Inspiring English exam takers
Welcome back to the Elevate blog. I’m here with David Heath, who is an English teacher. Is that right, David?
David Heath: That’s right. Indeed.
Abigail Fulbrook: where are you in the world at the moment?
David Heath: I’m based in the UK in the south of England.
Abigail Fulbrook: I see. But you haven’t been always in the UK. You’ve lived around the world, I think.
David Heath: I’ve also spent time in Italy working at private language schools there. At the moment though I’m based in the UK working online still teaching Italian students to learn English. Also over the summer I work for a university teaching students tutoring them in EAP English for academic purposes.
Abigail Fulbrook: I was going to ask, There’s many different kinds of English. Who are you teaching? What kind of people are your students?
David Heath: So in Italy my students are generally teenagers, adults and they usually have some particular reason for learning English. So they come into lessons with a particular purpose in mind. It’s often focused on an exam. In Italy there is a big emphasis on achieving a certain level in English as a second language which at university. It’s often required vocationally in various jobs and careers. So students from a fairly young age realize that they’re going to have to go down this English language learning route. So there’s often an exam focus for them as well. In the UK when I’m teaching it’s really to prepare students for the demands of academic English is something that everyone has to learn whether they are from an English-speaking country or not. we all have to learn how to read etc academic English. So my summer work is helping students just improve in that area.
Abigail Fulbrook: Yes, I can confirm, even though spending all my childhood in the UK and then going to university, it’s totally different to kind of writing that you need to be doing. So yeah definitely good thing to learn. So with your online teaching now you are focusing on more exam preparation again?
David Heath: Yeah, that’s something I’ve taught a lot of general English and English for specific purposes. I suppose the exam focus is something that I feel is perhaps one of my strengths. I find it very rewarding being able to take students closer to exam success. So yes, for my online teaching at the moment, that’s my chosen specialist area.
Abigail Fulbrook: Tell me, because it’s not one of my skills teaching exams. Are students looking when they come to you? What are they looking for? Are they looking for the exam grammar and vocabulary or it is exam techniques?
David Heath: It’s often what they come to the lessons with will be perhaps something less defined. It might be something such as, I need to do the IELTS exam or I need to do one of the Trinity exams or maybe the Cambridge First exam B2 level. Can you help me? Yes, I can. But of course that doesn’t give me enough information to start with. So then through a system of questioning, diagnosis finding out perhaps where there are areas for improvement because I know what’s required in the exam syllabus I sort of can see what path needs to be taken. This is where the student probably needs to be. So then let’s get from A to B and that will be based on what I perceive to be the students needs but also their desires as well. They may express an interest in, for example, expanding their vocabulary for the purposes of an exam. But I will also try and bring in to my teaching what I know about the way that we learn and acquire a second language. Because I think that’s very important to sort of stay up to speed with what the latest research is telling us about how we best learn a language so that as much as I can incorporate those ideas into my own teaching when I’m helping students in lessons.
Abigail Fulbrook: Yeah, that’s good. And I think some people, because exams are something that we have to do sometimes and we don’t really want to. You find that with your students too? They sort of have to do it. They’re not that keen on…
David Heath: Yes, I have to be honest. It is extremely rare for a student to come along and say I love doing exams. There is something about, the nature of the beast that can instil anxiety even fear, dread, some fairly strong emotions. So what I think is important is keeping in mind and helping the student remember at all times why they are doing it. Is it so that they can go to university a university of their first choice? Is it because they want to be able to work or study in a different country? So reminding the student of this larger reason I think can help them just get through those difficult times when perhaps the anxiety and those feelings of dread might start to creep in. So reminding the students of the bigger picture that you’re going to cross this hurdle and then it will take you on to something that you want for your life.
Abigail Fulbrook: Yeah, exactly. It’s so important, isn’t it, to remember it’s not just about this exam. Do you have any memorable stories from students that you’ve had or interesting things that have happened
David Heath: I can think of students that I’ve taught both in Italy and while doing my university work where I would say especially perhaps with writing, so academic writing, the writing that you have to be able to produce in an English language exam students often feel that this whole area is mysterious. I suppose because they’re used to writing in their first language and we know that that can be very different if they’re coming from an Italian background. They might be used to writing in a more free form manner. If they are coming from, for example, an Asian background, they might be used to letting the reader do a lot of the cognitive processing. we know in English, when we’re writing in English, there needs to be clear structure and what you say needs to be as explicitly clear as much as possible. So trying to take the mystery out of that and I can think of students who have been very grateful for just being told and shown how to do that because they say to me I don’t know how to write academic English. I don’t know how to write for an English language exam. And there are little strategies, little techniques that they can use in that situation in order to produce some good quality academic writing for an exam. And that’s I think what gives me most satisfaction as a teacher, being able to give something that’s really useful for a students . They’ve got doubts, they lack confidence in an area, but you’re able to give them a little technique, a little strategy, which when used can really improve and elevate the quality of their academic writing.
Abigail Fulbrook: Yeah, I’m having flashbacks now to when I was doing my masters and I had some Chinese colleagues actually, and I was maybe coaching them a bit and saying you need to write it down and make it really obvious about what your conclusion is. And they’re like, but that’s like, I’m not teaching my supervisors. I’m not teaching my teachers! No, no, no, no, no, no. You have to make it obvious that this information. You’re not teaching them, but you’re showing what you’ve learnt.
David Heath: Absolutely. And I think that’s something that students can often struggle with. And again, this can apply to students coming from an English-speaking country, just how explicit and clear and obvious they need to make their writing. Sometimes they can feel, as you suggested, that they might feel as though they’re talking down to someone because they’re laying things out so clearly.
David Heath: But that’s just the essence of academic writing in English. Of course, as we know, it can be different in other languages. And so, I also think it’s very important not to get into the business of, academic writing is better in this language than it is in another. I don’t think those comparisons can and should be made. It’s a question of difference. This is the tradition in this language. This is the tradition in this language. It’s just becoming familiar with that different tradition and if you want to study in an English language setting or if you want to take an English language exam we do have to embrace that English tradition of how to write an academic exam essay.
Abigail Fulbrook: Yeah, that’s it. I know. You have to show what, and that’s the way to get the good marks for it. Exactly.
David Heath: There are and there are little, I spoke about techniques earlier that there are things that you can do. You can help students improve their vocabulary by using what we call signposting language so that they know what words and phrases they can use to show very clearly to their reader what they are doing in a particular paragraph. Whether they’re introducing a new point or providing an example or providing some evidence which they then evaluate, there are all sorts of words and phrases they can use to make what they are doing crystal clear. And I remember students being really grateful for lessons in which they learned how to use that sort of language.
Abigail Fulbrook: Just a few phrases really makes a difference. Okay, David, I think I’ve got an idea, but tell me about why are you a teacher? Why do you keep on teaching?
David Heath: Because I really enjoy it. I suppose I feel as though it is my calling. People can talk about what do you feel you were born to do? It might sound dramatic to say that but for many years sort of throughout childhood and then as a teenager young adult and then as an older adult it is something that I felt I do enjoy that I’m good at that I can help students achieve success in. So I think because of those reasons, the fact that I’m doing something useful, the fact that I feel that it is appreciated by people that I teach. I find that that’s enough to keep me going in the profession.
Abigail Fulbrook: I can see your enthusiasm coming through for it.
David Heath: Thank you.
Abigail Fulbrook: Definitely. Okay, David, thank you very much. That was great.
David Heath: Thank you, Abbie.
You can contact David through the Elevate directory of English language teachers here
