Archive for the ‘Teaching low levels’ Category

“My first two years in Japan were spent teaching English… The students… studied English- or should I say, English was taught in their presence. Nothing ever seemed to sink in. Years of classes and endless tests and still they couldn’t master the intricacies of a simple ‘How are you?’ When I tried to have the most elemental of English conversations with them they looked at me with blank expressions, shrugged their shoulders, and said ‘Wakaranai’ (’Huh?’) They did this, I believe, just to annoy me. Don’t get me wrong, these teenagers were polite and studious and well-mannered, but they were still teenagers, and teenagers are pretty well insufferable anywhere you go on this planet.” (more…)

Putting the seasonal cheer back into grammar (and putting the grammar back into Xmas)

Some of you might be thinking that the problem with Xmas today is an excess of commercialism or the lack of real religious feeling, but the way I see it the problem is an excess of worksheets teaching students vocabulary like “holly” that they will have forgotten by the same time next year (if they even understand the concept of holly anyway) and a lack of tie ins between those seasonal worksheets and everything else students do in the classroom. For those that agree with me that what is needed to make your Xmas complete is lots more grammar, here are some ideas on how to tie in your Xmas lessons with whatever grammar point you are studying at the time (the ideas should work with other major festivals and celebrations too)…

See below for not only shed loads of good grammar ideas in the continuation of this article, but also a whole stocking full of other ideas for Chrimbo-themed lessons for kids (from pre-school) to adults- “Christmastastic fun for all the family” (R)

(more…)

“(Rod Ellis) recommends holding off teaching grammar to beginning students because the early stages of acquisition are primarily lexically rather than grammatically based and because of the evidence from immersion programs that learners are able to acquire word order and ’salient inflection’ without direct instruction” Nick C. Ellis in Form-focused Instruction and Teacher Education- Studies in honour of Rod Ellis
Makes a lot of sense to me. This might be a good place also to make a mention of New Inside Out Beginner (Macmillan), which I had a thorough look at yesterday and was mighty impressed by. It manages to fit in easy bits that are often missed out even at this low level (e.g. colours) and useful language that doesn’t usually get covered properly at any level (e.g. What is your favourite…?/ What is your dream job?) without having the usual bittiness of books that try to fit too many points in (e.g. Natural English).

Thanks to Appy Linguist for mentioning the PPP approach while talking about the CELTA because I’ve been meaning to write about it for a while. The question is: should teachers still be trained to teach PPP and it’s offshoot (or bastard offspring, depending on your point of view) TTT? First of all, to recap what they mean:

In PPP (presentation, practice and production), you present a language point, students do some controlled practice of the language and then they are given a freer speaking task to do where they can produce the language you have presented and practiced if they wish. TTT (test, teach, test) is similar, but you test the students on their knowledge and ability to use the language you want to teach first, see where the hole in their language is and then do the stages in PPP. The possible things you can do at each stage are:

Presentation

1. Write an example of a grammatical form up on the board and translate it into the students’ language
2. And/ or write an example of a grammatical form up on the board and explain what the name of the form is, how it is used and what it means (in English or in L1*)
3. Do the same as 1 or 2, but eliciting the translation or explanation from the students
4. Do the reverse of 1 or 2, providing a sentence in L1 for translation or giving the name or meaning of the form and getting students to provide an example sentence
5. Do the same as 4, but eliciting the form with a cue such as a picture, a story, a gapped sentence or a timeline*
6. After a listening, reading or video watching activity, pull examples of the form you want to teach out of the text and do the same as 1 to 5 above
7. Do the same as 6, but providing the explanation, translation etc. as asking students to find examples in the texts
8. Students do any one of 1 to 7 above, but individually or in pairs from their textbooks or a worksheet. Check answers as a whole class.

Once you are sure that all the students understand the meaning and construction of the form you want to teach (this stage usually includes a few concept check questions to make sure that is in fact the case), you are ready to move onto the practice stage

Practice

1. Students are drilled on more sentences similar to the one used in the presentation, making sure their pronunciation is okay 
2. Students translate more sentences with the form in to and/ or from English
3. Students complete multiple choice, gap fill etc. written tasks including the form being taught
4. Students produce examples of the form based on prompts provided by the teacher or textbooks (e.g. book- I like reading books, flower- I like picking flowers etc.)
5. Students produce examples of the form to answer questions by the teacher or in the textbook (When did uyou have breakfast? I had breakfast at 8:15), either their own real answers or based on cues in the textbook
6. Students ask questions with the form being taught to match answers given by the teacher or in the textbook (I was walking down the street- What were you doing when you last met your best friend?- That’s right)
7. Countless other speaking and/ or writing games that involve a limited range of language
8. Any of the production activities below, but with students being told to use the form being taught or even to only use the form being taught

It is possible to use two or more of the practice activities above, often moving from very controlled (e.g. drilling) to freer (e.g. language games).

Now that students are capable of making some correct sentences with the form being taught, they are ready for the next stage. In the practice stage above, even when the tasks are, in the best of cases, genuinely communicative (that is, students learn some real information about each other they didn’t know before) they still use an unrealisitically limited amount of language. Hopefully, the students are now ready to try to use the same structures in a situation where a lot of other different language could also come up.

Production

1. Roleplays
2. Writing longer texts like stories, letters etc.
3. Problem solving and logic puzzles
4. Many many more which don’t spring to mind at the moment

I’m going to deal with the criticisms of PPP in PPP RIP? Part Two, but before I forget a point that has just occured to me, I would like to say that modern so-called PPP classes, textbooks and teacher training courses tend to include just as much emphasis on skills development as on items of language taught through PPP- a point often forgotten by both critics and defenders due the fact that the name is not PPPPS (PPP plus skills) or such like. It’s amazing how much a snappy acronym* can change history

*L1- The students’ first language, e.g. Spanish

*Timeline- A picture of wiggly lines, straight lines and crosses that is supposed to show the time connections of different tenses

* Acronym- Strictly this is not an acronym because it is not pronounced like a word (like NATO), but I don’t know what it really is, so on this blog an acronym it remains

David’s English Teaching World lays into the endless debate about L1 in the language classroom:

http://elt-teaching.blogspot.com/2007/08/teaching-approaches-using-l1-in-class.html

Some interesting points. I’d never thought about the link to the publishing industry of an English only policy before. In the majority of cases, though, non-native speaker teachers are using too much L1 in the classroom, not too little, and the case for using more L1 is again a native-speaker-based elitist argument that could easily be picked up as justification for outdated translation-based teaching in state schools, even though that is not the intention.

I have experimented with limited use and no use of L1, and I have never found the use of L1 to be a good thing in either the adult or children’s classes I have taught. The classic example given for useless avoidance of L1 is explaining something for a long time in English that could be translated in seconds. However, if your students see that you need to resort to Spanish to explain something to them, how are they going to believe they can explain themselves in English to you? Ditto for trying to get them to use a monolingual rather than a bilingual dictionary and write words to learn down in English rather than as translations- all great training to stop translating in your head.

Rather than choosing to translate by when it is quicker than using English, a much better choice is to translate when it is more accurate than using English. For example, a translation of the word into Spanish might be more accurate than a synonym in English, as there are never really two words in English with the same level of formality etc. I also use it when explaining plants and birds and when contrasting things like false friends. Even then, I prefer to show them the entry in a bilingual dictionary rather than use their language myself, so that they retain the illusion that they always need to use English to communicate with me- just like the best approach for the parent of a bilingual child.

That is it for use of L1- and certainly never to give the instructions for an activity, as this is the only language that is constantly recycled in class and so likely to be picked up naturally.

By the way, I think it’s very interesting how “Using L1 in the English classroom” sounds much more positive than “Speaking Spainish in the English class”, even though they mean the same thing.

One more little bugbear- why should I need to join Google blogs to comment on some blogs? Now that Bill Gates has gone good, Google are the new James Bond villians of the Internet, I reckon, trying to take over the world…

According to this Daily Yomiuri article, 40% of new Japanese university students surveyed only reached the English level expected of 15 year olds! There is hope, though, and it comes from the fact that the university mentioned realises they have a crisis on their hands and has been forced to employ someone who can teach rather than just someone with a string of letters after their name. And she really does seem to know her public, because low level Japanese adult learners do love miming. They really can’t get enough of it, which is why I have a miming worksheets bonanza tried and tested in Japan over the years for you here:

 http://www.tefl.net/alexcase/worksheet-air-travel-mimes-collocations/

http://www.tefl.net/alexcase/worksheet-body-idioms-mimes-pictionary/

http://www.tefl.net/alexcase/worksheet-food-and-drink-mimes-present-continuous-culture/

http://www.tefl.net/alexcase/worksheet-medical-english-mimes/

http://www.tefl.net/alexcase/worksheet-noises-mimes-linking-words/

http://www.tefl.net/alexcase/worksheet-technical-english-mimes/

http://www.tefl.net/alexcase/worksheet-travel-english-mimes-past-continuous/

http://www.tefl.net/alexcase/worksheets-business-english-sounds-and-mimes-present-continuous-present-simple/

So many uses for TPR, so little time…

In a moment of inspiration fueled by low tolerance to the stimulating effects of real British “builders’ tea”, have come up with:

The pairwork magic formula

I have yet to teach a class that wouldn’t do and enjoy pairwork eventually. If the magic formula below doesn’t work, then you do indeed know to give up on working in groups. The magic formula is:

1. Make sure there are props and a game factor so you and they can easily see if they are doing nothing at all
2. Make sure there is a clear winner, e.g. the person who guesses their partner is lying more often, so that they know if they have completed the task successfully
3. Make sure some of the prompts are written in English, so that there is not a possibility of playing the game just in L1, e.g. cards with the answers they have to elicit from their partners written on
4. Try a simple, repetitive use of a grammatical formbut leave part of the form blank for students to add their own ideas if they wish, such as chain of First Conditionals that they have to try and make finish with the sentence ending they have been given
5. Try to give them preparation time before they start speaking sometimes, e.g. get them to write 5 pieces of information about themselves that their partner has to guess the questions for
6. If it is one or two students in the class that ruin their groups all the time by pausing too long etc, do pairwork activities as two teams of twos instead

*Well, actually it started with a comment of mine on http://insights-into-tefl.blogspot.com/, but that fact for some reason got the “classic” (i.e. horribly dated) Hot Chocolate song “It started with a kiss” stuck in my head and I could only get rid of it through the magical use of a meaningless blog title. Ah, relief…

Dear Auntie Alex

As a TEFL teacher, I like to feel I am doing my bit for international understanding every day. However, as my interest in issues of global poverty etc. grows, teaching a language starts to seem a bit trivial. Is it perhaps possible to use the techniques I have picked up as a language teacher in the fight against starvation in the third world?

Yours

Philosophical in Peking

 Dear Philosophical

Although you are right that knowing the Present Perfect Continuous is not likely to help save anyone’s life, the ultimate solution to global poverty does indeed lie in a technique from the TEFL classroom.

In class, if we have some students who are stronger and some who are weaker we pair them up so the higher level ones can help the lower level ones. Take the world as our classroom, and by doing the same we can achieve the same thing. Each rich country takes on the responsibility of giving special help to one or more of the poorest countries. The people from this country who help with their money and their time can then take pride in their progress of ‘their’ developing country and even feel competitive against the development of other countries that are the responsibility of others.

Easy as organising pairwork, I think you’d agree.

Keep the questions coming, readers

ATB
Auntie Alex

Have just been reading about Daniel Liebskind, yet another celebrity architect. Let me write that again- celebrity… architect. Celebrity architect???? Might not be as bad as celebrity driving instructors or celebrity hotel staff (we’ve had both of them in the UK), but come on! Is there any profession which doesn’t have celebrities? Oh, yes, TEFL teachers like me. Well, tonight’s task is to sort that injustice out once and for all.

And if the problem is lack of celebrity, the solution must be a variation on Big Brother- the greatest producer of hapless celebrities of all time. To show the requisite lack of imagination to make a modern TV programme, we are going to even steal the name and call it “Big Teacher”. Add in a bit of The Weakest Link quiz programme, stir, and there you have it- TEFL fame!

Here’s how it will work. 15 teachers and 15 students locked in a boarding school. The teachers are chosen for very different teaching styles and are a mix of native and non-native speakers. If we can get Scott Thornbury and other TEFL heartthrobs in all the better, plus maybe some D list celebrities who have been chucked through various TEFL teaching courses. The students will all be selected to have the same starting level of English, but will be all different nationalities- which will likely mean a mix of feckless Italians, Turks and Spanish who really shouldn’t be beginners still and Chinese students from the sticks who have never heard of George W Bush and learnt from a textbook from 1932.

Said teachers take turns teaching said students in group and one-to-one classes. At the end of each week all the students take a test, the results of which will be kept secret from all those locked in the school. The total money at the end of the series will be based on all the test results over the whole period, but one student and one teacher will be voted off each week before the test until only one teacher and one student survive to take home the whole prize. They could also vote off textbooks in the same way. Just like Weakest Link, the voting will therefore be based partly on getting rid of dead weight to get the test scores and therefore the prize money up, and partly on tactically trying to get rid of people who are a risk to you winning the final prize.

I think you will agree that it will be not only entertaining and good English practice for all the viewers all over the world, but will also be a realistic representation of TEFL teaching- for one thing, it’s likely to have exactly the same level of cooperation and back biting bitchiness as a typical British Council teachers’ room.

So students and teachers interested in taking part, please sign up below:

It seems not just the population but also the chimps in Japan are suffering from rapid ageing, something else in which we also lead the world:

http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200707250108.html

(First time I’ve said ‘we’ meaning people in Japan there!)

As the baby boomers and their pet apes reach retirement time with time and money on their hands, it makes for a growing market for English lessons too. Will take some special content and methodology though. My oldest student in Japan was in her 80s and I’ve had 10 or so students over 60 here and in the UK, so here are my ‘expert’ tips for the greying braincells segment of the Eikaiwa* student population:

• Lots of traditional British culture topics, especially Lady Di- but not the scandalous truth!!
• Keep the level very low and safe, and endlessly recycle
• Leave presentations of new language for homework or the very end of the class so they can work it out in their own time, then practice it in the next class
• Give them lots of homework (they have plenty of time!) but make sure the instructions are very clear and some of it is fun
• Don’t bother with learner training (also known as “sucking eggs”)- just adapt your stuff to how they already learn. For example, they will never learn how to ignore or guess unknown vocab, keep the texts you use simple and pre-teach everything.
• Let them talk about their week, their families and their hospital visits, and show their photos.
• Make sure there are several older people in the class, but also some young whippersnappers too.

* Eikaiwa means “English conversation”, and is the normal Japanese expression for the language school industry- maybe another reason why they have false hopes on how easy it will be to learn at your school and don’t apply themselves (often not even bringing a pen!)