Cactus reveals the winner of the 2011 Cactus-to-Conference IATEFL Scholarship

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Cactus is very pleased to announce that Camilla Heath is the lucky winner of the 2011 Cactus-to-Conference IATEFL Scholarship.  Camilla’s scholarship entry was the clear winner out of the dozens submitted and she’ll now get the opportunity to attend the conference next year, become an IATEFL member and promote her teaching career.

The Cactus-to-Conference Scholarship was created in 2009 to enable one new EFL teacher the opportunity to become a member of IATEFL (the International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language), and to attend the yearly conference.  While all EFL teachers are eligible for IATEFL membership, in reality it’s not something that a newly qualified teacher can afford, so Cactus’ scholarship offers a unique opportunity to network and gain greater knowledge about the ELT profession.

Scholarship entrants this year were asked to draft a short article about their experiences of their best lesson.  Camilla’s winning description of a particularly good day at work caught the judges’ attention and explained concisely the hugely rewarding aspects of the job.

My Best Lesson

My best lesson still makes me smile if I think about it: it is absolutely necessary to remember the good times in order to counteract the bad ones! At the end of the lesson, I smiled at my learners and the whole class – all thirty of them – grinned back at me: we had all learnt something during the 150-minute lesson.

I had decided to make a role-play game to get the whole class speaking English together. Every learner had received a character card from me with their new name on it and the details that they would need in order to find a partner in the class. I had organised the class so that the desks were in twos and facing each other. On my desk I had a bell which I would ring at regular intervals to get the learners to move seats if they had not found a partner and look for a new one using their personal character cards.

My learners are between 14 and 15 years old who all have artistic talent and are accepted into the school on the assumption that they will go on to do something creative in their lives. The school is a Co-Ed Montessori school in Amsterdam that was founded in the 1960’s and is unique in its approach to learners and education.

The class came into the ramshackle Portakabin room and sat at their desks, grumbling about the arrangement as they were all out of their comfort zones. On the desks were their cards that they all immediately picked up and started reading. The characters are all very varied in every respect from age to profession to likes or dislikes. Some of the learners asked me how they were supposed to get into a character who was 104 years old and blind or a five-year old. I said that if they met the right person, it would probably be automatic. I explained the ‘speed-dating’ idea and gave them two minutes to sit at a table and talk to the person opposite to see if there was a match or not.

After ringing the bell to signal the swapping around of learners, I realised two things. Everyone one of the children was speaking animated English – trying to find their partner – and that some of the learners had already paired up. I interviewed the already formed couples and asked them why they liked each other so much. The answers that came back were varied: liking the same food was important or having the same pastimes but mainly because they literally spoke the same language – they communicated enough to be able to find out about each other.

At the end of the lesson, we talked about what had worked. The learners said that they enjoyed being able to use the language that they already had learned and I saw the one thing that they really wanted to do – socially interact.

If you are interested in being considered for future Cactus-to-Conference Scholarships, please find more information here: https://www.iatefl.org/scholarships/cactus-to-conference

The advantages of using a language training company for your language learning needs

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Here are some of the reasons why:

Flexibility and convenience

Language training companies can provide a huge variety of options when it comes to the format, frequency and focus of your lessons. They will discuss with you what you hope to achieve from the lessons, the time available, the levels of the potential students, and most importantly, your budget. Before the lessons begin, the language level and needs of the students will be assessed to ensure that the lessons are suitable and relevant to them.

The lessons might be delivered in your offices, online, over the phone, at the language training company, or even in the homes of individual members of your staff – whichever is most convenient. Some language training companies also have centres in other countries where students can be immersed in the language they’re studying, which is the most effective way to learn a language.

Specialist focus

The lessons can focus on teaching the language for particular areas relevant to your business, or can aim to raise general language proficiency. They are often asked to do this in a short space of time and do their best to fit as much into the lessons as possible. The lessons may also incorporate advice on business etiquette and other aspects of culture, or they may focus specifically on cultural training, which is very useful for staff who will be making regular visits to another country, or who are planning to relocate there.

Some language training companies create tailor-made language learning materials for individual companies in the form of textbooks, CDs, CD-ROMs and/or DVD. These might be designed for use in the lessons or for self-study. Detailed reports on the students’ progress are usually provided, and students can also be prepared for language proficiency exams.

Diverse range of languages and native-speaker teachers

Language training companies can usually arrange lessons in a wide range of languages, and with sufficient notice may be able to find tutors for just about any language. At training companies like Cactus, you can be sure that all tutors are native-speakers of the language they teach, and also that they are experienced and proficient at what they do. In fact, Cactus has a dedicated Academic Department to deal with teacher recruitment – expressly to ensure that this is the case.

Good return on investment

As this type of language training is very focused and designed to meet specific needs and abilities, it is often more effective than conventional lessons in language schools. It can also work out less expensive – particularly if tuition is provided for small groups of employees.

More about tailor-made language training with Cactus

Cactus announces winner of 2010 Suzanne Furstner Foundation Scholarship

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Introduced in 2007 in memory of a friend and colleague who was tragically lost in a road accident, the Suzanne Furstner Foundation supports language and educational training across the world. Every year since its introduction, the foundation has funded a scholarship enabling one budding TEFL teacher to take a training course to help them on their way.

The TEFL course has been offered in a different place each year – firstly in Spain, then in Mexico, last year in Italy and this year in fantastic San Francisco.

All scholarship applicants are assigned a task, involving both a language awareness exercise and some creative writing based around the TEFL course destination. This year, the standard of entries was as high as ever, and Simon fought off some stiff competition to take the top spot. His piece was not only original, it was also interesting, funny and engaging. We are sure that his linguistic creativity will help him become a fine TEFL teacher, and wish him luck with his CELTA course in San Francisco.

Congratulations Simon!

Here is his winning entry in full for you to enjoy.

San Francisco – A Flyway

“Only one is a wanderer. Two together are always going somewhere.”; Not an endorsement for bilingualism, but a voice reverberating around a council house living room in West Suffolk. A nine year old boy watches a woman, on a knackered eighties model television, confess her love on a San Franciscan street in Alfred Hitchock’s Vertigo. I’d been aware of San Francisco from a young age for a few reasons, in part due to my mother who was an ex-hippie, then living what she now refers to as a “conformed life” (she now resides in a mobile home in Norfolk). She’d often muse about being a little older so she could have been there in San Francisco during the Summer of Love. Then there was my Grandmother, a force of nature that would pass through our home regularly, often talking about her “women’s problems” – how she was constantly hot because the birth of my mother had forever altered her blood flow, and how ever since her menopause she’d been even hotter. A doctor had told her that the cool, sunny San Franciscan climate would be perfect for her condition, especially during the foggy summers; “No more sweat’n over noth’n” she’d say in a broad East Anglian accent. Then there was my Great Grandmother, who used to make us watch these old films in the first place, especially the detective ones. Two of her favourites – The Maltese Falcon and Vertigo both acquainted me with Golden Gate City. She’d routinely have an afternoon sherry or three, doze off and leave me and my brother in the company of Sam Spade as he chased crooks around the Bay Area. Four generations under one roof, every Sunday. Perhaps it was these early screen impressions, the white streets and cable cars, or later interests in counterculture and San Fran Beat poetry that fuelled my wanderlust for California. More likely, was that the West coast sunshine and salty air of the Pacific seemed, and still does, like the antidote to low grey skies, English cynicism and the monotony of working class life. I’m perfectly aware this is probably an invented hyperreality. I’m also conscious of the fact the grass isn’t always greener, and that the voyage to enlightenment is internal, I Ching and so forth – I don’t care, I want to fly.

My relationship with language is more experiential and personal. I was born in Puglia, Italy to a very young English mother and an Italian father. After an illicit but passionate romance between the two of them that ended with the same posthaste and irrationality with which it began, I was back in England with my mother. I saw my father sporadically, and our early time spent was tender if not rather comical. I didn’t speak Italian, as my mother refused to teach me on principle, and although a man of good nature, my father was a labourer from south Italy – languages were not his strong point. Our quiet time together was filled with physical gestures and decipherment, not dissimilar to silent-era Laurel and Hardy sketches. Although I gradually began to understand the regular questions; “Inglese mangiano questo?” (English people eat that?), “Quando viene in Italia?” (When are you coming to Italy?), and “Chi era quell’uomo a casa?” (Who was that man at your Mum’s house?) it was thanks to the later summers spent in Italy with my colossal paternal family that I learnt Italian. I remember all the phases of learning vividly, especially the early impatience and frustration of not being able to express myself coherently – particularly to my father, for whom I had so many questions. (Fret not prospective pupil, for the routine banging of one’s head in vexation upon hard surfaces is not an action this TEFL teacher is unaccustomed to.) Yet after nine years of seasonal holidays, I was finally able to confidently speak Italian. Thereafter I spent more time with the people and the Adriatic region I love. By which time ironically, the questions I had always wanted to ask my father had lost importance. Learning Italian taught me the unifying potential of language, and its ability to open up new worlds.

I was on a knee-crushing economy flight back from Puglia last summer when I was seated next to a Lecturer from the Università di Bari. We exchanged pleasantries before, seeing as I’m English, the inevitable topic of language arose. The gentleman expounded enthusiastically on the importance of French philosopher Jaques Lacan – He rhapsodised on Lacan’s theory that language was our world, how it dictated our thoughts and actions fundamentally and how the two axes of language; substation and displacement – correspond to the working of the unconscious; “It is the world of words that creates the world of things”. What I found most fascinatingwas the idea that when we have feelings or thoughts that are indescribable linguistically, it’s because we have transcended these mental barriers. When learning Italian, what struck me the most was the words and phrases that didn’t have a precise English translation – I couldn’t truly capture what I wanted to express. More interestingly, was the fact I was able to understand these expressions in Italian to begin with. So here’s my own theory; if by learning another language, one can think in another language and adopt more dimensions of expression, thereby dissolving more of these mental barriers semiotically, then one can expand the understanding of one’s own mind and one’s own reality. I find the idea of being a part of such a process by teaching a language to someone indescribable. (Pompous theorising over)

What is describable is my current situation. I’m approaching twenty-five and my feet are itching. University is over, I’m flat broke, and I’m standing at a fork in the road. So like my Nonna Lucia used to say while watching the indigenti from her balcony; “If you don’t have money in your pocket, you better have honey in your mouth.” Hopefully my words here have been sweet enough. A TEFL course could certainly make them sweeter, and provide enough nectar for those I teach to make their words sweeter still. Brazen desire and optimism maybe all I have to offer, but I am ready. Like the the Shorebirds that migrate to the Sacramento Valley and tidal marshes of San Francisco every autumn, I want to fly, if only for a month, to the City By The Bay. To quote a great San Franciscan poet;

Say it, say a new joy,

a fresh start, a new body.

Longing in the heart

too stark

to be denied!

Cactus uses a so-called ‘full immersion’ method of teaching. What are the benefits of this?

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What is Full Immersion?

Full immersion in language learning refers to the foreign language (the ‘target’ language) being taught in that language, with no other language being used during the teaching. It is the preferred method for Cactus’ teachers, and is also used amongst Cactus’ partner schools abroad.

We could say that it is learning a foreign language the same way we learned our native language: by ‘living’ it. The student doesn’t only study the language – they live it, in an exclusively target-language speaking environment: the classroom. A well designed, full immersion course can surround students in the language, giving them opportunities to speak and hear it and, most importantly, teach them not to depend on translation for understanding.

Where did Full Immersion originate?

Full Immersion is originally a teaching method where non-language curriculum subjects, such as history, art or science, are taught in a foreign language. The foreign language is learnt alongside the non-language subjects. The first full immersion programmes, in French, began in the USA and Canada in the 1950s and 1960s.

The approach has been found to be successful in language teaching, with students showing better progress, learning more, and more quickly.

How do teachers use the Full Immersion approach?

Good teachers are able to make themselves understood without using the students’ language, even at Beginner level. They use gestures, pictures, objects, dialogues and other means of getting the message across. And they always teach ‘in context’. Students know from the context what is likely to be said – there are only so many variations on what people say to each other in a restaurant, in a shop, at a party and so on. So students already understand what would be said in that context in their own language and are then receptive to learning the target language forms. As the level advances, simple explanation is effective in helping to get meaning across, as long as it is within the range of what the students can comprehend.

Right from the beginning, target ‘classroom language’ is used, ‘open your books’, ‘I’ll write it on the board’, ‘what’s the word for x’, and so on, and students can then generalise their understanding of much useful language in this context over to new contexts.

Teachers will move from a more controlled method of teaching to free practice during the class, so that students feel supported when they start to learn new grammar and lexis. As they become more familiar with it the teacher will give less and less reinforcement, so that by the end they are able to ‘do it alone’. Rather like riding a bicycle and taking off the training wheels, improvement is smooth and progressive.

What is the student’s role?

Sometimes it’s difficult for people who are new to the method to understand how it works – particularly with beginner learners. It’s ideal if the students are aware beforehand of what to expect. However, even if students don’t know what to expect, a good teacher will make it easy for them by teaching from Day 1 through means that make the meaning clear. Students have to work hard. It is so easy to freeze and panic and think they will never understand. A good teacher knows this and helps by encouragement and demonstration and example. Importantly, students need to go over what was covered in class immediately after the class and again the evening before the next class: this revision is essential to make it stick. And students should always ask teachers if, after putting in some effort, they still don’t understand.

Students should be prepared to speak up and take risks and not be afraid to get it wrong; students should just say whatever seems ‘right’, and keep trying: they will learn from their own and their classmates’ mistakes, along with judicious correction from the teacher.

Is learning through Full Immersion similar to how we learnt our own language?

Although there are differences between the way we learn our own language as a child, and the way we learn a second or subsequent language as an adult, there are many similarities, and immersion learning exploits these similarities. Hearing and seeing language in context, simple listening and repeating, and trying things out and receiving feedback are features common to learning our first language and learning a second language in an immersion setting.

The secret is to ‘train’ yourself to ‘think’ in the target language, and to resort to translation as little as possible. Initially, students think in their own language, translating somewhere between the thought and the spoken word, until eventually there comes a point where suddenly the thinking is happening in the new language – (and even, some say, the dreaming! )

On the other hand, translation is in fact a natural resort for students when they are trying to fully understand a word or phrase in a foreign language. If used deliberately and appropriately and in moderation by the teacher, translation can be very useful in the language learning process. It’s a question of balance.

What about learning the culture of the target language country?

Ideally, full immersion would mean full contact with the culture too, such as may be experienced in the target language country. However, students don’t have to go abroad to experience the target language culture. In a good class, the student will learn much more than just grammar, sentence structure and vocabulary, also getting a good idea of the history, culture and sociological aspects of the target culture. At Cactus we take the view that the teacher is the student’s connection with the culture, and the classroom is the world of the target language for the learner. Class time is short, so this language world needs to make the most of all the time available to surround the student in the language: to fully immerse them.

What are the advantages of Full Immersion, in a nutshell?

There are many advantages to learning in this way, but the main benefits of the Full Immersion approach are:

1.  You learn faster! Once used to the method, you should pick up pieces of vocabulary more naturally and quickly.

2.  You learn to speak more naturally. This method trains you to think in the target language, not translate word for word.

3.  You’ll have the confidence to use what you have learned. Because you are ‘living’ the language in the classroom, you will be better prepared to use it in ‘real’ scenarios.

4.  You will understand the spoken language. Because you are used to hearing the language spoken, you will be able to understand it in real-life situations.

5.  You develop good pronunciation. You get maximum exposure to the language and are encouraged you to use it, helping you to develop speech patterns and pronunciation.

6. You gain a cultural insight into the language and the people who speak it.

7.  It’s fun! You will be using the new language straight away, which is a lot more motivating, engaging and fun than studying language theory.

Cactus offers a range of part-time language courses in locations around the UK and North America. We also work with language schools all over the world to provide language courses at a range of levels, lengths and formats. For anyone interested in a more bespoke type of training course, we also offer tailor-made and corporate language training options all over the world.