Podcasts

Just to let you know, a few of my blog posts are now available as podcasts. Just type ‘Lennet English Language Services’ into the search facilities of Spotify or anchor.fm and you will find a few short podcasts narrated by me. I may also create extra podcasts not linked to blog posts. I will provide a link in the relevant posts. Thank you.

Learning a Different Language-Part 3

I have been using an app called Quizlet for quite a few years to assist me in learning languages. I’ve introduced it to my Japanese students and trainees. They found it quite useful, saying the pronunciation of Japanese is not perfect, but OK. Another useful educational service is TeacherTrainingVideos.com website. On this site it may introduce you to new educational tools or tools that you may know already, but used in a different way. Here’s the link to the video from that site advising on Quizlet https://youtu.be/A-hXzMkvMFs

Learning a Different Language-Part 2

I found when learning other languages, I started to learn more about my own language. Certainly when you start to train for teaching a language, the constant analysing opens your eyes about the structure of your own. In my school English language lessons, we learnt about the main parts of speech such as nouns, verbs, adjectives and the rest. We were not taught about relative pronouns or active and passive tenses. We used them without thinking about why we were using the language in this way. It just seemed natural. I learnt more about those terms when learning other languages.

I have taught students who have insisted on an explanation and translation of every word in a sentence or phrase when in fact that would not be very helpful to their language knowledge. It would only serve to confuse matters. You generally do not need to know every word, just the meaning of the phrase or sentence as a whole. I’m a great fan of ‘chunking’ when teaching vocabulary.

I have helped train Japanese teachers who need to teach Japanese to non-native speakers. These teachers need to know how to present and give instructions to English speaking learners. As a non-Japanese speaker and a teacher/trainer of Japanese teachers, I see the view form both sides. The trainees are quite pleased to have me to practise on and I can them guide them and help them with their planning. Lots of students often translate directly from their own language or into their own language. This doesn’t always have the desired result. With the Japanese language I discovered finding an English language equivalent is a little more complex.

Sometimes, what appears to be a simple Japanese word or phrase does not have a direct translation as it is a concept rather than a word. I remember helping one Japanese teacher work out an explanation of a phrase to explain in her next lesson. Fortunately for me, I’d recently seen a documentary on Japan and this had helped me understand. The Japanese phrase in question was ‘wabi-sabi’ and basically describes ‘imperfect beauty’ in nature. That’s the short version anyway. It did take us both about an hour to reach a satisfactory explanation for the students.

Learning a Different Language-Part 1

I first started learning a different language in the last year of primary school. I was quite excited by the promise of these lessons whereas some of my classmates probably groaned. I took to French quite quickly and became very good at recognising the vocabulary and being able to translate from one language to another. This lasted well into my secondary school years where I had nice and encouraging French teachers. It all went a bit awry in the fifth year (year 11) of secondary school. In this year we had a teacher who thought the best way for his pupils to learn French was by shouting at them if they made a mistake. My learning tapered off a little then. Luckily this experience didn’t discourage my love of language learning and many years later, I find it reasonably easy to read French texts. I also had German lessons at school, but I’m not sure if our teacher was suited to provide lessons as she didn’t always have an understanding of the language. An example of her teaching method is given below.

Teacher: Tomorrow, we will have a test on Unit 4. If you do not pass, you will have detention.

Student: But Miss, we haven’t studied Unit 4.

Teacher: That is no excuse.

So you can see, language learning can be difficult for other reasons. I always found the grammar of German difficult, but was quite good at remembering the vocabulary. It amused me that the number of letters in some words were two or three times more in their English equivalent.

If I go on holiday, I always like to have a phrase book so I can try to use phrases on the native speakers of the country. I’m not sure I’m always understood but hope that my efforts are appreciated. For many years, it was seen as a stereotype that English people would not learn another language as they expected everybody to speak English, regardless of which area of the world they were in. I worked for a few Arabic speaking banks and had an attempt at learning the language. In those days, BBC Radio had a programme on Saturday afternoons called, ‘Get by in…’ Here they would have a weekly thirty-minute lesson in a specific language. The course would be about six lessons and could be supported by a book and cassette tapes. I picked up some Arabic, Chinese and Russian from these programmes.

On successfully being appointed to one job, my manager told me that it would be useful to have a knowledge of basic Spanish as some of the documentation that I needed to use would be written in that language. I didn’t really have much knowledge of Spanish so went out and bought a ‘Teach Yourself Spanish’ textbook and cassette tape. Having a basic knowledge of French helped me to learn Spanish. Many years later I worked for a Danish bank and studied the Danish language for six years and it became my second language. On my first time visiting Denmark and in my first encounter with a native speaker, my part of the conversation was in Danish while the other speaker’s part was in English. We both understood each other, but it was probably a very strange conversation for any passer-by.

Having solely worked with Japanese staff, trainees and students since 2015, I’m trying to learn the language. It’s a slow process, but I’m happy with each element of the language I achieve-especially if I recognise a hiragana or kanji character.

A cup of tea

Probably a little stereotypical, but the British are always seen as being obsessed with the drink tea. While drinking tea and coffee is very popular among the British, it’s not limited to them. When I’ve been with other nationalities, they have been surprised (or shocked) that I’ve added milk to my tea. While I’m quite content to drink coffee without milk, I don’t like the taste of tea without milk (although I wouldn’t put milk in green tea or Earl Grey). The dialogue involved in offering and accepting a cup of tea always amuses me. These terms might be used by English speakers or just English speakers in my part of the country. Below is an example dialogue.

Person A: Would you like a nice cup of tea?

Person B: Only if you’re making one.

Why does Person A say, ‘a nice cup of tea’? They wouldn’t say. ‘Would you like a horrible cup of tea?’. Secondly, why does person B say, ‘Only if you’re making one’? Person A wouldn’t have asked otherwise. It’s just a polite conversational convention. Otherwise, the dialogue might have followed the path below.

Person A: Would you like a cup of tea?

Person B: Yes, please.

Person A: Unfortunately, I’m not making one.

In the phrase ‘Would you like a cup of tea?’, there are a lot of connected speech patterns. For example ‘Would you…’ becomes ‘wudja’, ‘like a’ becomes ‘lika’ and the sound of the word ‘of’ from ‘cup of tea’ seems to disappear completely to become ‘cuppa tea’. It’s quite an interesting sentence for your students or trainees to analyse in a pronunciation lesson.

There are various idiomatic and proverbial sayings relating to the drinking of tea. If we think that a big fuss is being made about a minor or irrelevant matter, we may dismiss it as ‘a storm in a teacup’. If there is something or someone not completely to our liking, we may say they are, ‘Not my cup of tea’. Writing on this topic has made me feel thirsty, so I’m taking a break for a cuppa…

Technology in EFL

First of all, if you’re looking for an in depth review of educational technology, I apologise. This post is my reflection on the development of technology during my time in EFL. I may go into further detail of some of the applications mentioned in a later post. When I started in EFL about twenty years ago, teaching technology was very scarce. If you were lucky, there might be an overhead projector (OHP) or two, a video player and television, a music cassette player (incorporating a CD player if the school really splashed out). DVDs weren’t as common as they were a few years later. YouTube had yet come into existence. The little technology that we had in the school had to be booked out, so if you needed it for a lesson, you might sometimes have to negotiate with the other teachers.

When I first started teaching, I found using my computer a good way of preparing lessons (and having a way to store resources for future reference). If you wanted to share these lessons with colleagues, you could always save material to a floppy disk. Later you could record data on a CD, and eventually a USB. Then came the ‘cloud’, another way of storing and retrieving resources.

Up until about twenty-five years ago, I had no interest in computers or mobile devices. Once I decided to try them, there was no going back and I saw many advantages in using them in language learning and teaching. One year, my Director of Studies (DoS) suggested I give a talk to the school teacher’s conference on using technology in the EFL classroom. I wasn’t keen at first, as I wasn’t used to talking about subjects in front of my peers and strangers. I managed to put a few topics together for my talk such as using the radio, webquests, using the newer technologies (such as Twitter) and corpora. Quite a few teachers were interested by my information on corpora (as it wasn’t as developed as it is now). When I arrived at the conference, I was advised that I couldn’t use the computer room for my session. I had to point out that having a lecture on technology without any access to technology for practical use was just a bit silly. Luckily, the powers that be agreed with me (eventually). At the time, I printed many handouts for my talk. These days I would probably make them available in Dropbox or on Google Docs. All this happened about fifteen years ago,

It was on my train journey home from one of these conferences that I read an article in the Saturday Guardian magazine about Web 2.0. This term had been coined a couple of years earlier and was now receiving a lot of press coverage. One of my friends was studying a course at university and knowing of my love of music, she told me about LastFM (an early music streaming service). I therefore became more and more interested in all the new technology developing and each time tried to see how I could relate it to an EFL context. A few years later, I attained my MA in Online and Distance Education.

Twenty Years in EFL-The Next Chapter?

The past few posts have been a few details of my EFL career up to the present day. There’s a lot more I could have covered and may do at a later date. Due to the current circumstances, I’m online only at the moment. My services are not exclusive to EFL teaching. If you need assistance with an interview or presentation in English, if you have translated into English and require someone to proofread your copy or are attending a meeting in English, please contact me. Have a look at the other pages on the website for more details. If it’s a language issue that isn’t mentioned on the site, please get in touch and I may be able to help you.

As I’ve previously mentioned, I tweeted everyday in February and have decided to blog everyday in March or at least write thirty-one posts. Well, I’ve managed five posts so far and it’s only the third day of March, so perhaps I’ll take the next two days off… I’ve also managed to link my blogposts to Twitter so technically I’m still tweeting. At the moment, I’m looking into the possibilities on Instagram and in podcasting. Watch this space.

Thank you for your time if you have read the posts. I wish you all good health and hope you all stay safe and well. Until next time, ‘sayonara’.

Twenty Years in EFL-Part 5

In August 2015, I secured a part-time teaching job in a Japanese school in a local Jacobean manor house. For years I’d seen Japanese students on my way home and wondered where they studied as it would be good to work nearer home. After nearly forty years of commuting by train in and out of London, I thought it was time for a change. At the time, I didn’t realise how much of a change it would be, but it was very different.

This particular job involved teaching English to Japanese students, but also training them how to teach English to young Japanese learners. It had been decreed by the Japanese Ministry of Education (MEXT) that English would become a compulsory subject for primary school children. I’d not had much experience of teacher training up to this point, but had observed and critiqued countless lessons in my previous schools. So I did a lot of background reading on teacher training and once actively taking part, I found it very enjoyable. In September 2015, I became Director of Studies and ESL Coordinator at the school. I remained until 2020, when due to circumstances beyond my control I could no longer continue working there. These circumstances arose before the pandemic and lockdown, so it wasn’t the best year career wise.

As I have mentioned, the school was a short journey from my home (walking distance) and I was only the non-Japanese person there, so most of the day the conversation around me was Japanese. I didn’t mind as i could zone out and concentrate on my work. I did pick up a few Japanese phrase, probably by ‘peripheral learning’. I noted some phrases always preceded or followed some action and worked out the meaning from observing. The Japanese character system is difficult and I still don’t know that many of them, although again by the frequent use of some characters I discovered the meaning.

I trained many students and had an almost one hundred per cent pass rate as they were all very conscientious and enthusiastic students. I was sometime worried that they might not like the feedback I gave them on observations. However, they always told me how much they appreciated the verbal and written feedback on their teaching practice. Unfortunately, one student did not seem to put the work in and I had to fail them which negatively affected my pass rate. My staff and I offered all the support we could, but unfortunately the student never handed in assignments on time and by the end of the course still owed assignments to all the lecturers. The student also seemed to let their classmates do all the work during collaborative tasks. One of the tasks was to observe a morning in a local primary school class and then return a few weeks later and give that class a lecture in English on Japanese culture. This could be teaching basic Japanese language, telling stories, playing children’s games or origami. One poor woman did all the work that should have been developed by both of the students. Her co-student wasn’t putting any effort into developing material. Teaching is also about collaboration and supporting your fellow teachers. So, I had to fail the student. Even the principal whose marking regime was not as strict as the other lecturers reluctantly agreed that the student had to receive a fail grade. In all my time there, that was fortunately the only time that happened. The rest of my trainees passed, sometime with merit.

I was referred to as ‘Steve-sensei’ by all the staff and students. Even when I wrote a report or meeting notes I referred to myself as Steve-sensei. The local cafe in the park was managed by a nice Japanese lady. Once they discovered I worked in the school, they also referred to me as Steve-sensei. I found it both quite funny and endearing at the same time. Below is my attempt to write ‘Ohayo gozaimasu’ which means ‘Good morning’. You use this phrase up until about 11 a.m. and use ‘konnichiwa’ after that time.

I also taught IELTS classes for Japanese students, plus lectured on EFL methodology to classes where they were learning how to teach Japanese to non-Japanese speakers. In the summer for three or four weeks, I trained Japanese students in using English for teaching Japanese to non-native speakers. That was quite interesting as I was observing classes in a language that was relatively unknown to me, but I think the trainees liked using me to practise on. I was also involved in a class known as the ‘foreign language lesson’. This is also used in UK training courses such as TEYL and CELTA. The trainees receive instruction in a foreign language to give them an example of how it feels to learn another language. Generally the language is not that common, so to have a lesson in French would be unusual. My second language is Danish, so I mainly taught that to the trainees using the direct method. I would not speak in English and only Danish for the entire lesson, using pictures and prompts to illustrate the language. I’d say ninety-nine per cent of the students enjoyed the lessons. I always found it amusing afterwards when Japanese students would greet me in the park in the Danish language. I did use basic Spanish and Russian in the lessons too.

Twenty Years in EFL-Part 4

The next step in my EFL journey was as a Director of Studies (DoS) in a small language school beginning in June 2014. This would involve being responsible for all the teaching staff, teaching both young learners and adults. My responsibilities also included implementing British Council recommendations (which had not been acted on before I arrived at the school) and also preparing the school for an upcoming British Council accreditation inspection. This would involve a lot of assistance from others on the management team. Unfortunately, that wasn’t forthcoming and there seemed to be a climate of disrespect and idleness in some areas. This made it very hard for me to work in an organisation where progress was not taken seriously. Consequently I left a year later as I did not want to be associated with the behaviour of some of the management team. In one case, I had to tell the British Council inspectors not to associate me with another member of staff as their behaviour was complete anathema to me.

While I was at this school, I implemented programmes of observation, appraisal, teacher development, weekly teachers’ meetings and a payment grade system for teachers dependent on their experience and qualifications. Much to my horror, I discovered that teachers didn’t have contracts and some were paid cash in hand. I managed to rectify that eventually, but I wasn’t really granted much authority as DoS and had to rely on others, and as I have said before some of them were lazy.

Again, I dealt with many Italian teenage students as we had arrangements for thirty or so to come over at a time. Many of these students would take the Trinity exam test relevant to their age and level (in most cases, but as I said before disorganisation and chaos reigned here).

One positive point arose from this period in my EFL career and that was how much support I was able to give my teachers, whether they were fresh from an EFL training course, studying for their DELTA or hoping to upgrade their MA in EFL status to a DELTA equivalent. I managed to implement a number of programmes to assist the teachers in this way. I also encouraged my teaching staff to try new classes such as IELTS or a higher or lower level than they were used to. As they knew they had my support, they worked very hard and became very valuable to their students.

It was about this time I realised how much I enjoyed helping teachers develop and that if you show your staff that you are supportive of them, they will reciprocate. Despite me tearing out what little hair I had at times, there were some funny incidents. One member of staff used to take incredibly long lunch hours. They weren’t academic staff, so although I didn’t like the attitude, it didn’t really bother me. Although, one afternoon they decided to let a non-native speaking member of staff lead a marketing meeting by herself. The poor woman’s English was not adequate enough to get her through the meeting, so I was asked by other staff to sit in and help. I’m not a marketing person, so was furious to be put in this position. It was then I realised that a certain member of staff’s attitude towards anyone but themself was very poor. One afternoon the aforementioned member of staff was having what I suspected was another extended lunch. When they turned up hours later, it transpired they’d been stuck in the building lift for most of the afternoon. Schadenfreude, I think they call it.

As mentioned before, I decided to leave this place after a year and had a short sabbatical including a trip to Liverpool where I visited the famous Cavern Club. Unfortunately, I can’t find the photos I took there, but as a consolation I’ve included a photo below of Savile Row in London. The Beatles gave their last live performance on the roof of this building in 1969 (as evidenced by the Blue Plaque).