WS
The old café will be closed today. He warned me not to come down for a coffee on Sunday and Sunday it is. I've been drinking too much of it as it is and am looking forward to a break from it for a couple of weeks, The coffee back there is foul by reputation and in fact. Of course I'll take the odd frothy pseudo-Italian bucket of flavoured milk to break up a Lancaster shopping day or two and the company will no doubt be convivial.
A couple days left still before I set off down to Algoz for a few Algarvian adventures before heading back via Faro and Liverpool to the city that has become the family lair. But before the chill and the tea, it's course writing and a sea of PowerPoint slides to contend with, to order, to edit, to improve, to turn into the basis for a thousand leaning experiences worth their salt. How far we've come and yet how far we have to go.
For a thousand years and more attitudes to language and language learning have been a strange mixture of myth and realism, of deeply held beliefs bordering on the superstitious and attempts at applying the scientific world view to the workings of it, to the learning and teaching of it. However, like much else, its only since the late 19th Century that a truly scientific attitude characterised by consistency and precision, unfettered by the preconceived, has come into being and yet the field remains all too prone to myth making and fad. The subjective remains, in practice, supreme.
Take a quick tour of what's been on offer since the fifties, a veritable catalogue of methods and approaches with adherents and critics coming and going and fulminating as distastefully as any a crazed pulpit peacher. And they are still with us today, as the Callan Method, the Wall Street Institute, Berlitz and company with their blanket statements and potted solutions at the fore amply demonstrate.
'The Callan Method is focussed on teaching students the basic grammar and the most essential vocabulary. By the time he (!) has completed all 12 stages of the Method (notice the use of capitals here), the student will have mastered the 5621 most common words of the English language.'
Surely this smacks of the silly pseudo-religious and of the cult. They're all there if you look closely. The dangerous characteristics of the mystical. The voice of authority, the adherence to the cause, the sorry supplicant at the feet of Baal and the mountain to climb. The steps to be followed to reach enlightenment, the curious mixture of the statistical and the loopy promise and the shitting on the opposition. ('As many tests have shown they (the students) learn English in a quarter of the time'). A quarter of the time compared to what? Oh yes, 'make progress up to four times faster than at other types (sic.) of language school.' (My underlining.) And the appeal to science when it suits? 'The method is like a piece of precison engineering, an intricate design which is simple to use.' Now that should appeal to the ignorant and bring them the church door in their droves. It seems to be working. New schools, apparently, are opeing at such a rate that the site is having to be constantly updated. Hallelujah ! But it is Sunday and we wouldn't want to be offending sensibilities on the (for some) day of worship.
Ah, yes! The Method! The issue is that not everyone learns in the same way, so there cannot be one foolproof method. In my experience, it is usually a combination of learner desire and a confidence-building teacher that makes the difference. Motivating and encouraging the student to become an autonomous learner has worked well for my students. However, each student has different abilities and different learning styles. In a class, one must ensure there is enough material that touches on every type of learning style, which really just means varied didactic materials and fun activities which encourage the student to take risks. Creating a safe environment is so important to help students to gain enough confidence to attempt speech. Any of these claims to fame for various methods is just that - a claim. It might work for one student, but not for another. Good solid lesson plans and material provided in an interesting way wins out all the time.
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