The screen is a "dangerous" place to be in many different ways. Talking to strangers is one. But we can't lag behind; we need to keep up with the times. The poem below is the result of dissecting the contradictory feelings the web may give rise to. I wrote it a couple of years ago, when I was "newer" to the online community.

SCREEN LURKER You lurk right thereIn the corner of the screenYou call yourself a friendYou dissemble unabashed When the screen gets blankLittle friend you are not enoughYou are so much more than a drugSo much less than a cure Every day your image
Fades with the tempo
Of a novelty turnedThreadbare with the use

The value of the mother tongue in foreign language teaching

I have touched upon the value of using the learner’s mother tongue in foreign language learning. I know I may be carrying coals to Newcastle by repeating a view that has probably been expounded by many a linguist or EFL teacher around the world but there can be no harm in sharing some thoughts from my long experience as an EFL teacher of Greek origin.

I will briefly enumerate the benefits for the learner of being provided with or even better working out a mother tongue equivalent for a word or phrase in the foreign language.

To begin with, the learner, especially if they are children, realises the difference between an equivalent and a word-for-word translation (the latter being pointless and leading to no real learning of the foreign language.) The teacher plays a significant role in this by acting as a facilitator rather than as a translator. Not insisting on a translation when another method of illustrating the meaning of the word is more straightforward is always preferable. This means if I can show an image of a “kettle” or a “pulley”, I simply will. Whether the student is familiar with the mother-tongue word for it is of secondary importance as long as they associate image and meaning without the agency of the first-language translation.

Secondly, the learner, whether young or adult, is obliged to mull over the concept(s) both in their mother tongue and foreign language and in the process  of doing so to activate their mind in order to discover the meanings of the words or phrases and reorganise the knowledge heretofore saved in their memory. Comparisons, even misguided ones, will help make the concept and lexical item more memorable.

Another outcome of using the mother tongue in understanding a foreign language is enriching your knowledge of your own language, which can only further enhance your overall linguistic skills. I will briefly describe a wonderful opportunity I had to do so together with an adult student of mine while working on an article called The Woman Defying Tradition with pistachios.

http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20190527-the-woman-defying-tradition-with-pistachios

The word in question is “figurehead”. Although I knew what it meant, I had no Greek equivalent in mind so I set out to find out and I was fascinated by my discoveries: a few more Greek words in my stock:

ακρόπρωρο= το άκρον της πρώρας (πλώρη in Modern Greek)

αχυράνθρωπος= a man made of hay

υποχείριο=under sb’s orders (under sb’s hand, literally)

ανδρείκελο <ανήρ (Ancient Greek for “man”) + είκελος (Ancient Greek for :similar”)

In Greek the above word collocates with the word “government” to denote a “puppet government”.

So in English the phrase implies that someone behind those in power pulls the strings whereas in Greek it implies that those in power are only men in outward appearance.

A short discussion of the different ways of perceiving                     nominal leaders could further stimulate learners’ curiosity about other cultural differences encoded in the two languages.

I am aware that this cannot be done with every word, but it can be applied whenever the teacher and the learner need this extra support to save vocabulary in their long-term memory. 

A student of mine once said to me that he would never forget the word “idiot” after I explained to him that it came from Greek and in Ancient Greece “ιδιώτης” was someone who did not engage in public affairs. Somehow the impact of the meaning hit him.

Using videos to stimulate discussion of abstract concepts

It is often difficult to use a proper springboard for discussion of abstract concepts. In the exams normally the stimuli are either visual or short questions.

The point is that different learners would respond differently to the same stimuli depending on their temperaments and personalities.

However, there are occasions where I would be happy as a teacher if, rather than a long utterance, I managed to elicit some words for qualities or concepts which do not exactly come naturally to a foreign learner regardless of their level of English though perhaps more closely related to their age.

Using videos of any kind that a teacher thinks relevant can be effective in motivating students and in serving as the basis on which to build a conversation.

Here is a video of Yann Tiersen’s Porz Goret and a couple of ideas about how to use it.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9z3jCiCrsx0

First simply show it to the students and allow them to indulge in the beauty of the movement. Since it is a short video of under five minutes, it could be replayed. This second time ask the students to write down a few nouns and adjectives which come to mind while watching the video. Make it clear that the nouns could be concrete as well as abstract.

If the yield is satisfactory, you could proceed by requiring the students to use their nouns and adjectives in order to verbalise their feelings about the video – images and music.

Otherwise, here is a list of nouns and adjectives and a task to perform, which will hopefully get the students to reflect on their possible use in a short speech that they can ultimately prepare.

nouns	adjectives
rhythm	soft
perseverance	smooth
discipline	mesmerising
agility	synchronised
gracefulness	intense
perfectionism	otherworldly
coordination	seamless
freedom	dreamlike
skill	elegant

Now ask the students to divide the nouns into causes and results and the adjectives into those that would qualify the music and the ones that would describe the movement.

The question now is what verbs to use in order to include the above nouns in their speech. Perhaps you could refer the students to a good online dictionary where they would search for verbs collocating with their list of nouns. (a very productive process at all times)

exert discipline

require perseverance

display skill

driven by perfectionism

Another idea is to show the students how to arrange adjectives in a sentence so as to create a climax.

You can use some of the adjectives on the list to demonstrate this stylistic device:

The music is soft, mesmerising, almost otherworldly.

You have now reached the point where the students are ready to prepare their speech using all the ideas suggested above to produce a meaningful response to the video.