Humanising Language Teaching
Year 5; Issue 4; July 03

Dear Mario,

When looked at statistically , the risk of catching SARS in Hongkong is less than the risk involved in the everyday practice of getting into your car and driving to work..

SARS, however, has provoked an amazing amount of anxiety in Hongkong society and cased the closure of schools and universities for a month.

There are health notices everywhere:

Wash your hands after touching public installations
Don't spit, it is bad for your health
Be considerate, wear mask.

As a result, on the Mass Transit Railway you might see some one in head-to-toe protective gear, including plastic gloves. In the same carriage you can see an unmasked person coughing their head off. Parents are understandably concerned and health and education officials appear on TV and radio to stress the importance of washing your hands, even though the schools don't have soap and hand-towels. It took a public funding drive through the South China Morning Post to raise enough money to buy protective clothing for front line medical staff in Hongkong hospitals. There is a lighter side…though.. Nury Vittachi, a very humorous journalist did a quick survey of preventative measures people are taking:

no sex
one woman holds her breath in the lift even if there is no one else in it
another only presses lift buttons with her keys

Schools re-opened in early May. The worst of the scare was then past. Hongkongers blame it all on the Mainland, with some people calling for border closures.

Jane Lockwood, ( author of a marvellous language book for foreign women having their babies in Australian hospitals )

Derided for using successful NLP Techniques

Dear Editor,

In 1999 I heard about NLP and became curious about the way it could be used to help my children and off I went from Mexico to London to attended an NLP for ELT course, offered by Jane Revell. Then I found out about the Learning Brain, SEAL and Pilgrims. I have tried out many strategies and techniques. Some have worked better then others, depending on the pupils I was working with. It is clear that not everything works for everybody, since people are unique. Last year I attended the Master Practitioner Course with John Grinder, and then, suddenly, I felt "creative".

This term I was given a group of seven to eight year old kids, whose former teacher had been fired. The Director said that this teacher had not been able to cope with these difficult children. When I met them the kids were very intelligent, healthy and from a high socio-economic background. Their parents tended to be too busy to bring them up, to encourage them or simply to be there when they were needed.

These children learned to read and write German ( their first foreign language) but they did not have enough practice. At the beginning of term they were all over the place, they were without limits, they were very loud, they did their work very quickly, messily and full of spelling mistakes.

After establishing an emotional bond with them, I began with some affirmations and they started changing. Almost everything changed for the better, except their spelling in German. And that's where I started being creative.

I simply gave them sheets of white paper and asked them to write done words from their vocabulary lists, using their favourite colours. I then asked them to write the same words but using the other hand. There was silence in the room as the activity was challenging. I enjoyed seeing them taking the "other-handed" risk so much that I suggested they write the same words upside down. Almost everybody was able to do this. Of course their hand writing was not of the nicest but my objective was to make them focus their attention on each and every letter. They enjoyed the "game " very much . The next day I dictated these same words and was amazed to see that almost everyone had almost everything correct. Although I have not done it regularly with them, many of them play the same "game" outside class, I then realised that, at the beginning of term, I had had to repeat every test as only around 4 out 23 passed. Everything was now changed with only two or three children systematically failing- one of them is considered an indigo child and the other has ADD.

I was happy with the improvement, and , as I am the teacher trainer at our school, I shared my experience with my colleagues, who also had a try to see if it worked. And it did. I then asked the academic head of the school and the Director to observe my lessons.

They felt I was totally crazy. They asked if I realised the damage I was doing by making the children write those words in so many ways. My actions would confuse the students mentally and they would not be able to write normally in the near future.

A week later I was told they had consulted German and American experts who said "this is a stupid technique".

Mario, what do your readers think about the situation I now find myself in?

Elizabeth Smith.