The EATE Journal Issue No. 44 October 2013

YEAR 9 EXAMINATION IN ENGLISH 2014Kristel Kriisa 1

MOTIVATION AND E-LEARNING: THE EXPERIENCE OF BLENDED LEARNINGKristina Mullamaa 3

INTRODUCING THE INTERNET-BASED TOEFL TESTEpp Kirss, Mare Roes 12

NEURO-LINGUISTIC PROGRAMMINGSigne Laigu 15

A LETTER BY AN EXAM ASSESSORErika Puusemp 17

NATIONAL PUBLIC SPEAKING COMPETITION: PAST, PRESENT, FUTUREZinaida Jevgrafova 20

TWINS AND DOUBLESErika Jeret 23

A SCHOOLMARM’S TALE FROM AFRICAMarju Roberts 27

GUERNSEY NOTESEnn Veldi 29

ENGLAND IN A HEAT WAVELembi Loigu 32

FROM MALTA TO BERLINKatre Kõiv, Maire Soo 35

Reading Recommendations

Come and Share

A FASCINATING NARRATIVE STRATEGY IN NANCY HUSTON’S FAULT LINESEva Rein 39

OPEN’S OPENEDIlmar Anvelt 41

Teachers’ TeacherAn interview with Kristel Ruutmets 37

EATEEstonian Association of Teachers of

English

ISSN 2228-0847

Estonian Association of Teachers of Englishwww.eate.ee

Chair Editor of OPEN! Current accountLeena Punga Ilmar Anvelt 10152001597007Phone 562 13292 Phone 7375 218 in SEBe-mail: leena.punga@gmail.com e-mail: ilmar.anvelt@ut.ee

EATE Summer SchoolPh

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Committee members Erika Puusemp, Leena Pungaand Eva Ojakivi preparing Summer School materials

Kristel Kriisa’s theme wasNational Exams

Merike Kaus – happy receiver of the CambridgeESOL Certificate

Lawrence Mamas arrived to promoteGlobal ELT publications

The new Committee has been elected

Tea Tamm speaking aboutstorytelling with Animato

Pärnu 22-23 August 2013

The new National Curriculum for Basic Schools is much more clearly related to the Common Reference Levels as described in the Common European Framework of Reference for Modern Languages: learning, teaching and assessment (usually referred to as CEFR, Council of Europe 2001) than the old curriculum was. Basic school graduates are expected to have reached level B1. Therefore, the examination will test students’ competence in listening and reading comprehension and in writing and speaking skills at level B1.

The Year 9 examination in English in 2014 will consist of four parts. The main changes are going to be introduced into the two receptive skills papers, which will become longer than they are in the current examination to allow reliable testing of students’ competences. As the national curriculum does not list the grammar structures to be mastered, there will be no separate language structures paper. However, the reading comprehension paper will also include one text-based language structures task. The table below provides a summary of the examination components in 2014.

Table 1. The Year 9 examination in English in 2014.

Tasks Time Points

Listening comprehension 4 30 min 25

Reading comprehension 4 60 min 30

Writing 2 45 min 25

Speaking 2 12–15 min 20

Total 2h 30 min 100

The listening comprehension paper will make up 25% of the overall examination result and it will include four tasks.

Table 2. The listening comprehension paper in 2014.

Listening(25%)30 min

4 tasks Possible task types• multiple choice• gap-filling• short answers• multiple matching• table completion

The text types and task types used will be the same as those in the current examination. Text types may include interviews, conversations between two or more people, TV and radio programmes, presentations, lectures and other monologues on familiar themes in daily life, provided that the speech is clear and generic. Each text will be heard twice.

The reading comprehension paper will account for 30% of the overall examination result and it will include tasks that are based on four different texts.

YEAR 9 EXAMINATION IN ENGLISH 2014

Kristel Kriisa Foundation Innove

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Table 3. The reading comprehension paper in 2014.

Reading(30%)60 min

4 tasks Possible task types• multiple choice• cloze (open or multiple choice)• gap-filling (with or without a bank)• word formation• multiple matching (gapped text, short texts with titles,

questions and answers)• short answer• sentence/table completion

Texts used are straightforward and consist mainly of high frequency everyday language. Texts will mainly be factual, informative, describing things or people, retelling or recounting events or giving instructions. Text types will include media texts meant for young people (newspapers and magazines), letters, online texts, brochures, simple instructions for use and adaptations of fiction.

One of the texts will be short (approximately 150 words) and, in addition to testing students’ reading skills, it will also measure their grammatical accuracy and their ability to use English appropriately. The other three texts will be longer (about 300–400 words each) and the tasks based on them will test students’ reading comprehension skills, which will include reading for gist and for specific information. B1-level learners should also be able to gather information from different parts of a text or from different texts.

The writing paper, similarly to the current examination format, will consist of two tasks, the first of which is a short description and the second a personal letter.

Table 4. The writing paper in 2014.

Writing(25%)45 min

2 tasks Possible task types• description (75 words, 9 points)• letter/email (120 words, 16 points)

In the first task of the writing paper, students will be asked to write a short description since B1-level learners should be able to write accounts of experiences and describe feelings and reactions in a simple connected text. The second task will not go through any major changes and will continue to be a personal letter or an email.

As the number of points students can get for their writing paper will be increased, the required length of student response will be slightly longer than it is today: the description should be about 75 words and the letter about 120 words long. A new marking scale will be developed for the first task. The criteria included in the marking scale are: content, vocabulary and grammar. The existing marking scale for the second task will be replaced with a scale distinguishing between five levels within four criteria: task completion, organisation, vocabulary and grammar.

The speaking test will undergo a change in the task content. Similarly to Year 12 examination, the speaking test will be a scripted interview to standardise some aspects of the interviewer behaviour and to ensure that students get equal opportunities to demonstrate their speaking skills.

Table 5. The speaking test in 2014.

Speaking(20%)12–15 min

2 tasks Task types• picture description• acting out a situation

Similarly to Year 12 examination, the speaking test will be divided into 3 stages: introduction, task 1 and task 2. The introduction has two functions: first, to provide a formal beginning for the interview and, second, to give the student an opportunity to warm up for the speaking test. Task 1 in the new 2014 speaking test will not undergo any major changes and the student will be asked to describe a photograph. The students have three minutes to familiarise themselves with the

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Abstract. The article discusses motivation in e-learning. It briefly reviews relevant aspects of motivation and individualisation theories. The main aspects we focus on are motivation, individualisation and the dynamic learner and teacher roles. The possibilities of applying blended learning in university level language teaching will be analysed. We approach the topic through the prism of examining the possibilities for supporting and encouraging student-centred learning and increasing student responsibility in their learning process.

Key words: e-learning, blended learning, language learning/teaching, student-centred learning, student responsibility, motivation

1. Introduction

The dynamic and highly technological world around us is strongly affecting the ways in which we live our lives, learn and teach. It also has an effect on what is considered to be good teaching. Novel motivational strategies, methods and approaches to students’ learning styles develop. Just as their students, the teaching staff is expected to be more and more tech-savvy.

Many universities offer the teaching staff courses on e-design and e-learning. But in addition to the technical skills, one needs a solid background in recent learning theories and best practice. Motivation and individualisation are some of the main driving forces behind a successful modern learning process.

photograph and think about how to complete the task. At this stage, note-taking is recommended. The picture description is followed by the student responding to questions just like before.

Task 2 is a new task that will be based on visual input. The student and the interviewer will have to act out a situation and come to a decision. In this part of the speaking test, the students have two minutes to think about the situation and plan their ideas. At this stage, note-taking is not allowed.

The student’s performance will be rated by an assessor on a 6-point marking scale (0 to 5) according to the following criteria: task completion, vocabulary, grammar, fluency and pronunciation.

To conclude, the new Year 9 examination in English will be slightly longer than the current examination, however, most of the tasks used will be familiar to students and their teachers. Teacher training sessions will be held in autumn/winter 2013 to inform teachers of how to conduct the new speaking test and how to assess the writing and speaking papers. The materials of the examination as well as the marking scales will be available on the Innove website.

ReferencesCouncil of Europe. 2001. Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: learning,

teaching, assessment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Põhikooli riiklik õppekava. Lisa 2 [National Curriculum for Basic Schools. Appendix 2: Foreign

Languages.] Riigi Teataja I, 2011, 1, 14.

MOTIVATION AND E-LEARNING: THE EXPERIENCE OF BLENDED LEARNING

Kristina Mullamaa, PhD Language Centre, University of Tartu, Estonia

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Also, observation of the learning process, feedback collection and analysis are essential.

In our article, we analyse the effects of blended learning (i.e. combined on-line + “in-class” learning) on student motivation and capacity to grow into independent and self-sufficient learners.

2. Student Motivation and Dynamic Learner/Teacher Roles2.1. Motivation

Web-based learning necessarily implies a great amount of student responsibility. This, in its turn, requires motivation, which is essential for a learning process to take place.

What is motivation? In general, definitions of motivation in education emphasise the eagerness, willingness and readiness of people to try, achieve or acquire something. As Rob Dean (2010) points out, for motivation to occur, for the students there needs to be:

•an interest in the topic•the will to understand and do more•the feeling that one can understand and can do more

In theories of motivation, motivation is often divided into extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. Theobald (2006:1) points out that for some students it is essential to resort to extrinsic tools to increase their motivation. This tends to be the factor behind most of the justification behind teacher-centred teaching. Intrinsic motivation, on the other hand, has been seen as “the ultimate goal of educators for their students” (ibid.). Intrinsic motivation goes hand in hand with student-centred learning. When we speak about student-centred teaching, we in fact imply that students should have the wish and skills to be independent learners and to take responsibility for their learning process. How can we make students reach this? Intrinsic motivation is often attributed to finding a value in what students do. Theobald (2006:1) holds:

“Helping students find value in learning through the implementation of various instructional strategies and multiple alternative and authentic forms of assessments, while maintaining high standards of student performance in an environment which encourages students to do their best work by effective, nurturing teachers, will help increase the motivational levels of all students.”

Dörnyei and Otto (1998:65) give us a definition of motivation in L2 (second/foreign language) learning:

“In a general sense, motivation can be defined as the dynamically changing cumulative arousal in a person that initiates, directs, coordinates, amplifies, terminates, and evaluates the cognitive and motor processes whereby initial wishes and desires are selected, prioritised, operationalised and (successfully or unsuccessfully) acted out.”

Judy Copage (2013) stresses the importance of motivation through learner autonomy. Some of the main criteria, according to her, are the conditions in which our students can choose, be independent and sense and develop responsibility.

Hasanbegovic (2005) has reviewed a study on the impact of intrinsic motivation on e-learning in authentic computer tasks by Martens et al. 2004. The study allows her to conclude:

“In line with the motivation theory of Ryan and Deci it is predicted and evidenced that intrinsically motivated students do more in a fixed time period as a result of their higher effort and persistence and will do different things in computer environments that allow for this liberty of choice.”

A well-balanced e-learning environment enables students to feel intrinsic motivation and to stay motivated throughout the learning process. It also enables one to view and analyse the progress and set new realistic goals. E-learning can be harnessed in the interest of developing modern principles of learning

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and language acquisition concerning motivation. The criteria mentioned above can be met in e-tasks that are programmed to automatically increase the level of difficulty, to adapt to the student’s language level or to repeat areas where the student has made mistakes during previous visits to the electronic environment. In the description above, also the needs for individualisation are met. And obviously, a high-quality e-learning environment meets the needs for a certain amount of playfulness and interaction.

Thus, some of the most important aspects of learning – individualisation, interaction and student motivation – often considered paramount in modern education theories, are necessarily a part and a parcel of a successful e-learning support.

2.2. Increasing Learner Responsibility

In addition to finding joy and pride in learning through intrinsic motivation, the learning process is more efficient when adequately conceptualised and reflected upon. Modern students, especially at the university level, must be able to envision and pursue their goals, i.e. know why and what they need to study, and to be able to design and stick to their personal study plan. An important assumption is that students can take responsibility for their study process, if provided with necessary know-how. Teachers can be of considerable support here. Dörnyei (2001a:37) points out:

“Sharing responsibility with students, offering them options and choices, letting them have a say in establishing priorities, and involving them in the decision-making process enhance student self-determination and intrinsic motivation /.../.”

Wilson (1981:61) points out that student development through the university years can be seen as follows:

“One view is that student growth occurs through an invariant sequence of stages or levels in which progress from stage to stage implies a restructuring and reorganisation of what went before. ‘Higher’ stages are qualitatively different from ‘lower’ stages in terms of the way the individual thinks, feels or acts. Another influential view is that student development is to be seen in terms of mastery of a series of developmental ‘tasks’ which involve the individual’s maturation in the different aspects of intellect, emotions and social relationships.”

Katrin Sachs (2012) stresses the importance of “unconscious learners” becoming “conscious learners”. She concludes:

“/…/ developing students’ self-directing learning skills is not the easiest task, and the teacher’s personal experience may not always be enough. However, going through the procedure with students step-by-step, starting with asking questions about the learner’s goals and needs, proceeding with choosing suitable tools and methods and ending with looking at best ways of evaluating the process and reflecting on its progress will lead to a more conscious awareness of the learning process. Furthermore, having a central role in the decision-making process increases the learners’ sense of responsibility and their willingness to take control over their learning process.”

2.3. Modern discourse in professional roles: Changing Teachers’ Roles

Modern education theories also emphasise the importance of neglecting the former rigid models of seeing the students’ minds as “an empty space” to be filled with information. Rather, students’ interest for learning, and their creativity should be developed with the help of encouraging and creative teachers. Today, the role of the teacher is that of an advisor, an expert in the field whose task is to support the students’ development (cf. Mullamaa 2009). This is much more creative and much more challenging than the more traditional “design and control the study process” concepts.

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Dörnyei (2001:35) points out:

“/…/ teachers are powerful motivational socialisers. Being the officially designated leaders within the classroom, they embody group conscience, symbolise the group’s unity and identity, and serve as a model or a reference/ standard. They also function as an ‘emotional amplifier’ of the group whose appeals and examples are critical for mobilising the group /…/. Simply speaking, to lead means to direct and energise, that is, to motivate.”

In education, as elsewhere, increased cooperation and neglecting the earlier rigid borderlines, is becoming more and more common practice. Day and Sachs (2004:7) indicate: “The core democratic professionalism is an emphasis on collaborative, cooperative action between teachers and other educational stakeholders.” Kiggins and Cambourne (2007:368-379) emphasise the importance of a “triadic partnership” (ibid. 374) from the very beginning of training of young teachers. Kiggins and Cambourne (ibid.) stress: “/…/ trust becomes a required element in the knowledge building process, and if friendship and trust are not present among the student cohort, this process is unlikely to occur”.

It definitely takes some courage from the teacher to give free rein to a group of teenagers. You have to accept a certain amount of insecurity, as there is no way to predict how each group of students approaches their course and the e-learning environment. However, in our experience, supporting student autonomy shows that there is a trust for the teacher and an increased responsibility for the learning process. Students are innovative and creative and accepting, and making them explicitly share responsibility for the process and outcome motivates them to come forward with fascinating and useful ideas. Karm and Remmik (2010) stress the importance of university teacher’s routes of development. They (ibid.) note that only if a teacher has understood the underlying importance of her teaching viz-a-viz the teaching skills, the development of one’s field of specialisation, and personal development of students, does the need for further education occur. And we believe, it is often in the course of further education and mentoring that further processes of self-monitoring, improving one’s teaching and conceptualising one’s role occur. Thus, the challenges teachers are facing today are significantly more serious and demanding. The amount of responsibilities that today go along with the teaching profession per se has increased significantly. As Day and Sachs (2004:7) point out: “It suggests that the teacher has a wider responsibility than the single classroom and includes contributing to the school, the system, other students, the wider community and collective responsibilities of teachers themselves as a group and the broader profession /…/.”

In many countries, the codes of ethics for teachers have been developed (in 2004 in Estonia). Further education training programmes are carried out. However, traditional, teacher-centred teaching styles are regrettably still favoured by some representatives of the teaching staff as well as parents. The formulation of the code of ethics for university teachers is currently in progress. Discussions in the media on the issue are strongly encouraged. Further education programmes for university teachers have been worked out and they are attended by an increasing number of teaching staff. There are also different mentoring projects taking place. In all these endeavours the issues of ethics, the role boundaries, as well as the contribution to society, are clearly present. On the positive side, we see an active discussion on the core issues in the media, and an active appeal for modern and child- and student-centred approaches in training and teachers’ learning communities.

3. The Possibilities for e-learning: Individualisation, Activating the Students, and Learning Concepts in Situated Meanings

As Normak (2010) points out, the environment in which learners develop is crucial for success. Normak

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(ibid.) analyses sources of research on early child development and the development of logical thinking, reaching the conclusion that a safe learning environment from the very early years on and certain playfulness are essential for developing thinking and becoming successful learners and members of society. E-learning has plentiful possibilities for catering for such needs also in the later stages of learning. As pointed out above, the possibilities for e-learning include individualisation (through motivation and dynamic educational roles) and activating the students. The principle of learning concepts in situated meanings is also an important aspect to consider. Gee (2009:15) points out that students need to acquire and try out the contents of concepts in situations that teach and test their real meaning. Only then does true learning take place. Without that, students may be able to complete seemingly perfect “pen and paper” tests. However, at closer testing, they prove not to be able to solve real problems (cf. Gardner 1991, in Gee 2009:15). We suggest that web-based learning solutions offer the learners the possibilities for making the learning process more interesting and challenging. Some of the capacities here are attractive and enthusing, in this being similar to what has, for example, been pointed out as the educational reserve of video games. J. P. Gee (2009:15-22) suggests that the principles these follow often relate to the principles of encouraging active learning. Out of the capacities that Gee relates to positive learning techniques in video-games (Gee 2009:22), we associate with professionally designed e-learning the following: interactivity, adaptability, a gradual build-up of the level of difficulty, and following the principle of the “cycle of expertise”. Also, the modernity of the medium and its parallels to the developments in virtually all other spheres of human life, where the digital revolution reaches from citizen journalism to museum pedagogy (cf. Gottlieb 2009:26-37), help to make it attractive. A SRI International for the Department of Education in Estonia (http://www.ed.gov/rschstat/eval/tech/evidence-based-practices/finalreport.pdf) demonstrates that the learning results that have been reached by using ICT solutions are more profound than the learning results achieved through using traditional learning methods:

“On average, students in online learning conditions performed better than those receiving face-to-face instruction. Over the 12-year span, the report found 99 studies in which there were quantitative comparisons of online and classroom performance for the same courses. The analysis for the Department of Education found that, on average, students doing some or all of the course online would rank in the 59th percentile in tested performance, compared with the average classroom student scoring in the 50th percentile.”

As pointed out above, research has also shown that the focus in training future capable members of society should be on not only forwarding information and accumulating knowledge, but also on training working in groups, adaptation to changes, and applying technological change. Blended learning offers splendid opportunities for this. Individualisation, activating the students and learning concepts in situated meanings develop students´ skills in managing independent self-directed learning and at the same time building up trust. The focus in training future capable members of society should be on not only forwarding information and accumulating knowledge, but also on training working in groups, adaptation to changes, and applying technological change. Below, let us take a look at how this can be done, using ICT using our practical experience with language teaching as an illustration for this.

4. The Experience of Using ICT in Blended Learning

In our experience, ICT has proved to be a good environment for teaching general language courses, as well as for teaching/learning terminology and ESP (English for Specific Purposes). The courses have been conducted following two basic models:

a) as complementary to ordinary classroom teaching, i.e. the web-based courses usually run parallel to

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the face-to-face seminars. Their primary goal is to support what has been learned in the classroom and thus they mainly include exercises on texts/grammar covered in the classroom.

b) as “true” blended learning courses, where there is a clear-cut “live” learning and teaching period in the classroom, which is then followed by a clear-cut “on-line” learning period. This experience has recently proved to be most fertile, as students often need to combine their work and academic life. Also, the on-line module fosters their need to and capacity for independent goal-setting, time-planning and achieving (cf. above).

c) also the classroom-based – on-line – “back to classroom” model can be used. In addition to learning and acquiring new vocabulary in English and Swedish, the courses aim at helping students to form their personal opinion and being able to express it on issues topical in one’s field of specialisation, as well as topics of general interest (links to topical articles and hot debates both in Estonia and abroad, web-links, multimedia resources).

Exercises designed as an extension to activities carried out in the classroom support the acquisition of vocabulary, forming one’s personal opinion, and being able to express it on topical issues. It enables students to understand their area of specialisation and many other important issues in a wider context and to put it into a perspective that stretches beyond their university, country, and continent.

As students actively load up materials themselves, the e-course environment becomes a shared resource for the group and teacher, where both on-line activity and classroom face-to-face sessions complement the learning process. Allowing students to be co-creators of the learning materials is, as we know, an important factor in student-centred teaching.

The web-based solutions also offer good possibilities for carrying out eye-to-eye lessons in the computer classroom. The ICT solutions can be used as a support for different classroom activities, e.g. the group-work and pair-work assignments in class, but also for follow-up independent work on classroom activities for students with a different learning style, or as preparatory work. The goal in all these instances is to encourage student-centred learning and the principles of individualisation (different interests/ levels/ needs). E-learning as a support for learning in the classroom enables us to make the study process more flexible and to better take into consideration the needs of different students. The students are active and “a part of the process”.

For example, the Web-based environment can host different multimedia possibilities for developing speaking skills. It may be done in many different ways. Many of these are simple to organise, yet popular among the students. Among the favourites of our students have been the jig-saw pair-work activities that involve “voice-over” exercises on video-clips. This entails watching different video-clips, answering the different questions to both students that become in essence a short summary of the clip they have seen, and finally, replaying the respective videos with one’s partner with the voice on mute, the respective student in charge of a certain video providing a voice-over. If you find an informative and interesting clip on a subject area you are currently working on with advanced students or an ESP group, such an activity can provide students with the latest information, buzz-words and key expressions on the subject area, at the same time offering them a fair amount of challenge.

Another popular activity is finding additional information on the texts, phenomena or people spoken about in our articles or student presentations. We often build this up as a group-work activity. While in ordinary class-room settings the feedback information from the buzz groups remains preserved in our memory, or at paper boards, the ICT learning environment enables students to access their final feedback posted there also later during the course, wherever they are – at home or in Hawaii. The current licences also allow us to keep the courses open for participants for at least half a year after attending the course, thus offering perfect possibilities for a longitudinal learning process, and revisiting the materials beyond the official end of the learning cycle. This possibility, coupled with the attention of students from parallel groups and “future generations”, is most stimulating, and even encourages them to have an unofficial

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friendly competition on whose report or PowerPoint presentation looks the best.

To sum up, ICT as a support for ordinary class-room teaching, and as a part of it, has the obvious benefits of easy access whenever and wherever you wish it, dematerialisation (less paper – more trees), enabling us to use modern methodologies, individualisation, possibilities to develop contacts beyond our university, state, continent (“broadening the horizons”; “real English”, or other foreign language). Students have an overview of topical issues, their context and background, easy access for quickly finding inspiration for (continuing) the conversation, developing the skills for finding the right information, analysing, presenting and discussing it, developing the skills for using the e-environment and new technologies, developing responsibility for the learning process, forming one’s own opinion and learning to (dare to!) express it.

We believe that e-learning offers good possibilities for self-development, on-line discussion and progressing towards one’s goals in an academic e-environment where prompt teacher feedback and on-line communication with group-mates still helps one to build a framework to one’s development. Importantly, access to on-line courses may also be the only option for students who for financial reasons need to work in parallel to their university studies, and would not be able to attend a lecture at a given time or place. Also, students who may have suffered from some health problems, or are living abroad for some period of time are able to attend and have been grateful for this opportunity. Thus, we believe, there is also a social and ethical dimension to offering such courses, and through this, a possibility for participation and inclusion for those who would otherwise miss it.

5. The Ethical Dimension: Building Trust

A Chinese proverb says: “Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself.” Our task is to encourage students. But it is not only the new vocabulary a good language course should give them. It is essential to consider the fact that the immediacy of the information and news reaching our students (through this new language) gives them an opportunity to be informed of and shape their opinion on important topics relating to our society and the “here and now”. We wish to remind us all that, as many renowned sociologists and researchers (cf. e.g. Cronin 2002, Pym 2005) have stressed, it is not enough to have an opinion – an educated person must express it to shape the society we live in. Indeed, much of the knowledge and ideas in the modern 2.0/3.0 Web world are related to who has the information and who has it first. And who else should be encouraged to learn to use it to the best of their capacity and following all the ethical principles than students of foreign languages, who in many ways are and become the window to/from the world of their own society and culture.

Anatole France has said “nine tenths of education is encouragement”. There can be no encouragement without trust (cf. Kiggins and Cambourne 2007: 374 in 2.2. above). As teaching in general, so can also e-learning be organised in different ways. For some, it may be a ready-made environment created by the teacher. Such an environment is often teacher-controlled, students present filled-in exercises and self-tests, get marks, use is made of “the teacher’s button” with which to control the computers of students when we work together in the computer classroom. In contrast to this, we have chosen to build our courses on the principles of trust. We believe that students can manage, are (almost) grown-ups, can take responsibility, are (to a great extent) responsible for their study process. Much depends on the teacher’s authority type – whether the teacher is autonomy-supporting or controlling. Dörnyei (2001a:37) points out: “Sharing responsibility with students, offering them options and choices, letting them have a say in establishing priorities, and involving them in the decision-making process enhance student self-determination and intrinsic motivation /../.”

In education, as elsewhere, increased cooperation and neglecting of the earlier rigid borderlines is becoming more and more of a common practice. Such an approach also helps students to retain their motivation. Cocea and Weibelzahl (2006: 2–3) point to the connection between e-learning and the Social Cognitive Learning Theory (SCT). In their view, personalization, adaptivity, affective tutoring and collaborative learning, as well as motivation – all aspects we have also emphasized above – help to

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increase student satisfaction and learning quality:

“Personalization aims to make learning more effective and satisfying by adapting to the learner’s needs and preferences. Among the benefits of adapting to the learner’s motivation are: enhanced motivation and involvement, empowered learners – making them more responsible and active, increased satisfaction, better quality of learning etc.

Motivation is related to affective computing /…/, because self-concepts are always charged with emotions. Thus, affective agents could be used for both assessing motivation and intervention.

SCT also fits with collaborative learning, given the social framework taken in consideration by this theory and the way learning is influenced by the social context.”

Rather contrary to what is sometimes supposed of a web-based environment, the experience shows that it often joins the students in the group. Offering them the possibility to communicate in an environment “natural” for them, the web-based course enables the students to participate and open up. It also serves to join the different terms (over X-mas, during the summer vacation), different parallel groups (e.g. Group A and Group B learning the same subject), different years of students learning the same subject. This can be supported through helping students create common databases. In our case, the different PowerPoint presentations and on-line dictionaries created by students have been the most popular items, especially so when the database is built up over different study years and together with the parallel group(s). Needless to say, the profiles of friends from a parallel group, and their small roster presentations of themselves also deserve great interest by the fellow students. And while commonly created on-line dictionaries can prove motivating for learning (and creating!) terminology and ESP for advanced students, consider how useful even creating a small roster presentation, or reading those of others, can be for a beginner-level general language student in the first months of their learning practice/ studies.

Analysing our past and current courses we may see that the Web-based environment can help to develop the sense of belonging together. In addition to common learning activities mentioned above, this can also be done through documenting different joint activities. Different common study visits or museum visits, especially when also documented, shared, discussed and analysed through the Web, all give their share. Creating a feeling of belonging enables students to open up, to share more information about themselves to group-mates. The supportive experience in “real life” encourages students to share more information digitally. And also vice versa - the information presented in the virtual world makes a good foundation for developing good relations in the classroom. Such processes of merging the virtual with real life, relying on technologies to find a feeling of belonging, and rejoicing over the friends’ real life presence happens all the time in many modern lives today. Allowing our students to pursue this way, we allow them to communicate and develop in modes and context familiar to and inspiring for them. ICT can also help to create special “bridges” between the study periods, different study-years and student groups, helping to shape the feeling of “us”.

6. Conclusion

As demonstrated in the article above, values and ethics may guide teachers through choosing their medium, procedures and communication patterns for communicating with their students. Behind many of the seemingly practical choices, there is a worldview based on active research and recent theoretical approaches. Many years of teaching practice and – as a teacher in different learning groups – participant observation also helps to analyse and shape the processes. E-learning in language learning is possible and can be stimulating. Hopefully, anchorage in deeper theories, principles and ethics can support students in making meaningful choices.

With the development of e-learning and blended learning, endless opportunities for novelties, development and change are created. Students are becoming more and more engaged, the communication and learning are less and less teacher-centred. In these developments the role of teachers, students, and learning itself are continuously changing to offer exiting possibilities for further development. Many of

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these developments are to be discovered in the work process together with the students and colleagues from all over the world. Hopefully, a student-centred approach based on individualisation, increasing the student motivation, and responsibility, as well as accepting the new and dynamic learner/teacher roles can be of support on this way. Blended learning can successfully be one of the possible paths to take in order to pursue these goals.

REFERENCES

Copage, J. 2013. The power of choice: motivation through learner autonomy. Lecture given at the further education training of English teachers in Estonia on March 5, 2013. Organised by Pearson and AS Dialoog, hotel London, Tartu.

Cronin, M. 2002. The Empire Talks Back: Orality, Heteronomy and the Cultural Turn in Interpreting Studies. In F. Pöchhacker, M. Shlesinger (eds.). The Interpreting Studies Reader, 393-397. London and New York: Routledge.

Day, C., J. Sachs. 2004. Professionalism, performativity and empowerment: discourses in the politics, policies and purposes of continuing professional development. In C. Day, J. Sachs (eds.), International Handbook on the Continuing Professional Development of Teachers, 3-33. Glasgow: Open University Press. Bell & Brain Ltd.

Dean, R. 2010. On the Road to Success. Seminar organized by Pearson/Longman and AS Dialoog. Tartu, Estonia, April 2010.

Dörnyei, Z. 2001a. Teaching and Researching Motivation. Pearson Education Limited, Malaysia, LSP.Dörnyei, Z. 2001b. Motivational Strategies in the Language Classroom. Cambridge University Press.Dörnyei, Z, I. Otto. 1998. Motivation in action: A process model of L2 motivation. Working Papers in

Applied Linguistics. London: Thames Valley University, 4: 43-69.Gardner, H. 1991. The unschooled mind. How children think and how schools should teach. New York:

Basic Books.Gee, J. P. 2008. Är videospel bra vid inlärning? [Are videogames good for knowledge acquisition]?,

Kulturens Studia Generalia, Svenska kulturfonden, Oy Nord Print, 8-23.Gottlieb, H. 2008. Digitala pedagogiska artefakter – nya verktyg för pedagoger och intendenter. [Digital

artefacts – new tools for teachers and museum personnel]. Kulturens Studia Generalia, Svenska kulturfonden, Oy Nord Print, 25-38.

Hasanbegovic, J. 2005. Review of Martens, R. L. et al (2004). The impact of intrinsic motivation on e-learning in authentic computer tasks. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 20: 368–376 (electronic version). Retrieved October, 2009, from http://www.elearning-reviews.org/topics/pedagogy/readiness/2004-martens-et-al-impact-intrinsic-motivation-elearning-authentic-computer-tasks/

Karm, M., M. Remmik. 2013. Academics’ professional development as teachers. In press.Kiggins, J., B. Cambourne. 2007. The knowledge building community program. In T. Townsend, R. Bates

(eds.), Handbook of Teacher Education. Globalization, Standards and Professionalism in Times of Change, 365-381. Springer.

Mullmaa, K. 2009. Ethics in Teaching: Should We Do More? Humanising Language Teaching, Year 11, Issue 3, (Electronic version). Retrieved April 2010, from http://www.hltmag.co.uk/jun09/sart01.htm

Normak, P. 2010. Mida juhtida ehk kuidas juhtida juhtimatut? [What to lead or how to lead what cannot be lead?] Lecture presented at the e-learning conference E-learning – a serious game in Tallinn, Estonia, in April 2010.

Pym, A. 2005. Action Research in Translation Studies. Paper presented at the conference New Research in Translation and Interpreting Studies, International Studies Group, Tarragona, Spain, 7–8 October 2005.

Sachs, K. 2012. Developing self-directed learning. Voices. The bi-monthly newsletter of the International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language (IATEFL), 226: 4-5.

SRI International for the Department of Education in Estonia. Retrieved October 2009, from http://www.ed.gov/rschstat/eval/tech/evidence-based-practices/finalreport.pdf

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Theobald, M. 2006. Increasing Student Motivation. Strategies for Middle and High School Teachers. Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin Press. A SAGE Publications Company.

Wilson, J. D. 1981. Student Learning in Higher Education. New York – Toronto: Croom Helm London.

Kristina Mullamaa (PhD) is a lecturer of English and Swedish at the University of Tartu, Estonia. Kristina Mullamaa majored in English Philology (BA cum laude in 1996, MA cum laude in 2000, PhD 2006) and in European Studies at Tartu University (MA in 2004). She has also studied Swedish at Uppsala and Stockholm universities in Sweden (1996, 1998, 2001), the International Doctorate Programme in Translation and Intercultural Studies at Universitat Rovira i Virgili in Tarragona, Spain (DEA, 2005). In 2010-2011 she carried out post-doc research as a guest researcher at Stockholm University in Sweden. From 2011 she is heading the Estonian Science Foundation research group on interpreting research.

Her current research interests focus on student-centred learning, the professional development of university teachers, personal and professional roles, motivation and ethics.

Kristina Mullamaa is a member of the International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language (IATEFL), the Estonian Association of Teachers of English (EATE), the Estonian Association of Teachers of Swedish (ERKOS), member of the Teacher Training Seminars Organisers’ and Language Teaching work-groups, and Language Tests work group at the Language Centre of the University of Tartu.

INTRODUCING THE INTERNET-BASED TOEFL TEST

Epp Kirss Educational AdviserEducationUSA Advising CenterTallinn University of Technology

Mare Roes Lecturer of EnglishTallinn University of Technology

The TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) test evaluates students’ English skills to succeed academically in English-speaking universities. Since 2013 TOEFL is one of the international tests the scores of which could replace the English school-leaving exam.

On August 23 and 24, 2013, the Internet-based TOEFL test was introduced to Estonian high-school teachers. Franziska Rühl from ETS Global made a presentation at EATE Summer Seminar in Pärnu and conducted a special Propell workshop in Tartu Miina Härma Gymnasium (the next Propell workshop will be organised by EducationUSA Advising Center in November in Tallinn).

What is the TOEFL test? The TOEFL iBT test, administered via the Internet, is an important part of students’ application process to university programs taught in English. The test measures

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test-takers’ ability to use and understand English at the university level and evaluates how well they combine their listening, reading, speaking and writing skills to perform academic tasks. The TOEFL test has more than 4500 testing sites in more than 165 countries, and it is accepted by more than 8500 institutions, immigration authorities and scholarship agencies. There are two TOEFL iBT test centers in Estonia: Tallinn University of Technology where the test is conducted 3–4 times a month and University of Tartu Library where the testing takes place once a month.

History. The TOEFL test was developed in the early 1960s to assess English language proficiency of non-native speakers wishing to study in US universities. The test was originally developed at the Center for Applied Linguistics under the direction of Dr. Charles A. Ferguson, Stanford University Applied Linguistics Professor. Starting from the late 1960s, the TOEFL test has been administered by the Educational Testing Service (ETS), the testing company which has developed the test with the help of a world-class team of test developers, educational measurement specialists, statisticians and researchers. Since its inception in 1963, the TOEFL test has evolved from a paper-based test to a computer-based test and, in 2005, to an internet-based test. Even more important than the changes in the method of test delivery are the changes in the test’s construct and content. The first TOEFL test evaluated separate English language skills such as grammar, vocabulary and comprehension. Now the TOEFL iBT evaluates not only the separate English language skills (reading, writing, speaking, listening), but also the test-taker’s ability to combine them, as many academic tasks require the use of these skills in integrated manner.

TOEFL iBT Test Sections

Section Time Limit Questions Tasks

Reading 60–80 minutes

35–56 questions

Read 3 or 4 passages from academic texts and answer questions.

Listening 60–90 minutes

34–51 questions

Listen to lectures, classroom discussions and conversations, and then answer questions.

Break 10 minutes — —

Speaking 20 minutes 6 tasks Express an opinion on a familiar topic; speak based on reading and listening tasks.

Writing 50 minutes 2 tasks Write essay responses based on reading and listening tasks; support an opinion in writing.

On taking the TOEFL iBT, the test-takers should perform tasks that combine more than one skill, such as:• Read, listen and then speak in response to a question• Listen and then speak in response to a question• Read, listen and then write in response to a question

During the speaking section, test-takers wear headphones and speak into a microphone when they respond. The responses are digitally recorded and transmitted to ETS where human scorers rate them.

Test delivery. The TOEFL test will be administered on fixed dates in a network of internet-based test centers. The test is up to four or five hours long, including the check-in, and the computer is the official timekeeper. There is a mandatory 10-minute break in the test. All sections will be completed in one day. Note-taking is allowed (scratch paper will be provided) – test takers can take notes on any section of the test and they can use notes when answering the questions.

Scores. The TOEFL test uses a centralized scoring method, independent of the test center, to ensure

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the security and validity of scores. Multiple raters are used to evaluate the speaking and writing sections of the test – and all raters are monitored daily to ensure the scores they give are fair and objective.

Scores will be reported to the test-takers online. In order to be more “green” and reduce paper and shipping, ETS will send paper copies of score reports only if the student selects this option during registration.

Each examinee’s score report provides the four section scores on a 0–30 score scale and the total score on a 0–120 scale. The scores will be posted online and mailed to the universities and institutions test-taker has selected approximately 15 days after the test date.

Experience of teaching TOEFL iBT by Mare Roes. After having taught English for over 20 years by now, this August I had a chance to teach a TOEFL iBT summer course for the first time. Since I was only broadly aware of the test details before that, I had not really delved into it. So, to teach it, I first had to learn things myself. It took me a couple of months to get through different books and online resources and to take some of the practice tests myself. Here I would like to share my personal experience of teaching TOEFL iBT to my students.

In my opinion, our Estonian education tends to be largely fact-based. Academic skills such as note-taking, paraphrasing, summarizing, synthesizing seem not to get too much attention in our schools. However, critical reading, logical thinking, combining information from different sources are all skills essential when studying at a university. To do well in TOEFL iBT, a student needs to have a good idea of those skills.As with every exam or test, the test-takers must be familiar with the tasks and requirements. My experience was that initially students were most afraid of the parts where they had to actively produce the language themselves (speaking, writing), and combine different skills (integrated tasks). Once familiar with the procedure, the fear vanished quite quickly.

Our present English school-leaving exam and several internal university exams concentrate mostly on pure language skills – reading, listening, speaking and writing. In real life, however, one rarely needsonly one of these skills at a time. Usually people need the knowledge to combine those skills. One advantage of TOEFL iBT is that, in addition to testing “pure” skills, it also includes integrated tasks which combine either two or three of these skills.

Speaking was a task feared most by some learners. Although our students generally have quite a good command of English and speaking should not create problems, the strict time limits make things more complicated. Initially the preparation and response time for speaking tasks (15 and 45 seconds respectively for independent tasks and 20–30 and 60 seconds for integrated tasks) seemed both too short and too long for the students. However, the main problem did not seem to be speaking itself but preparing for that – making notes and organizing the speech logically. As for the brief preparation time, it has a very logical explanation. In the university environment, a student should be ready to respond to professors’ questions and usually 15 seconds is the time given to come up with the response. So we can say that by teaching our students skills to do well in the test, we also provide them with invaluable skills for future academic success.

Another task thought to be hard was writing. Again, the time limit seemed to be the problem for many students. In addition to that, there was also insufficient knowledge of how to organize ideas effectively, logically. Teaching that should not be only an English teacher’s task though.

To summarize, I found the experience of teaching TOEFL iBT extremely useful for me as an English teacher. It does not only train students to recognize certain types of questions or memorize certain useful verbal constructions. It also teaches students basic academic skills they will need in their further studies either abroad or in Estonia.

SOME USEFUL RESOURCES

More information about the TOEFL test in Estonia, textbooks, passwords for online practice tests and test-prep courses:

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Following the principle of life-long learning, I decided, as a teacher and a school manager, to further educate myself in different teaching approaches. I chose to participate in a Neuro-Linguistic Programming for Teachers Course held at the University of Kent in Canterbury from 7 to 20 July 2013. The city is best known for Canterbury Cathedral, being the destination of Chaucer’s pilgrimage in The Canterbury Tales and the place of Thomas à Becket’s murder. During the course, I also had the chance to visit this monumental and famous sight. Because of the course, Canterbury itself became a destination not for pilgrims but for English teachers from ten countries – Estonia, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Turkey, Russia, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Greenland and the United States of America. Our trainer was Bonnie Tsai, an American teacher and teacher trainer who has studied the theory and practice of Multiple Intelligence in Harvard University. She is a life-long trainer with Pilgrims, the company responsible for the organisation of the course.

Most of the participants of the course were secondary or vocational school teachers. Only one other person, in addition to myself, was a teacher in a non-public school. The presence of a school manager in a course full of teachers created an excellent opportunity for role plays, having teachers face headmasters, which enabled us to better understand each other’s viewpoints. Little did we know that this understanding was one of the lessons neuro-linguistic programming helped us achieve. The approach itself is a golden oldie, originating from the 1970s, but still relevant in today’s context when self-improvement is all the rage. The approach is strongly built on self-analysis and follows the belief that when you figure out who you are and what you want then it is possible to attain it. The main four skills of NLP are outcome focus (knowing what you want), strategic thinking (figuring out where you are and where you want to be), sensory acuity (picking out what you need and being able to use it in every situation) and behavioural flexibility (being able to switch tactics). These four pillars can hardly be argued against as they support a self-reflexive and context-based approach to teaching.

What interested me most in the course is that it created an analogy between teachers-students and school managers-teachers. Being both an active teacher and a school manager, I found the applicability of teaching methods to teacher management fascinating. As teachers are aware, students can be either external, internal or a mixture of the two. While external people require feedback to their actions and want someone else to decide on their goals, internal people want to set their own goals and do not necessarily want feedback from above. The course taught me not only to analyse my behaviour towards guiding my students but also my teachers who may prefer different leading styles. In Emajõe Language School, I have always valued and tried to implement an individual approach to students; so why not do the same for teachers who, after all, are not a coherent group but have different preferences and learning styles.

EducationUSA Advising Center, Tallinn University of Technology Contact: EducationUSA@ttu.ee, tel. 6203543; 6203546. www.eac.ttu.eeTOEFL Test Prep Planner: http://www.ets.org/s/toefl/pdf/toefl_student_test_prep_planner.pdfTOEFL TV: http://www.youtube.com/TOEFLtv TOEFL iBT Quick Prep: http://www.ets.org/toefl/ibt/prepare/quick_prep TOEFL website: http://www.ets.org/toefl

NEURO-LINGUISTIC PROGRAMMING

Signe Laigu Emajõe Language School, Tartu

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My aim is to make sure that teachers are motivated and I have to adjust my behaviour and demands based on what works for individual teachers in order to get the optimal results. According to what I learned in the NLP course, people tend to motivated either by what they want or what they want to avoid. While students may want to be able to speak correctly, they want to avoid learning grammar. While teachers want their students to be motivated to learn English, they want to avoid the extra work that reflecting on their classes and asking for feedback demands. All people have tasks they regularly do, which they are reluctant to do, but which still get done. Figuring out what strategies they use and giving information on different strategies may improve the completion of everyday tasks. The main thing to remember is that people are also motivated in different ways in alternative contexts and your behaviour should adapt to it.

One of the first methods according to NLP is modelling, which means adopting the behaviours, verbal and non-verbal language, strategies and beliefs of the person to whom you are talking. Next, it is useful to adopt the meta model, which is a set of specific questions that are aimed at challenging and expanding the person’s views. These questions include “How do you know that something is true?”, “What would happen if…?”, “Do you mean NOBODY/ALWAYS…?”, “What exactly is bothering you?”, “What prevents you from doing something differently?”, etc. The NLP course advocates a conscious observation and management of the self and communication styles with others in order to make sure the right strategies are used.

One of the main and most productive means of communication between teachers and school managers are performance reviews. These are another example of how student-teacher and teacher-manager relations resemble each other. Similarly to students, teachers also have their own learning style. NLP uses the model of representational systems or sensory modalities known as V.A.K.O.G, an abbreviation for five senses – visual, auditory, kinesthetic, olfactory (smell) and gustatory (taste). While general school education is mostly based on visual learners and the others tend to be neglected due to the importance of maintaining coherence, figuring out which type of learners teachers are enables a more productive approach to finding mutual understanding and solutions. School is inevitably an institution in which evaluating results is necessary, but it is important to remember that critical feedback is not failure but a renewed opportunity for success. And when analysing mistakes, it is important to also mark things done right.

The main lessons I take with me from the training are to do with self-analysis and trying to look at oneself from the first, the second and the third person point of view. If there is something that I do not like, then I should do my best to change it. And if I cannot change it, then I should change my attitude. People are different and everyone works best in very alternating conditions. However, some lessons are universal. The division of responsibility to others is important because the more responsibility you take as a teacher or school manager, the less responsibility they take as students or teachers. We all have the resources we need; we just have to choose the right approaches to uncover them. I believe my choice to attend the NLP course enabled me to uncover a number of wonderful people, teachers who it was a thrill to work with during my week in Canterbury and who I would be glad to cooperate with again, perhaps even in a future conference organised by my school here in Estonia.

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Dear Colleagues,

I am writing to tell you about my reactions to an article [1] I read recently about children today being ever less and less able to fend for themselves because they have not been potty-trained by the time they go to kindergarten, or have not been allowed to use a knife until they are in their teens, or have never had to walk home from school and consequently, at age ten, do not know in which direction to start going when told to do so.

Unfortunately, this learned helplessness seems to translate into issues in the English classroom as well, and into the exam situation. Even if a student is working in class, they might often get things wrong because they feel reading a whole page of text to find an answer to something is too much trouble. Or they do not bother to read the instructions that come with each task. They may think they know better and display the attitude of “Why does it matter how I do it if the choice is correct? Why does it matter whether I tick the correct answer, or put a cross next to it, or circle it, or underline it?”

There are probably places where this really does not matter, but there are also very many where it does, e.g. in applications and at international exams. So does the ability to keep to a specific word limit, or to write for a specific target audience. And in spite of the format of the national school-leaving exam in English changing a little in the coming spring, there is a task type in it that both has been and will be there that is extremely good for practicing reading instructions, and writing as a direct response to what has been read. This is the (semi-)formal letter.

Although (semi-)formal letters have been a part of our national exam since its dawn, they tend to be a source of innumerable mistakes, many of which seem to be connected to the inability to read, understand, and follow instructions.

So, having used the approximately 700 exam papers I read this spring as source material (anything in italics below comes directly from some exam paper), I have coined several letters in answer to the first exam task, which can at this point be found on SA Innove webpage [2]. Obviously I have taken some liberties and condensed the problematic bits and left all the boring good language out. Practice your skills of thinking and assessment, and your ability to explain why under any circumstances and no matter what the question. If in doubt, discuss with your students

All the best, and good luck at any future exams,

Erika Puusemp

(Teacher, Educator, Examiner, Assessor, Item-writer…)

REFERENCES

• http://rahvahaal.delfi.ee/news/uudised/abitute-laste-polvkond-4-aastased-mahkmetes-ja-8-aastased-ei-oska-kahvlit-hoida.d?id=64719490

• http://www.innove.ee/UserFiles/Riigieksamid/2013/Inglise%20keel%202013/I%20vihik%202013.pdf

A LETTER BY AN EXAM ASSESSOR

Erika Puusemp Miina Härma Gymnasium, Tartu

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Letter 1:

Dear Mr / Mrs Administrator,

I found your ad on the internet with your notes. ECCWSW was offering me to take part of it. I did not know what I am going to do there. To get clear witch some questions of mine, does it mind that beginners are welcome too? I am very beginner. Do we have some brake in the lunch? I was wondering to knew is it costful? What exactly includes „Fee: £89”? Is there homeworks what need Internet using?

Youthfully-FaceFully, Creetings from Jaana

Letter 2:

Dear Sir / Sirs,Hello Edgewater College! Hoping the letter reaches you well.I am writing to your advertisement. I will be residating in England for a mounth. I saw this atvertisment on the internet on Monday, 6 May 2013 and I’m writing this letter to ask about this course.I am willing to get to know when does this upertunity CWSW begins. I cant nowhere read what does the beginners star in that workshop? Does the lunch break counts as a morning and afternoon tee and coffee?In advertisement were mensioned a homework. I want to be informed about the size of my homework.Thirstly, your advertisement asks to find out more by contacting you, but that’s what I’m doing now!All the best,Mart MetsI am looking forward to get learning.Youth FaithDully,Mart Mets

Letter 3:

Dear Mr Street,I am writing on behalf of an advertisement to reply for a summer course. I would like to know: When this college begin? Is it more like a resting workshop? I would like to work in this place. I’m interested in finding out, if the beginners are required. Why the ädvertisement is so short? It is sayd, that to wind out more, I have to contact with you. In my opinion I think I feel like it is just like homework for me.I look forward to receiving from you.Anxiously waiting, MM

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Letter 4:

To: Dear headmister of Edgeware CollegeFrom: Mari MetsSubject: The Internet of Creative WritingDate:

Hello Mari! Contact Edgewater College and find out and tell me about how to attend in summer curse. Does this ingludes beginners to or they teached sepretly? The fee is quite markable amount of money. I am interested in this free money. And what it will? When the workshop finds place. You didn’t manthen dates. Does the afternoon stand for a lunch break? Are there lunch break behind the lessons? Is everything made on the spot? Is that mean we need to satisfy with tea?What is class capacity (in order you could control my skills)?I have one dictionary. Can I read it for homework?I am available at any time and I would appreciate answere from the office. Gaily look forward to seeing you!

Yours faintfully!Mr HensworthM. Hensworth

A few exam tips from: http://www.testtakingtips.com/cramming/index.htm

An apple does a better job at keeping you focused and awake than caffeine.

If time permits, try to get at least 3 hours of sleep (one sleep cycle) before the exam so that you don't fall asleep when taking your exam. Don't forget to set your alarm!

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“Speech is a power: speech is to persuade, to convert, to compel”Ralph Waldo Emerson

On March 7, 2013, the Assembly Hall of the Jewish School of Tallinn was full. Eventually, 28 participants from 19 schools of Estonia and more than 90 supporters and guests came to enjoy the 5th National Public Speaking Competition run by the English-Speaking Union of Estonia. Chris Holtby, HM Ambassador and the Chair of the Panel of Judges, welcomed the audience and wished the participants good luck. The Heats, where all the contestants competed in their groups, made the first round. The speakers had to deliver their five-minute speeches on the theme A House Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand, which they had prepared in advance because it was announced in November 2012 when the Handbook with all the rules and tips was sent out. Then they answered up to three or four questions from the audience. The judges had difficulties choosing the three best speakers out of the nine of a heat because they were all very good. In the second round, the semi-final, 12

winners of their heats had to prepare a three-minute speech on a topic chosen by them 15 minutes before that. No question and answer session followed this round. The list of the semi-finalists was: Mari Marta Makarov and Berit Sootak – Viimsi Kool, Sander Klein – Audentese Spordigümnaasium, Joonas Põder and Heiki Riisikamp – Tallinna Reaalkool, Ruslan Bolkvadze – Tallinna Kesklinna Vene Gümnaasium, Gabriel Oprish – Tallinna Tõnismäe Reaalkool, Oliver Grauberg – Gustav Adolfi Gümnaasium, Aleksandr Milovidov – Jõhvi Vene Gümnaasium, Makar Timofejev – Tallinna Humanitaargümnaasium, Britt Randma – Jakob Westholmi Gümnaasium, Deivi Õis – Tallinna Inglise Kolledž. Then the six finalists who won the

NATIONAL PUBLIC SPEAKING COMPETITION:PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE

Zinaida Jevgrafova Jewish School of Tallinn

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semi-final were announced: Mari Marta Makarov, Berit Sootak, Sander Klein, Joonas Põder, Gabriel Oprish and Deivi Õis. After that, we all moved to Tallinn University where the Final was arranged by Suliko Liiv who has been our judge for all these five years of the National Public Speaking Competition. The finalists delivered their five-minute speeches one more time and answered some questions from the audience. Again all the judges said they had been impressed by the public speaking skills and the high standard of the English language all the finalists had. Here is the list of the judges who had to make the final decision:

Chris Holby, HM Ambassador Robert Gilchrist, Deputy Chief of Mission,US EmbassySuliko Liiv, Professor, Tallinn University,ESU EstoniaPiret Kärtner, Head of Language Policy Department, Ministry of EducationPhillip Marsdale, International Language Services, ESU Estonia

Finally, at the end of the long day and the three-round contest, the best speakers of the National Final 2013 were announced: the winner and audience’s favourite ‒ Deivi Õis, Tallinn English College; the runner-up ‒ Sander Klein, Audentes Sports Gymnasium. Deivi represented Estonia at the International Public Speaking Competition 2013 in May where she delivered a speech on the theme Ideas Are Our Greatest Weapons. A brief video of the fantastic week in London the participants had can be seen at http://www.esu.org/programmes/schools/after-leaving-school/international-public-speaking-competition. We are very grateful to all the organizations, institutions and people who made it possible to run the National Public Speaking Competition 2013 and represent Estonia at the IPSC in London, where Deivi won her heat as well as the semi-final and progressed to the Final. She competed in the Grand Final with five other winners from the USA, Canada, Australia, Malaysia and Lithuania. They all performed equally well and it is a pity that only two can be chosen according to the rules. Deivi is a brilliant speaker. She does her research and prepares her speeches thoroughly. We all are very proud of her and her achievement.

It is possible to listen to all the six finalists’ speeches here: http://vimeo.com/album/2436535

But how did it all start? Here is some background information about us.

The ESU Estonia is a branch of the English-Speaking Union of the Commonwealth, which was founded by Sir Evelyn Wrench in New York in 1918 to promote “international understanding and friendship through the use of the English language”. The ESU, an international educational charity, numbers over 50 international branches in every part of the world as well as almost 40 local branches in the UK and 75 branches in the USA. The English-Speaking Union of Estonia was established at its inaugural meeting in Tallinn on February 1, 2007.

The International Public Speaking Competition is one of the most successful and far-reaching international ESU programmes aimed at young people aged 16–20. The first ESU International Public

A participant delivering a speech

HM Ambassador Chris Holby welcomes the participants

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Speaking Competition was held in London in 1981 and included speakers from three countries. Since then the competition has expanded rapidly, especially after the early 1990s. In 2011, the 30th anniversary of the IPSC, 81 national winners from 48 countries competed against each other in a two-day competition in London. The first ESU Estonia Public Speaking Competition was held on 12 March, 2009 when 13 competitors from six schools of Tallinn battled on the theme Regeneration and Renewal. The winner Ingrid Teesalu from Tallinn Kuristiku Gymnasium and the runner-up Triinu Lepp from Tallinn French Lyceum represented Estonia at the IPSC in London for the

first time in its history. Since then, more and students from all over Estonia have taken part in the National Final of the International Public Peaking Competition. The National Final of 2010 attracted 30 participants from 17 schools of Tallinn, Tartu, Rakvere and Kohtla-Järve, who delivered their speeches on the theme Speculation on Our Future. The winner – Mariel Vain, Tallinn English College, and the runner-up – Martin Kilp, Tartu Miina Härma Gymnasium – competed in London against 75 participants from 45 countries. The NPSC 2011 Lessons for the Future brought 35 participants from 20 schools of Estonia to Tallinn. The winner Maria Silvia Martinson, Tallinn Gustav Adolf Grammar School, and the runner-up Vladimir Svet, Tallinn High School of Humanities, went to London to represent Estonia at the IPSC where Maria progressed to the semi-final with her speech on the theme Words Are Not Enough, winning her Heat against 24 national winners from other countries. Since 2011, there have been two different themes for the National and International Finals. In the National Final 2012, The Wisdom of Youth, 38 participants from 28 schools of Estonia competed in three rounds. Vahur Hansen from Tallinn Gustav Adolf Grammar School, who had participated in the NPSC in 2010 for the first time, won in 2012 and represented Estonia at the IPSC in London. The runner-up was Kelly Toode from Viimsi School, which has taken part in all the National Finals since 2009. Our special thanks go to all the teachers and participants who have worked hard preparing their speeches and delivering them.And what to expect in 2014? There are going to be seven different themes for participants to choose from, which might interest more students to take part in. Our supporters are providing them and have promised to prepare more new prizes. The dates and themes for the NPSC 2014 will be announced in November. The English College of Tallinn is going to host the National Final in March. Our traditional seminar for teachers will be held in November. Jakob Westholm Gymnasium will host a training session for students in January again. All schools will receive an invitation.

Zinaida Jevgrafova is the Head of the English Department and a senior teacher at the Jewish School of Tallinn. She joined the ESU Estonia six years ago and in 2008 was elected a Board Member. She organised the Public Speaking Competition in 2009 and has been the Convenor of the NPSC since then. In 2011 she was elected Chairman of the ESUE.

Deivi Õis in the Grand Final of IPSC 2013

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This article is a follow-up for the previous article Advance bookings only (OPEN No 43) on the issues of writing on, about and for the tourism industry in Estonia. All examples have been collected from Estonian printed materials and websites.

It might be useful to remind ourselves of just how important tourism is in Estonia economically. In 2012, spending by foreign tourists comprised 950 million euros; export of tourism services amounted to 1.24 billion euros; the share of tourism services in export of goods and services fell to 7.4% (after standing at 7.5% in 2011 and 8.8% in 2010). As for employment, tourism made up 12.4% of the total workforce and contributed 12.7% of the GDP in 2011. All in all, 1.87 million foreign tourists stayed overnight in accommodation establishments in the country. Thus, it is clear that tourism makes a considerable contribution to our national economy, earns us money and secures employment for many of us either directly or indirectly.

The Estonian government through its many agencies works to increase the country’s reputation as a destination and to improve awareness in other countries. An example of this tireless work is Brand Estonia (brand.estonia.eu) which contains a number of related materials, a photo and video bank, manuals and so on.

Another tool for promoting the country as a tourism destination is the visitestonia.com portal which has information on things to see and do, destinations, travel and transport, accommodation, a current events calendar and recommendations and tips for planning your trip. It is translated into an impressive number of languages.

The portal provides a wide range of information on tourism businesses, plus links to these companies’ own websites; potential customers can thus check them out or seek further information before making up their mind whether to visit a particular destination. Having said that, it should be noted that not all of the businesses have a website, not all of them have it in foreign languages, or if they do, other constraints occur. These are, by and large, language mistakes (orthography, syntax, phraseology, etc) and contextualisation issues.

Speaking of language mistakes, those in spelling, or rather misspelling, are fairly frequent. This is followed by such issues as using wrong prepositions (particularly in phrasal verbs and set phrases), wrong tense forms (e.g. using Past Simple instead of Present Perfect), mistakes in forming a tense form (e.g. has – have), false friends, collocations and idiomatic expressions. As for the latter, English texts in Estonian materials consistently lack idioms, embellishments, figurative speech and suggestive power of strong and well-chosen adjectives. Estonians usually go for facts and figures in their descriptions and presentation of facilities; thus the number of beds in a guesthouse in the countryside appears to

TWINS AND DOUBLES

Erika Jeret Pärnu College of the University of Tartu

Brand Estonia website.

Visit Estonia website

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be more important than what the stay in this particular guesthouse can do for you, or how you might benefit if choosing to stay there. After all, tourism is about promoting oneself (a country, a destination, a national park, a monument etc), in order to stand out, catch attention – and ultimately – get custom (and income). This is not to suggest that all language should be flowery, laden with emotional persuasion and hyperinflated adjectives (such examples do exist), but sales is more about selling emotion and promise rather than function and hard facts.

The second issue is contextualisation. It appears to the author that rather frequently tourism businesses create texts in Estonian, and then get them translated into English and other languages. Some expect the translation to closely follow the Estonian original; some expect it to have the same number of sentences/lines as the original. Text volume may be important when there is limited space available in a printed leaflet but perhaps not that critical in an online version. This is not to say that translators should come out with translations much longer than the original. What is more critical is content and context. There are many names, dates, events and so on which are familiar to Estonian residents but which might be entirely unknown to foreigners, be they from Europe or even further afield. Therefore, where names, etc are not of utmost importance, they could be omitted altogether, or, with space available, the text adapted so that it incorporates some relevant background data which contextualises it for the reader. Keeping the reader in mind should be paramount, should it not?

In the following sections, several examples will be given to exemplify a few issues in tourism literature.

Accommodation

Overnight stays can be provided in hotels, guesthouses, cottages, lodges, etc. whereas some people prefer to spend their nights under canvas, travel in a camper van, or tow a caravan behind their car. They probably spend at least some nights in a caravan park, camping site or campsite (different words are used in Australian and US English). By definition, camping means when you stay in a tent/chalet on holiday, and it is an activity, not a place. When we look at the meaning of ´kämping´ in Estonian, it means ́ turistide ja matkajate peatuspaik telkide või kergete puitehitistega´ (e.g. Linnalähedane kämping. Matkajad ööbisid kämpingus) (www.eki.ee). Thus Estonian and English words act like false friends – what is an activity in English, is a place or a site in Estonian. Light wooden buildings found in camping sites may be called (they vary hugely in size and facilities) wooden tents, chalets, lodges, cottages. Unfortunately, some people use ´kämping´ in Estonian to denote a building, and others use ´camping´ in their English-language adverts or on fingerboard signs to mean a ´camping site´. Or worse still, take the erroneous use in Estonian (kämping – a building), and translate it as ´camping´ into English.

What would you make of the following example from a website for a camping site? It first states: X camping site is in ... . Then it continues to describe facilities: It has: 38 campings for two persons. The place also has camping and campfire sites. When explaining the rates the following is found:

Accommodation prices:camping place for 1 person (day)wooden cabin for two (day)

Look at the building in picture and suggest the first word coming to your mind to denote it.

If you were to follow a sign for ´Camping´, would you associate this building with camping (an activity) when you look at it? Do you see any camping facilities there? However, the company website tells us that:The camping cabin has 6 rooms and there are beds for 14 guests.

Its rates are (in one section of the website):− Apartement / 50 €− Double rooms / 35 € A camping site.

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And in another section of the same website:− Apartment with kitchen 50 €/ per 1 night− TWIN room 35 €/per 1 night

Apparently, in this case we are looking at the wrong use of words, inconsistency between different sections of the website, misleading information, and obvious spelling errors.

Twins and doubles

Take this simple test and answer the questions below:

A. How many people in the room?

single double quadtwin triple dorm(itory)

B. How many beds in these rooms?

single double quadtwin triple

The answers are: (Part A) 1, 2, 2, 3, 4, and many e.g. 4–16, and (Part B) 1, 2, 1, 3 or 2, 4 or 1+2.In other words:single – a room for one person with a single bedtwin – a room for two with two twin beds/ single bedsdouble – a room for two with one double bedtriple – a room for three; one double and a single, or three single bedsquad – room for four people, usually with four single bedsA dormitory is usually found in youth hostels, boarding schools and universities and often contains bunk beds, thus sleeping a number of people in one large room.

Difference between twins and doubles seems to create constant confusion in Estonia. In the summer of 2013, a lady running a guesthouse told me and my native English-speaking friend in no uncertain terms that we were wrong assuming that a twin room has two beds, and a double has one. After all, her accommodation had been checked by people from the company providing online bookings via Booking.com website. Or another example: conference organisers arranged post-conference tours that included overnight accommodation in double rooms and this was what tour charges were based on. Only when people started booking the tours did it become evident that there were twin rooms available too, but single supplement was applied if participants preferred single occupancy. No wonder that some conference delegates felt swindled by the lack of correct information from the beginning.

Inconsistency

One of the problematic issues in tourism literature pointed out above was inconsistency, of which a camping site was given as an example. Below, there is another instance from a hotel website and information gathered from its subsections. How many differences can you find?

1. Double rooms have en-suite bathrooms with showers, flat screen TV’s, in room safes and mini bars, satellite TV, direct dial telephones, broadband internet connections (WIFI), hair dryers, bathrobes & Slippers

2. The suite is fully equipped with fast speed internet access, direct-dial phones, cables Flat screen TV, Pay TV, safes, mini bars, hairdryers, bathrobes no air-conditioning.

Inconsistency also appears between different media – printed materials and websites, especially when translation is done at different times by different people. Surprisingly, previous translations appear not to have been sought or considered, although this may be justified where the earlier translation was

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obviously wrong. When you run a ´puhkemaja´, what is it called? Is it a holiday house, a holiday home, or a resthouse? Is it the same in all published materials? Perhaps it would not matter for some, but when you are trying to locate information on a particular holiday house and the search engine fails to find it because it has been named as a holiday home on the web, it is partly a search engine’s issue and partly a lack of consistency.

Pärnu County has recently established a wonderful tourist route “Romantiline rannatee”. How do you translate it? A translator who did not care to check the designated website came up with Romantic Beach Path in a leaflet, which might be appropriate, but the official version is Romantic Coastline. When you use the first version in online search you are unlikely to end up at the official website and find out more about services offered. This means an opportunity lost for providers.

Space saving

The following captions come from interpretive panels on one country estate, they all have different expressions for similar or identical periods in time.

1. grain dryer, built in the mid-19th century2. storehouse, built mid-19th century3. cattle barn, built in 19054. lumber mill, built at the beginning of the 20th century

It has been pointed out above that the volume of text may matter if space is limited. In interpretive panels it obviously does matter too, and therefore consistency and space saving both become important. In this particular example however, even the short captions look repetitive and wordy as well. Certainly, the exact construction year of buildings is not necessarily always known, but is it absolutely necessary to give such detailed information? One might easily use the following: grain dryer, mid-19th century, or storehouse, from mid-19th century; lumber mill, early 20th century.

Context

There are many examples where the Estonian-language text is simply translated into English (or another foreign language), and little consideration has been given to whether it makes any sense, creates any meaningful links, stirs interest in the site or sight at all or not.For instance a caption: During manor times swiss cheese was made in the quarry stone dairy.

Most native Estonian speakers can probably, but not without difficulty, translate this back into Estonian, but what is the message for foreign readers? Can you define what ´manor times´ are and which time period the phrase refers to? How long did take to figure it out? Now think what foreigners would do with this information? Shrug shoulders, find it complete gobbledegook, and lose interest in your site perhaps?

Now compare these texts in a simple leaflet of a community centre:

Külakeskuse teenused: /.../; hommikuti maitsta perenaiste valmistatud toitu.

Facilities: /.../; breakfast made by local housewives.

It remains entirely unclear in this leaflet who has access to this breakfast (both languages) – the full list of services does not include accommodation. On a more humorous note, breakfast can only be made by married, possibly unemployed women (English version) and not by unmarried women, let alone men.

If translators and/or authors of tourism texts could more often put themselves in the readers’ shoes and imagine what the readers might (not) know, what they might be interested in, how much they might be able to use and therefore be able to understand from reading the text, perhaps we could eventually produce better texts for the interpretation of our tourist sites and in the advertising and promotion of Estonia as a fabulous tourism destination.

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Africa. Tropical, so far away, with a culture so different from ours. Ask around and most people will readily say that yes, they know things about Africa. There are little barefooted girls and boys running around in the streets, women carrying platters of food and jugs of water on top of their heads; things aren’t so great with literacy and currently there is no politically correct way to call the people whose roots are in black Africa.

All the above is quite true but Africa is much more than that. If you look at the size of the continent alone, it might make you think that maybe not all the children there are barefooted, maybe there are women who do not need to carry their loads on their heads (as they have, surprisingly enough, water taps and cars) and maybe there are even some educational institutions here and there. I worked in one.

Back in 2003, it was impossible for my husband, Ghanaian by birth, to get a visa to Estonia. I had to leave my job at Tartu Karlova Gymnasium, a school I dearly loved, and move all the way down to Senegal, where my husband resided. I did not want to play a desperate housewife, so I landed at West African College of the Atlantic, or WACA, and started teaching English.

Obviously, the first thing I had to learn to cope with was the weather. Nordic as I am, all those degrees above zero were quite a lot to bear. It was encouraging to see, though, that local people suffered from the heat even more than I did. I remember going out right after having a cold shower (one could not really face the thought of a hot shower from July till November in Senegal) and feeling the sweat run down my back a minute later. It was no use trying to fight it with roll-ons. It was as simple as that – the African heat beats every cosmetic wonder. The Senegalese women dress like goddesses, and walk the part too, but this most beautiful sight is somewhat ruined by huge sweat patches under their arms and on their backs. Anyway, nobody cared much as we all looked as patchy as the others did.

The weather even played mindgames. One day I started going to work and, looking out of the window, I noticed there was quite heavy fog in the air. Once I got outside, I found it extremely difficult to breathe, as my throat was very dry all of a sudden. It took me a while to figure out it was not fog. It was dust, standing still in the air. I was fortunate enough never to experience it again. It was not a pleasant sensation, and it took me the whole day to cough it all out.

WACA was no ordinary school. To begin with, it was a private school, which cost almost my monthly salary per student in fees. At one time, there were four students from the same family at WACA. I did not dare to do the math. But at least they had only 25–32 children in one class and every one of them could use a book, as opposed to the 60-student classes of state schools with a book per three.

It was also an International Baccalaureate school, just like Audentes, International School of Estonia, Miina Härma Gymnasium and Tallinn English College are. You might know that the diploma programme in IB schools is especially rigorous, and all the final exams are sent from and graded in Geneva. In Senegal, at least back then, it was the only school offering an IB diploma.

Another unusual feature, especially in Senegal, was the fact that it was an English-French bilingual school. The Senegalese do not speak English. Some of them might know a word or two to greet you. The schools do teach it and as I was partly using the local textbooks (and found them pretty good), it baffled me that even the younger generation had practically no knowledge of the language. I once spoke

A SCHOOLMARM’S TALE FROM AFRICA

Marju Roberts currently teaching in Saaremaa Ühisgümnaasium

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to a young man who had a Master’s degree in English (!), and he could not answer any of the questions I asked him about his family before I had repeated them a couple of times. Slowly.

WACA divided its curriculum into two and taught half of the subjects in English and the other in French. We started work in mid-September, and most of our seventh-graders did not speak any English before. These poor novices of English got ten lessons of English from the very beginning, plus five hours of math and three of science, all in English. Let me say that the teachers of subjects in English are not

allowed to speak French to the students, so it is a kind of immersion method, and it works better than I would have ever imagined. Two and a half months later, by Christmas, we could converse about most everyday topics with them, although in September we were inundated by worried parents (“My child doesn’t understand ANYTHING…”).

I believe, all of us know how difficult it is for Estonian students to voice their opinion in class, especially in a foreign language. It had been my experience too. You ask, “So what do you think?” and you could then hear the crickets for the next few minutes. Then I moved to Senegal. Boy, was that a difference! An African child always has an opinion, whatever the topic. With my eighth-graders, we once talked about polygamy and arranged marriages for two hours, and we would have continued, had the bell not rung. The best thing about those discussions was that they did not just say “In my opinion…” but they supported their arguments with such good reasoning that showed maturity beyond their years.

I know. You would think that arranged marriages and polygamy are both shocking. They were for me too, but in a different culture, you learn so many things. Most importantly, you learn not to be shocked if someone does things you have always thought to be savage. There are actually solid arguments for arranged marriages, as I found out, all thanks to my 12-year-olds.

So, most of the time, I was really happy about teaching at WACA, although for me it meant more work than I could have ever imagined I was capable of doing. I had to grade four different areas of English (composition, grammar, dictation and oral presentations), so it was almost like teaching four different subjects. Once, for fun, I calculated how many written papers I had corrected within one schoolyear, and I got to a mind-boggling 3,500. It was so much intense work that it was an absolute must to become organized and efficient, and although I had never been any of that before, I became better and better as the years went by. In fact, when I came back to Estonia and took up teaching (almost full time), translation (whenever I could) and one course of English for teachers of our school (once a week),

my mom asked me, “But, sweetheart, how do you cope with all this workload?” I looked at her and I did not even understand what she was talking about, because compared to what I had been doing in Senegal, I was just having fun here.

In many ways, my life as a teacher was much easier in Senegal than in Europe. First and foremost, the Africans have not yet initiated the student-friendly system where students have all the rights and teachers all the responsibilities, as it is the case in many countries of the West. We were allowed to send students out of class, assign physical tasks for punishment (mine once cleaned the toilets) and the like. If the poor

kid chose to go and tell the mamas and papas at home that the teacher had been unfair, they probably just got a slap as a bonus and that was the end of it – some parents begged the teachers to be more severe and please please beat the kids because “he only ever understands that language”. It happened in my class once that an angry father marched into the lesson, dragged his son to the front of the class and started slapping him from both sides. As I mentioned above, in such a different culture, you learn not to be shocked. It is the way they are brought up.

A classroom at WACA

Marju Roberts with her students

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Another feature very different from what I had seen was repeating a class. At WACA, if a kid’s general grade average was less than 50%, he automatically had to repeat the class. Repeating the class was considered a privilege and every child was allowed to repeat a class only once during all his years in our school. For example, if he repeated Grade 8 once and now in Grade 10 his average was under 50% again, he had to leave our school. And if a child’s general average was less than 40%, he had to leave right away. As a private school in a country where schooling is just one option, it was possible. We would not dare to dream of it in Estonia.

The grading system in itself was something completely new. In French schools, the top grade is 20, as opposed to our meagre five. I first could not see what I should do with all that. Five was quite enough, I thought. Less than half a year passed, and then I was already following everyone else around me, giving out grades like 14.25 or 12.75. Even 20 was not enough, obviously. It took me a while to get used to the Estonian system again after coming back.

I had wonderful students in Senegal, but I was lucky enough to have the absolute best colleagues as well. It was quite difficult for me at first, as I could not speak any French just yet, and it took some time until I mastered some life-important phrases, like “Votre fils est vraiment paresseux” (your son is really lazy). But the French-speaking teachers were really patient, speaking slowly and teaching me how to say this or that, so that I started speaking elementary French quite fast, actually. As I have already said, the Senegalese do not speak English, so it was essential to speak at least some French to get my ideas through to the parents. I am ever grateful to all those who helped me adapt as quickly as I did, who embraced me – a foreigner – and taught me about their ways.

So, after five years in Senegal, I came back better, wiser, and richer. Not financially, of course, as teachers all over the world are overworked and underpaid, as people say. But I am richer in experience and I have so many new wonderful people in my life. I would not trade that for anything.

The plan to visit the island of Guernsey in the Channel Islands started to take shape ten years ago during a bus trip to Normandy and Brittany. Then the final destination was St Malo in Brittany – the corsair city with a walled old town and port. Visits to these regions in France enable us to get a better understanding of many aspects of British cultural heritage. Take cider, for example (the English word dates back to Middle English and was borrowed from French); the best cider can be found in Normandy and Brittany. Norman French was introduced to England from these regions at the time of the Norman Conquest in 1066. However, there is much more than that. In the 16th century, for example, Jacques Cartier, a French explorer, set sail for Canada from St Malo; cultural links between Francophone Canada and St Malo have continued to this day. And it is a region where one can observe remarkable differences between the high tide and the low tide; the difference can be more than ten metres.

This summer we (me and my wife) chose St Malo as the starting point of our summer trip to Guernsey in the Channel Islands followed by a few days in Portsmouth in southern England. Guernsey is the second largest of the Channel Islands (population 62,650, according to the 2001 census) and can be reached by air or by sea. It is about 48 km from France and 113 km from England; thus, it is much closer to France than to England.

GUERNSEY NOTES

Enn Veldi Department of EnglishUniversity of Tartu

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It is intriguing to think (and many people do not suspect) that Guernsey, as well as the other Channel Islands, is not part of the EU; nor has it been incorporated into the United Kingdom; its status is a Crown Dependency (see www.gov.gg). The association with the English Crown started at the time of the Norman Conquest when the Channel Islands were part of the Duchy of Normandy. In 1204 the English king lost Normandy to the French king; the Channel Islands, however, remained associated with the English Crown. Her Majesty’s representative in the Bailiwick of Guernsey (name of the administrative unit) is called Lieutenant Governor. The States of Guernsey is a term used for the government of the bailiwick.

This time we arrived in Guernsey by a Condor fast ferry from St Malo and left by air. The passport control showed that Estonians are not frequent visitors to the island; the official had to consult her papers before allowing us to embark. The sea voyage from St Malo to St Peter Port, the capital of Guernsey, took less than two hours. In sunny weather it was plain sailing. The view of St Peter Port from the sea is superb – beautiful mansions on the sloping ground. Upon disembarkation, important differences were noticeable right away – British time (one-hour difference by comparison with the continent), driving on the left side, and narrow uphill streets with pavement on one side only. Due to the fact that the streets are narrow, only small vehicles can be used in the island. In some narrow two-way streets the vehicles can pass one another only when one of the vehicles moves to the pavement.

Guernsey even has its own currency; the British pound is accepted everywhere, but the Guernsey pound is not accepted outside the Channel Islands. On the other hand, Guernsey reveals also many French features. For example, many street names are French (e.g. La Neuve Rue, Rue de la Bouellerie, Rohais de Bas, etc). In fact, previously Norman French was spoken here along with Standard French; the local variety of French (patois) is called Guernésiais (Guernsey French). Nowadays it is an endangered variety of French, and very few islanders have some knowledge of it. Its use declined rapidly in the 19th century when mass immigration from the UK resulted in the dominance of English.

Usually I read local newspapers to learn more about local life. The Guernsey Press, the local newspaper, has been published for 200 years. There were some interesting features, though. For example, every day the newspaper reports the precise time when the post and the newspapers arrive from the mainland.

Why visit Guernsey? For many British visitors it is a place to spend their summer holiday because the climate is milder than in the UK. I was partly inspired by the fact that a well-known English lexicographer had lived and carried out important lexicographic work there. Henry Fowler (1858–1933) moved to Guernsey in 1903 to join his younger brother Frank. During the years 1903–1918 the Fowler brothers

worked on several important lexicographic projects for the Oxford University Press. They lived and worked in separate granite houses about fifty yards apart. Their first major project was The King’s

A street in St Peter Port

Guernsey Pound

The local newspaper

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English (1906), a popular usage guide. More importantly, in 1906 the Oxford University Press commissioned the Fowler brothers to prepare a condensed single-volume abridgement of the mammoth Oxford English Dictionary (OED). One has to point out that the task was more complicated for the end part of the dictionary because OED itself was far from complete at that time. The brothers worked on the project for five years, often ten hours a day; their work is the first edition of the Concise Oxford English Dictionary (published in 1911). As a side remark, one has to point out that this dictionary served as a model for Johannes Silvet when he started work on his English-Estonian dictionary in the 1930s. The year 2011 witnessed the publication of the twelfth edition of the Concise Oxford English Dictionary. To mark the important centenary, the first edition of the dictionary was re-published was well. Henry Fowler is also the author of Fowler’s Modern English Usage (first edition 1926).

A few years ago I happened to read a book about Henry Fowler’s life by Jenny McMorris (2001). The book was so fascinating that I wished to experience the atmosphere of the island where he lived and worked. For example, he used to work outside and jogged to the beach for a swim every morning at the same time. His daily routine was so regular that local people “could tell the time by his approaching footsteps” (McMorris 2001: 47). The water temperature was about 16° C this summer, but a morning swim during the high tide was refreshing indeed.

However, the most famous resident of Guernsey was Victor Hugo (1802–1885). He spent fifteen years (1855–1870) in exile in Guernsey. During this period he completed his well-known novel Les Misérables (1862). He also wrote Travailleurs de la mer (1866, ‘Toilers of the Sea’) – a novel that depicted the life of Guernsey people. A visit to Victor Hugo’s Hauteville House in St Peter Port is a must during one’s stay in the island. What struck me was that Victor Hugo lived in luxury in these years. It is a big house with a beautiful garden and a magnificent sea view. After Hugo’s death in 1885, his family gave the house to the City of Paris, which is responsible for its maintenance.

It is also worth mentioning that the Channel Islands were the only British territory occupied by the Germans during World War II (1940–1945 ). Before the occupation many local people were evacuated to the mainland. During the German occupation the island was heavily fortified. The Germans changed the local time; also, driving on the right was introduced during this period. The German occupation ended on May 9, 1945. For this reason, the people of Guernsey mark their Liberation Day on May 9.

Last but not least, life in Guernsey is depicted in recent books by Jill Downie. The author now lives in Canada but has previously resided in Guernsey. Detective Ed Moretti and his partner Liz Falla have to solve complicated murder cases. Although I am not a fan of this genre of literature, the book that I read (A Grave Waiting, published in 2012) provides useful background information about Guernsey.

REFERENCES

Downie, Jill. 2012. A Grave Waiting. A Moretti and Falla Mystery. Toronto: Dundurn.McMorris, Jenny. 2001. The Warden of English. The Life of H.W. Fowler. OUP.States of Guernsey. www.gov.gg. Accessed on 17 September 2013.

Breakfast with Guernsey beef sausage

Cover of the first edition of the Concise Oxford Dictionary

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Who would have thought that the umbrella I took with me on my three-week trip to South-West England in July 2013 would remain safely tucked away in the outer compartment of my suitcase for 21 days straight? Most people I talked to found it hard to remember when the last time was that the UK was blessed with a summer quite as hot and dry as that.

It all started about four years ago when I first went to Southern England and left a piece of my heart there. I could not wait to go back, and after browsing the Comenius teacher in-service training databases just before Christmas, I found a two-week course entitled Practical Ideas for the Teaching of Literature in the English Language Classroom at the International Projects Centre

(IPC) in the historic city of Exeter, Devon, South-West England. To my utter delight, my Comenius application was successful, and about half a year later, I packed my bags and left for Exeter, suitably equipped with rain gear and warm clothes. Little did I know that it would be the hottest and most scenic of all my trips to the UK.

The literature course was a success. With nine fellow English teachers from all over Europe (Sweden, the Czech Republic, Romania, Austria, Germany, Portugal and Turkey) our course teacher Andy Thatcher guided us through a number of different ways how to tackle the teaching of literature to teenagers. Our group was the lucky one to be assigned into a small classroom in the middle of the old building with no air conditioning and no windows that could have been opened to let some fresh air in. To solve the problem, we took all the desks and chairs to the lawn in front of the IPC building and had our sessions in the shade of a huge linden tree up on a hill overlooking the river Exe, half of Exeter and the patchwork of the countryside in the distance. That is what I would call a classroom with a view. All the rest of the teachers (about a hundred all in all, among whom happened to be also three Estonians) attending other courses at the IPC were green with envy.

During the two weeks of classes we made up literary characters with all their strengths, weaknesses, hobbies and interests, described real and imaginary places, conducted a short play based on a legend in only five-word sentences, drew a gothic-themed board game, dwelled on the characteristics of dystopian literature, re-arranged poems, wrote haikus, came up with tasks based on a literary piece of our own choice, and read, read and read different texts from different genres to be used with different students on different levels. It was all accompanied by cream teas, long walks around Exeter, eavesdropping for colloquial expressions, Cornish pasties, taking hundreds of photos, handicraft fairs, fish and chips, visits to Exeter Cathedral and to museums, theatre performances and cinema nights, shopping,

ENGLAND IN A HEAT WAVE

Lembi Loigu Jaan Poska Gymnasium, Tartu

Cream tea with clotted cream,strawberry jam and scones

Lembi at Durdle Door, the pearlof the Jurassic Coast

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dancing, more cream teas and IPC organised day trips to Dartmoor, Boscastle and Tintagel.

As Exeter lies not very far from the places in Dorset where Thomas Hardy lived and wrote his masterpieces, the special trip of the literature course took us to see, among other places, Thomas Hardy’s cottage at Higher Bockhampton where he was born, the graveyard at Stinsford where his heart lies and the cliffs near Lulworth just next to the majestic limestone arch Durdle Door where all the sheep of poor Mr Oak were driven off by his over-eager sheep dog in Far from the Madding Crowd. After extensively talking about Thomas Hardy’s work, some of us were even brave enough to make a promise of trying to tackle Hardy in the English language classroom with their students. I must say I was not one of them.

One day our teacher Andy suggested we all go to see The Audience, a West End play starring Helen Mirren as Queen Elizabeth II brought to a local cinema in Exeter by National Theatre Live, because he had heard that it was excellent. Nobody in our group had ever heard about watching a play at the cinema. Since I had already seen The Audience at the cinema in Estonia a couple of weeks earlier, I chimed in and said I wholeheartedly agreed with Andy. That brought on a bewildered question from the others, “Do they really show these plays in Estonia?” For a brief moment, I really felt Estonia was sitting on top of the world. All in all, everybody went to see The Audience and they all enjoyed it a great deal while I organised a film night of my own and saw a brand new British film Summer in February about the early 20th century Cornish art scene to prepare for my trip to Cornwall.

After immensely enjoying the magnificent ruins of Tintagel Castle, the legendary birthplace of the mythical King Arthur (the only problem being that the castle was built several centuries after King Arthur is thought to have lived), I decided to follow some more of the Arthurian legends and took the train and the bus all the way to Glastonbury to see the most peculiar small town in the shadow of the lonely St Michael’s Tower up on a hill called Glastonbury Tor. The Tor was an excellent place for watching the world go by – there were no crowds, no tickets, no queues, only the blue sky, the silence and a few people sprawled on the grass, dead tired of climbing the hill in the heat. In addition to being situated near the site of the famous annual Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts, Glastonbury is popularly associated with the Island of Avalon, the entrance to the land of the fairies. It is one of the many possible locations of the Holy Grail, the place where Excalibur was forged and where King Arthur was taken after fighting Mordred at the Battle of Camlann. If shop names are any indication, Glastonbury does know how to live on the lore, where else one would find The Speaking Tree, Cat and Cauldron, The Crystal Man, The Gauntlet, Man, Myth & Magik, and Avalon all merrily side by side along the main street. Another noteworthy thing I found parking near the main street was a big golden tourist bus of a well-known Estonian tourist agency.

After the course in Exeter had ended, I took a week to travel around in Cornwall and see a bit of London. A friend of mine flew in from Estonia to accompany me and our starting point for exploring the peninsula was a fully-equipped holiday flat in the small picture perfect seaside resort of St Ives not very far from the famous Land’s End, the most westerly point of mainland England. In addition to being the centre of the local art scene and the location of countless independent galleries as well as the art gallery Tate St Ives, the town has also been awarded the title of Best UK Seaside Town more than once no doubt on account of its mild Oceanic climate, four sandy beaches and absolutely stunning views over the harbour and the Celtic Sea. We had plenty of time to wander in the gobbled streets, witness the wonder of the ocean’s tides, sunbathe and muse about the somewhat bizarre-looking beach culture of the English – namely swimming in shorts and T-shirts or wetsuits and dragging not only deck chairs and umbrellas but also colourful tents, shelters, and windbreaks (foldable fences made of canvas) to the beach. After taking a quick dip in the salty water myself, I was forced to recognise the purpose of wetsuits – despite the unusual heat wave the water was still absolutely freezing. On

Stone and grass seats and the stage in Minack Theatre

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the beach, the huge seagulls were a somewhat hazardous tourist attraction in their own right. They stole everything that could be eaten. If I had not seen it with my own eyes, I would not believe it to be possible that a seagull would pinpoint a polystyrene box half-filled with some leftover fish and chips in the lower basket of a pushchair, take the box up to the air and make it rain chips that were readily devoured by a flock of seagulls long before the chips had time to reach the ground.We obviously did not limit our stay to St Ives only, as pretty as it was. One can easily explore every nook and cranny of Cornwall using footpaths and public transportation alone – the coach, bus and train connections are quite frequent, the day tickets flexible and reasonably priced, and there

are endless hiking trails along the coastal cliffs. What is more, between the stations of St Erth and St Ives, Cornwall boasts some of the most scenic rail journeys of the whole country with breathtaking views over the beaches. If compared to the touristy Land’s End, surprisingly interesting Geevor tin mine museum, Cornwall’s administrative centre Truro and a number of coastal towns and villages we visited, I would say my personal favourites were Minack Theatre and St Michael’s Mount. The former is a unique-looking open-air working theatre surrounded by lush subtropical gardens at the village of Portcurno on an outcrop of cliff overlooking the blue waters of Portcurno Bay and the latter a rocky tidal island off the coast of the village of Marazion. The castle towering on top of St Michael’s Mount is the official residence of Lord St Levan and can be reached on foot on the man-made causeway when the tide is out but only by boat when the tide is in.

Since travelling at night is decidedly more exciting than travelling at daytime, we took the Night Riviera Sleeper train from Penzance back to London. After some difficulties of fitting ourselves and all our luggage into our tiny compartment, the train lulled me to sleep on my berth in no time. Paddington station was still relatively deserted at 5 am when we reached London, and I believe we were the only tourists taking a nice leisurely walk in Hyde Park at 7:30 am as every other person was either jogging or cycling to work. Even the squirrels were not too excited about posing for photos or asking for food. In the evening, we grabbed our long-booked tickets and took the Overground to Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden to The Making of Harry Potter Studios Tour. I did not believe that, after loving all the books and being slightly disappointed with some of the films, I could still get excited about the small wizard boy. I was as mistaken as one can be. In a nutshell, the tour in the studios was magical from start to finish. After queuing for a reasonably long time and watching an introductory film about the exhibition, we were all led through the doors of the Great Hall in Hogwarts and from that point onwards, I do not think any description would do the studios justice. One just has to go and see it all with their own eyes.The love, the work, the enthusiasm, the precision, the eye to detail that had all gone into making the films was simply astounding. The Griffindor Common Room, Dumbledore’s Office, Hagrid’s Hut, Buckbeak the Hippogriff, the Burrow, Privet Drive, the Knight Bus, Wizard’s Chess – everything was there on plain sight and rock solid. It all made me want to shout that Diagon Alley is real. Even though I might have secretly wanted to buy a Sorting Hat from the gift shop to wear on my Ryanair flight home, I decided that it might be a bit tricky to persuade the crew that it really was a part of my attire and not a second piece of hand luggage. I resorted to buying Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans to take home with me instead. It was a choice second to none, as I could entertain numerous relatives and guests alike with vomit and earwax-flavoured sweets for days on end. Now all that is left for Potterheads to do is wait for J.K. Rowling to finish the script of the new Harry Potter spinoff film that she is writing at the moment.

To sum up, I think the only slight drawback of the whole trip was the fact that His Royal Highness Prince George Alexander Louis of Cambridge decided to come into this world exactly 28 hours after we had checked out of our hotel in Paddington situated just around the corner from St Mary’s Hospital and flown back home. On second thoughts, the Prince might have done us a favour by arriving a bit late – we might as likely not have been able to push out of the door of the hotel with all the world’s press and the crowds creating mayhem in the street.

St Michael's Mount and the causeway, the tide is out

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FROM MALTA TO BERLIN

Katre Kõiv Maire Soo

Maire, what did you do in Berlin? – I played cards. Katre, what did you do in Malta? – To come to think of it, I also played cards.

As it turned out, we both ended up playing cards while taking part in our teacher training course, one in St Paul’s Bay, Malta, and the other in Berlin, Germany. Although one training course focused on teaching English in the secondary and adult classroom and the other on multicultural environment, they both actually analyzed personality types and different cultures. The course in Malta had brought together people from Spain, Belgium, Estonia and Great Britain. The participants in the course in Germany were Spanish, French, German, Estonian, Croatian, Slovenian and Polish.

Maire has some experience in teaching Estonian to international students and Katre has taught English to Russians and Estonians in a mixed group. We even organized a joint lesson for Katre’s students studying English and Maire’s studying Estonian. Here are some things Maire learned in Berlin and Katre witnessed in Malta, and which we have also noticed taking place in our multicultural language lessons. Teaching English to a mixed group of Estonians and Russians need not seem difficult, but here we also have to take into account the cultural differences between them and the stages of the culture shock.

There are different stages how a person acts in a multicultural environment. The first is usually denial in which the person believes that their view of culture is the sole correct one and others do not exist. Then, there is the defence mechanism during which the person is aware of other cultures but starts to defend their views. In the third stage, minimization, people begin to see the differences are not so big and see the people behind their culture. Then come acceptance and adaption to the culture. Not everyone reaches this stage.

While teaching Estonian to international students from Egypt, Peru, Algeria, Nigeria, Ukraine and Georgia we have noticed the following aspects of culture shock: the most evident stage is when the students feel they will never learn the language and there is a lack of motivation to learn a language which is only spoken in a small country. Most of these students have come to Estonia because of their spouse and need to learn Estonian to get a job. The bigger plan is to settle down here, but experience has shown they learn Estonian for a while but, in the end, still move abroad again. Before leaving, though, they usually reach the stage where the language starts to make sense and they understand basic Estonian.

It is not just about learning a language but experiencing the stages of culture shock. The teacher has a big part in keeping the students motivated. A bystander might be surprised that someone who has studied a language intensively for two months does not speak the language fluently or does not have

Emajõe Language School, Tartu

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Theodoor Rombouts. The Card Players. 17th century.

enough courage to do so. This person, however, does not think or know about the stages of adapting to a culture, the inner struggles of figuring out the need for studying the language, the stage of utter confusion about the grammar and the doubts of the learners whether they will need this language in the future, or life has already offered them a new opportunity and maybe a new language. Thus, it is the teacher’s task to urge students to study and show them how to use the language in their daily life, so that their need for it would grow.

Most teachers probably know the card game used to get to know one another and to analyze different personality types. People are divided into different groups and are told to play the game by certain rules without using words. After a while, there is an exchange of winners among groups and again, people are told to play the game. But now the confusion begins. It seems the rules have changed. But people are still not allowed to use words. So, basically all the groups have different rules but because of the silence rule they cannot discuss them. Similarly to the card game, students are thrown into the classroom to learn a language and culture which has different rules from what they are accustomed to. It can be seen in the language class whether people adapt to the situation, follow the new rules, deny their existence or start to impose their rules on others. Language learning is as simple as this card game… Or is it?

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What made you choose English as a career?

English was my one and only choice after graduating from secondary school. I even changed schools after the eighth form and went to study to an English-specialist school. I think I was mostly tempted by the idea that English would open up the world to me, although at the end of the 1980s, it was still quite closed. I dreamed of travelling and working as a tour guide. Teaching was not an option for a long time during my university studies. I thought I lacked the necessary skills and qualities. It happened quite by accident that I started teaching in Tartu Language School and a few years later in Tartu Teacher Training College, which later merged with Tartu University.

What has teaching students given you / taught you?

To point out a few aspects. Lots of dear memories as well as moments of nervousness. Lots of new knowledge and practical skills, some of which, I hope, I have been able to pass on to my students. Confidence and a chance to inspire confidence in my students, as some of them tend to be very insecure at first.

What is the most satisfying in your everyday work?

I enjoy working with the same students over a longer period of time (up to five years). We get used to each other and know what to expect from each other. On the other hand, every year I start with new groups and that brings surprise, excitement and challenge in the work. It is also a pleasure to work together with supportive and understanding colleagues.

What are your favourite lecture themes?

To be honest, I have never had any lectures on my teaching schedule. Only practical classes or seminars. I enjoy dealing with the topics that appeal to my students and that the students can easily relate to. Usually such classes pass without notice. It applies to both general English and ELT methodology. Such topics differ from year to year, from group to group and can range from animals and nature to teaching vocabulary, from describing people to Total Physical Response.

Have you been to the countries you teach your students about?

No, not to all of them and that is a pity. Nowadays a lot of teachers often find themselves in a situation where their students may have travelled to places where they have not had the chance, time or money to go to yet. Luckily, sources like the Internet, travel books or TV programmes can bring the whole world to you, and, as a teacher, you can make use of the experience of your students as well. I am of the opinion that in order to understand a country you need to live in the country for a longer time. Short one- or two-week trips – the ones I can afford time- and money-wise – are surely helpful but provide only

Teachers' Teacher

AN INTERVIEW WITH KRISTEL RUUTMETS

Kristel at Thingvellir in Iceland

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a brief glimpse. I admit that visiting a country I teach about would help me to incorporate my personal feelings, emotions and memories in my lessons and hope that coming years will give me a possibility to fill in the “gaps”.

How have your students changed during your teaching career?

Over the years, they have become much more fluent in spoken English, so much so that occasionally they get a false impression that they are as good in their written English as in the spoken one. They have a much broader knowledge and understanding of the world. There are more possibilities for them to study or work abroad and enhance their English skills. They have become very good at multi-tasking and technology plays a great role in their lives.Fortunately, one aspect that has not changed and I hope it will not – a fairly large number of my students start working as teachers and do not easily change their lines of work.

What are your fondest memories of your student days at the University of Tartu?

I belong to the generation whose university studies were free from the so-called red subjects. So I can say that time was not unnecessarily wasted. I am glad that my university lecturers included legendary classics such as Eduard Vääri, Jaan Unt or Heino Liiv whose knowledge was awe-inspiring. On the other hand, the opening of the world brought along the first foreign lecturers and a more communicative teaching methodology. Sitting in lectures and taking endless notes sill dominated, but I could feel that times were changing. I have also warm memories of my teacher training subjects in the Department of English, and I am really grateful to Ülle Türk and Sirje Bork for helping me to take the first steps in my teaching career.

How do you spend your free time?

I keep myself busy. Depending on the season, company or mood – travelling, gardening, ballroom dancing, (roller-)skating, reading, picking mushrooms, going to the theatre or cinema, cooking ... Or on some occasions – doing nothing, although in most of the cases I find too much relaxation and idling tiring.

What is your pleasantest reading experience?

I have always been in trouble with superlatives – the best, the greatest, my favourite... I like too many things to point out only one. Whether it is about books, food or places. I read a lot of ELT methodology resource and handbooks for my work. The rest is randomly selected, often following someone’s recommendations or book blurbs.

Why wouldn’t you present at EATE events?

For a very simple reason – the events are extremely popular and attract a large number of teachers. I prefer and feel much more comfortable with small groups where I can develop a closer contact with everybody.

Kristel Ruutmets works at the Institute of Education, Faculty of Social Sciences and Education, at the University of Tartu. She was interviewed by EATE Committee members Erika Puusemp and Ilmar Anvelt

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Nancy Huston. 2008 [2007]. Fault Lines. London: Atlantic Books.

Issues of personal and national identity, family relations, including their intergenerational aspects as well as the ways in which people’s lives are caught up in history and remembered – these are some of the big themes in literary fiction. Commonly the perspective from which the story is told in such narratives is that of an adult. Even if a child’s perspective is there, it is often focalised through the eyes of an adult. Hence, there is an abundance of characters in fictional worlds rendering childhood memories of their own.

Child perspective, especially on adult world, has several important qualities and capacities. With its immediacy, sincerity, frankness and naivety it can open up what is overlooked, ignored, downplayed or silenced. Sometimes it reminds adults of their pretences and unwillingness to acknowledge what they actually know or fear.

Nancy Huston’s Fault Lines merits special attention not only because of its masterful handling of the big themes mentioned above, but also its powerful narrative strategy. The novel falls into four parts, each of them told by a different member of the four generations of a family. In the first chapter, the story is told from the perspective of Sol who is from the youngest generation. Then it is his father Randall in the second chapter followed by the representatives of two older generations in backward chronology – Randall’s mother Sadie and finally, Sadie’s mother Kristina. At the time of narrating all the characters are six years of age.

This seemingly little device of letting the family story of four generations to be rendered through the perspective of a child from each generation works to great effect. Not only does it provide an illuminating insight into childhoods at different times but also a panoramic view of the 20th and early 21st century history. With every chapter, new layers of the family history with their intricate relations between individuals and generations are revealed and the suspense is retained to the very end. The reader may suddenly find oneself in the role of a detective in search for answers and putting the puzzle together. As the story unfolds, characters’ remarks or aspects of their behaviour may later appear to be important clues to understanding what is inexplicable or hidden. It is surprising and even startling to become increasingly aware of the ways in which historical events can shape the trajectories and destinies of individuals and communities. In addition, no less crucial can be the role of one individual in the life of another, especially when it comes to the impact of parents on children. Connections, continuities but also disruptions and discontinuities in intergenerational relationships haunt the characters in amazing and uncanny ways.

Reading RecommendationsA FASCINATING NARRATIVE STRATEGY

IN NANCY HUSTON’S FAULT LINES

Eva Rein Department of English University of Tartu

Nancy Huston

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At the core of the novel lies the harrowing experience of Kristina who was kidnapped as a baby by the Wehrmacht and turned into a participant in the 1940–1945 Germanisation programmes of children stolen from occupied territories and given for adoption to German foster parents. This event and its aftermath cast a long shadow over her life and that of future generations, expressed in repeated patterns of problematic parenting and handing down basic insecurities, contested histories, different allegiances, and identity troubles. While these concerns appear in much late 20th and early 21st century fiction, in Huston’s novel it is the child perspective on adults, their actions, behaviours and thoughts with child narrators’ careful scrutiny, thought-provoking commentary and reactions on their part. This is exactly a reason why adults, especially parents and teachers, may want to read Huston’s novel in addition to its purely literary value.

Huston’s meticulously crafted novel Fault Lines (2007) has another intriguing aspect to it – it is a self-translation from the novel Lignes de faille (2006) which was awarded the prestigious French literary prize Prix Femina. The author was born in 1953 in Canada where she also spent her childhood. At the age of 20, she moved to France and has been living there ever since, yet her connection to and displacement from Canada has informed much of her fictional and non-fictional writing. Throughout her prolific career

of a writer in multiple genres such as novels, short fiction, plays, essays, letters and children’s literature, Huston has been dwelling in and moving between two languages and cultures. Most of her novels have been first written in French and then translated into English by the writer herself. The novel Plainsong (1993), in which Huston explores her Canadian heritage in a fictional form, was first written in English and then translated into French under the title of Cantique des Plaines (1993) which won a major Canadian literary prize, the Governor General’s Award, in the category of Fiction in French. While Huston claims to have found her voice when writing in French, English has been an equally significant language for her. The two languages have enabled Huston to express herself in different ways and find a balance between what these languages have come to represent for her. For a reader fluent in both languages as well as interested in translation, it would be a rewarding experience to read both versions of the novel and discover the strategies that Huston employs in self-translation. The novel is also available in the excellent Estonian translation from French by Triinu Tamm, which appeared in Loomingu Raamatukogu No 24–27 in 2012.

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The title of the article has been inspired by the title of our magazine and some public signs I have noticed here and there. Thus, it concentrates on the use of the word open/opened and the apostrophe.

The picture shows the sign of a café at a tourist spot in Lahemaa National Park, but this kind of misuse of opened can often be seen at other places in Estonia as well. Fortunately, the distinction between open and opened should be quite easy to make – opened is used as a verb that shows an activity, open is an adjective that shows a state. The café is opened at 10 every morning and remains open for the whole day. Try and do the following exercise.

Exercise 1. Use ‘open’ or ‘opened’

1. Beginning April 3, the Seattle Animal Shelter will be __________ seven days a week, from noon to 6 pm.

2. Does it mean the __________ email was read? No. Does it indicate the recipient even skimmed the first line of the __________ email? No.

3. Each time the safe is _________ or closed, complete entries in the “__________ By” and “Closed By” columns.

4. I just have a small doubt, i.e.: can we keep the __________ bottles of jam in the cupboard or should they compulsorily be stored in the fridge?

5. In the event of unauthorized use of rental lockers, locks will be cut immediately and the contents will be removed. Contents of the __________ rental lockers will be available for pick-up in the Executive Director’s area in Student Services for 30 days after the date the locker was opened.

6. Ladies and gentlemen, please exit through the __________ doors and board the hydrolators that are waiting to transport you to Sea Base Alpha.

7. Place a gauze pad over the _________ can of milk to deter flies from contaminating the milk. Use sterile gloves when handling and moistening the pad.

8. The deposit envelope will be __________ and the contents checked in the presence of two of our employees.

9. The main TaxFree shops are __________ from 5:30 am until the last flight (in transit).10. The __________ Music Project welcomes submissions of all types of content, including reviews,

biographies, interviews, articles, and links to sites.11. The University Disability Office will be __________ from 10:00am – 4:00pm.12. The Wine Saver is a vacuum pump, which extracts the air from the __________ bottle and reseals

it with a special reusable rubber stopper.13. This Dawson County pumpkin farm has been __________ to the public since 1972.14. Through the __________ side door of the car, moving scenery can be seen.15. When they arrived at the second farm site, they stopped at a closed farm gate and the victim got

Come and ShareOPEN’S OPENED

Ilmar Anvelt Department of English University of Tartu

off the tractor and opened the gate. The operator drove the tractor through the __________ gate and the victim closed it.

A mark of punctuation often misused is the apostrophe. Here the native speakers of English seem to have even more difficulties than we do; a possible reason might be that Estonians are used to words having a great number of different forms with different endings. In Britain, the fruit and vegetable trade in particular seems to be related to the misuse of apostrophes and has even given rise to the expression greengrocer’s apostrophe. This means using ‘s for forming the plural – banana’s, apple’s, etc (Mahoney 2010).

Press articles in English-speaking countries about the use of the apostrophe seem to express two opposite views. Some use quite harsh words to disparage those who do not know how to use the apostrophes correctly (Marsh 2013). Even a special word apostrofly has been coined to denote “an insect that lands at random on the printed page, depositing an apostrophe wherever it lands” (Ibid.). The Facebook page of the Cambridge University Society for the Prevention of Apostrophe Misuse (yes, there is such a society) gives a funny example from a small Yorkshire zoo: “Please dont feed the aminal’s as they mite byte.”

Others, however, find that apostrophe as a mark of punctuation is superfluous, and it should be killed, i.e. be discarded altogether. For example, James Harbeck (2013) claims that even the sentence “Ill do it if hell do it and shell do it” is very likely to be understood correctly even without the apostrophes.

The main uses of the apostrophe are to show possession and the omission of a letter (or, sometimes, several letters). In the first case, I think, it would be helpful to rely on the Estonian language: tüdruk – girl, tüdruku – girl’s, tüdrukud – girls, tüdrukute – girls’. Attention should be paid to irregular plurals, e.g. mehed – men, meeste – men’s.

In the second case, the position of omitted letter(s) is important. Thus, the correct form is don’t, not do’nt which we happen to see now and then – the letter o is omitted from the word not.

A mistake quite widely spread among the native speakers of English but usually not made by our learners is the mixing up of your and you’re, e.g. “Your on camera” (warning in a shop in Scotland). Another group of words where we seem to have an advantage over the native speakers is they’re/their/there. In these, the pronunciation is the same, although the grammatical functions of the words differ.

As mentioned above, the apostrophe is not used to denote plurals; this concerns abbreviations and numbers as well. Thus, it is recommended to write CDs, 1960s, not CD’s or 1960’s.

Exercise 2. Choose the correct variant

1. Ruth and Betty sell apples/apple’s at a farmers/farmer’s/farmers’ market. Ruths/Ruth’s apple’s/ apples sell at 2 for $1 while Betty’s/Bettys slightly smaller apples/apples’ sell at 3 for $1. 2. Finding inexpensive but durable childrens/childern’s clothing can be difficult. 3. Ladies/Lady’s/Ladie’s/Ladies’ room closed for repair. Please use second floor. 4. From short and neat to long and quiffed, we’ve/weve/wev’e got all the best mens/men’s hairstyles for 2013. 5. You make the rain fall cause/’cause your/you’re so beautiful that it’s/its painful… 6. There/Their/They’re rare albums became particularly sought after by record collectors/collector’s and began to be re-released as CDs/CD’s from the 1990’s/1990s 7. It’s/Its getting more and more common to see the apostrophe disappear in informal writing (e.g. “Spains/Spain’s best wines” instead of “Spains/Spain’s best wines”). But once the confusion was created, now a new fashion is coming over: using apostrophes/apostrophe’s where we shouldn’t/shouldnt/should’nt. 8. Heavy duty toe nail plier’s/pliers cut/cuts/cut’s the thickest toe nail’s/nails. 9. Ladies/Ladies’ welly’s/wellies/wellys £29.99. Now only £24.10. Thi’s/This user knows/know’s that not every word that end’s/ends with s need’s/needs an apostrophe and will remove misused apostrophes/apostrophe’s from Wikipedia with extreme prejudice.

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A particular case where the apostrophe is frequently misused even by quite advanced Estonian learners is its as a possessive pronoun. We can often see sentences like, “The sector has shown it’s capacity to adjust to the changing market conditions.” The reason seems to be the illogicality of English spelling – if other words take ‘s to show possession, why not it? The easy rule to remember is that it’s is only the contracted form of it is and not the possessive form of it.

Exercise 3. Use ‘its’ or ‘it’s’

1. In the last hundred years, Nubia has slowly yielded its secrets, its vanished peoples, abandoned cities and lost kingdoms. 2. CIA realizes its been using black highlighters all these years. 3. Its art baby! 4. StarForce threatens to sue me for criticizing its products. 5. Google said on Tuesday that it would offer a version in China of its Web, image and local search and news that censors out material deemed objectionable by the authorities there. 6. For most end-users its the time it takes to transfer big files that annoys. 7. If India were to follow its past patterns of conducting an independent foreign policy, it would be unlikely to take too kindly to such threats. 8. Canadian Red Cross wastes its money harassing video game makers. 9. Want to know why its free?10. Its … Monty Python’s Flying Circus.

REFERENCES

Cambridge University Society for the Prevention of Apostrophe Misuse. https://www.facebook.com/groups/2202300491. Accessed 22 September 2013.

Harbeck, James. 2013. Kill the apostrophe. http://theweek.com/articleH/index/249725/kill-the-apostrophe. Accessed 22 September 2013.

Mahoney, Elizabeth. 2010. Radio Review: The Greengrocer’s Apostrophe. http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2010/oct/01/the-greengrocers-apostrophe-radio-review. Accessed 22 September 2013.

Marsh, David. 2013. If you can’t use an apostrophe, you don’t know your shit. http://www.theguardian.com/media/mind-your-language/2013/aug/16/mind-your-language-apostrophe. Accessed 22 September 2013.

Key: Exercise 1. 1. open 2. opened, opened 3. opened, Opened 4. opened 5. opened 6. open 7. opened 8. opened 9. open 10. Open 11. open 12. opened 13. open 14. open 15. openedExercise 2. 1. apples, farmers’, Ruth’s, apples, Betty’s, apples 2. children’s 3. Ladies’ 4. we’ve, men’s 5. ‘cause, you’re, it’s 6. Their, collectors 7. It’s, Spains, Spain’s, apostrophes, shouldn’t 8. pliers, cut, nails 9. Ladies, wellies 10. This, knows, ends, needs, apostrophes Exercise 3. 1. its, its 2. it’s 3. It’s 4. its 5. its 6. it’s 7. its 8. its 9. it’s 10. It’s

The pictures on p. 44 – Birmingham. 1. The Birmingham Man, monument to Thomas Attwood, Birmingham’s first MP. 2. Victoria Square. 3. Narrowboats in Birmingham. 4. Birmingham University. 5. The Mailbox , Birmingham's most stylish shopping, lifestyle and restaurant centre. 6. The monument to Matthew Boulton, James Watt and William Murdoch who were most famous for improving and developing the steam engine. 7. Birmingham floating market.

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3 7

Which British city can you see in the pictures?Do you recognise any places?(Answers on p. 43)

EATE Summer SchoolPärnu 22-23 August 2013

Judy Copage came to Pärnu to speak about 21st-century skillsA makeshift workplace in the cloakroom

of Pärnu College

Nice weather attracted people to spend the lunchhour outside

Tiina Tuuling – our new Committee memberOur honorary member Nora Toots

is always present

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