Tuesday, 9 March 2010

A Wandering of Websites 2: Useful On-line Resources for English Teachers


It's polling time! With elections coming up (aren't there always elections 'coming up') in many countries, we thought we'd do a little polling of our own.

As we discovered one of our great teaching resources below we thought it would be fun to show you some of the functionality, sorry, I mean what you can do with it, ourselves. We'll publish the results in another posting on this blog once a few of you have had a go at filling it in. So go and have a look now - it's fun, interesting, and should give you some great ideas on how to use this cool tool with your students.


Of course, the Survey Monkey is just one of the five great new teaching resources we have found for you this time. Check out the rest below and be sure to let us know what you think... and to recommend your own favourites!
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NEW This offers a series of short This is one of those sites where you can type in some text and get the computer to say it. I must admit I'm wondering exactly how useful this could be for language learners, but there's a definite schoolboy thrill, along the lines of looking up naughty words in the dictionary when you were a kid, in getting Heather from the US, or indeed Rachel from the UK in her lovely 'proper' English accent to tell you to... oh well, let's not go into details, I'm sure you can amuse yourself no end with your inventive phrases and I defy you to keep a smile off your face as you listen to the results. I just hope they don't display a link of past requests anywhere...

'The world's most popular web-based survey tool', they claim, and it's true that this is a great site to incite interaction with your users. It's free, and allows you to easily bang up questionnaires in a jiffy. Fast, that is. Look, I've created one just for you, to show you some of the question types available...!


The image here shows an attempt I had at 'branding' the survey with the Hotch Potch English colours, but it was just at the end of the process that I realised this was part of the 'pro' option. Shucks, but you are probably thinking 'Thank god for the Pro Option, judging by those colours'... I chose their 'Purple Passion' standard option in the end. It ain't Hotch Potch English, but it's better than nothing.

I wanted to give you access to the results of the survey without giving you my account login but... it's a Pro Option! So I'll content myself (and you?) by posting a brief summary of the results here once a few of you have done the survey - watch this space... and let us know if you have had fun using the site - why not create a survey and send us the link in the comments section below?

And as it says on the box... (or the home page, at least) this site is all about 'funny and weird news about stupid crimes, ignorant politicians, heroic toddlers and much, much more' and it certainly delivers.

Current headlines include: Will love songs put sharks in the mood to shag? / Prison van carrying convicted bank robbers crashes into security van, thousands missing / Man auctions permanent advertising tattoo on back of neck...

Current fun facts include: Barbie's full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts / American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating one olive from each salad in first class / 200 million people in China live on less than $1 a day...

Fascinating stuff, and clearly exploitable in class by the innovative English teacher, n'est-ce pas?!

I was just about to recommend the authoritative yet amusing daily word e-mail posting from Your Dictionary, one of the best of these things out there in my opinion, when I realise I haven't been getting them for the last few days. Searching frantically through my inbox finally turns up a message soberly announcing the last word of the day e-mail from Your Dictionary! This is a shame, as it was one of the few which managed to inject a bit of humour into these po-faced thing, but never mind. Apparently this is so they can concentrate on making Your Dictionary even better blah blah blah, but anyway, do have a look at the site as it does, in fact, provide a LOT of interesting language content, including a large resource section for teachers which is worth browsing.

OK, I'd better get this one out of the way! If you type 'audacity.com' into your browser you immediately get a rather nasty page from a weary-sounding company called 'Audacity, Inc' and a curt black message telling us in no uncertain terms: 'We DO NOT make audio software'. It is some indication of the success of the company which does make the excellent free audio software known as Audacity that the company which owns 'audacity.com' have to devote their prestigious home page to telling people who they are not!

Well, whatever the story, if you follow the link above you'll get to the Audacity which does make audio software, and a fine product it is too, especially regarding it's free. It does take a while to get to know, and I would certainly recommend getting a knowledgeable colleague (look for someone with thick glasses and spots and sticking out teeth wearing a 'Kiss a Geek Today' T-shirt...) to get you started. Oh, sorry, Audacity allows you to record stuff in lots of formats and do some fancy stuff too. I use it to take the hiss out of my dodgy podcasts and free weekly English lesson recordings.

I must admit, I've seen worthy educators giving valiant presentations to enthusiastic souls on how to use Audacity to make their lessons the next best thing to being there, but I can never convince myself that your average teacher actually goes straight home and starts using the thing. Like a lot of the amazing technology out there, I have a feeling that many teachers, even if IT-ready, still prefer reading about it than actually using it just yet, or - same old story - simply don't have the time. Tell me if I'm right. OK, or wrong...!
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© 2010 Sab Will / Hotch Potch English / Will Power English : A Wandering of Websites 2: Useful On-line Resources for English Teachers
Sab Will is Course Director at TEFL Paris, a TEFL Certificate Teacher Training Centre validated by IATQUO
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Wednesday, 3 March 2010

One-to-One English Teaching: Top 10 Tips for Great Lessons!


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Although some professional language schools here in Paris tell us that up to 70% of all professional language teaching is on a one-to-one basis, not all TEFL Certificate courses actually prepare you for this.

So here is my first attempt at a list of ten key points to bear in mind when it's just you... and... him (or her of course)! Let me know what you think and feel free to add some more, thanks.
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Great One-to-One English Lessons: Top 10 Tips List

1) Ask Them What They Want
And give it to them! It's their lesson - their private lesson - and everything should be directly relevant to them.

2) Keep Your Shareholders Happy
You often have to keep several people happy: the student in front of you, the student's training department who chose your language school, your language school's director of studies, without forgetting yourself! So be aware of what all of them are looking for - often not the same thing - and try to give them all something to make their lives better.

3) Variety, Variety, Variety
Provide lots of varied activities for the student - it's more intense in a one-to-one situation so you need to keep changing the exercises regularly or you will both get bored.

4) Get Personal
Prepare highly personalised topics for your student based on his or her interests or needs - there's no excuse for not doing so. (but see No.7 below)

5) Personality Counts
So let's hope you've got one, eh?! If normal group teaching is a highly personal experience, for one-to-one teaching we need to replace 'highly' with 'intensely'! Personality clash? No-where to run. Boring, unmotivated student? No-where to hide. The fun, fast-moving lesson buck stops with you. So do your best to establish a friendly, professional approach from the start so that any problems down the line will be seen as being the exception rather than the rule and you should be able to work them out.

6) Perform Regular Rain Checks
Just because you get on well with them and they still smile quite often doesn't mean that they are totally satistied. Indeed, exactly because you have built up a friendly atmosphere may make it more difficult for them to let you know that they're not as happy as before. So ask them regularly if they are still getting what they want, if not why not, and change to rectify the situation.

7) Stay Professional
As long as money is changing hands, you ain't friends. You can never be friends. As long as money is changing hands. That's an important thing to remember. As long as they are the client and you the service provider they will be expecting you to bend over backwards to improve their English and if they don't feel that is the case, and you don't address it because you think you have become 'friends' and can get away with any old stuff, problems WILL arise.

8) Provide Structure, Not Content
The teacher provides the structure to the lesson but it is the student who will provide the content - the actual topics they want to study. Of course, the teacher may end up providing most of the materials, articles, etc., but in a one-to-one these should be closely linked to what the students has said they want or need.

9) Have Different Hats
At one moment you have to be interested in the student's son's soccer game at the weekend, the next firmly getting the student down to work and finally reassuring them that they really are making progress when they can't see it. If only we got paid in relation to the number of skills the average teacher needs!

10) Follow The LTP Approach
This is my own invention, what I call the Three Pillars of Being a Great Teacher, and is applicable, in my opinion, to any kind of teaching. LTP stands for Language Teaching People, and the idea is that to be a great teacher you need to love all of them. You need a love of Language (your chosen subject), a love of Teaching (the competences needed to help your students learn) and a love of People (the fundamental requirement to lead a happy life in our society). Read more here.
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Comments, as ever, are very welcome.
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Sab Will is Course Director at TEFL Paris, a TEFL Certificate Teacher Training Centre validated by IATQUO
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Thursday, 18 February 2010

A Wandering of Websites: Useful On-line Resources for English Teachers


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While a herd of cattle, a flock of sheep, a school of fish and, at a stretch, a gaggle of geese might not have too much trouble rolling off your tongue, could you happily take on board (and not feel totally ridiculous saying) "Oh my goodness, did you see that intrusion of cockroaches / squabble of seagulls / paddling of ducks / murmuration of starlings the other day - weren't they quite something?"

(That was all one sentence, by the way - I'm rather proud of it...)

I suspect not.

But a wandering of websites... well I don't see why not. Never let it be said that I never neologise, right?!

And here they are: a handful of interesting, and potentially teacher-exploitable websites that I've come across over the last few days. There have been others, there will be more, but this is what I have for you today...

This offers a series of short videos of people talking about stuff quite similar to what I do on the Hotch Potch English Mega Minute, but it's always nice to have a choice. There are also some interactive exercises and the script which is useful, and lots of different accents which is good too.

This is a very useful on-line depository of newsy stuff, the most interesting of which may be the collection of newspaper front pages from all over the world. They are available in printable pdfs and can be used in class quite easily. Relevant and up to date - what more could you ask for?! Good for comparing approaches to news stories from around the world, with a good collection of English titles to choose from.

This is a great idea in principle but pretty useless in practice... for native speakers. But excellent for students of English. The idea is that people - anyone - creates a short video where they define a word on camera and put it on the site. They can, of course, peruse all the other efforts and there's nothing to stop you from setting exercises based on watching the homespun definitions of certain words. It would be pretty fun for students to define their own words in their own English and immediately see their efforts on the internet. All you need is a free You Tube account and you're away. The reason I say it's useless, or rather pointless for native speakers is that the fun of watching some boring definitions of words we already know wears off very quickly. But for learners this is less the case.

famous-quotes-and-quotations.com
A great site, not only for its large collection of quotes, but because you can sign up for a daily e-mail for free with an inspirational quotation and some other stuff. I just read the quotations and sometimes share them with my students. Why not have a look?

http://www.inanimatealice.com
Check out this site for a really cool, and curious little interactive story. There are resources for exploiting it with students and it is very unusual and strangely engaging.
Feel free to also send in your general ideas and thoughts by commenting below, and... read you shortly!
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Sab Will is Course Director at TEFL Paris, a TEFL Certificate Teacher Training Centre validated by IATQUO
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Friday, 12 February 2010

What On Earth Are... CCQs?


Have you ever spent a good five minutes explaining something to students and had them nodding and smiling happily making you feel they've totally 'got it'... only to prove thirty seconds later by some simple mistake that they totally 'haven't'? It happens to all of us, and that's where CCQs can help.

CCQs, or Concept Check Questions, are a very effective way of checking students' real understanding of vocabulary or even grammar you have just taught them. Let's take an example:

Imagine you are teaching your students 'snow', and you explain it by saying 'It's cold and white', and they nod and smile. You even ask them 'Do you like snow?' and they still nod and smile and maybe even say 'Yes!'. All is going well, you may think. Except that half of them think you are talking about vanilla ice cream!

How about explaining what a strawberry is? It's small, you say. And round. And sweet. Oh, and of course it's a fruit. You can eat it. It tastes good! Do you understand? Good. And you move on. With one third of the students thinking it is indeed a strawberry, one third thinking it's a raspberry, one third thinking it's a cherry, and probably someone who just hasn't got a clue, but what do you know? You haven't checked to see if they've understood the concept asking questions!

Asking 'Do you understand?' is one of the least useful questions you can ever ask in an English language classroom! Why? Because if students do understand the question 'Do you understand?' they will probably just say 'Yes' to keep you happy. And to not lose face if they don't. They may not even understand the question 'Do you understand?' but will say 'Yes' anyway, just to keep you happy. And even if they do understand something, are they understanding what you want them to understand?!

Another example: Imagine, like me, you are a less than useless artist. But that not having a map to hand during your explanation of the continents you draw a hasty map of South America on the board, and label it 'South America'. You then ask 'Do you know South America? And they all nod and smile. But half of them are thinking that 'South America' is actually the English for 'Africa'!

So how can we be more or less sure that our students really have understood? Let's take the snow example earlier. We need some really simple questions which, if answered correctly by the students, will prove to us that they've 'got it'. We could ask:

Is snow is white? The student answers 'Yes' but so is vanilla ice cream and cotton wool and fluffy clouds and sheep.
Is snow cold? The student answers 'Yes' but so is vanilla ice cream and ice and winter and fridges and snowmen...
Does snow come from the sea? (mime waves) The student answers 'No' - a good sign.
Does snow come from the sky? (point to sky) Student answers 'Yes' - another good sign.
Does snow fall in summer? Student answers 'No' - still looking good.
Does snow fall in winter? Student answers 'Yes' - very good - it looks like he's got it.
Do we eat snow? Student answers 'No' or laughs and says 'If you want!'. Really looks like he's got it.
What can we make with snow? Student answers 'A snowman!' Yes, he's probably got it.

Of course, there are many other things you could do along the way if you have the tools, such as simply drawing some snow falling from the sky or a snowman on the board. But often concepts are harder to picture than that, or the required tools are not available and CCQs can come in really handy.

They work with grammar forms too. How would you be sure that students had grasped the concept of 'I used to live in London'? Maybe they think you still do. Or that you are used to living in London. Or that you want to live in London. Who knows?!

So we need some more CCQs. What about...

Do I live in London now? The students should answer 'No'.
Did I live in London? The students should answer 'Yes'.
And why not some optional questions to test deeper understanding, such as:
Do I like London? The students should answer 'We don't know!'

A final example before an exercise! Take the sentence 'I managed to get to the top of the mountain.' What are the essential facts or meanings of this sentence? Choose the best three from:

I succeeded.
I didn't succeed.
I will succeed.
It was easy.
It wasn't easy.
It was nauseating.
I didn't try.
I will try.
I tried.
I like mountains.
I had to do it.
I won't do it again.

The sentences which carry the main meaning of I managed to get to the top of the mountain are 'I tried', 'It wasn't easy' and 'I succeeded'. The other sentences may have some relevance to the event but they are not essential to understanding the meaning. Now, in order to get some good CCQs we simply need to change these essential meaning sentences into questions to elicit the appropriate responses, and be reasonably sure that students have understood:

'Did I try?' (yes)
'Was it easy?' (no)
'Did I succeed?' (yes)

It's often useful to have a question in your set like 'Was it easy?' which require the answer 'No', to check that students aren't just 'keeping you happy' with the answer 'Yes (teacher)' as we mentioned before.

Now here's the task:
Choose one of the nouns and one of the sentences below, write a small set of CCQs for it, and post them in the comments below. Read the comments first and try to write CCQs for a word no-one else has covered, but feel free to also include improved CCQs for words already covered. I'll post the best CCQs below.

Here are the words and sentences:

Words
column / horse / bungalow / pebble / cup / laptop / deckchair
cucumber / barge / sandal / bat (animal or sports equipment!) / handbag / coast / path

Sentences (CCQs for the word(s) in italics)
She was limping badly when I saw her.
I've been living here since 1993.
They'd rather have stayed at home.
My dad went through the roof when he saw the house after the party!
Johnny was caught shoplifting the other day!
I was sleeping when you phoned.
We're seeing Avatar by James Cameron this evening.
I wish I were 18 again.
I'd only been in France for two weeks when I met my future wife.
(The phone rings) Don't worry - I'll get it.

Feel free to also send in your general ideas and thoughts by commenting below, and... read you shortly!
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Sab Will is Course Director at TEFL Paris, a TEFL Certificate Teacher Training Centre validated by IATQUO
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Wednesday, 10 February 2010

Reflections on an English Lesson


Little poem for ya...
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REFLECTIONS ON AN ENGLISH LESSON

Graceful as a swallow
Skimming past the chair
My latest careful handout
Goes floating through the air

Little Louis' pencil
Is lodged in Sarah's ear
As one pupil in fifteen
Is trying hard to hear

The others are, alas, alack
In quite a different world
Uncovering the guilty
Who Katie's bag just hurled

I gaze around and wonder
Through clouds of chalky dust
How, given any normal choice
To teach, I thought, I must

A little laugh escapes me
To be followed by a song
If I'm going down, you little shits
For you it won't be long

And as a gentle smile descends
Upon my lips to seal
The secrets of the English class
I swear they won't appeal

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Feel free to send in your thoughts, ideas and questions by commenting below, and... read you shortly!
___________________________________________________________________
Sab Will is Course Director at TEFL Paris, a TEFL Certificate Teacher Training Centre validated by IATQUO
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Monday, 1 February 2010

It's TEFL Graduation Day... So What's Next?


Here are some of our students: Hermann, Alban, Larry, Andrew, Morna and Brianna, to be precise, holding their thoroughly deserved TEFL Paris Certificates on the evening of our Graduation Dinner.

I never cease to be amazed at how your averagely literate person can study intensively for just four weeks and walk out with a virtually guaranteed ticket, not only to a new job, but in many cases a completely new career.

Some of our trainees are fresh university graduates, some are experienced business people. Some are young, some are not so young. Some are nervous but all are excited about this new phase in their lives and the unknown possibilities lying ahead of them.

Of course, no TEFL Certificate totally guarantees you a job. There are many other factors to consider, such as your real aptitudes as an English teacher and both your abilities to adapt to local teaching situations as well as how good you are at avoiding some of the most common mistakes made by new teachers. Not forgetting your innovative use of some of the amazing on-line resouces out there... See these previous posts for more on this:
Quite apart from how well you present yourself at interview, there is the local teaching market to take into account. Here in France, I'll be honest with you:

If you successfully complete the TEFL Paris TEFL Certificate course, with good grades for Teaching Practice, Theory and Professionalism, and make yourself presentable, coherent and enthusiastic during your interview, as well as having the necessary working papers*, you will get a teaching job very quickly indeed.

I know that sounds like a lot of provisos, but hey, you're walking into a very intellectually rewarding and stimulating job working with really nice French professionals, so you should expect to put a bit of effort in to get it! But no more effort than when applying for any other job, and if you fit the mould they'll probably offer you the position on the spot.

An interesting question teacher training schools often get asked is: 'Will you find me a job at the end of the course?' I don't actually know of ANY teacher training centres which guarantee their trainees jobs at the end of the course! This is generally for two reasons:
  1. They are a teacher training centre only and not a language school
  2. They are also a language school but cannot know what their future staff requirements will be
TEFL Paris falls into the first category, as do most TEFL teacher training centres.

Having said that, we have excellent links with the Paris English teaching community and will do our very best to point you in the right direction if you wish to work in France, or indeed globally.

We know from years' worth of successful graduates that teaching work is relatively easy to find all over the world if you respect the conditions mentioned above.

* Some countries require specific working visas, or impose other conditions on certain nationalities, and we strongly advise you to check what the situation is regarding your personal circumstances and the country you intend working in to make sure you reach your teaching goal as smoothly as possible.

Feel free to send in your ideas and questions by commenting below, and... read you shortly!
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Sab Will is Course Director at TEFL Paris, a TEFL Certificate Teacher Training Centre validated by IATQUO
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Thursday, 28 January 2010

TESOL France visits TEFL Paris: a Match Made in Heaven?


It's that time of the month again, satisfaction tinged with sadness, the Friday of the last week of January's TEFL Certificate Course here at TEFL Paris and, my goodness, hasn't time just flown by, as it always does!

We had Bethany Cagnol, the current president of TESOL France out at our place today, to talk to our trainees and generally drum up support and share The Knowledge, which was great. Thanks a lot for that Bethany - great to see you again, and thanks so much for forgetting the personal photo calendar I gave you - I see how much you value my presents then... ;-) (Just joking, which you knew, obviously!)

Bethany talked about working life in Paris as an English teacher, and her American roots certainly interested the Americans in this month's group who are realising that there are a few hoops to be jumped through before getting their dreamed-of new teaching job/life on the Old Continent...

Bethany, of course, has cheated and just married into the system. I mean, literally, Married In to the system. That's one of the easiest ways and, to be honest, the definition of 'marry' is getting looser and looser here in France, so that could be a serious option for certain people.

As well as thanking Bethany for visiting us, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all our wonderful trainees here at TEFL Paris for being such fun and so enthusiastic and just so into the course and doing their best. I have been really impressed by all of you - thank you.

And as a final sign/send off, I'll ask you a question.

Do yous guys remember someone telling you that teaching is all about asking questions? Juss wunderrin, az wun duz...

But that wasn't the question.

The Questions Are: "What was your best teaching moment on the course?

And "What event/situation did you learn from most?"

Anyone who has been on a TEFL course can take part, the more the merrier!

Read you shortly!
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Sab Will is Course Director at TEFL Paris, a TEFL Certificate Teacher Training Centre validated by IATQUO
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