Humanising Language Teaching
Year 1; Issue 2; April 1999

INTERLINGUAL TRAINING AND TECHNOLOGY

Peter Wilberg, Language Engineering Services

Page 3 of 3

Just as a doctor can learn a lot from taking a blood sample, so it is also of inestimable value to be able to elicit samples of the learner's business, professional or technical discourse in their native tongue - either in situ, by shadowing them at work, or in the classroom. These samples can be compared with the learner's interlanguage and used to establish target language benchmarks. The main role of the trainer is then not simply to present and practice this benchmark language, still less to dispense target language expressions for the learner to digest like pills. Rather it is to strengthen learner independence: giving learners themselves the methods and technologies with which they independently and proactively identify the benchmark terms and phrases which they will need for a specific telephone call or e-mail, meeting or presentation.

Knowing what you want to say in a foreign language is not the same as knowing how you will say it. Normally, we rely on our natural native-language expertise to shape the form of our utterances or written language. Yet there are frequently situations, particularly in professional contexts, for which we prepare ourselves by thinking out what we have to say in advance - that is to say, by reflecting on and rehearsing the wording of our statements or questions. For in the last analysis, what we succeed in communicating is in large part a function of how we say it. One important way in which learners can be helped to independently improve their use of foreign languages in professional contexts is by providing them with methods not only for predicting the language they may need in specific situations but also for preparing in advance the key phrases they will need to say what they want and say what they think. Key phrases are a well-established feature of management and professional discourse, used as "bullet points" in reports, memos and PowerPoint presentations. Linguistically, they take the form of a series of collocated key words, each embedded in the same key structure, usually a noun or verb phrase.

verbal key phrase

(verb + modifier + noun)

Speaking from prepared sets of key phrases is not the same as either reading aloud or speaking in an entirely improvised way. And yet it allows complex sentences or questions to be easily constructed with the addition of a single lead-in phrase such as "Over the next six months we intend to..." or "How are we going to..." followed

by a rhetorical structure that links the bullet points in a pattern such as "A,B & C".

Prepared in this way, the speaker may then elaborate each of the key phrases in turn with further verbs, determiners and modifiers, or post-modifying phrases.

...gather the necessary market information

....train and establish suitable local agents for these markets

...and organise effective sales promotions for our products?

Preparing key phrases in a foreign language is even more helpful than doing so in one's native tongue, whilst at

the same time providing an excellent form of structured practice in collocation and sentence building from key words. Learners should begin by listing key points in the form of noun phrases, either in their native language to begin with, or if they have the terms available, in the target language.

Then they should brainstorm the appropriate verbs to go with these noun phrases, but it is important that they select target language verbs which collocate strongly with their respective nouns. To do so it is advisable they first of all ask themselves what the most suitable verb would be in their own language. For unless they take this as the benchmark, they may end up using the first verb that comes to mind in the target rather than making a good lexical choice. Having prepared a set of verbal key phrases, the next step is to brainstorm a range of possible lead in phrases, and ensure that these fit the key phrases grammatically. A lead-in such as "We have had difficulty in..." for example, would require that all the verbs in the key phrase be transformed into "-ing" participles. Teachers can provide the necessary grammatical pointers in the classroom, and give practice in the oral linking, extension and elaboration of key phrases. But the essential thing is that learners are trained to prepare key phrases outside the classroom, using them as mnemonic notes from which they can deliver well-formed statements and questions in professional situations - whether orally or in writing, in informal meetings or in formal presentations. It is important to stress to the learner that these are language rather than content notes - reminders not of what they have to say but of how to say it - how a given message or piece of information can be best and most concisely formulated in the target language.

Besides the use of specific CALL tools such as Interlingual Trainer, there are many other ways in which learners can make use of technology to support their learning and provide them with useful language resources. Learners whose jobs demand a great deal of interlingual flexibility also often receive large numbers of foreign-language E-mails each day, many of which contain phraseology and terminology useful in formulating their own mails. These can be imported into a personal glossary file. But by simply taking the time to underline or highlight useful phrases and terms in a freshly opened mail, and then filing it in a resource folder, learner's can create a customised language resource which they can refer to when necessary. Learners on one-to-one language courses often accumulate large and unmanageable quantities of their own scribbled notes as well as printed handouts from the teacher. An alternative is for the teacher to prepare materials in the form of helpfiles on diskette, which can then serve as a permanent resource for the learner on their own personal or company PC's. Learners who have notebook computers should always be encouraged to bring them to courses, not only because they can then import useful CALL tools, but also in order to transfer their language notes to them in a suitably organised form.

Many learners make use of language and learning shareware available on the Internet, and if not can be encouraged to do so. Programs available include bilingual dictionaries such as Babylon which will automatically gloss any word in any document which the learner highlights with the cursor. There are also several programs which simulate bilingual flash-card learning systems, allowing learners to test themselves in a structured way on vocabulary which they pick up or enter from their classroom notes. In addition, there are more and more sites on the Internet offering a range of general-language exercises, or even giving teachers the facility to author their own exercises for learners. Last, but perhaps most importantly, there are standard tools such as Microsoft PowerPoint, which can be turned into a powerful medium for teaching language preparation and business presentation skills.

Presentation slides prepared with a tool such as Microsoft PowerPoint usually have two main elements: a headline and three or bullet points in the form of key words or phrases. Choosing the headline and preparing bullet points in the target language is an important skill in itself (see Preparing Key Phrases). So also is preparing the oral presentation or "voiceover" for the slide. This requires at least 4 elements:

1. An introductory sentence introducing the headline and linking its topic with that of previous slides.
2. A opening phrase to lead into one or more of the key phrases used as bullet points (lead-in phrase).
3. Word and phrases that elaborate and extent each of the bullets (eg. modifiers and post-modifying phrases).
4. Linking words that allow the bullet points to be embedded in sentences and rhetorical patterns.

Both the key phrases for the bullet points and the voiceover itself can be prepared interlingually. By first brainstorming the best choice of words and phrases for both in their native language, the learner can then use these as a benchmark for the creation of the target language presentation, thus ensuring that the language used in the latter matches the standard set by this benchmark. As far as the bullets are concerned, I recommend that learners used a fixed structure for the key phrases they employ (eg. verb + noun phrase), as this makes it much easier to construct a voiceover for the slide. Proper training in preparing this voiceover can help overcome the instinctive tendency of learners to either (a) move on the slide headline in a perfunctory way and reel off the phrases aloud, without any elaboration (b) improvise and elaborate on the topic headlined in the slide in a way that bears no direct relation to its key words and phrases. The danger of (a) is to bore the listener. The danger of (b), particularly if the listeners are also non-native speakers of the target language, is that the latter will be mystified, unable to connect what they hear from the speaker and what they see on the screen or overhead.

Instead of either improvisation or reeling off, I emphasise to the learner the importance of preparing at least two or three fully-formed sentences from the slide in which its key words and phrases are embedded and elaborated. Only fully-formed sentences, with clear beginning and ending, allow intonation and pausing to be used properly within a presentation. Only by preparing in advance a sequence of clear sentences can these be linked in an effective rhetorical structure rather than by a repetitive use of "and.." as a result of which the listeners lose a sense of where one sentence ends and another begins. I explain to learners that the slide headline and bullets are merely the visible part of the voice-over. The invisible part consists of those lead-in phrases and linking words are that will be needed to generate fully-formed sentences from the visible language on the slide.

An excellent interlingual training exercise is for the learner to create a variety of native language voice-overs for a single target language slide. This gives learners the opportunity to discover what sort of lead-in phrases and linking words they would naturally employ in their native tongue in order to introduce the headline, to elaborate the bullets and embed them in a rhetorical structure. The learner can then select equivalents or near-equivalents of these for the target-language voice-over. I always recommend that these lead-in and linking words and phrases be included in the learner's own printouts of the slides. These then provide a personal prompt-sheet for their own voice-over, which they can also practice in the classroom or even record and animate with PowerPoint itself.

Interlingual Training runs quite contrary to the idea of teachers going into the classroom with a set of standard materials and things to "do" with the learner that are only superficially or formalistically related to the latter's needs, and to the specific language of their industry. The essential professional ethos underlying the interlingual approach is for the trainer to first learn the learner's language: to be able to communicate and consult with learners in a way that embodies a genuine interest in their professional language, and a willingness to gain and apply at least a basic knowledge of their mother tongue. As an English teacher, I very much regret the fact that despite the strengthening of Britain's European ties to the global market, it is not only English companies but English teachers who often show little interest in learning other languages - national or professional. The core terminology of English Language Teaching has hardly changed over the years, and is only just beginning to evolve in response to new information and language technologies. My wish is that it also evolves in response to new, international, intercultural and interlingual relationships in the European and world community.

Wolf Friederich (Technik des Übersetzens, Hueber 1983)

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