The Sorry State of English Teaching Today

After nearly a year away from my blog, it's time for me to return and put pen to paper (or finger to button) and pontificate about a theme that's close to my heart.

Things are definately better here now for us. I don't know whether I've managed to build a life of sorts here precisely because I've been away from the blog or whether I've consciously neglected the blog in order to build a life here for myself. However, one thing that is for sure is that I feel those creative energies flowing and you, yes you, are going to be the unfortunate victim of my scribbling.

Let's start with a question. What's my job? That's right, I'm one of the army of UK citizens living abroad and teaching English.

Now, you may not know that I'm doing a teaching diploma course here in Buenos Aires, which is called the DELTA (Diploma in English Language Teaching to Adults). I started it last year and finish in December, pass or fail. In their course blurb the providers, Cambridge Uni, in their customary snobbish way state that "candidates are informed the DELTA course is at master level". Now, I must admit that this made me feel intimidated, which knowing Cambridge Uni was certainly intended to be the case. All the same, it also made me feel very proud, having left school with three CSEs and never even imagining I'd even get to have a degree, let alone the chance of studying for a master's.

After months of burning the midnight oil studying flashcards with linguistic terms such as paradigmatic, binomials, trinomials, soprasegmental elements of speech, fricatives, plosives and cataphoric referencing, I was over the moon when I passed the first teaching theory exams last year. Got a merit to boot. As the year began, I was eagerly awaiting the second stage of the course, which would see experienced writers and tutors flown in expecially from Cambridge Uni, providing stimulating lectures to motivate us to reach even higher levels of inspired teaching. Halleluyah!

Unfortunately, I was to be deeply disappointed. I've come to the unfortunate conclusion that TEFL, or teaching English as a foreign language, is an industry in a crisis and becoming ever more intellectually one-dimensional.

Why do I say it's in a crisis? First of all, Cambridge Uni have always emphasised the value of the native, mother-tongue English teacher rather than the local teacher who is not a mother-tongue speaker. For example, fictitious John Smith, 21 years old, unemployed from Barrow with a degree in IT can do a one-month Cambridge Uni TEFL course and fly off to Japan, where without speaking a word of Japanese he can earn more money than Sachi, a qualified Japanese teacher whose studied English all his life, knows the works of Dickens off by heart and has probably got a degree in it as well. I think this preference is politically motivated. In my opinion often the most effective teachers are those like Sachi, who share the students own first language and had to learn English in a highly conscious, meticulous manner themselves rather than the glorified backpackers who travel the world boasting only a poor knowledge of grammar owing to a second rate UK secondary education. Cambridge Uni cannot admit that the native speakers such as Sachi (who often don't have Cambridge Uni qualifications) are superiour to their own qualified teachers because they want to perpetuate the myth that the native, mother-tongue teacher is always best.

This myth is also reflected in initial teacher training courses which tell novice teachers that they should NEVER use the students' first language in the classroom. Why exactly is this, when all the recent research shows that giving students a swift initial translation in their first language of new words is the quickest, most efficient and most effective way to help them on the way to understanding? The answer is that once again, Cambridge University want to protect their newly qualified teachers from English speaking countries who, possessing TEFL qualifications travel the world like glorified backpackers and, like 75% of the UK population, have great difficulty in stringing two words together in any foreign language. They often have little or no knowledge (or even interest) in their students' languages.

Another myth perpetuated by Cambridge University is that language lessons are the most effective way of learning a language. I believe that this view is utter nonsense. I couldn't speak a word of Italian until I was 32, have never had a lesson in my life and yet possess a knowledge and ability in the language that a graduate in the language would envy. Why? The reason is certainly not an excess of intelligence, but rather long-term, intensive exposure to the language in a natural environment over eight years living in Rome. Any institute that really wants to help its students learn a language should be finding them short and long-term work placements in English speaking countries rather than flogging them costly courses or Cambridge exams.

Again, Cambridge Uni wants to spread the myth that lessons are the best way to learn foreign languages because it has business interests in teaching teachers, producing and running examinations and not in the travel industry!

Wait a minute, even the British Council is spouting nonsense as well!

The British Council, which offers courses in English in centres all over the world, recently produced figures stating that the number of people in the world outside of English speaking countries who are learning English will peak this year at about 1.5 billion before steadily declining over coming years, as learners across the globe move onto other languages, such as Mandarin Chinese and Spanish. The British Council also state, in a piece of research obviously produced by yet another linguist in an ivory tower in some windy university complex in the UK, that the number of adult students worldwide will apparently decline dramatically in coming years as the length and quality of English instruction for school age children around the globe improves.

I think that the British Council have got it all wrong here too. Probably, like most so called 'linguists' who have made academic careers for themselves writing about TEFL, they've never ever seriously sat down and tried to learn a foreign language. Instead, they've put all their energy into writing about how to learn and teach English. If they'd ever learned a foreign language to a reasonable level they'd know that for anybody living outside of an environment in which the language is used on a regular basis, the very act of maintaining one's level of knowledge and skills in the language is a daunting task. For example, even if Italian teenagers are going to speak English better at 16 than Italians of the same age did ten years ago, they're not going to miraculously maintain this level for the rest of their lives without regular practice. Suggesting otherwise, as the British Council do in their pessimistic forecasts for future trends, is like assuming that someone who studied the piano for ten years during their teens will be able to sit down and play a perfect waltz at their 40th birthday party.

The fact that the British Council haven't considered such factors in making predictions about the future trends on teaching English to adults is because, on the whole, they don't know what it's like to speak another language at a high level and need to maintain that level over periods of years.

The future of English language teaching for adults, in my opinion, is producing flexible, often short-term courses of study to prepare students for specific objectives, such as foreign travel and job interviews. They will need to have their scholastic English polished-off for just such things. Also, lessons will need to be seen as just one service that can be offered to help students perfect their language skills, together with conversation groups, work and study placements in English speaking nations where learners can probably learn more than they ever will in an artificial classroom.

Finally, in the same way that every investment portfolio should be balanced, no new school should open up only offering English. Instead, intelligent directors will offer English, together with Mandarin Chinese, Spanish and other languages, so that they can easily adapt to changing demand over coming years.

Any thoughts? You don't have to be a teacher to comment. The next entry will probably be slagging off Argentina or talking about football.

Times they are a changin...

Today there was a different feeling in the air in Buenos Aires. For a start, it was raining. The temperature was 10 degrees below the previous hot, humid days, signalling the start of autumn. Secondly, it was quiet and traffic free because it was a national holiday, which commemorates the Argentinean invasion of the Falkland Islands (or Malvinas as they call them here).

Interestingly enough, I read here in the paper that ‘nobody in Argentina thinks of the Malvinas any more when the name of Great Britain is mentioned’. Certainly, the President Cristina Kirchner is trying desperately to avoid upsetting Gordon Brown too much, because they share the same objectives in the economic crises, that is to make credit more readily available to their near-bankrupt nations. As such they’ve become allies.

Probably the most meaningful proof that things have changed was provided here in the city last week during a performance from the British veteran heavy metal group, Iron Maiden. During one song, ‘The Trooper’, the bands singer, Bruce Dickenson always waves a giant union jack on the stage. Seven years ago the band played in Buenos Aires, Dickenson brandished his flag and was booed. This week he did the same and was enthusiastically applauded by 40,000 head banging Argies.

So, today being a national holiday, I lazily turned on the TV and saw the news coverage of the burial of Raul Alfonsin, who had been Argentina’s President immediately after the return to democracy in the 1980s. Thousands of people lined the streets and military guards accompanied the coffin.

Alfonsin was one of that rare breed, a universally respected politician. A brave left-winger, who spoke out during the 1978-1983 military dictatorship against the ‘Death Squads’ who rounded up and killed thousands of left-wing activists, he went on to serve as President. He then stood down having lost democratic elections, with the economy in freefall. In a great show of humility he was reported to have said “There are limits in a democracy to the suffering which any politician can inflict on their people”.

Only a true believer in democracy could be so philosophical after loosing at the ballot box. Many people tell me, and they might well be right, that I’m extremely critical of my Argentine hosts in this blog. Well, I’m going to surprise you now by paying the Argentineans a compliment. Following defeat, they are capable of great humility. Like in the case of Alfonsin, he didn’t look for someone to blame, or make excuses. He’d lost, fair and square.

The wake-like atmosphere in town was compounded by yesterdays’ incredible football result, in which the Argentina national team, managed by Diego Maradona and packed full of superstars, was thrashed 6-1 by Bolivia in La Paz in a World Cup Qualifier. After the match it was Maradona’s turn to display commendable humility, refusing to blame the effects of altitude for the result-the Bolivian capital lies at an altitude of 3,600 metres-but instead complimenting the winners for their performance and underlining that they had been superior in every department. He had previously made a point of going up to each and every Argentinean player and kissing or hugging them as they trudged forlornly off the pitch, certainly not taking a leaf from the Brian Clough book of how to treat your players after they get thrashed.

I’ve greatly enjoyed the South American World Cup qualifiers. I had been feeling depressed about the lack of quality in the Argentinean league, and even finding the Copa Libertadores-the South American Champions’ League-devoid of interest. However, the World Cup Qualifiers have renewed my interest in South American football.

It seems that just about anyone can beat anyone. For example, Columbia played Bolivia in Bogotá last Saturday and the Colombians were dreadful and the Bolivians even worse. It was like watching Exeter City in a bad year. Colombia just about deserved to win 2-0. Meanwhile, a Messi-inspired Argentina were thrashing Venezuala 4-0 in Buenos Aires.

Four days later, this form was turned on its head. Venezuela put up a gritty performance to beat Colombia 2-0 in Caracas and Bolivia played like world-beaters in handing Argentina their worse defeat in 60 years of internationals.

Four teams qualify automatically with the fifth placed team going into a play off. Presently Paraguay , Brazil, Chile and Argentina fill the top four positions, with Uruguay in the play off spot closely followed by Ecuador, Colombia, Bolivia and Venezuela who all still hope to qualify. Peru languishes in final place.

Should be interesting.

Lehman Brothers 2 Inter Milan 0

So, England 3 Italy 0. Or should I say the Premier League 3 Serie A 0. The UK press is full of that British Bulldog spirit, we're the greatest, Mourinho go home, four clubs in the last eight of the champions and all that. Three clubs in the last four last year. The Italian sporting press instead is engaging in navel gazing, self-analysis and trying to figure out what went wrong.

Yesterday's Guardian said 'United's special ones in different class', the Daily Mail 'No Way, Jose', as 'stylish United brush off the special one'. La Gazzetta Della Sport instead gave lavish praise to the English teams. In his article, Arrigo Sacchi, former Milan and Italy manager, refused to believe that luck had been against Inter, Juventus and Roma in their games against Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal respectively. He said that the English teams didn't just owe their success to money, but to "the civility, general knowledge and fair play of the British people which is on a different level to ours". Arrigo's obviously never beenout on a Saturday night in Barnsley then. He concluded that the gap between top English and top Italian clubs was now 'enormous'.

Having watched the three games between Italian and English teams this week, I disagree with both Sacchi and 'The Guardian'. United weren't in a different class to Inter on Wednesday night. They took their chances whilst Inter missed theirs. Mourinho's team totally dominated the twenty minutes before half time and created scoring chances at will. Juventus also came close to beating Chelsea during a spirited performance in Turin and if Mirco Vucinic hadn't made a hash of his effort during the penalty shoot out, my favourite Italian team Roma would have probably sent my father's beloved Arsenal out of the competition.

However, the Italian press is certainly being sporting in its praise of the 'superior' English teams, which considering that the country are reigning World Champions must count as a remarkable demonstration of humility. I think Roberto De Ponti's article in La Correire Della Sera probably gives the best analysis. He identifies three factors in the success of the English teams: Money, debts and long-term planning.

He underlines the incredible balance sheets of last year's two Champions League finalists, Manchester United and Chelsea. United are 770 million Euros (about 700 million pounds) in debt, whilst Chelsea owe creditors a staggering 935 million Euros. They are the two most indebted clubs in Europe. De Ponti likened these debts to cheating, calling them 'Financial Doping'. The number of trophies won by the wo clubs in recent years does seem to suggest that access to credit is giving them an unfair advantage.

Would it be entirely a surprise if one or both of these clubs found themselves in severe financial difficulties in the near future? Who knows, maybe United will be nationalised like the Northern Rock bank!! 'We can't allow a priceless national asset like them. a multinational company, go to the wall!' the politicians will say, as taxpayers complain that their hard earned money is being used to help Cristian Ronaldo pay for repairs to his Ferrari.

Well, as a England fan I'd like to think that even if United and Chelsea go to the wall, at least our English players are gaining priceless experience of playing at the top level which can only help us to mount a real challenge for the World Cup in South Africa next year. Unfortunately, the facts don't give me any grounds for optimism in the chances for my 'Three Lions'. Analysing the teams playing in the last sixteen of the Champions League, there were 21 Italian players on display, 27 Brazilians, 27 Spaniards and guess how many Englishmen? Only 9.

So my message to Manchester United and Chelsea fans is this-enjoy the success while it lasts and maybe, just maybe you'll get to renew your rivalry with Leeds United before too long. And if you're an England fan, hope against hope that Aston Villa develop their present team of largely English players into the strongest in Europe over the next 12 months.

Buenos Aires Zoological Gardens

Before I visited the zoo here in BA I was expecting the worst, such as animals kept in tiny, dirty cages without being exercised or stimulated at all. However, the gardens are a great surprise because the animals have large, well maintained compounds and the visitors are kept at a reasonable distance. Well done to the city council who initiated the zoo here in the 1880s and run it right up to the present day. Sophia found all of the elephants, tigers, lions and monkeys highly boring but loved the free ball-on-a-stick toy that she got with our ice creams!

Hey Osvaldo, Don't Get Me Wrong....

Ok, here's a challenge for all of you intelligent, free thinkers. I'll give a prize to the best answer and put it in the blog.

The other day we were strolling through a park near the Costanera Sur nature reserve. There were plenty of interesting street entertainers, couples dancing the salsa, traditional folk musicians, teenagers breakdancing, stalls preparing street food and an antiques market. Full of people from the city's less well-to-do areas. Good fun was being had by all.

At a certain point a lone musician in the distance caught my eye. He was a south american indian, tall, with long black hair and dressed in a traditional costume. He was standing at a microphone playing the panpipes. He had a considerable crowd gathered around him.

Now I started to like listining to the pan pipes many years ago when I lived in Exeter in the UK. There were a group of Peruvians who regularly appeared in the High Street on Saturday afternoons and attracted quite a crowd, playing mysterious and exotic tunes from the Andes. A little bit of South America in an otherwise dull and boring weekend in Devon.

I reckon almost every High Street in the UK has had its pan pipe players in recent years. I've also seen them on the Via Dei Fori Imperiali in Rome outside of Caesar's Temple.

So I hot footed it towards my tall, dark haired, traditionally dressed pan pipe player from the Andes. Finally, after all these years I'd be able to hear a pan pipe player here in his home continent, South America. Surely he'd be even better than those musicians who came to the UK, in the same way that Italian food is miles better in Italy than it is in other countries, and German beer is best of all when drunk in Germany.

I arrived within earshot of the musician and couldn't believe what I heard. He wasn't playing an exotic mysterious melody from the Andes. Instead, the unmistakable notes of Hey Jude filled the air and judging from their reaction, the massed crowd couldn't get enough. For good measure he followed with Chicatita by Abba. The crowd were now becoming hysterical in their enthusiasm. At least that song has a Spanish name, I thought. But that was enough for me-I was on my way to the next stall.

So here's your challenge, intelligent free thinkers. When it comes to pan pipes and pan pipers you get exotic south american melodies in Exeter High Street but Hey Jude when you're in South America.

Why?

La Boca, colourful area of the city

The Boca is a famous area of the city, well known for its Tango schools, colourfully painted houses and Maradona's favourite football team, Boca Juniors. However we found it a bit of a tourist trap, with Tango dancers posing for paid photographs just like the modern day Roman soldiers outside of the Coliseum in Rome. Loads of wealthy American day trippers from cruise ships too. Unfortunately despite what the tourist office literature says, La Boca is essentially three very touristy streets surrounded by a very poor and highly dangerous area which tourists are warned not to frequent, even during daytime hours. Not what travel is about for me.

The Truth, The Whole Truth and Nothing But....

Lately I’ve been looking at my CV and updating it with an eye to look for some teaching work when I finish my Spanish course in a couple of weeks. Only problem is that it seems so mediocre in places. For example, ‘Studied Social Work at Plymouth University’ isn’t very interesting, is it? ‘Left Priory High School with 4 CSEs’ is even worse. ‘In my spare time I like to spend time with my baby daughter or read’ is almost enough to send the reader, and potential hirer, off to sleep.

The problem is that when writing a CV I don’t like to tell lies or exaggerate too much. I hope I’m not alone in this-I imagine loads of you, my noble family and friends, share the same ethics. Maybe it’s because we’re British, but we don’t like to fib about certain things.

Take products and services for example. We accept in the UK that if my company produces a product-let’s say it’s a food-then I can’t produce adverts that boast to it not containing any fat if in fact it contains fat. That’s misleading people, telling lies. If I own a shop and advertise that I offer a 24 hour service, but in fact open at 8 in the morning and close the doors and go down the pub at 8pm, that’s misleading as well. Can’t be done, in the way that I can’t tell lies in my CV.

Here in Argentina I’m learning that providers of products and services aren’t under the same restraints as us. I’ve recently noticed some classics, which I’m baptising ‘Argentinaisms’, because they have to be seen to be believed. Here are two great examples.

The first one is an example of food packaging. Today Daniela wanted some bread rolls without salt-she’s under doctor’s orders to keep down her salt intake. She noticed some felipito de salvados ‘sin sal’, meaning without salt. The label says this is big, clear letters. When we arrived home we read the full description of the ingredients in small print…’agua, azucar, levadura, sal’, namely ‘water, suger, yeast, salt’. Now how can a product be advertised as being without salt but contain salt??!!

OK, so this is a small label which can easily be missed. Maybe you’re saying that it’s not such a big deal, however perhaps it is a big deal for a person who’s been ordered to not eat salt. But some Argentinaisms are so ridiculous that they’d make you laugh if you weren’t going crazy trying to live with them.

Take the example of our private medical insurance provider, Swiss Medical. They have a medical centre near our house, which unfortunately we’ve spent a lot of time in recently. In their guidebook they describe their services and speak in growing terms about this centre ‘el centro de Atencion de Urgencia mas moderno del pais’, ‘the most modern accident and emergency centre in the country’. Wow, that’s quite a boast, but very reassuring for us, don’t you think? What’s more, it gets better and better. ‘Atiende 24 horas del dia, la mas amplia gama de especialidades medicas en sus consultorios externos, con la tecnologia y los profesionales mas idoneas’, ‘Available 24 hours a day, the widest range of medical specialisms........with the most up-to-date technology and professionals’.

We slept easier at night having read that one. Until we next needed an emergency service at night, that is. Then I turned to page 14 of my private Swiss Medical Insurance Handbook. Here unfortunately a gigantic Argentinaism was lurking, waiting for me. ‘Emergencias y Atencion no Programada’ was the title, ‘Emergency and unplanned attention’. Underneath the detail of the hours of the service, ‘Atencion 24 horas Lunes a viernes de 8 a 20 hs’, ’24 hour service from 8am to 8pm Monday to Friday’.

What? How can a service operating 12 hours a day for 5 days a week be advertised as a 24 hour service? We’re talking about an accident and emergency service here, after all! Absolutely incredible. Let’s hope we don’t need accident and emergency services after 8pm or at weekends.

So maybe now you can see that in Argentina the truth doesn’t matter when it comes to describing products or services. Now where was I? Oh yes, rewriting my CV. Now let’s see….an Argentinaism here, an Argentinaism there…after all, when in Rome and all that….and hey presto, my CV’s finished! Much better now…Rick Rogers….Honours Degree in Education at Cambridge University….Five times voted European Teacher of the Year….President of MENSA……fluent in 26 languages.

Yes, I knew I had something to learn from the locals!