Hello I'm... What's your name?

When teaching language skills we focus on tasks, skills and communicative goals and not teaching a set of grammar or vocab (unless they achieve these goals) [At least in theory!]

Typical the blog post title is the first skill that a language speaker learns in any language. Introducing themselves. After all being able to introduce yourself is usually the foundation in any use of language [even within such things as Airtrafic control pilots have to use such lexical phrases as "this is flight..." or "this is the control tower" a form of introduction in their field.] As such it is interesting to see what Jesus's introduction is.

Jesus being introduced by others

In the gospels Matthew starts by showing us Jesus linage before going on to detail his birth with Joseph being visited by an angel before hand.

In Mark Jesus is first spoken about by John before he is then baptised and God's voice declares him to be his son.

In Luke he talks about John's birth before Introducing Jesus and explaining how an angel tells Mary she will give birth to the Messiah.

In Johns he introduces us to "the word" who was with God and is God.

This is no normal man.

Jesus Introducing himself

The first time Jesus introduces himself  in Matthew[I'm discounting with John the baptist as he knows who he is and the temptations by the devil for the same reasons] is to call people to repent and follow him.

The first time in Mark is for the same purpose.

The first time in Luke is when he declares the year of Jubilee has come with him and that the kingdom is now here.

The first time in John is actually when Jesus ask other people! (also in John 1 v 35-39) He starts with the question "What do you want?" and then invites them to "come" [this is to two of John's disciples who hear John call Jesus the Lamb of God].

Now I don't know about you but I've never had anyone introduce themselves and tell me to follow them. I've never had anyone tell me to "Change direction" when they've first met me. The way Jesus introduces himself and the language he uses tell us so much about him.

Can you take me to Gargarina street please?

Can you take me to Gagarina street please? 

Haharina street? Yes. 

No Gagarina street. 

Haharina street?

No gagarina, it’s at the top of Karla Marksa. 

Yes Haharina.

It was at this point that I remembered something I had been told about 2 months earlier. For some Ukrainians, even those who speak Russian most of the time, they can not actually pronounce the sound Geh, and instead pronounce a Heh sound [hence the source of the above confusion with a taxi driver, for further amusement the actual street I wanted was Gogolya street].

In fact in the Ukrainian Alphabet the letter Г is pronounced as an H there is no G sound. What is interesting Is how long it actually took me to realise this. In addition to my conversation with the taxi driver I have noticed it two other times, Once when returning from a friends wedding in the UK where my fellow sleeper train riders wanted Hariachi water [rather than Gariachi which means hot] and also recently when I was at a salsa party and heard the instructor also say something being Hariachi too.

Perhaps this has been more due to fellow people understanding me when I pronounced G’s rather than H’s and my lack of Russian knowledge making me just not know words as well but having previously never encountered this difference in pronunciation [despite being around at least one of these people on many occasions before, I know have noticed it several times.

It really goes to show that sometimes we can be completely blind to things that people are saying or doing around us until we know what we are looking out for.

It's all Russian to me

I recently heard the story about a former local missionary to Dnipropetrovsk who has since moved to Lviv. When he first came to Dnipropetrovsk he put a great deal of effort into learning Russian to be able to speak to people here, after all it is the most commonly spoken language [although Ukrainian is fully understood and most people can speak it] but it made sense to learn the language that is more commonly spoken, is more widespread around the world and has more teaching resources based around it.

After a few years having set up a church here in Dnipropetrovsk he set of for pastures new, Lviv. For those who don't know Lviv is very far to the west of the Ukraine and was the base of the Ukrainian resistance during the sovet era. what therefore happen to our missionary is no surprise really.

A chart showing how common Ukrainian is as a first language. [from 2001 census]

When he started to preach to people in Lviv no one was listening. When he asked them why they replied that they didn't want to know about the Russian Jesus, they wanted to know about the Ukrainian Jesus. The simple fact that the preacher was speaking in a language that although all his listeners understood and could even speak in it, wasn't their language created a barrier that stopped them listening to the gospel.

In the end he did learn Ukrainian as well and has now seen a church plant established in Lviv and even knows people who insist that Jesus was Ukrainian!

There are so many things that can be taken out of this story, the dividing factors of language in the Ukraine, about how important it is to choose the words we say when we are speaking to different audiences...etc

However I think the biggest thing to take out of this story is how everyone wants God/Jesus who applies to them and not the standard happy meal Jesus with the free toy/salvation.

Thank God that we have a real God who does relate to us as individuals. 

I love speaking foreign languages

If you know me pretty well then you will realise just how strange the statement I am about to make is....

I enjoy learning/speaking foreign languages.

I'm not sure exactly how this happened as it never use to be true. At school I found French frustrating and frequently skipped German lesson by fanning regular illness [how NO one seamed to pick up on my regular Tuesday and Thursday stomach aches really is beyond me!]. Of course this was no doubt compounded by the difficulties I faced being dyslexic (though I don't use this as an excuse).

However since starting to teach English an incredible metamorphosis has occurred to bring me to the point of saying the statement above.

I suppose I had always enjoyed finding out the routes of words and debating post-modern logic of relative meanings of words for individuals rather than a fixed abstract truth [a position which I still hold to, though there are general rules]. At the same time I had also always enjoyed learning about people from different background and finding out about people and so I suppose being able to communicate in their language allows for this possibility to occur. In fact, If I hadn't learnt Russian whilst I was out here, then the circle of people I could communicate with (and the level) would be very limited indeed.

The moment of true realisation came when I saw that on facebook some of my friends had set "languages" as one of their interests and I started to think. At first my gut reaction was "Urrrg" and then as I thought I realised that I do love to speak in foreign languages and have in fact tried to revive my German and French [and even learnt some very basic Spanish] whilst I've been out here!

and so I will say it again.

I love learning and speaking foreign languages

A few thoughts on learning words whilst living abroad and in the classroom

So I want to share my experience of learning another language from living in another country and then talk about what can be taken from this to the TEFL environment. 

Firstly a brief introduction, I am currently living in Dnipopetrovsk in the Ukraine where the main spoken language is Russian rather than Ukrainian. I have been living here for 3 months now and had some basic knowledge of the language via a audio book but nothing more. My level is probably the equivilant of an elementary student in the TEFL world. 

Many people say that living in another country is the best/quickest way to learn another language. I am certain this is true, but only if you take that opportunity. If you want then you can in affect have a lesson every day in the language and due to the large need to acquire the language to communicate. However If you happen to have people who speak some English around you then you only need acquire the most basic of language for shopping or other such functions. 

So with my basic knowledge of Russian the ability to listen for gist [get a vague understanding of what people are saying] wasn't to hard pick up and advance. As such it is usually easy to get an idea roughly what someone is talking about. In fact sometimes it is surprising just what I can understand and how few words I need to know to be able to do this. Obviously being in real situations it is sometimes easier than others to pick up what someone is telling you.

An example, I went to the supermarket, the tills weren't working and I was told to go to a different isle. The only words I managed to pick up from what the checkout girl said were "not working, go and I'm sorry." everything else was from context, body language and seeing that the isle hadn't moved for a long time!

This skill is so useful for starting to enlarge my vocabulary that it can't be understated. If you know the context that you are talking then picking up what a word means is possible. If not then you need someone to translate. 

I can Identify three different ways that I have learn't words out here and how they occurred. I believe all three can impact the way we teach to help people learn new words.

The first is the traditional model, I wanted to learn the words for Cutlery, having been told them once I had forgotten what they were so when the opportunity to learn them arose with a bi-lingual speaker [who happend to have a cup with him] arose I decided to find out the words. This time I made myself use them in a sentence when speaking to him. [I like a big cup of coffee, do you like a big cup of coffee etc] (interestingly I was actually trying to work out how adjective endings work and then ended up learning cutlery as a spin of) and I reinforced this by using an action for each one [raising a cup, stirring my cup, cutting some food, lifting a fork with food on] I can recall these words easily now and managed to remember them straight away. This is similar to how vocab may be presented in a course book during a lesson where students are drilled, then made to produce the language through various stages. It works well and is a great way to personalise language use when done right.

The second actually arose from hearing a word in many different circumstances and wondering what the word was. The actual word was "Davi" which means give/lets depending on context. In actually fact I'm starting to think that there isn't an English inequivalent but those are the words we use instead. After hearing it many times I knew it well enough to ask a teacher what the word meant. She explained its meaning and from that point on I knew it. I had already remembered the word I just needed to clarify it's meaning. Straight away it went into my usage and language. 

What can we take out of this for teaching? Well firstly hearing something in different context can be hard to gain a proper understanding of it's meaning. Secondly words don't always translate exactly and this is why simply providing a translation of a word isn't great. Finally it is possible to expose students to certain words can prepare them to learn them. Hence the benefits of not grading texts in receptive skills. 

Finally there was the word "to watch" [smatreets] which again I had encountered many times at my salsa class but in this case I hadn't actually acknowledged what the word was and certainly wasn't concious of it at all on these occasions. I then subsequently encountered it during a conversation with one of the Russian speaking teachers but didn't put too much effort into remembering it. However when I next went to the salsa class I couldn't help but hear it! The instructor was saying it all the time and I recognized the word and meaning. This is how I know he was using it before as he said it all the time! Because of this subsequent encounter I remembered the word very well.

What I take from this is that words need to be presented repeatedly, it is no use to have a word come up in a lesson, a student hear it, try and remember it and then not present the language again. Instead if a word arises through natural conversation it is much better to make sure we bring it up again. This is particularly relevant for Dogme approach which focuses on meeting the students perceived language need and equipping them with the vocab they want. With such words coming up it may be along time before a second encounter of the language would arise. As such it is worth making a note of these new words and bringing them up again in the next lesson to help people remember these new words. 

Right that's the start of that. Please comment and I will edit and then republish with amendments.