English that Matters
CEFR
Does your ESL class “Upgrade” your Students?
Dec 15th
English class, from a teaching perspective, usually flows around grammar rules, vocabulary words, listening exercises and course book readings. It’s a product focused environment. The other day on my way to a class, I heard an amusing announcement for a local English school. Their catch line: Come in for your free English lesson. 9/10 people who take our free class become regular customers.
The commercial then switches to why the 1 person didn’t return: in commercial one it’s because they were abducted by aliens. Commercial 2 is because they were hit by a car on their way back to become a regular customer.
Funny commercial – but like most ESL companies out there, it’s focused on the product. The English class or course you should buy. But how well do we help students REALLY become better because they used our service? One of my favorite authors posted this on twitter the other day:
“1 way to improve a product might not mean changing the product, but improving what the user is able to do with it. Upgrade user, not products.”
How do you do this in the ESL classroom? I see this as our “Holy Grail.” As a teacher, I think our job must be to ensure that our users are “upgraded” by using our service. But that’s an interesting challenge when your product is a service that requires a great deal of time commitment in order to see marked improvement.
A few ideas that we’ve been working on:
Give regular feedback on progress. We are launching a digital reporting system which lets our users know, on a monthly basis, a quick view of their development in Speaking, Reading, Listening, and Writing.
We also provide a time line meter – which graphically shows the number of hours each student has taken vs. the total number of hours required to meet course requirements.
We base our courses around the CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference) – and on each report card show our students what objectives they have already mastered, vs how many they have left before they graduate.
Sierra’s twitter post is really something difficult to put into practice when you place it into the context of the language classroom. “Upgrade your user.” What I have often found is that during the class – or a series of classes, the student is able to “upgrade.” They seem to temporarily acquire a new word, phrase, or grammar skill – but after leaving the classroom it’s like that upgrade didn’t take. It didn’t filter down to their day to day use of the language.
How to increase Assimilation
It’s not fire and forget. When you’re learning a language, and having it STICK, I think you need to prepare yourself for extremely focused repetition. Never be afraid to step back and recycle previous lesson material. That could be vocabulary words, Grammar exercises, etc. Never assume that just because your student has passed a test or finished a chapter that the material has been copied to their hard drive.
Question: Would it hurt to actually review completed CEFR objectives with your students and let them know that they have mastered that skill? Encourage students to notice their own abilities – perhaps it’s not as apparent to them as you may think.
Provide ample Kick Ass time in class: Make sure your students have time to show off what they can do. Develop presentations or activities which would allow students the opportunity to use their upgrades. (If you don’t use em, they’ll likely begin to disappear. )
How can you upgrade your students today? Think about it – and PLEASE comment!
Certification Exams: Pushing beyond plain study and memory work
Oct 7th
The revision of the IELTS speaking test by Nick Boddy.
One potential drawback for candidates used to being able to prepare for a language test by rote learning vocabulary and rules of grammar while standing on a crowded train is the fact that IELTS does not lend itself to this form of preparation. Of course, preparation courses and materials are available, as are practice test books, and these are very valuable means of helping candidates become familiar with the format of the test, particularly the Listening and Reading tests. However, preparation for direct tests of writing and speaking should really involve other people; for guidance and feedback in the case of the former, and as interlocutors in the latter. According to Cambridge, in preparing for their exams, candidates develop skills they need to make practical use of the language, and I would argue by extension that by using the language, whether at work, academically, or socially, candidates are preparing for the exam. (Nick Boddy The Revision of the IELTS speaking test)
So there you have it: prepping for major ESL exams should move beyond your memory and hours of book work. If the test is any good at all – it should look into how well you fare in real life. You vs another person. You vs a job interview. You and your presentation vs your audience.
We’re in the middle of prepping two clients for the KET and the IELTS. Both prep courses are using Cambridge prep material. But I totally agree with Boddy’s point: the books just won’t be enough. A strong connection to life outside the book is a must. Can you REALLY use this stuff when you need to? Or are you only good at negotiating mock test formats?
I guess to sum this all up: Bad test prep: follow your test prep guide to a T. March through your course from cover to cover. Answer all the questions, and never – EVER – deviate. Afterall, the coursebook knows what your student needs to succeed. Stepping out of that structure will lead your student to certain failure.
How You Should Help Your Student Prepare
It’s not ONLY about the book. Focus on skill development. Today, more and more Cambridge and ETS exams are being mapped to guage actual skill development – like what the CEFR , alte.org and Canadian Language Benchmarks describe. So instead of working with students around finishing their book on schedule (and yes that’s important) you should be looking and paying more attention to how well he/she can ” describe themselves their family and other people.” (KET Spoken Interaction skill requirement) for example.
