Anki Web (Free)

AnkiWeb is the online version of Anki, a spaced repetition learning application for Windows, Mac OS, iPhone, and other platforms. Anki helps learners to acquire phrases and vocabulary by presenting them to the user at spaced intervals. In order to use AnkiWeb, a learner must first download and install the desktop version of Anki. They can then add English language ‘decks’ to the application and sync the decks to AnkiWeb, which they can use from any computer with a web browser and internet connection.

ELLLO (Free)

ELLLO (English Listening Lesson Library Online) is a free website providing lots of listening exercises for English learners. You can hear people from many different regions and countries, as well as non-native speakers. There are over 2,000 short conversations with people talking about a variety of different subjects and answering questions.

English Central (Freemium)

English Central is an innovative solution for language learners who want to practice listening and speaking. The website allows users to view videos relating to a variety of topics with English audio and English and Japanese subtitles. Voice recognition technology is used to analyse the pronunciation of the learner’s recorded utterances, and evaluate how closely they match the native speaker’s pronunciation.

ESL Lab (Free)

ESL-Lab contains: short listening activities for beginning and intermediate students; listening quizzes for academic purposes, e.g. TOEFL/TOEIC Tests ; 20 minute ESL vocabulary lessons for students to improve their vocabulary and pronunciation; language learning tips; and long conversations with video.Most quiz screens include a pre-listening exercise, a listening exercise, and a post-listening “TOEIC/TOEFL” style multiple choice test.

Inogolo (Free)

Inogolo features audio recordings of the English pronunciation of the names of people, places, and other words not found in most dictionaries. Users are able to search the database of names, and check both the phonetic and audio pronunciations. Users can browse names alphabetically or by tags. A variety of useful pronunciation guides are also provided.

Lang-8 (Freemium)

Lang-8 is a free online writing exchange, which allows users to write diary entries – much like a blog – in the language they are trying to learn. Once a diary entry has been written, the user can publish it, and then other Lang-8 members, specifically those who are native speakers of the language that the user is trying to learn, will correct the diary entry. As of March 2011, Lang-8 had over 250,000 users, studying many different languages.

PopJisyo (Free)

PopJisyo provides pop-up language translations for English websites or blocks of text. When you move your mouse pointer over an unknown English word, a Japanese translation and explanation of that word appears. Alternative translations are provided with words which have more than one meaning. A list of popular websites is also provided, such as Google News, from which the user can select in order to apply the pop-up interface. It is also possible to generate a word list from all the words in a web page or block of text.

Quizlet (Free)

Quizlet (availble both through the browser and via a free iOS app) provides a fun and free way to learn foreign language vocabulary and grammar. A variety of different games are provided (such as dragging and droppping vocabulary items to their definitions, spelling words after listening to them being pronounced, etc) and there is a large variety of course content (such as foreign language vocabulary lists) already available.

Rhinospike (Free)

Rhinospike allows learners of foreign languages to request audio recordings of texts written in the language they are studying being read aloud. Japanese learners of English can therefore request native English speakers to make audio recordings of the texts they are studying. In exchange, they are requested to make audio recordings of Japanese texts for learners of Japanese wishing to hear such texts read aloud.

Simple Wikipedia (Free)

Simple Wikipedia is a very similar to the main English Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia that anyone can read and edit for free. However, it differs in the respect that it is written in “simple English” in order to be more accessible to non-native speakers of English. Simple Wikipedia’s guidelines suggest that articles should be written using the most common 2000 words of the English language, and grammar should be simplified wherever possible. There are currently over 60,000 articles in the Simple English Wikipedia.

Do you know any other good free websites for English learners? Please share your recommendations in the comments section below.

Is extensive reading alone sufficient for learning vocabulary, or should it be used in conjunction with other techniques, such as decontextualized vocabulary learning?

Self-study vocabulary flash cards can be used as a complement to a course of Extensive Reading

It can—perhaps should in adult L2 contexts—be used in conjunction with other techniques. I’m a big fan of self-study flashcards, myself. As long as we bear in mind the relative strengths and weaknesses of any particular technique, there’s no reason to exclude something that works well for many people.

As for “sufficient,” well, one of the strengths of ER is to build and reinforce vocabulary knowledge, particularly of very frequent words. Paul Nation, a pioneer of research into vocabulary acquisition, argues that a word needs to be encountered 20-30 times in context before it is well and truly learned. When we consider that there are millions of words in English, and billions of collocations of those words, and then we look at how many total words most students read in a language course—not to mention in a lifetime—then we get a sense of how tough it really is to develop a wide vocabulary.

One piece of good news is that a vocabulary of the 3,000 most frequent words in English is sufficient to read authentic material fluently. Unfortunately, not all words are created equal; the word “man,” for example, is far more frequent than the word “invisible.” To run across “man” twenty times, one needs only pick up any random short story; to run across “invisible” that many times, one might need to read several novels, or a thousand newspaper stories.

So, if you can set up an ER program that is supplemented by a well-planned focus on discrete vocabulary practice—say, sets of flashcards which cover the less frequent words in your students’ level—then you’re getting the best of both worlds.

What motivated you to adapt Choose Your Own Adventure books for learners of English?

Well, I’m a former ESL learner myself, as my family moved to Canada from Brazil when I was eleven. I was a voracious reader in Portuguese, so when I started learning English, one of the first things I did was hit the school library and start looking for things to read. One of the things that caught my attention was this strange paperback series written in the 2^nd person, where the reader is the hero, and makes choices leading to a variety of endings. I found the stories very addictive. And I wasn’t alone—at 250 million copies sold, CYOA is tied with Sweet Valley High as the 5^th best-selling book series of all time. That’s higher than the Chronicles of Narnia or the Star Wars novels.

Anyway, fast forward twenty years to when I had become a teacher looking for material that might motivate my students to read. I ran across the recently re-launched CYOA series and ordered a set for my students. They loved it, even though the language was far too tough for them. So I got in touch with the publisher, Chooseco, and asked them if they would be interested in having me write graded reader adaptations of some of their original stories. They were interested, but only if we could partner with a larger publisher. So I approached McGraw-Hill, who amongst the large publishers had little in the way of graded readers, and the rest is (soon-to-be!) history.

Do you have any other advice for teachers regarding extensive reading?

Yes. First of all, visit the Extensive Reading Foundation’s website. They have many ER resources for teachers, and links to many more. As well as Paul Nation, mentioned above, I also recommend Rob Waring’s website. Stephen Krashen has also written a lot on the principles underlying ER. Finally, Thomas Robb’s Moodle Reader site provides an excellent quiz database for thousands of graded readers, which helps to keep track of how much students have read.

Many thanks to Marcos Benevides for taking part in this interview.

Marcos Benevides is a Japan-based teacher and ELT materials writer. He co-wrote the reading coursebook Fiction in Action: Whodunit (Abax, 2010), which won both the Duke of Edinburgh and the British Council ELTon Awards. He also co-wrote Widgets: A task-based course in practical English (Pearson, 2008), and is currently the series editor for the newly launched Choose Your Own Adventure graded reader series from McGraw-Hill Education. He teaches at J. F. Oberlin University in Tokyo.

A vast range of "graded readers" are available for learners of English

What exactly is “Extensive Reading” and how does it differ from other kinds of reading?

I like to think of Extensive Reading as the reading branch of Communicative Language Teaching. If you believe that authentic, meaningful, and plentiful opportunities for language use should be a key component of language learning; that learners should have a degree of autonomy in selecting topics to engage with; that an explicit focus on linguistic forms and features is only part of the picture; and that teachers have a role to play as facilitators as well as experts in the classroom—then ER provides solutions for reading that perhaps you have already been employing on the speaking, listening, and writing side of things.

As with CLT more broadly, the primary aim of ER is to develop fluency rather than accuracy. Fluency in reading means the ability to read something at a good pace, without (often) needing to stop to check a dictionary, or (often) going back to re-read for missed information. Once someone can read fluently, they can truly enjoy reading—which causes them to read more, and thus to continue improving. So ER aims to kick-start that virtuous cycle in language learners.

However, just as the only way to develop fluency in speaking is to speak a lot, the only way to really become a fluent reader is to read a lot. It’s a bit of a catch-22. When you can’t read fluently, reading becomes a chore; this means you don’t do it as much as you should, which then means it’s tough to ever become fluent. ER solves this conundrum by having learners read things that are easy and interesting for them, so that they can start out by reading relatively fluently—for their level—right from the very beginning.

The readings can be anything at a language level that each individual feels comfortable with. Second language learners often start out by reading children’s books, for example, because they are both easy and plentiful. And that’s great. However, most adult learners are not particularly interested in children’s stories, so they don’t always fulfill that very important interesting requirement. For this reason, most ER programs use “graded readers,” which are books adapted to various reading levels, from beginner to advanced. That is, graded readers use restricted vocabulary and forms, but not simplified content. Although some series are targeted at younger learners, most are written to be enjoyed by adolescent and older learners.

There are all sorts of graded reader collections out there, including Oxford Bookworms, Macmillan Readers, Cengage Footprints—literally too many to list here. Some focus on adaptations of classics, such as Great Expectations or The Great Gatsby. Others offer movie adaptations, such as Spider-Man or Titanic. Most also include some excellent original stories written specifically for language learners. And the genres are as varied as in any library—romance, detective, horror, science fiction, biography, history, even travel.

How can language teachers utilize Extensive Reading in the classroom?

The most common way ER is implemented is as out of class readings. A typical example would have students selecting a graded reader from a library, reading it outside of class, then either filling out a simple book report or taking some kind of comprehension quiz. Assessment should interfere as little as possible with the enjoyment of the reading itself; if you have learners reading a book just to pass a test, it undermines the idea of reading for pleasure.

Having said that, there is a wide range of ways teachers implement ER. At my university, for example, we encourage teachers to give 15 minutes at the start of each weekly lesson for silent reading in the classroom. This has several incidental benefits; for instance, it gets students to settle down and start thinking in English; it encourages them to carry their graded reader around with them, which increases the chance they may pull it out and continue reading on the train before and after school; and it also allows teachers to keep tabs on student progress by asking them how they’re enjoying the books, which genres they prefer, etc. We still expect that students will read mainly outside of class, but some in-class reading helps to keep everyone on track.

Some programs set up reading circles where three or four students read the same book and then have discussions about it. Others include a listening component, since most graded readers come with a CD or downloadable MP3s. There is a wide range of activities that can be added to the basic reading requirement that can enhance the experience. As long as the students are reading at a comfortable level for them, reading a lot, and reading books that they select themselves, then it’s ER. Without losing sight of these goals, teachers can of course tweak things to suit their own situations.

Is it possible for teachers to measure or assess Extensive Reading?

It’s possible to measure overall language gains from ER over time, but not from lesson to lesson. That’s another way in which ER is similar to a communicative approach. But yes, there is a solid body of research that supports the effectiveness of ER.

However, teachers must bear in mind that ER is not meant to be implemented as a series of lessons followed by quizzes and tests. While there can be book reports or quizzes in ER, the purpose of these is always to show that the book has been read—and never to test for specific language gains or deep understanding. So for example, questions such as “What is Juliet’s cousin Tybalt’s nickname?” or “What does the word ‘dagger’ mean”? are not very good ones in an ER context. It is possible to read Romeo and Juliet, enjoy it, and yet not to have learned these particular items (the answers are “Prince of Cats” and “a kind of knife,” by the way—maybe some of us didn’t remember, either!)

Good comprehension questions might include, “Where do Romeo and Juliet meet?” (at a party); or, “What happens at the end of the story?” (they both die). Likewise, a good book report lets teachers know that the book has been read; if that can be done in two or three short sentences, so much the better.

Marcos Benevides is a Japan-based teacher and ELT materials writer. He co-wrote the reading coursebook Fiction in Action: Whodunit (Abax, 2010), which won both the Duke of Edinburgh and the British Council ELTon Awards. He also co-wrote Widgets: A task-based course in practical English (Pearson, 2008), and is currently the series editor for the newly launched Choose Your Own Adventure graded reader series from McGraw-Hill Education. He teaches at J. F. Oberlin University in Tokyo.

For more information about Extensive Reading, plus details of an innovative graded reader version of the Choose Your Own Adventure series, check out Part 2 of this interview!

1. Name cards

I have found name cards to be absolutely essential when teaching classes bigger than five or six students.

You can either create the name cards yourself, which helps you to familiarize yourself with your students’ names at the beginning of term, or get students to create their own, or, even better, create each others. The latter option can be made into a nice first-lesson information gap activity.

I also use name cards as one of my classroom management techniques. After the name cards have been created, in every subsequent class, I place the name cards randomly on the students’ tables before the lesson starts. The students are then required to sit at the table with their name card. This prevents friends from always sitting together, and keeps the group dynamic fresh from week to week.

2. Name card holders

I’ve tried many different kinds of name card holders. I’ve found these to work the best. They’re cheap, and come in a variety of fun colors! Name card holders are necessary if you want to see each student’s name from the front of the class, and pick out individual students to answer questions.

3. Color stickers

I have found that the students in my teaching contexts (Japanese universities) are very reluctant to speak out in front of their classmates, answer questions, or volunteer for activities when called upon by the teacher to do so.

Stickers work very well as incentives to students who volunteer to do any of the above things (answer questions, volunteer for activities, etc) without being asked individually by the teacher.

In my classes, every time a student volunteers for an activity, or answers a question, or generally participates actively in the class, they receive a sticker. The stickers are attached to the students’ name cards. At the end of the semester, the number of stickers each student has helps me to decide what their ‘participation’ grade should be, and whether, if they are a borderline “B/C” student, for example, they should go up to a “B” or down to a “C”.

The students know that the stickers will have an effect on their final grade in this respect, so they really do work as incentives for classroom participation.

4. A toy bomb

This is the toy bomb from Gibson Games’ “Pass the Bomb”. The way I use it is:

1. Students all stand up in a big circle
2. The teacher nominates a lexical set such as countries, animals, colors, etc
3. The teacher names the first item, e.g. “France”, “Dog”, “Red”, etc, and starts the timer on the bomb
4. The teacher passes the bomb to the first student, who names another item from the set
5. The student passes the bomb to the next student, who also names an item
6. This continues until the bomb explodes!

Students love this activity, and it’s a great way to get them thinking quickly, and to review key words or word groups relating to the topic of the lesson. I also use it to practice ordinals, months, days of the week, etc.

5. Conversation cards

I made a large set of conversation cards, each of which has a topic printed on the front (e.g. “School”, “Pets”, “Travel”, “Baseball”, etc) and ten questions on the back relating to the topic. The students use the cards to practice quick-fire question and answer in pairs. It’s a useful filler for the beginning or end of each lesson.

6. Spare whiteboard marker

You can guarantee that when you really need one, all the whiteboard markers will have disappeared or run dry!

7. Stock photos

Stock photos are useful for many different topics and activities, but especially describing appearance or personality characteristics. Having high-quality glossy color photos beats dingy black and white copies any day of the week! Google Images is a good place to find stock photos for free. There’s also iStockPhoto, if you don’t mind digital watermarks.

8. Classical music compilation CD

Music is a great teaching tool, but it can also be used indirectly as background music when students are focused on other tasks, particularly writing activities. Having a little music in the background helps to break the deafening silence you might experience in classes comprised of extremely shy students. It can also be used to help time activities, so instead of saying to students “You have five minutes”, you can say “You have one song!”.

I’ve found classical music is the most unobtrusive kind, but sometimes also use other kinds of instrumental music. Classical music has the added benefit of allowing you to tell students that listening could be making them smarter and more productive!

9. Magnets

Magnets are great to have for pinning worksheets, photos, etc, to the whiteboard. They can also be used as counters for games.

10. Not pictured: patience and a sense of humor

I’ve also found that a lot patience and a good sense of humor are indispensable attributes for EFL teachers!

What’s in your TEFL box of tricks? Let me know in the comment section below!

There is no doubt that the demand for native-speaker teachers of English in Japan, Asia, and the rest of the world is high. In many cases, the only requirement for getting an English teaching job is to be a native speaker. The native-speaker teacher, however, is not necessarily the best role-model for the second language learner.

Aiming for native-speaker competence can be counter-productive

Native speakers speak, by definition, a native variety of their first language. It can be counter-productive for learners of the language to attempt to precisely replicate the native speaker’s version of the language. This is true not only for pronunciation (a ‘good’ accent is often the last thing a learner of a second language masters), but also vocabulary and grammatical constructions. Instead, a learner of a second language should aim to be a competent speaker of that language as someone who has learned it as a second language rather than someone who has acquired it as a first language.

Competent non-native speaker models

As English teachers in Japan, then, I believe we should be exposing our students to competent non-native speaker models of English. Furthermore, I think that we should be encouraging them to aim to be competent non-native speakers of English as their ultimate goal. A ‘competent non-native speaker’ is by no means meant as a condescending or patronizing term. On the contrary, it is to be viewed as a considerable achievement, and one which I will be trying to obtain for many years to come in relation to my Japanese ability.

Examples of competent non-native speakers

By way of example of what I consider to be a speaker approaching this level, I offer this video. Here we have a young Japanese male who obviously possesses expertise in his specialist area as well as competence in English as a second language. This is what most learners of English in Japan are aiming for, and I think we should appreciate what a considerable achievement it is, and refer to model English speakers such as this in preference to the generic and ubiquitous American or British English speaker featured in so many English learning resources.

For my own part, there have been several non-native speakers of Japanese over the last five years of learning the language who have inspired me to study harder and improve further. One among them is Patrick Harlan, AKA “pakkun”, who came to Japan in 1993 and over the next 15 or so years acquired a very high level of competence in both spoken and written Japanese.

Becoming a competent non-native speaker is a lifetime challenge

Now, while I may be intimidated by his level of Japanese (and possibly also his intellect, having graduated, as he did, from Harvard University), I still consider his level of Japanese a realistic and obtainable target for my own. However, the same cannot be said of the Japanese of any of the 130 million native inhabitants of Japan. A native-speaker level of Japanese is not my target. That doesn’t mean I’m giving up on becoming a competent speaker of Japanese – it means I want to become a competent non-native speaker of the language; something which I regard as a considerable and lifetime challenge.

Finally, I just want to note that I am not intending to suggest that the native-speaker teacher has nothing to offer the language learner. In fact, native-speaker teachers have a lot to offer the language learner. I simply mean to suggest that perhaps they are not always the best role-models for language production, and needn’t be regarded as such.

Second language ability of English teachers

When a language teacher first arrives in their host country, they probably don’t have much choice about the matter. Unless they have studied the host country’s language extensively before arriving, they will not possess the requisite language skills to to order an orange juice, let alone explain the present continuous in their students’ native tongue.

Likewise for those teachers who teach multi-lingual groups of students. There is no place for L1 instruction in this scenario, because there is no single L1 that all the students possess.

But where the teacher has lived in the host country long enough to acquire at least an intermediate level of the native language, and teaches groups of students all of whom possess the same first language – should he or she use the language?

CLT and the ‘no L1′ precept

The strict version of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), the current dominant methodology in TEFL, suggests that learners acquire a language by using the language and being exposed to the language. In this sense, we might argue that the teacher should provide all possible opportunities to their students to be exposed to the language in use. As addressing students in their L1 also tends to procure responses in L1, a teacher who adopts the students’ L1 for grammar explanations and classroom management instructions arguably not only deprives their students of the chance to improve their receptive skills but also deprives them of the chance to improve their productive skills.

The exception to the rule

However, I would argue that there are situations where addressing students in the target language is actually counter-productive, and adopting the students’ L1 does not deprive them of the chance of acquisition in the way that CLT suggests. (I also argue that there is a place for grammar explanations and classroom management instructions, despite the impact of CLT in relation to the former, and the wisdom of the adage don’t explain, demonstrate in relation to the latter. These issues are, however, topics for another blog post).

These situations occur when:

• students are of an elementary or low-intermediate level of English
• the focus of the lesson is reading or writing, not speaking or listening

Where students are of an elementary or low-intermediate level of English, it is very likely that they will lack the requisite knowledge to understand meta-linguistic grammar explanations or complex classroom management instructions.

Yes, students probably should know words such as noun, adjective, verb, subject, present simple, etc. But some do not, and if the teacher has the ability to express these concepts in the students’ L1, he should not refrain from doing so on the basis of depriving them a chance of exposure to the target language.

After all, in elementary and low-intermediate lessons, what is the target language? It will most likely be language relating to self-introductions, expressing likes and dislikes, talking about hobbies and interests, and other building blocks of basic expression.

L1 as a direct route to understanding

Even if the teacher does insist on using the English words for grammatical concepts (noun, verb, adjective, etc), it is very likely that he or she will have to use the L1 translation of each word in order to teach its meaning, thereby confounding their efforts to use only English in any event.

Furthermore, it is a lengthy digression from topics such as self introductions and expressing likes and dislikes, to teaching English words for grammatical terms. And who needs to use such words anyway, other than English teachers themselves? Yes, we need to understand the concept of a noun, a verb and an adjective to learn a language effectively, but we don’t need to know the words for these concepts in the language we are trying to learn – or at least, its not a priority at the elementary to low intermediate level.

Finally, in relation to classroom management, as I previously stated, the old adage don’t explain, demonstrate is a reliable one – at least with demonstrable concepts. But to convey ideas such as: “Please go to the school office and hand in these questionnaires”, or “If you miss two more classes you will fail the course” or “These are the criteria for course assessment” to learners who have an elementary level of English, I would argue, requires, at the very least, an L1 gloss of the key words in each sentence.

What is fluency?

Fluency is the area of language ability which relates to the speed and ease with which a language learner performs in one of the four core language skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing. Although the concept of fluency relates to all four language skills, it tends to be most closely associated with speaking.

What is speaking fluency?

Speaking fluency is ‘the ability to link units of speech together with facility and without strain or inappropriate slowness or undue hesitation’. (Hedge 2000) The speech of non-fluent English learners tends to be characterized by ‘frequent pauses, repetitions and self-corrections’ (Hedge 1993) Developing speaking fluency, therefore, entails developing the ability to speak without frequent pauses, repetitions and self-corrections.

How can language learners improve their speaking fluency?

1. Not worrying about making mistakes

Fluency is usually contrasted with accuracy, where the latter entails knowledge of ‘pronunciation, vocabulary, word formation, grammatical structure, sentence structure and linguistic semantics’ (Hedge 2000). Fluency and accuracy are often envisaged as lying on the two opposing plates of a weighing scale: as one side goes up, the other goes down.

Some learners of English are able to significantly increase their fluency by temporarily disregarding accuracy. As they pay less attention to the grammatical conformity of their utterances, and more attention to conveying meaning, the speed of their speech can increase, and hesitations and pauses can decrease. We should therefore encourage our students not to worry about making mistakes in situations where fluent speech is more important than perfectly grammatically accurate speech, such as informal conversations inside and outside of the classroom. As teachers, we should exhibit restraint in correcting students during language activities designed to promote fluency.

2. Learning ‘pre-assembled chunks’ of language

Fluency also improves when language knowledge has become ‘automized’ (Thornbury 1999), i.e. when the learner is able to produce language without consciously thinking about it. One way students can aid the process of spoken language ability becoming automatic is to learn ‘pre-assembled chunks’ of language.

‘Chunks’ of language are idiomatic phrases such as ‘as it were’ and ‘on the other hand’ which tend to be produced as a whole rather than assembled grammatically piece by piece (Nattinger and DeCarrico 1992). Because such phrases are stored in a ‘pre-assembled’ form in the brain, they can be recalled relatively quickly and effortlessly, thus helping to eliminate pauses and hesitations and increase the overall speed of speech.

Chunks of language can also help learners to compensate for lack of linguistic knowledge. If a student lacks the vocabulary to describe something, phrases such as ‘it’s kind of like…’ can be of some avail. If they lose their way in making an argument, gambits such as ‘the point I’m trying to make is…’ can be of assistance. We should therefore provide opportunities to our students to learn and practice idiomatic, pre-assembled chunks of language.

3. Planning ahead

If a student knows that they are going to be talking about a certain topic in their next English lesson, or discussing a particular issue with their company’s counterpart in America in their next teleconference, then planning for that topic or discussion is an indispensable way for them to increase their oral fluency when speaking in that situation (Kellem 2009).

Planning involves making written notes, composing written answers to expected questions, and rehearsal. If the student is giving a speech or presentation in English, then it goes without saying that they need to practice the speech multiple times. This is something that we would do even if we were giving a speech in our native language, and it is even more important to do when preparing to give a speech in a second or foreign language. We should therefore provide opportunities to our students for the planning and rehearsal of speeches and discussions before they take place.

4. Studying abroad

Research suggests that fluency can be significantly increased by studying abroad. In Wood (2007), Japanese students who spent time studying on a full time intensive ESL course at a college in Canada were able to increase their rate of speech, and length of time speaking between pauses, as well as making gains in other areas of fluency. The financial cost of studying abroad may well be worth it, then, in terms of the increase in speaking fluency the learner can expect to obtain. We should encourage our students to take such opportunities if and when they are able to do so, to improve their language skills in general, and speaking fluency in particular.

Conclusion

Acquiring improved speaking fluency is a very common and highly ranked goal among learners of English. I have argued that, as English teachers, we should:

• encourage our students not to worry about making mistakes in activities designed to promote fluency and informal conversations;
• provide opportunities for our students to learn and practice pre-assembled chunks of language;
• provide opportunities for our students to practice and rehearse speeches and discussions before they take place;
• encourage our students to spend time studying abroad where they possess the means to do so.

In these ways, we can help our students to improve their speaking fluency, and take important steps toward becoming more communicatively competent speakers of English.

Bibliography

• Hedge, T. (1993). “Key concepts in ELT.” ELT Journal 47(3):275-277.
• Hedge, T. (2000). Teaching and learning in the language classroom. Oxford, Oxford University Press.
• Kellem, H. (2009). “Principles for developing oral fluency in the classroom.” JALT Journal 33(1): 9-11.
• Nattinger, J. R. and J. S. DeCarrico (1992). Lexical phrases and language teaching. Oxford, Oxford University Press.
• Thornbury, S. (1999). How to teach grammar. Harlow, Pearson Education.
• Wood, D. (2007). “Mastering the English formula: Fluency development of Japanese learners in a study abroad context.” JALT Journal 29(2): 209-230.

As 9 year old Pedro dangled my bag out of the 3^rd floor window in Portugal menacingly, I regretted 2 things; firstly, that I hadn’t taken my bag with me when I slipped out of class to photocopy something and, secondly, that I had gone the private language school route at all!

The reality is that most private language school timetables will include teaching children – and while I personally grew to enjoy this over time, I realise that teaching English to large classes of sometimes unwilling primary or teen learners is not everyone’s bag (no pun intended).

If you really cannot imagine yourself standing in front of 12-30 little Pedro’s, then consider freelance EFL teaching where you will generally teach 1:1 or small groups of focussed and more motivated students. Freelance teaching usually pays better than school work and you are more in control over the hours you teach. The downside is you will have to source your own students which can be time consuming. Also, work cannot be arranged from outside of the country so you will need to ensure you have sufficient funds to keep you going while you build up your business.  However, for the keen and enterprising, here are some ways to maximise your freelance teaching opportunities once in situ.

Maximising your freelance teaching opportunities

1)      Teach English online:  this form of learning is growing worldwide and is already very established in Korea and France, as more people take advantage of free internet phone services such as Skype. It does not pay well but can fill in unwanted gaps in your timetable. As you build your student database you can also offer Skype-to-Skype teaching to your own busy professional learners as an option. Telelangue http://telelangue.com/ is just one big company offering this service in France.

2)      Contact your local chamber of commerce: some countries have large and influential networks and I know that many EFL teachers in France have sourced work through their local chamber and are now engaged in lucrative in-company teaching.

3)      Build your own twitter, Linked in (for business) and Facebook profiles. Follow and engage with local community and business groups.

4)      Network:  go to English language bookshops and talk to other teachers about where they found their students. Take advantage of any free ad space you can use to advertise your services such as notice boards at universities, book shops and internet cafés.

5)      Get cards printed in the local language and put them in places where they’ll be seen by your target market:  this could mean leafleting the car park of a local school, college, university or business park. One EFL teacher I know leafleted his local village in France with a ‘New Year resolution – learn English’ message and was rewarded with a steady stream of 1-1 students.

6)      Just be in 1 place long enough: another English speaker living in Italy hadn’t considered teaching English but neighbours and friends were soon asking for English tuition. This prompted her to take a TEFL course and she now runs her own school. The key here is that she was part of a community and was easily and readily contactable.

7)      Start volunteering in your free time: the local school is a good place to start. Yes, we are back to teaching children, but on your terms! Offer a free fun lesson once a week to the school and then offer paid options such as small group or 1-1 children tuition to the parents. A colleague in Portugal started a very lucrative mobile nursery service. She visited the local kindergartens where the children had all paid a small amount to sing songs, count to 10 and so on.

8)      Do some research before you go: in Sweden, Japan, France and Germany, for example, business English is in high demand. You might want to take a TEFL with a specialisation that reflects the local market.

A final word

Freelance students will still expect a professional service. Look the part, invest in getting business cards printed, make sure you are easily contactable and ensure students clearly understand your cancellation policy. Think; where will you teach and consider safety issues if travelling to a student’s home. Check out the visa regulations before entry and that you are allowed to work legally in a freelance capacity.

In the end, like many EFL teachers, you may end up combining a few hours for a private language school with freelancing. If so, I hope I have not put you off the private language school experience.  In the end I did manage to coax Pedro into removing my bag from danger and we went on to have many ‘interesting’ classes together.

ALTs don’t actually do very much – Your company might talk the job up beforehand, but in practice, an ALT is rarely asked to actually teach. An ALT may be present in the classroom for around 4 or 5 hours a day. So, what is your role?

Support the Japanese Teacher of English (JTE) – This is your job. Of that 4 or 5 hours in the classroom, the JTE will ask you to do a variety of tasks, such as reading a text, carrying out a planned activity with the students, or answering questions about your home country. Eat humble pie and accept that you are not a fully-fledged teacher.

Teach English – Having said that, you may be required to teach lessons or prepare activities, albeit not with the frequency you expect. When asked to do that, you will need to think about how to explain your activity, what will work best for your students, and you must prepare the handouts or other materials.

School mascot – One of your key responsibilities is to encourage international understanding, or something. Basically, talk to the students about you, your country and whatever shared interests you have. In English, of course. You will have a lot of time that is not spent in class, so, without getting in the way, walk around the school, visit different clubs and get to know your students.

Be reliable – Japanese schools, like companies, place a great emphasis on reliability. That means turning up on time, being organised and supporting the JTE in whatever they ask of you.

Assistant Language Teaching, with all of its quirks, is a pretty rewarding job, providing you get to know the students and have a laugh with them. In class, keep things simple and just do whatever you are asked to do. Easy style!

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