Archive for April, 2008

I should perhaps start by pointing out again that although most of the stuff on this blog is trivial at best and I am not very good at sticking at something until it gets done, I am totally serious this time about helping set up something that can help change TEFL everywhere, and I’m willing to put a fair bit of cash into whatever ideas do happen. So here goes with idea number two:

The TEFL Legal Fund

If investigative journalism isn’t going to sort out dodgy TEFL courses, false advertising, borderline criminal school owners etc, then the only thing that can possibly save us is the courts. And if we are going to take them to court, we are going to need cash. The cash could come from anyone who would donate- people who wish there had been such a fund when they were in trouble, schools who do things right and so have nothing to lose, TEFL teachers who have won their cases, lottery winners… A group of volunteers, preferably connected to an existing body like IATEL, would then decide where the money would go each year. There would be a set maximum number of cases they could donate to each year, and a set total percentage of the money they could spend each year and on each case. Criteria for choosing which cases to pursue would include:

- Teachers having already started the process on their own

- The chance to give an example to the whole industry

- Tackling habitual offenders

And lots of other things which I can’t think of at the moment.

So, any thoughts? Like this better than Idea One- the prize for TEFL journalism? Any other ideas for criteria for the cases chosen? Any other proposals that are more worthwhile? Want to pledge some money to the cause already? Press the comments button and let us know:

Having found out from the book “English for Specific Purposes” by Keith Harding that ESP has spawned a whole raft of lovely acronyms such as EAP, EBP, EMP, EOP, EPP, EST, EVP* and also the disparaging one for General English of ENOP (English for No Obvious Purpose), I thought it was time to brush the dust off the Alternative ELT Jargon Dictionary and set off in defence of General English.

Although I have a fair number of ENOP students in both my Business and General English classes, lots of my non-Business students have very specific purposes indeed. Here are a few acronyms to make those purposes look a bit more important and so get them the respect they deserve:

EKTRP- English for Killing Time after Retirement Purposes

EACRP- English for Avoiding Cultural Restrictions Purposes- like Japanese women who can only debate in English because the feminine forms of their own language are so weak it is impossible to compete with men

ESAP- English for Smart Arse Purposes- such as showing off the latest useless idiom they have learnt

EEP -English for Extramarital Purposes

EGSP- English for Gaijin Stalking Purposes/English for Giri Stalking Purposes- this one works for women whose list of needs in a relationship are topped by “blond hair” in both Spain and Japan

ENP- English for Nationalistic Purposes- such as explaining to foreigners why they should never criticise your country

EBP- English for Babysitting Purposes

ETP- English for Therapeutic Purposes- because your GABA teacher is the only person who will listen to your problems

ECP- English for Chaperone Purposes- for Turkish university students who are only allowed to stay out past the curfew of their halls and meet people of the other sex by signing on for English classes

And a couple which give a more realistic idea of what Business English and ESP classes turn out to be:

EAWP- English for Avoiding Work Purposes- coming to class might be the only chance they have for a one hour lunch break

EBP- English for Budgetary Purposes- for companies where the only way to give staff training on the cheap is to choose English lessons rather than the IT training they really need (more…)

“Native-Japanese speakers taking the paper-based Test of English as a Foreign Language, or TOEFL, scored lower than students from China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, South Korea and Vietnam in 2007. Even North Koreans scored higher.”

From the famous Japan analyst William Pissant.

To which my reply is- (more…)

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22is+a+certified+english+teacher%22

(more…)

1. German students trying to be cool

2. Japanese students giggling at everything you say, until it just isn’t flattering anymore, however cute they are

3. Chinese students falling asleep, then making you feel guilty when you do the topic of daily routines in the lesson after you told them off about it and you find out how little sleep they get at night

4. Korean students giving you gifts that are nicer than anything your boyfriend or girlfriend has ever given you and so making you feel guilty that you half ignored them because they were neither too loud nor too shy

5. Belgian students being odd in a completely different way to all the other Belgians let alone the other students and throwing you every time

6. Russian students making instant calculations of your financial worth

7. Spanish students complaining about the food (Ha! And a slice of jambon in a dry baguette is a delicacy??)

8. Brazilian students taking the piss out of the one poor Portuguese guy

9. French students just being so damn French

And that’s me out of stereotypes for a bit, and anyway that list of cultural cliches was not at all what I was planning to write when I sat down at this keyboard. So here goes with the first three sensible points on how cultural differences can affect what you do in the classroom :

1. Strictness
People from different cultures might react differently to giving students the answer key to check their own answers, bumping everyone’s score up in a test, being strict about absenses and lateness of the class register, allowing L1, chit chat when groups have finished early etc.

2. Groups and individuality
Students might be embarrassed by it being obvious that they are a higher or lower level than the rest of the class. You might also find that they will prefer to come to a concensus and report back to the class or teacher through a spokesman. This can also affect the use of competitive games and praising people who do well. They also might not want to reveal personal information that makes them stand out from the crowd.

3. Personal hygiene
There might be differences of sensitivity to body odour and the smell of food on the breath, wearing masks when you have a cold, or blowing your nose in public.

And the other 30 points, which are not only serious but also made the cut and made it into the actual articles, can be found in the TEFL.net article pages here:

15 important cultural differences in the EFL classroom

15 more important cultural differences in the EFL classroom

and the same things specific to Japanese students:

15 cultural differences in the Japanese classroom

And while we’re getting a bit of culture:

15 criteria for a good EFL cultural training lesson

15 more criteria for a good EFL cultural training lesson

and last but not least

The 15 most fun cultural training topics

With many of those ideas being available as worksheets on the new TEFLtastic worksheets culture page:

Cultural training worksheets for EFL classes

That enough culture fer yer?

Sandy MacManus is back to his offensive best on his new blog The TEFL Tradesman, with a battle of the mystery foul mouthed attackers with a grudge.

And TEFL Watch forums have been reborn as TEFL School Reviews, where everyone can have a go at being Sandy.

I feel a bit left out just carrying on with the same name in the same place…

In case you are wondering, reunleashing Sandy upon the TEFL world is not 4 Proposals to Reform TEFL Part Two, which will be coming soonish.

The most civilized rant in TEFL has got me thinking, and I’m also feeling confident and enthusiastic since I discovered that the Museum of the English Language that I wrote an article demanding about 10 years ago seems (probably coincidentally) to have happened. So here goes with making change happen and/ or taking credit for things that happen anyway:

Proposal to reform TEFL number one

One of the ideas I had is to set up a prize for TEFL/ TESOL journalism, kind of like a cross between the Ben Warren Prize and the Purlitzers. “TEFL/ TESOL journalism” could mean people writing in TEFL publications, people in newspapers that cover TEFL finally getting off their arses and investigating something (I think you know who I mean), or even bloggers that wrote something with a journalistic level of proof- which rules me out right away! . Possible topics include: uncovering dodgy school owners and training providers; revealing how people are really paid and really treated across a whole company, country or the industry; and (probably best of all) some angle that we have never really heard about. There could be prizes for a single best article of the year, publication of the year, journalist of the year, and/ or lifetime achievement award, with the first probably being the easiest to set up and organise. The people on the commitee would probably have to be volunteers, but who wouldn’t volunteer to read juicy TEFL scandals and reward someone who actually made things better?

Possible criteria for the winning article (first thoughts)

- Made a difference, preferably to the whole industry

- Took a story that was little or unknown and really spread the word, preferably into the mainstream news

- Took a risk but didn’t overstep the line into libel

- Took on the big boys

- Didn’t bring the reputation of TEFL teachers even lower (if such as thing is possible)

Just in case the sarcastic remark above that I just couldn’t stop slipping out makes you think that I am just indulging in idle fantasies ala Big Teacher idea (and actually I was only half joking on that one too), I’m putting aside half the money I made from my one and only published book to put into whichever one of the 4 ideas I am going to make gets off the ground.

If you feel like being shocked, amused, and/ or disgusted, have a little browse through what a search for “Eikaiwa” (”English conversation” in Japanese) on youtube brings up 

“Although no one knows the number of English training organizations across the country, my source said 80 new organizations enter this industry each month, while 60 of them close monthly.” (more…)

Hopefully it’s okay for me to reprint this editorial in full (and in the classic self-deluding style of a habitual blogging copyright breaker I am going to take the fact that they haven’t disabled the copy function on the online version as some kind of permission), because not only can I think of no way to say what it says better, I can possibly find nothing else to say on the matter ever:

“In this issue of the Gazette we have a number of stories featuring global giants in possible trouble over employment law. We have language schools operating in the UK and owned by an American media giant (page 1). We have a UK-based company owned by a multinational founded in Sweden recruiting for schools from Russia to Indonesia (page 3).
   The English-teaching world is becoming increasingly corporatised, globalised and – to judge by the contents of the anonymous envelopes sent into the Gazette’s offices by desperate teachers – staggeringly ignorant of the basics of employment law. So here are a few handy hints for employers:
RULE ONE: You are the employer. That means it is your job to know employment law.
RULE TWO: You need to know the law in all the countries in which you operate. Here is a pointer for school franchisors. If you are recruiting for a franchisee you may well in effect be operating as an employment agency. So your contracts need to comply not only with the law in the country of employment, but also with the legislation where the office doing the recruitment is located.
RULE THREE: There are certain authorities it is advisable not to disagree with. They include the US Supreme Court, the European Court and, as the British Council have found out (see page 4), the Russian tax police. What the US Supreme Court says is law in every state in the Union. What the European Court says applies country in the European Union – which means, language-school owners please note, that rolling up holiday pay into the hourly, weekly or monthly wage is illegal everywhere from Copenhagen to Capri. If you want to do business in Russia, don’t argue with the Russian tax police, whatever the law actually says.
RULE FOUR: It is not a good idea to ignore the law just because you feel it to be impractical, unworkable or just too expensive to comply with.
RULE FIVE: It is a really bad idea to tell your staff that you know what the law is but that you are not going to comply with it because it is impractical, unworkable or just too expensive. To compound this by telling your staff in writing is completely idiotic.
RULE SIX: With the notable exception of Germany, in most countries the tax authorities don’t like the idea of teachers being freelance. This is because it is easier for a tax inspector to get hold of a school than a teacher. You can tell the teachers they’re responsible for their own tax, but this may not stop the taxman turning up at the school gate.
RULE SEVEN: If you are about to break one of the preceding rules, ask yourself, do I want what I am doing to appear on the front page of the Gazette? If the answer is no, don’t do it.
And finally, a handy hint for teachers: If you think your employer is breaking the law, don’t just send us a whingeing email (and if you do, don’t do it using your work email account). Your horror story may well be true but we need documentary evidence to prove it. If we can prove it, we can print it. ”

And an extract from the article on Kaplan to show you what they are talking about:

‘it is true that the European Court of Justice has ruled this practice to be “unlawful”… However, the practical ramifications of accruing holiday pay for hourly paid workers according to this principle [the court ruling] are complex and unworkable.’

i.e. We don’t agree with the law, so we won’t keep to it. So there.

To add a bit of culture, here is the original Blast, which our mate Mel has done a very good job of making a TEFL version of: Blast Manifesto