IN Magazine December 2013

IATEFL Slovenia Magazine Winter issue 2013, no. 60

Happy Holidays

IATEFL Slovenia Magazine Vol. 13, No 60, Winter issue 2013 Published by: IATEFL Slovenia, p. p. 1677, 1001 Ljubljana Email: infoiatefl.si www.iatefl.si tel: 041 907065 IN editor: Dolores Malić President: Alenka Tratnik Email: alenka.tratnikiatefl.si

Christmas time is a time to look

Vice president: Sandra Vida

back on what we did and look forward to the new.

Language editor: Oliver Sims Printed by: Design Studio, d.o.o.

Graphics: Petra Turk Articles, letters and other contributions should be addressed to IATEFL, p. p. 1677, 1001 Ljubljana Email: infoiatefl.si IATEFL Slovenia Board Members: Janja Čolić Dolores Malić Peter Oletič Alenka Tratnik Sandra Vida

The board is happy to say that we have done many things and especially that we have managed to organize many more events than last year.

And we are even more happy to say that our future looks bright. We have new energy in the form of new people and great ideas, so keep checking our webpage for newest info, read our monthly newsletter and above all, come for the biggest, greatest event for all English teachers, our conference.

Enjoy your holidays and have a great December!

Front-page photo: Boris Oblak ISSN 1855-6833

Outside the comfort zone by Danny Singh ....................................................................................................................... 3 Involving students in grammar work by Michael Swan ................................................................................................... 6 Optimism, teaching and learning by Candy Fresacher ..................................................................................................... 8 How to train your leader? by Nina Jerončič .................................................................................................................... 11 Briticisms in American English: the other way across the pond by Balázs Dezsényi ..................................................... 12 A ‘thank you’ letter by Nuša Gorjanc .............................................................................................................................. 17 Challenging stereotypes in the classroom: the teacher’s role by Kirsten Hempkin ........................................................ 18 Thinking out loud after the IATEFL Hungary conference by Sandra Vida ................................................................... 21 Annual international IATEFL conferece Liverpool 2013 or What happened to chalk and blackboard by Jasna Džambić ..................................................................................... 24 Love letters ideas given by Željko Štengl and Alenka Tratnik .......................................................................................... 28 Christmas taboo by Dolores Malić .................................................................................................................................. 32 2

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Outside the comfort zone

by Danny Singh Danny Singh, born and raised in London, but now based in Rome, gives creative English language lessons and teacher training courses all over Italy and abroad. He also offers stimulating monthly presentations on language related issues at Rome’s biggest international bookshop and is visible on web TV www.inmagicartwebtv.eu with a series of interactive English video lessons. He regularly attends Pilgrims TT summer courses as a Guest Speaker.

Website: www.laughnlearn.net e-mail: singh_danny@hotmail.com

Menu • The Comfort Zone • On holiday • A pizza or a piece of cake?

• The fear factor • Learning inside your comfort zone • Learning outside your comfort zone • Complacency • Teaching outside your comfort zone • Conclusion

The Comfort Zone The comfort zone is the area where we feel comfortable and secure. If we take a certain road, we know what we will find along the way. When we are in our comfort zone, we often do things on autopilot. We can be half asleep, but we still manage to do what we need to.

Drivers who take the same route every day to go to the same place, will usually drive on autopilot. They are physically driving, but their minds are elsewhere. Early morning pedestrians who might not be fully awake, can still find their way, if it is the same habitual route. The half drunken man staggering home after a great night out, has no problem in finding his way home, even if his senses are not fully with him, and in many cases, even if he can’t see!

While all this might sound positive, there are a good number of reasons why always being in your comfort zone may not be good for you. Following your habitual routine every day, ensures that if you are half asleep or on autopilot, you notice little of what is going on around you.

On holiday Compare this with when you are on holiday in a foreign place.

Your senses are wide awake, as they need to be, if you are to survive. As you walk around, you observe every little detail, the way people are dressed, their movements, the buildings, the traffic, the aromas, the temperature, the wildlife, the street signs, the ground, the cars, the buses and the trams.

People often say that the best period of the year is when they are on holiday. It might be assumed that this is because they are not working, they can relax and take life easy. However, if this were the case, surely there would be more pensioners walking around with smiles on their faces! The real reason that people remember and appreciate their holidays is that their senses are wide awake and they are in a constant state of learning.

A pizza or a piece of cake?

You might be able to make a great pizza, but perhaps you are not too hot at baking a cake. One day, your friend Sarah, who is famous for her delicious cheesecakes, shows you how she makes them. You can decide to carry on making a tasty pizza and leave the cheesecake to Sarah, or you can attempt to make

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a cheesecake yourself. The first two or three times, it may not turn out so well. In fact, it may be downright disgusting, especially for your poor family or friends who are forced to eat it.

However, eventually you have the satisfaction of knowing that your cheesecake is every bit as good as Sarah’s, if not better!

What makes life worth living is not just the satisfaction of reaching your goal, but most of all, the fun you had in trying to do so! That’s what you remember a few years later, as you reflect on that awkward moment, when you looked at the cheesecake and realized that this was not how it was meant to be.

The fear factor What is your biggest fear? Mine used to be dancing! I dealt with that fear by facing it head on and I now use dance as one of my effective instruments for teaching English. If you are interested in the story of how I managed to deal with this fear, you can read my article, How Bernardo Bertolucci changed my life, which was published by hltmag, Pilgrims official online magazine. It is available to read on my website. Fear is an important reason to be outside the comfort zone. You get used to dealing with fear and the best way to deal with fear is to face it. If whatever you are aiming for or dreaming of doesn’t give you even a small minimum amount of fear, then it’s probably not worth it!

Find your biggest fear and face it head on, outside your comfort zone! You’ll feel much better afterwards. Being in a situation of fear is highly positive for learning, as your senses are alert, so you take in everything. No chance of complacency or a false sense of security when your fear signals are high.

Learning inside your comfort zone Teachers and indeed students, can have long discussions on why one person learns better than another, or on what the necessary prerequisites are for learning effectively. From my experience, the students who are least successful in learning are those who operate in a 100% comfort zone. They have their lessons in their offices, often doing one-to-one lessons with a teacher.

They remain in their tall, upright chair behind the desk, while inviting the teacher to sit opposite them on a shorter seat, thereby immediately emphasizing the superiority of their position. If they at least changed position, they would be slightly outside their comfort zone and this would help with their learning. Any unnecessary phone calls which arrive during the

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lesson are answered urgently, as if a question of life and death and consequently, the student learns almost nothing.

Those who have lessons at work, but are forced to change rooms are slightly out of their comfort zone for a couple of lessons, as they get used to the new environment and working with colleagues in a group lesson. However, once the course gets going, they too develop their habits, such as always sitting in the same place and working with the same preferred colleague. Consequently, their capacity for learning remains low.

People who do private lessons in a language school or at a teacher’s home are more outside their comfort zone. They have to make a real effort to get to the lesson, overcoming obstacles such as distance, traffic, bad weather, tiredness, stress and laziness. If they are not seriously motivated, it is easy to find an excuse to skip the odd lesson, here and there.

In this case, as in the previous one, the student will probably get used to the comforts of the situation after a few lessons.

Learning outside your comfort zone Going on a weekend course in the countryside, surrounded by mountains is a real example of being outside your comfort zone.

You are away from your day-to-day problems, your routine life, with the opportunity to immerse yourself fully in this amazing course, whatever it might be. The hours spent away add up, over the course of a weekend. Meals taken with the other participants and the teacher are all a new experience. Your attention and concentration will be constant. Ideally, you should also be sleeping in the same environment. Those who decide to go home to their families during the middle of an intensive weekend course are really missing out. Apart from having great fun in these situations, your learning capacities are maximised.

Needless to say, a course done abroad, where you are right out of your comfort zone, allows you to pick up far more. In this case, apart from your lessons, your real learning is done as you venture into the town centre, communicating with bus drivers, local people, practicing real English and seeing how you interact with people. Just as when you are on holiday, you notice and observe numerous aspects of your daily life.

Complacency In my courses, I generally try to keep students outside their comfort zone as often as possible. It is not always easy how-

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ever. Even in the courses mentioned above, or in my famous English in the City courses, where I take students to various locations in the centre of the city, so that they can experience real English instead of the irrelevant material contained in the majority of textbooks, it is still possible for students to switch back into comfort mode.

We find a pub that everyone likes. The students want to go there next lesson and probably every lesson. They enjoyed the beer, the food, the service, the friendly staff, the environment, the English atmosphere. Why should I change this?

For one simple reason. If we go there every lesson, they feel too comfortable, they know the menu, they know what to expect, hence their senses are dulled and switched off, which is not compatible with learning. Of course, we will return there. Any location which offers good services deserves our custom, however, not every week.

Even that most frightening activity that I ask them to do, interviewing people in the street could become too comfortable, if we do it every week, as the students will again know what to expect. There must be unpredictability. I never tell the students before the lesson where exactly I’ll be taking them and what we’ll be doing. The students need to arrive wondering and possibly exchanging ideas as to where they think the teacher is planning on taking them. It means their senses are wide awake.

So I try to keep each lesson as different and varied as possible. The weekly courses are still not ideal, as students arrive after a day working or studying, carrying their problems with them and hence can be distracted and lacking in concentration. It is up to the teacher to try and get them to focus on the activity as early as possible.

Teaching outside your comfort zone Trying to keep your students outside their comfort zone in order to give them greater opportunities to learn, doesn’t make the teacher’s job any easier. It would be easy to sit in that pub, sipping a double malt beer, reflecting on the fact that I can be paid for having a beer and watching football on TV out of the corner of my eye.

Taking students to new pastures means you yourself have to face new challenges. The place you take your students to may make no effort to accommodate you. You may be treated so

badly that you decide never to return. At the same time, you need to make the lesson beneficial for the students, while dealing with these extra complications. All these situations, however negative, are opportunities.

The art gallery that decided to close two hours before schedule with no warning, left me with a group of students to satisfy and two hours of time to fill. That gives you a challenge to deal with, putting you outside your comfort zone and forcing you to learn how to adapt by using a plan B or C. The best form of being outside my comfort zone was however, on one of my London weekend courses. We were all travelling together from the main airport in Rome. However, due to a series of circumstances, some of which were my own doing, we managed to miss the plane. I had a screaming woman, an angry man and several other disconsolate students to deal with. I could have burst into tears, sent everyone home, given them their money back and found a job in the bank. However, I used this occasion, as we sat there waiting six hours for the next flight, to teach them a structure which they would always remember. When they returned, their friends would ask, so, how was your weekend in London? Their reply would certainly not be, it was OK. It would be, well, you won’t believe what happened, but..

At the end of this intensive course, I got the best feedback ever from any group that I had previously taken to London.

I did ask myself, if I should deliberately miss the plane on all other occasions.

Conclusion My personal opinion and experience, as I have shown, is that I very much believe we all need to be outside our comfort zones, both in teaching, learning and everyday life. The idea will no doubt frighten some people. It frightens me, but that’s why I know it’s the right way. There are simple ways to move out of your comfort zone. Try altering the route you take to get to work. Attend a new course on a subject you know absolutely nothing about. Go to a bar or restaurant that you have never been to. Do something, anything that you would not normally do! The more we get used to being outside our comfort zone, the easier it becomes to deal with and the more beneficial for all of us. If you haven’t tried it yet, do so, then let me know.

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Involving students in grammar work

by Michael Swan

Not too little, not too much Students learn best if they are involved – if they can participate in the choice of learning activities, express their attitudes to their lessons, and use their personal knowledge, feelings and imagination in their work.

As everybody knows, this is not easy to achieve. We have all seen classes – and perhaps taught them – where the students never escape from the two-dimensional cardboard world of the teaching materials. Whether because of the teacher’s fear of losing control, the general educational ethos, or simple lack of know-how, nothing personally interesting or involving ever happens. Twenty-five or thirty rich and varied internal worlds remain silent, while everybody does and says the same kind of thing.

Attempts to change things can go too far. Early approaches to ‘learner autonomy’ sometimes came close to a point where students decided for themselves what to learn, chose how to learn it, selected and worked through appropriate materials, and tested themselves, with the teacher simply acting as a consultant. The results were generally disappointing. More recent attempts to avoid ‘imposing’ pre-planned structural or lexical syllabuses have also sometimes delivered less than they promised. (Whatever the attractions of a task-based syllabus, for example, it is not a very efficient way of ensuring that students learn all the high-priority grammar and vocabulary they need.)

How can we get maximum student involvement in grammar lessons without losing efficiency? It is worth looking at the different stages of grammar work separately, asking how we can bring in the learner at each point.

Preliminary work: learner training Beginners may have little idea of how languages and language learning work. In the first lesson, talk these things through with them. Students’ own ideas about grammar, however naive, make an excellent starting point. If you listen carefully to what learners have to say, they will listen to you in return when you help them to see things more realistically.

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The mother tongue Sometimes we need to use the mother tongue in the classroom (for instance in grammar explanations), and sometimes we need not to (for instance, in most grammar practice). Listen to what students think about this. If necessary, encourage them to question their attitudes.

Syllabus choice Beginners can’t choose what points of grammar they are going to work on – they don’t know enough about the language. But even at this level it is worth explaining why the syllabus is as it is, rather than just getting the class to do the grammar because it is there in the book. At higher levels, it is quite reasonable to get students’ views on grammar priorities and (up to a point) to take these into account. If you pay attention to their reasons for wanting, say, to do less on tenses, more on articles, or no work on grammar at all, they are more likely to take your own priorities seriously.

Rule-learning Grammar rules can be learnt explicitly, acquired implicitly through practice, or (with greater learner involvement) discovered by analysing examples.

Not all rules are necessarily best learnt in the same way, and not all learners respond equally well to the same approach. Try to find time to discuss these issues in class.

Who explains the rule?

Once or twice, get your more advanced students to teach a point of grammar to lower-level learners under your supervision. Preparing to explain something to somebody is an excellent way to get it clear in your own mind.

Where do the examples come from?

Examples of grammatical structures can come from learners as well as from teaching materials. Once they have got hold of a structure, students can (under your guidance) produce or find their own examples for the others to learn from. These can be personal (expressing learners’ own ideas and experience) in ways that bookexamples can never be.

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21st International 21eflSlovenia International Iat confe IATEFL Slovenia conference Little Ideas 21s t Int ernat ional for Great Changes IateflSlovenia confe rence 21stInternati onal IateflSlovenia conference 21stInt ernational IateflSlo venia conference 21s International Iatefl Slovenia conference 21st International flSlovenia conferenc 21st International IateflSlovenia confe ce21st Internationa eflSlovenia conferen st

THURSDAY, 6th MARCH 2014

What kind of practice?

Good teaching materials incorporate a wide range of practice activities, from basic mechanical exercises through pair- and group-work to more elaborate grammar-based tasks. Try discussing the different exercise types, explaining the rationale behind them and getting learners’ reactions.

Communicative work It’s at the practice stage that there is most opportunity for student involvement and creativity. Traditionally, however, most ‘communicative’ work has tended to take place in the context of fluency practice. Remember that grammar practice, too, can give students the chance to exchange information, give their opinions, use their imaginations and be creative.

Who makes the exercises?

You don’t always have to stick to the teaching materials.

If you are working on, say, a gap-fill exercise, get students to try making up additional items for each other.

Tests Help students to feel that they are testing themselves – checking their own progress – rather than just being tested. Let them talk about what is an acceptable test result. Here, too, they can sometimes be involved creatively – helping (under supervision) to create test items for each other.

Conclusion There are no miracle solutions to language teaching problems. Whatever we do, languages remain difficult and time remains short. Getting students more personally involved in their grammar learning will not magically make them fluent bilinguals. But it will certainly help them to learn more English, more effectively, and more enjoyably. And that is a good deal better than nothing.

© Michael Swan 2013

14.00 - 17.00 16.00 - 16.30 16.45 - 17.45 18.00 - 19.00 19.00 - 20.00 20.30 - 22.00

Registration of the participants Official opening of the conference Workshops Anthony Gaughan Dinner Steve Bingham and Jeremy Harmer Touchable dreams (poetry evening)

FRIDAY, 7th MARCH 2014 07.00 - 07.30 08.45 09.00 - 10.00 10.15 - 11.00 11.00 - 11.30 11.30 - 12.30 12.30 - 13.30 13.30 - 15.00 15.15 - 16.15 16.15 - 16.45 16.45 - 19.05 19.15 - 20.00 20.30 - 23.00

Morning gymnastics in the pool Welcome, Changes etc.

OPENING PLENARY Workshops Coffee break Workshops Lunch Workshops PLENARY Jamie Keddie: Videotelling Coffee break Workshops Dinner Social evening – THE ULTIMATE PUB QUIZ

SATURDAY, 8th MARCH 2014

08.45 09.00 - 10.00 10.00 - 10.30 10.30 - 11.15 11.30 - 12.30 12.45 - 13.30 13.30 - 14.00 14.00 - 15.30 15.30 - 16.00 16.00 - 19.00 19.15 - 20.30 20.30 - 23.00

Announcements, changes PLENARY Stefania Balotto (Pilgrims) Coffee break Workshops PLENARY Jeremy Harmer: Yes, but why do we need teachers at all?

Lunch AGM Workshops Coffee break Workshops Dinner Social evening: Dancing the night away – all the moves that make you cool

SUNDAY, 9th MARCH 2014

09.00 - 10.00 CLOSING PLENARY Anthony Gaughan 10.15 - 11.15 Open space: time for reflection

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Optimism, teaching and learning

by Candy Fresacher First published in ELT News, issue 68, Spring 2013, pp.16-18

Introduction Since the beginning of the twenty-first century there has been a change in what interests the psychologists of the world. When Martin Seligmann became the head of the American Psychologists’ Association, he established a trend in the science to try to understand not so much solving the problems of patients but for looking at how mentally healthy people manage to be and stay mentally healthy. This trend has led to many research studies into the field of positive psychology and has given the world insights into ways people cope with the pressures of the world we are living in today. A number of prominent psychologists have done numerous studies looking at how people achieve happiness, or better contentment, or are able to flourish in a stressful world.

A number of these insights can be connected to the educational field.

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make much difference to personal happiness include, youth, health, money (above subsistence level), education level, race, better climate. (Material on optimism and positivity are taken from Martin Seligman’s books: Learned Optimism and Authentic Happiness.)

What can influence your level of happiness, however, is, for example: satisfaction with the past, which may mean learning to recreate your past if it has been a negative time for you, which may then also include forgiving and forgetting. It is also important to be optimistic about the future. Hope is a key to being happy.

Positive emotions include things like faith, trust, and confidence. Optimism has to do with three Ps of how we look at events that happen to us. The 3 Ps are: permanence, pervasiveness and the personal.

General life satisfaction To increase the levels of achievement of your students it is important to provide them with a positive atmosphere and to encourage them to think positively about English and about their life in general. There are ways to increase optimism and to increase general life satisfaction which can mean increased productivity, creativity and better immune systems. For more information about the studies that have been done to show this, please read the work of Dr. Martin Seligman as shown in the footnote below.

The idea of permanence with regard to events that happen to you can affect your feelings of happiness. If you believe negative events are permanent, you will be less happy. But, in contrast, if you believe that negative events are temporary, you are more likely to feel better about that event. Is it better to think: “My boss always gets angry with me” – or “my boss was angry today, I wonder why he was in a bad mood?” If there is a positive event in your life, it is better to see it as permanent. I am always lucky, as opposed to, this was my lucky day. This may not be realistic but it makes your overall level of contentment rise.

Life satisfaction can be increased by evaluating your range of happiness and then looking for ways to increase your happiness within that range. Your range of happiness is set. You yourself will always have a certain level of happiness and if you were to win €1,000,000 in the lottery, within a few months you would have the same happiness level as before you won the extra money. In addition, some countries are happier places than others. Holland, for example, is a place where people are generally happier than anywhere else in the world.

You tend to be happier if you are married, or have a full social life, or are religious. Other areas that do not

The second element of being positive has to do with pervasiveness. Do you feel the events affect the rest of your life and all areas of your life or can you compartmentalize? If you think: “I had a terrible day at the office, the world is about to end,” your overall view of the world becomes bleak. If, though, you think: “ Today was a bad day at the office, so I’m glad I can go home early and enjoy my family,” you will be able to find satisfaction in one part of your life and find hope for the part that was not so happy. For bad events it is better if you feel things are not pervasive. Yet for good events, it would be good to imagine one area’s happi-

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ness spilling into all areas of your life. Think of what happens if you fall in love, it affects all areas of your life and you tend to see everything positively. Although this state, too, is not realistic, it is a state that brings more happiness.

The third element involved in the optimistic process has to do with how much we feel we influence the positive and negative events around us. It is better to believe that we can make good things happen to us, and that others are responsible for the bad things that happen. This is a healthier way to have inner dialogues.

It is better to blame others than oneself when things go wrong (but not by telling those others immediately that you think it is their fault).

Another part of optimism has to do with appreciating the here and now. We can enjoy a good meal, but only the first bites of it, because afterwards we find we get used to the taste and don’t appreciate it as much (wait 20 minutes to take your next bite if you want to have the same appreciation of the taste as at first). So it is better to savour the moment – appreciate it for what it is, be mindful of small pleasures in your existence. It is also important to be grateful for what you have as well as altruistic. Having a meaning and purpose outside yourself can be important to your happiness. If you do not have a particular relationship to any religion, perhaps feeling that there is meaning in increasing the knowledge of the world through your teaching, or being able to empower others or feeling that promoting goodness in the world is your “mission” can be helpful.

To live more positively, there are also six interventions that can be of help. They include: • • • • • • •

Using cognitive therapy Counting your blessings Using your strengths Using constructive responding Finding meaning and purpose Performing a gratitude visit Finding satisfaction in the past

Cognitive therapy Using cognitive therapy means using a simple formula in case your mind continues to nag you about negative thoughts. It is called ABCDE which means: • • • • •

Adversity Belief Consequences Disputation Energization

To begin with, there is an adversity: for example someone criticized you. Then there is a belief – they really meant it and so it must be so, so I must be a bad person. The consequences of holding this belief involve questioning yourself: How do you feel now? Frustrated, upset? What would happen if you were a “bad” person, what would it mean for your future? What if this statement were made about someone else? Can you look at it objectively? What would it mean if this were true in terms of your future actions? Usually we keep thinking about a negative statement that has been made about us.

It is time to dispute – to argue with the statement of criticism. Is it really true or are there other reasons that might be the root of what was said. Would you say something like this to yourself? Be your own lawyer and plead a case for yourself – does it stand up? Once you have determined that not everything is correct you are energized to keep things in perspective, use energy to change actions that might have been correctly criticized but not worry about unjust remarks. You can evaluate and find solutions.

Count your blessings It is important to remind yourself of the good things in your life. Do this by thinking each evening before you go to bed about these good things. Write down 3 blessings each night for two weeks and see how you then feel.

Strengths Find out what your strengths are (see authentichappiness.org – via strengths test) and use them, especially for unpleasant tasks – tasks you don’t like to do – perhaps you can rethink how to go about them by using one of your strengths. Don’t worry about your weaknesses – increase your strengths. Strengths in this test are perhaps different from those you would normally consider your “strengths” and might include: curiosity, an appreciation of beauty, spirituality, etc.

Active constructive dialogue Use actively constructive responding when talking to others, especially when they are happy about an achievement they have recently made.

Active Constructive

Passive Constructive

Active Destructive

Passive Destructive

There are four ways we can respond to dialogues. The best way for us to respond would be to be actively interested in what the other person is saying. This involves

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asking for more details about the event being discussed.

It involves positive body language; it involves active listening. Often we do not listen or respond in this way. If someone tells you about an achievement they have recently made there are three other ways to respond. If you are passively constructive you will say: “good job” and move on to another topic that you find interesting. If you say: “how could YOU have been chosen for that” is actively destructive with the intent of belittling what the other person did – perhaps to make yourself better. You could also be passively destructive in that you ignore what your partner has said. You can imagine that the first response will bring more contentment for both parties of the dialogue.

Meaning and purpose Finding meaning and purpose in your life can help you become happier and feel more positive. We need a sense of community. It could be a religious community; it could be the scientific community. Look for something outside yourself that means more than you do – or is there nothing like this? Increasing knowledge, power structures, or goodness in the world might be meaningful for you.

Gratitude Visit A gratitude visit involves visiting someone you are grateful to. It means writing something of about 300 words explaining why you are grateful to that person, laminating it (putting it into a permanent form) and presenting it to someone you are thankful to. The best approach is when you go to the person and read the message to them – in person. Both the recipient, as well as the person who does the thanking, have very positive emotions both during and long after such a meeting.

cope with all these pressures. It can also make your life more satisfying when you are more aware of the many positives that surround you.

In addition, if we teach these principles to our students we help them appreciate the good in the world, and there are plenty of good people, events and situations out there. The above activities can be used in the classroom as reading, writing, speaking and listening skills in the English language while at the same time giving the students a more positive base for future activities.

Studies have shown that people who are positive: catch fewer infectious diseases, have better health habits, and have a better working immune system and live longer than pessimists. More important for our students, though, may be that: optimists bounce back from defeat; are resilient so achieve more at work, at school and on the playing field; talk about defeat but overcome “the wall“; produce more, especially under pressure; and improve the productivity and job satisfaction of the whole team. And of course if we can convince our students of the benefits of positivity, they will become more positive not only about learning English but more motivated to do better in other subjects and thus learn more overall.

Dr. Candy Fresacher, an America living in Austria for the past 35 years, has been teaching at various vocational colleges in Vienna for the past 25 years. For the past 8 years she has become involved in teacher training. She has presented in Beijing, Manila, the USA and throughout Europe as well as published a number of articles including, for examples, in the online journal Humanizing Language Teaching.

Satisfaction in the past Another way to find more positivity in your life is to examine your past and to find satisfaction in it. Even those people who have had very difficult pasts often find ways to see the good in the bad things that happened to them.

Conclusion Teaching is a stressful business and we are constantly dealing with students and perhaps parents and colleagues who make demands on us. Using optimism yourself can make you more resilient, more able to

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How to train your leader?

by Nina Jerončič

Thursday evening, end of September. I’m sitting behind my computer, lazy as a student can be before the start of a new semester. I’m briefly wondering how September could have gone by so fast that I didn’t even find time for a short trip, a weekend in the Croatian sun, anything. When suddenly... Message from IATEFL Slovenia. Would you like to go to a training conference in Budapest in 10 days? The American Embassy covers all expenses, but you have to decide right now and sign the contract by noon tomorrow.

Well, would I?! I’m ready to pack right now, if you need me to! So I sign the contract and start collecting my ‘I-totallylook-like-a-responsible-smart-adult’ clothes, while jumping around the room, doing a dance even Carlton from The Fresh Prince would approve of.

The next week goes by in a blur. Insurance, withdrawing money, withdrawing more money in forints, plane ticket, all this sprinkled with the first week of the academic year and first lessons with my new class. Finally it’s Sunday, October 6th and off I fly to Vienna and then Budapest. Yes, a plane. To Budapest. The fanciness of the whole trip makes me giddy and upon arriving at the four-star hotel that will be my home for the next 5 days, I feel absolutely regal. Of course, karma does not wait much longer to give me a reality check. The receptionist wants a credit card for the deposit. But I’m a kid. Kids get allowance, not credit cards. „No problem,“ says the receptionist. In that case, we’ll take cash. Then he names a price that is €100 more than what I’ll pay in the end, and €100 less than what I have on me. Wait, did I say on me? Actually, half of it was not in the wallet in my purse, but rather in a locked vanity bag inside a locked suitcase. Hence, I have no choice but to sprawl my stuff in the lobby of the 4-star hotel, find the strategically hidden keys and fish out the cash, while 10 businessmen in full suit-and-tie gear look disapprovingly of the hillbilly-country-girl who must have come to the wrong hotel.

Thankfully, the receptionist feels sorry for me and takes the smaller deposit, and I get to finally take my disgraced self into the privacy of my room.

The next days mercifully hide no negative surprises in store for me, but I get to meet so many wonderful people; representatives of Russia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Moldova, Albania, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hungary, and of course our wonderful hosts at the embassy, Gergo Santha, George Chinnery and our mentor, Dr Jodi Crandall.

We get along brilliantly – after 90 minutes we’re already taking the first group photos. But that old saying still stands, no pain, no gain, so we all listen to Dr Jodi and discuss different issues on what it takes to lead an organisation. It’s fun, creative, inspirational and I learn a lot.

After hours of workshop, we have the rest of the afternoon and evening to ourselves. But we wouldn’t be true English teachers if we didn’t do some group work. So we explore Budapest together, with Ildi, the Hungarian representative, as our guide.

The first night, we go to the Buda castle, the view of which we admire daily from our rooms. The next day we take the oldest metro on the Continent and go see the Heroes’ Square and the nearby pond. The days after we spend souvenir shopping and resting. And eating! Every night, all of us go out to eat and the meals were so exquisite I can now proudly pronounce Budapest a culinary capitol of Europe. My meal number one was catfish paprikash with sour cream. Score: 10/10. Meal number two: Duck breast with green pasta with ginger on the side. Score: 11/10. Meal number three: Salmon with gnocchi in creamy spinach sauce. Score: 12/10. Basically, the only time we collectively shut our mouths and stop sharing ideas for our associations is when we start moaning with culinary delight. All too soon came the final day. After the last input session we have a videoconference with Moscow and Kyev to demonstrate what we’ve learned. When that’s done, we take some more group photos, raise an apple juice toast and then, just when our hosts and mentors think this is it. Nope! Surprise! The evening before, we met in one of the hotel rooms and put our creativity on paper; new lyrics to the song “Those were the days” by Mary Hopkin, which we now sing.

Twice, once for the camera as well.

The goodbye is surprisingly hard, considering we’ve known each other for 5 days. We promise each other to put our plans to life, to stay in touch and to help each other and our organisations. We part as friends, and on my way home, I still sing the chorus of our song: We are a leader team, we know how to dream, we’ll change the world one day to a better place. We’ve done a lot of tasks, and many questions asked, we’ll have to answer when we’re back again.

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Briticisms in American English: the other way across the pond

by Balázs Dezsényi Abstract English, that once used to be the language of just a single country, has now conquered the world, though in very diverse forms. One of the most prominent of these is American English, which, from the language of a few British settlers has gradually evolved into a world language of its own. The differences from British English, combined with all remaining similarities, over time resulted in the two nations referring to themselves as being “separated by a common language”. However, today we see that this borderline has gotten surprisingly thin. A very recent example of this is the flood of Briticisms getting adopted into American English. Words and phrases like “ginger”, “cheers”, “twee”, “snog” or “oneoff” are making their way into US English, though often with very different connotations, and therefore very different results than back in Britain. This paper offers an overview of this new process, analysing examples from written and electronic media, literature and everyday native language use; and backing up observations with results from frequency charts, Internet search trends and feedback from native English speakers. It also examines the cultural exchange and its effects between Britain and the United States, involving Doctor Who, Simon Cowell, Piers Morgan, Harry Potter, and even the Royal Family, finally concluding with describing the special nature of these “separate languages” and the extraordinary relationship they have.

Briticisms in American English The English language of today has gone far from being just a national language in England: it has established its role as both a new lingua franca of the global world, and as the official language of several countries all around the planet, although often in very different forms. Within this multitude of different dialects and accents, the most common distinction made is the one between British English and American English. Beginning from their joint starting point of 17th-century Early Modern English, these two dialects have evolved to be significantly different in aspects such as vocabulary, pronunciation, grammar and spelling. At the same time, the basis of both major forms of English remains the same.

This ambiguity eventually led Britons and Americans to refer to each other as two nations “separated by a common language”; and both cultures take pride in their own dialect as a symbol of national identity.

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If there has been an exception to this separation in practice, up until now, it has been the impact that American English had on not just the majority of the world’s English-speakers, but, in recent times, specifically on British English, too. However, the latest trends in language use in the United States show a surprising pattern that seems to go against this general rule. The borderline between the two dialects is starting to get thinner and thinner, and this time, it is not American English leaking into the United Kingdom: the process goes in the opposite direction, as a wave of British-born, borrowed expressions called “Briticisms” (or “Britishisms” for Americans) gradually makes its way into American English. This phenomenon reveals a remarkable and unique side of the relationship between the United Kingdom, the United States and their languages that is worth exploring.

1. What Are Briticisms?

Briticisms are characteristically British words that originate from the British Isles but are also used on the other side of the Atlantic, by native speakers of American English, either unknowingly or purposefully. Although they are not part of natural US vocabulary, and most of them sound outright British, therefore odd to American ears; they are nevertheless adopted into the language. Examples range from everyday vocabulary (“loo” for toilet, “queue” for line, “petrol” for gas) to personal traits and characteristics (“clever” for smart, “cheeky” for impertinently bold, “ginger” for red as a hair colour); from social expressions (“cheers” for thank you, “no problem” for no worries, “lads” for friends) to indicators of personal judgment (“brilliant” for great, “rubbish” for nonsense, “spot-on” for exactly correct); and from words sounding slightly extraordinary to American ears (“posh” for luxurious, “pub” for bar, “lift” for elevator) to complete oddities (“cheerio” as a greeting, “blimey” for expressing surprise, “poppycock” for empty talk) (BBC News Magazine Editors, 2012; Hebblethwaite, 2012; Williams, 2012). Briticisms can turn up in a surprisingly great number of places in American English, and there are some very interesting observations to be made in connection with the reason for their appearance as well as the consequences of their spreading use.

2. The Reason for Briticisms Briticisms can have two general roles in American English. They can cover a completely new meaning, that is, they can “fill a

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gap” (Murphy, 2012); or they can appear as alternatives for already existing expressions. Let us look at some examples for the former case first. One expression that was adopted by Americans to fill a gap in US English is “one-off” (Hebblethwaite, 2012). In British English, this refers to something that happens, is done or is made only once, e.g., a one-off job. American English does not have one specific word that corresponds to this precise meaning, so those US native speakers who have already come across this term can, and often do, turn to it instead of using longer forms to express the idea. Other similar words are “twee” (Hebblethwaite, 2012), meaning “affectedly or excessively dainty, delicate, cute or quaint”, e.g., a movie or a voice (Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, 2013); “run-up” (Yagoda, 2011b), referring to a preliminary or preparatory period before an event, e.g., the run-up to the election; or “go missing” (Hebblethwaite, 2012), the delicate details of which Murphy (2009) describes in her blog as follows: Go missing is beautifully meaningful--giving us some nuances not available in other words. It’s not the same as vanish or disappear--and that’s what makes it so useful. When something is said to go missing, it makes it seem like a less mysterious event than ‘disappearing’ or ‘vanishing’ which have a whiff of the supernatural about them. One can use it as a way to avoid blame-including self-blame: My phone went missing rather than I lost my phone. If a person ‘goes missing’, then there’s a sense that although we don’t know where they are, they do.

Thus, in this case, Briticisms are a genuine contribution to American English in the sense that they allow speakers to express their thoughts in a richer yet more concise way. This is a slightly similar role to the contribution of loanwords to the language.

The latter case of Briticisms entering American English is when there is already an existing word for the freshly adopted one.

Words that fall into this category include “queue” (line), “full stop” (period), “holiday” (vacation) or “starters” (appetizer) (Yagoda, 2011b). In this case, it is possible that the new word is used because the speaker is not aware of the already established one, so he or she uses it as a new piece of knowledge. However, there is also the possibility that the speaker is well aware of the existence of the older word but still decides to use the new, British one. This suggests a specific purpose behind the usage, which goes along the lines of the principle that our choice of words conveys a message beyond the strictly defined content that we intend to communicate. Here, this idea is applied even to words borrowed from a different culture.

2.1. Using Briticisms with a Purpose – British Superiority?

There can be multiple goals that one aims to achieve by choosing to use a Briticism. The first one is quite straightforward: it is for fun. This involves saying the British word in a tongue-incheek way, possibly with a fake accent, in order to sound funny.

One could say “Blimey, that went wrong!” or “That’s all just a bunch of poppycock”, and then have a laugh about how British, or how un-British it sounded. Furthermore, Briticisms can be used for variety, to bring in a little colour among everyday words or expressions. Finally, they can be used to make the speaker appear cool, clever or posh, that is, to gain personal benefits.

This prestigious side of British English as compared to American English has long decades of tradition, and although it is in recession now, there are still some very interesting observations to make in connection with it.

There is an assertion that a British person sounds more dignified reading out a phone book than an American reading the Declaration of Independence. Despite its generalising nature, this sentence carries some important truth regarding the public perception of British English and American English, namely, that British often has a level of prestige assigned to it, based on accent and vocabulary. In a study by Stewart, Ryan and Giles (1985), American study subjects had to rate the social status of people, some of whom had standard American accents, while others had standard British accents. The study concluded that speakers of British English were assigned higher status by the American subjects, in spite of being generally harder to understand; whereas this was not the case with other ethnic accents (p. 103.). These findings therefore support the idea of British linguistic superiority.

However, a more recent study conducted by Bayard, Weatherall, Gallois and Pittam (2001) puts these findings in greater context. In this study, students of Cleveland University were asked to share their reactions to a wide range of accents. The results showed that the British accent (“English accent”) was behind the North American and even the Australian accent in perception of traits associated with prestige.

Figure 1. Personality traits judged on the basis of accent. Results show that British English (“English English / EE”) is assigned lower scores in traits associated with prestige than North American English or Australian English (Bayard et al., 2001).

In another study (Anderson et al., 2007), students of Brigham Young University had to rate the intelligence of people with different accents. The findings showed that people who had lived at

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least three months outside the United States rated the intelligence of British speakers significantly lower than the intelligence of American speakers. On the other hand, those who had not lived abroad came to opposite conclusions: they judged British speakers to be more intelligent than US speakers.

5.1 4.8

to AVIC and also find numerous contemporary examples to illustrate her point. Among others, she describes the odd case of why “nappy” might appear a more civilised word to a well-educated native American speaker than “diaper”; when in reality, “nappy” is a product of baby talk, while “diaper” has ancient Latin roots (Murphy, 2007). This story, while reinforcing the theory that word choice can have major and surprising effects on actual understood meaning, also brings attention to new questions: Who uses Briticisms, and who is most influenced by British vocabulary?

4.5

3. The Influence of Briticisms

4.2 3.9 3.6 Standard

Middle Eastern

English

Latin-American

Accent of Speaker Lived Outside US

Not Lived Outs US

Figure 2. Intelligence ratings given based on the speaker’s accent.

Having lived outside the US is a decisive factor in judgment (Anderson et al., 2007).

This goes to show that once people move outside their home country and get to see a greater part of the world, their linguistic preconceptions such as theories of accent prestige, start to diminish. Therefore, it is logical that, since we live in an increasingly globalised world where distant cultures are much easier to experience personally than in past times, these stereotypes carry less and less significance. Yet, the phenomenon is still there: British English is still recognised for its prestige, so much so, that Lynne Murphy, an American linguist living in the UK, coined a specific term for Americans’ relations to UK English, naming it the “American Verbal Inferiority Complex (AVIC)” (Murphy, 2007).

It might seem a contradiction that while the significance of accents is decreasing, imitating the British in some way in order to sound better still enjoys popularity in the United States. Ben Zimmer, another American linguist, solved this problem by pointing out that in the past, accent used to carry prestige; while nowadays, this role of accents is shifting towards words. As he explained (Doll, 2012): The British influence that Ben Yagoda and others have been discerning lately is strictly lexical. British pronunciation rarely enters into it. These Britishisms, like the older pronunciation patterns, do serve as status markers to delineate an in-group. The nature of the prestige may have changed: it’s not so much about sounding aristocratic as sounding ‘smart,’ perhaps.

Thus, words are becoming the most important factor in perceptions of prestige or intelligence. This is why, even with the decline of accents as key factors in this issue, Murphy can still refer 14

The use of Briticisms naturally has a lot to do with both geography and social status. The most probable place to hear such an expression in the USA is in the area of the North-east Corridor, from Boston to Washington, D.C., and especially around New York (Murphy, 2012). This is due to the fact that the relative proximity of the British Isles results in most British expats settling here. It is also not uncommon for people in business to commute between the East Coast and England, thus serving as a living connection between the cultures and languages of the two countries: influencing and at the same time being influenced by the different language forms. In addition to business workers, people in the fashion industry are also quick to pick up on Briticisms. Their job generally requires them to stay original, hip and ahead of the curve, so, as it has been observed, they tend to use posh-sounding words such as “bril” (brilliant), “rubbish” and “clever” (Williams, 2012) often. Thus, we can say that there are certain areas and groups of people that have developed a greater familiarity with British expressions than others. However, as we saw before, these expressions can be a part of the vocabulary of any ordinary person.

4. Briticisms’ Way to the US The role of British expats in the United States in spreading Briticisms has already been touched upon. We also know that this effect is enhanced by the 3 million tourists that visit the States each year (Lane, 2007). There is much more, though, to contribute to Americans adopting these new words. One of the main channels through which Britain exports bits of its language into the US is mainstream media and entertainment. No-one can argue that entertainment is global in today’s world. One may also add that most of the global content is provided by the American entertainment industry. The first assertion is, of course, true; but the second is not as simple as that. Exchange goes both ways, and the “smaller” way carries more significance than one would expect.

Several media products have found their way across the Pond and won the hearts of American fans (Williams, 2012). Recently, there has been a trend that saw popular British television shows like Top Gear or Gordon Ramsay, and British cult series like Doc-

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tor Who, Sherlock or Downton Abbey slowly gather their own American following. What’s more, personalities like Simon Cowell or Piers Morgan have conquered US media in person through their own American-made shows “America’s Got Talent” and “Piers Morgan Tonight”. With the Royal couple rising to fame, the USA now also has its own supply of news about the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their Royal Baby; as well as a general appetite for all sorts of Royal gossip, which is, needless to say, heavily loaded with specifically British content and language. Another significant contributor to the spread of British expressions is J. K. Rowling’s largely influential Harry Potter series. The Hogwarts world of magic is all set in Britain, so along with the storylines, a big chunk of British culture was also introduced to American readers in the books and films. This is despite the fact that lots of words in the book were substituted with their American counterparts in the US editions (for a list of examples, see Olson, 2001), in order to make them easier to understand; but many British expressions still slipped through. Some examples are “ginger” (red hair colour) and “snog” (to kiss). In addition to this, sports also have an influence on the American language, with more and more US natives following the European football and specifically the English Premier League, thus becoming more familiar with terms such as “football” (soccer), “match” (game), “standings” (table), “schedule” (fixtures) or “pitch” (field) in their British uses. The holes where British English can leak into American English are many, and sometimes quite wide.

0,00001% 0,000008% 0,000006% 0,000004% 0,000002% 0,00%

1950

1955

1960

1965

1970

1975

(ginger hair:eng_us_2009)

1980

1985

1990

1995

2000

2005

(ginger hair:eng_gb_2009)

Figure 3. A Google Ngram showing the usage frequency of the term “ginger hair” in US and UK English. From the end of the 20th century on, there has been a significant rise in the US use of the phrase (which coincides with the appearance of the Harry Potter series).

0,0012% 0,00096% 0,00072% 0,00048% 0,00024% 0,00%

1980 1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004

(holiday:eng_us_2012)

2006 2008

(vacaticn:eng_us_2012)

Figure 4. A Google Ngram showing the usage frequency of the words “holiday” and “vacation” in US English. Over the past few years, the Briticism “holiday” has become almost as frequent as the original US “vacation”.

5. Tracking Briticisms The easiest way to discover Briticisms is hearing or reading them personally. Murphy tracks Briticisms and other British-American differences that she comes across on her blog. Each year, she chooses the British-English-to-American-English words of the year, shedding light on recent linguistic trends in both languages. Past winners include “kettling” (herding protesters, corralling) in 2011, or “ginger”, “baby bump” and “go missing” in 2010.

Besides personal experience, there are a few ways to track Briticisms in a slightly more scientific manner. One way is browsing through the databases of literary archives, like the Lexis-Nexis Newspaper Archive. This can be tedious work, and the possibility may not always be available for everyone. Ben Yagoda, a journalism professor at the University of Delaware, has found an easier and quicker, yet comprehensive tool to do such research. On his blog, Not One-off Britishisms, where he collects Briticisms in American English, he usually backs up the frequency of word usage with Google Ngrams (Yagoda, 2011b). The Google Ngram Viewer (available at the web address http://books.google.com/ngrams) is a graphing tool that presents an annual count of given n-grams (letter combinations), words, or phrases. The searchable database includes over 5.2 million books that Google digitised (Google Ngram Viewer, n.d.). It has different databases for British English and American English, so it is a great way to compare either the use of a given word in the two dialects, or the use of two different words in the same one.

6. Differences in Use Although Americans can be very quick to embrace British words into their own language, sometimes the new use or meaning does not exactly cover the original one, or even goes against the original spirit of the word. A simple example of difference in use is the word “cheers”. Americans tend to use it cheerfully, like they do with “thanks”, but in its original form in British English, it is rather a formal, reserved expression that needs to be delivered “laconically” (Williams, 2012). As for difference in meaning, “chat up” has been adopted into US English as an expression meaning “talk to”, so the average American language user can feel free to apply it in a wide range of situations. However, in British English, “chat up” originally means flirting with the intention of intimate physical contact, which results in a completely different context of usage, and could lead to misunderstandings, should an American and a British person use the phrase in each other’s company. Murphy suggested that this difference is the result of the target language speakers not knowing the exact meaning of the expression, therefore choosing the meaning from the context that “makes the most sense” to them (Murphy, 2006). A similar example is the verb “shag”, a particularly foul piece of language in British English. Americans are generally less aware of its implications and use it more freely in their own way. A different kind of example involves the words “flat” and “apartment”. “Apartment” in British English can mean a posh “flat”, and “flat” in US Eng-

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lish can be used to imply a “grander” “apartment” (BBC News Magazine Editors, 2012). This goes to show how adopted Briticisms live their own life as slightly different words in their new language, contributing to the variety of not just American English, but the English language in general, too.

7. Reception of Briticisms There is no general stance on how people react to the presence of Briticisms in American culture, but it is worth taking a look at some of the positions. Opinions of native speakers include the idea that Briticisms, as new words, educate people; that they are an enhancement to American English; and that they are a pleasure to hear. However, they can also be considered pretentious or odd. Yagoda (2011b), worried about American English, mainly followed the latter line of thought: according to him, the greatest danger of using these terms is being pretentious, e.g., saying “chap” and “university” instead of their regular American equivalents. He is especially troubled by the way Briticisms are taking the place of already existing and perfectly suitable American words. This includes “advert” replacing “ad”, “queue” replacing “line”, and “full stop” replacing “period”, among others. At the same time, he acknowledges the use of Briticisms if there is no American expression with “quite the meaning” that the British one conveys. Still, he considers some of these words, e.g., “twee”, “kerfuffle” or “gobsmacked” simple catchphrases that are doomed to be forgotten soon, despite their current popularity. Murphy (2007) acted as a neutral observer, and she summed up her judgment in four simple but meaningful points that serve as a great summary of the discussion about the diversity of English, with all the differences, similarities and correlations:

but instead, it provides new surprises and discoveries by the day.

This is especially true for a language as rich and diverse as English. It is going to be very interesting to see how these two forms of the same “separating” but common language will further change and enrich each other in the coming years. The processes of this constant inner renewal make English both unique and universal, and therefore, always an inviting field for further study – academically, or, just as well, in our everyday lives.

References

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• • • • • • • •

‘Different’ doesn’t mean ‘better’ or ‘worse’.

‘British’ doesn’t necessarily mean ‘older’ or ‘original’.

‘Older’ doesn’t mean ‘better’ either!

Let’s enjoy each other’s dialects AND our own!

•

Conclusion

•

Despite the fact that both the United States and the United Kingdom are proud of their separate languages, and that it is the differences between American English and British English that are usually emphasised; the ties between the two dialects are never fully broken, and the connection is always two-sided.

The relationship between American and British English has always been a very special one, and in today’s global world, with less separation and more interaction, it is only going to get stronger. American English and British English are just as parts of our age’s global linguistic exchange as any other languages.

This, of course, includes American English’s increasing influence on British English, but also the phenomenon that goes the other way round and is just as significant and remarkable. The example of Briticisms shows that the behaviour of languages cannot be predicted based upon numbers, size, or past events;

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•

• • • • • • •

Anderson, S., Downs, S. D., Faucette, K., Griffin, J., King, T., Woolstenhulme, S. (2007). How accents affect perception of intelligence, physical attractiveness, and trust-worthiness of Middle-Eastern-, Latin-American-, British-, and StandardAmerican-English-accented Speakers. Intuition. 3(1), 5-11. Retrieved from http:// web.archive.org/web/20110726233856/http://intuition.byu.edu/Archive/Accents_ Intelligence.pdf Bayard, D., Weatherall, A., Gallois, C. and Pittam, J. F. (2001). Pax Americana?

Accent attitudinal evaluations in New Zealand, Australia, and America. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 5(1), 22–49.

BBC News Magazine Editors (2012, October 16). 30 of your Britishisms used

by Americans. BBC News Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/ news/magazine-19929249 Doll, J. (2012, October 11). Are You an Anglocreep? The Atlantic Wire.

Retrieved from http://www.theatlanticwire.com/entertainment/2012/10/ are-you-anglocreep/57845/ Google Ngram Viewer (n.d.). Retrieved January 18, 2013 from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Ngram_Viewer Hebblethwaite, C. (2012, September 26). Britishisms and the Britishisation of American English. BBC News Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.bbc. co.uk/news/magazine-19670686 Lane, M. (2007, March 21). Best of British. BBC News Magazine. Retrieved from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/6470095.stm Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary (2013). Retrieved from http://www. merriam-webster.com/ Murphy, L. (2006, August 10). chatting up and pulling. Retrieved from http://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.co.uk/2006/08/chattingup-and-pulling.html Murphy, L. (2007, September 3). diapers, nappies and verbal inferiority complexes. Retrieved from http://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot. hu/2007/09/diapers-nappies-and-verbal-inferiority.html Murphy, L. (2009, December 16). Words of the Year 2009: staycation and go missing. Retrieved from http://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot. hu/2009/12/words-of-year-2009-staycation-and-go.html Murphy, L. (2011, March 21). Not One-Off Britishisms. Retrieved from http://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/not-one-offbritishisms.html Murphy, L. (2011, June 11). accent attitudes. Retrieved from http:// separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/accent-attitudes.html Murphy, L. (2012, October 11). Briticisms in AmE. Retrieved from http:// separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/briticisms-in-ame.html Olson, E. (2001). Differences in the UK and US Versions of Four Harry Potter Books. Retrieved from http://www.uta.fi/FAST/US1/REF/potter.html Stewart, M. A., Ryan, E. B. and Giles, H. (1985). Accent and social class effects on status and solidarity evaluations. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 11(1), 98-105.

Williams, A. (2012, October 10). Americans Are Barmy Over Britishisms.

The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/11/ fashion/americans-are-barmy-over-britishisms.html Yagoda, B. (2011, April 9). About NOOBs. Retrieved from http://britishisms. wordpress.com/about/ Yagoda, B. (2011, September 20). The Britishism Invasion: Language corruption is a two-way street. Slate. Retrieved from <http://www.slate.com/ articles/life/the_good_word/2011/09/the_britishism_invasion.html>

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A ‘thank you’ letter

by Nuša Gorjanc

This is not an article on English teaching. At least not in the sense you might expect it to be. It’s above all a thank you note and sharing my priceless experience with you. It is downright impossible to squeeze all the good things that happened to me in Canterbury this August into this little writing, but let me at least try.

word like ‘ladybird’. Pilgrims’ staff took great care of us. We had all the technical support we needed, a library to borrow from and they made our breaks divine serving hot tea, coffee, juice and a selection of cookies in the green atrium. We even discovered a ripe marlberry tree in it and enjoyed its sweet juicy berries every day.

Canterbury at last. I, the lucky one, stepped off the train at Canterbury West station and went into the street. The sun was already setting so I let a taxi take me uphill to Parkwood. In a few minutes I was already holding a key of a room that was going to be my home for two weeks. When I got rid of my luggage I went out in search for some food. I followed the route drawn on my map of the Campus (by the kind receptionist) and it led me through a forest. Guess who came to greet me there! A not-at-all-shy fox and a couple of rabbits. Imagine that! In the days that followed I realized that rabbits, foxes and seagulls ruled the green meadows and woods surrounding the University Campus, so my first night’s meeting was nothing out of the usual Canterbury way.

I had lots of fun attending afternoon and evening activities, from the contagious positive energy of Peter Dyer’s drama class to Simon Marshal revealing the British from his own perspective.

However, skipping a lesson or two was a necessity if we wanted to see Canterbury itself before basically everything closed its door there. And not to experience a town like Canterbury would undoubtedly be a sin. It’s charming. I took every opportunity to descend from the picturesque hill the University of Kent is situated on and explored the town with my newly acquired friends.

As I am writing these lines, I am again exploring the colourful streets with their little shops and ancient pubs, listening to the voices of Canterbury Cathedral church choir, having a walk along the river, revealing hidden parks, taking a boat tour and watching the eels swimming underneath , tasting apple crumble and cream, sharing our lives and opinions over a drink, laughing, feeling the connection and freedom . Each evening when I returned to my room I stopped in our kitchen first, shared my day and had a laugh with my English, Belgian, Italian and Polish flatmates.

After my first late supper I was lying in my little dormitory bed, thinking about the lucky chain of events that brought me there. I remembered a colleague of mine telling me once: »If you ever decide to go on an English teacher training course, go to Pilgrims’ – they’re the best. « I felt quite uneasy for leaving my three and my five year-old children behind for two weeks, although I knew they would be well taken care of. For a few days, yes, but for a whole fortnight! And – won’t I miss them too much? In the end, that late august Sunday evening was the only evening I really had time to miss my family. After that two weeks passed like a storm.

I had chosen Creative Methodology for the Classroom. It was a happy combination of new ideas, and a revision of good old ones, and it worked for me. Sylvia Stephen’s approach was very thorough and honest and with the contribution of all of us - so very different English teachers from all over the world, our group turned out to be an experience of its own. Being the only Slovene in the group I greatly enjoyed the variety of languages and characters there. Besides English, you could also listen to some Spanish, Polish, German, Slovak, Bulgarian, Swedish, Japanese and Slovene. Very little of course, but enough for us to all explain a saying or two in our own language or reveal a simple

After a wonderful ‘working’ week at Pilgrims, we spent the weekend exploring Kent’s seaside (Broadstairs, Marlowe, Dover, Hastings and Rye) and returned for one more week of cultural and linguistic input.

I try to spend some time abroad every year putting myself in real life situations, because I believe that is essential for an English teacher, but with small children priorities change and it’s been a while since I’ve done something for myself alone. These two weeks gave me more than I’d hoped for. They say we change all the time, but sometimes we change faster. This course gave me strength as a teacher, connected me with some wonderful people and empowered me to face the new challenges of this school year, and there are many. I walked into my school with a bigger smile than I usually do in September. So writing a big ‘Thank you’ to IATEFL and Pilgrims is the least I should do.

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Challenging stereotypes in the classroom: the teacher’s role

by Kirsten Hempkin

Last semester, during a presentation, a student in our teaching programme happily declared to the listeners that he was a racist. He explained that, in his opinion, Slovenia would be much better off if there were no foreigners living here. After embarrassed coughs from the students present, to remind him that the teacher listening to the presentation (and grading it, after all) is a foreigner and longterm resident of Slovenia herself, he attempted to clarify his position. He assured me that he didn’t mean me, he was thinking mainly of those from the former Yugoslav republics, and although this remark was intended to reassure me, it somehow troubled me even more.

One of the reasons his comments unsettled me is that I know that this student had thought of applying for a scholarship and living abroad after completing his studies, which was especially ironic, as he was most likely to receive a CEEPUS grant (mainly former Yugoslav states) and emigrate to a country that has a significant Serbian and Croatian population. While I don’t know whether he saw the irony in his remarks, I do know that the views he expressed seem to be remarkably common and may not be seen as controversial or problematic by some. In the 17 years I’ve lived in Slovenia, I’ve heard similar thoughts about foreigners expressed countless times both inside and outside the classroom (often tempered with the familiar »Oh, but I’m not talking about you…«). So why does this incident stand out? Perhaps because when I hear such a view, it’s generally prefixed by »I’m not a racist, but…«. This time, however, I was shocked that the student expressed his view without a hint of apology.

I am not personally offended when a student makes a remark like this, and I sincerely hope that the visiting Erasmus and Ceepus students we host in our classes are not offended by it either. However, I admit that my stomach sinks when I hear such views. Maybe I should be used to it, but it still surprises and dismays me that someone who has chosen to study a foreign language can be so closed-minded. I had always naively assumed that an interest in languages means an interest in and

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openness to other cultures; this was certainly the case with me and the circle of friends I made studying French in Glasgow, many of them, like me, from the less than cosmopolitan small towns of working-class Scotland.

It is true that I encourage students to express their opinions openly in the class, as I do. However, just as I expect students to challenge me (which they do, often describing me as »too nice« because of my usually liberal point of view), they must also expect to be challenged. In this case, I asked the student to expand on his position and to justify it by asking a series of questions, as I would with any student in a similar situation.

(Why are Scots in Slovenia acceptable and not Bosnians? Why do you think such and such a nationality is lazy? Where did you get that information?) I feel that I should do this not because I am a foreigner, or »too nice«, but because it is part of my duty as a teacher. We live in an increasingly globalised world in which our students will come into contact with a wide variety of people at home and abroad. As teachers, we long ago accepted that language learning requires more than the acquisition of a set of pure language skills and competences; learners also need to be guided to communicate effectively and in order to do so, they must grasp the notions of cultural awareness and appropriacy. It is part of our job description as teachers to at least make students aware that their views may mark them as intolerant and to encourage them to reflect upon and, hopefully, re-evaluate them. Indeed, as Michael Byram, who has written widely on developing the »intercultural dimension« in the classroom contends, part of our duty in the classroom is to develop what he terms «intercultural speakers« who he argues »will be successful not only in communicating information but also in developing a human relationship with people of other languages and cultures.« (2002, 9) It is true that many teachers incorporate an element of cultural awareness into their language classroom, either in the form of their own materials or from the textbooks they use in class. What Byram advocates, however, and I would certainly echo his call, is that we move away from the notion of cultural awareness as simply the ac-

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quisition of facts about a target culture, or interesting differences between the target culture and »home« culture, but to think more broadly, encouraging our learners to reflect critically on other cultures and, perhaps even more importantly, their own. This requires not just the occasional challenge to a student who is expressing a prejudiced view, but a systematic and integrated approach to learning language and culture with the ultimate aim of producing the »intercultural speakers« described above. The role of the teacher in this process is crucial, and the most successful teacher, according to Byram, is »...the person who can help learners see relationships between their own and other cultures, can help them acquire interest and curiosity about ‘otherness’, and an awareness of themselves and their own cultures seen from other people’s perspectives.« (2002, 10) The contrast between the student described above and the intercultural speaker is clear: our learner seems to have already lost, that is if he possessed it in the first place, the »interest and curiosity« about others described above. In the language he uses about other nations, the (depressingly) familiar terms he chose, for example, A’s are lazy, B’s are dishonest, C’s are aggressive, D’s have too many children, etc. suggest that he had encountered what Fennes and Hapgood (1997), among others, describe as one of the significant obstacles to intercultural learning. Our learner has already closed himself down, made up his mind about other nationalities and reduced individuals to a fixed and unwavering set of characteristics and habits. In other words, his views are made up of stereotypes. In this our student is certainly not alone; in a Europe-wide study, Coleman (1998) found that university-level students often hold deep-rooted stereotypical beliefs that are difficult to dispel (even after work or study placements abroad).

How do we then begin to encourage our learners to explore their beliefs, and how can we guide them back to curiosity and openness and away from fixed, stereo-

typical beliefs? It seems obvious to say, but it is crucial that an open discussion of stereotypes takes place, in which learners work toward establishing the »what«, or the nature of stereotypical beliefs. There are three important aspects here. Firstly, learners must understand what is meant by a stereotype and what kind of stereotypical beliefs we hold. In our classes, the first step we take is to work together to arrive at a class definition, based on Scottish and Slovene stereotypes contained in jokes and songs. (Under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t advocate the use of Englishman, Scotsman and Irishman or Slovene, Bosnian and Croat jokes in the classroom, but they suit our purposes very well here.) Through the joke and song exercises, we build a picture of what the main stereotypes regarding the two nations are: Scots are stingy, big drinkers, kilt-wearers, anti-English; Slovenes are hard-working, superior to the other former Yugoslav nations, also stingy (Gorenci), named Janez. There are many other approaches, of course. Fennes and Hapgood, for example, offer a wide range of activities, suggesting discussion exercises based on who we would like to share a house with, drawing the associations we have with other cultures, or completing sentences about other nationalities.

Secondly, it is important that students see what is harmful about stereotypes, even those we consider »positive«, in particular to make the connection between our beliefs and actions, i.e. that if we act upon the stereotypes we hold, we engage in prejudicial behaviour. An obvious example would be not to employ someone on the basis of their nationality, as we believe people of that nationality to be lazy.

The other crucial step we have to take toward intercultural learning is for teachers to work with their learners to consider why we hold the ideas we do about ourselves and others. Part of the process in considering the why involves guiding our learners toward understanding that many of our attitudes, behaviours and values are cultur-

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ally derived. Our learners need to be able to »relativise« as Byram describes it, i.e. grasp that the attitude, values and behaviours they possess as Slovenes are not necessarily the only »correct« ones, and how they maybe viewed by others. Exploring the question of culture is challenging. I often ask my student a seemingly straightforward question: why are you a Slovene? Of course, many immediately answer that their passport tells them, but closer consideration brings other suggestions, for example, because I eat beef soup on a Sunday, I speak Slovene, I dance the polka, I work hard, etc. We then fit these answers into the categories (attitude, behaviours, values) above. Inevitably, we find links between our answers to this question and the previous exercises on stereotypes. Could being hard-working, a prized characteristic in Slovenia according to my students, be seen as arrogant by other nations? Fennes and Hapgood again offer a rich and invaluable range of exercises for classroom use that explore the challenging issue of culture in a straightforward and accessible manner, using, for example, the objects we carry in our wallets, the everyday expressions we use and questionnaires and checklists.

The issue of stereotypes is, of course, only one aspect of intercultural competence. However, dealing with this issue is both key to becoming an »intercultural speaker« and serves an excellent starting point for exploring the other related issues. It also goes without saying that the exercises I have briefly mentioned here offer a mere glimpse into those available; there is a wealth of useful materials by the authors I have made reference to in the article. I have also made some very modest contributions to the topic, mostly on the use of music and humour in this regard, and of course, I would heartily recommend those interested to read more by Byram and Fennes and Hapgood. Neva Čebron from the University of Primorska has also produced (in conjunction with Byram) an excellent resource particularly for use in the Slovenian context, exploring stereotypes and the wider issues of nationality and culture. Ideally, the type of cultural element described would be an integrated

element of language learning, a natural accompaniment to the language work prescribed by the curriculum.

While the topics covered here may seem difficult, especially for lower-level learners, it is surely worthwhile addressing them (perhaps in the form of workshops, projects, or special themed classes).

As teachers of English as a foreign language, we long ago accepted that our task is not simply to pass on the rules of grammar or vocabulary to produce accurate speakers but to guide our learners to becoming appropriate speakers. As the world grows ever smaller, and our students have to face the challenges of negotiating the global age, this cultural element will only increase in significance. It is therefore imperative that we begin to strengthen and widen the cultural aspect of our classroom work to prepare students for these challenges and to aim for the goals set out by the likes of Byram. In other words, we have no choice but to tackle some of the difficult questions regarding culture, of what makes us who we are and consider the implications for our beliefs about others, hopefully leading to the spirit of openness and curiosity that Byram describes. It seems sad that by university level, many of our students have closed their minds already and are happy to take refuge in stereotypical beliefs.

References

• Byram, M.,Gribkova, B. and Hugh Starkey (2002) Developing the Intercultural Dimension in Language Teaching. A Practical Introduction for Teachers. Council of Europe.

• Available at: http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/ linguistic/Source/Guide_dimintercult_EN. pdf (accessed 10.4.2008) • Coleman, J.A. (1998) Evolving intercultural perceptions among university language learners in Europe. In Byram, M. and Fleming, M. (eds). Language Learning in Intercultural Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

• Čebron, N. (2008) Close Otherness: English language as a bridge to »intercultural citizenship«. Založba Annales: Koper • Fennes, H. & K. Hapgood (1997) Intercultural Learning In the Classroom, Council of Europe. Cassell: London

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Thinking out loud after the IATEFL Hungary conference

by Sandra Vida

Taking part in conferences has become one of the ways I take care of my continuous professional development.

This is why it was not hard to decide to go to the conference organized by IATEFL Hungary. They promised great speakers and a lot of opportunities to network, meet new people and develop my language skills, and they delivered all that and more.

Nevertheless, being me, and having organized a conference before (and being in the process of organizing the next one), I couldn’t help but evaluate and compare, all for the purpose of making it even better the next time IATEFL Slovenia has our own conference.

Many things became clear early on, in fact from the very beginning. First, it is important that the participants coming in are greeted by a bunch of people with smiles on their faces, working well and fast. It is good if this can be done after you have settled into your room and managed to take off your coat and leave behind everything that might disturb you later.

These first impressions make you feel welcome and valued. It also feels really good to get a conference bag packed with books and goodies, and all of a sudden you feel like something special is beginning and you forget all about your normal life. This happens for me every time, and I love the feeling of excitement, of pride in my profession, of freedom. This feeling is one of the reasons I have become in a way addicted to conferences. I need it to get through the hardships of every day, to remember in the dark moments who I am.

Being able to choose which sessions to go to is a curse and a blessing at the same time. Sometimes it is hard to decide where

to go to, but most of the time it allows you not to go to the things you are just not interested in, and if by any chance you end up in the wrong session, you can always leave and go for a coffee with an old friend (or a new one) instead. There is an unwritten rule I usually follow when I don’t know which session to choose: if the presenter can make the title and summary sound interesting and fun, then the workshop can’t be far from that. If the summary is a dull collection of words I can’t understand or pronounce with certainty, I don’t expect the presenter to be any different! As I value my time, I’d rather go for a coffee instead! I always have high expectations for the social evenings.

They give you a chance to meet new people and be a part of something you don’t see or do every day. For me they make a conference a special, almost sacred place for meeting my personal needs and getting in touch with the person I want to become rather than the one society has forced me to be. Then, tired after a hard day, I fall into bed awaiting more.

Inspiring, well-informed and motivating speakers, such as I have generally only encountered in a conference setting and so rarely in other seminars, make me want more, remind me why I wanted to become a teacher in the first place and persuade me it is still possible to change the world. And I want to believe them, even if only for the time being, before I get dragged back to reality by the cruel claws of time. I often take notes during the workshops and sometimes I find them years after the conference and get reminded of the most important points. It also helps me concentrate on what is being said.

There is definitely something in foreign speakers I can’t completely put my finger on that often makes them the better presenters. Perhaps it is the difference in the way they were

Beautiful Budapest

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brought up, educated and cultivated. Unfortunately only rare Slovenian speakers get the basic rules of a good presentation: include an anecdote or two, show you are human, connect with your public, entertain, inform and, above all, don’t ever look down on your audience or pretend you possess the key to good teaching just because you’ve read some books on the subject. There have been too many people paid by the Ministry I’ve had to listen to who came to preach something they had never themselves tried or – even worse – got me to ask the really important questions I wanted to get answers to and then expected me to find the same answers in 20 minutes of group work with the colleagues I work with on an everyday basis. But don’t let me get started on this...

During the coffee breaks, I explore the exhibition area. This is usually full of more-than-helpful people who really know what they are talking about and treat you as a professional.

Completely different to how sometimes I get treated in a bookshop. The exhibition space treasure hunt I saw at the Hungarian conference is something we will probably be copying for our conference as well – sometimes we just need somebody to push us in the right direction to get the right information.

Getting the pacing of the workshops and plenaries right is also vital. The morning plenary is usually the most serious of all, followed by workshops of different lengths. I used to think 45 minutes was a really good time for a workshop, but I am more and more convinced that, especially in the afternoon, 20-minute workshops would be suitable as well. Very often the core of what needs to be said is said in 20 minutes and the remainder of the time is often wasted on less important aspects of the subject matter. It is also easier to concentrate for two shorter periods than one longer one after a day packed with information. By the end of the day, most participants are too tired to take in anything else but a light, entertaining plenary to lift our spirits.

Most of the time, by the end of the conference, I start getting tired and want to go home. Often it is the raffle and the possibility of winning something that makes me stay until the

end. I am not sure whether we need to resort to such things to “force” participants to stay until the end. In any case, it is their loss if they don’t. Nevertheless, I think we will divide the load of one long raffle into several small ones this year and see where it brings us. Perhaps we have come to a position where teachers know themselves what is best for them and act accordingly without our promise of a carrot at the end?

I don’t remember having been offered a certificate of attendance, so I did not take it, but perhaps a certificate is not the most important thing any more. In this day and age, when there are so many things we have to do, it is good to have something we want to do, even if we don’t get a certificate at the end. What really counts is the experience I got from it and the knowledge, the connections and ties with people who care, with people who matter, with the right people.

In the end, I think the experience of being a participant at a conference has helped me in the same way as it is important for teachers to find themselves in the role of a student every now and then. It helps you remember the feelings, the hopes and the disappointments every such experience inevitably brings with it. I think in this moment, I know what I need to do to make our conference the best possible. The rest is in your hands, dear readers – to come and make it worthwhile.

Because we need each other.

A highlight of the conference was certainly the contribution by Zoltan Dörnyei, a specialist on motivation. In his plenary, he discussed the importance of visions for student motivation to learn a foreign language. It is often fairly easy to get motivation for a moment, but to maintain it over an extended period of time is often much harder.

Zoltan says that while individuals pursue language for a variety of reasons and purposes, the vision of who they would like to become as second language users seems to be one of the most reliable predictors of their long-term intended effort. Therefore it is up to teachers to create environments in which students can create and nurture visions.

Boards of he region's night out

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Zoltán Dörnyei

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And he calls these visions instead of goals for a reason.

They should be vivid and visible in students’ minds, so that they can come back to them when motivation drops.

Zoltan distinguishes between goals, as abstract, cognitive plans for the future, and visions, which include goals but add an accompanying sensory element. Thus an image of what it will be like when one achieves the goal is an important part of the package. As teachers, we need to encourage students to see their goals, to feel them, almost to touch them. Therefore he proposes steps to develop a vision-inspired teaching practice.

Step 1: CREATE THE VISION. Help your students construct visions of who they could become as L2 users and how their lives would be better with knowing the foreign language.

Thanks to popular culture, this is not a particularly hard task if you are teaching English.

Step 2: STRENGTHEN THE VISION. The more intense the imagery, the more powerful the vision.

Step 3: SUBSTANTIATE THE VISION. Learners need to perceive the vision as possible. This means they need to have realistic expectations of themselves.

Step 4: TRANSFORM THE VISION INTO ACTION. Don’t let your students’ visions remain mere daydreams. Have them produce concrete action plans to achieve them. Help them find ways to get there.

Step 5: KEEP THE VISION ALIVE. Remind your students often enough of their visions so they don’t forget about them with time or because of other problems in life.

Step 6: COUNTERBALANCE THE VISION. Help students expose their fears and think about the things that will not happen if they don’t pursue their visions. Have them face their fears, so that they know they can’t give up.

I think what Zoltan Dörnyei said makes a lot of sense, and perhaps this is a reason why so many students from less sup-

portive backgrounds are off to a worse start academically in the first place. They lack the vision and they often don’t believe in their ability to achieve it. It is up to the teacher to help them see it and start believing it and the wish to learn will follow naturally.

Sophia Mavridi led an excellent workshop on “Digital citizenship”, in which she made one thing particularly clear. It is not enough to just tell students about the dangers and opportunities that the internet and social networks bring with them.

Very often they will say they know all about it but still decide to do the wrong thing when it comes to plagiarism, for example. I think this is similar to what happens with anti-smoking education: despite all our words, somehow people still manage to make the wrong decision. They need to feel the problem on their own skin in order to grasp how serious it is. For this purpose, Sophia gave us a task at the end of her talk that really opened my eyes. She asked us to write a summary of her talk in a Google doc. While we were writing it, thinking we knew what was going on, nicely citing her while writing down her words, she found two volunteers. Being busy with writing, we did not pay too much attention to them, sitting at the front next to her computer where the doc was opened and projected onto the screen. When both groups were done with our summaries, she showed the first one and asked whose it was and all of a sudden, a name appeared under our summary. She asked the person who signed it to read it and she did, pretending it was her own. At first, we were too surprised to react. Then, we tried to tell her this was our summary and not hers, but Sophia ignored us and let the girl read until the end. The feelings of betrayal, powerlessness and deception were so real I knew this is what every student needs. To feel on their own skin what it means for someone to steal your work without acknowledging you as an author and in the same time to feel the shame of having stolen something and getting caught. Students need to feel that intellectual property really is property and something that can’t just be taken from someone without asking for permission, in the same way as we would not steal a physical object. Perhaps this will be one of the more important things you teach you students, something that they will really need in the future. I for one certainly learnt from it.

International dance night

Our dear IATEFL Slovenia president

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Annual international IATEFL conferece Liverpool 2013 or What happened to chalk and blackboard

by Jasna Džambić

I was thinking about what to write for the report of my attendance at the Annual International IATEFL Conference in Liverpool in April 2013. I had two choices: to write a factual report about the workshops I attended, the people I met, the sightseeing I did in Liverpool etc. But such writing soon becomes boring, if you ask me, the ideas one wants to share, soon lose their meaning, are not understood as they should be etc. So I decided to do it a bit differently, since the conference gave me a lot of food for thought, especially what we as teachers are facing in this modern virtual era. A kind of an internal monologue, if you wish. So, here we go.

When I joined IATEFL Slovenia board, I was presented to the rest of the board members by Sandra Vida as “computer freak”.

I didn’t know whether I should feel flattered or admit to myself that even the people who did not know me as much then knew that I am very much into computers and everything there is to do with technology. But that was in 2008, before I started teaching in courses and later on also in school. Before I came to the conclusion that computers or rather all other technology novelties are actually not my cup of tea, to put it mildly. I am of course in favour of using modern technology in the classroom, but I stick to the well-known saying “everything in moderation” - I use technology in my lessons to spice

Albert Dock

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things up, not to build my lessons completely on the basis of technology (and if I have a working internet connection, that is). Old-fashioned, some would say, but I firmly believe that children are already poisoned enough by technology anyway, but at the end of the day they need to be able to function without it, to speak their minds without having to use the like button on Facebook, without posting what they had for dinner every night, without checking the responses every half an hour. Every day I see how children are not able to express their opinions, articulate their thoughts and be decent opponents in a real, face-to-face conversation. This is why my goal is to teach them to speak, to think, to express themselves with real sentences, rather than writing in codes such as brb, lol and other nonsense.

And this is what I kept thinking about when I attended the annual international IATEFL conference in Liverpool in April 2013. To attend such a conference is overwhelming, don’t get me wrong, it was an honour to go and see how the big IATEFL does it, to choose from the countless number of workshops, talks, plenaries, discussions, to meet fellow colleagues from all around the world and realise that we all have the same problems, dilemmas, issues to solve and children to teach. It is just a matter of energy and time we are willing to devote to our work that is different (although most of us do see teaching as

Merseyside

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After having seen what there was to do in the evenings, I began the journey of reading through the enormous number of workshops and tried to choose the ones I found most appealing and interesting and the ones I thought I would benefit the most from. With such an extensive offer at the IATEFL Liverpool conference it was basically impossible to read all the summaries (120 pages long!), so choosing the workshops by the title usually is the most convenient and easiest way to do it. Reading through the

titles my problems and doubts began... Internet safety, Video illustration of your lessons, E-publishing, An Apple (or Android) for the young learner teacher, The two worlds of the modern infant, Designing materials for mobile language learning, Blogging in the classroom, Web-based oral presentations, A story of a virtual international exchange, Learning English through remote teaching, New online courses for industry, Handheld devices in technology-supported English learning, Designing online courses, E-testing, Use of MovieMaker, How to create a machinima (video in 3D), Mobile devices and learner interaction, mLearning, One laptop per child, Implementing technology in the classroom, Implementing iPads in the classroom, Using digital media, e-portfolio, Using solarpowered mp3 players in African schools, Becoming a digital teacher, Using social media to enhance learning, Just hit pause (using videos), Bring your own technology, YLs and blogging, How to use Facebook with your students, The flipped classroom, Will and the web, Making an app that works for you and your students, Online young learner community, Mobile literacy, Cell phone scavenger hunt, Engaging the digital native, Lotech - hi-tech, Technology makes it easy, Using technology to motivate students… By now, you should have got the idea of where I’m going with this. The last title summarises my doubts very well: is using technology in the classroom really the only thing left to motivate our students? Or is it the most convenient, not to say the most effortless way to motivate them?... I was literally shocked to see how many (if not the majority - if we leave out the talks on different projects and research) workshops, talks etc. focused primarily on technology in the classroom and how to use all kinds of different modern devices, programmes, applications, software etc. in the lessons. Again, don’t get me wrong, I like using different tools in my lessons, I like playing with different applications to make my lessons more interactive, but I found myself flooded with all these workshops offering nothing else but a quick escape from what I still think is the most important tool a teacher should use in his/her lessons: his/her brain (and a bit of imagination and creativity, too, of course). So there I was, sitting in Hall 11b, listening to a presenter talking about how to use Facebook with your students, how to flip the classroom and make it friendlier for the oh-so-tech-loving

Albert Dock, Liverpool

Liverpool riverside

our mission rather than just work that puts food on our table).

Of course there were people I talked to and thought to myself how lucky I am to have the possibility to use so many different things in my lessons, from countless workbooks, to additional materials, to modern technology etc., whereas some teachers can only dream about having a computer in the classroom, not to mention internet connection…

To get back to the conference: what I usually do at the beginning of every conference is to first look at the evening programme. I do believe that the evening programme is extremely important for any conference, since is offers great opportunities to connect with other participants in a more casual, informal way, it offers a chance to mingle and socialise - and it offers ideas for other conference organisers which can be used at their own conferences… ☺ The social evenings were indeed organised very well in Liverpool. The first thing on the agenda was the pre-conference dinner event, organised for IATEFL Associates on Sunday, which was great, then the opening reception in the beautiful Galleria of the ACC Liverpool where the conference was held, then the great “Celebration of Liverpool” evening event for conference participants, the Open Mic Night with Adrian Underhill, Luke Meddings, Willy Cardoso and other big shots from the ELT world presenting themselves in different light and at the end the hilarious and splendid IATEFL Failure Fest, where the brave presenters such as Bethany Cagnol, Ken Wilson, Jeremy Harmer and some others entertained the participants with their stories of failure and what they’ve learned from them.

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students, how to use all kinds of applications - just to tell us at the end that all the applications are unfortunately only suitable for iPads… excuse me? Is this for real, I thought to myself… I don’t want to be rude, but as a presenter, do you really think that the majority of the listeners have iPads? Or that the students have one as well? Or is it just me, who has fallen way behind in this modern era and does not have a clue what the students need nowadays? I have students in my classes, children actually, who have an iPad, a smart phone, other tablets, gadgets, laptops, phones etc. But they are the minority. Perhaps the problem is in Slovenia and only our students don’t have all the equipment this presenter was talking about… However, seeing the faces of quite a few participants in Hall 11 b, I felt a bit relieved, since after talking to them, this is not the case only in Slovenia… Anyway, the major problem I was thinking about during the presentation (and a long while after it), is not that I cannot use an iPad in my lessons, because I don’t have one (and neither does the majority of my students), but that I don’t want to use one!

Why would I want to force my kids into using all the gadgets they probably use out of the classroom all the time anyway, to use it IN the classroom as well? Perhaps every now and then, but to be connected with my students via Facebook, Twitter etc. every day, to post messages through social media for them every day - a no go for me, sorry. And again I wonder: is it me or are there other teachers who feel they are being forced to “go with the flow” and use as much of modern technology in their lessons, because this is the thing we should be using now, this is what the children need, this is how we can get closer to them, this is something WE MUST DO! Blah, blah, blah… I’d rather go against the flow and make something of the “square-headed” students, as my friend Bea Price calls them… Again, I don’t want to be rude, but such emphasis on modern technology has gone way over the limit… I see teachers using all kinds of applications, web-based tools, social media etc. to motivate their students and they even say that nothing else motivates them anymore… seriously? SERIOUSLY? What happened to plain old debates, discussions on important things such as world hunger, social differences and problems, environmental issues, reading a book perhaps?!?

And then the same teachers complain how their students are

not interested in sharing opinions, speaking up, reading a novel, writing a poem, an essay etc. Well, there you have it.

Maybe they could post that on FB… I’m sorry, but if this is the way modern teaching is going to be in the future, then I will be the odd one out… I am not going to settle with statements such as “The kids of the modern era need to be reached through media close to them (FB,Twitter, apps)” or “Use an iPad, smart phone in your classroom and be a cool teacher”.

I’d rather have students thinking with their own mind, sharing their opinions through TALKING, not POSTING on FB, through debating, discussing and not chatting in virtual chat rooms and using code language… Call me old-fashioned, call me anything - but my students will at least be able to use their head (they know how to use their tablets and laptops anyway…). But I can see the problem (although not many will admit it): to plan a lesson with a few youtube videos, a few apps the students can use on their phones is in many cases a lot easier and less time-consuming than planning a lesson without technology AND without a workbook, since I’m not a fan of them either… It’s the decision every teacher needs to make for himself/herself, but I will probably always choose a debate over an iPad application… Perhaps I am being too critical and perhaps I am being unfair to those who really know how to incorporate modern technology into their lessons (I know a few and I applaud them), but there are still so many teachers who rely only on modern technology and don’t care if their students think on their own or not… (not to mention a workshop I attended where the presenter was supposed to offer some ideas for teachers who work in lo-tech environments - and then he handed out little pieces of paper with a grid on it - a grid that equals the 140 spaces one has to write a tweet on Twitter… no comment needed, right?)

Anže Perne's workshop

Former president of IATEFL Carol Read and president Eric Baber

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I strongly support all those teachers who try to teach their students to have a critical mind, to be able to think critically about everything, to have an opinion about everything (because nothing makes me more irritated than a students that says “I don’t know” about everything you ask him/her). Critical thinking is the key to help our students become intellectual individuals, who in my honest opinion, are the ones who

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Liverpoo l at suns et

can make a difference in this world - and not the ones who know how to use Talking Tom app… And this is why I loved the conference enabling to listen to ELT stars such as, Luke Prodromou, Jeremy Harmer, Chaz Puglieze, John Hughes and other co-stars who still care about their students in a real, genuine, down-to-earth way - without MacForcing them to become a virtual shadow of themselves, but rather forcing them to use their own mind and to stand out from the rest. I don’t know, perhaps I was doomed to such strong opinions about what a teacher should be in his/her classrooms during my faculty years, having had some wonderful teachers who put emphasis entirely on thinking with your own head and on having an opinion about everything, but I will be forever grateful to them, as they made me who I am today as a teacher - honest, straightforward, strict, but fair and I always push my students to speak up, to use their brain - without having to use their Facebook or any other app they know. And this is also why I am so happy every year when the annual international IATEFL Slovenia conference takes place - it has so many different workshops to offer, which do not focus solely on technology, a conference that has the guts to have a “powerpoint-free” slot of workshops every day, a conference that sees a teacher as a mediator and offers the teachers to come together and share their ideas, without having to bring along their laptops, iPads and other nuisance…. We as teachers need to bear in mind that although our students live in such a virtual era, we do not need to go with the flow and flood them with technology every step of the way. There are some great things one can do with their students during lessons with different programmes, applications, but they need to be used in moderation. We are the ones who are shaping their personalities, opening new worlds for them (frankly, they are the ones who could teach us a thing or two about technology), but let’s try and be gadget-free as much as we can in our lessons - and let the students breath a bit and use more than just two brain cells at once.

PS: The author of this article would be really glad if you could share your opinions on the topic. Send your comments, questions, thoughts etc. to jasna.dzambic@iatefl.si. If it works, the author will start a column in the next issue of IN. ☺

Here we are

at night Albert Dock

Associates Day

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27

Love letters ideas given by Željko Štengl and Alenka Tratnik As we all know, love can be expressed in various ways.

One of these ways that probably is not very common these days is writing letters. Full of passion, sometimes full of pain, sometimes full of joy. Or, as Mr Štengl says, “writing love letters has always been a great challenge and an adventure entering the world of love and passion but not always necessarily a tragedy. Maybe just an imagination or an escape from reality.”

Mr. Štengl provided some love letters written by famous masters of writing: Ernest Hemingway writing to Marlene Dietrich, Sergij Esenin expressing his feelings towards Isadora Duncan, and Franz Kafka’s thoughts dedicated to Milena Jesenska.

Some of these love letters and the suggestions on how to use them in a classroom can be found below. I hope you will find them interesting and also useful. I would apprecate your feedback on the topic and activities ☺.

Please, send me your responses: dolores.malic@iatefl.si Ernest Hemingway the telegraphs and other data are taken from: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1547502/ Papa-Hemingways-letters-to-Dietrich-revealed.html

Here a re som e of H eming way’s l etters:

I fall in love

with yo bad an u d you’re a l w a y in love s with so me jerk .

Papa

Marlene, I love you very much as you damned well know. It was you who decided that time on the boat that we had just left whoever we were mixed up with too soon. It wasn’t me. We have been shot in the ass with bad luck more than probably any two people.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1547502/ Papa-Hemingways-letters-to-Dietrich-revealed.html

The famous writer alway s signed his le He also sent tters as »Pap the actress th a«. em works and D ietrich comm anuscripts of his literary ented on them :

David Cox, the author of the articles the letters are taken from, explains the relationship between Hemingway and Dietrich as follows: »they show an enduring love between the author, who committed suicide in 1961, and the film star he met on an ocean liner in 1943. The couple were powerfully drawn to each other and both appeared to regret that timing and distance meant a full-blown love affair never developed.« 28

Like a terrible anim

al lying quie room and yo tly in your u don’t know w hen it will k I read it wit ill you. h one eye an d my heart had goosefles h.

ic espite the platon h As Cox says »D ietric relationship, D r ei th of e ur at n gway’s alous of Hemin je ly se n te in as w en, ith other wom relationships w ndship ie fr defend his forcing him to in grid Bergman with actress In 1950.« a letter in May

Dietrich’s letter to Hemingway, dated August 11 1952:

I hate waste more than anything, and particularly any waste of you. Speaking of waste, that’s what my life is at the

gman am fond of Ber I if it p el h ot cann trouble,” when she is in er h to l ya lo and am u want. y as long as yo gr an y ta “S . te he wro se there daughter, becau e, im et m so it But stop will there the world, nor in u yo of e on is only ely in this d I get very lon an , er h ot an e ever b u angry at me.

Papa world with yo

I

t On Sep

moment and has been since I wrote to you last. Not complete waste, because of the children, but enough waste to make me restless and sad.

There was always someone who couldn’t live without me and now I love a man who can.

And Hemingway’s letter from August 24 1953:

ote: 1 he wr

26 195

ver time I e y r e v e how that can’t say u I felt o y d n u o s. arms ar ny thing a put my m o o t r me. No ful and I was ho ys cheer a lw a e wer But we gether. jokers to

I

Thank you for the two lovely letters. Hate it about the waste of you. But if you love him I suppose that is what you have to do.

Dietrich, undated:

And on Apri

l 4 1952 he

is straight-fo

rward:

I love you an d you are alw ays in my th oughts.

I look at you r picture ever y morning a to you. I hav nd say hello e my own ap a rt m en t for the firs in my Amer t time ican life.

I did it all m yself and it is very beautifu bit ‘femme en l, a little trenue’ thou gh , o r, if you like it b ‘elegant bach etter, elor’.

t to put Papa Beloved, I wan and my my arms around you you forever heart. I want to kiss auty that and a day for the be s and is in you and the peril k you the mastery, and than l this for giving words to al it. of ok and making a bo than I can’t love you more ger, I do or deeper or lon with u yo k but I can than all I feel.

Yours, Marlene 29

ndated:

,u Dietrich

ading d after re uldn’t a b so b eye jo p. Co Papa My ours I had to sto and sleep h ill o about tw took a sleeping p wyers who la lly sleep fina te for Washington - sat with la c n o e o r e wich t se Confe make a T r fo e r hate to came he vening. I . (sic) e ll i ‘t m the d too but I ha decisions now. ript just quietly sc u n a m the eing Finished errible arrival b ow when t kn a It is like m and you don’t dly said, o o ba in your r ou. That is very e eye and y on ll it will ki s. I read it with u ill tell yo ve Papa belo d gooseflesh - I w riting. w ha my heart my voice than in h t i better w ry. and Ma I kiss you lene ers, Mar t h g u a d our One of y

How love letters can be used in a classroom - some ideas 1. Students can write a love letter to a famous person.

2. Students can change the beginning or the ending of any of the letters.

3. Students can add a paragraph or write a reply.

4. Teacher can cut one letter into pieces and students can put it back together.

5. Students can find the data about the authors and recipients of the letters.

They can try to present the content of the letters to their classmates by using role-play.

6. Students can pretend to be journalists and/or paparazzi and write an article about these love letters that were found (eg. How did Hemingway’s wife react when she found his letters to Marlene Dietrich? What are Hemingway and Dietrich’s plans for the future?...)

7. Discussion: What is platonic love?

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A very long letter fro

m Hemingway, 1 Ju

ly 1930, revealing a

M

lot about his life:

y dearest Marlene: I write this early in th e morning, the hour and the soldiers and that poor people sailors wake from ha bit, to send you small lonely or anything. letter for if you are Yesterday I died with my Colonel for the las t time and said good it was worse than an -bye to the girl and y other time. But the las t page proofs are done in one day a night an now. I did them d then yesterday.

Now I must not try to think about it and th e hell with everythin g.

I always tell you every thing so I tell you tha t saying goodbye to tha not my true vocation. t girl in real life was Now I don’t know if I ever see her again. Bu to say good-bye to her, t if I do and I have and I will, it will not be fun either. I hope yo being an unfaithful be u do not mind me cause basically I am a faithful. One time I ha and resolve to only lov d a wonderful plan e one person. This pla n was known as the Se Plan. It went to hell too ve n Year Monogamy .

So now I have no pla n. I should have som e money and I suppose me happy. Then there that should make is this war that I am not interested in. We on the ocean for three go now on the Pilar days and I will try to fish intelligently and a pistol with my best sho ot beer cans with ability, rapidity and finesse.

I was thinking about you last night when I couldn’t sleep and I th women’s problems ar ought how worse e than mens. Men ha ve a few too. I guess the problems (Dr Hemin tru e extent of one’s gstein the Philosophe r) is measured by the to love anything when capacity of your hear there is no good end t to it.

I’ve been in love (truly ) with five women, th e Spanish Republic an Division. The women’s d the 4th Infantry end like womens and, I guess. I knew we we when we lost Irun in re beaten in Spain 36 and I stuck around for two and a half yea and two balls and les rs with my heart s than 1000 pieces of artillery for a 650 mi your old man what th le fro nt. You could ask at means. The morta rs all home made.

I love Miss Martha I guess but I couldn’t sta nd her and she lied to that she absolutely co me for eight years uldn’t have a baby. W ell we’ll leave women ou in love with you bad t of this except I fall and you’re always in love with some jerk. like Mary and they hi I get a wonderful gir t my heart again like l with an 88. During 4th Inf. Div. and 25 this time I love the .569 casualties out of a strength of 12,500 Black Dog and he lov to 13,000. I love my es me and he is gettin g old. I loved a lovely gre Princessa and she died y Persian named last week of old age.

This letter is a lot of shit, or should we po lite and talk German love practically god-da and say cabbage. I sti mn everything and I ll certainly love you my But Christ I’m tired damn, bloody hero. and I get bored shit-l ess when I finish som like book. Have really eting. Think you will worked on it. If you like it one half as mu A Foreign Affair I’ll ch as I like you in be happy.

Will have Scribner’s send you the first one they print.

You can read it while you fly over the Korea ns. Make slow rolls an d entertain them.

I love you very much , Papa

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Franz Kafka

No, Milena, I beg you once again to invent another possibility for my writing to you. You mustn’t go to the

post office in vain, even your little postman - who is he? - mustn’t do it, nor should even the postmistress be asked unnecessarily.

If you can find no other possibility, then one must put up with it, but at least make

a little effort to find one.

Last night I dreamed about you. What happened in detail I can hardly remember, all I know is that we kept merging into one another. I was you, you were me. Finally you somehow caught fire.

Remembering that one extinguished fire with clothing, I took an old cloth and beat you with it.

But again the transmutations began and it went so far that you were no longer even there, instead it was I who was on fire and it was also I who beat the fire with the coat.

But the beating didn’t help and it only confirmed my old fear that such things can’t extinguish a fire.

In the meantime, however, the fire brigade arrived and somehow you were saved.

But you were different from before, spectral, as though drawn with chalk against the dark, and you fell, lifeless or perhaps having fainted from joy at having been saved, into my arms.

But here too the uncertainty of transmutability entered, perhaps it was I who fell into

someone’s arms.

Isadora Duncan to Sergei Esenin

I can’t stand it anye. more.

My Darling --

I want to go hom

I don’t like it at all. All the Chairs are staring at me in the most frightful way -- And there is a Lady on the Mantel piece who has taken a Great objection to me -- and I’m awfully scared-This is no place for a person with a nice cheerful disposition like me -- it looks like those parlors in the Novels where they plot things -All night long the train has not been flying over but going pim de pim over Great fields of snow -- vast plains of snow -- Great bare Countries covered with snow (Walt Whitman could have written ‘em up fine) and over all this the Moon shining -- and across the window always a Golden shower of sparks -- from the locomotive -- it was quite worth seeing and I lay there looking out on it all and thinking of you -of you, you dearest sweetest best darling -The City is covered in snow and little sleighs rushing madly about -- All things go in sliders of course. I send you many little missives along the way -- Hoe they arrived! --

Sergei Esenin to Isadora Duncan New York or Paris, 1923

Moscow, August 29, 1923

Isadora my sweetheart, I am very busy writing some books so I can’t come. I think of you very often. I am grateful to you (for your help). Firstly I moved from Prečistenka Street to Kolobov (his friend).

Now I am moving to another flat. I am buying it together with Mariengof (his friend). Business is in full swing.

I didn’t expect it (really).

I visited Trocki (a politician). He was great to me. He promised me some big money for publishing (literary works).

I wish you a lot of success and health. Drink a little (please)!

I must go now and wash the soot off and have my Breakfast.

Give my love to Dear Dear No. 11 and to that musty little dear Home No. 6 and for your dear self my heart is overflowing with just the most unoriginal and fashionest sort of love.

Write to me -- and tell me -- I go now to splash Your Isadora To be up-to-date with what is going on, visit our

Mosco w,

1923

Isadora my lov e, I can’t c ome be cause I I will c am ver ome to y busy.

Ialta. I love you w i l l always .

Your Se P.S. Isa dora, g rgei ive my love.si website: www.iatefl to Irma .

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Christmas taboo

by Dolores Malić Taboo game – instructions Divide the students into two teams, with a member from each team sitting as a pair. Cards are dealt out to the pairs. The first member of team A then chooses a card and tries to describe the word written in bold, which the other members of his or her team have to guess. If he or she uses any of the words written under this main word, his or her partner calls “taboo” and takes over the description of the main word for the other members of team B to guess. The turn then passes to team B. Two points (possibly Christmas-themed, e.g. decorations on a tree drawn on the board) are awarded for a correct guess without the use of a taboo word, one for a correct guess by the team taking over following a “taboo”.

Option: set a time limit for each description. If the first team fails to guess the word in time, the partner of the first player takes over and is allowed to use one of the taboo words (and so on back and forth until the word is guessed).

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Christmas

reindeer

elves

December

Christmas tree

winter presents Santa Claus Christmas tree 25th December

Santa Claus Rudolph delivery flying Bambi

Santa Claus toys North Pole helpers hats

month winter holidays snow cold

to decorate presents Santa Claus conifer star

presents

carols

sledge

cookies

shopping

box to wrap delivery children toys

to sing Jingle Bells choir carollers song

Santa Claus reindeer to deliver presents to fly

cinnamon sweet to bake tea children

presents stores crowd to pay money

greetings

Santa Claus

North Pole

dinner

family

card post to send holiday wish

man belly generous North Pole white beard

ice cold snow Santa Claus’ home elves

family evening to eat meal food

members parents children happy home

stocking

to decorate

church

Jesus

chimney

long Pippi to hang chimney sweets

house Christmas tree ornaments lights to hang

vicar choir to pray bench ceremony

Joseph Mary baby Bethlehem hay

presents Santa Claus to deliver to get stuck fire

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