Archive for the ‘CPD’ Category

Doesn’t last of course, especially the initial thrill of being in the chaos of a third world city or in the chaos left for you by the last person who had that DoS job, but if having some kind of career plan gets you out of the bed in the morning with more motivation than I had six months ago, wth- got to be a good thing!

Whether your next plan is/ will be how to become a teacher trainer, an ELT author, a better teacher or just someone who is making an active effort to fight the boredom, we at TEFLtastic have the article for you on our totally updated page right here.

The books all teachers in Japan should read Part One- The best books about Japanese language and education

I’m sitting here mourning over the 100 or so books about Japan that I will be leaving on the school bookshelves rather than taking with me, and wondering quite how many books I have managed to read in 5 years. I don’t think there are any other countries that you can find so many interesting books about, especially ones that tell you as much about the world and human nature as they do about the country name in the title. Being the person I am, the books have been one of the best things about Japan for me. However, if you aren’t such a reader, do not despair- the five books below will be enough to make you aculturally sensitive teacher and keep you stimulated by understanding the things around you for at least a year or two:

1. Learning to Go to School in Japan

Working with Japanese preschool age kids can be an almost manic depressive swing between thinking they are the cutest, nicest kids in the world and wondering how they get away with stuff like hitting their teachers. This book not only explains how those two seemingly contradictary things are connected, but also explains how preschool education in Japan affects and reflects the whole society. Reading this book was the first time in Japan I thought “If you look at it that way, it all makes sense”, and inspired me to try and explain everything else on my JapanExplained blog.

2. Japanese English: Language and Culture Contacts

Not Engrish.com the book, but a serious and yet suprisingly readable examination of how English is used in the Japanese language and what that can tell us about Japanese society and languages in general. It can also help you misuse English expressions in the right way when speaking Japanese and understand and correct your students when they bring them into English.

3. Tuttle New Dictionary of Loanwords in Japanese

As you can imagine from the title, this is not a book to read through. Nonetheless, I did (!) and found it improved my Japanese, my teaching and led to loads of Japanese English worksheets. The introduction also gives a short introduction to the surprisingly systematic changes the Japanese make to English pronunciation, helping you gain the ability to change any English word into understandable Japanese. You’ll also learn a few words of some other languages or find out how you can use the languages you know in Japanese.

4. Preschool in Three Cultures

… being the US, China and Japan. Not only does it tell you quite a lot about all three societies, but also introduces a whole new way of doing research- asking teachers and parents to comment on what goes on in the other countries too.

5. The Japanese Educational Challenge

Although written when the marketing department of Free Press wanted a Japan-catching-up-panic book back in the 80s, the author has managed to turn it into more of general examination of the differences between Japanese and American society and education, and what if anything they can learn from each other.

Also worth a mention

Safety and Challenge for Japanese Learners of English

Although I don’t still use any of the activities in this book, it did inspire me to try and find my own principles for teaching in Japan and prompted some interesting pondering on how much you can generalise by nationality.

Teaching English to Children in Asia

Written by David Paul, director of David English House and founder of the great ETJ (English Teachers in Japan) teachers’ association. He can be a bit dogmatic about his child-centred ideas and you’ll almost certainly hear the same things if you go to one of his workshops, for example as part of the Introductionary Certificate in Teaching English to Children (recommended), but again it is guaranteed to prompt some serious reflection on how much change you need to make to CELTA-type techniques in a place like Japan.

Dictionary of Japan’s Cultural Code words by Boye LaFayette De Mente 
 
Try to ignore his claims to explain the “uniqueness” of Japan (and certainly ignore all his other books), but have at least a flick through this book for the kinds of words your students will get stuck on when trying to explain themselves in English because there are no real English equivalents. Also good for painless Japanese study and appearing to be a Japan expert/guru/unbearably pretensious prat when you drop words like wabi sabi into conversation back home.

Here are the links for stuff I have published here and elsewhere so far this month that you might have missed, in case the heat makes me lose the rest of my energy and I forget at the end of the month:

On Usingenglish.com (theeeeeeey’re back!)

Why does my teacher use games in an adult class?

Why does our teacher make us read difficult authentic texts?

How British is your English? Questionnaire and explaining unknown vocab speaking practice worksheets- one of my favourites!

Elsewhere on TEFLtastic

Korean speakers- common vocabulary mistakes in English

Determiners practice- starting presentations- designed to go with Market Leader, but also suitable for whoever else is unlucky enough to need to tie those two topics together…

Classroom language TEFL workshop notes- with accompanying teacher training worksheets below

Ranking classroom language- teacher training pairwork worksheets

Simplifying classroom language- teacher training worksheets, with tips on using gestures in class to give instructions etc.

Classroom language further reading and links

Teaching likes and dislikes and free time activities teacher training workshop plan

Business English pron worksheets section (the worksheets are old, but the section is new)

Intelligent Business Worksheets and Games section- also useful for other Bus Eng classes

Market Leader worksheets and games- ditto

My stuff elsewhere on TEFL.net

In the Idea Thinktank

15 games for the language of likes and dislikes

15 classroom language games

15 punishments for pre-school English classes

15 Business English games for describing your company and job

15 criteria for good kindergarten worksheets

In TEFL.net Articles

15 good reasons to write TEFL reviews

In TEFL.net reviews

A History of English Language Teaching Second Edition review

And if the heat is keeping you awake instead of making you sleepy, you can have a look at June’s links too (newly updated as I’d forgotten about the reviews):

New articles, worksheets and reviews June 2008

Just in case you came onto the site looking for something useful today (sorry, what can I say, it’s the weekend) if you click on the links you can get some non-alternative definitions too

Community Language Learning- The theory that students getting together at break time to bitch about British food and their teacher is the best way of drawing them together and increasing their motivation to learn

DoS- Director of Studies. Often confused with the similar word “dosser”

Flaps- Chairs with flaps rather than tables started as a Japanese S&M love hotel accesory, but has now become a standard part of the average language school. Influences that led to this change of purpose include: (a) Suggestopedia teachers patenting the use of comfortable chairs and, (b) Early Humanistic Language Teachers reading in a furniture catalogue that they “help you open up and show your vulnerabilities” and taking its meaning to be metaphorical

Pairwork- Getting students to work together. The expression “pairwork” is used to illustrate that double (”pair”) the effort (”work”) is needed by the teacher (to explain what he wants the students to do) and students (to understand what the hell is going on) as compared with just doing it as a whole class

Peer observations- When your DoS* tries to see what you are up to from outside your classroom without being seen by you

School Principal- In a school where the DoS* only has responsibility for academic matters, “School Principal” is often used as the title of the school’s business manager. Please note from the spelling of “principal” that the duties of this job should not be confused with “school manager with principles”, an outdated concept that died out in the early 90s

Silent Way (The)- A largely unsuccessful attempt to teach a language by spending the whole lesson standing at the front of the class with your arms crossed staring crossly at the students like your school teacher when he’d given up on yelling as a way of making the class shut up. As with its original inspiration, the only things a silent way teacher was allowed to say were “I can wait all day”, “It’s not my time you’re wasting, it’s your own” and “Whenever you’re ready, gentlemen”. Other even less successful attempts to turn school teacher disciplinary tricks into entire language learning methodologies include the Hysterical Hissy Fit Way, the Throwing the Board Eraser Way and the Throat-clearing Way.

Suggestopedia- This method of putting language learners into a hypnotic state through comfortable chairs and relaxing music was discredited in the late eighties when the teacher scripts were discovered to consist mainly of repeated phrases like “You will not get stressed about learning nothing” and “You can increase your TOEIC score by buying your teacher a drink”

See here for the full Alternative ELT Jargon Dictionary so far.

As a blogger and writer of articles on the internet whose technical knowledge stops at Word, as usual I feel half chuffed at churning out so many articles, including a good one here and there, and half guilty at creating so much work for those who can name a programming language more recent than BASIC. So, with many thanks to the tech sorts who made this possible and without further ado, here are the new bits and pieces on the web that I’ve been associated with:

The TEFL.net review pages I edit now allow comments on any of the titles reviewed there, which is a fabulous idea which I wish had been mine.

On TEFL.net too, there is a new Idea Thinktank of practical teaching games etc, on which I have about 12 (!) articles including 15 Fun Things to do with a Whiteboard (yes, that’s a whiteboard rather than an interactive whiteboard- showing my age??) and the 15 Most Fun Pronunciation Games.

As if that wasn’t enough, I’ve also got some slightly more weighty ones up on the rejigged TEFL.net TEFL Articles Page, including Easy Ways to Improve Your TEFL Career.

And on Usingenglish.com in March:

Election- Second Conditionals speaking practice

101 IELTS Speaking Part Two Tasks about sports and hobbies

Why your students speak L1 in class

Why your students don’t do their homework

101 IELTS Speaking Part Two tasks about people, places, actions, things and times

Setting up workshops for teachers

Business English tense review

Business English silent letters and syllables

The language of trends spot the difference

I also had a review of a couple of BULATS books out in MET magazine this month, should you have a copy handy and fancy a look.

I’ve been ruminating on for several years of how Continuing Professional Development like observations, workshops and being given responsibility for a supplementary file or two often start off seeming like an opportunity and then gradually come to seem like just unpaid work that benefits the school more than you. While I’ve been thinking, someone else has been writing- and has summarized the situation in a simple and very direct letter in this month’s Humanizing Language Teaching Letters Page:

“Dear Ms Kryszewska

I wrote to you sometime ago - after I had been enthused by Mario Rinvolucri - and told you I’d be submitting to HLT. You very kindly sent me back the guidelines. I apologise for not getting back to you sooner.

I’ve since received your hand-out: “13 Reasons Why You Might Want To Write For HLT” which you circulated via e-mail to all the readers of HLT.

Unfortunately, as always in this exploitative industry of ours, there is no question of payment for this extra work. This is not your fault. I’m sure, as always, there is no budget for this in my school.

However, I have already produced many worksheets for my school and taken several teacher-training sessions without payment, and, to be frank, am sick and tired of not being remunerated for my time and effort. I can’t feed my family by “raising my profile in the company”.

As it happens, I already share creative ideas and infect my colleagues with enthusiasm on a day-to-day basis out of an feeling of basic human solidarity, which the people with their hands on the purse strings in our industry would do well to emulate. Perhaps I am harking back to a golden age of the 1970’s when teachers originally set up schools as co-operatives which have since been taken over by mercenary, corporate EFL barons who place cost effectiveness over pedagogy every time.

I object to a premiership elite of pop star EFL methodologists being handsomely rewarded, while the rest of have to slum it in the lower leagues on casual contracts and insulting rates of pay, wondering whether we’ll be timetabled out next week or not. With the greatest of respect to Mario Rinvolucri, whose work I admire immensely, I think it shows insensitivity and disrespect to expect others to produce for gratis what he does for love and money.

Instead of a school asking teachers to contribute for free, one sure way of avoiding the kind of de-motivation and stuck-in-a-rut-ness, would be to stop undervaluing our contribution every day of the working week by paying us a decent wage in the first place.

Yours ”

(End of quote. Name not published, but I would put money on this person working for International House, as this almost exactly echoes what people who worked for them in Madrid who did my DELTA with me used to say)

My twoyenworth on this matter,  slightly changed since I’ve been in Japan, is:

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