2016 Student false beliefs D Generic Pleasure and the perfectibility of competence

Learning is not pleasurable

Language learning is perfectible

Many students arrive in Australia with the false belief that after what seems to them a ‘reasonable’ period of time in Australia taking a number of courses they will be able to speak with almost 100 percent performance like a native speaker-all they need to do is study hard , take courses with a good teacher.  This unrealistic view includes the perception that they will be to achieve a perfect accent and perfect dominion of the prosodic features of communication, perfect grammar,  perfect reading, listening comprehension and writing skills!

The teachers job here is to let them down gently. After the teacher has gained the confidence of the student they should be able to replace their disappointment at not being perfect with a more realistic acceptance of what they will be able to achieve linguistically. Only a caring teacher who is committed to the personal growth and development of his students will be able to do this. If the issue is not addressed  the student will  feel  let down and discouraged and may even give up on the language ‘project’ altogether. Such students will end up mixing with their own nationality. ( which is not one of the KPIS of the language programs or of the Australian government)

Again the problem here is indoctrination by the school system in the country of origin. Students internalize the mistaken idea that everything of value must be taught to them in a formal school setting.

Students who are let down gently by a caring teacher can still have a vigorous and productive language and cultural experience in Australia without expecting to have perfect language performance.

Because of the lifeless pedagogy and rigid didactic pedagogies employed in many educational institutions in their countries of origin students may often arrive in Australia with the idea that Learning is not pleasurable

This is a problem for the teacher because many of the activities in language teaching–even academic English language teaching are interactive and pleasurable for the learner . Games can be used for vocabulary development and speaking activities often involve pleasurable interchange with both teacher and fellow students. There is a danger that the student will undervalue these activities and see them as a waste of time.

The teacher must persist here and eventually the reluctant learner should  learn to ‘let this belief go’  enjoy themselves in class. I personally felt towards the end of my career that if the students hadn’t enjoyed themselves in my class  that particular  class as a failure. To connect learning with pleasure is to simply do the obvious. Children love learning but somehow learning in schools has become so politicised and manipulative that there is  often little or no pleasure in it at all-especially in the countries the learners come from.

Although I was adequate academically, I myself rarely enjoyed a class as a child or teenager. I became determined as a teacher that my classes would be enjoyable. In fact, this is one of the main reasons I changed from Science to English teaching half-way through my career. The methodology of language teaching is so much more enjoyable for me than that of science teaching ever was. Real world issues can be discussed. Videos can be watched, debates and discussions can be had. Games and interactive activities can be employed. This is very different from teaching science!

The content of science may be interesting but the methodology is much less flexible. Vive la difference!

2016 Student false beliefs C Generic teach me grammar and only in class

                                                         I can only learn in class

                                                    I need someone to teach me

                                                               Language is grammar

                                                                 

These are some more generic general false beliefs I have encountered:

‘I need someone to teach me’.  This is very common in adults from Asian and African countries in particular. They have completely lost confidence in their own ability to initiate and sustain learning. Many students have been overtaught and overschooled so much so  that they have  completely internalised the false belief that they can learn nothing themselves–everything worthwhile has to be taught by a teacher. (Naturally, politicians are very happy with this. The role of the school as a political weapon to inculcate such messages is well recognized in the literature)

This type of student has to be told what to do by the teacher in great detail.

Again there is not much a teacher can do about this. It takes a lot of time for such a student to gain self –confidence to drive the car himself! However, again it is well worth discussing this with teacher trainees and their trainers.

This type of student often shares another false belief which is “I can only learn in class”. Although the student may comply with homework requirements they will only do the minimum required. Because they don’t really take it seriously. More importantly he doesn’t take recommendations that the teacher makes seriously to engage with the language outside the class. So..they mix with their own nationality outside class, don’t watch TV or listen to radio and don’t actively seek conversations with native speakers because they believe, falsely that this is not ‘real’ learning. Ral learning happens in class.

Another generic false belief  is the belief that language is basically  grammar –and little else. This type of student believes that Reading , Writing, Listening, Speaking, Pronunciation etc are not discreet skills of the language worth syudying. Really all that matters to this type of learner is grammar. They can become quite agitated if the teacher does not actually teach what he considers to be ‘enough’ grammar. What is happening here is that this type of student believes this because he can measure his progress –and his progress against others by testing himself or being tested on grammar by the teacher. This gives him a sense of achievement –whether or not his productive and receptive macroskills  are improving or not!

In one language college I used to try and pre-empt these grammar kings in the very first lesson  by requesting that they not interrupt the flow of the lesson by asking obscure grammar questions to me when I was in full flow. I encouraged them to see me afterwards. Those who didn’t just want to show off to their classmates sometimes did make the effort to see me. These were the ‘Grammar kings’ who wanted to impress me! Once they had shown me how much grammar they knew–they usually seemed satisfied!

 

2016 Student false beliefs B I know best

I know best

One of the greatest advantages of teaching adults is of course that their behaviour in class is generally much more easy to manage than adolescents. We all agree on that. They also are generally quite well motivated–at least extrinsically (if not intrinsically)  by the need to achieve an immediate goal–such as gain entry to University or pass a test to qualify as a Doctor or a Nurse (Occupational English Test  or the IELTS test)

However, there are also many, many disadvantages of teaching adults as they have so many misconceptions about the learning  process itself. Often these stem from the ‘learning’ experience they have had in their home countries both as a child and as an adult

Lets start with the most general misconceptions

‘I know how to learn best’

The new learner arrives in Australia full of enthusiasm and apparent cooperation and goodwill to everyone –including the teacher -. But, in my experience, if the student finds the learning difficult this can all evaporate quite quickly. When I have scratched below the surface I find things are different to how they first appeared: I  have found that many adults thinks they know better than I do how to learn English.

Neither the fact that I can speak English perfectly nor the fact that I have a list of  teaching qualifications as long as your arm., nor even  my 40 years of experience of teaching  seem to impress.  The human ego is so powerful it is quite unmoved by any of that.

‘I know how I learn English better than you because I know myself’  Its as simple is that!

This means that I have to waste a lot of time getting the new learners to trust me–to believe in me. It can take days, weeks, even months, and sometimes it never happens. Often they are only really beginning to believe in me as the course ends (after 3 months).

Even the strong students who pass easily don’t really credit me because they all think they know how to learn better than I do! When they pass–they think it is because of their natural ability–and little to do  with the teacher! In reality even many of these strong students don’ t have the necessary skills to be autonomous  learners because they still retain so many mistaken beliefs about the learning process. But a really major mistaken belief is that they know better how they can learn than the teacher does.

 Why is this? Well-it could be the subject of  research but I suggest that it is often to do with the way in which these students are taught-or perhaps not taught - in their home countries. The pedagogy is so dry and, methodology and style of teaching are often didactic and  passive .  Although they are obliged  to “respect the teacher’ to his face,  it is not a surprise to me that they arrive in Australia with a subconscious belief that teachers really don’t know what they talking about! Every human being has a bullshit detector!

Younger high school students are usually more humble and more trusting of the teacher-they actually believe the teacher can teach them. But adults are much more cynical: even though the teacher has  good status in many of their countries of origin, the  English teacher has relatively lower status than that of Doctors, Engineers  Accountants and IT professionals: their target occupations.

 There is little that can be done about this particular mistaken belief,but I think it helps the teacher to be  aware of it.

Student false beliefs: Preamble

Teaching Academic English: The Independent Learner 

This series of comments and posts is based mostly on my experience of teaching adult students at two Universities and one language college in Australia and in Schools and Universities overseas. I have also tutored adults on a one to one basis in Australia. The most numerous group of students might be Chinese-but there have also been significant numbers of South Americans-Brazilians in particular, Indians. Malaysians, Vietnamese, Japanese, Koreans, Saudis  and some  Europeans. I have also taught in schools in the Middle East, Asia, Europe and Africa

These insights might form the basis of a series of workshops for teacher trainees or for the professional development of lecturers on teacher training programs

Most teachers  (who are not teaching just for the money)  would agree that one major objective of good teaching is to produce an autonomous learner-someone who is able to learn independently of the teacher. The Universities and Business College in Australia  which deliver much  Academic English unfortunately do not have this as a main objective: at best they pay only lip-service to it.  At worst, they covertly discourage independent learning. An independent learner by definition is independent of the teacher and the University-and as such will not pay more fees for tuition. There is a clear conflict of interest here between the interests of the University and the student.

Getting out of the passenger seat

I was teaching a friend how to drive recently. In fact she already is a qualified driver-but only for an automatic car. She wants to learn to drive a manual because they are cheaper  to buy. She is a refugee so this would be an important saving for her.

Basically, it has been difficult because she has completely underestimated the task. Although she has the road sense skills from her driving an automatic she does not know how tricky it is to manage the manual transmission.

After three long lessons she was quite depressed and I thought she was going to give up.

Today, at the beginning of the fourth lesson, I got out of the car and asked her to drive on her own around the car park area and along some deserted service roads in the deserted factory complex. At the end of the lesson she was so grateful. She said she felt much more confident and thought that some day she would learn to enjoy driving a manual car.

It is a similar situation with teaching English. At some point the teacher has to get out of the car and let the learner drive on her own.

Unfortunately the language ‘Industry’ has a direct vested interest in NOT letting this happen-they want the student to continue learning for ever –so they can keep collecting money from them. This is a conflict of interest for many Universities and language colleges. It is an issue I will return to again and again in this series of posts.

Only experienced teachers have direct knowledge about autonomous learning..Younger teachers  may have been told about it or read about it, but will not have direct experience of it. It is something which is appreciated only with experience.  

However, teaching programs in Universities and Colleges  will often recruit younger  teachers –as it is good for their bottom line..they are cheaper. This is just one of the many problems which have come about by allowing business and commercial interests  to  hijack the teaching  and  learning profession. Even the language has changed-teaching language is no longer ‘Education’ taught by ‘Lecturers’ –it is ‘training’ delivered by ‘Instructors’.  The focus of the language learning process  has changed  from being an empowering learning experience for learners into a commercial product to be sold to ‘customers’. Often, this product is sold  by marketers who don’t know the difference between language learning and a bar of soap.  The impact of business on Language goes well beyond this of course- the commercial imperative  has grossly distorted pedagogy and methodology –but that is another story entirely –perhaps for another series of posts

When the students take their final exam or test they either pass or fail. Most passes and now consider themselves good or even perfect users (and learners) of English.  They may carry this mistaken belief about themselves with them for the rest of their lives. While ot may be true it is not necessarily so. It is yet another mistaken belief they will add to the myriads of others they have about learning. We teachers know that only a few of these ‘successes’ are genuine autonomous learners. Most have simply learned how to pass the test-an important skill-but nothing to do with independent learning.

Those who fail are waiting for a better teacher to teach them a better course. This is another mistaken belief because there is really not that much difference between courses or teachers. It goes without saying that none of the failures are autonomous learners either.

I estimate that of all the students I have taught only about twenty percent were autonomous  learners after they exited the program-and many of these were autonomous before they even entered it!

This is a sad and sorry state of affairs for the teacher who wants  to produce autonomous and independent learners. It is also a  disgraceful state of affairs from the point of view of the Universities and Colleges who claim to be educating students to be independent learners.

The question is why is it like this?

One of the reasons students don’t become independent learners is certainly because of the commercial imperative as I have already explained. Basically the managers (not the teachers ) of the program don’t care about independent learning. Their KPIs are based on student input numbers. Bums on seats. 

However, another reason  is because of the  mistaken beliefs and preconceptions the students bring to the course. These preconceptions and mistaken beliefs come from their own personal educational history –and to some extent from their own personalities. They bring these to the course and they wreak absolute havoc with their progress towards  autonomous  learning.

This series of posts will look at some the misconceptions and mistaken beliefs adult students bring with them to Australia. However, the general theme of commercialisation of language delivery will never be far away!

2015 Corporate dysfunction:bitter fruit

The bitter fruits of corporate dysfunction

A few years ago I was involved in a 3 year 'Train the trainer'  project for teachers in Malaysia. The project was a disaster from the start because insufficient preparation was carried out either by the Malaysian government or the partnering private company that did the recruiting. However, like many others, because I needed work at the time I accepted an invitation to lead the project.

This involved me hiring 15 Academics within a period of about six weeks. It was quite a  task considering that academics are supposed to give considerable notice to their current employers before they will leave a post. Obviously, those who were prepared to move  immediately were given priority-not necessarily a good thing from the point to of view of quality control perhaps.. but that is another story entirely. For more details visit this link.

http://lifeandtimesofanoutsider.blogspot.com.au/search/label/2015%20Adelaide%20diary%209e%20Corporate%20irresponsibility%20The%20Training%20Fellows%20Project

I recruited most of the trainers by phone.

The last trainer I recruited was an Englishman who turned out to be a 'longstayer' on the project. In fact he was one of only 3 of the 15 original Trainers I recruited to complete the 3 years.

We were sound colleagues and had a good professional relationship during the eighteen months I was in post.

Fast forward a few years  to earlier this year and I was looking for work with the same company as an E trainer-based in Adelaide. My ex-colleague, who is now leading this project lead me to understand after interview that I had been selected for a start date a couple of months hence.  We exchanged pleasantries in several E-mails.  Unfortunately, during this period one of the directors of the company unexpectedly passed away from a heart attack. I was not sure if this would affect the project or not.  I thought there might perhaps be a delayed start date.

There was a delay: three months passed. During this period  I e-mailed my former colleague who was now leading this E-training project.

He didn't reply to either E-mail. Eventually, I had to  e-mail another director to ask him if there had been a delay.

He told me the Government had cancelled the project.

Now my point is this..why didn't my former colleague reply to my E-mails? It is hardly because he didn't receive them. Presumably he did but had been instructed by his corporate bosses not to reply. (either that or he was just being deliberately negligent or bloody-minded. I have no reason to believe the latter was the case as I had known him previously to be both competent and generous)

There would have been dozens of other trainers in my position waiting to get start-up instructions for the project. This means dozens of professionals like myself disappointed and unable to schedule our own time. Huge inconvenience caused by corporate callousness.

This type of corporate abuse is unacceptable and should be punished.

How can corporate entities expect employee to be loyal to them when thy are so blatantly disloyal and /or incompetent to their employees?

Loyalty is a two-way process.

As for my ex-colleague who didn't answer my e-mails-well...

I'm sure he can live with it.

The News as pornography

Why do 50 % of Australians expect to have experienced a mental illness by the time they are 21?

I suggest a major reason is the  'News' - the negativity  of which is  polluting the public space and threatening to overwhelm us.

Any typical news news bulletin in a developed country is a poisonous cocktail of violence, tragedy  and conflict.

First there is war and/or terrorism at home and abroad. If there is no live action event - news is manufactured by covering anniversaries and funerals of victims related to recent  wars and terrorist events. This is not actually news at all.

Then there are national and international catastrophes both natural and man-made from floods, bushfires and earthquakes to aircraft, train and automobile crashes.

This is followed by randomly selected  criminal acts and civil conflicts both at home and  overseas: the more gruesome the footage the more chance it has of being  broadcast. Footage is  especially selected showing foreigners or ethnic minorities who can then be demonized so the viewer can feel comfortable and superior at home safe in his armchair..

We are voyeurs for all of the above as none of it ever happens in the local communities in which the viewer lives. It is a vicarious experience: the collated angst of a random selection of people who have  no obvious relationship either to teach other or to the viewer. This litany of misery creates real dissatisfaction and angst in the viewer. It is a form of pornography

Then, before we pass out (or switch off) in curious juxtaposition, we are 'entertained'  by sport!  If there is none, that doesn't matter, we are treated to gossip about sports or movie celebrities or-failing that- about the media celebrities themselves.

Finally, we are 'finished off' with the weather which is either alarmist-floods and bushfires-or if it is not, by inane attempts to make it more exciting by cosy and fatuous dialogue between the anchor and the weatherman/woman

Just in case this does not frighten, excite or entertain  you enough, all of this is made even more entertaining by the endless cackling and chortling of anchors, reporters and commentators  jockeying for position to grab our attention: each trying to make themselves the news media celebrity who can entertain us best.

In an veritable orgy of backslapping heartiness and false bonhomie they vye with each other on the news breakfast programs to produce the best one-liner alternating  between brown-nosing  each other and putting  each other down.

Ha! Ha!

Rising to a deafening  crescendo they laugh and scoff at each others jokes - desperately searching for the one-liner or put-down which will bring us all to orgasm..

and finally..

relief...

What appalling bogus role models for our young people!!

What pornography!

No wonder 50 % of us are officially dysfunctional. I am surprised the figure isn't much higher.

If parents showed sexual or violent pornography to their children they would  be deemed irresponsible and have their children removed by social services

It is time our leaders in politics and the media were held accountable for churning out such news pornography daily
.
We need a new model for the dissemination of news to which we can apply negativity quotas which can be monitored independently by a 'Jury' of citizens outside the 'News Industry'

Perhaps we can develop a 'Negativity index' to rate broadcasters. Offenders should be fined heavily. We need to do something to break this corrupt business model of news dissemination.

News dissemination should not be entertainment. It should be quarantined from other broadcasting services such as investigative reporting, drama, cultural activities, sport etc all of which can be ratings driven to a certain extent as they are, arguably, entertainment.


Nor should politics be entertainment.

Politics is war-that is definitely not entertainment either.

News is not entertainment. It is information - and every bit as serious and deadly as war.


We all - but especially young people- need  information, veracity, positivity and optimism from parents and from the  leaders in our community.

We are not getting any of this from the current model of news broadcast..

2015 Close-up photography in movies:when is pimply photography going to end?

I have been threatening to post about this for a long time

Please..Please...Please...

When are we going to see the end of 'Pimply Photography'??!!

I mean close-ups of people's faces in movies and TV shows?

For God's sake I don't want to see the pimples of Brad Pitt or Angelina?

Why do we have to see the faces of  Actors and Actress so up close and personal?

Do we need their 'meaningful looks' as the camera lingers for far too long after they have said something profound and deeply meaningful...(and often clichéd)


Actually, these were rhetorical questions

Because I know the answers...



Pimply photography is rampant because the close-up view of the face replaces  dialogue and plot.

Many dialogues and plots of ratings-driven dramas  are so weak they have to replace them  with pimply photography. People like looking at faces and pimples.

No!!!!!

Don't replace dialogue and plot with pimples and 'meaningful, lingering looks!

Write a dialogue and plot.

Get on with it!