Buckland Weekly #3: Dictionaries and Discussion Monitoring

In this series of posts I intend to address various questions that teachers, both old and new, have raised with me from time to time. All my answers are based on a combination of my own experience as a teacher, both in China and the UK, and published studies. Because of the element of personal experience all posts should be treated as my opinion only. As they say on the internet, your mileage may vary.

An activity that I sometimes use in class for vocabulary development is to give a text (appropriate to the grade and level of the students) with several of the more difficult words underlined. I then get the students to read the text and write down the meanings of those words, in English. If they don’t know the words they are allowed to use their dictionaries to find them. This is a short activity (usually near the start of a lesson) designed to give them the necessary vocabulary for a subsequent discussion activity. By doing it in groups there is an element of speaking and listening added as they give each other the answers. It’s unremarkable and uncontroversial.

Where I sometimes run into opposition from the Chinese teachers is in allowing the use of the dictionaries on their phones. The schools often have a “no phones in class” policy and like to stick to it. My view is that we are living in an age where electronic dictionaries are more commonly used than paper ones and, after all, a dictionary is a dictionary. I allow it. More than that, I encourage it. I tell my students that dictionaries are always OK in my lessons, though I encourage them to ask me if there are words they don’t understand. Students tend not to use their phone dictionaries anyway unless I actively tell them to, though they often use paper dictionaries.

Your policy is, of course, up to you, but if you decide to allow phone dictionaries and the school raises an objection then I suggest that you explain exactly why you are doing it, tell them that you allow phones to be used strictly for the duration of the activity and ask them what they think. If the school absolutely insists or (as I have occasionally seen) does not allow phones to even be taken into the classroom, then there is nothing you can do but follow the rules. Personally, I see no difference between using either type of dictionary.

The main activity of many of my senior lessons is a discussion activity: usually with groups talking about a series of questions on the topic of the lesson. For an example, look at my lesson plan for “Charity Begins At Home”.  When planning this type of activity I always try to think of answers on both sides of the topic. If the students are discussing, say, whether a good diet is more or less important for your health than exercise, I try to think of reasons that it is and reasons that it isn't. Then when I monitor the discussions by walking round the class and joining each group in turn, I can take the opposite view to whatever they have decided. I find this “devil’s advocate” approach stimulates discussion far more than presenting my genuine views. It’s also helpful, because thinking about it in advance speeds up your response and lets the discussion run more smoothly.

I will do a longer piece on error correction later, but the approach that I take when monitoring discussion activities is that I only correct where there is an error that seriously impedes the activity. Where a student manages to express what they want to say clearly, even if it has some small errors, I don’t generally correct. There are a number of reasons for this. Practically it would slow down the class but more importantly is the matter of confidence. The students are trying hard to express themselves and nit-picking their grammar in this type of activity undermines them and discourages participation. It’s often better to allow the flow of the discussion to continue uncorrected. If there is a point that comes up in several groups, I will often take a couple of minutes AFTER the activity to go through it on the board for the whole class.

Lesson Plan: Charity Begins At Home

Lesson Level:    Senior                    Duration:  40 Minutes

Lesson Title:     Charity begins at home.¹

Grammar and Vocabulary

Wealth, fortunate, donate, purchase, volunteer, distribute, participate, labour

 .

Lesson Objectives

Students will practice dictionary skills.

Students will learn target vocabulary (associated with charity)

Students will discuss questions associated with charity.

Materials Required

Reading text.²

Preparation

Prepare enough copies of reading text to give one to each group of four students.

Check that students have access to dictionaries.³

Divide class into groups of four.

Procedure

1

Write “Charity” on the board as a title for the lesson and elicit ideas about what it means.

Write definition below the title.

(giving your money or time to people who need your help)

2

Ask class to give ideas for who can benefit from charity.

Write list of suggestions at left hand side of the board. Give examples to get started if needed.

(poor, old, young, sick, disabled, homeless… also animals should be the minimum list)

Ask a few students which of these groups they would give their charity to. (Remember to always follow up with “Why?”)

3

Write “Charity begins at home”  on the board.

Elicit the meaning of the phrase.⁴

(Look after your own family and community first.)

Give the class two minutes to discuss whether they agree or disagree with this statement.

Monitor and assist the discussions.⁵

Get feedback from class.

4

Tell class you will now give each group a reading text.

Tell class they will need their dictionaries. (books or electronic)

 Write on board.

Read the text.

Use your dictionaries to find the meanings of the underlined words.

Write down the meanings IN ENGLISH.

While class work on that, write the list of words on the board.

Monitor and check that students are  working on the task.

Elicit the meanings and write them on the board.

5.

Read the text out loud to the class.

Elicit the three ways that it says you can help (donate money, purchase gifts, volunteer) and write them on the board.

Ask questions about text to check understanding.

6

Write discussion questions on board.

For most classes use the questions.

Is charity always a good thing?

Which kind of charity would you like to support?

Which way to support a charity is best (donate, purchase, volunteer)?

Does getting charity make people lazy or dependent?

For stronger classes, use harder questions.

Does giving to charity encourage people to become lazy and dependent?

The text says that giving to charity makes us feel satisfaction. Is this a good reason to give to charity?

Is it better to give to charities for people or animals? Why?

Is it better to give money to charities or to volunteer? Why?

7

Tell classes they have ten minutes to discuss the questions.

Monitor the groups and assist the discussions.

8

If there is time elicit feedback from whole class to share ideas.

Notes

1.

This lesson is based on material in Practical Oral English, Senior 2, Volume 2, Unit 6

2.

(This reading text comes from Practical Oral English, Senior 2, Volume 2, Unit 6)

Sharing our wealth and helping others is part of being a good person. There are many ways you can help less fortunate people than you. You can donate money, purchase a gift or offer your service for free as a volunteer. Lots of people volunteer to help others for free. It is a way to show others that  you care. Caring for others often gives us a sense of achievement and satisfaction.

Ways of volunteering vary greatly, such as helping to distribute leaflets for charities, collecting money for charities or offering your labour in the local community. Helping your local community is fun, you can do the shopping for an old person or help to look after children for a person who is sick. You can also go to other less fortunate countries where people are in need of your help. You can participate by helping to plant trees, build wells and houses for the local villages.

Whatever way you want to help others, it will be rewarding.

3.

Some teachers disapprove of this but whenever I do dictionary work in class I also allow students to use the dictionaries on their mobile phones. A dictionary is a dictionary and we are living in the 21^st century here.

4.

The phrase “Charity begins at home” in the UK usually has the meaning that you should look after those closest to you before you give charity to others. There is another interpretation that I have sometimes heard which is that if people are charitable at home they will be more likely to be charitable in general. I usually stick with the traditional meaning and only discuss the alternate if someone in class raises the idea.

5.

When monitoring discussions like this. I find it useful to take the opposite view to whatever the group answers.

For example if they say “yes” I ask about whether it’s better to look after our own family who are already healthy and well-fed or to give our money to charities that help starving people in other countries.

Buckland Weekly #2a: Observations Redux

Observations Redux

After some conversation in the comments when I linked the “Observations” article on Buckland’s Facebook page, it occurred to me that the comments I made about observations give the impression that I think they are a pointless waste of time and effort. Actually, I don’t. I think a properly conducted observation with appropriate feedback can be an excellent tool to help the teachers and the school. It's just that they so rarely happen.

In my classroom I have an open door policy. I am confident enough in my lesson planning that anyone is welcome to come and observe at any time and at zero notice. If people do, I have one rule and one request.

The rule is that observers observe. They don’t join in and they don’t try to take over. I used to teach a summer school in England and one year we were observed by the British Council, a process that has to take place to maintain accreditation. Two observers came in and initially sat at the back taking notes. Then they stood up and started looking at what they students were doing. That’s also OK if they are discrete about it. Then they started joining in, correcting students work, suggesting improvements. By then I was quite an experienced teacher so, at that point, I asked them if I could speak to them outside for a moment. I politely requested that the stop trying to do my job for me. They agreed and returned to just sitting down and taking notes.

Of course it takes a lot of self-belief and confidence to do that. You don’t need to do it but you should try to ensure that having observers doesn't disrupt your lesson.

That’s the rule. The request is simply that after the class the observers talk to me and tell me what they thought. OFSTED gave me a thick skin. There’s nothing they can say that’s going to hurt my feelings and sometimes they say things that make me think, “Hmmm, they have a good point there. Maybe I should do this instead.”

When I observe people, and I do it a lot, I try not to focus too much on the negatives and I always start feedback by asking how they think it went. Nine time out of ten they have picked up in their own lesson any points that I picked up and if I follow up with asking what they intend to do to fix any problems, nine times out of ten they can answer that too. I find that having to just discuss your lesson after a class focuses you on what was good and what wasn't so good and once you think about it you are half way to getting it right.

With all that said, it’s still unlikely that you will get feedback in China and even if you do it’s even more unlikely that you well get serious negative feedback. It just isn't the way things are done here. All my previous remarks still apply. Observations in the UK are usually counter-productive and destructive and observations here are often more of a political exercise than an educational one. That doesn't mean you can’t get good observations though. If you are serious about improving your work I suggest that you actively seek out the right kind of observation. If you have western colleagues in your school, arrange to observe each other’s lessons and then sit down over a pint and talk about them. If you don’t, then try to find a friendly English department Chinese teacher who will observe. Explain what you want them to do and afterwards grab a coffee in the staff room and chat about your lesson

If you can get good observations with sensible feedback, I guarantee it will help you in the long run.

Buckland Weekly #2: Observations

Observations. Everybody hates them.  Everybody feels that “why me, why now” pang of resentment at having an interloper, sitting at the back of the class, watching and listening and taking notes. If you have ever been a teacher anywhere in the world it will almost certainly have happened to you.

Back in England there’s something called OFSTED – the OFfice for STandards in EDucation.  Its job is to inspect schools and part of that process is observing teachers. I’m certain that America and Australia and every other country that English teachers here come from will have similar bodies… or maybe I mean busybodies. The trouble is, and here I can only speak for England, that observations are not what they should be. They should be a formative tool that helps teachers develop their skills and encourages them to try new techniques and become the best teachers they can. Instead, OFSTED observations, and the internal school observations that go hand-in-hand with them, have become a blunt stick for beating the teachers and usually leave everyone concerned feeling useless and worthless.

Before I come on to observations in China, let me reminisce for a moment about the worst  observation I ever had. I like to think that I’m a pretty good teacher – maybe not the best in the world but certainly able to do my job well and even, from time to time, inspire a few of my students. Of course even the best teachers have off days.

I was, at the time teaching a group of what, in ESOL terms, are called Entry 1 students. This, in theory means they do have a little, very basic, English but not much. The group had started out at sixteen students but – for reasons that have more to do with UK immigration policies than with education – had dwindled to ten regular attenders. On the day of the observation – practice for OFSTED – only six showed up. That shouldn’t have mattered; I was prepared for a small group. The trouble was that they liked me and the way they showed that they liked me was to sit paying rapt attention to everything I said but barely speaking at all. Nothing I did, and I tried every trick in my repertoire, could get more than a few monosyllabic answers from them.

After the lesson it was time for feedback and the observer started with the most positive thing in the whole process.

            “You worked,” she said “Very hard, but to very little effect.”

After that she proceeded to rip everything apart. My lesson plan wasn’t adequate (it was); my activities weren’t suitable for the group (they were); the classroom environment wasn’t suitable (out of my control); my delivery was, apparently, both too fast and too slow (how?); the students were in the wrong level (there was no lower level for them); the students didn’t participate (at least that we agreed on).

And on it went. Twenty minutes of pure negativity. Fortunately it wasn’t my first go on the roundabout. I knew enough by then to know that no one ever said anything positive. that the whole thing was an exercise in nit-picking the tiniest flaws and in blaming the teacher for things entirely outside his control. I listened, nodded and agreed like a good little sheep. Anything else would have been pointless. The tick-boxes had already been ticked and the conclusions already drawn. And that was that: a failing grade on the observation.

Now that story isn’t meant to scare or demoralise you. It’s meant to show you what teachers in our own countries routinely go through. It’s meant to put into perspective the observations you might get here. It’s meant to help you understand that observations in your EFL class in China aren’t the nightmare that they could be.

So, who will observe you? There are a number of possibilities. In my time here I’ve been observed – at different schools – by my FAO, the head of the English department, Chinese English teachers, other foreign teachers, the school principal and, on one memorable occasion, all of the above simultaneously, seated in a row along the back wall of the classroom.

Before you panic you should ask the question – why are they here? And now that you have asked it I’ll answer it. It’s nothing sinister. If the school principal observes you, it will probably be for a couple of minutes and it’s purely political – acknowledging your presence, showing that he or she is aware of your contribution. If it’s the FAO they just want to know that you are turning up and doing your job and that you aren't doing anything that’s massively wrong. If it’s your department head, other teachers (Chinese or foreign) then they almost certainly want to learn from you – to get new ideas for their own teaching. This is just basic good practice. One colleague in Baiyin watched every single time I taught his class, sitting in the room writing down everything I did or said. When I asked why, he told me he wanted to copy my style for his own teaching. If it’s a whole damned coach party then it will be part of the school’s policy and you can be sure they do the same to each other too. You might even get invited to come along. I have on several occasions.

The bottom line is that unless you do something ridiculously wrong, it’s unlikely to have any consequences at all. You won’t get any feedback or criticism and nothing will happen. As long as you have prepared your lesson and deliver it reasonably well everything will be fine. It can even work to your advantage as the most unruly classes behave a whole lot better when their Chinese teachers are in the room. The key is not to worry about it. Just go ahead and teach as you normally would. Keep everything appropriate (remember that list of things not to do or talk about) and ignore the observers altogether. They won’t join in and they won’t say anything.

Of course now you are thinking “But what if I DO do something ridiculously wrong?” Trust me, you won’t. They may not like your style but that’s not an issue. Short of losing your temper, hitting a student or having a panic attack that renders you speechless, there is little you could do that’s wrong enough to cause a problem.

Feedback, if it exists at all is likely to come to us here in the Yangshuo office rather than directly to you. In Chinese culture negative feedback is almost never given, or at least given by very circuitous routes, because of the loss of face. If that does happen, then someone (probably me) will talk to you about it, make a few suggestions as to how you can fix any problems.

In any case, observations aren’t a big deal and aren’t a problem. Just treat them like any other day in the classroom

Of course you might get observed by me… and I learned all I know from watching OFSTED. Then you’ll be in trouble. 

Buckland Weekly: #1 Accent

Note

In this series of posts I intend to address various questions that teachers, both old and new, have raised with me from time to time. All my answers are based on a combination of my own experience as a teacher, both in China and the UK, and published studies. Because of the element of personal experience all posts should be treated as my opinion only. As they say on the internet, your mileage may vary.

1. Accent

I have done the orientation training for English-speaking teachers from many countries. Sources vary in their estimates but English is generally shown as having about 360 million native speakers and as many as a billion non-native speakers. I have worked with teachers from most of the countries that we consider “native” – UK, USA, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, Ireland – as well as teachers who have English as a second language to a high degree of proficiency. Naturally this means that I hear a lot of different accents.

As native, or proficient non-native, speakers we find it easy, in most cases, to understand what is said regardless of accent. Even the inclusion of words specific to an unfamiliar dialect might only throw us for a moment or two. Accent does, however, raise some important questions in EFL.

Does accent actually matter in the classroom?

Will a teacher's accent have any effect on the students?

How will changing to a teacher with a different accent affect the students?

Should we teach in our own native dialect or try to use a standardised form of English?

What should we do about regional variations in spelling and vocabulary?*

Perhaps most important of all...

Will an accent affect your chances of getting an EFL job?

Well, the first thing to remember is that everybody, speaking in any language at all, has an accent. There's no such thing as an accentless speaker.  Now your English accent may be closer to one of the so-called “prestige” varieties of English than another teacher's accent but that doesn't make it better, just different.

So let’s try to answer those questions.

As with most things, the answer is… it depends. If your accent is one of the few that is truly impenetrable even to native speakers then yes, it will matter, it will affect the students and you should do something about it. However you can’t eradicate your accent completely. My West Midlands accent is much softer than it once was but it’s still there. My vowel sounds will mark me forever as from Wolverhampton. Yours, unless you are a trained actor or voice coach, will mark you with your home town. Will it affect the students? Well, yes, of course it will. Their greatest exposure to English before you has probably been to Chinese English teachers with Chinese accents. You could well be the first real native speaker they have heard outside the movies. One thing about Chinese students is they are great sound mimics. When they repeat things back to you it will be with your vowel sounds, your stress patterns and your intonation.  In short, they will pick up your accent. If they change to a new teacher with a different accent they will rapidly adopt the new teacher’s accent. None of this is a problem as long as they can understand you.

What can you do?

Well, what you can’t do is try to adopt a higher prestige accent. It takes a lot of skill to consistently mimic an accent that you don’t naturally have. In class, purely for demonstration, I can manage – for very short periods – to take a stab at both Lowland and Highland Scots accents, Welsh accents and, on a good day Liverpool or London, and of course RP, but to a native speaker I come over as someone trying to do a charmless and borderline offensive comedy routine. I couldn’t manage more than a few sentences if my life depended on it.

The same is true of RP. Now RP – Received Pronunciation – is the UK’s prestige dialect. It’s what used to be, in less egalitarian days, the accent of BBC newsreaders. Nowadays, of course, even the mighty BBC acknowledges that regional accents are not necessarily a bad thing. All the same you are unlikely to hear a presenter with an especially broad version of the low-prestige accents (like mine).

So, what should you do? There are a number of things.

Speak slowly. I can’t emphasise this enough. It’s pretty much impossible to speak too slowly.

Enunciate clearly. Make sure that you aren’t squashing syllables or missing them out altogether.

Many accents have this feature.

Use your own accent but be aware of it. Try to catch yourself when you say something that only your grandmother would understand.

Avoid dialect words. Use standard words instead. If I told a student that his work was “bostin’” instead of “very good” it wouldn’t help anyone.

Above all be aware of the students. If you pay attention to the class it’s easy to see when they can’t understand you. If that happens ask yourself why. Check that you are speaking slowly and clearly enough.

Repeat and paraphrase. Students may need several attempts to follow what you said.

The bottom line is that accent matters in the classroom but only to a degree. Slow clear speech, regardless of accent, will usually be sufficient. Don’t worry if you sound like a Californian or a New Yorker or if your accent forever identifies you as from Melbourne or Dublin or Cape Town. It doesn’t matter as long as you are clear.

And then, of course, there’s that all important question of your job prospects. I’d be lying if I said that your accent has no effect on them – of course it does. Some school administrators prefer certain accents and dislike others. It isn’t rational or fair but it is the way things are. If you are a native speaker always apply the same rules to talking to your school as I outlined above for your students. It will help. For non-native speakers there is the extra task of making sure that your spoken grammar fits in with the norm. I have sometimes trained French and German speaking teachers who have, as is common, applied the word order of their native languages to English – putting adjectives after nouns instead of before, or shifting the verb position to later in the sentence. Schools won’t care for that, though it isn’t really a matter of accent. If your grammar is standard though, then, native or not, your accent shouldn’t be much of a problem.

*I will deal with regional spelling and vocabulary variations in another post.

Lesson Plan: Pets

Lesson Level:    Junior                    Duration:  40 Minutes

Lesson Title:     Pets

Grammar and Vocabulary

Fish, snake, lizard, spider, insect, rock

Creepy-crawly,

Companion, depend on

(Other vocabulary arising from class).

Lesson Objectives

To learn words related to pets and pet care

To be able to talk about what pets you have and what pets you would like.

Materials Required

Dialogue¹

Reading exercise²

Picture Vocabulary sheet (with joke related to dialogue)³

Preparation

Prepare enough copies of the handouts to give one to each student.

Procedure

1

Write “Pets” on the board.

Elicit meaning and add. (Pets are animals that live with us in our homes.)

Use ball toss to elicit a list of animals people keep as pets. Put in three columns – Yes, No and Maybe.

2

Give dialogue handout.

Get three students to read it while others listen.

Read out again and check vocabulary words.

Check students understand meanings by asking “What is a…?”, “What does… mean?”

3

Give the vocabulary sheet handout.

Drill the words with the class.

Write these questions on the board.

What is Joe’s unusual new pet?

Why does Joe think it is a good pet?

Joe’s friends think he is crazy. What do you think?

Joes friends suggest five things they think it might be. What are they?

Which of these pets would you like?

Can you think of good and bad things about each pet?

Tell groups to find the answers.

Use ball toss to elicit answers from groups.

4

(Optional Activity – depending on time and strength of class.)

Give reading text.

Write these words on the board.

Companion, nourishment, tips, vaccination, commitmen, enrich

Tell students to shout “Stop” when they hear one of the words.

Read the text. Whenever the students hear one of the words stop and explain the meaning.

5.

Clear the board and write these questions.

Do you think it is a good idea to keep pets in your home?

What about exotic pets such as snakes or spiders?

Are there any animals that you should never keep as pets?

Why?

What do your friends think?

6

Monitor and assist while groups discuss. Feedback from groups.

Notes

1.

Joe Hello you guys, do you want to see my new pet?

Keith OK, where is it.

Joe In a tank in my bedroom.

Laura What is it? You say it's in a tank? Is it a fish?

Joe No, of course not! Fish are really boring.

Keith I'll bet it's a snake or a lizard. Am I right?

Joe No. It's not a snake or a lizard, though I agree that they aren't as boring as fish.

Laura. Is it some kind of spider or maybe an insect? I hope not. I don't like creepy-crawlies. If

it's a creepy-crawly I shall scream!

Joe Don't worry. It isn't a creepy-crawly. It won't scare you.

Laura You are sure it isn't something horrible and dangerous?

Joe I'm sure. It's not in the least bit dangerous. It's the perfect pet. It's easy to look after. It's

interesting. It's friendly... or at least it isn't unfriendly. Come on. It's in here.

Keith In this tank?

Joe That's right.

Keith I'm sorry to tell you this but I think it's escaped. I can't see anything in here.

Laura Here, let me look. No, I can't see anything either. I think Joe's having a joke with us.

There isn't a pet in this tank.

Joe It's there. I can see it. It's right in the middle.

Laura Joe, there's no animal in this tank. There's just sand and a rock.

Joe Who said my new pet was an animal? My new pet is a rock.

Keith A rock?

Laura A rock? You must be crazy.

Joe I'm not crazy. It's easy to look after. I don't have to feed it or clean it or take it for a

walk or anything. It's never going to escape or run away.

Keith But it doesn't do anything

Joe I know. Great isn't it.

2.

Congratulations -- you've added a companion animal to your life!

Like a child, your pet will depend on you for everything -- food, medical attention, exercise and safety.

You'll want to make sure you give him the best care possible.

You've come to the right place. These tips provide information on many areas of pet care, from

choosing a collar and ID tag, to exercising your new dog or cat, to traveling with your pet, to keeping

him safe at home during the cold winter months.

You’ll also discover helpful information about your pet’s health, including vaccinations and what to do

if your pet shows signs of illness.

With love, commitment and proper care, your pet will grow up safe and healthy and will enrich every

aspect of your life. May you enjoy every moment that you share with your new best friend!

3.

You need a vocabulary sheet showing pictures and words for fish, lizard, insect,snake, spider, rock.

It should also have an uncaptioned picture of many different household pets. and the below cartoon.