Editorial
This article was first published in TEA (Teachers of English in Austria) newsletter (autumn/winter 2008) and represents Andrew’s reflections on the TEA summer school of 2008 in which he was one of the tutors.
No Time for Football Only Ball Practice!
Andrew Wright, Hungary
Andrew Wright lives in Godollo, Hungary, near Budapest. Andrew and his wife Julia run a private language school in Godollo and Budapest doing mainly company teaching. Julia is the director of the company. Andrew spends most of his time writing books and travelling in order to work with teachers. Andrew’s books include: ‘Games for Language Learning’. CUP, ‘Creating Stories with Children’. OUP, ‘1000 Pictures for Teachers to Copy’. Longman Pearson, ‘Writing Stories’. Helbling Languages.
E-mail:andrew@ili.hu, www.andrewarticlesandstories.wordpress.com
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Summary
Opinions about ministry guidelines during the workshop week
Why make a song and dance about emotion and creativity?
Further enquiries into ministry guidelines and exams
Matura exam
Ministry syllabus guidelines Oberstufe
Ministry syllabus guidelines for the Unterstufe
Must method equal exam?
Teacher transparency
Working emotionally and creatively with English
Some last thoughts
In my workshops during the TEA summer school we worked on:
- Writing poetry
- Writing and responding to stories
- Drawing and using pictures
That is certainly a commitment to creativity as a motivation for learners and as a subject offering a rich soil for language development! But all was not well! Big brother Matura hung its chilling shadow over the idea of creativity in the classroom!
During the workshops I asked colleagues about the Ministry guidelines which might affect time spent on creative activities and I received mixed messages. Some colleagues seemed to be convinced that things were tighter than ever and that there is even less room for creativity than in the past because so much emphasis is put on getting through the language syllabus and achieving proficiency related to accuracy and basic skills.
Some colleagues felt there was a need for creative work just to keep the motivation of the students alive even if there was no opportunity for creativity in the Matura.
As I write this article the American election is moving steadily towards the moment of choice by the American voters. What is going to determine the voting for most people? I submit, it is emotion. Obama and McCain both focus their offerings on an emotion based ticket: change. It is the general notion of change which they are offering not a detailed list of practical measures. Furthermore, McCain is offered as the grizzly, old, experienced, loyal, soldier and Obama as the young, intelligent, mixed race, embrace everyone, start afresh, hopeful. All of these concepts are emotionally based rather than intellectual or practical. Emotion and creativity in business and in politics are huge in the effect they have on how our lives are lead. The president of the United States has the power to change all of our lives as we have seen and are seeing now.
Do I need to spend time pointing out that it is the emotional aspect of our individual lives which dominates everything we do? Bizarrely, tragically, stupidly, (choose the adverb you prefer) we give these vital aspects of our individual and social life next to no attention in public education! We dismiss both emotional content and creativity as sideline experiences…not for serious people…’not what wins wars’!
What rubbish!
In the school curriculum a wavering candle is held for emotion and creativity in art, music and drama. And these subjects are the first to go when there is belt tightening.
Given that emotion and creativity are key elements in the survival of society and of the individual it seems obvious to me that they should be key elements in every subject in the curriculum. Maths and physics? Try telling the guys in Cern that emotion and creativity play no part in what they do! And what would Einstein have said to such a notion? Oh, Einstein, I believe, regarded school as a gap in his education!
Given the importance of emotion and creativity and given the apparent conflict in perceptions amongst colleagues during the TEA workshops I decided to make a few enquiries about the matura exams which wag the dog of education, myself. Two friends, in particular, gave me some useful insights: Herbert Puchta and Christian Holzmann. I am grateful for their help in clarifying things but it is most important for me to say that what I am sketching out below is not their responsibility! I might well have got something wrong!
Doing a detailed analysis of the Ministry guidelines and public examinations related to what is and is not required would be a VERY useful thing for TEA to do for its members, I submit. However, here goes my attempt…
I found that ministry guidelines and the new Matura exam are a little out-of-step.
As I understand it creative writing is NOT explicitly part of the final Matura exams even though the Ministry urges teachers to include creativity in their teaching methodology.
The examples of exam type tasks I have seen appear to be essentially testing intellectual understanding and language skills and are lacking in any sense of living communication, emotional involvement and creativity.
In the guidelines for the Oberstufe there is a general reference ("There should be room for developing the pupils's creativity") but there are no specific instructions as to text types, creative tasks etc. It is also true that creative writing is NOT part of the final exams (at the end of the last year of the Oberstufe before kids go to university).
For example, the ministerial guidelines for the teaching of 10-14-year olds (Hauptschule and Gymnasiun) clearly state in the preamble:
1.1
Kreativität und Gestaltung:
Der Fremdsprachenunterricht soll zu kreativen Aktivitäten, wie zB zu Rollenspielen, fremdsprachlichen
Theateraufführungen und kreativem Schreiben, anregen.
[The following is a rough translation:]
1.2.
Creative production
It should be the objective of the teaching of a foreign language to encourage students to engage in creative activities, as for example role plays, play acting and creative writing.
2.1
Ganzheitich-kreatives Lernen
Der Einsatz von spielerischen und musischen Elementen bzw. ganzheitlich-kreativen Methoden ist auch im
Fremdsprachenunterricht notwendig, um möglichst förderliche Lernbedingungen für Schülerinnen und Schüler
zu schaffen. Multisensorisches Lernen vermag die Aufnahmebereitschaft, Erinnerungsleistung und Motivation
zu aktivieren und bringt daher vielschichtigen lernpsychologischen Gewinn.
[Again, a rough translation:]
2.2
Holistic-creative learning
Teaching a foreign language among other things needs to be based on gamelike elements and needs to be related to the fine arts in order to help develop students' creative potential. Multi-sensory learning can help extend students' attention and awareness and improve memory and motivation. Seen from the point of view of cognitive psychology, it offers advantages on a multitude of levels.
Quotations from: www.schule.at
So the answer is that the Ministry say that creative writing is something that the teacher has to do in the first 4 years at Gymnasium and Hauptschule (Unterstufe) and should do (Oberstufe) in the last four years of the Gymnasium.
As an outsider I cannot really comment on the guidelines but they are clearly important in affecting what teachers feel they can do in the classroom.
My colleague informant during the course, having told me that there is very little encouragement in the new exams for creativity, went on to say that letting the students be creative was the only way of keeping them involved:
‘We shouldn't be blinded by the Matura, it's just that at the moment teachers are a bit nervous because of the change. But you couldn't teach to that Matura format only; kids would drop dead with boredom if you did.’
Even if it were the case that the only aspect of language looked for in the public exam is accuracy and skills manipulation IS it the case that the only way of preparing the students is to do ‘exam like’ accuracy exercises for several years?
I develop my own perception of the answer to this question, below.
There is a lot to be said for ‘transparency’. I know it is a jargon word but if you believe that it IS very sensible to engage students in creative work for a significant part of your lesson time, tell people and don’t mince your words!
We discussed, in one workshop, the idea of teachers writing an A4 description of their aims and their methods giving copies to students, parents, colleagues, school directors etc.
The draft text, put together in minutes, went something like this:
For students, parents and colleagues!
Aims
I am working towards two aims:
1 Preparing the students to pass the English part of the matura.
2 Contributing to preparing the students for life in a changing world in which successful communication depends on more than grammatical accuracy.
Approach and method
Experiencing the language and not just studying it
I believe the two aims overlap in compatibility related to method for the following reasons:
I believe that the majority of our school population are better able to use their full intelligence when they are involved in USING the language for purposes which matter to them. Only a few students can learn by studying and remembering grammatical rules and words which are attached to meaning only through translation and performing dry skills.
I have no doubt that a key element in teaching for the whole school population is for the teacher to provide engaging experiences in which the language comes alive. Any topic and activity which engages the interests of the students and involves language is, potentially, useful language learning material.
Focussed practice and grammatical rules
No problem! I accept the need for focussed practice of grammatical points and a need for students to learn vocabulary for homework and to be tested on it. And I accept the need to develop in the students the intellectual and rather dry skills expected of them in the examination.
Most students need both interest AND practice
Most students need to have an engaging reason for learning English AND an opportunity to concentrate on practising focussed bits of it.
Manchester United
Imagine if Alex Fergasson told a young footballer, ‘For five years I want you to practise dribbling the ball between sticks and analysing matches with the trainer. THEN, if you have got a 2 or a 1 you can play in a football match. He or she would be unmotivated…to say the least.
Summary
In order to help as many students as possible to pass the English part of the Matura I am sure that I must offer engaging ways of using English and supportive and reasonable ways of practising it.
Please take this into account when you feel concerned if you hear that the students are writing stories or playing games, etc. Both activities are HIGHLY professional things to do.
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1. Creative writing
Literature, as a concept, is given immense respect in society. Literature means studying stories, plays and poems. But authors don’t write literature…they write stories, plays and poems! Why can’t the writing of ‘literature’ in schools be given as much value as the studying of it? Creative writing engages many students and inspires in them a wish to do their best. To say there is no time for creative writing is mad. To assume that it is a childish escape from real work is naïve.
2. Performing and publishing
If the students are going to write creatively then their work cannot be just marked and left in a school exercise book. It is most important that, at least some of the students creative work is performed in drama, for example, for parents evenings or on Utube or published in real looking story collections with proper covers and title pages and so on. Alternatively, published on a web site. In this way the student feels that what he or she is doing has respect in broader society not just a mark in the teacher’s register. The student cares. He or she works beyond the call of duty. He or she wants it to be accurate in grammar because of self respect in the face of the ‘world’. I never select ‘the best’ for publication. All the students work on one theme is published together.
3. Examples of creative writing leading to publishing or performing
The examples of emotional and creative work in English teaching given below are from my experience. I do not want to suggest that story and poetry writing are the only ways of being involving the emotions and creativity!
Examples
Example 1: Hauptschule Braunau
A few years ago (that is why I cannot remember the actual name of the Hauptschule) I did a double lesson with a class of 13/14 year olds. I was asked to do ‘poetry writing and performing’. I began by asking the students to brainstorm words for food on the board. Then I began to dwell on the sound of the words…and to show delight in their individuality and richness. Then I began to ask the students to say the words in the same rather exaggerated way…I prefer to call it ‘heightened’! Then I helped them to group the words, to make phrases and to create rhythmic patterns with the words. In groups they worked on their own food poems. When the class teacher and I came back from the break we found the boys already in the room. They had not taken their break!!! Why? They were working on their poem and they asked if they could do their performance first!
Can a teacher ask for more?
Example 2: Auhof Linz LISA
I have worked on project weeks for fifteen years with 12/13 year old children, who researched the internet for information on Oetzi, researched ‘for real’ the life experiences which Oetzi might have had in the mountains and made notes, drafted and redrafted story like hypotheses about his last hours, illustrated the stories, published the stories. The children work hours and hours beyond the official time allotted because they know it is not going to the teacher to be marked but going into the world to be read.
Example 3: Aarau Switzerland
I have worked with 18 to 21 year olds for 3 days in the Kunsthaus in Aarau every year for five years. The students write poems and stories based on the paintings in the Kunsthaus. Their writings are on the college internet and a book is being produced for everybody to have, including the Kunsthaus. The students told me that they had never, in their whole school life, been asked to really use their full richness and they wanted to write richly and they certainly wanted it be accurate in grammar and vocabulary…because their work would be read for years to come.
.... During these days you think about your behaviour, your ideas, your life and sometimes there are so many doors that open at the same time that the feelings are overwhelming. It is very unusual in the teacher training or generally in our studies that we spend so many hours focused on ourselves…
Student feedback
As an Englishman, not even resident in Austria but loving the opportunity of working with Austrian teachers and in Austrian schools (both Hauptschule and Gymnasium) I would like to say with great concern: Please don’t abandon all those children who need to EXPERIENCE life and language in order to develop and to learn.
I failed my public examinations in English when I was sixteen and was labelled, dumb. I have written books for teachers and students published by, Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press and Longman Pearson. And, most recently, I have published a book, ‘Writing Stories’, with David A. Hill for Helbling Languages. Studying English at school did not engage my brain. I had to USE English, creatively and emotionally, in order to grow and to learn.
Surely, I am not the only one who needs to experience a language emotionally in order to care about it and to use my brains? What do you think?
Please check the English for Secondary Teachers course at Pilgrims website.
Please check the Humanising Testing course at Pilgrims website.
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