TEFL News

Have You Measured Your Students’ Heschl’s Gyrus-es lately?

If not, maybe you should, because according to scientists at Northwestern University, the size of a person’s Heschl’s Gyrus (the left one, apparently) can predict how successful a language learner the person will be.

Using an MRI - it’s a part of the brain! - researchers measured the size of the Heschl’s Gyrus of several subjects. The subjects were then taught six one-syllable sounds, each “repeated” at a total of three different tones, for a total of 18 “words”. Each “new” word was associated with an English word or meaning. Those with larger Heschel’s Gyrus-es did in fact remember better, and more quickly:

“As a group - and sometimes in fewer than two or three sessions — the nine participants predicted on the basis of left HG size to be “more successful learners” achieved an average of 97 percent accuracy in identifying the pseudo words. The “less successful” participants averaged 63 percent accuracy and sometimes required as many as 18 training sessions to correctly identify the words.”

Ouch.

Date: August 5th, 2007 | No Comments

Emerging Trend: English For Sex Work Purposes

Get ready for a new type of English for very special purposes in London: according to the Guardian Education section, there is now class which offers sex workers, many of whom are immigrants, the opportunity to learn a range functional language useful in their profession. (TESall.com spotted this gem of an article before I did.) Not unsurprisingly, many sex workers face exploitation by bosses and clients and may be at a disadvantage in various negotiations.

The Guardian interviewed “Alice”, who is an ad hoc English teacher, a sex worker and also a post-graduate student (in post-colonial theory no less!). The idea to organize classes occurred to her when she herself was selling sex and realized that “some of the migrant women she worked alongside, both those in debt bondage and those working independently, were unable to talk their way out of sex acts they did not want to perform” or to insist that, for example, the client use a condom. She sometimes ended up giving impromptu English lessons as they all waited for bookings.

I have to say I find this extremely bizarre. There is something undeniably humorous about imaging an EFL class to improve the negotiating skills of sex workers, but I do think there is a serious side to it which should not be ignored.

Date: July 30th, 2007 | No Comments

Innovative Language Learning Center In The US

Wayne Parks is a veteran firefighter from Fairfield, Connecticut…but not a typical one. Why? He recently segued into running a non-profit language learning center, primarily because he noticed that in his original field of work – construction – there was a dearth of qualified native English speaking workers but an abundance of qualified workers who don’t yet speak the language. And these non-English speaking workers frequently end up being taken advantage of specifically because of that.

“Where a native English speaker might know and demand his or her rights, Parks has seen immigrants with little or no command of the English language work far more hours and under much worse conditions than is customary.” This of course makes it hard to get ahead; as most people realize, learning English in the US tends to make your life easier and in many ways better.

The idea of Parks’ Quick Start Language Center is simple: a room full of computers loaded with language learning programs (for various languages, not just English). It is on a bus line, it is open nights and weekends, and no appointment is required, which means it is super-accessible to most interested language learners. Parks reports that about three dozen people are regulars on a weekly basis.

It costs him approximately $5000 per month to run, and he is hoping to find a grant writer and perhaps some additional volunteers in the near future – right now his children, one 15 and one 19, help out. The reasons he gives for doing it? The users are grateful and reap obvious benefits in their day to day lives, and more importantly, “Communication is key,” he said. “If we’re not communicating, we’re not resolving anything.”

Date: July 27th, 2007 | No Comments

Can You Walk A Mile In Someone Else’s Shoes?

Your ability to see things from different perspectives may make you “un-American.”

Of course for many, especially those who are not American to begin with, this is not really a problem. Those who can realize my intro is a bit over-dramatic and designed to get attention may be interested in reading about recent research which attempted to learn more about the ability to put oneself in the shoes of another, which is, incidentally, a cornerstone of TEFL in my book.

In a recent study, researchers compared Chinese and US subjects. Each individually got instructions as to how to move a block in front of them. In fact, there were two blocks in front of them, but it was clear to the subjects from the set up that the instruction-giver could not see the second cube. Still, Americans tended to get confused more often and took longer to respond than Chinese. The researchers drew some different conclusions about the reasons for this, one of which was basically “it’s harder for them to see things from the instruction-giver’s perspective.”

Date: July 26th, 2007 | No Comments

Around The Web On TEFL: July 22

Immigrants who are nurses in their home countries take classes to improve their English in the US.

The English divide in Korea, put into terms of how much fluent English improves job prospectives.

An English language plan for immigrants in Ireland unveiled.

The debate over English as the medium of instruction in the Philippines continues.

Students from different countries and religions work together in a two-week NGO-arranged English language program in the UK.

New English language training mobile game launched…no Cockney here!

Date: July 22nd, 2007 | 2 comments