N LISH NG

l!sslonal Striking a balance Michael Swan

Reported speech -rules, what rules? Dave Willis

More than please and thank you Mark Hancock

The tourist trap! Rebecca Norman

Issue 70 September

2010

Celebrating 30 years of the world's most trusted language reference book

OXFORD www.oup.com/elt UNIVERSITY PRESS

Contents MAIN FEATURE

STRIKING A BALANCE Michael Swan puts the language back into language leaching

FEATURES

REPORTED SPEECH -RULES. WHAT RULES? Dave Willis explodes the myth of tense backshift

ACTIVE WORD POWER

4

8

12 James Venema makes the most of vocabulary notebooks

CARRY ON READING! Britt Jepsen applauds authentic materials

CORPUS DELICTI 1 Chris Payne celebrates the corpus

SEX EDUCATION Rose Hickman advocates an all-inclusive classroom

[Q EAP: AN ALL-ROUND CHALLENGE 2 Louis Rogers improves his students' seminar skills

THE TOURIST TRAP! Rebecca Nonnan captures some keen

conversationalists

OVER THE WALL Alan Maley recommends books dealing with disability

LEARNING DISABILITY 4 Lesley Lanir describes reading difficulties

TACKLING THE REAL WORLD Andrew O'Dwyer takes his students out fOf some playful practice

14

16

19

28

30

34

37

46

10 MORE THAN PLEASE AND THANK YOU 49 Mark Hancock looks at how we teach students

to be polite

TEACHING YOUNG LEARNERS

A FAIR DEAL FOR ALL Laura Loder Buchel addresses the needs of the already fluent

TEACHER DEVELOPMENT

FROM TDU TO CPD Bahar Gun investigates the impossibility of pleasing all the teachers all of the time

TEACHER PLUS Sue Leather and Andy Hockley consider how teachers can become managers

TECHNOLOGY

E-LEARNING Blanka Klimova outlines the benefits and demands of online courses

FIVE THINGS YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT: MICROBLOGGING Nicky Hockly looks at a trend that's getting bigger all the time

WEBWATCHER Russell Stannard describes some quick and useful online tools

REGULAR FEATURES

I!] PREPARING TO TEACH ... Crammar John Potts

COMPETITIVE GAMES Rose Senior

10 SCRAPBOOK

REVIEWS

COMPETITIONS

25

53

55

57

60

61

40

63

42

44

41.64

A PRIMARY READING PROJECT 23 10 INTERNATIONAL SUBSCRIPTION FORM 32 Betka PiAlar sees her students' reading blossom

Includes materialS designed to pOOlOCOPY [)

• __ etprof ••• lonal.eom • ENGLISH TEACHING profen-iol1tt/ . Issue 70 September 2010 • 1

I 1

I • t j

Editorial I

n our main feature, Michael Swan describes trends

in English language teaching in terms of a pendulum

swinging between two extremes: form and meaning,

and he would like to see more emphasis on the actual

teaching of language. Nevertheless, he comes 10 the

comforting conclusion that most good teachers pick

and choose between the methodologies and materials

on offer to create a mix that works for them.

The other articles in this issue represent some of the

many different viewpoints on the way in which language

should be taught. Dave Willis wants to make things

easier for students by abandoning the teaching of rules

which he believes don't actually work.

Britt Jepsen's school students read authentic materials

from the word go, and Chris Payne also advocates

looking at real-life language. He favours the use of

concordances to reveal not just the frequency of words

and collocations but how they are actually used . James

Venema then explains how students can record and

remember new language efficiently.

Also concerned with real language usage is Mark Hancock,

who describes ways in which we can teach our students

about politeness conventions in different situations.

Taking a more humanistic approach to language teaching,

Rose Hickman appeals to us to make our classrooms

places of inclusion and safety for all students, whatever

their gender or sexual orientation.

Andrew O'Dwyer, for his part, sees opportunities outside

the classroom to get his students to practise the language

they are learning and to see real language in use, while

Rebecca Norman brings the language of the outside world

inside by luring tourists into her conversation classes.

Helena Gomm Editor

I heleoa.gomm@keywayspubl ishing.com I

ENGLISH PO Box 100, Chichester, West Sussex, P018 8HO, UK

T.E~HlNG Tel: +44 (0)1243 576444 Email: info@etprofessional.com

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Editor. Helena Gomm Published by: Pavilion Publishing (Brighton) Ltd.

Editorial Consultant: Mike Burghall Part of OLM Group, PO Box 100, Chichester, West Sussex, P018 8HD

Editorial Director: Peter Coll in

Designer: Christine Cox © 2010, Pavilion Publishing (Brighton) Ltd

ISSN 1362-5276 Advisory Panel: Dave Al lan, Ruth Gairns,

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Publisher: Tony Greville Directeur de la Publication: Tony Greville

Pages 28-29. 40-41 . 42-43 and 51-52 include materiats which are designed 10 photocopy. All other rights are reserved and no pat1 of this publication may be reproduced. stored in a retrieval system or transmitted w~hout prior permission in writing from the publishers.

2 • Issue 70 September 2010 ' ENGLISH TEACHING professional . _ .• tprof ••• lonal.com ·

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MAIN FEATURE

• • rl{ln

a aance Michael Swan talks to ETp about the

pendulum swings of language teaching.

You have said that language teaching should be about teaching language, and that this idea can sometimes get lost. Can you explain? Teachillg things is difficult: it's much easicr to do things. Because of this.. thcrc's a perennial danger that the activities language teachers use for consolidation and nuency practice can become an end in themselves, so we can lose sight of what. if anything. our activities are aelUally supposed to be teaching. As we movc up the levels, this Cim huppcn more and more eilsily. With intermediate and advanced students.. it cun really be quite hard to make clear decisions about lr/UI/ to teach - which clements of grammar, vocabulary, phraseology, and so on the students most need. or precisely which skills and sub-skills really need improvcment. So ilt this stilge. the temptation is to take refuge more and more in activity-based teaching. and doing things can take over completely by default. If the students are using English, and having fun, they mllSI be learning, mustn·t they?

This tendency has becn powerfully fuelled by the communicative movement that has dominated I;\llguage teaching for the last 30 ye<lrs or so. with its emphasis on 'language in use', It's donc an awful lot of good. but it has also reinforced and legitimised our liking for doing things in the clussroom, il11d taken the focus even further ilway from looking systematically at the language itself. We need to remind ourselves that lunguage teuching docs meun teuching

Iilnguuge: making sure that students arc exposed to the highest-priority language forms (words.. fixed phrases, structures, aspects of pronunciation), that they leim1 illld practise these forms.. and thut they become skilled at using them nucntly and appropriately. There's a question of balance here. h ·s no good if students learn il lot of forms il1ld can't usc them (which often happened with older approilches. and still does in some teaching contexts today). But it"s equally unconstruetive if studcn ts are made to eonccntrate on using language without being given a systematic knowledge of the language they are supposed to be using.

I remember you once suggested that teaching reading skills is mostly a waste of time. Yes. this was the topic of a talk that Cutherine Willter und I gilve ilt IAT EFL two or three years ago. [n fact. I think all so-callcd 'skills· teaching necds 10 be looked at vcry carcfully. Of course, we do have to ensure th;lt our students practise using the language they learn. so that they can deploy it easily and nuently in realtime for their communicativc purposes.. Work on the so-cillied ·four skills' is vital. BIlt in the 1970s and 80s, the four skills suffered a conccplUal explosion. Reading, for instance, was typically analysed into up to 20 sub·skills.. all of which soon arrived in textbooks. along with exercises carefully designed to tcaeh these sub-skills to learners who were assumcd to lack them. And this 'bilttcry-of-skills' approllch still goes on

4 • Issue 70 September 2010 ' ENGLISH TEACHING professional . _ .• tprof ••• lonat.com ·

today: any number of current tcaehing materials purport to train students in skimming, scanning, understllnding text structure, predicting their way through text. and so on and so on.

[ think a reasonable position (and one that is increilsingly supported by research) is thilt students already have domain-general comprehension skills: that those who are literate in their own language (that is to say, a large proportion of students) are already able to apply these skills to written text; and that what they need is language to apply these skills to, and facility in handling that language. If students sccm to have trouble 'comprehending' an English text that is apparently at their level - they can understand all the words but don't get the whole picture, so to speak - this is likely to be it question of processing capacity: so much of their working memory is being used for low·[evel decoding thut they can't build a higher­level menIal representation of the text as a whole, As decoding becomcs more automatic, capacity will be freed up, and they will increasingly be able to llccess their existing comprehension skills. But this takes the time it takes. 'Training· studcnts to 'tmnsfcr' skills like skimming, sCHnning, identifying main points and so forth - which thcy mostly al reildy possess in their mother tongues - is unlikely to speed things up very milch. Un fortunately, many teachers and course writers lovc work of this kind: it keeps everybody busy ilnd gives people something structured to do with texts.. (Texts. spoken and writtcn, can of course be enormously useful for lill1guilge-teaching purposes if they are used properly - but that's another story.) So, as far as reading skills (and others) arc concerned. lel·S not waste time teaching people to do things they can do already. (And don·t get me started on the notion that you can teach students to 'guess vocabulary from context'.)

How about task-based learning? Communicative tasks are - and have becn for a long time - an important languilge-teilching tool. What is speciill <Ibollt ·task-based teaching· is the view that sllch tasks.. where the focus is on meaning rather than language. can do nearly cvcrything - that a task syllabus will enable students to ucquirc most or all of the linguistic elements that they need. It's recognised that such 'naturalistic'languagc use may nced 10

be supplemetlled by some extra 'focus on form', bUl 'traditional' systematic syllabus-based grammar teaching is strongly discouraged in the task-based model. The academic literature in this area is full of very tendentious term inology. ' Language-based', 'teacher -domi nated', 'sentence-level', 'transmission model'. 'product', 'memorisation', 'repetition' and 'drill' arc dismissivc exprcssions - thcy rcfcr to supposedly bad and discredited pedagogic allitlldes. 'Good' concepts ­thc applied linguistic cquivalcnts of democr,tey and motherhood - include 'mean i ng-based', 'lea rner -centred' , 'holist ic', 'discourse' , 'discovery', 'process'. 'intcraction', 'negotiation' and 'strategy', I think we need to \<Ike issue with this terminological polarisation, and with the associated mindsct. What exactly is wrong about a 'language-based' approach to language learning and teaching? We wouldn't criticise a music teacher for making her lessons music­based. would we? And why is 'process' good and 'product' bad? If [ sign up for lessons in. say, Turkish, product is exactly what I want: a knowledge of Turkish, The process involved is valueless unless it gets me wherc I want to go - in !;tngu<tge learning, to travel hopefully is 1/01 beller than to arrive, And is 'learner-centred' automatic,llly good and 'teacher­dominated' <tutom,lIically bad? Of course not. [t depends on what you arc teaching, who 10, when and where,

Task-based learning. and thc thcorics on which it is based, may certainly be valid for a certain kind of situation - one where your students have plenty of time to work at their English. they're in an input-rich environment, or they've learnt the language for years and know far more than they can usc. But one needs to question its value for the more typical teacher, working. let's say, in 1I s(:conrlllTY school in a non-English-speaking country, teaching poorly-motivated students in classes that arc probably too big, with perhaps three hours' cont;let time a week for maybe 35 weeks a year, maximum. For such teachers. cost­effectiveness is crucial. A syllabus of tllsks alone. unsupported by structum] and lexical syllabuses. simply can't be relied on to throw up 1I1i of the top, priority language that students at a pilrticulilr level need to learn. They won't even be exposed to half the language they need, let alone have a chance to use it enough to fix it in their minds,

So should the academic focus be on identifying what it is that students need to know? Of course, this will be different in different contexts. Is it possible to say 'this is what you need to know'? Yes., selection and prioritisation are vitaL And these need to be approached from two directions. Coming at it from the 'form' end, one asks which arc the most widely-used structures in the language: which are the thousand commonest words, which arc the next thousand commonest words. and so on; which aspects of pronunciation are going 10 be crucia l, if any, for the tllrget group of learners, That's something we've becn doing prclly well for centuries. We know perfectly well that we have to teach the present tenses before the subjunctive, or the names of the colours before words like pUll), or c{I/(/lOl/ic. Then, coming at

A syllabus of tasks alone, unsupported by structural and lexical

syllabuses, simply can't be relied on to throw up

all of the top-priority language that students

need to learn

it from the 'use' end, we can very reasonably say thaI's it's all very well teaching them all these words and structures.. but docs it cnllble them to <l sk for a cup of coffee or to deal with an enquiry from a customer? C:m they actually put these things together to handle whatever everyday language functions and rCill-lifc tilsks ;ITC relevant to their purposes? This perspective got a lot of allention in the 1970s when people invented needs analysis.. and it gets a lot of attention now through the Common European Framework and its 'can do' statements. The danger, with our current focus on language in use, is thlll (as happens in some foreign­language teaching in Britain) one half of the dyad - the formal element - may be downgraded in favour of the other, So leilfllcrs may practise can-do scripts, SO that they can write a letter to an imaginary penfriend or show someone round their home town. or whatever,

BIlt they may learn to operate each script without being able to generalise their knowledge to other different ,Illd unpredicted situations. because of gaps in basic grammar or vocabulary ­missing items that fcll through the language-in-use net.

In the typical ' three-hours-a-week' situation, there's very lillie room for the more peripheral issues that currently occupy some sociologically-oriented language-teaching theorists, Certainly, we shouldn't dismiss a concern wi th what onc might call the 'human' side of language teaching: our recognition th,1I students are individuals (with all that tflat implies for their learning), and also social beings (with all that tfl(lf implies for their learning). T his was a v;!luable dynamic in the early days of the eommuniclltive approach, It encouraged teachers to get their students practising language by talking ubout things that mallered to them, rather than simply parroting meaningless sentences aboUl 10hn, Mary and the gardcn, (Though it could sometimes go too far: if you gel the students to 'let it all hang out' and talk about, for example.. their deepest fea rs, you can move dangerously close to casting the teacher in the role of the incompetent amateur therapist.) What worries me now is the extent to which the 'human being' focus may ;tetua1ly take over from language teaching, Under the influence of current theory. we may risk spending so much time training our students to become better learncrs and better-rounded human beings - teaching them social and negotiating skills. training them in learning strategies, nwking them increasingly autonomous and so forth - that we m"y find ourselvcs short of time for actually teaching them what they want to learn, Some of the more extreme pronouncements that come from the sociolinguistic cnd of the profession actually make me wonder if the scholars in question are really thinking about language teaching at all. Allwright, in his 2003 book on ' Exploratory Practice', m(lkes the remarkable statemelll that we should 'abol'e ollr cOl/cern for illstructiol/al efficiellc)', prioriti;., Ihe qllalil), of life il/ the lal/guage classroom', Kumaravadivelu, in a book published in 2006, lists what he calls ten 'macrostrategics' for language teaching, These includc things like 'facilitating negotiated interaction', 'ensuring social relevance'. 'raising cultural consciousness' and 'activating ........

• _.etprQf ••• ional.com • ENGUSH TEACHtNG professiollal. issue 70 September 2010 . 5

Striking a balance

............ intuitive heuristics', No doubt these arc exciting areas to explore, but none of Kumaravadivc1u's macrostratcgics seem to me to h,wc much to do with language itself lind how to leach it. I'm afraid I feel strongly that the basic principles of language leaching should have something to do with leaching language: wilh. for example, selecting high priority input. designing syllabuses and structuring them into courses. making appropriate methodological decisions. ensuring that tcachers have an adequate command of the language they arc teaching ..... I don', wanllO deny the value of some of those peripheral concerns. but our central task. as [ keep saying, is to identify the highest priority language items and skills that our !earners need, to select from these the clements that we actually have time for. and to teach them in the best. most effective WilY possible. All other considerations ­Macrostratcgies. M ultiplc Intclligences. Rcnective Practice. Cultural Awareness. Second-Ianguilge Identity or whiltever ­are only useful if they actually contribute in a cost-effective way 10 the central process of teaching our students language and enilbling them 10 use it.

You describe language teaching as being on a pendulum between form and meaning. Where is the pendulum now? Language is two-faced - it's a formal code. and it's uscd to express meanings. Naturally. therefore. language teaching swings backwards and forwards bemeen the two poles. There arc periods whcn form is paramount: knowledge and learning arc good things. imitation is important, control mailers. classrooms tend to be disciplined. Then YOll get a swing in the other direction. and thc focus is on meowing. freedolll, expression, experiential learning and ski lls. The pendulum is not often in a middle position where these clements become well balanced. When I was at schooL we were down at the form end. Everybody knew that language teaching was a mailer of doing grammar, vocabulilry and pronunciation. learning

rules. and practising by translation and reading, with a bit of speaking on the side. And when I started teaching. things were pretty much the same (except that we didn't use translation). We were good at teaching language; not so good at teilching !eilrners to use it. Nowadays things arc very different. There has been the communicative revolution, the move towards making second-language leilrning more like 'n<llUral' acquisition. the attempt to make classrooms morc like the 'real' world. and the rest of it. So everybody today knows that it's all a maller of teaching language in use, focusing on making meaning, using a lot of skills work and communicative t,lsks, 1llld shoe-horning in a bit of grammar on the side.

In language teaching as elsewhere. I think we need to be very cautious about accepting what 'everybody knows'. It takes a mental effort to back lIway and see that one might be positioned IOwards one particular end of a ~winging pendulum. We are. I have suggested, still a long WilY 1lway frOIll iI

position where form and meaning are valucd equally. We're moving back, certainly. There is more understanding of the need for proper grillllmar­teaching now than there was 30 years ago. when Krashen told us it was unnecessary and that it achieved nothing. Nevcrtheless. lllany te'lchers still feel everything has to be communicative or task-based, and that they'fC doing something wrong if. Sily. they do sentence-level non­comlllunicative grammar exercises. I don' t think there's anything wrong with that at al1 (provided it's not al1 one docs). But that's another story.

Part of the reason for the pendulum swings. I believc. is a perennial feeling that we're not doing very well. and that we nced to do beller - we somehow ought to be ashamed of ourselves becausc we're not gelling our students close enough to the native-speaker st1llldilTd that we use as a model. If you ask teachers about this. they'll probably deny it. but teachers round the world do mostly act as if deviations from the perceived norm arc a mailer for concern. Some teachers don't like mistakes. so they correct, correct and correct. Some worry beC1IUSC their learners don't ever seem to become really nuent. Others worry about breadth: they feel they must teach more and more grammar and vocilbulary. or skil1s. or whatever, to

& • Issue 70 September 2010. ENGUSH TEACHING professiollal . _ .• tprot ••• lonal.com '

bring their students closer to native­speaker knowlcdge. Becausc of that implicit assumption that we're iliming for the S\ilrs. we feel all too easily that we've failed. So every ten or 20 years we dccide that we're doing it al1 wrong and go for new methods. new fashions. new focuses and new gurus: let's stop doing that and do this instead, and perhaps we'll get it right this time, Actually, we're not going to get it right - but wc h,wen't failed either. Languages arc hard to learn. many teaching contexts are oftcn seriously unfavourable to good language teaching. and we can only ever expect limited results - a sma ll fraction of what native speakers know and can do.

Teachers. however wise lllld experienced. <Ire innueneed by the prevailing orthodoxies. I have suggested that the current language-teaching mindset is a long way from occupying a balanced position, and this is bound to have an effect. Howcver. I don't want to over-state the case. I'm afraid I may have sounded in this intervicw as if I' m denigmting everybody in our profession, theorists and practitioners alike. That's certainly not my intention. I believc we have today al1 the clements we need for successfullangullge teaching if they are properly combined. We have a weal th of excellent materials and methodologies. 11 long-stllllding trildition of good and wel1-informed teaching, a rich and productive teacher education sct-up. and first-class teachers' journals (such as this one). And not leils t importilnt. we are rCilping the benefits of half a century of investment in applied linguistics resellrch. Because of 1I11 this. 11 great deal of excellent teaching is going on. Languages may. as I have suggested, be hard 10 lea rn and tcach. but many teachers, even those working under difficult circumst,mees. manage to get strikingly good results. T hey have my admiration. Gll>

Michael Swan writes English language teaching and reference materials. His Interest s Include descriptive and pedagogic grammar, second language aCQuisitiOfl, cross· language Influence, and the theory-practice Intertace. He has had

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LANGUAGE

orte eec ru es, at ru es? w

Dave Willis doesn't

see the problem. M lilly of you wi ll hllvc seen exercises and tests where learners are required to change direct speech into

reported speech. I clin remember asking students \0 do <lctivitics like this:

Rewrite the following in reported speech. Remember to change the tenses; 1 We will be leaving home at six

tonight so we will arrive at about half past seven. Joan and Peler told us

2 I will see you tonight after I have finished worll". Mary said

This is a fa irly mechanical cxcrcisc. Students chllnge thc tenses accord ing to the rules they have been taught. They also change timc references aecording to II given SCI of for mulae 10 produce the following:

1 Joan and Peter told us they would be leaving home at six that night so they would arrive at about half past seven.

2 Mary said she would see me that night after she had finished work.

Studell\s who have been wen drilled should havc litt le problcm applying the rules they hllve been taught, but whitt

a . Issue 70 September 2010· ENGLISH TEACHING professiollal . _.etpn:ofe •• lon81.eam •

they are doing has nothing in common with the Wlly we report things in rC<l11ifc.

What the grammars tell us The rules for reported speech, sometimes called illdirl.'CI.I'Pl.'cch. have been sct out \'cry clearly by respected grammarians. Michael Swan and Catherine Walter, for example, in their useful students' grammar tell us that:

'Tenses and pronouns (I, you, etc.) change in indirect speech if the time and speaker are different. For example, present tenses become past; , may become he or she; my may become his or her. '

The prestigious Cambridge Gmmll1ar oj English by Ron Carler and Michael McCarthy is one of the besl referencc grammars currently on the markel. It informs us that:

'When the indirect speech is perceived as referring to the past, the tense in the reported clause usually changes to a past form of the tense of the original speech. This process is known as tense backshift. '

Coursebooks lind student grammars regularly produce guid,tnce of this kind. explaining that yes/erda)' may become the prel'iolls day, next Wet/nest/a)' becomes IheJoflowillg Wedllesda)" and so on.

However. there are three problems wilh these formulations:

• T hey are based on the mistaken assumption that we recall and report exactly whal we havc heard. If we cannot recall the tense used in the origina l. how can we possibly shift it back into the past?

• T hey imply thilt there is something unusual about the way in which we usc tcnses in reported speech. Some coursebooks try to list all the changes we need to milke, explaining how present simple must be changed to past simple.. present conti nuous to past continuous, and so on. Lellfners come 10 believe that there must be something mysterious and challcnging about reportcd speech 10

justify this level of dctailed treatment.

• T hey can become extremely complex. For examplc. if someone mentions /II'XI

Wednesda), and the original speech takes place on Thursday 1st April and is reported on Saturday 3rd April. then lIeXI Wel/nesda)' is stilillexl Wedlleslftl),. I f it is reported on Wednesday 7th April. then it would probably be reported as /oda)': if reported on Thursday 81h April. it could be reported either as Ihe lol/owing Wedllesday or as yes/err/ay. So giving rules aboul how to report lIeXI

Wel/llest/a), is really quitc complicated. Fortunately, ;IS we shall sec later. there is really no need for alilhis.

A false assumption The rules given for repor ted speech arc bilsed on the assumption that we rec;lll exact ly what was said on a given occasion and then go through a process of ' Iense backshift'. But of course. we very rarely recall exactly what was said, so there is no way we ciln apply tense baekshift. There are occasions when we Ir)' 10 recall exactly what was said - in a court of law. for example. or when we il re accused of having broken ,I promise - but fortunately. these occasions arc very few and far between.

Most of us arc familiar with meetings in which the minutes of the last meeting are circulated. These minutes contain summaries of what was s,lid at the previous meeting, things like:

'The chair reminded everyone that the next meeting would be postponed until Monday, 31s t May.'

We can't tell from this exactly what the chair said. It might have becn:

'OK, folks, don 't forget that the next meeting will be on the las t Monday in May, not the usual second Monday in the month, So that 's the 31st, not the 10th. Can you all take a note of that?'

Or it could ha\'e been:

'I regret to inform you that due to unforeseen circumstances we will be unable to meet as usual on the second Monday o f the month, that is Monday 10th May. I have arranged instead that we meet on the last Monday, that is the 31st of May. / hope this doesn't inconvenience anyone unduly.'

Nobody, including Ihe secretary who wrote the minutes. would be able to recall the precise words. Even if they could, just try applying the rules to change one of the above into reported specch and see how ridiculous they sound. And there is ,Inother problem: if we did recall and report exactly what was said. then the minules would be slightly longer than the original meeting.

The rules given for reported speech

are based on the assumption that we recall exactly what

was said on a given occasion

Report or summary? If we don't recall wh,lI was s,lid, then how do we report speech? [ think it·s clear that we don't even try to repor t eXilctly what was said - we summarise it. We very rilrely remember preeisely what was said. but we do reca ll what was 1II(,1I111. Think of a conversation you had recenlly and think how you might tell someone about it. Almost certainly you will be unable to remember the exacl words. bUI you will probably be able to remcmber the contcnt lllld. thus. be able to ofTer a brief summary.

Summarising is something we do all the time. We say Ihings like:

'I saw an interesting programme on the TV last night. It was about .. ,'

'I read an article about that in The Guardian. It said .. ,'

and ofT you go. You would not even try to remember the article word for word. You would summarise what it meant.

So let's get away from the idea that reported speech involves some sorl of mechanical processing of someone's original words. Let us recognise it for what it is - a summarising rathcr than a reporting process.

What about all those tenses? Here's an excerpt from a letter from a young woman 10 a language school:

'/ am a 21-year-old student at Birmingham University. I'm in the final year of my English course. I am taking my final exams ned month and will graduate in July.

I plan to take a year off and I'd like to travel round the world. Unfortunately, I can 't afford to travel unless I earn some money on the way, so I want to learn to teach English as a second language so I can make some money while I am abroad ... '

Let's imagine that the wri ter took a course and 1101 only learnlto teach English. but took it up ilS a C'lreer. Fifteen years later. she was asked how she became an English teacher. She might say something like:

'Well, / suppose it all started when I was about 20. I was in my final year at university and I wanted to travel after graduation. But I couldn't afford to travel unless I earned some money ... '

All the verbs hcre arc past tense forms. Bulth,l\'s not bee;lUse it's reported speeeh. It's because she is talking about someth ing that happened 15 years ago. Of course she uses past tense for ms. And if she were reporting or summarising the contents of her letter, the tenses would be past tcnse forms for the same reason: beclluse she is talking about the past.

The fact is that the tense system works in exactly the same way when we arc rcporting or summarising as it docs in the rest of the langu'lge. There is absolutely no need for a specia l set of rules about reported speech. And there is no such thing as 'tense backshift'.

• _.etprQf ••• ionat,com • ENGUSH TEACHtNG professiol/al • tssue 70 September 2010. 9

Reported sp'eech - rules, what rules?

••• Choosing the right form Sometimes. however. we have to choose between a past form and a present form becausc either one is possible. So if last week Mary sa id to you:

'/ am going to stay at the Ritz because it's the most comfortable hotel in London',

you could report it as a narrative:

'Mary said she planned to stay at the Ritz because it was the most comfortable hotel in London. '

On the olher hand, you could lake it liS telling us something <tbout Ihe Ritz Hotel and say:

'Mary said she planned to stay at the Ritz because it is the most comfortable hotel in London.'

We normally usc the present tense for something thaI everyone agrees is sti ll true. We might. for example.. say:

'They wanted to climb Scafell Pike because it is the highest peak in England. '

BUI if we think the statement is mistaken, we would use a past tense form:

'They said they wanted to climb Helvel/yn because it was the highest peak in England, but actually the highest is Scafel/ Pike, '

So the choice of tense here is affected by what we want to emphasise and what we believe to be true. It has nothing to do with reported speech. But the important thing is that the choice of tense forms follows the same logic as in the rest of the language.

So what about next Wednesday? Just as there is no problem with tenses in reported speech, so there is no problem with other deictic systems of the language - the systems that show how things and events are situated in time ,Uld space rcl:ltive to the spe'l ker.

There's no need to tell learners that I may become he or she, lI1y may become his or her. If they know the way personal pronouns work in English, they just plll that knowledge to work. They don't have to stop llnd think about how to change the pronoun I. and what to change it to. They don't think 'Now when Mary was speak ing, she said I, but I am not Ma ry, so I ean't say I. And you ,lfe not Mary, so I can't say ),011, so I must say he or she, and since Mary is fema le, I must say sill'.' They simply know that Ihey arc talking about Mary ,Uld they know thaI they should rcfer to her in the third person as .)·he.

The important thing is that the

choice of tense forms follows the same logic

as in the rest of the language

And if we a rc talking about something that was happening ne.\"( Wednesda)'. we don't need to take out the calendar to te ll us when the origil1<11 words were uttered and how to refer to the day in question. If the day in question was yesterday, we Sll)'

yesler(/a)" if it is tomorrow, we say 101l/0noll' and if it was 11 couple of weeks ago, we say a couple of weeks (Igo.

One of the few sources to r<:cognise the true nature of reported statements is the Collills CO BUILD English Gmll1l1/ar, which tells us that:

'You are more likely to report what (someone) meant than what (they) said. There are many reasons why you do not quote a person's exact words. Often you cannot remember exactly what was said, At other times the exact words are not important or not appropriate to the situation in which you are reporting.'

and:

'Whatever the tense of your reporting verb, you put the verb in the reported clause into a tense that is appropriate at the time you are speaking. '

This makes it clear that there is nothing problematic about the dcietics of reported speech in English, including the tense system. Everything works in

10 • Issue 70 September 2010' ENGLISH TEACHING pro/essiol/ol . _ ,.tpl"(lf ••• ional.com •

exactly the same way as it does in the rest of the language. There is no need to make life diflicult and confusing for learners by telling them that there is something different and complicated about reported speech. We have quite enough to do in the classroom without making life any more diflicult for our learners.

*** So what do we do about it? Stop spending inordinate amounts of time on un!l(..'Cess'l ry and misle,lding rules. There are plenty of opportunities in class for learners to summarise. They can do resellrch on thc internet or in thc libnlfY and report it in class. T hey C,Ul

interview people inside and Olllside class and report what they have 10 say. Basically, they will get the right tenses and the right deietic forms in pilice. If they don'Lthen it's an indiC,l\ion that there is something wrong with their understanding of these systems themselves. not a problem with reported speech.

Perhaps you believe it is useful for learners. as a mechanical revis ion exercise, 10 transpose a text from present to past time, or perhaps they need to do something like this for examinat ion practice. If this is the case. then you might spend time in class doing the ki nd of exercise I exemplified at the beginn ing of this ar ticle. But you should sec it for what it is - a useful but artificial ped,lgogic device, not an exercise with communicat ive re levance outside the classroom. Clll>

Carter, R and McCarthy, M Cambridge Grammar of English CUP 2006

Sinclair, J Collins COBu/LD English Grammar HarperCollins 1990 Swan, M and Walter C The Good Grammar Book OUP 2001

Dave Willis has published widety on language description for ELT, including Rules, Patterns and Words: Grammar and LeJl./s In English Language Teaching (CUP), He is also the author of the grammar on the British CounCi l's LeamEnglish website: http://leamenglish.britlsh council.orglbook,pagel leam-english,grammar.

dave@willls·ell.co.uk

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VOCABULARY

James Venema explains how to use

vocabulary notebooks efficiently.

Leilflling vocilbulary is sometimes seen as progression from passive to active. When a learner first 'mcets' a word.

they might check its meaning. perhaps in a bilingual dictionary. Further exposure will result in a deeper rellitionship liS the learner encounters conjugations. tenses and forms as well as different meanings, common collocations ilnd members of the silme word family. From this perspective. cvcn a single word can present a rather daunting source of study.

Active vocabulary Students will. however. need to move beyond passive knowledge to actively using 1I word well before they have Icarnt all its possible varilltions, usages and meanings. A vocabulary notebook. lVith example sentences combined with student-wrilten original sentenccs. can provide a structured first stcp in developing their active vocabulary. However. a poorly-produced vocabulary notebook is. lit best. not vcry hclpful and C;Ill. at worst. leild to error fossilisation. For this reason. it is best to provide some guidance on vocllbulary notebooks that can set the students on the WilY towards vocilbulary learning independence.

Choosing words T he first step is the selection of words for active use. 11 is important to note here the diITerence between activc and passive use. sincc writing their OlVn original sentences is the silldents' first move towards being able to use 11 word effectively. Exposure to a wide selection of words is criticaL Reading materials. vocabulary lists and regulllr clllssroom teaching all provide rich sources of vocabulary. It is importilnt that the students choose the words themselves since they are best able to mllke a decision on what words would be useful to them. 'Usefulness' in this context implies that a student believes they will encounter opportunities to use the word. In some cases.. a student may already be filmiliar with the word chosen. but would like to move beyond passive knowledge to being able to usc the word aClively. While [ will conti nue to usc the singular form of 1I'0rd in this article, the selected items may often include two­part \'erbs as well as longer phrases.

Noting information Once a word has been selected , the studenls will need some basic information ;Ibout it. This should include. at the very least, meaning. pronunciation and form. While translations arc a useful start for meaning. they may not

encompass the precise meaning of a givcn word very accurately. Where the English definition is too daunting. students should be prepared to look closely at the examples of text in which thcy encoun ter thc word (more on examples later). Ideally. information about pronunciation would involve writing the word in phonemic symbols. At the very least. the students will need to note the number of syllables as well as the stressed syllable. While SYLL-a-ble is recognisable in quite a number of accents and less than perfect pronunciation. ~TIf-A-bie will be less so. Finally. noting down the form of a word will be crit ical in helping students to use it accurately. After all. if a student is not aWilre that sylfabh' is;1 noun. they ;Ire likely to producc some rather peculiar sentences using it. Some students may also want to pursue word families and write some variittions of'l word, such itS phrtlse and flhra,ml. Others might like to write down some common collocations straight away, However, it is importan t not to send the

Writing their own original sentences is

the students' first move towards being able to use a word

effectively

students down the slippery slope of knowing everything about a word before attempting to use it. Aftcr alL the goal is simply to help them begin expanding their ilctive word voc;lbulary, not to enable them to become linguistic experts on the word selected.

Writing example sentences The next step is to imhcd the selected word in some kind of structured context with example sentences or phrases. Reading 111;lterials provide the 1110st obvious contexL Vocabulary textbooks typically provide example sentences and/or phr;lses. Where the original context might be morc ephemeral. say iI conversation class, or where the students need additional information. thcy ciln also look up the word in le;lrners' dictionaries. all of which will provide good examples of the word in use. Advanced Icarners can even make usc of an online corpus. such itS the

12 • Issue 70 September 2010' ENGLISH TEACHING pro/essiol/ol . _.etprofe •• lanal.eam •

British National Corpus. What is critical here is that the context provides importllnt lexical informlltion while not overwhelming the students with data. r always encourage my students to copy the example sentences they encounter into their notebooks before beginning to write their own original sentences. This is the best way to ensure that they attend to important information on usage, including griullmil!ieal pilt!erns and collocations. when they move on to write their own sentences.

Writing original sentences The obvious next step is for the students to begin writing their own sentences. While the question of what a good original sentence might be involves. 10 it

degree. some subjective opinions. there are useful guidelines that can help students improve the ovcrall quality of their vocabulilry notebook. 1 illways have my studcnts ask themselves the following three questions:

Am I really trying to communicate something with this sentence? Meaning is a kcy part of retention. and the attempt to express real meanings in originill sentences will help students retain the word and sentence for future use. As a guide. r tell them that they should be able to use their original sentcnce 10 launch a sm;lll conversation. After alL if they are writing the original sentences with some image of who. where. when. why and how. there will usually be more meaning behind them than what they actually encapsulate in a single sentence. Using real meaning as a stilrting point is also one way of guiding students in the selection of useful words. If they are unable to think of something to communicate with the word chosen. the chances arc that they have not sc!ected a p;trticularly useful word.

Are there clues to the meaning of the word given in the original sentence? White it may not always be possible 10

write sentences that would make good doze questions in a test . it is possible to note unhelpful sentences sueh as:

My father was angry yesterday.

Encouragc the silldents to write instead:

My father was angry with me for coming home late yes terday.

Not only is the mcaning of allgry clearer in the second example. which should help facilitate retention. it is also more

The attempt to express real meanings in original sentences

will help students retain the word

and sentence for future use

lexically complex. including the prepositionjor followed by iI verb in the il1g form. This relat ive complexity probably better replicates the demands of real-world usage. [t is importll11t to note that the students' ilbility to produce accuratc original sentences such as these without direct teacher help will be, to a considerable degree. dependent on the examples in which they have previously encountered lhc word. This brings us to the final. critical. question.

Does the original sentence use grammatical patterns and collocations from the copied example sentence(s)? If one of the goals of having students wri te original sentences in a vocabulary notcbook is vocabulary learning independence. then the efTective analysis and usc of copied example sentences will be critical. Look ing up the word jurious in the Longll/all AClire Sllldy Dieliollar)" one finds the following sentcnces (among others):

She was furious with me.

I'm absolutely furious that nothing has been done.

When students read these sentences. they should note:

• Furious collocates with absollllefy.

• You can be furious willi sOll/eone.

• The reilson for being furious Cim be givcn with 111m followed by a grammatically complete clause. with both a subject and a verb.

They now have enough information to write a wide variety of aceurate sentences. It is important to note that thc eXilmple sentences they find and copy will, to iI large degree. form thc parameters of the ones they can attempt to writc for themselves, at least with some confidence in ilccuracy. For examplc. if students wanted to write that somebody was furious about something

using only an object. they would need the following example sentence:

He was furious at the court's decision. (Longman Active Study Dictionary)

In the absence of such an example sentence, the students may ;I!tempt to write the following:

My teacher was furious that the cheating in the test.

In fac\. I have fo und that the expression of mcanings not encapsulatcd in copied example sentences is the most frequent source of errors. In order to maintain a modicum of student independence. a teacher can encourage thc students to limit their origin'll sentences to the panerns and meaning provided in the example scntence(s) they have found. T his has the downside of limiting them in what they arc able to say. In efTcct. the students will need to choose useful example sentences rather than useful words. The alternative is to train the students in the efTective use of language rcsources. primarily diction'lries. While a more time-consuming endeavour. this has the advantage of encouraging long-term learner independence. A complete overview of whilt dictionaries hilvc to ofTer is beyond the scope of this article. but a good place to start is the dictionary guide typically found at the beginning of most learners' dictionaries.

*** T he cfTcctive and accurate use of vocabulary is a central component of languilge competence. While a student's active vocabulary typically only constilUtes a fraction of their total knowlcdge of vocabula ry. it is important to encourage them to continue to cxpand on the words they arc 'Ible to usc efTective1y. A vocabuhny notebook. with both copied example sen tences and Sllldcnt-written original sentences. can be a structured means to help students towards vocilbuhlry learning independence. <D>

James Venema is currenlly an ASSOCiate Professor and teacher coordinator at Nagoya Women's University in Japan. He is interested in curriculum development as well as the development of professional communities of teachers.

• _.etprof.sstonal.eom • ENGLISH TEACHING professional . Issue 70 September 2010' 13

READING

on rea In~! Britt ..Jepsen sees

the benefits for increased

confidence and competence

of giving students authentic

texts.

Teachcrs often avoid thc use of authentic reading materiaL Somc of thc rC<lsons thcy givc for ncglccting or avoiding it

are as follows:

'There is silllply //01 enough lillie illihe week. / hare Ihe exam syllabus to gel Ihrollgh. .

'The ,j'II/(/ellls prefer /() keep 10 Ihe coursebook: Ifle)' like 10 kllow howfllr Ihey //(/re progrt'ssed.·

'/1 is (/ijJiCIIII alld I(lkes lime lojilld .l"lIi/(/bl1' lexts lIlId matl'rials.·

In this articlc I intcnd to prcscnt somc of thc benefits of reading authentic material. wi th the focus particularly on cxtcnsive reading l iS an idelll resource for English teaching.

Curriculum I tCilCh in Denm<lrk. whcrc the overall aim whcn it comes to gClling students to read in English is to give thcm Ihe opportunity to produce language (oral <lnd wrillcn). b<lscd on what thcy have rC<ld. T he Communicativc Appro<lch to languagc teaching has had a major impact on teaching in Danish schools. Its fivc major c1cmcnts are each represented in the curriculum:

• linguistic competcnce;

• pragmatic competence:

• discourse competence:

• strategic competcnce:

• nuency.

Reading is involved in working towards <Ill these clements and emphasis is placed from the early stages of English

instruction on the abili ty 10 understand short. simple texts on relevant and meaningful topics. with the support of audio and visu<ll media.

Goals In the light of the demands of the curriculum and insights into how successful rcaders intcntct with tcxts. a set of gencntllearning goals for thc rcading component of ;1Il English language course could include:

• the ability to read a rangc of texts in English:

• the ability to adapt a reading style according to purposc and apply different strategies (eg skimming. scanning) as appropriate:

• the acquisi tion of knowledge about languagc (cg vocabulary. structurc) which will faeilit<lte dcvelopment of greater reading ability:

• thc building of schematic knowledgc in order to intcrpret texts meaningfully:

• the development of awareness of the structure of written texts in English, ,l11d the "bility to make usc of such things as discourse features and cohesive devices in comprehcnding tcxts:

• the ability to take a critical stance with regard to thc contcnt of texts.

(Adapted from Hedge, T Teaching al/d Learnillg ill Ihe Lallgllilge CI(I.¥srOOIll

our 20(3)

Levels Naturally. for students at lower lcvcls it is morc difficult to find suitable authentic texts. though I do believe that it is possible. Recipes from cookbooks for children. poems. letters. invitations. postcards. cartoons. simple short storics, etc, will all yicld useful reading pfllctice - and. more import,Hltly, the students find original materials much more interesting! Young lcarncrs arc usually easy to motivate and they enjoy most of the materials ;\lld tasks presented in class. since the English language is still new to them.

With higher-level studcnts who have better l;tnguagc competence. it is important to focus on motivation. rcading purposes and thc valuc of extcnsive reading. To find or create valid reading purposes for texts presented in class might be the key to motivating the

14 • Issue 70 September 2010 ' ENGLISH TEACHING pro/essiol/ol . _.etprofe •• lanal.eam •

students to read texts which would not normally interest them. These purposes can be contrived to create interest. And where there is some freedom of choice. interest will be a key criterion in sclecting texts for learncrs.

Purposes The list compiled by Wilga Rivers and Mary Temperlcy of purposes for reading is 11 uscful tool for tCllchers to use as 1I framework for text selection. They should be able to find authentic material to match each of these purposes:

• to get information:

• to respond to curiosity about a topic:

• to follow instructions:

• fo r pleasure and cnjoymcnt;

• to keep in touch:

• to know what is happening in thc world:

• to find out whcn and where.

If reasons fo r readi ng are missing from textbook tasks, one of the most useful things teachers can do for thei r learners is to create purposes which will motivate thcm to rcad.

Extensive reading il1/f'I1Sil'(' reading activities in the classroom arc intcnded to train studcnts in the strategies nccded for successful reading. The pedagogic;!l value attributed to es/el1sire reading. howe\"er. is based on the assumption that exposing learners to large quantities of material will. in the long rUIl. produce a bencficial effect. Furthermore. extensi\'e reading can be a highly productive step towards autonomous learning and gre1llly increases a student's exposure to English - which is relevant where class contact time is limited.

If we are persuaded by Stephen Kr1lshen's view that learners need to be exposed to large amounts of comprehcnsible input which is meaningful. relevant lind interesting, in a stress-free environment. then clearly individual extensive reading outside class timc has value.

The opportunities that extensive reading affords learners of all ages ,l11d levels of language proficiency makes it a useful resourec:

• Leilfners can build their liUlguage competence.

• They can progress in their reading ability.

• They can become more independent in their studies.

• They can acquire cultural knowledge.

• They can develop confidence and motivation to carryon learning.

Reading syndicates An example of a useful procedure to support extensivc reading is the reading syndicate_ in which members of a group read different books lllld then share their experiences. The outcome is often a peer conference in which studcnts can take on the roles of lIsking questions as well as answering them. and this tallies with the aim of giving students an opportunity to produce language based on what they have read. Reading syndicates combine the 1l10tiv1llion engendered by the fact that the students may hm'e chosen the books themselves. genuinc classroom interaction among chiwging groups of learners, lind potential student recommendation of books to their classmates.

*** In summary_ the reading of authcntic English texts with students of English as a foreign language has several benefits. Indeed. it is possible to

construct a tcaching programmc bascd mllinly on 1luthentic texts which offers purposeful engagement with reading and is likely to prove motivating. In addition. it will build the learners' competence and confidence to carryon reading in English outside the classroom - not as part of the course. but for fun! G2i>

Rivers, W and Temperley, M A Practical Guide to the Teaching of English as a Second or Foreign Language OUP 1976

Krashen. S D Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition Pergamon 1962

Britt Jepsen has been involved in teaching English for eight years. She also teaches PE and Spanish at secondary teveL She is currenUy working at a primary schoot in Skuldelev, Denmark.

"

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• __ etprof.ss ional.eom • ENGLISH TEACHING professional. Issue 70 September 2010 · 15

RESOURCES

Chris Payne confesses

the error of his ways. Corpl/.). delicti is defined by the Oxford English Die/ionar)' as ·the facts and circumstances constituting a crime'. T he

crime commilled in this case was my own - of not incorporating corpus­informed language into my classes.

What is a corpus? A corpus is a carefully laid out collection of real examples of spokcn and wrillcn languagc stored on a computcr. Because the language found in a corpus has actually been used, it consists of dcscriptivc rather than prcscriptivc language. Thc information that corpora contain is typically prcsentcd in the form of word frt:qucney lists and concordilllCCS. Concordances displilY thc key word in context in example sentences.

Corpora arc used to crcate and inform multifarious teaching resources. Thcse includc: dictionaries. rcferencc grammars. grammar practicc ltctivities. exam practice tests and an array of matcrials for tcaching vocabulary and lcxiclll scts. collocations. phmsal vcrbs and idioms. Some courscbook writcrs also usc corpora by consulting word frequency lists.

Why should we use corpora? Authenticity CorpoTll arc II vlllullblc rcsourec of iluthcntic I,Ulguage for allteltchers. Although we tend to trust our intuitions about gTllmmar and vocabulary. corpus cvidcncc shows that thcse intuitions arc sometimes flawed , and that words we

think of as common are aClllally infrequent. Teachers can consult a corpus or a corpus-informed dictionary in order to asccrtilin which words are used most frequent ly and 10 keep abrcast of languagc change.

Wc hllve been laking lluthentic material into our classrooms for many years. in the form of books. newspapers. magazines. leaflcts. ctc. Today, many of us use whll! is argullbly the world·s biggest corpus. the internet and its search engines. to find topical or engaging tcxts for our learncrs.

Frequency Thanks to corpora, we now have more information than ever before about the difTerences between spoken and written English. A corpus allows us to observe important variations in the frequency of many words and structufCs betwccn thcse two wlIys of communicliting.

Context As wcll as informing us about the frequency with which grammar and lexis occur. corpora c,m give us an insight into thc preferred context in which words occur - somc words, such as ("(II/S(' , might be used mainly in a negative context. This is sometimes referred to as sell/tlll/ic prosot/)'.

Collocation Corpora also show us the most common collocatcs and colligations of words. The box on page 17 shows the first fcw concordance lines for the word crime from a spoken corpus of British English. It is immediatcly clear that the collocation crime prel"l:ntioll is a frequent one.

Prioritisation Corpus cvidence is extrcmely useful fo r teaching vocabulary. Vocllbulary learning crCiltes an enormous memory load for our students, and it becomes an Augean task unlcss we havc a sound organising principlc. The Collills Cobllild Corpus shows that a core vocabulary of 2.500 words accounts for about 80 perccnt of the words in spokcn and written texts. With the help of a corpus. we can identify these words and teach them as a priority to elementary levcls.

Recycling Words need 10 be revisited sevcm ltimes and in difTercnt contexts to increase the chllnce of them being truly acquired.

1& • Issue 70 September 2010' ENGLISH TEACHING pro/essiol/ol . _.etprofe •• lanal.eam •

To your discussion on erm possible Nazi war crime trials coming up. Yes. My

Coming up fairly soon of course is the National crime preyentjon Week and I think we ought as

Sentences. Let's have sentences which fit the crime. Because there are murders and murders aren't

But the theft element you know this rising in crime in breaking into shops Yeah. Erm

er for example has been working to prevent crime or if your group leader at school in the

Bangkok. The crackdown on switchblade crime in Glasgow. Who'll win and who'lilose

Just want stay in the game? When petty crime I just want to come back I want to come

Mm If they'd promised to reduce crime Mm and they don't deliver

Which are a large reason for the rise in crime in the first place Okay. So you have

and hospitable and generous. Is crime quite serious there and what about the drugs

private sector people er either crime prevention which there are quite a few

I mean how much do they know about the kind of crime prevent jon work

Only a significant role and I think sort of crime prevent jon as a

Of agencies which can have an influence on crime prevention as possible erm largely

Re likely to have any impact on the instance of crime the fear of crime that you can to then

Of were having to go back what is crime prevention. It is particularly

Stephen Krashen recommends extensive reading as an aid to vocabulary acquisition <lnd retention. This is undoubtedly good advice. but the use of <I concord<lnce C<lll be even more effective because learners are prescnted with a word in multiple contexts which can be read in very lillie time. It would take even the most omnivorous reader far longer to encoulller as many examples <lnd contexts with extensive re<lding.

Communication [f we aim and claim to teach communicatively, as most of us do these d<lYs. then our Ie<l rners ought to be exposed to I<lngu<lge that is used in real communication outside the classroom. We can liken Icarning a language to lellrning 10 drive_ Sooner or bier. a le<lTller driver will need to leave the re lative safety of the local industrial estate and drive in real traffic. Likewise. our learners will be in a beller position to cope, when the need for communication arises outside the classroom. if we can offer them a diet of actually-used language in our !essons. We cannot always rely on <I coursebook to give them the naillral-sounding English they need. When the onus is on the teacher to supply more authentic languagc, a corpus can be a useful tool .

Simplification It is naillralto simpli fy language. After all, we simplify our English when we arc

speaking to children and non-native speakers of English outside the cI<lssroom. It should be axiom<ltic that some language needs to be adapted and redesigned for the specific purpose of learning EngliSh. Clearly, learncrs can benefit considerably from hHlgu<lge content concocted specifically for tCilching. Also, in the unpredictable environment of Ihe classroom, we often have to think on our feet and usc our own ·bespoke' examples of langullge.

Our learners will be in a better position to

cope outside the classroom, if we can offer them a diet of

actually-used language in our lessons

Howevcr, dcspitc there being justification for a certain amount of simplified content, we should rencct on how much of it we use. [t is not desimble to expose learners to lin exccss of contrived contcnt. Studcnts who encounter simplified language too often could end up learning English that is not just simplified. but simply restricted or, cven worse, distorted.

If our teaching situation permits us

10 usc some corpus-informed content, this will cnsure that what our studcnts learn is truly represenlilt ive of the target language.

What can we learn from a corpus? Corpus cvidence can further our own and our students' language llWareness. Of course, some data will confirm what we already know, such as the fact that question tags (islI't il? arell'tthey? etc) are almost exclusively found in spoken English. But most corpus fi ndings will enable us 10 make more informed choiccs about what grammar and Icxis to prioritisc and teach. lind when to teach it.

Let us look at some examples of frequcncy and semantic information we can obtain about a word. Space allows me to cite just a few examples. but some of the following findings may be of interest.

Frequency information • The fUlUre continuous is]oo times

more frequcnt thanthc futurc perfect.

• The zcro conditional is the most frequcntly occurring pattern out of the diffcrent types of conditionals.

• Scvcn prepositions arc in the top 20 most frequent words. Here they arc in order of frequency: 10. of. ill,jor, Oil , Wilh lind (If. .. ....

• __ .tprof ••• lonal.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professiol/al . Issue 70 September 2010 • 17

Corpus delictiD

............ • Of the top 50 words. 49 arc grammar words, ic articlc~ prepositions. pronouns, conjunctions. modal and auxiliary verbs.

• Chunks containing a word may account for many of ils occurrences. This is tfue of halld, where over half of all its occurrences are with chunks. 011 'he 0I111'( hand being by far the most common.

Semantic information • Sixty percent of the usc of like is

prepositional and mealls '\0 resemble something', cg &111"1'1'111944 (II/d 1946. Ila!J' was like 1I Third Wor"/ cOlllllry.

• Less than half Ihe uses of ill refer to place or lime. but are found in advcrhiuls and fixed phrases like li/fiICl.

• The word see is much morc common in spoken corpora with Ihe meaning 'understand' (cg I see or I see what )"011111/:(111) than it is with Ihc me,ming 'pcrceive with the eyes'.

• MIiSf is first taught for referring to obligation. Corpora confirm for us th,1I its function for expressing speculation or deduction. as in YOII

11111.1'1 be flllilgry. is also a very frequent grammar pattcrn. T hc perfect form mllS( h(lre bel'li is extremely common in spoken English. Perhaps its place in syllabuses should be reassessed.

• In >l mixed eorpliS of American English. wo1i1d is the 46th most frcquent word. Dave Willis claims that. in spite of conventional EFL wisdom. wOllld denoting 'used to' is rcmarkably common.

How should we use a corpus? There are different kinds of corpora. both largc and small, available for us to consult. Among them are general corpora of spokcn and written American, British o r o ther vitrieties of English. T here are also specialised corpora. including acadcmic and business English . and teachcr. learner

and non-native-speaker corpora. As teachers.. we should rcmcmber that native-speaker corpora tell us a lot about the way native speakers use language, but nothing about the way languages are le(lrlll. T hus, it's a good idca to look at a learner corpus.. which lets us sec the problems le(lmer,~ might experience. Then we can compare learner and nalive­speaker corpora to see why errors occur.

We need to make judicious use of corpora, which entails critically interpreting corpus findings Hnd selecting language wisely for teaching. T his is important because wc want 10 avoid having to modify or alter corpus information, for this would defeat the object of choosing it as aUlhenlic material in the first place.

Native-speaker corpora tell us a lot

about the way native speakers use language,

but nothing about the way languages

are learnt

elUtion is also required when consulting frequency information. T he fact that a particular example of language use is attested as frequent does not automatically mean it is sui table for teaching purposes. Some language contained in corpora is inappropriate for the classroom. irrespective of whcther the classroom is LI or L2. Other language is best taught for reception only, a point raiscd by Pctcr Wells in Issue 115 of ETp. when referring to slang.

Nor should we use frequency evidence alone without considering other criteria. such as the learnability of the languagc lind whcthcr it is relevant to our le,lrners' needs and interests. T he words TIIl'sf/ay and Wednesday are relatively low in frequency compared with the other days of thc weck, but they form part of the same lexical set and we would not contemplate leaving them off a beginners' syllubus. 1 pointed out earlicr that see mcaning 'understand' and 1I'0llld me,llling 'used to' are common occurrences. Yet this does not mean that these senses of the words should be taught before o r 10 the exclusion of their othcr meanings.

18 . Issue 70 September 2010 ' ENGUSH TEACHI NG professiollal • _.8tprofe&&lonal.com •

*** As a linguistic resource, corpora arc especially useful for promoting noticing, and thcre is a strong casc for using them for language learning.

M y crime was that I hud fuiled 10 muke use of the invaluable work carried out by corpus linguists like John Sinclair, Michael McCarthy and others. We are doing our learners it disservice if we do not exploit the significance of the pattcrns of grammar and lexis revealcd by modern corporu. Teaching of the four skills can also benefit by looking at how communication works in speech and writing. A corpus ncedn't be considered as an esoteric research tool or ,IS the preserve of applied linguists. By using one we can add another string to our pedagogic bow.

Having first confessed. in the next issue of ETp I would like to address the use of corpora and will suggest some practical activi tics. ~

There are many corpus-based resources avai la~e online. and some olthern are Iree. You can download examples of non-native-speaker talk for free from the Michigan Corpus of Academic Spoken English. Other useful corpora are The British National Corpus and the Collins Cobuild Corpus.

Q'Keeffe, A, McCarthy, M and Carter, R From Corpus to Classroom CUP 2007

Tomlinson, B MaterialS Development in Language Teaching CUP 1998

Tribble, C and Jones, G Concordances in the Classroom Athelstan Publications 1997

Willis, D The Lexical Syllabus Collins 1990

Chris Payne Is the owner of Paddington School of Engl'ch 3nd has been teaching in Spain since 1993. He has published several articles on ELT and Is particularly interested in a greater focus on lexis in language learning.

Writing for ETp Would you like to write for ETp? We are

a lways interested in new writers and fresh ideas. For guidelines and advice,

write to us or email: editor@etprofessional .com

IN THE CLASSROOM

Rose Hickman looks

beyond the limitations of

the assumptions. I

n my articie in Issue 69, we saw how being one gendcr or another has an cffcct on our experience of a class and how a tcachcr may

counteract gcndcr incqu'llity. I'd now like to look at thc English language, gender and sexuality in class in more dctail.

Whose English? We don't all use English in the same way, nor do we all find that it mects our necds whcn it comes to expressing our experience of life, gcnder and sexu<llity, This is one of the reasons why the contcnt words of the languagc are adaptcd lind lIddcd to so frcqucntly.

But intercstingly. although sexualities that differ from the socially. applied hctcro 'norm', and behaviours that break the supposed gcnder rules. arc becoming more acccptcd. thc

• • ..

• •

language to describe thcm respectfully is slower to appear. Evcn something as basic as Ms is still ridiculed in some quartcrs .md hasn't managcd to rcplacc Miss or Mrs. Steven Pinker maintains that '(lflI'IliPIS 10 il1lmduce gellder /wulrat words tikI' "hl'sll" [a pronoun encompassing he and she] ... 1/(/1"1' jailed' beclluse function words resist change. I belicvc it is important 10 undcrstand that it is not the words themselves that resist change. but thc society they function in .

And in the middle of this mincficld of dcbatc about our hlllgmige and cultures are our students. who come from cultures and languages that have their own debates. Teachers. thcrefore. need to know'l little about the issues in the language they teach and those in the Ll and culture of their students. Their students will. after:1ll. be trying to ncgoti,lIe between what thcy know and what they learn. in two languages/worlds.

Who are our students? I work in Spain. where I often see girls get irritated or give up whcn thcy are pressured to be quiet by boys. lind boys who don't like the i11l1lge thcy know they're supposed to fit. I see those who have same·sex parcnts and don't want to talk about their families, just in case. And those who identify as gay, lesbian or transsexual. who stay suspiciously quict at ccr\iLin moments in com'ers'lt ions.

We shou ld not assume that everyone in our class is heterosexual or wants 10 be identified as eithcr male or fenmlc . recenlly saw a T·shirt produced by 11

group of studcnts at Barcelona Univcrsity. [t said: 2 lesbians + 3 gays + I /l"{lI/sse,\"IIat + 4 bisexuals + f 5 heleros = III)' doss. Our slUdents certainly secm to be well aware of who is in our classes!

What are we teaching? Teachers ,Ire autom,lIic,l1Jy part of a society that produces and reproduces eulluml beliefs: we are pmt of the process of transmillillg a message of equality or stcrcotyping, We need to be aware of our role in this. If we acccpt equality as our preference, we need 10 realise that doing nothing to combat inequality is equiv'llent to being part of the causc.

One effect of not taking into consideration who is actually in thc classroom. and not rcgarding thcm as individuals but as one homogeneous. non·differentiated blob. is to 'Q1weducme al/d orer promole' specific groups. ......

. _.etprof.sstonat.c:om • ENGLISH TEACHING professional . Issue 70 September 2010 · 19

Sex education according to Alistair Man!, and research suggests this will mostly benefit mules ­I'd .. dd hcteroscxualm<l1cs ill that.

AlIlcarncrs would surely benefit from learning respect for everyone and acquiring the social skills necessary to work with others. I believe these skills arc already being int roduced inlo the curriculum in some schools in some countries. We could also integrate this imo our language classes in our given contexts and cultures.

• • • • ;z;>1l1'1.liill:ll·!) • -

What can we do? Managing our classes

•

Being in tunc with our students' needs doesn't only consist of being able to identify such things as ' Paul is weak on prepositions', but also -Paul doesn't seem to work well in groups. [ wonder why. and what I can do 10 make him feel more comfortable'. Clt/ss lIuII/agel/1I.'11i is an umbrella term for many aspects of our job: we can include within it organising our classes so that no one feels left out or uncomfortable.

Doing it differently We know that our learners are never oilly learning a language, and some teachers arc exploiting this in course content. Feminist English courses have existed in Japan since the 1980s. including learners in the content while addressing gender, as well as linking the content to the use of English and Japanese. T his is a challenging idea, bringing up problems we encounter every day. Jacqueline Beebe asks, 'Should 11';' Il'aeh }ap(IIl('se sludnlls \1"ho illiheir firSl klllguagl' II"0uld 1/.)'1' "SOI/" or ··slImll··. courll'sy litles which do 1101 distinguish bJI St'X or mar;{(I1 S{(lWs. 10 /(Ike lip a 111'11' sexisl praelicl' ill English

wllieh could dall/age Ihe imagl' of Ihemsel\"es or Iheir compallY? Stlldems nl'l't/lhe knoll'ledge fO tIl'oid il/od1"ertem SI':";sl praelices SI/ch (IS (I(/ding (I IIfr 10 alllhl' names UII (/ COlllplIll'rised mailillg lisl or addressing af! adlill 11'01111'11 as Jlfrs Fml/ify N(//I/e.'

Including everybody The problem of inequality in language is even more subtle than usc of greetings or personal pronouns. When speaking of how we need background informution to make sentences understandable. Steven Pinker gives the following example:

WOIII(m. rm karillg )'011.

Mall: Who is he?

The way the missing background information h"s been understood is that it is a heterosexual situation. but by no means everybody would assume this. Shouldn't we also teach the neutral if to cover all possibilities? Where I work. Spanish speakers do not tend to know that it can sometimes refer to a person.

It is not just gender roles thilt ,lTe supportcd and promoted by popular belief and the language we teach. Deborah Cameron ilnd Don Kulick cl;lim there is a 'port pltlyed by {ul/gllflge (lm/Mngl/og!' Wie in sust(lining heterOllOrmati1"e sociaf (Irf(lIIgellleIllS'.

Every day we use our L I to perform and perpetuate stilndilrdised 'norms' in society tlmt have no basis in reillity for m,my people. and we teach thilt WlIY. too.

Some EL T books havc gone some way to addressing gendcr role issues. but they have yet to even begin to tackle the sexuality issues. I would suggest that just as girls are negatively affected by stereotyping, so too are people of certain sexual orientations, and they arc losing out by being ignored in CI;IS!>. I really think it's time to address both gender and sexual ity issues in education.

ReconSidering learner needs Thcre is always a need to be aware of the culture in which we teach. and even more so when approaching possibly 'taboo' issues, However. I belicve we should not hide behind these difficulties ilS an excuse for ignoring ilspeets of life which rencct reality for some students.

Kinship patterns clln be different, depending on where you teilch. but the assumed two-parent. married. heterosexual binllry system is not the great majority that many would have us believe. There are many different types

of family, so how will that affect how we teach certain items of vocabulary. likefillllify itself?

The way we teach languilge is oftcn through majority kinship pallerns (my cul ture's case having one male and one female parent). and we tend to ask questions likc . Wltm are )"O/lr mother olldftllher's IWIlt('~'? ' Howevcr. not all childrcn fit into this kinship pattern. And what about children who are living in state care? We could be perpetuilting an unequal ilnd possibly uncomfortable situation for more students than we realise. Because of this.. I teach the words lIIolher andfillher. but use gllordiml in my questions. I also do not automatically assume a child means p(/rellf~' when they say 'my fill/It'rs' . and tend to bring it up at the end of an activity to cleilr up misunderstandings without pUlling a specific student on the spo!. It is not my wish to cause difficult moments for individuals, but it is important to include illl and promote equal ity. We arc educators in general as well as English teachers, after all

Learner needs include the necd to know about the rules for social discourse. appropriacy. etc. which is a strong argument for including issues around gender. sexuality lind kinship when we te'leh. Ultimately. the learncrs will be using the language in a society wi th many different types of people. Le,lrners need to know how to address people in English correctly in modern times.. and they need to feel included. even when they recl difTerenl.

Knowing our stuff Do we actually know if 1I word has difTerent connotations in the students' LI ? 1 once had a conversation with a teacher lIbout homophobill lind hc said he had not hcard any eXilmples in his classes. He'd been working in the country fo r seven years, but it turned

20 . Issue 70 September 2010 ' ENGLISH TEACHING professional . _ •• tprof ••• lonal.com •

• ,

oulthal he didn"t know Ihe offending words in LI to look o ul for. so how could he possibly spot any problem?

We enter into dangerous territory. Teachers arc a lso part of society and have their own vielVs - but are we not at least supposed \0 be irnp<lrtial? Th<ll would mean making an effort to inform ourselves. When we do nothing, a message is still being given. As Adrienne Rich expresses it. .... ill I('(/ching lI"e 111:(,(/ /0 be (ICuleI), COl1sl"iolls ... fO ell~'lIre Ihal

language will 1101 be IIsed to ... keep otliers silelll (/lid pQwerless ',

A word can mean different things in different cultures. so its connotations and the actions wc take upon hearing it used wiU be difTerClll. So if a child has same-sex parents and wi thin their world hears words like gay as posi tive. when they hear the same words used pejoratively in class without this being challenged, it will be no surprise to see that child stay si lent at times. as well as other lamentllble reactions. Also, for those students who have no (known) contact with gayllesbian people, allowing the pejorative usc of the word

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in class could confirm their idea that 'gay = bad' is some kind of 'univcrsal truth', Shouldn't teachers make an effort to be aware of the possible problems?

A little help from your friends If you decide to tackle these iSSlles. here arc some ideas to gct you startcd,

• The most obvious place to begin is with your teacher colleagues: don't assume they have no views on the subject. Keep each other informed of what is going on in your classes, discuss problems and share ideas.

• To ntise the issues in class.. you may find the book Taboos (llId hSllc,\' by Richard MacAndrew and Ron Martinez a good source of lessons on these themes.

• You can also find information on the internet to provide topics (or lessons or class discussions,

• If you think it will be too difficult to address these issues wi th the whole class, start by putting thc studcnts into small , citrefully-chosen groups and give them some questions to d iscuss. Hold an open.class feedback session afterwards.. but sct a written homework assignment for individuals. Learners often say things in private that they wouldn't say in public: let them know their work will only be read by you,

*** IT WORKS IN PRACTICE

Do you have ideas you'd like to share

with colleagues around the world? Tips, techniques and activities; simple or

sophisticated; well· tried or innovative;

something that has worked well for you? All published contributions receive

a prize! Write to us or email: editof'@etprofessional.com

Writing for ET p Would you like 10 write for ETp?

We are always interested in new writers and fresh ideas, For guidelines and

advice, write to us or email: editor@etprofessional .com

It just takes the desire to promote equality and a little extnt effort, not even a great (ield of planning, to milke a ch,mge, Even simply adding the odd question here and there that doesn 't assume everyone is the same, and making it clear your C];ISS is il safe zone where students know they can speak openly and safely will help, Above all. we should insist that everyonc is represented in our institution's equal ity and anti· bullying policies. <ill>

Beebe, J 'Sexist language and English as a foreign language: A problem of knowledge and choice' The Language Teacher 22{5) JALT 1998

Cameron, 0 and Kulick, 0 The Language and Sexuality Reader Routledge 2006

MacAndrew, R and Martinez, R Taboos and Issues Thomson Heinle 2001

Mant, A Intelligent Leadership Allen & Unwin 1997

Norton, Band Pavelenko, A 'Addressing gender in the ESUEFL classroom' TESOL Ouarterly 1996

Pinker, S The Language Instinct Penguin 1994

Rich, A On Ues, Secrets and Silence W W Norton & Company 1995

Rose Hickman is a DELTA qualified teacher who has taught English to children, teenagers and aduhs for 15 years in Barcelona, Spain, She coordinates e~ternal e~ams and provides guidance for new leachers, Her personal research interests include gender in education and the buill environment.

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Visit the ETp website! The ET p website is packed with practical lips, advice, resources, information and selected articles, You can submit tips

or articles, renew your subscription or simply browse the features, _.etprofessional.com

• _.etprof.sstonal.eom • ENGLISH TEACHING professional . Issue 70 September 2010 ' 21

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( TEACHING YOUNG LEARNERS ;) *************

A primary reading project Betka Pislar encourages good reading habits from the start.

As a primary school teacher of English in Slovenia, and a passionate reader myself. I have always tried to pass on

my love of reading to my students and motivate them to stan reading in English. I find that the children I teach are naturally interested in what is going on in the school. They are open to new ideas and willing to take part in any activities offered to them. So I developed a project to get them involved in reading.

The plan I set the following objectives:

* to encourage the students to develop and expand their vocabulary;

* to motivate them to read books in English:

* to improve their reading skills;

* to help them to associate learning and reading in English with having fun;

* to increase thei r creativity;

* to incorporate new activities in my teaching.

To meet these objectives I decided to encourage my pupils to read at least three books in English.

The project

·················0 ················· My project was targeted on three classes of 20 nine year olds who were in their first year of learning English. I began with these questions:

* Who reod bedtime stories to you when you were a little child? * Do you remember me title of me first book you read in Siovenian?

* What book are you reading now? * Whot is your fovourite book?

I then showed them my favourite nursery book when I was a child. These questions proved to be a good start as they aroused the students' interest and made them discuss their reading habits (this was done in their mother tongue). The next step was to show them the books I had chosen for them to read in English. To avoid expense, I deliberately chose books that were avai lable in the school library. These were simplified texts adapted from traditional fairytales, such as Goldilocks and The Three Bears, The Sleeping Beauty, The Three Billy Goats Gruff, The Town Mouse and me Country Mouse, etc. I brought the books to class, put the students into groups of four and gave each child in a group a copy of the same book. First, I asked them to look at the covers and to read the titles. The students found the books extremely attractive as they were all fully illustrated, and they felt reassured as they had very little text.

I then asked them to throw a dice and to open their books on the corresponding page. For example. in one group a child threw the dice and the number was five, so they all opened the book Goldilocks and The Three Bears on page five . After reading this page they were asked to say what they had read. I helped them by asking them questions like:

* Who are the people in me story? * What animals are mere? * What does Goldilocks do? * Where do bears go? * What do bears eat?

The students answered the questions and pointed to the people and things in the book. I explained some new words to them. However, some of the students tried to guess the meaning of new words with the help of the pictures.

When all four children in the group

had had a go at throwing the dice, the groups swapped books and repeated the activity with a new book.

Working in groups meant there was plenty of discussion and exchanging of ideas, which was fun for the children. The activity also aroused their curiosity - they were eager to read the entire book and to learn what happened next. I explained to them that they would read the books at home.

At the end of the lesson I invi ted them to visit the school library in the next lesson.

·················0 ···· ········· ···· I planned the visit to the school library beforehand with the librarian, asking her to show the students the shelves with books in English and to explain the rules of the library. She did that at the beginning of the lesson. The students were allowed to borrow each of their three books for one week. After the presentation, the students were allowed to browse the books for a few minutes, which they enjoyed immensely. Then they sat at the desks in the 'reading corner' of the library. I had prepared a few amusing vocabulary exercises for them to do and they read their books and did some of the exercises in pairs. These exercises encouraged them to use and recycle words they met in the books.

Afterwards they did some more vocabulary exercises which involved looking up new words in a simplified Engiish- Siovenian dictionary. Then we looked at the other dictionaries in the library, giving the students an idea of the dictionaries that were available in there.

Back in the classroom, I explained what I would like them to do after they had borrowed and read each of the three books. ... .....

• _.etprofe •• lonal.(:om . ENGUSH TEACHING professiol/al • issue 70 September 2010' 23

( TEACHING YOUNG LEARNERS )) ************* A primary reading project

~~~ ·· ······ ·········0 .. ··· ··· ··· ··· ··· My after-reading activities were given to the students on a worksheet which had an obligatory part and an optional part. They were asked to do these activities at home or after lessons in the school library. The instructions for the obligatory activities were as follows:

Write the title of the book in English. 2 Find any new words in the

English-Slovenian dictionary. 3 Write what the story was about in (lve

to seven sentences.

The optional activities were meant to encourage the students to be creative and to give them the opportunity to do things that they liked doing. I asked them to do at least twO of the following:

I Write what you liked or didn't like

about the book. 2 Do on illustration with coloured pencils

or water colours. J Write a new ending (or the book in

three to ~ve sentences. 4 Make 0 new cardboard cover (or the

book. 5 Rewrite one page a( the book in the

form of a cartoon story.

·················0 ·· ··············· I brought a large cardboard poster to the next lesson and put it on the wall next to the board. I then gave each student a small, round piece of paper, and asked them to write their name on it, colour it and stick it on the poster. I explained that it represented the centre of a flower and that they would get a petal for each worksheet they finished to add to their flower on the poster. After bringing me all three worksheets, their flower would be complete. That would mean all their tasks had been done.

·· ············· ··0 ················· At the beginning of the following lesson, those students who had read one of the books at home and done a worksheet, brought their worksheets to school. I checked them and gave them each a paper petal. which they stuck on their

flower on the poster. They could write the title of the book they had finished on the petal if they wished. Then I asked them a few comprehension questions about what they had read. The students were very keen to complete their flowers as quickly as possible. They became quite competitive at the same time as they read. Each lesson, we read together the names of those who had already completed their flowers on the poster. Reading the books, doing the worksheets and completing the flowers gave them a strong sense of achievement. They went to the library very often, and when all the books in the library were out, some of thei r parents even went to libraries in neighbouring towns to get the books for their children.

• In fewer than twO months. S3

children out of 60 had read all three books. done the worksheets and consequently completed their flowers on the class poster. After talking to the remaining seven children, I realised they either had less support from their families or they were not interested in reading at all. I tried to persuade them to start reading and I also prepared some additional fun activities to encourage them. In class we watched some extracts from films which had been made of the chosen stories. and we dramatised some of them. We even made cardboard puppets, and students who had al ready read the books acted out some scenes from them. I also

introduced some new songs and rhymes, which proved motivational.

·················0 ······ ··· ···· ·· ·· The final part of my project consisted of a survey, which I carried out with the students in all three classes. I wanted to discover more about how they read and learn. They were asked the following questions:

* How often do you go to the library? * Who usuolly helps you to read? * Do you discuss the books you read

with your parents or schoolfriends?

* The students involved in this reading project nearly all discovered that reading in English can be a lot of fun. They started by reading simple English texts, which as their Engl ish improves will gradually become more advanced. Peer competition was an important factor: more active children encouraged those with less motivation. They were so busy competing that they didn 't realise how much they were reading! It was noticeable that thei r vocabularies expanded and that they went to the library more often. Gradually. they started borrowing books which were not even on my list. They realised that by reading more books they also learnt more English.

Completing a flower on a class poster and doing worksheets was also an incentive, especially to those with more creative skills. Some of them produced really nice work, with magnificent illustrations and beautiful handwriting. All these activities gave them a strong sense of achievement, which resulted in increased self­confidence and personal satisfaction. 4D>

Betka PiSla~ has taugh t English to young lear ne", secondary school studento and ad ults for ~r 20 ~a". At present she t eaches Engli sh and F""Ilch at the :t:iri Primary School, :t:iri, Slovenia. Her milin eduutionill interest is motivati ng pnfTlary school children to lea rn .

24 • Issue 70 September 2010' ENGUSH TEACHING professiollal. __ etprofe •• lonal.com '

( TEACHING YOUNG LEARNERS ) *************

Laura Loder Buchel integrates 'native-speaker' students

into the foreign language classroom.

As English becomes a compulsory part of primary education across central Europe. the question is often

raised of what to do in English lessons with children who speak the language at home. At the moment, English is in the process of being introduced as a compulsory subject in elementary schools in eastern Switzerland. starting in the second or third grades (children of eight and nine). As this is a new subject, some teachers have little or no experience of teaching English or any other foreign language. They often wonder what to do with the stronger learners in their English classroom. These 'native' speakers may leave them feeling a little uncertain as they find their footing in this new subiect.

The purpose of this article is to provide concrete practical ideas for allowing native-English-speaking children to benefit and develop their own language skills while working with the whole class as well as while working independently.

Knowledge As with every subject taught in schools, children come to class with varying levels of prior knowledge. Moreover, there are often children who know more than their teacher about a specific topic. According to the census of 2000, approximately I % of the Swiss population is 'native' English speaking, and English is defi ned as the most important non-official language of the country. There are no official statistics about the number of 'native' EngliSh speakers in Swiss schools but, from my experience in in-service and pre-service

teacher training courses, there may be anywhere from one to three 'native' English-speaking children per group of 20 children. In addition, for various reasons, many children starting third grade come to school with a higher level of English than might be expected.

'Native' here refers to learners who are more advanced because they have received and continue to receive more extensive exposure to the language. These may be children who speak English to one or both of their parents, who are themselves nat ive English speakers; those whose parents communicate in English although neither parent is a native speaker; and those who have spent time in an English-speaking country and may have gone to school there. That said, the following suggestions about integrating native speakers can be used to cater to the needs of any more advanced learners. Moreover, this article does not seek to imply that native-speaking children are always st ronger in all their language skills than their peers in English lessons - it is assumed that the teacher has already diagnosed the class and identified that a certain child, whether a native speaker or not, needs more encouragement.

Class benefits When I ask them about their experiences, teachers on training courses invariably say, 'I often use the native speoker os my helper though I know that this isn't always good.' Teachers should keep in mind that while being a helper is a good lesson in diplomacy, learners should nor be helping others to the detriment of their own progress

in English. This is not fair. Therefore, this use of the native speaker should be limited to cases where it is clear that the child can profit at least on a social level, if not perhaps at a linguistic level. However, there are ways to integrate native speakers into the class so that they make progress in the language as well as benefiting the class as a whole.

Reading Firstly, there are activities that these children can work on independently during a lesson but which, at the same time. are for the benefit the class. For example. they can be asked to select a story or an article that is relevant to

the topiC being taught and to record themselves retelling it or reading it aloud. This recording can then be transcribed and edited by the learner or the teacher. The final version can be used as a listening exercise for the rest of the class or as a comparison exercise for the other learners to evaluate thei r own production.

Writing Secondly, writing activi t ies can be used for the benefit of the whole class, but at the same time, the process provides native-speaking children with valuable writing experience. Teachers can have these children write sentences using the target vocabulary that can then be used with the rest of the class. They can prepare memory cards wi th full sentences for the others to use. They can also be asked to write stories and poems that can be shared with the whole class.

Culture Thirdly, the native learners' experience of other countries or with other cultures can be integrated into the ........

• _.etprofe •• lonal.eom • ENGUSH TEACHING prOfessiol/al • issue 70 September 2010' 25

( TEACHING YOUNG LEARNERS ) ************* A fair deal for all

~ II- III- lessons. language awareness and cultural activities can be used which give

the students the opportunity to share songs, games, stories and traditions from their own culture or those they have experienced. It would be good to let every child lead a game in the language they speak at home. The role the community can play in schools should also not be forgonen. In SWitzertand, parental involvement is being highly

encouraged at the moment. In some communities. one might see, for example. a South African father coming once a week to the English class and taking his child and a few more to another room to read them stories.

Cooperation Finally. native speakers can be used in

many ways in cooperative learning contexts to their own benefit and to the benefit of the class. When assigning roles in groups, they can be the 'writer', as they should be expected and encouraged to write more, They can also be the 'mediator', as this requi res more formal English and use of language such as Yes, that's right However .... They can be put in charge of materials so that the other students have to come up and ask for things, in a shop-like sett ing. They can be made responsible for ensuring the whole group speaks in the target language, and they can be the resource person with the dictionary.

Individual benefits The above ideas fully integrate the native speakers into the class for the benefit of all. The following ideas are more for the benefit of the individual, though the child still belongs to and can work alongSide the class.

Differentiation The first suggestion involves the preparation of handouts. It is useful and relatively simple to prepare at least two

versions of a handout. with less language suppOrt (model sentences, word banks, etc) on the ones for the native speakers. In addition, handouts

can be created for the native speakers which have more of a focus on spelling and writing. W ith gapped texts. the same text can be given to all the other learners, but with more gaps for the native speakers to complete, or with an addi t ional section where they have to

do some extra writing or take the activity or activity reflection one step further. Extra worksheets from language classrooms in English-speaking countries (from www.obaeoch.com. for example) can be kept in a special binder and used as supplementary materials for the 'native' students.

Organisation Organisationally, it is a good idea to have the native speakers sit where they are not facing any language support on the board or on the wall. This ensures they don't have the information right at their fingertips. Furthermore, the teacher could have monolingual dictionaries for the native students and bilingual ones for the others.

Independence Schools aim not only to teach content. but also social ski lls and skills for life. The ideas listed above help to support language development as well as social development. However. some children may need more social development than content development. others not. Depending on the situation, it might be useful for the native-speaking child to develop their local language skills. so teachers should be prepared to give suPPOrt in the main language of the school.

The following ideas might be used for one Jesson a week for those learners who can work more independently.

Working on a computer can help native speakers set their own pace in language learning activities. In addition, computer work allows these children to keep up with the typical language development of thei r peers in English­speaking countries. There are numerous sites, such as www.discoverykids.com. www.funbroin.com and www.pbskids.com. which offer educationally relevant and challenging materials for independent work. Furthermore, letting children read books of interest in English and getting

them to write reports can support their skills in thei r mother tongue and in their second language, too. Allowing them to choose an independent project. such as making a poster about a country they have lived in, can help promote cultural and linguistiC knowledge and can lead to a product that can be shared with the class.

Materials While the normal textbook used with the rest of the class can be followed. choosing another textbook for independent work can be a good idea. Publishers. such as Teacher Created Materials and Scholastic, offer a wide range of textbooks for children in English-speaking countries. If the parents have enough money. they can be asked to purchase an e-book of interest to their child that can be printed out and used in class. Teachers with native speakers in their class should perhaps take the time to find the language curriculum from the country their child is from. Helpful websites include: www.doe.moss.edul(rameworks/elol 060 I.Pd( and www.ncpublicschools.org/ curriculumllonguogeortslscosl.

Teachers in many countries need to

have a repertoire of ideas for working with native speakers in the foreign language classroom. I hope this article has sparked some creative ideas for integration and differentiation, which can benefit all the children. Every language in the classroom should be recognised and shared, and children of all language backgrounds should be provided with opportunities to improve their mother-tongue competence within and outside the classroom. <Ill>

Laura Lode. Buche' studied Bilingual and Multicultural Education at Northecn Arhona University in the USA and has been an instn"tor at the Zurich and Schaffhausen Universities ofTuche r Educa tion in Swiner'and for t he past s ...... n yea rs.

26 . Issue 70 September 2010 ' ENGLISH TEACHING prof essional . __ .tprof ••• lonal.com •

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EAP An all-round challenge 2 Louis Rogers teaches his students seminar skills.

In an academic setting it is often important to consider several different perspectives on a topic. These perspectives will often come out of the

background reading thai the students are expected to undertake before a seminar. However, I find initially that many of the students find it difficult to move beyond their own perspective on a situation, even if they have been presented with d ifferent viewpoints in a reading text.

The first task presented here provides students with language which they can practise using in their seminar discussion. Whilst it is arguable how authentic some of Ihese expressions may be, I feellhey do give students a framework of language to use. The second task encourages the students to consider a wide range of perspectives on a topic. It also encourages them perhaps 10 modify their opinions after hearing different arguments. The third activity provides them with the opportunity to reflect on their own part icipation, in order to set personal learning objectives for future seminars.

Task 1 D Give pairs or groups of students the first set of expressions cards from Worksheet 1 on page 29. Ask them to divide the cards into the following functions:

• Partly agree • Disagree

• Agree

EI Give the pairs or groups of students the second set of expressions cards from

Worksheet 1 and ask them to divide them into these categories:

• Beginning a d iscussion

• Clarifying points • Managing the discussion • Closing the d iscussion

II Ask the students to work in small groups. Get them to decide who in their group is going to chair the discussion, and give this person a set of the cards used in Stage 2. Give each other person in the group a set of the cards used in Stage 1. Then ask them to discuss one of the topics below (or any other topic you feel would be of interest) using as many of the phrases as possible. Award one point per phrase used by each student. Possible topics

• The only reason to learn a language is if the language will help you gain a good job.

• Parents, not teachers, are primarily responsible for their child's education.

• The most effective way to support a homeless person is to provide them with money.

Task 2 D Give half the class (Group A) Seminar topic A from Worksheet 2 on page 29 and the other half (Group B) Seminar topic B. Ask the students to work in pairs and to think of arguments for or against their topics and to decide what sort of people might hold these opinions (more than one person may hold each opinion).

EI Put the Group A students into smaller groups of four to six and ask them 10 take

part in a seminar on the topic they have been preparing. Whilst the seminar is happening, one student from Group B should focus on one from Group A and complete the table in Worksheet 3 below. Then repeat the process with Ihe students from Group A observing those from Group B.

*** After your students have completed the seminar activities above, or any other seminar activity, encourage them to reflect on their experience using questions such as these: Everyone 1 Are you satisfied with how you

participated in the discussion? 2 How do you think you could improve? 3 Did any person dominate or not take

part? 4 How could you help to include others

and stop some people dominating a discussion?

The chair • How well do you think the discussion

went? • How do you think you could improve

as chair? Gil> Louis Rogers Is a course tutor on the International Foundation Programme at the University of Reading, UK. He has previously worked in It aly, Germany and Portugal, where he taught General English, Business English and Academic English.

-4ID-Worksheet 3 - Seminar observation

~

Student

Main arguments presented

Did they listen to others' opinions? Yes D No 0 Did they modify their viewpo int? Yes D No D

Did they focus on winning the argument? Yes 0 No 0

28 . Issue 70 September 2010' ENGLISH TEACHING professional . _ •• tprof ••• lonal.com •

Set of cards 1 Worksheet 1 - Language focus

.-----------------------,-----------------------~------------------------.-----------------------. , , , I'm sorry but I don't You have a point there ' : Yes, you have a point there. , But surely... , agree that. , but. L _______________________ J ________________________ , ________________________ L _______________________ J

, , , , , I'm afraid that's not how

I see it. I'm not sure I entirely

agree . Maybe. but.

I can see what you mean but. , , , , ,

r----------- ------------,-----------------------~------------------------r-----------------------,

I completely agree that. As X said. X put it well when

he/she said ... That may be true,

but ... , .-----------------------~-----------------------~------------------------"----------------------_.

Set of cards 2 .-----------------------,-----------------------~------------------------.-----------------------. , ,

I'm not quite sure I OK, so let's begin. So 10 kick off .

: understand what you mean. Let's start by ...

, , L _______________________ J _______________________ ~ ________________________ L _______________________ J

, , , , , , So what you are saying Could I just check what '

I d idn't quite catch that. I don't quite fo llow you. is.

X, do you have anything to add to Y's point?

you mean by ... ?

Moving on ... OK, X, would anyone else

like to comment? , , ,

So, let 's move on to the next topic.

-----------------------,-----------------------~------------------------r-----------------------

To sum up ... Shall we stop there? In conclusion ... Is Ihere anything else

to cover?

-----------------------~-----------------------~------------------------"-----------------------

~ Worksheet 2 - Different roles and perspectives

~

Seminar Work with a partner and think about the following topic: topic A Tobacco should be m ade illegal .

Who might have an opinion on this topic? What are arguments for and against? Who might present this argument? Use your ideas to complete the table below.

What might be lin argument for this? What might be an argument against this? Who might have this opinion?

A lot of people would lose their jobs. Governments. employees of tobacco companies

Seminar Work with a partner and think about the following topic : topic B Developing countries should not have to restr ict C02 emissions in the same way as developed countries.

Who might have an opinion on this topic? What are arguments for and against? Who might present this argument? Use your ideas to complete the table below.

What might be lin argument for this? What might be lin argument against this? Who might have Ihis opinion?

Restricting emissions for developing leaders of developing countries countries may limit their development and ultimately limit their standard of living.

• _ •• tprof ••• lonal.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professiol/al • Issue 70 September 2010 · 29

RESOURCES

The most nalUml way to learn a language is to be plunged into a situation where it is needed for communication, but this

situation is difficult for students to find in their horne country. We can't send all our students abroad for experience.. but wc ClIII try to bring thc world to thcm.

Tourists as resources For years I havc run a conversation class here in Ladllkh during the tourist season. inviting visitors to the country to join in. These classes are separllte from my regular English lessons. giving my students il chllnce ill conversation in sma[[ groups. This is hugely popular with thc students. and thc improvcment to thcir spoken English is remllrkable.

If you teilch in an area with a lot of backpackers. you may be able to recruit them to help with such classes. By backpackers. I mean trave[[ers with ncxible schedulcs. J havc also made fruitful connections with sevcntl foreign student triwel groups. Triwe[[ers usua[[y appreciate the chance to interact with locals outside thc tourism industry. and many arc eager to volunteer.

Try putting up A4 posters in populilf backpacker restaurants. J found that whcn I askcd our local stalT to put these up. I got fewer responses than when I did it myself: they didn't have it sense 01 where the backpackers gravitate. We want to trap as many of them as wc can. in the nicest possible wa)'. of course! Give a fixed time, rather than just 'Colf Jor de/ails'. to get impulse visitors saying . Hey. look. II'I's go Ihere this lIJlemoollf' Havc them come a fcw minutes before class so you Ciln greet and orient them.

Tips For low- and intermediate·lcvcl studcnts. mix thc groups up evcry fcw minutes. It keeps the talk going, since some students arc unable to maintain a conversation for much longer. and a[[ the students then gct a chancc to repeat

the samc information while thcir recent allernpt and any new words that have come up are fresh in their minds.

To reducc confusion when rotating, it helps to il rrange the smilll groups around a large cirele.

Roam around the room, eoltecting vocabulary for thc bOllrd and clarifying where necessary. You Ciln announce iln additional question once in a while. I often diseover additional questions when J overhe,tr groups straying into interesting ilreils.

After five to 15 minutes (shorter for introductions. longcr for a juicier topic Of when the noise Icvcl indicutcs that something interesting is taking place), ask the tourists to rotate clockwise. If thc students need to be mixcd up too. usk one from each group to stand up ilnd rotilte anti-clockwise.

Tcn minutes before the cnd of the class, calt everyone into a big circle ilnd ask if anyone heard anything interesting, Of anything that they didn't undcrstand. I ilhernate between culling on st udcnts iUld tourists 10 ensure that my students speak. 100. and sometimes I write main points or words on the board.

Some tourist voluntecrs talk too much and over the students' heads. Advise thcm ahead of time to tolerate

long pauses and to remember how hard it is to formulate a sentence in a foreign language that one doesn't know very well. Another tactic with the intractably loquacious is to iUlllounce that at the end the visitors willtelt the whole class what they learnt from thc students.

Topics J find it is hclpful to sct a clear and limited topic. More advanced students will digress into more interesting topics. while the lower-level students will be glad of the structure. As I ha\"C enough tourists to run a conversation class evcry day. narrow topics altow us to recycle with variations without getting bored: if your first topic is somcthing large like Culture. you've pretty wclt made any future cultural topic into a boring repeat. Instead, break it down into small SUbtopics.

Elementary Low-level students appreciate having ncw conversation partners so they can repeat old topics for further practice. Rotate quickly. every five minutes.

• Introductions. Add specific questions or leave it open. You might remind everyone to make sure they can pronounce their partncrs' namcs before they rotate :tway.

30 . Issue 70 September 2010 ' ENGLISH TEACHING professional . __ etprofe •• tonal.com •

• Photos. If the students and/or tourists have photos from home. I ask them to bring them in. If the tourists don't have photos. sometimes we find a photo book about their country in our library. Props give low-level students;1ll encountging experience of communicating. even if they can't make full sentences.

• Maps. I give a map to each group and then redistribute the maps aftcr ten minutes. These might inelude local maps that students have to explain. or world maps for the tourists to show where they arc from or wherc they arc travelling.

Intermediate Exchanging factual information works best. I have found these topics among the most successful early ones:

• Family. Topics might include: Who lil"es ill YOllr hOIlSI'? Is 111(11 COlllmOIl ill your cOIIII /ry? Were YOlir p(lrC/IIS (md gralldpllrel1ls bom ill Ihe sallll' 101m? IVh(/{ age do childrell 1I0rmally mOl"e 011/ of Iheir p(lrel1ls' hOllse? Is il cOllsidered good if a SOli /ires wilh M)' p(lrel1ls whell he is 10 year.\" old! My region still has a fairly traditional family structure. and my students arc amazed by the mobility and creative family structures of the West.

• Plants and animals. What 1'1(1111.1' (//ul lIlIilllals does YOllr j(llllily I1m'e? My students come from farmi ng fllmilies and are surprised at what the foreigners say to this. while the tourists appreciate learning about local farming. This topic uses the simple present tense.

• Education. Young people always enjoy comparing education systems. I do this topic early in the year. and again later after teaching the past tense. <Isking the students to m<lke general statements in the present tense, and describe their own personal experience in the past tense. Start with vocabulary for the tourists as well as your students. as terminology varies widely between countries.

• Generations. Whal (Ire Ihe major differellcl's be/lrel'lI YOllr grmu/pllfel1l.I·· Nres alld )"ollr OWI1? This topic also focuses attention on past and present tenscs.

• Chores. I use this topic when the tourists are also students. What chores '/0 )"011 do in YOllr hOllse? Do boys alld girls do '/iffi'r('1/l IhillgS? Who c/e(/ns/cookshrasiJe.\" Ihe clolhe.)·. elc? I

like 10 add questions that I know might surprise one side or the other, such ;\s Who brings lIaler /0 ),Ollr hOllse? Who sho\'els Ihe .I"IIOII"?

• Clothing. I usc this topic with visi ting foreign student groups to sensitise them to how they should dress so as not 10 offend the locals.

• Poverty. Arl' Iherl' poor people ill )"ollr CO/llllrr? Who? Why? After five minutes for factual exchange. I announce two addition,. I questions: Doe.\" allyolle help poor people? Ha re YOII I'rer dOlle all)'/hillg 10 hl'lp someolle poorer Ihall YOllrsdf!

• Gender. This topic always generates a lively (and generally noisy) discussion. Are Ihae cerwill jobs Illtl/ I.-ameli sholildl/'l or ("(1/1'1 do? This topic emphasises modal auxiliaries.

Advanced When students are able to communicate more. you can use more abstract topics and opinion questions. Let your imilgination Oy!

Topics to avoid • Food tends to flop. with each side

reciting a litany of food names to blank-faced partners.

• Avoid lilly thing that might be embarrilssing or offensive to your local students. My female students ;lTe shy about dating and sex. and in some countries. political topics are better avoided.

• Avoid religion for intermedi;lIe students - they have trouble expressing abstract concepts and answering the IVhy

questions, and it's frustrating to garble one's dceply-held personal beliefs.

• Contrived topics and games are less intrinsically motivating than discussing one's own life. world and opinions.

Tourists as tutors Tourists with good-cnough English can be used ;IS small-group tutors. For example. you can have them work on a partieu[;1T pronunci;lIion point for the first five or ten minutes. but be sensitive 10 your particular tourists and don't make non-native speakers teach points that they themselves have difficulty with. Words or tongue twisters on the board give everyone a clcar task to work on. To turn the tables and raise my students' confidence. sometimes I have them teach the touristS;\ tricky pronunciation point from the local langllage.

*** For the learners. this conversation class is like going ilbroad for an hour a dilY. hilving to use English for reat communication. It is a great favourite with my studcnts. and with the tourists, too. cD

Rebecca Norman has been teaching English to rural students in an alternative education programme in Ladakh in the Indian Himalayas lor 18 years.

il.

• _.etprof.ssionat.c:om • ENGLISH TEACHING professional . Issue 70 September 2010 ' 31

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Over the wall • • • Alan Maley considers

ability and disability.

In this article I shall be looking at two

novels, two autobiographies and one non· fiction manual, all dealing with disabling conditions. II may seem

unusual to introduce this set 01 books on various forms of disability. Perhaps that is

symptomatic of an era when we are al l so

much more aware of disability and more positively engaged with it. However, I hope it may also prompt us to become more

aware of our own and others' d isabling conditions, with beneficial effects on the

way we deal with them, and make us more conscious of the way disability in

one area may be compensated by exceptional gifts in others.

The Story of My Life The case of Helen Keller is perhaps the best-documented of all accounts of disability. The edition I am reading of The Story of My Life includes a section of

letters and a supplementary account of her life and achievements, so it goes well

beyond the relatively short basic text (only

about 110 pages long). As is well-known,

at 19 months, Helen Keller lost both her

sight and her hearing in a childhood illness. At the outset, 'Gradually I got used to the silence and darkness that surrounded me and forgot that it had ever been different, until she came - my teacher - who was to set my spirit free.'

Essentially, the book is an account of the

remarkable education she received at the hands of her tutor and companion, Anne

Sullivan. Apart from the inspiring story of

how she overcame her disabilities,

acquiring not just one but several

languages and becoming a leading public

f igure in the life of her age, there are strikingly radical observations about the

condition of being disabled: ' ... the way to help the blind or any other defective class is to understand, correct, remove the incapacities and inequalities of our entire civilisation ... Technically we know how to prevent blindness ... but socially we do not know how. Socially we are still ignorant. 'The book is also notable lor its

lyrical passages, which celebrate her

appreciation of the natural world largely through her other senses of touch and

smell, which were clearly hyper-sensitive,

This is an era when

we are all so much

more aware of disability

and more positively

engaged with it

probably to compensate for her loss of sight and hearing. The book remains a

remarkable account of one person's

triumph over physical adversity.

Deaf Sentence In Deaf Sentence, David Lodge dissects

with his customary humour and intelligent observation the life and woes of retired

Professor of Linguistics, Desmond Bates. As he observes, 'Deafness is comic, as

blindness is tragic'. The early part of the

book, especially, contains some highly

comic observations on the fate of

becoming deaf and its consequences for social intercourse: 'What would be the equivalent of a guide dog for the deaf? A

parrot on your shoulder squawking into your ear?' And there is a good deal of witty wordplay w ith well-known literary

quotations. However, as the novel moves

on, the emphasis shifts away from the

predicament of deafness to a more general concern with how to cope with

an ageing father, and with the plight of

being reti red. The disabling effects of

advancing deafness are what gets the

novel off the ground and are thought­

provoking for anyone who suspects their auditory acuity may be duller than it once

was, but the issue of how we cope wi th

life when we are effect ively useless is

more sobering still.

34 • Issue 70 September 2010 ' ENGLISH TEACHING professional . _ .• tprof ••• lonal.com •

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly Imagine that you are unable to move your limbs, o r to ta lk, or, indeed, to communicate at all with those around you, while maintaining full consciousness. This is 'locked-in syndrome' and is the fate that befell Jean-Dominique Bauby following a massive stroke at the age of 44. The former editor-In-chief of Ella was confined to his bed and wheelchair at the Naval Hospital in Berck-sur-Mer, totally cut off from communication with those around him but with his mind racing - re-living his past, outraged by his present condition,

humorously philosophical, aware of how pathetic and repellent he has become: 'What kind of person will those who only

know me now think J was?' So how do we know this? He was

able to open and close one eyelid and, with the patient help of his specialised nurse, managed painstakingly to send messages to her by indicating which letter of the alphabet he needed to make up the words of the book he wrote. The result is The Diving Bell and the Butterfly,

translated from French by Jeremy Leggatt, a terrifying account of his condition and a testament to his courage. It also raises the uncomfortable question of how many patients who appear to be in a deep coma are, in fact, conscious of what is going on around them, but powerless to communicate. There is a film of the same title which is, if anything, even more terrifying than the book.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time Christopher, the protagonist and first­person narrator of Mark Haddon's novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the

Night-time, suffers from a form of autism. He has problems with social interaction and becomes uncontrollable when he panics, often acting violently, as when he is touched by a policeman early in the story, or groaning in an alarming way. He cannot bear to be touched, hates crowds and does not look at people when he speaks to them. He has total recall of whatever he sees and has a head full of detailed information, most of which he cannot use to make sense of new situations: '/ know

all the countries of the world and their

capital cities and every prime number up to 7,507.' In fact, if he encounters a new situation, like buying a train ticket or

finding his way to the station, he has to work everything out from first principles. In order to exert some control over his life, he has developed routines and rituals, which he cannot bear to have disturbed. He is obsessed by numbers and by total accuracy: '/ am 15 years, three months and

two days,' he replies when asked his age. But he has brilliant visualisation skills and can solve quadratic equations and other mathematical problems in his head­something he often does to calm himself down. The story of the difficult relations with his estranged parents and the effects of his unusual behaviour on those he

These books remind

us of how difficult it

is to empathise,

rather than merely to sympathise ..... -...~

meets is told by him in a manner both high~ comic and with a bitter edge. Finally, he succeeds in getting an 'A' in A-level maths ... but what sort of future awaits him in a wood he st ill does not understand and which offers him little tolerance?

Thinking in Pictures Thinking in Pictures. which is Temple Grandin's insider's view of autism, largely COlTOborates the symptoms of the ffctional Christopher. Hers is part autobiography and part detailed information about autism. She became, in spite of her condition, or perhaps because of it, a highly-successful animal scient ist. The book is both an inspiration and a valuable source of information on the condition.

The Gift of Dyslexia Autism is widely regarded as sharing many of the symptoms of dyslexia, Ronald Davis' book The Gift of Dyslexia is of interest partly because it also gives an insider's view of dyslexia and partly for the diagnostic and treatment tools it offers. The description offered of dyslexia makes the powerful point that, besides its negative consequences, it is a positive gift, and Davis cites the cases of many highly gifted people who were also dyslexic. Interestingly, some of these, such as Einstein, are the same as those claimed by Grandin to have been autistic. The fundamental cause of dyslexia in relation to reading and writing is d isorientation,

leading to panic and to the building of compuls ive solutions such as mnemonics (like the Alphabet Song) or heavy concentration, which do nothing to resolve the essential problem. Davis describes dyslexia and its results, then moves to the unusual but, according to his c laims, effective ways of diagnosing and treating it by teaching the dyslexic to turn the disorientation on and off at will. These practical procedures are described in great detail, and would only be comprehensible in the context of a real dyslexic undergoing treatment. The main messages for me from this unusual book were that dyslexia is not all negative and that it is treatable given the right conditions,

*** If nothing else, these books remind us of how difficult it is to empathise, rather than merely to sympathise, wi th conditions we do not fully understand. ~

Bauby, J-D The Diving Bell and the Butterfly Harper Perennial 2008

Davis A 0 The Gift of Dyslexia Souvenir Press 2010

Grandin, T Thinking in Pictures - And Other Reports from my Life with Autism Bloomsbury 2006

Haddon, M The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time Jonathan Cape 2003 Keller. H The Story of My Life (Ed Berger, J) The Modern Library 2004

Lodge, D Deaf Sentence Penguin 2008

Alan Maley has worked in the area 01 ELT for over 40 years In Yugoslavia , Ghana, Italy, France, China, India, the UK, Singapore and Thailand. Since 2003 he has been a lreelance writer and consultant. He has published over 30 books and numerous artictes, and was, until recently, Series Editor of the Oxford ReS<lurce Books for Teachers.

yelamooOyahoo,co.uk

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or simply browse the features.

www.etprofessional_com

• _.etprofe •• lanal.eam • ENGLISH TEACHING professional . Issue 70 September 2010' 35

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IN THE CLASSROOM

Learning disability Lesley Lanir considers disabilities in reading.

Tammy, II yellTs old, reads slowly and awkwardly. She's been leMning English for three years.. yet every word sti ll

remains an effort and her reading is fu ll of errors. Somctimes she confuses the order of the lellers or misses words or jumps lines on the page. Trapped at the levcl of decoding, she can't seem to make headway.

In the same class.. Guy enjoyed rhyming games, learnt the alphabet fairly easily and seems to have reached the stllge of reading without any decoding errors, yet he just doesn't understand short passages even though he get~ full marks in vocabulary quizzes.

Quite the reverse, Ann<l <lnd Tony are reading quietly. simultaneously decoding thc text and comprehending thc writcr's messllge. Their classmates Tammy and Guy. however, demonstrate difficulties at each of these stages and are examples of studcnts whose primary learning disability is reading.

What are reading disabilities? Reading difficulties arc commonly referred to as dyslexia - dys means 'difficulty with' <lnd I('.\"ia , 'words' or 'language'. Originally. dyslexia was known as 'word blindness' because it seemed that only a problem with sight and visu<ll memory could explain why some people confused letters. swapped them around. turned them upside down or reversed them.

Interestingly. sight problems <Ire not at the root of this reading disorder. which affects nearly 20 percent of the population; ncither are sp<.'t'Ch or hearing

impairments, lack of intelligencc or poverty. Decades of research h:we cstllblishcd th;lt dyslexill is caused by specific ncurobiological dysfunctions in the language areas of the brain, causing phonological limitations. These malfunctions prevent dyslexics from perceiving and remembering speech­based information accurately and manifest themselves in poor sensitivity to:

• rhyme: • syllable divisions: • distinct language sounds.

Reduced awareness of spoken.word sound structure also means that dyslexics cannot identify. segment. locate or manipulllte;1 word's individual speech sounds. known as phonemes, since for thcm the distinct bordcrs betwccn each phoneme seems blurry.

For inst:Ulce, the word ilia/! is made up of three distinct phonemes Im/. I<el and In/.

A person who has dyslexia would find it diflicult to say:

• another word that rhymes with mall:

• how many syllables 11/(111 has: • how many sounds it is made up of: • its individual sounds.

In addition to weak phonological awarencss. a dyslexic would have problems:

• taki ng the first sound away. eg Iml from 11/(11/, and replacing it with ;mother sound to create <I different word. eg Iplto make pall. or removing the last sound./n/, and replacing it with Itl to form II/m:

• manipulating the three sounds /;el. Im l and Inlto form a new word. such as l1alll:

• locating and idcntifying the middle sound of the word: Ire!.

Although thcse are simplc examples. these essential phonemic ski lls arc needed in order 10 appreciate how the individual sounds of words are reprcsentcd by letters th,l\ arc scqucnced in a specific order. T his is known as understanding 'the alphabetic principle' or 'cr,lcking thc codc' and is ncedcd in order to take the first step in the reading process.

Duc to their phonological dcficits, learning the alphabetic principle and thus remembering which specific speech sounds correspond to which letters and letter combinations is more than a ch:lllcngc for dyslexics. As Sally Shaywitz points out. after proficient readcrs have seen a letter and articulated the sound it represents a few times, an exact neural representation of its form and sound becomes imprintcd in the occipito temporal automatic reading system. situated at the back of thc brain. Subscqucntly,just seeing the lettcr in print Hctivates immediatc retrieval of all its relevant information.

Dyslexics. however. are unable to supply perfect imprints 10 this automatic stomge place because the language inform,l\ion they receive through their dysfunctional phonological system becomes distorted or dcgraded and lost in the ncural system. Instead. brain imaging studies conclusivcly point to the fact that dyslcxics overuse the slower decoding systems at the left frontal arca of the bfllin - Il roca's arC:1 - :Uld compenS<1tory systems on the right side of the brain. but ullderuse their automatic reading system sited in thc left hemisphere at the back of thc brain. As Shaywitz puts it, it is almost as though there arc no connections between these systems. 11>- .....

• _ •• tprof ••• ional.com • ENGUSH TEACHING professiollal . lS$ue 70 September 2010 . 37

Learning disability !I

pra·llontal cortex

(word analysis! articulation) Broca's alea

I.ft side

Wernicke's area (word analysis)

occipito temporal automatic reading system (word lorm)

occipita l lobes

right side

These neurological dysfunctions result in: • difficulty learning and remembering

lel\crs and their corresponding sounds: • decoding errors: • slow ,lI1d p;linful reading; • poor spelling; • slow or erroneous word retrieval.

Also known to accompany poor reading skills are: • memory problems: • slow information processing; • handwriting difficulties; • trouble with coordination (confusion

betwccn directions.. misunderstanding temporal adverbs);

• poor org;Ulis<llioll and sequencing skills (messy bag. untidy desk. difficul ty learning 1he order of the alphabet, days of the week, etc).

How can we help? In order to learn to read. students with dyslexia need to do the following:

1 Underst;\1ld that words arc made up of different sounds/phonemes.

2 Master decoding by: • !earning the alphabetic principle ­

associating sounds with written symbols:

• blending thc sounds into syllables and words;

• becoming ski lled at decoding words and reading groups of words.

3 Re(."(:ive word structure instruction.

4 Improve their fluency and read with speed, accuracy and expression.

5 Develop reading comprehension skills by: • building up vocabulary; • recognising language structure and

syntax; • internalising eomprehcnsion

strategies. (Adapted from Suzanne Carreker) T his fifth point wil! be discussed in depth in my next article.

D Understanding that words are made up of different sounds

Developing phonological and phoneme awareness is paramount. Decades of studies conclude that phonological proccssing deficits are the primary cause of reilding disabilities and also emphasise that phoneme awareness is an essential factor in the process of learning 10 read. Teachers necd to draw attention to language sounds by inserting ten minutes of phonologic,. I practice at the beginning of lessons. Fi rstly. dcvcloping sensitivity to rhyme, then moving on to teaching syllables. Once students have mastered these exercises. working on distinguishing individual language sounds has to be tackled. This is the hardest phonological task but it is crucial in order to move to the next stage of learning 10 read.

Working on rhymes: • Have the students practise identifying

if words or names follow a rhyming pattern or not.

• Make picture cards. for example bal. lUll. ClIl.lIIlI/I, bl'{l. and ask the students to group those cards that rhyme <lnd those that don'\.

• Ask the students 10 produce their own words that rhyme and don't rhyme.

Working on syllables: • Clap or tap out the number of

syllables in words.

• Say one syl];lble of a word ilnd ilsk the students to finish it. eg /a - ble, jill - ger. etc.

• Get the students to identify how many syllables there arc in the words you say.

Working on phonemes: • For phoneme identification. say a

sound. for example lsi. and display sevcnl l pictures. asking the studcnts to point to the pictures which begin with this sound. or h,we three sounds. or end with this sound. etc.

• For phoneme location. say Imlthen mall. Have the students say where the sound Iml appears: at the beginning. end or not at all.

• Te<lch phoneme deletion by showing .. picture (eg !/Ilw) and asking the studcnts to say /I1all without thc Iml (fm).

• Pract ise phonemc substitution by saying 111(111 and asking the students to repeat the word. Then ask them to rcplace the sound Iml with It! and say the new word ({(III). After substituting beginning sounds. move on to end sounds: for example. replace the Inl with 111 (/11m).

D Mastering decoding

In order for dyslcxics to master the alphabetic principle and begin the reading proccss. the remcdial progTilmme hilS to be:

• Multisensory. using a mixture of seeing, hcaring. speaking. writing, moving ;tnd touching.

• Based on phonics. teaching letterl sound (grapheme to phoneme) and also soundl1ettcr (phoncme to grapheme) 'ISSoci;lIions. using Ihe most common soundl1etter correspondcnces first.

• Structured; it h'ls to be 10gic;11. systematic and progressive.

• Incremcntal and cumulative; learning has to be gradual and must build upon preceding knowledge. For example. first introduce high­frequency consonants with one predictable sound (such as b. 1/1, I and ti). one ,It a time. After a few consonants have been acquired. the short vowel sounds of the leiters i and a can be addcd. Words and non­words can be created by showing the students how to blend sounds together and create one-syllable words. for example, III-a·d. b·a-d, d-a·d. Then progress to small sentences: Mad b(ld b(ll bi/ dad.

• Repetitivc: thcrc has to be plcnty of over· learning to create and strengthen strong neural pathways.

The remedial method developed by Kathlecn Hickey or the Orton· Gillinghillll programme developed by Anna Gillingham and Bessie Stillman both use these systems and can be adapted to teach foreign languagc learners.

38 • Issue 70 September 2010 ' ENGUSH TEACHING professional . _.etprofe •• lonal.com •

EI Giving instruction on word structure

Once a fcw sounds and symbols llfC <lcquired and C'1ll be blended togethcr, morphological instruction should be gradually introduccd. Word structure knowledgc boosts feuding nucncy, increascs the studcnts' knowlcdge of word meanings and aids spelling and vocubulary acquisition. Both Shaywitz and Currekcr <lssert that dcveloping the students' word analysis ,md syllabication skills and encouraging thcm to focus upon roOls and affixes so as to perceive langu<lgc as chunks rathcr than individual sounds and letters prevents memory overload.

Teach: • thc six kinds of syll<lbles 1;

• the five syll<lbication rUles2;

• word roots: • common prcfixes and suffixes: • innections which create nouns, verbs,

adjectives, etc.

Kinds of syllabtes 1 Closed - consonant(s) follow(s) a

short vowel (eg man, and) 2 Open - one long vowel is at the end

(eg she. he) 3 VoweVconsonanVsilent 'e' -

consonant is between a long vowel and a silent e (eg make, fIVe)

4 Double vowel- two vowels combine to make one sound (ag meal, lam

5 Consonant + Ie (eg lable, puzzle) 6 R combination - vowel combined

with r (eg art. lenn)

2 Syllabication !"\Jles

1 Two consonants between two vowels: divkle the syllables between the consonants. eg probllem. finlgar

2 More than two consonants together: divide keeping the blends together, eg hun/drerJ, mon/ster

3 One consonant between two vowels: divide after the fi rst vowel, eg pillot, hulman

4 If previOUS !"\Jle doesn't create a word, d ivide after the consonant, eg doz/en, so/lid

5 Divide vowels, eg po/em, dUet

[n addition . start working on automatic recognition and reading of the most common irregular and regular words. eg Ihl.', 01/1.', of 100, hm'l', dol'S, was, Il,erI', and so on.

II Improving fluency Our overall goal in reading is to understand thc writcr's intended message. Fluency turns decoding into comprchcnsion. For the normal reader,

at least four correct readings are necessary for automatic word recognition to takc placc. Foreign languagc learners with reading disabilities not only have to rely on distorted neurological pereeption and slower ncural pathways but also on arc<ls of the bTllin (hitt <I re not designcd for word storage or retrieval. Therefore, in order to create any kind of accurate mental impression, these Icarners need massive e,xposure to thc printed word both orally and visually.

To facilitate reading nuency. teachers and students have to go th rough many scssions of modelling and repeating word lists, sentences and then short passages to improve accuracy and increuse word speed retrieval.

Modelling illld fcedb<lck are essential in helping students pronounce words properly and build more accurate neural modcls: troublc articulating words indicatcs that exact ncum! represcntations have not been formed ilnd that further repetitions have to take place.

As rcading accuracy and rate improvcs through rcpe.llcd rC<lding to over 100 words a minute, comprehcnsion will improve because fewer mental rcsourees arc invested in decoding.

Remedial teaching A SO-minute beginners' remedial reading lesson plan may consist of the following:

1 phonemic exereises:

2 sequencing tasks - naming and ordering thc alphubet using woodcn or plastic lellers;

3 phonics instruction: • reviewing lettcrs/sounds already

le<lTllt; • introducing a new letter/sound or

reviewing sounds still not being ret rievcd automatically;

4 devcloping fluency: • repeated reading of lists of words

formcd from all thc leiters already learnt;

• repeated reading of short scntences constructed from the above words;

• repeated reading of frequcnt vocllbulary (words that Clln be decoded but havc to be learnt before their letters/letter combinations arc introduced, eg Itl' and sight words that cannot be decoded);

5 spelling practice: • sound dictation (the teacher

produces a sound, the student has to writc the ICllcr);

• word dictation; • sentcnce dictation;

6 introducing morphologic<l! instruction.

*** T his artiele has explained why reading disabilities exist and given essential guidclines as to what to include in a remedial reading progmnlme. Space does not allow for more delililed instructions, but a plcthora of reading materials and intcrnet sitcs arc available for further guidancc. Somc of my favourites arc lis ted below. The next article in this series moves on from decoding and nucncy to the next stage of reading instruction: dcveloping reading comprehension. (l1;>

Books Augur, J and Briggs. S (Eds) The Hickey Multisensory Language Course Whurr Publishers 1992

Birsh. J A (Ed) Multisensory Teaching of Basic Language Skills Brookes Publishing Company 1999

Carreker, S 'Teaching reading' In Birsh, J R (Ed) Multisensory Teaching of Basic Language Skills Brookes Publishing Company 1999

Gillingham, A and Stillman, B W The Gillingham Manual: Remedial training for students with specific disability in reading, spelling, and penmanship Educators Publishing SelVice 1997

Hornsby, B and Shear, F Alpha to Omega: The A-Z of Teaching Reading, Writing and Spelling Heinemann 1989

Levine, M A Mind at a Time Simon & Schuster 2002

Shaywilz, S Overcoming Dyslexia Knopf 2003

Websites www.ortonacademy.org www.dyslexiaaction.org.uk www.ldonline.org www.allkindsofminds.orgl

http://candohe/perpage.com www.spellz:one.com www.greatJeaps .com www.edict.com.hk/lexiconindexl frequencylists/words2000.htm www.wordfrequency.info/

Lesley Lanlr is a freelance writer, lecturer and teacher trainer who has been involved in teaching English for over 15 years. She specialises in learning disabilities and foreign language learning. She has a SA in English and Education, CTEFLAIRSA and an MA

Disabilities.

il.

• _.etprofe •• lonat.(:om • ENGUSH TEACHING professiollal • Issue 70 September 2010 ' 39

I

,

I

PREPARING TO TEACH Grammar

•••

"ohn Potts reviews some of the components of teaching a new grammar item.

Language analysis: four things to consider D FORM

This refers to how a tense (or other grammar structure) is constructed: eg present continuous = present simple of be + present participle. It also refers to irregular forms (eg past simple, past participle), and the formation of questions and negatives.

D MEANING This is concerned with deeper concepts of aspect, etc, rather than simply surface messages. For example, I think he's being silly == this is temporary behaviour, specific to a particular occasion, and may not be typical of him.

D PRONUNCIATION The basics are sounds, stress and intonation. A more complex analysis of pronunciation includes features such as elision, weak forms, assimilation, etc.

II WORD ORDER/ SYNTAX/PATTERN This looks at a tense or other grammar structure as part of a longer utterance (eg a clause or sentence). Things to consider include the position of adverbs, dependent prepositions and complement patterns (eg whether it is followed by an infinitive or a gerund).

Language awareness: four things to consider D FUNCTION

This relates to what the speaker/writer seeks to do with the language, what message they want to send; for example: apologising, narrating. making a suggestion,

Situations and contexts Grammar structures need a context for them to make communicative sense; otherwise they remain just that -grammar structures. Here are some approaches:

1 Reading texts can provide the context - and you may not need more than one example in the text, provided that its meaning and function are very clear from the context.

2 Listening - especially anecdotes told by the teacher: these can be amusing or dramatic , and allow the learners to stop and question the teacher as the anecdote unfolds. Songs can also be a good vehicle, and may appeal to younger learners.

3 Situation and/or dialogue building: a classic approach but still very useful. The teacher builds the situation/dialogue with the learners (perhaps using visuals and/or rea lia, too) and then elicits/provides the target language as the 'punch line'.

4 Advertising slogans and other short authentic texts (eg instructions on packaging, etc) - you can teach the imperative using the instructions on a box of pasta!

Telling, illustrating, guiding or discovering? The approaches outlined above all involve elements of illustrating the language. The teacher tries to guide the learners towards the meaning and function of the new language, so that they can d iscover these for themselves rather than simply being told what it means. These approaches may take more classroom time, and certainly require the learners to focus and work harder at construct ing the meaning (with the teacher's help).

Telling is quicker - but the learners need to do very little mental work and, as a result , little may finally stick.

L1 and L2 giving advice. etc. 1 Mistakes (of form, meaning, pronunciation or syntax) may

EJ WRITTEN, SPOKEN OR BOTH often be due to L 1 interference. For example, a typical Many grammar structures are equally at home in both mistake made by speakers of many European languages is to spoken and written language, but some are usually spoken use the present pertect where the past simple is needed -(eg How about going for a pizza?) , whereas others are and th is can be traced back to their mother tongue.

usually written (eg Should you need further information . . ). 2 Conversely, learners may overuse a form such as the present

D APPROPRIACY continuous, simply because they don't have that form in their

In addition, some structures may be inappropriate in some own language.

contexts (eg you WOUldn't (normally) tell your boss that she 3 And learners may confuse two similar-looking structures in had better be careful about what she says). English; for example: I used to get up early and I'm used to

II USEFULNESS getting up early.

Some structures may simply not be very useful in most 4 On the other hand , sometimes a form and its meaning may be everyday contexts. For example, how important is it to very close or even identical to the learners' L 1, and so they

,

I'-_____ d_' _' _o_t, __ ' _" _' _' _t_im_' __ to __ t'_'_'_h_i_" __ "_'_'_' _'_'_O_d_O __ 'h_'_' _._ .. _' ______________ '_' _' _b_' __ ' _o_m_p_'_'_' _d_· ________ c:::::::::::::::::::::::::::C!1

40 . Issue 70 September 2010 ' ENGUSH TEACHING professiollal . _.etprofe •• lonal.com '

I PREPARING TO TEACH ••• Grammar

The old and the new When your learners are no longer beginners, they have a basic repertoire of grammar structures and their concepts. You can build on what they already know, using it as a platform for new grammar structures. For example, you can establish a situation/context in the present, and review and consolidate the present continuous. Then you simply switch the time zone from now 10 yesterday/last week and el ic it the past continuous to replace the present continuous.

This approach works very well with many other forms - past perfect, future continuous and future continuous, was going to, wish constructions, perfect modals, passive lense forms, etc.

Clarifying and checking II's important to clarify and check the meaning and funct ion of the new language, for example by asking a set of concept questions. These should be prepared in advance - they're very hard to think up

on the spot! They should be kept few, short and simple - with equalty

brief answers. For example: Our teacher used to have long hair.

1 Did he have long hair in the past? /yes.) 2 And does he have long hair now? (No.) 3 So something has changed? /yes.) 4 Do we know when? (No.)

There are other ways of clarifying and checking - using Total Physical Response, visuals or Cuisenaire rods, for example. Combined with a

clear context, and in tandem with a guided-discovery approach,

concept clarification and checking help the learners to feel

confident about their grasp of the meaning of new language.

COMPETITION RESULTS

Drilling and practising Learners also need 10 feel conf ident about the form and pronunciation of the new language. Dril ls and controlled-practice activities (both oral and written) help to achieve this, especially at lower levels. They needn't be boring - both can be lively, fun and communicative.

Using and personal ising In the end, learners have 10 produce language from their own resources and not only in control led-practice exercises. A step

towards this production is the persona/ising of language so that it takes on individual meaning for each learner. The example with used to above illustrates this for me - when I was 17, I had extremely long hair (almost 10 my waistl). But my learners probably didn't, so they need their own personal example(s):

I used to have dyed hair/be very shy/like Walt Disney (etc).

Finally, they'll need opportunities to use the language in fluency activities, such as problem-solving tasks, discussions, roleplays,

etc.

n John Potts is a teacher and teacher trainer based in Zurich, Switzerland. He has written and co-written several adult coursebooks, and is a CELTA assessor. He is also a presenter lor Cambridge ESOL Examinations.

~

..,.' ~ I JohnpollsOswissonllne.ch I

Congratulations to all those readers who successfully completed our Pri~e Crossword 40. The winner;, who will each recei~e a copy of the Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners, are:

Wolfgang Alkewitz, iserlohn, Germany

Georgeta Bradatan, Bridgend, UK

Alison Hyde, Wolverhampton, UK

Elisabeth Jendraszczak. Vend6me, France

,23456189,0",2,3 Laura Neuhoff, iserlohn, Germany J U N K S A a TI C 0 W H

,. ,$ ,6 ,1 ,8 ~ ro 2, ~ ~ M n ~

R X MEL 0 B Z Y P G F V

George Orwell

Emeline Parizez, Paris, France

Patricia Rufenacht. Bottenwi l, Switzerland

Stella Tatchum, Paris, France

Veronique Valieres, 51 Sauveur, France

Roy Wilson. London, UK

• _.etprof.SSional.eom • ENGLISH TEACHING professional . Issue 70 September 2010 ' 41

r ) ~) r 1 r ) 1/ /f ----.SJ ~ ~ J /

CEMS, TITBITS, PUZZLES, FOIBLES, QUIRIeS, BITS" PIECES QUOTATIONS, SNIPPETS, ODDS" ENDS:

,--------------.. WHATVOU WILL

Legal eagle D In 2009, Daniel Noble was arrested for two separate hit

and run incidents. He was extremely aggressive when he

was arrested. In court, his lawyer claimed it was a psychotic episode caused by an overconsumption - of what?

a) Herbal tea and milk cJ Orange and guava juice b) Milk shakes and smoolhies dJ Coffee and energy drinks

II A massacre at a McDonald's restaurant in San Ysidro,

California, in 1984 resulted in the deaths of 22 people, including the gunman. His widow sued McDonald's lor contributing to his actions. Which food additive did she

claim was partially responsible?

a) Sodium chloride

b) Red food colouring cJ Monosodium glutamate

d) Antioxidants

II Which peoples used to resolve legal disputes with a head-butting contest?

aJ Zulus

b) Inuits

cJ Blackfoot Indians d) MongolS

a 't is commonly believed that representations of Justice (a robed woman with a blindfold over her eyes, holding a set of scales in one hand and a sword in the other) are based on a number of classical deities, although not on anyone in particular, Which of the following is not one of those on which she is believed to be based?

a) Fides b) Astraea

c) Themis dj Justitia

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Ll9MSU'9'

Courtroom quotes 'Are yOl! married?' 'No, I'm divorced,'

'And what did your husband do before you divorced him?' 'A lot of things I didn't know about. '

*** 'Mrs Jones, is your appearance this morning pursuant to a deposition notice which I sent to your attorney?'

'No, This is how I dress when I go to wor1<.'

*** 'Now, you have investigated other murders, have you not, where there was a victim?'

*** 'Doctor, did you say he was shot in the wOOds?'

'No, I said he was shot in the lumbar region, '

*** 'Could you see him from

where you were standing?' '/ could see his head.'

'And where was his head?' 'Just above his shoulders.'

***

'What happened then?' 'He said, "I have to kill you

because you can identify me."' 'Did he kill you?' 'No.'

*** 'Are you Sexually active?' 'No, I just lie there, '

*** 'Are you qualified to give a urine sample?'

'Yes, I have been since early childhood. '

*** 'Doctor, how many autopsies have you performed on dead people?'

'All my autopsies are

performed on dead people,'

*** 'Do you recall the time that you examined Ihe body?'

'The autopsy started around 8.30 pm.'

'And Mr Dennington was dead at the time?'

'No, he was sitting on the lable wondering why I was dOing an autopsy on him.'

*** 'Do you have any suggestions as to what prevented this from being a murder tria l instead of an attempted murder trial? ' 'The victim lived. '

'You were there until the time yOl! left, is that true?'

*** 'Can you describe the individual?'

'He was about medium height and had a beard, '

'Was this a male or a female?'

*** 'How many times have you committed suicide?'

*** 'Were you present when your picture was taken?'

42 . Is_ 70 September 2010 • ENG . USHTEACHINGprojios.fIOl/af . _ .... _,.... , . .- Dna ,com .

Silence in court! It is often said that if banisters allowed the jury to draw their own

conclusions instead of trying to discredit witnesses through close quest ioning, they might win more of their cases. Here are two examples.

A witness was testifying in

court in a case that involved

one man biting off the ear of another man during a fight.

Atter giving testimony which was very bad for the

defendant, the witness was

cross-examined by the defence barrister:

Barrister. You said thai you saw the defendant and the plaintiff in

a fight?

Witness: Yes. Barrister: You then said that

you were concerned for your

salety and that, because of this concern, you sought shelter

elsewhere? Witness: Yes.

Barrister: You further staled

that during this time of seeking shelter, you turned your back on

the fight? Witness: Yes.

Banister. And then you testified that that was when the

defendant bit off the plaintiff 's

,a" Witness: Yes.

Barrister. Well, that makes for an interesting question. then! If

your back was turned to the

fight, then you obviously must have had the plaintiff and the

defendant out of your field of

vision. Is that correct? Witness: Yes.

Barrister. Well then. did you see tile defendant bile off the

plaintiff's ear?

Witness: No. Barrister. (smugly) Then how do

you 'know' that tile defendant bit off the ear of the plaintiff if

you did not see him do it?

Witness: I saw him spit il out. (Dead silence)

Banister. Ah ... no more questions.

A man who had crashed his car at a

roundabout was accused of reckless

driving. The driver maintained that he had been driving within the 30-miles-per­

hour speed limit and that faulty brakes

had caused the accident. The only

witness was a woman who had been

walking along the road at the time. When

questioned by the prosecution, she testified that the driver had approached

the roundabout at about 60 miles an hour

and had then lost control and crashed.

The defence barrister, seeing that the

woman was over 80 years old and wore

thick-lensed glasses, moved in for the

kill, smirking all the time at the jury:

Barrister: May I ask how old you are?

Witness: I am 85.

Barrister: Eighty-five, I see ... Now you testified that tile defendant approached

the roundabout at 'about 60 miles per

hour'. Is that correct?

Witness: That is correct.

Barrister. I see. And I notice that you wear glasses.

Witness: That is correct.

Banister. Were you wearing your glasses

at the time of the accident.

Witness: No, I wasn't.

Barrister: I see. Well, then how could you possibly tell what speed the driver was

doing? Could you, in fact, even see the car?

Witness: Well, young man. I certainly

could see the car as these are reading

glasses and there is nothing wrong with

my distance vision. As to how I could tell what speed the driver was doing, befOfll I

retired I worked as an airline test pilot. One

of the skills I learnt in that job was the

ability to judge speed and distance.

Barrister. (weakly) Yes, but that was planes ...

Witness: Precisely. That is why I testified

that he was doing 'about 60 miles per hour'. I actually judged it to be 63 miles

per hour, but I made an allowance for tile fact that it was a car ralher than a plane.

The driver lost his case.

Legal language

How good are you at Latin legal language? What does each of these terms mean?

a A aver et tenar a) to make or break b) to have and to hold c) to own or convey

d) to relinquish or abandon

IJ Ab BCtis a) in conteJct

b) in relation to the prOCeedings c) in action d) in title

II Ab agendo a) unable to act b) unable to inspect c) unable to listen d) unable to convict

D Abamlta a) defendant b) victim

c) great-great-great-aunt d) imposter

II Abamare

a) to take away by force bJ to escape detection c) to uncover and disclose a

secret crime

d) to declare an interest in

IJ Accedas ad curiam

a) You are to go to the clerk. b) You are to go to the jail. c) You are to go to the church. d) You are to go to the court.

• _.etprof ••• lonal.com • ENGLISH TEACHING P/'O!I'S.\·;OI/{// • 'ssUfl 10 September 2010' 43

English360 www.english360.com

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~' " • • e~glish360

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As City Professional English is a bespoke company, all our materials are written by our language coaches

exercise formats to allow for more intricate activities. There is also not enough flexibility given to the school in deciding what a student will see on their homepage. But probably the most significant problem is the limited range of coursebook material on the system that can be used instead of creating onginal exercises and courses. Most schools use coursebooks and although Cambridge University Press, which is represented on the English360 platform with over 9,000 activi ties from 35 titles, is an excellent source of high-quality course material, there are several other excellent publishers not present on the system .

However, in my opinion, English360 overcomes all these problems in a convincing manner by offering the most important element for a school owner

in this regard. This gives me great confidence that they will continue to strive to overcome diff iculties and improve the system.

To evaluate the English360 platform, go to www.english360.comandsign up for a free Educator account where you can try your hand at creating personalised courses for your learners.

Mark Olding Verona, Italy

Check Your Aviation English by Henry Emery and Andy Roberts Macmillan Education 2010 978-0-230-40205-8

Apart from its use in training students who work in the aviation industry. this

for each client project. It is essential, therefore, that we have the means to develop and thereafter present these

(~~~~§~~=~~~~---;;~~~~~~iboo~ k provides fascinat ing insights for the !!!,.1Wt-4 .... ,...... lay person into the behind-the-scenes ---- _ --. . .... _ workings of airtines and airports.

- _ _ __ --.- Many of the units are necessarily

3 eUSI,,~ .. ao.,. 3 - - - based on the more dramatic materials in a professional manner to our clients. After founding the company we looked into developing a system ourselves but the inherent time lag in development, as well as the high costs involved, encouraged us into the market place to search for a readily available system.

English360 immediately caught our attention. Literally within minutes, one can begin to create activities on the system

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choice, to name but a ~~~-----------l-I'=:""'='-=-=-=-===-J few. The platform is simple and ----_ easy to interact with, which is testament to the ability of the software designers. For instance, one can have hundreds of students all diligently doing their homework, but who will mark all their work? English360 does the marking

instantaneously and provides reports at the click of a button. It therefore saves a great deal of time.

Of course, the system is not perfect; there are areas that need improvement. There could be a greater range of

who is contemplating making an investment in infrastructure: high-quality service. I have spoken to people at all levels in the English360 organisation, from the owner to the developers to the cfient service department to the accounts department, and every single person has been at all times professional, highly competent and polite. All business is about people and communication, and the people at English360 are exceptional

incidents and special situations that occur in the aviation world, as these are the ones where communication between those involved needs to be spot on, with no room for any kind of misunderstanding. As a result. the recording scripts at the back of the book alone make gripping reading.

Designed for classroom use as a supplementary text or for self-study, Check Your Aviation English provides 30 units of listening and speaking exercises to help aviation professionals, particularly pilots and air-traffic controllers. achieve and maintain Level 4 of the International Civil Aviation Organisation's language proficiency requirement.

The units all follow the same structure, beginning with a photo of an aviation-related incident, which the students are required to describe and interpret. Helpfully, the accompanying CDs (attached to the inside back cover) contain sample answers to these opening activities as well as recordings for the

subsequent listening comprehension exercises; these give practice in the twin language focus of 'plain English' and 'ICAO phraseology' . The second exercise in each unit is based on a recording related to flight operations and is aimed

44 • Issue 70 September 2010' ENGLISH TEACHING professional . _.etprofe •• lonal.com •

at improving plain English profICiency. First, the students are asked to identify

the main theme of the recording and then

a second part focuses on the details. The third activity involves listening to a

radiotelephony exchange containing a mbcture of plain English and phraseology.

Students have to answer a number of

questions about what they hear. The

fourth exercise practises clarification techniques. Students In a class will work

in pairs to roleplay a dialogue. Those

working independently are advised to

think about what they would say in the given situation and can then check their

answers at the back of the book. The fifth

exercise checks the main vocabulary the

students will need to talk about the subject of the unit. First they have to

match items to definitions, and then

they use the target words to complete a

text. The unit ends with a discussion

activity. There are progress tests after every five units and the full recording

scripts and answers to all the exercises

are available at the back of the book.

Presumably this book has been

produced as a supplementary text to

Macmillan's own coursebook Aviation English, also written by Henry Emery and

Andy Roberts, but it could be used in

conjunction with any other course aimed

at aviation professionals.

Anyone who flies would be comforted to know that those in

charge of the plane had the language

ski Its taught and practised in this

book in order to deal with any

emergency or non-routine situations

that might arise! Loma Ampthill

Vend6me, Fran ce

A History of Ireland for Learners of English by Tony Penston TP Publications 2010 978-0-9531323-2-4

Most major publishers of ELT

materials produce series of

graded readers to promote extensive reading and

engage learners in entoyable ways of

practising their English and increasing their vocabulary. The main attraction

of such readers is that they are generalty short and largely fictionat ,

either simplifications of works of

literature or original stones written

specifically for learners. Students can read them fairty quickly, thus

gaining the satisfaction of reaching

the end without too much effort,

and can easily tell if something is

going to interest them or not - and if the reader they have chosen, Of

which has been chosen for them,

doesn't appeal, they can move swiftly on to another one.

So it is that, when faced with a

120-page. self-published book on the history of lrelaoo, presented as a reader for learners of English,

and with a very dour, almost

mooochrome cover, my heart sank a little.

My first reaction was that a student would have to be very interested indeed In Irish

history to want to plough through this. The catch-all phrnse on the back cover 'would also be enjoyed by native speakers who prefer a less formal styfe of English ' rang

alarm belts, too: writing graded readers is

a skilled business, and although the aim is

to produce a text which sounds natural as

well as being simple enough for learners to understand, I have come across lew

that would be genuinely satisfying for any

native speaker of the language .

Nevertheless, having undertaken to write a review, I began reading and was

pleasantly surprised. This would not be

an easy read for students, even those at

intermediate level (fOf whom it is

intended), but it would be a rewarding one. The language is not all that simple,

but the book is divided into small

manageable sections with useful

vocabulary exercises, quizzes, etc to break up the texl. It is also extremely well

illustrated with historical and

contemporary photographs and maps. I still think students would have to have quite a strong interest in the history of

Ireland to want to read it to the end, but

there is a pleasant mix of straightforward historical narrative and more personal stories about the characters involved,

and the text is interspersed with some

fascinating and quirky facts. I personally

learnt a lot from it. Language students actually studying

in Ireland and keen to find out the

historical background of their place of study, and those with an interest in

politics, would probably get the most out

of reading the book, and its structure

would allow for dipping in and out and

focusing on the parts of main interest if

reading from cover to cover was not an

option. Helena Gomm

West Meon, UK

• _ •• tpl"Of ••• lonel.c:om • ENGLISH TEACHING pro/essiol/o/ ' Issue 70 September 2010 ' 45

OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM

• ac( In

wor Andrew O'Dwyer champions the teaching

of language in context.

It was football-speak for look u/ll, a phrase I'd used a litany of times on the pitch. It could have been said in so many other ways - hI' cafe/I.II.

/te(ull.lp, lIIal/ 011. Even \I'(I/("h 011/ would have sufficed. But. thc look of confusion on Jose's face was enough to confirm that thc mcaning of II"{/Icll Yol.lr hOl.lse had been wcllllnd truly lost on him, 1l11d a warning I had shouted on innumenlble occasions led 10 an irreparable mistake: wc gifted possession to thc opposition lind ... well. I'd rather not reve,ll what happened next! It wasn't Jose's f<lull, of course. It was his first exposure 10

footb<l ll in <lnolher counlry, <lfler <Ill.

Conviction The classrooms we enter every day arc hivcs of activity. It would not be amiss to say that, as teachers. we have the chance 10 mould our sllldents, particularly our less·fiucnt ones. in whichever wlly we see fit. This is not an cxaggeration. The te,lcher can debunk any language-learning myths Ihcir students will no doubt h,tve acquired during Iheir pursuit of illlprol"l'tI English. That glorious phrase 'BIII Illy

leacher ill school wid lI1e. . still gets a regular airing in my cl<lsses. The power (for want of 11 beller word) that leachcrs

have in a classroom is extensive. Learners possess almost blind faith in teachers who teach with confidence. We can convince even Ihe most sceptica l students with our absolute conviction.

Context How can we achicvc this most satisfying result? The lInswer is cOli/ex/. Our sllldents work in pairs and groups on 11

daily basis. We ask Ihem 10 act oUI roleplays 10 employ new structures. I

hllve always operated, though. under the mantra that the classroom is nOlthe r(,lIl world. How can it be? Sludents don't mcclthcir fricnds in thc classroom. I have yet to witness 11 student buying a colTee or ordering a pizza from the relative comfort of their chairs. J cannot imagine the classroom being an ideal selling for u romantic date - although many a student has had Iheir heart stolen by a dashing teacher, which renders my previous assertion a little dubious at best! As teachers, we tend to conlextualise within the confines of <In almost pumlld world. The cl;lssroom functions as a portal into the real world, the world which our students actually inhabit. Without doubt, thc ability of te,\chers to contextualise is scvercly limited by the very nature of our

workplace. However, contextua l ising docsn'l need to be shoe-horned to the extent that the students' sole exposure to English ,IS u language of communication occurs in a four-walled room. T he classroom is adcquate, but it is not enough. Students who have fun act ing out some of the aforementioned scenarios often lament their inability to make them II"Qrk in the real world.

Interaction So, how do we best contextualise what we teach our students? I believe we achieve this by stcpping ollHide the classroom. There, the most common intcraction that occurs between adult students and teachers. almost inevitably, involves alcohol! Wc join our students for a drink and converse with them in ,I relaxed atmosphere. This works to a degree. But. why is alcohollhe constant pre-requisite

to confident communication? It is the laziest approach to languagc immersion that we humans employ. Surely, we can do better. OK, I accept that our students wouldn't appreciate us tagging along 011 a dale, prodding them a littlc in moments of uncertainty! I'm sure they would rather take their chances in th is particular social exchange! However, Ihere must be something morc we cun do to lIssist thcm better.

Immersion Socialising with studen ts is the key. My golden rule is: anYlI"here bill u bar.! A 'kick-around' on a Friday e\'ening is a great personal pleasure: Ihere is always a smattering of nativc speukcrs. so it is an environment which encourages the use of English. It doesn't always work, but it does ensure th'lt there ,ITe some language barriers in place. T hose with litt le knowledge of football may not appreciate that a five-a-sidc pitch is a melting pot of emotion - it thriving babble of communication! Men with

46 . Issue 70 September 2010 ' ENGLISH TEACHING professional . _ .• tprof • • slonal.com •

egos find it very difficult to remain quict in this tcstostcrone-fuclled cnvironment so it is ideal for htnguagc practice!

So, what ,Ictivities can you do with )'01/1' students? T he best ones usually require the least imagination:

• Organise a game of footbal1. tennis or rugby.

• Take your students to the cinema or theatre.

• Sample the delights at your local food cmporium (a guaranteed stimulant of chat).

• Go to a lecture.

• Attend a cultural event.

• Go shopping.

Don't fall into the trap of assuming that language <lnd socialising don't mix. These experiences are invaluable for students. even those with only a limitcd grasp of English . I believe we accomplish two crucial breakthroughs with these activities:

• We provide our students with a genuine opportunity to use their English outside the cl<lssroom.

• The students g<lin a COlllext within which they can explore and utilise their communication skill s..

Teachers need to step out of the comfort zone. Roleplay is thc thespian's biggcst deccption. It works on a certain levcl. However, we can do more for our students. Few, if any, of them would objcct to being invited for 11 cup of coffee, or to play fivc-a-sidc in thc cvcning. Students weleome these opportunities.

Confidence This type of immersion is like tcaching a child to ride a bicycle, We teach them the basks. We never leave their sight in the beginning. We push them along. We offer them support when they need it. We ,\ll\icipate their problems. The child demands of us: /JOII','el 1111' go.! We assure them we would never consider doing such a thing. We do it, though, eventually, We've given the child what we can and it's up to them to try to conjure up a formula that enables them to function alone. It's not magic. It's prelly easy. but they don't realise that.

The student is no different. By contexlUalising, we instil confidence in them, and mould them a little., so Ihat

they can now function in day-to-day tasks. Think about it: How many of us learnt to ride a bicycle indoors?

Making the transition from teaching to contextualising is not difficul t. Incorporate techniques that you use 10

develop other topics:

• Brainstorm vocllbul;lry in the lexical arell.

• Focus in particular on itiiollllltic

language - phTllsal verbs. collocations. colloquialisms - that the students may encounter.

• Employ rolepllly liS a 1111'(11/$ to an end, rather than as an end in itself.

• Step out and be creative! Let the slUdcnts use what they've practised ­in the r('(ll world.

Vocation It is naIve of a teacher to think of their role as being limited to a pre-approved timet<lble and venue. Teaching is still considered a vocation. The best teacher I had at school was my history professor. He also coachcd thc rugby team on which I played. That didn't make him a better teacher, but it gave me the opportunity to witness him in a differcnt contcxt. I appreciated that he was passionate about his work and that he could instil some of thilt passion in me. In fact. I respected him more as well. because 1 saw him as somebody who cared. 11 person whosc cxpertise and skills extcnded beyond the

elassroom wc shared. And th;1\ is impor\;\nt. It doesn't matter what anybody says. Teachers who care, who are willing to do that bit extra, have a far greater impact on their students.

• ,. • ,. • ,. Context only cxists in the real world. Jose has finally unlocked our coded parlance! I W<lS playing football last Friday when he screamed at me to lI'(1/ch III)' hOlm'. (Incidentally, II'(I/ch

your house means you <Ire about to be tackled.) I did a double-take. I was astounded! A photograph of that moment would havc becn priceless. just to witness the alTI,lZement etched into my brow! [ did look up alright, but that was the limit of my reactions. My umazement turned to despair us I gifted possession to the opposition lind .. well ... you can guess the rest! (I1%>

Andrew O'Dwyer taught lor si. years tn Dublin, Ireland, but has recently retocated to Budapest, Hungary, where he worits as a primary school English teacher IClr Janikovszky Eva Attat~nos Iskola, and with tnternatlonat House and Dover Nyelviskola. He believes that the key to competent, conlident and conte)(!ual communication can be lound within the motto There's the official way ... then there 's the real way,

andrewo<lwyerOgmait.com

• _,.tprof ••• ional,com • ENGUSH TEACHING professional . Issue 70 September 2010 ' 47

I f

Titles for English Language Teachers

Teaching English One to One

by Priscilla Osborne

This new book provides an analysis of the problems of Icaching students on a one- to-one basis. The book C()\'crs a wide range of topics in Ihis field and cJllplajns leamer needs analysis and learner profiles. especially the studcnl's current use of English and Ihe reason for IRking a one·to­one course:; course planning: Itthniqucs which are specific 10 ooc·t().(}f1C tcaching: techniques which don't work with one-to-one Icaching: and using the lcamer as the resoul'« for tcaching.

Teaching English with Information Technology

by David Smith and Eric Baber

This new pmc1ical guide for teachers provides an introduction to. find nnionnle for. USing infonnation technology when Icaching English. The book explains how teachers can U~ e-leaming in English lunguage te'.tChing. The IOpks covered include using email; the importance of the web in ELT (coI'er.> \\.cbsiles: using audio wid video clips from the web. web activities. wcbquests and treasure hunts): using CD-ROMs: professional tmining on the web for online teacher tmining and online leaching communities; audio- and video-conferencing and text chat: learning man.'1gement systems: and rin.'1l1y. using standalone software on desktop computers.

Teaching English with Drama

by Mark Almo nd

This new book covers the excil1lg seC10r of teaching English language smdents using drama. plays and with theatre techniques, The book covers a wide range of subjects for teachers including how to plan class work. choosing appropriate texts. working with students with thcatricaltechniques. modifying dialogue and lines for different le\'els of student. stage management. and how these all work together to improve language appreciation and learning: using classic plays. suggested chamctm: resources beyond the textbook; using stories. songs. games. ctc.

www.KeywaysPublishing.com email. admin@pavpub.com lei: +44 (0) 1243576444

LANGUAGE

ore t an pease an Mark Hancock recommends ways to increase

students' awareness of politeness conventions.

,say "please"J" children arc often told. after saying something like 'Girl' 1111' (/ bisClIit', If they ask why, they may receive the

explal1<ltion 'Bertillse i(s polile', We English teachers sometimes do the same, A student asks. 'Why do El1glish ~1)e(Jkers say" JVoll1d ),olllllilld ",?" when they're not really asking a question?' and we say. 'Becall.\'(' it's polite!' I think we could do a lot more than this to increase our students' awarencss of how politeness works in English, T he more they arc awarc of it, the more they arc empowered to use it in a way thut works best for them, In this article. we'll look at what politeness is. when it is used and why. T hen wc'lllook at how to make these insights more apparcnt to students.

Positive and negative We often think of politencss as being long-winded ways of saying simple things. like' Would YOIf lIIilld keepillg )'011/' roice dOH'I1?' instead of 'SII111 liP!',

The long vcrsion is politc. thc short version is rude. we say, This is not quite true. however, According to social anthropologists Brown and Levinson.

The more students are aware of politeness,

the more they are empowered to use it in a way that works

best for them

politeness includes the cntire spectrum. from convoluted indirectness through to brief and direct. T hey call the former 'ncgative politeness' and the laller 'positive politeness', Speakers choose which degrec of politeness to usc from along this spectrum, according to what relationship they arc trying to achieve with the listener.

Friends and strangers In politeness terms. the significance of a person's choice of words is determined by when thcy use them: thc contcxt. This includes who they <Ire t<llking to and what they are talking about. Typically. if you approach a stranger with a request. you usc negativc politencss. For cxample. you might say. 'Could yOIl dose tfte door, please?' The question form gives the listener a get­out: it implies th<lt you accept thcir right to refuse. However, if you are speaking to a very close friend. you can be much more direct. such as 'Sltlll Ilwl door - it'sfrce;il1g ill here!' T his is known as positive politeness: it implies that you are too intimate to require careful indirectness,

Interestingly. a speaker's degree of intimacy with a listener is not an object ive fae\. It is something they erell/e through the politeness strategies they usc, For examplc, if you usc positive politeness with someone you do not know very wcll. you may be able to create an atmosphere of intimacy between you, It's a risky strategy. though. because your listener may intcrpret your directness liS rude lmd pushy. and your relationship will be on the rocks.

The learner may be a competent user of

politeness strategies in their L 1 but fail to

recognise and transfer the same strategies

to the L2

Power and authority Choice of politeness strategies also depends on whcther the person you are speaking to is in a position of authority, Typically. people talking to a superior arc careful and indirect. If. on the othcr hand. they lire talking to <I subordinate. they may be very direct indeed, An cmployee might say to a boss, ' Would;1 bl! possible for lI1e /0 hal'l! Ihis by IOlIIorrow?', while the boss might say to the employee. '} III/ell Ihis by lomorrow ',

Strategies and conventions From the point of view of language learning. there arc two important factors here, First of aIL the learner may be a competent user of politeness strategies in their L1 but fail to recognise lind tmnsfer the same strategies to the L2, Secondly, the poli teness conventions in the two cultures may difTer. For example. in Madrid it is commonplace for a customer to walk into a bar and say in ......

• _ .• tprof ••• lonat.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professiol/al • Issue 70 September 2010 ' 49

More than please and thank you Spanish, 'Gi\'(' 11/(' (/ roffee', In Britain. a customer using such :I direct impcr:nivc might give the impression Ihm Ihey think they arc superior 10 the person behind the bar. T he server would be entitled to think. or even say .. Who do ),011 thillk )"QII art'?' In Spain. the direc t imperative in this context may be positive politeness. implying something like' W/:',e (11/ ill Ihis /Oge/her as "'/I/afs. so It'e ('(1/1 dispel/se .,.;Ih lIirs (1//(1 graces',

II's good to be lIwarc o f these potential difTcrcnccs!

In any interaction, a speaker must judge

what kind and degree of politeness to

use, and modify the wording of what they

want to say accordingly

So how can we go about increasing students' awareness o f politeness? One very effective strategy in language teaching gcncnlily is \0 show what you arc focusing on by showing whal it is not. For example. you can focus on the vowel sound in bel by showing it is I/O/

the Slime as the vowel sounds in bit or &(1/. You can focus on the meaning of the tense choice in She's (lrr;l"ed by contrasting it with She (1";1"('(1. I believe you can use the Slime strategy to focus on poli teness.

Saying and thinking In lilly interaction. a speaker must judge whll! kind and degree of politeness to

usc. and modify the wording of what they want to say accordingly. Consequently. there may be a difference between what the person says and what they really think. T his contnlsl lies behind my suggestion of showing wh,lI politeness is by showing what it is not. Let's have a look at how this could work in two samples of classroom material. the first activity from a spoken intemction lesson and the second from a lesson focusing on writing.

Activity 1 Loo k at the photocopiable llctivity o n p.lge 51. In Ihe cartoon. we see the beginning of a converSlllion in which a boy tries to convince a girl to go out with him. We can sec Ihe boy's qucstion and the girrs response but. in addition. we can sec what the girl is thinking. The difference between what she thinks and what she says is intcresting becuusc it reveals the politeness st rategies she is using. For her openly 10 display her horror ut the prospect o f going out with Josh would be very offensive. Insteud, she finds un e)(cuse why she can't go out and then pretcnds to be interested in Josh's reason for asking. This rencets the general politeness rule that if you arc giving thc answer that your interlocutor wants to hear. you can be direct and sincere. but if you 're giving thc answer they don't want to hcar. you may need to be tactful and indirect.

In the table. wc can scc how thc COlwersation in the cartoon continues. including Ihc contmst between what Emma SlIYS and what she really thinks. You could ask the students to idcntify the politencss strategies in Emma's replics. They could also havc some fun deeiding what Emma's real thoughts were in the last two boxcs of the central column, Some classes may cnjoy dmmatising the dialogue. wilh the person in the Emmll role giving hcr 'thoughts' liS a whispered aside. before switching to a polite smile lind giving her rcsponse.

Activity 2 Look lit thc photocopiable acti\'ity on page 52. Te)(t I is" polite email from a woman who has had an overseas studcnt staying in her home. The woman. Margaret. is writing to thc student , Sonia . with a couplc of queria The writer and lIddresscc are people of morc o r less thc same status. and they know each other a little. but they are ccrtllinly not close friends. For this rellson. Mlirgaret uses lItone which is politc­friendly. Text 2 is a 'thought bubble' containing the same content liS the cmai l. but showing what Margaret really thinks.

In the classroom. you could use this material to raise awareness of somc of the issues involved in politcness choices. First of all. ask your studcnts to read the cmail and imagine the context. Who are the writer and addressee? What is their situatio n? How wel1 do they know elleh other? Then ask them to read Ihc tho ught bubble vcrsion of thc mcsSllge

and say how it is dilTcrent from the email and why. Here are somc insights thcy might come up with. or you might elicit or explain :

Margaret is writing 10 accuse Sonia of something. In her thought bubble. she docs this directly. In hcr email. shc uses face-saving strategics - that is. she makes hcr accus.1lions very indirectly SO Ihlll Sonia is not upset by the suggestion she has donc something wrong. Margaret begins by showing an interest in Sonia's e."<pcricnccs since thcy Ilist mct. Shc finds somcthing pleasant to say about Sonia by thanking hcr for a bunch of nowers. Whcn the lIttuSlltion begins in the second pamgmph. Mlirgaret tries to make it seem trivial - somcthing small and unimportant. She ulso a\'o ids directly at"eusing Sonia, by suggcst ing that she herself. o r her dog. mllY be responsible for the problems. Finally. she ends on a positivc nole by expressi ng 1I desire to maintain their relationShip, In the thought bubble. al1 of thcse stmtcgies are conspicuous by their absence,

It's imporllll1tlo notc thaI the thought bubble version of the IllcsSllge is not wrong. It would probably be impolitc in this particulllr contcxt. but in may be polite in anothcr. For example. close friends may address cllch ot her very directly in this way. and this directness is 1I positivc politcness stf<ltegy. If you wrotc lin emaillikc Margaret's to a very close friend. it might seem cold lind distant - negativc politcness can have that eflcct when used inappropriately. I t is inteTCSting to discuss with students whcn and with whom thcy would usc these politeness stmtegies. as thcre arc likely to be similarities and dilTcrences between cultures and e\'en between individuals.

As a follow-up 10 the discussion of poli lencss stntteg.ies. students could use the same stmtegies to make the contents of Soni,l's thought bubble (Text 3) into 1I poli tc cmail. Gi'P

Brown, P and Levinson. 5 Politeness CUP 1978

;. II from

UK.

50 • Issue 70 ~ptember 2010· ENGLISH TEACHING projes,\·;ol1l1l . _ •• tprof ••• 'onal.com .

More than please and thank you

Activity 1 • Responding to invitations

-V'6r...~: ~)d"t~";

------- ----j ' . Hi, E. 'M'Mll... Ar e ':)ou \ r .. # ,

dOl'h'5 a.'t\~thi'hg 0,""

Sa. -t:.-urda..:; ?

Josh: Inv ita t ion m oves

Hi, Emma. Are you doing anything on Saturday?

Well. I'm thinking of going to the ice rink. Would you like to come?

Oh come on! I'll buy you lunch as well.

Well, OK, how about one day next week, after the exam's over? We could go to the cinema,

OK, never mind. We can do something the week after next instead. I'll give you a ring ...

Emma: Real tho ug hts

Oh no. He's going to invite me out!

I can't think of anything worse than going to the ice rink with you!

YukI I'd rather starve than have lunch with you!

(you decide)

(you decide)

oh hi, :rosh,

WeLL, l''M

r ll.. -ehe r ~US'::)

ll..c tUll..LL,:) .

Emma: Tactful re fusals

Oh hi, Josh. Well, I'm rather busy, actually. Why?

Oh. that sounds great, but I'm afraid I've got to study for an exam on Monday.

That 's very kind of you, Josh, but I really can't.

I'm sorry. I've got a very busy week with one thing and another ...

OK, that'll be nice. Bye!

• _.8tprof.ssional.c:om • ENGLISH TEACHING professional . Issue 70 September 2010 ' 51

Text 1

Dear Sonia

More than please and thank you

Activity 2 • Polite emails

I hope you had a good journey home. Did you have a chance to look around london when you

were passing through? I'm sorry I was out when you left so I wasn't able to say goodbye properly.

It was a nice surprise to come home and find that lovely bunch of flowers in a vase on the coffee

table. Thank you for that.

I'm just writing to ask you about a small thing really. I was wondering if you used the computer at

all before you left? It's not a problem if you did, but I've had trouble getting onto the internet

since you left. A box appears on the screen asking for a password. Do you know anything about

that? I'm sure it was my own fault - I probably pressed the wrong button or something. Not to

worry, I can ask my son; he's good with computers.

Oh, and one other small thing while I'm writing. I don't know if you remember the Sopranos DVD

we watched the night before you left? I was wondering if you have put it somewhere because the

disc isn't in its box. Perhaps the dog's taken it outside!

Well, that's all for now. It was really great having you to stay and I hope you'll come again some

time - or, who knows, maybe we'll come to visit you!

All the best

Margaret 0

Text 2

Text 3

Hey, Sonia, what the hell have you been doing to my computer?

I can't get my internet connection to work properly. What is this

password you've put on it? And another thing - you haven't

walked away with my Sopranos DVD, have you? I can't find it

anywhere, and I know you rather liked it .

Marge

Hi , Marge. I haven't touched your computer! I bet it's

something your son did to it. He was always playing around

with it. That boy should get out more! As for the DVD, J bet

it'll be in the OVD player if you look there.

Sonia

52 . Issue 70 September 2010 ' ENGLISH TEACHING professional . _.etprofe •• lonal.com •

TEACHER DEVELOPMENT

From TDU to CPD Bahar Gun suggests that winning teachers' approval is fundamental

to a successful development programme.

My 20 years'experienceasa teacher educator. most of which has been INSET (in·service education of

teachers). has taught me one thing: you can never win with teachers! I am aware this is a strong comment to make. but maybe after reading the following true story of a Teacher Development Unit (T D U) in a university selling in Turkey. you can sec why I make it. and maybe. if you <lfe a teacher educator yourself. you will even agree with me. simply because you have had similar experiences in your own work contex\.

Background All teacher development programmes in English language teaching sellings are aimed atllchieving the same goal: to contribute to the tcachers' professional development. Institutions try different routes to achieve this common aim. Somc try informal methods. such as allowing the teachers to discuss their common concerns and brainstorm possible solutions to commonly·shared teaching problcm~ Othcrs do it more formally. with a structured teilcher development programme in place. As Richard Wails has pointed out. such programmes arc oftcn geared towards the interests of the course organisers and/or the authorities rather than those of the teachers themselve~ According to Richard Rossner. in most teachers' opinions. . leacller derelopll/em lias 10 be bOI/OI/Hlp. 1/01 dished 01/1 by mal/agers accordil/g 10 their 011'1/ riel!' of what del'I'Iopml!1I1 I('({elias IIced ... '.

The T DU in our institution was established to provide in-service support and development to enable English teachers to achieve their full potentiaL operating on the premise that teachers who eontinuc to learn lIre more effectivc. Since the school was establ ished six years ago, the T DU has been organising

structured development,,1 activities for the teaching staff. The activities conducted in the last five years inelude classroom obscrvilt ions. workshops (trainer-led as well as teacher-led or led jointly by trainers/teachers). swapshops.. short courses and in-service certificate programllles.. The types of the activi ties offered were determined by the trdiners of the unit as well as the school administrators. and the teachers' opinions were ilsked (workshop topics. for example) through questionnaires.

Teacher development programmes are often

geared towards the interests of the course

organisers rather than those of the

teachers themselves

Teachers' attendance at workshops was mandatory. T his was the situation when a decision was made to carry out a fecdback study on the effectiveness of the TD U activities three years llgO. What follows is the story of that study and what happened in the next two year~

Feeding back Feedback obtained from the teachers through questioll1ll1ires.. structured interviews and focus groups showed that, despite some o\'emll positive comments.. they were not entirely happy with the development activities for the following reasons:

• Although many teachers found classroom observations useful, some bel ieved that obscrvat ion was only suitable for less experienced teachers.

• When being observed by a more senior colleague. teachers argued that the classroom situation was unnaturaL

• Teachers thought thill the workshops were too frequent. unsuitably scheduled . insufficiently practical and tended to be repetitive. They wll11ted the workshops 10 be optional. but expressed interest in being involved in workshop pTCsentation~

• They indiCilted that the swapshop meetings. group discussions of the following week's teaching materiaL "''eTC too frequent and not very effective.

Re-thinking the programme Taking all the feedback obtained into consideration, the T DU Activity Programme was redesigned for the following year. Observill ions for developmental purposes did continue: workshops became optional and were fewer in number. The workshop programme WilS advertised. and those who were interested signed up for the workshops they wanted 10 attend. Teacher involvement in the preparation and presentation stages of workshops continued. and swapshop meetings were abandoned for that academic year.

Towards the end of the year. another feedback questionnaire on the T DU activities conducted that year was given out. but yet again. the teachers indicllted that theydidn't think the TDU programme had becn very usefuL T heir reasons this time were:

• Observations themselves.. as well as the post-observation feedback sessions.. could cause stress on the purt of the teachers when trainers were critical and feedback was non-constructive.

• Teachers thought workshops should be more practice-based ntlher than theoretical: also the pace of the ......

• _ .• tprof ••• tonat.com • ENGLISH TEACHING projbisiol/ol • Issue 70 September 2010 ' 53

TEACHER DEVELOPMENT

From TDU to CPD programme did not allow them to implement the practical ideas that were provided in some of the workshop presentations.

• Somc teachers stated that the number of workshops had dropped dramatically that year. and that they would prefer more frequently conducted workshops, like the wcekly ones in the previous year.

• As for the teacher involvement in workshop preparation and presentation. a few noted that it was sometimes diflicult to refuse when asked by a trainer 10 prepare and present a joint workshop. and that they had to do it unwillingly.

Another re-think After going through a state of confusion as a result of the connicting feedback. the TDU members and the management decided to adopt an approach combining the principles of both top­down and bollom-up processes in designing the in-service programme. (Perhaps wc wcrc hoping wc could catch the teilehers somewhere in the middle!)

The following year, as \\'ell as regular mandalOry observations, extra observations took place on the basis of requests from teachers. In planning the \\'orkshop programme. trainers prepared two tracks: one group of practical, optional workshops.. where tcachcrs signed up. and another group of compulsory ones for all teachers. determined according 10 the trainer observation resul ts and the perceived nceds of the teachers.

Teacher involvement in workshops continued almost in the same manncr: cxcept it was the willing tcachers this time who approached the triliners and indicated an interest in gelling involved in workshops.

Feeding forward This three-year renection on a teacher development unit in a university setting brought out some points which any institution with a TOU of a similar nature might find it interesting to consider.

It was interesting to note the change that the TOU had to undergo over the

period of three years. moving from tilking a top-down approilch to a bottom-up approach. suggesting that effective professional development is teacher-oriented ilnd thilt (as Nilashia Mohamed expresses it) ·iIlI"O/rillg le(Jchers ill Ihe plallllillg alld 1/11' ddil"el)" of 1/11' programme isfim(/(llIIelllallO its sucress·.

Unfortunately, however. the feedback obtained in the second year showed naws in this kind of bOllom-up approach as well and. as iI result. in the third year both top-down and bOllom­up approaches were adopted.

The aim in any teacher education programme should

be to engender

favourable attitudes to growth and change

among teachers

In the light of this experience. it might be claimed that iI successful teacher education programme should be both top-down and bOllom-up. ilnd that taking teilchers' views into account can have a positive impact on both the teachcrs' professional development and the institution. and is, therefore. important. The aim in any teacher education programme. maybe combining thc principlcs of the two opposing approiKhes.. should be to engender favourable attitudes to growth and change among teachers. However. an even more important implication for alltcachcr education programmes, as with the one in our institution. would be to propose adopting a new Continuous Professional Development programmc (CPO) based on individuill teachers· needs. Past experience in our T OU showed that we should abandon the 'one-size-fits-all' kind of programmc, composed of snapshot observations. presenting 'one for all' workshops, circulating conferencel seminar announcements. sending teachers to odd conferences. etc - simply because thcy do 1101 fit!

As Keith Hilrding points out. each teacher is at iI different stilge of professional development: therefore

their nceds differ. This suggests Ihat teacher educators. by tuning into the teachers' needs. should be aware of individual expectations and approach each tellcher with 1I different ·menu' for professional development. The tritiners' mllin responsibility should be to hc!p the teitchers to incre,tse their awareness of weaknesses and strengths. ie 10

become effective. rencctive practitioners, ilnd they should be ilble to identify individual CPO needs and provide relevant activities to mcet them. This would avoid the misilikes of the past ­one big Illenu for the entire stiln' - and having a teacher devc!opment unit in an institution would be worthwhile not only for the teachers but also for trainers and administrators: eventu;tlly leading to development of the whole school.

*** I am happy that in our institution we are now gelling closer to establishing a new CPO programme. after the period of painful confusion over Whill it is teachers really want for their development. [ find myself looking forward to feedback from teachers 011

the CPO system in the next two or threc years. Maybe one day we will win their approv;ll. Hopefully, then. we will all be winners! G2l>

Harding, K 'CPO' Modern English Teacher 18(3) 2009

Mohamed, N 'Meaningful professional development' English Teaching Professional 42 2006

Rossner. R 'When there is a will -facilitating teacher development' IATEFL Teacher Development SIG Newsletter 18 1992

Watts, A J 'Planning in-service training courses: institutional constraints and non-native EFL teachers' perceptions' International Journal of Applied Linguistics 4(1) 1994

Bahar Gun currently works at Izmir University Of EconomiCS, Turkey, as the Assistant Director of the SChoot of Foreign Languages, where she is primarily in charge 01 teaCher education programmes.

54 • Issue 70 September 2010 ' ENGLISH TEACHING professional . __ .tprof • • slonal.com •

Teacher.1 pus

+ Looking for new experiences within the profession?

+ Interested in different ways of developing beyond the classroom?

+ Hoping fOf' tips on how to extend and enrich your professional life?

Teacher Plus is a series which focuses on specific areas in which you can

step outside the strictly teaching sphere.

Getting into ELT management Sue Leather discusses becoming an ELT manager with Andy Hockley.

In Issue 69 01 ETp, I wrote about writing materials for publication, which, I argued, often grows naturally Oul of teaching. This time, I turn to

management, another area which. for many of you as teachers, seems like a natural career progression. After all, when you look at what you do as a leacher, it is evident thaI your work iocorpomtes some key management skills. As well as spending a lot of time managing people­your students - your woril: includes the need for effective communication, time management, organisation 01 human and physical space and resources, and record-keeping.

In short, managing the diverse and ever-changing nature 01 the classroom is essential in lacilitatlng students' learning, and it is vital that all teachers develop management strategies in the classroom. So teachers are managers, then, aren't they?

Well, maybe. Needless to say, though, becoming a Course Director, Director 01 Studies or Principal 01 a school will requi re the further development 01 some of the skills you already have, a.nd the addition of some new ones. So how can you decide il management is really for you? What kind of training can you get? How can you go about getting into management?

To help me answer these questions, I discussed with my associate Andy Hockley, an ELl management consultant and trainer, some of the issues around getting into management.

Why go into ELT management? Andy: I Ihink for many people, as you say, it does seem like a nalural career progression, but beyond this I'd say Ihere are some very good reasons for getting

involved in management. The first one Is that developing yourself and learning new skills is always a good thing to do­whatever direction that professional development takes you in. In addition, most teachers have, I hope, experienced good management and leadership as well as, I fear, bad management. Going into management can allow you to take some of those lessons learnt lrom being a 'beneficiary' - or 'victim' - of management, and apply them yourself.

It's also a path to take that has an obvious structure in place - in many language schools you can cut your teeth on coordinating a level, move on 10 being a senior teacher and then perhaps to an ADOS position. This gives you a clear path to lollow, but also means yoo can decide at various stages whether management is for you.

Managing the diverse and

ever-changing nature of the classroom is essential in

facilitating students ' learning

Sue: Yes, I agree with that. In addition, I think that going into management is ooe means of having an effect on teaching at a different level from just being in the classroom. In that way, it's a bit like going into teacher training. II's about changing perspective. I think that can be very enriching, and certainly you can gain a 101.

I think most people are aware that

going from teacher to manager has some downsides, too. Ooe of the things I noticed when I first became a manager, for example, was that I missed the classroom, missed that daily contact with my own students. You probably did, too .

What do you give up by going into management? Andy: Well, obviously one thing you give up is the classroom experience, which can be difficult 10 cope with. Many recently-appointed managers struggle between wanting to do as much teaching as possible and realising that they just don't have the time.

Another thing that new managers often tell me is how difficult they found the transition was from colleague/peer to boss. However much people assume their relationships with their colleagues will not change, in subtle - or perhaps not so subtle - ways they will. This will be the case regardless of whether you enter a management position in the school at which yoo were previously a teacher or if you take up a post elsewhere.

Sue: Yes, I agree that coping with your different role can be hard. I suppose that's one aspect that training could help with. You mentioned one path into management being to take on d ifferent responsibilities at school level. But what about training and formal qualifications for ELT management?

What kind of management courses are available? Andy: Obviously there are lots of general management courses around, up to and including an MBA (Masters in Business Administration), but there are also a few courses specifically lor the language teaching field. Perhaps the most well­known, and certainly most internationally portable, is the International Diploma in Language Teaching Management (IDLTM), which is a qualification joinlly certified by Cambridge ESOL, the University of ~ ~ ~

• _ •• tprof ••• lonal.com · ENGLISH TEACHING professiol/al . Issue 70 September 2010' 55

Teacher plus

Getting into ELT management Queensland, Australia, and SIT (School for International Training) in the USA. Then there is the DELTM (Diploma in English Language Teaching Management), run by English UK. International House London also runs a modular online course in ELi Management.

Sue: I think the ELi management field has definllely developed in the last few years, and there is certainly more specific training available. I think it's also worth mentioning the support organisations such as the ELi Leadership and Management Special Interest Group of IATEFL (see below), which has a newsletter and an online discussion group and organises workshops. I think such groups can be a very useful source of information about current issues and training possibilities.

So, after the training , what about the jobs? You mentioned earlier the different levels of management. What are your thoughts on the range of management jobs within the profession?

How do I get a job in ELT management? Most Obviously, there are Directors of Studies jobs in various schools round the world - within networks like International House and Bell, for example. These jobs can be applied for online through a central site, Also. of course, the British

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Council, though probably one would be unlikely to get a job as a teaching centre manager with the BC without prior experience. However, in my experience, the vast majority of people get involved in ELT management and take their first management position within the school that they've worked for as a teacher­

whether that be al a private language school, a university language department or a state school.

One quite common way to get your first management position is in a summer school. Many summer schools in the UK, say, tend to be looking for a 005 or an academic director, and they will often draw those managers from a pool of experienced teachers rather than qualified or experienced managers.

Another possibility is to ask your current boss if you can shadow them for a while, perhaps volunteering to take on some extra responsibilities; see if they will act as a mentor to you.

Sue: I got my first management job in the school I worked for as a teacher. I had my training 'on the job', and only later got some formal training. There was actually a lack of formal training for managers in ELT at that time, which is what made me starl a local organisation, and then a national one, to address the need for support and training,

As you say, though, that's quite a common route into management. I agree with you too that managing a summer school is a way that teachers frequently get their first management experience. It 's also a very good one, because you can 'put your toe in the water' and see if you really like it.

IT WORKS IN PRACTICE Do you have ideas you 'd like to share

with colleagues around the world?

Tips, techniques and activities: simple or sophisticated; well-tried or innovative;

something that has worked well for you? All published contributions receive

a prize! Write to us or email: ed i tor@etprofessional.com

Writing fo r ETp Would you like to write for ETp?

We are always interested in new writers and fresh ideas. For guidelines and

advice, write to us or email: e ditor@etprofessiona l.com

*** ELT management is a challenging and exciting career path, and one that provides great scope for professional development. Whichever route you take into it, we hope this article has given you some starting points. Gi2>

ELT Leadership and Management Special Interest Group of IATEFL http://eltm.iatefl.orgl

ELT Leadership and Management Special Interest Group Discussion Group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ managersELTI

Sue Leather is an educational consultant, trainer trainer and writer. She has delivered talks, workshops and COurSeS in over 25 countries for the British CounCil and other organisations, She was the lounder 01 the El T Management Special Interest Group of IATEFl and of lhe Directors of Siudies Association movement in the UK,

Andy Hockley is a teacher trainer and educational management consultant and trainer, based in Romania. He was involved in the creation and development 01 Cambridge ESOl 's International Diploma in language Teaching Management, and regulariy trains on the

L ____ ...... course as well as other El T management courses and workshops round the world.

andyOsueleatherassociates.com

Do you have something to say about an art icle in the current issue of ETp? This is your magazine and we would

reaJly like to hear from you.

Write to us or email: editor@etprofessional.com

Visit the ETp website! The ETp website is packed with practical

tips, advice, resources, information and

selected artic les. You can submit tips or articles, renew your subscription

or simply browse the features. www.etprofessional.com

56 . Issue 70 September 2010 ' ENGLISH TEACHING professional . _.etprofe •• lonal.com •

TECHNOLOGY

Blanka KlimovA finds that online tuition

places new demands on online tutors.

E-Iearning courses (using multimedia technology to deliver tuition) hi\Ve become an indispensable part of acquiring

new knowledge. particularly at tertiary level. Almost all the universities in the Czech Republic now olTer them. both for their own students. and also for the general public - such courses arc attractive to universities as they can be an additional source of income.

E-Iearning The FlIculty of Informatics and Management at the University of Hradee Knilove has been intensely involvcd in thc lIpplication of c-learning since 1999, liS the teachers see this liS 11 way of improving the quality of their teaching. We also find it contributes enormously towards increasing the elTecti\'eness and efficiency of the educlltional process. and it enhances leimler autonomy. Our e-courses arc created in a virtual learning environ ment called WebCT. At present. more than 150 e-courses lire olTered. with more thilll 45 of these being English language courses. Some of them, such as Writ/I'll Busil1l'ss English. o.;an ho.; taugllt o.;Ulllplo.:tdy unliuc.

Self-study Each part of an online course starts with sc1f-study information input lind concludes with tasks, quizzes or assignments. Self-study is very important for our students. As Ian Badgcr has pointed ouL the time available for leilfllers to spend on improving their language skills will always be limited. For many learners. there will never be enough time or money available to allend regular language classes. but all learners can find the time lind money for self-study. There are several key factors which innuence successful self-study:

• learner motivation - Motivating factors can include job satisfaction, enh1lllced job performllnce, financial rewards, possible promotion, ilnd success in tests and examinations.

• time - It is neeessary to create a level of interest in self-study that can compete with the other activities in the learners' lives.

• learner support - A close link between sc1f-study and classroom­based tasks, regular contact with a tutor, contact with fellow students and access to a language support website are all important.

• affordability - The comp.natively low cost of self-study is allTactive to employers.

• study materials - Materials must be highly accessible and easy to use.

Tutorials Usually. there arc only three face-to­face tutorials: an illfrodIlClOr)' llIIoria/, whcre the students meet their tutor who will guide and support them through the whole course. a mid-i·OIIY.\·/' II/Iorial. where the silldents usually diseuss with thcir tutor any problems they have come across when doing their assignments. and thefil1al lulOrial, where the students' work is evaluated orally by the tutor. This is particularly suitable for distance silldents and those doing their main courses at other universities.

Some students attcnd regular classes and use the e-courses for revision. going over the information taught in class again and doing additional practice exercises.

Finally, there arc 'blended' courses which combine online and face-to-face teaching. Conventional face-to-face teaching is sometimes nccessilry for the development of speaking communication skills. Students can. for example, do reading and writing tasks on their own,

and the teachers can concentrate more on listening and speaking activities in class. In our Academic Wriling course, the students meet a teacher once every two weeks to discuss and clarify any mistakes thcy have made in their essays.

Tutoring T he e-Ieilrning courses. however a!tractive and cheaper they might seem, require a new approach to teaching. Consequently, thc traditional role of the teilcher is chilnging, with the result that the understanding of the word leaciter itsc1f has altered. In the e-Iearning courses difTerent names arc employed. for example coach, Ica(ier, lIIodl'f(l/or, j(lcililatur. 1IIl'llia/ur or III/Of. In this article we will usc the word III/or.

Clltherine Gerrard emphasises severill fealUres which differentiate online tuition from traditional tuition. Online tuition: • places grcilter emphasis on written

skills; • produces a more formal tone; • docs not follow a linear conversation,

but instead promotes multiple conversations;

• docs not confine teaching to specific times;

• places greater emphllsis on student- studcnt learning;

• requires tutors to develop new WilYS of encouraging participation;

• requires tutors to assess the worth of online contributions.

Tutor tasks E-Iearning tutors have to perform a wide variety of tasks: • Organising, delivering and evaluating

tutorials: • Pmvicling stlldenls wi th explicit ll!1d

clear instructions and a study guide: • Helping students to overcome

obstacles so that they achieve their learning objectives;

• Correcting. evaluating and delivering fecdbilck on the students' individUill assignments - and re turning them, ideally within three days;

• Resolving potential study connicts; • Supporting and encouraging the

students in their studies bye-mail and discussion:

• Reacting to enquiries and giving advice;

• Sometimes creating the content of the e-learning course, which makes them responsible for its quality. .. ....

• _ .• tprof ••• tonal.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional . Issue 70 September 2010· 57

E-Iearning Tutor skills Stcve \Vhcctcr has listed seven skills thai c-lcarning tulors should possess: • T hey should be able to support and

encourage learners: • T hey should not be afraid to take

risks with new technologies: • T hey should be able to transfer good

tcaching skills into online contexts; • T hey should be good communicators

in any medium: • T hey should be non-conformists; • T hey should thrive in a culture of

change; • T hey should h<lvc the ability to see

Ihe big picture.

Tutor roles Zane Berge has identified four main e·tulor roles:

• Pedagogical or intellectual roles. These are Ihe most important in the e-Icilrning process. The C-lu\Or uses questions and probes for SWdCllt responses that focus discussions on criticlll concepts. principles and skills.

• Social roles, These involve the creation of friendly and comfortable social cnvironments in which students feel that learning is possible.

• Managerial or organisational roles. T hese involve selling learning objectives: establishing agendas for the learning activities; timetabling learning ,Ictivities and tasks: clarifying procedural rules and decision-making norms.

• Technical roles, T hese urc possibly the most daunting for academics. T hey involve becoming familiar, eomfortable and competent with the ICT systems and software that compose the e-learning environment.

Pedagogy There is no particular pedagogical appro.tch recommended for e-courses. However, certain principles are worth following. The whole course should be divided into separate lessons. with the structure of eaeh lesson following these basic learning steps: • informing of objectives: • presenting content:

• assessing performance; • providing feedbac k.

The p,nticular structure of each of our lessons is:

• T itlc; • Ooal - a short statement motivating

the participants to study the particular lesson:

• Prerequisites - previous knowledge required to master the lesson;

• Skills to be learl1\ - a description of the knowledge to be gained in the particular lesson;

• Body - the cOl1\el1\ in the form of texts.. exercises and questions;

• T'lsks. quizzes or assignments - ways in which understanding can be assessed in order to provide feedbac k.

Problems At the introductory tutorial. studel1\S arc acquainted with thc e-subject. its content and requirements. Furthermore, they arc shown how to use lhe WebCT virtual learning environment. Unfortunately, it is often the case, in our experience, that not all the students p.nticipate in the introductory tutorial. This can cause

Instructions for

working in the e-Iearning environment should

be written clearly and concisely, and all the

students should be made aware that they need to read them thoroughly

slight problems later on, not only for the tutor but also for the students themselves. The principal issue scems not to be problems with the operation of the virtual environment. but students being unsure of where to find all the necessa ry infornwtion and which tools of the virtual environment to usc. Those students who were not present (and sometimes even those who were) at the introductory tutorial often don't read the syllabus, information about the goals of the subject or announcements about the mid-couTSC tutorial. As a result, they miss the dcadlines of some assignments. This means that they don't receive any marks for these assignments. Another problem

seems to be that the students who opt for e-Iea rning language courses tend to be those with lower levels in the target language. T his makes it impossible for some students to finish the online COUTSC.

*** Online teaehing/lcarning is part of a contemporary trend towards personalisation and individualisution of Icarning which has becn made possible by advancements in informationtcchnology. Howevcr, it imposes great demands on its creators and the tutors who deliver it. They must necessarily comply with new requiremcllls if they want their e-Iearning tutoring to be a success.

E-learning can be challenging for students as wcll as tutors. To avoid problems like those outlined above, instructions for working in the e-Icarning environment should be written clearly ,Uld concisely, and all the students (both present and absent) should be made aware that they need to read them lhoroughly before they start work on the online coursc. Moreover, students should be told not to be afraid of contacting thcir tlltor if they are not surc how to handle particular tasks or assignments. If this is done, e-Iearning can be a successful experience for both tutors and students. 0

Badger, t 'Self-study and the business learner' Talk given at the 37th Annual IATEFL Conference. Brighton 2003 Berge, Z L 'The role of the moderator in a Scholarly Discussion Group (SOO)' www.emoderators.comlmoderatorsl zlbmod.html Accessed 27/812009

Gerrard, C 'Promoting best practice for e-tutoring through staff development' In Proceedings of Networked Learning: Third International Conference, Lancaster Unlvarsity and University of Sheffield 26th-28th March 2002

Wheeter, S 'Learning with 'e's' http://steve-whee/er.blogspot.com/ 200910517-skil/s-for-successful-e­fufOr.html Accessed 2718/2009

Btanka Klimov8 teaches at the Faculty 01 tnformatics and Management of the University of Hradec Kr8Iov~ , Czech Republic. Her main fietd of interest is teaching business Engtish. In addition, she runs courses In the culture and history of Britain and the USA, and academic writing.

5 8 . Issue 70 September 2010 ' ENGLISH TEACHING professional . _ .• tprof ••• tonat,com •

Current Vacancies To advenise in this section,

please contact Sean Close on +44 (0)1536 747333 or

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• Five things you always wanted to know about

microblogging (but were afraid to ask)

1 Blogging yes, but 'micro'? Does this refer to very small blogs?

In a way. yes. Microblogging consists of very short messages (or 'updates ') you

send Oul via the internel, of no more than

140 characters (not words~. For this reason

it is also known as 'blogging for lazy people'. The content of your mk:roblogging messages is necessarily short (some would say superficial). Probably the best­

known microblogging tool at the moment is Twitter (www. twitter.com) .

2 Ah. Twitterll 've heard of that. What does that do?

It's a bit like SMS or texl messaging. You

send out a short message via your Twitter

account, and all of your contacts (or 'followers' in Twitter parlance) will be able

10 read it if they are logged in as well. Here

are some examples of messages (known as 'tweets') I have sent in the past week:

@harrisonmike BBC has good

podcasting sites for Eng lang learners

incl lower levels http://bit.lyllZaLQ

Worl<; ing on final proofs of new book w

@Iclandfield Teaching Online (due out

soon). How many more Ts can I cross

before going mad?

Social learning? Yes, it exists

hnp:llbiUy/dCiy1 d - @foxden#Elearning

four ways with weblnars http://bit.ly/cI1OJN #elearning #edtech

Back from 3 days on beach - heaven!

Andorra tmrw but slow vodaphone dongle means bad connections & no

Twiner :-(

Tweets are typically a mix of the personal and professional. Twitter requires you to

have followers, and you also need to

follow people yourself. If you follow

someone on Twitter, you will be able to

read their tweets, but they will only be able to read your tweets if they follow

you. So you could decide to fol low

someone famous like Barack Obama or

Britney Spears, and you will be able to

read their tweets. But unless Barack or

Britney decide to follow you (which is, let's face it, unlikely) they won't be

reading your tweets!

Twitter has spawned (sorry, hatched) a

whole range of related vocabulary, which you can bandy around if you want to sound

like you need to get out more: tweeple

(people in your Twitter network), dweet (a

tweet sent while under the influence of alcohoij, mistweet (a tweet you later regret), twitterati (cool A-list tweeters who have

thousands of followers) ... You can read more about Twitter in Issue 60 of ETp.

3 Is Twiner the only microblogging tool?

Twitter is certainly the most popular (and

therefore best-known) of the microblogging

tools. but there are other odd-sounding ones, including Tumblr, Plurk and Jsiku.

They all work on the same principle - you send out a short 'update ' of a maximum

of 140 characters, and the people in your

microblogging network can read it.

4 How does microblogging relate to the classroom teacher? Can I use it with students?

There is one microblogging tool which is

particularly useful for educators. Edmodo

(www.edmodo.com) is, in fact, known as

'Twitter for teachers '. One of the big advantages of Edmodo is that you can very easily set up a closed group for your

students, and all they need to join the

group is an access key (password). There is none of the hassle involved with

following and being followed by others.

Edmodo allows you to share files, assignments and videos easily, and to

create polls for your students. If your

students have laptops or internet-enabled

smartphones in the classroom, you can

send them handouts, links, embedded

videos, and so on, via Edmodo at the

precise moment these are needed in class. No more writing long web addresses on

the board, or handing out worksheets - all this can be done online in your now-wired

classroom. A tool like Edmodo can also be

In this series, Nicky Hockly

explains aspects of technology

whic h some people may be

embarrassed to confess that they

don't really understand. In this

artic le, she explains microblogging.

used by the class out of the classroom to chat, share links and resources, send in

assignments or do quiues.

5 What about microblogging and professional development?

If we have Edmodo for students and the c lassroom, we have Twitter for teachers

outside of the classroom. As a far more

public forum, Twitter is partk:ularly sulled to

creating professional networks. There is a large and active English language teaching

community in Twitter already, and all you

need to do is to join them to be able to tap

into a wide network of expert ise, sharing and support. Once you are connected to

a critical mass of other teachers from

around the world in Twitter, you start to

see the benefits. Here is how to do it:

• Create your own Twitter account at

www.twitter.com.

• Find at least 50 people (teachers) to fol low. Do this by following one person

already in Twitter, then look at who they are following, and follow the same

people! You can use my network -fol low me at @theconsultantse.

• II will take you a few weeks to get into

the swing of Twitter. Try to allocate, say, 15 minutes twice a day in which to

read tweets from your network and to

contribute your own ideas, comments and links. For me it has become my most important and up-to-date source

of ongoing professional development.

Nicky Hockly has been Involved In EFL teaching and teacher training since 1987. She Is Clrector of Pedagogy of The Consultants·E, an online training and development consultancy. She Is co-author of Learning English as a Foreign Language for Dummies (John Wiley & Sons) and Teaching

• .. ~ ___ • Online (Celta Publishing). She maintains a blag at www.emoderaticmskills.eotn and you can follow her on Twitter at Olheconsultilnlse.

Conl iICl Nk:ky II nk:ky.hockly@1hllCunsuHiWll$·e.com and let hI!!" know or any other leT illea5 you 'd like her to elpklre In th is Sl!!"ies.

60 . Issue 70 September 2010 ' ENGLISH TEACHING professional . _.etprofe •• lonal.com •

Webwatcher Russell Stannard celebrates

sites which seem simple but do so much.

The flood of useful technologies and tools on the internet never ceases to amaze me. II rea lly is hard to keep up with so many great p ieces of software. In this issue I want

to focus on some quick, useful tools thai can help either you or your students. They are all very simple to use and you can demonstrate them to your students very easily.

Find words that rhyme: www.rhymes.net When you are preparing lessons about pronunciation and you quickly need to find some words that rhyme, this useful tool will come to your rescue. You just key in a particular word and it provides you with a collection of words that rhyme with it. These are divided into groups according to how many syllables they have. The site has some other interesting sections, too, and it is really worth exploring.

Find a verb conjugation: http://conjugator.reverso.net! conjugation­english.html

This can be very helpful for students who need to find certain verb forms or conjugations. Simply key in the word, click on 'Search' and it produces a large table with all the different conjugations. The site does a lot more and can also be used for French, German and Spanish.

Print out some flashcards: www.eslflashcards.com/

This site is amazing. It offers numerous sets of illustrated vocabulary flashcards and they are all free. You can see the list of sets in the middle of the screen. Hover your cursor over the name of each set to see what words are covered in it. Click on the name to see the cards. You can choose from three different ways to download them: either one card, two cards or nine small cards per page. The quality of the pictures is extremely good and there are plenty of cards to choose from. Provided you have a printer, this is a superb 1001.

Look words up quickly in a dictionary: www.easydefine.com/ The more I use this tool, the more I like it. Imagine you are a fairly high-level student and you are reading a text. Let's say there are ten words in the text you don't understand. Just key the words into 'Easy define' and it will search for all ten words at the same time and give you a d ictionary definition for each one. This can save you a lot of time as you can do multiple searches and then print out the resulting definitions. It is not perfect and the definitions tend to be quite high-level, but it is a very useful tool.

Find the origins of words: www.etymonline.com/ index.php This is a great site if you want to know where a word comes from. I keyed in soccer and it informed me that it is an

abbreviation of Association in the term 'Association Football ' with er added to the end. I also looked up London , Fosbury flop and hallmark. I received very c lear and easy-to-read explanations of the origins of these words. Just key in the word you are interested in and click on the 'OK' button. I love learning about the origins of words and it can make teaching vocabulary so much more interesting. I can see potential for students to use this tool , too.

Find the most popular words in English: http://quizicon.com/100-Most-Common­English-Words-Quiz.html

What a fun tool this is! 1\ gives you five minutes to think of the most common 100 words in English. You simply press the start button and begin wriling in the words you think will be on the list. If they actually are in the top 100, they will appear immediately on the screen. This is great fun to do with students. It is very easy at the beginning (everyone can predict that words like a, the, and, that and but will be on the list) but it gets harder and harder, and you are limited to just five minutes. I have used it several times in class and it has gone down really well w ith my students.

Use a talking dictionary: www.languageguide.org/english/

This is a superb visual dictionary. Just click on the category you want and a page will open up with lots of pictures related to that topic. Roll your cursor over the pictures and you will hear the words pronounced and see them spelled out on the screen. The words are very clearly pronounced and the level of detail is excellent. Encourage the students to print the sheets out and learn the words. They can listen and repeat them, too. to get extra pronunciation practice. There are also other languages on this site. My students really like this and find it very useful.

You can find free help videos, which I have created, that will show you step-by-step how to use these tools, plus a few more, at: www.teachertrainingvideos.com/10simple/ index.html

Russell Stannard is a principalle<:;lurer in leT al the University 01 Westminster, UK. He won the Times Higher Education Award lor Outstanding Initiatives in Inlonnation and Communications Technology for his website www.teacherirainingvideos.com. He was also one of the winners of the 2OtO British Council ELTons awards.

Keep sending your favourite sites to Russell .

rtlssetlstannard@btlnternet.com

Visit the ETp website! The ETp website is packed with practical tips, advice, resources, information and selected articles. You can submit tips or articles,

renew your subscription or simply browse the features. www.etprofessional.com

• _.8tprof.ssional.c:om • ENGLISH TEACHING professional . Issue 70 September 2010 ' 61

Don't just take our word for it ... " Pilgrims advertises in ETP because we know it

is one of the best ways to target like minded professionals for our courses. The magazine reflects a fresh approach to articles and ideas as does Pilgrims so there is a great synergy. In this age of technology and on-line media it's easy to forget many people (teachers especially) still like to read paper magazines too! ETP lucki ly embraces new media whilst not forgetting traditional journals - which stay on shelves in staff rooms and are passed from colleague to colleague. It is therefore an important part of our overall media strategy. ' ,

Jim Wright, Head of Teacher Training Pilgrims

" we've advertised with ETP for many years and have always been really pleased with the service we get from the team. It's great for Macmillan to have our products featured in such a practical and popular magazine for teachers.' ,

Beverley Clarke Marketing Co-ordinator Macmillan [ducation

" over the years we have consistently advertised in English Teaching professional and wi ll continue to do so in the future. We part icularly va lue the diverse readership, including committed English teaching professionals from every part of the wor ld. We also find there is a very close match between the topics and concerns covered in the publication and those covered by our own academic and professional development courses. In all respects, English Teaching professional is a natural place for us to advertise and a great place for us to be seen. ' ,

Dr. Juup Stelma lolA T[SOL Course Director University of Manchester

In this column Rose Senior explains why certain teaching techniques and

class management strategies are effective, and identifies specific issues that can assist

ali language teachers in improving the quality of their teaching.

Competitive games

Competition is something we learn about early on in our lives: toddlers competing for the same toy, youngsters seeing who can

run fastest, and so on. Children quickly learn of the excitement of games, such as desperately rushing to grab a seat in 'musical chairs' or shouting to teammates

to pass the soccer ball. Children also learn how exhilarating it is to win a competition -

effort out of their students, worrying that valuable teaching time will be lost if they allow anyone to relax for a single moment. Keeping classes under constant pressure is often counterproductive since students tend to switch off, with the result that little further learning takes place. Competitive team games - provided they are conducted in a spirit of friendliness and fun

parlicularly if the reward comes in the form of a prize - and how devastating it is to be the loser. They also learn how humiliating it is to let teammates down or to

- can function as much-needed pressure­release valves, part icularly at the end of lessons when One technique for

come in last in a race. In

enlivening collaborative tasks is to include a competitive element

students have worked hard. Classes can easily be

divided into teams: those Silting on the left of the room versus those on the right, for

view of the strong motivational power of example. Allowing each team to choose a competition, shouldn't we encourage competit ion in our language classes?

recently-studied words for one of their teammates, who is seated in front of them with their back to the board (on which the teacher has written the word to be defined).

'Word-swat ' is another favourite because of the physical activity involved. Two students holding plastic fly swats stand on either side of the board, which is filled with linguistic items from the lesson. The l eacher then defines one of the items, the student being the first to 'swat ' the correct one winning a point for their team.

II is always tempting for students to become too serious about winning, so although we should praise the winning team, we should also say something such as 'Well done, everybody! That was a c/ose/wel/-foughtlexciting contest', We must remain constantly alert to the fact that students can b lame weaker teammates for their failure to win - and that individuals can use c lass competitions designed to provide light relief as an opportunity to settle scores with rivals. We should therefore ensure that the

Most students are familiar with pair­and groupwork, but they do not always collaborate with their peers as enthusiastically as they might. One technique for enlivening collaborative tasks is to include a competitive element. Brainstorming activi ties become instantly more dynamic when conducted in a competitive spirit. The teacher can say, for example, 'Right, everyone, you have two minutes to come up with as many English words for jobs that you can think of, starting ... now!' When the time is up, each group says how many words they have thought of, the group having thought of the most words being the winner. A more in­depth version of this competition (which encourages creative thinking) is to have the groups read out their lists of jobs, but only scoring points for jobs that no one else has thought of. Variations on this theme include having groups of students th ink of as many words or concepts as possible associated with common words, such as mouse, foot or tree (with or without the aid of dictionaries).

distinctive name for itself puts students in the mood, as does the behaviour of the teacher, who can exclaim, 'And now; everyone, for the greatest word game of aJl time!' If possible, use props: a vertical spinning wheel (like a roulette wheel) containing the leiters of the alphabet; fly swats; bells and buzzers for panel members to press; funny hats for competitors; matchsticks or

composition of learns changes on a regular basis, and that at all times an overall spirit of friend liness and generosity prevails with in the room, with class members

Keeping classes

The overall atmosphere in language classes can sometimes become oppressive, particularly at the end of the day when everybody is t ired. Teachers often try to squeeze every last ounce of

counters for the scorers, and so on. under constant But of course competitive games can be conducted successfully without any props at all.

pressure is often counterproductive following our example by

applauding the winners. If In the 'Letter of the alphabet' game, the teacher calls out, 'The name of an animal (or sport, or item 01 clothing, or piece 01 furniture or any other category) beginning with . .. (spinning the wheel) ... the letter S!' The first person to call out a word beginning w ith that letter scores a point for their team. Alternatively. points can be scored by simple word recall or mental activity: 'a word that means Ihe opposite of ~heavyn>, 'a word that can be formed by the letters EZIRP', 'a word beginning with the prefix ~dis_m. etc. Teams can support their elected panel who sit al the front with bells and buzzers, ready to work out the answers to linguistic puzzles posed by the teacher.

A popular vocabulary revision game requires each team to provide definitions of

we give a reward, it should be something such as a packet of sweets that can be shared as widely as possible.

In sum, competition, with its innate power to enliven and motivate, can be used to advantage by any language teacher who wishes to boost the collective energy levels 01 their classes. Like any technique, however, it must be appropriate for the class and must not be over-used. (iJ2>

]r 1260 -----Rose Senior is a language teacher educator who runs workshops and presents at conferences around the wond.

rseniorOiinet.net.au.

• _.etprofe •• lonat.(:om • ENGUSH TEACHING professiollal • Issue 70 September 2010' 63

Prize crossword 43 ETp presents the forty-third in our series of prize crosswords. Send your entry (completed crossword grid and quotation), not forgetting to include your full name, postal address and telephone number, to

Prize crossword 43, ENGU5H TEACHING professional, Pavilion Publishing

(Brighton) Ltd, PO Box 100, Chichester, West Sussex, POt S SHO, UK.

Ten correct entries will be drawn from a hat on 10 November 2010 and the senders will each receive a copy of the second

edition of the Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Leamers, applauded for its unique red star system showing the

frequency of the 7,500 most common words in English

(www.macmillandictionary.comj .

, • • , . . 10 11 12 13

H N 1. 15 16 '7 16 19 ~ ~ ~ ~ N ~ ~

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To solve the puzzle, find which letter each number represents. You can keep a record in the boxes above. The definitions of the words in the puzzle are given, but not in the right order. When you have finished, you will be able to read the quotation.

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VERY FREQUENT WORDS ••• Preposition of place, used with home ••• To push air through something (such as a wh islle) with your mouth ••• SOmeone whose job is to treat people who are ill or injured ••• Used for stating the purpose of an object or an action ••• To put something in someone's hand ••• SOmething that you hope to achieve ••• To allow some<l!1e to have or do what they want (lormaQ • • • A word used for referring to a man or boy who has already been mentioned • •• Preposition of place, used with bed ••• The object lorm 011 ••• A book about imaginary events ••• Touching a surface or an object ••• Used lor saying what is the right thing to do (usual ly followed by to) ••• An official, elected group of people in some countries who meet to make laws • •• To show something by holding out your fi nger ••• To take something that belongs to someOf\e else without permission ••• A long sticky band for joining th ings ••• Used to form the infi nitive of a verb ••• The day after today • •• A hard white object inside your -" ••• The failure to use something valuable in an effective and beneficial way ••• To finish first in a competition (3rd person singular) ••• To want something to happen FREQUENT WORDS •• A personal quality that attracts people to you and makes them like you

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64 . Issue 70 September 2OtO' ENGUSH TEACHING professiollal . _.etprofe •• lonal.com '

.. Books and stories about imaginary events and people •• When skin or borIe grows back together and becomes healthy again •• A cover for a container •• A gas that all animals breathe •• To lail to include something, either deliberately or because you forget •• A colour between red and yellow •• Rest and enjoyment •• To make a legal cla im against someone FAIRLY FREQUENT WORDS • A continuous, but not very strong pain • To hit something hard, making a loud noise • A container for putting rubbish in • An amount of light from the sun • A sail ing boat LESS FREQUENT WORDS - Ed~ion (abbreviation) - To leave your country in order to live in another country - A strong clear alcohOl ic drink made from grain and juniper berries - A journey to Mecca that Musl ims make as a reHgious duty - The ability to solve problems in new and clever ways - Original Equipment Manufacturer (abbreviation) - A piano that plays music by itself - Post office (abbreviation) - A Latin word used in e)(presslons such as sme non - Teenage (abbreviation) - To hit, harm or destroy something, usually using a weapon or equipment developed by modem technology

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