TEFL Adventures: Teaching British Grammar as an American

It’s a situation I imagine many American TEFL teachers have faced while working abroad. I encountered this situation as I was going through the job search process. Employers wanted to know if I was comfortable working with British English, because as they described it, British English is the classical form of English that is used in major universities outside the US and other English-speaking nations.

Since I’ve had some British friends as well as a British employer (an Episcopalian priest) and I knew I had understood them, and I had also easily understood what was being said in Doctor Who, a famous BBC program, I responded with a resounding ‘sure.’ That being said, when I arrived at my job, I was surprised by the amount of differences between both versions of English. 

First off, I know the British and American dialects are not so different as to render citizens of both nations unable to understand each other. On the contrary, Americans and British can understand each other fairly well. American English and British English aren’t like Mandarin and *insert-name-of-any-other-Chinese-dialect* where the languages are very different. And my foreign friends from Russia, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic, who have all learned British English, understand me just fine.

The biggest reason though why it’s important to be familiar for Americans to know the differences between the two forms of English is because of exams, of which there are two types to consider. The first type is a student’s national exams for his or her own country. Many countries, like Russia, use British English as the standard of evaluation. And the second type is exams used for university admittance as non-native speakers who wish to study at an English-speaking university must take either IELTS or TOEFL. 

Having never heard of either test before I started teaching, the easy way to understand the selection process between IELTS and TOEFL is to think of it as when they choose between taking the SAT or ACT at the end of high school. Like the SAT and ACT, most of the differences between IELTS and TOEFL are fairly minimal. And just like American universities have the choice to accept either the SAT, ACT or both, English-speaking universities have the right to select between IELTS, TOEFL or both. IELTS, because it evaluates British English and because British English is considered the ‘classical’ version, is the more popular and widely-used exam. 

If your students study British English, be mindful of the differences between British and American when you work with them. When they take IELTS or their national exams (assuming their national exams are in British English), correct words and phrases in American English could be wrong in British English.

Consider the past participle of the verb get. American English uses ‘got’ or ‘gotten’ depending on what is implied - ‘current possession’ versus ‘the process of acquiring.’ British English, however, uses ‘got’ for all situations except a couple fixed expressions. If a student writes ‘gotten’ while taking IELTS, chances are it will be considered a mistake. 

I’ll admit that I picked an easy vocabulary target as get is such a common verb, but the point remains the same. Consistency is essential when teaching a certain dialect. If students are learning British English for IELTS or national exams, then American TEFL teachers should be aware of the biggest differences. But if a student wants to take TOEFL, then American TEFL teachers will need to coach their student on the differences in both versions as well.

At the school where I work, we have made it known to our students and their parents we’re teaching British English. Russia uses British English in its national exams. Right now, we’re helping students prepare for their national exams that they will take in May. I’ve looked at the scoring criteria for the tests, and for some grammar, speaking or writing sections of the test, the difference between a perfect score and a zero is just six mistakes. There’s not a lot of room for error.

Because I know there’s such a small margin of error on my students’ national exams, the responsibility is on me as a teacher and native speaker to learn the differences between British English and American English.

Some rules and spellings are easy, such as words like centre/center, learnt/learned and doughnut/donut. A little more challenging are words that are associated with different objects. 

For example, the words pants and underwear in American English are respectively trousers and pants in England. It could be an incredibly awkward situation as a person speaking American English walking up to a English person and say, “My, you have awesome looking pants!” not knowing that pants in England means underwear.

On top of those previous examples, there are even pronunciation differences, however subtle they are. In England, words like card or yard are said like cahd and yahd.

My adjustment to British English hasn’t been difficult. I still speak American outside of work and my style of writing also follows American spellings, grammar and punctuation. However, because I still speak and think like an American outside the classroom, when I’m in the classroom, I need to constantly focus on how I speak and make corrections so that I don’t misinform my students. When I’m not being actively aware of how I’m speaking or writing, I find myself writing donut and theater instead of doughnut and theater. 

For teachers who have to alternate between the two dialects, I recommend keeping two separate folders for both with small annotations in the corners of papers commenting on differences so that you never forget. Also, in my case, learning the differences in the two languages is fascinating and it might be so for you as well.

Author's Note: I originally wrote this article as part of the International TEFL Academy's series on alumni experiences. I have since made a couple small edits and updated the article to reflect what I've learned.

TEFL Adventures: Teaching English in St. Petersburg, the Former Home of the Russian Tsars

This article first appeared on the International TEFL Academy website as part of its series of alumni experiences teaching English around the world. Below are excerpts from my article along with a couple pictures. For the full article, which is about twice the length of what I highlighted in this post, please click here.

When it comes to the TEFL industry and teaching English in Russia, Moscow and Saint Petersburg are some of the world’s largest cities involved. A considerable amount of foreign language centers operate; billboards advertising learning English are easily spotted and large numbers of native English speakers can be found in both cities. In addition to the role language centers play, TEFL teachers can earn even more by privately tutoring students one-on-one or via Skype. 

Currently, I work at Gorchakov Memorial School, which is a private boarding school for male students between grades 5-11. As of now, we have 30 students and two grades (sixth and ninth), but next year we’ll be expanding to teach three classes and roughly 45 students. Gorchakov may be a small school but it does its best to provide its students with the best education possible. The school models itself based off the old Tsarskoe Selo Lyseum, which was created during the time of the Romanovs and educated Russian greats like Alexander Pushkin, Russia’s national poet.

The mission of the school is to provide a liberal, well-rounded education spanning many subjects - science, humanities, artistic - while students live at the school. School weeks vary by length but they usually last between five and seven days depending on whether it’s a “long” weekend, which means students go home for the weekend, or a “short” weekend, which means students have classes on Saturday and a Sunday museum or theater excursion.

The English Department usually teaches 15 English classes a week along with two English clubs and a couple elective classes. I help out with each one of them. In some classes and clubs, I’m the main teacher running the lesson, but most of the time, I help the head English teacher with the logistics of the lesson. This includes, but isn’t limited to, writing tests and quizzes, creating worksheets and organizing interesting or challenging activities.

In addition to my classroom responsibilities, my other work requirements include conversing with the students at meals, going swimming with them at the pool, playing sports and doing morning exercise. My morning exercise regimen with the students is usually a ten-minute run, typically a kilometer in length, and 10 minutes of calisthenics. Suffice to say, it’s helped me lose a lot of the weight that I had put on at college.

I also have the privilege to attend other classes taught by the school’s faculty, so long as attending doesn’t conflict with my job responsibilities. My favorite classes to attend are history and geography, and while I struggle to understand everything that’s said since it’s all in Russian, I genuinely enjoy watching the lectures.

At times, teaching at the school has been challenging. One of the biggest challenges is simply working with the students. From personal experience growing up, I know how boys between ages 10 and 17 can be difficult to work with. It’s even harder when they can simply speak a different language that one isn’t particularly fluent in. But the students’ preferences for activities and topics of conversation can change week to week, which forces me to stay up to date on as many topics as possible, such as European soccer or types of music. It’s hard to do but if I develop this ability, it will be valuable for life down the road, either as a TEFL instructor teaching my own class or if I change careers to some other field of communication.

Another big challenge I’ve had to tackle is how to work with and teach advanced grammar such as third and mixed conditionals. As native speakers of English, we never learned in school the different rules of why English works the way it does. Instead, we just learned what was right and what was wrong. We instinctively know the rules but it’s a challenge to explain why.

This was a challenge that confronted me fairly early on at Gorchakov as the textbook for our ninth graders is B2 level. At first, as a native speaker, I could simply say what was correct and what wasn’t correct and when the students asked why, I was stumped. Being lost for words and unable to answer a simple question about grammar in front of students is a very good motivator to do one’s best to learn the rules of grammar front-and-back for any given lesson. Since I’m relatively new to teaching English with just a year of true classroom experience, I’ve been using my head teacher for feedback on how to organize lesson plans and teach English grammar rules with simple explanations. Despite some occasional road bumps, my method is working for me.

Author's Note: Since writing this article, my position and responsibilities have subtly changed. Most of my work tasks and goals are the same, but I know work somewhat differently as the needs of my students and the school shift depending on a student's grade level. For example, the topic of 7th grade English club changed from Theater in English to the History of England. Please stay tuned to my blog for further details as the school year progresses.

For the full article, please click here.

TEFL Adventures: 5 Tips for Staging a Play Using English as a Foreign Language

 

For students to successfully learn a foreign language, they need to be interested and invested. Children love to watch movies and listen to music but these are passive forms of learning, which is why we try to teach students using games and small skits that make them speak and practice their language skills. Drama, if used correctly, is an additional useful method because it provides not just speaking practice, but experience organizing all parts of a play. Moreover, drama performances develop students’ teamwork, memorization skills and confidence with speaking a foreign language in front of others.

Although students need only memorize the words of their roles, the entire process from understanding their lines and pronouncing words correctly to blocking and costumes requires the students to interact with the teacher using English as the means of communication. Students, in order to be successful, must overcome their personal apprehensions regarding speaking a foreign language. Otherwise, how can they do it in front of an audience.

Last academic year, I helped with staging four school plays working with sixth graders. My tasks included, but were not limited to, writing the script, finding costumes and directing the final product. I want to share some of the things I’ve learned the easy way... and the hard way. So here are my five biggest tips I believe are the most crucial for executing a successful English language play designed for non-native speakers so that both the audience and the actors enjoy the final product.

SIMPLIFY THE LANGUAGE

This is probably a no-brainer for any EFL teacher. When we’re speaking with our students, we have to simplify our language to the level of our students so that they understand us. We can’t use advanced words like tenacious or phrases such as Portrayals of the main character’s gradual corruption were made through the changing manifestations of the portrait in Oliver Wilde’s masterpiece ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ unless we’re able to clearly explain the definitions of words or the rules behind sentence structures. Since a large part of theatrical performance depends on an actor’s self-confidence, the script should be kept to the student’s level.

Now, that doesn’t mean that new grammatical material can’t be introduced. I usually introduce some new words or simple phrases that relate to the topic. However, the entire script can’t be written as if a native English-speaking cast were performing it in front of a native-speaking audience.

The strategy I’ve adopted when I simplify is to first write the place like I imagine it. Once the plot, characters and pacing seem satisfactory, I go through the play sentence-by-sentence and simplify the reading level to suit my students’ abilities. I usually need to go through the play at least twice before I'm happy. Then I have my students read through the script and if they have problems with a certain section, I further edit the section in question.

You may be able to achieve this more efficiently than I did, but this is the method I used so that I would be with what I wrote.

CHOOSE AN EDUCATIONAL THEME

I learned the hard way that students’ want to have their opinions heard regarding what they'd like to perform. Our first two performances were fairly easy and straightforward. We decided to focus on holiday traditions in English speaking countries. The theme of our first play was England’s Bonfire Night and the second was the Nativity story. Our students and parents were pretty happy with the plays.

However, I ran into a wall when it came to deciding the third play. Due to some staff changes at the school, I found myself working alone on the playscript over winter break. Since I knew the students enjoyed Harry Potter a lot, I wrote a Harry Potter-themed play using some of the major characters from the series.

If you haven’t picked up on where I’m going with this, let’s just say the play idea flopped. After spending the initial month working with the script, the students eventually, to put it lightly, revolted. They wanted a topic that was more educational than Harry Potter while also fitting into our established theme of focusing on an important holiday. After scrambling back to the drawing board, in collaboration with the students, we settled on recognizing Easter.

The takeaway from this point is two-fold.

First, focus more on educational or cultural topics so that the students not only practice speaking but also acquire useful cultural and historical knowledge.

Second, don’t write a script based on popular novels or movies. Children have their own opinions about what characters would and wouldn’t do. Writing your own script with original characters will save a lot of heartache and disagreements. Maybe the only character you might be able to get away with writing your own story is Sherlock Holmes because of the lack of special effects and the, to put it frankly, quite 'elementary' plot structure.

INCORPORATE MUSIC WHEN APPROPRIATE

Music is your friend. Maybe not your 'best friend forever,' but that friend you would like to have a pumpkin-spiced latte at Starbucks with.

In other words, a lot can be done with music. For some plays, such as our Christmas one, we incorporated traditional songs into the script such as Silent Night or We Three Kings. Such songs were both culturally educational and enjoyable to sing.

Other times, playing quiet background music can help maintain the energy in a play while students deliver their lines. There’s nothing more disconcerting for a young actor than to forget a line and be confronted with sheer silence. Having some quiet background music helps alleviate some of that pressure.

And finally, music can signal transitions, reminding students when a scene is over and when a scene begins to start. In my case, I quietly play background music while action is happening, but when there’s a transition, I turn the volume loud so that students know something something big is about to happen. Then when the action restarts, I turn the volume down.

PROVIDE SUBTITLES FOR THE AUDIENCE

Parents and teachers come to watch their students perform in these plays. But most, if not all, don’t speak or understand English very well. Having a simple projector and PowerPoint presentation that provide either a line-by-line translation or a general description of the occurring action is incredibly useful for the audience.

If you’re not fluent in the country’s language, have either a colleague, friend or even your students help you translate, because google translate does make mistakes. I know I’m far from the best at Russian. I can maintain some conversations but I can't accurately convey the history of Easter without numerous grammatical mistakes. Instead, I ask my stronger students to help me with translating before having my colleague double-check their translations.

FINISH WITH A WRAP-UP ACTIVITY

And finally, after weeks of staging, rehearsing and agony, the performance begins and ends within 15-20 minutes. By now, the audience has applauded the performance of your students and is in the process of leaving.

You have three possible options.

First, you can do absolutely nothing. While not necessarily bad, it’s also not necessarily good. Worse, there’s no reinforcement of the material that was presented in the play, so how do you know whether the audience understood what happened. Still, you can simply choose to do nothing and relax knowing you’ve accomplished your primary objective. I doubt anyone will complain.

Second, you can direct the audience and performers to a social meeting area where food is being prepared. Depending on the season, this could range from an outside barbecue to an indoor social with baked goods and drinks.

Third, and probably the best choice, immediately after the play, organize a short game-show quiz with 7-10 questions and small prizes like bars of chocolates. Questions should be given in both English and the primary language so that everyone can participate (here’s where you can have students ask the questions in both languages).

I personally try to end with a mix of the second and third options. People love food and people love prizes, so ending with plenty of food with some educational reinforcing is a no-lose strategy… so long as you don’t burn the food.

Author's Note:

I originally wrote this post as an alumni article for the International TEFL Academy and submitted it in May 2015. I have since updated some of the wording in order to reflect some of my experiences that occurred after I had submitted the article.

One more note, since this post is going active on September 11th, in remembrance of the events that happened on September 11th, 2001, here's a picture of the 9/11 memorial I took when I visited New York City.

It still remains probably the most beautiful monument I've ever seen and experienced. Hopefully such a tragedy doesn't happen again.

TEFL Adventures: Journey to the Edge of Russia (Also Known as Vyborg)

By the time this blog goes live, I'll actually be in Crimea. I'm currently with some of my students as they travel around Crimea on an educational study trip, and my role is the same as usual - create a foreign language environment so that they may improve their English skills and teach the occasional 30-minute English lesson. Once I get back to St. Petersburg, I'll make sure to let you know what Crimea was like, as well as show some pictures.

Since I'm traveling at the moment, I figured I'd share some details about my trip to Vyborg last month.

Vyborg, if you haven't heard of it before, is a Russian town that's 24 miles away from the border of Finland. To get there, it took 282 rubles and a 2.5 hour train ride from Finlandsky Vokzal (Finland Train Station). It's not particularly hard to get there, but since almost everything in Vyborg can be seen in a day, one must get up slightly earlier in the morning.

Located in the part of Russia known as Karelia, the town itself has changed hands numerous times throughout the past 300 years. Originally founded as a Swedish city, it was conquered by Peter the Great in 1710 and became Russian for a time. Vyborg, also known as Viipuri in FInnish, remained part of the Russian empire until 1917 when the empire collapsed and Finland declared independence. For the next 23 years, the town remained under the control of Finland and was the second largest Finnish city until the Winter War which saw Vyborg get annexed into the Soviet Union.

Finland didn't want to relinquish the city for good, so when Germany launched its offensive against the Soviet Union, Finland joined the side of Germany and proceeded to retake the territories it lost during the Winter War. Thus from 1941 to 1944, the town was reunited with Finland until the Soviet Union launched its counteroffensive. During September 1944, the town became Russian for the third and final time, and in 1947, Finland relinquished all claims to the area of Vyborg.

Apart from being highly contested over, another claim to fame for Vyborg is that Vladimir Lenin, leader of the Russian revolution, spent a couple weeks in Vyborg making preparations for the Bolshevik uprising.

Vyborg Castle

As I mentioned before, the town is fairly compact and most of its major landmarks can be seen within a day. It's most popular one is probably Vyborg Castle, which is situated on a small island in the middle of the river. Built by the Swedish in the 1290s, it now functions as a museum and people are able to climb up the castle to the dome area to get a view of the city. Luckily, when I went, it was fairly warm and mostly sunny, which is probably the ideal weather for this.

View from Vyborg Castle

Another major location that is also kind of cool is Vyborg Cathedral. However, whereas the famous Kazan and St. Isaac's Cathedrals in St. Petersburg are impressive to look at and walk inside, Vyborg cathedral is, well..., non-existent except for a couple walls. 

Vyborg Cathedral

I googled some old images of Vyborg Cathedral and it looked like a pleasant enough Lutheran church. However, the building was destroyed when the Soviet Union retook Vyborg in 1944. It lived a very short life considering it was built in 1893.

Vyborg is a city that isn't quite Russian but it's also not quite European. Walking through the town, certain roads are more cobblestone than paved asphalt, which, combined with the yellow-ish color of many houses, inspires thoughts of Tuscany, Italy or other European towns. Unfortunately, many buildings are in need of repairs in some way, but due to the town's small population and the country's economic crisis, it doesn't seem like there will be enough money to fix these places. And in times of crisis, people leave small towns for major cities, so from what I saw, Vyborg might be a slowly-dying European town.

Peter's Park

Continuing a bit farther away from the castle and the main center of the city, there were several parks. The main one I found was Peter's Park (named after Peter the Great). There's not too much there aside from some walls but it was still a pleasant walk. My mind might have imagined the location as being excellent for a scene in a war movie.

There are many more places to visit in Vyborg. There is a building built on a giant rock right next to the cathedral. Additionally, there's a short round tower that's also a restaurant. And the view of the river? It's fantastic. If I weren't trying to walk around to see all the different sites to see in Vyborg, I might have been happy enough with a simple picnic under the warm sun looking out into the bay.

The main detractor I found with Vyborg is that there didn't seem to be any attractive cafes that were relatively inexpensive. In addition to the snacks I brought with me, my main meal in town was a burger joint called "Hesburger." If you aren't familiar with Hesburger, it's, for all intents and purposes, the same as McDonalds or Burger King. The food was slightly better quality but nothing special. I still prefer Wendy's or Carl's Jr. as my fast food restaurant of choice. The problem is I still haven't seen Wendy's here in Russia, and Carl's Jr. is only starting to reopen its restaurants after having shut them down in January.