Learning English: An ‘Illogical’ Language .

In my previous blog, I wrote about English Language and the ‘immigration’ of many words and how some changes in pronunciation, were due mainly to accents. And, I didn’t even mention the difference in accents within the UK, from the North of Scotland, down through Yorkshire, to the west country and Cornwall. Then there’s the Irish in the extreme west, across to the Cockneys in the East! Many ‘accents’ reside even with the UK, let alone across its history of colonialism. What I want to return to, was my having to teach Malaysian students how to pronounce English ‘correctly’ when speaking, and the work I did with Robert Lam, on our popular courses “Effective Spoken English” (See last blog). The real challenge occurred when we looked at the spelling!

There are the words that sound the same, but are spelt differently and have different meanings. Here are just a few examples: whether, weather and wether (a castrated sheep) or boy vs buoy or died vs dyed, and practice vs practise. Then there is: said vs led or bed (so why isn’t said spelt ‘sed’) or sneeze vs teeze, tea vs tee or laid vs played, or staid vs stayed, or peace vs piece. There is heal vs heel, no vs know or wear vs where and meat or meet. Again, the examples can go and on! I could continue with many examples, which would appear that someone had conspired to ensure learning English would be difficult. 

When I worked for QANTAS, many people would want to spell it Quantas, not realizing it was from the initials of; Queensland And Northern Territories Airways

 At that time my daily priorities would be determined by the telexes I received. And the costs of telexes depended on their length, so words needed to be abbreviated, so a telex dictionary was given to me. Some of the telex abbreviated words still remain today (like ‘pax’ for passenger), except now it means people. Would, could or should were spelt – wld, cld, or shd – but now we spell in them as wud, cud or shud, due to SMS. Please was pls or thanks was tks, but today we say tq or adding on ‘very much’, it is tqvm. In this new world of instant messaging, we try to shorten many words even more, like ‘n’ for and, or ‘cu’ for see you, or the confusing one like ‘LOL’. Is it lots of ‘love’ or ‘laughter’?.

And here, we are only talking about spelling and pronunciation, not grammar. The illogic of the English Language can be further amplified when we use singular or plural words. Most English plurals are recognizable when we put an ‘S’ at the end. As with the last word in the previous sentence, ‘words’. OK! But how about, ‘staff ‘, or ‘personnel’ – no – ‘s’, but can still be plural! Then we have ‘one child’ but no childs – only children (and not childrens). The ‘s’ only comes in when we insert an apostrophe. For example, a child’s shoes or children’s shoes, but with ‘child’s’ it only the shoes of one child, whereas ‘children’s’ shoes would be the shoes of more than one child. There are of course many examples, but I just wanted to illustrate how difficult it can be to also learn correct grammar, and perhaps more frustrating to teach it.

As I am a more an ‘auditory’ learner, I feel blessed that I just picked up both the correct BBC English pronunciation and grammar, merely by the sound. Even though I am ‘English’, I just learned to be able to say ‘It sounds correct or not’. If asked why, I can’t tell you the rules, I almost intuitively say, “it sounds right (or not) to me”. And by the way, even though my wife would often say she is married to an Englishman, I am only 25% English! I happen to also have 25% Welsh, 25% Scottish and 25% Spanish blood in me. And yet, I do not speak with any of those last 3 accents, only the ‘English’ one. So I should forgive my wife for calling me English – or more specifically ‘S.W. London or Surrey’ English – tainted slightly with having lived also in New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia! Perhaps I can call my accent “Commonwealth Salad.”

So what type of English will future generations speak or will children still learn to spell and write? Will we learn to speak and pronounce in one way? Or will we still spell and speak in many diverse ways?

  

Learning English: Accents and Migration.

Learning English: Accents and Migration.

I am ‘English’,  (or more correctly – British). I grew up learning to speak English and acquired a hybrid accent of BBC and the Queen’s English. Luckily my parents spoke excellent English – with the same accent and I picked up correct grammar by ear, rather than from classes at school.

It was only when I migrated to New Zealand at the age 19 that I experienced weird looks from people, who thought I was too ‘posh’. But a bigger shock came when I went for an audition for a newsreader‘s job at the NZBC. They said, sorry, but you sound more like Prince Charles than the local Kiwis (not the bird)! I was told that the listeners would focus more on the sound of my Queen’s English accent, than on the news I was reading. Immediately I tried to mellow my accent so I could pass off as a ‘Pakeha’ (white New Zealander).

Later, I moved to Australia, and then found many Australians sounded more like the Cockneys from central London, so I had to fight hard to regain a more ‘BBC’ English way of speaking. But I had by now become fascinated by how accents occur. There are now dictionaries of Cockney rhyming slang and ‘strine’ (Australian slang).

It seems when we are young, we are more  adaptable, and we can adopt the accents of those around us. But once older, and having adopted an accent, it becomes harder to change. Two well known adult Germans, Peter Drucker and Henry Kissinger, who spoke with a strong German accent, did not lose their accent upon moving to live in the USA. But Henry’s younger brother, who moved with him, quickly acquired an American accent.

 For me, I had just passed the ‘age of influence’, so never really lost my ‘BBC’ accent. But it did soften and mellow and was less easy for people to pick exactly where I came from originally. Often I am taken for a South African, but not a Malaysian, where I have spent more than my life. But some word sounds   have changed a bit. (years  became – ‘yerz’ – rather than ‘yiers’).

But, back to learning English and its lack of logic. When I set up a consultancy business in Malaysia – called CREDO, many pronounced it as CRAYDO. rather than CREEDO.  I teamed up with a TV newsreader who’s  whose name was Robert Lam. He spoke more like a BBC newsreaders and we established a training course called ‘Effective Spoken English’. This really was a course on pronunciation, rather than building vocabulary or improving grammar, and I was often asked to speak to trainees on the English Language. I used to tell them there is no pure English – as it is an amalgam of Saxon, French and German words together with many Roman (Latinized) words – a sort of migration of several languages that had converged,  like ‘menu’ or ‘flambe’ (French) words and Latin, like ‘egocentric’ or ‘information’.

A lot of legal terms came from Latin and terms like, i.e. or e.g. or etc. are from the Latin Language. Long Latin words introduced by the Romans contrasted to the Anglo, like “defence vs fortification” or “shock vs mortification”. Most long words – ending in ‘ion’ came from Latin. Winston Churchill was a great promoter of using shorter words for better understanding (“seek to express rather than impress”). For example, make vs manufacture, proof vs verification, expand vs elucidate, car vs automobile, kill vs exterminate, talk or speak vs communicate and the list could go on and on.

Look at how many English words that migrated to North America and were changed, as if to deliberately confuse us even more. Schedule is pronounced skedule, so the American would ask why school is not spelt shule or skool! And programme became program, or colour became color.  Of course there is the famous line from a song; “you say tomayto and I say tomarto and I say potayto and you say potarto”. Americans will pronounce glass like gas or lass, unlike the English, where glass is pronounced glarss, or kick ass vs kick arse (an ass is a donkey!). So no wonder English is difficult to learn. The ass has an arse. So which do I kick? It’s difference in spelling, as well as accent. So, where’s the logic of the English Language? And to coin an American phrase, “there ain’t one”!

So it Is any wonder our trainees were having great difficulty with pronunciation, let alone spelling, just as I also experienced difficulties when people spoke to me in ‘Manglish or Singlish’ when I first came to Asia. Or like the problems I had with “Strine” in Australia.  And now to further complicate things (or simplify, if you are Gen Y) there is the use of SMS lingo. But let’s leave that for another blog.

Learning Maths: Using the Asian Way

Having left school, decades ago, with not very good grades in maths, I wonder whether I would have been better, from using the magic of the Asian way. But that's long before we started comparing GCE scores between the UK, Hong Kong and Singapore and more recently China. In those days as long as we passed English, Maths and Science 'O' levels and had three 'A' levels of any discipline (I did art, biology and geography) we would enter any Commonwealth University. 

Leap forward more than 50 years, it's a different story. So is that why the UK government is providing £41million for the funding for primary schools interested in pursuing the Asian methods of teaching maths. The UK department for education says the mastery methods involve students learning as a whole class, supported by high quality text books. Objects and pictures are used to demonstrate and visualize abstract concepts, numbers and symbols. 700 teachers are to be changed to support maths mastery in schools. Later, hubs of 35 school-led centres of excellence in maths teaching will expand the concept. Students who are poor in maths will benefit from specialist teachers help and quality text books.

 As a right 'brainer' with good artistic and visual spatial ability, I wish this system would have been in place in my primary school. I had to have private tuition in maths, to be able to get into a good secondary school and pass the common entrance exam. In those days we were ashamed to admit we needed private tuition. Now, in places like Malaysia and Hong Kong, almost all students enroll in private tuition, provided their parents can afford it. It has become a lucrative and thriving industry. Even school teachers take up tuition part- time, in order to supplement the relatively low salaries paid in Malaysian government schools. By contrast, Singapore teachers are paid better, and in the UK, senior teachers and school principals are paid very well. And, in general, class sizes are smaller in the UK. 

But despite this, professional school teacher’s training and development is still vital for their increase in expertise. It is also important to promote the use of initiatives to attract bright and enthusiastic teachers. In the UK, teaching is still considered a noble profession, leading to a good career. In fact, the number of maths teachers recruited is at an all-time high. Bursaries and scholarships for post graduate teachers in maths who need a 2.2 basic degree can receive up to UKP25,000. 

What worries me, is that many effective accelerated learning techniques are yet to enter into the mainstream teacher education syllabus. Admittedly we do now find that Gardner's multiple intelligences model is becoming more widely recognized, as well the use of learning styles assessment among students. But these preferred styles of learning at primary school, can differ slightly after puberty, due to the maturation of the corpus callosum (that massive web of nerve fibres that  connect the two hemispheres of the brain).

Once students are in secondary school, their abilities to speed up the iteration between our left and right brain, can greatly enhance several aspects of learning, such as abstract conceptual thinking. Also the translation of Chinese language,  which is, symbolic, graphic and visual, into English. Or, the integration of 60 beat music and learning maths concepts and how the two brain hemispheres work in harmony, rather than conflict. Therefore learning styles introduced before and after puberty may differ. But alas, many teachers use the same interpretation of learning style preferences for all ages.

However, some believe that learning styles alone is not the magic bullet, and other factors are also important. These include previously learned knowledge, the motivation to lean or the complexity of the skills, as well as the learning environment. Then there is the pace or pressure and stress of the learning, or how much fun there is in the process. In other words, is the environment conducive and are we enjoying the process with a positive perception, that the outcomes will be beneficial and rewarding.

How many of the above factors are considered in the learning design and the teaching of maths in the Asian methods. I would like to refer you to an excellent article by Peter Kline (author of the Everyday Genius) that appears in a recent issue of the International Journal of Inter-Disciplinary Learning. This can be downloaded from the Cambridge Global Learning (UK) website:www.cambridgegl.co.uk. Peter tells a great story on teaching algebra, which was my worst nightmare in ‘O’ level maths. I wish he had been my maths teacher back then. Or, would I have faired better using the Asian methods. Who knows!

Cultural Differences in Learning: Are the Best Teaching Methods Chinese or British?

This is my fourth and final blog in the 4 weekly quartet on the experiment  to apply 4 weeks  of Chinese teaching methods in a class of fifty, 13 – 14 year old British students in a UK school. So which was the best method?

At the end of ‘term’ comparative exams, between the experimental 50 British students, and the remainder of students who had been following the normal British routine  - the Chinese methods won overall. Here were the results in averages:

METHODS USED	MATHS SCORE	MANDARIN SCORES	SCIENCES SCORES
Chinese	67.74%	46.0%	58.33%
British	54.84%	36.6%	6.00%
Differences	12.9	9.4	52.33

So clearly, the Chinese method proved to win out in the end. However, some  factors need to be considered. The average classroom contact hours were twice as long (12 vs 6 hrs per day). Classroom size of 50 students was large compared to average British numbers (20 – 25 students). Initially, only a small number if British students adapted well to the rigor and discipline, and they may have done well academically, anyway. It took the Chinese teachers 2 – 3 weeks to ‘win over’ the remainder of kids, who were really resisting the Chinese methods, giving up easily. Had the experiment continued, they may all have adapted, and actually done even better.

A British teacher observed that students are grouped according to ability, and his philosophy is that learning must be fun and students must enjoy classes. The respect earned by British teachers is that, with smaller classes, and this philosophy, students come to view a teacher more as facilitator and coach. The teacher focuses more on the personality of students and helping them discover their potential holistically and independently. Students are encouraged to think critically and have individual opinions. 

The Chinese teachers in this said they would like to get more respect, although towards the end, they did. When the results came out, the students were actually elated, and hugged the Chinese teachers. Their strict discipline paid off in the end. Also, comparing the long hours of formal classroom teaching and then review of learning in groups,  plus 3 – 4 hours homework (up to 16 hours in total per day) the results should be better anyway. 

Overall, the comparison was probably not fair as the other British students only put in 50% of the hours. But herein lies the big differences in a system, not just a culture! The population of China is immense, so the competition and family pressure to excel, is far greater. The same pressure is on teachers, so school pride is nearly as strong as national pride.

This, is again where British kids have it much more easy and probably enjoy school much more. If I were to compare my own school experience, while I didn’t excel academically until well after school, I have great memories of a rich and holistic learning, with freedom of expression (eg: through debating, acting, art and classes on comparative philosophies) as well as many other subjects of choice and a wide range of co-curricula activities.

After morning classes, every afternoon, I had a choice to swim, shoot, play squash, tennis or fives and rugby. I could box, fence, play chess, do rowing and even play billiards. I could join the cadet force, scouts, air or sea scouts and go camping, hiking, mountain climbing, kayaking or sailing.

So, I am not sure I would want to trade in all that choice, for the rigour of the Chinese education system. But then, I am not Chinese! I’m British. Look forward to your comments.

Cultural Differences in Learning : “The Chinese Experiment in the UK”.

In the last two blogs, I have been outlining the series of 4 weekly BBC Documentaries on an experiment where 5 Chinese teachers used their approach to teaching, on a class of 50 British 13 – 14 year old students in a Hampshire secondary school in the UK.

The Chinese claimed that the main problem with the British children, was Attitude. They didn’t see education as a right or a privilege and many didn’t tend to take it seriously. In fact, few children in the UK go onto University. Their ‘right’ was more an individual human right, to behave how they want.

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There was an incident, where one student brought a kettle into the classroom, and made a cup of tea. As the Chinese teacher was mostly in the front, she didn’t notice this, until the student accidently spilt some tea.  The teacher of course was mad and tried to discipline the student, but to little avail, as many other kids giggled and tended to feel for him.

The ultimate in Chinese discipline, is to report to the parents any ‘serious’ misbehaviour. So the mother came to the school and met the teacher. However, she sided with her son, and said that as a human, he has rights! She said her son was thirsty and had a ‘right’ to consume  tea if he wanted. She had even given him the kettle to take to school! There was an innuendo that the Chinese don’t enjoy freedom and human rights.

Eventually as behaviour continued to be uncontrollable by the Chinese teachers, the school principal had to be consulted. He said there was a need for a ‘Behaviour Management’ intervention. He spoke sternly to the class, and said there would be consequences for any misbehaviour. He said the students should face the front and not talk to each other while the teachers were talking.

He suggested the teacher use the ‘silence’ technique, where they stop teaching when students chat among themselves or play around, saying they would only continue, once they stopped and paid attention. But would that work on students who mostly don’t seem to care, and are bored and tired, and find it difficult to learn in response to the Chinese ‘Teacher Centred’  method.

It is worth noting that student and teachers are from one ethnicity in China. In the UK they are often more ethnically diverse in Urban settings, with both teachers and students coming from India, Pakistan, Jamaica, some African and Middle Eastern cultures, and even a few Chinese (but mainly from Hongkong). Most become acculturated and integrated into the British culture and many students might have been born in the UK, although their parents may be immigrants.

The question, at this point in the experiment is, will the UK students adapt to the Chinese way of learning, and how will the Chinese teachers cope? I will examine this in my next blog, as the experiment continues. 

How culture Influences Learning (Part 2)

In my last blog, I discussed the insights into cultural differences that influence both teachers and students, when they each have to adapt cross-culturally. I have been following the BBC documentary on an experiment where 5 Chinese Teachers came to a British School for one month. The school selected fifty, 13 – 14 year old British students, with parental consent, to experience a month of the Chinese  teachers introducing their styles and techniques into the British classroom.

When teaching the British kids, the Chinese teachers put them in a class of 50 and tried using their own methods. Initially the students were rowdy, joking, laughing and talking throughout classes. They said this was because they found the teacher centred approach very boring, and were not used to sitting still for so long in a big class of students and such a long day. They often teased each other, were cheeky and didn’t take the lessons seriously. They also  have a short attention span, thus needing, variety which they got from having fun and from being chatty and cheeky.

When the mid-term test results came out, they ranked poorly in maths. Some students had to visit their own maths teachers to get some tuition. He concluded that the Chinese students learn the ‘what’, but not the ‘how’ or the ‘why’. They memorize the correct answers to test questions, but most Chinese students will not understand the reasons for the ‘what’. They do not acquire critical thinking skills! On the other hand, the British kids do acquire these skills, constantly questioning each other, checking on the internet, questioning the teacher and doing a lot of project based learning.

In China, students are taught to love and respect the country and its leadership. Also respecting parents and teachers Social education is taught to instill values, Confucianism ethics and pride in education and learning. Most children are a sole child in the family, and with the large population, education in fiercely competitive. If children don’t do well at school this brings great shame upon the parents and the school. Chinese culture is very hierarchical and collectivistic.

So there are significant socio-cultural differences between the Chinese and British norms and values in education and teaching methods. The experiment continues in this Hampshire school with big challenges for both teachers and students to overcome. It will be interesting to learn of the end outcomes!

What the might be some of the main cultural factors at play, in general, in teaching and learning.

  

The Chinese System

The British System

-          More Rigorous Academically -          Students Respect Teachers/Elders -          Culture More Collectivistic -          Hierarchical/Authoritative -          Students Respect Wisdom & Experience -          Strict Rule Based -          Less Individual Freedom -          More Nationalistic (Pride) -          Shame Driven (External Locus of Control) -          Rote Learning and Memorizing -          Larger Classes (50+)

-          More Holistic & Diverse -          Students Respect Facilitation -          Culture More Individualistic -          Egalitarian/Democratic -          Problem-Project Based Learning -          More free expression -          More Individual Freedom -          Less Nationalistic -          Guilt Driven (Internal Locus of Control) -          Critical & Creative Thinking -          Smaller classes (20 – 25)

How Culture Influences Learning:

Are you better at rote learning or critical thinking?

The other day I watched a BBC documentary, where some Chinese school teachers spent a month, teaching a class of 13 to 14 year British students, in a English High School.  It was very interesting to see the challenges faced by both teachers and students.

In China, the teachers had larger classes of 50 or more students, contrasted to smaller classes in the UK of 20 to 25 students. The teachers stand up front, and talk and write on a white board with the students reading and repeating over and over again and taking a lot of notes. They are memorizing the concepts or facts, and discipline is very strict. Teachers call out No talking! Pay attention! repeatedly. Something they do not need to do back in China. 

In the British school, the teachers often put students in small groups and encourage them to discuss problems, do projects and understand the underlying concepts or facts. British students question teachers and each other, exploring and interacting with the teacher – who moves from group to group. Critical thinking is encouraged.

Now when it comes to covering the syllabus and getting high test scores – the Chinese are way ahead (almost 3 years in maths!)  But to get the British students to ‘pay attention, not talk or not ask questions’, that was a big challenge for both the students, adapting – and the teachers instilling discipline.

The Chinese school day is 12 hours, from 7am to 7pm, with 3 – 4 hours of homework after school. The day starts with the whole school day doing calisthenics.

In the UK experiment – the class comprised 50 British students. They also did the morning exercise to music  - and actually liked it. Lunch is around 11.30am and another meal at 4.00pm. By the time, they finished at 7pm, they are very tired as they are not used to such a long day of classes.  

The Chinese teachers tended to be quite ‘authoritarian’ and expect children to pay attention, listen carefully and take notes. Chinese students do not chat among themselves or ask question of the teachers. The teacher is highly respected. Values are patience, persistence, perseverance and practice. However they do periodically break into pairs to check and share their learning. But it’s mostly rote learning and memorizing. PE is a mandatory subject in China, so students who fail this, cannot go onto University.

The British culture is more individualistic and democratic. The concept of collective shame hardly exists. The whole approach to education is more holistic with equal emphasis on all topics, sports and extra curricula activities. Science, maths or language excellence is no more important than with other subjects, like art, history, geography, cooking or sport etc. It is the right of teenagers to explore and develop their own talent potential. To choose to study what they want. Pride is more in individual achievement, rather than in the family, country, school or nation. (Self actualization).

As this experiment was over one month, I shall continue the ‘story’ in my next blog, but welcome your insights into cultural differences in teaching and learning. Happy Reading.