Corporate social responsibility at IH London

With corporate social responsibility in the news, we asked Alex Hammond from ESL Language Travel which promotes sustainable development within the language education industry, to take a look at what we’re doing at IH London.

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The phrase ‘sustainable development’ probably brings to mind environmental issues. It’s hard to miss the huge debates going on internationally about combating global warming, reducing carbon emissions and energy extraction. But the ideas of sustainable development extend beyond the physical environment and ‘green’ issues. For businesses, sustainability is often divided under three headings: environmental, social and economic.

Our Guide to IH London at IATEFL 2012

This week is the 46th Annual IATEFL (International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language) Conference and Exhibition in Glasgow, Scotland. After the first morning of pre-conference events Twitter is already buzzing with reports from delegates about some fascinating sessions (search for #iatefl).

So far, we've been especially proud to see lots of praise for IH London teacher and trainer Chia Suan Chong who is part of the Business English Special Interest Group. We're looking forward to catching up with her about her research and presentation on 'English as a Lingua Franca – what should we be teaching?' after the conference.

With a whole week of TEFL talk to come, here's our guide to IH London at IATEFL. 

IH London makes a song and dance for Children in Need

During November students and teachers at IH London raised money for Children in Need.
 
The fun started with a charity bakesale and ended with the fantastic IH's Got Talent show - with lots of raffles and games inbetween! These events raised £1308.79 for Children in Need - the amount was doubled by IH London to £2617.58. Check out our photos and videos below for some of the highlights.

Fun at the Bakesake

IH London teacher Chris poses with the fantastic Children in Need cakes. The perfect combination - eating cakes and raising money for charity!

A Look Back at Modern Languages Conference 2011

Recently we sat down with Vicens Colomer, Assistant Director of the Modern Language Department at IH London, to talk about the fifth annual Modern Languages Conference (MoLaCo) on 12 November 2011. 

With separate workshops for Arabic, French, Italian and Spanish teachers, this year turned out to MoLaCo's busiest yet. There were nearly 150 delegates, with several from abroad, at IH London's school in Covent Garden for the conference.
 

Can you tell us about the different workshops this year?

This year we had four workshops running simultaneously - one for each language - with the whole programme in the target language. 

The conference programme for each language included both presentations from expert speakers and a chance for discussion. We had some fantastic guests!
 

Update from the Hackney Migrant Centre

The International House Trust supports the Hackney Migrant Centre by providing an English teacher to run lessons at the Centre. The Centre is a charity which provides a weekly drop in session for refugees and other migrants offering legal aid and health advice, a free meal and an inclusive, sociable meeting place. 

Ben Darby, a teacher from IH London who runs these classes, has been blogging about some of the differences between his teaching at IH London and at the Hackney Migrant Centre.

In his latest post, Ben discusses the growth of classes at the centre and new opportunities to students to take formal tests.

The Centre's new two hour class on Friday afternoons, running in addition to the Wednesday class, has been running since February 2011. At first the class focused more on literacy and initially had a lower attendance rate than Wednesdays but numbers have steadily risen and the class is currently geared towards OCR English tests. The Wednesday class is often full to capacity (13 students) and the Hackney Migrant Centre has seen an increase in the number of people using its services. This is partly because the reputation of the centre has spread through word of mouth and is also due to government cuts beginning to bite. For example, free ESOL lessons at F.E. colleges are no longer available and several organisations offering legal advice to migrants have folded due to lack of funding.

Lessons on Wednesday focus on language which the students can use in practical situations. Many of them want to get a UK driving license but are struggling with the theory exam so we’ve practised the vocabulary of driving. I’ve introduced grammar presentations to these lessons because ESOL materials, such as Skills for Life, offer little explanation of how grammar is structured. This increased emphasis on structure has gone down well.

In feedback students said they would like to take formal tests which awarded certificates they could show the Home Office so we decided to start running OCR tests on Friday afternoons. OCR is the Oxford, Cambridge and RSA examining board and the test is in three parts; speaking, reading and writing. We started with the level one speaking test and all the candidates passed. These tests are accredited by Crisis, another charity which IH supports. This was arranged by Jagtar Behal of Crisis and I am very grateful for all his support and advice.

Plans for the future are to continue running the Wednesday drop in English class and to use Fridays for lessons which are oriented towards the OCR Esol tests.

Meeting the challenge of teaching English to speakers of other languages

The International House Trust has been supporting the Hackney Migrant Centre by providing an English teacher to run lessons at the Centre. The Centre is a charity which provides a weekly drop in session for refugees and other migrants offering legal aid and health advice, a free meal and an inclusive, sociable meeting place.

Ben Darby, a teacher from IH London who runs these classes, has been blogging about some of the differences between his teaching at IH London and at the Hackney Migrant Centre.

Since Ben's last post at the beginning of the year, a further class on Friday afternoons has been established and he's been discovering just how different teaching ESOL can be to his other work.

"At IH London I teach English as a Foreign Language (TEFL). These classes are for paying, well-educated students and there are many course books available. At the Migrant Centre I teach English as a Second or Other Language (ESOL). These classes are for migrants who are trying to settle in Britain. The students are often poor and under-educated. Some have problems reading and writing in their own languages. But these aren’t the only differences between classes at IH and Hackney. As I’ve been discovering, there are far fewer teaching materials available for ESOL. I’ve been using a course designed by the government called Skills for Life. It is very different to EFL course books. For example, there isn’t so much text on each page so it isn’t overwhelming for students with low levels of literacy. The focus is on practical everyday English more than on grammar and the topics covered are more appropriate to the students and avoid the emphasis on Western, middle class lifestyles which is so common in EFL course books.

We’ve covered the first level of Skills for Life. But the students at the Migrant Centre aren’t ready for Level 2 yet. So I needed to find out more about developing ESOL teaching materials. Last month I visited Crisis, another charity which IH is supporting, and spoke to some of their ESOL teachers. They showed me ways of adapting EFL course books and of reformulating Skills for Life resources and they stressed the importance of responding to the students in a flexible and improvisational way. I have also been using a revamped version of a Skills for Life unit, which my colleague Jacqueline McKewan produced as part of her MA in Linguistics. I have also had help from classroom assistants, volunteers from the centre, who give weaker students extra support, particularly with literacy issues.

So, teaching ESOL in Hackney is very different to EFL classes at IH. Sometimes it feels a bit like having to re-invent the wheel each time I prepare a lesson, but it is an interesting challenge and one which has made me rethink the way I teach lower levels at IH. Do EFL students benefit from such text-heavy course books, for example?

The students continue to be keen and supportive of one another and it is a pleasure working with them. At a time when ESOL classes are under threat from government cuts it is good that the HMC and IH are able to continue to provide these lessons. The next objective is to try to increase the class size, particularly the new Friday lesson which tends to have lower attendance. I’ll keep you informed of our progress."

Get resources about English for speakers of other languages and Skills for Life and find out how you can access ESOL services near you.

Empowering English language learners at the Crisis Graduation Ceremony

This week IH London teacher and trainer David Riddell attended the student graduation ceremony at Crisis.

Crisis is a homeless charity that we work closely with to provide English lessons for speakers of other languages (ESOL). The International House Trust sponsors a teacher to work at Crisis to help improve the students’ English speaking and writing skills, as well as their confidence.

The graduation ceremony at Crisis is a regular event to recognise the students’ achievement in a range of different courses. David reports here on the graduation ceremony experience:

“It was my great pleasure to once again attend the Graduation ceremony at Crisis, and to once again experience the amazing atmosphere that exists on these occasions.

One by one, students received certificates for their work in a multitude of courses offered. As well as ESOL, the centre offers Maths Through Cooking, Hat Making, Strictly Skylight, Beginners Guitar and a host of other courses.

It was a joy to see the look on people’s faces as they received their certificates – such pride and achievement, and gratitude, too, for being able to not only study in such an environment, but also to feel part of the Crisis family. There is the overwhelming feeling of the Crisis centre being like a family home with great love and support evident everywhere you look.

There were inspirational testimonies of achievement from students, and humbling life stories. We heard from one person receiving a special recognition certificate after her studies led to her starting her own business selling Ethiopian bread!

We witnessed a fantastic dance display from Strictly Skylight which would surely even have got a ‘10’ from Craig Revel-Horwood! And the whole audience joined in singing a special song for the occasion.

It was good to meet Jagtar and Liam, the IH London teachers working at Crisis, and to hear about their projects. As well as the ESOL courses that Liam runs, Jagtar teaches a range of courses including a women-only IELTS course, and a Literacy and Cultural Affairs course.

Above all, though, I noticed the pride not only in the faces and speeches of students, but also in the faces and speeches of staff members. The commitment and dedication of staff is obvious, as is the joy they share with their students when achievement is recognised. For them this not just ‘a job’ it is part of their life.

Crisis is hugely appreciative of the support they receive from IHL, but we at IHL are also deeply grateful to be part of the work they do and we look forward to many more years’ collaboration.”

From training adults to training teenagers: An interview with English teacher trainer Catriona Duff

Last week IH London teacher and trainer Catriona swapped her normal adult classes to train a group of local teenagers from St Marylebone School in English Language Teaching (ELT).

First of all, why is IH London working with a secondary school?
IH London’s partnership with St Marylebone School is facilitated by the International House Trust, as part of its work in the community.

This particular project came about when a former IH London teacher moved to St Marylebone School to teach English. He found that a lot of the pupils spoke more than one language, but didn’t really understand why this was an advantage. He set up the Interpreters Club to empower these students and show them what a valuable skill being bilingual is!

Why is language teacher training important for the pupils?
Bilingual pupils at St Marylebone School can participate in two voluntary English teaching projects. Some teach primary school children who are learning English as an additional language, and others help Marylebone School’s adult teachers to teach English to parents who need help with their English.

The ELT training day at IH London is a really important preparation for the pupils – to show them useful classroom techniques and build their teaching confidence.

Why did you want to get involved with teaching adolescents?
I’ve worked with teenagers in the past and really enjoyed working with 16-18 age group. I also enjoy designing training sessions for specific groups of people. Designing a course for teenage learners was particularly rewarding because it couldn’t be a straightforward CELTA course – I had to adapt the input sessions to meet the teenagers’ needs instead. It was particularly challenging giving the pupils an introduction to teaching adults AND teaching younger learners in one day!

What was it like training teenagers to teach English?
I noticed that the students were really quick to pick things up and had wonderful ideas about classroom management techniques – probably because they’re in class every day and can draw on experiences with their own teachers.

They knew what doesn’t work in terms of classroom management – for example shouting or being too serious. They were very prepared to experiment with new ideas and were brilliant at using all the techniques effectively and appropriately.

When we looked at ways to correct students I gave them lots of different mistakes and asked them to role play being teacher and student and practise correcting each other.

Training teenagers to teach English

Last week IH London teacher and trainer Catriona spent a day showing twelve teenagers how to teach English. The teenagers were Sixth Formers at St Marylebone School in London with a special skill in common….they all are fluent in English AND at least one other language.

Learning how to use language skills

At St Marylebone School, these teenagers are members of an Interpreters Club. The club runs workshops to show pupils how they can use their language skills. The twelve pupils spent a day at IH London to learn more about teaching English. They will soon be teaching both children and adults as part of Marylebone School’s volunteering projects.

Catriona gave them an introduction to teaching skills and techniques to increase their confidence when they do it for real!

Introduction to English Language Teaching (ELT): What the pupils learnt

Classroom management

Catriona started the day with a group discussion about how to manage a class effectively which is perhaps the biggest challenge faced by any teacher!

- Catriona explained different techniques teachers can use to set up classroom activities and get feedback from students.
- The group looked at different scenarios and discussed what they’d do in each scenario.
- They then looked at how to handle difficult situations in class and strategies for dealing with them.

Setting up speaking activities

After the break, Catriona showed the pupils how to set up speaking activities. She showed them the different methods teachers can use to encourage students to speak up. For example:

- motivating and engaging the class in the topic,
- giving the class relevant language that they can use,
- using prompts,
- setting an objective.

Role play

The pupils got into groups of three with one person playing the teachers, and two playing the students, to practise these methods. They loved getting into the role of teacher, but realised how difficult it is to set up class activities at the same time!

Using the skills they’d learnt the pupils did their own speaking activity group task about planning a dream holiday. Afterwards Catriona showed them how she’d adapted this task from a course book - something the Sixth Formers could try doing.

Top teaching tips

Catriona ended the day by looking at language teaching and how to deal with student errors. She showed the Sixth Formers some of IH London’s teacher training videos which they loved.

Catriona finished with a summary of top tips for different teaching areas (classroom management, dealing with student errors, teaching language and speaking activities), which the pupils made into posters to take back and display in their school.

Putting language teaching skills into practice

The pupils will participate in two voluntary English teaching projects run by St Marylebone School. Some will teach primary school children who are learning English as an additional language, and others will help Marylebone School’s adult teachers to teach English to parents who need help with their English.

After their day at IH London, the pupils will also visit a London university to learn more about careers in interpreting.

Check back next week for an interview with Catriona about the rewards and challenges of training teenagers to teach English.

Ben Darby, IH London’s English teacher who is currently working at Hackney Migrant Centre, gives us his first update of the New Year.

“In my last post I mentioned that the students in the English class at the Hackney Migrant Centre were very keen to have more lessons. So it’s great news that from this Friday - with the support of International House - the Centre will open an additional class. This will be an extension of the Wednesday lesson, open to the same students and building on the same syllabus.

The English class will take place in the same venue, St Mary’s Church. It will be a little different from Wednesdays as there won’t be the other services that the Centre usually offers (legal and health advice, as well as lunch provided by local business). This has one advantage in that we will have more rooms available and so will be able to use a more comfortable (and warmer!) space than the room above the vestry.

By doubling the provision of English classes we hope that the students will be able to make faster progress on the ‘Skills for Life’ syllabus. ‘Skills for Life’ is a literacy project organised by the government which produces teaching materials suitable for the needs of migrants settling in the UK. The students have now successfully progressed to the second level of this course. So, all in all, a good start to the year at the Hackney Migrant Centre.”

Read more about English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) and find out how you can access ESOL services.

Christmas-time at Crisis

Last week at Crisis we had our members’ Christmas party which was a great success! The party-goers were participants at The Learning Zone, which Veena described in her last post, as well as other members who access Crisis’ services in London.

Christmas at Crisis is a very busy time when we pool all our resources to give the best Christmas experience for people who are currently or have previously been homeless. Christmas is traditionally the time you spend with your family, and for our members it can be particularly distressing as many do not have this.

For the party we had a cross-cultural Christmas quiz, mince pies, dinner and most importantly – karaoke! Music has a special place in my heart and our members loved having a sing song in front of each other. Music has a special quality to transcend language and cultural barriers and it was a great opportunity for our members to express themselves.

One especially beautiful moment was when the whole group joined in to sing Happy Christmas, War is Over. There were so many cultural groups there but for those three minutes we were as one.

So have a brilliant Christmas from all of us at Crisis and here’s hoping for a great 2011.

- Jagtar Behal

English Teaching at Crisis: What's it all about?

Veena Torchia is a Senior Tutor in the ESOL department at homeless charity Crisis. ESOL stands for English for Speakers of Other Languages. This is the programme that IH London teacher Jagtar is currently helping out with.

Here Veena tells us more about English teaching at Crisis, IH London's involvement, and the difference English language lessons can make to homeless people.

"The Learning Zone Skylight at Crisis is a bit like a 'mini college'. It offers homeless people accredited courses in a range of different subjects including ESOL, Literacy, Numeracy, Health and Safety, Food Safety, IT and Bookkeeping. We also have an English Club for learners who prefer more hands-on teaching methods.

Our English language learners come from all over the world and we work with refugees, asylum seekers and migrant workers who are all at risk of homelessness.

Activities for ESOL learners
During the ESOL course we go on trips and attend workshops at places like the Tower of London, the Wallace Collection, Hampton Court, Kensington Palace, the British Museum and the British Library. We are sometimes invited to exhibition previews at the British Museum: last term we saw the Ancient Egyptians' Book of the Dead.

Graduating in style
Each term finishes with a graduation ceremony where we celebrate our students' success and present them with certificates. There are also opportunities for students to showcase their work over the term, for example films, poetry, readings, songs and displays. Trustees, partners and ministers all come to the graduation ceremonies. The next one is on 17 March 2011.

IH London's English teachers
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the CEO of IH Trust, Steve Brent, and his wonderful trustees for their support and assistance in the delivery of ESOL. So far we have been helped by two full time IH London English teachers; Jemima and Jagtar.

Jemima and Jagtar have taught a wide range of ESOL students from beginner through to those ready to take their IELTS test. Their innovative teaching methods are really effective - for example - using music and film in their lessons. This has made their classes engaging and enjoyable and always well attended! We have gained a lot from their EFL (English as a Foreign Language) teaching methods, and they have developed their experience and skills in working with vulnerable people."

-Veena Torchia, Senior ESOL Tutor at Crisis

Update from Jagtar's ESOL class at Crisis

This has been the last week of the Making an ESOL Musical course and I’m really happy with how well it has gone. (ESOL stands for English for speakers of other languages). I’m particularly pleased because it's the first time I have taught a class with a wide-range of student levels.

The students’ levels ranged from Pre-intermediate through to Upper-intermediate so managing that within a classroom has been especially rewarding for me during this course.

The reason we have mixed-ability groups is because we only have the resources to run one class at a time. I had to take this into consideration when I was writing the course. Luckily my teaching experience allows me to create courses for mixed abilities (although there is always room for improvement!)

This week I called in at International House London to give a presentation to the teachers about the work I am doing at Crisis. I also highlighted some of the challenges that we face working with people who are homeless or have experienced homelessness. This is a good insight for my colleagues: they are either interested in this type of teaching or put off by it!

Next time I'll tell you more about the Crisis Christmas party, which is a great opportunity for us all to relax before the build up to Christmas and all that we do during this time.

- Jagtar Behal

Teaching English through Music

English teacher Jagtar is currently working at the homeless charity Crisis. This week he has been battling the snow as he teaches English with Music....

This week I have been running our Making an ESOL Musical taster course and it has been severely affected by the snow! Student numbers have been down due to the fact that many come from different parts of London and transportation has been extremely difficult.

However, we have run the course with the students who have been able to make it with great results. We transformed the classroom into a winter wonderland with fairy lights, tinsel and posters - creating a warm and inviting environment.

During the course we have discussed the topics and issues raised in The Sound of Music, and have replaced the song lyrics with students’ own ideas. We've had an endless supply of popcorn to keep our energy levels up!

At the moment we are between terms so we are running taster classes which are little bite-sized courses to give students a 'taste' of different subjects. The ESOL Through Music course that I am teaching is an example of this.

There are many other taster classes too, including Knitting, Romanian, Spanish, IT, Hat Making and Italian. These classes are run by staff, volunteers or students. Allowing the students to run classes is extremely positive and beneficial to all. It allows them to share their knowledge and skills, and also to build their CVs and confidence.

I've found that a major part of the work we do at Crisis is empowering our clients (everyone who accesses our services) with confidence and the motivation to continue. I have quite a few students who volunteer at Crisis and other charities around London. I've see the positive influence this has on their well-being: it means they generally have more motivation to apply themselves to their studies.

We have a members’ Christmas party next week which I’m looking forward to as it’ll be a great opportunity to relax and socialise with the students. We will also sing a song from The Sound of Music which will be a lot of fun.

Jagtar Behal

Teaching English at Homeless Charity

Hello I’m Jagtar and I teach English at IH London. I am currently working on a special IH project teaching ESOL at a homeless charity called Crisis.

What is ESOL? It is an acronym for ‘English for Speakers of Other Languages’ and it is what we teach foreign students who live in an English-speaking country.

Teaching at Crisis
The students who I teach at Crisis are either homeless, have been homeless within the past five years, or are at risk of being homeless. Many of the students are economic and political refugees so teaching them is very interesting as well as challenging.

During the past term I have taught classes at Elementary, Intermediate and Upper-intermediate levels and each class has changed slightly during our term as sometimes students come and go, and we need to change our courses to accommodate the changing students.

Raising Money for Classroom Materials
This year at IH we put on an event called IH The Musical (which I was a part of) and the money raised went to Crisis and the Pakistan Flood Appeal. With the money, I have managed to buy the necessary items to make the Interactive White Board in our classroom work. The effect this has had on our students has been phenomenal, and it’s great seeing students respond well to the fabulous technology.

Teaching English with Music
I am currently working on a short ESOL and Music course which is based on the popular musical called The Sound of Music. Students will learn language through the songs and explore the themes raised. Hopefully this will end with the students recording new versions of the songs, although I will have to see how much they respond to the course first!

In my next post I will tell you how the course is going and also give you a more in-depth report on what we do at Crisis.

Bye for now,

Jagtar Behal

IH London Business English teacher talks about the benefits of 'Systemic Functional Grammar'

Congratulations to IH London Executive Centre teacher Chia Chong who gave a hugely successful talk at this year's prestigious BESIG Conference!

Chia's talk - Systemic Functional Grammar - Why have most business teachers never heard of it? - was extremely well received at the annual Business English event in Germany.

You can watch Chia in action on You Tube, as she discusses her opinions on archaic grammar rules that can actually make learning business English harder.

Chia suggests that better knowledge of Systemic Functional Grammar might help students understand the way English is organised, and dispell the myth that English is simply a language full of exceptions.

Chia's English teaching experience:

Chia is a Communication Studies graduate and has taught English as a foreign language since 2002, including Cambridge Exam Classes, Business English, and English for Specific and Academic Purposes.

She currently runs General English and Business English classes, and teacher training (CELTA) courses at IH London, as well as also doing a part-time Masters in Applied Linguistics!

Chia speaks English and Mandarin as her first language, and Japanese, Italian and Spanish as her second.