Iraq Wins the Asian Cup

Reuters Pic and Quotes

“Iraqi captain Younis Mahmoud scored the winner in the 71st minute when he climbed above the defence at the far post and headed a perfectly-weighted corner from Hawar Mulla Mohammed into the Saudi net.”

“When the final whistle sounded, the Iraq players collapsed to the ground in a mixture of shock and an unbridled emotion, kissing the turf and embracing each other after their country’s finest sporting moment.”

“Brazilian coach Jorvan Vieira, who said he planned to quit after the match, only had two months to mould a team that included Shi’ite, Sunni and Kurdish players.”

It seems appropriate to congratulate the Iraqis on this phenomenal feat. May this be a good thing for the world…

Steve

A Once a year indulgence…gomen

On this occasion of my 44th birthday, I just wanted to say thank you to the readers from 30 countries who have taken at least 1 second of their life, to click on this blog. It started in January over at blogspot, moved here in April, withered away for a few months, then was re-born last month. I think I’ve found a writing rhythm and hope to continue to have thoughts and ideas to share.

It has also been a happy day in that:

I finished the lion’s share of my module 4 essay for my MA TEFL at the Univerity of Birmingham ,

I got a case of micro-brewery styled Japanese beer from my colleague and good buddy Mark,

I got a lovely note from Kirsten,

Phone calls from family in Canada,

and some love from my family in Japan.

Yes, I will count the countries, but only once each year:

United States, Canada, Japan, Switzerland, Venezuela, Taiwan, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Spain, Costa Rica, Peru, Greece, Germany, Guatemala, Malaysia, Romania, Estonia, Egypt, Korea, Australia, Benin, New Zealand, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sweden, Thailand, The Philippines, Netherlands, Iran, Italy and Hong Kong

Thanks again everyone,

Steve

Analyze This…

After reading heaps and heaps about written discourse analysis, I wonder how much wiser I’ve become? I just happened onto this page and was surprised I could read it AND understand 99% of it. What can be gleaned from this kind of written text? Tell me anything you can about the writer? Age, sex, country, mother tongue, occupation, etc.

I’ll post the answer in a few days…

On moday, i went bugis wid my family n relative members…. at de same time i had a flu… actually at first i tot it was nth cos i always had flu as i ha a sensitive nose… so i didn’t realli care abt it, jus drank mor water.. But later in de day, when i was walkin along bugis street, i suddenly felt veri weak n when my cousin touched my forehead, i had a high fever…. bt i didn’t tell my mum n jus drank my water n carry on…. When i reac hme at nite, i went to tak my temperature, it was 38.9 degrees… so my mum immediately giv me medicines to eat n after tt i went to slep… it was veri torturin… i wake up at around 11+ in de nite n i sms him, tellin him i’ll nt be chattin wid him on de phone tt nite cos i was too weak… he say is ok nvm. bt i cn sense tt he is veri wori 4 me. so i told myself tt i mus realli tak care of myself.
De nex day, i wake up in de mornin. my whole body was heavy, n i dun hav tt bit of strength too. bt i insisted on standin up… den i went to wash up n eat my breakfast. n i went to tak my temperture. my temperture didn’t decrease… den my leg appeared 2 red dots… i was scared, n my temperature oso didn’t decrease n i tot it was dengue. so my mum brin me to c doctor de nex day de luckily it wasn’t…. den i had medicince so i took it n my sick did felt better… bt i still had to tak care of myself n drink a lot of water…

Enneagram and Motivation

free enneagram test

I’ve been using the Enneagram with my grade 12 girls for almost 10 years now. I use a number of personality tests and psychology tests towards the end of their final year. The reason I do this is that:

1. I want them to learn a little bit more about themselves before leaving their safe little world (our school) and heading out into a vast new world.
2. I want to distract them from University entrance test hell for 90 minutes and have them enjoy USING English.

The enneagram is a good example of the vital role that motivation can play in a lesson. Of course the enneagram and its 180 questions is way above their level, so I give them the Japanese version of the test (I originally made them do it in English – way back when students would die trying rather than giving up). It now takes them 15-20 minutes to answer the questions. Once they have finished and told me their type, I give them their results. The analysis, of course, is all in English. They sit in groups with other similar types and work away at understanding (input) the type descriptions. They must then write (output) or speak (output) about what they’ve learned. They can produce a synopsis, a simplification, opinions, examples, etc.

The social interaction is absolutely hilarious because they approach the task “in character”- the perfectionists (type 1) are always the most diligent – heads down, dictionaries workin’ overtime; the adventurers (type 7) get bored quickly, but always move on to other more interesting ideas (last year they held 1000 yen notes up to the light to explore the inside of the money) ; and the peacemakers (type 9) always divide up the work and cooperate beyond belief!

For me the enneagram has been enlightening. I once thought that I was unique (long, long ago) but then came to realize that I’m very similar to about one in every nine people I meet. The implications of what I’ve learned, about myself and others around me, through the enneagram have been helpful countless times: I understand  family members, co-workers and friends much better and, hopefully, they me.

Finally, I always get positive comments from the students, and regularly hear that they’ve continued reading about it online when they got home. That makes me happy and tells me they were motivated both during the lesson and after the lesson as well. That’s pretty good.

Cheers,

Steve

A fellow Bhammer!

Rachel writes:

I am also a Birmingham MA TES/FL student and I started in October 2006. I am now on Module three and I am experimenting with TBL (Jane and Dave Willis have had a great impact on me) in my Korean elementary and middle school classes. I have just begun researching and experimenting with TBL. My curiousity was peaked after reading that “TBL is pretty much dead” in your post. Are you refering to your Japanese situation or the ESL/EFL world in general? Being in Korea, my students do not have any experience with TBL and do not see group work as a constructive tool for learning yet I am trying to change their view of learning, knowing that culture has a profound impact on learning and on a classroom. It’s slow going yet, I find my students receptive. So my question for you is, what alternative is there to TBL as PPP is out of the picture? Who gives the counterpoints on TBL? You mentioned Michael Swan but who else? Really, what was the context of your comment on TBL as being dead? I guess I have more reading to do to find the negative side of TBL. I hope to hear from you soon.

Hi Rachel,

Thanks so much for leaving a comment. I’m just beginning to panic a little because I have 11 days to crank out this module 4 essay and realize it’s gonna take at least 11 days.

You must be just about at the same place my study group was at with regards to the world of Task-Based Learning (TBL) . Into the second month of reading all about TBL, we (4 of us) were overwhelmed by the excitement of finding out why all those years of the (evil) PPP often didn’t amount to any kind of cumulative gain for so many students. Then, lo and behold, in walk Dave and Jane Willis! We bought all their books (Ellis and Nunan’s, too) and we thought we had arrived in TBL Utopia.

I was rather shocked to find out that senior colleagues and FWM (friends with Masters) were still luke-warm about TBL. How could they not see the light…?

From my little vantage point, I think there are two basic problems with TBL:

1. It has not been clearly/succinctly defined nor agreed upon as to what it is (we can understand PPP in less than 10 words) and it is equally confusing to try to explain to others. I tried numerous times to explain it to JTEs (Japanese teachers of English) and beyond the easy definitions of task, outcome, etc. it’s a nightmare to clearly explain the details. So, what exactly do you do and how do you do it? I’m more comfortable with explaining that TBL is more a way of thinking (an approach to planning lessons) than a methodology(I know they don’t claim it to be a methodolgy, either).

2. There seems to be a huge hole in TBL. How do Ss get beyond practicing what they already know and how do they access and use new language within the the TBL approach? The strong version of TBL can’t seem to answer that question to anyone’s satisfaction. The weak version of TBL seems to include just about anything – and is therefore too weak! With the frustration towards PPP, and the not-so-clear results from CLT, I think there were overly-ambitious expectations for TBL: in the excitement of seeing everything that is good about TBL, no one wanted to seriously face its limitations.

There are a few references that were very helpful for me and I would like to recommend them to you:

• Hadley (Bham tutor) article, Returning Full Circle,
• Swan article, Legislation by Hypothesis: The Case of Task-Based Instruction
• Ellis TBL talk at KTESOL (a beautiful, masterful explanation of TBL on video)
• Shehadeh in Teachers Exploring Tasks Chapter 1 (the best written explanation I’ve seen)
• Willis J – Delphi article Changing to TBL

If you were to catch me online through skype sometime, I could EASILY send these to you. If that doesn’t work, let me know and we’ll figure something out.

All that being said, I’ve thrown out all my textbooks this year and am doing a combination TBL/Nation’s 4 strands/Extensive reading/ type curriculum thingy. I’d love to hear what you’ve been doing with TBL in your classroom. Let’s chat…

Steve

Just a little Vanity…

With someone in Peru taking a peek at my blog this morning, I just hit the 25 countries mark. That is a small accomplishment when compared to many blogging veterans, but it make me happy none the less.

It seems that the vast majority of them are in EFL countries (I realize that is likely, if not downright obvious)  and accordingly, I’d love to figure out a way to  actually communicate with  some of these people who  are  either teaching and/or studying English.

Anybody wanna give me a hint?

Steve

A Major SNAFU on the CUNY TESL-List

Oh well, the best intentions…

The City University of New York has a very active mailing list for teachers. There are often multiple postings every day. I can recommend it to anyone with the time and the interest to read. Not all posts are relevant, but sometimes there are real gems to be found. I finally posted a response to the following:

Dear members,

I am doing some research and would like to know, from any or all of you,

whether the Direct Method is now the leading method for teaching English

as a second language.  Any thoughts, numbers, statistics, etc?  I would

be most grateful.

I am currently teaching in Japan and the school that I am at has adopted

the Direct Method.  Actually, it is a blended method, they still teach

grammar points to the students, all junior high school students and all

true beginners to English.In any event, we are making presentations to

the parents for the schools choice in changing the curriculum from

Grammar/Translation to Direct Method. If you have any thoughts, I would

be grateful to you for your help. With much gratitude,

Eric Ross, M.A.TESOL, Hanno, Japan

I attempted to post a well-spaced, reasonable reply but it came out as a BLOB and I don’t know why? So, anyway, I wanted to at least see it as it was meant to be:

Hi Eric,

I’ve been receiving and reading this mailing list for more than a year now, and YOUR post is, at last, the inspiration for me to lose my posting “virginity” on this list. I’ve been in Japan since 1989, teaching at a great private girls JSHS, and am currently into the second half of my MA TEFL through the University of Birmingham ODL. After so many years of teaching ‘instinctively’, this course is fascinating to say the least.

Your question is very good and I hope you’ll receive many replies. I feel the need to ask a couple of follow-ups:

• How do you define the DIRECT METHOD?

You inspired me to go back to my Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching, by Richards and Rodgers (2001: 11) to get the nitty gritty on the DM. They list the following principles of the Direct Method (DM) which I’ve simplified because I’m a lazy typist:

1. Instruction is exclusively in the target language.
2. Only everyday vocab. and sentences are taught.
3. Oral communication skills are built through graded Q & A between T and Ss.
4. Grammar is taught inductively.
5. New teaching points are introduced orally.
6. Concrete vocab. taught by demo, abstract vocab. by association of ideas.
7. Speech and Listening comprehension are taught.
8. Correct pronunciation and grammar are emphasized.

They go on to highlight the pros and cons of that version of DM, and I certainly agree with most of what they say. Personally, DM seems great for highly motivated students in private lessons (a la Berlitz), but I wonder how it could work in larger classes?

• When you say your school is changing to the DM, does that include the JTEs or only the NTs?

• How does the DM jive with the reality of preparing for the high school/university entrance exams?

• Is this excellent blog still active? If yes, how does one get involved? http://insights-into-tefl.blogspot.com/

For the past year, I’ve been thinking non-stop about curriculum and methodology because I teach solo and have complete autonomy to dicide my program. The best I can come up with, at this point, for a methodological approach is a combination of 1) Task-based Learning and 2) Focus on Form activities (e.g. dictogloss type activities) all encompassed by Paul Nation’s 4 strands of a well-balanced English program. I have also thrown out all textbooks and invested in an Extensive Reading library (1200 books). I have a bunch of links, etc, and a blog, if anyone would like to read more. I also love to meet teachers with a desire to become better teachers.

I’m also currently doing MA thesis research concerning methods (especially – or initially – directed at JHS) and would love to share ideas anytime. I’m in a small network of edubloggers and JSHS teachers looking at similar questions.

In direct response to your question, I can’t imagine any methodology over-taking the Grammar-Translation method within my lifetime. That being said, I couldn’t have imagined a smoke-free anything in Japan either. So, what do I know…

Cheers,

Steve

A Wonderful Saturday Evening with TED

TED stands…  just found their words and knew I couldn’t compete…

TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader.

Have you ever felt like it took an awful long time for a speaker to get to the point?

Well, the beauty of TED is that each speaker has just 18 minutes to get where they’re going.

The Sir Ken Robinson talk is especially thought-provoking for us teachers, but I also enjoyed Tony Robbins, Al Gore, Ze Frank, Richard Baraniuk, Majora Carter, Dan Gilbert and a fellow Canadian guy who I can’t find…

One other blog that is immensely interesting is KnowHRblog .They have a very good

Top 10 Best Presentations Ever

Gotta go to bed. My young kids don’t realize Sunday is sacred yet,

Cheers,

Steve

Grammar for Grammar’s Sake.

If Mr. Polo can re-visit, then so can I. This topic is so much more interesting than the July 31st deadline I have for the module 4 essay on Written Discourse and somehow in my warped little mind, writing this may help me to ‘get in the mood’ to write (there’s no limit to the lengths my mind can be stretched to procrastinate, and seeing as my entire office, the depths of my desk and even my bedroom can’t be cleaned any further, I’ve only this blog to fall back on.)

Anyway…

I noticed a parallel the other day between my NT ORAL class and the JTE GRAMMAR class. The need to use English in order to improve speaking/listening (communicative competence) is equal to the need to use grammar to improve conveying meaning through reading/writing (“conveying meaning” competence – haha) 

I am often harping lately to my students that there is a big difference between STUDYING English (to pass tests) and LEARNING English (to convey meaning). I continue to harp because I think students need to cognitively see the difference between the two and then consciously decide which path they choose to take. If they opt to learn English, then they must commit to doing what it takes to learn English: 1) make an effort, 2) study the grammar,  and 3) use the language.

In my lesson the other day, the thing that shocked me was that the students were struggling with a children’s story that was clearly below their grammar level. I literally ran into the next room with one of the books to confirm the level with the JTE who has the unfortunate burden of sitting next to me and discussing much of this whether she really wants to or not. She (veteran, good GT teacher) said it was relatively easy Chu 2 (grade 8) grammar yet my Chu 3 girls were working their little brains into overdrive trying to understand the stories! Then I had an epiphany:

1. The JHS students only study grammar in discrete sentences. It is rarely contextualized.
2. The JTE teachers only teach grammar to help students to pass grammar tests.
3. I’m a big dummy for ever assuming that studying grammar for grammar’s sake should enable a student to pick up a book and use those grammar skills to easily process the meaning.
4. Skills, like muscles, demand practice in order to develop.

Therefore, Mr. Polo, it doesn’t surprise me at all that supposed high-level students can’t do what they’ve been asked to do, even if it is well within their grammatical level. Getting to their “high-level” may have never included getting beyond memorizing word lists, studying grammatical patterns and translating til the cows come home. USING grammar (and lexis) to cognitively process meaning and then convey meaning may be as foreign to them as ________________________ (fill in the blank).

Finally, I suspect that MOTIVATION may play a large part in what is or isn’t happening for them in their study of English. Recently, I’m wondering if there is any more important task for us as JSHS teachers than to motivate our students (more on that later).

Phew… back to the essay,

Steve

P.S. I’d almost like to send anyone the children’s books that led to this discovery (as an action research type collaborative experiment) just to see if other students respond as mine did. Any takers?

“The” question from a student teacher

About 20 former students spent the last 3 weeks at our school, doing their required “practice teaching” for their education degree. On the very first morning, about 6 of them filed into my office to ask to come and observe some lessons that day. After watching my class and taking copious notes (scary to think of the implications), one teacher came up and asked,

“What’s the most important thing to be a good teacher?”

I was ready for her because I’ve been thinking, re-thinking and re-evaluating this very question for the past year. From a “simple is best” approach, I answered:

1. You have to “connect” with the students.
2. You have to gain their “trust”.

If you can’t accomplish these first 2 steps, nothing else matters. These 2 simple ideas are jam-packed with overlapping layers of meaning and implications. I feel them quite deeply but struggle to explain them in detail off the top of my head. I’ll make an attempt at some point soon to elaborate. I’d love to hear any other opinions about the “MOST” important thing to be a good teacher.

That teacher happened to be an English teacher so I couldn’t help adding the following:

1. Find the necessary balance between STUDYING English and USING English.
2. Expect students (Ss) to understand the need to MAKE AN EFFORT to improve their English.
3. Explore what MOTIVATES your students and use that to motivate them.
4. FUN is important, but DIFFICULT BUT FUN is even better.
5. Do students understand WHY they are doing what you’ve asked them to do? Do you?
6. Read Paul Nations’ 4 strands of a balanced English program. pnation4strandsillt0010002.pdf
7. Keep reading, learning and developing professionally (a whole other post – coming soon!)

Of course I didn’t put the poor young lady through all that at once, but over the 3 weeks – I sure did.

Cheers and Good night,

Steve