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.”

How to make a carrot cake

Today is IH London Finance Manager Joao's birthday. We've been celebrating with a huge carrot cake made by Mat in the Sales Team.

Carrot cake is made with grated carrots mixed with cake batter. The carrot softens as the cake cooks, making it very soft and moist. The cake doesn't taste like carrots!

A little bit of carrot cake history

Carrots have been used in sweet cakes since medieval times when sweeteners were rare and expensive. Carrots - which naturally contain a lot of sugar - were much easier to get and were used to make desserts.

Carrot cake is originally thought to have come from Scotland. It became popular again in Britain during the Second World War because of sugar rationing.

Carrot cakes started appearing in cafes in America in the 1960s. They were a novelty item at first, but people liked them so much that carrot cake became a standard dessert.

How to make your own carrot cake

This recipe makes one 7 inch (18 cm) cake with cream cheese icing on the top of the cake only.

(The cake in the picture consists of two 9” cakes and two 7” cakes sandwiched together and balanced on top of each other! To make this two-tier cake you need five times the cake recipe, 10 times the cream cheese recipe, and 2 times the vanilla butter icing recipe below.)



For the cake:

150g plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
150g soft dark brown sugar
250g grated carrot
150ml corn oil
2 eggs (beaten)
1 tsp vanilla essence

For the cream cheese icing:

50g butter (room temperature)
75g full-fat cream cheese (you can use half fat, but not fat free)
½ tsp vanilla essence
100g icing sugar

For the vanilla butter icing:

250g icing sugar
115g softened butter
1 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla essence

Method

Cake:

1) Preheat the oven to Gas 4 or 180C
2) Grease and line a 7” cake tin
3) Sieve the flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and cinnamon into a mixing bowl. Add the caster sugar and the carrots and mix together.
4) Beat the eggs and add them to the mix along with the oil.
5) The mixture will look like a thick batter – pour this into the tin and cook in the middle of the oven for 35-40 minutes or until the cake is firm when pressed
6) Leave to cool

Cream cheese icing:

1) Mix the cream cheese with the butter until smooth.
2) Add the milk and vanilla essence
3) Sieve the icing sugar into the mixture beating with and electric whisk
4) Once the cake is cool spread the mixture over the top of the cake

Vanilla butter icing:

1) Sieve the icing sugar into the butter and mix with an electric whisk.
2) When ingredients start to come together, add the milk and the essence
3) Mix until smooth
4) Add any colouring that you may want
5) Decorate the cake using a piping bag.

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.

Valentine's Day Cupcakes

When Sales Manager Mat arrived this morning with four boxes of handmade cupcakes, we couldn't resist sharing the pictures (and the recipe!)

Choose from chocolate 'mud' cupcakes, or vanilla and cherry cupcakes, or make both! We think they make an excellent Valentine's Day gift to impress your loved one...

Ingredients:
(makes approximately 24 cupcakes)

200g Softened butter
200g Self raising flour, sieved
200g Caster sugar
4 eggs

For vanilla and cherry cupcakes:
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
50g chopped Glace cherries

For chocolate 'mud' cupcakes:
2 tablespoons cocoa powder

Equipment:

You need cupcake cases – they are a little bigger than fairy cake cases

Method:

• Preheat your oven to Gas 5 180C
• Mix sugar and butter together by hand or with a mixer until light and fluffy.
• Beat the eggs and add half to the sugar and butter. Add half the flour and mix
• Add the rest of the eggs and the rest of flour and mix until all the ingredients have combined.
• For cherry and vanilla cupcakes: Add the vanilla essence and then around 50 grams of chopped glace cherrys and mix.
• For chocolate 'mud' cupcakes: Add 2 the cocoa powder. You can also replace the cherries with chocolate drops, raisins etc.)
• Spoon the mixture into the cupcake cases and place in the centre of the oven. Cook for 10- 15 minutes or until the cake have risen and are springy to the touch.
• Remove the cakes from the oven and leave to cool on a wire rack.
  

For the Butter Icing (enough for 12 cakes)
240g Icing sugar (sieved)
1/2 teaspoon Vanilla essence (you can use different flavourings)
2 tablespoons Milk 125g Softened butter

You will need a whisk or a mixer to make the icing properly.
Method:

• Roughly stir the icing sugar and the softened butter together before using an electric mixer. If you don’t do this, you will find yourself covered in a cloud of icing dust the moment you switch your mixer on!
• Once the mixture starts to come together, add the milk and the flavouring and whisk until smooth.
• For chocolate icing add 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder. You can also add colourings. The best thing to do is make 3 or 4 amounts of butter icing so you can use different colours and flavours for each one.

Decorating the cupcakes:

Before decorating make all your butter icing and place in piping bags. (Mat used disposable bags that you can buy from kitchen shops or online at Lakeland.)

You can then use anything you like to decorate your cupcakes with. Try sweets, silver balls, chocolate drops, cherries or sprinkles. Go crazy!