It is “back to school” for us all and we hope this 5th ELTA Newsletter issue in 2015 would give you a boost of energy to take on the forthcoming obligations. Here is what we have prepared for you this time, with the immense help of our contributors, of course. If you are a phonology-lover, you will certainly enjoy the article written by Miljan Janković. In this issue’s Academic corner, he invites you to explore the different varieties of English, both in and outside of the UK borders. These autumn days and the long-awaited temperature drop are perfect for cuddling up with a good book and a cup of tea. We think you should listen to Snežana Pantelić’s advice and read the new book by Kazuo Ishiguro which she rewires for you in the Bookworms column. In case your students come from the world of business, Shanthi Cumaraswamy Streat provides ample advice on how to give a good presentation. The advice she gives in the Business English section of the Newsletter may be beneficial to giving speeches in all walks of life, so make sure you read the article, whether you are a teacher or a public speaker. The quick and simple solutions she gives at the end of her piece are a life-saver. Next, we were happy to see and talk to a lot of you at the 13th ELTA Conference. In this issue, in the ELT Flash section, you will find a conference report written by Sandra Vasković, one of the RELO sponsored teachers who attended the conference. This report will remind you of what issues were discussed at the conference, and of some of the workshops. In case you missed the conference this year, it will provide interesting tips and references you may use in your teaching, and it will hopefully incite you to participate next year. Under the same Newsletter heading you will find a wonderful article about eTwinning in Hamburg written by Biljana Pipović and a report from the SO(u)l Camp held in Sremski Karlovci written by Branka Dečković. In our Feature Article section, you can read David Crabtree’s thoughts about inclusive learning and learners who learn differently. We all know discipline is a problem, and this time we offer advice on how to tackle these tricky situations. The advice comes from a young teacher, Nevena Stoilkov. We believe she might be able to shed new light on an old issue. In the First Aid Kit you will find out how to dig deeper and understand our students’ problems better. In order to better grasp the role of technology in translating, read Albert Brown’s piece in the IT for ELT section. Our students were not idle this summer, and we got plenty marvelous pieces of writing for our Students’ Corner. Those of you who are at the beginning of your career and have to face multi-grade classes can search for help in the Teacher Development rubric, in the article written by Jovana Stevanović. In it she deals with issues such as classroom management, different teaching techniques, overcoming stress and staying positive.
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As always, the Upcoming Events column is a pool of information concerning the approaching conferences, seminars and webinars. Last but certainly not least, in our Young Learners’ Playground you can read about the use of stories and rhymes with young and very young learners. The author, Zhivka Ilieva, tells us why and how to exploit these strategies when teaching young learners. We sincerely hope you will not only enjoy reading our 5th issue, but will feel inspired to write for us and get some of your own work published. If you do, we will be waiting for your submissions at newsletter.elta@gmail.com All the best, ELTA Editorial Team
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ENGLISH SPEECH WITHIN DIFFERENT VARIETIES OF ENGLISH
Miljan Janković, Secondary Music School ’’Josif Marinković’’, Zrenjanin Key words: language, variety, diversity, dialect, pronunciation, classification
English became the language of modernization, industrialization and development around the world. It is therefore used daily which has necessarily led to many modifications. Bearing in mind the fact that Englishspeaking areas occupy a great territory altogether, it comes as no surprise that there are different varieties of English even there, not to mention the whole nonEnglishspeaking area. This means that various language changes occur incessantly producing new pronunciation patterns, grammar rules and even vocabulary items. The United Kingdom should be mentioned first; when it comes to the language itself, it is important to notice that the area is divided into many dialects and varieties of English. This diversity is clearly visible among people of different backgrounds and classes. It would be appropriate to begin with British English (BrE) which comprises the English language spoken in England – English English (EngEng) and Northern English. Northern English is composed of Geordie (Tyneside), Mackem (Sunderland), Pitmatic (the Northumberland coalfield), Durham, Cumbrian and Tyke (Yorkshire), which is further divided into North, West and East Ridings, then Lancashire, Mancunian (Manchester) and Scouse (Liverpool and Merseyside). As far as East Midlands English area is concerned, it is important to mention the following: Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire, and Leicestershire. On the other hand, there is also West Midlands English including Black Country (Yam Yam), Brummie (Birmingham), Potteries (North Staffordshire), Herefordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire. Norfolk dialect (Broad Norfolk) and Suffolk dialect make East Anglian English, whereas Estuary English and Cockney (London) make the English speaking area of South East England. There are West Country dialects to be mentioned, such as: Somerset, Devon, Cornwall, Wiltshire and Dorset. Besides England, there are also various types of dialects in other countries constituting the UK; in Scotland, Scottish English, Highland English, Glaswegian and Buchan Doric are spoken. In Wales, there are Welsh English, North East English and Pembrokeshire
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dialect. When it comes to Ireland, there are differences in dialects between Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland – HibernoEnglish and Yola dialect are used in the Republic of Ireland but Mid Ulster English and Ulster Scots English are spoken in Northern Ireland. Considering other constituents of the UK, it is of great importance to mention Isle of Man with its Manx English, Channel Islands with their Guernsey English and Gibraltar with its Llanito. Some of the varieties in the UK will be mentioned; they will include the similarities and differences among each other which may vary to a certain extent; for instance, there is Geordie but also Cockney ; Jock but also Scouse . Each accent can determine the social status of people using it and is easily recognizable. The accent people use can also determine the status qualities such as intelligence, success or confidence. To mention one quite striking difference, the middle class is assigned more formal and abstract style than the working class. Further on, it is proved that accents are characterized by British speakers as either posh (Received Pronunciation – RP) or common (Cockney). These accents are even presented through films and television, as in “My Fair Lady“, “Pygmalion“ or the TV series “EastEnders“. British accents also include Estuary English (EE) which constitutes the social “middle ground“ and begins to replace Received Pronunciation (RP), Received Pronunciation English (RP), Cockney English and “Queen’s“ English. It would be appropriate to start with Received Pronunciation English (RP) and it is essential to mention first what the term “received“ stands for: Daniel Jones, the great describer and codifier of the Received Pronunciation of English, explains that it originally meant “generally accepted“ or “accepted by society“. It is regarded as a “neutral“ and “correct“ accent and is also called “BBC English“, “Public School English“ and even “Standard English“. As already mentioned, there are even variations within RP, such as Mainstream RP, Upper Crust RP, Adoptive RP, Near RP, Conservative RP and General RP. Conservative RP is spoken by the older generation, whereas Advanced RP is spoken by the younger generation. This accent is typically used in England and is also referred to as an “educated accent“. It appears in upper and uppermiddle class speakers; it is more sociologically defined rather than geographically. RP is under the influence coming from Cockney which is often despised yet imitated. RP has its own
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feature, differentiating it from other accents which is “intrusive R“, highly prevalent here (R pronounced: “Put a comma(r)...“; “The idea(r) of...“; “I saw(r) it happen...“ / R unpronounced: “A comma may be added...“; “An idea for...“; “I saw them.“). Cockney is considered the broadest form of London local accent. It traditionally refers only to specific regions and speakers within the city. While many Londoners may speak what is referred to as “Popular London“, they do not necessarily speak Cockney. Originally, the term literally means “a cock’s egg“ which has been used when referring to a weak townsman. Throughout a certain period of time, it came to mean “a Londoner“. Nowadays, the natives of London from its East End use the term with respect and pride – “Cockney Pride“. It is characterized by its own special vocabulary and use and especially by its own development of “rhyming slang“ which is still part of the true Cockney culture. According to the historical point of view, it has been epitomizing the workingclass accents of Londoners. A TV series “EastEnders“ provides great opportunities for checking language and also culture in general. Just like all other accents of British English, Cockney has its own features as:
Monophthongization which affects the lexical set mouth vowel. It is believed that it is agreed that the “mouth“ vowel is a crucial moment for distinguishing between true Cockney and popular London and other (more) standard accents (mouth; /mæf/ rather than /mæuf/).
Glottal stop (marked here with *), realized as /t/ glottalling in the final position (cat /kæ*t/, up /a*p/, sock /so*k/) but it can also sound like an intervocalic /t/ as in: Waterloo /wᴐ:*rlu/ – “Wa’erloo“, city /si*ii/ – “ci’y“, “A drink of water“ /... wᴐ:*r/ – “A drin’ a wa'er“, “A little bit of bread with a bit of butter on it“ /... ba*r/ – “A li’le bi’ of bred wiv a bi’ of bu’er on i’ “.
There are elements adopted from Estuary English as well, such as: Gatwick – Ga’wick, Scotland – Sco’land, Statement – Sta’emen’, Network – Ne’work.
Other ones are: ●
dropped /h/ at the beginning of the words (voiceless glottal fricative as in house – ’ouse, hammer – ’ammer;
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/θ/ fronting as in thin – fin /fin/, brother bruvver /bravr/, three – free /frri/, bath – barf /ba:f/;
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in dinner – dinna /dina/, narrow – narra /næra/; vowel lowering
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prosody when the voice quality of Cockney is described as typically involving “chest tone“ rather than “head tone“. For this reason, this change is described as “rough“ and “harsh“ as opposed to the smooth Kensington or Mayfair accents spoken in more upscale London areas;
Finally, there is another feature, maybe the most typical of Cockney than all the other
mentioned ones – that is Cockney rhyming slang including its own special vocabulary and use. It is heard when a pair of associated words are taken where the second one rhymes with the word the speaker intends to say after which the first word of the associated pair is used to indicate the word that the speaker originally intended to say. Some rhymes were used for so long that they became very wellrecognized: “apples and pears“ – stairs, “plates of meat“ – feet, “John Cleese“ – cheese, “John Major“ – pager and many other. , which Apart from the mentioned varieties of English, there is also Estuary English (EE) has already been mentioned before. The term was coined in 1984 by David Rosewarne, the British linguist. He describes it as “a mixture of nonregional and local southeastern English pronunciation and intonation.“ EE is also seen today as Cockney’s “educated counterpart“ – a bridge between RP and Cockney, and as a bridge between the various classes in southeastern England. This accent has first been used in the region along London’s River Thames and its estuaries. Later on, its use spread from London and southeastern England north to Norwich and westwards to Cornwall. Today, it is widely spoken especially among younger people. Paradoxically, it is used both for the reasons that it both increases street credibility and sounds sophisticated at the same time. It has also been heard on the BBC used by the House of Commons as well as the House of Lords in Parliament and by businessmen from the “City“, the heart of the business district of the city of London. That is why it is seen as a bridge between various classes and, most importantly, as a sign that class barriers are disappearing. EE also possesses its own features, differentiating it from other accents of BrE. Such features are:
Lvocalization (/w/ is used where RP uses /l/ which is in the final positions or final consonant cluster: “A reaL* salesman wilL* always feeL* a fooL* if he fails to selL* or his deaL* falls through.“);
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Rrealization in EE (the tip of the tongue is lowered and the central part raised to a position close to the soft palate but not touching it. It is similar to the general American /r/ only without the retroflection);
Stress (it is characterized by the frequent prominence given to prepositions and auxiliary verbs not usualy stressed in RP: “Let us get TO the point.“, “Totters have been in operation FOR years.“);
Intonation (there is a narrower pitch of its patterns. This happens where rises do not reach as high as a pitch as they would in RP. For this reason, EE is considered to have an effect as having an apparent lack of enthusiasm;
Vocabulary also differs in comparison with RP (“Cheers!“ is used instead of “Thank you!“ or even “Goodbye!“, “basically“ is frequently used, “There you go!“ instead of “Here you are!“, “There is...“ is used for both singular and plural, “Sorry!“ is replaced with “Excuse me!“ and “engaged“ is replaced in telephoning terms with “busy“);
Grammar differs as well in comparison to Cockney since Cockney speakers use more nonstandard grammar than EE speakers (EE – “You were...“; Cockney – “You was...“).
Apart from these varieties of English in the UK, there is yet another variety – Queen’s . The notion “Queen’s“/'King’s“ English traces back to the 16th and 17th English centuries, depending on who the ruler was at that particular period of time. During that period, there was an idea that the monarch’s use should be the model in speech and writing. King’s English was first used during the reign of James I. The British Royal Family officially uses RP but there are changes in the younger royal family members’ use. As for characteristics of this accent, there are linguistic features traditionally associated with Cockney and found in the speech of the younger generation in question as:
Final glotal stops (“There’s a lo’* of i’* abou’*...“) were heard in the speech of Diana, Princess of Wales and Prince Edward, the queen’s youngest son;
General pronunciation (house – hice, off – orf, tower – tar, refined – refained – all being used by the Queen and Older Royals and the examples like really – rairly, milk – miuk, yes – yah, St. Paul’s – St. Pauw’s which are used largely by younger royals;
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The royal ONE where “one“ is used instead of “I“ by the royals together with the family friends and household.
Outside the UK, the cradle of the English language, there are many more varieties of it today; some of them developed well and rooted deeply, whereas some of them are still in the process of forming and being accepted in everyday use. American English (AmE) is spoken in North America in its numerous forms, such as: in the cultural sense – AfricanAmerican Vernacular English (AAVE), Appalachian English, General American, Chicano English, Native American English (Amerindian English), Pennsylvania Dutchified English and Yinglish. According to the cultural classification, American English is even further subdivided in the regional sense into: 1) Northeastern dialects (Baltimorese, Boston English, Northeast Pennsylvania English – Scranton, Pennsylvaniaarea, Hudson Valley English – Albany, New Yorkarea, MaineNew Hampshire English, Philadelphiaarea English, Pittsburgh English, Providencearea English, New YorkNew Jersey English, Nuyorican English and Vermont English); 2) MidAtlantic dialects (Tidewater accent, Virginia Piedmont and Virginia Tidewater); 3) Midwest dialects (Inland North American including lower peninsula of Michigan, northern Ohio and Indiana, Chicago, part of eastern Wisconsin and upstate New York); 4) North Central American English including Minnesota, North Dakota and also parts of South Dakota, Wisconsin, Michigan and Iowa where Yooper dialect is used and based on the variety of North Central American English, spoken in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and in some neighboring areas; 5) North Midlands English (from Nebraska to Ohio), including St. Louisarea English and WisconsinIllinois dialect; 6) Southern English (Appalachian English, Coastal Southeastern including Charleston, South Carolina, Savannah and Georgia area, then Cajun English, Harkers Island English (in North Carolina), Ozark Southern English, Southern Highland English, South Midlands English (from Oklahoma to Pennsylvania), Tampanian English, Texan and Yat (in New Orleans));
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7) Western English (California English, Boontling, Hawaiian English (also known as Hawaiian Pidgin), Utah English, Pacific Northwest English and Bermudian English. As seen, it is the mother tongue of the U.S. as well and the major variety spoken there is simply called American English (AmE) which includes AfricanAmerican English (AAE) as one of its varieties. It is referred to as Black English (BE), Black English Vernacular (BEV), AfricanAmerican Vernacular English (AAVE) and Inner City English (ICE). There are three primary theories about the source of this variety: Decreolized Creole , Variety of
Southern States English and The “Unified“ Theory . According to the first one, this variety derived from a pidgin that was created among slaves from various linguistic backgrounds, primarily West Africa. According to the second one, it is stated that this variety is a variety of Southern States English, having the southern vowel shift, vowel lowering and double modals in common. According to the last one, this variety derived from a number of sources, including West African languages and Southern States English, following a variety of evolutionary tracks. As for the features of AfricanAmerican English, there are a few very important ones to notice, such as:
Consonant cluster reduction (the wordfinal consonant clusters are reduced and stops are dropped – desk /des/, post /pos/, walk /wak/, but the past tense marker is not dropped);
Realization of /t/ and /d/ as /t,f/ and /d,v/ (interdental fricatives are realized either as alveolar stops or labiodental fricatives. When at the beginning of a word, /th/ is realized as /t/ – thin is tin, but when located wordmedially/finally, /th/ is realized
as /f/ – bath is baf . Similarly, /th/ may be even realized as /d/ as in “this“ which
sounds like /dis/ or as /v/ as in “brother“ which would sound like /bravr/. All of this is valid in the listed environments but is otherwise considered ungrammatical;
Vowel lowering (the vowel /i/ is realized as an open /e/ or an “æ“ when followed by a velar nasal /n/ – “sing, thing, drink“ are pronounced as /sen, sæn/, /then, thæn/, /drenk, drænk/);
/z/ to /d/ in contractions (a phonological phenomenon where a voiced alveolar fricative /z/ is pronounced as a voiced alveolar stop /d/ before a nasal consonant
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(isn’t /idnt/, wasn’t /wadnt/, business /bidns/, cousin /kadn/, pleasant /pledn/, present /predn/ and even register /re:dstr/);
Monophthongization (the process of a diphthong becoming a mohophthong, meaning that the diphthong /ai/, for instance, becomes monophthongized (right /ra:t/, time /ta:m/, like /la:k/), where it is important to emphasize that the length of the diphthong is preserved as a long vowel. There are some other examples of this change as in /oi/ (boil /bᴐ:l/, toil /tᴐ:l/);
Rlessness (in some varieties of AfricanAmerican English, Southern States English and New England English, /r/ is sometimes not produced but there is a lengthened vowel instead as in: guard /ga:d/ resembling “God“, car /ka:/, nor /no:/ resembling “gnaw“, then sore /so:/ resembling “saw“, fort /fo:/ resembling “fought“ or court /ko:t/ resembling “caught“. This consonant is pronounced when followed by a vowel (four o’clock) in Southern States English and New England English but is still not pronounced in AfricanAmerican English (Carol /kæ:l/, Paris /pæ:s/ as in “pass“ or “terrace“ /te:s/ as in “test“ more or less) This change is also typical of British English where /r/ is retained only when before a vowel (rack, track, carry) but otherwise removed (arm, far)).
American Indian English (AIE) is yet another variety of English. This variety refers to numerous varieties, or better to say – subvarieties, spoken by indigenous communities throughout North America. As was heard many times before, “there are many Indian . This line relates to the number of different accents of American Indian Englishes“ English. Each of them is unique in its phonology, syntax and semantics. There have been some disputes about the origin of AIE but it was agreed that it originates from the same sources as other nonstandard varieties of English, just like Southern States English. The varieties included in this major one are: Mojave English, Isletan English, Tsimshian English, Lumbee English, Tohono O’odham English and Inupiaq English. As for the features determining this major variety of English, it is necessary to list the following:
The central diphthong (short /ai/ – pronunciation of the diphthong /ai/ as in “night“, “light“ or “white“ and in “five“, “nine“ or “spider“ is achieved as a short /ai/, where the initial vowel is raised to a more central position which is a distinguishing feature of speech in the tidewater area of North Carolina and
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Virginia. This feature is further found in Ocracoke Island area and Lumbee English. Lumbee English is spoken in three different Lumbee communities: Pembroke, Prospect and Magnolia);
Final devoicing (final voiced stops, fricatives and affricates are devoiced, especially in the Southwest United States. This means that final voiced obstruents in Standard American English (SAE) are pronounced with less voicing or no voicing in American Indian English. Some research data show that in Mohave, Hopi and Navajo English, words like job, questions or has would be respectively pronounced as /dƷoP*/, /kweʃ tʃ nS*/ and /hæS*/);
Deletion of final voiced stops , final (nasalized) /ing/ becoming /in/ , vowel shift and consonant cluster reduction (these features show that some clusters are reduced if they are found in the final positions and if some stops are dropped. This is also typical of this variety of English and as an evidence, the data from the Colorado River Indian Reservation in Parker, Arizona, show that speakers from this area (originally from Mohave, Hopi and Navajo tribes) drop the final stop in a cluster, especially if that cluster involves a nasal and a stop (equipment /ikwipmen*/, understand /Λndrstæn*/ or student /studen*/).
All these varieties together form a group of dialects called Northeast U.S. Dialects that contains a wide range of accents. This is a consequence of its old settlements – communities like Boston, New York and Philadelphia. As a result, each urban community’s speech diverged from the dialects of other nearby cities. The most striking accents belonging to this major variety of English are Boston English and New York English. Apart from the two, there are numerous features typical of Detroit, Buffalo and Chicago. First, it is highly difficult to isolate a single variety that is prototypical of the region. Just like New York and London, Boston is a populous urban center. It comprises different local varieties; each of them is identifiably distinct to other Bostonians and they all share dialectal features that can distinguish any Boston dialect from other American varieties. Therefore, there is not a particular Boston variety but a composite of the various forms spoken there which is yet called Boston English. New York has always been a dense, populous urban center for such a long time that different neighbourhoods, social classes
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and ethnicities can easily have their own variety. New York English is a composite of various forms spoken in this area. The Southern States English (SSE) , also known as Southern American English, includes numerous varieties of English spoken in Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, Tennessee, Kentucky, North and South Carolina, Virginia, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Maryland, Texas and West Virginia. These varieties of English are used in three major regions of Southern American English such as the Upper South, Lower South and Delta South. According to some other classifications, there are also Virginia Piedmont and Southeastern Louisiana. This variety of English is also characterized by its own features as follows:
Southern vowel shift (Southern States English is rich in shifts among the vowels: the sound /i:/ as in meet shifts back and downwards; the short /i/ as in sit shifts upwards and forwards, becoming thus diphthongized just like any other tense vowel in Standard English; the sound /e/ as in mate shifts back and downwards, whereas the open /e/ as in pear shifts upwards and forwards becoming diphthongized; the sounds /u:/ and /o/ as in boot and boat respectively shift forwards);
/z/ becoming /d/ in contractions (as in AfricanAmerican English, there are also contractions where a voiced alveolar fricative /z/ is pronounced as a voiced alveolar stop /d/ before a nasal consonant and the examples are the same: isn’t /idnt/ and wasn’t /wadnt/ and also business /bidns/, cousin /kadn/, pleasant /pledn/, present /predn/ and many more. Even the voiced affricate /dƷ/ and the voiced fricative /Ʒ/ as well as /z/ act the same and the former rules can be applied to them);
/e/ becoming /i/ before nasals, postcoronal glides (words which contain a coronal stop like /t/, /d/ and /n/ and are followed by a high back vowel /u:/, have a glide /j/ which is inserted between the stop and the vowel. Therefore, the words like tune or duke are pronounced with newly produced affricates which then sound like /tsun/ and /dƷuk/ respectively. The background is unknown but it is believed that such glides are the remnants of an earlier British English pronunciation of the as /ju/); vowel u
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Vowel lowering, monophthongization, rlessness, the central diphthong – a short /ai/, double modals, and situations such as /z/ vs. /s/ like in greasy : when these last four features are taken into consideration, it is obvious that the situations and specific examples are quite the same. Vowel lowering is characterized by the short vowel /i/ which is often realized as the open /e/ or /æ/ when followed by a velar nasal /n/. Hence the words like sing , thing and drink are respectively pronounced as /sEn, sæn/, /thEn, thæn/ and /drEnk, drænk/. Monophthongization is characterized by the diphthong /ai/ becoming monophthongized as in right , time or like and pronounced as /ra:t/, /ta:m/ and /la:k/ respectively. Apart from this one, the diphthong /oi/ is also monophthongized, especially before liquids (boil /bᴐ:l/). When it comes to rlessness , it is quite the same as in any other variety of
Standard English (SE). The last but not the least is the central diphthong feature , typical of North Carolina and Virginia, where the diphthong /ai/ is pronounced as the short /ai/. This is also typical of Ocracoke Island and Lumbee English.
Going a little north from the U.S., there is another variety of English – Canadian English (CaE) , used officially in Canada, including: Native American English (Amerindian English), Quebec English (Quebec) and the following territories: Maritimes (Maritimer English, Cape Breton accent and Lunenburg English), West/Central Canadian English (Toronto English, Northern Ontario English and Eastern Ontario English which includes Ottawa Valley Twang) and Newfoundland English. Canadian English has its proper characteristics which occasionally face numerous conflicts on the basis of their correctness, legality and, generally speaking, existence. This variety of English is said to be underdescribed; it is often given little acknowledgements as a distinct and homogeneous variety. It is also said today that all its unique characteristics are being lost. Some linguists even claim that there is no such thing as distinct Canadian English and that the notion of it is just a myth which was fabricated to reinforce Canadian identity. Conversely, some linguists claim that Canadian English is more than a “network of regionalisms“. They do not accept the loss of certain lexical terms such as “chesterfield“ and “serviette“, the loss of some phonological traits like the voiceless /wh/ in where and /yu/ in news or student as the determining ones. There are also some basic characteristics determining Canadian English and distinguishing it from other varieties, such as:
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The lowback merger and the Canadian shift (the complete merger of the vowels /a/ and a short /o/: this has a strong effect on the phonetic realization of other Canadian vowels. As a result, the lowback region of the vowel space is less dense. This retraction moves /æ/ in the opposite direction of where it has shifted in the northern (US) cities shift. For instance, the word stack is pronounced in Windsor, Ontario with the same vowel of the word stock as pronounced in Detroit. Interestingly, the evidence show that the merger of /a/ and a short /o/ took place even during the 1850’s);
The vowel space (the system is situated slightly farther back in the oral tract. This means that Canadian back vowels are pronounced with the tongue bunched slightly behind the position where it would be in British and American dialects. The perception of extrabackness will be heightened by the monophthongal nature of the Canadian vowels. Tense vowels tend to be phonetic diphthongs in English. It is true that some vowels in one dialect could sound like different vowels in another dialect);
Other characteristics include: Canadian raising (the central diphthong, front and back diphthongs, phonological conditioning), rhoticity (prerothic /o/ in sorrow and ) and the “eh“ tag and borrow and prerhotic open /e/ in merry and marry constraints (intonation and contrast with “huh“).
What is also typical of Canadian English are the socalled regional differences. There are a few regional differences among vowels. The feature of an “æ“retraction is not found in Newfoundland English or in the Maritime provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. Newfoundland and rural Nova Scotia have a wide range of distinct varieties that are quite distinct from Canadian English. The pronunciation of the high back vowel /u/ is a property of central and western Canadian English. Both ways of pronunciation are possible in Southern Ontario and the western provinces of Alberta and British Columbia. English is widely used all across the world; it is spoken officially in the parts of the world which are geographically far from its cradle. Such areas are: Caribbean with Caribbean English (Anguillan English, Jamaican English and Trinidadian English), Asia with , Hong Kong English , Indian English (including Punjabi/Delhi English, Burmese English U.P/Bihari English, Bengali/Assamese English, Gujarati English, Maharashtrian English,
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Kannadiga English, Telugu English, Tamil English and Malayalee English), Malaysian English (MyE) , Philippine English, Singapore English and Sri Lankan English (SLE) , then
Africa with Liberian English , Malawian English and South African English) and Oceania with Australian English (AuE) including South Australian English, Western Australian
English, Australian Aboriginal English and Torres Strait English and Fijian English and New Zeland English as separate varieties in Oceania. The list does not finish here because English is also used in many other countries as a foreign language. Therefore, English becomes slightly modified to the extent that the newly formed dialects (or varieties) are given completely new names. There are numerous changes and modifications in pronunciation and writing. All of them are the result of assimilating with the mother tongue of the particular area. Those are local variants of English which are called “lishes“. They are the combinations of English and the other particular language which are generally different in nature from the proper English language. A group of lishes consists of: Benglish (Bengali English), Chinglish (Chinese English), Czenglish (Czech English), Danglish (Danish English), Dunglish (Dutch English), Engrish and Japlish (two variations of Japanese English), Finglish (Finnish English), Franglais (French English), Denglisch / Genglish / Ginglish / Germish / PseudoAnglicism (German English), Greeklish (Greek English), Hinglish (Hindi English), Hunglish (Hungarian English), Italish (Italian English), Konglish (South Korean English), Manglish/Malaysian Colloquial English (Malaysian English), Pinglish (a transliteration method, not really a spoken variant), Poglish (Polish English), Rominglish / Romglish (Romanian English), Runglish (Russian English), Serblish (Serbian English), Singlish (Singaporean English), Spanglish (Spanish English), Swenglish (Swedish English), Taglish (Tagalog English), Tanglish (Tamil English), Tinglish / Thailish (Thai English), Vinish (Vietnamese English), Wenglish (Welsh English) even, Yeshivish (Yeshiva English) and Yinglish (Yiddish English). In addition to this list, English has six constructed variants and three manual encodings. Constructed variants are Basic English, EPrime , European English , Globish , Newspeak , Special English and the manual encodings are: British Signed English, US Signed Exact
English (SEE) and Australasian Signed English , which are not sign languages.
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It is important to emphasize that what is crucial when talking about the lishes is the way they come to exist. It is clear that they are the mixtures of a particular language of an area and English but what is important is that English has to undergo a special kind of treatment – the modifications, typical only of the country in question. In order for this not to go far, it is important to bear in mind the way(s) and numerous methods for teaching English in those nonEnglishspeaking areas. Teaching English sounds in such countries is not easy to complete for the reason that it has to rely on various criteria at the same time. Some main criteria are:
comprehensibility which major aim is for learners to become able to identify the sounds and to make their articulations understandable by native speakers;
social acceptability which implies that learners produce sounds that are aesthetically acceptable to native speakers;
ease of production aiming at learners to have a good chance of learning to produce the sounds successfully and
(or functional load). a number of familiar words
What seems to be a grave problem for foreign learners is confusing sounds. As a consequence, there might be some kind of misunderstanding. For instance, confusing /th/ in “there“ and “truth“ will rarely lead to any kind of misunderstanding, whereas confusing /s/ in “sun“ and /th/ as in “truth“ or even /th/ in “there“ and /z/ as in “zebra“ can lead to grave misunderstanding. This mostly affects learners of English from French, German, Italian, Chinese, Japanese or Russian language backgrounds. This might happen as a consequence of these languages’ not having separate phonemes for previously mentioned English consonant sound contrasts. Such contrasts occur in many common English words, which means that poor production of them will be noticeable. That is why teaching should concentrate on recognition together with production. Examples of poor production are numerous but some of them are particularly interesting for the reason that they are common to many languages. Such errors are as follows: ●
/i/ as in “sit“ can be wrongly pronounced as /i:/ as in “seat“;
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a short /o/ as in “not“ is sometimes confused with a short /a/ as in “nut“;
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a long /o/ as in “door“ is either confused with a short /o/ as in “store“ or as a long /u/ as in “boo“;
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●
there are also pronunciation problems which are similar with the one that is likely to occur when pronouncing “bird“ – it is likely to be pronounced either without any vowel or with a short /i/ as in “sin“;
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the “ә“ sound is sometimes also problematic; it is pronounced occasionally with rather strong endings instead of necessary weak ones as in “London“ or “England“;
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sometimes a diphthong /ei/ as in “late“ is pronounced as /e/ as in “let“;
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there are pronunciation problems with an “æ“ as in “man“ which is often pronounced as /e/ in “men“. This English sound is often confused also with a short /a/ as in “run“;
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a short /u/ as in “full“ is often confused with a long /u/ as in “fool“;
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a diphthong /әʊ / as in “note“ is sometimes confused with a short /o/ (a monophthong) as in “not“;
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another problematic diphthong /aʊ / as in “cow“ happens to sometimes be wrongly pronounced either as /u:/ in “coo“ or with a short /o/;
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the following wrongly pronounced typical English sound is /w/ which is often pronounced as /v/, as in “west“ vs. “vest“;
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confusing a voiced /th/ with a voiceless /th/ is not rare either, as mentioned above;
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the two similar voicedvoiceless sound pairs often get confused as in the following examples: “made“ and “mate“, “rice“ and “rise“, “think“ and “thing“, and “sir“ (Serbian “yam“ and “jam“, the /r/ sound in “sir“ (English for gentleman)
for cheese ) and many more.
It is thus easily noticeable that a particular mother tongue influences English to a certain extent and these errors are common to all nonEnglishspeaking ares, i.e. all language backgrounds. Such variations are literally innumerable and they depend on the particular mother tongue of the area in question. Language backgrounds are thus responsible for many errors and mistakes – be they conscious or not – and they have all been studied long. The errors mentioned above are generally made very often by the people whose mother tongue is not English. Thus, each mother tongue other from English becomes the background which will affect proper learning of English.
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Proper learning of English depends on proper teaching of English sounds and it is one solution to this problem. Without it, there would only be numerous bad habits, which would inhibit students’ learning processes. The main problem with proper learning of the correct English pronunciation is that many languages do not have appropriate sounds that are similar to some particular English ones, as previously listed. However, this should not be an inevitable obstruction for learners and their teachers. This can be handled by using all the appropriate techniques available which would facilitate the learning of correct English. There are numerous solutions and theories about teaching a foreign language – Behaviorism and Cognitivism are the two of the most important and also most influential approaches to the study of language. According to the Behaviorist Approach to the language study, using the drills is particularly considered as one way of habit formation. The drills used for this purpose should not be based on automatic responses since they can cause little or no naturalistic speech. What is needed here are the meaningful drills which should contain a large proportion of vocabulary necessary for learners and their communicative needs. Fries, one of a few sophisticated behaviorists, did not suppose that the mind was the mechanism of habits. He argued that the human mind was capable of inferring the underlying rules in case the examples had been wellchosen. He believed that only through practice was it the best way to infer the underlying rules. Furthermore, Cognitivism accepts the meningful drills which should include context for the utterance, naturalistic language and choice allowance for learners in order to be of the quality needed for foreign learners to incorporate English correctly. Cognitivism includes substitution drills, mutation drills, transformation drills, collocation relationships, implication relationships, concequence, hyponomy and antonym drills, synonymy drills and application relationships. Drills surely contribute to language learning by virtue of their useful applications. The use of drills varies at different levels of language proficiency. They are likely to be useful at the elementary level where limitation of the learning goal is desireable. They are also likely to be useful at the intermediate level where checking, revision and practice are especially important. Their likeliness to be useful is also obvious at the advanced level to remove difficulties of a particular kind. Using these techniques properly will make learning English easy for the learners across the world. It is used, spoken, written and read worldwide already but the proper learning process will accelerate it to an incredible extent.
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The rapid and incessant development of English across the world will influence the process of modernization. Obvious changes in English speech between the Englishspeaking areas on the one hand and nonEnglishspeaking areas on the other will still exist but they should be minimized as much as possible. The answer to the question how it can be maintained would be by the proper use of necessary ways of practicing English, bearing in mind the fact that good and thorough practice will eventually form good habits and replace the bad ones. Only by using this complex process wisely will English be spread even farther and used to an even larger degree than it already is. Otherwise, it “would overlook the “creative aspect“ of language use, serve to discourage creation by analogy, kill the spirit of enquiry and isolate the learner from a knowledge of the utterances which represent his achievements“ as Chomsky put it. Bibliography: www.btinternet.com/~ted.power/es10104.html www.btinternet.com/~ted.power/es10104b.html www.btinternet.com/~ted.power/es10105.html www.btinternet.com/~ted.power/es10108.html www.btinternet.com/~ted.power/es10112.html www.btinternet.com/~ted.power/es10308.html www.btinternet.com/~ted.power/es10312.html www.btinternet.com/~ted.power/11all.html www.btinternet.com/~ted.power/11croatian.html www.btinternet.com/~ted.power/11taiwanese.html *** These links existed back in 2007 when this term paper was being written. Instead, it now exists into www.tedpower.co.uk . en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dialects_of_the_English_language en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consonant www.ic.arizona.edu/~lsp/AfricanAmerican English/ Consonant Cluster Reduction
~/Realization of /T/ and /D/ as /t,f/
and /d,v/
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~/Vowel Lowering ~//z/ [d] in Contractions ~/Monophthongization ~/Rlessness www.ic.arizona.edu/~lsp/American Indian English / The Central Diphthong ~/Final Devoicing ~/Deletion of Final Voiced Stops ~/Final [in] [in] ~/Vowel Shift ~/Consonant Cluster Reduction www.ic.arizona.edu/~lsp/British English/ Received Pronunciation (RP) English ~/Cockney English ~/Estuary English (EE) ~/˝Queen's˝ English www.ic.arizona.edu/~lsp/Canadian English/ Phonetics and Phonology www.ic.arizona.edu/~lsp/Chicano English www.ic.arizona.edu/~lsp/Northeast U.S./ General traits ~/Boston English ~/New York English ~/The Northern Cities Shift www.ic.arizona.edu/~lsp/Southern States English/ Southern Vowel Shift ~//z/ [d] in Contractions ~//E/ /I/ before Nasals ~/PostCoronal Glides ~/Vowel Lowering ~/Monophthongization ~/Rlessness ***** Miljan Janković graduated from the University of Niš, Faculty of Philosophy, in 2008; he was granted a scholarship by the Municipality of Zaječar during his studies; he is interested in language studies, translation, seminars, interactive learning, writing and
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research in the field of his profession; he has translated various documents, papers, theses, books; he attended numerous seminars in order to improve his professional skills to make further progress in his career; he has worked in a number of schools which helped him develop strong interpersonal skills and level up his knowhow.
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The Buried Giant , by Kazuo Ishiguro
Reviewed by Snežana Pantelić, MA in English Language and Literature Key words: novel, review, fiction, Kazuo Ishiguro
Kazuo Ishiguro’s seventh novel shows his amazing ability to yet again write a completely different novel from his previous ones and still be Kazuo by exploring the impact of the past, memory and forgetfulness on his characters, their lives and relationships. It is a novel of knights and dragons, pixies and ogres; however, it is not a simple fantasy novel. Deep subjects are submersed in the words and phrases that make the reading enjoyable. The story follows several characters with a shared quest to uplift the mist which veils all memories both dear and those gladly forgotten. Axl and Beatrice, an elderly couple, are eager to show that their love is true and perfect to a boatman who carries people to an island of the dead when the time comes. Memories are essential to prove they hold such devotion.
On their path they meet Wistan, a Saxon warrior, who wants to kill dragon Querig, whose breath causes the mist, so that his people would recall their memories of suffering and start a war against Britons. Sir Gawain, King Arthur’s nephew in postArthurian era, protects the dragon to shield his own guilt and remorse. The choice of what we remember and what we repress defines who we are. Relationships between people are determined by shared memories and events; experiences make us friends or foes. Ishiguro uses his literary genius, he transcends genres and time, and he shows that simple and clear language can convey questions fundamental to life. This book has the capacity to stay with readers for the rest of their lives. It makes you wonder if we should accept all the bad with all the good that our memories comprise. You will admire Ishiguro for his writing and his ideas. However, to love this book you will have to accept some hard truths about life that are conveyed towards the end of the novel. About the author: Kazuo Ishiguro (1954, Nagasaki) is a Japaneseborn British novelist worldwide known for his illustrations of people whose current lives are heavily influenced by their past, their memories, sense of loss and regret, tendency to forget. Two of his novels Remains of the Day (1989) and Never Let Me Go (2005) were adapted into acknowledged films in 2003 and 2010. Some of his other famous works include A Pale View of Hills (1982), The
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Unconsoled (1995) and When We Were Orphans (2000). His latest novel The Buried Giant (2015) is bound to attract similar attention. ٭ ٭ ٭ ٭ ٭ Snežana Pantelić works at the Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications of the Republic of Serbia. She holds an MA in English language and literature from the Faculty of Philology, University of Belgrade, on Memory in Kazuo Ishiguro novels When We Were . Her main interests include reading, watching films, especially Orphans and Never Let me Go those inspired and produced by Marvel and DC Comics, pondering literaturetofilm adaptations and teaching English to young learners. *I certify that I have the right to publish this photo.
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Helping Our Clients Give Good Business Presentations in English Shanthi Cumaraswamy Streat, Freelance Business English Trainer and Owner of English with a Twist , UK Key words: Business English, presentations, expressions
Most of my clients who come to me need to work on their business presentation skills and over the years I’ve seen different approaches to presenting in English. In this article, I’d like to share my experience, observations and language tips of this much needed skill. These moments have been captured and recorded in three posts in my blog, English with a Twist.
This article is a summary of those posts. How to Present in English
I once had a client who wanted to use her week long intensive course to practise a presentation she had to deliver. On the first day of the course, she showed me her slides and the script of her presentation. It had been translated from Spanish and it was full of complex sentences and expressions that would have challenged a proficient user let alone an intermediate learner. (Her level was A2/B1) Her plan was to read from the script to the audience and she wanted me to listen to her and correct her pronunciation along the way. As I see it, there are a number of problems with this approach: 1. Reading from a script will not allow the presenter (our learner) to engage with their audience and give them important eye contact as they are too busy looking at their script and not at the audience. 2. When we read from a script we tend to speak in a monotone which means that our voice lacks intonation and life. This can soon turn the audience off. Only 20% of words are actually 'heard' in a presentation. The remaining 80% is all about the presenter's voice and body language. So we need to work on this 80% and not the 20%. 3. If we are presenting in a language that is not ours and we are reading from a complex text that is far more sophisticated than our actual level of the language, the audience will soon become aware of this knowledge gap. This could put us at a disadvantage,
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especially if we have to answer questions from the audience. The expectation of such questions could also cause us a lot of unnecessary stress. So what can a language learner do to avoid these problems and still give an effective presentation in English? Here are some tips I share with my clients:
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Organise your talk well . Think hard about what you want to tell your audience. The more organised you are, the less stressed you will feel and the clearer the language will be. Use plenty of signposts, for example, Let's recap, I'd like to turn to.., to c onclude . "Tell them what you're going to tell them. Tell them. Then tell them what you told them." (George Bernard Shaw)
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Choose your words carefully . Think of the key words you want your audience to hear and remember. Above all, choose words and sentences that you know and are comfortable using in English. Don't think in your native language. Your audience might understand the business jargon you use in your industry but could you explain that jargon in plain English if you were asked a question?
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Speak slowly and pause as much as you need . Pausing is a great way of adding effect to your presentation but it also gives you that important thinking time before you say the next sentence. If you are unsure about your pronunciation, this pause will help you breathe and say the word more clearly.
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Smile and add some humour to your presentation. You don't have to tell jokes, but smiling is easy and will make your audience follow you more.
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Rehearse, rehearse and rehearse .
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Remember, you are the presentation, not your words so use your voice, body language and personality to give that talk.
Some Useful Presentation Expressions So, the tips are shared. Then comes the language our learners will require such as signposting language
; "to recap" ; "to summarise" ; "to turn (for example, "to move on"
to" and so on); presentation structure; using visuals and using the voice to make an impact
(for example, pauses, sentence stress and intonation ).
One other thing I’ve found extremely helpful is a bank of common expressions that my learner can learn in advance and use in any of their presentations. That way they reduce the amount of thinking time they have to do in a presentation. Simple verbs
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like "make" , "take" , "give" and "do" form the basis of many of these expressions. This idea comes from Mark Powell’s excellent book “Presenting in English”. The expressions are split into the four verb groups and I've highlighted the expression and given examples of how to use them in a sentence. MAKE 1. We've made significant improvements to our invoicing system. 2. This is an area where we're finally starting to make real progress . 3. We've made a major breakthrough in AIDS research. 4. Together we can m ake a real difference t o the way people shop. TAKE 5. Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to take this opportunity to welcome you all to Infosystems. 6. It's vitally important that we take action against illegal drug sales. 7. I'd like to take a few minutes to talk you through last quarter's figures. 8. Of course, it's the innovative companies that consistently take the lead in cancer research that will benefit from this. GIVE 9. I'll begin by giving y ou a n overview of the history of our company. 10. Before I start, I'd like to give you the background t o the work we've been doing in the
last year.
11. This graph will give you an idea of how far we've come in the last few years. 12. I don't want to give you the impression that it's all doom and gloom.
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DO 13. We're extremely proud of the research our R & D team have done. 14. They have been doing some excellent work on the prototype. 15. We recently did a survey and the results were astonishing. 16. You can often do m ore damage to company profits by expanding too quickly. Survival Tactics Our learners have mastered the expressions we’ve given them and yet the unthinkable happens. They panic and go blank. Once again, in Mark Powell's excellent resource book, “Presenting in English“, he says that: "Giving a presentation in a foreign language is a challenge. Concentrate too hard on the facts and you make language mistakes. Concentrate too hard on your English and you get your facts wrong." Does that sound familiar? Let's face it, when we start panicking, we stop thinking in English and slip back into our native language and then it's a real struggle to get back on track. So what can our learners do to handle those moments when it looks like everything is going wrong and they start to panic? Mark says not to panic. Pause. Sort out the problem and continue. Easier said than done, I hear you say. I agree but I think the key here is to pause, take a deep breath and start again. Mark gives 8 of the most common problems people face and shows how you can deal with them. The headline I give you is what you're THINKING and the answer is what you can SAY to get out of the problem.
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1. I've got my facts wrong! " Sorry, what I meant is this .........." 2. Too fast! Go back. So, let's just recap on that. 3. I've forgotten to say something! Sorry, I should just mention one thing. 4. Too complicated! Make it simple. So, basically what I'm saying is this ...... 5. I'm talking nonsense! Sorry, perhaps I didn't make myself clear. 6. How do you say this in English? Sorry, what's the word/expression I'm looking for? (the audience is always willing to help) 7. Wrong! Try again. Let me rephrase that. 8. I'm running out of time! So, just to give you the main points here. I always say to my clients that if you have to give presentations in English, you MUST take the time to practise the presentation out loud using some of the above expressions. The more they practise these expressions together with their presentation, the more confident they will feel. I’d love to know what you think.
Reference: M Powell, 2002, “Presenting in English“, Heinle Cengage Learning
***** Shanthi Cumaraswamy Streat graduated in Politics and International Studies from the University of Southampton, UK in 1989. After 20 years in the world of Finance in such varied fields as life assurance, stockbroking, fund management, and wealth management, she decided to retrain as an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) Trainer.
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She studied for the CELTA at International House, London in 2009 and has since been a freelance English Language Trainer specialising in teaching adults both General and Business English. She teaches online and offline through her home stay full immersion courses. She is based in South East London, UK. She has her own blog and business, English with a Twist.
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REPORT ON THE 13th ELTA Serbia Conference “A Taste of 21st Century Teaching” Thank you, RELO Budapest! Sandra Vasković, Secondary school for mechanical and electrical engineering Bor, Primary school ‘Stanoje Miljković’ Brestovac, Technical school Bor, Serbia Key words: ELTA conference, report
I was pleasantly surprised when I heard that RELO Budapest has offered to sponsor some of th the teachers from Serbia for the 13 ELTA Conference in Belgrade and even more surprised
when I was informed that I was one of them. st This year’s topic was particularly interesting to me: Teaching English in the 21 century. We, as
teachers, must constantly learn and relearn everything we need to know in order to keep up with the challenges of the fastpaced world around us and this conference offered all of this. There was something for everyone. Plenary talks had a more general tone and all speakers were interesting and engaging. The workshops I attended were very useful, as well. There were a lot of interesting talks and workshops, but these are the ones I would like to single out. Deborah Healey talked about the intelligent use of technology in classroom and emphasized that this was the Internet age and that our learners were accustomed to using technology in their lives. As teachers we should help the students enhance and improve their learning in the best possible way. Many specific websites and apps were described, such as Voxopop, iEARN, Five Card Flicker, www.makebeliefscomix.com , Voki, Learn English Kids, Breaking News English, ESLvideo.com, Lesson Writer and many more which could be very useful in the classroom. Rob Dean put some commonly held beliefs under consideration and he tested out whether they could be more helpful for the learner and the teacher. Should we use students’ first language in class, always ensure that the students speak more than the teacher and ask the students to read aloud; those were some of the questions he posed. Pedro Moura spoke about the most effective method of finding our way amid the virtual forest with so many digital resources available. Hugh Dellar talked about technology and principles in language teaching, how teachers should act out on principles of learning and let technology follow those
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principles, but, at the same time they should, also, have parallel nontech solutions. Paul st Dumett mentioned visual literacy as a key 21 century skill. The use of powerful images can
help students to remember language more easily. We were shown how to use photography in order to aid learning and offered some practical examples of teaching activities using photos. The last plenary talk was given by Biljana RadićBojanić and was about developing digital literacies in the English language classroom, a critical view from Serbia: if they are developed and exploited to their full potential, what the conditions in our schools are, how individual elements of digital literacies can be developed in the English language classroom and how important it is to connect primary, secondary and tertiary foreign education in order to achieve best results. Mrs. RadićBojanić gave us examples from her personal life and professional work, and made this topic all the more engaging. I enjoyed learning new activities and being reminded of some I have not used in a while during the sessions. Tamara Verežan and Slađana Sadžakov showed us how we could gamify our entire course in 6 steps. It was like being part of a game, playing it, getting awards, points and ranks and enjoying it. It was fun! Danka Kezunović reminded us that learning does not have to be serious, and, if there is laughter and fun there can also be learning. We had a demonstration of readytouse classroom games which provide intense and meaningful practice of language and we had fun while playing them. Gregor Pirš gave us an insight into neuroscience: how do we teach and why? He tried to show how the brain works in different settings, how we can apply this in our classroom and how many elements define second language acquisition. Velina Stojković and Jasmina Mišić talked about multiple intelligences in language learning, a topic which is very interesting and offers to the teacher many possibilities to meet different students’ needs. George Topalis offered a small resource bank of various activities as well as food for thought. All these sessions brought something new or gave a new perspective to what we already knew. I learned a lot. I met many interesting people: some I already knew and some I met then. It was my pleasure to share this year’s conference experience with my colleagues from Bor. And since I work in a number of schools, a multitude of people attended my presentation and I hope that each one of them found something they could use in their classrooms.
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All in all, this was a very useful and, also, very enjoyable conference and I am looking forward to the next one which will, without any doubt, meet everyone’s expectations. ***** Sandra Vasković works as an English teacher in two secondary schools and one primary school in the Borski region. She is always on the lookout for new opportunities to refresh her knowledge on the subject of ELT.
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2015
eTwinning Seminar in Hamburg eTwinning Seminar for Teachers Working at Schools in Disadvantaged Areas 21-23 May, 2015
Biljana Pipović Gimnazija “Stevan Jakovljević”, Vlasotince 5/23/2015 33
Introduction into eTwinning www.etwinning.net is the community for schools in Europe. eTwinning offers a platform for staff (teachers, head teachers, librarians...) working in a school in one of the European countries involved, to communicate, collaborate, develop projects, share and, in short, feel and be part of the most exciting learning community in Europe. eTwinning is aimed at all educational levels prior to University. All areas, subjects and occupational families in Nursery, Primary and Secondary education can participate in the eTwinningprogramme. Teachers from all participating countries (35! + 6) can register and use the eTwinning online tools (the Portal and the Desktop) to find each other, meet virtually, exchange ideas and practice examples, team up in Groups, learn together in Learning events and engage in online-based projects. Collaboration can be within the same subject or cross-curricular through the use of ICT. Partners can work on any topic they wish to work on. Project should have a good balance of ICT use and classroom activities, and should preferably fit into the national curricula of the schools participating in the project. eTwinning includes some remarkable success stories of creativity and innovation in action. eTwinning shows that contact between schools and teachers in Europe is incredibly beneficial to the people involved – education is a key building-block in our society and contact between people in the European neighbourhood helps us develop intercultural understanding and friendships.
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I am an eTwinner. I have been one since 2011. I heard for it from a friend of a friend and was just a visitor at that time. Now I am one of 310,377 teachers doing 41,143 projects, working in 140,286 schools from 35 countries taking part in eTwinning! I am both a founder of two projects and a partner in many. eTwinning is all about connecting and communicating. It is a means of sharing good practices. It is good for the teachers because of professional development and good for the students as it supports language learning and developing media literacy by using ICT in education thus increasing motivation. eTwinning is also about teaching, experimenting with new methods of teaching, new technologies and new ways of performing traditional tasks. It is training on the web and in real life all over Europe. eTwinning is now a major force in European education because it is easy. The process is simple: you sign up for involvement on the European Portal at www.etwinning.net. There you find a partner, develop a project idea or use a ready-made project kit and start working immediately. From there, you can then use the collaborative platform offered for free by the Portal (the TwinSpace) to conduct your work. You may also get the opportunity to attend the annual eTwinning Conference or a Professional Development Workshop with other European teachers. You can enter your project for the annual eTwinning Prize and also enter your work for consideration for a Quality Label, which recognises that your work is of the highest professional level. In any case, it all starts with you. First, you have to recognise the opportunities and benefits that are possible in this approach to working. Sometimes you will find them yourself by reflecting on the way you teach, on the didactical tools you use and how you would like to improve both. Other times, you recognise possibilities by listening to a presentation at a conference or workshop you have attended. As soon as you have recognised the benefits, you can then start to look for possibilities to include this kind of approach into your own teaching. What could be easier?
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Benefits from project work In project work, quality is always a very important issue. Often, when project work is discussed, people say, “Oh, it is play time again; it has to be fun for the students, they have to be entertained.� These comments can sometimes imply that project work is not perceived as serious or as valuable as other kinds of cooperative work. By setting aims and goals which are related to your curriculum, and by introducing all the items you normally use in your day to day teaching, both students and colleagues will start to take project work more seriously and consider it as an integral part of teaching and learning. I believe that in history many enlightened teachers used project work even though they did not call it that way. According to Tom Hutchinson, a great promoter of project work, “Each project is a result of a lot of hard work. The authors of the projects have found information about their topic, and put all the parts together to form a coherent presentation. Project work is not a soft option." Projects are creative and they are creative in two aspects: content and language. Each project is a unique piece of communication. The aspect of creativity makes the project very personal. Teachers should not forget that their students invested a lot of themselves into their work. The choice of activities is not limited and each topic can be adapted for the specific purposes of a particular group of learners. Project work is often seen as a method which naturally increases the motivation of students. Tom Hutchinson adds: "If I could give only one piece of advice to teachers it would be this: Get your learners to enjoy learning English. Positive motivation is the key to successful language learning, and project work is particularly useful as a means of generating this positive motivation." From a motivational perspective, projects being authentic tasks, are more meaningful to students, increase interest, motivation to participate, and can promote learning. Enjoyment and motivation also stem from the fact that classroom language is not predetermined, but depends on the nature of the project. How many times did we ask ourselves as students: What do I learn this for? When will I use these words? Often, there is a gap between the language the students are taught and the language they in fact require. It is this gap that project work can help to bridge. If learners are going to become real language users, they must learn that English is not only used for talking about things British and American, but can be used to talk about their own world. Because students engage in purposeful communication to complete authentic activities, they have the opportunity to use language in a relatively natural context and participate in meaningful activities which require authentic language use.
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One of the major advantages of project work is that it makes school more like real life. It is an indepth investigation of a real-world topic worthy of children’s attention and effort. It is known that children have various learning styles. They build their knowledge on varying backgrounds and experiences. It is also recognized that children have a broader range of capabilities than they have been permitted to show in regular classrooms with the traditional approach to teaching and learning. Project work addresses these differences because students must use different skills in the process of researching and solving a problem, then communicating the solutions. When children are interested in what they are doing and are able to use their areas of strength, they achieve at a higher level.
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Benefits of eTwinning projects * Greater motivation as students want to share ideas and work with pupils in partner schools in other countries. * A greater understanding of the lives and cultures of other people, including class mates from different countries. * Improved performance and quality of work, because learning has a real purpose. * Improved academic achievements. * Improved literacy skills. * Development of lifelong skills, such as teamwork, cooperation and independent learning skills. * Improved communications skills * Improved ICT skills for both students and teachers. * Improved language skills for both students and teachers. * Effective professional development for teachers as pedagogy and skills are shared. * Teaching becomes easier as students are more motivated and more productive. For example, homework is completed better.
Now that you know more, register for eTwinning and become a member of the fastest growing community of dedicated practitioners in education available in Europe today.
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My eTwinning Project Plan Sample DIFFERENT. STILL THE SAME. The essence of the project is to make students aware of the importance of diversity because diversity provides our society and culture with unique and inspirational perspectives; to promote friendships, multiculturalism (like a tool for instilling students with pride and confidence in their unique and special backgrounds), empathy, respect and equality; to enable young people to build their confidence, gain new skills and take on responsibilities; to develop a positive perception of students’ personalities by demonstrating knowledge about the culture, history, and contributions of diverse groups. Subjects: Art, Citizenship, Cross Curricular, Drama, Foreign Languages, Geography, History, History of Culture, Informatics / ICT, Language and Literature, Music, Religion, Social Studies / Sociology Languages: EN Pupil's age: 15 - 18 Tools to be used: Chat, e-mail, Forum, MP3, Other software (PowerPoint, video, pictures and drawings), Project Diary, Twinspace, Web publishing Aims: To have a greater awareness of each others' countries and cultures, accept each other the way we are, thus overcoming prejudices and learning how to appreciate and cherish the differences. Work process: Task I Participants introduce themselves (they are encouraged to do it in a creative way) Task II Preparing questionnaires in order to find out more about each other (what we know and what we would like to know about our partner’s country) Task III Exchanging questionnaires Task IV Analyzing the questionnaires and preparing presentations to provide answers to point raised using different IT tools Task V Art projects to explore response to presentations, exploring other country’s culture (end products to be sent to a partner school and displayed (a picture, a photo album, a collage, puppets, DVDs etc.) Expected results: Students will have investigated their culture, religion, tradition and lifestyle through language, verbal and non-verbal communication and they are able to share the facts about life in their country related to history, biology, art, culture, literature, religion. Students will have produced and exchanged PowerPoint presentations, cartoons and videos with their partner schools to present their findings (subjects: art, ICT, citizenship, English). Students will have learned with their peers using the internet in and outside school and regular classes. In order to complete the tasks assigned, they will have taken part in group work, research projects and interviews with people both during lessons and in their free time. Students will have learnt a great life lesson that no matter how different, we are still basically the same - citizens of the world.
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Biljana Pipović is an enthusiastic English teacher, born in Leskovac, studied in Niš, employed at Gimnazija ’Stevan Jakoljević’ in Vlasotince, Serbia with working experience of 18 years. She has also been working as a language instructor in private schools for ten years teaching teenagers and adults of all language levels, both general and Business English. Since 2006 she has been a mentor to talented students, the members of the Regional Talents’ Center in Vranje and four times award winner at the Republic Competition for Talented Youth. She is the author and a teacher trainer of three seminars recognized as a form of professional development by the Ministry of Education in Serbia. Her present interests include teaching FCE, CAE and CPE exam classes, using project based learning to develop students’ key competences, international school projects, eTwinning projects, and working with gifted students in a mixed-ability classroom; also interested in voluntary work and organizing charity events. When not teaching, Biljana enjoys reading books and researching where next to travel.
* I certify I have the right to publish these photos.
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SO(u)L Camp Serbia 2015 Sremski Karlovci “Rivers, ripples and reflections” Branka Dečković, English language teacher at Medical School, Kragujevac
Key words: teacher training, SOL
Biljana, a girl from Macedonia, one of the participants at this year’s SOuL camp (who will later be known among the campers as a girl “with the smiling eyes”) said to me while we were dancing the last night away – “When I received the prize at ELTAM conference (and the prize was – SOuL camp), Grenville (director of SOL) told me “It is going to be a lifechanging experience for you.” Now I understand what he was talking about!” “Rivers, ripples and reflections” was the title of this year’s SOuL camp in Sremski Karlovci. There were 18 participants from 11 countries (Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Albania, Slovakia, Hungary, Russia, Romania, Greece and Great Britain). Eco center "Radulovacki" was once again our home for a week.
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We didn’t spend much time indoors. It was all very well planned, with many excursions, some of them in Sremski Karlovci, some of them to Novi Sad, Zrenjanin, Belo Blato, and an island on the Danube. We were exploring places and with exploring places, we dag deeply into our own selves. Ourselves as teachers, ourselves as human beings. We were learning about how we can teach our students, not only English, but, history, geography, biology, literature, philosophy – and use English as a tool in doing so. This course is not about readymade activities that one could use straight away in the classroom, this course is about ideas, creativity, philosophy of teaching and learning, getting to know yourself as a teacher through constant reflection, connecting to likeminded people, creating bondages and acting together. Creating ripples, making difference, taking small but significant steps and making changes. This is what makes SOuL camps a lifechanging experience. And the people. Grenville, Mark, Vladica, Sanja. Grenville, who is the founder of SOL, and who believed in this from the moment when it was only an idea. Mark, who gives his heart and soul, shares all his knowledge and experience and inspires everyone who gets to meet him. Vladica, the wisest woman I’ve ever met, great teacher and storyteller. Finally, Sanja, who organizes everything, and is the calmest and most patient person ever. Let’s not forget the teachers who participated in the camp, each and every one of them unique and special in their own way. I would like to finish this short account by quoting one of the teachers from the camp, Natalia Belusova, from Russia. This is her second time in Sremski Karlovci SOuL camp. She put beautifully into words what SOuL camp is all about. She said, Branka this morning I was thinking how yoga waves reshape our body. First “Doing yoga with you feel like a wooden door and hardly manage to force your limbs into a few individual positions feeling happy you haven't fallen down... Gradually with a bit of practising, your arms, legs and
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back suddenly meet each other halfway, rhythms synchronise, and your whole body starts working in unison with your mind... Yesterday, when we were disturbing smooth waters of the Danube with our welltravelled pebbles, I felt the same. Waves and ripples immediately reshape a huge powerful river mixing layers of water and revealing what's hidden on the bottom. It came to my mind that as teachers we should cause those individual ripples disturbing the solid and seemingly immovable educational system. If more and more ripples appear, they won't remain unseen.”
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https://soulcampkarlovci.wordpress.com/ , where you can find some beautiful posts written by Mike Harrison and Barbara Bujitas. ***** Branka Dečković has been teaching English for 11 years. She works in Medical School in Kragujevac. She loves teaching teenagers and learning from them. * *I certify that I have the right to publish these photos.
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Inclusive learning and learners who learn differently David Crabtree, founder of AchieveAbility, an education expert on neurodiversity and learning differences Key words: inclusive education, learning, cognition, learning differences
Introduction This article discusses pedagogy for language teachers and other educationalists who wish to develop inclusive classrooms. Inclusive education means different things to different people. For me, it means that classrooms are places where every child feels they belong, every child learns and every child reaches their potential. Becoming inclusive requires changes in how we do things. It also requires effort, planning, resources and knowledge. This article looks at how knowledge about learning, cognition and learning differences can help us plan our lessons. Learning differences All children learn in different ways. Over the past 30 years scientists have been able to study the brain using a range of realtime approaches. One thing that they have discovered is that language learning uses different regions of the brain. These regions are located across the two hemispheres of the brain; in the left hemisphere and in the right hemisphere. When we teach any aspect of language, we require our learners to make use of a number of different internal cognitive pathways within each hemisphere and across both hemispheres whilst, at the same time, holding relevant information gained from this internal processing in a holding zone to be reconstituted into whatever is required. Although there are many similarities from one learner to another in how this process operates, there is also a sizeable number of those who process language using different combinations of neural pathways and zones. A simple example of this is the letter d. The name of the letter d is located in the left hemisphere whilst the sound and the shape that we give to this letter is located in the right. The word ‘dad’ requires the brain to connect the ‘d’ the name of the consonant, the correct shaped symbol, the sound ‘d’, and the meaning within the context. All this
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needs to be recognised, correctly ascribed, put together and given meaning. Different parts of the brain each come into play to make this happen. In any human population, different people process aspects of language in different ways. About 15% of learners process language and the aspects of language using different neural pathways and different parts of the brain from the majority. For such learners, taking our previous example, if the consonant identity (d) and the sound/symbol relationship are not effectively linked, ‘d’ may not always be effectively associated with the phoneme d; or, the letter ‘d’ may not always look the same i.e. it could be ‘b’ or even ‘p’. For learners who process language in such a way to be successful in the classroom requires teachers to include methodologies in their teaching that are inclusive and enable such learners to acquire the necessary language skills. Inclusiveness in this context is to recognize the different ways of learning and adapt teaching appropriately. It is not just the name/identitysound/symbol relationships that needs to traverse the hemispheres. Word and meaning, grammar and speech, details and narrative all need to link to each other in order to be a successful language learner. Such linking requires cognitive operations such as speed of processing, visual discrimination and auditory discrimination. Testing for these is part of what an Educational Psychologist does to identify Dyslexia, Dyspraxia, A(D)HD, Dyscalculia and other neurodiversities. Similarly, Speech and Language experts look at these areas when assessing for receptive and/or expressive language difficulties. For language learning and the development of spelling, grammar, reading and writing, differences in these areas are a disadvantage because traditional methods of teaching have not taken into account neural processing differences. Inclusive education Inclusive education requires that classrooms change and adapt according to the needs of the child. Because many children learn differently, classroom teaching needs to enable such children to achieve. My experience has been that by making the necessary adjustments in teaching to accommodate the way those who learn differently learn increases the achievement of all pupils. Inclusive education is about all children learning
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and reaching their potential. Multisensory teaching How can we do this? Multisensory and childcentred approaches enable children to learn in the way that their brain processes information. Using visual, tactile, kinaesthetic and auditory approaches all linked to the topic of the lesson is an important way of being inclusive for learners who learn differently as well as livening up our lessons and making them more interesting for all. Let us return to our letter ‘d’. Some children who learn differently, although not successful at creating name/identitysound/symbol relationships, may be more successful at shape/identity feeling/sound relationship in which the shape is a felt (tactile) or experienced (kinaesthetic) thing. Multisensory teaching uses tactile and kinaesthetic ways to reinforce learning alongside the auditory sound and visual symbol. Multisensory approaches enable learners who learn differently to make good use of their strengths in other areas – it opens up brains to make them learning receptive. The importance of working memory As well as adopting multisensory approaches we also need to manage the ‘holding and reconstituting’ mechanism. Ensuring that every lesson is jam packed with sensory input opens up the ‘superhighway’ into the neural pathways of the brain, and this ‘learning traffic’ then needs to be managed. The mechanism that holds the information in the brain from both hemispheres and reconstitutes it into whatever is required is working memory. Working memory is the single most important part of cognition operating during any lesson. Working memory is an extension of short term memory. It temporarily holds information relating to just a few current thoughts at any one time. Working memory is a time limited memory; different people have different amounts of working memory capacity. All of us have a biologically fixed capacity for working memory. This difference in capacity is due to the nerve impulses in the brain that control working memory shutting down at slightly different rates from one person to another. It is akin to other physical differences such as height and body shape. A consequence of this neurodiversity is that some people have
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a capacity to hold more information in working memory and for a longer period of time than others. Such capacity is independent of intelligence. Working memory does a number of things. It is that part of cognition that we use to complete a task. It is the hereandnow functioning part of thinking. It also prepares information and links this to stored knowledge to create longterm learning memories. Inefficient transfer to longterm memory is caused by the premature closing down of the “packaging” function of working memory before the new knowledge has had the opportunity to locate a ‘hook’ into existing longterm memory. Going ‘offtask’ in a lesson is also a feature of working memory closing down or becoming overloaded and ‘losing’ bits of information. The brain is efficient at learning, designed to store only what is important. It is also good at clearing out clutter. Forgetting and discarding are equally as important aspects of cognition to functions of remembering and storing. Often, as teachers, we are unaware about the brain functions relating to “dumping” – or filtering out – information. Some learners are very efficient at strategic thinking. Their cognitive processes are more tuned into intuitive thinking. Such thinkers, and those who think ‘outside the box’, are highly sought after in industry, commerce and public services. Having a relatively small capacity for working memory is linked to intuitive thinking, strategic thinking, original thought and creative skills. In the world outside the classroom, individuals with relatively smaller amounts of working memory demonstrate excellent skills in these areas. In the classroom we want pupils to hold onto information yet the brain is efficient at shedding. What can we do? Children in the classroom, and even adult learners, are unaware that the working memory capacity has been overstretched and that the brain is now quickly shedding and dumping. Something else quickly fills the void and it is impossible to regain what has been dumped without working memory being fully reactivated. Working memory loss is
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not a temporary thing. Going “offtask” in class or not remembering the topic of the lesson is not a willful act, rather it is working memory doing what, for that child, comes naturally. Smaller working memory capacity features in all neurodiversities including dyslexia, dyspraxia, A(D)HD, Autistic Spectrum, and Tourette’s Syndrome. Smaller working memory capacity plus differences in the relative speed of neural processing and an inefficiency of communication across the temporal lobes of the brain together create the differences in cognition associated with classroom learning difficulties. So what changes should we make? Well, the first is to our own mindset. Children who go “offtask” or forget, or do the wrong thing, do so not because they are being willful, but because we have not managed their working memory effectively. Managing working memory requires planning, preparation and evaluation. Lesson planning Planning needs to take into account the importance of working memory and building into the lesson a number of ways to control and support working memory. One example of classroom management of working memory is the ‘laminated thumb’. You simply ask each pupil to use the thumb to demonstrate how they are proceeding. If they are not sure what to do, what is going on, or where they are in the activity, they simply change it to ‘thumbs down’. The ‘laminated thumb’ is your way of keeping in touch with every pupil about how they are progressing. Like any teaching method, this requires a proper introduction so that pupils become proficient in how it operates. If this approach is new to you, you will need to learn how to use it to organise and keep track of the working memory function of the pupils in your class. Similarly, ‘scaffolding’ helps this management of learning because it reduces the possibilities for shut down by reducing the load on working memory and enabling the learner to focus on the task. Signposting and supporting each stage of learning provides those learners most likely to
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go “offtask” with a clear stepbystep route map. Ensuring that there is a clear link between what is being taught and what the learner already knows provides a hook for neural pathway connections. The hook into what is already known links the lesson into an existing cluster already established in long term memory. By making this link and reinforcing the hook, the pupil remembers and the subject matter of the lesson is available for retrieval when required. In these, and many other ways, successful teachers can make good use of the insights into cognition to develop inclusive classrooms. References Alloway TP, Alloway RG (2010). "Investigating the predictive roles of working memory and IQ in academic attainment". Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 80 (2): 606–21. Atkinson, R. C., & Shiffrin, R. M. (1968). Chapter: Human memory: A proposed system and its control processes. In Spence, K. W., & Spence, J. T. The psychology of learning and motivation (Volume 2). New York: Academic Press. pp. 89–195. Baddeley, A.D. (2000). "The episodic buffer: a new component of working memory?". Trends in Cognitive Science 4: 417–423. Baddeley, A.D. (2007). Working memory, thought and action. Oxford: Oxford University Press Cowan, N., & Alloway, T.P. (2008). The development of working memory. In N. Cowan (Ed). Development of Memory in Childhood, 2nd edition, pp. 303–342. Hove, England: Psychology Press Crabtree, D. (2006), AchieveAbility Interventions: A Framework for Whole Class Learning drawn from SpLD Work, AchieveAbiliy Network and University of Westminster Crabtree, D. (2008), East of England ‘Train the Trainers Project’ Research report, AchieveAbility Network
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Gathercole, S.E. & Alloway, T.P. (2012). Working memory and learning: A practical guide for teachers. London: Sage. ***** David Crabtree is an education expert on neurodiversity and learning differences with over 30 years experience in schools and colleges. His impact upon education and special educational needs in the UK has been in teacher training developing approaches to inclusive learning and whole class teaching. His current work, ‘Cognition, learning and learning differently; doing it with the whole class’, is a best practice project for the DyslexiaSpLD Trust. As a founder of AchieveAbility, a UK Higher Education Funding Council project, he was responsible for the groundbreaking publication, ‘AchieveAbility Interventions: A Framework for Whole Class Learning'. This was launched at the House of Commons, Westminster, in December 2005.
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Kids of Challenging Behavior – Challenge Accepted! Nevena Stoilkov, English teacher at primary school “Milisav Nikolić”, Boževac, Serbia Key words: challenging behavior, classroom atmosphere, attitude, bonding
Every teacher had the opportunity to encounter a child of challenging behavior in his career. I had the privilege as soon as I started working. As a young and inexperienced teacher, I found myself in a horribly difficult situation. I had a couple of students who made my life miserable. I couldn’t cope with them, reach them or find a solution to the problem. I was feeling sick at the very thought of going to work. At that point, the students were in charge in the classroom, not me. That year, I was deeply rethinking my profession. Am I capable of doing this? It lasted for a year, but then I realized I had to take an action, so I said “Enough!” Armed with strong will and patience, I decided to take a closer look at those kids, to analyze both them and their behavior, and ultimately come to the solution of the problem. By observing them, I found out they all share some common characteristics. They do not participate in work, they don’t do homework, they are restless, rebellious and often disrespectful. Most of all, they want to be in the centre of attention all the time which they succeed by amusing other kids in the classroom. That’s what we see from the outside. But the real question is: what’s hidden beneath that kind of behavior? What we cannot see is usually of emotional nature. Most of those children actually come from disharmonious families or live with one or without both parents. They crave for attention and love which they don’t get from their families. As a result, they try to draw the attention to themselves in any possible way, although that often leads them to different problems. After several incidents they are involved in, we somehow label them as “the always guilty ones”. That kind of teachers’ attitude leads the kids to even deeper and bigger dissatisfaction and also to much greater problems. So, they become even more rebellious and aggressive. What can we do?
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While writing this, I have few of my students in my mind.They all fit in the description given above. By observing them closely, I realized they do not react positively when being criticized or warned. The more I criticize them, the more rebellious they become. So I had to change my approach. After several unsuccessful attempts, I decided to try the tactic of “being a friend”. It includes several items which I find most important when working with kids of challenging behavior. 1. First of all, include them in any kind of work This is good for several reasons: 1) they are focused on the task and have no time to amuse others; 2) you give them the opportunity to be really in the centre of the attention, but to the satisfaction of all present; 3) the more they practice, the more they know. 2. Praise them Do this every time they do something well! It will make them willing to try something else in the hope of being appreciated again. If you praise them, they will also learn to honour both themselves and others more. 3. Encourage them Even if they sometimes say they don’t know how to do a task,or they do not want to, encourage them to at least try. Give them an extra explanation on how it should be done, encourage them to link the previously acquired knowledge, and help them finish the task. 4. Let them express themselves Give them the opportunity of expressing their thoughts and opinions. Again, they will be in the centre of the attention, but in a constructive way. If they participate in a discussion, it is to the benefit of all. 5. Talk to them as a friend Whenever you have extra time, talk to them about things unrelated to school. Show respect and understanding about their small and big problems. Don’t attack them verbally if they make a mistake, but calmly try to explain what they did wrong and how to make it right. This way, you build a strong bond between the two of you based on trust, and that’s what these kids really need. Following these steps, an amazing shift in their behavior has been made. These kids are now much more devoted to work. It often happens that, when they first finish a task, they come to me
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and say “I’ve finished. Can you take a look and see if everything is ok?” Then, we analyse the answers together, and I give them additional guidelines if necessary. Since they are so focused on participating in the classroom, they are not so restless and rebellious as they were at the beginning. They now feel comfortable in the classroom, as well as others, including me. To sum up, do not let the outside fool you. Dig deeper and you will find wonderful kids’ spirit waiting to be discovered. Let the spirit come to the light! ***** Nevena Stoilkov has graduated from the University of Kragujevac, Serbia in 2011. She has worked as an English teacher since 2011. She is interested in teaching English to young learners and working with children of challenging behavior.
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Facts You Need to Know about Language Translation Albert Brown, Translation Excellence Inc. Key words: translation, interpretation, CAT, Computer Aided Translation, business
Language translation essentially involves the process of translating text or words from one language into another. With the integration of global business operations and web conferences, certified translation services are becoming an inevitable part of any business model. Does language translation require expertise? Not anyone who understands or speaks many languages can become a qualified translator or interpreter. Professional language translation requires indepth knowledge of each language with specialized written and communication skills. In Denver, you can qualify, get trained, and acquire special certification from recognized language classes to pursue your career as a language translator or interpreter. There is a basic difference between language translation and interpretation though the objective is one – to be a connecting median between two languages. While language translation facilitates written communication, interpreters do the verbal communication. However, there are experts in Denver that offer certified document and notarized document translation services also. What is the need for language translation? To start with, let’s say a professional translation company offers various services like multilingual formatting, typesetting, subtitling, voiceovers, project management, and several virtual file formats. These will be beneficial for various projects in various fields including: ● Legal translation where legal contract, trial documents, regulations and laws, and various government paper works have to be translated from one language to another. ● Technical translation where translation of documentation, operational and maintenance manuals, education materials, CAD drawings, manufacturing methods, etc. are required. ● Business translation where there has to be elegant and expert translation of business correspondence and contracts, annual reports and various marketing materials.
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● Website translation where a website has to be offered in the targeted regional language to highlight your global presence. ● Document translation where various business, individuals, educational institutions and government agencies require document translations for communicating with their respective prospects. ● Certified translation where birth certificates, marriage certificates, school transcripts, etc. require to be translated and presented to immigration authorities, educational institutions or foreign governments. Technology for Language Translation In addition to hiring expert language translators, certified translation services are equipped with high technology software tools like CAT (use Computer Aided Translation) and various design tools to aid them with the accuracy and presentation of the original documents. They also have databases and tools to reduce costs and the time involved. Industry and Pricing There are several translation services and other places but we know myths & facts about translation service. There are many who practice as freelancers. The price and services differ based on the project size, the tools used, the type and amount of documents and languages involved. Most professional services use Computer Aided Translation or CAT software and other related tools to handle huge projects. Identifying the best translation Company in Aurora or Denver or wherever you require is the most ideal choice to save time and money while getting topnotch translation services. ***** Albert Brown is fond of reading about different cultures and traditions being followed across the world. He loves visiting new places and learning different languages. Reading and writing about the importance of language and its variations is something that keeps him busy during my free time. Working with Translation Excellence Inc., he has come across many essential facts about the necessity of language training and translation.
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Our Business Social Media Profiles: Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/TranslationExcellence Twitter : https://twitter.com/TranslationEx Google Plus : https://plus.google.com/+TranslationExcellenceIncAurora/posts Linkedin : https://www.linkedin.com/company/translationexcellence
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Braving the Venus (Aleksandar Avramović, student of Faculty Philology, University of Belgrade) We contemplate upon awful things, We hate to admit, When dressed in black, the devil sings, With the shrieking cry that stings, Thereby the stinger carves a crack, From whence it leaks and seeps, As that part of the psyche which gently creeps, Starts to crave, With dark desires that so deeply engrave, Upon the mind's brim, That which our sightseeings dim: "Venus, surely, is a thing to brave! Either that, or becoming a slave!" Yet with the clouded gauge, How often do we with the shadows engage? There is a thing to know, When such things start to root and grow: The war started, anew, And in the fortress unguarded, Who could survive, but a few?
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***** Aleksandar Avramović is a student of English language and literature at the Faculty of Philology, University of Belgrade. His interests include music, poetry, philosophy, Jungian psychology and all forms of art . Initially lured into the world of poetry by Blake's work, he went on to seek inspiration in the freedom of perception, thus projecting his vision by penning the invoked states of mind.
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The end is not near it's here! By Ana Đorđević and Katarina Vozić IV2, School of Pharmacy and Physiotherapy, Belgrade Key words: graduation, speech
Dear classmates and teachers, When we first started writing this speech we knew that our love and appreciation can’t fit onto one page. But we’ll most certainly try to share one little piece of it with you. They say that without saying goodbye we wouldn’t know how much we love the ones who we’re saying goodbye to. Looking back on the years we’ve spent together and all the things we’ve gone through we realize how painful this goodbye really is. st It is1 September 2011. We see 22 scared faces walking into our class, and we start to relax because we know we all feel the same way. Scared but excited, not knowing what would happen, let alone what an impact it would have on our lives.
These past four years have been a roller coaster. Getting to know each other, learning how beautiful and important variety really is, we’ve grown up so much. Life itself was unfair and hard sometimes, but by being there for each other we made the best of it First great loves, and then losses, wandering through high school, trying to find yourself, and without noticing, finally finding what we were looking for in the people we love. The confusion makes sense now. All the drama and unnecessary worries about our grades, or what to wear, or seeing our crush in school hallways seem so childish, yet so sweet now. Those are the memories that will always make us smile. We anticipated so many Fridays and holidays without school that now we want this end to last forever. We’ve left so many words unsaid, so many plans unfinished. It’s not enough, guys. Why stop now when we have a lifetime to fulfill our gaps? With that in mind, we say goodbye to a chapter in our lives but not to the people who surround us. Just think how lucky we are to have something that makes saying goodbye so difficult. So let’s slowly sink into our future, filled with memories of the past, remembering the tears and smiles we shared. We have a whole new chapter in front of us, just like we did four years ago. So don’t be scared because the last time you were scared it turned out to be great! ***** Katarina Vozić and Ana Đorđević graduated from the Secondary School of Pharmacy and Physiotherapy in Belgrade, Serbia, in May 2015. Both of them were outstanding, talented and inspiring students to their teacher. In short, they were a joy to teach!
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Teaching multigrade classes at the beginning of your career Jovana Stevanović, Primary School “Brekovo” Key words: multigrade classes, stress, class management, tips and tricks, achieving goals, positive attitude
Introduction The term “multigrade classes” refers to classes that may consist of students in grades one to four taught by one teacher who is supposed to teach more than one curriculum simultaneously. Those types are usually found in rural or remote communities as a consequence of population decline. Teachers are sometimes not aware that they are going to teach in such a school before entering the classroom. Two and a half years ago, I entered the classroom and what I saw were two blackboards, eleven students, and frowning faces. The very moment I realized that the sad students who did not want to accept a new teacher again were in grades from one to four including preschool students. I was shocked and I started to panic. But, the only thing I was thinking about was to make them happy and smile so we could begin learning English, which had been my mission since I entered the university. I realized that we had not been prepared for such a shock during our university methodology courses as they were based upon working in a singlegrade classroom. As it can be incredibly stressful especially if one lacks experience, I find it important to introduce the readers to some tips and tricks showing some examples how to organize the classes, achieve the goals and stay positive as if you were teaching a singlegrade. As every student is different, the teacher is supposed to respect everyone’s needs although there is no adequate training for this kind of teaching. But the moment when you accept the shock as a challenge is the crucial one. Classroom management One of the most important things is classroom management including both the arrangement of the physical environment and organizing students’ learning environment. For instance, before every class, the teacher is supposed to consider the use of multimedia and make a sitting plan, as well as inform the students during the break so they would have enough time to prepare for their class. During my classes, I use two CD players with an extension cord, a mobile phone, headphones and a laptop. As I have only two sockets, I need to use the electricity wisely and to make various reorganizations depending on the aim of the class. The headphones are used by the grades with one or two students but those students are more often controlled. This kind of organization provides an opportunity to develop leadership and cooperative skills of the students and enables highly individualized teaching that should be well prepared. What is most challenging is that the teacher needs to be concentrated on fortyfive minutes of multitasking. It is imperative that the books are chosen
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very carefully as they need to be interesting for the students and contain a lot of audio materials almost for every exercise, song or text. In addition, the teachers should produce their own materials and use them as they can face lack of learning materials or facilities such as photocopier, paper, pencils, CD players or laptops. Schools in rural areas are usually not well equipped There is no internet. It is very common that there is no electricity or it just stops in the middle of the class so that the teacher needs to have “an emergency situation plan”. Besides, you need to be prepared that the CD player stops working properly and that you may face various technical problems right before or in the middle of the class. It is very useful to have some additional materials always ready to distribute and to keep your mobile phone and a laptop, if you were lucky enough to have one, always charged. After a few months of working, the students will start assisting and they will help you organize and pack quickly after your class. They know the procedure and they become very independent. What is also crucial for effective learning is that students must follow previously set behavioral rules and they feel more comfortable and secure. Thus, the students must know what kind of behavior is acceptable. The rules must be set at the beginning and the teachers must be consistent. Moreover, the focus should be more on those students behaving well because if the focus is on those who misbehave, they will misuse it and try to attract the teacher’s attention all the time. Teacher’s job is to help students, and they must have positive attitude to school. Achieving goals using various techniques and strategies As there is no adequate training for teaching in such conditions, teachers are supposed to learn in real contexts, and they should become active learners, problem solvers, and innovators. Working in a multigrade class from the beginning, I have realized that various teaching techniques which facilitate both the teaching and learning process can be applied. Some of them are teacher or studentdirected learning, integrated learning in a group, selfdirected learning and peer tutoring . One of my favourites is peer tutoring where older students teach the younger, or faster learners help the slower ones within a group or even let the younger students “teach” the older ones to boost their motivation. In the following paragraphs, those very useful and time saving strategies are being discussed along with their drawbacks. Teacherdirected learning The teacher is the center of this activity and the one organizing and managing the class, but there are only fortyfive minutes, up to four different curricula and up to eleven different students in the classroom. Students should cooperate and there must be a positive attitude and atmosphere because all of them rely on their teacher. This strategy is rarely used during
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the entire class, it may happen if the students are doing some project together and it is usually used during warm up or wrap up activities. For instance, movement action songs, storytelling and TPR activities are great as warm up activities. Students love and enjoy them. Younger pupils feel confident because they copy the older ones and they can participate actively. However, a quiz or some activity including competition may sometimes be tricky because there is the age difference and the older students tend to avoid having the younger ones in their team. The teachers should be very careful when they make teams. Studentsdirected learning Studentsdirected learning is the process where individual students or a group of students take the initiative almost with no help of the others. It is not only the process but also the outcome of teachercentered learning because the teacher trains students to recognize the learning goals, use the audiovisual material by themselves and evaluate their work themselves. This is very useful and timesaving as the teachers can dedicate their time to the students who are less independent. It is especially useful at the beginning of the year when the firstgrade students need more time with the teacher as they encounter something new and unfamiliar such as learning a foreign language. Usually, they do not have any prior knowledge about it. Advantages of studentsdirected learning are that students gradually become more independent, responsible and mature. Selfevaluation is present and it is freer as it is not the teacher setting the goals and directing but the students are. On the other hand, some students may feel isolated, so there must be balanced time teacher dedicates to all of them or some students may not cooperate and pretend to work. To avoid such problems, teachers are supposed to be monitoring all the time and show the students that the class is still under the teacher’s control and explain to them why it is important to cooperate. Integrated learning in a group Integrated learning in a group is a process where students in different grades work as one group, in pairs and sometimes individually. For example, the firstgrade students are supposed to interact with the secondgraders, or the firstgraders work with the third graders. Although the textbooks would be one of the main resources, teachers are expected to provide a variety of additional material. Not only is the process time saving, but it is motivating and challenging for students as well. However, as younger students may feel insecure and older students may feel superior, the teachers should pay attention to the planning of the activities to avoid those risks. They know the characters of their own students and they have the role of a facilitator who is monitoring all the time.
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This strategy is the closest to peer tutoring, but the difference is that both grades are learning, and peer tutoring includes one grade revising while the other one is learning new items. Peer tutoring Peer tutoring has been found to be one of the most effective strategies in multigrade classes. Not only does it work well for younger children but it also works great for children with learning disabilities and other special education needs and children from ethnic minorities. Peer tutoring is used to revise concepts which have already been introduced at the beginning of a class or in a previous lesson. If some students finish all the tasks, and it is not necessary to do new activities, it is always good and important to engage them because it is not acceptable if they get bored or feel idle and neglected. There are some variations of peer tutoring: 1 Older teach younger (the thirdgrader teaches the firstgrader) 2 Faster learners helps slower (the same grade) 3 Younger and slower students “teach” older and faster students (to revise more efficiently and to boost their motivation). However, the teacher monitors all the time to avoid possible risks. The advantages of the strategy include timesaving, boosting motivation, developing and strengthening stronger skills, confidence, responsibility among students and it is a very effective way to revise. The most common risk is that “tutors” can become too authoritative and superior, and teachers should be careful and know the character of their students well. Therefore, it is good to explain everyone why they are doing that kind of activity. Explain “the tutors” that they are just older and that does not make them better or superior. Or, if there is a peer tutoring among the same grade students, the teachers should explain that if a student is doing some activity faster, it does not mean that they will do all the activities better. Besides, everybody will have a chance to be a tutor. If there is a bad relationship among students, they may feel rebellious and uncooperative. There is also a risk that parents might show a kind of a protest as they may feel that the teacher avoids teaching and neglects their children, by humiliating them, making the other students better. Furthermore, if their children are “the tutors” they may protest that they waste time helping others, that teachers are misusing them and they will not learn anything new. It may seem trivial but it happens. What is important is to talk to the parents and explain to them why there is a need for such strategy and what the benefits of it for their children are. What should be taken into consideration is the fact that ‘’tutors’’ can lose interest, and their work may suffer if the activity takes too long. Thus, the teachers should consider the time the activity would last
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and challenge the peer tutoring students as they are still the ones helping, encouraging, controlling and monitoring all the activities. So, the goals must be set at the beginning, and the students should be explained that only if there is teamwork the goals will be achieved. They should be told that their success and knowledge will be only visible if their “students” do well at the end of activity when the teacher revises with them. It is very challenging and motivating for “the tutors” and they accept the responsibility. Of course, the teacher does not punish nor reproach students if they are not successful but helps them and makes them feel more secure and confident. What is most important and most motivating is that all the students should be included as “tutors”. Once, the firstgrade students “taught” the fourthgraders the song they had learned, they were so eager about it and everybody enjoyed. The fourth graders found it very amusing and they were great “students” and listeners, especially because there is a student with special needs in the first class who is one of the most motivating, friendliest and most cheerful children. We are trying to make everyone equal and friendship is the only thing that matters. The strategies may vary according to the purpose of a lesson, the ability of your pupils, availability of resources, space, and other factors. How to use the strategies is the teacher’s’ decision, they should not be afraid to experiment, use their creativity and combine the approaches with one another. Motivation and positive attitude And finally, smile and stay positive. Students will recognize and appreciate it, and they will be willing to help and collaborate. Always bear in mind that the students are the center of the class and they need to be encouraged to learn, explore, ask questions and they should not be afraid of making mistakes. Although the primary goal is to progress and learn more complex structures, the other as important goal is to develop a positive attitude to learning and teaching. If the students are happy and willing to help in doing activities, organize their work or help their peers and work hard to achieve their best. It is proof that you are doing a good job and there is no better reward and satisfaction. It takes time to achieve this and many problems can be encountered, but the outcome is amazing. Even though one may think that about ten minutes for each grade is too little time to achieve the learning goals, if you find strategies that suit your students and apply them properly, the results will reassure you and it would be difficult for you to imagine teaching a single grade class. ***** Jovana Stevanović has graduated from the University of Kragujevac, Department of English Language and Literature in 2012. She is currently working in Primary school “Brekovo” near Arilje as an English teacher. Her academic paper “Dramatization of the
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problem of moral choice in the plays of Steve Tesich” was published in Lipar, Journal for Literature, Language, Art and Culture in 2013.
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ELTA Newsletter September – October 2015
UPCOMING EVENTS ● ●
Conferences Webinars
CONFERENCES * Call for papers still open for some of the conferences, check it out
✓ IATEFL Poland Date: September 1820, 2015. Place: Jagiellonian University in Krakow IATEFL Poland For more, follow the link:
✓ International Congress on Education, Innovation and Learning Technologies Date: September 2123, 2015 Place: Granada, Spain For more, follow the link: International Congress on Education, Innovation and Learning Technologies
✓ 1st International SKA Conference Date: September 2526,2015 Place: Bratislava, Slovakia
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ELTA Newsletter September October 2015
For more, follow the link : 1st International SKA Conference
✓ “Innovating the Classroom of the Future!” Date: October 23, 2015. Place: Shkodra, Albania For more, follow the link : Innovating the classroom of the Future!
✓ Looking Forward, Looking Back Date:October 911, 2015 Place: Budapest, Hungary For more, follow the link: Looking Forward, Looking Back th ✓ The 17 International INGED ELT Conference “Rise and Shine”
Date: October 232425, 2015. Place: Ankara, Turkey For more, follow the link: The 17th International INEGED ELT Conference
✓ Biannual ELTAM Conference Date: October/November (TBA)
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ELTA Newsletter September October 2015
Place: Macedonia For more, follow the link : Annual ELTAM Conference
✓ “Making Teaching Count!” Date: November 2324 Place: Vlora, Albania For more, follow the link : Making Teaching Count!
rd ✓ 23 IATEFL Slovenia Conference
Date: 36 march 2016 Place: Terme Topolšica For more, follow the link : IATEFL Slovenia
th ✓ 24 Annual HUPE Conference
Date: 810 April 2016 Place: Hotel Ivan Solaris Beach Resort Šibenik, Croatia For more, follow the link : HUPE Confrerence 2016.
✓ IATEFL Birmingham 2016 Date: 13th16th April 2016 Place: I CC , Broad Street, Birmingham, B1 2EA For more, follow the link : IATEFL Annualconference Birmingham2016
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ELTA Newsletter September October 2015
WEBINARS ✓ Macmillan webinars Macmillan webinars
✓ OUP webinars OUP webinars
✓ SEETA Webinars SEETA Webinars
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STORIES AND RHYMES WITH YOUNG AND VERY YOUNG LEARNERS
Zhivka Ilieva, Dobrich College, Shumen University, Bulgaria Key words: stories, rhymes, young learners, very young learners, EFL
The future of English language teaching is inevitably connected to starting foreign language lessons as early as possible – still at kindergarten. When teaching young and very young learners, it is important to turn the classes into a positive experience for children – full of games, rhymes, songs and stories which children like and enjoy in their native language. Therefore we have to refer back to the children’s favourites in the foreign language classes. The article considers rhymes and stories in particular. Rhymes and stories alongside with games and songs are part of children’s life, they realize connection, such as home – classroom, enjoyment – learning, and raise positive attitude to the foreign language and to foreign languages in general. They provide meaningful context and fast change of activities. Fleta (2012: 31) states that “at an early age, all children learn languages by listening and by Stories and rhymes provide contextualized listening for the children and a wealth speaking”. of speaking activities based on them: reciting, role play, discussions and problem solving, etc. Rhymes with young and very young learners Children love rhymes because of their rhythm and sounding. They contribute to memorization of difficult words and long phrases. Repeating them children improve their pronunciation skills, acquire intonation patterns and develop deeper awareness of and feeling for the foreign language. and recommends Alonso (2012:17) accentuates that “children enjoy language playfulness” using “a poem a day” to keep the boredom away. Sundmark (2012) also underlines the
usefulness of language play in poetry and verse for language education. Mizera (2008: 37) claims that “language is also considered to have strong relations to art” , especially poetry. According to Brewster et al (2002: 162), rhymes (and songs) “present familiar language in new and exciting forms and in rich, imaginative context,… provide for lots of natural and enjoyable repetition, … encourage feeling of achievement and build children’s confidence.” Rhymes for children provide a variety of activities based on them and we know that young, and especially very young learners, need fast change of activities (Ilieva, 2013). They can be
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accompanied by movements (see Ilieva, 2013: 71), realizing TPR. Linse (2006: 38) states that “the props or actions not only help children remember the words and meanings of new words but also help children remember the context or situation depicted in the piece of verse.” Another activity connecting rhymes and action in the FL classroom is clapping in the rhythm of the rhyme or chanting it. The rhymes To the Farm, One, Two, Buckle my Shoe and
Seasons are suitable for such purposes. In Harman’s opinion, the ability to feel the rhythm is
very important for the adequate linguistic development; when the hands clap the rhythm, all – physical, musical and linguistic developments are influenced, children’s hearing and feelings are activated. Ilieva and Baycheva (2010) points out this type of activities as a means of making the classes more interesting, more emotional and more attractive and Baycheva and Baychev (2005) suggest a number of activities connected to the rhythmic of a text that aid memorization. Involving emotion heightens children’s motivation and makes the language acquisition process more successful. Very often children take these rhymes and actions home, which ensures multiple repetition and enjoyment during out of class activities. There is plenty of rhymes on various topics, covering different vocabulary items and grammar structures. They can be found easily on the Internet and most of them are with free access, but yet sometimes we have to invent something new, something which is our own for the particular group we are working with. Here is an example of such a rhyme, a very short one which young and very young learners usually find funny and which can introduce any game: Two kind hens jumped out of the fence together with a cock with a clock. But the fox found them And… (the children give suggestions what happens next, which usually include the fox eating the hens or the cock or all of them) No! They played together a game. Do you know which one? (The teacher introduces a game depending on the purposes of the lesson.) The rhyme provides crosscurricular relations to natural sciences (animals), to mathematics (telling the time as a game), discussions about relations in nature and human relations (friendship – fox and hens play together). The following times the rhyme is prolonged:
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… But the fox found them And… No! (or YES!) They played together a game. Do you know which one? No! This time they played another game! (The teacher introduces the new game) The children gradually learn the short rhyme by heart and one of the groups start playing tag with it during the break. Rhymes can be integrated in stories and various types of games. Bland (2012) also suggests different rhymes as a basis for a variety of activities (TPR, role rhymes, refrain games, etc.) with very young learners. They are all pleasant and funny for the children and ensure introduction or reinforcement of vocabulary on many topics and context for activities that realize crosscurricular relations: TPR and physical education, rhythm and music, animals and nature, counting and mathematics, etc. Stories with young and very young learners Stories are children’s favourites and a rich context in the foreign language classroom. “E veryone enjoys a good story, but the value of fairy tales is not simply limited to enjoyment and pleasure” (Coles 2012: 42). In Arcos’ opinion (2012: 21), stories unite both “cognitive and affective constituents of learning” and Horyza (2012: 118) claims that “children need both the linguistic side and the emotional and moral coating of stories”. Involving cognitive skills, values and emotions contributes to successful language learning and acquisition. Coles (2012: 46) proves that stories and the activities related to them are “a valid didactic instrument of L2 learning at even a very young age” . Almost the same is the opinion of Fraile et al. (2012: 191) who claim that “a wellorganized story session can intrigue the students and make them want to explore many features of the language.” Bobkina (2012) also sees literature as a means of contextualizing work upon grammatical structures and the language skills in an intriguing way while Coles (2012) views the benefits of working with fairy tales from the lexical point of view, from the syntactic point of view, from the point of view of information structure (theme and rheme). Work with stories develops children’s linguistic awareness and although we do not teach linguistic phenomena explicitly, the children successfully acquire them and as a result sound fluent when using them. Work with stories not only builds language awareness but also good pronunciation and intonation patterns. Ilieva (2007) points stories as a means of oral communicative skills development and Mourao (2012: 154) discovers that “the repeated read alouds (RRAs)
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prompted physical and verbal responses, the latter authentic, lively talk”. De la Pena Puebla (2012: 53) also stresses that “the role that literature plays in the teaching of speaking and listening is essential for any program addressed to language learners”. For the purposes of teaching English to young and very young learners we can use easy and simple stories and picture books or invent our own stories or involve the children in creative activities to build the story together. The last provides context for other creative tasks: illustrations, comics, making a book, creating a rhyme, a song or clapping a melody. Conclusions Stories and rhymes for children foster the child’s cognitive and linguistic development, its creative potential. They raise positive attitude to the foreign language classes and to the FL itself. The variety of activities and topics, the involvement of emotions together with the rhythm and the fact that children repeat these texts a lot of times with great pleasure even out of class ensure a long lasting retainment in memory. This makes them a suitable language learning material. References Alonso, M. 2012 A poem a day keeps the boredom away: Please, English teachers don’t forget about children’s poetry! In A. R. Torres, L. S. Villacanas de Castro, B. S. Pardo (eds). . Reproexpress, I International Conference Teaching Literature in English for Young Learners S.L., Valencia, pp. 1419. Arcos, M. 2012 The importance of reading to children. The same old story? In A. R. Torres, L. S. Villacanas de Castro, B. S. Pardo (eds). I International Conference Teaching Literature in English for Young Learners . Reproexpress, S.L., Valencia, pp. 2026.
rd Baycheva, B. and Ts. Baychev 2005 Diagnostics of musical and rhythmic abilities of the 3
grade students. In Higher pedagogical education – problems, achievements, tendencies, Sofia, pp. 470474. (in Bulgarian). Bland, J. 2012 A Lively Repertoire for Very Young Learners. In C&TS Young Learners and Teenagers SIG , 1:2012, pp. 2025. Bobkina, J. 2012 Thinking through Literature: Reading and Writing Workshops on Fairy Tales. In A. R. Torres, L. S. Villacanas de Castro, B. S. Pardo (eds). I International
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Conference Teaching Literature in English for Young Learners . Reproexpress, S.L., Valencia, pp. 3341. Brewster et al. 2002: J. Brewster, G. Ellis D. Girard. The Primary English Teacher’s Guide. Pearson Education Limited, Harlow. Coles, R. 2012 Oscar Wilde for teachers and pupils: a model for teaching L2 to young learners. In A. R. Torres, L. S. Villacanas de Castro, B. S. Pardo (eds). I International Conference Teaching Literature in English for Young Learners . Reproexpress, S.L., Valencia, pp. 4247. De la Pena Puebla, E. 2012 Literature and Education: Proposal of an English Literature Program for Young Learners as an Integrated and Interdisciplinary Tool for TESL. In A. R. Torres, L. S. Villacanas de Castro, B. S. Pardo (eds). I International Conference Teaching . Reproexpress, S.L., Valencia, pp. 4855. Literature in English for Young Learners
Fleta T. 2012 Factors concerning early EFL learning at school. In C&TS Young Learners and
, 1:2012, pp. 1819, 3132. Teenagers SIG
Fraile et al. 2012: M. R. P. Fraile, S. M. Mendez, I. A. Belmonte, M. F. Aguero. Exploring interculturally competent teaching with Aesop texts in the English classroom. In A. R. Torres, L. S. Villacanas de Castro, B. S. Pardo (eds). I International Conference Teaching Literature in English for Young Learners . Reproexpress, S.L., Valencia, pp. 188192.
Harman, M. Music and Movement Instrumental in Language Development . http://www.earlychildhoodnews.com/earlychildhood/article_view.aspx?ArticleID=601
Horyza, A. 2012 Linguistic means of fairy tale and the EFL development of a child. In A. R. Torres, L. S. Villacanas de Castro, B. S. Pardo (eds). I International Conference Teaching Literature in English for Young Learners . Reproexpress, S.L., Valencia, pp. 113119. Ilieva, Zh. 2007 Stories in Spoken Communication Skills Development: Teaching English to Young
Learners.
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https://www.academia.edu/12950846/STORIES_IN_SPOKEN_COMMUNICATION_SKILLS _DEVELOPMENT_TEACHING_ENGLISH_TO_YOUNG_LEARNERS . Ilieva, Zh. 2013 Change of activities and crosscurricular connections in the kindergarten. In ENewsletter Bulgarian English Teachers Association, Selected Papers from the 22nd Annual
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http://www.betaiatefl.org/4832/blogpublications/opennessandconnectednessexploringth elandscapeofenglishlanguageteachinginthemodernworldselectedpapers/ Ilieva, Zh.and B. Baycheva 2010 Developing Music and Linguistic Skills through Children’s Songs in English. In International Conference Challenges to Higher Education and Research in the Global Economic Crisis , volume 1, Burgas Free University, in Bulgarian (Razvivane na
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muzikalni I ezikovi umeniya chrez detski pesni na anglijski ezik. V Mezhdunarodna konferentsiya “Predizvikatelstvata pred vissheto obrazovanie I nauchnite izsledvaniya v usloviyata na kriza ,” tom 1, Burgaski svoboden universitet) Burgas, pp. 234240. Linse, C. 2006 Using Favourite Songs and Poems with Young Learners. English Teaching , Volume 44; Number 2, pp. 3842. Forum online Mizera, R. 2008 Language, Poetry and Thinking in Contemporary Western Culture. In Crosscurrents: culture, literature, language. R. Wolny ed. Wszechnica Swietokrzyska, Kielce, 2/25, pp.3745. Mourao, S. 2012 Picturebooks, literary understanding and language development. In A. R. Torres, L. S. Villacanas de Castro, B. S. Pardo (eds). I International Conference Teaching . Reproexpress, S.L., Valencia, pp. 152160. Literature in English for Young Learners Sundmark, B. 2012 ‘Dragons Be Here’: Teaching Children’s Literature through Maps. In A. R. Torres, L. S. Villacanas de Castro, B. S. Pardo (eds). I International Conference Teaching Literature in English for Young Learners . Reproexpress, S.L., Valencia, pp. 220224. Resources One, Two, Buckle my Shoe http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One,_Two,_Buckle_My_Shoe Seasons https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/16Uh7Fh3fLDIlfXDebI97CmmUcGA7mxBLg UsoPktt3c/edit?pli=1#slide=id.gec5c13a5_05 To the Farm http://www.canteach.ca/elementary/songspoems55.html ***** Zhivka Ilieva is an assistant professor at Dobrich College, Shumen University, Bulgaria. She teaches English, Methodology, Children’s literature in English and is also a teacher trainer. She holds a PhD in Methodology of English Language Teaching. As part of her research activities she teaches at primary school and at kindergarten. She runs workshops for primary school teachers and takes part in conferences dedicated to language teaching and teacher training in Bulgaria and abroad.
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