Learning Twigs

(Sigh), Robot

 

 

 

My last post was supposed to be my last one for 2010, but I found myself with a rare bit of extra time today (after our youngest's birthday party today and before taking off into rural Victoria for our customary family New Year's bash), and happened upon an article in my local newspaper that got me slightly worked up...

 

It seems the "robot English teachers" are stalking me in South Korea, if only retrospectively. I spent ten years teaching English there, starting in a small city on the south coast called Masan. The very same city where the Korean Ministry of Education first trialled its so-called "robot teachers" sometime earlier this year. Later, I taught in a university department in the larger city of Daegu -- which is where the second roll out of robots appears to be taking place.

 

It's almost as if these robots are appearing in places that are very personal and vivid to me... making my reactions to them even more poignant.

 

But the latest report on the robot roll out featured comments and reasoning that I found nothing short of extraordinary. Far from being an exciting example of cutting edge technology making up for shortcomings and improving access to education, I found various aspects of the reasoning just plain backward -- or even evidence that the robot policy is basically reinforcing or worsening existing problems.

 

I'll go through what really bothers me in the report in order from "mildly worrying" to "downright outrageous" (though I should point out this differs from the order of information as it is presented in the original article)...

 

 

1. Robots creating opportunities to learn English in remote rural areas

 

Kim said some may be sent to remote rural areas of South Korea shunned by foreign English teachers.

 

Hey, I'm a big believer in finding ways to improve access to quality education for children in rural areas. But aside from the fact that it might be worth actually investigating what it is about working as a teacher in remote rural areas that makes foreign English instructors shun the idea, I can't go past the fact that a 10 million won robot is a hugely expensive solution compared to the costs associated with a basic Internet connection, a computer and an overhead projector. As you read on, you might come to understand that the connection and the projector basically do the same job as the robot, but without any subterfuge, and at a fraction of the potential cost...

 

 

2. Robots catering to learners who don't want to talk to people

 

"The kids seemed to love it since the robots look, well, cute and interesting. But some adults also expressed interest, saying they may feel less nervous talking to robots than a real person," said Kim Mi-Young, an official at Daegu city education office.

"Having robots in the classroom makes the students more active in participating, especially shy ones afraid of speaking out to human teachers," Kim said.

 

This is an interesting issue, but I can't deny my instincts and experience here. Language is about people, and needs to happen between people. Teaching is a dynamic and hugely human-oriented endeavour, too. Shifting real people out of the equation, to cater to shyness or a need for "cute and interesting" things, doesn't -- in my mind -- do much at all to improve the prospects for genuine communicative language development. A human teacher in a classroom is an immensely precious resource in so many ways, and to claim that robots make students more active in participating, by catering to their shyness around people (by removing them), strikes me as being a bit silly, really.

 

 

3. Robots making up for shortfalls in a country's approach to teacher salaries and conditions

 

"Plus, they won't complain about health insurance, sick leave and severance package, or leave in three months for a better-paying job in Japan... all you need is a repair and upgrade every once in a while."

 

Oh my...

 

So, let me get this one straight: Instead of taking a good hard look at our country's approach to basic rights and entitlements for human teachers (health insurance, sick leave, severance package and competitive pay), let's fix the problem by replacing them with machines?

 

But, bad as that is, the following one takes the cake as far as I am concerned...

 

 

4. Robots to reinforce a discriminatory and deeply hypocritical attitude to English teachers based on nationality

 

The robots, which display an avatar face of a Caucasian woman, are controlled remotely by teachers of English in the Philippines - who can see and hear the children via a remote control system.

Cameras detect the Filipino teachers' facial expressions and instantly reflect them on the avatar's face, said Sagong Seong-Dae, a senior scientist at KIST.

"Well-educated, experienced Filipino teachers are far cheaper than their counterparts elsewhere, including South Korea," he told AFP.

 

Filipino teachers, despite their often outstanding level of English and great teaching qualifications, are currently prevented from teaching in Korea under existing laws. However, it would appear that if they stay in the Philippines and teach through a robot, using an avatar face of a Caucasian woman, then this is entirely okay -- even beneficial, considering how "cheap" they are compared to teachers from other countries (including even Koreans).

 

I still can't get over that one... we won't let you come here and teach, won't even attempt to acknowledge your level of English or teaching qualifications, unless you stay there in your own country and agree to teach for peanuts and hide behind a cardboard cutout of a Caucasian...

 

 

 

Seriously, South Korea, are you absolutely sure that you are using the wonderful technology emerging in robotics to actually help you progress?

 

 

 

=D

 

 

                                                           

                                       

 

A Christmas confession from an ELT writer in therapy...

 

 

For me, living is creating... Image: gfpeck

 

 

So here's a brief Christmas confession for people who bother to read this blog (a bother I'm most grateful for, of course!)...

 

English Raven is working on a new ELT coursebook for tweens and younger teens!

 

Oh, who gives a stuff, right?

 

Well, I do. I've struggled mightily with the whole idea of making coursebooks for a couple of years now -- not quite able to reconcile what I believe I've learned about effective teaching and learning with what happens in a coursebook limitverse. I've sworn a solemn vow not to write any sort of material that makes me squeam, or leaves me with a feeling of pushing a reinvented wheel up the same sorry track.

 

What I'm making now doesn't result in any of those reactions. On the contrary: it makes me feel like I'm flying.

 

This coursebook -- and technically, it might not even qualify as a "coursebook", if we assume that coursebooks have entered their own specialised and classified genre -- is like nothing you've ever seen. And no, that doesn't mean it's some sort of new technical innovation. While there will be some tech-related options, this is basically a paper and print thing that concentrates very heavily on young people and the magic that ought to be possible in a room where people gather together.

 

And it is a book/approach that challenges teachers to take on a very different role...

 

Of course, this is purely an English Raven project. No major (or even minor) publishers on board with this (yet), and I generally presume it will stay that way. It's not the sort of thing that would appeal all that much to publishers, and I say that with no malice whatsoever. Having "been there done that", I understand publishers' priorities and limitations.

 

And one of the most serious reasons no (or hardly any) publishers would even look at this project is because... there's truly bugger all money in it!

 

Aside from the very unique approach -- something a fair share of teachers would reject purely because of its divergence away from the familiar way of doing things -- what sort of potential does a coursebook have when only one copy is required for the class (that being the teacher's copy), and all the learners need is a notebook and -- optionally -- the occasional photocopy?

 

In some ways it is a very hard decision to make: writing ELT material that you know from the outset is extremely unlikely to generate any sort of recognisable income, and diverting your attention away from other more income-friendly endeavours to dedicate time to create such a work.

 

In other ways, I guess, it is about feeding your soul. Not to say that people who write mainstream commercial coursebooks are soulless (I want to make that clear!). But ELT writers very rarely get a chance to explore and create what comes from the heart and their teacher's instinct. Perhaps taking that chance, and ignoring (however difficult it might be) the priority of income, is a sort of therapeutic endeavour for us.

 

You see, I'm absolutely loving the writing and design process here. I wake up every morning and want to get working on it. Once the kids are asleep at night, I'm absolutely itching to get back to it again. I know this will work for at least some teachers in some contexts, and it represents an approach I've dreamed of using in classrooms for more than a decade. I print out drafted sections as they are completed and pore over them on the back patio with a cup of coffee in hand, and love what I see (and love the apparent opportunities for more improvement, tweaking, elegance, cohesion, and those little windows that pop up, sort of pregnant with active and enjoyable teaching/learning potential).

 

It has been a very long time indeed since I felt this way about ELT writing.

 

'Tis very good therapy indeed...

 

 

I'll keep you posted about it in the New Year!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, everyone, as this is my last post for 2010.

 

Got some important stuff to work on...

 

 

 

=D

 

 

                                

                                       

 

Season's Greetings from English Raven and the ELT Bright Lights Band!

 

 

 

Thanks so much to the incredible David Dodgson for putting this together for me (you sure do know how to make someone's day, Dave!), as well as the stunning performance on guitar!

 

The other members of the ELT Bright Lights Band strutting their stuff on stage with me here (in addition to Dave, of course) are Cecilia Coelho, Michelle Worgan, and Mike Harrison.

 

Great gig guys! Can't for the life of me recall what the backstage party after the performance was like, so it must have been AWESOME!

 

 

 

=D

 

 

 

                                         

 

Australia: Get over yourself

 

 

The lucky country indeed...  Image: Keven Law

 

 

I'm quite angry this evening. Not the annoyed, ticked off at a single event sort of anger. Genuinely angry, and genuinely sad.

 

Spending ten years away from your native country is an interesting experience. Whilst working as a foreign guest overseas, I got to peep at Australia from the outside in. I read about the Tampa and children overboard sagas and felt deep chagrin, and coming on the heels of Pauline Hanson (more notoriously representative of Australia in her time -- from an outsider's view -- than many Australians ever guessed), and centuries of abuse of native Australians, I seriously began to wonder what sort of country I'd grown up in, and what it was starting to mean to call oneself "an Aussie."

 

Then I saw the Cronulla Riots stuff on the BBC while overseas, and started to become genuinely disturbed.

 

Not long after I returned to Australia, my bi-cultural family in tow, the appalling sequence of violent racism-related attacks against Indian students in Melbourne was well under way. Australians, and especially the politicians, were going ever deeper into denial. Racism? A problem? Us? Never!

 

It's hard to put my finger on what exactly it is that really bothers me about some Australians, but I think it lingers somewhere in the huge hypocrisy of spouting about our egalitarian, friendly, down-to-earth and "fair go, mate" values, while drawing on a rich tradition of looking down on and often openly disparaging people who look or think a bit differently from us -- or just aren't as lucky as us, even.  

 

But nothing disturbs me more than our attitude to and practical approach to dealing with asylum seekers. That election outcomes here are hugely swayed by asylum seeker issues (with one major party -- who won the popular vote in this year's election -- campaigning under the slogan of "turn the boats around"), when we are one of the richest, most under-populated countries on the planet, and yet take in the tiniest proportion of refugees amongst most major first-world nations, simply galls me beyond belief.

 

And yes, I have been teaching English to refugees here in Australia for the past couple of months. I now have a personal connection and experience that strongly flavours my views on the issue.

 

On the one hand, I'm sick of constantly feeling like I ought to apologise on behalf of the entire nation to these incredible people, whose hardships and bravery just can't register with the average Australian thinking the quest for the four bedroom house on the big block of land makes him/her somehow a "battler".

 

On the other hand, I'm constantly awestricken by their positive and thankful attitude -- even when, in the "difficult" neighbourhoods where they are housed, they have to endure all sorts of abuse and prejudices.

 

They are a powerful example of the notion of relativity, I guess...

 

With all these factors in mind, I was genuinely upset to hear the news of the Christmas Island boat people tragedy this last couple of days.

 

But that was nothing compared to what I had to listen to today, at your typical Aussie children's birthday party...

 

A young mother of one of the children approached the small group of people I happened to be talking to, and said "I know this is terrible and all [smiles], but you know the Chistmas Island jokes have started already..."

 

Her small audience of people groan "oh no" -- with big grins on their faces -- and demand to hear the joke. I'm starting to feel a bit nauseous, and considering moving away out of earshot.

 

Not quick enough.

 

"Heard about the latest cocktail, invented on Christmas Island?

'Asylum Seeker on the Rocks'!"

 

Through the guffaws that follow, I tell the woman point-blank that the joke seriously isn't funny, and that she should be ashamed. Everyone just assumes I am doing the fake part-of-the-appreciation-of-the-joke moralising. It doesn't register.

 

And that joke format, if applied to Australian aborigines, could result in an entire afternoon of jests drawing on a rich tradition of having a laugh at native Australians in the most appallingly disparaging terms.

 

Believe me, I know. We used to tell these jokes throughout my time in high school. And I used to think they were funny, too -- hilarious even.

 

 

 

And average Australians seriously, seriously think that we don't have a problem.

 

 

 

                                                                    

 

 

A visualisation of an unplugged teaching approach - Part 2

 

My thanks to the people who made some creative guesses as to what my visualisation of an unplugged teaching approach diagram might signify in the previous post! There were some interesting and imaginative interpretations there, including a (not altogether unappealing) guess from Lindsay Clandfield that the 'G' in the chart stood for 'Global' and -- I may surmise? -- the idea that part of an unplugged teaching approach could involve hacking apart pages from Global with hedge trimmers to generate student-selected content to re-insert into the unplugged language teaching cycle...

 

However, time now to reveal the diagram again, put words to section letters, and see if you can detect any sort of useful method in my unplugged madness! Bearing in mind, of course, that I've been careful to use indefinite articles in the titles of these posts... "A" visualisation of "an" unplugged approach. Meaning both the visualisation and the approach are one of a potential many.

 

 

 

 

Let's just start with the two big bubbles and the colours shown there...

 

The yellow sphere generally represents topical or situational content. The blue sphere represents language rules and patterns. Where those two converge (the green beetle shape in the middle!) represents a space where topical/situational content and language rules and patterns are seen to be equally important and integrated -- and this space is also where the main, targeted (or "business") part of my unplugged lessons often take place.

 

 

Now, the keys:

 

A. GATHERING

B. TARGETING

C. INTERACTION

D. CAPTURING

E. CONSOLIDATION

F. (OPTIONAL) LANGUAGE WORK

G. (OPTIONAL) TASK

H. (OPTIONAL) EVALUATION

 

 

 
To expand a little on those...

 

 

 

A. GATHERING

This involves gathering topical or situational content and directions, usually through open/free conversation, but also potentially through learner-chosen or generated content (from in or outside the classroom).

 

B. TARGETING

After gathering a range of topical or situational directions (or finding a momentum within a common topic), the idea here is to "narrow" the content gathered in (A) to a specific topic, situation or task, so that there can be something the whole class can participate in. When and where necessary, there may be some pauses to explore emergent language according to rules and patterns, but they shouldn't be extensive or time consuming, and should feed back directly into the topical targeting or narrowing.

 

C. INTERACTION

There simply must be a section of the lesson dedicated to robust interaction of some sort, targeting the people in the room. This can be conversational activity to exchange/find out information, complete a task, etc., extending and exploring something based on the targeted topic in (B). As per (A), there may also be digressions to explore emergent language, so long as it helps drive the interactional activity being engaged in here.

 

D. CAPTURING

As a follow-up to the interaction in (C), it is beneficial to have a stage where content (integrated with language priorities) is captured through a slowed-down process that also results in something permanent and reviewable. This (for me) usually involves something written, and can be a summary, report or a transcript of some sort. As with the preceding stages, a review and extension of emergent language can be beneficial here -- ensuring it is gaining stronger accuracy and effectiveness.

 

E. CONSOLIDATION

Having used language for genuinely interactive purposes, within a specific topic or situation, then capturing it in some way, it is important to find ways to consolidate and commence the process of remembering it. So, in this stage, I often focus on individual oral reporting, based on memory, of processes and content from (C) and (D). I also want to check and see that emergent language is being applied accurately and effectively here. From here, there may be follow-up reflection or conversation leading back into (A) for a new cycle of unplugged teaching. Alternatively, I may see a need to look at some specific language work (F), or supplement with a specific follow-up task (G).

 

F. (OPTIONAL) LANGUAGE WORK

This involves exploration and targeted practice with a variety of relevant or related language forms, if this is judged to be useful and relevant. It may involve specific grammar or collocational explanations, followed up with targeted practice, and there may be opportunities to re-insert it into any of the previous stages as a review and language growth/development initiative.

 

G. (OPTIONAL) TASK

Following on from the process or sequence described in (B-E), and possibly also (F), there may be a specific task which integrates the topical and language explorations so far with particular institutional/curricular (or teacher-selected) learning and performance goals. It will involve a simplified task-based learning cycle with a specific task and goal in mind.

 

H. (OPTIONAL) EVALUATION

This involves evaluation of the task in (G), with follow up reflection and conversation leading back into (A) for (potentially) a gathering of topical and situational ideas and a new unplugged teaching cycle.

 

 

 

 

Right, so if all that still sounds too vague or nebulous, I'll very quickly demonstrate those stages according to simplified unplugged lesson sequences I've used in the past couple of months...

 

 

 

Example Lesson Sequence 1 (low/beginner level):

 

A: Open (assisted and scaffolded) conversation with learners at the start of class.

 

B: Identifying and fostering a topical thread around the notion of children (of the students in the room + in general), with some work with initial emergent language to build up capacity to talk about the topic.

 

C: Selection of prompts to use in a "Finding Out" activity (based around finding out more information about each other's children), which is then applied in the class so that everyone is asking questions to everyone else, and recording basic information in simplified note form. The teacher assists learners with both questions and answers when there are communication breakdowns.

 

D: The learners complete a simplified written summary of the content -- as it applied to them personally in terms of details/responses -- dealt with orally/interactively in (C), and the teacher checks/helps with language accuracy.

 

E: The teacher collects the reports and written summaries from (C) and (D) and asks individual learners to orally report what they can remember, about themselves and other classmates, assisting and prompting where necessary (but not as much as in earlier stages).

 

F: The teacher reviews a couple of different language rules and patterns that were initially introduced in (B) and reapplied through (C-E), for example like + noun(phrase) versus like + verb-ing, starting with the already existing examples of what their children like, and expanding to apply to themselves and friends (introducing new lexical items to the pattern).

 

G: The teacher introduces a specific set of tasks (going to a childcare centre to enrol children, converse with staff there, and fill out a basic enrolment form), which should allow the students to apply a lot of the language they've already explored and practiced in the main unplugged teaching cycle (plus some additional new language that may be required to adequately perform the tasks), but also addresses the course provider's criteria for things like filling out forms, giving personal information, etc.

 

H: The teacher evaluates learners on how well they appear to have succeeded with the central goals of the tasks in (G). Following up from the evaluation, the teacher returns to related topical/situational threads (for example, getting to the childcare centre -> public transport, suburbs; jobs people do at the childcare centre -> occupations) to encourage a re-entry into (A) and a new teaching/learning cycle with new content and ideas to explore.

 

 

 

 

Example Lesson Sequence 2 (upper elementary level):

 

A: The learners browse the website of a local newspaper, looking for headlines and stories that might be of interest to them.

  

B: Identifying and fostering a topical thread around the notion of christmas shopping, with a "live" reading text composed on the whiteboard (with content jointly constructed by teacher and learners), showcasing part of a "Christmas Specials" catalogue from a local retailer. Emergent language (particularly specialised vocabulary) is identified and developed where appropriate.

  

C: Learners get into groups and discuss Christmas shopping plans with each other. They can refer to or draw on items generated in the live reading text above, and/or expand well beyond this to talk about potential activities or priorities as part of their Christmas plans. The teacher circulates and helps out with vocabulary and emergent language patterns.

  

D: The learners try to recall the conversation they had as a group, and work collaboratively to record it (or something reasonably close to it) in writing, as a dialogue script. Again, the teacher is available to help/remind in terms of language used or potentially useful.

  

E: The groups "perform" their dialogues, first by being allowed to refer to the written versions, then without them. The teacher (using the written version) helps the second run with prompts or reminders, but only when the dialogue replay seriously breaks down. (As a back-up or alternative to this, the class could compose a related dialogue on the spot for the teacher to document on the whiteboard, which is then progressively memorised through something similar to the process described in Going, going, gone (in!)). 

  

F: The teacher reviews a couple of different language rules and patterns that were initially introduced in (C) and reapplied through (C-E), for example the modals can/should/have to, starting with the already existing examples from the group-generated dialogues, expanding to apply to other everyday situations and challenges, but also perhaps introducing some different modals (for example may/might).

 

G: The teacher introduces a task (finding a worker in a department store to ask after particular items seen in a Christmas catalogue, and also checking details about special conditions for sale prices listed), addressing the course provider's criteria for things like understanding a written information text, clarifying information in spoken transactions, etc.

 

H: The teacher evaluates learners on how well they appear to have succeeded with the central goals of the task in (G). Following up from the evaluation, the teacher returns to related topical/situational threads (for example, Christmas shopping -> favourite shops in a shopping mall; special prices -> good/bad advertising techniques) to encourage a re-entry into (A) and a new teaching/learning cycle with new content and ideas to explore.

 

 

 

 

Rightio, then, so there you have it. Or something...

 

Recall again that I didn't say this was "the" approach for unplugged language teaching (or any other style or sequence of teaching, for that matter), only that this is "an" approach that has worked out quite well for me (and, I dare to hope, my learners!) as a regular sequence over the past couple of months.

 

What I've particularly liked about this approach has been:

 

- The emergent and flexible nature of the topical content;

 

- A reliable general sequence, flexible enough for lots of different options and activities, but still a "fluent" and logical procedure that often belies the fact that almost nothing is specifically planned in advanced of the lesson(s);

 

- The integration of skills;

 

- The "remembering" aspect, ensuring that learners go away with the beginnings of situational language forming more solidly in longer-term memory;

 

- Starting what is relevent and useful for the learners themselves, and making the institutional assessment goals fit that (rather than the other way around);

 

- The fact that, when ignoring the optional task and evaluation (in G and H) and just plunging ahead into a new cycle, there has been no real need for evaluation -- a lot of the process seems to (sort of) evaluate itself, and this appears to be perfectly logical and apparent to the learners;

 

- The freedom to abandon or finish up at any of the stages (B-E) -- if it risks boredom, irrelevance, or overkill -- and just dip back into (A) again...

 

 

 

So, what do you think?

Have I brought any sort of method to my unplugged madness?

 

 

 

=D

 

 

 

 

                                  

A visualisation of an unplugged teaching approach - Part 1

 

 

Call me a visual learner... but I do so like to try and visualise complicated processes through diagrams and blobby stuff.

 

Looking at the diagram above, I'm not so sure it has come off very well this time around...

 

I looked back over 10 weeks or so of regular unplugged language teaching, and tried visualising it all according to the most common central or 'go-to' approach I tended to use.

 

Have I made the complicated/involved absolutely incomprehensible? For an 'unplugged' approach, it certainly looks pretty wired up, doesn't it?

 

Let's put it to the test, shall we?

Just for a Christmas lark and all...

 

Look at the diagram above. What do you think it shows? What do you think the different letters might signify?

 

Answers will be provided in a follow-up post...

 

 

 

=D

 

 

                                                  

                                 

 

A welcome end-of-term curveball...

 

 

Image: Geof Wilson

 

 

Teetering on the edge of the end of term (the class I have tomorrow afternoon will be my last for the year), I was farewelling a class today, and thanking them for lots of positive feedback, when I got a thank you from a student that almost threw me...

 

"Thanks..." said the lady, pausing to fumble for the right words, "for helping us... get to know each other really well. For helping us become good friends."

 

The students behind her nodded eagerly in agreement.

 

I can honestly say I've never felt so chuffed before at the end of a term with a class. And that observation, as positive feedback for a teacher, was something of a first for me.

 

A most welcome curveball!

 

 

 

=D

 

 

                                           

                          

 

Re-thinking the rotten apple teacher

 

 

I suppose even the rotten apples have their positive uses... Image: mbeo

 

 

For a while now, I've been sorely tempted to blog about the rotten apple teacher. You know the one I'm talking about. They linger for a bit at the bottom of the barrel, concealing themselves until they hit something in the way of a comfort zone, and then up they pop.

 

It is potentially perilous to identify the rotten apple teacher by name, but certainly they live on in our collective ELT awareness in deed. The arrogant, bigoted, verging-on-outright-racist remarks and attitude both in the staffroom and in classes with multi-national and multi-cultural students. The erroneous assumption that talking down to students when they make mistakes somehow helps them to improve and like their second-language selves. The presumption that one is entitled to barge in on other teachers' classes to check up on and embarrass students, or else to basically mock the level of the attending students when they don't appear to understand what the intruder is gabbling on about (or why the hell they are even there). The appalling public attitude towards homosexuality (without bothering to know whether any of one's colleagues happen to be gay). The ineptitude with basic principles of effective teaching (despite the oft-quoted special certificates and diplomas and years of experience), and a cover-one's-behind-at-all-costs approach to explaining why certain straightforward administrative policies haven't been followed. The huffy insistence on planning time, on hourly rates, only to produce classes where students sing mindlessly for a couple of hours, or else do a worksheet (from several years ago) with inane, unorganised "communication prompts" on one side, and a gap-fill exercise on the back with completely disconnected decontextualised sentences (for no specific purpose, and for a class that is potentially already well beyond this particular structure). The whispered demands in the staffroom to know what other teachers are earning, and the ongoing theme of bitching about the establishment while -- essentially -- through one's own (in)action, ensuring the establishment stays as close to the dark ages as possible so that one's ineptitude can be safely nursed and concealed.

 

Yes, I wanted to do that in so many ways (and yes, it's not the first time by a long shot!), and I'm sure you've been sorely tempted to do the same many times yourself.

 

But there's really little point, in some cases. Like crocodiles, some teachers are -- unfortunately -- at a point where they just can't (or won't) change. It's all the environment's fault, you see. And/or the working conditions. And/or the other teachers. And/or the students. And/or the unfavourable schedule. And/or the weather today... Anything but the crocodile itself, of course.

 

And until there is a trip and stuff up of colossal enough proportions, when what everyone already knew but couldn't necessarily prove with hard evidence becomes embarrassingly apparent, you're stuck with the nasty dinosaur.

 

Anyway, there are other -- more positive -- ways of looking at bad apple teacher syndrome:

 

1. They give students practice with dealing with difficult people with poor attitudes in real-world settings.

So long as they are not the class's sole teacher (and/or not for an extended period of time), I think this experience can be valuable for students. Communicating out in the real world isn't always about dealing with fluffy/happy/kind/patient people, is it? At least in a classroom, there are likely to be at least a few other students who realise the teacher is (a) rather incompetent and (b) a bit of an arse, so there can be a feeling of camaraderie there, and perhaps at some stage the learners will be able to work up the courage to stick up for themselves and each other, even complain to management. Basically, if they can learn to tolerate or stand up to bullyish bigoted behaviour in the classroom, this bodes well for their chances out in the real world.

 

2. These teachers make the rest of us look so much better...

When you share a class with the bad apple teacher, you can see the look of joy on the students' faces when it is you that walks through the door rather than your noxious colleague. If you happen to take over a class from a bad apple teacher, for the learners it can be like escaping from the Gulag and a period of misery somewhere in Siberia. You might even wander past the bad apple teacher's classroom from time to time, and see the learners spot you and crane their heads, yearning, wishing...

 

 

 

See, there's potentially something positive in everything negative you come across...

 

 

 

=D

 

 

 

                                                     

 

WEGs for "Find someone who..."

 

 

 

 

Okay, this is the third post in a week to "spring forth" partly as a result of that R is for Repetition post on Scott Thornbury's blog... What's going on here? Is ST starting to influence me or something...?

 

In Scott's post (or at least in the comments thread), the well-known activity "Find someone who..." is mentioned several times. I've used it countless times in the classroom, but not recently, and thought next week could be a good time to return to it. Doing a quick check of various folders on the computer, I found a Wizard English Grid file already set up there for the "Find someone who..." activity -- dated to September, 2009. Whoops -- must have got it ready and then neglected to post it on the blog!

 

So, I've rigged up a couple of versions of the WEG for "Find someone who..." and I'll be using it across three general stages with a group of learners in the next week or so:

 

STAGE 1

- "Find someone who..." grid, set up with prompts organised into rows according to basic information with the "be" verb, regular activities or facts about oneself, activities in the recent past, experiences, and (potential) future actions.

- Following completion of the grid, complete a simple written summary of one's findings, applying some of the basic skills we've already introduced regarding using paragraphs to sections off main ideas or categories from one another.

- Students do an oral report based on their findings, based on memory (while the teacher refers to their grid and makes some quick corrections to their written summary). They won't need to be able to remember absolutely everything, just as much as possible.

 

STAGE 2

- "Find someone who..." grid, with new (but similar) prompts, with only the basic information with the "be" verb section presented in the first row, and the other functional categories jumbled around throughout the grid.

- Another written summary, this time requiring them to sort through the grid to find the right sorts of information to go into appropriate paragraph slots.

- Again, an oral summary of their findings from each student based on memory, while the teacher makes quick corrections to their written summaries.

 

STAGE 3

- (Somewhat unplugged version): Learners write down 20 simple facts or interesting things about themselves, then apply it to a new blank WEG to create a learner-oriented "Find someone who..." chart.

- A written report/summary, this time compiled in whatever way the learner feels is appropriate or logical.

- Oral summaries based on memory, along the same lines already described in Stages 1 and 2.

 

 

 

 

So here's what my WEG looks like for Stage 1:

 

 

 

Basically, you can see I've organised the prompts somewhat functionally, in rows so that the learners are able to repeat the same sort of functional grammar in their questions:

 

 

 

To help them out a bit with this, and establish some early patterns for those who need some reminders, I'll be writing these "bubbles" up on the whiteboard:

 

 

 

For the written summary follow up in this stage, I will be giving them the following paragraph "starters":

 

First of all, I looked for people who match some basic information...

 

Second, I searched about for classmates who match certain facts or do some things regularly...

 

Next, I hunted about for people who did particular things recently...

 

Following that, I sought out classmates who have had different kinds of experiences...

 

Finally, I tracked down people who will possibly be doing a couple of different things in the near future...

 

 

Note the different ways to express the basic idea of "look for" -- for activities like this I love to be able to take a simple term and show a variety of other (more advanced, often more colloquial) ways it might be expressed!

 

However, essentially, the information to complete their paragraphs for this report will already be organised for them into clear rows in the WEG.

 

I will then take away their papers and make quick corrections to their writing, while helping them (if needed) to make oral summaries of their findings based on memory.

 

 

 

So moving on to Stage 2, things are going to get a little more challenging! Here's the new WEG for them to complete:

 

 

 

Similar basic functions and somewhat similar questions, but now only the first row has been neatly organised for them. The other broad functions have been entered in below that in diagonal lines (going down and across), which don't match the numbered progression from row to row, hence making them effectively jumbled in order:

 

 

 

I'm not sure if I'll write the different question prompt starters up on the whiteboard for them again -- we'll say how they manage on their own first!

 

For the follow up written report, I'll write the paragraph starters up on the board for them again, but with gaps to see if they can recall some key terms. Also, this time for the report, only the first paragraph will be neatly charted out for them. To complete the following four, they'll need to look around the entire bottom four rows of the grid and make some choices about which sorts of information fit into which paragraph.

 

(Depending on how we're going for time, and how accessible this all was for my learners, I may then ask them to re-write the report with the added challenge of asking for the reported information but also a compare/contrast follow-up clause, for example: David skipped breakfast today, and I did, too; Susan watches TV a lot, but I don't.)

 

Again, the learners will need to try and perform oral summaries based on memory. I find this is often hard for them, but in the end easier than they expect, and it is really great for triggering and stretching their brains in terms of both content and language (in addition to making the written summary purposeful and helpful). Also, in addition to getting some precious time to check each student's written work, I get some valuable insights as a teacher how their productive ability varies across both speaking and writing.

 

 

 

As for Stage 3, with the unplugged version, who knows what will happen?

 

 

 

On a final note, let me just say that I don't always apply "Find someone who..." in this (rather grammar/function-mediated) way. These learners just haven't had much focus on form recently, and I think it's a good time to be pulling some grammar forward for them (without it being about rules and analysis: as you can see from my application here, it's more about patterns).

 

 

 

Let's see how it all goes, then...

 

 

 

=D

 

 

 

                                                     

 

Monopoly with beginner level language learners

 

 

 

 

I've been having a great time over the past week or two using the Australian edition of Monopoly with my beginner level adult language learners.

 

I'd only ever used Monopoly before with students in the upper elementary to higher levels, and I was a little sceptical at first how accessible and effective using it with beginners might be (even when I removed a variety of the more complex rules -- for example, taking away the whole houses and hotels upgrading thing, and considerably simplified others -- like the Chance and Community Chest results).

 

Going with a flexible approach, taking things as they came, roughly four hours of Monopoly, interspersed with a variety of short language activities, have yielded great results with this class. In essence, they've gone from a workable "social game" vocabulary consisting of yes/no, basic pronouns, good/bad, happy/no happy and like/no like to very fluent use of sentences and phrases including:

 

- Whose turn is it? / It's (not) your/my turn.

- Can you move my marker for me?

- Yes, I'd like to buy it / No, thanks.

- How much is it? / Do you have change?

- That's my property. Please pay the rent. It's _____ dollars.

- Do you have enough money?

- Here you are / No worries.

- Skip three turns / Skip two more turns / Skip one more turn.

- Cities, noteworthy locations, and states of Australia.

 

 

The process here was relatively straightforward, but I guess could be explained in four stages:

 

(1) Play the game, with the teacher doing almost all of the talking, and learners just doing/following along. As properties are purchased, there are brief digressions to show where on a map of Australia the places are, and how to pronounce them properly.

 

(2) Pause to introduce key phrases and expressions that embodied most of the actions being undertaken (and up to this point being said mostly by the teacher), working through them on the whiteboard, with learners taking them down in their notebooks to study later at home as well.

 

(3) Continue playing the game, and ask students to try to use the expressions as the natural/required opportunities in the game came up, with reminders, help and modelling from the teacher.

 

(4) Continue playing the game, with the teacher using something akin to the Silent Method -- simply nodding, shaking the head, pointing or using other forms of non-verbal language to help prompt the learners or confirm or question their use of language as the game progressed.

 

 

By stage four, the learners were getting seriously good at using almost all of the language chunks I listed above. My role in the game was just playing banker and finding entertaining ways to simplify and convey the curve ball situations thrown up by the Chance and Community Chest cards.

 

 

To me, the clear success factors in this approach are:

 

- The learners genuinely enjoyed the challenge of the game, for pretty much unlimited hours of classroom time;

 

- The chance for a silent period, while still doing things that involved participating in a social game;

 

- The abundant chances for meaningful, non-boring repetition -> I believe the game and approach here satisfied a lot of the priorities mentioned in Scott Thornbury's recent post about Repetition.

 

 

So yeah, a useful discovery that: Monopoly as a game for language learners isn't limited to just intermediate levels and higher...

                   

                                      

                                              

=D

 

 

 

                                                         

 

Reading and listening out of the socket

 

 

Teaching unplugged isn't just about speaking and writing... Image: kippbakr

 

 

Sabrina De Vita, an ever-thoughtful teacher from Buenos Aires, Argentina, recently blogged a post titled Heeeeeeeelp!, in which she asked her PLN to add to her awareness about teaching unplugged by explaining how reading and listening skills could be drawn on "dogmeicly".

 

Sabrina DMed me with a specific request to share some ideas, and I thought it was worthy enough of a dedicated blog post. So this one's for you, Sabrina!

 

It is true that an unplugged approach naturally tends (or seems) to make the most of speaking and writing skills in particular. But to that I would say nothing is truly spoken that isn't listened to, and likewise nothing is genuinely written if it isn't read by somebody...

 

So that makes an important starting point for reading and listening, in my mind. What our students (and us, as teachers) are talking and writing about is naturally creating dynamic listening and reading material -- if we make the most of it and ensure there are activities in our class that target, from time to time, what was output so that it becomes input and is harnessed in ways to build genuine listening and reading skills.

 

The obvious criticism or concern -- yes, I know -- is that, being student generated, and quite possibly "error-prone", this might not be the ideal listening and writing input to use a lot of the time in our classes.

 

I have mixed feelings about that in a lot of ways, but for now what I would say is that this input makes an ideal foundation for reading and listening material. If we treat it as emergent language, capture it, edit and improve it, then deliver it in a slightly new or adapted form, we can "have our cake and eat it" to some extent -- as in, the learners themselves can be providing our reading and listening content, which we then edit and adapt (possibly with the participation of the class itself) to come up with input that is sufficiently accurate and challenging for the purposes of building receptive skills.

 

Let me put that all more simply:

 

- Our learners discuss an issue or give an oral report. We capture that somehow (by recording it or having students write it down), take it away and adapt/improve it, then use that it as either a dialogue or listening passage. We add appropriate listening comprehension questions to build the learners' skills in this area, and/or (in more advanced unplugged classes) make composition of comprehension questions one of the tasks of the learner-authors themselves -- again, with our involvement to make it sufficiently accurate and challenging.

 

- Our learners have written something. We edit and adapt it to create reading passages or listening passages, ensuring accuracy and sufficient challenge and skill-building as described above.

 

Obviously (and especially in large classes), we can't have every student's oral or written production become the basis of targeted whole classroom reading and listening activities all the time (though we can of course make any/all of it ongoing reading and listening material as a natural consequence of doing speaking and writing in the classroom). So we can be selective with it in various ways. Some content will feel more relevant to more of the classroom than others, but probably the most effective method is to selectively rotate the turn for different students' work to become the targeted input for receptive skills from one class to the next. This is a good way to create a rhythm for our reading and listening material that incorporates both variety and whole class participation over a series of lessons.

 

For the listening material generated this way, we might ask students in groups to rehearse the adapted scripts we've made for them, and then deliver it to the class as a performance (either live or pre-recorded). This highlights the blurry rods connecting listening and speaking skills, and makes the most of yet another opportunity to have the learners participating in our classroom.

 

Are you going to get all huffy at me now because this results in material not delivered by fully proficient speakers (I won't go so far as to say "native speakers", though I'm sure many others will, for a host of reasons)?

 

Well, you could be delivering it to the class, on your own (if it is a monologue), with a student (perhaps the original author?), or with another teacher at the school. Goodness, with the way PLNs and collaboration are developing on Twitter, I daresay you could even find colleagues on the other side of the world willing to help you record some of these scripts... Again, this can be done live in class or pre-recorded in advance.

 

But wait -- we're not limited to just the sorts of processes outlined above for generating our reading and listening material dogmeicly. No, not by any means!

 

We can have learners search about on their own in newspapers or online to find texts that intrinsically interest them, then bring them into class. I described this recently in the My week with Marilyn post, and also described/demonstrated it as part of an overall unplugged approach to integrated skills in my post The learner's notebook as coursebook. We can also direct our learners to a number of video and podcast-style resources on the Internet to create a rich variety of learner-selected listening materials.

 

The next hurdle that leaps up here, however, is the issue of "level appropriate material"...

 

Personally, I've generally found that student-selected content tends to gravitate around interest rather than overall accessibility at a linguistic level. In other words, when the students are interested enough in a topic, the level often doesn't play a massive role in whether they're willing to try and engage with it. That said, we don't want to risk a situation whereby our learners jump on material because it looks interesting, only to get smothered by having too many new words or grammatical concepts to learn.

 

For reading, I've found it possible to re-write texts that learners have chosen so that they are more accessible, even "on the spot" on the whiteboard. It can also be taken away and re-written on paper for a follow-up lesson.

 

But an even more effective method -- in my opinion -- is to use something like the "live reading" process I described in the recent The live reading lesson followed up with some word swimming and Going, going, gone (in!) posts on this blog. In essence, the live reading approach epitomises "good dogme", in that it emerges from conversation that is negotiated directly with the learners right there in the classroom. And aside from creating ongoing comprehension and interest (even investment), the live reading text provides excellent flexibility for a teacher to generate a rich variety of reading texts that are at, or just slightly beyond, the learners' current reading level.

 

For level-appropriate listening material, we can adapt our reading texts generated through some of the processes just mentioned so that they become listening passages. But we can also encourage our learners to choose listening material at a variety of levels with high-interest value content and themes from such excellent sites as Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab, Sean Banville's Breaking News English, or the outstanding ESOL Courses site. There is also English Central, which creates a superb blend of listening and speaking practice in application to a range of high interest topics.

 

Right, so even if we can generate level-appropriate material, or have students find and select materials to bring in, how can we be sure they are actually developing the right sorts of comprehension skills with it?

 

This, to me, comes down to basic teaching skills, including the ability to recognise opportunities to apply a variety of different reading and listening skills, for example:

 

- Finding main ideas

- Finding details

- Skimming/scanning

- Guessing purpose and audience

- Comparing and contrasting

- Paraphrasing and summarising

- Making inferences

 

And the list goes on.

 

Many teachers out there have generally relied on their coursebooks to deliver these sorts of comprehension questions, and usually in a multiple choice format that allows learners to guess the answer even when they are potentially clueless. It is a potent recipe for allowing both teacher and learners to slip into "auto" mode in so many classes...

 

The aspiring unplugged teacher needs to develop the ability to apply these comprehension checks on the spot (or prepared in the staffroom between lesson days), as opportunities and purposes for using them emerge from a text or recording. They ought also -- in my opinion -- consider the benefits of making such checking and discussion of texts fully oral and open-ended, rather than pre-scripted, written and over-scaffolded with the multiple-choice options to choose from.

 

In other words, during or following reading and listening passages, just ask students questions as they pop up, and have them attempt to answer orally.

 

If we're going to test comprehension through written responses, I think they should actually be responses. As in (for example), a summary followed by some personal opinions or questions about the content, which is then shared with classmates, groups, or the whole class.

 

And once we've sufficiently showcased and applied a range of central reading and listening skills with the learners, they should of course be encouraged to start taking over at least part of this responsibility themselves: students creating skills-based questions for each other, and even for themselves.

 

 

 

So in essence (and admittedly only touching the tip of a potential iceberg on this subject in an over-long blog post), I think the opportunities for unplugged reading and listening material are not only extensive, they are also in many ways much more interesting and motivating than the fare often served up in coursebooks.

 

Don't let the idea of reading and listening content and skills prevent you from considering the viability of unplugged language teaching in your classroom... They're there, and they're quite powerful.

 

 

 

=D

 

 

                                

                                  

Going, going, gone (in!)

 

 

Now you see it, now you don't... but now you know it!

 

 

As I prepared to do a new live reading passage composition with my class today (see an earlier example and explanation of this here), I was reminded of the concept of the "disappearing dialogue" mentioned by Scott Thornbury in his latest post about R is for Repetition.

 

I used something very similar to the disappearing dialogue several years ago, but other than something like the Flip-fill activity, I haven't been using a lot of these sorts of techniques in my teaching the last couple of years.

 

Given I was about to generate a short reading passage for/with my learners, I thought "why not apply the same basic principle of the disappearing dialogue here -- except for a passage instead of a dialogue?"

 

So, after some warm and friendly initial conversation, the subject of Christmas came up. "Great," I thought. "Let's go with that! Good timing and all..."

 

Using the live reading technique (in a nutshell, starting a topic and having students participate in the composition process through elicitation and follow-up questions -- listed on the board next to the passage as it emerges), here's what we came up with:

 

 

 

I seriously enjoy doing this activity. Taking the limited expression (but core content or ideas) from the learners' own ongoing contributions to the passage, it's great to "polish up" the language for them and extend it or express it in new ways. Listing the questions to the side as they are applied and answered also means you're building a simple set of comprehension questions that exists both before and after the text is generated. But above anything else, what I absolutely adore about it is the negotiated and collaborative nature of this sort of text.

 

So we have a nice, relevant, topical and collaborative reading passage, both at and just a little beyond their current level...

 

Time for the repetition aspect, to anchor the language in the learners' memories, but hopefully in a way that is not boring or over-difficult.

 

To start with, I went through the passage again and had the learners make guesses as to the stress patterns at word/sentence level. Once I'd confirmed or corrected everything, here's what our passage looked like:

 

 

 

Another read-through chorally as a class to help get the rhythm/stress happening, and time now to make a few things disappear.

 

I started by deleting most of the unstressed function words in the passage, and had the students collectively (orally) help me to fill in the gaps generated:

 

 

 

Not too many problems there, so next I started taking out some of the verbs, as well as most of whatever remained of the function words (I left the prepositions intact for two-part verbs like "take place" and "wake up" -- just to be a bit sporting at this stage!)...

 

 

 

A little bit of stumbling at this stage, so I adapted my approach so that students got into pairs or threes and concentrated on completing only one sentence each from the passage. This allowed them to brainstorm together and focus on one specific sentence.

 

What do you know, when it came time to check, every group was spot on. So we did the entire passage again as a group, and again: spot on!

 

From there, I basically took out all words except for the main nouns, generating a passage that looked like this:

 

 

 

I followed the same method as for the previous stage (teams of two or three concentrating on one sentence each, then the whole passage again chorally as a group), and blow me down, this isn't getting harder for them -- it appears to be getting easier! And they're enjoying it, too...

 

Nothing left for it, then... Time to scrub the entire passage:

 

 

 

Okay, even I was a little awed when, as a group, they all read out this entire text orally, with no real errors whatsoever (as I scrambled to keep up with them, writing in the words as they called them out to me):

 

 

 

And the wide-eyed student teacher watching all this from the corner of the classroom? He was positively amazed! "You sure they haven't seen that text before today...?"

 

No doubt it helped a lot that the students themselves helped me to build the passage from the start (which does fantastic things for ensuring they can understand what it is they are reading, even when I've nudged the language and expression ahead a little bit), but there is also no doubt that this "disappearing passage" technique is genuinely powerful in terms of repetition and uptake.

 

From there, we brainstormed a new list of questions for students to ask each other about Christmas traditions and plans in their own households, they chose the four they liked best, asked them to three other students, gathered notes (the "Finding Out" process), used them to compose a simple report about what they'd found out from classmates, and then delivered them as oral reports while I referred to their written versions.

 

And then we went on and looked at a range of nice messages to use for Christmas card writing.

 

Fabulous, highly productive three hour lesson. Wonderful stuff!

 

 

And thank you, Mr. Thornbury, for the reminder about the power of the disappearing text technique. Yup, it works pretty darned well.

 

 

 

=D

 

 

 

                                                                       

 

Food for EFL thought

 

 

The famous Nighthawks painting, by Edward Hopper

 

 

Pick up a random coursebook from the shelf in your staffroom (or bookcase at home, if you're the sort that likes to keep coursebooks within reach). I'd say there is a reasonable chance that at least one of the units in that book, or at least part of one of those units, focusses on something along the lines of "dining out", "in the restaurant", "what would you like to eat?" or something reasonably similar.

 

There may be a menu to look at, and perhaps a dialogue to analyse and perform. What often follows is a vocabulary section featuring different kinds of food, representing a selection from a sort of uber-fusion hypothetical restaurant wherein half a dozen or more cultures get a showing. Remember, most coursebooks are meant for global or at least regional distribution these days, and it clearly wouldn't do to either come across as colonising our EFL students by only showing them British or American fare, or missing out on a chance to make them feel included by not featuring something from their own national cuisine in the example menu. 

 

Whenever I see this restaurant/eating out unit in a coursebook, I can't help seeing an image of the Nighthawks scene (shown above at the start of this post). I've even been known, when perusing a potential coursebook for the schools I've worked at, to pause at the eating out unit and say "Oh, great -- Nighthawks!"

 

The restaurant in Nighthawks is one that I will never see or experience. I may one day come across something similar in terms of thematic decor, but otherwise this is just a scene -- a notion. I'm not likely to see people wearing the same clothes as in that scene. Nor am I likely to hear the sorts of food/drink related banter that might have gone on in that particular place at that particular time (nor for that matter need to engage in it).

 

For many -- even most -- EFL students, the resonance of the scenes, vocabulary, and language in the "eating out" unit of their coursebooks must be similarly distant at best.

 

How many of these students will actually eat out at an English-language-medium restaurant in the next 6-12 months, or 6-12 years, or even ever? Is novelty an acceptable rationale for exposing students to (and asking them to pretend to participate in) scenes and situations that they are highly unlikely to ever need to face?

 

Even with my ESL students here in Australia (where there is more likelihood that they will eat out in a location where English is required), the good old restaurant scene feels somewhat unwieldy. But that's a more complex matter, and I'll try to stick to the EFL-related issues for now (given I think that is where more coursebook sales -- not to mention blog readers -- come from).

 

Now, even with the sort of "poor man's Matrix effect" the eating out scene is likely to create in an EFL classroom, I want to point out that the notion of restaurants and eating out is actually a potentially valid one -- even in EFL contexts -- and the language used in those units is also potentially useful.

 

But we'll need to make some changes, I reckon...

 

What language are we looking at here? At the basic lexis level, we're talking food and drink items. In terms of utterances, we're looking at enquiries, requests, offers (if we want to roleplay the stereotypical waitperson, perhaps...), confirmations, and -- perhaps at higher levels -- complaints, descriptions, requests for clarifications, etc.

 

For a start, I think a CLIL or task-based approach to food -- and international food -- would be far more beneficial for our learners.

 

For a CLIL orientation, we could have projects about foods from different parts of the world, how they relate to culture(s), what ingredients they contain, how they are made, the economic and environmental issues related to food production, etc. It doesn't need to go that far or into that much detail, of course, but food is a very rich vein to mine in a CLIL-oriented classroom approach.

 

On the task-based front, why not have the class plan (and perhaps even conduct/host) a mini International Food Festival? Or, by referencing some sort of international event to be held in their country (anything from a summit to a conference to a Grand Prix race), have them brainstorm a prospective menu for the participants that features both a selection from the host country's cuisine as well as fare from the participants' countries to help make them feel at home.

 

And here's a great one I've done several times... Have the students bring in a menu that a local restaurant has attempted (almost always quite badly) to translate into English for international visitors, and get them to find ways to improve it, make it more accurate linguistically, and more attactive to foreign eyes. They can even offer it back to the restaurant to use (and I even had some students get free meals or a minor payment for their trouble!).

 

If neither CLIL nor task-based appeals to you, I think at the very least it might be a good idea to consider that:

 

1. The basic language featured in the eating out unit (with the exception of the particular food words) can be more than adequately presented and practiced in situations that are more closely related and relevant to the actual classroom context (enquiries, requests, offers, confirmations, complaints, descriptions, requests for clarifications, etc.).

 

2. If it really must be about restaurants, focus more on the idea of hosting foreign visitors at restaurants in the students' own country. Then the language will be more about naming and describing local cuisine in English, finding out what basic types of food the visitors like, making suggestions, and perhaps enquiring about the visitors' own cuisines and making polite or interesting comparisons.

 

 

Anyway, whatever we do when it comes to those food/restaurant issues, I hope we can try to keep things reasonably real and reasonably relevant. Most of the food/eating out units in existing coursebooks just don't make the cut, really.

 

Our students aren't going to go to the restaurant (or meet the people portrayed) in Nighthawks, are they?

 

 

 

=D

 

 

 

                                                       

 

 

 

An ELT Conference you really DON'T want to miss!

 

 

 

Great news for both Aussie teachers sick of being left out of all that is happening in global ELT (and desperate for a change from the dry offerings of English Australia), but also for all our colleagues in Asia and Europe who might like to get away from winter for a bit...

 

I'm pleased as punch to announce:

 

 

The Inaugural and Unorthodox English Raven ELT Conference

to be held in Geelong, Australia!

 

 

In the spirit of true Aussie hospitality, we'll be holding the event right here in the English Raven's humble abode...

 

Big names? We'll have them! Plenary speakers include:

 

- Jeremy Harmer (The Music of ELT)

- Scott Thornbury (Planes, trains and the need for an automobile: Lessons for the unplugged)

- Simon Greenall (My name's Simon and I write coursebooks)

- Gavin Dudeney (Why my facebook profile features a picture of an orange kettle)

- Ken Wilson (Your English class seems lifeless? No drama!)

- David Nunan (not presenting, just invited to watch the other plenary speakers and get some idea how it's actually done)

 

 

The plenary area in English Raven's backyard... Note the air-powered rocket launcher to the right (not sure yet who will have the right to use it: the plenary speaker or the audience)

 

 

And before anyone goes asking how I managed to attract such august ELT figures (for an event in January, no less), let me just say that it is the result of a not-so-secret English Raven sauce which involves, amongst other irresistible offers, a promise from English Raven not to blog about these people in the foreseeable future, and to refrain from commenting on said people's own blog posts as well...

 

 

But those are just the plenaries, and if they don't tickle your fancy, I'm happy to inform you that our special event 'foyer' area will be well set-up with kegs and a fine collection of local and international wines provided by Randall's Wine Cellars (located just around the corner from the event venue, and managed by one of my best mates from high school).

 

 

The conference 'foyer/mingling' area. Someone remind me to move the car and roll out the recycle bins for the inevitable stash of empty bottles...

 

 

And then there are the concurrent workshop sessions!

 

You're in for a right royal treat here folks (and I'm not just talking about Lindsay Clandfield and Marcos Benevides -- though they of course will be there with bells on... might have something to do with me offering them great rooms above the immaculate pub across the road from our humble venue), as we already have a long list of top-quality and mostly heinously unrecognised presenters rolling in from the inner circles of English Raven's PLN.

 

I'll post the names of our workshop hosts and their presentation titles as soon as I can think of something cheeky enough to say about each of them...

 

But for now, trust me, these presenters are going to make any conference you've ever been to in the past seem like a stamp collector's symposium by comparison!

 

 

The three spaces allocated for our concurrent workshop sessions, which you will actually be able to see concurrently, or according to your bottom's preference for wooden decking or lush green lawn. Note the third presentation area to the far left, reserved for workshops with an 'organic teaching/learning' emphasis...

 

 

Publishers?

You're welcome, too, of course, and there is a very special section of the English Raven nest set aside for your tables and booths:

 

 

The special publisher's area at the event, with the requirement that companies clean up the garden and (heavily concealed at this stage) fish pond in advance, and make every reasonable effort not to upset my elderly Hungarian neighbour with their endless gossip! Only publishers willing to give away genuinely cool stuff will be permitted to set up under the actual porch...

 

 

And, of course, what would a conference event be without appropriate support on the ground?

 

 

Our special conference support team: James will be helping you out with all your tech requirements, while Hannah will be charming the socks off anyone who comes within eyesight of her...

 

 

 

Accommodation?

Got that sorted as well. Conference attendees will get sleeping bags and quilts to crash wherever they like inside, while the plenary speakers will get exclusive accommodation in the English Raven car (four seats for six people -- I'll let you lot sort that out, and oh: there's the boot as well -- very spacious, but mind the stroller!).

 

 

This will be the ELT conference event of the, erm, day -- so get those tickets organised and get your backsides to Geelong, Australia in January!

 

 

 

=D

 

 

                                

                                         

And the nominations are...

 

 

 

Thank you so much to the kind souls in my PLN who nominated English Raven for the Best Teacher Edublog 2010 -- I'm enormously humbled, and happy to say that the blog has made the nominations shortlist!

 

I've just been over to the Edublog Awards and voted for my favourites in all the different categories there. Edublogs have done a brilliant job of organising and referencing everything, and voting is a super simple and quick process. So jump on over there and vote for your favourites!

 

Looking through the nominations, I found myself surprised and proud of what a good showing English language teaching is getting there (considering that Edublogs covers all sorts of educational streams).

 

However the awards turn out and whoever ends up walking away winners, I'd like to think that ELT -- across the board -- has shown itself to be an example of good educational practice and collaborative teacher development.

 

As Hot Chocolate would say: "Everyone's a winner, baby..."

 

 

 

=D

 

 

                                            

 

The three background experiences that helped me become a language teacher...

 

 

Where each teacher comes from is a different story..! Image: artyfishal44

 

 

In chronological order:

 

1. As a teenager: being a "gamemaster" in adventure roleplaying games and designing my own materials.

 

2. As a university student: studying linguistics, a second language, and living abroad.

 

3. Working in pubs.

 

 

 

 

What might your three be?

 

 

=D

 

 

                                           

 

ELT materials and before we go diving too deeply into digital...

 

 

... it might be worth thinking about what we're getting into and what we're leaving behind?  Image: Ilse Reijs

 

 

Ken Wilson's latest post ("E-learning and the Theory of the Adjacent Possible") is a cracking good read from one of ELT's long-termers who has seen a lot of things change, come and go. In it, he looks at the possible options for digital coursebooks, and explores a variety of practical issues that accompany this rather awkward shuffle of ours from materials that are primarily paper-based into ones that are partially or wholly digital.

 

In the comments section of that post, I responded to Ken's challenge for someone to openly defend the good old-fashioned paper book. This was interesting for me, as a teacher who embraces technology and digital materials design. But it also got me thinking...

 

Are we trying to dive too quickly and unconditionally into digital delivery of educational materials? Is this new space so full of advantages and devoid of caveats? Is what so many of us propose be left behind, in reality, so incapable of competing?

 

If you're expecting what follows to be flavoured with the same sort of nostalgic unease that accompanies so many people's comparisons of the good old days and hand-written letters with the current haste and sterile compression of cryptic-like text messages, then expect again. In coming at this issue of digital texts/materials from the opposite direction, I found some reasonable objections (or at least warning bells) that I feel are mostly grounded in practical concerns.

 

So here we go... ten reasons why I think digital texts will possibly result in problems and disadvantages, compared to our current mode of making educational materials on paper:

 

 

1. Access and Inequality

Okay, so this is the easy one, and I'll get it out of the way first...

It's going to be some time before all students in all locations have both access to technology, but also the skills required to use it fluently to facilitate learning. And a very large number of English language learners (not to mention their teachers) are located in precisely the places where the technology and skills will flow through to the slowest.

Even in first world countries, it is acknowledged that not all students have Internet access at home (nor even computers, for that matter), and this poses a serious disadvantage to them in situations where learning materials and programs are set to become predominantly digital and Internet-based in nature.

I don't know... It would seem like a shame to me if our headlong dash into digital ended up in education systems that help the students who possibly need it the least, while (further) cutting off those who need it the most. At the very least, I hope we can have hybrid approaches until the discrepancy between the tech-haves and tech-have-nots narrows a lot more.

 

 

2. The Environment

I'll confess this is shaky ground for me, not knowing a lot in the way of facts or figures... but I have heard that, currently at least, we still burn up more of our environment through our digital and online endeavours than we do with traditional print-based modes of production. Even though it is predicted that this trend will reverse (and hopefully reasonably soon), it might not be a good idea to use conservation of the environment as a valid rationale for going (all out) digital until it actually is a valid rationale.

 

 

3. Layout

Right, so this is a fairly major one for me...

Despite the convenience of laptops, notebooks and hand-held devices, and all the whiz-bang things they can do with electronic layering, so far they have not managed to find a way to better what I call the experience of the "full page spread" (gosh, I know what that reminds so many of you of, but let's stay on track here, shall we?) -- the open, double page presentation of content. Well, okay, I can manage to experience this on my desktop computer, with its colossally large screen, but that sort of screen size is not what most experts are talking about (or designing for) when it comes to edtech.

Oh sure, from that initial blur of a coursebook page on your tablet screen, you can zoom in to the parts you actually want/need to read, but this is not the same as having a book open in front of you. I liked what I saw of Lindsay Clandfield's Global when I viewed digital samples of it, but it paled in comparison to my experience of picking up a physical version and scanning across full pages and double pages. With my own coursebooks and a range of other materials I've designed, there has always been deliberate consideration of what will be seen by the learners and teachers across two full pages all at once, and how this can affect learning and reference processes.

In this respect, I have to admit that physical books and how material works across broad spaces (where the eye can flick about and focus at will) is a valuable resource for classrooms, and digital material (while admittedly a whole new modus operandi, with new styles, conventions and opportunities) so far results in a rather chunky and clunky experience when it comes to viewing and skipping around with material.  

 

 

4. Manoeuvrability

Watch your learners flip forward or backward in their books, then hold a series of pages upright so that they can refer simultaneously to two different pages located in completely different parts of the book (resulting in a variation to the layout/spread issue I talked about above). Now ask your learners to swap books and check each other's work or complete a communicative activity that requires them to write or respond to something their classmate has written.

How quickly and easily do you think that could happen with material viewed on computers?

Well, sure, both of these processes are entirely possible with digital materials (with the swapping one in particular being easy if the devices are hand-held, or adapted so that it is about file-sharing)... I'm just not sure they'll be as convenient or as quick (especially if only half of the class know or can quickly learn the technical processes involved).

Perhaps this one was a dud... Move along, please, nothing to see here? 

 

 

5. Sense of Ownership and Progression

This could well be a generational thing, but I don't feel anywhere near as attached to files on my computer as I do to physical books lining the bookcase next to my desk.

When I was a language student myself, I used to love the feeling (facilitated by sight) of reaching the mid-way point of my coursebook or novel, verifying with a glance just how much I'd achieved so far. The feeling continued and grew as the book(s) neared completion.

Also, as the terms and years flew by, I liked the feeling of adding another completed book or notebook, carefully in order, to a dedicated space on my bookshelf. These were my books, and there at a glance was my progress - at least on paper, that is. And I'll admit it: I liked it when visitors saw what was on my bookshelves and oohed and aahed over what I appeared to have achieved from a study perspective.

Many of the learners I've taught over the years have expressed similar sentiments about their coursework materials, especially if they were good/enjoyable ones.

I don't get a similar feeling of ownership or accomplishment when I view the file icons on my eReader or computer. But then again, perhaps I am lost in digital translation here... Perhaps future generations of learners will fiew their digital files with similar feelings of progress and pride -- who knows?

 

 

6. Square peg in a round hole

If you take a look at what teenagers and adults, for that matter, are currently doing with their computers and mobile devices in particular, not much of it is education-related. It's all about chatting, catching up on news, and -- well, entertainment.

Based on that, I find the notion that language learners will want to do all their study and language practice on a hand-held device (or that this mode will automatically encourage them to apply themselves more) in their free time somewhat over-optimistic.

For sure, I have seen the novelty and convenience of computer-based learning appear to motivate learners, but novelty and convenience can be slippery things to start relying on in a learning program. In any case, is this really a compelling rationale for doing away with paper-based materials altogether? 

 

 

7. Reliability

Digital materials will no doubt result in an uber-plethora of resources for teachers and learners to access and put together into learning programs.

But with that freedom and depth also comes (potentially) dubious or doubtful reliability. Anyone can knock together material and make it look reasonably attractive and authoritative online; doing so on published paper takes more time, investment and commitment to doing it really well.

There are shortcomings in printed materials, especially in terms of variety and creativity (and "access" for budding writers), but at least most of what we get is well thought out and reliable for language programs. Will we be able to say the same for the huge hoard of stuff that will appear on the web?

Beyond that, I haven't yet found a printed book with a virus attached to it (there was that exception with the 9-year-old student in Korea who coughed and spluttered all over the student book I lent to him for one lesson...), nor anything that could potentially destroy parts of my life's work in one fell swoop.    

 

 

8. The fast-food diet

Watching my learners use electronic dictionaries, or instant auto-check grammar exercises, I've often found myself thinking of the humans in the far future as they are portrayed in that movie WALL-E... You know, how they are all obese to the point that their bones have started to dissolve and they can't move without some sort of machine-provided assistance?

I know this is an issue of how rather than what, but the sheer convenience of tech-facilitated material often appears capable of encouraging instant (but fleeting) gratification rather than the exercising and strengthening required to develop more sturdy muscles for learning and retention.

The student hunting through his paper-based dictionary for a word, muttering it over and over, pondering it, guessing about it, running his peripheral attention over other words as they flow past before the needed one eventually rolls up... seems (to me) to have invested a lot more in that word than the classmate over there who looked it up and translated it in three seconds flat on his portable or online dictionary. The tech-endowed classmate is of course already three sentences ahead by now, but has he really grasped and appreciated what he was looking up?

Similarly, the auto-corrected grammar exercises on the computer are looked at for all of two seconds, which is a bit different to the student who is checking his answers from a written answer key located in a different section of his book.

These criticisms of tech-based material and programs are really unfair and uninformed in some ways, but I honestly do think, when everything is at one's fingertips, there are risks. One of them is that students might become faster, but shallower. More agile, but weaker...?

 

 

9. Theft

Anyone who writes professional materials knows that, at any given moment, there is a teacher or school somewhere in the world photocopying it illegally and distributing it either for free or for a fee that doesn't include any sort of revenue for the actual writer or publisher. If it isn't being photocopied, then it is being scanned, page-by-page, for free circulation out of an ad revenue generating site in Russia.

But photocopied and scanned theft of materials really does pale in comparison to what we are in for if/when most all material becomes digital in nature from the outset...

How willing are we (really) to write what we do basically for free, or knowing that others will be profiting from it more than we might be?

And for those out there saluting the opportunity to download and distribute and pirate material, when was the last time you actually researched, designed and wrote a full set of original learning materials?

I'm not sure, but if digital publishing of materials evolves in a way that makes it financially unattractive to seriously good writers, this won't necessarily be such a good thing...

 

 

10. All or nothing

You've seen the headlines, right? Printed books becoming obsolete. Digital the only way forward. Etc.

But are we potentially throwing the baby out with the bathwater?

Sticking with only printed books (as is, a sort of publisher's head in the sand, if you will), and trying to replace a (up to this point) credible and reliable means of generating material for learning with an entirely digital one, both strike me as being unhelpful and rather risky.

I haven't entirely convinced myself yet, but I do think both formats can be valid if they stick to particular and unique characteristics they have, and may just become even more valid as we find ways to make, enhance and integrate them in a variety of new ways.

 

 

 

So there you have it. My ten potential reasons why digital materials might not represent quite the improvement and progress forward that so many of us (so far) appear to be quite enamoured with.

 

I'll admit it freely, I struggled mightily to rationalise some of them, and there is no doubt at all that proponents of digital learning will find dozens of counter-arguments to most all of them without raising much of an intellectual sweat.

 

But let's make sure printed materials are actually broken before we assign them to the scrap heap left in the wake of digital progress.

 

In the meantime, I think there may just be some exciting ways to write new sorts of printed books, and integrate them with digital materials that play to their own unique strengths...

 

 

 

=D

 

 

 

                                                 

 

Some bright new ELT lights to learn from and with

 

 

Introducing some bright sparks who have helped me to learn a lot of new things this year... Image: Cade Buchanan

 

 

It recently occured to me that there have been certain ELTers emerging on Twitter and through blog posts throughout the latter part of this year who really help to make me feel excited and positive about teaching English.

 

We have our VIPs in ELT of course, and they are a source of constant motivation. But to me, these "new(er)" faces are TIPs: Tremendously Important People (who are also a source of so many practical and creative tips...).

 

I can't exactly explain why, but I feel constantly drawn to them. Perhaps it is the very warm presence they maintain on Twitter -- positive without being all "feel goody," very genuine. Maybe it also has something to do with the fact that they've been blogging about really interesting things, always tempered with the reality of being "at the chalkface", but also always creative, always shining a light into new corners that most other ELTers I know choose to overlook -- or just can't see to start with.

 

These people aren't "new" or "young" teachers, though some of them are relatively new to things like Twitter and blogs. All of them, despite their experience, embrace new ideas and have a youthful energy about teaching. It's infectious! They don't always agree with me or each other, but the aura of camaraderie and mutual respect they contribute to is absolute.

 

And, limited as they are by standard teacher salaries, and as busy as they (or many of them) are with young families, they still find the time to talk, share, motivate and celebrate this profession of ours...

 

Personally, within my own PLN in any case, I see these people as bright sparks worth following into the future of ELT. Perhaps you'll find them motivating and interesting to follow and learn from/with as well.

 

Here they are (in no particular order)...

 

Cecilia Coelho (@cecilialcoelho/Box of Chocolates)

 

Ceri Jones (@cerirhiannon/Close up)

 

Guido (@europeaantje/The Toolshed)

 

David Dodgson (@DaveDodgson/Reflections of a Teacher and Learner)

 

Adam Simpson (@yearinthelifeof/One Year in the life of an English teacher)

 

Mike Harrison (@harrisonmike/http://www.mikejharrison.com/)

 

Sabrina de Vita (@sabridv/Sabrina's Weblog)

 

Michelle Worgan (@michelleworgan/So this is English...)

 

Emma Herrod (@EHerrod/Emma Herrod's Blog)

 

 

My personal thanks to all of these great people -- you've been wonderful companions on this part of my English language teaching journey!

 

 

 

 

=D

 

 

 

 

                                             

Some benefits of a sort of "live listening" activity

 

Have you seen in your ELT travels that teacher sitting in the classroom making personal calls on his mobile while he's supposed to be teaching? A common enough example of a blight in our overall profession? A sign of a teacher who lacks professionalism and consideration for his learners?

 

 

Well, of late I've occasionally been that teacher. Hopefully, if you read on, you'll decide not to bestow some of those less-flattering labels on the Raven...

 

 

Today I applied something I like to call "live listening" with a more advanced group of learners. This is something I've really been enjoying utilising as a teacher, as it isn't the sort of thing I had access to (nor might have been all that appropriate) when I was teaching in an EFL context. Here in an ESL context, with adult learners, it's a different kettle of fish.

 

Basically, I regularly bring real telephone enquiries into the classroom, based on what is happening in my real life (so long as it isn't too personal and correlates well with the learners' own needs and the curricular goals for their levels).

 

This can be things like calling up the phone or power company to check something about an actual bill I have received, booking in my car for a service, talking to the real estate agent about issues to do with our home... the list goes on.

 

There are a variety of ways to apply this for learning purposes, but my favourite method is to:

 

(a) Introduce the particular situation to the learners and discuss it with them in relation to their own lives

 

(b) Have them draw a line down the centre of a page in their notebooks

 

(c) Have them listen and write down notes (on the left-hand side of their pages) while I make the actual phone call, which I also video record on my Flipcam

 

(d) Have them work in pairs or threes to try and accurately reconstruct what I said during the conversation

 

(e) Have them work in their pairs/groups to try and figure out what was being said at the other end of the line (the voice they can't hear)

 

(f) I play the Flipcam video again a couple of times for the class so that they can watch and listen again and make any adjustements or additions to what they've already got down

 

(g) Check and discuss learners' transcripts and guesses about the other speaker's involvement, as well as anything noteworthy or interesting about the overall conversation

 

 

Often it works out best if the learners can do parts (d) and (e) at the same time, as it really promotes hypothesising and discourse awareness.

 

I don't broadcast the voice at the other end of the line out of respect for privacy, but also because I think it's more engaging from a language development point of view to experiment and try and work out ways in which what I'm saying could be working within an overall dialogue.

 

The telephone enquiry today was about making an appointment for my children to see a doctor at our local medical clinic. Real situation with real timing: my children were both sick last night, and the very haggard look of Mr. Raven in the video is genuine and warranted (it's 9:10 a.m. and I've had all of three hours sleep on account of our two suffering bairns).

 

 

 

 

What really amazes me about these real telephone conversations is how unlike the scripted coursebookish ones we're accustomed to presenting to our learners they tend to be. For example, the lady at the clinic today answered the phone and said (at 9:10 a.m.) "Good afternoon - um, oops!"

 

I also like the fact that the pauses as I listen to or wait on the person at the other end of the line give the learners a nice series of breaks to not only add to their notes about what I'm saying, but also think and hypothesize about what the person at the other end of the line is currently saying in response, using my facial expressions and body language as valuable cues. These pauses help to make this listening experience more manageable for the learners, but also more thought-provoking.

 

On a final note, it always interests me how real "live" listening experiences like this seem to automatically encourage the learners to notice and ask questions about speaking style and communication strategies, not to mention cultural aspects of "local" conversations. In the example above, how did I set a friendly tone at the start of the conversation (and why)? How did I push for appointment times that suited me better than the initial ones on offer? What did I push for and not get? How and why did I finish up the conversation the way I did?

 

Today, following this exercise, the learners (who all have a reasonably high level of English) confessed that none of them call the clinic to make appointments to see the doctor (for themselves or their children). They get their Australian spouses to do it for them... And following today, they all agreed they ought to be giving it a shot on their own, and that it isn't necessarily as intimidating as they previously imagined it would be.

 

 

Great activity - love using it in class!

 

 

 

=D