Do you need to be able to discuss globalisation to be Advanced?
My students are hoping not!
The classic example of this is Greek 15 year olds who want to take CPE (Cambridge Proficiency, also known as Super-Advanced) and find that their lack of knowledge and opinions on the topics at hand are the main things holding them back, rather than any actual holes in their language and skills. Being able to talk about unfamiliar topics is one of the markers are being Advanced rather than Intermediate, but if they are more than Upper but still not able to discuss green issues, what are they??
It’s a bit more understandable with Academic English tests like IELTS, where you are not going to get away with three years of university without discussing serious topics in English. Does an electrical engineer need to be able to talk about changing social attitudes, though? If they want to get a good mark in IELTS they do!
That’s a bit of an exagerration, as you are judged for the language you use rather than the points you make, but it’s a lot easier to answer a question about how your country has changed if you know a bit of history than it is to say “Well, that’s a difficult question. To be honest, I don’t know anything about this topic at all, but if I had to guess I would say that…”, let alone the effect on your confidence one or two such answers would have. And if your natural communicative reaction is the one chosen by teenagers everywhere, a contemptuous shrug, does that make you Elementary?
September 14th, 2010 at 6:41 am
This is the great teaching dichotomy: does – should – lack of subject knowledge negate a language learner’s ability to display their proficiency in their target language?
You say that candidates are ‘judged for the language you use rather than the points you make’ but I doubt that’s always the case. A friend of mine was training IELTS examiners and was told to respond to one with something along the lines of, ‘I’m sorry but I really don’t know anything about this subject. Would you mind if we discussed something else.’ Guess how well he would have done if he were a real candidate?
September 15th, 2010 at 6:47 am
You’re right here Alex, and I think Adam puts it well too. Part of the problem could be the attitude of many teenagers in general which is a contemptuous shrug to practically everything.
It reminds me of endless discussions with editors over content and the elusive question “what is interesting?” Sometimes four people in a room can’t agree, so it’s tricky when the book is going everywhere even places where it shouldn’t.
The key is to try and find topics sufficiently universal but with a bit of an edge to attract the most interest. But sometimes this means making assumptions about what the students will know.
Incidentally, I’m not just talking about coursebooks here. The teacher who wants to forego a coursebook will still have the same trouble of choosing a topic and assumed knowledge the moment you are teaching a class of (one could say) more than one student. And before we hear the chorus “let the students decide!” what happens when half the students are really into politics and the other half doesn’t give a care?
September 15th, 2010 at 12:23 pm
Good point, Lindsay. The biggest challenge (to my thinking) of classroom teaching isn’t necessarily finding the things that will interest more or most of the learners – it is getting the learners to respect the class/group social environment first so that even if not all learners’ interests can be catered to at any one time, at least the learners can respect the group dynamic, be willing to go with the flow even when a particular topic or task isn’t in their ZPI (that’s Zone of Proximal Interest, by the way!).
That’s hard to do – especially with teenagers!
September 15th, 2010 at 2:20 pm
A topic I’m always interested in. With a class, it’s not so much an issue as you can bring in your own material, but for some exams it’s a necessity. As my students constantly show me, it’s much much harder to discuss something you’re not interested in and haven’t discussed before.
My argument is often this, learners are joining a globalized world and they need to start thinking about such issues. This is part of taking education further than just teaching English. Your students really should learn about the environment, social justice, globalization, other cultures, etc., even if the topic isn’t really their favorite.
I think it’s the teacher’s job to make it interesting. For example, I recently did a lesson based around Al-Qaeda’s take on global warming with a text written by no other than Bin Laden himself. Nobody was interested in rehashing global warming again, but bringing in such a controversial element with a Muslim class really set things off.
September 15th, 2010 at 8:59 pm
Do we teach language or knowledge? Or do we teach knowledge through language? I think that part of being proficient is to be able to negotiate content. And part of being a teachers is to light the candle of knowledge, to prepare students to become interested in content.
September 15th, 2010 at 11:51 pm
Here in East Asia, it’s not so much that they don’t know about the topics (although that is often true) or don’t think that they shoud study it, it’s shock that they are expected to produce their own opinion on it
Although topics like green issues did come to schools later here than in Western Europe, and can get drowned out by more exam-centric things later on, I put it more down to a lack of demand for popular science/ economics/ politics books like The Lexus and the Olive Tree. People who read serious books here usually do so as part of study or for an exam. Ditto for non-fiction TV, which is either deadly dull or trivia and/ or food
September 16th, 2010 at 12:08 am
Given that there are cultural and age-based factors there, should exam boards take those things more into account?
September 16th, 2010 at 6:02 am
I remember I went to an official training from the British Council on teaching IELTS. The examiner/rep doing the training swore up and down that the exams were not culturally biased in any way, which simply made me left. They are definitely very euro-centric.
Originally, the exams were set up to determine acceptance for universities in the UK or America. In this respect I think they were fairly well designed (I prefer the TOEFL iBT over anything else in that matter). If looking for university entrance, culture and age should not be taken into account. But, now it’s simply become a huge market and individuals take the exams for all kinds of reasons. This isn’t really appropriate I believe.
I do find that the majority of my teaching goes into teaching cultural approaches to learning and test taking that many students have a hard time wrapping their head around. As you said, this isn’t a place where people generally give their opinion.
I have always argued that a language comes with a culture. Even if English has become a global language detached from it’s native speaking populations, that culture is firmly embodied in many aspects of the language and so cultural awareness raising goes a long way in not only understanding English, but in helping students start to see through the eyes of the other – important for any global citizen.
September 16th, 2010 at 7:28 am
IELTS was originally Australian, I think you’ll find.
Do you mean you prefer TOEFL iBT to IELTS?
September 16th, 2010 at 7:48 am
Nice points there Nick, especially those about global citizenship. I’m in complete agreement with you on this!
September 20th, 2010 at 6:05 pm
What about flipping that question around: Do you need to be advanced to discuss globalisation? These topics shouldn’t be just the preserve of Advanced level coursebooks – I think we should be trying to introduce them to students in general (granted this may be a little simplified and simplistic when you’re dealing with elem students), but aren’t we trying to develop people with opinions and who think for themselves. Culturally biased advanced exams may be, but topics like globalisation and green issues are world wide, and should be subjects broached by teachers of all sorts for students of all levels.
Sorry that’s a bit ‘stream of conscious’y but I wanted to get my comment in before I have to dash – cheers for some good food for thought all =)
Mike