Teaching phrasal verbs

Posted in The Lexical Approach on 05/31/2009 07:44 pm by David-Overton

Phrasal verbs can be a pretty messy business. While giving rules for tenses and comparatives and the like is fairly straightforward, hard and fast rules for phrasal verbs are hard to come by, and if you don’t watch your step you can easily end up confusing and demoralizing your students.

 

Yet phrasal verbs do permeate the language, particularly the more colloquial variety, the kind used for almost all spoken communication, so students do come across them all the time and usually take them in stride. This being the case, you can deal with them the same way you deal with other lexis: highlight them when they come up along with their collocations, then move on. Treat them as chunks of language.

 

For example, say in a lower level class you’re looking at phrasal verbs with “turn”, so perhaps a useful chunk of language would be “Shall I turn up / down the volume?”, “Shall I turn on / off the radio?” Actually at this point you may want to ask them what other words they think collocate with “turn on”. This is sometimes useful because students can try out their ideas, for example, you can “turn on the TV / the light / the heat / the air conditioning”, but you can’t “turn on your car”; you obviously “start up your car”.

 

When teaching phrasal verbs like this, there’s really no need to go into the minefield of whether this particular type has an object or not, or is separable or not. Just get them to learn (memorize) the chunk in question, for example, “Shall I turn off the radio?” This also completely avoids the issue of what happens when the object of the phrasal verb is a pronoun, that is, you can say “turn it off” but not “turn off it”.

 

This is what I mean when I say phrasal verbs are messy. You risk opening a Pandora’s box if you try to tackle this fiddly grammar too soon. But happily there’s no real need to: you can treat, “Shall I turn off the radio” as a chunk of language and leave well enough alone. Perhaps another day they’ll come across, “I’ll turn it off”, and then you can give a fast and friendly explanation of the variations, “I’ll turn the radio off” and “I’ll turn off the radio”, but for God’s sake, don’t get bogged down by this.

 

Again, it’s vital that they come away with practical, useful chunks of language like, “Shall I turn off the radio?”. Then later when you complicate the grammar they’ll already have been using phrasal verbs and hopefully be familiar with the examples you’re using. This will go far to bypass the confusion and demoralization that students so often feel when confronting this (for them) arcane grammar.

 

By the way, what we’re seeing here illustrates why lexis comes before grammar in the Lexical Approach. The lexis itself, the chunks of language, bring along its own grammar as we’ve been seeing, so if students learn “I’ll turn it down”, as part of the package they also get “will” for spontaneous decisions, and “turn it down”: the verb + object pronoun + particle.

 

If you approach this from the other direction and actually start out by writing on the board “verb + object pronoun + particle”, you’ll surely frighten your poor students off. And if they do stick it out, they’ll have learned some theory but not how to put it into practice. For that you’ll have to go back to useful chunks of language, which should have been your starting point anyway.

 

Meanwhile, long grammar explanations are normally a waste of valuable classroom time. So steer clear of the phrasal verb quicksand of over-analysis and instead give them useful chunks of language with minimal analysis. You won’t regret it.

 

 

Spotlight on collocations

Posted in The Lexical Approach on 05/31/2009 07:35 pm by David-Overton

I’ve been thinking it’s time to change the channel and turn the spotlight on the Lexical Approach and on my favorite in-class activity, picking out collocations from texts.

 

Finding interesting collocations and chunks of language is certainly time well spent. Actually I do my best to train my students to find (“notice”) them themselves. This can actually take a bit of doing because they usually view language as a string of isolated words rather than as words that often go together. It’s so typical: you’re looking at a text and they ask you what this or that word means, but they fail to notice useful groups of words that will help them express themselves better.

 

Just today in class there was what I consider a classic. In a recorded dialogue someone said, “it’s difficult to get a word in edgeways”. (By the way, that’s “edgewise” in my neck of the woods.) So one of my students asks me what “edgeways” means. I’ve only ever heard that word as part of that idiom. A better-trained student would have asked me what the whole expression means. But give me time.

 

I read a good metaphor in one of Michael Lewis’s book: meaning is like a chocolate bar. Students unpackage the meaning and go for the chocolate, but forget about the package the chocolate / meaning came in. They try to understand the message, but forget the way it was expressed. This needs to be pointed out to them, or better yet, they need to be trained to notice these language items for themselves. I view this as a large part of our job: helping students notice how words go together. It’s not easy, but it’s gratifying when it flies.

 

If you want to, just for fun, reread this post up to here and decide what collocations you think might be worth highlighting for an advanced-ish class. Then we’ll compare notes.

 

Finished? OK, here’s what I came up with. The first sentence, “I’ve been thinking…” or “I’ve been thinking it’s time to…”. This can be treated as a chunk of language, with no or minimal grammatical analysis. You can also personalize it: “I’ve been thinking it’s time to do a listening. Do you agree?” Try to draw the students in.

 

Also, “change the channel”. You could mention the literal meaning, actually changing channels on a TV, and the metaphorical meaning here, to do something different. Ask your students if they think it’s time to change the channel in class, or in other ways.

 

The collocations just go on and on: “turn the spotlight on”, “time well spent”, “do my best”, “take a bit of doing”, “They usually view … as …”, “It’s so typical”, “this or that”, “what I consider a classic”, “get a word in edgeways”, “By the way”, “in my neck of the woods”, “give me time”, “chocolate bar”, “go for…”, “language items”, “I view this as…”, “a large part of my job”.

 

In the Lexical Approach, I’d say more time is spent on collocations than on traditional grammar, but I do like the current trend of having a quick look at a grammar item, then moving on. Actually grammar can often be treated as a chunk of language as we did with the present perfect continuous above (“I’ve been thinking…”). You could do the same for verb plus infinitive: “fail to notice”, “needs to be pointed out”.

 

And there’s more you could do with it, buy obviously you don’t have to point everything out to them, but I will confess I do relish getting my hands on a lexically rich text and ripping it to shreds. It’s demanding on the students’ memory, but who said learning English is a cakewalk?

 

I find myself having to explain to them again and again why we’re highlighting so many language chunks: “This is very practical language. This is how people really speak. Do you want to improve your level or not?” They moan they can’t possibly remember so much lexis. I tell them to study and revise as much as possible, and just do the best they can.

 

A lot of this ends up being passive knowledge (they recognize it and understand it, but can’t produce it), but that aids comprehension and is dead useful for Cambridge exams. I also encourage students to choose their “favorite” collocations: the ones they think are the most useful for them, or just the ones they like, and to try to use them in follow-up fluency activities, which helps them activate at least some of the lexis.

 

By the way, a highly-recommended book with excellent practical examples is “Teaching Collocations”, edited by Michael Lewis and published by LTP. For a more theoretical view, get “The Lexical Approach” and Implementing the Lexical Approach”, both excellent but more academic.

 

There’s more to say about all this, but I’ll wind things up here. This post is already about twice as long as I’d intended. Anyway, if you’re not already doing so in your classes, turn the TV to the lexical channel and put the spotlight on collocations.

Rob in Madrid

 

Good! Now can you explain phrasal verbs?

 

 

 

Controversy erupts over pensions

Posted in The teacher's lot on 05/31/2009 07:32 pm by David-Overton

There has been a spate of articles recently about the Spanish Social Security system. This was spurred by a recent report from the European Union saying that of all the member states, Spain will experience the sharpest rise in pension costs. In 2007 it allocated 8.4% of its GDP to pay retirees, but that figure is set to rise to 15.1% by 2060, while the EU average will be 12.6%. At present in Spain there are four tax payers for every senior citizen, but due to the aging population and low birth rate, in 2050 it apparently will shrink to two to one.

 

The Bank of Spain heated up the debate by issuing a report a few weeks ago urging the immediate reform of the system. They seem to be of the “never-waste-a-good-crisis” school, which means pushing bitter medicine through congress during hard times when people are more off-guard. The EU and the Spanish government, on the other hand, feel it would be wiser to wait for the crisis to blow over before acting.

 

In any case, change does seem to be in the wind, so different ideas are being bounced around such as encouraging people to have more children by making it easier for women to combine motherhood with work, but the articles I read gave no details about that. Other ideas sound more ominous, especially when the “f” word (“flexibility”) is used. Despite having positive connotations, this term is a common euphemism for having to make sacrifices and lowering your quality of life.

 

So the movers and shakers are speaking of “flexible pension schemes”, by which they mean you’ll have to work longer, or retire later, to be eligible for a reasonable pension. Another idea the Bank of Spain put forward, but which sounds surrealistic to me (if I understand it correctly), is that your pension will depend on your life expectancy. This seems to suggest that if you’re a hale and hearty 65-year-old, you’ll get a low pension, which will probably kill you. Perhaps this is meant to be an incentive for us to opt for a shorter, yet much more intense life; but this will probably just drive up health care costs, another conundrum on the Spanish horizon.

 

At any rate, after careful consideration of the various points of view, I would like to weigh in with a few ideas of my own. First of all, as I’ve already noted in a previous post, free lancers (autónomos) pay in much more to Social Security than businesses do; for example, as a free lancer I contribute about 250 euros monthly, whereas for doing the same work for an academy, they would pay less than half of that for me. So why not make businesses pay the same as free lancers do?, which is really only fair. I’m convinced this measure alone would go far to fatten the public coffers.

 

My next proposal is to bolster childbirth by subsidizing parenthood: the more kids someone has, the bigger the tax break the company gets. I can envisage a situation where ardent couples work overtime at improving their job prospects. Also, BOTH parents would be REQUIRED to take paternity leave, which would greatly reduce the discrimination against women. Parents would also be exempt from working the ridiculously long hours which is so common here.

 

My last proposal is to get the economy back on its feet and cut unemployment. This will take some doing, but Spain is particularly strong in renewable energy such as wind power, and in infrastructure construction such as high-speed trains, all of which fit in neatly in a world finally waking up to the reality of climate change. And for the moment at least, Spain’s finance sector is holding up well; and there are notable success stories such as Amancio Ortego’s Inditex.

 

If there are abundant good jobs available, and along with Spain’s sunny clime and mellow beaches, skilled workers will be drawn here like bees to honey. So if we can implement these measures, and just get businesses to be more flexible, I’m convinced that in no time at all Spain will enjoy a robust Social Security system without any undue sacrifice on the part of ordinary working people.

 

 

 

 

Are you a dictator

Posted in Methodology on 05/31/2009 07:28 pm by David-Overton

Dictation has seen better days. It probably peaked out back in the 50s and 60s when language learning was seen as behaviorist, that is, as developing correct speech habits. This was the belief behind Audiolingualism in the States, and Situational Language Teaching in Briton. Since language learning was seen as mechanical habit formation, it was imperative that students develop correct speech habits; errors meant failure and were to be avoided at all cost.

 

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) sees things rather differently: meaning comes first, so students learn by trying to communicate their message with whatever language they have. This is a trial and error process, so errors are viewed as a normal part of the leaning process. In the accuracy-fluency debate, behaviorism heavily favors the former while CLT puts fluency first, though accuracy is certainly not forgotten.

 

Dictation focuses on accuracy, which is why in an accuracy-based approach, it would be the bee’s knees. But dictation, like other relics of Behaviorism such as drills and PPP, still survives to this day, albeit, in a reduced form, though the bee in my bonnet really is about the excessive predominance of PPP today; but that’ll have to be another post.

 

In any case, in my classes dictations are far from being a staple activity, but are an occasional treat to add a bit of spice to the classroom diet. For example, I recently used them in a pre-intermediate class where we were focusing on the passive voice. In this case, I had given them homework, basically a sentence transformation exercise from the active to the passive. So to do things differently, I had them close their books and I dictated the answers. I thought it was quite effective: in fact it was the inspiration behind this post.

 

Afterwards I went around to see what kind of mistakes they’d made and I was surprised how many had forgotten the –ed ending of the regular past participles, also that some had confused “been” with “being”, for example writing “The factory has being closed”.

 

Dictations are also useful to work on their listening comprehension, especially of connected speech. I recently did a listening and a student got confused because she mis-heard “some other” as “some mother”. OK, it wasn’t a dictation, but she would probably benefit from some fast and fun dictations focusing on connected speech. In fact, I think I’ll do that.

 

By the way, I’m as busy as a bee these days so don’t have time to write a complete treatise here, but if you want to find out more about the birds and the bees of dictation, you could always pick up Dictation by Paul David and Mario Rinvolucri (CUP), which isn’t bad, but maybe a bit outdated (published in 1985); for example, I’d be interested in hearing their take on if and how dictation jibes with the Lexical Approach. Also googling something like “TEFL dictation” can bear good fruit. So if you want to offer your students a balanced diet of activities, be a dictator every now and then.

 

Rob in Madrid

 

What’s PPP?

 

David

 

That means Present, Practice, Produce. It’s a three-step teaching sequence where you first “present” and explain the target language to the students, often using some sort of text such as a dialogue, an article, a listening.

 

In the second stage the students practice using the target language, often using some sort of drill; for example, if you’re looking at “So am I”, you could say sentences to your students, “I like pizza”, and your students respond, “So do I”.

 

In the third stage the students hopefully “produce” the target language in meaningful exchanges, like discussing their likes and dislikes. A student might say, “I really like sports”, and another, “Really, so do I. Are you into football?”, and so on.

 

Some years ago the whole world was PPP, especially when the Headway books were popular. However, coursebooks have been inching away from that for years because linguists have pretty much proven that that doesn’t reflect the way we really learn: Learning is in fact much more chaotic, unpredictable and non-linear for such a teacher-centered, targeted approach. The buzzword for this is organic learning.

 

The closing of Opening

Posted in The TEFL business on 05/31/2009 07:25 pm by David-Overton

 

Lately I’ve been thinking about different sorts of innovations we’ve seen in the TEFL field over the years. I’d love to dream up a TEFL bombshell that will enhance my economic well-being. If I do, maybe you’ll see me in the Dragons’ Den! (a TV show where entrepreneurs hoping to get financing pitch their ideas to venture capitalists.) Anyway, I was thinking some recent “innovations” turned out to be basically a gimmick with an advertising budget: a case in point, the infamous language academy Opening, now closed.

 

They didn’t even bother to have teachers; students came in and sat in front of a computer and worked through lessons, though later they did start providing conversation teachers, who of course didn’t need to be qualified so you could pay them peanuts. The business was also unusual because their main expense wasn’t teachers but advertising. I remember I’d never seen such high-profile (expensive) ads for a language academy before.

 

I also remember when they went out of business there was a scandal because they were charging students for the entire year (or two!) without their permission or knowledge. Opening was paid upfront for a year or two of classes because the students, unbeknownst to them, had taken out loans. The students’ “monthly payments” were in fact loan installments which of course they couldn’t stop paying, even if they dropped. They had to go on paying off the loan they didn’t know they had!

 

It’s curious how Opening created such a stir for a while, only to so ignominiously fizzle out. The academy I was working for at the time bought computers with English-language-learning software and offered them as an added value, but they never really caught on, which is peculiar: Opening was all the rage yet our students weren’t interested in more or less the same product. I suppose they preferred the tried and tested, flesh and blood English teacher: me   : )

 

By the way, it seems Opening has fallen off the radar now, or is buried under mountains of data in the internet because it’s hard to find anything on it, and I’d like to make sure I’m getting my facts right. I did find one article saying it went belly up in 2002.

 

I imagine Opening could still easily be around today if the owners had been ethical and ready to adapt, probably into a more traditional academy. They certainly got off to a high-profile, rip-roaring start. Actually this could be a valid business model: use some sort of gimmick, perhaps involving the internet, to attract attention and students, but combine that with quality language teaching, which is what you need for the long haul.

 

Alex Case

 

As far as I can work out, it was basically the same business model as Wall Street and they are booming all over the world- recently taken over in China by Pearson, no less. I.e. not sure it was the concept that failed, probably just sheer incompetence on the managers’ part

 

I’ve just googled Wall Street Institute, and you’re right! Wall Street sold its Chinese subsidiary to Pearson just last April 15, five days ago as I’m writing this. It’s probably a smart business move if you want to go global because there’s plenty of room for expansion in China, unlike the very crowded market here in Madrid.

 

And probably their “blend of computer-based learning and face-to-face tutorials” will go over well because I imagine there’s not such a glut of that sort of thing in that part of the world. I wonder if other ambitious academies are following suit. I wonder how easy it is to find English teachers over there and if they’re well paid. It’d be great to spend a well-remunerated summer working over there and getting to know the country a bit as well.

 

Steven Starry

 

Hi David,
It seems there are a couple of online schools doing really well. I think EF is doing ok, for example. A student of mine was testing it out for his corporation for in-company classes. One of the big innovations there is that they don’t even need a teacher, the teaching can often be done by some sort of an online virtual artificial-intelligence cartoon-character. As if we didn’t have enough with the pandemia and global thermo-economic meltdown.

 

By the way, you can do an advanced search on El País .es (make sure you set the date back) and get more articles on the subject.


Cheers,
Steven

 

David

 

Hi Steve,

 

Looks like the idea behind EF is the same as Opening’s: factor the teacher out of the equation. Hope they never succeed. In any case, one clear trend is that more and more technology is coming into the classroom, and as teachers we have to learn how to use it if we want good jobs.

 

About the economy, like you say, things are grim, something akin to a car speeding around a corner only to have all four tires blow out. Things are bad, I imagine this is the  worst I’ll see in my life.

 

Cheers,

 

David

 

Jane

 

Anyone ever heard of the Madrid based Business English “no-teachers/blended learning” company “Elogos” ? Are the days of the flesh & blood EFL teaching numbered? I’m trying to get into EAPm myself

 

 

Paying into social security

Posted in The teacher's lot on 05/31/2009 07:21 pm by David-Overton

Many a beleaguered academy owner is out there fighting for survival in the TEFL jungle, and one of the main ways to stay competitive is to cut costs, their main expenses being advertising and teachers’ salaries. A lot of academies try to save money and gain flexibility by not hiring many full-time teachers. This is because it’s hard to fill a 25-hour contract because most classes are given at peak times: early morning, lunchtime, and late evening, which means full-time teachers tend to be underhours, especially during slow times of the year. So instead of having, say, twenty full-time teachers, many opt to have forty part-time teachers.

 

The problem for teachers is how to make ends meet when you only have part-time work. One solution is, besides the academy work, teaching some private classes. But here’s the rub: the academy is only paying half of your social security, which means if you retire here, you’ll only get a small pension, probably below the poverty level.

 

However, the amount of your pension depends on how much social security you’ve paid in the last 15 years of your working life, ages 50 to 65. So teachers don’t really have to worry about this, until you hit 50! Then you should try and pay in as much as possible. A good way to do this is to become a free lance teacher (autónomo), where you’re really hammered: I’ll just say I’m currently paying 250 euros a month.

 

However, even if you have fulltime academy work, because Spain is striving to be “business friendly”, academies don’t have to pay nearly as much social security as we do. I’ve just checked an old pay slip from when I was working fulltime at an academy and it looks like they paid about 80 euros a month for me; and I’ve just checked a more recent pay slip for part-time work and it looks like they paid 60 euros. So if you’re getting near the half-century mark and doing fulltime academy work, you may want to start doing (taxable) overtime to boost your payments.

 

Actually common wisdom has it that besides the state pension fund, it’s very smart to have a private one. Unfortunately at present I don’t have the wherewithal to spread my metaphorical eggs around, so I’m just paying into the Spanish system and praying it doesn’t go bust when I retire, which it might actually. Scary.

  

Steven Starry

 

There are a couple of other very important points to point out here. Your pension is based on the number of years you’ve worked in the system and each year is based on the total number of hours that you’ve worked. Teachers rarely rack up more than 6 months per year worked so that when they actually retire, they’ll only receive a fraction of what they otherwise might have gotten. I personally have to work up to the age of 67, NOT 65, in order to receive 100% of my pension, which will be pretty bad as it stands. So, in order to receive a worthwhile pension, you have to raise the amount you pay as an autónomo to more than 250 a month, as that will give you a minimalist pension. Also, you may have notify the social security that your are going to raise your payments at the age of 49 before you turn 50 if you want to raise it very much. You can raise it to about 850 euros which would give you a pension of 2,500 or more euros, I forget the exact numbers. The best part of it is for families because this doubles as a sort-of life insurance policy because you’re spouse will receive 50% of this as a widow and children under the age of 21 receive 25% I believe. By the way, I wrote something about this a few years ago here: http://www.madridteacher.com/articles/retirement.htm . Now, let’s just hope we can find work in order to pay into the system in the first place. Also, double check all this information long before you make any decisions.

 

By the way, I’ve checked into private pension plans via OCU’s Dinero y Derechos and they recommended at the time that none of them were worthwhile and that the best pension plan was just raising the amount you pay into social security. I’d like to hear it if anybody has anything different to add.

 

David Overton

 

Excellent article Steve. I’m always surprised at how many little treasures you have hidden about your website. And you make some excellent points. I’d forgotten about having to change your tax bracket when you’re 49.

 

However, I thought that didn’t apply to autónomos. I was looking into all this about a year ago and if I remember correctly, autónomos can opt to pay more even if they’re over 49. I’ve looked at the notes I took and have been trying to make sense of them. I believe I wrote that an autónomo can opt to put in a maximum of 1,601 euros a month, and I was told that paying in 250 euros a month as an autónomo plus working part-time in an academy, that my retirement, assuming that social security doesn’t go bust or whatever, would be about 1,600 euros a month.

 

Spring fever

Posted in Methodology on 05/31/2009 07:15 pm by David-Overton

A soft breeze blows across the Spanish capital. Now the days stretch out into late evening, and as winter slowly relinquishes its grip, people shed their heavy clothes. The mild sunshine awakens new inklings as lightly-clad residents mingle along the crowded streets and plazas. The temperature is rising and new blood courses through our veins. There can be no doubt about it: we’ve got spring fever!

 

The arrival of the season of growth is a joyful moment, whose effect no-one escapes, yet it’s also a time when we see attendance fall. It seems like the natural order of things, impossible to resist, a no-brainer: would you rather be sitting in a classroom?, or relaxing in one of Madrid’s thousands of outdoor cafes, sipping drinks with friends on a mellow spring day?

 

Yet there are things we can do to encourage attendance, though they’re hard to think of because I myself would rather be sitting in the sunshine with friends and refreshments. But it seems first we can discuss with them their motivation for studying English. They need to be reminded to keep their eye on the ball. Why did they sign up for the English class? Have they reached their goals? Will dropping out cause them to lose what they’ve gained?

 

Actually the latter is all too common: on-and-off EFL students are legion. But being forever the optimist, I think I’m going to be the one teacher that really makes a difference and motivates them to stick it out to the end and make some real progress instead of being one of the numerous intermediate-plateau students who basically just manage to maintain the same level.

 

Another thought: avoid giving too many “fun” classes. It seems so natural: they show up to class, but their thoughts seem elsewhere, so you think, “They’re not up to some real learning, so I’ll give them speaking activities and a song”. Then, surprise surprise, attendance soon drops because they figure they’re not missing much anyway. So you see?, you’ve shot yourself in the foot.

 

So these are my ideas for not losing students to spring fever: remind them of their language goals, and give them “meaty” classes, where they really come away with something. If you have any ideas or comments, I’d love to hear from you.

 

 

 

Rob in Madrid

 

I’ve been pretty lucky this year, had some classes were attendance was mandatory and the rest were longer term class where those still attending are the ones planning sticking it out.

 

One interesting change I notice is with the teens I teach, right before a major holiday none of them show up, but I have to sit in an empty room for the duration of the class in case one shows up. Last major holiday I figured what the hell, it’s been 20 mins no ones here so I headed off to do some photocopying and a few days latter got a complaint that a student showed up and there wasn’t a teacher!

 

btw I enjoy your blog, not many esl ones out there

 

Hi Rob,

 

I remember a few years ago I worked in an academy that required teachers to hang out in the classroom for half the class in case someone showed up. I remember I used to always carry around crossword puzzles and books in case that happened. I looked forward to it in those days because it meant some time for myself. Now that I’m self-employed I feel more anxiety when company students start missing classes because it may mean they’re going to cancel the class. I like long-term reliable students.

 

Thanks! I’m glad you like the blog. I’m actually doing this slightly selfishly: I’m writing the blog I myself would enjoy reading, not really adapting it to an imaginary reader.

 

 

Steven Starry

 

Hi David,


I know what you mean. I tend to use a little “teacher psychology” with students as well, maybe too little (I tend to take them “seriously”), which is why I still make the wrong call from time to time. For instance, I agreed when a good long-lasting and loyal group of students wanted to get together for a Christmas lunch during the last class before the holidays last year, but as I walked back to my car after the class when we set up this “date”, I had the feeling they were going to end up cancelling that class, which they did. Sometimes, good ideas don’t work out for the reason you mentioned: “because they figure they’re not missing much anyway.”


Though I think that most of my own classes generally turn out better when they’re planned with some sort of pedagogical aim in mind, I also think that I do better in general when I am able to react appropriately to the odd situations (barriers and opportunities) that tend to pop up. For example, in the last month, I’ve had different students worrying about having spent the night in the hospital for extremely high blood pressure, another injured his knee playing tennis and may need an operation, and yet another had a big problem in one class with her adolescent daughter calling on the cell phone because she’d had a falling out with a friend.


If my students are thinking about something, I can do one of two things, I can try to distract them from it back to the lesson, or I can take a break from the lesson and talk about their personal problem, which is where some of their attention (back in the back of their mind) is going to be whether I like it or not - which will deteriorate my lesson along with the long-term memory of it. It just cannot compete for harddisk space with the other more personal problems.


By the way, I think that beautiful spring days are good time to do lessons or talk about holidays and tourism when their minds are already on that kind of stuff.


But, also, I agree with you that you need to pinch students by the ears and get them back to their lessons from time to time. We do have to try to keep them on track because they do tend to forget their goals kind of like people forgetting their New Year’s resolutions.

 

 

Hi Steve,

 

You make a good point: you need to have lesson aims, but you also have to be flexible when something unexpected comes up, whether it be students having more problems than you anticipated with a reading or whatever, or a student with personal problems. I know this is obvious, but it helps if you befriend them as much as possible – sounds like you’re doing that if you’re going out to lunch with them – so when they do have problems they feel free to talk to you.

 

But TEFL teaching is full of traps (and the uninitiated think it’s so easy!), and one is being overly flexible, in this case you can’t let one student turn your class upside down. Yeah, be flexible, listen to the student with the problem, empathize appropriately, you may even expose them to the lexis they need to discuss the issue in English; but eventually get back to your lesson aims. It’s all balance, isn’t it? Can’t be too rigid, can’t be too flexible.

 

Steven Starry

 

I agree. I just had an image come to mind of now being a tightrope walker on top of being a juggler and unicycle rider. Oh, I almost forgot, all of that while parsing the “present perfect” to the tune of “Wonderful World”. Don’t forget to keep smiling! By the way, check out “jesters” at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jester .

 

 

Hi Steve

 

Yeah, maybe some students come from a pampered, video game generation and expect English classes to be lively, dynamic and fun, all the time! They expect to be entertained by the court jester, who is walking a fine line, just like us. But as responsible teachers, we need to see that they do some real learning, and like it or not, that often means doing grunt work: “no pain no gain”. But to get the balance we’re talking about, the hard work can be offset by “fun” activities like games, songs, videos, roleplays, and debates (even though  they may not be on the same day).

 

I’ve taken to discussing these issues with my students; for example, if we’re doing a grunt activity and eyes begin to roll and loud unsuppressed yawns fill the air, I’ll interrupt them and ask them if they know why we’re doing this. I’ll ask them if they agree that the lexis they’re being exposed to is dead useful. I find if you talk to students like this, if you “lay bare your devices”, if you make it crystal clear what the aim of the activity is, students will often come around, albeit at times reluctantly, and start putting in the effort they need to learn English.

 

By the way, I think our discussion is related to the issue of learner training. Students usually need to “learn how to learn” a language, and this often involves training students to “notice” collocations. This is a lot tougher than you think. Students intuitively see language as strings of isolated words rather than as words that often go together; for example, the students will see a phrase like, “I’m watching my weight” and they’ll ask what “weight” means, but they’ll miss the very important collocation, “watch my weight”. So you can watch TV (see TV), and watch your weight (control your weight). So what’s more useful for the student: to just know the word “weight” or to know “watch your weight”? If they only know “weight” they’re more likely to speak Spanglish and say something like, “What’s your weight?” instead of “How much do you weigh?”

 

In any case, we need to help students learn to learn by making then aware that they’re going to have to use elbow grease, by raising their awareness of collocations, and by encouraging effective independent study such as reading out of class.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A TELF fantasy

Posted in The teacher's lot on 05/31/2009 07:05 pm by David-Overton

Interviewer on NPR: Ladies and gentlemen, it’s our great pleasure to welcome to our program the world famous TEFL superstar, Blade of Grass.

 

Blade of Grass: Thank you everyone. It’s a great honor to be here today on this top quality radio station.

 

Int: Thank you. And congratulations on being selected for the TEFL team for the Education Olympics, which will be broadcast this evening around the world. Do you think you’re going to be coming home with gold.

 

BG: Well, I’m feeling up, I think I have a good chance, but I’m not after gold, but to be the best teacher I can. And of course, now that education is such a high-paying profession, there’s stiff competition. All the best minds go into this field now.

 

Int: Yes, recent surveys reveal that teachers are the most admired profession, along with writers, philosophers, doctors, artists, and helping professions in general.

 

BG: Yes, that is gratifying. Things have really changed for the better since the Great Shift of 2009. People all over the world basically said enough is enough to the financial-political oligarchy that was at the helm, and ran the economy into the ground. People realized that an informed, educated populace is the cornerstone of a healthy democracy and economy. People need to learn critical-thinking skills, to know when arguments appeal to the emotions or fear; to recognize false arguments such as attacking the person instead of their ideas; or giving false choices or a false dilemma; for example, you’re either with us or against us, or the only alternative to capitalism is socialism. So since this sort of critical thinking is so vital to a healthy democracy, top quality education is likewise viewed as essential.

 

Int: And do you think the high salaries that educators now command have helped that.

 

BG: It’s a excellent start, but by no means does just throwing money at a problem automatically solve it. But I have to say as an educator I’m glad that I no longer lead a precarious hand-to-mouth existence. Now I own a nice home. I can put money aside for a rainy day. I have some nice things like a carbon fiber racing bike. I don’t have to work 24/7 so I have more time to explore other interests. And of course the fact that we have free universal healthcare, excellent public education and inexpensive public transport also improve the quality of living.

 

Int: Tell me Blade of Grass, do you think that our current form of mild capitalism is the best bet in the long run.

 

BG: Absolutely. No doubt about it. The current form of capitalism is a world better than the cut-throat competition that got us into that ugly financial mess back in 2009. Businesses are no longer “too big to fail”, which encourages greater responsibility. We’re now seeing smaller local economies, which don’t require large amounts of energy, so they’re more ecological, better for the environment. And instead of encouraging Darwinist competition, the focus now is on collaboration. There’s more sense of community and belonging, so people are less stressed. They feel safer, and just happier.

 

Int: You make it sound like a panacea.

 

BG: No, of course it’s not that. We’ve still got troubles. For example, we’re still paying off the debts that were accumulated during the years of neo-liberal profligacy and greed, and still trying to clean up the environment as well. And there are still some homeless people about. In fact the other day I bumped into an ex-student of mine, who was begging! I remember he had a lazy mind and an amazing lack of curiosity, and was arrogant as they get, like the world owed him a living. He was a sort of frat boy alcoholic. Let’s see, what was his name? Oh yeah, Jorge Arbusto.

 

Int: So did you give him any money?

 

BG: Fat chance! I told him to get his butt back in school and start using some elbow grease, and pull himself up by his bootstraps!

 

Int: Weren’t you a little hard on him?

 

BG: I don’t think so. With his attitude, it’s not surprising he’s on the street. He’s just lucky he’s around now when we have good social safety nets for losers like him.

 

Int: Tell me, has becoming rich and famous changed you?

 

BG: Well, like I said, the financial well-being is gratifying, but ironically I think my period of greatest growth came during the lean times when we were at the mercy of our employers, who in turn were at the mercy of the economy. What I mean is it’s during crises when we have to rethink our beliefs. Difficult circumstances force us to get out of our boxes, consider other possibilities, find new solutions, to grow. Now I’m enjoying prosperity, but sooner or later the next crisis will come along and force me to rethink things yet again. This is life as I see it.

 

Int: Interesting. Tell me Blade of Grass, why do you use a sobriquet instead of your real name?

 

BG: Well, that trend was started by a TEFL teacher / entrepreneur in Madrid, who became famous for his radio station. Anyway, I suppose for education superstars it does lend a certain mystique. And I guess it does vaguely say something about me. I think I’m one to see the world in a grain of sand, or in a blade of grass! Then again, people used to call me “thin as a rail”, so maybe it just morphed from that.

 

Int: Oh OK, so who’s your favorite actress and actor?

 

BG: That’s hard to say, I mean I’m friends with Julia Roberts, Woody Allen, Brad Pitt, but I’m especially tight with Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz, both of whom are obviously top actors. Javier is just brilliant, and Penelope, besides being gorgeous, stands out for how much she’s grown artistically. I relate to that because I feel I’ve grown a lot as well, in my case in the field of education. I wasn’t a child prodigy. I guess I’m a late bloomer, getting better slowly during my whole life.

 

Int: Oh, right. So what kind of music do you like?

 

BG: That’s a toughie. There’s so much wonderful music out there, from Bach to Grant Green (a jazz guitarist). But just now I was thinking of Imagine, by John Lennon. I like it because, though it may seem naive, it has an important message. If we want to live in a better world, the first step is to imagine it. Actually I think our creative imagination is our spiritual being at work. So we first conceive the idea, then work towards it, then give birth to it; and even then it will only come about if it’s in accordance with the will of a higher power, or Spirit. At least that’s how I see it.

 

Int: Right. Well, that about wraps it up for today. So thanks for coming Blade. Good luck in the Education Olympics. And this has been, well, educational.

 

BG: Right. Thanks for having me.

 

Into the breach

Posted in The Lexical Approach on 05/31/2009 07:04 pm by David-Overton

I remember I was once a fledgling EFL teacher; yeah, that wasn’t just yesterday either, in fact it was during “la movida” here in Madrid. And I think it was also about the time the internet was just taking off and I was wondering what all the fuss was about. I guess now I know as I sit here pecking out my latest entry in my blog on Madrid Teacher, which is a very cost effective way of finding students.

 

Anyway, I had this one-to-one with a big fish in a bank who only seemed to want conversation. So the first couple of classes went OK, but then he started fading away and then massively missing classes. So as a teacher, I had to wonder what was up. Was my scintillating conversation not up to snuff?, or maybe he just felt he wasn’t really progressing. I hope it was the latter because that’s where I’m going today.

 

But first, I’d just like to say I occasionally meet teachers who basically do conversation classes and that’s it. That always kind of blows me away because here I am fretting about giving well-rounded classes, hitting all the bases, making sure they have language input, skills work, adapting to different personality types, language needs, learner expectations, past learning experiences, the six R’s, what have you; and here’s this guy saying, “To hell with all that, I’m just gonna talk to ‘em. That’s all they need.” How do they get away with that? Actually as a teacher I know students sometimes have very different learning styles, maybe teachers do too, and can get away with that.

 

And another thing, it’s surprising what students get used to. Maybe these students think, “This is it. This is state-of-the-art English teaching. Now I’m on the road to fluency”. This must also happen at the other end of the spectrum in certain own-method academies where, at the end of the day, their methodologies are narrow, and I suspect many were out to lunch during the communicative revolution as well. So do these students just not know better, or do they actually prefer this? Different horses (as the Brits say).

 

Well, getting back to the business at hand, the big fish that got away from me, I was saying it’s important for students to feel they’re progressing. One way to do this is to slot in some hard work in every class, or at least every now and then. I’m talking about some let’s-really-get-down-and-look-at-how-English-works activities.

 

Now as you can imagine, this is not without its dangers. In fact, some students who are used to being mollycoddled may freak out on you; and you also get tired out business people who want to take it easy. This can be a tough call because often if you’re tough on them, in the end they’ll thank you for “making them learn”. Again, a tough call: what do they really want: a “light” English class, or to go into the breach?

 

For me most of these grunt classes tend to be lexical where we have a look at a text and spend time noticing collocations, idioms and expressions. By the way, many books have lexically rich texts, but my favorite is Innovations advanced, which at times is just brilliant: it’s amazing how much you can get out of just one text.

 

But getting back to danger, when you really milk a text like this, it won’t normally be the bouncy, dynamic part of your class, and you have to be careful not to push too hard lest things become a drudgery. In fact, we were deep in a text last week when one girl put her head down on her desk and looked like she had a headache. But afterwards another girl commented on how useful it all was because this is the language she comes across when she reads and travels. Vindicated! And I thought this really separated the women from the girls.

 

But obviously we’re not slave-drivers: teaching is our bread and butter, so the bottom line is happy students. I’d say we have to develop an intuition on how hard we can push them, and we won’t always be right. But let’s just face facts here, TEFL in not for the faint-hearted; so once more, dear teachers, I bid you go into the breach, once more, expose them to language, let them see their lexical shortcomings.

 

Teachers unite!

Posted in The teacher's lot on 05/31/2009 07:01 pm by David-Overton

It’s great rubbing elbows (or shoulders as the Brits say) with my English-teaching colleagues. We have shared experiences, think the same way, have roughly the same linguistic brain waves: the same parts of our brains light up like Christmas trees.

 

So here we all are in the insalubrious (because of secondary smoke) confines of our local watering hole, slaking our thirst after long hours of exposing students to language, clarifying meaning, and uncovering grammar, when I decide to toss out a sort-of serious question.

 

“How can we as teachers improve our lot?” Without missing a beat, they answer right back to me, “By getting out of teaching”, which was followed by general merriment. Oh well, what was I expecting?

 

Seriously though, I think the system is skewed against teachers (and for that matter against numerous other labor-intensive professions). I’m all for capitalism and the free market, but something’s not right when large segments of society are left out.

 

Nowadays a business faces fierce competition: a reputable academy offers classes for X amount, but another less reputable one undercuts it because they pay their (less qualified) teachers less. This sort of cut-throat capitalism tends to drive prices down to the detriment of qualified teachers and of our students, who settle for second-rate teaching.

 

So what’s the solution? I sometimes think that forming some sort of TEFL union in Madrid (or for all of Spain) might help. The question is, how much real power would it have to regulate the quality of teachers and get us living wages? How would we get it off the ground? I don’t have the answers.

 

I’m not one to preach doom and gloom, but sometimes the riots in Paris and Greece come to mind. Why did those people go haywire like that? OK, I’m not an expert on this, but it may be there’s a lot of pent up anger out there from this economic underclass working in labor-intensive professions or unemployed, and the victims of the inequalities of capitalism, which is becoming increasingly elitist, especially in the USA where (according to one source) 5% of the population controls 85% of the wealth. Of course resorting to violence is a huge mistake, so these people need to be empowered and brought on board.

I know I’d be happier if I could ply my trade without the feeling that if I want greater economic well-being, my main option is “getting out of teaching”.

 
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