Teaching Historical Linguistics

Teaching Historical Linguistics

Abstract

In the course of the l9th century, English was established as an independent field of study in the University of Copenhagen. In l883 a fairly specific curriculum was introduced , and from the beginning the history of the English language as well as the reading of Old English and Middle English texts were obligatory disciplines and formed a substantial part of the curriculum as in most other European universities.

Historical linguistics and the reading of medieval texts were both abandoned as obligatory disciplines in 1976. Among the most important reasons were

• The growth in other linguistic fields
• The unrelenting nature of the work required in the historical disciplines
• The succinct (or even turgid) style of the textbooks 
  
• The narrow scope of historical linguistics as it was taught then 
  
• External reasons

Since 1976 very few people have graduated from my department who were knowledgeable about, let alone specialists in historical linguistics. A vast scholarly field (and one in which several Danish scholars have excelled) is dying out in Copenhagen University, and the end, the retirement of the last historical linguist, is now in sight. This brief historical outline will have a familiar ring to many people in other universities, and a considerable number of us feel that the present situation is intolerable. We must make a new attempt at teaching historical linguistics, simply because we are the last generation who will have the chance.

In the following I will discuss the negative influences listed as 1) - 5) above and suggest ways of overcoming them. The approach which I will present may be briefly characterized in the following manner:

• Abandonment of any attempt to give students any ability to read medieval texts
• Less Lautgeschichte and more sociolinguistics. Rather than concentrating on the sound changes per se, the course should include a discussion of the reasons for linguistic change as well as a discussion of the way in which linguistic changes spread
• Less phonology and more grammar and semantics. The field of historical grammar and grammaticalization is now considerably more extensive than it was in the l970's, but historical semantics other than grammaticalization remains sketchy
• Shorter and less technical textbooks

I conclude by suggesting a course curriculum designed for a one-semester course.

1. The growth in other linguistic fields

The l960's and 70' s saw a dramatic growth in linguistic fields which were not intrinsically diachronic. Transformational grammar, speech act philosophy and/or pragmatics, and sociolinguistics, to mention only the most prominent. The growth in these areas has by no means abated since the 1960's, and other disciplines, like psycholinguistics and cognitive science, are claiming their share of the curriculum.

The effect of this development has been two-fold: It has influenced the way in which we teach some traditional linguistic disciplines, notably phonetics and grammar, and it has greatly reduced or eliminated, crowded out, as it were, others, namely historical linguistics and classical philology. A parallel development may be seen in literary studies, where the increasing emphasis on critical theory has led to a decay in literary history.

It seems obvious to me that in order to teach historical linguistics today we need to incorporate some of the basic assumptions of the "new” disciplines. While it may be hard to define the role of speech act philosophy within the field of historical linguistics, there can be no doubt that sociolinguistics offers important insights in the establishment of linguistic norms and the spread of linguistic change, or that cognitive science and psycholinguistics can both contribute to our understanding of the way in which language (vocabulary and grammar) is structured and restructured. Many recent publications in grammaticalization and the study of metaphor bear witness to this.

2. The workload

As in most other universities, the teaching of historical linguistics in my department was accompanied by courses in which Old and Middle English texts were studied. This approach must have seen natural, even inevitable, to scholars of the 19th century, but it has a serious drawback in that it increases the work required from the students enormously. Since the aim of the Old and Middle English courses was to enable students to read Old and Middle English texts, and since it takes long (certainly more than a year) for modern students to acquire the necessary reading fluency, historical linguistics took up a very considerable portion of the linguistic syllabus. Since there was little point in arguing for a reduced workload in these courses (what is the point of being able to read half a sentence of Old English or half a text of Middle English?), the defenders of historical linguistics felt obliged to adopt an all-or-nothing stance, a policy which may have postponed the reduction of historical linguistics in the syllabus, but did not prevent its final abo1ishment.

While I believe that it is possible and worth -while to teach historical linguistics without attempting to give students an ability to read Old and Middle English, l do not want to give the impression that such reading ability is useless. On the contrary , l think it can be extremely rewarding, but since it necessarily involves hard work over a long period, and work of a nature with which modern students are not too familiar, I think that it must be reserved for students who are willing to put in the many hours necessary. Thc constant use of a dictionary and a grammar to get through a text was something that students were familiar with fifty years ago, when Latin was obligatory in the Danish Gymnasium (High School) and modern languages were taught very differently from what they are now. To put it bluntly : the heavy reliance on reading of authentic texts became a millstone round the neck of historical linguistics, at least in Copenhagen, and it would be futile to try to revive the teaching of historical linguistics without ridding it of that millstone.

3. The style of the textbooks

As late as the 1970's Copenhagen students of Old English began with Wyatt's celebrated Anglo-Saxon Reader. The first line of the Preface reads: "The War has left its mark on this book. ” A former student once told me how surprised he had been when he realized that the war referred to was World War I, and for the rest of his student days he had as little to do with historical linguistics as possible. But of course there is nothing inherently wrong with an old reader. As long as the selection and the commentary are in order it may serve its purpose very well, and l believe that there are still many teachers who find Wyatt's Reader useful.

An equally long service life cannot be expected from a textbook (or coursebook), since scholarly findings and methods are constantly changing while historical texts remain more or less the same. And yet the scholarly style of the 19th century was still fashionable in historical linguistics in the 1960,s and 70's. Anyone familiar with Sievers, Brunner, Luick or Sweet will recognize this style immediately: The book is divided into short numbered paragraphs, the information is given as succinctly as possible, and running text, in which presentation, exposition and discussion may take place, is extremely rare. In short: The books are unreadable, and that is equally true of their successors, e.g. Pinsker (1959) and Campbell (l959). But they were never designed to be read in the way one reads ordinary books. They were meant to be reference books, and as such are still extremely useful. But in an age in which excellent textbooks appeared in many other linguistic fields, the limited use which was made of readable textbooks in historical linguistics in some universities, Copenhagen among them, became a factor against the discipline itself. And yet such readable textbooks did exist, witness Jespersen's Growth and Structure of the English Language (first ed. 1905) and Baugh & Cable's A History of the English Language (195l).

Today there is no shortage of textbooks in historical linguistics. Two eminently readable introductions appeared in l993 : Fisiak's An Outline History of English and Barber's The English language: a historical introduction. The latest book which I have seen, Blake's A History of the English Language (1996) , with its unconventional design, will be the choice of many teachers, and l must not omit the admirable book and TV-serial The Story of English.

4. The narrow scope

In Copenhagen as well as in several other universities, the teaching of historical linguistics was centered round historical phonology. In fact, the dominance of phonology was such that many students left the university with a conviction that S equaled L . This is hardly surprising in view of the heavy reliance on the scholarly tradition referred to above, Sievers, Brunner, Luick, etc. , but it meant that the discipline was not as strong as it could have been when it came under attack. There can be litt1e doubt that among students the proportion of phonologists vis-à-vis linguists of all other descriptions lumped together must be approximately the same as with graduates: they are a minority, as are all other sub-branches of linguistics. Even a short modern coursebook, e.g. any one of the three mentioned above, contains much more external history , and much more about non- phonological aspects of language, than the old tradition, and this is a great advantage for the contemporary teaching of historical linguistics. The discipline no longer presents itself as being almost sui generis, but is openly related to other disciplines like sociolinguistics and syntax. Historical linguistics can be used to test the validity of a sociolinguistic hypothesis or throw light on a common grammatical error. At the risk of sounding over-optimistic I should go as far as to say that historical linguistics, rather than standing apart from or taking time from the other linguistic disciplines, can in fact enhance the linguistic insight and awareness gained in other disciplines. I think it is fair to say that in the 1960, and 70's, many historical linguists were too slow to recognize the potential importance of work done in other branches of linguistics, and the apparent or real isolation of the discipline made it an easy target when new subjects demanded their fair share of the curriculum.

Yet the self-imposed iso1ation of many historical linguists at the time went further than the mere disregard of contemporary work in sociolinguistics, grammar and psycho- linguistics. Phonology itself, the backbone of the classical tradition in historical linguistics, was studied in a way which seemed to have very little to do with general phonetics. Copenhagen may be an extreme case, but I was not the only student to wonder at the terminology used. While we talked about phonemes and allophones in phonetics classes, the teachers in historical linguistics more frequently referred to letters. The Prague School and the Copenhagen Glossematics were never mentioned, and when two teachers finally taught a course using Chomsky & Halle's The Sound Pattern of English (l968) it was felt to be too little and too late.

5. External reasons

I believe that the scholarly and didactic problems which I have described above are sufficient to explain why the position of historical linguistics in our curriculum was threatened in the 1970's, but I do not think that the discipline would have been ousted completely without additional forces from the outside. These forces were of a political nature, partly economic and partly ideological.

Due to an economic recession, unemployment rose dramatically. This was also true of academics. There was no longer any guarantee of a job once students had taken their degree. This led to a general loosening of the curriculum. The reasoning was that since our set curriculum could not guarantee our candidates a job, why not let them choose their own subjects and specialize in fields where they thought they would have better chances of finding employment? Out went the obligatory courses in historical linguistics and with them most other restrictions on the free choice of courses. A degree was no longer defined as a fixed s of courses but as a fixed number of courses. The idea of a core curriculum was abandoned in the upper level (3rd through 5th year) of our programme.

Naturally, some academic disciplines thrived on the new freedom which students were given in their choice of courses while others suffered. Historical linguistics suffered more than most, a fate shared by literary history. This was not coincidental. The ideological trends of the 1970's were heavily in favour of concentrating on our own time, and historical studies were not considered relevant or worthy. I think it is fair to say that for many students, taking an interest in historical studies came close to being reactionary. How could you study a Middle English dialect rather than the contemporary speech of Brixton and remain politically correct?

The anti-historical trends of the 1970's are now much abated. It remains to be seen whether historical linguistics may be resurrected in Copenhagen. Below, I have outlined a course which I intend to teach next year. While I do not believe that there is much controversial in what I have said above, the course description below is open to all kinds of criticism. l shall be very grateful for your comments.

6. A course description

The course is designed as a one-semester course for 3rd, 4th or 5th year students. This means that there will be 14 classes of two hours each, and that the work required will be one quarter of the usual annual workload.

The course presupposes a full command of English, one year of English phonetics, two years of Modern English grammar, and a brief general introduction to some linguistic disciplines, notably historical linguistics, semantics, sociolinguistics and pragmatics. Ideally, most participants will have some additional training in these disciplines. This can be obtained in a separate introductory graduate course taught each year.

Core reading will consist of one general book, say Barber, mentioned above. For their exams, students are required to hand in a list of their reading, amounting to at least 600 pages. Of those 600 pages, not more than half may consist of elementary teaching material. Barber would fill that half, and would take up approximately the first 6 weeks of the semester. In the remaining 8 weeks, texts of a more specialized nature are to be read. Typically articles from scholarly journals and extracts from books which are not intended as textbooks.

In addition to the common and obligatory reading covered in class, there will be a list of suggested reading. This list will be given to students at the beginning, and they will be encouraged to choose a field in which to specialize. The list will be divided into areas: Historical phonology, grammaticalization, historical syntax, historical semantics, and historical pragmatics.

At each class meeting there will be a presentation from one or sometimes two students. They will present a text (a paper or a chapter from a book) which is not part of the core syllabus, and two discussants (who have also read the week's text) will lead the discussion. A colleague and I have found that only by naming two discussants beforehand can we ensure that a proper discussion will actually take place. Nothing is so counterproductive as speaking to an uninformed and hence unresponsive audience, and the general willingness of students to prepare texts which are not part of the curriculum is not to be trusted. The presentation and the ensuing discussion will normally take about half an hour. All participants must undertake at least one presentation in the course of the semester. I believe that the value of such an experience is very considerable. Students perform better in exams if they have tried something similar in class.

For their exams, then, the students will present a reading list, half of which consists of the set text(s), the other half of reading which they have chosen individually, and which is not in the nature of course books or teaching material. Scholarly papers, intended for specialists, are the norm. This means that in a class of 20, there may be 20 different exams to set, but this complication is compensated for by the increased enthusiasm of the students. A Danish proverb says that det er lysten der driver værket, willing hands make light work, or, as Shakespeare puts it (Othello, II, 3): Pleasure and action make the hours seem shorter. Under our regulations, there are three ways to take an exam. Regardless of the form, the examiner must set a question which is based on the reading list of each student. Since this reading list is individual, and comprises at least 300 or 400 pages of specialized material, the student is required to move well above the introductory and general level in his or her performance.

• Oral exam, 45 minutes, with another 45 minutes for preparation. Students are expected to present a coherent discussion of the set question, and be ready to answer questions from the examiner afterwards.
• Written exam, 5 hours. Students are expected to write an essay about the set question. Usually they hand in between 10 and 20 pages, but there is no official upper or lower limit.
• Home paper, also known as term paper. As the title suggests, this is a longer essay, 7 - 8.000 words (20 pages) written at home. 
  

Why Do Languages Change?

Why Do Languages Change?

Why do languages change? Well, there's been many theories about why languages change. This has intrigued people since time immemorial and it seems that almost everybody has an idea. One early example can be found in Bible in the form of the Tower of Babel, where God decided humans got a little too much hubris (oops...wrong mythology) and so made their lives miserable by giving everybody different languages.

As science became a more dominant force in society, scientific explanations to language change were proposed. Here's a few through the years:

Language Decay?

The 18th century view of language is one of decay and decadence. Their reasoning is that the old Indo-European languages like Sanskrit, Greek and Latin all have complex declension and conjugation schemes, where as the modern Indo-European languages have far fewer cases for declension and conjugation. This "loss" of declension and conjugation cases was a result of speakers of the language getting increasingly careless about their speech (read "lazy"), so the modern speakers are "decadent" as they have allowed the once complex language to decay into such a "simple" language.

Obviously, this "decadence" argument has one major flaw. Even though the number of declensions and conjugations has dwindled, other parts of speech such as particles and auxiliary verbs have evolved to take their place. Anything that can be expressed in the ancient tongue can still be expressed today. Ultimately, this theory is highly subjective, as it relies on personal opinions, not scientific facts, of what is "highly evolved" and what is "decadent". Therefore this is not science.

Side note here: Even though linguistics has moved beyond this 18th century theory of language decay, many self-appointed pundits are still using this excuse to stamp out dialectal variations throughout the world by justifying the dialects as "decadent". This is, of course, complete nonsense, as even the most weird sounding dialect has regular grammatical structure and works perfectly to express ideas as well as the standard language.

Natural Law?

The next theory, proposed by the Neogrammarians (Junggrammatiker) in the late 19th century, is one of natural process. The Neogrammarians stated that changes are automatic and mechanical, and therefore cannot be observed or controlled by the speakers of the language. They found that what sounds like a single "sound" to a human ear is actually a collection of very similar sounds. They call these similar sounds "low-level deviation" from an "idealized form". They argue that language change is simply a slow shift of the "idealized form" by small deviations.

The obvious problem here is that without some kind of reinforcement, the deviation might go back and forth and cancel out any change. Then the Neogrammarians patched this theory by adding reasons for reinforcing the deviation such as simplification of sounds, or children imperfectly learning the speech of their parents.

The simplification of sounds basically states that certain sounds are easier to pronounce than others, so the natural tendency of the speakers is to modify the hard-to-say sounds to easier ones. An example of this would be the proto-Romance word /camera/ "room" changing into early French /camra/. It is hard to say /m/ and /r/ one after another, so it was "simplified" by adding /b/ in between, to /cambra/ (hence leading to modern French "chambre"). A more recent example is the English word "nuclear", which many people pronounce as "nucular". The problem with this patch is that since not everything in a language is hard-to-pronounce (unless you're speaking Klingon), the process would only work for a small part of the language, and could not be responsible for a majority of sounds changes. Secondly, it is highly questionable to determine whether "nucular" or "nuclear" is easier to pronounce. You'll get different answers from different people. Simplification no doubt exists, but using it as a reason (not a symptom) of language change is too subjective to be scientific.

The next patch, that of children incorrectly learning the language of their parents, doesn't work either. Let's take an extreme case in the form of immigrants. What is observed is that children of immigrants almost always learn the language of their friends at school regardless of the parents' dialect or original language. (And yes, the children become multilingual, but that's another story...) In fact, children of British immigrants in the United States nearly always speak with one of the many regional American accents. So in this case, the parents' linguistic contribution becomes less important than the social group the child is in. Which leads to...

It's Social Bonding

The last theory advanced during this century is a social one, advocated by the American linguist William Labov. What he found was that at the beginning a small part of a population pronounces certain words that have, for example, the same vowel, differently than the rest of the population. This occurs naturally since humans don't all reproduce exactly the same sounds. However, at some later point in time, for some reason this difference in pronunciation starts to become a signal for social and cultural identity. Others of the population who wish to be identified with the group either consciously or (more likely) unknowingly adopt this difference, exaggerate it, and apply it to change the pronunciation of other words. If given enough time, the change ends up affecting all words that possess the same vowel, and so that this becomes a regular linguistic sound change.

We can argue that similar phenomena apply to the grammar and to the lexicon of languages. An interesting example is that of computer-related words creeping into standard American language, like "bug", "crash", "net", "email", etc. This would conform to the theory in that these words originally were used by a small group (i.e. computer scientists), but with the boom in the Internet everybody wants to become technology-savvy. And so these computer science words start to filter into the mainstream language. We are currently at the exaggeration phase, where people are coining weird terms like "cyberpad" and "dotcom" which not only drive me crazy but also didn't exist before in computer science.

To me the social theory of language change sounds much more plausible than other previous theories. Humans are, after all, social animals, and rarely we do things without a social factor.

Historical Linguistics

Historical Linguistics

What ancient scripts ultimately capture is part or whole of a tongue spoken in antiquity. However, as you may have noticed, all human languages evolve over time. For instance, English poems written in Shakespeare's time don't rhyme correctly anymore, but a look at their archaic spelling indicates that they should rhyme.

As changes accrue over time, ancient texts become unintelligible if the knowledge of the language is lost. In some cases, the texts can be read, but cannot be understood. The best example of this is Etruscan, which is written in a script nearly identical to the Roman alphabet, so individual sounds and words can be isolated. However, since nobody knows what the words' meanings and the grammatical rules of Etruscan, the texts remain relatively obscure.

Alas, not all is lost. If ancient language had survived and evolved into later, "daughter", languages that can be understood, then it becomes possible to know something the "parent" language as well as the processes involved in the evolution. This study of language change through time is called historical linguistics.

How To Write an Essay

How To Write an Essay

There are many ways to write an essay. However, the standard essay form follows the same basic patterns as discussed in this 'how to'.

Here's How:

1. Select the topic of your essay.
2. Choose the central idea, or thesis, of your essay. For example: Information technology has revolutionized the way we work.
3. Outline your essay into introductory, body and summary paragraphs.
4. The introductory paragraph begins with an interesting sentence. For example: Home workers have grown from 150,000 to over 12 million in the past 5 years thanks to the wonders of the computer.
5. After this first sentence, add your thesis statement from above.
6. Use one sentence to introduce every body paragraph to follow. For example: The Internet has made this possible by extending the office into the home.
7. Finish the introductory paragraph with a short summary or goal statement. For example: Technological innovation has thus made the traditional workplace obsolete.
8. In each of the body paragraphs (usually two or three) the ideas first presented in the introductory paragraph are developed.
9. Develop your body paragraphs by giving detailed information and examples. For example: When the Internet was first introduced it was used primarily by scientists, now it is common in every classroom.
10. Body paragraphs should develop the central idea and finish with a summary of that idea. There should be at least two examples or facts in each body paragraph to support the central idea.
11. The summary paragraph summarizes your essay and is often a reverse of the introductory paragrah.
12. Begin the summary paragrah by quickly restating the principal ideas of your body paragraphs. For example: The Internet in the home, benefits and ease of use of modern computer systems...
13. The penultimate sentence should restate your basic thesis of the essay. For example: We have now passed from the industrial revolution to the information revolution.
14. Your final statement can be a future prediction based on what you have shown in the essay. For example: The next step: The complete disappearance of the workplace.

Tips:

• Use strong verbs and avoid modals to state your opinion. It is better to write: The workplace has evolved than The workplace seems to have evolved
• Do not apologize for what you are saying. An essay is about your opinion.
• Do not translate from your mother tongue. It will quickly get you into trouble!

What You Need:

• Computer or Typewriter
• Dictionary
• Thesaurus

Using English Games With ESL and EFL Language Learners

Using English Games With ESL and EFL Language Learners

An EFL learner is someone who is learning English but does not live in an English speaking country while an ESL learner does live in an English speaking country. Both types of English language learner have a lot in common, and benefit from the use of games in the classroom, but sensitivity to the different circumstances and goals of each group should be used in selecting and presenting the games.

EFL Learners

EFL learners will generally have similar backgrounds, but varied motivations. They are usually stable as regards to income, residence, and schedules. They are also usually literate in their first language. They may be learning English as a foreign language for a hobby or for their work. Aside from those studying for academic requirements, there is less emphasis on writing and literacy in English, and more on verbal communication. Academic EFL students will often want to focus on tests and test practice. When selecting games for EFL classes select according to students' interests.

For EFL learners who will be taking exams check if the test has a speaking component and if it does games can be very helpful in preparing for this. If speaking is not tested in the exam focus on English games that will support listening, skimming, reading, and writing skills. These students genuinely enjoy language games that are both relevant and still a break from the drudgery of exam prep. Quiz games and trivia games based on English vocabulary and grammar rules are excellent ways to work on exam topics while injecting some fun into the class.

Occasionally both EFL and ESL learners may pin you down for specifics of how a game is supposed to help them prepare for a test, so it is a good idea to have a prepared answer detailing exactly what the game is re-enforcing. This has actually happened on more than one occasion with European University students.

A particular German student was quite offended at the idea of playing games during class time, until she was shown the list of questions to be covered, and informed that many of them were taken directly from the same test practice books she would have used on her own. This EFL student became very enthusiastic about the weekly quiz competitions, and passed her Cambridge exams with flying colours.

For those who study English as a hobby, or conversational English, almost any speaking or listening game will be of interest. Rhythmic chants, songs, and rhyming games are a lot of fun with these students. You can also work in some reading and writing painlessly, by playing build-a-sentence or build-a-story games and then having them actually write up the sentence or story they have just composed.

163 games and activities are included in the English Language Games Digital Book for adults.

Business students will appreciate games as a relief from the grind of daily work, but you will have greatest success if you connect them to the goals of the course and business situations in which the students hope to use their English. Role-plays and skits can be especially helpful with advanced business students, as they often bring out aspects of cross cultural communication that are taken for granted and not mentioned in books.

A Japanese student taking part in a mock board meeting once stopped the game in the middle because he couldn’t believe that it was accurately portraying how the meeting would be run. The dynamics of business meetings in the U.S. and Japan were so different that this student simply couldn’t believe it. A colleague who had been stationed at an American branch of the company was able to assure him that the role-play was, in fact, true to a U.S. style of business meeting. Later, this role-play turned out to be one of the most highly rated parts of the training seminar.

ESL Learners

ESL classes are marked by the diversity of cultures and backgrounds of the students. The economic resources of ESL learners are often, but not always, quite low. Schedules may be problematic due to appointments with immigration, and family responsibilities and long work hours. ESL students may have come from highly traumatic situations such as fleeing from war, poverty or persecution. Families may not be complete. Recent deaths may make certain topics difficult, or it may simply be that some members of the family were forced to stay behind due to financial limitations. Work hours may be long and hard. Students will often arrive at class exhausted, especially if it is a night class.

When selecting games for ESL classes, one must take a much wider look at how the students came to be there, and what English they need to survive · When ESL students come from traumatic situations and directly into your class, games can relieve stress, and allow them to laugh and have fun at a time when there may not be a lot to laugh about.

Be sensitive to your students’ experiences – Don’t play family games with refugees from a war zone, for example. You will probably have more than one dissolve into tears or ask to leave the room. That may seem like an extreme example, but it actually happened to a teacher with a class that turned out to be mainly comprised of Bosnian refugees.

Even without a war, students with refugee status, or those who have had to struggle to reach a new country, will often have suffered many hardships. For these students, board games that help with vocabulary and grammar are great ways to start out, since they don’t require players to touch on emotionally charged issues, and they cover basics that these ESL learners need to focus on.

Be aware of the variety of cultures in your class and how comfortable they are with each other. You might well have members from each side of a conflict in your class. Games can break the ice, relieve tension, and provide a structured venue for interaction between students from cultures that don’t traditionally get along. For example, Korean and Chinese students often view Japanese students with hostility. Arab Christians and Muslims can create tension in a class, as can Pakistani and Indian students. These are groups that have long standing histories of conflict.

Stick to games like “Find someone who…,” board games, and team games like charades and Pictionary at first. These games have clear boundaries and objectives that keep hostility to a minimum while maximizing student interactions. Games with more improvisation, like role-plays, debates, and ‘murder mysteries’ are riskier, so wait until you know your students well before you try one of these.

Language games are a great way to show recently arrived ESL learners that certain activities, like mixing genders in the same class, are acceptable in their new country, where it might not have been in their old.

Ultimately, both ESL and EFL students want to learn English, and using games will help them to achieve these goals with more fun, laughter, and ease than any workbook or lecture ever could. All it takes is a little forethought, a wide variety of games to choose from, and sensitivity to the needs and experiences of the students. 

Using English Games With ESL and EFL Language Learners

Using English Games With ESL and EFL Language Learners

An EFL learner is someone who is learning English but does not live in an English speaking country while an ESL learner does live in an English speaking country. Both types of English language learner have a lot in common, and benefit from the use of games in the classroom, but sensitivity to the different circumstances and goals of each group should be used in selecting and presenting the games.

EFL Learners

EFL learners will generally have similar backgrounds, but varied motivations. They are usually stable as regards to income, residence, and schedules. They are also usually literate in their first language. They may be learning English as a foreign language for a hobby or for their work. Aside from those studying for academic requirements, there is less emphasis on writing and literacy in English, and more on verbal communication. Academic EFL students will often want to focus on tests and test practice. When selecting games for EFL classes select according to students' interests.

For EFL learners who will be taking exams check if the test has a speaking component and if it does games can be very helpful in preparing for this. If speaking is not tested in the exam focus on English games that will support listening, skimming, reading, and writing skills. These students genuinely enjoy language games that are both relevant and still a break from the drudgery of exam prep. Quiz games and trivia games based on English vocabulary and grammar rules are excellent ways to work on exam topics while injecting some fun into the class.

Occasionally both EFL and ESL learners may pin you down for specifics of how a game is supposed to help them prepare for a test, so it is a good idea to have a prepared answer detailing exactly what the game is re-enforcing. This has actually happened on more than one occasion with European University students.

A particular German student was quite offended at the idea of playing games during class time, until she was shown the list of questions to be covered, and informed that many of them were taken directly from the same test practice books she would have used on her own. This EFL student became very enthusiastic about the weekly quiz competitions, and passed her Cambridge exams with flying colours.

For those who study English as a hobby, or conversational English, almost any speaking or listening game will be of interest. Rhythmic chants, songs, and rhyming games are a lot of fun with these students. You can also work in some reading and writing painlessly, by playing build-a-sentence or build-a-story games and then having them actually write up the sentence or story they have just composed.

163 games and activities are included in the English Language Games Digital Book for adults.

Business students will appreciate games as a relief from the grind of daily work, but you will have greatest success if you connect them to the goals of the course and business situations in which the students hope to use their English. Role-plays and skits can be especially helpful with advanced business students, as they often bring out aspects of cross cultural communication that are taken for granted and not mentioned in books.

A Japanese student taking part in a mock board meeting once stopped the game in the middle because he couldn’t believe that it was accurately portraying how the meeting would be run. The dynamics of business meetings in the U.S. and Japan were so different that this student simply couldn’t believe it. A colleague who had been stationed at an American branch of the company was able to assure him that the role-play was, in fact, true to a U.S. style of business meeting. Later, this role-play turned out to be one of the most highly rated parts of the training seminar.

ESL Learners

ESL classes are marked by the diversity of cultures and backgrounds of the students. The economic resources of ESL learners are often, but not always, quite low. Schedules may be problematic due to appointments with immigration, and family responsibilities and long work hours. ESL students may have come from highly traumatic situations such as fleeing from war, poverty or persecution. Families may not be complete. Recent deaths may make certain topics difficult, or it may simply be that some members of the family were forced to stay behind due to financial limitations. Work hours may be long and hard. Students will often arrive at class exhausted, especially if it is a night class.

When selecting games for ESL classes, one must take a much wider look at how the students came to be there, and what English they need to survive · When ESL students come from traumatic situations and directly into your class, games can relieve stress, and allow them to laugh and have fun at a time when there may not be a lot to laugh about.

Be sensitive to your students’ experiences – Don’t play family games with refugees from a war zone, for example. You will probably have more than one dissolve into tears or ask to leave the room. That may seem like an extreme example, but it actually happened to a teacher with a class that turned out to be mainly comprised of Bosnian refugees.

Even without a war, students with refugee status, or those who have had to struggle to reach a new country, will often have suffered many hardships. For these students, board games that help with vocabulary and grammar are great ways to start out, since they don’t require players to touch on emotionally charged issues, and they cover basics that these ESL learners need to focus on.

Be aware of the variety of cultures in your class and how comfortable they are with each other. You might well have members from each side of a conflict in your class. Games can break the ice, relieve tension, and provide a structured venue for interaction between students from cultures that don’t traditionally get along. For example, Korean and Chinese students often view Japanese students with hostility. Arab Christians and Muslims can create tension in a class, as can Pakistani and Indian students. These are groups that have long standing histories of conflict.

Stick to games like “Find someone who…,” board games, and team games like charades and Pictionary at first. These games have clear boundaries and objectives that keep hostility to a minimum while maximizing student interactions. Games with more improvisation, like role-plays, debates, and ‘murder mysteries’ are riskier, so wait until you know your students well before you try one of these.

Language games are a great way to show recently arrived ESL learners that certain activities, like mixing genders in the same class, are acceptable in their new country, where it might not have been in their old.

Ultimately, both ESL and EFL students want to learn English, and using games will help them to achieve these goals with more fun, laughter, and ease than any workbook or lecture ever could. All it takes is a little forethought, a wide variety of games to choose from, and sensitivity to the needs and experiences of the students. 

Teaching ESL Preschool

Teaching ESL Preschool

A lot more difficult than I had planned...

As a mother of three I know the importance of story-telling from a very young age. Children are eager to listen and to participate in the stories, they have such imagination! It's no surprise that I would use stories in my preschool classes, but teaching English as a Second Language is not easy when you have twenty minutes to teach 25 three-year-olds or thirty five-year-olds...how to keep their attention and make classes fun became a lot more difficult than I had originally imagined.

I came across this wonderful resource...  

Looking through the internet for ideas I came across this wonderful resource for teaching ESL to young children while making it fun. It's called ESL Preschool Games and Stores for Ages 3 to 5 by Shelley Vernon. It was as if someone had read my mind! Not only are there easy, creative stories for the children to enjoy, there are flashcards, games and ideas to pre-teach the vocabulary, a guide on how to actually present the stories and post-story ideas to reinforce what they have already learned.

I can't believe how easy preparing has become!

I can't believe how easy preparing for my classes has become! After printing and laminating the flashcards and bingo boards once, I have a full set of ESL resources at my fingertips for a lifetime. Shelley gives ideas on how to vary the games depending on the size of the class, available space and even the mood the children are in! This is so important for me, I teach 5 three-year-old classes of around 25 students each (twenty minutes), and 5 five-year-old classes of 30 students each (twenty-five minutes). Some days just getting them to settle down and pay attention takes up most of the class time!

But all children love stories, the trick is to get them interested in what you do with the stories and letting them participate. Here's where Shelley's stories saved me time and effort.

They are looking forward to my classes..

The stories are presented in an order which allow for revision of what has already been taught without becoming tedious. My children love them! When I walk into a class the first thing they ask is if there will be a story that day. The fact that they are looking forward to my classes because they enjoy them so much is proof of what a wonderful resource this is. Before, I would take different stories to read to them, but after the third or fourth time they would say "You already read that" or "Again?" With these stories I can bring the same story back to the class, but the children don't know how we're going to work the story or which game we're going to play.

And the games are great, Shelley's ideas take most classroom scenarios into consideration, even how to ensure the classes don't get out of control with the forfeits. I don't have anyone to help me in my classes (as large as they are), but with these ideas I can play games with the children and keep the classes controlled while teaching them basic concepts like waiting their turn or following rules. How cool is that?

As a teacher I like to have little surprises up my sleeve..

As a teacher I like to have little surprises up my sleeve to keep the children guessing, that way they're never bored or tired of the same type of class. With this resource I have found that I can think ahead several classes using the same story but focussing on different concepts and ways to make it fun for the children. Plus, I always have several ideas ready in case the one I was planning to use that day didn't fit the "mood" of the class. This way I am more confident that I am prepared for whatever I am going to find in the class when I walk in, whether they're in a run-around kind of mood or more calm and quiet.

I would definitely recommend this resource to anyone..

I would definitely recommend this resource to anyone who works with children. In fact, I use them with my own children (who are bilingual Spanish/English) using more complex language and structures. Children have so much imagination as it is, so we teachers can use that to our advantage to make our job easier. These stories and games show you how to do just that, making teaching easier for us and more enjoyable for them.