Native vs. Non-Native English Speaking Teachers

Do you remember back in January when I asked anyone who had ever taught English in Asia to help me out by participating in a survey? Well, our proposal to present our research project at the 2013 Sunshine State TESOL was accepted... unfortunately, the conference is May 16-18 and I leave for Kyrgyzstan on May 9th. Ooops. The other two members of our group are actually presenting at the conference, and I'll be participating via youtube video. Haha. Since some of our survey's participants expressed interest in our results, here's my absurd youtube video and our results. The results of the survey were divided up between native speaking English teachers and non-native speaking teachers.

Question 1: What are the STRENGTHS of native-speaking English teachers?
Question 2: What are the WEAKNESSES of native-speaking English teachers?
Question 3: What are the STRENGTHS of non-native speaking English teachers?
Question 4: What are the WEAKNESSES of non-native speaking English teachers?

If you must choose, choose wisely

I teach three ESL classes in the mornings, Monday through Thursday at a private language school. Every day, when I’m teaching my second class of the day, this is what I think of:

Only I wasn’t the one who chose poorly, and neither were my students. The poor choice was made by the previous teacher, who also happens to be the person in charge of choosing textbooks at this joint.

Choosing a text for an ESL class is different from choosing one for your middle school or high school language arts class. You need to take into account the level of language of your students, their reasons for studying English, and whether or not the text will be useful to them in any way. It also doesn’t hurt to choose something that they might find interesting. You should also keep in mind that foreign language skill level does not in any way equate to US school system grade level. Just because you read a specific book in the eighth grade does not mean that intermediate level ESL students – whose level-appropriate grammar text has them learning how to form sentences using “used to” while learning vocabulary such as bicycle, summer camp, subway, and quiet – could gain anything from attempting to read this book. I’m all for challenging my students. I love the concept of i+1 – giving students content that is just a little above their current level – but there’s a difference between challenging your students and, well, torturing them.

The words that I listed above (bicycle, summer camp, subway, and quiet) all come from the grammar-text that my intermediate level students in my second class are using in their grammar class. It’s pretty spot on level-wise. It might not be i+1 (it’s a little more like “just i”), and it certainly isn’t interesting, but it contains incredibly useful vocabulary and useful grammar that will be, well, useful to new immigrants to the United States. I wish I taught from that text book.

Instead, I’m teaching Call of the Wild, by Jack London. Not an ESL version of Call of the Wild, but the original. Like I said, this was not my choice. And the chooser chose poorly. Putting aside the fact that this book is depressing as hell (seriously, it’s all about dogs suffering and dying slow, painful, graphic deaths in forty-below temperatures in the Alaskan wilderness), there are some major problems with this choice of text. 

Remember my short list of vocabulary words from my students’ level appropriate text? Well, compare those to primitive, fang, primordial, mastership, and toil. And I just picked those out of Call of the Wild’s table of contents. Every chapter is bursting at the seams with very advanced level English vocabulary, the kind that students studying for the GRE would study. These words are way out of the league of students who are learning how to say “I used to go to summer camp by bicycle.”

Additionally, not only are many of the words used in this book very advanced, but they’re also pretty archaic. I don’t know how many times I’ve said, “Now, this word is very, very old fashioned. We don’t normally say this nowadays. Nowadays, we would say ____________ instead.” I’ve had students ask, if no one uses these words, why are we studying them? And that, my friends, is my point. This book was written in 1903, and I’m sure the language was spot-on for its time… but this isn’t practical language to be teaching ESL students in 2013.

Call of the Wild would be useful for ESL students who are at an advanced level and who are interested in studying American literature. For recent immigrants – especially those at an intermediate level of English – this book is a waste of time. And I’m stuck with it until April 18th.

ESL Monkey's Paw (Passages 2)

This is an activity I whipped up for class a few weeks ago - and which I spent this morning modifying just a tad. It's designed to accompany chapters 3 and 4 of the ESL textbook, Passages 2. The grammar points that these chapters focus on include ~ing clauses (Ex: Hoping to find proof of life on Mars, NASA launched the Curiosity probe.), active-voice reporting clauses (Ex: Scientists claim (that) they have found proof of life on Mars.), and passive-voice reporting clauses (Ex: It is believed (that) life once existed on Mars.). The main topics of Chapter 4 are superstitions, beliefs, and legends. 

I adapted the short story, The Monkey's Paw by W.W. Jacobs to contain language that my students would be able to comprehend. I also changed the sum of cash featured in the story from £200 to $20,000, to make it both American (as my students are studying here in the US) as well as modern. Lastly, I made sure to include examples of the three grammar points mentioned above, as well as to use some of the vocabulary from the chapter. If you'd like to take a look at (or use) my version of the story, you can download it from here. (I have highlighted the grammar points in hot pink, and the relevant vocabulary words in yellow. Also, dropbox seems to have done something wonky to my formatting; I promise everything was properly formatted in my original!)

After reading through the story, I also showed my students a clip from The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror II, in which the Simpson family acquires their own magical monkey's paw. Unfortunately, it's not readily available for free online, but you can download the episode from Amazon for $1.99.

This lesson works really well! The students seem to enjoy it, and they get to review the grammar and vocabulary without realizing that they're doing a grammar/vocab review. Also, a big hat tip to my friend YH who first came up with the idea of using The Simpsons' version of The Monkey's Paw as an accompaniment to Passages. 

Valentine's Day Themed Songs with Phrasal Verbs

Today was Valentine's Day, and my class (adults, advanced level) were still supposed to be working on phrasal verbs. I decided to spice up the lesson by using some songs with which they were all familiar, and which contained the phrasal verbs get back, come true, fog up, run out, settle down, bend over, hold back, look into, turn up, open up, and stay away. The songs I used were Someone Like You by Adele, and I'm Yours by Jason Mraz. In addition to discussions of the phrasal verbs in these songs (including whether or not they were separable or inseparable), we got to discuss words and phrases like out of the blue, time flies, the time of our lives, bittersweet, bend over backwards for someone, aim to do something, and fate.

Jason Mraz's grammar is a particularly annoying and often incorrect combination of cutsey and trashy, but my group was smart enough that we were able to go through and actually correct Mraz's grammar. And now if someone says to them something along the lines of 'I done ate that' (instead of 'I've already eaten that'), they'll know what that person is talking about. 

They also learned 'ain't' from Adele. (Only one of them had heard 'ain't' before.) While I love correct grammar and certainly don't want to be teaching my students to speak incorrectly, my goal is for them to be able to understand and communicate with the average person on the street... and with so many native English speakers using 'ain't' or other incorrect grammar forms on a regular basis, I'd like to make sure my students can understand such things when they encounter them. 

Anyway, the class really enjoyed the lesson, and they were all happily singing along with the songs, so I'd say this one was a success. Below are the lyrics to the songs with the phrasal verbs removed, if you'd like to snag 'em for your classes. (BTW, I'm Yours says 'damn' several times, and talks about nibbling on someone's ear, so definitely keep in mind the age/culture of your students!)

Someone Like You by Adele

I heard that you're __________________

That you found a girl and you're married now.

I heard that your dreams __________________.

Guess she gave you things I didn't give to you.

Old friend, why are you so shy?

Ain't like you to __________________ or hide from the light.

I hate to __________________ out of the blue uninvited

But I couldn't __________________, I couldn't fight it.

I had hoped you'd see my face and that you'd be reminded

That for me it isn't over.

Never mind, I'll find someone like you

I wish nothing but the best for you too

Don't forget me, I beg

I remember you said,

"Sometimes it lasts in love but sometimes it hurts instead,

Sometimes it lasts in love but sometimes it hurts instead"

You know how the time flies

Only yesterday was the time of our lives

We were born and raised

In a summer haze

Bound by the surprise of our glory days

I hate to __________________ out of the blue uninvited

But I couldn't __________________, I couldn't fight it.

I'd hoped you'd see my face and that you'd be reminded

That for me it isn't over.

Never mind, I'll find someone like you

I wish nothing but the best for you too

Don't forget me, I beg

I remember you said,

"Sometimes it lasts in love but sometimes it hurts instead."

Nothing compares

No worries or cares

Regrets and mistakes

They are memories made.

Who would have known how bittersweet this would taste?

Never mind, I'll find someone like you

I wish nothing but the best for you

Don't forget me, I beg

I remember you said,

"Sometimes it lasts in love but sometimes it hurts instead."

I’m Yours by Jason Mraz

Well you done done me and you bet I felt it

I tried to be chill but you're so hot that I melted

I fell right through the cracks 

Now I'm trying to __________________

Before the cool done __________________

I'll be giving it my bestest

And nothing's going to stop me but divine intervention

I reckon it's again my turn to win some or learn some

But I won't hesitate no more, no more

It cannot wait, I'm yours

Well __________________ your mind and see like me

__________________ your plans and damn you're free

__________________ your heart and you'll find love love love love

Listen to the music of the moment people dance and sing

We’re just one big family

And it's our God-forsaken right to be loved love loved love loved

So I won't hesitate no more, no more

It cannot wait I'm sure

There's no need to complicate 

Our time is short

This is our fate, I'm yours

Dooo, dooo, dooooo

Scooch on over closer dear

And I will nibble your ear

I've been spending way too long checking my tongue in the mirror

And __________________ backwards just to try to see it clearer

But my breath __________________ the glass

And so I drew a new face and I laughed

I guess what I'll be saying is there ain't no better reason

To rid yourself of vanity and just go with the seasons

It's what we aim to do

Our name is our virtue

But I won't hesitate no more, no more 

It cannot wait I'm yours

Well __________________ your mind and see like me

__________________ your plans and damn you're free

__________________ your heart and you'll find that the sky is yours

So please don't, please don't, please don't

There's no need to complicate

Cause our time is short

This oh this oh this is our fate, I'm yours!

Fun with Friends and Phrasal Verbs

I've started teaching a new class at the school where I teach part time. It's a class of adults, all advanced level, all students who are really only "studying" to keep their student visas. Even though I've only just started working with this group, I've heard them mention several time over the past few weeks that the school is a joke, and that as soon as they get their green cards, they'll be out of there. They're definitely jaded! 

I've only taught two classes to this advanced group so far - on the rather stultifying topic of phrasal verbs, with the equally stultifying Passages 2 textbook - but I've been trying to bring as much life to the topic as possible. Today, at the end of class, my students thanked me for a great lesson and said 'we actually learned something for once.' This says a lot about my place of employment. (It's a private language school.) 

Anyway,  in case you're curious about today's lesson, I modified one that I found here. Here's my version: After some boring Passages-based phrasal verb reviews, I reviewed the phrasal verbs wear in, hang on, run into, pick up, come over, drop off, and sit down - which I admit were easy for this group - and discussed whether each verb was separable or inseparable. Then we watched an excerpt from the Friends episode The One That Could Have Been Part 1, which featured the aforementioned phrasal verbs. The students in my class are definitely advanced enough to watch Friends without any problems. Then I gave them the script to the excerpt that we watched, with the phrasal verbs deleted:

Joey: Hey man, look sorry about that Archie thing. Do uh, do you need me to give you
some money?

Chandler: Hey, I may have no money, but I still have my pride.

Joey: Really?

Chandler: Ehh.

Monica: Maybe Joey doesn’t have to give you the money, TV stars have assistants right?

Joey: That’s an idea! Hey, if I hired an assistant, would-would you take money from her?

Monica: No Joey! Chandler could be your assistant! See, he could answer all of your fan mail and stuff!

Joey: That’s great! That would be great! Let’s do that!

Chandler: I could use the money; it could give me time to write.

Joey: Oh right great! Welcome aboard!

Chandler: Okay!

Joey: All right! Now hey, I need to use the bathroom. Since I don’t need any assistance in there, take a break!

Chandler: All right!

Phoebe: Hey!

Monica: Hey Phoebe! Guess what?

Phoebe: What?

Monica: Joey just hired Chandler to be his assistant!

Phoebe: Oh that’s so sweet! Oh! _________________! _________________! Go! No! No-no! I
said sell when it hits 50! 5-0, it’s a number! It comes after 4-9! No, it’s okay. It’s okay, you’re allowed one mistake. Just kidding, you are of course fired.

Ross: Hey Mon!

Monica: Hey!

Ross: Mon, look who I _________________!

Monica: Oh my God! Rachel!! You look terrific!

Rachel: Oh, so do you! Did you lose weight?

Monica: You are so sweet to notice! Yes, I lost three and a half pounds!

Ross: And, and uh, you-you remember my friend Chandler.

Chandler: Hey.

Rachel: Oh yeah.

Ross: And that’s Phoebe over there!

Phoebe: Hi!

Monica: Oh my God, _________________! _________________! How long as it been since we’ve seen each other?

Ross: 1987, the day after Christmas, at Sean McMahon’s party. I played you one of my songs, y’know Interplanetary Courtship Ritual.

Rachel: Oh yeah. Right. So now, are—do you, do you still do music?

Ross: Sometimes, you should come over sometime! I’ll play you one of my other…

Rachel: Oh my God! Joey Tribbiani from Days of Our Lives just walked in here!

Monica: Rach, he’s a friend of ours.

Rachel: You are friends with Dr. Drake Remoray?

Chandler: Oh, it’s kinda hard to be friends with Drake because of his busy schedule and the fact that he’s not real.

Ross: Hey, hey, or I could bring my keyboard here sometime…

Rachel: He’s _________________! He’s _________________!

Monica: Joey!

Joey: I know, here-here!!

Monica: Ohhh! No! This is my friend Rachel, we went to high school together.

Rachel: Hi!

Joey: Hi!

Rachel: Hi! I love you on that show! I watch you every day! I mean, when you took out your own kidney to save your ex-wife even though she tried to kill you…

Joey: Well, it’s always nice to meet the fans.

Rachel: Ah!

Joey: She’s not crazy is she?

Monica: No.

Joey: So uh, how you doin’?

***                

Phoebe: _________________. _________________ . _________________ ! Go! Who is this? Oh, okay. You’re gonna like working for me. What’s your name? What kinda name is Brindy? I’m… whatever… stop talking! Alright. From – from now on your name is Joan. You can pick your own last name.

Joey: Hey, there you are.

Chandler: Uh-oh, it’s my boss.

Joey: All right, here’s a list of things for you to do today. Man, this going to be so great! Thank you so much! All right, I got to go to work I’m delivering twins today, but only one of them is mine!

Chandler: _________________my dry cleaning. _________________my vitamins. Teach me how to spell vitamins. _________________my new jeans.

We watched the clip again, and the students filled in the blanks with the phrasal verbs. Then - since it's a class of six - the students took the script and acted it out. They really got into it and had a great time. Anyway, my students loved it so much that I thought I'd share this with you. The only problems with this activity are: I couldn't find this episode online for free anywhere (I actually bought it so that I could do this lesson). Also, you have to cut off the video right after Chandler says "new jeans" or else you get Monica telling him (and your students) that he is Joey's bitch. 

Anyway, if you've got an advanced class that's starting Passages 2, this makes a great supplement. Enjoy!

Low-Tech and No-Tech TESOL Solutions for Teaching in the Developing World

Today I gave a presentation at the Central Florida TESOL fall conference. I know a lot of you who read this blog are also English teachers, so I thought I'd share some of the information from my presentation with you here as well.

As many of you know, I spent 2008 in Kyrgyzstan teaching English. (While the blog that I kept while I was there is no longer online, I am working on getting part of it back online, and I will certainly link to it from here when I do.) In 2008, I taught at The London School, located in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. (If you know me, you might notice a picture of me in my pjs on their website!) Now, since I know when I typically mention Kyrgyzstan, most people look at me in confusion, here are some helpful maps:

That red arrow points to Bishkek.
This is The London School. The classrooms were in the tall grey-blue building, and the teachers lived in the grey building on the right.
This was my classroom as I saw it on my very first day in Bishkek. As you see from this picture, we have electricity. And a TV and a VCR. I also was given a stereo/CD/tape player. I had electric-powered speakers that allowed me to use my ipod in class, and I could use my laptop in class if I needed to as well...
It wasn't the most high-tech classroom in the world, but it wasn't the least high-tech... right? Well, I arrived in January. In about February, things began to change. 
Kyrgyzstan doesn't have much in terms of natural resources. While its neighbors Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan make their money selling oil and natural gas, Kyrgyzstan doesn't have much to offer. The one resource that it does have is water. Due to its location - and its high mountain ranges - Kyrgyzstan has a lot more water than its neighbors. As such, the Kyrgyz government contracted to sell water to both Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Additionally, most of their power grid runs off of hydroelectric power. Unfortunately, 2007 was a very dry year for Kyrgyzstan. The water reservoirs became very low, and the country began having rolling blackouts in February 2008. These blackouts continued throughout my stay in Kyrgyzstan.
The first time it happened, we thought it was a fluke. We taught our last class of the day by candlelight, and made the best of it. Soon we learned that the blackouts would be a regular thing. Sometimes they occurred only once or twice a week. Sometimes they happened several days in a row. Sometimes we knew when the power would go out and how long it would be out. Other times it was a surprise. I taught from 2pm to 9pm (roughly). My night classes were often taught by candlelight, and I knew that if I planned a lesson involving tapes, cds, film, ipod (with its electric powered external speakers), or laptop (with its short-lived battery), there was a good chance that things would not work out as planned.
This was how my evening classes looked on many occasions: students studying by candlelight. This was a little problematic with a couple of my younger students, who liked to play with fire...

My headlamp was absolutely the BEST thing I brought with me. Not so useful for teaching (I tried it once, and ended up shining a bright light in my students' faces), but WONDERFUL for planning lessons in the dark... which was how I planned most of them!
There were a lot of things that I wished I'd had with me while I was in Kyrgyzstan, things that would have made working in a no-electricity environment a lot easier. I'm planning to go back this coming summer, assuming everything works out. I know that there are still power outages, even in Bishkek (although I'm not sure if they're still occurring with as much frequency as they did back in 2008) - and I'm actually planning on working in a small, rural village (through a volunteer program set up by The London School), where I imagine regular, reliable electricity will be even less likely than in Bishkek. 
Based on my experiences - and the things I wished I'd had - I've gathered a bunch of items to take with me this summer. These things are small and lightweight and would be very useful for anyone planning to teach in an environment where electricity is unreliable or absent altogether. (And to be perfectly honest, these are also useful things to have on hand in general in case of a natural disaster.)
For starters, get a headlamp! I cannot even begin to express how useful my headlamp was. The one that I brought with me to Kyrgyzstan was battery powered, and while the batteries lasted a pretty long time, they would still go dead periodically. Inevitably, this would occur late at night while I was planning lessons. The solution to this is a wind-up headlamp. I recommend the Mitaki-Japan Wind-Up LED Headlamp. The light from this thing is just as bright, if not brighter, than my battery powered headlamp - and you never have to buy batteries! Crank it for about a minute, and it will run for an hour and a half. This thing is wonderful.
Next up: Get a wind-up lantern or two. These things are small, lightweight, and relatively cheap. They're super bright - and unlike with candles, you don't have to worry about some of your younger teenage boys lighting things on fire in the middle of class if you're using them. I recommend the Wind 'N Go Mini LED Lantern. Just like the wind-up headlamp, it lasts for about an hour and a half off of one minute of cranking. Remember how I mentioned that I had speakers for my ipod, but they were electric powered? Well, I've found some really great (and surprisingly loud) speakers that are battery powered: the Kinivo ZX220 Portable Twin Speakers. They come with a built in rechargeable battery, and can be charged through your USB cord, or a USB-to-power adapter. I'm not sure how long they last on a full charge, but it's at least two hours. (This also requires an ipod or other MP3 player.) You can't tell from this photo, but these are very small (although like I said, they're also very loud).
Now, your MP3 player and the above speakers are both powered by rechargeable batteries. This is great if you have a power source available on occasion - but what if you don't? What if you're working somewhere without any access to electricity? Well, there's a solution to that, too. It's the K-TOR Pocket Socket (which is seriously a wonderful name). Using a USB-to-wall-socket adapter (such as this or this) you can charge any rechargeable device with this thing... although it is a long process. Your item has to be plugged into the charger while you're cranking it, and it can take a good five minutes or so of winding to get enough juice to play one song on your ipod - still, if this is the only way you can bring audio into your class, it's definitely going to be worth it. And you can probably get a student to work the hand crank for you :-)

And lastly... how do you make copies without electricity to power a copy machine? Sadly, by hand. However, some good carbon paper is both reusable and it can allow you to get 3-4 copies from one time of writing. If you have a class of nine students, it's much easier to write a test or a worksheet three times (and get 9 copies using carbon paper) than to hand copy the same thing nine times! Roaring Spring Carbon Paper works really well.

A note to ESL/EFL textbook writers and publishers

I understand that you put a lot of effort into the books you write. I understand that the goals of an ESL/EFL textbook author are to make the book not only educational, but interesting, entertaining, and multi-cultural. However, I have some complaints.

1. Avoid names such as Juana, which do not follow English pronunciation rules. I understand that the inclusion of characters of different ethnicities is common in EFL/ESL texts, and I have no problem with this. However, when students – especially those at the lower levels – are struggling to master pronunciation of the English language (and this is especially difficult for those students whose native language utilizes a different alphabet), trying to explain why the textbook’s CD doesn’t say “jew-anna” is not only not useful, but counter-productive.

2. Avoid codes. Talk about useless filler. There is absolutely no practical benefit derived from struggling to explain what a code is and how we must decode it, even if the decoded message is in English.

3. Think about the language level of the students when writing instructions for them to follow. If students are learning to say things along the lines of “My name is Jane and I like cats,” they will not understand the instructions “Select the hidden words, then draw the missing animal.”

4. Don’t overdo accents. Having people who speak English in a variety of accents can be useful, especially considering that most English speakers do not speak like either Tom Brokaw or the British upper classes. It is good for students to have the opportunity to listen to English spoken in a variety of ways. However, there are some problems with overdoing accents on ESL/EFL textbook CDs. Many upper-level students join ESL/EFL classes with the goal of reducing their “foreign” accent when speaking English. Additionally, multiple accents can be confusing and extremely difficult for low-level students. Also: if you’re going to include ethnic accents on your text’s CD, please use actual people who speak with those accents. There is nothing more horrible than listening to obviously fake foreign accents – and there is nothing useful in that, either.

5. Songs should be used for their words, not their music. Songs can make excellent teaching tools, and I love bringing songs into the classroom. However, songs that are useful are those which are easy to understand, slow enough to be sung, and which pertain in some way to the lesson at hand (ie, utilizing the grammar or vocabulary of the lesson). Long musical introductions and interludes are not useful and are a waste of time. Additionally, songs that are too fast or are too strangely/thickly accented for a native English speaker to clearly understand have no place in an ESL/EFL text.

6. Beware of idioms. I actually have an entire post on idioms in the ESL/EFL classroom that will go online soon, so I won’t write much here. The short version: while it is important that advanced-level students understand idioms (so that when a foreign drama student is told to break a leg, he won’t be confused or offended, etc) this is a very difficult aspect of a language for non-native speakers to master and sound natural. Don’t waste too much time on idioms, especially at lower levels. Conversely, if you’re not teaching idioms, don’t randomly throw one into the text.

7. Hire a competent native English speaker to edit your textbook. The best textbooks I have used have been published in either the US or the UK, where this is not an issue. However, many countries (yes, South Korea, I’m looking at you) offer numerous ESL/EFL texts which are written and published locally. I don’t care how fluent you are (or think you are), get a native speaker to proofread. It is easy to tell which textbooks were written and edited entirely by a non-native speaking staff.