At first they all seemed exactly the same and a very tightly knit group too. They all had similar ages and likes and were all a bit careful of meeting their new colleagues. Ten years later their paths are different but all seem to have done it in pairs.

Two moved to the US. The first one left quite early, after a year, to move to there and get married. 5 years later the second got a scholarship to live and teach in the US. I can’t see him coming back.

Business was the calling of the next two with the tallest one opened his own school and the smallest now a manager of the school she had just entered.

Two others are today the most solid of teachers in the same school and much loved by their students and never seem to change.

The final two moved into teacher training with one providing training to young and new teachers, just as he was, and the most creative is making great noises helping teachers make the technological changes needed for their classroom.

They were a strange bunch but they are surprisingly almost all in the teaching profession today. It still amazes me how this group have progressed as I was fortunate to follow their professional growth at close quarters. I am still in contact with them in Facebook and I wonder if they can recognize themselves in this post.

Without going into the merits of this new English version or the naivety of the businessmen behind Michelo, lessons can be drawn on why the translation should never have been made. It was clearly done by someone who is more inclined towards ‘Brazlish’ (Brazilian English) than a more native speaker form. For this reason, the English version may not be quite a hit as the original and Telo will not sell as much as the song has in his native language.

‘Delicious’

Maybe it will catch on but calling a girl ‘delicious’ is not a common description for a sexy looking woman. In Brazil ‘Gostosa’ fits perfectly, and why not? Foreigners who know Brazil can appreciate how great the food is as well as the beautiful women. Delicious is a Brazilian slang and frequently used expression to appraise the seductive behaviour of someone you are attracted too. Words like ‘fit’, ‘fine-looking’ and many others, are all different adjectives which are synonyms of the Brazilian ‘delicious’.

Unless it catches on, the word ‘delicious’ will continue to mean something you eat to the people in the English-speaking world. I’m sure in the rhythm and context of the song most people will clearly understand its meaning but there will be a slight confusion at first which is normal when you are listening to English spoken in another culture.

As English is now considered the Lingua Franca in the world there has to be an allowance for cultural differences because communication is paramount. This is also important between non-native and native communication but the idiomaticity of English can be a challenge.

Let’s take Telo ‘s ‘if I catch you’ line in his song. This is probably the most important line in the song. Why was the word ‘catch’ used? Shouldn’t it have been ‘get’? When you chase someone you can both ‘catch’ and ‘get’ someone. Also ‘have’ may also be possible. It is a matter of choice. It also is the strength of meaning that is important for someone who is still learning English than a person who is already proficient.

Let’s see some other simple example:

Drink a coffee v have a coffee

Wash the dishes v do the dishes

Drive the car to work v take the car to work

Which of the phrases above have clearer meanings? The first of course as the verbs state the action of the person. Verbs like ‘have’, ‘do’ and ‘get’ have very little or multiple meanings. They are not so easy for learners of English to use or understand. They are idiomatic in nature especially when combined with other words as the examples above. For the native speaker these empty or delexicalised verbs are naturally expected to be used, so for them the first phrases can sound strange. Should the more meaningful verbs be used then some adjustment would be needed as with the word ‘delicious’ above.

“Ai Ai if….’

The translation of ‘If I catch you’ is predominantly based on meaning. This is from the perspective of the non-native speaker and not – especially for those who will be listening to this song in the USA – the expected language of the native speaker.

The song will seem funny or strange and very very foreign. The Carmen Maranda ‘ai ai ai’ doesn’t help either. However, it may catch on for this very reason but will not be taken seriously for its artistic value.

Therefore, it will be difficult for Telo to have his work taken seriously in the US. We can see how very few artists, who don’t dominate the language have been taken in by the American public. Certainly no Brazilians have reached the heights of artists like Celine Dion and Shakira who are examples of accepted non native foreign artist. It was perhaps their domination of the language that allowed them to be accepted by the American music buying public. For marketing reasons they have to communicate their work to the media and sing lyrics that seem natural.

Let’s hope Telo has a hit in the US with his English version but if longevity and recognition is his aim it will be a little longer before he and any other Brazilian artist makes a real breakthrough without a high level of English performance. A good English course is the key for Michel and Brazil has some of the best teachers.

Now, I’m no expert on how the brain works but have read my fair share of papers on cognitive linguistics for my research in vocabulary teaching and acquisition. But this comparison between learning a second language and dyslexia came up after my student was explaining about his work with attention deficit disorders. He holds a PHD in this area and has specialised in children (he is a specialist in cognitive paediatrics) with types of disorders such as ADHD, dyslexia, hyperactivity etc for 12 years.
His Emglish level he believes is intermediate but I would place him nearer to basic. This  came up after his complaint came as I was listening to him speak about the drug Ritalin. At times he could not express the word he wanted in English and reverted to his native Portuguese. Each time he did this I would allow him some time to see if he could think of the word in English before writing down and pronounce the word he could not say. At one point he expressed his frustration by explaining that he always knew the word I had translated for him but could not express it.

I reassured him (as I´m a nice guy) and explained that during his studies and reading he had received valuable input from his study of research papers in his area but had not formed a bridge by not making conscious and cognitive decisions, such as noticing, to link this input to output. I explained that my job was to build this bridge and offer him opportunities to make this rich information he had already acquired available for output.

I used a metaphor of having to islands one which was called Input and the other Output which we needed to link together. My student then suddenly smiled and turned around and said that this is the explanation he would use if he were explaining dyslexia. He joked that he was now dyslexic when studying English.

I asked him to explain in Portuguese at the end of the class and I explained in more detail what I had understood between the difference between 1st and 2nd language differences. As the cognitive understanding of learning a second language is still a relatively new field we still need to understand how our brains work in processing information but that in fact, there might already be information out there somewhere in a field which is becoming more and more relevant to our work as teachers in dealing with behavioural disorders.

Could the processes found by students who have Dyslexia be one way of understanding our adult student’s difficulties in progressing? Is dyslexia not about difficulty in reading but difficulty processing the information to understand and use?

For a few years now I have been using the IWB  (interactive White Board) in my classroom and, like many teachers who have used it for some time, I understand the benefits a tool linked to the internet can bring. IWBs also contains tools to record your students and also, move and change language on ‘screen’. Apart from teaching in a private school, I am happy to say I specialise in private teaching with high level government officials of the Brazilians government.

Teaching privately is quite different from classroom teaching. 1-to-1 classes demand a different approach which is individual to that specific learner’s needs every second you are in there company. Demands placed on the teacher can be just as great as when you have 15 students in front of you. The main difference is that 1 to 1 classes are usually tailor-made and not set in a traditional classroom environment but usually in a learners office, meeting room or places such as airports or shopping centres (I’ve even given classes in a car a few times before a Minister flies off to a foreign meeting). So as you can imagine a teacher has to be flexible to say the least.

The other day, I was with one of these students and we were talking about how public administration could persuade Brazilians citizens to use public transport in Brazil. One issue came up and the student wanted to know what was ‘crenças’ in Portuguese, so i got my recently purchased iPhone out and looked it up on Babbel fish, the online translator, as i couldn’t bring it to mind át the time. After this I then remembered the Fun Theory clip on youtube which had changed peoples concept of taking the stairs instead of the escalator when they leave the underground. This was to illustrate a point of changing behaviour when using a public service. I didn’t plan these activities beforehand and kept in conversation with my student as I touched my iPhone to bring up these tools. This is similar to what I do in class with an IWB.

In my next private class I recorded the student’s voice on one of the Iphone´s application for him to listen to himself and how he pronounced some phrases. This is another option the IWB has. Of course, I still used a pen and piece of paper to note down words and corrections to give my students some visual feedback on their performance. This is just like in class when you use the IWB as a normal board in a more traditional way.The thing is, I didn’t buy my iPhone for my classes but it suddenly brought a whole new dimension to how I teach which benefits my students ‘ learning. Could we say then that the iPhone (or even the iPad) is the private teacher’s IWB?

P.S. By the way. I wrote this post on my iPhone while waiting in a car park for my next student.

At the end of the trainees´ presentation, I found myself explaining what an exhilarating effect you can have when you know the student really know what you have taught and they confirm this to you. When you have checked the concept and notice how well the students respond and are clear of what they have just covered in class. It can send shivers in me when this happens and it feels me with immense pride when the students really know you have ‘taught’ them something they did not know before. I think they are also proud of themselves too.

It then made me wonder how many young and new teachers miss this essential part of the class completely. It is because they rely too much on the course book which cannot explain or teach them about this important classroom concept or teachers don´t even know the importance of checking what the students have done. Not only do the students not get an efficiently managed lesson but also teachers miss out on this fantastic sensation. It is this feeling that can drive the teacher and keep them motivated If they don´t even know how to teach this important part of the lesson they can soon become disenchanted and start to burnt out.

I noticed this change recently in two of my teachers who had come back from doing their CELTAs. They suddenly found this new sensation they did not have before and it was as if they had learnt a new language and we could communicate because we shared the same motivational experience. I watched their classes and they had at last understood the importance of taking time to plan the most important parts of their lessons such as giving instructions and concept checking.

I could see that when they carried these parts of the lesson out they had changed and know I could put my finger on what it was when I spoke to the trainees. These two teachers could clearly see what they were doing and achieved their objectives well with a positive and constant student response. It is a shame that many teachers can´t see this importance and never feel the difference it makes not only to their learners but to their own esteem as they miss or even ignore concept questions or good instructions. They miss the classroom synergy it can cause.

I explained it to the trainees as the sensation you feel in your heart when something goes well and you mutually feel this connection with the students. I may seem a bit far-fetched but I think it is true. The students all start ‘singing the same tune’ so to speak, and you know you have their confidence and the learning process is made easy.

There are fewer better teaching experiences.

Supershaun

AIM: To elicit as many adjectives from the students as possible

This is good which you have to write reports, letters of reference when more descriptive language is required, also when student have to speak about places, best friends for example. This should be played more than ones during the term so you seen how the learners really take risks and improve their vocabulary: This activity then becomes a ‘thread’ activity and students know what they have to do and produce without you introducing anything

Materials: Just the learners and a blackboard/a piece of paper so you have a record that n adjective hasn´t been repeated

Procedure

1. Choose a student to say one adjective (they usually say beautiful), if they say an adjective which ends in ‘-y’, for example easy, ask them for another which does NOT end in why.
2. Write the adjective in the board (or on paper if you don´t have one) for example ‘beautiful’ Then ask the next student to give you another adjective ythat starts with the last letter of the adjective already written on the board, in this case it is ‘L’, for example ‘light’
3. Now ask the ask the next student to say an new adjective which starts with the last letter of the previous adjective in this case ‘tall’

You should have written ‘beautifulightall’ on the board.

1. Now continue with the same sequence

Classroom management alternatives

• For FCE you can split a class into 2 groups, The group who cannot think of an adjective is out and the other team wins
• With CAE you can go around the class asking individuals. When one student cannot think of an adjective they are out and you continue until there is only two students left competing together

This is a simple game that my learners gave it its name. It is very competitive and should be played at all times whenever you feel the need. Played regularly you can see the students pushing themselves to find new adjectives. They learn from each other. It´s fun!

AIM: to elicit as many verbs as possible in the shortest time using the alphabet

Materials: The students

Procedure

Students are all seated.

1. Tell them you want each one to say VERBS
2. Ask the first student (or the one who came late lol) to say a verb that starts with ‘A’ for example ask, allow or answer.
3. Now ask the next person to continue with another verb that starts with the letter ‘A’
4. Go around to each learner requesting a different verb that begins with ‘A’.

When a student is OUT

There are two ways

• The students say a verb previously said
• When one student cannot think of a verb with ‘A’ they are out. Give them a countdown of 1 to 10, in order to let them know you are finishing and it puts them under pressure which they find strange at first but like as the game goes on.

Continue

Now change the verb to ‘B’ and do the same asking students to say verbs with ‘B’ until one person cannot think of one or repeats a verb previously mentioned

Now change to ‘C’, ‘D’ and so on until there are only two students left and you eventually have a winner.

NOTE: Always repeat the verbs the student has said so it is heard clearly by the class to make the game move quicker.

Comment

The art to this game is its repetition throughout the semester. You must do this activity many times as it pushes the students to work harder and produce more. They end up teaching each other.

Don´t worry if students cheat and those who go OUT help others, it is all part of the fun.

As the game is repeated don´t worry if student write the verbs they hear for another time. This is all part of the learning experience and helps them improve. Remember cheating can be fun too when everyone knows about it.

This is great for CPE but can be used at any level. Why? … because the Cambridge exams use very similar speaking themes i.e. technology, learning, books, learning etc. Classroom management is everything so you must understand and give clear details for this activity to move smoothly.

AIM: This activity helps student familiarize with long term responses and helps improve their active listening and even vocabulary.

Materials: The small cards used for Part 3 of the CPE speaking text

Classroom Layout

Sit the learners in a circle (I can´t do a circle with the wordpress graphics) like the diagram below. The cards will be past round clockwise during the activity

A

B                        B

A                                          A

B                       B

A

Procedure

Phase 1

Allocate students with the letters ‘A’ and ‘B’.

Give a different card to student ‘A’.

Tell them they are going to talk about the card to student ‘B’ for a set time. 30-1 minute for FCE, CAE 2 minutes and CPE 3 minutes. Note: this is longer than expected in the exams but the idea is to push the learners but be sensitive to this initially.

Then tell ‘B’ they will summarize what student “A’ said in 30 seconds or 1 minute depending on the exam you are doing. This you will signal with the words IN A NUTSHELL. Students may ask what this means and it is an excellent idiom for them to use in the exam so they will start their summary saying ‘In a nutshell..’

Phase 2

When ‘B is finished ask them to take the paper that was discusses

Now ask both ‘A’ and ‘B’ to turn the opposite way. Now they are facing a new partner.

Now ‘B’ becomes ‘A’ and will talk to a long time about the card they were listening too.

Now ‘A’ becomes ‘B’ and will say ‘In a Nutshell…’ and summarize what is being said

Phase 3

Continue to do this so the paper moves around the circle of students and each student either speaks or summarizes what is being said until the papers move back to their original place.

After these changes of partner has been understood by the group all the teacher has to say is “IN A NUTSHELL” and student will change and summarize without any difficulty.

Comment

Watch how the student gain confidence as they speak about something they have already heard and spoken about to a new partner.

By summarizing the student must take an active part in listening to their partner and you´ll find they even pick up the best expressions that are being described

Move around the room and listen to the student. Note down any problems they have and review these at the regular intervals.

Classroom management is crucial for a successful competition so give the instructions clearly unless you´ll be confused and your students even more so.

AIM: This activity teaches the three processes needed to complete the sentence transformation exercise that is on the FCE, CAE and CPE tests.

Material: Cut up sentence transformation questions from the Cambridge exam you are working with. Make sure they are numbered so you understand the sequence.

Procedure

You can´t explain all the activity at first or it won´t work so do so in phases

Phase 1: Allocate Roles First

Split the class into groups of three. Then give the instructions in these steps

Ask one of the members of each group to be the writer. Make clear who is the writer and make sure they have a piece of paper and pen to write with.

Then ask when member of each group is going to READ. Make sure the allocation is clear by having them put their hand up.

Now tell the last student that he/she will be show you (the teacher) the answers.

Students will still at this point not be clear but don´t worry now you will explain the game

Phase 2: The game

Show students a question from the exam.

Tell them that one student (the reader) will come up and read the paper and go back to their group where the writer will note it down.

Tell them that there is a word (I call it a magic word for emphasis) which will help the group transform the sentence into a new one with exactly the same meaning. Tell them this word CANNOT  be changed.

• Explain that the reader will come up and read this information, they will then tell the writer what to note down.
• Now all three will change the sentence and the writer will rewrite the new version.
• Then the 3^rd person will bring what the students think is the correct answer to you for checking

Phase 3: Correction

When the answer is shown to the teacher they only will respond YES or NO. If yes then the reader can come up and see the next sentence transformation question. If NO then student

must return to the group for them to produce the correct answer. YOU MUST ONLY ACCEPT THE CORRECT ANSWER

TIP: At this stage don´t help the learners as usually it is a simple mistake and they can correct it. If they can´t make the change after a 3^rd attempt give them a cluse such as spelling, tense, wrong prepositions (be minimal with your help). This is the time when students really work and must do it together.

Keep this sequence going until the learners have read, wrote and shown all of the sentence transformation questions to you. It is crazy but fun!

Phase 4: Checking

When the game is complete go through all of the questions and discuss what problems the students had. They will see they had similar problems and this will help you know what areas they are weak in i.e. past simple to present perfect, phrasal verbs, verb + infinitive or gerund, conditionals, inversions, collocations etc.

Aim: This is activites has student make the test and gives them a better understanding of what is involved in this activity

Material -

• A practice test book with an example of this part of the exam. Use copied texts of short reading which can be copied from the Reading paper 1 or the last section of the CPE Use of English (Part 5)
• Something to obscure the words such as liquid paper, a thick heavy marker pen of sometimes my student punch holes in the paper so the word can´t be seen.

Procedure

A. Introducing the Activity

1. Give each student a copy of the lexical close question and individually have them read the text ONLY.
2. Now ask student to turn over the paper so they can´t see it and then tell their partners what they remember.
3. TIP: The student must ALWAYS read the text completely first. If not they will not do this part of the exam efficiently believe me. I always do the CPE test, or even the CAE test, and never get 100% if I don´t read all the text first.
4. Ask students to do the activity in pairs.
5. At the end go through the answers with the group

B. Understanding the Task

1. Elicit from students what types of words the examiner is asking them to complete in this activity.
2. Comment, usually it is , prepositions, auxiliary verbs, model verbs, words on in fixed phrases, verbs in collocations, pronouns. All samll words with very little meaning.
3. Now give each pair a copy of a reading test.
4. Ask the pair to underline 5 or 6 words which they think the examiner would remove from this text.
5. After this has been done give the students correction fluid or something to hid the word ( a black marker may be possible to draw over the word) so the word chosen is hidden. TEST THIS FIRST
6. When this is done tell students they are going to check the other groups work to see if they would be good examiners.
7. Now swap the papers around for each group for them to check by completing the activites done by the other groups. NOTE: Don´t let Ss write on the papers as you need to give them to another group, so answers must be written on students own notebooks.
8. Now have a group discussion on which text they think was the best.

Hope this find this fun.

Supershaun

PS: Now you think of what you can do with the great vocabulary your students have just read.