It is possible to teach L2 without resorting to L1!

After meeting, Fabienne and Romain for a week, we were ready to set out to learn English. I'd like to highlight that the teaching-learning process wouldn't have been possible if rapport hadn't been established first.



Luckily for me, Romain and Fabienne were very well-behaved and they felt eager to acquire some English. They had learned to trust me and I had learned to pay attention to all the signals they gave me -directly or indirectly.



Fabienne started to call me her "butterfly", I liked it. A butterfly is beautiful and colourful. That nickname gave me a glimpse of what she felt for me. She also gave me an invaluable hand with Romain. Romain, in turn, felt happy throughout the classes and so did I.



I noticed Fabienne liked songs, poems, literature. I didn't have access to a lot of materials in Paris but I did my best to cater for her needs. We had a famous book, which I particularly love, and I supplemented the classes with authentic material. I tried to appeal to her feelings in most of the tasks because she engaged in the activities more positively when I did. It was quite simple for me to teach her because her level of English was pretty good.



Romain was a totally different story. I worked a lot with realia. I made posters and flashcards. I collected watercolours, scissors, cardboard, coloured crayons, clothes pegs, pencils, etc. The learning process was lots of fun. We moved around, we sang along the songs I took for the class, we made lots of materials in class. He learned basic things like introducing himself and his family, greetings, naming pets, likes and dislikes, basic ways to talk about his feelings.



The learning process wasn't fast, esp. with Romain. It was meaningful. Once Fabienne or Romain grasped an idea, they internalized it. All in all, I'd say, it was very important for me to get to know these children and to gain their trust. I first observed the way they felt about me, the way they felt about themselves and the way they felt about the English language. I took note of their learning styles and learning strategies. The first 5 days and 20 hours together, we just worked on building rapport and becoming aware of who we were and how we felt.



That first week paved the way for an incredible teaching-learning experience which flowed smoothly and at its own pace just because we respected our identities and feelings, we enhanced our potential and worked on areas that needed practice resorting to Fabienne and Romain's favourite channels of acquisition.



When people ask me "how did you manage to teach children who didn't have any clue of Spanish?" I just say "communication in English was possible because we resorted to lots of non-verbal communication in the process". Was it simple? I don't know. Was it hard? Not at all. We came to a point where we felt like a tribe, which was very respectful of its objective -learning English- and like any tribe, we had a code of conduct, which we followed all the way.



(I would like to thank Jane Revell and Susan Norman for the huge amount of insight they gave me into rapport and VAK when I read "In your hands")



If you like these ideas, you can also visit www.teachingenglish.org.uk/blogs/georginahudson

Is it possible to teach English without resorting to L1? (part 3)

Fabienne:

The first thing I had to learn in my classes with Fabienne is to lower the tone of my voice. I wouldn't call myself loud. Nobody has ever asked me to lower the tone of my voice and neither did Fabienne. It was just the laid-back soft way she had in absolutely every sense which paved the way for a very "zen" approach to our classes.

We started playing games to get to know each other. She was really tuned in to the class and in her sweet calm way, she showed me how much she cared about my background. She asked me lots of things about Argentina, the reason that I was in Paris, my family in Buenos Aires (province). In a way, she was leading the class. She made me feel really comfortable.

It was her turn to play and open up. She smiled the broadest smile I had ever seen. She was beautiful. She told me her real Senegalese name. I tried to repeat it and she smiled at me openly, sincerely, without hiding her sympathy and pity for the awful way I had pronounced her name.

She was true to her style all the way - transparent, honest, soft. She told me about how much she missed Senegal and to what extent she also appreciated living in Paris. She talked about the advantages and disadvantages of being an African in France. I loved her detailed account of Senegal.

I could see the sunny beaches. I could feel the humidity and heat during the dry season. I particularly liked what she said about Senegalese women. They seemed to be very relaxed about their physical appearance. It was really fun to hear Fabienne contrast the French with the Senegalese. I could see the lattest wearing their colourful tunics and turbans. I could smell the chep-bu-jen they prepare. It was in her words "a land of passion" and she was definitely passionate herself when she talked about her country.

The class ran smoothly. We moved from one activity to the other quietly and we were really engaged in getting to know each other. We found more similarities than differences - being a foreigner in Paris, feeling that we didn't belong, enjoying the beauty of France, taking pride in our roots and learning to accept and respect differences.

Fabienne, who seemed reluctant to talk at first, eventually let go of her feelings "in English". I felt very proud of her and very grateful I had found these kids. My first class with Fabienne was a real journey - my actual trip in Europe.

If you're interested in the topic, you can also visit www.teachingenglish.org.uk/blogs/georginahudson (sponsored by the BBC and British Council)

Is it possible to teach English without resorting to language 1? Part 2

On my second teaching day, I felt somewhat nervous. I'd been very excited about my new teaching experience and I hadn't stopped talking about my new students. I still didn't know how to face this challenge. I was taught at the Teachers Training College to plan things carefully, which I did, and somehow, I also knew I was very probably going to do away with my carefully planned lesson.

I wondered on my way to my students' house if I was the one who was learning in the process. I felt life was trying to tell me something. These children were a blessing to me. I'd been living in Paris for a while without so much to do having done all the touristic circuit in a previous trip. These meetings with Fabienne and Romain gave a lot of sense to my stay.

I'm always asking myself how to live meaningfully and I always find the same answer in my heart "I live meaningfully by loving life and embracing it" I'm not talking about romantic love, I'm talking about love as a state of living. Romain, the day before, had shown me love at a much more profound level than any other student in my past.

I arrived at their house and they welcomed me warmly at the door. Their parents were working in the afternoons, when we met, and Fabienne was in charge of the house, the tutorials, and her brother. I almost burst into tears - Romain opened his arms as a way of telling me he wanted to embrace me (just like I'd done the day before). I said "hello" and both of them went "hello" and we cuddled. I was thrilled.

When we went to the study, I improvised some costumes, I changed the tone of my voice and I asked Romain to wait for me inside the study. I opened the door and said "hello" using funny voices, Romain always repeated "hello" and then I commented on things in the study, Romain looked at me and said "je ne sais pas" and raised his shoulders. I smiled and waved him goodbye, accompanying the gesture with the words "Bye" he repeated. I left the room.

We repeated the procedure several times, I changed voices, and body language (I pretended to be an old lady, or a serious man, for ex) and we exchanged "hello. I'm X person" Romain greeted me and appeared to enjoy the acting and then I left the room and said "bye" and he repeated.

When I went into the room for the third or fouth time, Romain was sitting at his desk, he didn't look at me in the eye and was very busy drawing some things. I felt discouraged but I hid my feelings. I said "Great, show me" (I always varied my tone of voice for him to have some clue about what I was trying to communicate) and sat down next to him. He never looked at me, I didn't ask him to do it. I just looked at his pictures.

I pointed at one of them and said "blue" and then I took his blue pencil and said "blue" again. He turned, looked at me and I said "blue" and he smiled his most irresistible smile and repeated "blue" and we went on doing the same with the rest of the primary colours.

I took advantage of some flashcards I'd carried along with me and we identified the colours together. I turned the flashcards over and mixed them. Romain had to find the appropriate colour flashcard. Then I said "listen" pointing at my ear and I added "and point" and I showed him how to point. I was lucky Romain was an adorable boy. He knew what to do and did it very well.

So, we started playing "listen and point" (and I called out a colour) and "listen and touch". I decided to complicate it a little and I hid the fashcards under a paper. The colours were quite visible. Romain could see through the paper most of the times but not all the times.

Time was up and I opened my arms and hugged him, I kissed his curly hair and left the room waving and saying "bye" Romain smiled and said "Bye". Fabienne was waiting for her learning turn outside of the study.

My head was spinning, I felt a mix of confusion and excitement about Romain's classes but my question was: Is he actually learning? I must say, I was deflated when he refused to look at me and pretended to be engaged in his drawings but I understood he was trying to tell me that he was bored, or simply, that he wanted to paint.

Fabienne showed Romain to some other place in the house, and we started the class. Fabienne was tired. She needed to talk. I sat down near her and we started to chat. It was simpler with Fabienne as she had an intermediate level of English.

Her eyes were very telling. They showed me the tip of the iceberg she held inside. She was ready to talk but mostly chitchat. I listened to her intently and made her questions about her talk. I realized she needed to know me before opening up. Fabienne was 100% African, I was/am 100% Latin American. I decided to talk about how I felt in Paris being a Latin American myself. I was very honest all the way. Fabienne eventually opened up.

Is it possible to teach English without resorting to language 1?

A few years ago I was commissioned to teach English to Franco-African children in the outskirts of Paris.

I'm Argentinian, I have no knowledge of French, and I was quite excited to have been given the chance to teach these children English.

Having said that, I was a little confused about how to communicate with them if problems in communication arose.

The youngest of the siblings was only 5 years old at the time and he had no idea of English or Spanish. His sister though had an intermediate level of English and I told myself I could always ask her for help if things got "too challenging".

My first class with Romain, the 5 year-old boy, was more about observing him. The first thing I knew I needed to do is to establish rapport. I needed Romain to trust me. I took lots of realia along with me with the expectation to deliver my super creative plan and we started the class.

Fortunately for me, Romain was very friendly and easy-going. He smiled at me (I knew he didn't know what to do and it was his sweetest way to respond) and I smiled back. He moved around his bedroom, looking for his toys and ignoring me. I followed him, keepig my distance and just looked at what he was doing in an attempt to start playing with him. I always remembered to smile.

No verbal language was involved. He noticed I was interested in his toys and he eventually handed in one to me. I hugged the toy and kissed it. Romain laughed. He must have thought I was crazy. We were doing the same for a long time - he grabbed a toy, I looked at it with interest and then he gave it to me. I took the toy, hugged it with love and kissed it.

I noticed Romain was very generous and well-behaved. I opened my arms to signal I wanted to embrace Romain. He smiled and accepeted my hug. It was a very moving moment. I said "I'm (pause) Georgi" touching my chest. He imitated me and went "I'm Georgi".

I frowned in a smiley way and said, "I'm Georgi" always touching my chest and I pointed at him saying just "Romain" and he followed "Romain" touching his chest. I repeated "I'm Georgi" and signalled for him to say "I'm Romain" and he did.

I kissed his curly hair and said "ok" and I accompanied the words with the "ok" universal gesture.

That was all I could do on my first day. When I took the train back to my flat, I realized how powerful that meeting was. I was eager to see Romain again. We had accomplished a lot. We were building trust