What every EFL teacher should know

 

This was the title of Paul Nation's closing plenary at the recent CamTESOL conference.  His speech picked up on parts of his latest book of the same name and its sister publication, 'What every ESL teacher should know', which he has generously made available as a free download here.

Nation proposes that there are twenty most useful language teaching techniques:

Notes on a few of these:

1. Listening to stories - the teacher reads to the students.  This is appropriate and useful at all levels.
2. Read and listen - using digital recorders, the speed of the playback can be changed according to the learner's ability.
3. Speed reading - make use of some of the many free downloadable speed reading courses available online.
4. 10-minute writing - here the focus is on fluency rather than accuracy so the work is uncorrected.
5. Linked skills - integrated skills tasks.
6. Issue logs - students choose a topic and gather information about it over a few weeks.  The narrow focus of the research means that vocabulary is repeated and students are more likely to retain it.
7. Word cards - deliberate learning = implicit knowledge (Language Learning 2010).

The five most significant changes you can make to an English language programme are:

1. Use linked skills activities - activities which integrate reading, writing, listening and speaking.
2. Introduce an extensive reading programme at the appropriate levels for input and fluency development.  This exposes students to a great deal of authentic material in the target language.  Don't teach so much and use the extra time to do extensive reading.  Several research projects have proven the effectiveness of this idea. 
3. Introduce a fluency development programme incorporating 4/3/2 speaking activities, speed reading and 10-minute writing.
4. Encourage peer listening and speaking.
5. Introduce vocabulary size testing.

The teacher's jobs:

1. Plan a good course - this is the most important job for a teacher.  At the planning stage, you must ensure that all four strands mentioned in the table above are covered.
2. Organise learning opportunities both in and outside the classroom.
3. Train learners in language learning strategies so that they are encouraged to be independent in their learning.
4. Test learners to make sure that they are making progress and that they know how well they are doing.
5. Teach - the least important of the five jobs, but still vital!  Teaching should be less than a quarter of the course time.

Getting balance into a course

The amount of time in a course for the four strands, the four skills and teaching activities:

So, the key is to devote a quarter of the course time to each of the four strands.  The aim is for students to be fluent (appropriate to level) at all levels of a language course.

Principles

1. The four strands
2. Input - from reading and listening.  Make use of graded readers with audio recordings, available from 100 to 8000 words.
3. Time on task - spend time on what you want to be good at.
4. Direction of effort - focus on things you want to learn.

Free resources

• Look on Paul Nation's website for mid-frequency readers, the Range programme with lists going up to the 25th 1000, the Vocabulary Resource Booklet, two parallel forms of the 20,000 Vocabulary Size Test plus a detailed description of the test.
• The Compleat Lexical Tutor
• An online vocabulary size test

 

Developing as a Manager

This was the title of the first in a series of monthly CPD webinars hosted by the British Council.  You can read more about the programme here.

This webinar was presented by Loraine Kennedy and what follows is a summary of what she had to say.

What is CPD?

Loraine began with a couple of definitions:

'CPD is ...... the planned acquisition of knowledge, experience and skills, and the development of personal qualities necessary for the execution of professional and technical duties throughout one's working life.'

(Wikipedia)

'CPD seeks to formalise what most professionals are already doing, enabling development to be structured in a way that meets both their own needs and the requirements of their employer.'

(Chartered Insurance Institute)

The emphasis here is on continuation.  CPD is not the same as training.  CPD can be done at work.  You don't have to attend training sessions in order to develop.

What is learning?

Learning is acquiring new knowledge, skills, behaviours, values, preferences or understanding, and may involve synthesising different types of information.

Sometimes, learning is seen in a negative way - that it is needed to overcome some shortfall in knowledge.  It really shouldn't be looked at like this.  Rather, learning should be seen as an adventure - a journey to improve ourselves.

Questions the learning manager will ask themselves

• Why do I bother with CPD?
• Am I as good as I could be at my job?
• Do I portray the characteristics of a lifelong learner, or have I become set in my ways?
• What do I need to learn?
• How can I best develop?
• Do I lead by example when it comes to learning?

We know that, generally, we learn more quickly when we are beginners.  Remember back to when you first learned a foreign language or how to play a musical instrument.  Learning becomes more laborious as we progress.  However, it's important to continue to develop.  After all, the only constant in life is change!

Why bother with CPD?

• so that we know and understand ourselves better - to develop our self-awareness.
• to develop our competence.  We need to know that we are doing our job to the best of our ability.  We need to become an expert at what we do.
• for career development.  We need to be ready for any changes the future may throw at us.

What's to learn?

As an academic manager or DOS, we're in charge of a range of task types:

• resources
• curriculum
• people
• ourselves
• environment
• communications
• procedures
• money
• quality
• performance and development of staff

We need to fill the gaps between where we are now and where we want to be in the future.  What we need to learn involves skills, knowledge and behaviours.

Skills

This is what we need to do well.  Examples might include:

• Use of technology

1. Excel
2. PowerPoint
3. Publisher

• Managing processes

1. Chairing meetings
2. Negotiation skills

Skills are often developed through attending training courses.

Knowledge

What we need to know or find out.  For example:

• Know yourself
• Know what others think of you - your strengths and areas for development
• The theory behind management practice
• Research
• What the experts say
• Published literature

Behaviours

Who you are and how you do things.  How people perceive you.

• your actions and interactions
• the way you say things
• the way you do things
• the way you write things

Learning is about developing all three - skills, knowledge and behaviours.

ELT Manager Competencies

1. Analysis
2. Customer service
3. Delegation
4. Developing people
5. Empowerment
6. Leadership
7. Initiative
8. Judgement
9. Managing work
10. Interpersonal skills
11. Quality management
12. Maximising performance
13. Negotiation
14. Oral communication
15. Written communication
16. Resilience
17. Persuasiveness
18. Planning and organising
19. Energy and drive

Within each competency, there are:

• skills you can develop
• knowledge you can attain
• behaviours you can learn and adopt

You could spend several weeks just looking at leadership, for example.

How to 'do' your CPD as a manager

1. Take courses

• Certificate in ELT Management
• Diploma in ELT Management (Module 3, DELTA)
• MSc/Dip Educational Management in TESOL
• Diploma in ELT Management, validated by Trinity College, London, administered by English UK
• International Diploma in Language Teaching Management

2.  Read

Educational Management Books:

• 'From Teacher to Manager' (2008)
• 'Management in ELT' (1991)
• 'Leadership in English Language Education'  (2009)
• 'Effective School Management'  (2004)
• 'The Principles and Practice of Educational Management'  (2002)
• 'Effective Educational Leadership  (2003)
• 'Understanding Schools as Organisations'  (1990)

General Management Books:

• 'Successful Manager's Handbook'  (2002)
• 'Management: an Introduction'  (2005)
• 'Management and Organisational Behaviour'  (2004)
• 'Organisational Behaviour'  (2010)
• 'The Practice of Management'  (1955)

Websites:

• englishagenda.britishcouncil.org
• eltm.iatefl.org/index.html
• teachingenglish.org.uk
• 12manage.com
• management-issues.com
• businessballs.com

3.  Join an association or learning network

• IATEFL Leadership and Management SIG
• ELT Management group on Yahoo

4.  Attend conferences and workshops

• IATEFL (online if you can't attend in person)
• English UK Management conference

5.  Do CPD online

There are numerous free webinars available online.

6.  Do your CPD 'on the job' - Action Learning

• Focus on real problems and on implementing solutions.
• Learning = programmed knowledge (what you think is right) + questioning insight.
• Work with small groups to provide challenge and support.
• The process:

1. research - into what is obscure
2. learning - about what is unknown
3. action - to resolve a problem

• Questioning and reflection help individuals and organisations change themselves in a rapidly changing world.

Experiential Learning

 

• Learning is a process.  
• Change is needed for learning to have occurred.  
• Learning results in new knowledge.  
• For learning to result in knowledge, information has to be reflected on and digested, used in action, and integrated into the person's way of seeing the world.

Reflective Practice

This is a form of experiential learning.

Reflective practice is 'the capacity to reflect on action, so as to engage in a process of continuous learning.'

Reflective practice involves 'paying critical attention to the practical values and theories which inform everyday actions by examining practice reflectively and reflexively.  This leads to developmental insight.'

Learning Interventions

These are all the different ways we can use 'on the job' learning to develop.  (This is not an exhaustive list!)

Performance management

• objectives
• best practice
• QA
• new projects

Communications

• cross-team meetings
• feedback mechanisms
• discussion time
• slogans, stories, humour

On-the-job

• job sharing
• job shadowing
• team work
• delegation/ownership
• projects
• outcome/impact - not process

PD

• PD objectives
• observations
• mentoring
• reading

Training

• training needs analysis
• in-service training
• external training
• external qualifications
• conferences
• webinars
• online forums

Everything you do is a learning opportunity!!

Summary

1. Find time to think, to reflect and to discuss.  Discussion is very important - if you keep something to yourself, you don't learn effectively.
2. Reflect on the skills, knowledge and behaviours you need for your day-to-day work and for your career advancement.
3. Develop your self-awareness - know what you're good at and what you can get better at.
4. Set simple, achievable action points and targets.
5. Take it one step at a time, and keep the steps small.
6. Actively seek learning opportunities.
7. Tap into what motivates you.
8. Seek a mentor or coach, or a peer group - people to have learning conversations with.
9. Seek honest, constructive feedback on your performance at work.
10. Join a learning network or build your own.
11. Keep aware of the world around you (through TED talks, for example).
12. Review your CV regularly.
13. Learning builds your competence and, thus, your confidence.
14. CPD needn't cost anything!

The language educator and globalisation – how do we best prepare our learners?

This was the title of the opening plenary at the recent CamTESOL conference.  The speaker was Richmond Stroupe and what follows is a summary of his talk.

Richmond Stroupe

The English language is a source of economic opportunity for many of our learners.  Nowadays, being able to speak English is seen as a basic skill – a given, an expectation – rather than an advantage.  As this trend continues, the age at which users become proficient in the English language will decrease.  It takes eight years for a language learner to achieve proficiency, so children are beginning to learn at a younger age.  There is also a growing importance placed on plural-lingualism.  Many people are learning multiple languages in different contexts.  English language skill is just one skill in a basket of skills that learners need as competitiveness in business increases.

English is not enough anymore.  English language teachers often have to teach study and workplace skills too.  Some questions we need to think about:

• How do we empower our students?
• How do we make them global citizens?
• How do we bring these skills into our ELT classroom?

There are many examples now where institutions are introducing ESP workshops and short courses as part of their ELT programmes.  Skills covered might include:

• Negotiation
• Report writing
• The etiquette of meetings
• Social English
• Collaboration
• Teamwork
• Leadership
• Responsibility
• Critical thinking

The importance of the last one – critical thinking – cannot be underestimated.  CT skills are extremely important and teaching them shouldn’t be limited to high-level students only.  We need to scaffold the skills back to make them appropriate to the level and then develop them over time.

We can teach many of these academic and workplace skills through task based learning and group work, where the final product is a poster presentation for example.  Here, the teacher’s role is facilitator rather than teacher.

We also need to bring aspects of intercultural communicative competence, such as flexibility, adaptability, interaction and respect, into our classrooms.  This applies even if we are teaching in a monolingual, mono-cultural setting.  In the global village we live in now, such homogenous groups rarely exist in the workplace.  We need to remember that culture isn’t just what we see on the outside – we also need to teach a deeper understanding of beliefs and behaviours.  Culture consists of:

• Beliefs +
• Behaviours +
• Artefacts +
• Institutions

Integrated language skills, such as those we teach in order for students to pass the TOEFL exam, are key to equipping our students for the 21^st century workplace.  This is the approach used all the time in academia and business and we need to do it in our classrooms.

English language teachers have a tremendous amount of responsibility!!

I am an IATEFL registered blogger!!

Yes, I'm shouting it from the rooftops!!

For those of you who don't know, next week sees the staging of the 47th annual IATEFL conference, the biggest and most well-known event pertaining to our profession anywhere in the world.  This year's conference is being held in Liverpool's Arena and Convention Centre from April 8th - 12th.  

If you can't attend in person, however, don't worry!  The plenary sessions and lots of interviews are being live-streamed throughout the conference so you can be a part of events no matter where you are in the world.  Go to the website now and register - that way, you'll be able to take part in the forums and discussions as well as follow the live events.

 

Click here to watch a welcome message from IATEFL president, Eric Baber and here to check out the schedule for the plenary sessions so that you can plan your time next week.

 

As for me, I've already filled my diary with the sessions I don't want to miss, but I have a confession to make.... I did the same last year and then work commitments got in the way and, to my regret, I didn't get involved in IATEFL 2012 at all!!  So, this year, I decided to apply to be a registered blogger for the online conference, figuring that it would force me to attend sessions and write about them!  Last night, I received my acceptance e-mail so it's all systems go!  This is the first of, I hope, several blog posts offering my summaries of sessions attended as well as thoughts on the overall experience of attending an international conference online.  I hope some of you will come on the journey with me!

Leading an ELT organisation in an international environment

Damon Anderson

This was the title of a seminar, led by Damon Anderson, which took place as part of the Leadership Forum at the recent CamTESOL conference in Phnom Pehn.  The context for Damon's talk was the idea of the ASEAN Integrated Community which is due to come into effect by December 2015.  You can read about it here.

As a result of the formation of this community, there will be more need for English as the workforce becomes more mobile.  English is the working language of ASEAN.  Fortunately, there is the political will to facilitate this.  More mobility means more students moving around the region and, as they move into the workforce, there will be more and more need for ESP.  For example, Cambodians will be competing against other nationalities for jobs, even if they stay in Cambodia.

All of this will lead to the provision of more and more English programmes and the need for closer attention to standards.  There are factors which are important for any organisation to succeed and these apply just as much to English language teaching institutions as to any other kind of business. 

The key components for success:

• Know who the stakeholders are and what they expect.  These will include the owners of the business, any investors and affiliate institutions, as well as the faculty and the student cohort.
• Establish the working language of the organisation.  If you are running an ELT institution in a non-English speaking country, it is important that there is a common language between all the stakeholders in order for them to communicate effectively.  The working language needs to be agreed at the setting up of the organisation and all meetings need to be held in that language and all documentation needs to be published in that language.  Effective translation services must then be employed to ensure that all concerned parties understand what is going on.
• Have a mission statement.  A mission statement is different to goals, which are achievable day-to-day aims, in that it sets the overall tone for the organisation.  What is the best ever mission statement?

 

 

.....to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before. (Star Trek)

• A good team who have the knowledge, skills and commitment.  Too many language schools hire people just because they are native speakers.  We need to hire people because they have these three key qualities.  Quality assurance starts with this.
• Good organisation of responsibilities.  Make it clear who is leading and managing and who is responsible for the various aspects of the organisation or particular project within the organisation. 
• Time.  There needs to be a clear timeframe for every project within the organisation.  Planning is key.
• Communication.  Modes and procedures need to be clearly stated and adhered to and known to everyone.
• Meetings.  Regular, purposeful, concise meetings are vital to keep all interested parties in the loop.
 
A 236-year old lesson in leadership from George Washington


1. Creating a context. Leaders must paint a broad and complete picture for their team, providing the perspective that enables them to understand the meaning, repercussions and influences of their decision-making.
2. Framing the problem. Leaders tackling complex challenges need to make certain that their team fully understands the dimensions of those challenges. No mincing words; no sugar-coating the problem.
3. Seeking advice. To encourage discussion and contributions from the team, leaders must be clear that they are looking for solutions – without prejudicing the process by offering their own proposal at the start. Everyone who can contribute should be included.
4. Reaching a consensus. While it’s important to encourage and maintain an open exchange of ideas, leaders must ensure that the group moves toward a consensus solution. Endless discussion is almost never a solution.

• Budget.  There should be an adequate budget with laid down procedures and regulations.  There needs to be agreed reporting forms and formats which are clear and known to everyone.  How do people have to account for expenses?, for example.
• Branding and promotion.  Put the name of your organisation on everything!
• Client base.  Who are your students?  Where are they coming from?
• Location.
• Acknowledgement.  It's really important to acknowledge people's contribution in order to get their commitment to you and to the institution.
• Cultural etiquette.  It is vital to be aware of and make allowance for local cultural differences and sensitivities.  Watch this advert for HSBC as an illustration of how important this is!

When it comes to cultural awareness, as well as the normal considerations, the most important thing to bear in mind is - location, location, location!!  Location affects so many things.  For example, in some cultures the number 4 is unlucky and if you put your language school on the 4th floor of an office building, you may find yourself short of students!  Location also affects:

• rules and regulations regarding employees and budgets (taxes)
• currencies and banking
• possible time differences
• import/export regulations (could significantly increase the costs of books and equipment, for example)
• visas
• national/international holidays (could have implications for academic holidays)
• branding/promotion (acronyms may not mean the same in different countries)

To conclude,
If you consider all of these factors, your ELT organisation has a much greater chance of success.
 

What makes a lesson great?

This was the subject of an interesting #eltchat, which I summarised, back in January.  During that chat, reference was made to a webinar with the same title given by Anthony Gaughan.  I knew I had attended the said webinar and just yesterday I came across my notes, so I've decided to write them up.  What follows is a summary of Anthony's presentation.

A lesson should be built around five characteristics or elements which are primary to a GREAT lesson:

• Group dynamic
• Relevance to learners' lives and needs
• Emergent language and ideas focus
• Attentiveness
• Thoughtfulness

Group dynamic

 

Some questions to ask ourselves:

• Can dynamic be generated?
• How do we promote rapport?
• Are we blocking rapport?
• Can (and should) teachers manage the group dynamic?
• How well-prepared are teachers in various educational settings to work sensitively with the group dynamic?

Relevance

 

Students have to be convinced that they are working towards mastering the language.  Telling them that something is relevant is not enough.  The activity has to be seen to be relevant.

 

A needs analysis is usually only done at the beginning of a course.  Inevitably, needs change over time, so a course becomes decreasingly relevant.  You can overcome this by exploiting learner journals.  In this way, it is easier for the teacher to keep pace with student needs and students also become more conscious of their own needs.  You can read Adam Beale's blog for more on learner diaries.

 

The lesson content has to have a recognisable profile, but it has to adaptable. It has to change and it has to clearly relate to the students' needs and interests.

 

Emergent language and ideas focus

 

Language develops over time and relates to the point of need.  Instant and constructive feedback is required at the moment the language emerges. Teachers should be language 'snipers' - marksmen!  They should hear the emergent language and pick up on it immediately.

 

As a teacher, when you hear something new, capture it and do something with it.  Ask yourself:

• Have I heard this from this learner and this class before?
• Is this highly relevant to the conversation?
• Have others asked the speaker to clarify the meaning?
• Was there a pause for thought?  Was it hesitantly delivered?
• Was it used to get around some lack of lexis or grammar?

Attentiveness

 

Attention is limited to a relatively short period of time, so it is important to use the lesson dynamic.  Be aware of getting, and then holding onto, your learners' attention.  Try pausing for three seconds after every instruction or chunk of language.  It helps the students to focus their attention.  It really works!!  It gives them processing time.

 

Consider the flock of birds/buckshot analogy.  If you want to gather birds rather than scatter them, don't use a shotgun, use food.  How do you know what kind of 'food' to use for your learners?  What will get their attention?  Gather data. Take notes.  Eavesdrop on their conversations.  Snoop.  Listen for language students want clarification on.  Listen and note the topics they talk about.

 

Play loud music and force students to talk over it.  Not only does this get their attention, it helps with their confidence and their voice projection.

 

Thoughtfulness

 

How thoughtful are you towards yourself and towards your students in class? How thoughtful are your students towards each other in class?

 

Use silence - thinking pauses.  See Scott Thornbury's blogpost on this.

How compatible are busy classroom environments with true thoughtfulness?  Ask yourself:

• How often during a lesson am I thoughtful about:

1. how I am feeling?
2. how the learners are feeling?
3. how appropriate to the moment is what I've planned?

• How can I calm (but not subdue!) the environment to allow for more thoughtfulness?

Allow white space in your lesson plan.  In other words, leave some unplanned time.  Gain focus in your lesson through interest, not time pressure.  

Take a 15-second vacation:  go to the window and focus on a tree or a bird, for example, for a full 15 seconds.  You'll be energised and so will the class.
 

Here's to lots of great lessons!

The Connected Classroom

 

This was the title of a recent webinar I attended.  It was presented by Russell Stannard of www.teachertrainingvideos.com fame.

Russell Stannard

What is 'the connected classroom'?

It's about connecting what we do in class with what we do outside of the classroom.  Russell is particularly interested in using technology outside of the class and is always looking for ways of getting students to do more speaking practice.  It's so easy nowadays for students to record themselves and send the recording to the teacher.  This webinar focused on three ways to do this.

How do we 'connect' our classrooms through speaking activities?

• Prepare the speaking activities in the class, but get students to do the recordings at home.
• The key is motivation - this requires thorough preparation and practising the speaking activity in class.  Vocabulary, grammar, structures, etc. should all be practised.
• Start by sharing a recording of your own with the class.
• The more you connect the class part of the activity with the homework part, the better the students tend to do with the recordings.
• Plan the whole lesson, including the homework, as one.

Examples of 'connected' speaking activities

• Providing personal information
• Talking about a best friend
• Talking about your daily routine
• Making a 'shopping channel' recording, e.g. selling your telephone
• Describing an object which is important to you
• Talking about a picture
• Sharing a timeline of your life (or the life of a famous person)

Benefits of 'connected' speaking activities

• Students can work on their recordings at their own pace and repeat the activity as often as they need to.
• Students get to speak English outside of the classroom.
• They are useful for students to build up a portfolio of their work (particularly good for showing improvements in speaking ability over time).
• They are great for encouraging students to be more autonomous and to take responsibility for their own learning.
• They are useful for assessments.
• They are a great way to practise for external exams.
• They can be used for individual students, pairs or, even, small groups.

vocaroo.com

 

This is a very easy-to-use tool whereby students can make recordings and, when they are happy with the results, they can e-mail them to their teacher.  There is also the facility to embed the recordings (in a wiki or blog, for example) or to download them (as an Mp3 or WAV file), which is useful for students to build up a portfolio of their work.

 

With vocaroo, recordings can be up to five minutes in length.  The simplicity of the tool means that it's very good for use with low-level students.

 

mailvu.com

 

This tool allows students to record video as well as audio, so is great for recording adverts, for example.  Recordings can be up to ten minutes long and can be e-mailed to the teacher.  It is a more sophisticated tool than vocaroo and is better for higher-level students.  Unfortunately, mailvu does not allow you to download the recordings, but they are kept online for 365 days before being deleted.

 

mybrainshark.com

 

This tool allows you to upload video, powerpoint, pictures, word documents, etc. and then add your voice to it before sharing on the internet.  It is a great way for students to practise presentation techniques.  It is free for recordings of up to 15 minutes.

 

Potential problems with 'connected' speaking activities

• Have students got access to the internet?
• Have they been given enough guidance to make the recordings?
• Do they have an appropriate framework to work with?
• What are you going to do about giving feedback?  You could give general feedback to the whole class and then play the best examples in class (with the students' permission) or you could try using peer evaluation.

 

Don't let these potential problems stop you, though - the connected classroom is the way forward!