Sources for videos to teach Business English

This blog has experienced a four month haitus because I've been doing an online course with International House for teaching business English. I'm almost at the finish line, writing the final essay, and now I'll be able to spend more time updating with ideas that I've only had the time to jot down in between work and the course.

 I'd like to share some videos that are ripe for business English lesson adaptation and fit right into the skills and subskills of the business English world (meetings, negotiations, interviews, etc.). I haven't adapted any lessons to these yet, but at least they have a place to hang out until I do.

Sources:

TED talks - TED is my go-to source when I want to use video to spice things up. Often (and especially if I notice that the students could use a little change), I give a "Find a TED talk" homework assignment. I show them the 'browse video' page, how to search by various parameters (topic, length, popularity, etc.) and then tell them to find a video, watch it (with or without English subtitles), write down any vocabulary that they don't know, look up the words, and give a summary of the video to the class the next day. It's great how involved they get and how their choice of video allows them to share their personal interests with the class.

Film English: Kieran Donaghy, the creator of this site, finds interesting videos across the web and designs entire lesson plans based either on topic (lexis sets), or grammar. They're detailed, clear, interesting, and he even has a glossary of film terminology and concepts that range from ´cinematography´ to a breakdown of all different kinds of shots (aerial, birds-eye view, long, etc.), each with their own embedded example from films throughout the history of cinema. Preeetty preeetty good.

Videos to teach skills and subskills of business English:

Here are some videos I've found that can be incorporated into business English lessons. I'll list them by topic and by skill, whichever is the most relevant.

                                           Sales/Promotion, Marketing:

The first clip is an example of business failures from comedy central's Nathan For You. Students could rate the ideas from best to worst, discuss why the ideas failed, whether they've experienced something similar with their companies, and this could lead into a lesson on Sales/Promotion or Marketing lexis.

Fake Promo for a lawyer from Breaking Bad.

Meetings/Conference Calls/Technology 

A humorous skit which shows all the problems with conference calling, but in real life.

 Again, a ranking activity seems best.

Presentations, Graphs

Life After Death by PowerPoint by Don McMillan -

 a great way to start a discussion about do’s and don’ts when presenting. 

Negotiations

Mad men - Peggy negotiates her own office.

Miscellaneous
 Michael Scott from The Office being a classy boss. Not sure where to categorize this, but maybe on the topic of company structure/hierarchy or human resources (bad practices?).

Thanks for reading and hope it's useful!

Lesson Plan: "Imagine Finding Me" - Chino Otsuka

Chino Otsuka

Chino Otsuka - Imagine Finding Me 

Lesson Plan: Imagine Finding Me, Chino Otsuka

Level: B1+

   Language aim: Physical descriptions/clothes, comparative structures, ‘Used to’.

1. Ask students if they have a photo album where they keep family photos or photos of themselves when they were young. “When was the last time you looked at them?”
2. Tell the students that they’re going to look at some photos by a woman called Chino Otsuka who has had quite a lot of success with her work.
3. Show the first photo (if a student recognises them, ask him/her to not tell the information): Ask the following questions.
1. Where do you think this is? (There is English and Spanish text in the window, so be open to answers) When was this photo taken and how do you know? (From now to the last 40 years based on clothes, architecture…)
2. What is the relationship between the two people and why do you think so? ( Mother –daughter, aunt – niece, Big sister, Cousins, etc.)
3.  How old are they? (elicit, “about…”, “in her mid/early/late….”)
4. Go to the next photo. Ask:
1. Where and when was this photo taken? (Japan, based on the characters, though be open to the correct pronunciation of “China”). “When” can also elicit time of year (going on holiday or a day trip)
2. Are these the same people as in the previous photograph?
3. Who do you think took the picture?
5. Next photo:
1. How do you think these people are feeling? Why? (Physical distance between them could imply annoyance, irritation, etc.)
2.  What could have happened before the moment the photo was taken? (elicit may/might/could + have + participle)
6. Next photo:
1. Where was this photo taken (Europe, Asia…)?
2.  What are they doing? (elicit “having a break/snack”, “sightseeing”)
3. Do you think these are the same people? How old do they look? (It should be obvious that either the younger girl has grown or that it might be a different girl)
7. Ask the students why they think these photographs have been so successful. Is there anything special about them? The composition, the content…etc.? Then tell them that the photographer photoshopped/superimposed recent images of herself as an adult onto old images of herself as a child.
8. Go to the next slide and elicit comparisons:
1. How has she changed physically?
2. What do you think she used to like doing as a child? Does she feel the same as an adult?
9. Discussion Questions on next slide:

·      •Why do you think the photographer made these photos? What is she trying to say?

·      •Think about photos or videos you have of yourself as a child. Tell your partner about the photos (where, when, what was happening, etc.) What do you remember from those moments? Can you remember things that you used to like doing that you don’t anymore?

·      •If your childhood self traveled in time to the present day and found you, what do you think he/she would say or ask you? What would you say to him/her?

·      •Do you have any memories that you would have liked to have captured in a photograph or video? Why?

·      •Do you think that people will continue to print and make photo albums in the future? Or, will we keep our images in digital formats , e.g. on facebook, instagram, our computers?

·      •Media, images, and even books are now disappearing in physical format and moving to digital spaces. Talk about the advantages and disadvantages of printed material versus digital files. 

10. Optional follow-up: students bring childhood photos to class the next day and share with the class. They can describe the photo, what they used to be like, what they would do, what was difficult to get used to when they grew up, etc.

Chino Otuska

Chino Otsuka

Chino Otsuka

Carnival

      Having delved into photography and Visual Studies at university, I've nurtured an interest in visual information, how it's promulgated, how it communicates and is interpreted, how it interacts with text, where/how we see it, etc. So, it's no surprise that I'm interested in its use in the classroom and particularly, its potential within language learning.

      Inspired by this post by Ceri Jones, I made a lesson plan revolving around the Carnival in Cádiz, a huge event for the city and the people. I had two objectives: the first was to work with a topic that was relevant to my students' lives and needs. The second was to hone my "question-asking" skills in regards to encouraging the students to hypothesize narratives or additional imaginary information. My experience with image-use so far has led me to realize the importance of asking the 'right' questions (the 'obvious' ones get obvious answers), and choosing the 'right' images. (i.e. even though I think awkward family photos is amazing doesn't mean my students will). The lesson plan is specific to Cádiz but can be adapted to any local/national festival.

Lesson Plan: Carnival 

Level: B1 +

1. Tell the students that since Carnival is coming soon, you've found some images and you want to ask them some questions to get a better idea for yourself. But first, a few questions:

      a. What are some popular costumes? For women? For men? Children?

      b. How long does Carnival last?

© 2011 Andrea Mitchell

Men in Drag:

1. Where do you think this is? City/neighborhood? 
2. When do you think this is? Year? Day (of carnival)?
3. What is his/her costume? Explain/Describe. (This is what women in the Holy Week parades usually wear in the processions.)
4. Why are all the other people wearing the same costume? Is it normal for groups of people to wear the same costume?
5. What is he wearing around his neck? (It's a kazoo. This should elicit that they are in a "chirogota", or group of singers that perform unofficially, or "illegally", in the streets.)

© 2011 Andrea Mitchell

Float ladies:
1. Where are these women? What are they standing on?  
2. When does this event usually happen? (The first Sunday of Carnival)
3. They're wearing the same costume - does this mean they're in a singing group? (No, they've probably volunteered to work on the floats).
4. How much money do they get paid for their work? (As volunteers, they often pay up to 150 euros for the costume, i.e. to participate). Why do they volunteer?
5. Who do you think they're talking to? What might they be saying? Is this before, during, or after the parade? How do you know?

© 2011 Andrea Mitchell

Balloon Lady:
1. Where is this woman? What is she doing? (resting, waiting for somebody?)
2. What time of day is it? (This should lead into the deduction that this depicts a moment before the parade has started, as she has all her balloons and there's no trash in the streets.)

       In my lesson with B2/C1 students, I used more images, including one of a parade in Murcia (to talk about the different ways of celebration in different parts of Spain/the world), but this is the general gist.

       At the end, I told the students that I'd lied just a little, because I myself took the photos in last year's carnival. 

       At this point, the lesson can branch off in a number of ways. Because the lesson is based on students explaining the tradition of carnival to an "ignorant" foreigner, I thought it was most logical to continue in that line of thought.

     I asked my students to imagine that they were members of the city council and to create the text of a brochure (or information for the Cádiz website, e.g.) directed to outside visitors. I showed them the questions below in case they needed extra ideas. 

       Students can also talk in groups about their favorite costumes, years, experiences, etc. Or how they typically celebrate and with whom. One student brought up the idea that Carnaval has been changing since she was a child in terms of costume design/choice, the best nights to go out, the historical meaning, etc. If this thread had developed, I could have asked the students to write an essay about these changes (if this lesson was a segue from a writing lesson), prepare interview questions for famous public figures of Carnaval and have students act as the public figure and answer the questions, translate lines of songs from 'Chirigotas' into English, design costumes, etc.

      Because the students have a lifetime of experiences and memories associated with Carnaval, this was a rich topic and prompted a lot of conversation in my class. Also, the format can be easily applied to other festivals/practices. I find using material that prompts the students to share their own knowledge helps them feel empowered as language learners and hopefully, is a more effective means for memory retention in the long run.

Green Eggs and Ham

Lesson Plan

Level: Elementary to Pre-intermediate (A2)

Language aim: Listening, prepositions (in, on, with)

Topic: children's stories/morals

1. Ask the students: "Have you ever eaten food that was a different color than what you had expected? E.g. Green ketchup? Clear coca cola? Century Eggs? Black pasta? Did it taste differently than the ''normal-colored" food?

2.  Tell the students that they're going to watch a video of an English author (Neil Gaiman of novels and comic books, including "The Sandman" and "Coraline") read a short book called "Green Eggs and Ham" by Dr. Seuss. The students listen/watch the video and fill-in the gaps of the sentences below. (You may have to explain that "SAM-I-AM" is the name of the character...)

Complete the following:

Where does "SAM-I-AM" suggest eating green eggs and ham?

Part I:

1. Would you like them here or there?

2. Would you like them _____ ___ ____________?

3. Would you like them  _____ ___ ____________?

4. Would you eat them  _____ ___ ____________?

5. Would you eat them  _____ ___ ____________?

6. Would you, could you  _____ ___ ____________?

7. You may like them  _____ ___ ____________.

8. Could you, would you,  _____ ___ ____________?

9. Would you, could you, _____ ___ ____________?

10. Would you, could you,  _____ ___ ____________?

11. Could you, would you,  _____ ___ ____________? 

12. Would you, could you,  _____ ___ ____________?

Part II:

What do you think the moral of the story is?  

a. If you are persistent, you can convince anyone to do what you want.

b. Food tastes better if you eat it in different places and in the company of small mammals.

c. You should try things before judging them.

answers:

1. Would you like them here or there?

2. Would you like them in a house?

3. Would you like them with a mouse?

4. Would you eat them in a box?

5. Would you eat them with a fox?

6. Would you, could you in a car?

7. You may like them in a tree.

8. Could you, would you, on a train?

9. Would you, could you, in the dark?

10. Would you, could you, in the rain?

11. Could you, would you, with a goat? 

12. Would you, could you, on a boat?

The gist question is obviously open to debate, but the generally-accepted conclusion is that the answer is "C".

Post-task (depending on level): 

In groups of 2-3, the students write a short children's book. First, elicit one-syllable words. (Or write on the board: life, one, eye, cat, air, king, ate, end, near, love, day, it, at, see, go.) This lesson can either branch off into a pronunciation lesson, focusing on rhyming vowel phonemes and writing poems, or it can become a group creative writing assignment to write a short children's' book with a moral. Elicit common lessons that young children usually learn and/or provide a list if necessary. (I found a list of morals to aesop's fables HERE.)

• "Appearances are often deceiving." - The Wolf in Sheep's Clothing
• "Slow and steady wins the race." - The Hare and the Tortoise
• "Little friends may become great friends." - Aesop's fables: Lion and the Mouse

If the level of the class is elementary, I would suggest focusing on pronunciation and/or poetry, rather than writing a full children's story. Another option is to eliminate the moral and allow the students more liberty in the creation period. 

Of course, there are many more alternatives - feel free to adapt as fit!

3 Kinds of Peanuts

Sparking creativity in a classroom is like making a fire. You can attempt to control the various components, provide the necessary materials and be patient but there's never a 100% probability that it will catch.

One of the longest withstanding challenges I face is encouraging creativity and sparking imagination, a very popular topic in EFL right now. Most of my students (and the general population) are not particularly creative, at least according to commonly-accepted notions of creativity. I've had the rare student who from the first day acts as a catalyst for everyone else to put down their guards, lessen their 'performance' anxiety, start taking risks in language, essentially lowering their affective filters. In effect, once students feel comfortable enough with their classmates and with me to say what they really think/feel, imagination blossoms. 

   After asking my students to imagine themselves as a bunch of different people they aren't for a bunch of arbitrary roleplay activities, it occurred to me to use realia, something which I haven't taken full advantage of really. "Realia", or actual objects (or facsimiles) can be a powerful tool in providing a reference for meaning and aid in teaching various language points, or so I hear. People who label themselves as "uncreative" should be alleviated from the pressure of imagining because they no longer have to pretend. 

So, peanuts.

Lesson plan: 3 Kinds of Peanuts

Aim:  practice using comparatives and superlatives with adjectives and adverbs, after initial review of grammar form and function.

Materials: salted peanuts, honey-roasted peanuts, chocolate-covered peanuts (M&Ms), paper and pen. 

1. Distribute/hand out one kind of peanut to each student, after asking about peanut allergies.

2. Elicit adjectives to describe each one in terms of colour, texture, size, and shape:

e.g. beige/tan, brown, blue/red/yellow, rough, smooth, bumpy, shiny, small/large, round, symmetrical/asymmetrical, spherical, irregular. 

3. Elicit sentences or tell the students to write sentences (depending on their level, command of the structure, or energy level) to compare the peanuts with:

"adj. + '-er', '-ier'....than"

 "More/less....than"

"as....as"

4. Elicit adjectives of flavour/taste:

E.g. tasty/delicious, sweet/sour, bitter, mild/bland, salty,  spicy/hot, umami.

5. Ask students which words would apply to the peanuts at hand and ask them to choose three variables, for example:

sweet

salty

delicious

5. Taste test: students taste each peanut and rate them from 1-10 on 3 variables of taste.

6. Students compare answers to see if they're the same/different. If the students are at a higher level, they could work in groups of 2-3 and present their results as taste-testers of the three brands of peanut, first comparing peanuts A to B to C, and then the one that is the most delicious, the tastiest, the saltiest, etc. Students at a higher level could also compare their findings with their partners', e.g. "I think that the normal peanut is not as salty as the honey-roasted peanut, whereas my partner thinks that the honey-roasted peanut is the saltiest". The teacher could also ask for recommendations for the brands about what they could change in the cooking process, e.g. More honey? Darker chocolate? More sugar? Less Salt? etc.

Reflection:

Overall, the aim was achieved and all the students in the three classes practiced the language structures.

For my teens class (A2), they were much more excited about getting to eat the M&M's than talking about them and were not at a level of confidence to use the structures without written preparation. My FCE (B2) class needed more review of the grammar than I'd thought and were making "lower-level" errors, e.g. "The peanuts are more tastier than the M&M's", but at the same time had already learned the structures, "As....as", and "not so....as". The conclusion that I choose to draw from this experiment is that bringing taste into language learning is significantly more exciting and hopefully more effective in the fossilization of the comparative and superlative forms. I'll be doing this one again.

Gender Equality in English Language Teaching

       After watching a video conference regarding the Dogme method by Chia Suan Chong, I got to thinking about women in English language teaching, or the lack thereof. I immediately assumed that women are vastly under-represented, but then I remembered that in my teacher-training course, there were only 2 men of a total of 12 trainees, so it then seemed to me that there are actually more women in teaching positions.

My questions were these:

1. How many women hold senior positions in ELT internationally?
2. How many women are referred to as expert sources of knowledge in the ELT world and what percentage of women give plenary talks?
3. Which ELT books are most-widely sold and/or cited most often, and how many of those publications are authored by women?
4. How many female authors are included in a list of most-cited ELT publications (teaching theory, not materials)?
5. How do salaries compare between men and women in ELT?

Jeremy Harmer commented on this, noting that the vast majority of conference audiences are female, while the majority of speakers are male. He said,

"Isn’t it strange, I sometimes think, that we accept as completely normal the sight of a male ‘expert’ standing in front of a group of say 1,000 teachers, only a small handful of whom (sometime less than 1%) are also male. Doesn’t it feel uncomfortable, sometimes, to realize that the ‘high profile’ talks (e.g. conference plenaries etc) are so often given by men, not women? Or perhaps it doesn’t matter that a largely female profession is so often ‘preached at’ by men who enjoy some kind of specially privileged position, men (yes, I know, I’m one of them!) who almost come to expect this state of affairs. Surely there are women who could do the job just as well?"

         Harmer brings into the question the factors that contribute to the under-representation of women, suggesting that there is perhaps a sexual undertone - Do the hordes of women at conferences have an "easier" time giving attention to male speakers than to female speakers? He also ponders whether conference organizers extend an equal number of plenary invitations to both genders, or if women tend to reject these invitations due to familial obligations or reluctance to travel.

THE FACTS

         In a brief web search, I looked at the presence of women in three popular English teaching journals (ELT Journal, TESOL Quarterly, and Modern English Teacher), and three conferences (IATEFL, ACEIA, and the 60th Annual IH Anniversary Conference). Overall, men are significantly over-represented.

        In ELT Journal, of the 50 most-cited articles of the last 2 years, there were 19 female authors out of 61 total, which brings the percentage of male authors to an embarrassing 69%. In TESOL Quarterly, the latest issue published 23 total authors, of which 11 were women, bringing the male percentage to 52%. In Modern English Teacher, the current issue contains 11 female authors of 33, indicating a 67% male representation. "Modern", indeed.

       Starting with the annual IATEFL conference, which boasts a 2,500 person attendance from over 100 countries, the last three years (including the upcoming 2014 conference) average a jaw-dropping 72% representation of male plenary speakers.

2014 - 4 plenary speakers, 3 male
2013 - 5 plenary speakers, 2 male
2012 - 5 plenary speakers, 4 male

       This weekend's 60th Annual IH Anniversary Online Conference presented 13 speakers, 8 of which were men, bringing the percentage of male speakers to a scoff-worthy 62%. Finally, at last month's ACEIA conference in Seville, a suspicious 50% were male (if done intentionally, well done ACEIA, well done).

This begs the question:
Why are men so overly-represented?

1. Like Harmer points out, perhaps men have an inherent advantage by "preaching" to a female choir. And maybe women are less-likely to see a woman in a typically male 'power' position without suspending judgement, subconsciously or not.

2. Because western society encourages men to be goal-oriented, attention-seeking go-getters, why would they not do so in the ELT field as well?

3. Women are less likely to travel, 100 % more likely to bear children, and more likely to be 'attached' to domestic tasks, which would explain why they might turn down plenary invitations. (Though I wonder if they would be more likely to travel if conferences offered financial aid not only to the speaker, but to their children/partner as well...)

4. Men have more testosterone, which makes them more likely to act aggressively, competitively, and more likely to seek opportunity for adrenaline surges (public speaking). Women on the other hand, are less likely to exhibit these traits, due to a mixture of biological and societal factors.



             In a thorough and insightful post, Meredith Butler, editor and owner of the ELT publication El Gazette, addresses the glass ceiling and salary differences head-on. She first puts things into perspective by saying,

"A glass ceiling for white women there may be, but if you are black and you are British there is a solid steel front door." 

         Hear, hear. She then looks at female representation in the university, state sector, and private sectors, noting a generally positive change in the last few decades. Butler cites men as occupying more exam-related, IT, and sales positions in ELT, which are not surprisingly, the highest-paid positions. A possible reason,

"Maybe men are more attracted to researching face validity in criterion-based reading tests. Or maybe they are just better at smelling out where the money is: the starting rate for a Masters qualified tester worldwide is about £40,000 (us$60,000) per year."

         This reminds me of a recent interview I had at a local language academy, at the end of which I asked, "I was wondering about the starting salary?". Immediately I heard the whisperings of past advisors, warning me about how NOT to ruin an interview, i.e. DON'T ask about pay. Simultaneously, I heard the advice of a Spanish co-worker ("Of course you should ask about the salary! Entering into a contract with a company without being aware of the conditions is just stupid"). I didn't have to think much longer because the response I got was a tongue-in-cheek, "Well, we don't go into this business to get rich, do we now?". Needless to say, I didn't get a call back. This example probably has little to do with my gender, but it does bring into light something that Meredith Butler does quite well, which is address something that few people have the balls to - earning-power and salary.

       Anyhow, gender inequality in ELT: Butler concludes that the underlying pulse of gender inequality in ELT has to do with both women and men having children and therefore being encumbered with the prospect of global mobility.

        I'm not quite sure where I stand on the issue, except to say that I think it's all very complicated and that I feel that the "interrupting battles" I have with my partner and other people in Spain are somehow related. Also, this article. Now I'm going to watch an online conference about teaching methods before I lose the rest of my Sunday.

Jamie Keddie and Videotelling - a treetop rescue review

         In my classes, I find myself wondering how I can structure my lessons to be more engaging - both mentally and emotionally. Oftentimes, I see my students sighing into their watches in the middle of a written gap-fill exercise (working in pairs or not) and I can't help but feel that clock-gazing is equivalent to boredom. After some reflection, I come to the logical conclusion that mental exercise, just like physical exercise, can be strenuous and it is completely normal for a person to reach a saturation point. But, there is a part of me that believes that it's possible for every class to be so engaging that despite the level of difficulty or challenge, time seems to fly by and so, I'd like to talk about one of the methods I've found to be effectively engaging for students and something that I think is worth a closer look.

   "Videotelling" is a teaching method developed by Jamie Keddie, in which lessons are centered around videos or pictures and the material (and target language) is controlled by the teacher. This means that the teacher becomes a sort of "primary source" in the classroom - students work harder to decipher new sounds and meanings without the aid of written material, a dynamic that mimics situations in 'the real world' (i.e. going through customs, making a doctor's appointment by telephone, etc.). In his words:

---

Video + storytelling = Videotelling. In this technique, the teacher is the deliverer of the material. The delivery process is a whole class communicative event. The secret to videotelling is to decide what you are going to say and how you are going to say it. This will force you to consider ways to encourage learners  to interact (e.g. what questions are you going to ask?)

---

       I saw Jamie speak at a conference last spring and I was impressed. Without showing the audience any pictures or videos, he evoked a very particular image - men holding a hammerhead shark above their heads on a street in Somalia. He evoked this image through eliciting information from the audience and delivering his prepared speech, while simultaneously highlighting target vocabulary, grammar points and language chunks. What was telling here, is that by virtue of withholding the visual information, every single person had a different and unique image in their mind, a visual image that had been activated through aural stimulation before seeing any 'real' image at all. This withholding created a suspense that made the 'revealing moment' (the punch line, the twist ending, what have you) that much more powerful and therefore, emotionally engaging. 

      I've done quite a few of Mr. Keddie's lessons, (found here), the most successful being "Mr. W" (a commercial for alternative energy personifying the wind), "Speechless" (a woman rejects a marriage proposal at a halftime basketball game), and "If the earth had rings..." (a video demonstration of the earth with rings like Saturn). But today I did "Treetop Rescue" for my B1 level students to review transport lexis and I'd like to reflect on that here. 

     In this lesson, the teacher elicits a hobby (Radio Controlled Model Aircraft flying) through a teacher-led game of closed questions. Then, the students work in pairs to define relevant words (e.g. 'runway', 'take off', 'aircraft', etc.). The teacher reads the story of a man named Ben who went with his friend one day to fly his RC model aircraft in the countryside. But what happens? The plane gets stuck at the top of a tall tree. The students are told that Ben gets his plane back in five minutes and they can figure out how by reading a dialogue between two people who witnessed the whole thing go down. The dialogue reveals that there were two men in a helicopter who saw the plane get stuck, they fly down to retrieve the plane, and then land to give the model plane back to lucky Ben. 

    In my class, I immediately noted a change of energy when I began the activity - guessing the hobby together brought up intrigue and suspense. However, when I asked the students to define the terms I'd written on the board, I sensed the familiar tone of drudgery. The students enjoyed reading the dialogue aloud for the class (in manners of elicited adverbs, "cheerily", "angrily", "lazily") but the "reveal moment" didn't have the effect I was expecting. I couldn't tell if they actually enjoyed the lesson or not and found myself questioning how effective the lesson was in terms of the language aim. It's true that the students reviewed some transport lexis, but beyond that, there was little activation. I could have continued with some discussion questions, or asked follow-up questions as a group, but time was up and they had already started packing.

     In some of the lessons I've used, there has been a low level of language activation in the students. It's true that students activate target structures through mimicking and urging on my part, but I've found it effective to supplement the materials with activities which encourage the students to create/produce their own relevant language.

      Another factor is the strong aspect of storytelling that is essential for his lessons to work. The teacher must be comfortable telling stories and must learn to draw out silences in order to allow students to explore further possibilities (for example during the stage of eliciting possible explanations for the aircraft's prompt return.) Personally, I have never been the kind of person to mesmerize others with stories or jokes, but I welcome the opportunity to develop this side of myself.

     So, in sum, I highly recommend his website and method, especially for teachers looking to incorporate video, current events, and creative ways of teaching 'tired' themes, but I would also recommend incorporating other materials and methods to address other learners' styles.

Learned Helplessness

        In a demonstration of learned helplessness by Charisse Nixon, PHD Developmental Psychologist at Penn State Erie, students receive slips of paper with three anagrams to solve. Unbeknownst to the students, one group receives a slip with easy anagrams like "bat" (tab) and "lemon" (melon) while the other group receives the words "whirl" and "slapstick"; unsolvable anagrams. The last word, "cinerama" is the same for both groups. During the activity, the students are told that the activity is "really simple" and it "shouldn't take too long". They are told to raise their hands once they are finished. Unsurprisingly, half the class raises their hands within seconds while the other half struggles to solve the anagrams, bemused. Because the group with the unsolvable words are faced with a challenge they were told was "easy", their plummeting confidence inhibits them from solving the last word, which is in fact the same for both groups.

      What this activity demonstrates is that learned helplessness can be induced in the EFL classroom through lack of sensitivity to learner's levels or capabilities, and setting unrealistic expectations by saying "this is really easy" or, "you should have no problems with this", etc. Furthermore, through subconscious habits such as 'echoing' (repeating words back to students say even if they pronounce or use them correctly), or reacting positively to opinions only shared with the teacher, it becomes clear that the unbalanced power dynamics within a classroom can be detrimental to students' self-esteem and ultimately, their long-term relationship with language-learning.

  

       As a teacher, I have struggled with these unconscious habits and this 'default' classroom environment in which the teacher is the "holder-of-knowledge" or authority figure. I have found myself wishing my students would start talking spontaneously in the silence, tell me what they want to discuss for the day, or be more active in using their smart-phones/dictionaries to look up words or check information. On the other hand, I realize that the role I play in their passitivity is significant: I am guilty of echoing, sending tacit messages that confirm my personal opinions or beliefs, and essentially controlling the the topic of dialogue and the participators in class discussions. 

    In an article by Chia Suan Chong in ELT Professional, she cites Jim Scrivener's 21 steps towards a proposed 'solution' to learned helplessness:

1. Start small

2. Offer binary choices
3. Allow divided outcomes
4. If you offer a choice, make it genuine
5. Make any constraints absolutely clear (then discuss where we can go from there)
6. Don't make a big deal about choices
7. Get students to notice that not everyone has the same viewpoint
8. Avoid wordings that imply that the teachers is someone who needs to be pleased
9. Get students discussing some decisions
10. Demonstrate that you are listening, but also have an opinion
11. Don't always go with the majority
12. Ask different people to make each decision
13. Don't let the decision making get boring
14. Restrain yourself from being the power, the authority, the decider.
 15. Don't 'save' them
16. Offer more decisions as time goes on
17. Offer more important decisions
18. Train your learners in listening and negotiating skills
19. Trains students to evaluate themselves
20. Hand over a big decision and a strategy for deciding
21. Ask very big questions

        Numbers 8, 15, and 19 resonate with me most strongly, as these issues are ones of which I am recently becoming more aware. I find it incredibly difficult to control my gestures of affirmation (e.g. nodding, smiling, frowning, etc.) and not feel like I'm doing something pernicious when I give negative feedback if a definition is not up-to-par with what I was expecting. I also find it almost painful to have to bite my tongue when a student struggles to express an idea and they look at me with a vulnerable, desperate look that cries, "Please, please, PLEASE help me! I know you know how to say what I'm trying to say.". However, I do believe it's crucial to implement some sort of quality-control and set a standard in the classroom - what would happen if I accepted every possible definition, even the ones that weren't entirely accurate? What other methods could I use to avoid binary, black-and-white, 'yes-or-no' feedback? How can I lead a student closer to a generally-accepted version of a 'correct answer' without negatively affecting their self-esteem or confidence?

     I believe the difficulty in being a dynamic, supportive, and effective teacher who encourages learner-autonomy lies in the conflict of demands between the materials, the students, and the institution of learning. If the language school requires certain materials to be used or is inflexible with their teachers going 'off-book', the student autonomy will be severely restricted. On the other hand, if a language center allows so much freedom that there are no systems of maintenance of the quality of teaching or no way to assess students' progress, there can be no sure way to confirm if language learning is actually happening. 

      But at the root of it, I think that we as teachers are working within a system in which we ourselves were taught - a system which begets passive learners, demands that we obey authority, teaches us to respond to positive/negative stimulation and to realize that our value to society lies in our ability to take tests well and learn within an academic framework. So, I think the challenge first lies in acknowledging that before we can assume the role of a discussion mediator, guide, or facilitator, we must first gain awareness of the myriad of ways in which we ourselves are inculcated in the system. Then, I believe, we can begin to step back when necessary, know when to keep our mouths shut (or not), or have the foresight to ask a question instead of spoon-feeding information without a moment's hesitation.

   Here is another article by Chia Suan Chong that eloquently addresses the issue of the "teacher-as-facilitor" vs. "teacher-as-knowledge-owner" that's worth a read if this post was interesting.

     (On a related note, the other day I saw a documentary called "Schooling the World" that broke my heart a little. If you're a teacher/person living in an industrialized society and can readily engage in a discussion about the relation of happiness to wealth, then you should probably watch this film.)