Adults

Crumbs #46. Case studies aka My new favourite thing

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Preface

It’s been almost ten months since I took on more adult classes. I still teach my kids but the balance of adult EFL to YL EFL has definitely been tilted towards the adult classes. While I take a lot of pleasure in teaching 18+, I am hoping that this is only a temporary fixture because I miss my classroom and my carpet. At the same time, YL or not YL, I still get ideas and I want to share them. So, here we are – the first post in the Category: Adults.

Case studies in the EFL. A bite of theory

‘Case studies, a form of task based learning (TBL), allow teachers to implement the communicative approach: the central focus is on completing a task, and students use language as a tool to communicate their ideas instead of doing language exercises to practise a grammar point or lexical item’. This definition comes from Christine Roell’s 2019 article (see references) and it is a piece I’d recommend to anyone who is looking for some theoretical input and ideas on creating and using case studies in the EFL.

There are many arguments for including case studies but for me, personally, the priority has to be given to the fact that they create an opportunity for the development of a variety of skills, the language itself but also critical thinking, organising information and team work (Daly, 2002). Among the disadvantages that Roell mentions, the most important one would probably be the time and the effort that needs to be invested in finding, researching and preparing a case study for the class use.

According to Roell, a case study lesson follows the following six stages: introduction of the situation (relevant information, background, the necessary vocabulary), analysis of the additional information, discussion in small teams, presentation of ideas, teacher-led feedback session and reflection, both on the case study itself and the procedures in the lesson. In the article you can also find some valuable notes regarding the creation and implementation of a case study in the lesson.

Case studies in my classes aka the notes from a beginner case study creator’s diary

  • An indispensable connection to reality as all the case studies that I write and use have been taken from the real life, either from the news or from my personal experience. On the one hand that means that the case study is realistic, based on the facts and numbers. On the other hand, that automatically introduces ‘the answer’, which is not only a reward for the students but also allows for another layer of the feedback session: not only the students’ ideas, reflections and solutions but also the opportunity to analyse their ideas against the real life developments. These ‘real’ case studies were definitely a lot more popular among my students than the made-up case studies from the few coursebooks that I have used recently.
  • A more obvious focus on the target language use which I try to create, in order to give the students a chance to practise specific structures or vocabulary. Naturally, he students have a lot of freedom, however, the case studies are introduced in the freer practice part of the lesson and they come with the Structures To Use section.
  • The bare minimum as regards the data to analyse. This, partially at least, has been due to the implications of the lesson format (online, limited lesson time, corporate clients who very rarely have time to do the homework etc). I have been choosing only the case studies that do not require any extensive reading and that can still be effective and generative even with a small number of facts and figures.
  • The element of surprise as the actual details, ie names and brands are kept secret until the very end of the activity, in order to make sure that the students focus on the situation and the processes, rather than on specific names. It is also to ensure that they are motivated to discuss and debate, rather than just look up the events online.
  • The adaptability as an added bonus. So far, as demonstrated below, it has been possible to smuggle particular case studies into different lessons, by changing the angle and the target language to use. This means that the time invested in researching and designing the case study really pays off for the teacher.
  • A wider audience. It has been suggested by Daly (2002) that the most important target customer for the EFL case studies are the advanced Business English students but this has not been my experience. If adapted and staged properly, they can be used with the low B1 students and I have used them successfully with the Business English students, with the general English students with the corporate background and in general English ‘regular’ classes, too. The reason for that is that the students had a lot of background knowledge and could relate to the situation not only as the CEO of a company but also as the film audience members or the pizza restaurant customers.

5 case studies from my classes

Most of the ideas below come from my adult EFL classes in the last two months.

Case study: Kanye West and Addidas

Source: the news and especially the two posts, here and here.

Lessons: We have used it in lessons to discuss risk and risk management, brand image and reputation and general values. The main grammar structure here was the first conditional as the students discussed from the point at which no decision has been made yet.

Case study: Domino’s Pizza

Source: Domino’s Pizza Turnaround available on youtube created with the owners and Domino’s employees and the analysis of a great, albeit risky, marketing campaign in 2009.

Lessons: We have used it in lessons to discuss marketing and advertising (EAP) as well as in the BE and general English students in lessons on: risk, brand image and reputation. As regards grammar, our main focus were modal verbs for deduction, giving advice, conditionals.

Case study: Starbucks and racism

Source: the news such as the Guardian and here

Lessons: This was the main case study we used in the lessons on brand image and reputation and, as regards the language, our main focus was the language of advice.

Case study: The Shawshank Redemption

Source: the wikipedia and the related articles such as this one

Lessons: This is a really fascinating case because, after over thirty years after its release, it is still one of the popular films ever despite the fact that, initially, it was considered to be a flop. We used it in the lesson devoted to risk management and the focus was the first conditional (‘Imagine you are the CEO of the studio. What will you do?’) and the second conditional, with the contemporary twist (‘What would they do today, in 2022?’).

Case study: Famous people

Source: The news, unsourced, google images for the photographs of some famous representatives for the following professions: a chef, a sports coach, a ballerina, a politician, a writer, a CEO. The only trick here is to choose the names that the students in your country are less likely to be familiar with and the photographs that show them in their private life. The real names and professions of all the people involved are kept secret until the very end of the activity.

Lessons: This is one of my favourite activities that I have managed to adapt to the needs of my older YL students. It got inspired by an activity that I saw in one of the Rewards Resource Pack, only the original activity did not include the element of reality. For that reason, I have decided to use my own ‘characters’. With the teens and juniors, the main language focus is the modal verbs for deduction and the vocabulary necessary to describe the character and the personality. With the adults, we extend it towards a discussion on stereotypes and the ways of overcoming them. Here is an example of the set that I have used with my adult students in Poland.

References

Peter Daly, Methodology for using case studies in the Business English classroom, The Internet TESL Journal, III / 11, 2002, available online

Lynne Hand, Using case studies in the ESL classroom, LeoNetwork, available online.

Christine Roell, Using a case study in the EFL Classroom, English Teaching Forum, 2019, available online

Happy teaching!

What an old dog learnt… A YL teacher goes back into the adult classroom

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Me and one of my best friends, Roman B. No old dogs in this photo. Only the amazing ones (The photo: courtesy of Yulia. The doggo: courtesy of Jill)

Back to the future

It just happened: a dedicated YL teacher (and a teacher who spent the last ten years doing her best to stay away from teaching adults (minus the trainees!) all of a sudden found herself in the classroom with some serious corportate clinets and their Business English, General English, English for Finance and Banking, A2 – C1. Full time.

It has to be said out loud: that was not a direction that this teacher dreamed of or the developement that the teacher planned or solicited but, at the same time, there is absolutely no need to wring hands or shed tears over such a giggle of the Fate. After all, the teacher is an experienced one, with an oh-dear number of years in the classroom (and different types of classrooms, everywhere) so the teacher will be just fine. After all, teaching is teachings, the students are great, the fun is being had. All the details are here just to set the context.

The old dog aka the adult classroom through a YL teacher

This particular started with a most random thing. I don’t even remember what we were doing and with whom, but, suddenly, I caught myself thinking ‘Blin, even my kids can do THAT‘. There was no anger in it or desperation, only curiosity and bemusement. I started to analyse the details and bits and pieces of this THAT and the reasons for that. It started with a sigh but it got interesting very quickly.

Here is a new post and an attempt at looking at the adult EFL learners through the eyes spoilt by her young students.

One. Inhibitions

This is something that is almost non-existant in the YL classroom. Minus all these cases in which the kid have had a negative first experience with English, at school, with the tutors or parents or when they are naturally introvert and shy and they simply need more time to settle in the group and to feel comfortable enough to talk. Most commonly, the kids enter the room, eyes wide-open, ready to discover and to enjoy the world of the English language.

Then, there are adults, a completely different picture. Naturally, there are quite a few factors that can contribute such as a lower level, a long break in learning or using the language, some negative previous learning experience or studying in one group with colleagues from the same company or being a low-level speaker of English when you are already a top manager.

The result? Silence in the classroom.

I guess that is the silence that is the time they need to think about their answer, to choose the words, to gather the courage to let them out and, naturally, they get it. They do have the right to the freedom of silence. For me, the teacher, it is also an interesting exercise in patience. I realised that I have been spoilt with hands shooting up into the air and the opinions voiced almost instantly. Here, I am getting used to breathing more and waiting for the students to be ready.

I am beginning to think that building up the students’ confidence suddenly gets the priority among the lesson and the course aims as regards the adult learners of English. Everything else, the vocabulary, the structures and the skills development will follow. Hopefully.

Two. Teacher-oriented communication

On the one hand, the YL classes are definitely more teacher-centred than the adult classes. That is, to some extent, fully justified. Students, especially the younger ones, are in need of the teacher and the adult as the lesson leader. But only to some extent. I strongly believe that this should be one of the main aims of the course to create the conditions in which the students will be learning to interact with the teacher BUT also giving them a chance to learn to interact with each other. After all, whatever happens in the classroom is only a warm-up, only the preparation, only the training before the real life interaction. In which, most likely, the teacher is not going to take part. For that reason, the students should be given the tools and opportunities to talk to each other, to lead the activities, to take part in pair-work. There is no need to wait with it until they turn ten or fifteen. Some elements of that can be introduced even much earlier and pair-work is feasible in pre-school.

Somehow, it is not a given with the older students. Adults, either because they are more inhibited or because they see it as a sign of respect towards the teacher, they hold back, they wait, for the teacher to call their name out or for the teacher to at least signal that it is their turn to speak. I have realised that sometimes I have to specifically highlight that I am stepping out of the conversation, that the students, in pairs or as a whole group, have to take responsiblity for the interaction and that I will not be encouraging, keeping it up and, of course, leading it. We have been studying together for about three months now and I can already see some improvement in that area. Hooray to that!

Three. Communication strategies

Communication strategies is one of my true professional passions and that is why it was chosen for my first research within the MA programme. Inspired by Haenni Hoti, Heinzman and Mueller (2003) (or, rather ‘taken aback by the comments of’) that claimed that young learners use a very limited range of communication strategies, basically limiting those to translation and code-switching (aka using a combination of L1 and L2), based on the gut feeling from the classroom, I decided to check it out. And, to prove them wrong. Hopefully.

Although my research was a very small scale and low-key and by a beginner researcher, I found out enough evidence to get me even more interested in the topic. My little students proved to be already effective communicators who work hard and who have a good range of different techniques to get the message across such as all-purpose words, approximation, direct appeal for help, indirect appeal for help, self-repair, other-repair and mime. The range was much wider. Translation and code-switching were used, too, and they were the most frequent ones, however, they were not the only ones.

Then, there are the adults and guess what, these adults, ‘Come as you are’, before I get to work on them, they know only one communication strategy and that is ‘translation’. falling back into their L1, straightaway, whenever something is unclear, unknown and uncertain. I am not even sure why it is assumed that the learners (let alone the young ones) will use these strategies of their accord. I haven’t researched that properly, yet, but perhaps it has got nothing to do with the age of the student or, rather, not only with the age of the student, and more with the learning experience and the opportunities to be acquainted with and to develop these strategies.

The adult students (my adult students) struggled in that area and if they didn’t know, they would immediately switch to L1 and they would expect an answer. Working around that by delaying the translation, encouraging them to try something else or, also, providing both, the L2 only and the translation was quite a challenge and I know that some of them were surprised that I don’t just provide the required service aka translation, that I am trying something else. They had it written all over the face. I can’t say my job is done here, far from it but we are working on it. And it is a bit better now.

Four. Sharing ideas

Teacher beliefs are a slippery topic and most of the time we don’t even think about them. It was only last year (and somewhere by the end of it) when I realised why I am a teacher and what I want from my lessons.

Everything happened thanks to one Sasha who joined our group and who, despite the eight months spent with the rest of the team, in a very welcoming and friendly environment, despite the fact that she got on with everyone, Sasha still would keep quiet in class unless I asked her a question and unless I called out her name. I had never even thought about it and only then did I understand that I want to create such an atmosphere in the lesson in which my students feel free to talk because they have something to share with the rest of the group, not because they have to, not because the teacher made them, not because the teacher asked the question or because the teacher is testing them. They talk because they have something to say. And I want them to feel that they can. This is something that we have been working on from the very beginning.

It was one more thing that was ‘not so obvious’ for my adult students. They stalled. They do, still, sometimes. Again, it might be due to a whole range of factors, the natural shyness, the lack of confidence, the level of English, the relations in the workplace, if they come from the same company, or even the natural politeness. It is not a given that everyone will be speaking during the lesson time because speaking and developing the communicative skills is the reason why we come to class.

Five. All ideas are good ideas.

That is a sad fact: adulthood and reality kills creativity and imagination. Long gone are the days of fairy tales and fantasy travels with Frodo or magical battles with Harry. Well, in most cases. For that reason, if the question is about playing football and the student does not play football, the rest, dramatically, is silence…With kids silence never ever happens, and that is especially amazing, because, more often than not, we do things that have nothing or very little to do with the real life. All these menus for the monster cafe, all these school trips around the world, or to the moon or, our life as pirates…Silence is a rare event. Thank heavens.

This post is not to be read as a huge, one thousand word, complaint about my adult students. It is certainly not. I am doing a good job, I like them and we are making progress. I am just positively amazed that with my young learners, we have done SO MUCH (and to be honest, so much we have done by accident, unwillingly, joyfully, just for laughs) to enable the kids and to ensure that they are effective communicators.

I would like to think that my kids are not in danger of being scared to scared, inhibited, with a strong affective factor. This ship has sailed.

This line, so frequently used in my kids classes, started to appear in my adult classes.

See this is basically what happens when you send a YL teacher into the adult classroom. There is a lot of dedication, professionalism and lots of good lessons are happening. But the teacher has a one track mind and everything is somehow YL-related:-)

Bibliography

A. Haenni Hoti, S. Heinzmann and S. Mueller (2003), I can help you? Assessing speaking skills and interaction strategies of young learners, In: M. Nikolov (ed), The Age Factor and and Early Language Learning, De Grutyer.

Happy teaching!