Learning English the CALM way, an interview with Lisa Wood who is a member of the Elevate directory.
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I'm here with Lisa Wood today and she's going to talk to us about being an English teacher. Lisa, are you in Spain?
Yes, I am. Yeah, I've been in Spain for a long time now. I actually teach, part of my working life is teaching in a secondary school in Spain and then the rest of the time I work online with adults. So, quite different.
You've got a good mixture. Okay, so tell me about your adult students. Who, what kind of people are they? What do they do?
I work with, most of the people I work with are professionals who are at intermediate at level, or sometimes above, but they feel stuck. And although they often believe this is because they don't have enough language, they soon realize after working with me that it's probably not the language and there are other things there which are holding them back. So I work a lot on mindset with my clients and my students. I kind of put a name to the approach that I have quite recently because everything just seemed to sort of fall into place after so many years of sort of testing things, trying things out with students and myself as a language learner.
I've come to realise that I think that there are four pieces to the fluency puzzle and we only tend to work on one in classes, in the education system, which is the language, you know, the vocabulary, the grammar, pronunciation, but I believe that there are four, and obviously the language is one, but I always start with mindset, because I think no matter how much language you have, if you're not in the right place, you don't have the right mindset, and you have things which are holding you back, like confidence experience issues, negative past experiences, maybe from school, then all that language that's in your head, you're not going to be able to access so easily and get it out into the world.
That's so true, yeah.
I always start with mindset and trying to help the people that work with me identify identify any things which are holding them back before we go on to work with the language. But I also think it's really important to have a strategy, which gives you direction and focus, because if not, you know, you can end up doing a bit here, a bit there. And sometimes that's why people feel stuck, because they feel like they're going around in circles. We're all busy and especially professional people that I work with, they have a full -time job with lots of responsibilities, but they need English and they know it's important, but how do they fit it into their lives? So I try to help them fit English into their lives in a way which is enjoyable, So it doesn't feel like another thing on their to -do list, you know. There's already enough of those things. And, you know, to create an action plan. So, you know, what's priority? What will help them move forward? What do they need in their situation? So that's three, I think, yes.
And the last one is community, because I think the mindset, working on your mindset and overcoming those obstacles, learning new language in a natural way, creating an action plan and keeping accountable, so sticking to it. I think that these three things are made much easier if you do them with other people. So that's where the community element comes in. And mean, I do work one -to -one with people. Of course, I do one -to -one coaching packages, but with all of those coaching packages, they get free access to my membership, my community, because obviously that's the piece which is missing when they're only working with me. So yeah, so that's the, I call it the calm way.
So it's C for community, A for action plan, L for language, and M for mindset, even though I've told you them in a different way. We have to start with mindset because I do think that is the key piece which helps everything else, you know, fall into place.
Definitely, yeah, definitely. For me, I'm quite into the community aspect myself. And I often say to learners, you know, do you have friends to speak with in English? And they're like, no, not really. But if you're only speaking to your clients, then yeah, English is going to be kind of a scary thing. You need friendships as well to work with your English.
Absolutely. I think both of those things, which you've just said, are so important and key to learning a language. I think one is having that safe space where you can just use your English without fear of being judged. Because, you know, when you're using it in your professional capacity, you know, you may be worried what your boss might think about your English. Does he think it's not good enough? You know, or what do my colleagues think? And comparing yourself to other people. Whereas if you have a safe space, a friendly space where you can just, you know, go and enjoy using your English, it helps you to build confidence so that then, you know, you can use it much, with much more ease in your job or whatever situation you're using your English in. And the other thing as well is, you know, why are we learning a language? Like you said, one of the main reasons is to make connections and build relationships, you know, whether that's relationships at work or just making friends, you know. And even when we're at work, part of, you know, part of being at work is the social side. So it's not just the professional side and doing our job in English. There's also, you know, standing at the coffee machine and having small talk or maybe socialising outside of work. And, you know, English is a really powerful tool. But, you know, we're so reluctant to use it sometimes because of that fear of being judged. So I think, yeah, you're so right in those two aspects.
Yeah, yeah, definitely. I think you've got, yeah, those four things are really key, aren't they?
I'm a language learner myself. I started learning French when I was at school. I learned German, very traditional way, you know, textbooks. I learnt the grammar, I learnt the vocabulary. and then I went to study French at university because I loved learning languages and I decided I wanted to be a French teacher but I just wasn't confident enough even after so many years you know ten years or more I've been learning French but because I've been learning I've been learning a tradition the traditional way just with you know focusing on the language I I didn't understand why I couldn't use it freely in a conversation after so many years. I thought there was something wrong with me. And really, the thing that was holding me back was confidence. I'm quite a shy person, or I used to be much shyer than I am now, actually. You know, it's been a work in progress because I've been able to sort of, you since realizing what my problem was and then getting interested in coaching and the neuro -language coaching side, you know, looking at how our brain works and how we can help ourselves. I've been able to, I suppose, coach myself and, you know, I'm not perfect. It doesn't mean that every day I feel super confident, you know, speaking Spanish when I have to speak Spanish now because I live in Spain. But I'm much better at identifying why and then working, you know, working on that and overcoming those obstacles and telling myself, you know, right. You know, you don't be silly. You have to, you know, you can do this. But it's not easy. It's not easy. And it's especially not easy because we focus on the language only and we don't take the whole thing into consideration.
I was going to ask you about the neuro -language coaching. What does that mean as being a coach? What does a neuro -language coach do?
There are three principles really. So is the the neuro side is related to neuroscience, and the brain. So, looking at how our brain actually learns and, you know, how we can learn more effectively and efficiently, you know, using the power of our brain because, you know, we've got this amazing thing inside our head that is so, so powerful, but we don't understand our own brain. so we can't we can't maximize its potential and you know even if we if we only know a few key things about how our brain learns and likes to learn we can actually you know put that into practice and really help ourselves learn faster and better.
So that's the neuro side and then the language side is obviously you know the traditional language learning so you know dealing with the vocabulary, the grammar, the pronunciation, but in a brain -friendly way. So, you know, breaking language down, so it doesn't seem overwhelming, you know, not studying rules and expecting that we apply those rules then into a conversation and suddenly we can speak, you know, have a conversation. So, yeah, so the language, obviously, I mean, you know, that's what we're doing, we're trying to help people improve their language skills. And the coaching side is, compared to traditional teaching, now, I mean, it's a continuum, you know, I think there's traditional teaching, and there's pure coaching on the other side. And then, you know, in the middle, there's all kinds of things. And I realised before I trained as a neural language coach that I was kind of doing a mix of teaching and coaching.
I suppose that's what attracted me to do the training because I was trying, one of the things I really believe in is that learners need to take responsibility for their own learning. As teachers we can't do that for them. We need to help them to become autonomous and sometimes you know where, I mean As teachers, we kind of expect things of our students sometimes without giving them the tools that they need to do that. So we might say, you know, right, OK, go away and study vocabulary. You've got a test tomorrow. But maybe our students don't actually know how to study vocabulary. What's the best way to study it? You know, what should they be doing? And we kind of leave them to their own devices and, you know, expect that they'll be able to do it. So, you know, coaching is about helping people reach their full potential by giving them the tools they need to learn how they learn best.
Because everybody's brain is unique, you know, at the end of the day, we don't all learn the same. So, you know, helping them to see different ways of learning and studying, different strategies that they can use, and then allowing them to choose what works for them. So it's very much student -centered, student -directed, with, you know, there's that famous phrase that I really like, which is that, you know, it's rather than the sage on the stage who is the teacher who knows everything and passes on that knowledge to their students, you're the guide on the side. So you're the person who is listening as a coach, listening to your students, their needs, what they want, what they're interested in, and them to form their own strategy and basically helping them, you know, on their own language learning journey because everybody's will be different. So that's a bit of a long -winded explanation.
It's really interesting to know that. Okay, so speaking about students, have you, Can you think of any students that you have had that kind of breakthrough with you or you've seen go on the journey? Any examples?
Yeah, I mean I've recently worked with a client who has a really good level of English, thought that she needed more advanced vocabulary to use more advanced grammar structures because she has a really good job and she needs English, she uses English in her job to speak to people all around the world. And she felt that her language, she felt that she didn't feel confident because her language wasn't advanced enough. But what she really, when we started working together, what she discovered was that one thing that somebody said to her more than 20 years ago when she went to the UK to study, had stayed with her for all those years and not allowed her to move forward with her English because somebody had suggested that her English wasn't very good, you know, and had the nerve to tell her that to her face. And she kept that with her. And rather than being able to at the time, say, what, you know, that's just one person's perception. And, you know, and I shouldn't listen to that. And I shouldn't let it affect me. And it stayed with her.
No, you know, that you can understand, I've it's happened to me when people have said things about my Spanish or, you know, you're like, and it really affects your confidence. But that had stopped this woman from really progressing with her English and she said, if only I'd been able to realize all of this 20 years ago, where would I be now ?î But the good thing is that she has realized and she now knows it's not her. It's not about her. It was about somebody else, you know, giving their opinion. And, you know, it wasn't about her English, which is amazing, her English, you know. So, so yeah. And it's like, when you unlock what's really holding you back, That's when, you know, the language just sort of almost gushes out. It's like you're kind of opening the gates. You've kept them locked and then you're opening the gates and you're freeing all that language which is there. But you just can't access because there's other things which are stopping it from coming out.
Right, yeah. I see, because sometimes I refer to English as a tool and, you know, if it's a tool, there's no emotion behind it. So that's not really true, is it? Because there's a lot of emotion behind using a language.
Yeah, I mean, there is a lot of emotion behind using a language, but I do think you're right. English is a tool. It's not something to study and then put away. We're learning a language to do something with it. It's allowing us to get things done, whatever that is, whether that's getting a new job or communicating with people all around the world in English to to create something in your job, or part of a new family, even. You know, if you join a family which is an English -speaking family, for example, there are all kinds of reasons. But it is a tool to get things done because it allows you to do that. But I think one of those things that it allows you to get done is to connect with people and to build relationships. And it's a tool for doing that. And obviously, yeah, is a lot of emotion involved with it as well. I think if we just, if we can start to see language learning as a holistic experience, then, you know, things will, things will improve because, you know, we're humans, we're sentient beings, you know, we have feelings, we have emotions, we can't, we can't separate those from anything that we do. No, and not from language learning. So, you know, we should work with it and help our students, our clients to manage that in a way that helps them to progress with their language skills.
Okay, one last question. So I think I've understood from this interview, but why do you keep coming back to being a teacher? Why are you still an English teacher?
Because it's me. It's part of who I am. It's part of my identity. I enjoy it. You know, it's obviously there are things we enjoy more and things we enjoy less. You I mean, for example, yesterday, you know, I had to correct exams for, you know, all afternoon, I don't enjoy that. But, you know, it comes with the job when I'm working in school and, you know, it's part of it. But the whole thing about working online with adults and, you know, your English self, this thing that I've kind of, you know, created out of all these years of trying and testing and seeing what works and seeing what doesn't work and suffering as a language learner. I kind of, I suppose, don't want people to suffer the way I've suffered and I tend to attract, for some reason, people who are very similar to me in a lot of respects, you know, they suffer with confidence, they may be shy, a little bit introverted, and I really enjoy helping them see that there's another way. It doesn't have to be the way that people have told them, you know, most of us at school are told that, you know, this is the way to do it in a very traditional approach with a textbook and, you know, not that I say never use a textbook, you know, I use a textbook but, you know, there so many other ways as well. A textbook is only one resource that you can that you can use as part of your as part of your language learning practice.
So yeah I just I like to I suppose open people's eyes to another way of doing things and I don't think that's not my way of doing things because I think my approach is about them finding their way. So you know it's it is about that it's about you know, finding there is no one size fits all. You know, that's a lie. You know, you have to get those clothes and it says one size fits all. It doesn't look good on me. Even hats, you know, some of us have got much bigger heads or a lot more hair. Yeah. So yeah, there is no one size fits all. That's a lie. So yeah, I really enjoy helping people find a way that works for them and helping them get, you know, language out of their heads and into the world and, you know, do what they want to do with it because it It really, I often talk about it being a superpower and a language, any language is one of your superpowers if you can use it comfortably and feel confident doing that and that's what I really enjoy helping people do, make it their superpower.
I can see, I can see that on your face. Thank you very much Lisa, it was great speaking to you.
If you're interested in Learning English the CALM way connect with Lisa at the Elevate directory here
