Tropical English Teacher [INTRODUCTION]

Tropical English Teacher Vol I Page 1 [INTRODUCTION]

Introduction

Greg Keaney, CfBT, SM SMJA, Editor

Welcome to Tropical English Teacher

All good people agree, And all good people say, All nice people, like Us, are We And every one else is They: But if you cross over the sea, Instead of over the way, You may end by (think of it!) looking on We As only a sort of They! Rudyard Kipling

This is the first volume of Tropical English Teacher but is also a continuation of the CfBT Matters series of journals that were published by CfBT in the 1980s and 1990s. The false dichotomy of ‘over here’ and over there’, of ‘Us’ and ‘Them’ as portrayed by Kipling in the poem above, are the antithesis of the truly educated and yet ‘tropical’ teaching offers challenges and opportunities that differ significantly from those in the major ‘temperate’ cities of the UK, Canada, the US, New Zealand and Australia and which seek a forum, a space, for discussion and perhaps resolution. The aim of Tropical English Teacher is to provide such a space ­ a space for thinking about teaching, teaching English, teaching in the tropics, the value of learning English, the limits and possibilities of classroom teaching, the joys and anguish and all the assorted bits and pieces that go into tropical English teaching. It is a space for both theory and application. A space for learning, teaching and sharing. Any English language teacher who watches the world with interest or is occasionally disturbed by what they see around them feels the need to to work out the relationships between their work and their milieu. In 1866 Patrick Manson, a young Scottish doctor fresh from medical school, left London to serve in the ‘Far East’. In 1899, at the twilight of his career and as the British Empire approached its zenith, he founded the London School of Tropical Medicine to investigate tropical disease and was instrumental in discovering the means by which malaria was transmitted.

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Imperialist or pioneer? Part of the problem or part of the solution? Tropical English Teacher is an intentional echo of the dilemma that faced the medical profession in Manson’s time. It would seem that the professional and personal dilemmas that tropical environments presented outsiders in Manson’s time are no closer to being resolved in our own. I hope that this first edition of Tropical English Teacher is the start of a journal that will help all of us improve our teaching and motivate us to share what works and what doesn’t with our colleagues. I hope that the 2010 edition will be bigger and better with many more contributions from the many wonderful English language teachers here in Borneo and beyond. I grew up in a large household with many brothers and sisters, friends and relatives around. My Mum had a sign in the kitchen ‘My house is clean enough to be healthy and dirty enough to be happy’ – I hope that this first issue of Tropical English Teacher reflects those sentiments ­ with the right mix of the intellectual and banal, the theoretical and the practical, the interesting and the informative, the magnificent and the mundane to help you enjoy and reflect upon your own tropical teaching experiences. Hope you enjoy the journal and that you are rewarded with a few new ideas, a little bit of stimulation, a little bit of joy and a little bit thought. Happy reading.

Dr Greg Keaney Bandar Seri Begawan December 2009

Copyright Notice

Tropical English Teacher is a journal publication sponsored by CfBT. The views expressed herein are those of the respective authors of the articles and are not necessarily those of the sponsoring organisation. All effort has been made to acknowledge copyright where required of materials used in the journal. If you believe however that copyrighted material has been unwittingly used to which you have copyright entitlements please contact the editor at [email protected]. Requests for republication of materials herein should be addressed in the first instance to the editor.

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Contents

Introduction ...... 2

Reading

The Imaging Blog! ...... 7 Ian Wiseman, CfBT, SMPDSM Mentiri

Empty Reading Syndrome ...... 15 Fareeda Bibi Ismail, CfBT, SMSH Bangar Temburong

The Proof is in the Pudding ...... 17 Robert Vohan, CfBT, SR Tanjong Maya / SR Lubok Pulau

The People’s Choice Sentence Awards ...... 19 Lance Jackson, CfBT, Maktab Sains PSBS

Technology

The Blogger that wants to Moodle ...... 22 Jean Kiekopf, CfBT, PAPHRSB

New Definitions of Literacy: Multi­Literacy in a Changing World ...... 24 Andrea Giesbrecht, CfBT, SM Sultan Hassan

Passionate Interests ...... 27 Lance Jackson, CfBT, Maktab Sains PSBS

Research

Student Attitudes to Peer Correction ...... 32 Linda Galbraith, CfBT, SM SMJA

Action Research comes to Mumong ...... 34 Alan Douglas Fletcher, CfBT, SM PJNPH Abu Bakar Mumong

Placing Teaching under the Microscope ...... 43 Sandra Denise Schuler, CfBT, SM Perdana Wazir

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Over Here

From the heart of Borneo...... 49 Peter Boyce, CfBT, PTEB

Teaching English in Brunei: Creating a Critical Context...... 53 Clayton Barry, CfBT SM Masin

Over There

Teaching in Japan ...... 71 Sarah Woodward, ISB

Teaching in China ...... 73 Sarah Woodward, ISB

CfBT Education Trust around The World ...... 75 Dominic Morley, CfBT SE Asia

Professional Development

A course is a course of course: Further study externally… ...... 77 Toni Mills, CfBT, SM PDS Maharaja

What’s the point? Process Teaching… ...... 81 Greg Keaney, CfBT, SM SMJA

Tips for writing and publishing in ELT ...... 73

Lesson Ideas

Play that funky music right: Music in ELT ...... 86 William Crawford, CfBT, SM Sayyidina Umar Al­Khattab

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Tropical English Teacher [READING]

The Imaging Blog!

Ian Wiseman, CfBT, SMPDSM Mentiri,

The use of imaging to improve reading comprehension

The use of imaging is an important part of comprehension although it remains unacknowledged by mainstream sources of information for teachers seeking to enhance their teaching. Imaging, while naturally occurring for some readers, can also be enhanced in a number of ways resulting in improved comprehension. Simple techniques such as the use of more concrete texts, attending to illustrations, and instructions to image can all improve understanding and recall of written texts. The findings of empirical studies on imaging and reading provide support for Dual Coding theory.

Day One Hi there. Welcome to my blog. I would love your feedback! I have been thinking about how to improve my teaching. When you think about it, there are only a few ways to do this. From most common to least common, I think teachers can do the following things: 1. Reflection ­ who knows how much of this goes on? Teachers are often too busy to stop and think. Ironic eh? This may morph into action research ­ but do teachers do action research if not studying for post­graduate qualifications? That is a study in itself perhaps. 2. Professional chats. But how many teachers discuss how to improve things in the class? More commonly they just complain about how “thick” 4D is. 3. Professional guidance ­ from your HOD or an advisory teacher etc. 4. Professional development. Some schools are good at this, others are... 5. You could look at teacher reference books ­ if you have such books available. Often schools may not have books on pedagogy available for teachers to refer to. Instead teachers often use textbooks as a source of ideas for teaching practice. 6. Through further study. Try doing that and working full­time though. That is assuming you could pay the tuition fees. 7. Through reading professional journals and empirical studies. Who does that? Do schools have any journals? Do they have access to journals through databases? No. Gotta go ­ 4D beckons.

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Day Two For a long time I have been interested in the ideas of Tony Buzan (see, for example, Buzan 2005). In particular, I have been interested in the use of images to develop memory. That’s why “Dual coding” (see Sadoski and Paivio, 1994) simply makes a lot of sense to me. If memory is a part of understanding and if reading involves imagery, it makes sense that imaging plays an important role in reading comprehension ­ and that perhaps that we can improve comprehension through imaging. For this reason, I have decided to do a bit of investigating of my own, to see if I can’t just improve my own practice. I want answers to the following questions:

• Does imaging take place during reading? • Does imaging help students with reading comprehension? • Can teachers help with imaging during the reading process? I am going to go through the ways teachers improve their knowledge and practice and see which one is most informative. It is 12.30: Lunchtime duty.

Day Three Hi. Onto my questions. I will start with reflection. I know from experience that using images can help with comprehension of a text. I used the roman room system with students to make notes and orally rehearse information about For Mice and Men with a form five class. Those students who did the imaging all passed (N=11) with 18% obtaining a merit. One of the two students who failed was absent during the imaging work and the other was totally disengaged from the class and the other students and did not do the work either. These results suggest to me that imaging has an important place in comprehension. Something occurred that made this class get a pass mark higher than any other in the school despite being the “lowest” class in the school. Was this comprehension though? Or was it memory? The “study” does not indicate improved comprehension while reading ­ which is what I am interested in. It does though suggest a strong connection between images and recall. Tomorrow I will talk to colleagues about imaging.

Day Four Yeah well, I tried to talk to people about how to improve comprehension using imaging. The feedback I got was along the lines of: “Yeah, drawing pictures is about all these guys are capable of.” So much for that. It is time to seek guidance.

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Day Five I work for an organisation which recruits teachers. There are about 140 secondary teachers. We have ELT Managers in charge of us and various initiatives. I decided to ask them about comprehension. I thought first to see if they would suggest anything to do with pictures when talking about comprehension. I gave them a short questionnaire:

Reading Comprehension My name is Ian Wiseman. I am doing a study on reading. As a part of this study, I want to find out views on how to improve reading comprehension. Name: ______Position: ______Teaching experience ______Teacher training experience, if any: ______In your opinion, what are the best five ways to improve reading comprehension? 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. What role, if any, do you think imagination has to play in reading comprehension?

Just for good measure, I also asked a classroom teacher who was previously a team leader for the literacy project in the UK. It wasn’t super scientific or anything (N=4) but if anyone was to help, it was to be these guys. Neither the teacher nor the managers commented specifically on images unprompted. Most answers related to extensive reading, vocabulary development and verbal contextual clues. Some suggestions they gave may result in imaging but there was no specific comment on it. In retrospect, the question should have focussed on comprehension while reading to avoid comments on building vocabulary etc. In response to the second question designed to prompt discussion of imaging, only the practising teacher mentioned images in the mind. The others! Answers all suggested they were thinking through it for the first time. Not one of the trainers made a specific link between imaging and comprehension. It can be assumed then that their views on comprehension improvement relate principally to the verbal system.

Day Six PD. I sat down and waded through my PD (Professional Development) materials. I have been to quite a lot of PD during the past three years. Anything that covered reading specifically was limited to vocabulary and even then looked at vocabulary from verbal system perspective. I

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thought even further back. I had a PD back in 2004 on reading. What was it? On the lines, between the lines and beyond the lines. What goes on lines? Words. Maybe I am asking the wrong “research” questions?

Day Seven I got out some reference books. Maybe they will be able to answer my questions. Three of the texts were on L2 reading, one was about L1 reading. I looked specifically in the indices for five areas1 that might be connected to imagination and reading. I included schemata to see whether the text was dealing with cognitive theories in any way at all. I then looked through the texts themselves in case something wasn’t covered in the index. Not one of the texts made a definitive connection to imaging and comprehension. One made a link to pictures and understanding briefly ­ for students who “are less analytical” (Burke, 2000: 21) but it was not covered in any detail. All texts dealt with schema theory. Indeed, some dealt with it in quite a lot of detail: they were interested in comprehension but made no link to imaging. Maybe there is no link? I have exhausted the standard sources of information for teachers and I still have no answers. It seems that any impact of dual coding theory on reading teaching practice is extremely limited.

Day Eight So, I have come to the last sources of information for teachers: study and empirical studies. Let’s be realistic eh? These two go together generally. I am doing an essay myself at the moment. I have found some articles and will look at them tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Day Nine Unbelievable! There is HUGE gap between the findings of empirical studies and all my other possible avenues of information: imagination does have a place in comprehension ­ at least according to the studies I looked at. 1 Dual coding, imagination, pictures / illustrations, images, schemata Here is one example in detail: Gambrell and Brooks Jawitz (1993) investigated the effects of instructing students to induce mental imagery and attend to illustrations in texts, comparing four treatments:

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Imagery, illustrations, illustrations and imagery, and a no­intervention strategy. Two separate texts were read: illustrated and non­illustrated (which contained reminders to image during reading). Inter­raters were used to ensure the text was similar to other stories used by students and that comprehension tests (free recall and cued recall questions) dealt with a balance of explicit and implicit text information. What was missing was a group asked to try and remember the story with illustrations. Another concern: students in the control were told “a good way to understand what you read is to try very hard to remember what you read.” (p.268). This directive may have prevented them engaging in a normal reading stance for them ­ concentrating instead on memorising. This is an important variable that was not discussed. In fact, the researchers saw this as an aid to the control students (p. 271) which the others did not receive. The study would require replication and extension to see if this instruction acted as an independent variable of its own. The major finding was that attending to both illustrations and inducing imagery produced better comprehension. Simply reading produced the lowest levels of comprehension across several measures including implicit questions and whole story recall. This was seen as particularly important. Indeed, it indicates superior understanding. The researchers suggested this provided support for an imagery­illustration interaction theory (p. 270). Imagery alone was superior to illustrations for story recall ­ and so mental imagery “may be superior to attention to text illustrations with regard to holistic story comprehension” (p.271). The implication here is that in all texts, imagery should be induced as a simple yet powerful way of improving comprehension. Got an essay to do. I will blog a bit more seriously tomorrow.

Day Ten Peters and Levin (1986) made clear links between imagery and comprehension based on the keyword model of vocabulary learning. A possible issue with this study was that students did not choose their own key words though this has not been shown to weaken the keyword effect (Nation, 2001: 312). The interesting point about this research was the purposeful use of referential connections between the verbal and non­verbal systems (see Sadoski and Paivio, 1994: 583). That is, the verbal system was intentionally used to connect to what Paivio calls a “conceptual peg” (p. 595). Sadoski (1985) replicated an earlier study investigating the connection between self­reported use of imagery and comprehension. He found that imagery reports of the climax were most common and that these also correlated with overall comprehension. He suggests that a climax image may serve as a “storage, retrieval, and reintegration device for related story

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information” (p. 666). In this way then, Peters and Levin’s keyword image could be seen to serve this purpose. While Sadoski was investigating natural imaging, it could have been useful to have another group who were encouraged to image. Indeed Gambrell and Bales (1986) found that instructions to image resulted in better comprehension monitoring ­ with imaging students finding inconsistencies in high imagery texts more easily than those not asked to image. Importantly, these students had a training session with imagery. A notable variable in this study was that imagery was linked to memory: students were told the imagery would aid their memory; this may have affected the level of imaging and hence results. Johnson­Glenburg (2000) also looked at inducing imagery as a comprehension strategy for poor comprehenders ­ but compared it with a verbal strategy, reciprocal reading (called Reciprocal teaching in the study). Her visual strategy involved making images while reading and then retelling the story. She states however that the emphasis was on creating imagery (p.772). In this case, the students were trained to “make movies in their heads” (p.773). They then discussed these images with their group. This study is important is that it looked specifically at in­depth imagery training (13 hours). This has many implications for teaching. Both verbal and visual strategy groups showed significant gains on eleven measures of comprehension and outperformed control groups on seven measures of comprehension. Unfortunately, students were not reminded to use their strategy prior to post­testing. While this was done to “keep the act of testing as close to the act of reading as possible” (p. 780), it does not reflect the reality of the class ­ where teachers can constantly remind students of strategies until they become second nature. Clearly training created a difference though bringing the use of imagery to the students! Attention may have made a further difference ­ though in this case the type of training, working in groups, was not directly transferable to reading alone. No investigation into the reported use of imagery was made: perhaps not all students were using their strategies. Simply reminding students or inducing them to image is not the only variable related to the amount of imaging that occurs: texts themselves can have a strong effect here. It is suggested that more concrete texts as easier to image. Sadoski, Goetz and Avila (1995) found that the students demonstrated greater recall with more concrete texts, even when they dealt with less familiar material. This suggests that imagery has a role in comprehension. It also has major implications in terms of instructional material. Concrete text was almost “twice as memorable as abstract text”, whilst familiarity provided a separate yet additive effect (p.287). Such findings suggest that textbooks should be modified to be more concrete or at least provide more concrete content to help students deal with new abstract topics. While Sadoski et al. make such a suggestion, they fail to look at teacher texts ­ notes, handouts, worksheets and so on. Teachers should work on making their own texts more concrete to aid comprehension. Do I have answers to my questions? I do.

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1. Imaging does occur during reading ­ though it can also be induced and its effects thereby enhanced or obtained by more students. 2. Imaging has a profound effect on comprehension for all levels of readers ­ and so should have a central place in the classroom. 3. Teachers can help with imaging during reading in numerous ways (outlined below). Such activities are very simple for all students and provide immediate gain ­ and so should be used extensively if only for these reasons. Classroom implications •Modify instructional methods: train students in imagery, develop instructional methods involving imagery, and include imagery in discussions. •Modify instructional texts to be more concrete. This includes text books, teacher notes for students, handouts and worksheets. •Encourage use of images in glossing texts, notes, semantic maps etc. •Use images in post­reading activities and pre­reading activities. •Encourage students to image during reading ­ this can be done with personal reading, shared reading, reciprocal reading etc. •It could be that the efficacy of combining illustrations with imaging could be replicated with conscious attention to imaging and discussion about images brought up. •Intentional use of the verbal system and non­verbal system can be made to enhance memory ­ as with keyword technique modifications and the roman room system. •Imaging will help with comprehension of texts without illustrations. •Discuss and extend illustrations in texts. •Incorporate imaging into unit and lesson planning. Overall, imaging is a simple and effective aid to reading comprehension that is being underutilised and unrecognised. Teacher training implications •Teachers cannot rely upon traditional means of improving their teaching. There may be a major gap between empirical findings and other sources of possible information about teaching, including: reference books, PD, HODs and advisors, colleagues. This implies that teachers should perhaps go straight from reflection to empirical studies. •Schools therefore need access to journal databases. Unfortunately, I cannot “see” it happening anytime soon.

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Hey look. That is it blog­wise for this topic. I look forward to hearing from you. I will have another topic soon.

References Burke, Jim. (2000). Reading Reminders Tools, Tips and Techniques. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook Publishers Heinemann. Buzan, Tony. (2005) Mind Maps for Kids. London: Thorsons Carrell, Patrica L., Devine, Joanne, & Eskey David E (Ed.s) (1994) Interactive Approaches to Second Language Reading. Cambridge: CUP Gambrell, Linda B., and Bales, Ruby J. (1986) Mental Imagery and the Comprehension­ Monitoring Performance of Fourth­ and Fifth­Grade Poor readers. Reading Research Quarterly, Vol. 21, No. 4, pp. 454­464. International Reading Association. Gambrell, Linda B., and Brooks Jawitz, P (1993) Mental Imagery, Text Illustrations, and Children’s’ Story Comprehension and Recall. Reading Research Quarterly, Vol. 28, No. 3, pp. 265­276. International Reading Association. Johnson­Glennberg, Mina C. (2000) Training Reading Comprehension in Adequate Decoders / Poor Comprehenders: Verbal versus Visual Strategies. Journal of Educational Psychology, Vol. 92, No. 4, pp. 772­782 Nation, I.S.P. (2001) Learning Vocabulary in Another Language, Cambridge: CUP Nuttel, Christine. (2000) Teaching Reading Skills in a Foreign Language New Edition Oxford: MacMillan Heinemann ELT Peters, Ellen E., and Levin, Joel R. (1986) Effects of a Mnemonic Imagery Strategy on Good and Poor Readers! Prose Recall. Reading Research Quarterly, Vol. 21, No. 2, pp. 179­192. International Reading Association. Sadoski, M. (1985) The Natural Use of Imagery in Story Comprehension and Recall: Replication and Extension. Reading Research Quarterly, Vol. 20, No. 5, pp. 658­667. International Reading Association. Sadoksi, M., Goetz, Ernest T., & Avila, Enrique (1995). Concreteness Effects in Text Recall: Dual Coding or Context Availability? Reading Research Quarterly, Vol. 30, No. 2, pp. 278­288. International Reading Association. Sadoski, M., & Paivio, A. (1994) A dual coding view of imagery and verbal processes in reading comprehension. In R.B. Ruddell, M.R. Ruddell and H Singer (Eds.) " Theoretical models and processes of reading” (4th ed., pp. 582­601). Newark: DE: International Reading Association. Silberstein, Sandra (1994) Techniques and Resources in Teaching Reading. Oxford: OUP

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Empty Reading Syndrome

Fareeda Bibi Ismail, CfBT, SMSH Bangar Temburong

Cutting out the ‘copy and paste’ response to reading comprehension

Symptoms: lack of interest, copy from passage, question one = sentence one

Diagnosis: ERS (Empty Reading Syndrome)

Treatment: Experimental treatment available: read below I am an educator at Sekolah Menengah Sultan Hassan Bangar in Temburong. It is the only Secondary School in the district. On my appointment I was given Form Two to teach. I found my students to be very obedient, respectful and pleasant. However, when it came to actual reading or writing work, there appeared to be a general feeling of apathy. This was probably as a result of their lack of command of the English language.

Empty – Reading Syndrome (ERS) I noticed that when students were asked to do a comprehension, many of them responded in the following manner:

• They would identify a word from the question, go to the passage and extract a chunk of information surrounding that word and write it down as their answer. • Some students would write down the first sentence from the passage to answer question one. The second sentence for question two and continue with this pattern for the rest of the questions. • When they were given a sketch/map and asked to answer questions based on it, they found it difficult. Example if a question asked, “Who was at point A?” Because “Point A” is labelled “The Taj Restaurant” That would be their answer. They found it difficult to distinguish between “Who” and “What.” When asked to explain these question words (Who, Why, When etc.), they would correctly differentiate the meaning of these words. However, they lacked the skills in applying this knowledge.

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Outline of Reading Technique I then implemented the following strategy. STEP ONE

• I began my lesson by handing out a short comprehension passage. • The students were then paired. • One student read while the other listened and vice­versa. • Students had to then assess their partners reading (Excellent, Good, Average and Need Help). • Peer Assessment: Excellent STEP TWO

• I then collected the passages. • Wrote 1­10 on the board and began asking them questions based on the comprehension. • (I was fortunate if I received two correct answers). • Teacher Assessment: Need Help STEP THREE

• I redistributed the comprehension passages and asked them to read again. I then repeated STEP TWO. • This time, it was more successful. • Reasons why it was more successful • Self­realisation / Awareness: Students realized that they were reading without retaining information. • They began to focus and tried to remember as much as they could. • It became a challenge for them. Especially when it was implemented as group work. • A degree of competitiveness entered the equation.

There was a general increase in the results throughout my classes by the end of the year. I had 5 passes in my 2F class as opposed to 1 in the June examination. I have now extended this procedure by working with longer passages, focusing on a paragraph at a time and using the question words as my scaffold. This has become a strong technique that assists my students tremendously with their reading and understanding.

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The Proof is in the Pudding

Robert Vohan SR Tanjong Maya/SR Lubok Pulau

Based on his experiences in the classroom this year in Brunei, Robert is confident that students taught using synthetic phonics at an early yet vital stage of their schooling will set out on a path of greater phonemic awareness, leading to enhanced reading skills.

“F­r­e­sh fresh,” bellows Haziq in a satisfied tone. This anecdotal observation of a student successfully blending the sounds of each letter in order to pronounce an unfamiliar word is just the sort of example a teacher of synthetic phonics needs to validate this particular approach to teaching early reading skills in English as a second language. Not having a large wealth of prior experience in terms of teaching five and six year olds to read and write using synthetic phonics, I can now say with some passion that the proof is in the pudding. The pudding being my recent observations of pre school students segmenting and blending effectively when decoding words and using the same strategies to spell and write. “C­a­t cat, th­i­ck thick” asserts Bahij with remarkable fluency. I was apprehensive at first as the training I had received in teaching reading and writing advocated a more holistic ‘whole language’ approach where students learn whole words and are literally immersed in print. However I now perceive the value in teaching young Bruneian students, whose first language is also learnt phonetically, to read using the synthetic phonics method. Basically, the students are systematically taught the sounds of the letters (not the letter names) and how these sounds can be blended or synthesized to run together to make short words, e.g. c‐a‐t, cat. Once the students have learnt the correspondence between an individual letter and its sounds, they then learn to recognize diagraphs and the associated sound, e.g. sh, ch, th. As competence increases vowel diagraphs are introduced. These diagraphs comprise two vowels that, together, make one sound, e.g. ai, oo, ea. Students in my pre­school class have spent the last two terms also learning to blend and segment words orally and this has aided their ability to hear the sounds all through a particular word. . Tricky words with irregular sounds are simply taught by sight and students seem to have no problem identifying these words if they are consistently reinforced. I was taken aback in the first week of October when I witnessed pre school children who, six months ago, could barely utter a word of spoken English, let alone read, use phonics to read the

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sentence; We jump up to catch the moth. The following day, they were asked to write this sentence using the segmenting skills they had been taught to spell each word. With sufficient support from the teacher they were able to do this and again read what they had written. It is evident, from the subsequent reactions of the students that they are aware of the progress being made and enthusiastic to advance further. It doesn’t seem to matter that, for a majority of these children, English is not reinforced at home and is perhaps the third language they speak, taking into consideration the local Tutong dialect as well as the national language, Bahasa Malaysia. Based on my experiences in the classroom this year in Brunei, I am confident that the students taught using synthetic phonics at such an early yet vital stage of their schooling will set out on a path of greater phonemic awareness and become skilled readers along the way.

The Real ‘Heart of Borneo’?

"Your heart is slightly bigger than the average human heart, but that’s because you’re a teacher."

Reproduced from Alberta Teachers Association Journal Vol 41 #19 http://www.teachers.ab.ca/Quick%20Links/Publications/ATA%20News/Volume%2041/Number%2019/Pages/Cartoon%2041-19.aspx

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The People’s Choice Sentence Awards

Lance Jackson, CfBT, Maktab Sains PSBS

The following reading based tasks can be used to bridge the divides between comprehension, enjoyment, and the availability of resources. Together the activities form a process, which can be used to enhance reading engagement and literacy instruction.

I’ve used parts of the whole process relatively successfully with lower secondary students. I believe the process, or parts of it, may also be useful with other types of class groupings. With some adaptation, for example by incorporating competitive or gaming elements, less well behaved students, or those with very low reading ability might also become engaged. Students do sustained silent reading for 5­20mins. You need to be strict with students at this point, try to manage the class so that ‘chat’ time does not take place during the SSR. It helps if there is a healthy range of reading material, graphic novels, and books that students themselves have been involved in choosing. I start most of my English lessons with 5mins of SSR. While students are reading, the Teacher writes a task on a nearby whiteboard. For example:

Find 1­3 words which you:

• would like to know the meanings of • think are useful to remember • would like to use in your writing

Find a sentence which

• describes a character ­ appearance, personality, background (and, yes when a student asks, it can be 2 or 3, provided they are neighbours and they are reasonably short. • describes a place/person/object • looks complicated and difficult • uses a passive sentence structure • has a grammatical structure that you need to practice, or one that you recognise

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• uses the present perfect tense • uses awesome/active/powerful/interesting word choices • shows something that has happened or has been done already • explains why something happened • uses active, meaningful verbs • you don’t understand at all • looks useful for your own writing • you wish you had written

When SSR time is done, the teacher explains the reading task and students do it within a designated time limit (say 5­15mins) by searching for an example in their book. They should look back over what they have read, and could also scan ahead through the book. They write the sentence or word in their notebook, with the book title and page number. Students then form groups of 2­5 students and read their sentence selection to each other. Each member of the group could copy the group’s sentence into their notebook, perhaps identifying the salient features of the choice. The group decides which word or sentence is the ‘best’ example from their group. One of the members copies it onto the board or a poster for the whole class to see. Note: Depending on time available the remaining activity could be used to start the next lesson (especially if posters are to be made). Each group reads their chosen sentences out to the class trying to explain WHY the audience should vote for their sentence. The teacher can identify particular elements of the sentences (e.g. word choices and their effects, grammatical structure, style, etc) Through a voting process (in which students must vote, and perhaps they can have more than one vote), the ‘best’ sentence is chosen. The group whose sentence was chosen is declared the “Winners of the People’s Choice Awards” for that week or month. The teacher types this sentence in a large clear font, and pastes it to the wall for ongoing display, and potential instructional activities, e.g.,” choose the sentence from the wall which reminds you of a person or place you know”, ‘scavenger search’ tasks, e.g., “contains an active verb”, creative writing tasks, e.g., write a paragraph or story which contains one of the sentences. It would be most interesting to hear other teachers’ ideas, adaptations, and questions about these activities and the whole process. You can find this plan on: www.for­english­language­

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teachers.wikispaces.com, in the Four Skills/Reading links. Feel free to add your comments to the wiki, and upload any adaptations or further suggestions.

Check it out:

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The Blogger that wants to Moodle

Jean Kiekopf, CfBT, PAPHRSB

To Moodle or not to Moodle, that it the question

If you put my name into a Google search engine, the first item that comes up is my NLC (Norfolk Learning Community) Blog. No! It’s not an endless array of photographs from my holidays and nights out, or a day by day account of my recent leg injury! Instead, it contains short write ups and links to educational projects I undertook during my last year of teaching and AST work in the UK: starting on the 12 Nov 2007 and ending on 18 Sept 2008. It was not a daily or even weekly commitment. I would make entries every month or 2 or 3... and in a way that was the point. I would only write when I had something to say that I thought might be useful to other teachers in the forum. I used my Blog at NLC to: make comments about various projects I was involved in; upload resources I thought might benefit others and as a forum for sharing resources, following up presentations etc. The final entry contains an item, The Benefits of the Blog! This entry was part of a training session I held with Norfolk County Council Literacy Coordinators before I left for Brunei. Since I arrived in Brunei my blog has gone silent and any projects I have been involved in have remained away from curious cyberspace eyes and unfortunately my colleagues! Perhaps we need to rectify this! During the last year, I have had the good fortune to attend and participate in a number of very useful workshops and initiatives, led by inspirational teachers around the country. What is missing is the chance for me to access all the resources presented at these sessions on my own PC. An internet site providing the opportunity to upload worksheets and teaching ideas would help all of us keep in touch and utilise each other’s resources, whilst allowing us to download, copy and tailor them for our own needs and students. However, conventional Blog sites are now so passé! With the evolution of virtual learning environments (like Fronter), Twitters, Wikis etc and with more of us using video and photographic images in the classroom, we need something bigger... and that is where the Moodle comes in!

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The word Moodle was originally an acronym for Modular Object­Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment, which is extremely useful to teachers in the field as it allows easy uploading of written resources and ideas, photographs and videos. It is also a verb that describes the process of meandering through something, doing things as it occurs to you to do them, and enjoyabble tinkering that often leads to insight and creativity. As such it applies both to the way Moodle was developed, and to the way a teacher might approach sharing materials. Anyone who uses Moodle is a Moodler!

Want to find out more? The best way to do this is to check out a new Moodle set up by colleagues of mine at Media Projects East, who work on Education in the Community projects. This site took a short time to set up and provides a space for people to chart their ideas and contributions to the ongoing project. http://hometruths.ning.com/

In Brunei, we could use a Moodle to share classroom resources, open forums for sharing problems and ideas and have a professional internet link to all our projects and ideas – what better way to add to your CV!

Check ‘em out:

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New Definitions of Literacy: Multi‐Literacy in a Changing World

Andrea Giesbrecht, CfBT, SM Sultan Hassan

The relationship between literacy and technology is becoming an important element in the modern classroom. Access to technology is growing exponentially and with this growth a new form of literacy has emerged. The following brief Literature Review highlights some of the main theories and definitions of what has become known as ‘Multi‐literacy’ or ‘New Literacy’ and its rising importance in education.

The traditional definitions of literacy are changing as a result of the influx of new technology into our daily lives. In the past literacy has been simply defined as the ability to read and write at a functional level.

Since the early 18th century literacy has been, and still is, central to the whole project of modern schooling. Reading and writing are fundamental to the various practices of the modern school...Texts, and ‘textbooks’, have always figured heavily in what happens in schools, from the earliest reading books through to those commonly found in the content areas, and from the early School Readers to the ‘Great Books’ studied in literature classes. It is perhaps more accurate to say the schooling is crucially organised by speech and writing. However, in a changing world, with rapidly changing technology and increasing diversity within the way information is presented, many educators are of the opinion that the definition of literacy needs to be expanded. Achieving the ability to read and write text may no longer mean someone is functionally literate in today’s world. The print culture is giving way to digital communication (Green, Pennell & McKenzie 2007, p. 189).

In response to the changes to literacy brought on by the introduction of technology, The New London Group (1996) created the term ‘multi­literacy’ to emphasize two related aspects of the increasing complexity of texts. They defined multi­literacy as:

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1. a major shift related to the increasing influence of cultural, linguistic diversity, affecting communications and labour markets, making language diversity an ever more critical local issue; and 2. a major shift related to the influence of new communications technologies – a new multimodal literacy that is required in order to find our way around the emerging world of meaning (New London Group, 1996).

Within the span of most students’ school careers they will experience major changes in their daily use of technology. Students graduating from secondary school in 2009 began their school career before the internet was a common household fixture but are now functionally ‘literate’ in a variety of technologies. Considering how quickly technology is changing, it is not surprising that the definition of multi­literacy is changing as well. In 2004 Leu, Kinzer, Coiro & Cammack developed the following definition:

The new literacies of the Internet and other ICTs include the skills, strategies, and dispositions necessary to successfully use and adapt to the rapidly changing information and communication technologies and contexts that continuously emerge in our world and influence all areas of our personal and professional lives. These new literacies allow us to use the Internet and other ICTs to identify important questions, locate information, critically evaluate the usefulness of that information, synthesize information to answer those questions, and then communicate the answer to others (p. 2). They then go on to make the argument that a fixed definition is not possible because the most important characteristic of the concept is that it is in a constant state of change.

The Multiliteracy Project of the University of British Columbia (2007) expanded on Leu et al’s definition and stated that the term multi­literacy was intended to:

highlight two related aspects of the increasing complexity of texts: (a) the proliferation of multimodal ways of making meaning where the written word is increasingly part and parcel of visual, audio, and spatial patterns; (b) the increasing salience of cultural and linguistic diversity characterized by local diversity and global connectedness. This is a clear challenge to educators. Without an understanding of the importance of multi­ literacy and a willingness to grow along with it, educators may be depriving students of the necessary tools needed for success in a rapidly changing global environment.

As literacy increasingly becomes deictic, the changing constructions of literacy within new technologies will require all of us to keep up with these changes and to prepare students for a vastly different conception of what it means to become literate (Leu et al 2004, p. 4).

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REFERENCES

Green, B., Pennell, B., & McKenzie, N. (2007). Literacy, adolescence and schooling: or a challenge in the middle years. In Middle years schooling: Reframiing adolescence. (Chap. 10., pp. 187‐205). Frenchs Forest, NSW: Pearson Education Australia.

Leu, D., Kinzer, C., Coiro, J., & Cammack, D. (2004). Toward a theory of new literacies emerging frrom the Internet and other information and communication technologies. In R. Ruddell & N. Unrau (Eds.), Theoretical models and processes of reading (Vol. 5, pp. 1570‐1613). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

Multi Literacy Project (2007). University of British Columbia: Creative Commons Licence. Retrieved March 2, 2008 from http://www.multiliteracies.ca/

New London Group (1996). A pedagogy of multiliteracies: Designing social futures. Harvard Educational Review, 66(1), 60‐92.

Share your ideas & experience. Contribute to T. E. T. See back page for details.

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Passionate Interests

Lance Jackson, CfBT, Maktab Sains PSBS

Technology, journals and negotiation in guided project work with lower secondary English classes

This article describes a practical and interactive procedure for doing a mini research project with EFL students.

This Passionate Interests project can be divided into three main phases. Various activities or tasks within each phase can be adapted, rearranged, or omitted according to time or other factors. So the number of lessons it will span is up to you and your students.

Phase 1: Writing the Project Proposal Ss think of a hobby or interest area they have that they would like to find out more about. They can also refer to a list of typical teen hobbies and interests, to help them get started with an area that they may not have otherwise considered. A class brainstorm or Think Pair Share strategy could also be used at this point. I tell students that their best choice would be an area in which they have a “strong, passionate interest”.

Provide the Proposal template on the whiteboard. For different student abilities the following template can be simplified or made more complex. For low to upper ­ intermediate level students, the one I use is basically this:

Dear Teacher and classmates, I am considering doing some research on ______. This topic / hobby has been an interest area of mine since ______. (Explain why you’ve chosen this and any background connection you have to the hobby/topic. E.g., your father introduced the activity to you).

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Some things that I already know about this topic/hobby are: (make a list. Use some of the category words to help you think of what you already know). Places: People: History: Activities: Equipment: Future:

However, I do have several questions that I’d like to find the answers to. I’ll be searching for this information ______(on the internet, by asking friends and family, in the library, in the books I have at home, on the DVDs I have or can try to get). (Use Where, When, Who, What, Why, How, Will, Can, Do, Is to brainstorm about 7‐10 questions for your topic).

Please suggest some questions you’d like to ask about my topic, and I’ll do my best to find some information for you as well. Yours sincerely, My Name.

The students then use the template to write their individual project proposals. The teacher in the meantime can provide further lecture style explanation of the individual points in the proposal (which doesn’t seem to be entirely effective for many students), and can circulate amongst students providing one on one or small group advice. Once the proposals have been completed, peer review whereby small groups are formed and peers read each others’ proposals and add one or two questions. The teacher then collects the proposals, gives language feedback, adds further suggestions, as well as makes a record of who is researching what, or conducts other gate keeping functions. When the students receive their proposal, they can redraft it adding the corrections and considering the suggestions. This redraft should appear in the students class journals, as the final outcome of this phase. A limitation usually appears now, when a few students inevitably want to change their original choice. Generally, I allow students to change, but they need to submit a new proposal to me, which may not have the peer review component, just my feedback.

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Phase 2: Research Students use the internet and other sources to collect information about their topic. They note take onto a Word document, either copying and pasting or paraphrasing and summarising, or quoting. Obviously, this can be as simple or complex a process as you have time and resources for. Issues such as computer and internet availability, library access and book readability, referencing and plagiarism, can all factor into this phase with varying levels of practicality and impact on teaching. The students should use their initial questions to guide their research. At the very least, they should find answers to most of those questions. However, the research process will likely also yield unanticipated discoveries, and students should be open to these, and the further pathways that could be explored. Particularly interesting may be the connecting with the social networks and community organisations that may be found on the internet, related to the students’ particular choices. Potentially, this discovery could lead to authentic communication between the students and member/s of those networks. In their Learning Journal, students can write their reflections on the research phase by using such prompts as:

Phase 3: Product Development Various products could be negotiated with students at this point, by posing these questions:

What might be a good thing to do with the information you’ve collected? Who do you think might be interested in the information you have found? And, How could you share the information with them? (i.e., what text type would be most appropriate to represent the information to that audience?)

If you need to simplify things, then just tell the students to make a poster which organises and displays their collated information. Otherwise, if you are able and willing to explore this negotiated and differentiated opportunity, then you could suggest a range of text types for students to consider. For example, traditional forms: poster, pamphlet, speech, information report, photo essay; and online forms: blog, wiki, wall, and many more related to Web 2.0. The poster and pamphlet are the most practical text types to manage from a teaching point of view, so in the first instance I ‘guide’ students in the direction of these types, and require one of these forms as an assessable outcome. More technologically inclined students or classes may translate these products into Web 2.0 forms, and in doing so will often generate original, surprising work.

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Once students have decided on their text types, they can continue their reflective learning journal with prompts such as:

I have decided to share the information I found with ______(audience category, e.g., classmates, teachers, friends and family, other Year 8 students around the world, online communities, students across the school, students in other schools in ...) I think the best way to get my information to this audience would be by creating ______. So, I need to find some examples of ______and figure out a design for my own, which would be best for my information and audience. I found these examples (pasted in journal) and will use them as the basis for my own _____. My _____ will look something like this: (shows labelled sketch of product)

Generally, students at this age will choose the easiest option of creating a poster for their classmates. But I believe there is long term educational value in allowing them to negotiate this for themselves, and in doing so, to begin understanding that text types, audiences, and ideas are deliberately connected by authors, through the use of language and its contextual devices. Indeed this understanding forms the basis for the notion of register in language use, and micro skills such as context guessing in the comprehension of meaning, and from a cultural literacy viewpoint, ought to be nurtured for every genre that students face in their schooling.

Phase 4: Creating A simple way to begin putting the information together is by using Word. If students have used Publisher during a Computer Studies class, then they could alternatively use that program. In Word, creating and organising textboxes and titles, inserting images and text, as well as creating page watermarks and other patterns or backgrounds all help to engage students in developing an attractive layout to represent the information they found. I usually provide a start up template which I save on the Web, in a wikispace, for students to access. While students are designing their poster on Word, the teacher is able to circulate offering advice, and giving instruction in using images, bullet pointing, paraphrasing and summarising, and keeping ideas coherent and organised. At different times, students can be told to look at other students’ work and offer or get ideas from each other. This process can be reflected on in their journals with these sorts of sentence starters:

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I am using _____ to create my poster on ______. So far, I’m finding it easy to ____ However, I am having some difficulties with ______. I asked _____ I got a good idea from _____ about _____

Suggestions for how to continue each sentence could be given by the teacher to help weaker students. And every sentence needn’t be completed. If students have other ways to reflect on the creation of their work, then let them do so. Phase 5: Sharing Once the posters have been completed, students can print them, laminate or put them in A4 plastic sleeve protectors, and hang them in the classroom or corridors. The posters can be more formally, orally presented either to the whole class or in smaller groups. Audience members can be instructed to take notes for some sort of purpose, such as, voting for the most creative, or informative poster, or according to guidelines like a PMI (Plus, Minus, Interesting). The students can then reflect in their journals using sentences like:

The things I like most about my poster are ... If I could improve my poster, I would ... Out of my classmates posters, I most like ______’s one on ______An interesting idea I learned from ______’s poster is that ______After looking at my classmates posters, I’ve developed a new interest in ______If we choose the best posters for display to the entire school, I would vote for (choose 3)

For assessment purposes, I generally assess the posters for Content or Ideas and Organisation. I use the Proposal and journal entries to assess Vocabulary and Grammar. Some sections of the poster could also be used to assess students Language, such as if you required the posters to contain a section which explains the student’s personal connection to the topic, for example how long they’ve been involved in it, or what their weekly involvements with it are. The final speech presenting their topic to their classmates could also be assessed for an oral mark. To see a further extension of this project with a class, please go to:

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Student attitudes to peer correction: Putting one’s legs behind one’s shoulders

Linda Galbraith, CfBT, SM SMJA

Action research on student attitudes to peer correction

Inspired by Dr Michael Torpey, Director of the English Studies Centre at Kanda University, Japan who visited Brunei in July 2009 and spoke about the action research his lecturers had done on students marking their peers’ work, I thought I would trial some marking tasks with my form 4 students at SM SMJA.

We do regular spelling tests of the vocabulary we have encountered in the texts at the completion of a unit of work. The aims are to consolidate such skills as memorising words and their meanings, revision of previous work and listening to particular phonemes. We usually do twenty words after which I ask students to swap papers, tick the correct answers, write in any corrections and give a mark. I select students randomly to spell a word aloud. So when I explained to my students that I was interested in their attitude to marking each others’ work and wanted to do a survey they were very amenable to the idea as it was an extension of the usual procedure. On the first occasion I asked the students three questions: Do you like marking your friend’s work? Yes/No Why or why not? Is it hard to do? Yes/No I wrote the questions on the white board and my students wrote their answers on the test papers for me to read. The results of the first survey were that 86% of the students said yes, they liked marking other students’ work. The reasons for liking the marking included: to know if they have the right answer /to see what mark he will get and the wrong things we can fix together/ I love to see their

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mistakes/other people’s answers/ it is fun/ I want to become a teacher/ we are helping our teacher/ love helping each other The reason given for not liking the marking was “I want her to do by her own.” Only 17% said it was hard to do. Two weeks later I repeated the survey with two additional questions: Is it easier the second time? What is hardest about the task? The second time around only 75% said yes, they liked marking other students’ work. The reasons for liking the marking were similar: I want to know what mark they will get/to see their mistakes/ I want to be a teacher/ it’s fun/ I like checking my friend’s work The reasons for not liking the marking included: bad hand writing/I hate it/ I want to mark my own work/ it makes my brain hurt/ it’s hard Not surprisingly the students who enjoyed the task said it was easier the second time. But what is most interesting is what the students said was hardest: spelling the right answer/ when we don’t know if we are right or wrong about it/ untidy writing/ a big word/ a complicated word/ counting and calculating/ can’t hear the word and last but not least one student wrote in response to what is hardest about the task – putting my legs behind my shoulders. Perhaps there are some lessons for us tropical English teachers. We live in a culture that is very friend­based and helping others is very important so our students do like to do tasks perceived to be helpful. Tests are a regular and frequent assessment tool in Brunei and this simple task gives students an opportunity to compare themselves with their peers. There are a number of pedagogical issues too perhaps, of which the concrete nature and meaning of words de­ contextualised is a reminder that teaching English is more than phonemes and lexicons, it has a life of its own. [email protected]

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Action Research comes to Mumong

Alan Douglas Fletcher, SM PJNPH Abu Bakar, Mumong

What do successful English language learners do?

CfBT Brunei (Centre for British Teachers) and the Brunei Ministry of Education are working together to improve national literacy and O Level results. In this article Alan Douglas Fletcher tries to discover some of the secret ingredients that help successful students.

In February 2009 I commenced a small action research project to try to discover some of the factors that influenced students success in O level English. “What is your Learning Profile?” (Greg Keaney, SCOPE 2008) was distributed to 3 classes: 5Science1 (top class in SMPJN and in Kuala Belait), 5SS2 (average SMPJN class) and 5R1 (a repeater SMPJN class) The questionnaire was conducted in normal classroom conditions. As the class teacher, I explained the raison d’être (to improve lifestyle choices / study skills / O Level skills) and read out/ explained the 20 questions and possible answers. The teacher had designed a complementary Answer Sheet, which allowed students to quickly record their answers, A, B, C or D. The 20 questions were identical for continuity between general lifestyle choices and more individual choices. The students could record their own marks on the right hand side of their answers. The questionnaire was done section by section: EXAM PERFORMANCE; HABITS; ENGLISH CLASS; LEARNING ENGLISH; LANGUAGE AND VOCABULARY so that students could understand their marks and what they meant. In each section, the students kept a tally and the teacher read out the meaning/ implications. The emphasis was on honesty; as this was a top school, not a “test” and the marks were confidential and not recorded in the TRB, this was not a problem. The teacher then asked the students to write out the BEST answer in full so that they could evaluate the exemplary answers. The Interpretation of Answers sheet was then distributed after the completion of the test­ and the teacher fully explained/ evaluated ideas at this stage.

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The focus was then on How to Improve. Students discussed the ideas with peers and wrote down what lifestyle changes they can actually implement on a daily/ weekly basis, at home and school, immediately. I then evaluated the results and established LIFESTYLE CHOICES that enhance LEARNING PROFILES, entitled: What Do Successful Students Often Do?

The Importance of Reading Having taught English in UK and Germany before arriving in Brunei, I had clear views on the importance of literacy. International research consistently concludes that reading as often as possible, and as early as possible, is essential to accessing a school curriculum effectively. The school library should be at the heart of this reading culture, providing a suitable, stimulating and safe atmosphere. The home environment should support the school’s ethos; books, magazines etc should be available and parental encouragement is vital. A good school can encourage reading by: providing displays, ordering newspapers/ magazines etc, having a Book Club, ordering modern, topical, popular books and so on.

The scenario: 2004‐2009 I arrived at SMPJNPH Abu Bakar School, perhaps the top school in Kuala Belait (the second biggest town in Brunei), in August 2004. For the next few years, while teaching Forms 1­5 (11­16 year olds), I noticed that the students, generally, were

• motivated, pleasant, polite and well­behaved • punctual and smart • good listeners ( tried very hard to access a second language) Clearly, such students have real potential………

However, it can be argued that O Level results, pre­ 2008, were disappointing. The Kuala Belait students were often not realizing their full potential. Why? There are, of course, many factors, some unquantifiable. I wanted to focus on literacy……….

The Mission I decided to research literacy more thoroughly. Initially, I chatted to many students. Then, I was involved in the introduction of a Student Planner (we had had one in my German school for many years). As a Form Tutor, I signed the Planners weekly, to confirm homework was correctly recorded and parents had signed. I emphasized the importance of teamwork; student, teacher and parents. It became more apparent that many students were copying homework. This is, of

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course, better than not doing homework­ but was not fostering independent learning. Some even copied whole paragraphs when writing a composition! Many were not planning their work or using the internet. I am not referring here to financial considerations­ most students had virtually no idea about study skills, independent thinking, making choices. Moreover, many homes had few or no books. Buying English books was often not a priority. Indeed, there is no decent bookshop in the whole of Kuala Belait.

The next key focal point was the library. The PJN library has improved enormously in the last 5 years (I have a PowerPoint presentation on this). However, between 2004 and 2008, I noticed that many students:

• arrived late to the Library lessons • spent too long “choosing” a book • did not know HOW to choose a suitable book • chatted to friends while pretending to read • perceived the Library time as an easy lesson • were left unsupervised Many English teachers did not use the library time effectively­ they did not read themselves to set a good example or listen to students read. The library had many old books and was not funded very well. The students were not being encouraged to ask for assistance from librarians or teachers. Additionally, Form 5 O Level Repeaters (16­19 year olds) were “hiding” in the library and chatting or resting. Many students did not WANT to take a library book home; they did not perceive the importance and were frightened of losing/ paying for the book.

Taking Steps… Clearly, these are absolutely vital educational issues and needed to be addressed. We have an excellent Principal, so my first step was to seek the Principal’s support for my Action Research and aims to improve literacy. This resulted in:

• more money being made available for the library and for English department readers • an improved ethos and atmosphere in the library • more modern and carefully­chosen books • the Librarians being encouraged to be more proactive • more research about students’ reading habits ( librarians produced data and bar charts) • a higher profile for USSR ( whole­school silent reading programme)

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• more library displays • more teachers spending time with students in the library • more library books being taken home • support for CfBT’s national Lower School Reading Programme workshops ( eg school literacy advocates were established)

The Details The English Learning Profile questionnaire was completed by all 3 classes in one hour, receiving similar help and explanations from me. The aim was to discover what the lifestyle choices were of all students and what the most successful students were doing at home. Marks (0­5) were awarded for individual answers; 20 questions meant a top mark of 100 was possible, so each student was awarded a % mark.

The results were mainly as expected: • The 23 students in 5111 achieved a class average of 53.22% • The 22 students in 5SS2 achieved class average of 60.45% • The 28 students in 5Sc1 achieved a class average of 75.89% 11 students in 5Scl achieved 80% or more (the top mark was 92%) ­ 4 boys, 7 girls. Past data could not be changed and current forecasts have already been made ( see Q 1­4 in the questionnaire), so here is an analysis of lifestyle choices ( questions 5­ 20) by the most successful students in SMPJNPH Abu Bakar ( and Kuala Belait) students:

LIFESTYLE HABITS • Q5 2 ss spoke English with family/friends "almost all the time" 8 ss "sometimes" • Q6 9 ss watched English TV for "more than 5 hours per week" • Q7 4 ss read English books/ magazines/ newspapers " almost daily" 7 ss " a few times weekly" • Q8 6 ss “used a vocabulary notebook" to record words/phrases 4 ss “tried to guess meanings" • Q9 4 ss “usually go to bed early" during the school week 5 ss “try to go to bed early but sometimes do homework late" ENGLISH CLASS • Q10 2 ss “always pay attention/ often ask some questions in English" 6 ss " usually pay attention/ sometimes ask questions in English"

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• Q11 6 ss “listen and do English classwork carefully" 5 ss “listen mostly and do most classwork carefully" • Q12 10 ss "do all homework themselves punctually" 1 s "does most homework alone and usually punctually" LEARNING ENGLISH • Q13 13 ss believe "English is interesting and will help me in future" • Q14 9 ss understand that the best way to learn new words is “write them down in a notebook and use in conversation/ writing LANGUAGE/VOCABULARY • Q15 8 ss knew the importance of the past tense in writing Stories • Q16 11 ss knew "hard' from "hardly" • Q17 9 ss knew paragraphs/ capital letters/ correct "I" were important • Q18 10 ss knew the BAD composition opening • Q19 6 ss knew what an "expression" is • Q19 10 ss knew that the "best way to improve reading/ vocabulary/ writing skills is to "read/write in English for 3+ hours weekly”

Conclusions: What is manifest, especially from Sections entitled Lifestyle Habits and English Class, is that too few students speak English outside of the classroom. Mostly, parents are not bi­lingual and do not regularly purchase English magazines or books. In fact, it is extremely difficult to buy quality English literature in Kuala Belait. Most students are NOT independent learners or readers. They have too much faith in the English teacher. They are too self­conscious about their language skills to ask teachers questions or to ask for explanations. Very few students ask questions in English regularly. Clearly, we need much more oracy, many more meaningful speaking/ listening activities. This should happen as early as possible, in primary and Lower Secondary schools. Teachers need to encourage an early exploration of language; students should not be afraid to make mistakes.

Additionally, more appropriate and regular homework needs to be given. Students can not drift along in second gear for years and move into top gear in Year 5. Effective, accurate use of syntax, diction and punctuation arises from continued and sustained practice, practice, practice.

Students at SMPJNPH Abu Bakar, Mumong, see their English teachers for about 3 hours weekly, for perhaps 40 weeks yearly. They spend much more time at home, so parental attitudes to study and education contribute enormously to students' lifestyle choices.

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Money is a factor; some families do not buy many books, papers or magazines. Poverty, however, does not condemn students to mediocrity per se, as some students are in a diligent friendship group or are aware of their home circumstances and are then motivated to work even harder to achieve a brighter future.

I believe the key word is attitude. The desire to succeed can transcend external and parental parameters. This questionnaire raises the awareness in students that achievable educational success does not depend so much on external factors or parents, but on a desire to establish a meaningful lifestyle­ or to emulate successful students; vital is acquiring the wish, or drive, to perform optimally in school, while they can. It is often very difficult for young people to "think out of the box", to change established routines; most parents are not sufficiently au fait with school educational aims and structures­ so the best person to influence a better school/ home working relationship is the teacher. The teacher leads, explains and enthuses in the classroom; the students then have to be TAUGHT to implement important ideas at HOME. For instance, the time benefits of explaining the importance of literacy, how/when to choose books and how to regularly read suitable English library books are enormous. If students respect the teacher, or are convinced by the reasoning, they can improve diction, syntax, spelling and punctuation at HOME; the best students do not regard reading as "work" or a chore: they want to learn about people, places, things ­ to be transported into other worlds. The "learning" is almost subconscious.

Teachers have all had some success in pre­ and post 16 education themselves, can relate to the stresses of O Level courses etc ­and so can see things in perspective. The difficulty is establishing a rapport with students, so that they respect their teachers. Since the abolition of corporal punishment, many teachers have not effectively adapted to the changes in society in the last 2 decades. Too many educators continue to be over­didactic, too strict, pedantic or dictatorial. In the last years of the twentieth century, I, too, was too slow to change. I no longer moan at the students for spending too much time on computers, mobiles or sport. I used to deplore copying of other students' work. Now, I regard it as better than nothing. After absence, I actively encourage copying to catch up with the work missed. Having tried to learn Malay myself, I am aware of the devastating impact that a lack of confidence, limited vocabulary and poor spelling etc can have.

In the new millennium, I do not threaten, provoke or press the students. Without the cane and its disciplinary support systems, I firmly believe threats do not work

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anymore­ they only create stress for teachers and students. Instead of nagging students to stop playing their favourite sports, I encourage them and I regard most sports as COMPLEMENTARY to education. Too much study can produce introspection, loneliness, a lack of vitality. Much recent research shows that activity is vital in producing a well­ rounded, positive, engaging individual. Students are sensitive to trends and peer pressure­ they will SMS in their private time, whether we denigrate it or not; we must teach SMS text as an alternative, quick form of communication. Students will then reasonably regard texting as “non­Standard English". Stimulate the students in the classroom and many students will play their games and do meaningful research/ homework.

So, What Do Successful Students Do? This Action Research clearly shows that there are successful students in SMPJNPH Abu Bakar and that English is best viewed as a subject that transcends the classroom. The best students are stimulated by ideas at school and then continue with the learning process at home and in the wider community. The best students believe me when I repeat "English is Life" and some talk in English with families/ friends, read English magazines/ newspapers/ books and conduct internet research in English. I regularly tell my students that I can not give them a pre­O Level Revision sheet of English facts and that the best students do homework properly, immerse themselves in English and regularly practise the skills of reading, writing, speaking and listening, Most students in Brunei are non­confrontational, docile and keen to please. It is up to teachers to tap in to these strengths and explain clearly how to develop English skills. Many students are encouraged by their parents in a vague way. Many students want to do well for their parents as well as for themselves­ but do not know how to improve appreciably. Successful students find ways to improve.....from teachers, internet, and the media. They learn to experiment, ask questions, and explore issues. Accordingly, how do we encourage students to self­evaluate, to look at their lifestyles and perceive that more time should be invested in more worthwhile, educational activities? Firstly, we should not criticise their way of life or culture; we should not condemn them for putting a swearing, spitting, competitive footballer on a pedestal (footballers are mostly fit, young and well­paid) ­ we can teach that a school is a different "arena" and requires different approaches; that sport is an alternative route to possible success and happiness later and that there IS time to do both properly. Students need and should have role models; educators can provide this need on a daily basis, by being firm, fair and consistent, by taking the time to get to know students

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individually and by taking an interest in students' issues. If we find them too banal please remember William Shakespeare's "Seven Ages of Man "‐ we were all teenagers once; we should have the patience to empathise, to build a rapport, to listen without being dragged down to inappropriate, juvenile behaviour. We should compromise­ for example, we are a football team, the teacher is the Manager, the students the players, and together we can "win". English is a wonderful forum for doing this, for creating new worlds. A particular favourite of mine is having a shared brainstorming session on an idea chosen by the students and to collectively create something special, perhaps a poem. If students are involved in the process, they will appreciate the final product. Successful students are educated and entertained at school; they are able to bridge the gap between classroom and "life" learning.

Excellent examination results in Brunei are not achievable through dictatorial teaching. Even though the English O Level examination is language­based, a didactic, factual, serious approach is not recommended. Nor can we be too creative or abstract. Many teachers think that composition, comprehension and summary skills are best taught by ploughing through the mechanical exercises in SEBD 4/5­ or similar source materials. I firmly believe that what the vast majority of Bruneian students require is stimulating ideas/ resources and an adult "friend" and role model in the classroom. The internet and television have a great influence in the 21st century. We are literally bombarded with information; can we really expect students to listen effectively, seated, to someone talking at them? I regularly have starter questions, quizzes, wordplay, then I usually establish the main emphasis; then students need to be actively involved, a plenary session, in the last few minutes, should remind, reinforce knowledge and offer reflective time.

I support the view that children remember or retain:

• 10% of what they read • 20% of what they hear • 30% of what they see • 50% of what they see and hear • 70% of what they say • 90% of what they see and do

I am a proponent of "associationism"; I believe it is difficult to remember new, "cold" information. Students need to be trained in HOW to remember information. A lot of research has been done on the power of mnemonics, acronyms, using the 5 senses, having codes to aid recall. Choral reading, while not new, should not be

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underestimated, as students feel "safe" in whole­class situations, pick up verbal clues from classmates­ and process or articulate the written words in the book into spoken English. Activities, such as role­play, would complement the learning, as students would be performing or interpreting the information, making it "come alive".

After graduating with an Honours degree in English (London University), Alan taught English at Manor High School, Wednesbury, West Midlands, UK. From 1985‐ 2004, he was employed by the UK Ministry of Defence, as a Language Consultant, National GCSE examiner and English teacher, at King's School, BFPO 113, Germany. Since 2004 he has worked for CfBT as an Education Officer, Senior Teacher (Lower School literacy) and O Level English teacher.

He is a former England table tennis captain and silver medallist at the Commonwealth Games. He also enjoys tennis, chess, bridge and reading

Plan

Action Reflect Act Research

Observe

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Placing Teaching under the Microscope

Sandra Denise Schuler, CfBT, SM Perdana Wazir

This article outlines a classroom investigation that I conducted towards the beginning of the two­year MA programme in Teaching English to Young Learners (TEYL) which I have recently completed. Although it has been a while since I engaged in this small­ scale research project, I still remember this particular assignment fondly because it made me realise how valuable I find it to take a critical look at my own teaching. In fact, thinking back on all the coursework I completed to obtain my degree, I can now appreciate that I have not only gained insights into how my students learn and what that may mean in terms of teaching them English, but I have also discovered that one way to keep my interest in education alive is to create opportunities for myself to develop my own teaching. This, I have come to understand, can for instance be done by placing my own teaching under the microscope. Once I figure out what really goes on during my lessons and become aware of my strengths and weaknesses as an educator, I can then build on professional strong points as well as try to address deficiencies. Overview of Classroom Investigation The small­scale research project I am describing here was conducted in a teaching context comparable to the one we encounter in Brunei Darussalam, namely in a public secondary school in Malaysia. The participating class consisted of twenty­eight 13/14 year olds who studied English three times a week, 70 minutes at a time. The CR focused on the frequency and distribution of verbal interactions between students and me, their English teacher. I was particularly interested in exploring how whole­class activities and group work, respectively, would affect communication between my students and myself. The CR took place over two weeks and therefore encompassed six lessons. The initial two lessons were set aside as piloting sessions so that both my students and I could get used to the procedure. The data collected during this time was therefore not formally recorded. The subsequent lessons were divided into two categories according to the type of tasks my students were engaged in. Lessons 3 and 6 incorporated mostly whole­class activities, whereas Lessons 4 and 5 required students to carry out small­group and/or pair work. The data for this investigation was collected using checklists, and through audio­recording. My students were the primary data collectors throughout the CR. I had compiled a simple checklist which was distributed to each student. As each lesson progressed, students kept a

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running tally of the number of times they gave answers to my questions, and of the number of times they addressed questions to me. While the CR was in progress, I also recorded each lesson using an MP4 player that I was wearing around my neck and was thus able to carry around the classroom without hindrance or distraction. The audio­recordings were primarily intended to act as security measure and dissuade the students from placing fictional ticks on their observation sheets. However, I also hoped that the recordings might provide information on the quality of student­teacher interactions. Problems Encountered Before discussing the results of the CR, I believe it is necessary to qualify my research somewhat. While every effort was made to study naturally occurring, not ‘simulated’ student­teacher interactions (van Lier 1988: 9), I am only too aware that this was not entirely possible. Choosing to have students record their interactions specifically directed their attention to their own level of participation in class. As a result, my students tried noticeably harder to speak up in class and also refrained from shouting out answers without putting up their hand. Secondly, even though the audio­recordings would have provided a wealth of additional information on the questions and answers occurring throughout the CR, I decided after briefly sampling some footage that listening to all of the recordings was simply beyond the scope of the MA assignment I was intent on passing. Presentation of Findings When looking at the total amount of questions answered and asked during each of the four lessons included in the CR, it quickly becomes clear that I posed far more questions during whole­class activities than during group work. In effect, as Table 1 below indicates, students recorded 51 and 70 answers for Lessons 3 and 6, but only 27 and 22 responses for Lessons 4 and 5. On the other hand, the data implies exactly the opposite with respect to the number of questions the students asked. During Lessons 3 and 6, students addressed only 7 and 5 questions to me, whereas the lessons involving group work invited almost 20 questions from students over the same time period.

Table 1: Total number of answers and questions from students

Lesson 3 Lesson 4 Lesson 5 Lesson 6

Answers 51 27 22 70

Questions 7 18 19 5

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The data collected by the students also provided information about the relative opportunities individual students had to participate in my lessons. As Table 2 indicates, I called on some students much more readily than on others. For instance, the three most active students in the class recorded as many as 17, 14 and 11 interactions with me during the CR. At the lower end of the spectrum however, there were students who only managed to speak to me 2 or 3 times over four lessons.

Table 2: Data for 3 most active and 3 least active students in class

Lesson 3 Lesson 4 Lesson 5 Lesson 6 Total

A Q A Q A Q A Q

S8 3 2 0 2 0 2 7 1 17

S5 4 1 0 2 1 1 5 0 14

S15 2 1 0 1 1 0 6 0 11

S6 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 3

S17 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 2

S28 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 3

When taking a closer look at the characteristics of the students in question, I became aware that I tended to interact most often with students who were outgoing, and competent in English. In fact, the three most active students in Table 2 were all students who regularly scored top marks in English. The students who participated least, by contrast, were not only shy, but were also not as well­versed in English as their peers. When considering the data for the whole class, the gap between students seemed to be most significant during whole­class work. Lesson 6, involving a game show­like vocabulary quiz, showed an especially large discrepancy between confident and shy students. During this lesson, an entire six students recorded zero interactions, and a further three, only a single interaction. On the other hand, the more self­assured English speakers in the class participated as much as 7 times each.

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When students were engaged in group work, I also seemed to divide my time more evenly among students. During Lessons 4 and 5 the interactions were distributed fairly equally across the entire class. No students were accorded a disproportionately high amount of turns. Furthermore, both lessons show almost no instances of students being completely overlooked. Evaluation of Findings To reiterate, the results of this CR suggest that whole­class work appeared to have put weaker students in the class at a disadvantage. I had a tendency to overlook them and choose good students, instead, when addressing the whole class. On the other hand, small­group activities seemed to do my students more justice. During group work I was better able to divide my time fairly between students, rather than focusing on students who were simply the most vocal. Though not of any consolation, the CR in question did not yield any unprecedented findings. Research by Nunan (1991: 194) warns that teachers may, knowingly or unknowingly, give good students preferential treatment. Richards and Lockhart (1996: 149 – 153) further indicate that small­group work might well promote more evenly distributed opportunities for teacher­student interactions than whole­class work. In fact, findings from first language classrooms by Wells (1986) and Fisher (2005) also allude to the possibility that small­group work may be beneficial for learners because it seems to allow more individual attention from the teacher. In sum, this CR merely confirmed other people’s thoughts about student­teacher interactions. Still, the results did indicate to me specifically that I need to keep in mind that different ‘grouping arrangements’ (Richards and Lockhart 1996:149) in my own classes may have an effect on my students and their ability to take part in my lessons. Closing Comments I have had several other opportunities during my MA studies to dip into my teaching, and then reflect upon what I observed. For example, I configured a self­assessment tool for summary writing and then investigated how applicable it seemed to my own students, I conducted a survey to gauge both students’ and teachers’ opinion about a particular chapter in SEBD 4 and then reworked some sections with their feedback in mind, I also engaged in an action research project that allowed me to examine how different types of feedback on compositions affected my students’ ability to identify areas in their writing which needed improvement. Despite the very different rationales and goals of the above projects, they all had a similar effect on me as a CfBT teacher. Engaging in these hands­on projects always made me feel like I was learning something new about my students and my teaching. The projects also filled me with a sense of satisfaction and gave me renewed enthusiasm for teaching. For this reason, I sincerely hope that reading about my small­scale investigation might have convinced some of my colleagues that classroom research (CR) is well within reach of everyday teachers, and also that it can be highly conducive to professional development.

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References Fisher, R. (2005) Teaching Children to Learn. Cheltenham: Stanley Thornes. Nunan, D. (1991) Language Teaching Methodology. Oxford: Phoenix. Richards, J. and Lockhart, C. (1996) Reflective Teaching in Second Language Classrooms. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. van Lier, L. (1988) The Classroom and the Language Learner. London: Longman. Wells, G. (1986) The Meaning Makers. London: Hodder and Stoughton.

Spelling Mnemonics

• It will always make you smile, knowing there’s two words in A LOT and A WHILE • I need accommodation large enough for two C’s and two M’s • Put your CUP in the CUPboard • DISCIPLINE can drive you round the bend – three I’s, a C and an E to end • The PrinciPAL is your PAL • PrIvILEG has two I’s and a LEG • A NUN taught me how to spell proNUNciation • AU­stralia has lots of great restAUrants • RHYME and RHYTHM both start with ‘rh’ • You can’t cut out the C in SCISSORS • The R separates two A’s in SEPARATE • Twinkle, twinkle little star, TOMORROW has a double R • WE are not WEird • I only have one cup of TEA when I am WRITING

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Have you ever tried….?

Traffic lights A wake up game. Students move around when you call out an instruction they have to follow: A few ideas to get you started: Traffic lights (3 S's stand behind each other opening and closing their hands), Shopkeepers (2 S's mime a haggling pose), Doctors and nurses (one s lies on the ground and 2 S's operate), Superjog (S's jog quickly around the room), Freeze, Dead (lie on the ground and play dead), Slo­mo (S's move in extremely slow motion). Merry­go round S's in concentric circles ­ each circle moves in opposite directions ­ ask questions about personal interest, review or preview topics Secret codes Class have to guess your code. For example, when you are asked a question that ends in a vowel you say ‘yes’, if a consonant ‘no’ Or if a word has a double letter you like it, if it has a single letter you don’t like it – I like butter but I don’t like bread Charades Play charades using vocabulary revision cards or use the cards from adult Pictionary™ Mingle Call out a number and a topic eg 3 – friendship – S’s have to get into a group of the same size as your number and talk about the topic for 2 minutes – end with 30 or the number of students in your class for a bit of a laugh Talking Triangles Give students triangular pieces of paper – they write three topics on the triangle, collect and redistribute, students get into groups of three and use the topics on the triangles to discuss Play English ‘Truth or Dare’ Some possible dares: Sing an English song, tell a joke in English, make five animal sounds, imitate your teacher, draw a picture of an animal with your face, ask everyone here a personal question, act out a romantic proposal, stand on one leg and count backwards from 20, pretend that you are an orangutan, show us how to disco dance, put on your teacher's shoes and walk around the room, pretend that you are a model in fashion show, whistle or hum a children's song, look at everyone cross­eyed. Some possible truths: Tell us about a person you secretly admire? , Who is your favourite teacher at this school? , Who is your favourite sibling? , Which school rule do you most dislike? , Where would you like to be right now and with whom? , What do you really think about your English teacher?

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From the heart of Borneo...

Peter Boyce, CfBT, PTEM

Bringing the heart (and love) of Borneo to the classroom

Like many expatriates in Brunei, and indeed like many Bruneian government servants working in science education, forestry, or a conservation field, I am fascinated by the richness of natural life on Borneo. The Nature Society has introduced many of us amateurs to the forest, its plants and its creatures, while the Panaga Natural History Society publications and website document inspirational sightings and adventures in the Belait district. As a teacher, then, it was a surprise to find how little these precious natural resources meant to the majority of the students I met. In the classroom, and through the opportunities offered as an oral examiner, I have discussed the issues with students in many parts of the country. I was very disappointed. To this day I have not encountered a single student who can name or describe any of the birds in the home garden. To the vast majority, snakes and monkeys are simply that: an undiscriminated category – no sense of the differences of habitat, food or behaviour, no knowledge of what is dangerous or innocuous, and worse, no curiosity about such things. Interviewing O­level students, I was told by a robust­looking boy that the forest was no place for walking because of the tigers. Another boy told me he could not go to the beach because his grandmother insisted there were spirits there. There is apparently a traditional belief that when in the forest, if you glimpse something beautiful you should not investigate, in case it is an evil influence trying to tempt you. Science and Geography lessons and government announcements teach about conservation and Borneo’s natural resources, but the lessons do not seem to be internalised to the extent that they affect behaviour and attitudes. In my view, because there is so much in nature to wonder at, the main faculties to cultivate are fascination and curiosity – a desire for knowledge. Today’s Borneo city dwellers are not many generations away from being riverine people living from their knowledge of the natural resources of the island. The lure of a pristine concrete environment, dominated by vehicles and fuel­hungry air­conditioning has been strong, to the

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extent that many in the present generation of parents and children live an extraordinarily unnatural existence – a sophisticated hygienic city life. I was grateful for the opportunity to try to influence student outlook when asked to write a short pamphlet on the “Heart of Borneo” initiative for distribution to schools. The concept, promoted and funded by the British High Commission, was to put in the hands of students a booklet that would refer to library copies of three WWF publications about Borneo that were to be donated to all secondary schools in Brunei. These WWF publications are clear arguments for the necessity of conservation in Borneo, with wonderful photographs and clear maps and graphs – but they were too expensive to be offered as class sets. Hence the idea of a student­ accessible booklet that could be more freely distributed, which would summarise arguments from WWF and promote student interest and action to seek more information and perhaps find a practical way to support the Heart of Borneo initiative. Six pages of A4 (in full­colour on recycled paper) appeared to fit the budget, so I settled on an A5 folded booklet allowing 12 effective pages including covers. I am keen to retain control of the design and layout of publications, and so work in Adobe In­Design to produce electronic copy that goes directly to the printer. WWF were pleased to allow access to their database of photos for use in “Heart of Borneo” materials, as long as copyright notices were clearly added. The British High Commission gave me a free hand as to the content, though with the expectation that it would fully support WWF initiatives, and promote understanding of the “Heart of Borneo” agreement. CfBT, who had nominated me for the task, were keen to see student activities offered that would promote reading and possibly assist English teachers to use the booklet in the classroom. There were some twists and turns along the way. Once the writing had started it was decided that a good opportunity to “launch” the booklet would be the “Brunei Global Issues” conference held each year at International School Brunei. The focus that year was distinctly conservation with visiting presenters David Bellamy and Wangari Maathai. The conference attendees were generally highly literate (and orate) sixth form students from international schools around the region as well as Brunei state schools. They were to receive individual copies, and some packs to take back to their schools. Because of this clientele it became appropriate to write sophisticated structures at a level suited to academically oriented 17­year­old Asian students of English, glossing more difficult words where necessary. The WWF books themselves were the key sources of information, but I was aware of the need to interpret the ideas to have a greater impact on our local students, who, though not deprived of arguments for protection of the environment, as the core Science and Geography syllabi present these, demonstrate very little transfer of this knowledge into daily life. Simple calculations allowed me to express the destruction of forests in terms of classroom size per

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second instead of hectares per year. Selection and phrasing were important if students were to feel the impact of the message, while at the same time space was a significant challenge – how to retain arguments concerning trees, erosion, river health, the concern for people who live in the forest, the biodiversity, potential extinctions, exploitation, library and website references, and some book­based activities – on the ten internal pages! Fortunately the WWF photos have a strong impact, and were well worth the space allocated to them. I was asked to create a website linked to the book, offering extension and information about HOB activities. To promote use of the site, this was where I placed answers to the book’s crossword. As I was keenly aware that the language of the booklet was too advanced for the browsing fifth former, and wanted to encourage teachers to use it in class, I wrote two O­level style comprehension papers based on the text, ready for downloading, with suggested answers for teachers accessed via a password available from CfBT. Although no­one was going to meet the costs of a second printing, I rewrote the text to the level of able form four students, and published this second version on the website in PDF format, in case teachers would like to photocopy it or just encourage students to read online. When this booklet was published in 2007 there was an interest in spreading the message to students in Sabah, Sarawak, and Kalimantan. I offered to organise translations into Bahasa Malaysia and Indonesia through colleagues at school. The idea was accepted, but others were to do the translating. Two years later, these translations were ready, and I was approached to integrate the languages into the booklet (an interesting exercise as the Malay and Indonesian versions tend to be much wordier than the English). By this stage, of course, the signing of the agreement was old news, and though the issues were still relevant, I was ready for a different challenge. If the money for printing was available, new reading resources could be created. In discussion with Gavin Cowley, at CfBT, I proposed a different target audience with a more integrated language focus so that use in the classroom could be more directly promoted. I was also hopeful of being granted a few more pages so that the message could be delivered in two languages on the same page. I had been working on some animated flash files aimed at primary students, presenting ideas about oxygen, water and trees, related to the riches of the forest. To me this was a far more important group to be made aware of their natural heritage. We agreed that a proposal for a new booklet aimed at upper primary and lower secondary students should go forward to the British High Commission, once again our sponsors. This work had to be different. I wanted it to be something that could be placed in the hands of an 11­12 year­old with some certainty that they would browse it, and be intrigued enough to read some of the text. For this I thought of a presentation that was part magazine, part comic.

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Pictures should dominate the initial impression as you turned the pages; bold titles should intrigue; the core message should be in language that was accessible; there should be further messages, perhaps in more difficult language for those who wanted to investigate further. I used Word’s readability check and analysis against a 2000­word frequency list to assess the difficulty of the core message. Because of the similarity of the topics to work done in Geography and Science (both studied in English), the words deemed outside the 2000 most frequently used were cross­checked against the students’ subject textbooks. This left me with about fifteen words which I either needed to change or gloss. Thinking that research skills could also be reinforced, I changed a few but put a glossary for the others for the last page. To try to achieve this I quartered each two page spread, with photographs in diagonally opposite corners, and their corresponding text alongside each – on a background colour keyed into the dominant tones of the photo. Vertically alongside the text was a bold “title” word. In each case the text for each photograph was presented in English with a paraphrase in Malay – the English was available for language development; the Malay would ensure that the student and his family would have the core message available. Extensions of the theme, often quotations from respected sources, were placed over a portion of the photos on a semi­ transparent background. These are not translated in the expectation that the curious will also be developing reference skills. I struggled with the presentation of the conservation message. Recognising the government’s campaigns with regard to a clean environment and discouraging pollution of rivers, beaches and so on, I decided to hook into that, trying to appeal to the attitude that neighbours share their living environment and so should cooperate to keep it pleasant for all. The idea is to then transfer this to the concept that the unique natural environment of Borneo is equally shared, and equally worth preserving. At the same time, the focus is on biodiversity and the unknown nature of the interconnections between the species of plants and animals, such that the preservation of the environment means not disturbing or excessively changing the balance of what we do not yet understand. Hopefully this idea may also prompt some to recognise their ignorance of the forest and its creatures, and want to do something about it.

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Teaching English in Brunei: Creating a Critical Context

Clayton Barry, CfBT SM Masin

Keywords: Critical TESOL, Linguistic imperialism, Bruneian English, post-colonialism, critical pedagogy, English learner attitudes, linguistic capital

Introduction: Establishing a Critical Climate in Brunei. Firstly, I would like to take this opportunity to welcome Tropical English Teacher (TET) to Brunei Darussalam’s educational landscape. It is highly encouraging that there will be support for teachers through the auspices of a refereed academic journal, a sign, no doubt, of a maturing professional climate. Hopefully, TET will inspire, reflect and even provoke the very best teacher practice in Brunei. Of course, given its fledgling status, I would like to humbly offer my own proposal that, alongside teaching strategies, methods defences, curriculum discussions and linguistic analyses – the raison d'être of many ELT journals – TET also seeks to address the philosophical underpinnings of what English language teachers do and the cultural context in which they operate. Given that this journal is targeted specifically at English language teachers in Brunei, many of whom like myself, are expatriates working for CfBT1, I think it is important that we account for the particular set of cultural, economic and political circumstances that has led to our involvement in this country. With my premise established, I would like to draw attention to perhaps one of the most persistent and long­standing philosophical currents upon which flows the everyday practice of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) – Critical TESOL. Critical TESOL is an umbrella term for a variety of approaches, investigations and responses to the practice of TESOL. Pennycook defines Critical TESOL as:

1 Centre for British Teachers, a non-profit educational trust “with traditional strengths in the EFL field” (CfBT, 2008).

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an attempt to locate aspects of (TESOL) within a broader, critical view of social and political relations. It is not enough, therefore, just to try to connect TESOL to the world in which it occurs; this connection must focus...on questions of power, inequality, discrimination, resistance, and struggle (1999, p. 332). In essence, Critical TESOL draws on critical pedagogy, applied linguistics and post­colonial studies in an attempt to interrogate the role English plays in the maintenance of colonial or imperial structures in the post­colonial world (Lin, 1999; Warschaeur, 2000). Given this agenda, it is easy to see why the role of English language teachers is so central to critical inquiries into TESOL (Phillipson, 1992). Gee (in Maybin, 1994, p. 190) claims that “English teachers stand at the very heart of the most crucial educational, cultural, and political issues of our time.”A primary goal of Critical TESOL, therefore, is to determine whether and to what extent the TESOL industry and English language teachers are complicit in the spread of a language which, according to some critical linguists, tramples “upon the political, cultural and linguistic heritage of millions of people across the globe (Kumaravadivelu, 2003, p. 539). For the purposes of this article, I will highlight some of the major themes of Critical TESOL and relate these back to a Brunei context. But before this, I’d like you to consider the following classroom scenario in an attempt to illustrate the sorts of questions and issues that interest critical educators and critical linguists alike:

A Critical Case Study 8E English – Saturday afternoon, period 9. It’s another hot day in November. The North­East Monsoon brings in a heavy deluge of fat raindrops that machine­gun the roof of your school. In your classroom, the fans are whirring helicopters, drowning out most sound. The floor tiles, impeccably white (thank you Head of Cleanliness!) reduce the last vestiges of any student enunciation to pure reverberation. Your students are tired and reluctant to speak. Your usually supersonic ears are wilting in the humidity. You decide, perhaps unwisely, to forge ahead with your plan to ask each student in class to read a paragraph of the class set of stories you’ve borrowed from the CfBT Resource Centre. You tune in your ears to pick up the micro­decibels of sound... Azri starts first. He reads fast and, you note, with good rhythm. Siah follows, more staccato than Azri but she’s improved dramatically since the start of the year. Hamid continues and you notice he’s still omitting the ­s inflectional suffix from plurals. Siti’s next, a whisper. You note, with exasperation, that she’s still confusing the ð and d phonemes! Khalil follows on and you observe that, like Siti, his them is dem and his these are dese... As the reading continues around the room, you think ahead to your lesson plans for next week. It seems that more minimal pair work is in order.

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This scenario may be familiar to you. You may deduce that the students’ pronunciation problems outlined in the scenario above are mostly due to the sort L1 interference widespread in Asia (see Deterding & Kirkpatrick, 2006) and common in Brunei (Mossop, in Martin et al, 1996). You may be already brainstorming possible activities and interventions to counter this problem – remedial drills, minimal pair activities, mouth diagrams and the like. You may also appreciate the reticence of your students to speak out loud as a product of Asia’s high­ structure educational context, its face­saving culture and individual student anxiety (see, for instance, Ho, 2009; Woodrow, 1996; Liu, 2006; Nunan and Lamb, in Hall & Hewings, 2001; Li, in Hall & Hewings, 2001). If you responded to the scenario in such a way, your sociolinguistic antennae are working well. But, it is also possible to approach the scenario above in a critical way. These are the sorts of questions that a critical educator may ask when faced with the above scenario: ƒ Why do I want students to improve their English speaking ability? ƒ Who decides that students’ English speaking ability is in need of fixing? ƒ What standard of English am I using as criteria for success? ƒ What motivation do students have for improving their English speaking ability?

Or, more specifically:

ƒ What impact will Hamid’s omission of the –s suffix have on his status amongst his friends? ƒ Will Siti’s phoneme confusion provide an obstacle to her seeking entrance into a UK university? ƒ Will Azri’s linguistic heritage become eroded by adopting English stress patterns?

These questions exemplify critical pedagogue Peter McLaren’s concept of disturbing “the naturalisation of fixed conventions” (1995, p. 18). In other words, taking a critical approach to TESOL means excavating the often subterranean assumptions about language and learning that guide governments (like Brunei), educational organisations (like CfBT), and individual teachers (like me). By exposing these assumptions for critique, it is then possible to view them for their “emancipatory or repressive potential” (McLaren & Giarelli, 1995, p. 2). What follows is a synopsis of some of the major themes of Critical TESOL. A caveat: in addressing the themes, I make no attempt to be exhaustive. Rather, I aim to provide a clear­ enough snapshot of each theme so that interested readers may pursue those particular ideas

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that seem most essential to their own practice. These themes bring to light assumptions about the role, power and potential (emancipatory or repressive) of English as a global language, and English as it applies to Brunei Darussalam.

English as the Global Language: The Triumph of English? Globalisation, as an economic, political and ultimately cultural phenomenon continues its sweep through the 21st century world. The breadth of this sweep is aided, on the one hand, by technological advances that make the world smaller and faster (Friedman, 1999); on the other, by the emergence and domination of a global lingua franca – the English language. As Harmer states, English has become the “default language” of information exchange in the contemporary world; its status tied to the language’s past role in colonial expansion and its current role in commerce and popular culture (Harmer, 2001, p.2­3; Kelly, 2008). The inexorable advance of the English language (Graddol, 2000; Crystal, 2004) is of interest to linguists, sociologists, journalists, governments and of course, critical English language teachers. Some impressive statistics reinforce the claim for English as lingua franca. David Crystal’s oft­ quoted estimates are that one quarter of the world’s population (c. 2001) use English (Crystal, 2001). This is in spite of the fact that English ranks around 4th in mother tongue languages (Couto, in Paredes and Mendes, 2002, p. 106). What is interesting about Crystal’s figures is his belief that non­native speakers now outnumber native speakers by a ratio of three to one (in Power, 2005). English is one of only two working languages of the United Nations Secretariat (United Nations, 2008), the only official language of ASEAN2 (of which Brunei is a signatory); as well, it is the language of international business, science and academia (Nickerson, 2005; Klein, 2007). English has either official or special status in over 70 nations (Crystal, 2003, p. 4)3. Graddol (2000) somewhat triumphantly claims that English is the first language of capitalism in the post Cold War world and, indeed, English may also be seen as the first language of globalisation, as evidenced by its dominant presence on the internet4 (Kelly, 2008; Bowen, 2001; Harmer, 2001). English, it seems, is everywhere with the result that:

2 Article 34 of ASEAN’s Charter states, “The working language of ASEAN shall be English” (ASEAN, 2008, p. 29). 3 Brunei Darussalam’s official language is Malay (Prime Minister’s Office, 2009), however the 1959 Constitution states that ‘English may be used for all official purposes’ for the next five years or until otherwise decided (in Svalberg, 1998, p. 325). 4 Approximately 70% - 80% of all internet sites are written in English (Bowen, 2001; Harmer, 2001), despite only 40% of internet users being English speakers (Bowen, 2001). With China recently ‘coming on- line’, the proportion of English speaking internet users had dropped to 32% by 2005 (Johnson, 2005)

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A large and increasing number of people, even if they never set foot in an English­speaking country, will be required to use English in highly sophisticated communication and collaboration with people around the world (Warschauer, 2000: 518).

English as the Global Language: An Imperialist Scourge and a Language Pandemic? Critical linguists and post­colonial theorists point to the fact that the English language “in its long march” to global lingua franca was “aided and abetted” by imperialist powers (Kumaravadivelu, 2003, p. 539). Conversely, post­colonial theorists see the control and ownership of language as an essential aspect of imperialism (Ashcroft et al, 1989) and a “crucial instrument of colonisation” (Ramanathan, 2005, p. 49). The English language, it seems, is “heavily charged with cultural freight” (Roberts, in Candlin and Mercer, 2001) making it difficult for learners to escape its colonial heritage. Gandhi, fighting for Indian independence, emphasises this point: I must not be understood to decry English or its noble literature...But the nobility of its literature cannot avail the Indian nation any more than the temperate climate or the scenery of England can avail her. India has to flourish in her own climate, and scenery and her own literature, even though all the three may be inferior to the English climate, scenery and literature. We and our children must build our own heritage. If we borrow another we impoverish our own. We can never grow on foreign victuals. (Gandhi, in Ramanathan, 2005, p. 55) Implicit in Gandhi’s clarion call is the notion that language, culture and identity are fundamentally connected. That is, it is impossible to learn the English language without transmission of the British culture, or nowadays, American culture, irreparably altering the individual’s identity. This view is neatly expressed by Paredes and Mendes who claim that, “the superimposition of a new language over a people constitutes the control of the mental universe of the individuals” (2002, p. 104). Consider the case of a mother in Texas, who in a court battle was found to only speak Spanish to her daughter. The court called such action “child abuse,” warning that if the daughter started school with no English proficiency, she would be relegated to the position of a housemaid (in Kouritzin, 2000, p. 320). For critical English language teachers, the question is whether English, as a colonial construct, serves to maintain social, racial and gender inequities in the post­colonial world. The English language has also been implicated in language death (Crystal, 2000), a phrase used to describe the extinction of living languages. In 1975, Steiner made this dire assessment of the rise of English to lingua franca: Intentionally or not, American English and English, by virtue of their global diffusion, are a principal agent on the destruction of natural linguistic diversity. This destruction is, perhaps,

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the least repairable of the ecological ravages which distinguish our age’’ (Steiner, in Leontovich, 2005, p. 526). His words seem borne out today. Of the 6000 or so living languages extant in the world today, at least one of these languages disappears every two or so weeks (Kachru, 2005). Critical linguists like Phillipson (1992) and Kachru (2005) ask whether the English language through its agents (governments, teachers, media) is committing language genocide. They ask what role English plays in extinguishing linguistic heritage. Critical educators go further and ask what impact the loss of minority languages, along with their linguistic heritage has on the social, economic and political wellbeing of people whose mother tongue is not English. So, what role then does the TESOL industry play in either the maintenance of imperial regimes or the extinction of minority languages? There are some alarming examples. Kumaravadivelu (2003) reports on critical inquiries in India which revealed that British­produced textbooks were designed to produce clerks to run colonial bureaucracy. Phillipson claims Britain introduced TESOL, through the British Council, as a way to “support foreign policy” (1992, p. 145). In the US, a covert policy was maintained to: ensure that immigrants in the US refugee camps in countries like Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia learn just enough English before migrating to the US to perform minimum‐wage jobs to avoid welfare dependency, but not enough to move beyond these levels (in Kumaravadivelu, 2003, p. 541) Pennycook and Coutand­Marin (2003) also draw our attention to TESOL being seen a legitimate site for Christian missionary work. Edge (2003) goes so far to call English language teachers the “second wave of imperial troopers” and envisions a future scenario where following “pacification” of Iraq, they will be sent in to maintain the US hegemony through English language lessons5. Of course to English language teachers working in Brunei, these scenarios will probably seem far removed from our everyday practice. In my small circle of expatriate colleagues I have not heard them claim any inherent authority just because they come from English­speaking nations. I have also not seen see my Bruneian colleagues withering under some sort of imperial

5 The web-based organisation TESOL Islamia has been established to promote and safeguard “Islamic precepts and values in the teaching of English as a second or foreign language in the Muslim World” (TESOL Islamia, 2003). In their Frequently Asked Questions page, they ask whether “it possible to learn English without reference to British or North American culture”? They argue “given that only a minimal number of Muslim learners actually have a need to interact with native speakers of English, it is difficult to justify at least in educational terms the teaching of an 'Anglo-Western' variety of English in Muslim ESL classrooms.” (TESOL Islamia, 2003).

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bombardment from expatriate teachers. I have not seen Bruneian students mindlessly and slavishly adopting British or European culture and giving up their own linguistic heritage any more than I did in my home country. But, the examples above illustrate the position espoused by critical educators, that all education is ideological and that culture and language are intertwined. The examples above are metaphoric waterfalls, showing obvious, even stupid, abuses of power. To critical educators, the maintenance of power and the advancing of ideology actually present themselves as usually the smallest rivulets, flowing unnoticed as they shape the social landscape. For critical educators, the result, over time, is potentially the same ­ social, cultural and economic change. Critical educators also ask, if there is now world Englishes, that is, if English can develop interdependently of native­speaking countries to suit local and regional purposes (in so­called periphery countries), then why do native speaking countries (the so­called centre) have such dominance in the TESOL industry? Why is it that many periphery countries (excluding Brunei6) are made to make do with ESL textbooks that come from Britain or the United States? As one indignant student in Sri Lanka put it: Rather than talk about apples, talk about mangoes; rather than talk about apartment houses, talk about village huts. Are we all emigrating to America? No! Some of us will continue to live here (in Canagarajah, in Candlin and Mercer, 2001, p. 221). Why do many highly qualified and experienced Bruneian English language teachers choose to study abroad? Have they succumbed to a belief in the “dominance of centre applied linguistic circles” (Canagarajah, 2002, p. 136) feeling that there is nobody in their country, or indeed in South East Asia with the necessary skills to develop them professionally? What role do expatriate teachers and their employer CfBT have in perpetuating this one­sided pedagogical exchange? Phillipson argues that there are five reasons (his fallacies) for the one­sided flow of TESOL pedagogy. The ones that I want to briefly deal with here are what he calls the native­speaker fallacy and a monolingual bias. Phillipson argues that many English language teachers are guilty of subscribing to a monolingual bias, having rarely considered what it must be like to learn and teach in a bilingual environment (1992). Coupled with this, is the large body of evidence that insists that English is best taught mono­linguistically, referring to the problems of code­switching, student dependence and the success of immersion programs. And yet, from a

6 It is very encouraging that ELT textbooks in Brunei are designed to suit the local context. This sort of initiative recognises that students’ schema can be developed without necessarily referencing foreign cultures.

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psycho­cultural perspective, how can monolingual teachers best understand the needs of second language learners (Kumaravadivelu, 2003)? The native speaker fallacy relies heavily on the concept of binary – the representation of two extremes. As post­colonial theorists attest, binaries have had a fundamental place in imperialist regimes and have typically been used to establish a relation of dominance of one over the other (Ashcroft et al, 1998). In the TESOL world, we hear of the binary of the centre vs. the periphery. Likewise, it is common to talk of native speakers vs. non­native speakers7. By presenting two extremes, the TESOL industry ignores the various stages of language acquisition that the majority of English speakers are in. Of course, it also helps perpetrate the authority of the native speaker, what Leki calls the “native speaker mystique” (2003, p. 563). This reinforces the native speaker fallacy; a belief the primary goal of English language teaching is to allow the “learner to gain an understanding of the native speaker’s perspective” (Stern, in Kumaravadivelu, 2003, p. 543). To understand these concepts better, it is important to have a grasp of how it is that we have come to value the English language and native speakers in such a way.

English as Linguistic Capital Regardless of whether one takes a positive, neutral or more critical view of the rise of the English language, the reality for our Bruneian students is that this is a language they must learn. One way critical educators view the English language is to see it as a form of cultural­ linguistic capital. In Brunei, therefore, English proficiency is an important form of cultural­ linguistic capital and there is no question that CfBT provides an avenue to that capital. Authors taking a critical approach to TESOL have drawn heavily on the theories of French sociologist and critical theorist, Pierre Bourdieu, in an effort to explain the power and the pervasiveness of the English language (Lin, 1999, Kumaravadivelu, 1999, Canagarajah, in Candlin & Mercer, 2001). Bourdieu’s theories are complex, but it is worth attempting a précis of his ideas as they have particular merit in accounting for governments’ promotion of English and individuals’ motives for learning English. They also go some way towards justifying the general trend in Asia of ‘outsourcing’ English language teachers. To Bourdieu, it is impossible to account for the “structure and functioning of the social world” unless Marx’s notion of economic capital is expanded to include other kinds of capital ­ cultural capital and social capital (Bourdieu, 1986). Certain dispositions in the individual (like tastes in art), certain sets of skills (e.g. English language skills) and particular orientations arising from

7 It is interesting that one half of the binary (the non-native speaker) is defined by what they lack. A similar sort of negative binary definition has been a site of contestation for people with disabilities.

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one’s upbringing all merge to give the individual a type of cultural capital that, while less tangible than economic capital (material wealth), is just as powerful (Lin, 1999, Bourdieu, 1986). The worth of an individual’s total capital (economic, cultural and social) is measured against what Bourdieu calls symbolic capital. To Bourdieu, authorities (governments) and institutions (like universities) implicitly bestow worth (symbolic capital) on some skills, dispositions, material goods, and orientations at the expense of others. Because the criteria for the worth of cultural capital are relatively intangible, an individual’s cultural capital (hereditarily accrued and built upon from birth) is often misconstrued for an individual’s competence8 (Bourdieu, 1986). This may all sound very dense, but in fact critical educators have found Bourdieu’s theory a useful lens for which to view the power and pervasiveness of English. In the 21st century, English competence now adds greatly to an individual’s cultural capital, helping to ensure the common weal of that individual’s country. This is a fact that has been recognised by Brunei Darussalam and of course, is the main reason why CfBT is contracted to work with the country’s Ministry of Education. For expatriate teachers, the concept of English as capital explains our employment here. As critical linguists are quick to point out, native­speakers of English, due to what Berns (2005) calls a historical accident (birthplace, mother tongue and educational medium), are endowed with cultural capital that provides them with a wealth of privileges – employability, status and prestige, access, education. In many Asian countries, a native speakers’ English proficiency translates as an individual’s accumulated competence. As a consequence, any­old native speaker is presumed to be an authority on English language teaching – the native speaker fallacy (with corresponding pay scales!). Many of Brunei’s Asian neighbours like Japan and Hong Kong employ native speakers of English despite those teachers having no formal teaching qualifications. Fortunately, the English language teaching situation in Brunei is more discriminating and while expatriates’ native­speaker status is at least a tacitly desirable employment trait 9 , it is not a prerequisite for successful employment by the Brunei Government.

8 It is significant to note that the idea of competence has become a standard feature of second language acquisition theories (see, for instance, Chomsky, 1965; Hymes, 1966) 9 The fact that CfBT employees must have received a tertiary education from an English-speaking country suggests that native-speaker status would almost be guaranteed. The exception may be South Africa.

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Motivations for Learning English in Asia: A Utilitarian Endeavour? Some English teachers I know, when asked to defend their subject of expertise to a doubtful audience, will usually draw on two arguments. At first, they will attempt to rigorously defend the study of English as a literary endeavour, almost a noble pursuit – English as cultural capital. They’ll point to the towering achievements of English and their role in advancing the Enlightenment project– Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Joyce’s Ulysses, Eliot’s The Wasteland. If they find their audience non­plussed by such humanist assertions, most teachers reluctantly revert to a secondary, more concrete, defence. They point to the practical importance of English for successful employment, the role English plays in accessing higher education opportunities, they may allude to the connection between English competence and economic advancement, or even literacy and improved health – English as economic capital. This second argument is informed by instrumentalist and pragmatic notions of the English language. And it is important to note that in Asia at least, there is much evidence to suggest that governments have instrumental motives for sponsoring the learning of English. Berns makes this assertion about so­called periphery regions like Asia, where English is now growing in importance: The functional allocation of English...is generally limited to the interpersonal and instrumental functions. For the most part English has no special administrative status...linguistic creativity is more commonly realized in mass media, advertising copy, slogans and catch phrases, and names for shops and products, for instance (2005, p. 87). ASEAN’s Socio­Cultural Community Blueprint (2009) promotes English as “an international business language at the workplace” (p. 3). The same document ranks English alongside ICT, applied science and technology as key areas to be invested in (ibid, p. 2). In Singapore, Bokhorst­Heng et al claim that the government consistently emphasises the “functional value of English as crucial to...building a modern nation state and for plugging into the global economy” (2007, p. 425). In this context, “there is no place for a variety of English that does not fulfil some sort of socioeconomic potential” (Cavallaro and Chin, p. 156) In Laos, “English is closely entwined with government’s late open market policy” (Sithirajvongsa and Goh, in Toh, 2003, p. 551). In Vietnam, English is the “major international language for access to research and development in all areas of scientific, technological and commercial endeavour” (Denham, in Toh, 2003, p. 551). An analysis of the Bruneian situation shows that, like their Asian counterparts, the motivation for English language competence is instrumental in focus. Jones argues that in Brunei, English is regarded as a “key to the outside world” or officially, “a vehicle for disseminating technical

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and scientific knowledge” (in Jones, in Martin et al 1996, p. 159). Ozog reinforces these claims, and expands on the instrumentality of English in Brunei: Malay is seen as the language of national culture and spiritual identity, the language of the soul, while English is seen as the means of access to the outside world. Its role is seen as being purely functional, with no emotional attachment involved (my italics) (in Martin et al, 1996, p. 159). Given this context, in Brunei and further afield in Asia, it is of course predictable that learners’ motivations for learning English again reflect this instrumental perspective. For instance, Lui’s 2007 study of Chinese students’ motivation to learn English revealed the following common instrumental orientations: “getting promoted in career development, getting a good job, searching for information on the Internet, being better educated, knowing the world, studying and working abroad”. Canagarajah’s study of Sri Lankan ESL students showed that 76.1% saw ‘educational need’ as the primary reason for learning English. This was followed by 19.2% who cited ‘job prospects’ (in Candlin and Mercer, 2001, p.215). This evidence is mirrored by Brunei’s closest neighbour, Malaysia. Crismore’s et al (1996, p. 325) research on Malaysian attitudes to English concluded that: Malaysians are motivated instrumentally: they choose to learn Standard English because they perceive the need to use the language to communicate on an international level. In Brunei, Jones claims that for English language learners generally perceive English as being of high utilitarian value; it is seen as necessary for success in higher studies and, increasingly, for success in the workplace (Jones, in Martin et al, 1994). These views support the notion that in Asia English is mostly a functional, not a literary language. Students in Brunei may view English as a passport for university entrance, foreign scholarships, and access to jobs in government and international business. Bruneian students may indeed have none of these goals, but due to government policy still spend the better part of their youth engaged in the demanding task of building English proficiency! For English language teachers in Brunei, the instrumental attitude towards English language can have direct effects on their classroom practice. What obstacles are presented, for instance, when students have no emotional attachment to the language being learnt? Of course, instrumental motivation is mostly an extrinsic motivation – a type of motivation deemed less consistent and less powerful than intrinsic motivation10. And yet, motivation is one of several desirable ESL learner characteristics identified by researchers (Lightbown & Spada, in Candlin

10 See, for instance, Kohn’s Punished by Rewards, 1999.

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and Mercer, 2001; Harmer, 2001; Canagarajah, in Candlin and Mercer, 2001), an antidote to language anxiety, mistake making and perceived loss of face. Critical educators have also drawn attention to students’ often ambivalent attitudes towards learning English (Lin, 1999; Canagarajah, in Candlin and Mercer, 2001). Given the fact that English rode to power on the backs of colonial and imperial powers, many students have a “want­hate relationship” with the language; they need it but they don’t necessarily want it (Lin, 1999, p. 394). Some students in Brunei may come to resent learning English (Canagarajah, in Candlin and Mercer, 2001). They may become frustrated by the metaphoric doors that keep closing (think IELTS) because their English is not to a particular standard (Hamp­Lyons and Davies, 2008). Even for many English language learners who are proficient, and indeed for many Bruneian teachers, the world’s insistence on English as the medium of higher learning and the prestige associated with English­speaking universities, may lead to extended periods of exile from their homes and their families. To go back to the case study found earlier in this paper, students may be bewildered by their teacher’s insistence on Received Pronunciation during speaking activities. This is in spite of the fact that they plan to spend their wholes lives working and living in Asia, where their accents are perfectly acceptable and even a sign of solidarity (Hamp­ Lyons and Davies, 2008; Crismore et al, 1996; Cane and Ramly, in Martin et al, 1996).

Criticisms of Critical TESOL It would be remiss of me not to mention the many criticisms of critical approaches to TESOL. Some of these criticisms are general and can be applied to any branch of education that takes a critical perspective. Some of the criticisms are, to my mind, nonsensical. For instance, Brutt­ Griffler draws attention to the apparent hypocrisy in critical linguists and educators presenting their thoughts in English (2003). Her more convincing arguments centre on a type of paternalism that is present in critical linguistic commentary, the idea that the ‘West knows best’. Here we see the proverbial shovelling of communicative approaches, democratic classrooms and negotiated syllabi down the throats of bewildered language students who expect much different things from their teachers. Conversely, Berns (2003) sees as simplistic the notion that ‘the local is always the best way’ in critical approaches to TESOL. She implies that there is inherent in critical approaches to TESOL, an evolution of the ‘noble savage’ mindset. Johnston thinks that some critical pedagogues claim some absurd moral high ground, obfuscated by dense, jargon­rich language (1999). Probably the second­most criticism levelled against critical approaches to education is that it has a propensity for fatalism and bias. Critical pedagogy is a ‘doom and gloom’ industry where the English language is seen as some malignant virus (a pandemic) wreaking havoc on

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unsuspecting citizens. This has led to a post­colonial pre­occupation with guilt amongst English language teaching professionals (Kachru, 2005). Critical educators focus on instrumental motives behind students’ desire to learn English but ignore the fact that for many students learning English is a marvellous emancipatory endeavour (Friere’s conscientization). Critical educators also fail also to credit the role English has played in intercultural and political communication (Leontovich, 2005). Perhaps the most frequent criticism of critical approaches to TESOL is general criticism levelled towards all critical pedagogy. That is, critical pedagogues are adept at pithy analysis and the formulation of catchy theories, but are notoriously quiet on the practical front (see, for instance Leki, 2003). Critical pedagogy offers no solutions.

Critical Suggestions for TESOL in Brunei: Whose language is it? Despite some valid criticisms, I believe that Critical TESOL does have a role to play in broader debates about English language teaching, namely because it allows us to ask hard questions; questions about teacher and student motivation, assumptions and values. With this in mind I thought I would finish by posing some critical questions related to English teaching in Brunei. Perhaps, in the future, other interested teachers will take up these questions and attempt to find answers. 1. Given that the majority of English language teachers in Brunei are Bruneian, how can we better give them a voice in professional dialogue and allow them to share their experiences and knowledge? 2. What efforts are being made in Brunei by academics, teachers and education providers to recognise Brunei English as a legitimate world English? How is this local phenomenon, which is so important to the Bruneian people, being recorded? 3. What steps are in place to avoid one­way pedagogical flows? Where do both expatriate and Bruneian English language teachers source their professional development opportunities? 4. As we move into the second generation of bi­lingual education in Brunei, what inter­ generational attitudes about English are being passed down through families and how does this affect student motivation? 5. What evidence is available about Bruneian students’ English language use? Where do students use Standard English? What do they use it for? Do they see it as necessary? 6. Given that understanding students’ cultural background allows teachers to more easily determine what students’ value (providing insights into their motivation), what provision is there for in­depth intercultural training for newly arrived expatriate teachers?

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Conclusion: Rejecting the Gerund Principle After reading this paper, you may conclude rather exhaustedly that you will endeavour to learn more about linguistic imperialism, language death, post­colonial binaries, cultural capital and the like, once you’ve mastered teaching the gerund. This is a rational response from a teacher in time­poor profession. But it is my belief that teachers are often the ones left out of education debates ­ and they are often the ones left to pick up the pieces when a new method grips the English language teaching sector, and proves wanting. It is my belief, therefore, that there is much to be gained from teachers taking an interest in philosophical debates in education. While teaching in Brunei shares many of the characteristics of teaching English in many places in the world, of course, it also has its own specific challenges. Ultimately, an awareness of Critical TESOL is useful because it can provide teachers of English in Brunei with a social, political and cultural context for our practice. It can allow us to fortify or re­vision our beliefs about the role of English teachers and learners. Finally and perhaps most importantly for teachers at the chalk face, a critical approach to TESOL can allow us to become more sensitive to, and understanding of, the often ambivalent attitudes our students present and the cultural challenges they face when learning English in our classrooms. For our Bruneian students, this can only be a good thing.

Many thanks to Rob Goldspring for his help with the research for this article. CB

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Bourdieu, P. (1986). The Forms of Capital. In J. Richardson (Ed.) Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education. Greenwood Press: New York, pp. 241­258. Bowen, T. (2001). English Could Snowball on Net. http://www.trnmag.com/Stories/2001/112101/English_could_snowball_on_Net_112101.html (Date accessed: 9th August, 2008). Candlin, C. & Mercer, N. (Eds.) English Language Teaching in its Social Contexts. Routledge: London. Cavallaro, F. & Chin, A. (2009). Between status and solidarity in Singapore. World Englishes, Vol. 28, No. 2, pp. 143­159. CfBT (2008). CfBT Teacher Handbook: Briefing Section. In­house publication. Chomsky, N. (1965). Aspects of the Theory of Syntax. MIT Press: Cambridge. Crismore, A., Ngeow, K. & Soo, K. (1996). Attitudes towards English in Malaysia. World Englishes, Vol. 15, No. 3, pp. 319­335. Crystal, D. (2004). The Language Revolution. Polity Press: Malden. Crystal, D. (2003). English as a Global Language, 2nd Edition. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge. Crystal, D. (2001). A Chat with David Crystal. http://wordsmith.org/chat/dc.html (date accessed: November 20th, 2009). Crystal, D. (2000). Language Death. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge. Deterding, D. & Kirkpatrick, A. (2006). Emerging South­East Asian Englishes and intelligibility. World Englishes, Vol. 25, No. 3/4, pp. 391­409. Edge, J. (2003). Imperial Troopers and Servants of the Lord: A Vision of TESOL for the 21st century. TESOL Quarterly, Vol. 37, No. 4, pp. 701­709. Friedman, T. (1999). The Lexus and the Olive Tree. Harper Collins Publishers: London. Graddol, D. (2000). The Future of English: A Guide to forecasting the popularity of the English language in the 21st century. The British Council: London. Hall, D. & Hewings, A. (2001). Innovation in English Language Teaching. Routledge: Oxon. Harmer, J. (2001). The Practice of English Language Teaching, 3rd Edition. Longman: Essex. Hymes, D. (1966) Two types of linguistic relativity. In W. Bright (Ed.) Sociolinguistics. Mouton: The Hague, pp. 114­158. Ho, D. (2009). Exponents of politeness in Brunei English. World Englishes, Vol. 28, No. 1, pp. 35­ 51. Johnson, B. (2005). English Grip on the Internet Being Eroded. The Guardian. http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/technology/archives/2005/08/16/english_grip_on_internet_being_eroded.html (Date accessed: 17th August, 2008).

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Kachru, B. (2005). Asian Englishes: Beyond the Canon. Hong Kong University Press: Hong Kong. Kelly, T. (2008). ‘From Lingua Franca to Global English’. http://www.globalenvision.org/library/33/655/ (date accessed: 15th June, 2008). Klein, S. (2007). Dumber in English. http://www.signandsight.com/features/1438.html (Date accessed: 17th August, 2008). Kohn, A. (1999). Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A’s, Praise, and other Bribes. Houghtin Mifflin: Boston. Kouritzin, Sandra (2000). A Mother’s Tongue. TESOL Quarterly, v. 34, No. 2, pp. 311­324. Kumaravadivelu, B. (2003). A postmethod perspective on English language teaching. World Englishes, Vol. 22, No. 4, pp. 539­550. Kumaravadivelu, B. (1999). Critical Classroom Discourse Analysis. TESOL Quarterly, Vol. 33, No. 3, pp. 453­484. Leontovich, O. (2005). American English as a medium of intercultural communication. World Englishes, Vol. 24, No. 4, pp. 523­532. Lin, A. (1999). Doing­English­Lessons in the Reproduction of Social Worlds. TESOL Quarterly, Vol. 33, No. 3, pp. 393­412. Liu, E. (2006). Reticence in Oral English Classrooms: Causes and Consequences. Asian Journal of English Language Teaching, Vol. 16, pp. 45­66. Martin, P., Ozog, C. & Poedjosoedarmo, G. (Eds.). (1996). Language Use and Language Change in Brunei Darussalam. Centre for International Studies: Athens. Maybin, J. (Ed.), Language and literacy in social practice. Multilingual Matters: Clevedon. McLaren, P. (1995). Critical Pedagogy in the Age of Global Capitalism: Some Challenges for the Educational Left. Australian Journal of Environmental Education. Vol. 39, No. 1, pp. 5­21. McLaren, P. & Giarelli, J. (Eds.). (1995). Critical Theory & Educational Research. State University of New York Press: Albany. Nickerson, C. (2005). English as a lingua franca in international business contexts. English for Specific Purposes, Vol. 24, No. 4, pp. 367 – 380. Paredes, X. & Mendes, S. (2002). The Geography of Languages: A strictly geopolitical issue? Chimera, No. 17, pp. 104­112. Pennycook, A. & Coutand­Marin, S. (2003). Teaching English as a Missionary Language (TEML). Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education. Vol. 24, No. 3, pp. 337­353. Pennycook, A. (1999). Critical Approaches to TESOL. TESOL Quarterly, Vol. 33, No. 3, pp. 329­ 348. Phillipson, R. (1992). Linguistic Imperialism. Oxford University Press: Oxford.

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Prime Minister’s Office (2009). Language and Culture. http://www.jpm.gov.bn:81/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=185&Itemid=209 (Date accessed: 19th November, 2009). Power, C. (2005). Not the Queen’s English. Newsweek, March 7th 2005 (date accessed: November 20th, 2009). Ramanathan, V. (2005). Ambiguities About English: Ideologies And Critical Practice In Vernacular­Medium College Classrooms In Gujarat, India, Journal Of Language, Identity, And Education, Vol, 4, No. 1, pp. 45–65. Svalberg, A. (1998). Nativisation in Brunei English: Deviation vs. Standard. World Englishes, Vol. 17, No. 3, pp. 325­344. TESOL Islamia (2003). Frequently Asked Questions. http://www.tesolislamia.org/faq.html (Date accessed: 18th November, 2009) Toh, G. (2003). Toward a more critical orientation to ELT in Southeast Asia. World Englishes, Vol. 22, No. 4, pp. 551­558. United Nations, (2008). What are the Official Languages of the United Nations? http://www.un.org/Depts/DGACM/faq_languages.htm (Date accessed: 17th August, 2008). Warschaeur, M. (2000). Changing Global Economy and the Future of English Teaching. TESOL Quarterly, Vol. 34, No. 3, pp. 511­535. Woodrow, L. (2006). Anxiety and Speaking English as a Second Language. RELC Journal, Vol. 37, pp. 308­328.

Did you know?

• The first EFL teacher we know by name was Gabriel Meurier (1530 ‐ 1601) a Flemish educator, philologist and writer of "Tresor des Sentences". • Brunei Darussalam is one Asia's oldest kingdoms. Chinese documents dating back to the 6th and 7th centuries refer to Brunei Darussalam as Puni or Puli. • The liquid inside young coconuts can be used as a substitute for blood plasma. • According to the New Straits Times 15 Jan 1994 Brunei Rugby player Dick Dover is one of sport’s epic failures. Disoriented by a wheeling scrum he sprinted 75 metres down the field to score a try at the wrong end of the ground. • The high score for an entire game in the English language Scrabble was 830 set by Michael Cresta in 2006. Theoretically, and with a lot of luck, you could place ‘sesquioxidizing' across an edge of the board including three triple word squares and double letter scores for the Q and Z for a one time score of 1674.

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SCHOOL

He always wanted to explain things, but no one cared. So he drew.

Sometimes he would draw and it wasn't anything. He wanted to carve it in stone, or write it in the sky. He would lie out on the grass, and look up in the sky, and it would be only him, and the sky, and the things inside that needed saying.

And it was after that, that he drew the picture. It was a very beautiful picture. He kept it under his pillow and would let no one see it. And he would look at it every night and think about it. And when it was dark and his eyes were closed he could still see it. This poem was sourced from And it was all of him, and he loved it. Excerpts (Bottomly, 1979. When he started school, he brought it with him. UNSW). It is widely referred to Not to show anyone, just to have with him like a friend. in various internet sources It was funny about school. with diverse purposes but the He sat in a square, brown desk. Like all of the other square brown desks original author is obscure. The and he thought it should be red. version I received contains And his room was a square, brown room like all of the other rooms. the (hopefully) apocryphal And it was tight, and close. And stiff. foreword “This poem was He hated to hold the pencil and the chalk, with his arms stiff and his feet written by a 14 year old boy flat on the floor, stiff, with the teacher watching and watching. who, shortly after he handed it The teacher came and spoke to him. to his English teacher, She told him to wear a tie like all of the other boys. committed suicide.” He said he didn't like them and she said it didn't matter. Ed

After that they drew. And he drew all yellow, and it was the way he felt about morning. And it was beautiful.

The teacher came and smiled at him. “What's this?” she said. Why don't you draw something like Ken’s drawing? Isn't it beautiful?”

After that his mother bought him a tie. And he always drew airplanes and rocket ships like everyone else.

And he threw the old picture away.

And when he lay out alone looking at the sky, it was big, and blue, and all of everything. But he wasn't anymore.

He was like everyone else. And that thing inside that needed saying, it didn't need saying anymore.

It had stopped pushing. It was crushed.

Stiff. Like everything else.

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Teaching in Japan

Sarah Woodward, ISB

Fancy a stint in the land of the rising sun?

Since I was a teen I have been fascinated by Japanese cartoons, and later, by their comic books, both of which have Japanese names that have become common terms even among English speaking people. Their cartoon series, and some movies, are called anime, and the books manga. I’ve followed quite a few of them for years. So when I had a chance to choose a country I wished to work in I decided that I really wanted to go to Japan. I couldn’t speak the language, hadn’t studied the culture, and didn’t even know if I’d like the food. But still, I had decided I wanted to work there. I applied to an after school English company with recruitment offices in Australia, got an interview and was accepted. I flew to Nagoya where I met all the latest recruits and we began our two week training course. It was intense, practical, and designed to guide us in understanding what the company expected from us, what the teachers would expect from us, what the children in the classroom and their parents expected and needed, and also gave us a brief overview of cultural quirks of significance we needed to be aware of. Frankly, it was one of the best two week training periods I’ve ever done. And then it was over, and we were all assigned to our permanent positions. In Japan, I found everything had a lot of structure to it. Yes, there was a lot of creativity and intelligence and even spontaneity, but it was all structured. From my first time on my own in my class, I already had an idea of what was going to be happening. I had multiple tools to help me and games and ideas and a manual to follow to structure my lessons. There were books, CDs, videos, toys, picture cards, paper and pencils and much more. There were phone check­ins and monthly meetings and everything was organised very effectively and efficiently. On the other hand, in the classroom I was the only teacher there most of the time. So if I had a different idea on how I wanted to run my class, then as long as it worked, that was not a problem. I have to note though, that while it was all highly effective, there was a lot of paperwork involved. Before the lesson was my lesson plan. If during the lesson (or before or after it) there was an incident, I was also required to write paperwork to fax to headquarters. If a child was sick, had to leave early, stay rather late, or I had a complaint about anything, all of this also required paperwork to sort out. Basically, everything did. I found that while in Japan, what I most missed about teaching in China was that I didn’t have as much paperwork there. Yes I had lesson plans and tests to score, but I didn’t have to send a fax in every week just to say I hadn’t had any problems.

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While in the classroom everyone takes off their shoes. Because Japanese children do this in many places, it isn’t an exciting thing for them as it might be in a Western or Chinese classroom. On the other hand, it means that if a younger child is upset and tries to leave the classroom, if you stop to put on shoes, you might lose them, but if you don’t, depending on where you are, you might hurt your feet. I found Japanese children have a sense of humour that sometimes involved the human body in ways Westerners might feel, especially if they are on the receiving end of this humour, humiliating or embarrassing. Japanese children have different ideas about personal space and what is and isn’t appropriate touching. The best way to deal with that is by explaining in a firm but positive manner when they have crossed boundaries you think are inappropriate to you. While they still might think it fun to put their index fingers together shaped like a gun and stick them up some other child’s butt (not a frequent joke, but something they do find very funny), they will learn it isn’t appropriate to do it to you. During lessons children have different ways of learning. Some are good at listening, others like to read, or learn kinetically. Speaking in a foreign language though, is something most of them are very nervous about. The older they get, the more embarrassed they are about making mistakes and the less they like to try. While younger children usually enjoy singing, older children get embarrassed by it, and so the lesson changes to chants. They are a good warm up exercise to get them saying something, and to reinforce certain words, phrases or grammar structure. And they use them in a lot of things. I also found that the Japanese schooling curriculum means that Japanese children learn more about the world at a younger age than Chinese children. A Chinese ten year old will have a lot of trouble with world geography because most of them haven’t been taught about it. A Japanese child who paid attention in school won’t have any great difficulty. Japanese children have been taught to respect their teachers, but if you push for too much too fast, like all other children, they will baulk. They especially don’t like boy­girl pairings. Getting them to practise things in larger groups helps, but you have to keep an eye on everyone and make sure they all have a turn. Japanese children, unlike those in China, not only enjoy creating scenarios, but do their best to make them as unique as they can. While they enjoy creating things, you might be a bit surprised at how they see things. In Japan, children use red for the colour of the sun. In China sometimes they use orange. In their own language, they originally had the same name for the colours blue and green, and their drawings can reflect this. It makes for interesting colour of things. While there are differences between Japanese, Chinese and Western children what I like most about them is their similarities. Yes they all speak a different language as their first tongue, and culturally they think in different ways, but they all enjoy discovering new things, making friends, and learning about the world they are growing up in.

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Teaching in China

Sarah Woodward, ISB

So what’s its like for a young educator in rural China?

When people hear the word China there are many personal opinions that can come into play. Some think of an interesting and exotic culture rich with history and mystery. Others think of Communism and dictatorships. For teenagers, it's a country of industry, electronic goods and clothes. Everything is 'made in China' nowadays, it sometimes seems. I was offered the chance to go to China and teach English there. I went through a TESOL course designed to give an ESL teacher a guide about what to expect when teaching in an ESL classroom, and how it differs from teaching English to those who speak it natively; in places like the UK, USA, Canada and Australia, my home country. The Chinese guide picking me up from the airport was quick to find the other 'foreign' teachers also on the flight and get all of us, and our luggage, out of the airport and into a van. It took us over two hours to travel to Fuyang, the small town we were to be living while we taught at the local schools there. Right from the beginning, it was all a big whirl of confusion about the climate, the country, the food, the people and exactly what I was supposed to be doing there. There was a phrase I was taught when I first went there, which went like this: T.I.C. This meant, This Is China. Basically what it meant was go with the flow, or have a complete mental breakdown. Nobody actually said that, but that was the underlying point. Depending on where you are in China, everything about a classroom is different. My first posting at Fuyang was in a boarding school. If you teach during the day at a school you can have between 40 to 60 kids in the room. Dependant on the amount of time you are teaching the class, it could break down to one minute a child per session. This makes it hard for an ESL teacher who is there to encourage and help the students in speaking English and who has been told they are to focus on oral English in the classroom. It can take time for kids to warm up to you, and they are afraid of making mistakes, which makes students reluctant to try in the first place. Because you are there not as a primary teacher, but one with a supporting role in the development of their oral English, teaching grammar structure and new vocabulary isn’t your main goal. However, sometimes it can be a necessary one. The best thing to do in this situation is to find the level the kids are at, and plan a fun lesson that gives them all a chance to use English in situations they will face in everyday life.

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After my Fuyang contract finished I went to Xi­an, where I stayed for two months, before leaving the ‘big city’ for a smaller town called BaoJi which was about three hours away by bus. Both cities had classrooms that were part of the same after school program I spent years working for. If you’re teaching at an after school facility, lessons will be a bit different. The emphasis is more on fun learning and getting them familiar with common words, questions, phrases, and sentences. Resources will vary as well. You might have anything from whiteboards and markers or blackboards and chalk to reading from a book as they balance small note pads on their knees, or ‘glassboards’, which are like whiteboards, with whiteboard markers, but your board is made of glass, usually against a wall so that students can see what you’ve written there. You might or might not have electricity in your classroom. Depending on the climate, weather and size of your room, it might actually be easier and better for you to hold your class outside. Kids who want to learn are great. They are enthusiastic, they volunteer to participate, and they are generally happy. Having a room of kids who sit there and watch you, and then when you’ve finished explaining your activity and ask someone to try still just sit there and watch you can make a great lesson fizzle and die. I have to say that I never had an entire class who wouldn’t participate. Yes, many of them were nervous about being the first, or getting it wrong, but if you have an example written on the board, and for quieter classes perhaps demonstrate by yourself first, (which I have usually found gets a good laugh, or at least warm smiles) then at least one kid will generally try. One of the hardest things I encountered with teaching children in China is that unless they already have a foundation sentence/word structure and a list of examples to use, getting them to ‘create’ new sentences (or even in some cases, practise ones they already knew) can be a bit of a challenge. They like to repeat one that someone has already used that they know is correct. Take for example a class of students aged eight to nine who have been learning colours and the sentence patterns I like and I don’t like. If you ask them to form sentences using these patterns you might get a smattering of raised hands. One smart student might understand quickly and say “I like red. I don’t like white.” You congratulate them and ask for someone else, and this time probably about half the class will raise their hand. However, when you ask the next student their answer, it will be identical. As will the next answer. And then the next one. Asking for creativity and conversation, as opposed to drill repetition and copying, is something I have found Chinese kids in particular, have trouble with at first. On the other hand, once they’ve grasped what you want them to do, these kids are really eager to try, and I’m often surprised at how funny and clever they can be. One other challenging thing that confuses them is pronouns. He, she, and it can all be used as one word in Chinese. Having to recognise genders and using the appropriate word can be a bit tricky for them, but learning it can be quite fun! My T.E.C. was often challenging but incredibly rewarding.

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CfBT Education Trust around the World

Dominic Morley, CfBT SE Asia Business Manager

A number of teachers have recently been asking about CfBT ­ what it does and how it works, so I thought a short summary of our main activities might be of interest.

Our work with the MoE in Brunei is undertaken through CfBT Education Services & Partners Sdn Bhd, which is a locally registered company. It is jointly­owned by local partners and CfBT Education Trust. CfBT Education Trust is a leading charity providing education services for public benefit in the UK and internationally. Established 40 years ago, CfBT Education Trust now has an annual turnover exceeding £140 million and employs more than 2,700 staff worldwide who support educational reform; teach; advise; research; and train. It does not have shareholders and instead it spends the surpluses it generates in the furtherance of its charitable objectives. Every year it spends at least £1M (B$2.3m) on these activities, which includes commissioning educational research; supporting private schools for the poor in India; and investing in the Evidence for Education programme which identifies, develops and disseminates evidence­ based good practice. CfBT’s objectives and values are to promote and assist teaching in educational or training establishments throughout the world; carry out and commission educational research; provide training and other support for educators to improve the quality of education; provide advice and consultancy services on education matters; and provide counselling and guidance. Further detail of what CfBT does under each of these areas is available in our published annual report and accounts. A short summary of these follows: • Teaching ­ CfBT owns and manages six schools in the UK and the International School of Cape town in South Africa, and cares for more than 1,500 children in twelve CfBT nurseries. CfBT also manages and sponsors an Academy, and runs a number of INCLUDE programmes, including primary interventions; bridging projects; projects supporting hard to reach people and those within secure estates and young offenders institutions. In addition to supporting the Ministry of Education in Brunei Darussalam to raise standards of English in Singapore, CfBT manages a programme to assist in the development and enrichment of the curriculum and to raise English language standards through the provision of Teacher Consultants.

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• Research ­ CfBT invests its surpluses in research and, in 07­8, in Evidence for Education (EfE). Funding is focused on school governance and management; parental participation in education; professional learning; motivation and engagement of learners; integration of education with other services; personalized learning; school improvement; and language and communication. Publications have included an international comparative study in mathematics teacher training; schools as community based organizations; and school effectiveness and equity. • Support for educators ­ CfBT delivers the UK Fast Track Teaching Programme to both primary and secondary teachers; manages the pupil referral unit; identifies and recruits head teachers to work as consultant leaders; develops England’s secondary curriculum; and provides training for advice and guidance staff. CfBT also runs projects to improve teachers’ English language proficiency in rural schools in Malaysia and provides consultancy in teaching maths and science in English. CfBT provides eighty teacher advisors to the Ministry of Higher Education in Oman; and conducts teacher exchange programmes and study tours through CfBT’s subsidiary ­ League for Exchange for Commonwealth Teachers (LECT). • Consultancy Services ­ CfBT has been a significant contributor to the UK Government’s Skills for Life strategy, which aims to raise adult literacy, numeracy and the quality of language provision. CfBT runs the UK government’s Young, Gifted and Talented programme, and is a major provider of school inspections for OFSTED. CfBT is also heavily involved in school improvement, including outsourced services for East Sussex and Lincolnshire local authorities; building schools for the future (BSF); Abu Dhabi Public Private Partnerships; setting up the Dubai Schools Inspection Bureau; technical advice in Cambodia to the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport and other ministries, to develop strategies to improve universal basic education; post conflict work in Somaliland and Rwanda; HIV/Aids education from our Kenyan and India offices (where school teacher training and other programmes also run); and recently the establishment of an education resource facility within AusAID in Canberra. • Counselling & Guidance ­ CfBT won more contracts to deliver Connexions services and increased the number of boroughs it operates in from five to ten; it also runs adult counselling and guidance services on behalf of the Learning and Skills Councils in Durham, Berkshire and west London. If you would like to know more about what CfBT Education Trust does elsewhere please contact me and I’ll be happy to answer any questions. My e­mail address is [email protected].

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A course is a course of course…

Toni Mills, CfBT, SM PDS Maharaja

Toni has just completed the postgraduate diploma in second language teaching from Massey University, Palmeston North campus, NZ. Below are her review of the course and a few of her thoughts on the joys and challenges of being an external student.

Choosing a course Prior to teaching in English in Brunei I spent many years teaching senior History and Classical Studies. After a few years in the job here I decided to enrol in a course to bolster my qualifications in teaching ESL and balance the practical work I was doing in the classroom with a formal qualification. I completed the ‘ESL in the mainstream certificate course’ run through CfBT but felt that I needed something with greater depth.

Initially I enrolled in the extramural masters’ degree course from Deakin University, Geelong campus – a course highly recommended by several colleagues. Although this is an Australian university, New Zealand residents are accepted for enrolment. I was able to cross­credit papers of my linguistics degree from NZ and was enrolled and ready to go when I was informed that although I was a New Zealander, in order to pay the same fee rates as Australian citizens, I needed to be resident in Australia ­ fair enough. I was advised to apply for a Commonwealth citizen’s place at the university as this operates under the Australian fee rate unfortunately it was too late to apply. If I had continued with the course at Deakin the total cost of the degree would have been $A14, 000. My attention then turned to what New Zealand universities had to offer. At this stage only the University of Victoria in Wellington offered a masters extramural course in ESL. I knew of several colleagues who had enrolled in this course only to pull out citing unrealistic deadlines and a lack of support for distant learners so I decided to expand my search. On a recommendation I looked at Massey University, one of the largest providers of extramural qualifications in New Zealand, and decided to enrol in their post grad dip course. Unfortunately Massey would provide no cross­credits from the linguistics degree I already held thus I have had to complete the full four papers of the diploma. The total cost of the course has been approximately $NZ6000.

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In making a course selection involving extramural work I highly recommend talking to someone who has had experience with the institution you are looking at, or even better someone who has completed the course. In my experience, and in talking with colleagues, there seems to be a wide variance in the type of courses offered; how they are administered; course assessment requirements; support offered to distance students; how assignments are to be submitted and the length of time it takes for tutors and lecturers to respond to queries.

The course: The post­graduate diploma in second language teaching offered by Massey is composed of four papers, totalling 120 credits at 700 level 172.701 – Language awareness and language issues 172.702 – The second language learning process 172.703 ­ The methodology of second language teaching 172.704 – Curriculum and materials design Each paper is accompanied by an administration guide, a study guide, a book of readings and set textbooks.

Assignments, exams, deadlines and course material:

Course material: The readings provided by the course lecturers are of interest but a number of them are written in ‘academic speak’ and can be frustrating to read. The set texts are recent publications and are up to date with latest theories and trends in ESL teaching. The readings are sent through the mail but you will need to order the set texts yourself. I found many of the texts I needed could be sourced from the CfBT library.

Assignments and deadlines: In all I have completed 15 assignments and one three hour exam for this diploma. Compared to colleagues who are completing masters’ courses from other institutions the workload seemed rather heavy. Most assignments had a minimum word length of 1800 words and one requires a dissertation of 5000 words. Overall the tutors who marked the assignments did a good job but on several occasions I have queried comments/suggestions made as they fell outside the scope of the question being asked. I have wondered about the ‘tightness’ of the marking schedules being used. This said however the course coordinators are very approachable and respond quickly to queries and questions. For this course the coordinators offer an automatic two week extension for assignments as long as enough notice is given. The one issue I do have with Massey is the fact that they offer no facility for emailing assignments. The expectation is that assignments will be sent via the mail, or by fax, to a national

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assignments centre. After speaking to my course coordinator I was able to email assignments directly to her personal address at the university ­ this solution however may not be offered by every course coordinator.

Exam: Paper 172.703 – The second language learning process ­ requires a three hour exam to be sat. Massey works with Jerudong International School as its exam centre. I was required to sit this exam on a Saturday in November at 1.30pm. But as I work in Mentiri I contacted my paper coordinator and explained that working Saturdays mornings coupled with a 30km drive would make sitting the exam at JIS a logistics nightmare and suggested CfBT as an alternative exam centre and a start time of 2pm. This was not a problem. The exam is composed of a series of 8 questions that cover the course and the candidate is required to answer 4. The questions tend to be quite specific and require the candidate to have a firm knowledge of the key components of the paper but also expand and comment on key ideas or trends. This is not an exam that can be sat with a minimum of study, the questions can be quite complex and require careful planning before answering. I found the preparation for and the sitting of the examination very stressful and tiring. Sitting an exam on a Saturday afternoon after work is quite exhausting and I would recommend that anyone taking this paper contact their course coordinator at the beginning of the year and try to have the exam administered on a Friday.

Support offered by the university: As noted above Massey does run a large number of extramural courses and there is plenty of support offered to distance learners:

• Distance library service • On­line learning environment (offering peer and discussion groups) • WebCT, a centralised student academic website • On­line writing and learning link • On­line assignment reading service • Extramural regional seminars • On site campus contact courses offered to extramural students • Student learning centre with consultants and advisors The university is very keen to see extramural students complete their studies and there are a range of consultancy services available for students who feel under pressure and over burdened and who may be contemplating dropping out.

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Final thoughts: I played around with the idea of distance learning for a good year or so before I enrolled in my course. Working full time and managing the demands of a young family had me convinced that there was no time in the day for sitting down and studying. However I must say in hindsight that I have enjoyed my experience of being an extramural student. What made this experience “do­able” for me was the flexibility that the course lecturers offered. It was relatively easy adapt study demands around work and home routines. I had always thought that studying meant staying up late into the wee hours of the morning sweating over assignments, but some of my best work was done lying on the sun­lounger at the Serasa Yacht Club on a Sunday afternoon. Coping with distance learning is all about pacing yourself and knowing what you can fit into your life. When I first enquired about the course I asked the coordinator to provide me with all the assessment requirements and deadlines for each paper. From this I worked out what papers I would take and when. As it turns out I completed the paper with the most demanding assignments in 2007, the paper with the exam in 2008 and the two papers of classroom/school based activities, research and resource development this year. Using this approach I was able to stay well clear of deadline clashes and over commitment…I am glad to say that not once did I burn the midnight candle. My decision to enrol for a post­ grad diploma, as opposed to the master’s course also offered, was influenced by my concerns about being able to fif nd the time to study. I reasoned that I would be able to complete the diploma and from there could move onto the masters if I wanted – which has now become my plan. As long as you have maintained at least a B average in the diploma, Massey offers entry into the masters’ programme…. all I have to do now is come up with a topic! Anyone interested in finding out more about Massey University and the ESL courses it offers can go on line to www.massey.ac.nz. I highly recommend touching base with Gillian Skyme of the Humanities and Social Sciences Department who is the course coordinator for this diploma.

Check it out!

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What’s the point? Process teaching and effective learning

Greg Keaney, CfBT, SM SMJA

They may forget what you said but they will never forget how you made them feel. Carol Buchner Finding an ongoing balance between the ‘useful’ and the ‘enjoyable’ is perhaps the key area in lesson planning for teachers of teenagers. Language learning is a long hard slog – unlike other areas of the school curriculum the end point is not hidden – few mathematics students (or their parents) judge themselves against the standards of a high end rocket scientist, but language fluency is seemingly the only standard for English language students. Most language teachers follow schemes of work and graded learning activities that are based on theories of language learning that may or may not be true – yet their ‘real’ lesson planning involves thinking about tasks that students will find useful, enjoyable and memorable to assist in the long hard slog of language learning. Argyris and Schön (1978) assert that people hold maps in their heads about how to plan, implement and review their actions. They further assert that few people are aware that the maps they use to take action are not the theories they explicitly espouse and, even fewer people are aware of the maps or theories that they do actually use (Argyris, 1992). In my rare moments of reflection I note that my ‘theory in use’ for English language teaching at O level in Brunei is as follows: 1. Generally students find English to be 3D ­ ‘dull, difficult and dangerous’ … so, in order to be more effective … 2. I need to rework this so that students find English to be 3I – interesting, important and inspiring.

In my own teaching my ‘theory in use’ ties much more closely to the process of teaching rather than the product, the how rather than the what. In the ELT literature Thornbury’s (2001)

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notion of Process Teaching, a student­centred approach in which grammar and vocabulary are not covered but uncovered’ (2001:76), is close to my own teaching style.

This goes beyond the PPP (presentation ­ practice ­ performance) model of typical language teaching and is, I believe, an important and useful guide for ways that we can reflect upon, and perhaps improve, our teaching.

Below is an adapted form of Thornbury’s seven aspects of process teaching, based on a recent article by O'Keeffe (2009).

1. Input Provider

We need to provide our students with lots of comprehensible input through various media.

We need to find and design materials that contain effective examples of the target language.

Input needs to be engaging, frequent and recurring. Indeed a lack of sufficient input (extensive reading, background experiences, cultural notions, literary exposure, etc.) is a significant constraint on student exam performance at O level in Brunei.

In general input needs to be authentic to give students the opportunity to see how vocabulary and structures naturally interact within texts.

2. Interaction launch pad

An effective English teacher also has to launch interaction. We need to help students build meaning, gradually increasing their confidence in handling ever more complex language tasks.

Making interaction in English seem normal, useful, enjoyable and interesting is a key skill that we all need to develop.

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3. Item learning supporter

We also need to support our students in the learning of the minutiae of English. Vocabulary notebooks, keyword techniques, word cards and so on are needed to better help learners to memorise new words and phrases. Words and phrases taken from the input and recycled well are a significant factor in improving student language skills.

Games, quizzes and other motivational activities are probably needed here to help students through the difficult slog of ‘moving to the next level’.

4. Pattern Detective guide

We need to assist our learners in becoming good ‘noticers’. We have to encourage students to find grammatical patterns embedded in natural texts rather than explaining discrete grammatical items to them. We need to try to get students themselves to notice differences in grammatical features and, where possible, teach discrete grammatical features as they arise in real tasks.

This is also a feature of learning lexis. For example while the 700 most frequent words in English constitute 70% of English text their usage is often unexpected for learners. For example the word ‘see’ is used 53% of the time with an interactive function to mean ‘understand’. (Carter and McCarthy, 1988: 149)

I experience this every time I ask a student ‘How are you going?’ !

5. Output opportunity provider

Hopefully this is now a ‘truism’ – it is not ‘time on task’ as much as time creating and delivering output that determines a student’s ultimate level of English – use it or lose it! We need activities that allow students to be continuously creating output – lots of speaking and interaction activities, journal and free writing and the creation of materials for audiences beyond the classroom.

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6. Feedback supplier

We are very good at the summative type of feedback – plenty of test scores and exams but are we really good at the day to day reinforcement and encouragement of learners. Teachers who interact with the students, and use pair and group work activities, provide opportunities for the learners to modify and improve their output. These interactions, be they student to student or teacher to student, encourage modifications in the learner’s output.

Similarly feedback in writing journals that goes beyond comments on language to comments on ideas is also vital.

7. Motivator

This brings us to the last of the seven criteria ­ “motivator”. This means creating engaging tasks that hopefully create ‘flow’ experiences for learners and personalising tasks so that the learner really wants to get their message across.

But not only personalising them from the students' perspective but also incorporating things from the teacher's own life into the activities thereby making the classroom more of a community where life experiences are shared as in the ‘real’ world.

References Argyris, C. (1992) On Organizational Learning. Cambridge Argyris, C. and Schön, D. (1978) Organizational Learning: A Theory of Action Perspective. In D. Pugh (Ed) Organization Theory: Selected Readings (pp.352­370). Penguin Carter, R. And McCarthy, M. (1988) Vocabulary and Language Teaching Longman O'Keeffe, R. (2009) Walking the Teaching Tightrope: Being Humanistic and Folo lowing a Syllabus. Humanistic Language Teaching Year 11; Issue 5; October 2009 Senge, P. (1990) The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization. Doubleday Senge, P., Kleiner, A., Roberts, C., Ross, R. and Smith, B. (1991) The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook. Breale Thornbury, S. 2001. Uncovering Grammar. Macmillan

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Tips for writing and publishing in ELT

Based on ideas and information at http://www.onestopenglish.com/section.asp?docid=157021

Decide what you would like to write.

How about an original lesson plan that works well for you? Write it up with instructions for use. What about a variation on standard methods that you have made in your current teaching – what about a short article for teachers new to this environment? How about something that you disagree with? Research your disagreement and see if you can write about it. Do you use an ELT book that is very useful? Write a book review.

Who or what you are going to write for. In my experience those motivated by money or overly worried about copyright remain unpublished. You need to build a profile or a reputation before those are really concerns. Start a blog. Write an article for this journal – it’s refereed and it’s a great start to your publishing career. Look in the back of ELT journals to find out how to submit articles to them. Publishers are always looking for new authors. But, they usually have an idea of what they want written and this means writing to all sorts of specifications. If you like the idea of this, find out who the best people to speak to would be and contact them. Some more advice:

• It is better to give away your good ideas for free than to keep them to yourself and do nothing with them. • Once you start writing, more ideas should come along. • Rejection is inevitable. • Try to focus on one significant point in your article – don’t try to include too much information. • Think of the reader – in general university essays make dull reading – you need to edit them for publication. • Aim for the ‘good’ not for ‘perfect’. • Every piece of work needs a deadline (or it won’t get done).

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Play that funky music, right: Music in ELT

William Crawford, SM Sayyidina Umar Al­Khattab

Some ways to use music as an activity in ELT

In recent times the use of music has become widely recognized among many EFL teachers and curriculum managers. The findings are music can be effective and stimulating for EFL students. From my personal experience, I have been able to use music activities to complement my students' learning of EFL. This paper suggests five practical ways to use music as a medium in your English class.

Definition of Music Music can be defined as; “an art form whose medium is sound organized in time. Common elements of music are pitch (which governs melody and harmony), rhythm (and its associated concepts tempo, meter, and articulation), dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture. The word derives from the Greek μουσική (mousike), (art) of the Muses. Common belief is that music has been with man for thousands of years. Centuries ago, it was used by natives during traditional ceremonies accompanied with dance.

A Connection between Music and Language There has long been a belief is that there is a connection between the development of music and language. In the 1900's, Charles Darwin believed language perhaps developed from music and Robbins Berling said early vocal characteristics of man developed from music over time. Maess and Koelsh (2001) found that Broca's area processes both music and language. Furthermore, the Mozart effect (Rauscher, Shaw and Ky, 1993) has found an increase in short term memory after listening to Mozart. In addition, Sacks, the neurologist, has studied and found extraordinary links between man and music.

My Experience When I first started teaching English in Tokyo in 1991, I had little idea about how to use music for teaching language even though I had been bought up surrounded by music. My father played piano and was keen on listening to jazz and classical music. Music was a part of school life and I took up singing and playing guitar when I was eleven. In 1996, I was assigned to a remote post and was the first native EFL teacher to live in Seiwa village in Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan. I had my guitar there and I taught nursery, elementary

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and junior high students. I started to use music to teach English and communicate with the eight schools in the area. I used a few activities and was surprised at how interested, relaxed and eager the students became during these activities. However, I still hadn't realized the full potential of music and English Language Teaching until I decided to do some research in 2004 whilst teaching adult students at Kwansei Gakuin University. I started to experiment and spent extra time and preparation for listening to music as a class activity. The result always seemed to be positive in that students were more relaxed, enjoyed the activity, and learned well. However, I wanted to learn more about it and began to read books, and articles in journals and on the web. I attended several national and international TESOL conferences in Japan, Thailand and Cambodia and took notes. Finally, I did presentations on the topic in both Cambodia and Japan.

The Benefits of Music Research I did reinforced my belief that music can be used in ELT and the benefits are many. Music can calm us, grab our attention, and motivate us. We can relax in knowing music is compatible with our brains and language learning. We can stimulate peoples' senses. We can teach vocabulary in context. We can teach phonology, stress, rhythm and clear pronunciation. We can teach about nationalism, culture, critical thinking, social and global issues. Furthermore, we can inspire class members, come together socially, open up and share feelings, and care more for each other. We can encourage physical movement, such as dancing, clapping, or moving around the classroom. Written work can be very productive during or after listening to music. Furthermore, music can have a therapeutic effect on people.

Five Recommended Practical Uses of Music Now, here are five practical ways to use music, each of which can be used by itself or combined with the others. You may want to start with the first activity and then work your way through as you gain confidence as I have graded them from less to more difficult.

1) Gap Fill Activities These activities are great because they are both easy to use and effective. The goal is to improve students' listening ability while focusing on key words. Also, to practice repeating the words with correct pronunciation and rhythm. Preparation is simple and can be done manually with white ink or using computer to produce gaps in the lyrics. Number the gaps and write the words in a box at the bottom of the song. Some notes about gap fill activities:

• Gap fills are a common activity in the language classroom. • Lyrics can be easily downloaded from Internet websites such as lyrics.com (check whether copyright restrictions apply before use) • Songs can also be downloaded from sites such as limewire.com although once again check whether copyright restrictions apply for classroom use • Always remember to screen lyrics for offensive words.

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• Select songs with memorable words, clear dictation and a catchy melody. • Select key words to delete for example a grammatical words or words that rhyme. • Delete about one word in seven • The primary task is to listen to the song and match the words from the box with the words in the gaps. • A secondary task can be to listen and repeat the song after the CD. • The activity can help students develop clear dictation. • The high repetition of words and the way many sung words are long and drawn out also assist students. • Shy students may be asked to mime the words instead. Some other songs which I have found work well are shown below. Song name Artist

Lift Shannon Noll 4ever The Veronicas Everything I'm Not The Veronicas For My Lover Kelly Clarkson Baby Can I Hold You Tracey Chapman Don't Tell Me Avril Lavigne Because You Live Jesse MacCartney Sunrise Simply Red Michael Jackson Thriller My Heart Will Go On Celine Dion Here is Gone Goo Goo Dolls Beautiful Cold Play

2) A Basis for Themes in Units Often text books are organized in themes. This makes it easy to select a song that fits a theme and use it to present a new unit to students. The main benefits are learning vocabulary and developing interest in a topic. The following method was used by Achara Wimolkiat (2008), who is a High School teacher in Thailand teaching about Mothers Day. She uses a song to promote students virtue and critical thinking. First, she introduces the warm up activity like this:

• Encourage the students about Mothers' day (August 12th) • Brainstorm and write many words about Mothers Day and the activities you can do on that day. • Pre­ listening to the song, give the students five minutes to predict the words from the song. • Listen to the song twice. While listening to the song write as many words as you can hear and answer some short answers about the content of the song.

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• Post­listening activity is to write down ten things students can do for their mother on mothers' day. For example; I will make a flower arrangement for her. I will cook special seafood for her. I will make a mothers' day card. • Follow up activities: write a mothers' day card or a poem. • Discussion and consultation between students and teachers • Be ready to talk with students about their emotions. Another nice song for Mothers’ Day is ‘I just called to say I love you’ by Stevie Wonder. Two songs that work well in a unit on families are: Ode to My Family by The Cranberries and Father and Son by Cat Stevens (Yusuf Islam)

3) Cultural Exchange I have always found students are interested to hear about my country Australia, as well as tell me about theirs. A good way to do this is to exchange national anthems, folk, pop and nursery songs (for younger students). A short section of a selected number of countries' songs can be listened to in order to highlight internationalism. Some important points to consider are:

• A person's national identity remains important in musical discourses and practices. • You can show students your country and city of origin on a world map. • You might explain the meaning of the symbols on your flag. • Pre­teach vocabulary in the song. • Listen to the song and sing together! • Get students to prepare their national song or a famous folk song to perform. I try to choose something very catchy, or well known and distinctly from a particular country. In my case I have used Australian songs like: Song name Artist I Still Call Australia Home Peter Allen Give Me a Home among the Gum Trees W. Johnson and B. Brown Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree Marion Sinclair Down Under Men at Work

4) Critical Thinking and Global Issues Among upper secondary and university students there is a need to challenge them with critical thinking. Lucantonia (2008) has developed an effective way of challenging students. Many top international bands such as U2, Linkin Park and Green Day have had several number one hits with songs that are about serious global issues and their songs are used in movies and documentaries. The issues they deal with range from HIV, cloning, child labour and global warming. Here is a suggested procedure based on Lucantonia's method:

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1. Task is students research a social and or global issue and present it to the class. 2. Students work in pairs or small groups. 3. Students decide on an issue and question. 4. Students find a copy of the song on MTV, on a documentary, or in a movie. 5. Students also bring a reading to class about the issue. 6. Students prepare a worksheet and activity for reading and discussion with the class. 7. Teacher screens all content for offensive material and correct English grammar. 8. Students peer grade presentations and worksheet activities. 9. Note there is no focus on lyrics. The method is purely on the feeling and message behind the song. Here is a sample: Green Day: “Working Class Hero” 1. Watch the video 2. Write down three bad things that happened in Darfur. 3. Can these be stopped? If yes, how? 4. What do people in Darfur want?

5) Reflection, Emotion and Therapy Reflecting on a song’s message is done either orally or with written work. Although this is an advanced technique, it could be used in countries where there have been traumas from war and hardship. Two countries I had in mind in particular in the Asian region are Vietnam and Cambodia. I do not use therapy techniques very often, but do not be afraid to talk with students about their emotions. Remember music is abstract like a form of art. People seek out all kinds of art, not only pleasant ones. Also remember, music has the powers of social and physical healing. Emotions can transform or blend into different emotions. Here are some methods you can use which I found on line and used daily by Orth (2005) a music therapist in Vietnam. Orth practises:

• Vocal holding techniques, breathing • Singing and discussion. • Guided imagery. • Composing, writing your own story, recording and performing. • Learning to play an instrument. • Handling the emotions. Below is an example of a song activity you could use for reflection and exchanges of opinion: Imagine: John Lennon. Discuss two opposing opinions about the song and then discuss your own.

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Opinion A: “John Lennon's song is so powerful. It certainly has an effect on changing the world and making it a more peaceful place. This song can do more than many politicians can do to help peace.” Opinion B: “This song has very little power. It has almost no effect on helping peace. Personally, I think John Lennon had so many possessions of his own. He was a capitalist for sure.” In my work here in Brunei although I do not use music in my English classes every day, at least I feel as though it is there if I should need it. I know students I have worked with in the past have enjoyed it, and I am sure I will be using some kind of music in my classes again soon.

Conclusion This paper points out that music and songs can be used in the EFL classroom and some of the practical suggestions might prove useful in your EFL classes. From my personal experience, and researchers of music and language, you can rest assured music is well compatible with language. The opportunity to include a music activity can take place when teaching vocabulary, phonology, topical themes, culture, and critical thinking that includes global issues. Teachers and students will relax and enjoy the experience of working with the medium of music while learning EFL.

References and Recommended Reading Ascher, A., Saslow, J., (2006). Summit 1, Pearson Education, Inc. Unit 2, musical moods. Davies, S. (1997). Why listen to sad music if it makes one feel sad? Chapter 11, “Music and meaning.” Edited by Robinson, J. Kelly, C. (2008, January). Shaping teaching to fit theories of learning. Symposium conducted at the 28th Thailand TESOL Annual International Conference, Khon Kaen, Thailand. Lowe, M. July, (2007). Language and Music. Modern English teacher, Volume 16 number 3. Lems, K. December (2001). Using music in the adult ESL classroom. National ­Louis University. Lucantonia, D. (Speaker). (2008, January). Music, society and critical thinking. Symposium conducted at the 28th Thailand TESOL Annual International Conference, Khon Kaen, Thailand. Maess, B., & Koelsch, S. (2001). Musical syntax is processed in Broca's area: an MEG study. Nature Neuroscience 4, 540­545.

McCloskey. M. (2008) Teaching young learners of English. Symposium at 28th Thailand TESOL International Conference, Khon Kaen, Thailand (Plenary speaker). http://www.mtv.com

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Nunn, R., (2000) Talking About Songs, Kochi University. O'Flynn, J. (2007). National identity and music transition: Issues of authenticity in a global setting in music, national identity and politics of location, Biddle and Knights (Ed.s) Ashgate. Orth, J. (2005). Music therapy with traumatized refugees in a clinical setting. Voices: a world forum or music therapy. Retrieved October 13, 2007, from http://www.voices.no/mainissues/mi40005000182.html Sacks, O., (2008) http://www.oliversacks.com/ Snyder, B. (2000). Music and memory, an introduction, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge. Wimolkiat, A., (2008) Promoting students' virtue and critical thinking through song. Symposium conducted at the 28th Thailand TESOL Annual International Conference, Khon Kaen, Thailand.

William Crawford William Crawford is a teacher currently working for CfBT at SMSUA School. Before coming to Brunei he had considerable experience working in Japan and Australia. He has worked at Kwansei Gakuin University in Kobe. His greatest teaching moment was in Japan, when his favourite class threw a surprise party in the classroom at the end of his English course and shouted him a wonderful dinner. In the future, he hopes simply to continue to enjoy his teaching.

Death to antidisestablishmentarianism?

The Guinness Book of Records, in its 1992 and subsequent editions, declared the "longest real word" in the English language to be floccinaucinihilipilification at 29 letters. Defined as the act of estimating something as worthless, its usage has been recorded as far back as 1741. The Editor hopes that readers do not floccinaucinihilipilificate this journal…!

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QUESTION: What is missing from this JO __ __ NAL?

ANSWER: YOU ARE! Contribute to the next steamy issue of Tropical English Teacher

INFORMATION FOR CONTRIBUTORS If you would like to contribute to Tropical English Teacher please contact the Editor at CfBT [email protected] or on +673­885­6815 Contributions are welcome on all topics related to the teaching of English in the region, particularly at the primary and high school level. We welcome articles from basic research to applied teaching methodologies and activities. CfBT teachers and staff in particular are encouraged to contribute. Thank you for your support

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TROPICAL ENGLISH TEACHER Centre for British Teachers Brunei Darussalam Volume 1 2009

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