Open 2014 46

ISSN 2228-0847

EATE Estonian Association of Teachers of English

The EATE Journal Issue No. 46 October 2014 THE MORNING AFTER Christine de Luca

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“OUR WALL IS STRONGER” Excerpts from President Barack Obama’s speech

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THE RESPONSIBILITY OF PREPARING YOUTH FOR GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP Jeremie Scott Smith

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TEACHING IN NORWAY: LIFE AS AN EFL TEACHER Oddbjørn Larsen

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REPORT TO READERS OF OPEN! AND OTHER TEACHERS OF ENGLISH IN ESTONIA Erika Puusemp

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AN APPLE A DAY Erika Jeret

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READER ON ESTONIA Urve Läänemets

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48TH ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL IATEFL CONFERENCE 2–5 APRIL 2014 Anu Ariste

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@ U of I w/SUSI Erika Puusemp

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JUNE 2014 IN KOSOVO Leena Punga

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VERONA NOTES Enn Veldi

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Experienced Educator ENGLISH AND/OR MUSIC? An interview with Päivi Aljamaa

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Reading Recommendations THE RESOURCE BOOK THAT INSPIRES Natalja Zagura

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AN OPPORTUNITY FOR THE ENGLISH TO LAUGH AT THEMSELVES Kristi Martin

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NOW READ ON… Birgit Laasi

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Come and Share RORY’S STORY CUBES – MORE FUN IN LANGUAGE LEARNING Erika Jeret

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WORLD-CLASS BRITISH THEATRE IN ESTONIA Erika Puusemp

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Photos by Reet Noorlaid

EATE Summer School, Pärnu 22-23 August 2014

Hustle and bustle at registration

Handicraft on the bus – Eva Ojakivi cutting name tags

Anu Joon spoke about the first steps in spelling and phonetics

Jason Finn with Tiiu Vitsut from the US Embassy

Nadezhda Valk (right) with the 25th anniversary cake of Dialoog. Ilmar Anvelt (left) was among the first teachers at Dialoog.

Evi Saluveer and Ülle Türk have always been among our most popular presenters

Estonian Association of Teachers of English www.eate.ee Chair

Editor of OPEN!

Current account

Leena Punga

Ilmar Anvelt

10152001597007

Phone 562 13292

Phone 737 5218

in SEB

e-mail: leena.punga@gmail.com

e-mail: ilmar.anvelt@ut.ee

THE MORNING AFTER Christine De Luca

Scotland, 19th September 2014

Let none wake despondent: one way or another we have talked plainly, tested ourselves, weighed up the sum of our knowing, ta’en tent o scholars, checked the balance sheet of risk and fearlessness, of wisdom and of folly.

Was it about the powers we gain or how we use them? We aim for more equality; and for tomorrow to be more peaceful than today; for fairness, opportunity, the common weal; a hand stretched out in ready hospitality.

It’s those unseen things that bind us, not flag or battle-weary turf or tartan.

There are dragons to slay whatever happens: poverty, false pride, snobbery, sectarian schisms still hovering. But there’s nothing broken that’s not repairable.

We’re a citizenry of bonnie fighters, a gathered folk; a culture that imparts, inspires, demands a rare devotion, no back-tracking; that each should work and play our several parts to bring about the best in Scotland, an open heart.

Although the poem by the Scottish poet Christine de Luca carries the subheading Scotland, 19th September 2014, it was actually written before the Scottish independence referendum that took place on 18 September 2014. As we know by now, the ‘no’ votes won by 55%. The morning after was read on September the 11th at the Glasgow Hydro, an arena for concerts and sports events, as part of The Big, Big Debate to which around 8000 first time voters aged between 16 and 17 years had been invited. The poem, performed by some of these young participants, was shown as a short film at the end of the debate. The poem became an important part of the discussion even before the referendum, as it was seen by some as a call for balance amid the heated debate. The poet herself said for the Scotsman newspaper, “September 19 will be the most difficult day when people wake up with sore heads, especially if the vote is close and it has not gone the way they wanted. People will have to dig deep into themselves to get through this time.”

“OUR WALL IS STRONGER” Selected excerpts from President Barack Obama’s speech at Nordea Concert Hall in Tallinn on 3 September 2014

My only regret is that I missed this summer’s Laulupidu. And I’ll try to come back next time and catch it.

And here in Estonia, it was a dream that found its most eloquent expression in your voices – on a grassy field not far from here, when Estonians found the courage to stand up against an empire and sing “land of my fathers, land that I love.” And Heinz Valk, who is here today, spoke for the entire Singing Revolution when he said, “One day, no matter what, we will win!”

Here in Estonia, when people joined the line, the password was “freedom.” As one man said that day, “The Berlin Wall is made of brick and concrete. Our wall is stronger.” And it was.

And in your new constitution you declared, “The independence and sovereignty of Estonia are timeless and inalienable.”

We’re not afraid to let our young people go online to learn and discover and organize, because we know that countries are more successful when citizens are free to think for themselves.

The entrepreneurial spirit of the Estonian people has been unleashed, and your innovations, like Skype, are transforming the world.

Countries like Estonia and Latvia and Lithuania are not “post-Soviet territory.” You are sovereign and independent nations with the right to make your own decisions.

No other nation gets to veto your security decisions.

And just as we never accepted the occupation and illegal annexation of the Baltic nations, we will not accept Russia’s occupation and illegal annexation of Crimea or any part of Ukraine.

Tonight, I depart for the NATO Summit in Wales, and I believe our Alliance should extend these defensive measures for as long as necessary. Because the defense of Tallinn and Riga and Vilnius is just as important as the defense of Berlin and Paris and London.

During the long Soviet occupation, the great Estonian poet, Marie Under, wrote a poem in which she cried to the world: “Who’ll come to help? Right here, at present, now!” […] So if, in such a moment, you ever ask again, “who will come to help,” you’ll know the answer – the NATO Alliance, including the Armed Forces of the United States of America, “right here, [at] present, now!”

And it would mean more U.S. forces – including American boots on the ground – continuously rotating through Estonia and Latvia and Lithuania.

You never gave up through a long occupation that tried to break your spirit and crush your culture. […]

Like the Poles and Hungarians, the Czechs and the Slovaks, and the East Germans on top of that wall, you were stronger and you always believed, “one day, no matter what, we will win.”

And so long as free peoples summon the confidence and the courage and the will to defend the values that we cherish, then freedom will always be stronger and our ideas will always prevail no matter what.

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THE RESPONSIBILITY OF PREPARING YOUTH FOR GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP Jeremie Scott Smith

Outreach Coordinator Center for Global Studies University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

The rapidly accelerating processes of globalization are having an enormous impact on the role of teachers and other education professionals. No longer can we pass on the lessons and knowledge that sufficed for our parents and grandparents. The days of only worrying about problems in our immediate locale seem quaint as we move further along the path of an interconnected world. The challenges of preparing the next generation for being successful in this new reality are manifold but not impossible. We can bridge the gap between resources available in our local areas and knowledge young people will need to master as part of a holistic education if we take advantage of the information and communication technologies available.

Horace Mann, the famous Massachusetts school reformer and founder of The Common School Journal, extolled the virtues of a “common” school. He envisioned this as a location where the disparate immigration groups in the early American Republic could rub elbows with people of different backgrounds in order to develop a common feeling necessary for the formation of a healthy society. Mann saw this as especially crucial in a society that valued political and social democracy. This concept of the essential need to have young people exposed to ideas, customs, and perspectives from outside their immediate environment seems especially important today.

We face tremendous challenges in the next century. Climate change, economic development of impoverished regions, international terrorism, and the promotion of global health are all problems that can only be met if we have a broad-based climate of international cooperation and collaboration. This type of global teamwork will not come easy or without conflict. Expecting a high level of extensive cooperative efforts without building a foundation for it in young people is akin to building a house on a foundation of sand. As you look into the eyes of the children in your classrooms, think about the amount of cultural diversity they will encounter in their lives. Are we doing enough to prepare these youth with the social skills and inter-cultural knowledge to successfully navigate through a diverse social environment?

Fortunately, we are not alone in these struggles. There are educators all over the world that are reaching out, striving to build friendships and partnerships with people in foreign lands. This was much more difficult for previous generations, as anyone that has waited for weeks for a pen-pal letter can attest.

Today we have communication instruments such as e-mail, video conferencing, and many other Internet based tools at our disposal. Your students will learn more from interacting with someone (especially their peers) from Sri Lanka than any encyclopedia or text about the island nation can possibly hope to achieve. Very few lessons are as shattering to stereotypes as positive personal experiences with diversity.

One particular moment of transformative learning took place when I used Skype videoconferencing to have an educational reformer from Colombia visit my high school classroom. Most of my students exclusively associated this country with drug trafficking and poverty. As my guest talked to my students, I observed a change as the students’ opinions moved from trepidation to curiosity. In the span of their entire formal education, this 50-minute classroom lesson was miniscule but impactful. Months later, a student from that class confidently challenged a classmate that made a sweeping generalization about people in Latin America. This student took the experience with meeting someone from that region as proof that stereotypes and generalizations have a reductive quality that dehumanizes the people depicted. This is the sort of lesson that has “rippling effects” as that young person often embraces a love of learning about the many hued contours of the human mosaic.

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Here are a few strategies I have found effective that would support English Language instruction: • Assign article summary/response assignments that pertain to global issues or international themed topics. Have different students complete their summaries from English-language newspapers from a variety of different countries. A vast collection of these news sources are freely available online. Class discussion about the differences in what is emphasized and omitted in the different countries’ news reporting often leads to deep analysis of the reasons behind these differences. For example, students could compare news stories about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from newspapers published in the U.S., Canada, South Africa, Jordan, Turkey, and Malaysia and learn six very different perspectives on the subject.

• Use video-sharing websites such as YouTube to watch TV foreign commercials, television shows, and travel promotional videos. Videos can play a key part in attaching images to concepts students are reading about.

• Contact Universities and Embassies and inquire about possibilities of guest speakers from foreign countries. Academic and Diplomatic professionals often consider educational outreach central to their work and will enthusiastically participate.

• Contact U.S. State Department funded National Resource Centers for Foreign Language, Area, and International Studies. These 125 Centers (Including my organization) are affiliated with major U.S. Universities and are often looking for partners in their particular regions of focus. Students in your class could teach other students interested in Eastern Europe about very aspects of Estonian culture and society.

Globalization is a process that is unlikely to reverse anytime in the foreseeable future. People will be interacting with others from different social, cultural, and economic backgrounds with increasing frequency in the future. It is incumbent on all educators to open portals of understanding that will allow the next generation the ability to converse with diverse peoples. Cross-cultural fluency will be a prerequisite for making progress on the huge obstacles facing humanity. When policymakers and others de-emphasize social studies and foreign language training, remind them that failing to prepare our students for a globalized social reality will severely disadvantage young people and their communities.

TEACHING IN NORWAY: LIFE AS AN EFL TEACHER Oddbjørn Larsen

Hitra Videregående Skole, Norway

My name is Oddbjørn Larsen and I teach English.

I do other things as well, but teaching English is my occupation of choice, and the focus of this little rant. I spent six years at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, which is a bit ironic, since I did not study science or technology, but I finished a master’s degree in English literature, so it was not a complete waste of time.

This is my fourth year as an EFL teacher, but I am not really an EFL teacher at all, because in everything except name, what I teach is English as a second language. When asked by student, I refer to English as our ‘unofficial second language’, and I fully expect the foreign language status of English to be revoked at any time, since my students have been learning English since grade one (six years old) and have a proficiency that far exceeds many countries that have English as an official second language.

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I teach English in upper secondary school, all levels, but most of my workload is in the two highest levels. Two subjects called International English and Social Studies English, both are optional, so these classes are usually smaller groups with more motivated students, something that makes my job both easier and more challenging at the same time, but unquestionably more rewarding.

The first subject, International English is a bit cryptic at times, since it has such a wide scope, but it is, in a nutshell, the study of English around the world. Looking at the spread of English and English as a ‘lingua franca’, how it became, and how it remains, the most widespread language in existence. Topics such as multiculturalism, international education and global challenges are central.

The second subject is Social Studies English, and it focuses almost exclusively at the US and the UK, contrasting and comparing their history and political systems, and looking at some of the historical and present social issues. We spend quite a bit of time looking at current media debates, and especially political issues. We follow presidential and congressional elections in the U.S. and parliamentary elections and referendums in the UK (the Scottish referendum was of special interest this fall).

Teaching English in Norway is both rewarding and challenging, perhaps the biggest challenge is the fact that the distance between the strongest and the weakest student is about the size of the Grand Canyon. I have first year students that finished all the Harry Potter books in English by the age of 12, and students that are barely able to read English at all. We have come a long way in increasing the average English proficiency of our students, but we have a ways to go before all students benefit equally.

I dare say that those students that choose English at the two highest levels are markedly better prepared for the challenges they will face in a university. Especially since roughly 80% of the course material in Norwegian universities is in English, but also because we spend a considerable amount of time learning academic writing, proper referencing, assessing sources and so forth.

I love teaching English; it is often difficult, sometimes frustrating, but also very rewarding. I find English to be a very dynamic subject, it is constantly evolving, and it challenges you to stay current on a number of issues. It is also one of the subjects that teach students moral values, making them more reflected and teaching them critical thinking skills.

How well do you know Washington DC? (pictures p. 40) 1. Korean War Memorial 2. White House 3. World War II Memorial 4. Library of Congress 5. The Potomac River 6. Butterfly Garden on the Ninth Street side of the National Museum of Natural History 7. Theodore Roosevelt Memorial

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REPORT TO READERS OF OPEN! AND OTHER TEACHERS OF ENGLISH IN ESTONIA Erika Puusemp

MHG, EATE, DKG

REPORT To: Readers of OPEN! and other teachers of English in Estonia From: Erika Puusemp, an assessor of the writing test of the National Exam in English (one of 45) Subject: Year 12 Exam in English 2014 Date: Summer 2014

Purpose The aim of this report is to give an overview of student performance at the writing test of the National Exam in English and comment on recurrent mistakes. The report is based on and uses examples from 587 exam papers read and assessed by the author of this report during the exam season in 2014.

Anything given in italics has been lifted directly from some exam paper, but as students are not supposed to reveal their names on exam papers (although some do, unfortunately), no student can be credited for their specific contribution.

Since no scientific research has been conducted into the re-occurrence or relative frequency of mistakes, the following has to be taken as a collection of personal impressions of the author representative of students from the lower end of the performance scale rather than a solid truth.

The report will be divided into subsections concentrating on the specifics of the two texts the students were required to write at the exam, examples of student writing, and tips for future examinees.

Overview of the tasks In Task 1, students had to write a letter (of complaint) in answer to the following prompt: You recently bought some books in an online shop but some issues occurred: -- shipping -- item quality -- wrong item Write a letter to Sandra Swan, the manager of the shop, complaining about the issues and requiring action.

Use the pen name Mari Mets / Mart Mets for yourself. Do not write any addresses.

You should write 120 words.

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Task 2 required the students to write a 200-word report (to John Bell, the representative of an international youth organization, which has expressed interest in how the information that Estonian students make public in social media has changed) describing the changes in students’ use of social media sites based on data about photos, home addresses and mobile phone numbers from the years 2005, 2009 and 2013, presented in the form of a bar chart, and give recommendations on safe internet use. They could use the pen name Mari Mets / Mart Mets for themselves if necessary.

Recurrent issues in student responses to Task 1 • The letter does not look like a letter because it misses either the opening salutation or the closing salutation or has been written in block text with no paragraphs.

• The letter has a title (as if it were a story): Bad service // Complain // Complainments.

• The name of the addressee has not been used although it has been provided in the task, or has been misused: Dear Swan // Dea Mis Sandra // Sandra Shawn // Honored Sandra Swan // Dear, Mari Mets à Yourth buyer // Dear Ms Sandra Swan, Yours sincerely, Mari Mets à With good wishes, Mari Mets // Dear mrs Susan à regrats, Mari Maasikas // Dear Madam Sandra Swan, Manager à Hello, Sandra!

• The register of the letter varies widely, e.g. Helloo, Dear Sandra! Greedings! à Yourth / Yors faithfully / sincenerelly / sunserelly / secsirely / sirencly /sincerely / truthfully.

• The letter seems to have very little relation to the task content-wise: I am wrighting to ask you, some informesion, some quesion, about an online shop // Thirtly, how much the shipping is // video camera instead of a photo camera // I didn’t get a dress, but I got shoes instead. And those shoes are horrible!

Their quality is below zero. // To get notebook instead of smartphone!!! And even the display was cracked and the only button was broken! // I wanna now, if item is quality.

• The prompts have not been enlarged: I write because I like complaining. I think I gave frong item in an online shop. The books had effects. I require some action.

• When explaining the problems, in very many cases the books were wett, clearly because they had been shipped, and, for the majority of students, that seems to definitely involve ships that leak and maybe rats, or there were other quite “interesting” explanations: some letters are missing // like someone had covered them over with a bottle of water // partly torn apart by rats // corners are broke // it was harsh to read them // words are so little and because of that I need to read with classes // the sheets are open // It seems to me, that the last author had some notes written within book.

• The student is providing advice to the service provider on how to do their job: you should have puten those in a plastic bag // you need to close down your shop // the worker who handled my order should receive a disciplinary punishment // Pleas make sure the delivery serves is not demeging aitams.

• The student does not require any action, or does it in such a way that the service provider would have serious problems accommodating their wish: I would like to receive from you soon. // What am I supposed to do with ruined Harry Potter books? // I hope for some requiring action from your side, for require my moral compensation.

• Linking devices are not used, or are overused (every sentence does not have to start with a linking device, but there have to be some logically-placed ones).

• The writer sounds impolite, and makes threats: if you don’t then I must warn police of online crimes // I demand an explination to that chaos. // If I have not got my money back after two weeks, I will call my lawyer. // I’m sorry that I have to bother you à Lawyer Mart Mets // What kind of manager are you? // O think the shop needs a new manager, someone who could manage things // If I will not get the compensation, I will make matters. // I’m not calm down with it. I will get you in trouble!

• Faulty grammar and vocabulary make the text almost impossible to comprehend: Finally, I writing on my item wrong, we are I sanse that?// in you’re an online shop // • Faulty spelling hinders understanding: complayment // It’s bossible?// boor condiston // quality was disguisting// Sicently // Sericaly // avoiloble // dereadable contition // boor condiston • Logic issues occur: My order of 1th/firs aprill à two weeks later, on 9th aprill // after five years waiting // In 05. May 2014 bought. Now I wait hole months these books // three years ago I bought… // they

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arrived on the 5st of May 2013.

• It is obvious that the student has not understood specific words in the prompt (especially item and shipping): It’s hard to see books item correctly // I send you back the book which have wrong shipping and you send me book which have right shipping // the shipping was damaged upon arrival // How can I get the shipping code to see where my issues are?// with out bayeing shipping cost // all the book was full of bad item quality // Finally I don’t like shipping. Because just don’t like.

• The student has various problems with vocabulary, with both meanings of words and collocations, and grammar (sometimes due to native language interference): I bought five novel books, but surprisingly one of them was a thriller // I had ordered the vocabulary // I bought a books but they were small. How this can to buy? // At your website it said, that i will recive the book on the fortnight, but instead it took a week to arrive.// I bought romans but two books are novels.// When I was open my selling, it was not seiful.

• Irrelevant information has been added: I have no idea why you sent me wrong book. Nevertheless, I read this book and it was the best book I have ever read. // It’s so big anderstood, but I hope we remove this anderstood.

• Some students make jokes: I found the wrong book in it – Dostoyevsky’s “Idiot” instead of translator from Spain to Russian. I truly hope this was not a hint of any kind.

Books students would order, or got instead Seven heven, Shalespears novel, Mary Tutor, Puhastus, rough old newspaper, Videvik, Fifty Shades of Grey second adition // rite crafting book // Jane Air by Emily Bronte // second tom of War and Piece // Mein Kampf instead of The Holocaust // uncorrectly book // psyhocical books // book named Twilight and author was Tom Ford.

Recurrent issues in student responses to Task 2 • What is supposed to be a report looks like a letter or an essay: Hello, John à Yours truly Mart Mets // Best wiches // Farewell // Dear John Bell! My name is Mart Mets. I am writing to you to let you know about Eestonian students and how they change social media. // Sir John Bell // My name is Mart Mets and I am writing a report to John Belli. I am really happy to write you because youre the bestJ • It is not clear from the report who the target reader is and why the report has been written: I hope to get a feed back from you, telling me if I should have done something differently in this report.

• It is not clear where the data comes from, or the data has been misinterpreted: I took the liberty to look into three surveys carried out last month // Forecast percent in 2013 is home address publicisting // Three surveys, all of them are separated by ages, 14-15, 16-17, 18-19…

• Instead of being impersonal, as is customary in reports, the writer turns directly to the reader: This concludes my report. I wish you well. // I think your company will make more new moderaters who will safe the internet from students rubbish. // Hello, Mr Bell, as you know, last week I carried out a survey // I hope you read my report and answer me. // We could spend more time together in real life.

• Faulty grammar and vocabulary make the text almost incomprehensible: It seams that, most information is posted by photos, it toped 20% // For the now day home address is don’t popular for student’s. // I’t seems // Although makes not sharing your address risk to get burglared, people do not want some creeper behind their doorstep and take adwantits.

• Every paragraph starts with the same phrase and there is widespread repetition of vocabulary and grammar patterns.

• Faulty spelling and hyphenation make understanding problematic: unfo-rtunately // Students live in intersting and bubuful. // using an idernot // a quare posted the photos.

• Task-specific vocabulary has been used incorrectly: In 2013 5 per cent short of 100% had shared… // This Rebot for Jhon Bell is passed on chart of Information // now it has injured for 20% // in 2005 age, only 25 percentes of students… // The per cent has flugtueiting // statistic show // It was not that popular, in order of 20% and 30% // have stability results // It proofs the fact that hoply in 2013 the result is decrease. // picture-information posted has soared even // it 2013 it calmed down // In 2005,

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60 % à Today’s present is even higher, it is gone up to 10%. // It got lower as it lowered // 70% of the student // to 25% to 25% / the number shrinked // this surveys shows // the amount of info has been fluctual but risen.

• The student does something that is not seen as appropriate, e.g. writes years out full (in twothousand and five), uses several subheadings that read exactly the same; has a subheading about one thing but talks about something else in the paragraph, says something that makes the reader doubt their skills in other subjects: 95% = over half of the students // In the 2009s…

• There are no recommendations, or the recommendations seem weird in the light of the current situation in the world; the student gives problematic advice and explanations for why things have changed as much as they have: To decrease your footprink in internet, all pictures should be restricted to strangers. // Some of people who hates me can come to my home and do what ever he wants, embarrice me after ten years... // In 2005 the machinery wasn’t developed enough to take a picture. // Having a home address is not popular. Let’s ban them. // Students have to avoid any posts about theirselves. As few as you post about yourself, the safer there is. // Recommendations for safe Internet use are added to this letter in one file. // A 2005 potos were not that well known because we hadn’t have these kind of cameras or selfphones that tooked beautiful pictures. // In 2013 is Facebook lord of the world, so fixing this problems stays with parents. // Be invisible to strangers! // You can beat the kids with choir but they keep posting. Sharing your emotions and everyday events is quite innocent behavior, as long as we pay attention that Van Gogh hanging on father’s library wall will not be in frame when making photos of your home property. // Parents please pay attention! Do something! Take care! Be safe!!! // Let’s take away internet connection from everyone and lets see how they live real life. Internet is safe without Internet.

• Logic leaves to be desired: Students have never actually published home addresses in social media.

It is indicated by the fact that in year 2009 only 50% of student posted them online.

Recommendations In order for students to do relatively well regardless of their specific level of English (as long as it is at least B1), they should first and foremost read the tasks carefully, thinking of what text type they need to create (letter, report, essay, article, story, something else) and what they aim to achieve through this, who the target reader is (the register will most probably depend on this) and how exactly they need to write it (on which page, in how many words, etc).

It is also highly advisable to know the conventions of different text types, since, for the writer to score high points, a report really has to look like a report not like a letter, for example; and to know the correct usage of set phrases that can be used in different contexts, e.g. to start or end a letter, to start the introductory paragraph of a report, to voice a complaint, to thank somebody, to place an enquiry, etc, etc, etc.

It is not advisable to learn by heart whole paragraphs of model texts from textbooks, since if these are quoted verbatim, they might stand out awkwardly from the rest of the text, especially if they also deviate from the message the text has to convey (e.g. complaining about some items of clothing when having to write about books one had bought).

Students should also plan what they are going to write rather than attempt to write the full text twice, so that they would not run out of time before they have completed the clean copy, and have time to read through what they have written to avoid grammar mistakes they would otherwise most probably not make, and erroneous spelling (e.g. Your sincenery).

Last but not least, students should make use of all the information provided in the rubric but not lift from it. Instead, they should paraphrase both in order to avoid losing points for copy/paste, and to gain points for varied task-specific vocabulary (e.g. instead of quoting percentages only, there are words like majority, minority, half, quarter, third, etc, and ways to show approximations).

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AN APPLE A DAY Erika Jeret

Pärnu College of the University of Tartu

To all students worth of their Baltic sea salt An apple a day keeps the doctor away – so goes a British proverb. Whether its origins lie in an understanding of health benefits of eating fresh fruit or fear of exorbitant fees following a visit to a GP, remains unknown to us today. However, food and eating are an important part of our lives as is having the means for consuming healthy food, or, as in many parts of the world, having any sustenance at all.

In our globalising village where cultures meet more frequently than ever before, it is important to have at least some basic knowledge of food-related vocabulary. Dependent on the age group of students, it can cover basic fruit, vegetables, meat and fish vocabulary and phrases at the table through to a wider range of topics in fairly specialised fields including different foods, ingredients, cooking methods and utensils.

According to the Estonian national curriculum of basic education, in the subject field of Technology, children have to learn “the basic tenets of healthy eating and how to create balanced meals; they learn to cook; they develop housekeeping skills; they analyse consumer behaviour and value consumers who act in an environmentally friendly manner and know their rights and obligations; and they seek connections and contradictions between health awareness and actual behaviour” (National Curriculum, 2014). Bearing this in mind, learning English (or any other language for this matter) should involve some time dedicated to food issues. Below we are going to look at some topics and tasks which could be employed in classrooms.

Food idioms An idiom is a combination of words that has a figurative meaning which is separate from the literal meaning, in other words, is different from the meanings of each word understood on its own. There are thousands of idioms and they frequently occur in all languages. It would be really rather difficult to understand British newspapers if one’s bulk of vocabulary contained no idioms or metaphors or other means of figurative language. When teaching English, we come across phrases such as a piece of cake, my cup of tea, an apple of one’s eye or as cool as a cucumber. There are dozens and dozens more and information can be easily found on the Internet these days. A short list of websites will be presented separately in the article.

One common way of learning about idioms and their intended meaning is by doing a matching exercise. For example: Names and appearances are deceptive – these are not bagels but kalamari (squid rings) 10

1. Match idioms with their definitions.

1. wooden spoon

A. you look stupid because of something that you have done

2. in a nutshell

B. be very poor

3. eat humble pie

C. something which is given to those who finish last

4. be on the breadline

D. to admit that you were wrong

5. egg on your face

E. a very good and honest person

6. salt of the earth

F. when something is explained in as few words as possible

Some of the idioms come with a fascinating story or history. These stories can also be incorporated in the teaching and horizon-widening. For example (Albert, 2007): 2. Can you guess the missing words?

A. Baker’s dozen – is 13. There are two theories and the first theory comes from ________ England and identifies the sales techniques of tradesmen such as ________ and fishmongers. When selling directly to the public, merchants would have a ________ price for their wares. But when selling to bulk ________ such as town market stall holders the merchant would ________ an extra item for every dozen bought. In such cases the 13th loaf or ________ would represent the stall-holder’s profit on the items he buys and then sells at ________.

B. Above or below the salt – describes WHAT? It comes from WHERE? where the silver salt cellars would be placed in the WHERE? of the table. Those sitting on the same side of the salt as the host (WHERE?) were considered the most important guests and those further away (WHERE?) were less valued guests.

Food restrictions When speaking of restrictions or taboos we tend to think of religious restrictions which disallow or completely prohibit consumption of some food items, especially meat. However, it is actually not as straightforward as, e.g., Muslims do not eat pork, or Jewish only eat kosher food.

This is what a guide for chefs indicates amongst others (Chef´s Guide, 2007): Muslim: ‘Halal’ means ‘lawful’ and this is the method used by Muslims. In the context of red meat it applies to lamb (and mutton) and to beef, but never pork. ‘Haram’ – ‘unlawful’ – is the opposite of Halal.

Pork and unlawfully slaughtered beef and lamb are Haram. A slaughterman kills the animal by a single cut across the throat whilst saying `Bismilla, Allah Akbar` (also Bismillah, Allahu Akbar). Slaughter is generally very fast and efficient.

Judaism: The Jewish slaughter method is called Shechita, and the meat produced is Kosher meat.

Another source of information on religious dietary restrictions could be Eatocracy website at: eatocracy. cnn.com/2010/07/20/clarified-religious-dietary-restrictions With your students you may want to start off by asking two simple questions: which religion, and which restriction? Furthermore, a more demanding task requiring some depth of thought and interpretation, is to use stories or situation descriptions and ask whether people with a particular faith can or cannot eat the meat described. For example, there was an international conference in Pärnu and a buffet lunch was served. The main courses on the menu contained roast pork, beef steak, roast chicken and vegetable casserole with a number of side dishes. Which main course could a Muslim have for their lunch?

People may have their personal preferences for food which are not based on religion but their views and life choices. There are various definitions available regarding vegetarianism which may include some contradiction. Take the following quiz and match types of vegetarians and explanations.

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3. Match the types and explanations.

Type of vegetarians

Explanation

1. vegetarians

A. will eat only plants

2. vegans

B. adhere to the same restrictions as vegans but do include milk and eggs in their diet

3. ovolactarians

C. will eat only seeds and grain

4. lactarians

D. do not eat fish, meat or poultry. Some however are selective and will eat fish or poultry or some specific meats like bacon and still call themselves X

5. herbivores

E. will eat only fruits

6. fruitarians

F. adhere to the same restrictions as vegans but do include milk in their diet (but not eggs)

7. granivores

G. will not eat any food of animal origin, including milk or eggs

Source: Chef’s Guide, 2007 Some fruitarians do not only just eat fruit but may restrict themselves even further by eating windfall alone or foods which can be harvested without killing or harming the plant. Fruitarianism may be adopted for a range of reasons from ethics and religion to economics and health.

Restrictions on eating are not limited to religion; today’s world faces an increasing number of cases of food allergy and food intolerance. This is where an understanding of people and their personal situations becomes particularly important in the context of eating out. If a person is allergic to fish or egg or when eating certain grains would give them a bad stomachache, they would need to know what is in the food on the menu. Many young people take temporary jobs in cafes and restaurants in tourist destinations during the summer months and proper training does not always happen for a number of reasons.

Thus, some knowledge obtained in general education (see Technology subject field description above) becomes especially valuable. Service providers need to understand that a customer asking for “gluten free” or “ lactose free” dish has a good reason to do so, and thus they should be able to identify dishes on the menu which suit the customer’s needs.

It may be a good idea to use little stories in order to raise awareness and turn attention to fine details.

For instance, a true story: a guest speaker delivered a lecture as part of the training course. The lecture was held in a small country hotel and some snacks were offered afterwards. The lecturer said she was vegetarian and would not want any meat in her food. The chef then suggested having a green salad, containing lettuce, tomato, paprika, cucumber and radish. The lecturer explained she was allergic to paprika. The chef offered to serve the salad with paprika slices picked out.

Was it a good solution?

The correct answer is no, an allergen (which causes the allergic reaction) should never come into contact with food that an allergic person eats; in our case paprika should not be mixed with other salad ingredients.

Along with many other websites on the issues of allergies and food intolerance, the British Food Standards Agency (2014) has an online training course, modules of which provide an insight of legislation, allergies and allergens. This material can be studied online without having to register and Module 5 “In the restaurant” is a good eye-opener regarding allergens in the food.

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Suggestions for learning food vocabulary Warmers and ice breakers. One of the easiest tasks is to set some questions on everyday topics as pair work and, time permitting, change the focus as you go along, as illustrated below: 1. Pair work 1) Speaking task in pairs. Ask your partner these questions and answer theirs.

Have you had breakfast this morning? What did you eat? What do you normally eat? What time do you have your breakfast? What was different today, if at all?

2) Change partners and continue asking and responding to questions: Describe the flavours of the food you ate this morning, e.g. What did your coffee taste like? Porridge?

Sandwich?

3) Change partners again and continue with these questions: What colour was your food? Do you have any colour preferences, e.g. always prefer red jam to yellow jam, or a red beetroot to a red-and-white one?

2. Tell a story ... Pair/group work Pairs are given two pictures face down. They agree who is going to be speaking first, then turn one picture over and the first speaker has to immediately present a story of about 30 seconds length. When the time is up, the second picture is uncovered and a new story is told by the second speaker. Both persons can look at the picture. Alternatively, the teacher shows pictures on the screen and pairs follow the above format.

Why 30 seconds? In business, for instance, this is how long a sales pitch may take to present a service or a product, or a new business idea. Warmers should not take up too much of class time and if pictures have somewhat unusual characters or connotations (a cat at the table with a carrot on a plate in front of it), the more fun students can have and this is certainly a boost to creativity (or perhaps a wake-up call in the morning).

Grouping and mind maps Course books usually provide mind maps or grouping tasks to complete, such as a mind map of drinks below, or for identifying a common denominator for groups. canned 3. ............

5. ............

beer 2. ............

4. ............

cappuccino coffees

1. ............

HOT

6. ............

wine

alcoholic

sparkling

COLD

DRINKS

soft drinks

teas 10. ............

orange

8. ............ black

mineral water

11. ............

9. ............

juices 7. ............

Figure 1. Drinks mind map.

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More ideas for topics: 1. Matching or grouping task – a list of words or collection of pictures must be grouped e.g.

1) by type ‒ fruit, vegetables, spices etc 2) by shape – round, oblong, spherical, conical, pear-shaped 3) by colours 4) whether something can be eaten raw and/or must be cooked 5) grow in a bunch; grow on the ground, grow on bushes/trees 2. Colours – each student/group is allocated a colour and has to write a certain number of any fruit/ vegetable/herb/spice or a particular fruit, berry.

E.g. red – write 5 fruit and berries – .....

While plant breeding has yielded purple potatoes and carrots, red-and-white stripy beetroots and even white beetroots, this task can cause lots of discussion.

3. Divide the verbs into 3 groups using the following table. blend, boil, braise, broil, chop, dice, fold, halve, infuse, julienne, knead, mash, mince, roast, poach, quarter, shred, simmer, slice, stir, whip, whisk, work in

Cutting

Cooking

Mixing

4. Which of the following activities involve heating? Underline the ones which do. layer, spread, boil, scramble, pour, simmer, melt, dip, fry, grate, taste, grill 5. List fruit and vegetables you would normally peel: a) before eating; b) before cooking c) which can be eaten and/or cooked either way 6. Name at least 3 items in the following groups: legumes – dairy products – sauces –

soups – dried fruit – game –

cheese – seafood – herbs –

plates – cutlery – containers for drinks – Missing links This is an interesting and challenging way for revising vocabulary or adding an element of competition in your class. In this task one needs to find a word that follows the first word in the clue and precedes the second, in each case making a fresh word or phrase. E.g. the answer to fish mix could be cake: fishcake and cake mix.

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For instance: horse pie wild press filter grounds herbal pot prawn cabinet

short stand rocket shaker tea fast salad table

What it tastes like When speaking about food one cannot avoid talking about tastes – what a dish tastes like, taste preferences, freshness of food and many other aspects. The following section presents some ideas for covering the topic.

1) Work in groups of three or four and discuss the five basic tastes (sweet, bitter, sour, salty, and umami), give examples of food in each category. What do you personally like better? Do you have a sweet tooth and rather prefer sweet things or is savoury food your preference?

2) Make a list of sweet, sour and salty foods on your daily menu. Can you say which of them is healthy? not very healthy? not good for you?

3) Have a list or pictures (flashcards) of food, fruit or vegetables and ask students to write what they taste like.

4) Make a list of tastes which you like / do not like, e.g. sweet chocolate is fine but not sweet wine; bitter chocolate is fine but not bitter coffee.

5) Can you divide the following words into two lists – expressing pleasant and unpleasant tastes? delicious, vile, yummy, greasy, dry, pungent, bland, rich, hot, lovely, delectable, tasty, mouth-watering, heavenly, palatable, flavoursome, tangy, zesty 6) End the sentences, e.g. it tastes good, it tastes of chocolate, it tastes like rubber.

Vanilla ice cream tastes ....

Bangers and mash taste ...

Haggis tastes ....

Paella ....

Wasabi ... and so on ...

Conclusion Food is a topic which can be fairly easily included in class work as it can be quickly turned into a pair task, dialogue, grouping task, conversation, role play and so on. Those fortunate enough to have a school kitchen can run cooking classes together with technology teachers and practise food vocabulary, learn words for tableware, have a go at table setting, table manners and serving and lots of enjoyable palatable CLIL. Resources Websites for ideas on idioms: www.idiomconnection.com/food (categories of idioms) www.usingenglish.com/reference/idioms/cat/1 www.learnenglish.de/vocabulary/foodidioms www.englishclub.com/vocabulary/idioms-food (has a quiz) www.learn-english-today.com/idioms/idiom-categories/food-drink/food-drink1-acquired-cake www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/theenglishwespeak/2014/08/140819_tews_189_ proof_is_in_the_pudding (listening with tape script) 15

Key to idiom history: Baker’s dozen – is 13. There are two theories and the first theory comes from medieval England and identifies the sales techniques of tradesmen such as bakers and fishmongers. When selling directly to the public, merchants would have a fixed price for their wares. But when selling to bulk buyers such as town market stall holders the merchant would gift an extra item for every dozen bought. In such cases the 13th loaf or fish would represent the stall-holder’s profit on the items he buys and then sells at market.

Above or below the salt describes a person’s status. It comes from great banqueting rooms where the silver salt cellars would be placed in the centre of the table. Those sitting on the same side of the salt as the host (above it) were considered the most important guests and those further away (below) were less valued guests.

REFERENCES Albert, Jack. 2007. Red herrings and white elephants. The origins of the phrases we use every day. Metro.

A Chef’s Guide to Scotch Beef and Lamb. 2nd ed. Quality Meat Scotland 2007.

Foods Standards Agency. [allergytraining.food.gov.uk/english] Accessed 14.09.2014

READER ON ESTONIA Urve Läänemets

Tallinn Linnamäe Lycée

Recent educational research on curriculum theory in general and language didactics in particular has become increasingly focused on the content of learning. The selection of meaningful content for different age groups of learners in modern environments has become more and more challenging and time-consuming for teachers and authors of study aids. More and more attention is being paid to the relationship between language learning and cultural information about the societies in which these languages are used as a means of communication.

These ideas are reflected in the recent versions of foreign language (FL) syllabi in the Estonian National Curricula for general comprehensive schools.

Particular emphasis is laid on the development of high school students’ ability to talk about Estonian culture and Estonia as a European state. Such educational goals require relevant content, especially knowledge of the topics specified in the FL syllabi. Considering the communicative character of languages, the study aids aspiring to meet the needs of the syllabi are also expected to provide opportunities for learners to discuss the most important social, cultural and political issues in Estonia. Whether at home or abroad, young people should be well informed about our geopolitical position, history, culture, and other aspects of everyday life if they wish to be accepted as intelligent and knowledgeable young representatives of their country.

For that reason, a trial version of the Reader on Estonia was compiled by a work group in 2012/2013 and field tested in 2013/2014. The reader places particular emphasis on cultural information integrated with other school subjects, especially civics. The printing costs were paid by the Tallinn municipal government, and the authors who agreed to contribute material provided their texts free of charge. Tallinn schools that wished to use the reader received free copies for a study group.

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This reader is not a traditional textbook; it contains 42 texts representing different functional language styles, some abridged from longer publications, but mostly written by authors knowledgeable in their fields. All the topics in the FL syllabi have been covered, plus some additional ones that illustrate a specific area of culture or Estonian way of life. The authors who contributed to this book have each provided a perspective that helps to paint a picture of our society. We have added some questions for further discussion and given some suggestions about where to find more information should students wish to explore a particular topic more fully.

We are deeply grateful to the authors, who considered it important to share their expertise with students, in a language and form appropriate for them. Urmas Paet has kindly explained the role of Estonia as a member of the EU and also how to become a diplomat. Küllo Arjakas has provided an overview of history, Allan Puur has written about demographic developments, Rein Veidemann about Estonian literature, Mati Kaal about Estonian fauna, Lembit Peterson about Estonian theatre, Tiia Järg about Estonian music, Rait Toompere about Estonian arts, and Raivo Vokk about Estonian food, to name just a few.

There are also Tallinn legends told by Kristi Tarand, excerpts from books and articles by Viivi Luik, Ingrid Rüütel, Tiina Peil, Jaan Ginter, Andreas Kangur, Mark Soosaar, and Maire Toom. Daimar Lell has written about the Estonian Sports Museum in Tartu, and Mart Aru about Estonian stamps.

There are also young authors who provided contributions that will probably provoke thought about how to make one’s own choices for the future. There are stories shared by Pärt Uusberg, Laura Põldvere, Liis Lemsalu and Hermann Luik. The text by Professor Mihkel Koel may motivate some to undertake scientific research. We are particularly grateful to Doris Kareva, whose poem has been presented in both English and Estonian, and Fred Jüssi for the final chapter, which makes us think about who we are at the moment and what we might become.

This reader can be used selectively as a study aid. Texts can be selected in any sequence according to students’ interests and preferences. Vocabulary should be explained according to the level of the group. A glossary could be added, as this issue is still a trial version. Some useful feedback has already been collected, and new suggestions and comments are welcome. And we need to bear in mind that every study aid has its limitations.

Nevertheless, we hope that students will be able to integrate the facts, views and insights presented in this book with the knowledge and values they have acquired in other subjects. In learning more about Estonia and the Estonian people, we all may come to understand better where we have come from, who we are today, and where our aspirations will take us in the future. There is still a long way to go to develop the critical thinking skills of our students, and to clarify human values. The more teachers and students know, the more informed decisions we can make about our identities, and about the values we all accept and respect. This can help us understand the commonalities that unite different cultures.

Our students can share their stories with the world if they are conversant with their homeland and culture. Modern globalisation is not the universalisation of diverse cultural norms and social systems, but an open conversation about cultural uniqueness that can enrich our comprehension of the world and human ethics. Education is a moral enterprise that “makes people better,” as Professor William Pinar of the University of British Columbia, Canada, a respected scholar in curriculum theory and philosophy of education, often says. And we, as teachers, can contribute to that enterprise by our professional aspirations and practical activities towards educational excellence.

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48TH ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL IATEFL CONFERENCE 2–5 APRIL 2014 Anu Ariste

Anu Ariste (middle) with colleagues fromGermany and Argentina

Ääsmäe Basic School

For the third time, the IATEFL Annual Conference was held in the beautiful former spa town Harrogate set in the very heart of Yorkshire. In 1700, Harrogate was well established as a spa, and water was bathed in as well as drunk. There are 88 springs within a two-mile radius of the town centre. The history of Harrogate is related to many famous people in the United Kingdom, for example, when Agatha Christie mysteriously disappeared for 11 days in 1926, she was eventually traced to the Old Swan Hotel in Harrogate.

Today Harrogate is a vibrant, cultural town with elegant gardens, colourful flowerbeds, smart streets, stylish restaurants and entertainment to every taste. An absolute must is visiting the world famous Bettys Café Tea Rooms for an afternoon indulgence and, though not being a huge fan of sweets, their chocolates and cakes proved to be most delicious. The whole atmosphere of the town is very welcoming and amicable.

Even if you are a visitor for a short while, you can certainly understand why Harrogate has been voted the happiest place to live in Britain for two years running.

IATEFL today has 126 Associate Members from all over the world; the two most recent ones are ELT Ireland and the European Legal English Teachers Association. The Associates Day on 1 April was a chance for the representatives to get together and talk about mutual issues. Associate representatives from Pakistan, Argentina and Peru talked about the impact of teacher associations in their regions; IATEFL Special Interest Groups, webinars and scholarships were introduced.

More than 2500 delegates attended the conference in Harrogate. For a first-timer it would be difficult to anticipate the experience, therefore the size – the number of workshops, talks, forums, symposiums, poster presentations, etc. was truly head-spinning.

One would have wanted to have the ability to be in two or more places at the same time to get the grasp of all workshops of interest. To share a few: • Stephen Greene talked about linguistic landscapes: learning from the language we see all around us – signs, advertising and leaflets.

We should encourage our students to explore and record their own linguistic landscape.

• Paul Davis reminded us about the role of mime in the classroom. Mime is a technique that time has forgot, but it is useful for accurate grammar and writing, disguised repetition and it can be serious fun for any age. And it certainly was for all those who attended the workshop!

The Royal Baths

• Andreas Grundtvig discussed classroom activities for introducing indirectness. His workshop focused on how, when and why the tacit rules of intercommunication are broken. Several useful activities for the classroom were shared to help students understand the social contexts.

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• Andreea Pulpea’s workshop shared activities that encourage reluctant readers to engage with texts, develop autonomy and gradually change reading habits. It was a great workshop where participants could discuss the issue and share activities they had applied in their classrooms.

• Vanessa Esteves looked at the importance of 21st century skills and critical thinking in the young learner/teen classroom. We as teachers should get our students thinking while they learn English.

These are the impressions of only a few of the workshops attended; a full report would take many pages.

The conference had an impressive array of plenary speakers.

In his presentation David Graddol, Director of The English Company, explored critically the role English plays in different sectors of the economy and if it brings economic benefits. He reflected on whether the economic rationale is just disguising a new kind of linguistic imperialism – is it necessary for everyone to learn English?

According to Graddol the key issue is whether the economic rationalist argument for the massive push for English teaching around the world really makes sense.

Kathleen Graves, Associate Professor of Education Practice at the University of Michigan, discussed that in ELT, the global role of English has made efficient delivery of English instruction a major concern of ministries of education, educational institutions and schools. The demand creates huge pressures on teachers and students to produce results quickly in the classroom.

General session

Michael Hoey, Baines Professor of English Language at the University of Liverpool, focused his talk on old approaches and new perspectives: the implications of a corpus linguistic theory for learning the English language.

Sugata Mitra, Professor of Educational Technology at the School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences at Newcastle University, shared his experience of 13 years of experiments that show us startling results – children can self-organise their own learning, they can achieve educational objectives on their own, they can read on their own. The research shows that groups of children, irrespective of who or where they are, can learn anything by themselves with access to the Internet.

After a busy conference day, the evening programme offered a range of lively and varied events, including old favourites such as Pecha Kucha, Open Mic and a Quiz evening, and the British Council-hosted evening and Cambridge English Party. A great opportunity to meet colleagues from different countries, have a talk about common issues.

For a teacher of English, it was a great experience to get to know EL professionals from around the

British Counsil Evening 19

world who share, discuss and learn. Attending an IATEFL conference is a professionally inspiring experience.

I would like to thank EATE for this memorable experience in Harrogate.

REFERENCES 48th Annual International IATEFL Conference and Exhibition Programme

@ U of I w/ SUSI* Erika Puusemp

MHG, EATE, DKG

SUSI stands for Study of the U.S. Institute for Secondary Educators, and I had a wonderful opportunity to participate in their six-week study program entitled “The American Dream: The Self-Fulfilling Prophesy of a Cultural Heritage” this summer.

As the title of the program suggests, this is an intensive course in all things American, but predominantly how the U.S. has developed from the time the first settlers reached the shores of the continent to today, and how the society works today, with special attention to somewhat controversial issues to do with education, religion, politics, fighting for different types of freedom, race, gender, etc, etc, etc. This is done through lectures, workshops, panels and discussions with educators (both from universities and local schools), government officials and local community members, and site visits to places near and far, this year ranging from different places of worship to a country town hosting a rodeo, from Illinois Public Media corporation WILL to the Museum of the Grand Prairie, from Washington, D.C., to San Francisco, from Chicago to Boston, from Lowell National Historic Park to Muir Woods National Park…

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (IL) hosts one of the three similar Institutes on behalf of the U.S. State Department Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Universities apply for the chance to host such international groups of educators, and if chosen, get the chance=responsibility for three years. Similarly, educators apply for the post through embassies or Fulbright contacts, and thus this summer nineteen people from nineteen countries ended up living in a student hostel in ChampaignUrbana, studying and watching films in Room 101 (a tornado shelter) of the Center for Global Studies, and going to site visits, both official and unofficial.

Although the focus of the Institute is the U.S., the experience is global and not restricted to the nearly six weeks spent in the U.S., and besides the participants, the wider community hopefully benefits, too.

The following is a part of my report for the embassy on my return, which should clearly show why other people from Estonia should apply for the program this coming winter/spring and in the following years.

I strongly believe that being a participant of the Global Institute for Secondary Educators hosted by the Center for Global Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign was an opportunity of a lifetime mainly (but not only) because of the reasons listed below: •

hands on experience of American life (living in student dorms, visits to host families, site visits, etc)

•

carefully planned academic work that allowed to combine the fragmented knowledge participants previously had of the U.S. into a more coherent picture of how this society has developed and works

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nowadays •

varied speakers, generally highly appreciated specialists in their own fields and mostly also well able to pass on their knowledge and combine facts with classroom methodology

•

focus on different facets of the society, not on pedagogy and methodology (the best presenters combined these successfully, though)

•

a careful balance between scheduled and optional activities, more serious and more light-hearted work

•

an extensive suggested reading list connected to the topics covered so that participants can go on exploring the issues

•

having representatives of 20 countries working together and sharing their experience and paving ground for future cooperation

•

web-based media opportunities for participants to go on communicating (web page and Facebook)

•

providing access to a pool of academics and teachers who could potentially write articles for professional magazines (e.g. for OPEN!) or participate as presenters at various local conferences (e.g. at EATE Summer Seminar in 2015, hopefully)

•

access to a community of alumni that opens up further possibilities for cooperation and learning

•

developing personal relationships that will enrich our lives for years to come

Although the Department of State is hoping that at least some of the participants would start teaching courses of American Studies in their home countries, I feel that even if I do that at some point, the most important asset of the academic side of the program will still be the way it combined my previous knowledge of America with new bits of information, creating a deeper understanding of the society.

Unfortunately, this understanding cannot be fully captured in words, so here are some pictures to complement the above:

The University of Illinois (http://illinois.edu/)

The whole campus of the University of Illinois at ChampaignUrbana is non-smoking, and all the people in the SUSI group were non-smokers.

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Urbana, the richer half of the twin city

Official photograph of the SUSI 2014 participants

Student hostel (and two visits from the local Fire Department after some unsuccessful attempts to cook at night due to Ramadan and other less clear reasons)

Lincoln Home National Historic Site in Springfield, the capital of the U.S. state of Illinois

Chicago and skyscrapers swaying in the wind‌

Meadowbrook: an attempt to recreate some prairie (my favourite place in Urbana)

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No comments â˜ş

Happy 4th!

School bus in Boston

Department of Education, Washington D.C. (http://www.ed.gov/)

Arlington, VA (http://www.arlingtoncemetery.mil/)

The Amish (taking pictures of people is not allowed)

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WILL (search http://www.will.illinois.edu/, there are lovely educational programs there)

Alcatraz, San Francisco, CA (a webpage for kids on American history amd geography http://www.ducksters.com/geography/us_states/ )

Muir Woods (explore the website of the National Park Service http://www.nps.gov/index.htm and listen to the musical Into the Woods on Youtube, and go and see the film when it is released in January 2015. I believe many of you will find it an unforgettable experience although it doesn’t necessarily feature any redwoods such as these.)

Famous Frisco fog (an advantage or a disadvantage depending on whether you look at it from the viewpoint of a nature lover or a tourist, which makes me say go and explore no matter what, when or where‌)

*Translation of the title: At the University of Illinois with the Study of the U.S. Institute The author of the article can be seen in picture 6.

All pictures by the author except for the official SUSI group picture (by Elizabeth Innes).

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JUNE 2014 IN KOSOVO Leena Punga

Lähte Gymnasium EATE Chair

Thanks to the US Embassy Tallinn, Estonia, and personally to Tiiu Vitsut, I was able to participate in the KETNET (Kosova English Language Teachers’ Network) 4th annual conference When Theory Meets Practice: Inspiring Practices and the two-day follow-up training for regional ELT Associations for strategic development and leadership in English language. Both the conference and the training session were sponsored by RELO (Regional English Language Office), Budapest.

KETNET is a comparatively young organisation compared to our EATE. Nonetheless, it was inspiring and educating to be present at the event.

The conference started with a plenary. The plenary speakers were Zoltan Rezmuves and Mary Lou McCloskey. The plenary talks were followed by 26 presentations in six concurrent sessions. This year’s conference encouraged the teachers to reflect on theoretical and pedagogical issues of language learning and teaching, to discuss and share their daily classroom practices and challenges, reflect about their professional development needs and opportunities.

All the presentations were interesting, the presenters being practicing teachers and university lecturers.

Just like at our conferences, it was impossible to take part in all the workshops offered as they took place at the same time, and the participants had to choose between different workshops. All the workshops I attended were well presented and very practical.

For me it was interesting to see so many men among the participants. I have to admit that our colleagues in Kosovo were open and friendly to talk about their everyday work, challenges and even difficulties.

All the participants received the first issue of the network’s newsletter Avenue, dedicated to teaching English to large classes.

In Kosovo each region has its branch of KETNET. For years, we have tried to restore language centres in our regions and thus involve regional leaders in planning and organizing our events. We have to find ways to make this idea work.

Besides, they use a lot of volunteers in preparing for and organizing their events.

I could see many young people, mainly students of English and future teachers of English, helping the participants, explaining the poster presentations, being active.

The conference was followed by the regional ELT leadership workshops.

The list of participants was not as long as I thought it could be. Our group was rather small, including representatives

Participants in the workshop

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from Hungary, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Serbia, Albania, Romania, Macedonia, Kosovo and me. I was hoping to meet colleagues from the other Baltic states, Poland and other countries supported by RELO. For different reasons many colleagues were not able to attend neither the conference nor the workshops.

We spent hours talking about problems of everyday work of ELT associations. We tried to figure out if we as leaders are skilful enough to be the leaders, what has been done and should be done regionally to make our associations work better, if we are ready to build regional and international cooperation.

All the participants stressed the importance of looking for and finding young active members who could take over the leadership.

As the result of group work, we suggested the following: Action Plan 1: REEF – Regional English Education Forum (for RELO Budapest Countries) Goals/Rationale for the plan: ¡ Building/expanding a regional network ¡ Finding common ground, supporting one another with shared goals ¡ Building a cross-national, multicultural community • Inter-ethnic cooperation • English for the sustainable environment • Young Learners • Technology • ESP • CLIL ¡ Supporting the teachers’ role and status ¡ Making education in this region something special and unique ¡ Improving the quality of service within the region ¡ Environmental outreach ¡ Producing conference proceedings with representation from each participating country – expanding the impact of the conference and motivation for participating. ¡ Expanding online outreach As a result, a long weekend professional event lasting from Friday afternoon to Sunday afternoon should be organised. It might be hosted by Albania with support from other country ELT groups who will send leaders and encourage attendance and proposals to present.

How is this conference going to be different from other conferences?

• Encourage local presenters • Bringing together participants from throughout the region • Leaders’ meeting to plan the future • Strong speakers that draw participants • Including networking opportunities by interest.

• Outstanding speakers This forum would rotate among country ELT organizations every two years. The first conference is to be held in 2015 in Albania, probably the last weekend of June (or the end of January, beginning of February).

The plan looks great, doesn’t it? We will see what future has in store for us.

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In the ruins of Prizren castle

Long working days were followed by a trip to Prizren, a nice town south of Priština, the capital of Kosovo.

The streets and walkways of Prizren are cobbled, and the path to Prizren castle was quite tiring, especially for an untrained person like me. The day was hot; the castle, in fact its ruins, were high up in the mountains. And from the top of the mountain one could count the mosques and their typical spires.

Coming down was much easier. The town itself was surrounded by mountains. The town is rich in colourful houses, cafes and people.

Some thoughts and ideas after the visit: • we should involve our regional leaders, future teachers of English and other volunteers in planning and organizing our events.

• local regional branches are important partners in keeping our association running smoothly and well. We should encourage local leaders to organize the events of their own, find experienced teachers to share their knowledge.

• we should grow leaders for the future, prepare younger members of the association to become new leaders with fresh ideas and if necessary, changes in the work of the association.

• we should try to build regional cooperation with other associations in our neighbouring countries and other countries in Europe.

I want to express my gratitude to the US Embassy Tallinn, Estonia, to Tiiu Vitsut and to RELO Budapest for offering me the possibility to participate in the events from 5–11 July 2014 in Priština, Kosovo.

VERONA NOTES Enn Veldi

Department of English University of Tartu

In 2014 the world celebrated the 450th anniversary of the birth of William Shakespeare (1564–1616). Apart from its amphitheatre and opera, Verona is the city of love because of its association with the legend of Romeo and Juliet. The latter is one of the greatest love stories of all time; love as an emotion is universal, and we are all involved in some way or another. “In fair Verona, where we lay our scene” (2005: 5); this is how Shakespeare put it in the prologue to Romeo Juliet; Verona definitely being “a world elsewhere” for Shakespeare and his audience (ibid.: XXIII). In fact, Verona as a travel destination had been on my mind for several years. This July (the name Julia is associated with this month) it so happened that the 16th EURALEX international congress, which brings together lexicographers, was held in Bolzano / Bozen in northern Italy. Thus, it was an almost perfect opportunity to ask my wife to join me on a lovers’ ‘pilgrimage’ to Verona; we then proceeded to southern Tyrol to attend the congress and to visit the Italian Alps.

Verona makes you think about the legend of Romeo and Juliet; you cannot escape it. We witnessed the first glimpse of it at the Verona Airport Hotel where the restaurant was called Giulietta & Romeo; Ristorante & Pizzeria. Note that the order of the names Romeo and Juliet is often reversed in Italy; Juliet comes first and Romeo second. In Tartu I had bought a copy of Romeo and Juliet with a recent informative introduction and commentary (Shakespeare 2005). The prefatory material of the book revealed some interesting facts. It is thought that Shakespeare’s play was inspired by a narrative 27

Romeo and Juliet in English and Italian

Love message in the passageway to the courtyard

poem by Arthur Brooke The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet (published in 1562), which was based on the French version of a novella by Pierre Boaistueu (1559); the latter in turn was based on the Italian version of the story by Matteo Bandello (2005: XXVI). However, this work is not the original either and has several Italian antecedents, the first of which dates back to 1476 (Villari 2011: 8). When writing the play, Shakespeare modified the story for greater effect – he compressed the time and space. Before Shakespeare, the legend covered a time period of at least nine months; Shakespeare compressed it into four days and nights (ibid.: XXVIII). Shakespeare made Juliet younger (13 years of age instead of 16) than in the previous sources. According to Shakespeare, the young lovers were able to spend only a single night together after their marriage; in the previous version it had been a month or two (ibid.: XXIX).

On the other hand, a visit to Verona makes you think about the commercial impact of Shakespeare’s work on Verona. It appears that the Municipality of Verona has gone to great lengths to turn the fictional characters of Romeo and Juliet into its fictional citizens. On second thoughts, you start to realize that the House and the Tomb of Juliet are, in fact, tourist attractions, which are far from authentic, and the romantic atmosphere has been created to meet the expectations of hordes of global visitors. This is somewhat unexpected in view of the fact that Italy is well known for its abundance of authentic tourist attractions. Charles Dickens visited Verona in 1846; his description of the legendary House of Juliet is in stark contrast with what you witness today.

It was natural enough, to go straight from the Market-place, to the House of the Capulets, now degenerated into a most miserable little inn. Noisy vetturini and muddy market-carts were disputing possession of the yard, which was ankle-deep in dirt, with a brood of splashed and bespattered geese; and there was a grim-visaged dog, viciously panting in a doorway, who would certainly have had Romeo by the leg, the moment he put it over the wall, if he had existed and been at large in those times (Dickens 1913: 284).

Statue of Juliet 28

Dickens points out, by the way, that he read Romeo and Juliet on the night after visiting the House and Tomb of Juliet. So, how have the House and Tomb of Juliet changed in accordance with Shakespeare’s work? In 1907 the Municipality of Verona purchased the medieval building at Via Cappello 23 at an auction because of public interest associated with the legend. The street

is named after the Cappello family who used to live there as early as in the 13th century. The name Capulet might have been inspired by the name Cappello. Unlike the Montagues, there is no historical record of a family by the name Capulet in Verona (Villari 2011: 8). In the course of the 20th century the building and the courtyard were completely renovated; for example, the now famous balcony where Juliet appeared was attached to the building in the course of renovation; originally it might have been a sarcophagus (ibid.: 11). The success of the movie Romeo and Juliet directed by Franceso Zeffirelli (1968) inspired several changes, too. The life-size bronze statue of Juliet by Nereo Constantini (1972), a Veronese sculptor, in the courtyard dates from this period; it was donated by the local chapter of the Lions Club. Juliet’s bed in the museum was designed for the 1968 movie. Juliet’s desk is another recent addition. Folk tradition has also identified Romeo’s home in Verona; however, this building is in private hands and is not open for tourist visits.

The Tomb of Juliet has been part of the museum since the 1970s; one can buy a combination ticket for both the House and the Tomb of Juliet. At present the sarcophagus, identified as the grave of Juliet, lies in the basement of the former convent of San Francesco dating from ca. 1230. However, this is not the original location of the sarcophagus.

The building houses a collection of frescoes, which are, in fact, authentic. In Verona Shakespeare is still going strong, and most visitors seem to be happy with what they see.

The balcony where Julia appears

Juliet's bed

REFERENCES Dickens, Charles. 1913. Pictures from Italy.

Chapman & Hall. http:www.gutenberg.org/ files/650/650-h/650-h.htm

(accessed on 28 September 2014).

Shakespeare, William. 2005. Romeo and Juliet.

Edited with a Commentary by T.J.B. Spencer. Introduced by Adrian Poole.

London: Penguin Books.

Villari, Anna. 2011. The House and the Tomb of Juliet. Visit Guide. Milano: SilvanaEditoriale.

Photos by the author.

Tomb of Juliet 29

Experienced Educator ENGLISH AND/OR MUSIC? An interview with Päivi Aljamaa

Why did you decide to become a teacher of English and music?

When I graduated from secondary school, I wanted to study music – singing or conducting. As I had not attended a children’s music school, I was not on the level to go to the Tallinn School of Music.

Just this year, a new speciality was opened at the Tallinn Pedagogical Institute – the English Language and music. Therefore, I had to take English together with music. I started to like the teacher’s profession during my trainee practice in Tallinn Secondary School No 22 (now Jakob Westholm Gymnasium) and Tallinn Secondary School No 46 (now Pelgulinna Gymnasium). I must say I just happened to become a teacher, but I do not regret it.

It has given me so many moments of joy, happiness and satisfaction during my teaching career.

How do you share your time between English and music?

When I started teaching, I had music lessons, two choirs (for younger and older students), an accordion and a mandolin orchestra, several singing groups, and as many English lessons as we had at the basic school at that time. Soon I became the conductor of Kaiu Mixed Choir. As times changed, more English lessons came to school, and so I had to give up music. Just now I conduct only our children’s choir. But music has always been with me at my English lessons with suitable topics and activities.

Where and when did you start your teaching career?

After graduating from the institute in 1966, we had little choice about the schools where to teach, and a special commission sent us to a school for three years. I chose Kaiu Basic School to start my teaching career (because this school was the nearest to Tallinn and my parents – only 65 km).

Have you ever had a role model?

I have not had any real role models, but there have been several people whom I have tried to follow in different fields. My first headmaster was a wonderful example of how to cope with unexpected situations in the classroom. From our Estonian teacher I learned how important it is to be punctual, to have a sense of duty. Our geography teacher taught me how to plan school trips. The Canadian team of teachers with whom I was lucky to work together for four years in the 1990s inspired me how to plan and run workshops for colleagues. The British Council with its seminars and workshops has been a real help in my career.

How do the attitudes of your students differ in English classes and music/choir classes?

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As I do not teach music any more, I can speak about the time ten years ago. The students were more relaxed in music classes as studying was very much based on emotions and feelings. The attitude in choir classes has changed greatly during the last years. On the one hand, it is due to the decreasing number of students at school. Capable students take part in so many different out-of-class activities and, as choir singing has become very professional and demands a lot of effort, they choose something easier. When I started my career, I could meet some boys who declared that they would not need English in their life – that was in the 1960s–1970s. Now the situation has greatly changed, most of my students are eager to learn according to their abilities, but as in every subject, there are some who are not motivated and have no real ideas for their future when they are basic school students.

Where do your school-leavers continue their studies? Have any of them followed your path?

Our best school-leavers usually go to Tallinn (Gustav Adolf Gymnasium, Tallinn Secondary Schools No 21 and 32, Lilleküla Gymnasium, Art Gymnasium, etc.) or Tartu Miina Härma Gymnasiun, Hugo Treffner Gymnasium, Nõo Reaalgümnaasium, etc. The next best ones go to Rapla gymnasiums and those who want to learn something practical go to Kehtna Economic and Technology School or Vana-Vigala Technical and Service School. Our music teacher Argo Niinemets is my former student, and so are Varje Vürst, Helgi Viirlaid, Riina Palm, Airi Allvee, Kätlin Lang, Kristi Pukk, Grete Libbe; there may be some more who are music teachers. But only one, Kait Vürst became an English teacher but unfortunately does not work as a teacher any more but is still using English in her everyday work.

Has your present school been the only institution where you have taught English?

Kaiu School has been the only one where I have taught consistently. When I was nominated to Kaiu, my first idea was to stay here for a year and then move to Tallinn. But then I got married and Kaiu collective farm, which was one of the richest in Estonia, offered us a new flat, then a car and a house. I liked my school, students and living conditions, and so Kaiu School has been the only main school during my teaching career. Besides my everyday teaching, I have taught at Mainor Business School, have run several English courses for adults and been at the head of English teachers at Rapla educational board for years. I enjoyed courses for teachers who wanted to start teaching primary students in the middle of 1990s when there was a great need of English teachers. For four summers, I had a wonderful opportunity to teach side by side with a Canadian team. This gave me courage and knowledge how to prepare and run workshops; thus, I have shared my teaching experience with colleagues in different places of Estonia and Latvia.

Would you like to share the funniest / most embarrassing / enjoyable moments in your work?

From my choir experience there was a girl who joined the choir as a fifth-year student and used to sit at the desk next to the piano. Her singing was so bad that it made difficult to play the piano right next to her. Usually such students give up, but she liked singing so much and she practiced and practiced.

After some years, she became a good devoted singer in the choir. Several years ago we had practiced reported speech for a lot of lessons, but there were still students who made mistakes and I was really unhappy. Then a boy who sometimes had a very special attitude of mind said, “Teacher, don’t you know that wisdom comes little by little.” Every time I happen to have slow students, I recall his words. Last year a boy from year three who was often ill and had difficulties in studies got a “4” for his test, jumped to me said, “I want to give you a great hug,” and hugged me. This is something to remember.

Tell us something about your cooperation projects with foreign colleagues.

During my workshop in Valmiera, Latvia, I met a teacher from Vaidava who wanted to have a link school and cooperation with students and teachers of our school. At first, our students started writing to one another, then our teachers met, then the teachers of Rapla County and Valmiera region had workshops together and shared experience. After five years of correspondence between students, Vaira Viera from Vaidava and I decided to organise English camps for students in summer time. So the three-day camps started one summer in Kaiu the other one in Vaidava. The students had different workshops, all in English, during the days. All the teachers of both schools were engaged in organizing and participating 31

in workshops and activities. It was real wonderful teamwork that lasted for seven years until Vaidava School was closed. But our cooperation has continued. In 2013, the foreign language teachers from Rapla County visited two schools in Valmiera and shared ideas. Teachers from Valmiera visited our schools.

We had a link school in Scotland – Tain Royal Academy – with a very active director of studies – Andrew Ramsay. There was correspondence between students, two Comenius and a Youth for Europe projects between our schools from 1999–2002.

Then we participated in two Comenius Partnership Projects “Higher quality in education with family support” in 2007–2009 with schools from Romania and Turkey, and “You are what you eat” with Poland, Romania, Turkey, Belgium and Bulgaria in 2010–2012.

All these projects have been educational, inspiring for our students and teachers. When I started a new project, I asked students and teachers to join in, and I got a team of enthusiastic students and colleagues to work for the project.

How do you spend your spare time if you have any?

I have always liked to do something different from my everyday work at school, but anyway it is still connected with it. Organizing or preparing seminar materials, workshops for teachers, coordinating or leading projects – all these are out-of-school activities done during my spare time. I enjoy travelling very much. Every summer I have tried to visit different countries and the international projects have given me a great opportunity to learn something new about places where ordinary tourists are not taken. As I live in the countryside, I have a garden and it makes me active for three seasons. I enjoy the time with my two grandchildren who have become teenagers already and do not need real babysitting any more, but talking to them or simply spending time together is a real joy. I like to read and watch television. I go 6 km pole-walking every day in summertime in suitable weather, and when I go to school and come home in the dark, at weekends.

Päivi Aljamaa was interviewed by Leena Punga

Reading Recommendations THE RESOURCE BOOK THAT INSPIRES Natalja Zagura

Department of English University of Tartu

Ur, Penny. 1991, 2009. Grammar Practice Activities: A practical guide for teachers. UK: Cambridge University Press.

When asked about the book that I would recommend to my colleagues, teachers of English, the first title that came to my mind was Penny Ur’s Grammar Practice Activities: A practical guide for teachers.

First published in 1988, this book can be rightfully called a language teaching classic. Nevertheless, as things change over time, and the field of didactics is not an exception, a new, fully revised and updated version of the book was published in 2009. This new edition presents tried and tested grammar practice activities accompanied by a CD-ROM with ready-to-copy worksheets. The second edition of the book 32

can still be bought at a relatively reasonable price, while those who are interested in seeing the older version, can just google the title – it is surprisingly easy to find a free electronic version of this invaluable book.

I still remember how excited I was having discovered this resource book for myself, when working for the first year as a teacher of English and struggling to make my lessons interesting for the students. This book brought more awareness and creativity in the way I taught English grammar. I really appreciated that the book actually consists of two parts: guidelines and activities. Part One is a concise and clear introduction into teaching grammar in an EFL classroom, summarising the main points to consider when designing and presenting grammar practice activities. Being an experienced teacher, the author gives some useful advice on planning and conducting grammar-oriented lessons, using supplementary materials and extending activities as well as on giving homework. She also shares some practical tips for getting the most out of coursebook exercises – this section made me take a more critical look at the coursebook activities and be more flexible in using them in class.

Part Two contains nearly 200 interesting and game-like grammar practice activities, which can be suited to the students of different ages and levels. It is important that the author provides clear teaching notes and numerous ideas for variations, which encourage the teacher to be flexible and creative. The organisation of Part Two is very reader-friendly: the activities are grouped into sections according to grammatical categories and those categories are, in turn, ordered alphabetically and cross-referenced in the text. As a result, the teacher can easily find a suitable activity depending on the grammatical category she is going to practice in class and it takes little time to find and prepare the activity for use.

Having tried out the activities suggested by Penny Ur, I could see that it is indeed a doable task to combine grammar teaching with a broadly communicative methodology. Practicing grammar can be fun and it can even grow into exciting classroom discussions. For example, having once chosen the activity where the students were asked to practice first conditional while describing various superstitions (Ur 1991: 78–79), I was really surprised how talkative my students can be and what amazing sense of humour they have.

I would say that Penny Ur’s Grammar Practice Activities is a valuable resource that is worth looking at, and I believe that every teacher of English would find some interesting activities there that would inspire her and her students to be more creative and more interested when practicing grammar.

At our School Natalja Zagura spoke about Facebook as language learning environment 33

AN OPPORTUNITY FOR THE ENGLISH TO LAUGH AT THEMSELVES Kristi Martin

Allecto

Matt Rudd. 2013. The English: A Field Guide. London: William Collins.

Kate Fox. 2014. Watching the English: Revised and Updated. London: Hodder & Stoughton.

What is Englishness or who are the real English? Two bestselling authors have attempted to describe the English character through anthropological approach by observing their test subjects, the English in their natural habitats.

Matt Rudd, who, in the name of journalism has undertaken many curious experiments, spent two years on the road with binoculars and a notebook to put together a fantastically funny piece of work. Broken down into 11 chapters, he examines the often ignored parts of British life, journeying from the living room to the kitchen, moving out to the garden, the commuter train, the pub and the office and ending up in the bedroom. He looks at the anthropology of sofa etiquette and the three stages of purchasing a duvet and, with witty genius footnotes, brings together a collection of sketches of the English in their natural habitats as they pursue their favourite pastimes, such as constructing flat-pack furniture and tailgating.

The English: A Field Guide is an entertaining and tongue-in-cheek study of the English character.

Kate Fox, a social anthropologist, has tried in her revised and updated Watching the English (first published in 2004) to define the English character in a much more serious manner. Now with new survey data to add weight to her original fieldwork findings, and more extensive field-research and experiments to back up earlier observations, she has added new rules, new subcultures, new chapters and over 100 updates to her earlier acclaimed international bestseller. It might be useful to know that talk about the weather is fine, but foreigners must not criticize the Royals or ask people what they do and they must understand that “... the bar counter is the only area in which mainstream rules on talking to strangers may be broken ... [but] such conversations are conducted in accordance with strict and quite complex rules”.

Or that you can determine the class of a person by what they put on their breakfast toast: the darker the colour and the bigger the lumps of fruit, the more socially elevated the marmalade or jam and the person spreading it. The book is not quite an academic anthropological tome, and yet not quite a comic observational work (as Matt Rudd’s The English: A Field Guide), and this makes it tricky to tell which parts of the book have scholarly underpinning, and which are the comments of an amused bystander.

Both books are an interesting read and offer a glance into the peculiar little ways of the English. Whether to take their content at face value or not remains up to the reader.

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NOW READ ON...

Birgit Laasi

Allecto

Holzmann, Christian. 2014. 101 Young Adult Novels for Your English Language Class. Helbling Languages. PB, 219 pages, 9783852725710.

101 Young Adult Novels for Your English Language Class is a new book from the ELT publisher Helbling Languages. Essentially a catalogue of 101 unabridged works by as many British as American authors (with a couple of Canadians and Australians thrown in as well), it will help you choose the perfect texts to read with your teenage students.

The 101 have been selected to reflect the best available among the overwhelming abundance of young adult fiction. The assortment is relatively recent, dating mostly from the 2000s up to the present, but also including a fair number of works published in the 1990s (Anita and Me (1996), The Perks og Being a Wallflower (1999), The Bad Beginning (1999)) and even some real oldies from as far back as 1968 (A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin), although sadly no publication dates have been given to make this obvious at casual browsing. There are celebrated as well as obscurer titles and works by authors you would not necessarily associate with the young adult scene at all (Nick Hornby, Roddy Doyle and John Grisham to name a few). All classic youth literature has been omitted (so no The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Oliver Twist or Anne of Green Gables), nor will you come across separate entries for such modern heavyweights as J. K. Rowling or Stephenie Meyer (just because they are very well known anyway). The sting has been taken out of the loss, however, by featuring authors as impressive as Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman and Eoin Colfer among the chosen, nearing something of a cult status themselves. Stories that are already familiar from the TV or film screen could make up a whole separate subcategory – Bend It Like Beckham (2002), Gossip Girl (2002), The Hunger Games (2008).

Entries are organised alphabetically by title, each having been allotted a convenient two-page spread.

The bulk of this is taken up by a brief excerpt from the text, but you will also find your Who (a short paragraph about the author), What (the synopsis) and Why (one good to-the-point reason why you should continue with the actual book itself) presented in this limited space. Recommendations for further reading and viewing by the same author or on a similar theme have been assembled at the bottom edge with a section for more grown-up titles to nudge your students towards, thus allowing you to extend the material to infinity. The total of the literary works mentioned between the covers of this volume adds up to well above the 101 promised in its title, so once you’ve been able to get them to read something from here, you should be able to keep them reading by simply following what it proposes as the next step. For the young readers themselves it is most likely a matter of accessibility and relatability to make them stick with a book in a foreign language. All novels should be approachable for students at the intermediate B1 level. There is a helpful little indicator at the head of each entry to tell you whether the text steers towards the lower or higher side of this and also a handful of keywords concerning genre and issues discussed, so that it would be possible to tell at a glance whether a particular book would resonate with a particular teenage audience.

While some general suggestions have been given as to what reading-related activities to do with your students (Using the Books in Class: Before Reading, While Reading, After Reading), there are no text analysis exercises as such included for an entry. For help with that, you may want to have a closer look at the methodological reading list on teaching literature (Using Literature in Class).

All in all, 101 Young Adult Novels is a practical, easy-to-use resource book to refer to when in need for 35

reading ideas for your lower secondary/secondary classroom. For teachers who may think that a graded reader of an adopted literary classic is not enough to keep the students at the hard task of reading, it provides an ample source of contemporary works to consider as an alternative. By encouraging your students to tackle full-length original texts, you are setting them up for a sense of achievement (as well as quietly improving their language skills, of course). This collection from Helbling will hopefully help you pick out the right texts to see them through to this glorious destination. A good addition to your bursting tool kit.

The book will be accompanied by the website www.helblinglanguages.com/101yans with further reading suggestions, ideas for activities and updates on young adult fiction, fully operational by end of October 2014.

Come and Share RORY’S STORY CUBES – MORE FUN IN LANGUAGE LEARNING Erika Jeret

Pärnu College of the University of Tartu

Rory’s story cubes are sets of nine dice with a little picture or pictogram on each side (54 per set). The sets currently come in three themes: Original, Voyages and Actions. There is also a Max set of larger cubes. The pictograms in Actions are based on the most frequently used verbs. All sets are great for teaching language, or as a mix-in with any other pack. One set of cubes can make over a million combinations, thus there are absolutely no limits to storytelling fun.

How do you play?

The authors suggest rolling the nine dice, then after examining all the nine face-up images immediately beginning your story linking all the nine images.

Start with Once upon a time or In a land far far away or Far far away to kick your story off. If there are several players, the objective may be having a continuous story rather than several individual stories.

Rory’s Story Cubes Mix are new three cube sets of Story Cubes, designed to mix in with a nine cube set of Original, Actions or Voyages. Players can conjure up fantastic fairytales with Enchanted, primeval adventures with Prehistoria and mysterious tales with Clues. For example, you take a set of three Enchanted cubes and a Voyages set. Remove three cubes from Voyages, replace these by Enchanted cubes and begin creating stories with new twists and turns.

Story cubes Actions. (Rory´s Story Cubes 2014) Dependent on your age group, story cubes can be used for fluency and speed in speaking, or practising a grammar item – tenses, adverbs, etc. They make a good warmer too.

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According to toy testers at Good Toy Guide (2014), the story cubes are good for developing the following skills: • vocabulary building and use of adverbs, verbs and adjectives, • imaginative story telling, • sharing and cooperative play.

They also said cubes can be combined with other sets for endless variations, and it would be even better if a timer was added to introduce competition.

In keeping with modern times, the product is also available for playing on mobile phones, and iOS and Android apps can be purchased online.

Ideas for busy teachers 1. If you have one set (Original, Voyages or Actions), a small group of children and plenty of time – test it once following the authors’ suggestion to see how it works and for you to get an idea of how long it takes to get children speaking, as well as time for children to pick ideas from what other children have said previously and continue storytelling until everybody has had their turn.

2. One set of cubes – hand out sets of three cubes to groups of children (3–5), thus you have three groups catering for up to 15 players. The smaller number of images is easier to link into a story and the storyline is also easier to remember for the following speakers.

3. One set of cubes and a large group – split students into groups of 4–6 and give each group just one dice to roll. The aim may be a continuous story, and even if the same image comes up two or three times, they will have to keep the story going. Option: if all groups are of equal size, make them swap dice after all students in a group have spoken, or after a time period has lapsed, e.g. swap in every 2– 5 minutes.

4. You may want to set time limits for speaking. To start with, the minimum speaking time can be set at e.g. 30 seconds. It may seem painfully short but even sales pitches can be squeezed in this, why not fun storytelling. However, some people may find it too long!

5. More than one set of cubes – if they are different, mix them for variety, otherwise keep original sets and play using one of the ideas above or create your own tasks. For instance, you might want to practise giving reasons and conjunctions, and use the Voyages set. So a student starts a sentence with ‘I went for a walk and I bought/saw/met/talked to ...’ and so on. The next one has to connect their sentence with the previous one, e.g. ‘I talked to a dwarf in the woods to ask for directions because I was lost and could not find the castle. As soon as the dwarf had disappeared out of my sight, I noticed a monkey in the tree. Furthermore, there were ...’

Follow-up Small groups. If the stories created are not particularly long, options include: a) have one student from each group retell the story created to the entire class group; b) one student per group (originating group) has to move to another group (hosts) to tell them a story.

When this is done, the host group has to tell the entire class group what they heard (and remembered), and the originators can make comments.

Technology-enhanced. Take photos of images of dice as you go along, and also notes of the storyline, create a slide presentation and add voiceover to it, then upload and share. Voiceover is for honing the language used but not necessarily changing the story, keep the story as it originally rolled out.

Alternatively, you can video and record images and speakers during the game and then process and adapt the film to fit into a certain timeframe.

Writing. Students – individually or in pairs – write up the stories that were created in groups and submit for peer review or assessment.

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More dice for talking For more task ideas you may consider using ideas from a rather similar product Talking Dice (Jeret, 2009). These are sets of six dice with pictograms on them, and they come in a variety of themes (Talking Dice, 2014). Their website contains worksheets, free game ideas and videos which you can browse and select ideas which suit your students’ needs best. Examples include noughts and crosses; memory game; questions and answers; reported speech; conditionals and so on and so forth.

Naturally, there are apps available for purchasing online as well. Once you have an electronic version of it, you can use it in class provided there is a video projector and a computer in the class, or an interactive whiteboard.

In conclusion, story cubes can substitute talking dice and the other way round, and you can practise not only telling stories but focus on topics you particularly want drilled or revised in a language class. Both products can be incorporated in teaching any language; they also make wonderful travel companions for children and adults alike.

REFERENCES Good Toy Guide. www.fundamentallychildren.com. Accessed 27 August 2014.

Jeret, E. 2009. The Language Show. OPEN!, 35, pp.41-42.

Rory’s Story Cubes. www.storycubes.com. Accessed 26 August 2014.

Talking Dice. www.talkingdice.co.uk. Accessed 29 August 2014.

WORLD-CLASS BRITISH THEATRE IN ESTONIA Erika Puusemp

MHG, EATE, DKG

For anybody who likes both the English language and the performing arts, there is a wonderful opportunity to watch world-class theatre performances in English right here in Estonia, but it seems that not many teachers or students in Estonia are aware of this. Yesterday when I watched Euripides’ tragedy Medea, half the seats were unoccupied.

What I am talking about is National Theatre Live, the British National Theatre’s project to broadcast the best of British theatre live from London stages to cinemas across the UK and around the world, and in Estonia the performances can be seen both in Tallinn (in Coca-Cola Plaza) and in Tartu (in Ekraan).

The performances they broadcast vary a lot, ranging from the abovementioned Greek tragedy to plays by Shakespeare to such contemporary gems as The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (my all-time favourite), which is based on a mystery novel by the British author Mark Haddon and tells the story of an autistic boy.

By the time you read this piece, I will have enjoyed A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, a new version of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein by Nick Dear; there is Skylight by David Hare coming on 28 October, and hopefully there is more to come later in the season. If there isn’t, the fault is not with National Theatre Live, about which you can read more at http://ntlive.nationaltheatre.org.uk/, but with Forum Cinemas, who sometimes decide to finish broadcasting for indeterminate times.

If there are more broadcasts in Estonia, do go and enjoy, and tell your students to do the same (there are subtitles in Estonian available, by the way); the experience is totally worth it (and nobody is paying me to say so).

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How well do you know Washington DC? (Answers on p. 5)

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Photos by Erika Puusemp

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EATE Summer School, Pärnu 22-23 August 2014

Steve Lever has been lecturing at our Summer Schools for many years

Kristi Vahenurm made a presentation on free sound recording tools

Lively action at book sales

Lunch time at the café of Pärnu College

Handing over the lottery prizes

Great work has been done – our Committee is ready to leave Pärnu

Photos by Ilmar Anvelt Photos by Reet Noorlaid