Using mother tongue in foreign language teaching

This time I would like to raise some issues which, strangely enough, do not often arise though I would say they are central to the teaching process.

I will return to the theme of walls discussed to some extent in my previous post. In one of this year’s sessions, I asked my students to think of walls and what they mean –in general and to them personally—and following this exchange of ideas I gave them all a Greek poem called Walls and written by the well-known Greek poet Konstantinos Kavafis, whose life and works spanned the 19^th and 20^th centuries. (Τα τείχη του Κωνσταντίνου Καβάφη)

I gave it to them in English translation, which I found online, and asked them to identify the poem and the poet. They did not, which is not surprising as they are aged 13 to 15 and they have not been introduced to Kavafis’ poetry yet. I then handed out the original and invited them to interpret the poem. ( I cite the poem at the end of the post.)

The issues that I am raising are the following:

• ·       Is it a legitimate method to use stimuli in the learner’s first language to elicit content in the foreign language?
• ·       Is it acceptable to use the first language to explain grammar or fine points which would take ages to explain in the target language and would bring no real benefit to the learner?

I would dispatch the second question forthwith with an unconditional “yes”. It has worked in my experience and it has saved me a lot of wasted time. This by no means suggests there is a substitute for exposure to the target language and monolingual practice.

I recall a time in my career when it was a “punishable offence” to use anything but the target language no matter what the objective was.

To my mind, learning a foreign language is part of learning in general. Therefore, anything that challenges, stimulates the learner’s interest or encourages them to think and participate is perfectly acceptable. It saddens me to think that sometimes language teachers disregard the fact that without content there is no language learning. When we teach we constantly create content and convey information; this information is added to the learner’s reservoir of general knowledge.

 Conversely, lack of factual information on the part of the learner is one of the major stumbling blocks for language teachers, which is underestimated if not unacknowledged in discussions on language learning. As I often say there is no way you can make bean soup without beans. Along with this deficit of world knowledge goes the lack of maturity or experience of the world, which is often the reason why learners fail exams though their English may well make the grade.

At this point I should clarify that I mainly teach homogeneous groups of students – mainly Greek. Some of my students are children of immigrants in this country but they speak fluent Greek, go to Greek school and many of them do not know the language of their country of origin.

Κωνσταντίνος Καβάφης «Τείχη» 

Χωρίς περίσκεψιν, χωρίς λύπην, χωρίς αιδώ
μεγάλα κ’ υψηλά τριγύρω μου έκτισαν τείχη.

Και κάθομαι και απελπίζομαι τώρα εδώ.
Άλλο δεν σκέπτομαι: τον νουν μου τρώγει αυτή η τύχη·

διότι πράγματα πολλά έξω να κάμω είχον.
A όταν έκτιζαν τα τείχη πώς να μην προσέξω.

Aλλά δεν άκουσα ποτέ κρότον κτιστών ή ήχον.
Aνεπαισθήτως μ’ έκλεισαν από τον κόσμον έξω. 

C. P. Cavafy translation

With no consideration, no pity, no shame,

They have built walls around me, thick and high,

And now I sit here feeling hopeless.

I can’t think of anything else: this face gnaws my mind—

Because I had so much to do outside.

When they were building the walls, how could I not have noticed

But I never heard the builders, not a sound.

Imperceptibly they have closed me off from the outside world.

Walls

As a teacher, I feel that my biggest challenge is to engage my students in spontaneous conversation. The questions in course books do not normally trigger much of a reaction.

Although we tend to think that everyday subjects will allow or better encourage children and teenagers to express themselves, in my experience this is not necessarily true.

Therefore, emboldened by the thought that there is nothing to lose in trying more abstract, less run-of-the-mill subjects, I have experimented with various more abstract ideas. One of my favourite themes is “walls”.

I start by asking the question how people feel about walls and where they stand on this matter. Are walls a good thing or a bad thing? Here are a few of my students’ ideas:

·       Walls are there to protect us from weather conditions and threats of all kinds.

·       Walls offer us privacy when we need some.

·       Walls protect whole cities or countries from enemies or invaders.

·       Walls divide us.

·       Walls stop us from seeing what is on the other side.

·       Walls imprison us.

My point is that the nature of the topic is such that allows everyone to contribute to the conversation with different aspects of a multifaceted issue. What is more, one person’s idea may actually act as a springboard for another coming from a different person.

Personally I find the theme of walls has huge potential from the Berlin Wall and Pink Floyd’s “Wall” to today’s walls of kindness.

A recent article in The Guardian entitled Painting for peace: global mural project highlights the walls that divide our cities will fire the students’ imagination with the different styles of paintings on city walls.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/sep/21/int

Banksy’s work on the West Bank wall in Ramallah. Photograph: Marco Di Lauro/Getty Images

One could start by asking what the girl is trying to do and how she hopes to achieve her goal. Alternatively, one might ask if the style of painting reminds them of an artist and who that is. Plenty of teenagers are familiar with Banksy and his work.

For students who have a knack of craftsmanship, one could introduce vocabulary related to materials and construction: from adobe bricks and stone to bricks and mortar.

One could also do dictation asking the students to draw on either side of the wall placing people and objects. Here is an example I wrote for more advanced students though one could tailor it to different levels. Probably one would need to change the scene to make it more manageable in terms of language and it would be desirable to integrate vocabulary that has been recently taught.

There is an old wall of stone dividing the two houses. At the far end of the wall near the street there is an apple tree on the side of the two-storey house—a favourite retreat for the children of the adjoining houses.

Right now a boy of about 10 is climbing the tree with one foot firmly fixed on a branch and the other precariously hanging over the wall. There are some younger children looking on and cheering from the safety of the other side of the wall. A couple of ripe apples have been sacrificed in the boy’s effort to get a good grip.

A window has been flung open in the more humble cottage on the other side of the wall, and a young woman with the sleep still in her eyes is gesturing the kids clustered under the tree towards her.

One could continue along these lines and after comparing their drawings, the students could be given the actual text to look at it more closely. They could be asked to add more descriptive detail; for example, what did the fallen apples look like? were there any passers-by and how did they react? 

I find that this type of activity is an all-round skill test with the potential to develop into anything the students make of it.

When it comes to walls, the sky is the limit! Therefore, I will come back later with more of them.

Mid-sentence

Leaving things hanging, not completing everything we start is in the nature of things--from unsolved crimes to journeys cut short and unfinished sentences.

Mid-sentence

It is a sick rain

Trickling down

The misted pane

Bears the western crime

Gestates the African pain

Fosters fiery revenge

Drip drop dr…

A teacher's rebellion

It is a common belief that young people are best suited to question set ideas, to challenge the status quo, to long for the revolution that will bring everything down and build the world from scratch. Maybe so.

However, I feel that no revolution can compare to the informed one, the revolution of those who know where they come from and what it is they are rebelling against.

Do I feel rebellious? I certainly do.

As a teacher of a few decades, having spent long hours with children of 7 to 17, I feel that almost all  the exams for obtaining  language qualifications do injustice to the different talents and abilities of students.

Think, for example, of all the research into language acquisition, of all the different methods which will allow people of different intelligences to approach a foreign language in a way that will help them assimilate structures and words. On the other hand, think of all the exam materials available for preparing successful candidates.

Now try to figure how much fun and how much real learning exam requirements enable. Am I the only one to think that nobody will be asked to write a film review in real life unless they pursue a career as film critics?

Am I the only one to think that completing two writing tasks of about 300 words each in 1 ½ hours is pointless and does not really allow the candidate to focus on either. Nor does it give the examiner a better understanding of the candidate’s proficiency in the language than just one would.

Am I alone in getting frustrated when two totally mismatched candidates try to interact in a speaking test and only succeed in ruining each other’s chances? What is the point in interaction if one has not made sure that the two candidates fulfil some basic requirements? And what is wrong with individuals examined separately?

When I work with dyslexic people and try to catch up with them trying out so many different answers in their heads—sometimes aloud too-- so they can get to the right one, I am at a loss. I couldn’t process half of this information so fast. Is some extra time thrown to them for accomplishing the tasks going to even give the examiner an inkling of the effort and the thinking process at work?

Please do not ask me what is to be done and should we do away with exams. I only know this one thing; I have reached this point in my teaching career where I feel an irresistible urge to rebel, to join ranks with my students.

Teaching: a journey through life

I have always looked upon teaching as a fascinating and unpredictable journey in more than one way. For me it has been a journey of self-discovery, which has brought me out of my shell and provided me with plenty of opportunities to relate to people of all ages. I imagine for my students it also means  many different things.

An example of a preconception about myself which was  proved wrong thanks to teaching people of different abilities with different approaches to learning is that I am a left-brained  person. By trying to understand and reach out to people with a dominant right hemisphere, it occurred to me that I had left untapped my right hemisphere potential for quite a long time, wrongly believing that left-hemisphere thinking was the only access to knowledge and understanding that I had.

 Of course, this brings me to the next issue that rears its ugly head many a time: and that is our educational system encourages and rewards mostly people with logical analytical abilities, sadly excluding all those who struggle with a system totally unsuitable and out of tune with their talents and needs.  

When we learn a foreign language we make constant hypotheses, which, in due course, become tested and either confirmed or disproved. Accordingly we continue to use what has been confirmed as correct or decide that some of our assumptions were incorrect and seek the right answer. Our hypotheses are based on our knowledge of the foreign language at the given time, our knowledge of the world and, significantly, on mother tongue interference. It is a mind-boggling and convoluted tangle of particulars, which can only hint at the endless possibilities of interpreting new language input.

By observing the students and making a mental note of their understanding of different items and their subsequent production of the knowledge acquired, a teacher can gain valuable insights into what is at work when learning takes place.

This, to my mind, is the most exciting part as the teacher in their turn will make some hypotheses about how their students learn and try to apply a relevant method the next time or, to put it in a different way, customise their teaching. The hypothesis could be verified or contradicted, which will lead to the next hypothesis and so on.

 To cut a long story short, learning takes place on both sides: the student’s as well as the teacher’s. It is a never-ending process.

A theme revisited: ghosts

Have you ever noticed how the ghosts of the past creep into our heads crowding together and surreptitiously taking control of our minds? As the years go by, the ghostscape is thickening, and we are less and less able to resist their faint embrace.

Here is a poem on a theme revisited, which I wrote a couple of years ago.

LIVING WITH GHOSTS

And when the phantom of age

Looms irrevocable

Above the mists of our headful

Of memories

We burrow deep

Into the wrinkled trove

Painstakingly amassed

Of hollow trivia

The unravelled principles

Of youth

Still crying out at times

The inlets of bliss

Into the venomous mundaneness

The weeds of love

A lifetime’s worth

And images … countless images

The swell of sea

Once inside us

The fathomless blackness

Of wintery nights

Tipping precariously

Into the annihilating whiteness

Of the next morning

And the next …

Lessons for teachers: lesson 1

When I started teaching, more than three decades ago, I could not possibly have imagined what the journey would have been like and to what extent it would have moulded me into what I am at present.

Lesson plans, seminars, keeping up with developments in methodology, backing them up with the psychological theories on which they were based, preparing material of all kinds all went towards ensuring I did more than enough to convey knowledge and motivate students.

Looking back, however, I would say that the most invaluable aid in my professional and personal development was offered by my students themselves. Attending to their learning needs and trying to tailor my teaching accordingly, working out their individual circumstances and making a mental note of their differences in approaching English, observing and taking account of class dynamics have enriched and informed my teaching in so many subtle ways that I would not have even dreamed of when I started out.

Thanks to my students I have reviewed so many beliefs and preconceptions that made up the baggage of the profession. I have learned humility from difference; I have learned flexibility and rejected standardization.

Perhaps the ultimate lesson I have learned is that there are as many ways of learning as learners -- depending on interests, intelligence, motivation, stimulation, personality, outside influences and so many other factors that we are not even aware of.

Learning one or more foreign languages is not simply a process that has its own rewards, practical and intellectual. It encourages -- because it presupposes -- memorising, comparing, ordering and reordering information constantly and assessing and reassessing the significance of new input.

If this was at all possible, it would be an absolutely fascinating experience to watch the workings of the brain while language learning takes place. But even thinking about it is mind-boggling. Whoever has not tried to learn a foreign language has certainly missed out. If nothing else, foreign language learning allows you to gain insights into your first language by examining it from a different perspective and subjecting it to comparisons with other languages.

By trying to understand how students tackle learning, what facilitates comprehension and what inhibits it for each one of them, unwittingly we build bridges with them and forge long-lasting relationships. And this is the essence of life.