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Explorations in ELT Earning a Crust… The trouble is, see, I don’t consider myself a proper teacher. Oh, I earn a crust (of bread) as a self-employed tutor in professional English to a number of financial and commercial institutions in Geneva and Lausanne. But I didn’t get my CELTA qualification until I was 60, came to The “Switz” when I was 62, and didn’t start to use the qualification until I was 63. So, I’m not sure I’m really in a position to give advice to anyone. However, from my 40 years’ management experience in hotels, legal and financial businesses and, most recently, medical services, both public and private, I know what is important: do not take life seriously. The best any of us can do is to touch life lightly and be kind to those around us. Life is not an obstacle race to heaven; this is it. My students (between three and five in a class) are mature people who, if not already in senior positions, are on the way up. In my working life, I have done most of the tasks that they are doing. In the conference room, I do not use textbooks because I am not teaching them to pass an examination set by some academic who perhaps has never had to deal with an angry client who thinks he should be paying less tax than my student says he owes. I am helping her - and him - to achieve their own objectives or improve their career prospects. I use original material: financial and legal reports, television news items and newspaper articles. For example, the telephone always presents problems so, imitating some regional British, American or Indian accent, I ring them up playing the role of their ‘back office’ assistant. If they have a problem with their English, for a specific task, they can e-mail me, at any time, and I will help them sort it out. We have a strict code of confidentiality, anything discussed during the tutorial or in any document where I give help is not discussed by me or with anyone else. In some ways I do not consider myself to be a proper teacher. If you asked me to teach you the present perfect, I would have to go away and hide for a while to look it up. But, putting a report together, precisely and elegantly, with no b.s., we can do that now. Then we do PowerPoint presentations. We have arguments: they state a case and I take the contrary view. We have round-table discussions and we have a good time. After the tutorial, I send them, usually the same day, a Reminder Note (what we call in English an Aide-Memoire) to explain any of the points that caused difficulty or which I feel need further explanation. And don’t forget, there are three types of accountant: those that can count and those that can’t. John Raggett John, a former waiter, barman, cook, Hotel Manager, uniformed policeman, plain-clothes detective, Office Manager City of London, Director of Radiology Services, Hospital Director, and Practice Manager, is now House Husband and English Teacher. John is also a new member of the ETAS Editorial Board. Bringing Your Books To Life Once upon a time in a faraway land, there lived a beautiful teacher who was full of ideas and had 10 happy and motivated students. Then one day during class a tiny voice said, “This is boring,” and then she heard more voices chiming in with, “Yeah, we don’t want to write!” and they added groans for effect. Then the beautiful teacher was disheartened. Later as she was preparing her next lesson, she cried out, “How can I inspire them to write?” A loud booming voice answered, “Bring the books to life and they will learn.” At first she was puzzled and thought about this answer for a few moments. “How do I bring them to life?” she pondered. Then she heard the loud voice again, “The way to bring a book SPECIAL Supplement to life is to become a part of it.” Curious as to where this voice was coming from, she tested it by asking, “Will I get a raise this year?” and the voice did not reply. “So clearly it is just a pedagogic guide,” she said to herself with a chuckle as she shrugged her shoulders. She took the pedagogic guide’s advice and from that day on she had brilliantly inspired lessons with stories that came to life in the hands of her students. It is easy to take any story and make it one’s own. Here are her notes as they were transcribed to me. Sometimes it is difficult for students to think of a story topic on their own. By using a book that you are reading in class, they can easily add new characters and create a world of their own within that story, and then the book becomes a life and the student a part of it. In her book Jojo’s Story, a Cambridge English Reader, Antoinette Moses wrote about a boy soldier within an anonymous country, so the reader could place it where they imagined. At the beginning of her ETAS SIG Day workshop Antoinette read a passage from the book in which Jojo describes the violence that he had experienced around him. Then she asked us all to create a character that would fit into the story and provide a different perspective. We then wrote a story based on that character’s perspective. This is called “creating a parallel text.” In the case of Jojo’s story, a character could be a BBC reporter on location, speaking to the camera and reacting to the scene of the war: the putrid odors, the sights, maybe finding Jojo still alive, hiding near a war-ravaged home. Another character idea could be a boy in the orphanage where Jojo might go later after being rescued by the UN. The student could write what this boy might think, feel or ask Jojo when he arrives at the orphanage. It allows the student to experience the story from another angle, and involves each person in the story, making it much more personal. This could be done with any book and any age of student. Other possibilities include: creating alternative endings or writing narrative interventions. One way to gain more personal contact with the characters in a story is to turn the narrative into a drama, or vice versa. By acting out the story, students physically live the story and can develop the characters deeper as well as give them a spatial presence, which is also important for some types of learners who are spatially and movement oriented. By ETAS Journal 25/1 Winter 2007 13
SPECIAL Supplement Explorations in ELT re-constructing and de-constructing a story, you can have fun by moving scenes and characters around and re-creating your own new story. For further reading on this topic please take a look at the following books: Moses, Antoinette: Jojo’s Story, Frozen Pizza and Other Slices of Life; Let Me Out!, Cambridge English Readers. Cambridge University Press, 2000-2007 Pope, Rob: Textual Intervention, Routledge, 1994 Sidman, Joyce: This is Just to Say: Poems of Apology and Forgiveness, Houghton Mifflin Company, 2007 Spiro, Jane: Creative Poetry Writing. Oxford University Press, 2004 Spiro, Jane: Storybuilding. Oxford University Press, 2007 Tracy Tobler Tracy Tobler is an English teacher at the Institüt auf dem Rosenberg and the FHS in St. Gallen. She has been teaching English in Switzerland since her arrival in 2004. Recently, Tracy has begun working with Crystal and Indigo children and plans to focus her Master’s research on the learning styles of these remarkable children. Tracy holds a BA Degree in International Business and previously worked in banking and management in the United States. Her hobbies include: writing, cooking, traveling and playing tennis. She is married and has a one-year-old kitten named Mia. 14 ETAS Journal 25/1 Winter 2007 Adapting Speaking Activities for Assessment Purposes For in-company classes that I have taught, the company has often required that the students be tested on a regular basis. In one situation, the twenty-week semester for all classes ended with an improved overall attendance and motivation was high. After discussing about the students and classes with the responsible person at the company, it was decided that a communicative skills test could be given at the end of term rather than the usual grammar and vocabulary type of test. This was partly to reflect the interests of the students, and their needs gleaned from needs analyses. They were also designed to reflect the types of real-life (authentic) tasks/activities we had done in the classroom. It was also agreed that the primary skill to assess would be speaking since most students wanted to improve their fluency and ability to communicate effectively. The primary sub-skill being assessed was task achievement. Students would also be required to make notes, based on their discussion with their partner. Writing skills, however, would not be assessed (i.e. notes not checked for accuracy in spelling/grammar). Rather they would be used to make sure the two students who were negotiating an agreement had understood each other, a valid skill in today’s world of business. The original tasks were taken from Face to Face (Langenscheidt 1993) under the topic ‘Making Complaints’ (p.152-153): Original Tasks 68A.3 You are on holiday in a 3-star hotel, and your room is on the 7th floor. You have some complaints to make to the manager (your partner) about the following: � the lift (AmE elevator) has been out of order since you arrived � the chambermaid (AmE maid) has not changed your sheets or cleaned your room because the lift is out of order � in front of the hotel is a church, and every morning at 7 o’clock the bells wake you up � there is no air conditioning in the dining room � there is only hot water between 5 o’clock and 7 o’clock in the morning � the hotel discotheque on the 8th floor keeps you awake until 3 o’clock in the morning 68B.3 You are the manager of a 3-star hotel. A guest (your partner) is coming to see you to make some complaints. You can accept or reject the complaints. You can also clarify the situation, if you think this is appropriate. 68A.4 You are the owner of a house. Your neighbor (your partner) is coming to see you to make some complaints. You can decide to accept or reject the complaints that he/she makes. You can also clarify the situation, if you think this is appropriate. 68B.4 You have recently bought a new house and your neighbor (your partner) is causing you some problems. You have some complaints to make about the following: � there is often a lot of noise at night which keeps you awake � the neighbor’s son stole apples from the tree � your neighbor sometimes throws rubbish into your garden � your neighbor’s dog destroyed your favorite flowers � your neighbor’s elder son is a motor-bike fanatic and he often rides his motor-bike around the garden (even on Sunday morning) � smoke from your neighbor’s house often makes your clean washing dirty again Adapted Task and Sheets Similar to the original fluency tasks, students were given a specific identity and role to play and took turns discussing a specific complaint with another student. In both cases they were to negotiate a solution and make notes. This was marked on an individual basis and the focus was to ascertain how well they could achieve a communicative task, as described below. Each student had two roles, listed as (1) and (2), giving each one the chance to be the ‘complainer’ and the ‘responsible person’. Student A 1. You are on holiday in a hotel and your room is on the 7th floor. You have some complaints to make to the manager and have made the following notes. You go and share them with him/her. Try to negotiate a peaceful
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Page 4 and 5: Editorial After a few editions with
Page 6 and 7: President’s Report After four yea
Page 8 and 9: Explorations in ELT at all, just en
Page 10 and 11: Explorations in ELT An example of t
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Page 16 and 17: Business English SIG (BESIG) A1.2 B
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Page 20 and 21: New edition P ✓ English Language
Page 22 and 23: Immersion/CLIL (ICSIG) B4/7 Enhanci
Page 24 and 25: Simply a wealth of new material, in
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Page 30 and 31: Teen SIG A11 Keeping boredom at bay
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