Guest post: BESIG Summer Symposium 2012 report

On 16 June 2012 the Besig Summer Symposium took place in Paris. Unfortunately I couldn't be there, so I asked Mieke Kenis and Vicky Loras, two people who were lucky enough to be present, to report back for me. 

I was really looking forward to the symposium for various reasons. It would be my first ever Besig event, David Crystal was going to be the plenary speaker and the programme looked very promising. Furthermore I was taking a colleague of mine, whom I was going to introduce to some Twitter friends. The train journey from Brussels to Paris wasn’t long enough to tell him all about the benefits of a Twitter PLN :-)

Mieke with Sue Annan

But what was most exciting was the prospect of finally meeting Vicky Loras. We had been talking to each other on Twitter for some time when one evening, a few tweets led to our collaboration on some of Vicky’s poems. It was just great I was going to see her live ;-)

Vicky is also a regular contributor to the ELTchat Podcast, for which she interviews ELT people. When James Taylor asked us to write a guest post for his blog about the Besig Symposium I thought it would be a nice idea to reverse the roles this time and ask her a few questions.

Vicky enjoying the Parisian cafe lifestyle!

So Vicky, here we go...

What made you decide to present at the Besig Summer Symposium?

I love teaching Business English, so when I saw the call for papers, I decided to send in my presentation proposal. I was also very excited about the topic of my presentation, as it is an idea I have developed with my adult students and we absolutely love it.

You were a first time Besig speaker. How did you feel about that?

It was a great honour for me to be accepted as a speaker at the BESIG Symposium. I have presented at other conferences as well, but this would be my first where the sole focus was on Business English.

What makes a good conference presentation for you?

I love presentations where the speaker shares practical knowledge, things we can all use in our classes. I love theory too, but a combination with practice is even more beneficial for me!  I also like it when speakers are people who have actually taught and bring with them this enthusiasm of teaching.

You had the last slot of the day. How did you feel about that?

I thought at the beginning that it would prolong the waiting time (and hence being a bit nervous would last longer), but actually I had so much fun learning all day with the other presenters, that when my time came, I felt so comfortable and happy at the same time!

So, how did it go?

I think it went well. I loved the participation from everyone who was there – the atmosphere was very nice and I love it when people want to share their own experiences or comment on an idea. I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as I did! It was truly a great experience for me.

Vicky after her presentation

We sometimes read some tips for conference presenters but what do presenters appreciate most in the audience?

I think an audience that participates is great, because it makes the speaker feel more comfortable and that the presentation can actually give something to everyone.  Even negative comments or disagreements can help. They can make you think!

Vicky, you won the second prize for best first time Besig presenter. How did you feel about that?

I was very very happy about it and that I could share this happiness with all my friends and colleagues there - and really excited to be presented the prize by David Crystal, a linguist that I have admired and read about ever since I was a freshman in university. It was a truly unforgettable moment!

Vicky after receiving her award from David Crystal

What was the highlight of the Symposium for you?

I loved many things about it: the presentations I attended were amazing and each gave me things to learn (I wish I could attend some other ones as well at the same times as the ones I attended). The networking that went on in-between the sessions and after the Symposium was absolutely fantastic, as we could reflect on our own experiences as well and share learning moments. It was also great to see people I had met before in person (people with whom I have connected to on Twitter), but also to meet new people face-to-face – like you!

Many thanks for this interview, Mieke!

Thank you, Vicky, and  thank you, James, for asking us!

Thanks to Vicky and Mieke for this interview.

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Guest Post: Mieke Kenis on Raymond Murphy

I actually remember the first time I saw a copy of Raymond Murphy's English Grammar in Use. I hadn't been teaching long and I was sitting on a bus in Brasília, going from one class to another, when I spotted it. "Sounds like the kind of book I need to read" I joked half seriously to myself.

It then started to appear more regularly, as students would turn up to their classes with it under their arm, just in case their native speaker teacher wasn't particularly au fait with the rules behind verb + preposition + -ing, although I'm not sure where they could possibly have got that idea... ;-)

I really got an idea of the books success when I moved to Korea and saw the same piles of copies in book shops, just as I'd seen in Brazil, and I thought to myself "Man alive, I don't know who this Raymond Murphy fellow is but I think he hit the jackpot." Until recently, I still had no idea who he was. In my mind, he was a recluse, living in a solid gold house on a tiny Pacific island, surrounded by pots of cash, a bit like this.

To be honest, I think that says more about the state of my mind than anything about Mr Murphy...

Someone who has an altogether more well rounded idea about him is Mieke Kenis, known to most of you as @mkofab on Twitter. She had the pleasure of being his student 30 years ago and of being a guinea pig for what was to become the world's English language grammar bible.

Here she shares with us of her memories of her summer in Oxford with the English language learner's grammar guru...

"It was the summer of 1982. The year before we had been glued to our tiny red TV set to watch what I consider the most beautiful TV drama series I have ever seen. Brideshead Revisited, based on the novel by Evelyn Waugh (1945), was serialized for ITV and became immensely popular in Britain and also in Flanders. The story, the themes, the actors, the settings, the costumes, the language and the music mesmerized and enchanted us. The young and then unknown actor Jeremy Irons played the main character, who - in a long flashback- tells the story in an off screen voice

That rich English prose of Waugh, read by Irons, is sheer beauty turned into sound and it can still move me after 31 years as it moved the 24 year old me in 1981. The beginning of the series is set in Oxford and the city attracted me enormously. 

I had just finished my first full school year as a teacher but I knew there was still so much English to learn so although I was getting married in August I was determined to do a summer course first. Of course it had to be in Oxford and so in July 1982 I travelled to England to spend three weeks at the Swan School of English.

An early prototype of what was to become the most popular ELT grammar book in the world.

 I entered a world that is so familiar to many of you but that was exotic and exciting to me: an English language school. I had never seen a school building that was in fact “a house”. An intricate layout of floors, rooms and staircases, wall to wall carpets and a garden!

Whiteboards, desks put in a U shape, tea breaks and a social programme of pub crawls (new word for me!) and coach trips during the weekends. Stratford-upon-Avon: Yay! 

I had booked a room in a university college building so that meant a lot of time on my own in the evenings and during weekends. Studying, reading, listening to the radio. A dream holiday in the city of dreaming spires.  

On the first day of the course we had to do a placement test and I ended up in Mr Murphy’s class.  Mr Murphy, Ray, was a gentle, soft-spoken and very friendly man, who welcomed us every morning while music was playing in his classroom (I loved that!).  The days were full of surprises as I had no idea what to expect. We learnt new words, did some intonation exercises, he taught us idioms and phrasal verbs, we did role plays and  had discussions, listened to news broadcasts and wrote about the topics we had discussed in class. He corrected our work and gave feedback.

I will be forever grateful for his lessons, for his grammar book(s) and for introducing me to Michael Swan’s Practical English Usage, which was exactly what I needed and which I still recommend to my students today.

Another prototype

 I would like to conclude by some thoughts on textbooks and on grammar.

As a non-native speaker of English, and therefore still a learner, I am really thankful for textbooks. 

Not everyone has the privilege to be taught by a good teacher when and as often as they would like. Over the years I have learnt a lot from various excellent textbooks.  I can only thank the many authors, like Raymond Murphy, who have written some great (self-study) materials for us, millions of learners of English. 

And then there is grammar. Of course we should concentrate on communication and we have come a long way since the days of grammar- based courses but I hope that native speaker teachers who call their courses learner-centered will let the learner decide on this too. 

If we, learners, want accuracy, please don’t deny us accuracy. Allow us, learners, to decide how accurate we want to be or how much like a native speaker we want to sound and how much British / American culture we want to learn. 

In 2004 I attended the IATEFL conference in Liverpool with a colleague. During one of the busy coffee breaks, plastic cup in one hand, heavy conference brochure in the other hand, trying to figure out where the next session would take place, I saw a man come in my direction. He had recognised me, he said. One look at his gentle face and I started stuttering that indeed I had been in his class in Oxford that summer of 1982. 

Raymond Murphy.

A highly successful, bestselling author who recognises a student after 22 years, is still a teacher at heart I guess."

Mieke and Raymond are in there somewhere if you can spot them

Thanks to Mieke for her lovely account of meeting Raymond Murphy and from her description I think you can get a sense of why his book went on to be so popular.

And if you want to hear more about him and how the book came about, Cambidge University Press have uploaded an interview with Mr Murphy on their Youtube channel. I guess he's not quite as reclusive as I thought...

Many thanks to Mieke for sharing her story with us. Make sure you follow her on Twitter at https://twitter.com/mkofab.

Postscript:

After reading this article, Raymond Murphy was kind enough to get in touch with Mieke and thank her for the article. Thanks to Ian Cook (@idc74) at Cambridge University Press for passing it on to him.

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Guest post: Loving the Greens - Montessori and Dogme Part 3

In the third and final part of Yitzha (Icha) Sarwono’s guest blog post, she will show us how she uses teaching booths as part of her unplugged Montessori teaching. You can read part one here and part two here.

Other than group presentation, I also provided booths for them to come and perform activities that have got something to do with vegetables. As I tried to apply Dogme teaching as well as staying in Montessori environment, I give them time to work on project that they like while in the mean time trying to stay on the theme of vegetables. And this is what I set up for them:

1. Vegetables muscle work: I prepared carrots, tomatoes, cucumber and long beans. They can choose between grating the carrot, slicing the cucumber, cutting the tomatoes or long beans. I did however pay very close attention when they were using the knife as I had to make sure they didn’t hurt themselves. They loved this booth so much that each one couldn’t wait for their friend to finish their turn.
   
   
2. Logic booth: Here I asked them to sort between red beans, soya beans, and green beans. They had to group the beans in a small bowl, then paste some of it on a worksheet that I have prepared for them based on the group. Though not all like the pasting part, they sure enjoyed the sorting time.
   
   
3. Grammar booth: As I was aiming for them to learn more about singular and plural, I laid down the vegetables in singular and plural form and then asked them to do the same. Though they still had difficulties with the vocabulary but since they knew the first letter of each word, they could match each vegetable with their writing.
   
   
4. Culture lesson: I asked them to place the fresh vegetables aside the picture of a cooking where they have to match them; carrot in a picture of soup, long beans in a picture of gado-gado (traditional Indonesian salad), potato in a picture of mashed potatoes and spinach in a picture of a sauté spinach.
   
   
5. Math: aside from addition I was also repeating the last lesson which is ‘less’ by asking them to put less vegetables in the provided mat next to their pair which was the same type of vegetables but with ‘more’ numbers than the one they had to complete.
   

   
6. Cooking booth: as my goal was to get them to eat vegetables, I set up a cooking booth where we made mashed potatoes and baked broccoli with cheese. They helped me mashed the steamed potatoes and mix them with milk, cheese (lots of cheese! :D ), butter, spices like oregano, salt, and pepper and also a secret ingredient which was a mix of pureé broccoli and spinach! Thanks to the huge amount of cheese, the mashed potatoes were a hit! I did baked broccoli with cheese too, but of course as they could see the greens under the cheese, not too many of them would love to eat them all up, they usually just gulped down the cheese and left the curly broccoli alone.

Well, I can’t say that this has changed the way they see the greens, as they still consider them to be an alien, but during this lesson I do hope I can let them to at least learn to get to know them better.

A big thank you to Icha for sharing her experiences with us. Make sure you read her blog and follow her on Twitter too.

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Guest post: Loving the Greens - Montessori and Dogme Part 2

In part one Yitzha (Icha) Sarwono described how the central elements of Montessori define her teaching. In this part, she tells us about she became interested in Dogme ELT and how she has tried to implement it in her own class so far.

What first attracted me to Dogme teaching was the fact that it allows both teachers and students to explore more on what they really need instead of following a text book. I think Dogme is somewhat similar to Montessori in term of its focus which is on the students. I don't use any textbooks at all, just worksheets that are made based on what the students need to achieve so it varies between each student. We give them one and a half hour each day to explore what they want to work on while teaching them one on one. I will focus on their academic teaching while my assistants help them in exploring more on other aspects like practical life, culture etc. And then we'll have circle time where we will discuss about the topic and etc.

As a teacher I’ve always tried to find a way to make my class understand the lesson that I’m trying to get across, and for years I’ve tried to apply ways that I thought will make the learning process more fun as well as engaging for them. But of course aside from the lesson, I’ve always tried to build them up in couple of aspects that I could also achieve, like their confidence for example.

For the past 2 years I’ve been involved in teaching kindergarten Montessori classes. One of my main concerns is actually what they have during snack time. It is almost impossible to see them having vegetables in their lunch box! They seem to prefer having bread, rice and chicken nuggets, or jelly for their snacks. Of course our school has always provided either fruit or milk for them but still even though I’ve tried so many times to introduce greens to them.  I found out that many of them have actually never got a proper introduction to vegetables at home.

So, for quite some time I have been having lunch along with them, hoping for them to see what I have in my lunch box (and you can bet that I bring vegetables with me everyday!). Starting with introducing them and saying how delicious they are to my tongue to sharing some of my veggies to them. But of course it hasn’t always been easy as they mostly refuse to try my food.  So I thought that I’d try dedicating a whole week to get them to meet and get to know greens very well, as vegetables is one of the lesson we learn in school too.

And as I’ve been sort of introduced to Dogme teaching, and find it quite interesting to apply it on my Montessori class, I thought I would try to apply it to teaching about vegetables. So I set up my goals and planned my lesson and this is what I’ve done in classroom during presentation and circle time.

1. Topics: As Vegetables are my topic of the week, I bought all the fresh vegetables that we are most likely to find and use to cook for our food at home, brought them to classroom and introduced them all to my students. I mentioned how good they are to our body. I laid them out one by one and explained them all. One thing is for sure though, some of my students kind of dislike the smell of the green stuff!
   
   
2. Science: We put a handful of green beans into two bowls. In one bowl, I asked them to put dry cotton among the beans and in another, wet cotton and then put them by the window, to meet the sunlight. I told them that in few days, we’re gonna see the difference between two bowls. They were very surprised and happy of course to learn that the bowls with the wet cottons has produced great looking growing bean sprouts! While the other one stayed still as a collection of green beans.
   
   
3. Outside: I took them to our outdoor playground and got them to play with the dirt! Literally! As I gave them hoe, shovel, spade and some seeds and let them dig the soil and plant what they want. It was a hit! And I got to work on their hand grip for motoric skills. In their culture lesson I could introduce them to different seeds and what would become of them should they grow nicely
   
   
4. Construction art: As carrot is probably one of the most popular vegetable for them, we made paper maché carrots. It’s actually ended up as a 3 days project but my students loved it so much!
   
   
5. Printing art: We made veggie printing pizza. I prepared cardboard in a round shape like a pizza, then prepared lots of vegetable and spices like french beans, onion, garlic, carrot, and mushroom. The children dipped the veggie and spices to their chosen paints and then print them on the cardboard pizza.
   
   
6. Math: As we learnt about addition, I got them to do it by using the french beans. They loved it so much and when later I gave them some worksheet with pictures of vegetables on it, they were gladly doing it.

In tomorrow’s third part, Icha will give some more practical examples of how she has adapted Dogme for her classroom by creating teaching ‘booths’.

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Guest post: Loving the Greens - Montessori and Dogme

This is part one of three guest posts this week by Yitzha (Icha) Sarwono, a kindergarten Montessori school teacher in Jakarta, Indonesia. We were recently discussing Dogme during ELTchat, and as I have no experience Montessori teaching, I asked her to write about the possibilities for teaching unplugged in her particular situation. I started by asking her about the main elements of Montessori (as quoted on Wikipedia), and how they apply in her classroom:

Mixed age classrooms, with classrooms for children aged 2½ or 3 to 6 years old by far the most common

In the theory, it can be like that, but in Indonesia it is quite impossible since the parents are still demanding the grouping based on level and that is what is going on in my school, though they can be mixed too sometimes, usually when we are lacking in teachers!. Actually, my superior just came today and she told me that my class is ready to be mixed with others as they are very cooperative and has understood the concept of Montessori.

Student choice of activity from within a prescribed range of options

Yes, each day I give them around an hour an a half for them to choose the activity that they want to do, be it from math, language, culture, practical life or others. While some of them do that, I'll work on them one on one on the area where I need them to give more attention. SO for each student it can be different area. For example, my student Aliffa needs to work on her writing, while Keshia needs to work on her phonics and reading. I make notes on the area they have mastered and the one they need to build. And that is why Montessori works well in classes with different states of ability, since teachers still have time to focus on students. Of course it needs teachers who can really dedicate themselves to work on it and that is why many teachers (at least in my school) avoid being the Montessori teachers, for the responsibility is very high. But this is also the point where I think Montessori and Dogme teaching can run well together.

Uninterrupted blocks of work time

Yes, this is so true in the real Montessori classroom. When the child is tired and doesn’t want to continue on working on one thing/project, we'll take a break and let them continue the other day, so there is no time limit really. Most of the time, we got them to work on a project that will make them understand more on what they're learning. But of course the choices are theirs to make on which ones they want to do 1st.

A Constructivist or "discovery" model, where students learn concepts from working with materials, rather than by direct instruction

We come to class with either with real objects (like me bringing vegetables to class, for example), models/toys or if we couldn't find them (like now when I'm teaching about insects) we bring photos to the classroom, so they will never have to imagine what they look like, they can feel them, see them and explore them. When they learn about hundreds or thousands, they will hold a bunch of beans with the exact number, or when they learn about shapes, they will hold the material. So when the concept got into them, they will remember it well. In my experiences (because I have taught in classical based school before) this kind of materials do help them a lot, like before we build a word, I will show the material that we're going to spell, and then instead of writing it, we use what we call LMA (large moveable alphabet) that will be arranged based on the word we're building on. So, they will not only be in touch with the object but also with the forms of the letters we're using. Whenever I teach them some early grammars, this will also work better as they can experience them first hand.

Specialized educational materials developed by Montessori and her collaborators

Each school, even each class, develops their own lesson plan as they are the one who knows what their students need. We have guidelines on what is our goal for that week but of course all teachers will also work on what their students need. This is what I’ve mentioned before , about the worksheet. We don't really have real test for them as they are still kindergarten but as Montessori has no particular workbook to use too, what we -the teachers- will prepare is a worksheet according to what they're learning. For instance, for my student Aliffa I'll give them more writing exercises or projects, and for Keshia I'll ask her to spell words together with me and then have her write them down on what we call pink line paper, so she'll remember it. So each students have their own personalized and customized worksheet. Tough job for the teachers of course, but I suppose this is needed to make sure all are treated well and fair. Of course for some material like logic exercises or culture, we can have the same worksheet for all.

The second part of Icha’s post will look at practical examples of how she teaches, and how she thinks it overlaps with Dogme ELT.

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Guest post: Not a Drama Queen but a Drama Teacher

Here is part two of Ania Musielak's takeover of my blog. After last weeks interview, she has now written a post for us all about her great passion in teaching, using drama in the classroom. I have asked her to write here because this is an aspect of teaching that doesn't come naturally to me at all. It seems to me that the majority of teachers I've worked with have an exhibitionist streak within them, and teaching gives them a great chance to be the centre of attention. The good teachers, of course, can control this feeling and harness it to their advantage. The bad ones allow their ego to take precedence over the needs of the students.


But what about the other teachers, like myself, who are more introspective and could subsequently be missing out on some useful classroom techniques? I asked Ania to give us some advice, and she's done a great job in helping us to understand how we can harness the acting skills she believes we all have within us.

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I love drama – there's no doubt about that, and some even say I'm all about it! Not in real life though – in teaching of course :) I think that drama helps both students and teachers, it allows us to open up, forget about language barriers and inhibitions and, by involving the whole body, treats people as entities.

Of course, many might disagree with me, saying that you need to have some acting or theatre training to teach drama. But aren't we all actors? We have to act every day – when our beloved mother-in-law cooks a, well, less than delicious dinner and we have to put on a brave face, eat it and, what's more, give a sincere sounding compliment... Or when we feel blue but have a classroom filled with lively and talkative teenagers... Or even when we want to persuade our boss that we really deserve that pay rise, isn't that acting? Of course it is, and by being emotionally engaged we are able to communicate our needs and desires.

That is the essence of drama – it engages the learner by creating situations mirroring our every day life. It uses our emotions, which means that we forget about stress and barriers and just perform! Of course, some students and teachers might be shyer at first, but once they see that drama is all about the process not the product, they will give in to its power.

By putting on a mask of someone else students not only get an insight into another person's behaviour, but they also become less intimidated to act and speak, as for that brief moment they are someone else. A hard-working Kate become Charming Alexis and Jack the stockbroker can become Archie The Greatest Footballer of All Time!

 

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Once you put on a mask like that there's no coming back - you just have to make a fool of yourself – here it's my husband's turn!

That is why when I teach adults I ask them to come up with names or nicknames that they want to use only on English lessons. And I don't just mean an English equivalent of their real name – but a whole new identity. Even today some of my students greet me by my nickname and talk about our groups using English nicks. That is a very simple idea which can help loosen students up and prepare them for the activities to come.

Another technique for those who are rather reluctant when it comes to using drama might be the introduction of non verbal drama games (they are a wonderful way to put students at ease because with those games the immediate pressure to speak is lifted). There is a popular game that I use quite frequently, it's called Would You Prefer? It basically means giving students two options to choose from e.g.

Would you prefer…

a) to go on a date with the man/woman of your dreams or b) win £5000?

a) eat a big bowl of toothpaste or b) eat a bar of soap

Depending on the choice made, the learners have to run to two opposite sides of the classroom. So let's say you choose money – you run to the left corner, and if you choose a date, you run to the right. If your classroom is too small or there are too many students, you can modify this activity by adding movements students have to make with each choice – e.g. pat their bellies, scratch their heads, jump, duck or even produce sounds. It's a lot of fun and what's best is that the game relaxes students and lowers the level of stress.

There is another drama idea that is easy to adopt – a technique called freeze frame (or still image). A freeze frame is used to show a specific event, reaction or action of the story. Students who are reluctant to improvise a talking scene can show a story by a series of still images. The images can be made alive – the audience (students who are not involved in the freeze frame) can choose a person from the still image and ask him or her some question to establish what the story is about. It is a good idea to provide the group presenting the freeze frame with a photo and give them time to brainstorm some ideas and decide on their roles before presenting it. In the past, I had students so engaged that they were willing to perform stunts (they really got into the roles of cancan girls, and those were guys, mind you!).

 

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--> My students might have not been THAT flexible and fit, but they sure tried hard! 

This activity provides a lot of fun and students can take turns  - first they show a scene to the audience, then they become spectators who have to guess the story.  The ideas for a freeze frame lessons can be taken from famous movies or even fairy tales. If I don't have my own photos I use Google of course.

More Funny | Forward this Graphic

Taken from: http://jazarah.net/blog/amazing-freeze-frame-shots/

Taken from: http://www.telluridetoday.com/pictures.htm

The beauty of drama is that every teacher can have her or his individual twist on the activities. And drama never ends, every day can bring a new idea, so be aware, be prepared  and be amazed by drama. As my favourite Chinese proverb says: “Tell me and I will forget, show me and I will remember, involve me and I will understand.”


A big thank you to Ania for her blog takeover. You can read my interview with her here, and you can find her on Twitter at @Aniamusielak.

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