Emily Bryson ELT

English as a lingua france

A visual template by Emily Bryson ELT.A hand drawn sign post in the shape of an arrow facing right, to signify the future. Inside there is space for students or participants to add their ideas: a thought cloud with stars to add dreams and ambitions, a target to add goals and five arrows to add mini-goals or tasks to complete to achieve those goals. This is taken from Emily's resource pack Pathways to Success. Available on her website www.EmilyBrysonELT.com

A graphic for goal setting.

At the beginning of the year, I find it helpful to think about my goals and ambitions for the year ahead. There’s tons of research out there showing that if you write down clear goals, you’re more likely to achieve them. Even more so if you actually draw them.

I created this visual template to help this process. You can use it for you, or with your classes. Write on the .jpg provided or draw your own. I recommend the latter as it will be more fun!

In the section with the target, add one goal for each arrow. Consider different aspects of life, e.g. family & friends, personal development, work, health, money, etc. Be mindful that goals should be flexible and acheivable. I often find my goals change with time.

The thought bubble with stars represents dreams or aspirational goals. These can be things that you or your participants don’t have as much chance to influence. For example, one of my aspirational goals is to visit friends in Spain in the summer, but this is covid dependent.

In class, once students have completed or drawn their own goals, ask them to share their goals and discuss how they might achieve them. You could use language such as ‘I want to..’, ‘I’d like to…’, ‘I hope to…’, ‘It’s my dream to…’, ‘I’d love it if,…’, ‘I’m going to…’, ‘I plan to…’, ‘I will…’ etc, depending on their level. Draw attention to any emergent language.

If you like this, you’ll love Pathways to Success: Visual Tools for Goal-Setting, Self-Evaluation and Progression.  In it, you’ll find sixteen visual tools to use, re-use, adapt and repurpose with students, teams, individuals and even to help you plan your own big goals. 

To try before you buy, check out this webinar (start about 7 mins in to skip the intro! 

 

A graphic for goal setting. Read More »

It’s not a snowman! It’s not a Christmas tree either!

I got this idea from twitter. I was browsing and noticed the hashtag #NotAGingerBreadMan.

Students are given what looks like half a gingerbread man, and asked to colour it in and draw something else with it. If you search for this hashtag, you’ll see all sorts of cool creations – faces, dinosaurs, cats, football players.

This is a festive take on the original. You can go full Christmas spirit with the Santa, Christmas tree and stocking. Or you can opt for a more wintery vibe with the bell, candle, snowman and big cosy sock!

Ask students to turn the image around a few times and discuss ideas with a partner. Then give them time to draw or colour in their creations. Once they’ve finished, I’d display them around the room and ask students to explain what they drew and why.

For example, the Christmas tree might be a hedgehog if turned on its side.

OR

The candle might a train coming out of a tunnel.

It’s a great way to get students using their imaginations and their language skills to share their ideas.

Click this link to download the PDF.

I’d love to see your work. If you do this with your class, or by yourself just for fun, share your work using #DrawingELT and tag @EmilyBrysonELT. It would make my day!

Love this idea? I have literally tons of super-simple ways to use hand drawn graphics in the ELT classroom. Why not do one of my courses? I always have something exciting on the go!

Click the laptop icon below to view my courses.

It’s not a snowman! It’s not a Christmas tree either! Read More »

#DrawingELT seasons

Feel the fear, and draw anyway! Launching #drawingELT!

It is with great excitement that Clare Catchpole (of Express Yourself in English fame) and I launch the hashtag #drawingELT.

We are both firm believers in the power of drawing. It’s creative. It’s relaxing. It’s engaging. It’s supportive. It’s fun. It’s also great for checking understanding, aiding memory, supporting students to take notes and activating life skills such as critical thinking.

#DrawingELT seasons

 

We know that there are many teachers out there who agree and who would like to develop their drawing skills. So we’d like to create a community of like-minded ELT professionals. All you need to do is use #drawingELT on Twitter or LinkedIn to share your lesson ideas, blogs, doodles, sketches and flashcards.

To inspire your drawings, we’ll post challenges. These will vary from ELT related topics, to vocabulary items to more complex concepts like grammar, metaphor or puzzlers such as how to draw inclusive pronouns or the difference between need and want. 

And before you say it, everyone CAN DRAW. Some of us are maybe just a bit rusty or haven’t had much practice. Drawing is a visual language, and as language teaching professionals we all know the best way to improve is regular practice. I have two mottos:

Feel the fear, and draw anyway!

It’s not art, it’s communication. 

As such, with #drawingELT, anything goes. You can share the most rudimentary stick person scribbled on the back of a napkin or a detailed illustration capable of making Da Vinci jealous. Mine will be closer to the former!

Here’s a fantastic little .gif that Clare made to get you in the mood!

 

Clare Catchpole Drawing ELT

I look forward to seeing your creations!

If you’d like to brush up on your drawing skills, why not join one of my online courses? Find out more by clicking the laptop. 

Feel the fear, and draw anyway! Launching #drawingELT! Read More »

Emily Bryson sketchnote from Innovate online conference 2021 Tyson Seburn plenary session

Sketchnotes from Innovate ’21 (day 2)

I’ll start this post by saying what a well organised and inspiring conference Innovate is! I’ve wanted to go for many years, but have never been able to travel during term time to Barcelona. So when I saw that it was online this year, I got my session proposal in straight away.

One of the best things about the conference is that it’s just the right size. There were four sessions to choose from with each timeslot, which offered choice without overwhelming and it was easy to network in the Zoom garden.

On Saturday morning, I woke pondering the run scheduled in my marathon training plan or Fiona Mauchline’s session. The memory of how great Fiona’s previous sessions have been aided my choice. That, plus it was all about the senses. It sounded brilliant. And it was. Here’s my sketchnote:

Fiona Mauchline Innovate 2021 session. Sketchnote by Emily Bryson ELT

I took a few hours off in the afternoon to feel guilty about my run (but not actually do it) and add a few drawings to my own session on Engaging Learners Online with Simple Drawings. Sandy Millin did me the wonderful service of taking these wonderfully detailed notes, if you’d like a summary. Thanks, Sandy!

After my session, I couldn’t miss Tyson Seburn’s plenary. It’s amazing how much equality and diversity advice he squeezed into 15 mins! Using the metaphor of a dirty river, he explored the journey ELT has taken. Our metaphorical river is flowing in a cleaner direction now than before but we still have a lot of work to do before ELT Footprinters would deem it ecologically safe! I especially loved his reference to the ELT ‘coursebook closet’. A term coined by Scott Thornbury. Here’s my sketchnotes:

Emily Bryson sketchnote from Innovate online conference 2021 Tyson Seburn plenary session

If you’d like to learn how to sketchnote or use simple doodles to communicate, why not join one of my online courses? You can find information by clicking the laptop or join my mailing list to hear about the next dates.

Emily Bryson ELT. Engaging Learners with Simple Drawings. Graphic Facilitation for English Language Teaching Professionals. Online Course. Group Programme. Simple drawing of a laptop with the text 'online course'.

Sketchnotes from Innovate ’21 (day 2) Read More »

#ELTCanDoEco Innovate 2021 session by Katherine Bilsborough and Ceri Jones. Sketcnoted by Emily Bryson ELT

Sketchnotes from Innovate 21 (Day 1)

Today I’ve had the good fortune to attend some amazing sessions at Innovate Online 2021. Four hours on Zoom can take its toll but sketchnoting helped me stay focused and avoid the many distractions that my computer has on offer.

As these are a visual record and summary of the talks, I’ll leave this as a visual post.

Enjoy!

#ELTCanDoEco Innovate 2021 session by Katherine Bilsborough and Ceri Jones. Sketcnoted by Emily Bryson ELT

Katherine Bilsborough and Ceri Jones discussed all things Ecoliteracy.

Emily Bryson ELT sketchnote of Harry Waters at Innovate 2021

Harry Waters gives advice on Becoming a Lean Green Teaching Machine!

Nergiz Kern Virtual Reality in ELT. Sketchnote by Emily Bryson ELT.

Nergiz Kern brought Environmental Topics to Life with Virtual Reality.

Tetiana Myronova Reflective Practice Toolkit Emily Bryson ELT sketchnotes

Tetiana Myronova introduced her super useful, super positive Reflective Practice Toolkit.

Do you ever use sketchnoting? I’d love to see your examples.

If you’d like to learn how to sketchnote or use simple doodles to communicate, why not join one of my online courses? You can find information by clicking the laptop or join my mailing list to hear about the next dates.

Sketchnotes from Innovate 21 (Day 1) Read More »

Is ELF still on the shelf?

In today’s world, 80% of communication in English occurs between speakers whose first language is not English. I live in Glasgow, Scotland, an English-speaking country and this is apparent even here. Sometimes I meet my friend at the local skate park where her kid likes to whizz around after school, and I’m always interested to hear the chatter between local mums. They speak in English, though they are from all over the world. Likewise, with the staff in most of the shops, restaurants and cafes in the area. While I was at university for the first time, I worked in a Mexican restaurant and communicated in English with people from Spain, Mexico, Brazil, Libya, France and Poland. And in class, my students communicate and make social connections with learners from Syria, Iran, China, Poland, Eritrea, El Salvador, et al.  

TEFL, or Teaching English as a Foreign Language, essentially refers to teaching English in a country where English is not the first language. It focuses on teaching English as a means to communicate with ‘native speakers’ of English and therefore uses ‘native speaker’ models in pronunciation and listening activities. It also may teach little tidbits of ‘culture’ from English speaking countries, like how everyone in Scotland eats deep fried Mars bars every day. Ok, that’s an exaggeration, but you get my point.  

TELF, or Teaching English as a Lingua Franca, is much more inclusive. Its focus is on being understood in international contexts. Rather than attempting to have students pronounce English words in a standard English or American accent, TELF embraces global English and focuses on being intelligible. It gives communication strategies for mutual understanding and considers cultures to be dynamic. The Accentricity podcast has a great episode on actors learning accents. Think of how many bad accents you’ve heard in films over the years. Learning a new accent is hard. Plus, I don’t have a standard English accent, and nor do I want one, so why should my students work so hard for something unnecessary and in many cases unattainable? TELF provides a range of model accents from around the world, supports students to explore their own pronunciation goals and aims for speakers to communicate successfully in international contexts.  

Help us get ELF off the shelf!

You may have noticed my use of quotation marks in ‘culture’ and ‘native speaker’ above. My reason for doing so is to consider what is ‘culture’ and who is a ‘native speaker’? Let’s look at culture first. When people think of culture, they may think of how a group of people do things – their beliefs, religion, music, art, food, social norms, etc. But the danger there is getting mixed up in stereotypes.  Every group, and sub-group is different and unique. For example, I am Scottish, but I don’t wear tartan, listen to bagpipes or eat haggis every day (though I do enjoy each on occasion). Culture is not merely related to nationality but also related to organisations, cities, groups of friends and families, etc.  People act differently in different situations. For example, do you behave the same way around close friends as you do colleagues? Communicating effectively with someone from another ‘culture’ is therefore a negotiation. It takes understanding, patience and adaptability from everyone involved and can’t be learned as sets of rules.

Now, let’s look at ‘native speakers’. Alan Davies defined ‘native speaker’ proficiency as early childhood acquisition, grammatical intuition, fluency, creativity in writing, ability to translate into L1 and creative communication. My Polish friend moved to Ireland when she was 16, speaks with an Irish twang, uses better grammar than her Irish other half, is fluent, creative, can translate, has completed a Master’s Degree at Belfast University and can use slang Scots, Irish and English words as she’s lived all over the UK. So, by Davies’ definition, and through her proficiency in English, she’s a native speaker. Though because she was born in Poland, many people may consider her to be a ‘non-native speaker’. 

There are five times as many ‘non-native English Speakers’ in the world as ‘native’ English speakers. By teaching ELF, we can teach our students how to communicate with all English users intelligibly. It is an inclusive way to teach as all accents and cultures are embraced.  

I speak English with a Scottish accent, and I have always felt that my accent just wasn’t ‘correct’ when it came to teaching pronunciation. Whilst doing my DipTESOL, I’d look at transcriptions of words whilst thinking ‘This isn’t how I say it.’, but Adrian Underhill’s table is focused on RP, so doesn’t use some of the sounds I use. When I’d notice the pronunciation focus in a coursebook lesson was /u:/ or /ʊ/ my heart would sink and I’d think ‘Great – boot and bull. But they’re the same sound?!’ Then I’d dutifully play the audio, use my accent as a comparison, and have a class full of very confused students wondering how they’ll ever learn English ‘properly’ in Scotland.  

But since I’ve discovered the wonderful world of TELF, this is no longer the case. I feel liberated!

In TELF, vowel quality is not so important, as long as students get the vowel length right. So students should aim to say blue or shoe with a long vowel as close to /u/ as they can, and sugar and woman with a shorter vowel similar to /u/. If they say it intelligibly, that’s all that matters. Robin Walker’s book ‘Teaching the Pronunciation of English as a Lingua Franca’ is an unbelievably helpful guide. It lays out the Lingua Franca Core, or key features of pronunciation necessary to be intelligible as focusing on consonants (except /ð/and /θ/), consonant clusters, vowel length and nuclear stress.

Overall, ELFpron coaches students to communicate successfully with others, so focuses not only on speaking clearly, but also on strategies for being understood such as rephrasing, enunciating, using explanations and non-verbal communication. It also differentiates between what students should be able to understand and what they should be able to say. For example, teaching students to produce connected speech actually hinders intelligibility, as squishing all your words together essentially makes you difficult to understand. But it can be beneficial for them in a receptive sense.

In a nutshell, ELF is gloriously global and embraces the diverse world that we live in.

So, my question is this. Should TEFL be rebranded to TELF?

TEFL stands for Teaching English as a Foreign Language, when perhaps Teaching English as a Lingua Franca is much more inclusive and reflects the reality of language usage more. Does the mere use of the term ‘foreign’ portray an idea of ‘otherness’? Likewise with TESOL – Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. Isn’t our focus as language teachers to teach global communication skills in the form of a lingua franca?

There is certainly a rising wave of ELT Professionals embracing TELF, global Englishes and accent diversity. The Voices series that I co-authored for National Geographic Learning follows an ELFpron syllabus and includes diverse language models, such as NatGeo Explorers from all over the world. I suspect (and hope) there will be other resources following suit.

The Chartered Institure of Editing and Proofreading (CIEP), which many ELT editors are affiliated with, no long use the terms ‘native’ and ‘non-native‘.

The terms are increasingly becoming (or have become?) sweary words. I frequently see language schools, podcasts and youtubers who use the term ‘native speaker teachers’ or flags from countries traditionally considered ‘native’ to sell their products, being called out on social media.

Yet we still see discriminatory adverts for ‘native’ teachers, when what the world really needs are qualified teachers who speak proficient English.

What do you think? Would rebranding to TELF create a more inclusive industry? Would it speed the move towards TEFL equity from its current glacial pace? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments.

Further reading:

Thenonnativespeaker.com

TEFL Equity advocates 

ELFpron blog

ETProfressional – Teaching English? Or teaching English culture?

Teaching English as a Lingua Franca, Marek Kiczkowiak

Teaching the Pronunciation of English as a Lingua Franca, Robin Walker

Successful International Communication, Chia Suan Chong 

 

Check out my online courses! Click the laptop to find out more!

Emily Bryson ELT. Engaging Learners with Simple Drawings. Graphic Facilitation for English Language Teaching Professionals. Online Course. Group Programme. Simple drawing of a laptop with the text 'online course'.

Is ELF still on the shelf? Read More »