Ah yes, the one-time "chair-thrower" extraordinaire, former professor of French at one of the major New England colleges, who'd customarily hurl various objects around the room in order to demonstrate key working vocab of a particular lesson. For example, so as to be true unto threat of death to his principle NEVER EVER to use any language but the language being taught (a sworn enemy of grammar-translation!!), take the French word for "chair", at the top of his voice, Rassias is said to have uttered L - A C- H - A - I - S - E, repeated with near perfect pronunciation several times and then flung mightily across the length of the classroom.....never injuring a soul, I might add LOL
I'm a Rassias-trained German instructor myself, although I've never met the man, but there's never a dull moment, that's for sure:-)
Oh, yeah! We all watched training videos of the so-called "Method" before any foreign-language class we taught! As I said, although I'd never met the chap, I was trained by Rassias teachers who considered his M O superior to the Silent Way, with it's colored rods, pointing and constant reliance solely on student output:-) In the Rassias Method, the instructor speaks in order to unflaggingly demonstrate the proper pronunciation. He only hired native or bilingual native instructors; if you told him that you leaned it in college, he's politely but insistently, show you the door!! In the Silent Way, the teacher never speaks, but only points, at which time the student does the speaking vs.the instructor.
There might well be some saving grace in both methods in the end.
yes I recall watching something about the silent way. So what input does the student receive? I remember the trainer using those little colored rods that they used to use for maths in infant school.
I've dubbed him the Julia Child of foreign language teachers:-) Rather proud of the moniker, if I do say so myself.
Well, as you said, the Silent Way would work great for children, rank beginner adults too. For more advanced learners? I can't say, though I wouldn't imagine it'd be all that effective.
Haven't a clue. I've never taught the Silent Way, at least not on purposeLOL, only Rassias. I did however observe a Silent Way demo class way the heck back when, but opted out of the program and chose Rassias instead.
but if you teach multilingual classes it's a tall order,....:)
those usually happen in English speaking countries and so a monolingual approach makes sense.
What doesn't make sense is that EFL classes in places like the US tend to be filled with people who've spent years learning English in their home countries but have largely failed - yet the methodology employed is no different from that used in regular classrooms.
It also doesn't make sense to develop a single methodology from that context and then assume it should be employed in classrooms where everybody does have the same first language...
It also doesn't make sense to put the world's worst language learners (the British) in charge of foreign language teaching and learning in Europe..
EFL/ESL as a field has so many wierd innter contradictions that it's fascinating to watch them play out - or would be if the students were not the ones to suffer from the inherent dysfunction running riot in the field.
Of the EFL trainers I've met, worked with, worked for and employed here in Poland, I've met very few who are monolingual, and most of those were not from the UK - the ones who spoke only English tended to come from across the pond.
Nevertheless, there are very sound methodological reasons for only using the target language while training. This is far from new and unlikely to change soon. The main paradigm for language lessons (sometimes called the Communicative Approach, the Eclectic Method or the British Method) avoids L1 for a whole raft of good reasons.
Indeed if the OP does a CELTA, he or she will quickly discover why this is so.
It also doesn't make sense to put the world's worst language learners (the British) in charge of foreign language teaching and learning in Europe..
If English is the target language then it would make perfect sense to me. Would you prefer to learn English from a non-native speaker just because that person happens to be fluent in more than one language?
As regards Brits being the world's worst language learners, you do have a point, but it is likely not because the Brits are too lazy or arrogant to learn a new language, rather that languages in the UK are not taught until the first year of secondary school, at age 11. In most other EU countries, languages are taught at a much earlier age, often in primary school when it is far easier for children to quickly pick up a language. If blame lies anywhere, it is with the British education system. I've always been stumped as to why languages aren't taught here at an earlier age..
As an ESLer, I'd hope and indeed expect that my teacher were an educated, native-born and trained English as a First Language speaker, no matter how many other languages he knows:-)
If the learner knows more than the teacher (a tragi-comic scenario I'm sad to say I've witnessed at supposedly respected institutionsLOL), I'd demand my money back pronto!
Would you prefer to learn English from a non-native speaker just because that person happens to be fluent in more than one language?
Spot on. Some of the best teachers I've known had remarkably little formal schooling. They were just very good at getting people to learn.
rather that languages in the UK are not taught until the first year of secondary school, at age 11
We started French at age 7, a second foreign language (I chose or rather was steered towards Latin, the other options were Russian or German) at 11 and a third (I took German) at 16. These were rough schools in rough areas. I suspect it depends (or did back the) on the policy of your local education authority.
Certainly a justifiable case can easily be made for a fantastic ESL-instructor who's a bit of a maverick, part ham actor, stand-up comic, and improv "genius" in the classroom:-) That's all fine and well and I'm hardly knocking it. All I'm saying is that second-language learning's finally about much more than simply creating a "fun" atmosphere in the class. Whilst rote rot's to be sure deadly stuff that anesthetizes the entire learning experience like nobody's business, a great deal of learning a language unfortunately IS repetition, and yes, a certain degree of disciplined, daily drill:-)
Tenses and correct vocab. usage aren't going to just magically pop out at one a la Mary Poppins or Adrian Kronauer, delightful as these characters doubtless are!
I've always wondered whether those staunchly anti-grammarian, rogue, fun-loving ESL-instructors whom I worked with for so long would have learned their own beloved English language the madcap way in which they taught it to others.
who's a bit of a maverick, part ham actor, stand-up comic, and improv "genius" in the classroom:-)
All the good ones have to know when to turn that on and off, however the people I'm thinking of with less than conventional routes to the profession were serious and very rigorous teachers.
I can think of a couple in Poland who'd left school at 15 and worked for a long time in manual jobs before taking a CELTA and later a DELTA. Absolutely first class teachers and with a deep understanding of grammar and how to teach it.
"I've always wondered whether those staunchly anti-grammarian, rogue, fun-loving ESL-instructors whom I worked with for so long would have learned their own beloved English language the madcap way in which they taught it to others."
Of course not. the de-emphasis on grammar means that many become communicative but get stuck at a level that prevents real mastery. Fine if someone just needs it for occasional face to face communication, not so good if they need to be able to write in a way that will be taken seriously....
I have a lot of experience with learning foreign languages and find the monolingual textbooks from the UK to be essentially worthless - except as practice for those who will never need real mastery....
If truth be told, I have only graduate school training in foreign language pedagogy and NO Celta, Tesol etc... I was however a successful ESL-instructor for nearly two decades because my "method" was always to place myself immediately in the position of my students and what I would want to learn if I were sitting for four hours a day inside a classroom:-)
For sure I'd use games, puzzles, my own bag of tricks aka flashcards for acting out during the lesson etc. and I'd also demonstrate grammar, though in context and never as isolated rules in a chart or diagram.
remarkably little formal schooling. They were just very good at getting people to learn.
This is important. Passing a CELTA/TEFL qualification will stand you in better stead in Poland than someone without the qualifications, but it doesn't always mean they are that good at teaching. Some of the PGCE students I've encountered over here have been absolutely crap at teaching, but it is almost impossible to fail the course. Natural ability should never be overlooked, however without those qualifications in Poland, someone teaching English is going to be teaching for absolute peanuts and having to supplement their income in other ways. Unless they are that outstanding that word of mouth means a person is very much in demand and can therefore command a higher wage.
French at age 7
Age 11 for me, no other option, same with the Latin I took.
That sounds a bit like my experience, Lyzko. A different kind of teacher (Special Ed for adults) who went into EFL training afterwards. Plenty of people working here in Poland are sort of like that (though the best one I've met was previously a private school woodwork teacher with no degree or teacher training - by far one of the best teachers I've ever known).
I'd also demonstrate grammar, though in context and never as isolated rules in a chart or diagram.
Same here. It's one of the basics to get the learners to acquire grammar points in the order 1. Meaning, 2. Use, 3. Form. That's (albeit sometimes frustrating to some learners) obvious to anyone who's a good teacher but not so obvious to 'civilians'.
Hopefully if the OP does a CELTA (where they teach vocabulary acquisition as 1. Meaning, 2. Pron., 3. Form) or a CELTA equivalent before coming to Poland, he or she will pick this up.
No skin off my nose, it's the student that try to learn from bad British materials I feel bad for....
Americans and Spanish. Not great tbh.
Americans aren't bad when they're motivated (I've known a lot more Americans who became fluent in Polish as adults than Brits). The Spanish are pretty dreadful at it as well....
Those would be the bestselling materials of choice. The very thoroughly tried and tested ones. Certainly the most popular here in Poland by far and if the OP wishes to teach seriously here, he/she needs to at least be acquainted with the various methodologies of those courses and the differences between them.
it's the student that try to learn from bad British materials I feel bad for....
In all fairness, the worst collection of books I've ever seen were the "Fun for..." series designed for the Cambridge YLE exams and published by Cambridge ESOL. Total and complete garbage and even worse than the terribly bad Hot Spot series.
Clue ya'll in on something! NO TEXTBOOK is going to either satisfy everybody or ever replace a truly effective teacher, ain't gonna happen, folks:-)))
I've taught from the US "Schrampfer-Azar Grammar" (blue cover), zzzzzzzZZZ...BORRRING!!! Then there's the wonderful "Cambridge Success With Certificate - A1 Level Self-Study Prep Course", don't make me laugh, and the bloody list goes on and on and on.....
The fact is that a textbook for an ESL-teacher to my mind is nothing more than a road map for a driver; either you know your way or you don't and the "best" book in the world won't help or serve as a crutch for poor teaching!
When I was interviewing during the late '80's for an ESL -position in Germany, the British-born head teacher of one school showed me the once famous "Spotlight English" series for my perusal. As I taught/teach American English, I nonetheless had to politely defer to both his age and his experience teaching English abroad longer than I'd been alive. As a result, I turned down the position, but nonetheless realized at that point that the margin between British and US-English is so vast, that there will never be agreement on which "English" is the standard.
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