#CELTAchat May 6: Local Adaptations - What & How?

A Summary of #CELTAchat May 2019 By Adi Rajan

Many thanks to @bellinguist @fionaljp @adi_rajan@Cathyofnusleand @angelos_bollas for their contributions to May 2019 #CELTAchat
 We discussed ‘meaningful local adaptations: what and how’?  

Adaptations for future work contexts

·      @bellinguist included 3 hours of lessons to ESOL students along with 3 hours of lessons to ELT students in a 10-week part-time course to prepare trainees to become ESOL teachers in further education, addressing a need at the time in the UK.
·      @Cathyofnusle suggested including TP teaching materials that would be used wherever the candidates are likely to teach if this could be determined. @adi_rajan raised the issue of poor-quality teaching materials in the formal education sector and a lack of materials in the informal one in his South Asian context, posing problems with adapting TP teaching materials in this way.
·      @angelos_bollas said his courses in Athens had very diverse trainees but certain input sessions such as professional development, teaching YLs/teens were tailored to the demands of the local market.

Adaptions for local linguistic needs 

·      @fionaljp, @bellinguist and @angelos_bollas shared examples of having made changes in the way they taught the phonemic chart/pronunciation to Irish trainees to accommodate Irish speakers. @fionaljp adapted RP collaboratively with her trainees.
·      @angelos_bollas also changed phonology sessions to include “transcriptions that best illustrated Irish pronunciation and the importance of developing learners’ receptive pronunciation skills”.
·      @cathyofnusle said her trainees tend to have a mix of different accents including North American English and she covers variations in pronunciation.
·      @fionaljp shared a pronunciation site with resources on different types of English accents: The Voice Cafe.
·      @adi_rajan referred to an Indian academic (who did the CELTA recently) who gave feedback on the centre’s use of British English pronunciation models instead of General English ones. @adi_rajan highlighted the challenges of making adaptations here when Indian English pronunciation hasn’t been standardized and the fact that it might exclude non-Indian trainees and have an impact on the external assessment.

Adaptations to take into account varying levels of teaching experience 

·      @fionaljp minimised language analysis and increased planning and teaching techniques on a course for experienced teachers. @bellinguist has observed a similar trend in courses, suggesting that it would be better to focus on language needed in the lessons trainees were going to teach. @adi_rajan felt that experienced teachers in his context needed just as much language analysis as everyone else.
·      On the other hand, @angelos_bollas includes more language analysis sessions in English-speaking countries or on courses with many native speakers who haven’t had much explicit grammar instruction at school.

Adaptations to texts 

·      @fionaljp has adapted authentic texts used for reading input sessions by making them relevant to the location of the course. She highlighted this as a way of setting an example for the skills assignment. However, @cathyofnusle felt this could be counter-productive and cited an instance of trainees selecting a text about Prague which was interesting to them as visitors but had nothing new to offer to students.
·      @adi_rajan and @fionaljp recommended including more authentic, local voices in listening texts by way of L2 speakers.

·      @adi_rajan shared an example of a British tutor using texts with references to current events in the UK such as Brexit which Indian trainees weren’t familiar with. This could be both an argument for making texts contextual to trainees as well as finding opportunities to develop trainees’ awareness of the wider world.

Challenges with adaptations 

·      @Cathyofnusle and @angelos_bollas have worked with very diverse candidates and this raises the question of who to adapt for and how best to adapt in these situations.