), clicking
consonant clusters
your right fingers (count 3) and
We then launched into a possible basic clicking your left fingers (count 4). The
structure for a song. I thought the most students gradually join in until a
accessible and achievable approach was comfortable pace is found.
to introduce rhyming couplets, ie the
● Say your own name on the right-
last word of the first line rhymes with
finger click and a student’s name on
the last word of the second line, and so
the left-finger click. That student says
on. As this requires the ability to
their name on the right-finger click
distinguish between and produce sets of comfortably, we gradually sped up until
and any other student’s name on the
phonemes, I found that I needed to we were going at breakneck speed!
left-finger click, and so on. If anyone
improvise brief remedial minimal-pair We discovered that as the line got
makes a mistake, they sit down and
exercises. For example, I wrote on the longer, we had to squeeze and connect
are out of the game. The person to
board pairs of sentences that contained words to fit the rhythm and create a
their left continues into the next round
potentially confusing words, such as: natural flow of speech. For instance, I
until there are only two people left
My husband is a lawyer. noted on the board how and is
standing. It’s very important that the
My husband is a liar. pronounced /Pn/ and then becomes
rhythm flows. This forces students to
/öPn/ and how we use the intrusive w in
squeeze and stretch each other’s
I read one of each pair and asked the you and me /ju*îPnmi*/ and intrusive j in
names to fit the rhythm – quite a
students to identify which one I had me and /mi* jPn/, etc. This also
challenge if a student’s name is
chosen. After four or five of these, I consolidated their awareness of the fact
Eleptheria!
asked individual students to continue that fluent speakers of English often
and act as teacher. This remedial work ● We then adapted Adrian Underhill’s pronounce phrases such as want to and
served as a useful lead-in to the rhyming idea from his book Sound going to as wanna and gonna. They were
work we were about to do. Foundations where students, still now able to appreciate why this happens.
I then asked the students, working slapping and clapping out the rhythm,
in pairs, to find rhymes for why and they build up the line: You and then me Step 4:
suggested words like die, goodbye and and then him and then her.
high. During this entire stage, we Group composition
Round 1: You (slap thighs) me (clap)
referred to phonemic charts for help. him (right click) her (left click) The next step was to start writing a
I then wrote some consonant clusters Round 2: You and (slap thighs) me
song. I thought this would be best done
on the board (bl, fl, pr, thr, dr, sm, gr, and (clap) him and (right click) her
initially as a group on the board. As a
tr) to see if the students could produce (left click)
class, we constructed a verse (consisting
words with these which rhymed with of two sets of rhyming couplets, ie four
Round 3: You and then (slap thighs)
why. They came up with suggestions lines) by firstly deciding on a theme and
me and then (clap) him and then (right
such as fly, dry and try, all words which then answering prompts, which I
click) her (left click)
are relatively easy to incorporate into a provided. The class decided they wanted
story within a single context. Going We repeated each round of the game three to write about unrequited love. Below is
through this process also helped or four times to ensure the students were a much-abridged version of the
demystify the phonemic chart as learners able to keep up. (It’s important that the dialogue which we used to construct the
could see that so many phonemic same pace is used for each round.) When song. I tried to minimise my own
symbols (consonants) resemble letters of we were all reciting the whole line intervention as much as possible, but if
(Agenda, Apologies, Minutes of the last The students are thus working from the
‘Everything has been thought of
meeting, Points for discussion, AOB) or a general to the more specific and get the
before, but the difficulty is to think
sports match (Bully off (from hockey), idea of what paragraphing is and how it
of it again.’
First half, Second half, Extra time, Final works. If, later on, they notice that in
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
whistle), etc, depending on the interests fact first lines of paragraphs are often
of the group. not indented, they can add a question
I
n this series of articles, I have been mark to that first point on their concept
looking at practical, everyday steps Concept map… map.
we language teachers can take to a true Advance Organiser
ensure that there is a climate in our Using a board, handout or other
display device, you can build a concept
Looking back
classrooms that supports thinking,
rather than knocking it on the head! map to show an overview of the work Just as we can encourage students to
Here, I’ll look at ways of framing coming up. Let’s imagine you have a look forwards to orient themselves to
lessons or modules of work by writing class and you want to help the what is coming up, so we can provide
encouraging students to look forwards students understand and use time and tasks to help them look back
to upcoming work and then later to paragraphing successfully. You could to see what they have learnt. Here are
look back at work done. use the visual below: some ideas for encouraging this.
PARAGRAPHS
The intensely
social atmosphere What they What they What they What they
look like are for contain don’t contain
of a normal language
class does not suit .............................. .............................. Topic sentence
.............................. Irrelevant sentences
..............................
everyone Supporting sentences ..............................
.............................. .............................. ..............................
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That
introducing subordinate clauses.
Subordinate clauses beginning with that
can be used as the direct objects of a
number of transitive verbs, such as
realise and said, as in sentences 5 and 6.
They can also be used as post-modifiers
of adjectives or nouns, giving further
information about the adjectives or
nouns in question, as in sentences 7 and
8. Overgeneralisation of the use of that
word!
and inadequate understanding of the
structure of complex sentences are
probably the major causes of the
problem.
T
Alice Chan chooses eachers with students at
clauses beginning with a wh- word (eg
intermediate or even advanced
what, how, why, and even whether). This
to concentrate on a levels will probably not find
rule of thumb is certainly practical, and
sentences such as these unfamiliar:
may also be very useful as it is quite
common conjunction. 1 I don’t know that what I should easy to remember: there are only a few
do next. wh-words in English, and the spelling of
2 these words gives students very obvious
He will tell me that which I
hints and serves as a good reminder of
should do and which I should not
the rule. However, students may not
do.
know the reason why the conjunction
3 I still remember that how the cannot be used in such constructions.
scene was when I was young. As that is such a high-frequency
4
conjunction, many students may use it
Some people may ask that why
without paying conscious attention to
Hong Kong suffered from this
its function. In my opinion, teachers
crisis.
need to awaken their students’
The addition of a superfluous awareness of the function of that and
conjunction (ie that) before a wh- clause the structure of a complex sentence if
(eg what I should do next; why Hong they are to help them gain full control
Kong suffered from this crisis) in of such structures.
complex sentences is a very common
feature of the writing of secondary and That all depends ...
even university ESL students. It is not
That, like many other subordinating
difficult to understand why students
conjunctions (eg although, because, as,
tend to add that in such sentences: they
unless), is used to indicate the dependent
are used to using the conjunction to
status of a clause. The addition of that
link a subordinate clause and a main
to an independent clause turns it into a
clause (sometimes known as a matrix
dependent clause. Before the addition of
clause) in sentences such as:
the conjunction, the original clauses can
5 I didn’t realise that she was stand alone. This means that the
unhappy. original clauses can be simple sentences
6 in themselves. For example:
Peter said that he was angry.
9 She was unhappy.
7 I am happy that he has decided
to quit. 10 He has decided to quit.
8 I had no idea that he had lost With the conjunction added, the
his car. resultant clauses cannot stand alone.
Meet the
Over the years, I have developed
some techniques to open up
communication channels and create
positive connections between myself
and the parents of my learners. The list
given here contains some simple
suggestions for working with parents.
These will need to be adapted for
different situations and contexts, but
parents
the general principles will apply to a
host of young learner settings.
Creating constructive
connections
1 Compensate for
language differences
You may not speak the home language
of your learners and the parents of
your learners may not speak English. If
this is the case, you will need to utilise
Caroline Linse has ten
C
hildren are learning English
as a Foreign Language at different techniques to determine the
tips to help teachers younger and younger ages, best way or ways to communicate with
either because the local the families of your pupils. For example,
connect home and school. educational authority has decided that you might need to ask others to help
it is a good thing to do or because with translation or interpretation.
individual parents feel that it will help Perhaps a teacher who is bilingual could
their children later on in life. As a help by translating and interpreting in
teacher of young learners, I know that exchange for your help with
the younger the child is, the more proofreading. Bilingual school
involved the parents are likely to be. secretaries or administrators may also
For purposes of comparison, consider a be willing to provide assistance.
five-year-old learner who comes to Children with L1 and L2 literacy
school and is delivered to the skills can translate general information
classroom door by her mother. This is into their primary language and take
in sharp contrast to a teenager who no the translation home, together with the
longer needs his mother to escort him note written in English by the teacher.
to school and may well, in fact, be This strategy works well with learners
serving in a caretaking role himself by who are emotionally mature enough to
dropping off a younger sibling at a translate a message into English. It is
kindergarten along the way. important to remember that the tone
of the message and specific information
When I give workshops about may change a little bit with the
home–school connections, I often ask translation.
teachers whether it is harder to deal
with the children or with their parents. 2 Provide specific
There is usually a bit of nervous feedback to parents
laughter, and then frowns, followed by Whenever you talk to parents about
the acknowledgement that creating and one of your learners, be sure to give
maintaining positive home–school specific information about the child.
relationships is a very difficult task. In Specific feedback is more valuable than
my experience, most programmes general platitudes. It takes more time
designed to train teachers of English to to formulate a comment with specific
young learners in EFL contexts do not information, but it shows that you care
prepare teachers to deal with parents. about the child.
Meet the
Phillip Burrows
parents
It is very easy to say:
‘Monica is doing really well in school.’
However, instead, you might want to
tell her parents why you think that she
I was very puzzled as to why, on the being able to reach me directly.
is doing well in school:
one hand, Linda’s mother had defended I personally try to avoid
‘It is a pleasure to have Monica in class. Linda, but on the other hand, had shown communicating with parents by email. I
She always cooperates very well with the that she agreed with me by helping Linda feel it is acceptable to use email to set
other children. She always follows overcome some of her untidiness. A up a time to talk, but I don’t like using
instructions and helps other children who senior colleague explained that parents it to discuss information about a child.
may not understand exactly what they are are supposed to stick up for their own One of my concerns is confidentiality
supposed to do.’ children and when they don’t, you, as a and the fact that the internet is not
The same principle holds true when teacher, have cause to be concerned. completely safe. Another larger concern
conveying information about a problem. Once I acknowledged that it is a parent’s is that the forward button is too easy to
The parents may dismiss what you are responsibility to defend and protect their press. I can write something to a parent
saying about Tommy if you simply state: children, I immediately viewed parents and if they misinterpret it, or if I wasn’t
differently, seeing them as advocates for clear, the parents can easily forward it
‘Tommy is just plain lazy.’ their children rather than as my to their friends or even my supervisor.
However, they are likely to be more adversaries. Although I still had, and have
willing to listen and work with you if to, deal with challenging parents, now I 5 Check your grammar
you provide specific information such as: have a better appreciation of their and spelling before you
‘Tommy sat and looked out of the window perspective. As a result of my send anything home
for half an hour before he started doing understanding, I have even said to parents:
Some parents may actually base their
his work. He worked for five minutes and ‘I know that your job is to support your evaluation of a teacher’s overall
then looked out again for another 20 child and your child should be grateful that performance on their use or misuse of
minutes. Finally, when he started working you are doing that for her.’ the English language. Some may believe
again, it was time for him to go home.’ that their child’s teacher is a poor
4 Set aside time to talk teacher because he or she made one
3 Remember that the with parents tiny little grammar or spelling mistake. I
parents’ job is to Parents appreciate teachers who are remember working with a native-
defend their children accessible. I usually keep Wednesday English-speaking teacher in rural Alaska
Early on in my career, I felt that the afternoons as a time when I can have whose supervisor wanted to fire him
parents of my learners would always side face-to-face or telephone conversations just because there were a couple of
with their children regardless of whether with parents regarding routine matters. minor spelling errors on the bulletin
or not their children were wrong. I If something that is not urgent comes up boards that he had put up in his
remember confronting one mother during the week, I schedule a time to classroom. The school principal felt that
about her daughter Linda’s very messy talk on Wednesdays. Until I did this, I felt the parents would be justified in
habits. Linda’s mother told me that Linda guilty because I wasn’t always accessible criticising this teacher if they saw these
was merely creative and that she didn’t to parents. For urgent matters, I feel that errors. The teacher, who was an
want to stifle her daughter’s creativity. it is important to talk to parents as soon excellent teacher, learnt to double
A few weeks afterwards, I noticed that as possible and I will make time after check all the written work that he
Linda was becoming tidier and tidier. school or in the evening for a telephone produced, prior to sharing it with the
According to Linda, her mother had call. I give out my home phone number children and their parents.
spoken to her and given her some and I have found, without exception, that Since parents can be unduly harsh, I
suggestions about how to be neater. parents have not abused the privilege of am extra cautious with grammar,
Self-service
From training to
development
While I would never suggest that
business English departments scrap
their formal training sessions, I do think
development
that teachers may often be better served
by being given the tools and skills to
nurture their own development rather
than ‘waiting to be served’.
The terms teacher training and
teacher development are often used
interchangeably, but there are essential
John Hughes proposes an action plan
differences. In teacher training, the
for specialist teachers. emphasis tends more towards an
‘expert’ trainer delivering the content.
With teacher development, the teachers
B
usiness English teachers, like The problem for trainers
all teachers, can benefit from themselves tend to decide what they
attending training sessions. If your school does regularly succeed in need to learn. They draw on their own
When we set aside time to bringing all business English teachers experiences, and information can be
hear a colleague’s presentation of a new together in one place at the same time, gleaned from a number of sources such
idea or have a workshop to explore then the trainer is faced with various as websites or by informally chatting to
classroom challenges, it helps us on considerations. By its very nature, colleagues. In business English terms this
various levels. These sessions can not business English, which is needs-driven, can also include reading business journals
only help our understanding of teaching demands that a teacher become familiar or taking a business-based qualification.
and learning as well as improving our with different areas of professional Teacher development is also more flexible.
teaching skills, but they also bring content (eg accountancy, law, marketing, Teachers are able to set their own
teachers together. Business English etc) whenever a new student is being timetables for study so, for example, that
teachers in particular spend a great deal taught. In addition, business English long bus journey to the factory can be
of time working without contact with classrooms tend to vary in format (one- spent reading up on an aspect of teaching.
peers, so a training session also serves a to-one, mini- or large-group teaching, To make a clear distinction between
crucial social and networking function. distance training, etc) so different teachers training and development is, of course,
need training in dealing with different an oversimplification and suggests they
contexts. As a result, the training and are separate entities. Clearly, there is
The problem of training support required by even a small team room for both, working in tandem, but
Though we may accept the value of of teachers will vary enormously. In one schools might do well to support their
group training, the reality is that training session you could have Teacher X business English teachers with a policy
creating space in a daily timetable for who needs help with a one-to-one course that emphasises personal development
formal training is very difficult. Full- in the fashion industry while Teacher Y over formal training. Such a policy
time teachers are often busy people, has a class of 30 pre-work 18 year olds might include the following:
struggling with many hours of teaching, studying every aspect of business. Added Mentoring: An experienced teacher is
not to mention a home life! to that, there will be teachers with ten assigned to help and support a newer
For business English teachers, access years of experience as against teachers teacher.
to formal training presents a particular with ten weeks of experience. Delivering Classroom observation: Teachers
problem. Firstly, many in-company a training programme to satisfy such a observe each other’s lessons.
teachers are self-employed and work broad range of needs and interests will Teachers’ room: In the room where
without the support of a school or always be challenging for the trainer. teachers gather to prepare lessons, access
colleagues. They themselves are often is provided to materials such as teacher
their only resource. As a result, they have resource books or business journals. Part
to actively seek training opportunities, not Schools might do of a notice board is given over to ideas
to mention paying for them. On the other well to support their for lessons, or a new article (perhaps
hand, if you are a teacher employed by a from ETp) is placed there each week.
school, you might spend time travelling to business English Conferences: Teachers are offered the
reach a client off-site, so time is at even teachers with a policy chance to attend conferences.
more of a premium. Finally, for the Resource building: If a teacher is
school which wants to provide training, that emphasises working on a very specific area of
there is the logistical problem of teachers
working in different places at different
personal development business or ESP, they could file some of
their specific materials in case a similar
times, so fixing a time for everyone to over formal training field of business is taught in the future.
come together is problematic. As well as serving other teachers, this
action plan’
One way to start on self-development is 3 I subscribe to a journal with ideas for business English teachers.
to work with the action plan opposite.
You begin by answering questions 1 to
4 I have a favourite ELT website I visit to get ideas.
12. Then in 13 and 14 you think of your
own ideas for development. If possible,
compare and share your suggestions 5 I sometimes write an article or send in an idea to a journal/website.
here with colleagues. Assuming that
there are a few which you haven’t ticked,
choose only two to start implementing 6 I attend workshops/teacher training at my school.
initially. Choose one which can be done
within the next month and then select
one which can be a longer-term aim 7 I attend external workshops/conferences (eg BESIG).
(over six months).
If your school is able to provide
formal training, why not have a session 8 I sometimes give workshops to other teachers.
on development and fill in the action
plan together? When participants tick 1
9 I participate in online teachers’ forums / discussion chats.
to 12, they can tell each other about
their answers in order to share ideas.
Answers for 13 and 14 will also provide 10 I observe peers and invite them to observe me.
plenty of discussion and generate ideas
between colleagues. After a few months,
come together again and report back on 11 I subscribe to a business magazine to improve my knowledge.
how well you’ve all been able to
implement the action plan. ETp
12 I sometimes team-teach with a more experienced teacher.
Ur, P ‘Teacher training, teacher
development’ English Teaching
Professional 8 1998 Write two more ideas for things you do already to develop or perhaps
Head, K and Taylor, P Readings in Teacher could consider doing. Ask a colleague for their ideas, too.
Development Heinemann ELT 1997
13 ___________________________________________________________________
Thanks to Rebecca Turner for her comments
and feedback on this article. Rebecca
originally co-presented with me on this topic at 14 ___________________________________________________________________
BESIG Berlin 2007 and IATEFL Exeter 2008
and developed the action plan with me.
Balancing act
L
Purificación iterature has always had an linguistic activities are completely
important role in traditional disconnected from the literary aspects
Sánchez offers language classrooms, and it is of the passage, and could, in fact, be
still an important component used with virtually any text.
models of activities to of language teaching courses in many Finally, the personal growth model
countries. However, there are two offers a middle way between the cultural
integrate language and distinct ways to treat literary texts when model and the language model, since
teaching languages. The first involves an the text is used both to study the
literature. emphasis on analysis of the language language and also to explore the
used in a text, the other is the cultural context. Students are
exploitation of the text from a literary encouraged to express their own
point of view, with a greater focus on opinions, feelings and personal
meaning. I believe that a balance of the experiences so that an interaction
two is necessary: texts are a useful between the text and the reader takes
source of language in action, yet their place. This model relies on the ability of
use in the language classroom does not literature to move people, and takes
offer enrichment to the student unless advantage of that potential to offer a
the message of the text is also richer learning experience to the
considered. In this article, I should like students.
to present a series of activities aimed at
keeping the balance between these two
approaches, showing that both can be Students are
integrated within the same scheme.
encouraged to express
Different models their own opinions,
As Ron Carter and Michael Long have feelings and personal
pointed out, various models have been
suggested for the teaching of literature experiences so that
to ESL and EFL students: the cultural an interaction between
model, the language model and the
personal growth model. the text and the
The cultural model is the most
traditional approach to teaching
reader takes place
literature. In this model the literary text
is used to study literary movements and The model I suggest here draws
genres in their historical and social mainly on a combination of the
contexts. This model is often rejected language model and the personal
nowadays for teaching language since it growth model, attempting to make the
is essentially teacher-centred and does enjoyment of literature possible for the
not offer much opportunity for students whilst also exploiting it to
language work. foster their linguistic abilities.
The language model is more learner-
centred. Here, the literary text can be
used to focus on grammar or
Different stages
vocabulary, in the same way that these In reading comprehension work, three
aspects are presented in coursebooks or stages are usually recommended to
in stylistic analysis. However, this model make the text more accessible and more
proposes a somewhat ‘reductive’ interesting: pre-reading, while-reading
approach to literature, since its and post-reading. The pre-reading
Talking
V1 V2 V3
(or Verb 1 or (or Verb 2 or (or Verb 3 or
First form ) Second form ) Third form )
about
When asked why they used the
terminology they chose, they said that it
was clearer and less confusing for the
students, easier to pronounce, logical
and more visual.
In other words, the main reason for
using I/P/PP seems to be external, led
by history and publishers, whereas the
verbs
users of V1–3 seem to have considered
what is most useful for their students.
This is by no means a criticism of those
preferring the more traditional language,
as many of them make the point that
they consider it easier for students if
they use terminology that is consistent
with their textbooks. Some respondents
actually said they would prefer to use
Johanna Stirling puts See, saw, seen. What do you call these
V1–3 if only it was in the books.
three forms of a verb?
the case for some sensible Is see the infinitive, base form, first The case
form, Verb 1 or something else? Saw
terminology and provides might be past simple, past, Verb 2 or So what is the solution to this problem?
remote form. And seen is most likely For all teachers to use the more
some ammunition for taking past participle or Verb 3. traditional terminology in order to be
consistent with their coursebooks? I
action. think not.
The problem And why the preference for V1–3?
I asked 37 teachers from around the Or rather, what is wrong with the
world about the terminology they use traditional I/P/PP terminology? Let’s
when talking about these three verb take the forms one by one.
forms, and found that about two thirds
Verb 1
of them usually spoke of infinitive, past
What is the infinitive of bought? Is it buy
and past participle (I/P/PP). This was
or is it to buy? Some teachers insist it is
certainly a majority, but not as high as
the first, some the second and others
you might expect, given that all of the
confess to confusion themselves! If you
(UK published) coursebooks that I
are discussing the sentence It’s important
examined used this terminology. This
to recycle vocabulary, would you say
suggests that for a third of the teachers,
something like ‘important is followed by
the terms used in the coursebooks are
the infinitive, not the -ing form’? If so,
different from those they are using to
you would be using infinitive to refer to
describe and discuss language structure
to recycle. So there is some ambiguity
with their students.
about what an infinitive really is, whereas
It was very interesting to note that
V1 is definitely only the verb, not the to.
most of the teachers using I/P/PP
If we want to include the to, then we say
terminology said they did so because it
so: ‘important is followed by to and V1,
was in the books that their students used,
not the -ing form’. No confusion, then.
because it was what they had been taught
themselves or because their students were Verb 2
already familiar with those terms. Past simple is a dreadful name for Verb
On the other hand, 28 per cent of 2! For me, this is the strongest reason for
the teachers preferred a more numerical not using the more traditional
representation (V1–3), that is, Verb 1, terminology. Consider these sentences in
Are _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ?
Where is __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ?
Do you ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ?
What’s _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ?
When do __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ?
Where do _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ?
Is your _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ?
When ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ?
What _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ?
Is this ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ?
Who is _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ?
Can ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ?
Is that ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ?
MEANING
FUNCTION
USE
Ai and Aii give/refuse permission. Ai gives permission Ai and Bi Today, can is Biii is also generally spoken,
When expressing permission, can/can’t and says what is familiar and common in though it may sometimes be seen
and may/may not are interchangeable allowed. spoken and informal in written form (eg Mind the gap on
in meaning in modern English; Aii refuses written language, while London Underground platforms).
however, for some speakers there are permission and says may is often considered
Biv is usually written (on a sign).
differences in use (see below). what is not allowed. more polite and/or formal
and written. Some Ei is spoken and neutral/informal
Bi, Bii, Biii and Biv all identify Bi, Bii, Biii and Biv speakers prefer may for written (eg in leaflets, guide books,
problems or situations that need to be express strong advice reasons of politeness. etc).
acted upon or avoided. and warnings.
Bi is generally spoken, Eii is written (on a sign), but may
In Ci, the obligation is imposed on the Ci and Di express an
though it may also be also be represented visually by
speaker’s authority (here, the teacher). obligation.
used in leaflets, etc. pictograms.
In Cii, the prohibition is imposed by Cii, Ei and Eii
the speaker (here, the teacher). express a prohibition.
CONCEPT QUESTIONS
In Di, the obligation is imposed on Dii offers an option to
someone else’s authority (here, the do something or not. Ci Teacher: You must Di The examination board
examination board). use your dictionary says we have to write
with this worksheet. our compositions in ink
In Dii, there is no obligation – we
PRONUNCIATION
Can we use our in the exam.
needn’t write in ink and are free to
In Ai, the modals are dictionary? (Yes.) Can we write in ink? (Yes.)
choose.
quite weak. Is it compulsory? (Yes.) Is it compulsory? (Yes.)
Ei and Eii say what is forbidden. In Aii, can’t is usually Do we have any Do we have any choice?
Note that not all signs using No … are stressed, as is not in choice? (No.) (No.)
prohibitions: No vacancies means that may not. Who says so? (Our Who says so? (The
there are no rooms available, not that teacher (the speaker).) examination board (not
vacancies are forbidden! In Bi, careful receives a
the speaker).)
strong stress, and the
Cii Teacher: You mustn’t
intonation may rise at
use your dictionary Dii We don’t have to do our
SITUATIONS
Rules and regulations Put the students into small Job description Make a worksheet of key words
groups and supply them with coloured marker pens and relating to jobs (eg uniform, overtime, English,
A4 paper. Ask them to design signs and notices (with drive a lot, telephone, customers, meetings, etc).
graphics if possible) for the classroom (eg No smoking/ The students work in pairs to ask and answer
Switch off your mobile phone/English only! etc). questions formed from these prompts (eg Do you
have to wear a uniform?).
Extension 1: You can ask them to make further signs for John Potts is a teacher
hospitals, libraries, gyms, etc. and teacher trainer based
20 Questions The above activity can be turned in Zürich, Switzerland.
Extension 2: Younger students may enjoy making signs into a ‘Twenty questions’ game. Student A has a He has written and
for crazy rules. job card (eg flight attendant), and Student B tries co-written several adult
coursebooks, and is a
to guess the job on the card by asking yes/no Joint Chief Assessor for
Highway code Make worksheets of traffic signs – questions using have to. Student A can answer the Cambridge/RSA
CELTA scheme.
you can find them by searching for ‘traffic signs’ at using only Yes, I do/No, I don’t.
Google Images (http://images.google.com) or at johnpotts@swissonline.ch
www.direct.gov.uk/en/TravelAndTransport/Highwaycode/ Everyday life quiz Make a quiz or a
Signsandmarkings/index.htm. Alternatively, search questionnaire about everyday life in a particular
Microsoft Clip Art for ‘traffic signs’ country/culture with questions using have to
(http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/clipart) and then copy (eg Do you have to be 18 before you can drive a
and paste them into a Word document (eg right turn only, car? Do men have to do military service?). The
no entry, give way/yield, pass either side, parking, ice, students can do this in groups, or as a walk-
roundabout, queues likely). The students work in pairs round activity. If you have a multinational class,
and express the signs appropriately. Then pool their pool the answers in open class. If your students
language and see how many different ways the signs are mostly from one country, do some internet
can be expressed. research beforehand and find out the answers for
the UK, USA, Australia, etc, and see if/where
Extension: You can use other pictograms (eg no
things are different.
photography/ice creams/dogs, etc) – again, you can get
these from Microsoft Clip Art or Google Images.
COMPETITION RESULTS
8 23 21 14 6 11 Congratulations to all Beverly Aimanoshi, Mando, Nigeria
J U P W E D those readers who Annie Altamirano, Salamanca, Spain
20 7 23 5 17 6 3 23 5 2 6 25
B O U N C E H U N G E R successfully completed Edi Daddoli, S Giovanni Valdarno, Italy
15 17 25 6 22 21 our Prize Crossword 30. Maria Fucci, Latina, Italy
K C R E T P The winners, who will Asenka Kramer, Zagreb, Croatia
26 6 25 7 16 15 6 18 6 22 7 5
Z E R O S K E L E T O N each receive a copy of Isa-Sabine O’Nyons, Köln, Germany
19 9 18 25 16 the Macmillan English Victoria Paleologou, Thessaloniki, Greece
M I L R S Dictionary for Advanced Anne Radowick, Incheon, South Korea
16 6 18 13 9 16 3 16 22 12 9 25
Learners, are: Francisca Salazar de Jesús, Cadiz, Spain
S E L F I S H S T A I R
4 7 22 1 12 22 Elizabeth Anne Snyder, Radlett, UK
X O T Q A T 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
16 21 7 25 22 20 23 16 9 6 16 22
S P O R T B U S I E S T Q G H X N E O J I V D A F
14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26
18 22 13 9 5
L T F I N W K S C L M B P T U Y R Z
11 9 16 12 2 25 6 6 19 7 10 6 22 7 16 6 6 14 3 12 22 9 16
D I S A G R E E M O V E T O S E E W H A T I S
17 20 7 22 6 6 9 5 13 25 7 5 22 7 13 7
C B O T E E I N F R O N T O F O
21 9 18 18 7 14 18 6 5 2 22 3 5 6 16 5 7 16 6 5 6 6 11
P I L L O W L E N G T H N E ’ S N O S E N E E D
22 6 5 24 22 7 16 12 17 7 5 16 22 12 5 22 16
T E N Y T O S A C O N S T A N T S
22 25 23 2 2 18 6 George
T R U G G L E . Orwell
Songs Games
Singalonga Morrissey? Games are always useful in the classroom. They come in all
Working with songs and their lyrics is a tried and tested crowd- shapes and sizes, are very popular with students, and reach
pleaser. It serves all sorts of purposes: adding intrinsic interest parts of the brain other activities struggle to reach. You
by bringing popular culture into the classroom; giving rein to could try adapting a popular TV quiz show format or board
different learning styles; and facilitating exploration of more game, or a traditional card or word game, but for something
diverse kinds of language, including the non-standard, the already prepared, try some of the games available on the
figurative and the playful. You can work with the raw material www.teachitworld.com site. Here are two that your students
in all kinds of ways, according to the age or stage of your might enjoy.
students: singing along, interpreting meaning, getting
students to write their own songs, exploring metaphor, You say aubergine ... I say eggplant
discussing different musical styles and tastes, and so on. Make sets of domino cards, each with a British term at one end
Songs by The Beatles have a long-established place in this and an American one (not the American equivalent of the word
tradition, but other songs which can be used very productively already on the card) at the other end. Put the students into
in class include: small groups and give them a set each. The students’ task is to
match the British and American equivalents in a domino-style
● ‘Everybody Hurts’ by REM. This has a sensitive topic which chain. Sticking your dominoes onto stiff card or getting them
needs to be handled carefully, but the lyric is lexically laminated will give you a resource that you can use again and
simple and it is a theme teenagers can discuss with great again.
integrity and interest.
You can download Helen Magner’s domino cards for free from
● ‘Ironic’ by Alanis Morissette doesn’t give a good definition www.teachitworld.com/attachments/9298.pdf.
of irony, but it consists of a series of lovely vignettes that
can be discussed – Has anything like this ever happened to Divine definitions
you? – and offers potential for development into longer
Whether this idea is based on the long-running old BBC TV
narratives or anecdotes.
programme Call My Bluff, or a commercially-produced family
● ‘A Little Time’ by The Beautiful South is relatively simple, card game called Chicanery, or whether both were adapted
quite humorous and great for focusing on tag questions! from a longer-running classroom activity (or older parlour
game), who knows? It is certainly a classroom classic and in
Mostly, the more teenagers are appalled by your choice of this version it is played to develop understanding of common
music, the more likely they are to bring in their own favourite media buzzwords such as think-tank and catch-22 situation.
songs written in English, which will keep you in lesson material
for months! Divide the class into four teams and give each team dictionary
definitions of six media buzzwords. Their task is to invent two
One song which often appeals to moody teenagers because it inaccurate definitions. The teams then take turns to read all
is quite dark is the Morrissey song, ‘The First of the Gang to three definitions out and the other teams have to guess which
Die’. You can download a fantastic, free resource (submitted by is the correct one.
Simon Green), based on this song from www.teachitworld.com/
Lots of good vocabulary learning is to be had with this game,
attachments/10150.pdf. This gets maximum value from the
and if your students enjoy it, you can adapt it to work with any
song and lyrics, with activities to explore sound patterns in the
set of words you like.
lexis; close listening; dictionary work; discussion about gangs,
love, crime and young people, through exploring the song’s Go to www.teachitworld.com/attachments/9750.pdf to
meaning and interpretation – and it offers the opportunity to download Lucy Palmer’s worksheets and materials for this
sing along. activity.
IT WORKS IN PRACTICE Do you have ideas you’d like to share with colleagues around the world? Tips, techniques and activities;
simple or sophisticated; well-tried or innovative; something that has worked well for you? All published
contributions receive a prize! Write to us or email: iwip@etprofessional.com .
The reading
experience
For Bruce Milne, getting students to read extensively is a collective responsibility.
‘The best way to improve your advanced students. Obviously, my own first was written by Christine Nuttall
knowledge of a foreign language is to go language learning experience has shaped (author of Teaching Reading Skills in a
and live among its speakers. The next my beliefs, but when I started to read Foreign Language) and the second by
best way is to read extensively in it.’ magazines, thrillers, love stories, crime Chris Brumfit – a well-known and
fiction and newspapers in French, my prolific EFL author and methodologist
‘Wide-ranging reading is probably the
feel for the language, my receptive of his time. The depressing fact,
most efficient way of extending students’
vocabulary and my structural however, is that these quotes were
acquaintance with the language ...’
competence all developed immeasurably. written in 1982 and 1979 respectively,
I think we all recognise that glowing and yet I believe the majority of English
T
he two quotes above make
feeling when we read something and language teachers are still not doing
quite vigorous claims for the
instantly know what it means, even if enough to promote extensive reading
value of extensive reading for
we have never seen it before. To take a with their students. A caveat here –
those learning a foreign
topical example, if I see le changement what do I mean by ‘extensive reading’?
language. Is it really ‘the next best thing
de climat, I recognise it immediately as a
to living among its speakers’? Is it ‘the
most efficient way of extending students’ Intensive
acquaintance with the language’? It
would be almost impossible to
It is my firm At the beginning of my teaching career,
most passages in ELT textbooks were
substantiate these claims empirically, belief that extensive there to give some sort of context for the
but many theorists, methodologists and study of grammar and vocabulary. In the
classroom practitioners would adopt a reading is crucial classical grammar-translation method, of
similar position. The case for extensive for students who are course, they were there principally to be
reading is well known: translated. Publishers and authors have,
● Extensive reading consolidates
getting stuck at an in recent years, done a lot to improve
current knowledge of vocabulary and intermediate plateau matters by the introduction of interesting
grammar. and relevant authentic texts that students
can genuinely enjoy and respond to.
● It allows acquisition of new language
lexical chunk I can add to my passive These texts have been accompanied by a
to take place – grammar, vocabulary,
and active vocabularies, and yet if you host of while-reading activities, which
expression, register, discourse, style, etc.
had asked me what was the French for mainly serve to help the reader and to
● It can help students to develop their climate change, I would have struggled. test comprehension. However, it is still
writing skills. (You will correctly infer from this that I common practice for the texts to be used
● It caters for the students’ own interests. have lost the reading habit in French! as a basis for grammatical and lexical
Readers may like to see if they know analysis after the initial response to the
● At its best, it can help develop cross- expressions such as climate change, meaning. This will usually involve a
cultural awareness. greenhouse effect and carbon footprint in very close intensive reading of the text,
It is my firm belief that extensive the foreign languages they have learnt. which has its place but which does not
reading is crucial for students who are Those who read the media in a foreign constitute extensive reading. (The
getting stuck at an intermediate plateau language should have no trouble.) amount of time students are exposed to
and is the only real way for them to The quotes I started this article with reading material is also a relevant factor.
develop into upper-intermediate and are well weighted with authority. The Most current ELT textbooks have one
From‘me’to‘my profession’
Duncan Foord’s concentric circles define our development as English teaching professionals.
my profes
W
e go to workshops, learn from class we have taught a nd sio greater challenges (and often a
Me n
d my sch
each other, train, read, study, would be examples. M
e a n oo
l
correspondingly greater sense of
reflect, experiment, and so on ● The second is me an
d my colle achievement).
y
ag ents
d m st ● They provide memorable
Me
and so on, but what really makes us and my students.
ue
M e an
ud
s
change as teachers? How can we make Development in this Me categories for teachers to refer to
sense of the diverse events, actions and circle would include when discussing their
circumstances that contribute to what is getting feedback development. As you can see from
usually referred to under the umbrella from students about the teacher responses in my research,
term teacher development? our teaching or trying there is a substantial diversity in the
To answer the first question, I did out new material with Five circles for teacher way teachers develop. It is useful to
some research to find out what teachers them. development be able to map this diversity.
themselves thought had contributed ● The third circle is me and my ● They offer a potential pathway for
most to their development. To answer colleagues. Activities in this circle might teacher development. Obviously our
the second, I propose a model which include peer observation, team teaching development as teachers doesn’t move
aims to apply an organising principle to and staffroom support. strictly chronologically through the circles,
the diversity and range of development ● The fourth is me and my school. This but the more experience we have, the more
possibilities open to teachers. includes activities such as teachers’ likely we are to work more in the outer
meetings, carrying out projects and circles. The model helps us to see the range
The research
interaction with management and other of possible scenarios for development,
I sent an email to all the teachers I know,
members of staff. understand how they might differ, and
asking them what they thought were the
● The fifth circle is me and my profession. identify possible strengths and weaknesses.
three most important factors, events,
Examples of activities in this circle ● They create a ripple effect. A seemingly
activities or moments in their development
include attending and presenting at small event or action at the centre of the
as teachers. On page 50 you can read some
conferences, membership of professional circles can have repercussions all the
edited highlights from their responses.
communities and writing for publication. way to the edge. A reflection on our
! Before reading them, you might
want to think about what your ! Here is another task to help you get
teaching (circle one) can end up as a
published article (circle five), as is the
answers would be to this question. a feel for the model. Look again at
case with this contribution to ETp!
the list of teacher development activities
The results
The question was phrased to elicit events
and influences referred to by the teachers
quoted on page 50. Which of the five
or activities which teachers felt had the circles does each belong to? You may Given that we can’t be sure exactly how
most impact on them. I naively imagined find that some fit more than one circle. much, or in what way, developmental
that I might get a result from this along activities will make us change, I propose
the lines of a ‘top three most-mentioned Five reasons for five circles we adopt an approach of ‘organised
activities’. Nothing of the kind. Responses ● They cater for the diversity of teacher intuition’. The important thing is to
were very diverse and there was definitely learning styles and teacher contexts in take action, but thinking about how it
no clear winner. I have given each quote ELT by emphasising the fact that all fits together might help us to direct
a heading, but they are not in order of development can be individual as well as and understand our efforts better.
frequency. Nor was there any category collaborative. This is important as many And talking of doing things, there is a
which was mentioned significantly more teachers work in isolation from other ‘circle one’ activity on page 51 called ‘Do
times than any other. teachers or in schools where there is a it yourself development’ for you to try.
The five circles model limited culture of collaboration. A lot
Duncan Foord is Director
In order to understand and talk about of important development can be done of Teacher Training at
teacher development more easily, I on your own and, in fact, this is OxfordTEFL. He is based
probably the best place to start. in Barcelona and is
propose a ‘five circles’ model which author of The Developing
organises developmental activity into ● They reflect increasing levels of Teacher, soon to be
challenge. As the community you work published by DELTA
five categories. These can be represented Publishing, and co-author,
in five concentric circles. with broadens, the more you require with Lindsay Clandfield,
interpersonal, leadership and time of The Language
● The first circle, the inner circle, Teacher’s Survival
contains activities involving the teacher management skills to carry forward Handbook, published by
activities. Working with others, iT’s Magazines.
working alone. We can call this circle me.
Reading this article or reflecting on a especially at institutional level, offers Duncan@oxfordtefl.com
From ‘me to ‘my profession’: Teacher responses
What do you think were the most important factors, events, activities
or moments in your development as a teacher?
In-service training Reading
In-service training workshops offered by the school Doing further reading related to teaching, TEFL and the
English language
This was first in the role of attending the workshops and in
the latter years in the role of presenting the workshops. I find that about half of all the reading I now do is based in
This has been useful because I feel that when a group of the above areas. I enjoy knowing more and more about the
teachers gather together to discuss their own development world of TEFL and the English language and being able to
and ideas about teaching, the exchange of ideas and employ this knowledge in the classroom.
sharing of knowledge empowers everyone concerned.
School support
Formal training The active support of the institution I work for
Taking the Trinity Diploma in TESOL
One school paid my full tuition to do the Diploma. Another
I felt that I had reached a stage in my career where I paid for teachers to go to TEFL conferences. Others
needed to have a greater understanding of the ideas and sponsored development workshops, etc.
theory behind EFL and a chance to put these ideas into
practice. The Diploma inspired me to continue developing
as a teacher and gave me many ideas for future career
New job/role
Mentoring
directions.
The key element in my development as a teacher was to
Experience become a mentor for novice teachers at the school where I
Time in the classroom, ie time with the students I teach was teaching in Dublin.
Procedure
1 Look at the table below and make a list in the left-hand column of things you dislike about your job,
inside and outside the classroom. Here are some examples:
● Spending so much time marking homework
● My long journey to work
● My salary
● The coursebook I use with my upper-intermediate class
2 Read through your list and, for each item, decide if you can change it and put a , ? or X in the column beside it.
= Definitely can change ? = Maybe can change X = Definitely cannot change
3 Now look at the X items and think about them again. Be more optimistic. Change at least one of them to a ?.
When?
How?
5 You have just created your own teacher development activity. Good luck with it.
When you have done it, create another one. Keep going!
4 Snapshots of a lesson
A picture is worth a thousand words, so the saying goes, and it diagram, the teacher will get a much clearer idea of what is
may well be true for classroom observations, too. As observers, our happening, or not happening in this case! You could use a similar
tendency is to observe and then immediately try to put into words technique to monitor interaction between students.
our interpretation of what is happening. Then, when we meet the
teacher afterwards to give feedback, we report back on what we’ve Boardwork
written and probably add even more interpretation to the events. The board can tell us a great deal about our lesson, so having an
The advantage of simply drawing and sketching what you can observer copy down what is on it throughout the lesson is very
see is that you are observing rather than interpreting. At different useful. Again, you could agree to have them copy it every so often
stages of the lesson, you can focus on one particular aspect, to show the development of the lesson. Some boardwork images
sketch it, and then afterwards with the teacher you can look at can highlight the fact that the teacher needs to organise and plan
what happened and interpret it together. the board more carefully or can also show how well a teacher
Below are some examples of what can usefully be drawn in a manages board use alongside the stages of a lesson.
lesson. An observation form on which such sketches might be
made is given on page 53 – these examples would come from the Snapshot sketches
Snapshot column of this form. Different ways in which the form On a final technical point, you might be wondering why, in this
can be used are described at the end of the article. age of digital photography and film, you need to draw the
classroom. Well, it is true that a digital camera is quiet and if you
Class layout take a snapshot every few minutes of, for example, the board, you
At different stages of the lesson you can draw the layout of the will build a good record of events and can easily flick through the
class to show the position of the teacher and students. The images afterwards. However, in my experience students get
sketch below indicates that the students are working in pairs. nervous and distracted when a camera enters the room. Also, it is
Whether it is intentional or not that the teacher seems to be not really good for capturing the full image of something like
withdrawn from the activity can be discussed afterwards. You can classroom layout, as you never seem to get the whole class in the
agree to draw the layout every five minutes of a lesson or at every frame. Making a video of the lesson is another option, but then
change of stage. By building a sequence of such images, you get you will need to operate the camera and move it around, and so
a full picture of how the layout altered – this often indicates you will only be capturing certain aspects of the class. It also
changes in pace and variety of tasks. requires a great deal of time to watch it at the end and find the
key moments for discussion. Pencil and paper still remain
__________________ preferable for this kind of observation.
T
SS SS
The snapshot observation form
SS
SS SS Make several copies of the form on page 53 as it is hard to
predict how many you might need during a lesson. Agree
with the teacher what you are observing for and write this at
Interaction the top. You can also agree if you will sketch at regular
intervals of time or whenever you feel it is relevant. When you
In this next sketch, as before, the observer has noted the
sketch, indicate the approximate time in the lesson or the
classroom layout, but she has also added lines to indicate
stage of the lesson plan in the first column. In the notes and
interaction between the teacher and students. In this case, the
comments column on the right of your drawing, you can
teacher is focusing all his attention on the students near to the
write information such as which exercise was being done.
front of the class and to his right. An observer could describe
Alternatively, you might note down a question to ask the
such tendencies in feedback afterwards, but by being shown the
teacher afterwards about this stage of the lesson.
__________________
T John Hughes is a freelance
teacher, trainer and author.
He has worked in Austria,
SS SS SS SS Poland, Italy, Malta and the
UK. He currently lives and
SS SS SS SS works in the USA.
SS SS SS SS
SS SS SS SS jhnhghs@msn.com
Mistaken identity London can I park my car for two weeks for £20?’
What is it?
when he noticed that
the woman behind him
smiling at him and ha was
d just raised her hand
to wave.
riddles?
He was rather taken
aback that such an att Can you solve these
woman would be wa ractive case, from
ving to him, and altho
ugh her 1 It is taken from a mine an
d shut up in a wooden
face was vaguely fam by almost
iliar, he had no idea wh sed, and yet it is used
might know her from, ere he which it is never relea
so he said, ‘I’m sorry
you know me?’ , bu t do everybody. What is it?
at are they?
re you leave behind. Wh
2 The more you take, the mo
To his surprise, she rep no more than
I thought you might be
lied, ‘I may be mistake
n, but 3 It has been around for mi
llions of years, but it is
the father of one of my it?
children.’ a month old. What is
to a car, and
4 It goes with a car, comes
with a car, is of no use
The man’s mind shot
back to the one and without it. What is it?
he had been unfaithf only time yet the car cannot go
ul to his wife. ‘Goodne re than you do.
said, ‘Did we meet at ss!’ he
5 It belongs to you, but oth
er people use it far mo
Frank’s stag party in
Newport?’ He then co What is it?
ntinued, ‘When I got
out of the down a
police station and go
t back to the hotel roo 6 What can go up a chimne
y down, but can’t go
had gone.’ m you
chimney up?
‘No,’ she replied, ‘I’m
your son’s English tea 6 an umbrella
cher.’ Answers 1 the lead of
a pencil 2 footsteps 3
the moon 4 noise 5 you
r name
Autoantonyms
An autoantonym is a word
CHUFFED pleased, delighted displeased, disgruntled
with two meanings which
DUST remove dust sprinkle with dust
are opposites of each other.
The word may have several INFLAMMABLE flammable not flammable
other meanings, but only the INHABITABLE habitable not habitable
two contradictory meanings
INSCIENT ignorant having secret or inward knowledge
are significant and give an
autoantonym its curious LEFT remaining gone away
quality. LET to permit to hinder, to prevent
OVERLOOK ignore inspect
© iStockphoto.com / Florea Marius Catalin
Don’t take
lesson, we could fill in this log:
What I did/said
it personally
Paul Bress reflects on why teachers may sometimes overreact.
What I thought was
going on
What I could do
next time
1 A student asks the teacher a ● If we look at example 1 (at the
question in order to check what he beginning of this article), the teacher
thinks that the student is trying to This pro-active step should help us to
has to do. The teacher reacts
provoke a fight and feels a degree of get a handle on our classroom
angrily, accusing him of not paying
anger that is unconnected with the behaviour. However, if it fails to do so,
attention.
student’s real motive. we could perhaps ask to be observed by
2 Two students don’t listen to a an empathetic, and insightful, DOS,
teacher’s instructions as they are ● In example 2, the teacher desperately ADOS, teacher trainer or senior teacher.
quietly chatting about what they did wants to be noticed and acknowledged They could fill in the log, too, and we
the previous night. The teacher as being important, and feels snubbed could compare results afterwards. The
feels ignored and shouts at them. by the two chatting students. Perhaps discussion needs to be positive and
these students represent the teacher’s forward-looking, and should allow time
3 A student carries out a roleplay in a
parents, who used to ignore their and space for emotions to be
diffident, lacklustre way, and the child’s screams. But the truth is that experienced and expressed.
teacher snaps at her, berating her the students are simply sharing a few
for her lack of enthusiasm. quiet words together.
● In example 3, the teacher wants to
! Stop for a moment. Do you
recognise any of these situations? make a mark, to feel their own
Poor old teacher, eh? We surely have
enough to think about already – what
Maybe, maybe not. importance manifested in a very with planning lessons, meeting students’
polished roleplay. The ‘shoddy’ needs, playing a variety of roles every
Could you give any examples of
performance of the student may day in class, marking work, attending
situations in which you have overreacted
remind the teacher of their own staff meetings, and constantly having to
to incidents that have occurred in class?
powerlessness as a young child. What’s come up with ideas for self-development.
Quite probably, I expect.
actually happening, though, is that And now we have to consider whether
students often have their own anxieties we might be behaving inappropriately in
Pondering the problems concerning taking part in roleplays,
What causes us to overreact like this in class because of our early childhood
and this may be why their performance experiences! But, in my opinion, this
class? There are two terms used in
in a roleplay is not exactly inspired. issue of transference and projection can
psychodynamic therapy which may be
relevant here. One is transference. This Of course, it is sometimes difficult to have a huge impact on our teaching, and
means that someone reminds us of a distinguish between emotions which are we do all need to be aware of the
figure from our past or an incident that to do with a real person in the here and possibility. If we aren’t, we’ll be poor
took place in our childhood. When now and emotions which are to do with role models and we’ll be giving our
we’re with this person, we re-experience key people in our childhood who are students unhelpful messages about
feelings of, say, fear or love. represented by the people we are teaching. appropriate ways to behave. ETp
Transference is an unconscious process; Such things do not lend themselves to Paul Bress works both
we are not aware of experiencing it. scientific proof. Moreover, we probably in the fields of personal
growth and ELT and has
The other term is projection. If we all experience a degree of projection and published very widely in
project, we assume that someone is transference in class every day. both areas. Paul is a
life-long, non-stop
thinking, feeling or intending something learner – he learns
that they are not. For example, we may Pre-empting the problems more from everyday
experience than from
think that a female student is trying to A problem arises when we go through formal research. His life
suffocate us with her ‘motherliness’, periods when we feel our psychological coaching website is
www.bemycoach.co.uk.
when, in fact, she’s simply being kind ‘buttons’ being pressed very often and
paulbress@talktalk.net
and helpful. for long continuous periods. If we sense
Meet the
Twitterati
M
Nicky Hockly and ySpace, FaceBook, Flickr social network – your ‘friends’. You can
... by now most of us have then send out a short message which
Gavin Dudeney heard of these internet basically answers the question What are
sites, and probably have you doing? Each message can be a
introduce us to instant some idea of what they do, especially if maximum of 140 characters long – in
we have teenage children. They are this sense it is similar to SMS text
social networking. examples of ‘social networking’ sites, messaging, as you need to be brief.
places where (often younger) people Your message immediately goes out
have personal webpages on which they to the people in your network – these
share photos and links, compile a list of are the people who ‘follow’ you (in
‘friends’, leave each other messages and Twitter parlance) – and you will get
generally ‘hang out’ online – hence responses appearing on your computer
social and network. screen immediately, depending on who
However, just when you thought
you’d got to grips with the latest
buzzword – social networking – along Instant social
comes another one: instant social
networking (ISN). How is this different
networking is
from social networking proper? It’s, well instant – this means
... instant. This means that
conversations between users take place that conversations
in real time, a bit like a combination of between users take
messenger-style text chat, mobile phone
text messaging (SMS) and blogging. place in real time
Indeed, instant social networking is also
known as ‘micro-blogging’.
is online and twittering (as it were). You
can also have ‘tweets’ (Twitter messages)
Explanation sent to your mobile phone – handy for
How does instant social networking when you’re running late, or for keeping
work? First, you open a free account in touch with a group of friends
with an application such as Twitter 1 without sending individual text
(http://twitter.com) on your computer. messages from your phone.
You then need to add people to your Sticking to the set question (What
© iStockphoto.com / pixhook
Into the
in teaching has been the Communicative
Approach, where the emphasis is on
getting one’s message across, real-life
contexts are simulated and the focus is
on fluency, with accuracy taking second
place. Yet, this methodology, even in the
best cases, has been constrained by the
unreal environment of the classroom.
beehive
Authentic communication simply cannot
take place without having a real purpose
in mind. As Alan Maley has pointed out,
communication tasks should be achieved
‘through the language rather than simply
with exercises on the language’.
Furthermore, communicative teaching
has never really had the appropriate
tools to achieve its purpose. The most
colourful and interesting textbooks do
I
Sotiria Koui encourages f you stop for a minute and take a
look at the busy buzzing world of not offer an incentive strong enough to
her students to open their technology around you, you will make shy or indifferent students interact
get a good sense of the extent to with the others. Moreover, textbooks
books and switch on their which all of us are using technological rarely reflect the wide range of language
gadgetry in our everyday lives to look usage. Lack of authenticity and purpose
mobile phones. for information, communicate or simply
enjoy ourselves. Though some use
technology reluctantly and others Though some use
eagerly, eventually we all learn to use it
because of its pervasiveness in our
technology reluctantly
social, personal and working lives. The and others eagerly,
benefit of this is that we develop life-
long learning skills. eventually we all learn
As a result, by integrating the use of to use it because of its
technology, including CALL (Computer
Assisted Language Learning), pervasiveness in our
systematically into an ELT syllabus, we social and working lives
can offer students the chance to develop
both linguistic and vital life skills.
in communication, lack of interactive
Technology tools and time pressures may hamper
our efforts to teach English in a natural,
Increased use of technology,
non-bookish way. I should like to
particularly CALL, in the classroom
suggest that technological resources,
has several advantages:
used in tandem with a textbook, can
● We can shift from a teacher-centred bridge successfully the gap between
to a learner-centred approach. accuracy and fluency.
● The students’ motivation is increased.
Ideas
● Both language and life skills are
With computer-based resources or other
enhanced.
gadgets, such as mobile phones, we can
● Authentic and purposeful create exciting, meaningful and effective
communication is promoted. lessons. Here are some suggestions:
● Different learning styles are catered for. ● Use mobile phones for a five-minute
warm-up activity at the beginning of
● Authentic materials are used to
the lesson. Ask the students before
transfer knowledge into wider
the lesson to take photos or brief
contexts.
videos on their mobile phones of
● Both individual creativity and group things, persons or events that they
cooperation take place. would like to talk about. These could
Into the
2 Opt for a gradual integration.
Implementing a radical change in fun. Assessment and reflection also need
teaching methods can trigger adverse to be done by the students, therefore,
reactions. This is why it is best to because this gives them scope and
beehive
be anything from their aunt’s new-
change the curriculum gradually,
piloting the CALL syllabus with one or
two classes at a time.
3 Plan outcomes and design tasks.
motivation to work harder. This could be
done in the form of a class discussion, or
by completing short sentences such as
What I can do is ..., I know ..., I should
remember to ..., and so on.
Our tasks should place the teacher in Planning and implementing an
born baby to the volleyball team’s
the role of facilitator and guide and the integrated approach to teaching with
trophy. The lesson starts with one
students in the roles of researchers and both textbooks and technology entails a
student presenting their images and
decision-makers. We also need to design considerable investment of time and
the others asking questions. This
task-based activities and not exercise- energy. It is, therefore, important to
makes an excellent ice-breaker.
oriented ones so that, as Alan Maley ensure that there is growth and
● Use a word processor to have your puts it, ‘the skills will be integrated continuity. To achieve this, we need to
students write a story, comic or play. rather than isolated’. have all the teachers participating and
As they act out their stories, take being involved at some level. As a result,
pictures with a digital camera to some kind of in-house training will be a
make illustrations to paste into their vital part of the whole procedure.
stories. Then use the Audacity
freeware or any other sound-
recording software to have your
students record themselves so they CALL is not just another theory of
can make an audio book. teaching English, but a tool that can
supplement any methodology efficiently
● Use Hotpotatoes (again, this is 4 Use a variety of means. Simply
so as to bring about better results and
freeware) to get your students to supplementing a coursebook with a CD- better learners. Above all, it is a tool
create revision exercises for dictation ROM, as is commonly done nowadays, that can build bridges which connect
or grammar. may seem to be an easy and efficient our classrooms with the students’ world
way to bring technology into the
● Get your students to do some and with the global community. The
classroom. However, commercial ready- classroom thus becomes an integral part
research on a specific topic on the
made CD-ROMs leave a lot to be of the huge, buzzing, live, interactive
internet and then to use PowerPoint
desired. They may offer an abundance beehive that is our world. ETp
or Voicethread to make presentations
of visually-appealing exercises with
to the rest of the class.
feedback and error correction, but they
● Organise an email exchange with a are mainly designed to drill grammar
class from a school in another and revise vocabulary. They also cater
country. to a broad market and are not tailored
to our students’ specific needs. What we
There are millions of things we can do
could do instead is to use ready-made
with technology. However, successful
CD–ROMs for self-study, but also
integration of technology with textbook
employ some authoring software so as to
use requires a systematic approach with This article is based on a presentation given
create tailor-made exercises to practise at TESOL Macedonia-Thrace on learning
clear targets. Research has shown that
other skills such as reading or listening. technologies.
the occasional and sporadic use of
Then we design task-based activities or
technology, just as happened when Maley, A ‘A rose is a rose, or is it? Can
projects utilising tools such as Word,
video was first available for classroom communicative competence be taught?’
PowerPoint, and the internet. These tools In Brumfit, C (Ed) ‘The practice of
use, does not bring about the desired
allow linguistic knowledge to be applied communicative teaching’ ELT Documents
progress.
to wider contexts, purposefully fostering 124 Pergamon Press 1986
creativity and interaction.
Integration Sotiria Koui has taught
English to all levels of
Before we start designing a syllabus that Results students, from beginners
to advanced, and all age
integrates textbook use with CALL and ranges, from primary to
After the lesson is over, reflection and
other technologies, we need to do the
© iStockphoto.com / Oktay Ortakcioglu
f someone were to ask me what my favourite ELT website is recent news reports into listening activities. There are other
Pitfalls in teaching
listening skills
hanks to the widespread Students panic when, having focused their listening tests or practice tests, each
5 7 13 20 18 19 23 11 19 19 16 18 13 18 20 16 8 14 19 22 1 7 3 19 10 19
13 22 11 2 5 15 14 16 6 13 9 12 19 13 18 5 13 7 4
18 24 13 6 5 1 1 18 24 13 4 19 1 21 20 16 19 15 26 20 16 8 11 20 18 24 13
26 7 5 11 19 6 3 12 14 19 26 24 1 11 8 24 26
.
7 13 3 20 1 16 1 26 24 20 16 8 Percy Bysshe Shelley, A Defence of Poetry
O
9 7 26 16 19
VERY FREQUENT WORDS ** Feeling excited and worried, or slightly
12 11 26 26 19 7 21 14 20 19 18 *** An amount of money or a judgment afraid
given by a court of law ** Large tables at an exhibition, where
19 5 9 13 2 *** A system of broadcasting organisations offer information or services
information and programmes that ** To express strong approval or
16 19 7 10 1 11 18 17 19 12 7 13 people can listen to admiration for someone or something in
*** Chess pieces that can move in any public
25 20 11 20 20 13 11 direction ** Very sad, worried, or angry about
*** Gets pleasure from something
1 7 8 13 16 3 7 19 18 18 19 18 *** Not anything
*** Puts on clothes FAIRLY FREQUENT WORDS
9 24 2 19 18 20 19
*** The area outside towns and cities, * A food made by mixing flour, fat and
with farms, fields and trees water, rolled flat and used for making pies
18 19 26 26 19 19 18 26 13 16 3 18
*** The things that make something * Flying insects with large colourful wings
happen * In a straight, standing position
*** To hold something’s weight so that LESS FREQUENT WORDS
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
it does not move or fall – A liquid that you use for washing your
O *** To make lots of quick small
14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 hair
movements up and down, or side to – A long, soft, comfortable chair for two
side or three people
*** To study a subject or consider an – An African animal like a horse with
To solve the puzzle, find which letter each number idea or plan carefully black and white stripes on its body
represents. You can keep a record in the boxes above. – A unit for measuring weight, equal to
FREQUENT WORDS
Three letters are done for you. Start by writing these ** A large bowl fixed to the wall in a 28.35 grams
letters in the other boxes in the crossword where their bathroom for washing your face and – A vehicle that you sit on to travel over
numbers appear. The definitions of the words in the puzzle hands in snow, with long pieces of wood instead
are given, but not in the right order. When you have ** A large musical instrument with of wheels
finished, you will be able to read the quotation. pipes of different lengths, played by – Least willing to work or to do any
pressing keys activity that needs effort