This past week I met Julie Cummings-Debrot, a freelancer with her own company here in Paris – for a cup of coffee and a chat about teaching in France, corporate training and how she’s incorporating blended learning into her courses.

We met at La Défense, the swanky financial district of Paris just after one of her lessons.

Via Wikimedia Commons courtesy of Ross

We had a nice lil’ chat and afterwards I rode my lil’ folding bike back home to write up some notes to share Julie’s rich experience with us all here!  Without further ado…

So how long have you been in France?

Longer than I care to say really, let’s just say that Margaret Thatcher was PM in the UK when I left!

Still enjoying it?

Yes I do enjoy the life we have here.

Been teaching most of that time?

I began teaching in 1980.

How long have you been doing more of the corporate training?

Since 1995.

We talked about how much change you envision in the French ELT scene over the next 10 years particularly within professional corporate training, so what do you think has changed in the past 10 years, both in France and internationally?

The whole EFL world has changed dramatically these last 10 years.  If you think of some of the excellent material that has been created to help trainers really get to the nitty gritty by the likes of Russel Stannard, Paul Emmerson, Adrian Underhill  to name but a few.  Such wonderful outfits like IATEFL – with the BESIG forums – TESOL France and worldwide, The Language Network creating and sharing of knowledge and experience online with the community is truly fantastic.

Personally, I’m using more blended learning these days, which has probably replaced a lot of books, though I still aim that a lot of the ‘raw materials’ in class actually come from the students themselves. If for example they’re working on a presentation, business success story or have specific needs they are going to tell me exactly what they’re after, I adapt my training to those specific needs, thus creating meaningful, functional and practical communication.

While we were talking you touched upon the point of terminology -Coach-Trainer-Teacher.  Can you share that with our readers?

I feel that we constantly need to remind ourselves that – “We’re not the sage on the stage, but the guide on the side” helping to get students to a place of auto-correction where they take full control of their own communication.

Calling ourselves a Trainer or coach is very true because we are really tweaking something we’ve seen hundreds of times and, just like a coach, we know what a trainee needs to hear to move forward on their own.  It’s incredibly satisfying when they talk about their successful conference call or negotiation in English – these are some of the rewards we have.

Describe a typical client.

I now do a lot of one-on-one corporate middle and upper management training, but also at the moment with one of my clients I’m giving group sessions to alternate groups on alternate weeks with individual telephone lessons in between.  This is proving to be not only very cost effective for the company but highly motivating for the trainees.  This is where I use English Addicts and the feedback from the trainees is very positive indeed.

So as a package I offer 8 hours outside of class between the blended learning and telephone classes and 16 hours of group sessions. An interesting thing I find is that I when I go back to the student tracking tool I find that some students have done maybe 40 or more exercises – one client even did 64 hours and said it was just like “reading the newspaper”, something that he really found enjoyable. And here lies the essential in my view, when the trainees are enjoying it they are automatically learning twice as much.

The student tracking is a great tool as I can also see what kind of mistakes they’re making, what they’ve done and what subjects they’re interested in.  As we often say to our students ‘All language is Speaker’s Choice’, helping them to make those subtle choices – giving conciseness and clarity to their communication – instead of the usual ‘translation’ which just makes things more difficult for them and keeps them in ‘Fringlish’ land – very frustrating all round.

What are your typical corporate client needs?

Really varies, but one thing I find again and again is their need for a greater “Self-Esteem” in English.  They often know all the particular vocabulary or grammar that they need, but don’t necessarily feel at ease in the“in-between-moments” of doing business – at the dinner table, in the lift etc.

One of the really great things one recent trainee said was “Since I’ve been using English Addicts, I’m no longer lost for small talk or interesting subjects of conversation.  For the more advanced trainees we frequently take the subject chosen and find out more about it via the web.  This can lead to deep discussion (what I like to call real, meaningful communication) which helps them cope better in their work environment on a day-to-day basis.

Another thing I love working with is pronunciation.  Clients will also say they have a “horrible accent” and I say “au contraire”- the accent is wonderful and is part of your cultural identity -  it’s the mispronunciations that can cause greater problems.  While doing my CELTA I realized how important phonetics are and helping students learn how to incorporate this into their learning programme, so that they can start to auto-correct and really fly on their own.

What are some of the challenges of being freelance?

Negotiations… in the beginning cold-calling was hard, but in the end, I’ve found a lot of value in really doing a great job with current clients which in turn frequently leads to recommendations.  Networking with other colleagues is also very important – when we have more work than we can deal with then sharing with other experienced trainers is very important and mutually beneficial.

So, if there are challenges, what’s the wonderful upside to being Freelance?

The freedom to chose the projects and areas you want to develop. For example, about 6 years ago I became a Mind Mapper with Tony Buzan and now deliver one or two day workshops on this wonderful technique.  I Mind Map most of my own training now and this has proved a great time saver.  This in turn has allowed me to spread my own wings and start another business in a completely different domain to EFL.   Just like yourself, Brad, with your Violin business in China.

As I’m always blown away by the range of things that ELT professionals do on the side, would you mind telling us how you got into the Organic Coconut Business!

My family and I decided to set up a company dealing exclusively with products derived from the coconut tree. And that’s the reason for our name:  La Maison Du Coco

We created the company four years ago when a very good friend introduced us to the fabulous  benefits of the coconut tree. Once we found out there were no other companies doing this in France- especially no one doing Organic which was our goal- we decided to take the plunge.

We also make regular trips to our suppliers in the Philippines to coordinate our requirements and quality standards. Doing business within a different cultural environment has its own challenges and we’re learning constantly as we progress in this venture… which makes things fascinating!

We have successfully helped introduce and develop organic coconut products into the French market and with the growing consumer awareness we’re very hopeful that the future will allow us to spread our business into other European countries. Our product range has gone from 1 to over 15 in the last four years and a number of them are now certified organic. We’re also starting to get more exposure in the press and TV and look forward to our 7th Health Fair in February 2013.

This autumn we attended the International Trade Fair called ‘Le SIAL’ and received the Innovation Prize for our latest product of Coconut Ice-cream made from fresh coconut milk.

NOW ISNT THAT PRETTY COOL Tip of the hat, Julie on all of your great activities. Thank you for sharing with the readers here on the blog and look forward to hearing more soon.

-Brad

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If you’re in Paris and teaching (or learning English) you can reach Julie via telephone:

Tel: 00.33 (0)1 47 51 26 34

Mobile: 000.33 (0) 6.76.23.96.83

FIRST OFF, a warm congratulations to Vicky Loras on her 3rd year of blogging!!!  Wild how the time flies by, eh.  I’m 1/2 way there and this is actually my 150th post, and I feel like taking up a challenge by Adam Simpson asking us to highlight our favorite posts from 2012 as he did in 2011.

Would love to hear what your top 12 from 12 are as well (hint, hint “challenge”), and without further ado…

1) This year I started venturing more into online teaching and this post I asked for 100 words of wisdom from folks who have been on the online teaching path for years.

2) The most remarkable blogging moment of the year was certainly the 7 things you should do to be a happier teacher.  You hear that world “viral” in social media every now and again and this seemed to be it for my blogging career!!! 535 tweets, 691 FB shares and 75 comments… and it makes sense that folks shared it because it’s about being HAPPIER teachers!

3) This year I must say I’ve been very proud of the Edulang team as we’ve carved a path that few would dare— opening up our materials to anyone around the world for the price they felt they should pay.  Here was the first post of our success after 100 days of doing business in a new way.

4) Likewise, this decision felt right as well as we decided to offer any of our applications for free to every ELT trainer that wanted to test them out.

5) It has been a revolutionary year and past decade in ELT and technology is on the minds of many— How is it helping? What’s the teacher’s role?  What’s next?… and the post “Is testing online the next step?” was an interesting exploration along those lines.

6) Still along the same lines, I asked my readers to read into their future— if they thought that they’d be teaching online in 2020.

7) The number one reason to learn a foreign language… with such a superlative statement and it was a fun exploration and there were tons of great comments.

MUCH Less fun of an exploration was when we discovered that some of Edulang’s materials had been plagiarized here by a major publisher.

9) I did two blog challenges exploring what “teaching is like” for us teachers— one was to find a metaphor and another was to choose a quote that described your teaching style.

10) I did a number of guest posts or interviews with new leaners which were a lot of fun. Here’s one on our TOEFL® test simulator, another on our TOEIC® test simulator from a teacher and a student, and finally one on English Addicts.  (I know I’m kind of cheating on #9 and #10 here providing more than one post but it’s a general area)

11) One of our talented materials writers, Paul Brett, did a guest post as well where he shared how the S. American jungle lead him to doctorate studies in ELT and educational technology, and also how that brought him to contribute to our app, English Addicts.

12) Last but not least… hmm… maybe “Where does Your Coffee come from… and your Teaching Materials?”

Thank you Adam for encouraging us to review our blogging year AGAIN!  I know many of us put so much thought and care into this practice and to see it all like this globally is a great reminder of how powerful it is.

Happy blogging in 2013 all

-Brad

Yesterday, I was inspired by a great post by Chris Wilson on How to Survive the Teacher Apocalypse.  I thought about it all afternoon especially as it touched upon thoughts I had had on the cost of knowledge.  The interesting turn for me came when I started reflecting more on the Value of Knowledge because realistically the costs of knowledge have and will continue to drop rapidly (despite the efforts of gatekeepers) due to digitalization and other market factors, but something is rising in counter weight…

BEFORE I go further, a quick historical interlude…

2000 years ago, access to knowledge and knowledge itself were all but non-existent for the populace, which is why the origins of the word school in greek actually mean “leisure or spare time” as it was only those few privileged who had such a possibility.

So no access, and really no tools.  A reality and hence a value really only for nobles.

With the Renaissance, the Printing Press(1400s), and the ever slow rise of the middle class(1800-1900s), access to knowledge became more widely available, but still limited and hence knowledge was indeed valuable, and for anyone that was lucky or entrepreneurial, the industrial revolution started to open lots of doors if you could combine knowledge, hard work and invented new tools or ways of “expanding civilization”.

So there was a slow growth in access, knowledge and tools, but still there was a general scarcity for most, and hence knowledge and access to knowledge were valuable.

How about today?

I’d say that knowledge has never been less valuable because it’s access is so open (though it takes a discerning mind to read between the lines and see what is high quality and low quality information).  Thanks to computers and the internet, anyone can access even very high levels of knowledge formerly left to esoteric circles of the priveleged… so knowledge isn’t valuable, nor is the cost of it high (at least for those that are thrifty… the cultural capital earned by an Ivy League degree is of course still quite high).

So what has increased in value in turn?

True education, and education from its etymological meaning!

The latin root of all of these cognates is DUX, and actually brings us even the english word Duke. The original meaning was “to lead” “to draw out”, “to conduct”, and hence the educe in education.

More than ever before, real teachers who allow discovery in a classroom, or in an online dialogue are those that are now valuable than ever before.  The understanding and creative manipulation of knowledge and language is what is truly unique, today now more than ever, and just as you’ll hear it in the famous TED videos with Sir Ken Robinson— our task is ever more to develop critical thinking and active learners, and this comes through exploration, communication and creativity there within.

I’d say professional development has never been more important, which is another reason why I think that’s a field that’s blowing up, both on and offline these days.  It is an interesting time indeed, and personally I see this all as a positive evolution

(Thanks again Chris!)

Feedback is precious.

Just as it is for teachers, publishers like my team at Edulang sincerely do care how their materials are being enjoyed (or not).  Thankfully, I get mostly GREAT feedback from not only online and offline teachers, but students, trainers, schools and so I can’t help but share a bit of what I’m hearing with you.

STUDENTS

I went on Englishaddicts and tried a free lesson, then I instantly fell in love with it, and therefore I decided to subscribe to it. -Donzen, china

I just purchased a Test Simulator and English Addicts access and both tools are very interesting. I didn’t pay a lot for them, but I’m compensating by spreading the word! -Thierry, France

I like EA very much because it is varied, offers different levels and accents, and it’s not boring!  So far my favourite lessons are “Teenagers hungry for “The Hunger Games” movie” and “The cable cars of San Francisco“. -Martine, France

English Trainers

As a training professional, I have to know what new materials there are and to select those which meet our customers’ requirements. When I first saw English Addicts, I realized its potential. It is simple to use and does without technological gimmicks. Our customers want top quality, efficient products and services, designed by teaching specialists. -Business Class CEO, Daphne Chisholm-Elie

[My students] are blown away when I give them the demo lesson and are really enthusiastic to start using it to learn.  Some really take off with it, and others need quite a bit of follow-through, which is actually pretty easy to stay on top of thanks to the student-tracking tools. -Eric Schaftlein, Paris

The constant renewal of materials linked to current affairs and the different accents and levels are extremely useful for people in business working with different cultures. Letting students select the topic helps student-teacher interaction, as they have more responsibility for the learning process. Ker Maria, English Language school in France

Online teachers

I teach solely online via Skype now and I am really enjoying using English Addicts, and have had very positive feedback from the students I bought subscriptions for. -Anne, New-Zealand

I’m very excited about this new site I’m using for online lessons. You can register students for as little as one dollar or pay as much as you want and half the money goes to charity. -Sylvia, Greece

I like the materials and lessons which are very helpful for improving listening skills. Thanks you again and again for the given opportunity to use the valuable materials for teachers and students. You’ve done a great job! -Nina, Ukraine

Classroom teachers

It saves A LOT of time. Students select the topic, I listen to it, check the vocab exercises and discussion ideas and then think about what would or could work in my class. I write down a list of possible activities and then depending on how things go I select them. -Phil Wade in his guest post here.

Teachers can build lessons around the use of English Addicts, and students find it to be a nice change from the routine of being in the regular classroom”. The exposure to a variety of speakers of various languages is very important, particularly because more and more students are learning English in order to use it as an international language, in contexts with speakers of a variety of different native languages, rather than with the goal of studying or working in an English-speaking country. Aimee Johnsen, ELT Professor in France

English Addicts helps you have a better understanding of the people you speak with, whatever their mother tongue and whatever the means of communication used – telephone, video-conferences, meetings…” Sylvie Ferreira, Personnel and Training Manager at EMC Computer Systems France

Feel free to check out the 1600 English Addicts lessons here, and if you’re a teacher, I’d be happy to set you up with a free trial.  Just shoot me an email here.

For anybody else, it’s Edulang’s revolutionary pay what you want approach and I’d love to hear from you!

-Brad

In October we released two new apps online and you now have demo access to English for Daily Life and English for Business.  Simply click the links in the prior sentence and at the bottom you’ll see “Demo Version” as shown below.

You can also take a look at the student tracking which is available for all of our applications, and while you’re there, feel free to page through the catalogue and I’d be happy to answer any questions you might have about English Addicts, Test Simulator TOEIC® and TOEFL®, Gramster, Vocabster, the Edulang Certificate of English or either of these two new apps!

Finally, if you’re interested, shoot me an email and I’ll set you up with a free trial of anything you heart so desires

Cheers,

Brad

Anyone who is writing for the benefit of other teachers, and doing so on a regular basis in their free time… well they deserve every bit of recognition shown to them!

And those that really go the extra mile (or kilometer) and pour in energy to regular and truly inspiring posts, well they deserve a PLN hug! My PLN hugs are all to the right here on the blogroll.

…and if I had to pick just a few out for an extra large PLN hug, it would be… hence my extra special celebrate-your-awesomeness Edublog 2012 nominations below, which are a day too late… busy week!  It’s the gesture that counts, right?

1) Best individual blog is hands down Chia Suan Chong.  You probably knew that, though.  Her productivity and inspiration is amazing on her blog as it was clearly visible in her plenary a few weeks back at Tesol France.  ROCK ON, Chia!

2) Best teacher blog is also hands down Tyson Seburn.  Ty reflects weekly on his material, his approach and what’s going on in his classroom.  BIG PLN hug, dude!

3) Lifetime achievement goes to Naomi Epstein who blogs many times a week and always with an interesting and digging angle.  Having talked to Naomi a few times over skype, via email and through our blog conversations, I know she’s doing great things in her local area and am happy to nominate her for something I’m sure she’ll have a hard time believing she deserves, but I know she does (even if her career isn’t yet nearing its close!).

4) Best group blog is also hands down the Teaching Village and its wonderful chief, Barbara Sakamoto.  So many great posts to explore there and thanks to Barbara for bringing that to life and providing such great online professional development for us all.

5) Best new blog might actually not be new in 2012, but it’s new to me and Josette Le Blanc brings so much heart and reflection to all of her posts, she gets the huge PLN hug here too!  ROCK on Josette! Oui oui!

6) Best individual tweeter goes to Vicky Loras as she is an amazingly caring and one of the most supportive and good-hearted folks you’ll meet.  That shines through in all her tweets and she deserves an extra huge PLN super hug. WHOOOOP WHOOOP

Thank you all.  Learning with you is always a pleasure.

-brad

This week I was in the spotlight for an interview on you You Can Teach English, and I think it’s the perfect opportunity for me to shine back that spotlight on a number of teachers here in France that deserve that and more!

First, the Tesol France crew who put on a spectacular conference last week!

Of course the amazing Bethany Cagnol… I feel like she actually has a hidden twin or even 2 triplets that do half of what she does because honestly, she’s all over the place and rocks at everything she does. Tesol France President, teacher, ELT writer, freelancer, overseeing the development of Education apps… she’s got many titles and make sure you’re meeting her at conferences, following her on twitter, and here’s her blog as well.

Debbie West will be taking over as Tesol France president this year, and is also a power freelancer in Paris.  Here’s her site, and while she’s not as present on social media, you’ll certainly bump into her at all the wonderful TESOL events for the years ahead!  Check out Debbie’s website here (love it).

Ros Wright, a past president of Tesol France certainly stays very active in the organization (hint, hint Bethany ), and is also a teacher and writer here in Paris.  Here she is live in an interview with Strasbourg coordinator, Jane Ryder during last year’s conference.

Also someone I’ve met through Tesol France, Eric Halverson, oversees ELT at the corporate office at SFR, a telecom provider here in France.  I enjoyed this interview with Eric for the BESIG blog, and make sure you’re linked up with Eric online as well here and on his blog.

Those are the folks I bump into most often, but it certainly doesn’t make up the whole team— kudos as well to James Beneson, Colleen Brown, Françoise Brown, John Cagnol, Vera Dickman, Federico Espinosa, Gillian Evans, Christine Mintcheva, Denny Packard, Sophie Pietrucci, Shehada Reardon, Christina Rebuffet-Broadus, and Laurence Whiteside here.  Oh… and if you are curious about working in France, I do have a couple of pointers in the article mentioned at the top, and here is a great jobs list with nearly daily offers for work in France (thanks to Denny Packard).

OTHER ROCKIN’ TEACHERs in France (that I know personally) and who are great people to add to your PLN: Divya Brochier, Phil Wade (in la Réunion), Elizabeth Anne, Mura Nava, Anna Cook, Amelie Silvert, Eric Schaftlein

Keep rockin’ mes chers professeurs d’anglais en France!

Kelly Slater hitting the waves at Hossegor (S. France). Photo courtesy of Martine

This past week I was chatting with Martine, a new English Addicts learner, and very quickly we found a common point: surfing!!!

What I thought was really cool was that she was studying with EA so that she could better understand live surfing competitions. I couldn’t resist sharing some of our conversation on the blog, so here’s Martine from near Paris on her recent adventures in English and surfing!!!

1) What is your main motivation for learning English?  Is it for travel, fun, professional reasons?

Learning English has always been important for me and I’m still willing to become fluent in understanding and speaking English … Probably not easy, but … In fact, I think I like very much English language.  I like the music of it, mainly when it’s spoken with a nice English accent …. Of course English is also THE useful language and I’ve used it when travelling, also when working for an American company near Paris. After leaving this job, I gave up learning and speaking English for years and I forgot almost all that I had learned

Now it happens that I’ve some free time these months and recently I came into a huge interest for surf contests of the ASP World Championship Tour … So, I need urgently to improve my understanding because I like to follow the contests in live and of course it’s in English (with more or less strong accents, fast speaking and technical terms). For me, it’s now more or less a matter of survival

2) How long have you been studying English, and have you found methods that have helped?  Likewise, have there been methods that have discouraged your learning?

I studied English at school, then by myself mainly reading and watching films with subtitles, and then with some intensive training course when working for the American company. The result of all this was not so good, probably because I was not at ease with oral practice. The most useful and nice was the intensive course. What has discouraged me most was never to feel able to cross the kind of barrrier that separates from a fluent use of the language.

3) How long have you been using English Addicts?

I’ve been using English Addicts for only one month… not much yet!

4) What’s your favorite thing about the application and maybe your favorite lesson so far?

I like EA very much because it is varied, offers different levels and accents. It is not boring.  So far my favourite lessons are “Teenagers hungry for “The Hunger Games” movie” and “The cable cars of San Francisco“.  The only thing I regret is that you can’t get the pronunciation through the in-app dictionary.

5) If you could go to any surfing contest which would you go to?

At the beginning of last October I went to the Quiksilver Pro France which was held in Hossegor. It is one of the two events of the ASP WCT held in Europe, the second one is in Portugal.  It was great.  I took the attached photo there during the first semi final: Kelly Slater versus Joel Parkinson who is at the first rank on the WCT by now.

It was 8:10 in the morning, Friday October 5th. It was rather cold, the light was still poor, the sky was of a soft pink. The sun was just spreading its first rays onto the foaming waves. It was a very special moment and a very strong feeling. It is Kelly Slater on the photo. He won the contest.

I’ll go again to Hossegor next year. I hope so. But I’d like to go to other contests … Teahupoo (French Polynesia), Trestles (Califonia) and Pipeline at Oahu (Hawaii) but all that is a little far, isn’t it  Good to dream !

6) Do you think you’d be able to communicate with people more easily in person than understanding them over the TV or radio?

I just don’t know if it would be easier for me to communicate with people in person than to  understand them on video. I suppose it could be if it was an informal conversation. But you know I’m always terribly stressed when practicing English in oral, so …

7) Have a favorite surfer… and favorite surf spot you’ve been to?

A favourite surfer … hum. Kelly Slater, probably, for a lot of reasons. And a favourite surf spot, Hossegor, indeed, as it is the only professional one I went to … and because it is a very nice place, lots of people surfing at any time, beautiful beaches and waves, nice town and places to eat near the sea, really a nice spot.

Thanks Martine for sharing with readers on the blog, and tip of the hat to you as we language teachers know that it’s not easy to move forward in a language and you’re doing a great job, with a totally tubular method, dude!

… and as a quick PS, I saw that there were 2 cool surfing lessons on English Addicts if any of your students would especially “dig” hanging loose at an EA surfing spot.

Cheers!

-Brad

So what do you think of our new mascot? …

While revamping the webpage a bit, we also took the time to get around to something that clients, especially universities have been asking for awhile— a catalogue that describes all of our products.

Again, our mascot rose to the occasion  Check it out here.

And a quick peek at one page describing 1 of our 9 applications

I must say, it is cool working with a team of tech/design-oriented folks that can whip off things like this without thinking twice… I gotta get back to studying my HTML and Photoshop

When I was teaching for a few years in a little lost corner of China (one of those small unknown towns of 5 million) I often longed to be surrounded by two or three teachers who really cared about professional development.   I had been teaching for 3 or 4 years already but was really ready to grow and wanted to exchange, but there just wasn’t much going on either there (or much that I could find online).  Funny to look back on those years and see how much has changed!

This brings me to one of the most exciting ELT events of the year in France: Tesol France!

Last year the event was an amazing PLN meetup and also a great “brainstorm” of new classroom ideas inspiring the posts “TesolFrance made me think thrice” and “Standing on our PLN’s shoulders“

Alll credits go to Matt Leddings for the talent, and somehow it impressed the Tesol France crew enough to askme to host the Open Mic show this year. Wahoo!

I must say I’m especially excited this year to meet f2f such wonderful folks with whom I’ve been sharing online for what seems like forever— Tyson Seburn, Jemma Gardner, Anna Varna, Eduardo Santos, Leo Selivan (the birthday boy himself) and I’m sure a few others that I don’t see on the speaker schedule.

Like every year the speaker schedule is so stacked that one has to often choose between such folks as Leo, Jemma and Divya Brochier… or Elizabeth Anne, Igor Gavillan, Christina Rebuffet-Broadus and Evridiki Dakos… really we can only be at one place at one time?

Very excited to see Chia‘s Plenary as well as catch Anna Musielak in action (her session last year was the most fun I’ve had in awhile at a talk), and Chuck Sandy and Luke Meddings (Stepping back and how to be yourself in class).  I’ll certainly do a wrap-up of my impressions like last year and if you’re at the event, please do check in with me and introduce yourself if we haven’t met yet.

IMPORTANT MENTION:  This is the last Tesol France with with Bethany Cangol as president— and anyone that’s been around Bethany knows that she’s an amazing person but also a powerful and motivated organizer.   Will be sorry to see her go, but a special thanks to her and her board for all the great work they’ve done developing the organization over the past few years.  Simply brilliant!

See some of you next week!!!   EXCITING

Tesol Greece has just launched a blog, and started off the interaction with a challenge:

” During an economic crisis, resources (books, budgets, infrastructure) are limited but high standards and qualifications are required so that learners can survive on the job market. Can the use of technology help learners and teachers overcome this problem? If so, how?”

My answer, without any doubt, is YES, especially if the concerns are budgetary.

Technology in and of itself is a tool, and the current tool of the Internet is providing opportunities that very few language-learning tools have ever been able to offer before.  A nice example of this is in Nik Peachey’s recent post on Two Contrasting Views of Educational Technology where he writes:

“The role of the computer [has evolved] from being a storage place for predefined information… into a conduit by which knowledge is shared and constructed through the interaction between people.”

Today’s technology is a new conduit unlike we’ve had before and yet the value of this conduit remains in what moves through that conduit, more than the conduit itself (bad water in a the world’s most expensive pipes is still bad water).  Quality learning materials, and effective teachers are equally important parts of the equation without which any “new technology” or delivery method will fail.

This new conduit is all the same revolutionary

Not only in the way it’s morphed into a greater and greater communication tool, but the Internet in and of itself has actually made distribution of materials more affordable for learning institutions.

But… isn’t that obvious?…  actually, it might not be to the learner or teacher who haven’t followed the evolution of internet technologies and server costs.

I’ve written about this before on the blog here and I think the quote that hits it perfectly comes from a TechCrunch article that I mentioned in my blog post “Death to Gatekeepers“.

“[The internet] is just bits shipped to devices and $1,000 made in 1,000 ninety-nine cent increments is the same as $1,000 made in one-hundred $10 increments.”

The costs are in producing content and delivering it (marketing and server costs), and whether a publisher sells to thousands or millions does little to change their overhead (unless they have outrageous marketing costs, which many do… and drive up our prices).

With this thought in mind, my team at Edulang is very excited to be in the position we’re in and very pleased to be able to offer our 9 stellar ELT applications to those who might not be able to afford them at “current industry prices” with our pay what you want model.  Technology and conscientious business models have great potential to help where limited budgets are an issue and we’re proud to be a positive force in changing our industry!!!

What’s the best way to learn English?…

“… To see and hear people using it in practice, to understand it… And to use it yourself!”

This is the catch phrase for our new application, Citizen of the World.

Developed by professors at the University of Wolverhampton this application is slightly different from other Edulang resources as Citizen of the World uses a video approach, pinpointing specific vocabulary needs for a wide range of situations.  All the same, it’s still based on the same pedagogical roots of 1) pre-language exposure, 2) focus while listening/viewing 3) confirming understanding, and then 4) reproduction of new knowledge.

Here’s a peak at exercises from one of the four units of Citizen of the world: Getting Things Done.

Other units address People and Places, Getting around and Modern Living. There are 20 or so activities (40 counting the 2 different levels) within each, an activity is based around a short video with 5 exercises to explore.

Tempted and want to test out Citizen of the World?

Like all Edulang resources, this new application is Pay What You Want. If you’re a teacher, though, we’re happy to offer you a free version of all of our products, and all it takes is a quick registration here and we’ll get you set up!

NOW, the second new application just out this week is none other than…

English for Business also has a video learning format much like Citizen of the World. With 6 units to explore, a business learner will certainly have plenty to discover among… An Introduction to a British Company, Managing Quality, Negotiating, Organising Change, International Marketing and International Sales.

Here is a preview of some of the lessons for Organising Change:

And here you can see how a single lesson (among the many to choose in each unit) is  broken down into 5 different exercises. The exercises themselves vary quite a bit, but this 5-step structure is consistent throughout.

Again, if you’re a teacher, we’d be happy to set you up with a free trial to either of the two applications mentioned today… and really ALL of the ones you see below.

So just shoot on over to our Find A Teacher page, sign up and receive your free applications!!!

Via Wikimedia Commons courtesy of NobbiP

Every Saturday I go to the local market and I know very well why I go…

1) The produce is better and a cook like me knows how important that is.

2) The folks that sell it depend on their direct clients and there’s a more colorful relationship than with the supermarket around the corner.

Also, one my favorite thing about these local markets relationship is the “freebies“, or the age-old offer of a taste of watermelon, ya know that “try these new strawberries I got in”, or the, “well you’ve bought so much fish, I’m going to throw in an extra lemon“.

Is it the same at your market?  ;-)

My team at Edulang and I have decided to do the same, well, at least for our VIP clients and one of them might very well be you, the current reader of this blog!!!  For any teacher that’s interested in having free access to one of our applications, please write me here, and I’ll be happy to set you up so you can see if it’s a good fit for your students.

Oh, and the good news is that if you decide to incorporate any of Edulang’s applications or recommend them to your students, they are pay-what-you-want with half of the proceeds donated to charity… don’t you wish it was like that at your local market!

7 ESL web applications for you to choose from!!!

1) English Addicts

How is your students’ English comprehension?  What do you think is most important to improve it?

Do you think they could easily understand someone from Britain, the US, Ireland, South Africa… how about a German, French or Russian… what about someone from North Africa or the Arabian Peninsula, Japan, India or China?

That is barely scratching at the surface of the diversity of accents in the daily authentic English news stories in English Addicts, each with 10 unique activities to engage learners with topics ranging from Business, to Entertainment, Environment, Health, Technology and political issues.  The emphasis is on listening and each activity advances in a pedagogically solid way.

Also, We’ve carefully designed English Addicts so both teachers and students can track their daily progress while exploring the 1600 lessons available. Plus, each lesson has a discussion/speaking tasks PDF for teachers to practice any of the topics/vocabulary addressed.

2) Test Simulator TOEIC® and TOEFL®

Your students want a better score on their standardized tests so they can get a better job, or go to school abroad.  OF COURSE, you want to help them, but that doesn’t mean you need to sit their and score their sample tests for them, OR you might even wonder if  taking tests in class is a good use of your and their precious preparation time.

Keep preparing your students in ways a computer never could, and then let them practice a few test simulations with our apps which will also help them discover important hints, get used to the test structure and typical questions, and all the while track their progress (and you can track it too).

3) ECE

The Edulang Certificate of English is a great and affordable way to test your students, be they at their home, in the classroom, or really anywhere!   This 100% online test can provide a TOEIC® equivalent score and Edulang is happy to produce authenticated certificates with each student’s photo and score.

It might be the perfect solution to pre and post-test students after an intensive course or to simply provide them with an accurate assessment of their English at anytime along their path.

4) Gramster 1 and 2

Do you enjoy teaching Grammar?  Some of us teachers do, some of us don’t, but we all know that “telling students the rules” once is far from enough, and maybe supplementing some of your lessons with our two Grammar apps might just be the way to help engrain the rules through a number of interactive exercises.  You could use them in class or for homework.  Give Gramster a try and see what you think!

5) Vocabster

Daily vitamins, or daily vocabulary?  Depends on what you’re taking care of, and if acquiring a higher level of English is your students’ goal, you can check out if Vocabster is a right fit for their needs.

I can’t wait to hear which of the applications is your cup of tea. Again feel free to shoot me an email for more info, or likewise, any teacher who enrolls on our find-a-teacher page gets free access to all applications immediately.

Cheers, Brad

Picture of the day on Wikimedia Commons courtesy of Cayambe

Fun question and I can’t wait to hear from the PLN… but first, let’s qualify this question:

A classroom typically used to have four walls and 10,  20, or even 400 students.  Nowadays, it can be anywhere and even a joining of many anywheres— your office, your online students’ living rooms or a cybercafé just as much as it can be a traditional classroom or a private school’s one-on-one meeting space.

Likewise, when I say something new, I’m not necessarily referring to an object, but it could be that; or, it could be a new type of approach, or a new environment, or a new online program your using.  Yes, diversity in teaching situations is the name of the game this century

So, what’s new for you?

I’m always interested to see how the impact of restricting people’s options or leaving them many possibilities affects how they interpret your environment/service/person, and, of course, affects their actions.

Along those lines, this new change in Edublogs external links makes me wonder what impact it will have— will it increase the number of people using/signing up for their platform (as I’m guessing is their intention) or will it create that “not one of them” feeling that dissuades you from coming back (as you’re not welcome to link to anything but Edublogs)?

What do you think?

Ruth Bryan Owen taking the oath via Wiki Commons

Physicians have an oath, as do lawyers and politicians.  Many organizations have mottos. What about teachers?  And really, what about you?

What words or beliefs bound you to your students and to your work?

At Edulang, I have the pleasure of meeting teachers from all around the world and many of them seem like truly wonderful people and must be such a pleasure to have as a teacher in the classroom or online.

I always wonder if folks have a certain philosophy, promise, a set of words that they hold to, that help guide them…

Feel like sharing yours?

Pretty proud of my organization’s too!

GO ON!  Be the first to comment… i dare ya

Courtesy of IconShock via Wikipedia Commons

Well… do they?

And… well… is really that important?

And if they are, where are you getting those ‘diverse’ materials?

For what it’s worth, the data shows that it might just be important; David Graddol’s report English Next states that 75% of interactions in English take place between non-native speakers.

It always make me think of the problem of students understanding the teacher VERY WELL after a few months, but then falling behind a bit with international exchanges with speakers of different accents as described in the paragraph below.

Courtesy of Business Solutions via CC 3.0

If you’re lacking in a bit of diversity, you could consider using the application my team’s developed— English Addicts — with its 1600 rich lessons where each can be searched by these 12 regional accents.  Kinda cool!

Would love to hear what you think… and for students keen on Hunger Games… that’s the current free lesson.  Check it out!

Have you ever played with that Mattel fortune-telling ball called the 8-ball®?

Ya know— Ask a question, any question…. then shake it… and then magically it will randomly give you 1 of 20 answers that will amuse most children or even teens all day long.

EX:  ”Will I be teaching Oral English again this semester?”… shake, shake… “Outlook good!”

Ever thought of bringing it into the classroom?  I did and I promise you that any activity working with questions will immediately become more entertaining  (oh and if you can’t find a real 8-ball… there’s an app for that!… and a website! )

BUT WHY is it so entertaining?

Humans LOVE the future, just as much as they love trying to predict it (a word whose etymology of course means “before say”).   Both fear and excitement are extremely powerful emotions very closely linked that which might possibly come.  So whaddya we do— we predict so we can prepare which helps us feel psychologically ready for what might come.

I was thinking about this as one of the teachers using Edulang’s Test Simulator said that it was not only a great way to prepare, but also a great way to predict what his students would score when they took the TOEFL® test:

 

“My favourite feature of the Edulang TOEFL product is that it is at the same level of difficulty as the real iBT TOEFL test by ETS.  When I mark my students with their online system, both the student and I have a good idea of what the score will be when they take the real test. That way, test day holds no surprises for either of us.”  Jeff at L2Accent

One of the best things about designing a tool like Test Simulator is when folks say such nice things about your work.  Here’s a tip of the hat to my team at Edulang as I hear something nice almost every week, and it’s a pleasure to be the one who hears all the compliments! My recent favs:

“Test Simulator was really helpful for me. I took 2 of the practice exams the day before my TOEIC® test and got a 925 on the real one!!!  I’ve told many of my friends because 1) it was inexpensive 2) very useful. THANKS!”

-Germain (United States)

“We got our TOEIC® results back, and the average increase was 27% from last year!  I’m convinced that having Test Simulator made a big big difference for them (and for me).” -Shaune, English teacher (Italy) 

“I found your website when I googled mock exams for the TOEIC® test.  Your three exams have been very useful to me.  Thanks!”  Sergio (Venezuela)

Here’s my current prediction for the future… 1) I’ll keep getting nice compliments on our apps (even if I’m not the one who deserves them!)  2) if you’re a teacher helping students prepare for the TOEIC® or TOEFL® tests, Test Simulator will help them predict and improve their score, so feel free to check it out here!

Some say that the largest English language school in the world is the one made up of independent teachers like the 7 below.  I thought I’d ask them a very simple question so that we can learn from their experience and shake up a discussion on best practices in online teaching. Here are their 100 words on:

George Machlan of St. George’s Academy of Dragon Slaying and Spoken English

“I doubt that I would have listened but here is what I wish someone would have told me:

Do not reinvent the wheel, particularly when wheels are free or nearly free on the internet.  I spent countless hours developing my own materials and researching the myriad of online teaching tools.  Some of you are natural course and material writers, so this is not for you.  Most of you are like me, uniquely gifted in helping others to learn.  For some crazy reason we think we must create original materials and lesson plans.  What a sad misuse of our time and talents.  I am an edutainer and master fun-a-holic. I now use materials created by experts (e.g. Edulang) but quickly adjust the materials to fit my style and a student’s interests.  When I fully realized how special my abilities were, I quit trying to do everything else.  I tell folks that I am like a fighter pilot, I need not learn how to build a jet or the technical aspects of aeronautics,  I fly and leave the building to others.”  George’s site and twitter.

Michael DiGiacomo from Happy English

“Since I only teach one-to-one lessons, teaching online is pretty much the same as teaching while sitting across the table from a student. However, there are a few things I wish I had known before I started doing it. In particular, there is no whiteboard in cyberspace. It took almost six months of using Skype before I realized it had a function where I could share my desktop, thus turning my MS word document into a cyber-whiteboard. The other thing is about bandwidth. Unless both teacher and student have a decent internet connection, the possibility of a poor connection can ruin the lesson, and this situation can happen with both free software, like Skype, and pay applications like Web-Ex.” Michael’s site and twitter.

Sylvia Guinan of Brain-Friendly ELT : 

“In practical terms, I wish I had known how easy it is to start out on skype; The  importance of having your own website; The importance of letting tools & media work for you,  not the other way around and that building up a reputation will ensure a steady stream of students from diverse sources. In educational terms: the establishment is dead –   build your brand beyond the walls… the power of indulging in right-brain delinquency.  How social media, philanthropy & sharing can impact global learning.”  In inspirational terms: the importance of letting your talents shape your teaching brand.  Allowing content creation & curation to reflect your inner teaching values.  The importance of cultivating a powerful PLN & making a difference in education.” Sylvia’s blog and her twitter.

Angela Boothroyd of Study Online

“Build a strong online presence and showcase and establish your reputation as an expert via a blog and other social media sites. A static website isn’t enough.  Teaching online is a business and not simply a vocation – start building an email list as soon as you start teaching. There are only so many hours a day you can teach – identify your passions and areas of expertise and turn them into teaching products to sell.  There will always be a multitude of wonderful new tools and resources to learn about and experiment with– don’t try and master them all!”  Angela’s site, and twitter.

Jessica Volbrecht from SkypEnglish4U 

“When I started teaching online, I created a website, facebook and twitter.  I have a lot of contacts worldwide and thought that would be enough to get the word out about my lessons… it wasn’t.  A friend told me about online language communities and I think it is a good idea to start out with a third party site that promotes you as a teacher.  Do your research and find one that fits your style the best.  Some take a cut of your earnings and others give you materials and have guidelines for your sessions.” Jessica’s site and twitter.

Al Slagle of AlSensei

“I wish someone would have shared with me how to engage with students better online. At first, I was just “blasting” content out to students without creating more of a discussion.

When I wasn’t getting many replies on Twitter, comments on my blog, or “likes” on Facebook, I realized that I must be doing something wrong. I gradually learned to involve students more and encouraged them to participate by asking for their opinions and other questions. Now I aim to go for engagement right off the bat, and as much as possible.”  Al’s site and twitter.

Anna Letitia Cook from English Angels shared a different point of view and I think it wraps the post us PERFECTLY:

“My experience of online teaching has been very positive – I love it!  The human relationships developed are particularly rewarding.  Not only do you have the great pleasure of being able to work with clients from all over the world, but you have the opportunity to experience the different mentalities and cultures of each country.

I notice a difference between webcam  and voice only sessions, webcam being closer to face-to-face whereas voice-only creates a very intuitive and emotional level of understanding and support. You can hear, in an instant, whether your student understands, whether they feel confident, even whether or not they are having a good or bad day in general.  For me, online seems to develop a closer, warmer and more trusting relationship.”  Anna’s site and twitter.

AND YOU, the other Online teachers of the World, what are your online teaching tips?

HONORED GUEST TODAY:  Sylvia Guinan sharing her experience with our apps!

I have had a very interesting time in the last few months plotting new online courses that exemplify my brain-friendly approach to teaching. One such adventure was my journey with English Addicts, the exciting portal that has excellent news lessons for learners, combined with a philanthropic scope that immediately attracted me to the concept from day one.

What’s English Addicts?

If you are not familiar with English addicts yet, you may find it useful to read my first article on the subject which gave my initial impressions and predictions.

Skype

I first started using English Addicts for my one-to-one private lessons on skype. The obvious attributes of English Addicts as a news source quickly became evident to students who found the learning experience to be truly liberating, as it put learning into their own hands in a fascinating real world context.

These attributes, which I described in my first article, I will summarise here:

1) Excellent quality ELT journalism

2) Expertly pitched articles for three levels: easy, average and difficult.

3) Educational integrity evident in the sensitive, yet frank coverage of global issues that real world journalists often fail to achieve.

4) Promoting autonomous learning and learner empowerment.

5) A perfect structure laid out for those of us who want to flip our classrooms and have students prepare lessons before coming to class for consolidation.

6) Encouraging greater rapport and engagment in class.

7) Time-saving for busy teachers who feel safe in the knowledge that English Addicts delivers a rich variety of language learning opportunites.

8 Focus on reading, listening, vocabulary and speaking.

9) Encouraging web-questing opportunities that not only increase higher-level thinking skills, but also teach students how to sift mindfully through the internet for quality content rather than get distracted by cyber-noise and poor quality websites.

10) A philanthropic model that can bring English to the third world and those deprived of a proper education.

Where ideas come from

My only qualms when Brad Patterson asked me to share my teaching experiences with English Addicts was that I would struggle to concisely express the potential of this initiative for making a difference in education. The ten points above are but the tip of the iceberg for me, as I continue to be inspired by new teaching ideas and contexts in which to use it.

Advanced English Online Course

My next step was to incorporate English Addicts into my advanced level brain-friendly online course. I decided to use asynchronous news lessons to supplement my live online sessions of general English.

Rich news sources combined with live classes on related topics make up the foundation of my course to be launched August first.  A preview is now live here and a number of students have already enrolled.

Film & News Course

Finally I have set up my Film & News Course soon to be launched on WiZiQ, the platform where I teach groups online.  In this course the students study certain topics asynchronously, while I find film clips that match the news item of the unit to be explored.

Students come into the live film session, armed with vocabulary and subject knowledge of the issue at hand. We have lessons that exploit the combined media in creative, productive ways that enable students to feel comfortable speaking about global topics in English.

Should any students wish to take exams after the course, we have the Edulang Certificate Of English or more traditional exams that require deep knowledge of vocabulary, global issues, and fluent confidence.

Further plans & possibilities

I intend to include project work as part of the course, as I want students to choose their own topics so as to explore, do research, embark on web quests to become citizen journalists of the world. As a follow-up students would present their projects online. Excellent training for the world of business, work and academia in English.

I do a lot of work with interactive posters for music lessons,stories, poetry; the visual arts. I believe that more exciting news projects could revolove around students creating their own news, multi-media posters, or videos.  I also see potential for using English Addicts beyond ELT, but I’ll save that for a future article (or two)!

————————————————————————————————————————————————–

Sylvia Guinan has been teaching ESL/English for fifteen years in primary, secondary schools, language, and literacy institutes and has recently moved a majority of her teaching online.  She’s originally from Ireland, though now lives on a beautiful Greek island with her husband and four children. Feel free to check out her blog here or follow her on twitter here.

Imagine a company with thousands of employees and hundreds of millions of dollars at its disposal, and yet, instead of creating new publications, they plagiarize the work of a small publishing company from Western France with whom they already have a commercial partnership.

It’s hard to believe, and I must admit I was shocked to learn of the controversy brewing between Edulang and ETS Global, a branch of ETS. A first article portraying the incident came out saturday in Le Télégramme and it announced a “war” in the making.

In 2006, before choosing to develop 100% English materials, Edulang published Objectif TFI, a guide to prepare learners for a standardized French test.  A few years later (2009), we were very excited to sign a first contract with ETS Global for the distribution of our TOEIC® test preparation Test Simulator.  At that time, there were also discussions of ETS Global buying the rights to Objectif TFI, and yet an agreement could not be made, and instead they decided to develop their own work.

In 2010 ETS Canada released Guide de Préparation Test de Français International with no less than 26 passages that copy word-for-word or very closely Edulang’s own work.  I’ve provided just a selection of examples of the plagiarism in French below.  Moreover, after our own author’s review of their publication, we’ve noted that their version contains numerous passages of non-standard French, misspellings and grammatical errors.

Honestly, I don’t know what will happen next, but I can tell you it will probably be quite an interesting ride as it’s a showdown between a Goliath wishing to pay nothing to produce learning tools while charging students heavily, and a David that invests significantly creating its pedagogical tools all the while allowing its learners to pay what they want.

Stay tuned for more!

___________________________________________________________________________

A small selection of examples of said plagiarism:

P.105 EDULANG Corrigé : (A) dont remplace un complément introduit par la préposition «  de » (avoir besoin de quelque chose)

P.123 ETS Corrigé : (A) dont remplace un complément introduit par la préposition de (avoir besoin de quelque chose)

___________________________________________________________________________

P.31 EDULANG (47)

(A)   Si

(B)   Comme

(C)   Au cas où

(D)   Quand

P.25 ETS (67)

(A) Comme

(B)  Au cas où

(C)  Si

(D) Quand

___________________________________________________________________________

P.105 EDULANG Corrigé : (B) du : le verbe “joue” peut être suivi de prépositions différentes selon le sens (par exemple : jouer du violon = se servir de cet instrument de musique, mais …).

P.123 ETS Corrigé : L’erreur est (A) : du : le verbe jouer peut être suivi de prépositions différentes selon le sens (par exemple jouer du piano pour se servir de cet instrument de musique, mais …).

___________________________________________________________________________

P.71 EDULANG ( 119) : Il a fait de nombreuses …………………..pour essayer de vous joindre.

(A)  tensions

(B)  tentures

(C)  tentations

(D)  tentatives

P.107 Corrigé : (D) «  Tentatives » vient du verbe « tenter » (= essayer) ; ne pas confondre avec les mots de forme assez voisines… (C) vient du verbe «  être tenté » et indique une envie à laquelle il est difficile de résister.

P.76 ETS (118) : Je n’ai réussi à le joindre qu’après plusieurs ……………………

(A)  tentations

(B)  tentacules

(C)  tentatives

(D)  tendances

P.125 Corrigé : La bonne réponse est (C): tentatives vient du verbe tenter « essayer ». Ne pas confondre avec les mots de formes voisines . (A) n’est pas une bonne réponse : tentation vient du verbe tenter (être tenté) et indique une envie à laquelle il est difficile de résister.

Did you know that every 48 hours we produce as much content as the entire human race did from the birth of history to 2003?

Yep.  5 extabytes to be precise.  Last year, Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Google blew us all away with this fact, saying that people weren’t “ready” for the technological revolution ahead, and that the pace was only going to increase.  Scare tactics?

Things are moving fast these days, and there’s just SO MUCH out there!  So, the big question is “how do we find quality“?

With that I mind I’ve been wondering how ESL online students are facing the similar challenge of an overload of options to learn English (some great, some mediocre, and some a huge waste of time)?

I would guess that learners are facing the challenge the same way as teachers, and the big buzz word that points towards the answer is CURATION (and these days that often means social sharing/word-of-mouth too).  Likewise, that’s Edulang’s answer to helping students learn more effectively— beyond developing our own materials— as we are now helping students using our applications find teachers or language trainers that we know and approve of.

Here are our first 5 VIP teachers on the list, and if you’d like to join them, please send me an email (brad at edulang.com) telling me a bit more about how/what you’re teaching and I’ll let you know what we need to bring you on board.

EXCITING times!!!!  and thanks Shaune, Anna, Phil, Anne and Eric!

Brad

Image courtesy of Jamie Zawinski via Wikipedia Commons

Before going any further, I want to draw the line of hacking legality very clearly… Unfortunately, specifically to the issue below, it’s grey and there hasn’t been a legal precedent, just speculation (more here) and I think it’s important that we push such soft boundaries as internet citizens so that they don’t close in on us too fast.  My two cents.

WHAT IS A VPN?

While living in China, if I wanted access to Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Linkedin, ANY blog or other such ‘borderline’ sites, I had to use a VPN or Virtual Private Network (services which allow you to browse privately and designating any location as your current coordinates).

Here are my recommendations for mac and windows respectively (12VPN and Witopia).

USING A VPN TO WATCH GEO-BLOCKED MOVIES AND SERIES

“Why would I need to do this?” might be the first question… because it’s unavailable.

For example, Netflix is an amazing service that is geo-blocked in many areas (ie France), just as are many youtube videos, Hulu and other great sites.  Quite a shame, don’t you think that in the flat internationalized world of today, we are split into ‘markets’, when things could be so much more open… a desegregation might even discourage illegal sharing of content!

So, say your students install a VPN, then buy a Netflix license from the UK at 5 pounds a month.  While accessing the site, they go through a London VPN portal and immediately have unlimited access to a myriad of series and movies.

As we know from great posts such as Chia’s on “Learning English through TV Series“ or Chiew’s latest interview with Kieran Donaghy where they talk about learning through watching movies, this immersion into authentic English is so important, and  the nice thing about Netflix is that it allows students to have subtitles for most videos, as well as short summaries of each episode as well.

As a learner who swears by immersion and only immersion, I think Chia’s quote in her post above is dead on:  ”After some time, the brain starts to associate the way things are pronounced and the individual words that actually make up the utterance.”  Along the lines of Krashen’s research it needs to be comprehensible input, but that can come pretty quickly when all those neurons are turned on as a learner is paying 100% attention to the latest series that has snagged them.

So… are you going to show your students how to ‘hack’ their way into Netflix?

One of the beautiful things about being in web development these days is the collaboration between users and developers.  At Edulang, I get to be the go-to-guy when teachers or students have ideas for how we could add new features or take our materials in new directions.

Since we launched the Edulang Certificate of English, our 100% online English assessment, a number of teachers and schools have asked for a few tweaks and I’m happy to announce that we’ve put them in place within our very unique “pay what you want” offer.

1) Some European institutions are more interested in a CEFR equivalent for their assessment results so we’ve made that possible.

2) Likewise, professional trainers have requested that we make the webcam security requirement of the test optional as they might not have a webcam at their offices, and they would prefer to monitor test-takers themselves and deactivate this requirement.

This last point of course, thus requires the establishment to assume responsibility for the security of the examination, and this no-webcam option is something Edulang will only disable on a case-by-case basis, but if it’s something that’s important to your organization, please let us know!

For more information on the E.C.E please take a look here or feel free to shoot me an email. I hope these changes are fruitful for your specific situations and would love to hear about how you are or will use the E.C.E at your institution.

Cheers, Brad

It’s that time of year when we reflect on our classes and wonder how we can become a better teacher and yet at the same time, maybe we should also ask ourselves how we can become a happier teacher. So, without further ado: 7 things you can do to become a happier teacher and please add YOURS in the comments below.

(Credit where credit is due—“The 15 things you should give up in order to be happy” on Purpose Fairy by Dana was shared over 1,125,000 times, so I’d say it’s worth checking out)

1) Let go of the need to always be right (#1 on Dana’s list too)

There’s an amazing power when you let go of this (and it has happened to us all… not feeling good enough because we don’t immediately know the answer to a student’s question).  Plus there’s a great power in having students seek out the answers when you don’t know.  Either way, giving yourself this space is so important (imho).

2) Let go of  control every now and again ( ❤ this etymology and #2 on Dana’s list)

Give your students full responsibility over a certain period of class every day, week or month.  Let go and observe.  You probably already do it, and I often think I can do it even more.  And if you tend to bump heads often with admin, maybe choose your battles a bit more and just ‘let it be’ when you feel you can.

3) Let go of hurrying in and out of class

Courtesy of Lee R Berger via Wikipedia Commons

Take a minute (whenever possible), before and after class to write down what you’re excited about, what felt good about class, or leave that minute of 5 or 10 to talk to students in a more relaxed manner.  Likewise, I’ll never forget the calm I felt while living in China where for 3 years I made it a habit to take just a few minutes and sit in class and smile before ‘rushing’ off to wherever it was next.

4. Let go of your teacher island existence.

Courtesy of Fanny Schertzer via Wikipedia Commons

Connect with other professionals in your local context, online, at conferences.  Share your challenges and successes.  I think this should almost be number one because I know how much it’s brought me in the past year since I’ve really engaged in my professional development mostly through exchange with other teachers.

5) Let go of the expectation that each lesson is going to be excellent.

How often are we really excited for a new class we’ve planned, and then we watch it come back and explode in our faces because of a detail we could’ve explained better or because that group of students just wasn’t into it that day, or… We learn so much through experimentation and if our students are lucky enough to have teachers that care and want to innovate, then we can take it a bit easier on ourselves when it things don’t ‘go right’.  Easier said than done, but so true.

6) Let go of your need to be approved.

Connect with students, but keep a professional distance.  Allowing a healthy emotional connection is fine, but you are their teacher first, not their friend. (i’ve learned this the hard way)

7) Lastly, REMEMBER that etymologies speak so much truth

Did you know that happy meant lucky in English until the 14th century?  And so it was for many European languages from Greek to Irish (more here).

I think from a historical perspective this makes sense considering that things “happened” to the average citizen 500 years ago (from a fatalistic point-of-view), more so than today when we are lucky enough to have a bit more choice and freedom.   Indeed, we are lucky to be in the profession we’re in, and also we should remember that most of our happiness is our reaction to what happens to us (yes, that’s kind of an etymological pun).

So… what would you add to the list? I’d love to get to 15 with your help

Cheers, Brad

QUICK QUIZ:  What is the most widely spoken mother tongue in Europe?

The answer and other interesting facts are below thanks to the European Union’s Language Barometer report just released here.  Also just released and of equal interest is the European Survey on Language Competences rating 16 EU countries in L2, L3 levels of competence in high school.

QUICK QUIZ 2: which European country performed best in L2 of English?

(feel free to guess in the comments)

and tip of the hat to Kate Bell who let me know about these reports!

15 fascinating stats!!!

1) In accordance with the EU population, the  most widely spoken mother tongue is German (16%), followed by Italian and English (13% each), French(12%), then Spanish and Polish (8% each).

2) Just  over half of Europeans (54%) are  able to hold a conversation in at least one additional language, a quarter (25%) are able to speak at least two additional languages and one in ten (10%) are conversant in at least three.

3) 88%  of Europeans think that  knowing languages other than their mother tongue is very useful.

4) Two thirds of Europeans (67%) consider English as one of the two most useful languages for themselves.

5) Languages perceived as the most useful that come up right after are the following: German (17%), French (16%), Spanish (14%) and Chinese (6%).

6) 98%  of Europeans consider mastering other foreign languages  as useful for the future of their children.

7) There has been a decrease in the proportion thinking that French is important (-9 percentage points), and in those thinking German is an important language for personal development (-5 points). Europeans are more likely now than they were in 2005 to think that Chinese is an important language (+ 4 points).

Countries where respondents are least likely to be able to speak any foreign language are  Hungary (65%),  Italy (62%), the  UK and  Portugal (61% in each), and Ireland (60%).

9) The  five most widely spoken  foreign languages remain  English (38%), French (12%), German (11%), Spanish (7%) and Russian (5%).

10) Just over two fifths (44%) of Europeans say that they are able to understand at least one foreign language well enough to be able to follow the news on radio or television. English is the most widely understood, with a quarter (25%) of Europeans able to follow radio or television news in the language. French and German are mentioned by 7% of respondents each, while Spanish(5%), Russian (3%) and Italian (2%).

11) 54% of Europeans able to speak foreign languages are likely to use them only occasionally (69%). A quarter (25%) use them every day or almost every day.

12) The most notable changes since 2005 are an  increase in the proportion of Europeans who regularly use  foreign languages on the internet (+10 percentage points) and  when watching films/television  or listening to the radio (+8 points). The proportion of Europeans who do not use a foreign language regularly in any situation has fallen from 13% in 2005 to 9% in 2012.

13) The majority of Europeans do not describe themselves as active learners of languages. Around a quarter (23%) of Europeans have never learnt a language, while just over two fifths (44%) have not learnt a language recently and do not intend to start.

14) The most widely mentioned barrier to learning another language is lack of motivation, with a third (34%) of Europeans saying this discourages them. Around a quarter of Europeans cite lack of time to study properly (28%) and that it is too expensive (25%). A fifth (19%) of Europeans say that not being good at languages discourages them.

15) The most widespread method used to learn a foreign language is through lessons at school. Just over two thirds of Europeans (68%) have learnt a foreign language in this way. Much smaller proportions of Europeans have learnt a foreign language by talking informally to a native speaker (16%), with a teacher outside school in  group language lessons (15%), and by going on frequent or long trips to the country in which the language is spoken (15%). Europeans are most likely to think that school language lessons are the most effective way they have learnt a foreign language.

Interesting to note how important motivation is a challenge for learners.  This is among the key reasons why all of us at Edulang have always imagined our products as tools for teachers to use with students, more so than raw tools for students, though we do have some very motivated individual learners on board, so there all always exceptions that prove the rule!

QUICK QUIZ 3:  Which finding most most surprised you?

Being the social media manager for Edulang means I have the distinct privelege to be in contact with hundreds of other teachers around the world, which is amazing!

I also get to keep tabs more directly on many of them as they are using Edulang’s resources in their diverse contexts.  As their teaching situations vary extensively,  I wanted to share specifically how English Addicts is being put to use as there are quite a few options with the 10 daily activities, in addition to the discussion/speaking/group tasks.

One-on-one business teachers

“I use English Addicts with a CEO client in every lesson we have giving him a choice of which lesson he’d like for the next class and he chooses whatever he wants. He doesn’t have time to do all the exercises so he just listens to the podcasts in his car or ‘second office’ as he calls it. We then discuss the topic and I explain some of the vocab.”  -Phil

“My new learners are always blown away when I give them the demo lesson and are really enthusiastic to start using it to learn.  Some really take off with it, and others need a bit of follow-through, which is actually pretty easy to stay on top of thanks to the student-tracking tools.  Also, one of the first things I share with them is the “search tool” allowing them to find lessons that actually engage them personally, and from there if they don’t have time to do all ten lessons, maybe they do a few, or just listen to the audio in their car, or sometimes I even use the lessons in a traditional way in the classroom.  Listen, tasks, discussion etc.” -Eric

Online teachers

“I’ve been using English Addicts with students on skype for a while & am now ready to launch a full WizIQ course called Film & News in English featuring English Addicts.  This course wil be for large groups of students all over the world and will be asynchronous- meaning that they will study the materials independently, and then attend the lesson for consolidation, speaking, film clips based on the news articles, and a myriad of creative activities that can stem from that in a multi-media virtual classroom.” -Sylvia

“I teach English online and use English Addicts with my students. We enjoy working through the topics together, and the lessons always generate interesting discussion.  If we don’t finish the lesson material by the end of our class, students can carry on with the online exercises in their own time. I really like the fact the topics are so current too.” -Anne

University teachers

The school where I taught this semester in Paris (IUT de Sceaux) offered English Addicts to its students in language labs, and followed the same kind of approach as this professor from a Telecom university.

“Our students find English Addicts a nice change from the routine of the regular classroom.  They [are exposed] to a wide array of accents and variants of English, which helps overcome the fact that they only have one English teacher, with one accent and dialect. On the days we use the multimedia rooms, students arrive in class and begin working at their own pace through a lesson. If they finish ahead of time, they can work on other lessons, which is good, because it allows them to choose lessons on topics that interest them” -Aimée

We also have quite a few universities using English Addicts within their Edmodo set-up, allowing thousands of students access to our lessons.

Private language schools

Ker Maria, a private school running intensive English courses uses English addicts in a warmer session, language lab, and finally in a group session.

“For us, it has reduced our preparation time and given the students a more complete range of high quality, in-depth individualised exercises. It gives plenty of scope for information transfer and discussion as well as being a springboard to work on grammar. The constant renewal of materials linked to current affairs and the different accents and levels are extremely useful for people in business working with different cultures.” -Suzanne

In the same vein, I think this review by a TESOL PhD researcher is point-on and follows the last quote very well: “One of the major goals of English Addicts is to make you understand the people you speak with, regardless of their accents… This is a real strength of English Addicts. -Jia TESL-EJ

Telephone lessons

One teacher has used it in groups, with individuals, in class, out of class, higher levels, and lower levels, but also for 30-minute telephone lessons: “I benefit because it requires no preparation, barring a quick scan of the lesson she choses, and fills a third of the lesson very efficiently. It also really helps to cut down the dreaded teacher talking time!” -Philip

Have you used English Addicts in a different way than mentioned above?

You know I’d love to hear how, so please do share in the comments!

- Cheers, Brad

"Obbo" is a word in Mongolian which means "piles or stones" indicating a path, place of gathering, or memory

Today’s guest on the blog is a veteran teacher in Paris who’s launched out on his own starting a company called Obbo Formation (formation in French meaning training or education). Edulang is proud to have Eric using English Addicts as a core teaching material, and I specifically wanted to have him on the blog to share his point-of-view on starting a language school business.  So with much gratitude,  I welcome Eric Schaftlein.

Hi Eric.  Thanks for meeting up in Paris and taking the time to share a bit with the readers of a Journée in Language.  I’m curious: how long have you been teaching in Paris?

Over 20 years now.  And it certainly has changed quite a bit in that time (the teaching, not necessarily the city!).

How so?

Well, for one, the level of English has improved quite a bit, especially among the younger generations.  Also, the last few years have certainly been tougher to find opportunities that offer a fair salary, which wasn’t the case 10 or 20 years ago.

What kind of populations do you teach?

Historically, I’ve had mostly corporate clients, and since I’ve started my own company, I’ve remained within the business context, but smaller companies as getting your foot in the door is much quicker and much easier as well;  with bigger companies there’s a lot of competition and without a strong reference, the barriers are pretty high.  I’ve found a nice niche within the hotel sector and have started to grow organically mainly through “word-of-mouth” and a bit of calling, brochures and other channels, but really referral is the strongest way of growing.

How do you work with your clients?

There’s a new buzz word in our sector “linguistic coach and I like that perspective.  The slogan on my website is “Anyone can learn any language any time”, and I add that “time” is a key element.  I mostly work once a week for 2 hours, or twice a week an hour an a half.  It takes much more time than that to become skilled in a foreign language, which is why I push asynchronous learning strongly (and English Addicts).

What has been your greatest challenge starting out on your own?

Finding new clients.

What’s your favorite aspect of using English Addicts as a core learning material?

Three things:  the high pedagogical quality of the lessons, the fact that there are new lessons every day, and also very important is that it’s so easy to use; I’ve used quite a few online applications and a simple interface and intuitive approach is priceless in the elearning world.

What do your clients think of English Addicts.

They’re blown away when I give them the demo lesson and are really enthusiastic to start using it to learn.  Some really take off with it, and others need quite a bit of follow-through, which is actually pretty easy to stay on top of thanks to the student-tracking tools.  Also, one of the first things I share with them is the “search tool” allowing them to find lessons that actually engage them personally, and from there if they don’t have time to do all ten lessons, maybe they do a few, or just listen to the audio in their car, or sometimes I even use the lessons in a traditional way in the classroom.  Listen, tasks, discussion etc.

Lastly, Eric, what advice would you give to teacher thinking of going freelance or opening their own language school?

Invest early, and invest a lot of time.  Finding new clients is the toughest part of the job, and it’s not necessarily a skill that comes easily to teachers (selling themselves).  Stay focused on where you having positive results and work really hard on encouraging referrals and exploring the network that you’ve developed.  There will probably be a time when you’re investing quite a bit of time without great pay-off, but that’s the nature of starting something new.

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Born in the Netherlands, Eric Schaftlein moved to Canada for his university studies, starting off in Biology, then switching to Photography (a childhood passion).  After working as a professional photographer for many years in Vancouver, Eric moved to France, and switched paths to teaching languages.  He loves the sharing aspect of teaching and is convinced that learning a language is something everyone can excel at, and has been living that truth with his clients in Paris for 20 years now. His website, Obbo Formation, provides further details on his language school.

Oh, the end of the year…

It’s at the end of the year when all of those tests and grades come in, that I always hesitate a bit and question the value of assessment.  Often happen to you? The major question for me has always been:

Do tests at the end of a semester really drive students to solidify what was developed in class, and even expand on it… or is it “in and out of their heads” within the next month?

Depends a lot on the curriculum, the administration and of course on us as teachers.

Do you often ask your students, post-class, what they thought of the test, and if it was a valuable part of the course?  To be quite honest, it can be uncomfortable doing so, as on some level you’re asking them to evaluate you, so all of a sudden you’re the one being tested!

When I was a student, the tests that I felt were valuable were the ones that dealt with material parallel to what we had studied, and yet made me take one step further in my learning; they contained “new material” in a sense and called on not only what we had learned, but how that understanding could be applied elsewhere.

Just a quick reflective post as it is… that time of the year.  Would love to what’s going on in your mind this year as the semester wraps up, and assessment is the name of the game.

Cheers, Brad

It’s amazing how much we can learn by simply asking our colleagues what they think.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for taking the survey I pulled together last week as the results have been quite insightful!  Here are responses from 66 folks in the PLN:

Very interesting to note that most teachers see greater change in store for students than for themselves (2 out of 3 teachers think students will be learning more online, but only 1 out 3 teachers think they’ll be teaching more online).

Open responses to the question: If you were to teach nearly 100% online, what might be your biggest struggle in the transition from offline to online?

“I would be totally ok with it but what about the students?”

“I already teach almost 100% online. for those used to using coursebooks the biggest transition is finding or creating materials, building courses, learning about technology and social media.”

“I’d miss the holistic experience of being able to respond to learner needs synchronously and managing the classroom in its entire complexity on the spot.”

“Maintaining the same fee as I charge for F2F lesson in face of increased competition”

“Already am…It hasn’t been a struggle at all. My students are so creative and willing to learn this way. I’m more of a guide than a “teacher” these days.”

“Face-to-Face real time interactions might be possible on the likes of Skype, but there are limitations to it. Discourse strategies like turn-taking and interrupting, and the use of silences, take on a different dimension on Skype, and in a group discussion, Skype or Google Plus doesn’t take into account the paralinguistic and non-linguistic features as well as face-to-face communication. If languages are learnt from involving oneself in interaction and meaning negotiation, the online dimension might offer up some unexpected challenges…but I’m sure we’ll adapt.”

“My students are teenagers, so they like working in groups or pairs. Speaking activities are also their favourites. They learn a lot from each other. Therefore I don’t think they will learn productively if they have to learn 100% on line.”

“I think the sheer variety of platforms & technologies is one of them – basically which software do you use?  Not just because it’s difficult to keep up with things at the best of times, but also because there is then a requirement for the learners to get the same software, which may also incur additional costs & training.”

“As it’d imply a big change, I guess, it’d be difficult for me to adapt to the new classroom environment without face to face interaction.”

“Building relationships with students”

“Getting a rate of pay that reflects the time involved, recognition of the expenses involved in equipement, problem solving time etc.”

“Adaptation of various teaching approaches, teaching materials. Also ‘classroom’ management and organisation issues might occur. “

“I think the sheer variety of platforms & technologies is one of them – basically which software do you use?  Not just because it’s difficult to keep up with things at the best of times, but also because there is then a requirement for the learners to get the same software, which may also incur additional costs & training.”

“Good question!  I guess, the biggest problem will be to motivate and to teach students to learn autonomously, to learn learning to gain more knowledge as it is needed for a learner to feel comfortable in this digital era. Another one might be the financial one. In our country, not many ppl can afford to have a computer, internet connection and other devices to learn online. Though, with times this problem evidently should be solved.”

“I have been teaching 100% online for some time now and my biggest struggle is to be available whenever my students need me. “

“- Organising the content,- Ensuring when teaching a group that the students get to speak enough as this is difficult when online- Finding a way to include useful interaction with other students etc for roleplays….”

“Missing human interaction”

“Building a sense of community”

“In short, finding a way to connect at a more personal level with my students.”

“The biggest struggle would be to get out of the house and not let work completely consume me.”

“To adapt the offline teaching methodology to an online one.”

“Maintaining classroom discourse and peer assistance.”

“Finding real quality tools for teaching”

And in regards to the last point, one out of four respondents had already used Edulang’s applications to teach, and I have to admit it is always great to hear that the materials we’ve developed are helping teachers equip their students with quality learning tools, as I’ll agree with the last comment above: it can be a bit of a jungle out there!

Thanks again, and I’d love to hear if you’re surprised with the results or are they pretty much in line with what you would’ve expected?!?

Cheers, Brad