Empowering Language Learners: Monique’s Journey

Monique, could you share with us what initially drew you to the field of language teaching and what continues to inspire you today?

Easy, a traumatic language experience in my own life, and the necessity factor brought me to my path of linguistic coaching and educational consultancy.  Firstly, I struggled with learning French in Canada at high School.  I was told I would never be able to learn another language because after failing my French 101 course miserably, I believed I would never be able to learn French grammar or vocabulary, ever.   It nearly destroyed my self-confidence forever.  Secondly, I decided to let it motivate me, obviously only after I failed French and swore never to try to learn another language again.  I then decided to move to a French-speaking country, Switzerland, and the major motivating factor, speaking out of necessity was born, these 2 events inspired to change my beliefs about myself as a good language learner, and I kept telling myself this narrative instead daily, monthly yearly and finally convinced myself of my narrative –  of course with a lot of hard work, discipline, practice and self motivation.  This is when I began teaching, 30 years ago, I said to myself never would any students of mine ever have to feel helpless facing grammar or inadequate because of vocabulary learning in my class, it moved me to want to motivate and inspire students to change their beliefs about themselves and their learning journey until now, and bring them to enjoy learning and not be debilitated by the fear of learning in general, but languages specifically.

 

What unique methods do you employ in your teaching to help learners achieve quick results?

The unique teaching methods I use are first, I make a detailed linguistic analysis including the student’s learning preferences and secondly, we work on a new approach or suggested behavioral changes to help with sustainable learning.  These 2 methods not only provide me with insights into the student’s unique needs and personal learning preferences but also point to the struggles of their limiting beliefs about their language learning.  For example, a student who is an executive in a pharmaceutical company, 30 years old with no previous experience in English needs quick speaking and writing confidence building to stay motivated.  In contrast to a banking executive who works in English, but has a strong Columbian accent, her needs are to work on intensive pronunciation practice to keep her motivated in her learning journey.  Furthermore, a young student wishing to pass IELTS band 7.5 requires rapid goal setting, detailed planning, high amounts of motivation, exam practice and unit completion to cover all material and practice testing before the examination date.  

 

How do you ensure that the results your students achieve are sustainable in the long term?

The analysis is long-term, because I work with each student to find behavioral changes and new methods to help them change their current approach and build more efficient and effective approaches to reach their desired goals. For example, I have them produce a speaking through video or write a small text, every week, and they need to be accountable to me or with a speaking partner, with weekly video or audio recordings.  This makes them responsible for themselves, it’s fun, and it’s great practice in the production of the target language.  These 2 methods, analysis and behavioural change, are complementary and highly effective in getting quick results and sustainable changes in learning languages and just about anything.  As many of my students commented after their courses ended, they describe the changes we have created together in their language success also affected their life outside of the class.  Not only do they adopt these habits in class, but they could apply the same principles into their work, and general life as well.  

 

Can you describe a typical lesson plan and how it caters to different learning styles?

Typically, my lessons are generally separated into 4 distinct stages warm-up, general to detailed comprehension, recall or quiz and free practice.

 I start with students telling a story about what was interesting the week before (verb tense past storytelling) using pictures, videos or music to start the conversation or ask them to tell me something about an interesting event …. (verb tense present storytelling) as a warm-up.  We talk about the objective of the lesson (goal: lessons as stated in the PPT presentation). Then I make it relevant to them by eliciting responses true to their lives, for example, whether it is English for every day, business, or academia. We do activities that go from general understanding to various stages of levels of detailed comprehension, in either writing, listening or speaking skills.  For example, when doing vocabulary or grammar, we may work on different forms, uses, idioms, phrases, contextual words, or uncommon words in the English language.  If it’s pronunciation we do drills, to work on different techniques of sounds, phonetics, and differences between their first language and the target language.  Then I let them practice and finally, I do a little quiz or a small recall test about what they have learnt previously, to jog their memory.  This may be by filling in the blanks, selecting the correct verb form, or producing a dialogue between two people.  We finally finish with free practice, where they try and use what they have learnt most often in speaking form.  

In one lesson, I typically move through 2 of 4 of the four main skills:  for example, I do either vocabulary building + speaking; reading + writing; or grammar + functional language skills.  This varies according to the individual needs and objectives and what we focus on in each lesson, but the student must produce 75% – 85% of the lesson in spoken responses, pronunciation is a major focus of all the lessons.  

How I cater to different learning styles, I don’t cater to styles but rather I am aware of student preferences of learning.  For example, some like videos, poetry, reading and others grammar and understanding rules, this is often where I vary the different degrees and levels of students in class.  They may explore the levels beginners stay general to academic advance who explore 10 X the detailed comprehension or word lists.  This is often where we see the chatty students vs the timid students, and I draw on what they know to solicit different levels of speaking and understanding.  Depending on how low or high the students are, like yoga class I always encourage students to feel comfortable with what they know now.  I often ask them to think of what they may have learned in the exploration of new means and connections in the language.

 

What role does technology play in your teaching methods?

Hands down my classes are highly IT-based, namely ZOOM, ZOOM annotation with stylus, Google Drive, PowerPoint, Word documents, Pearson online Student books, Pearson My English Lab workbook and grade book, YouGlish, CHAT GPT, VEED.io for videos and Audio production for pronunciation practice, DEEPL, google translate, YouTube to list just some of the IT tools available that I use.

AI generators:

Eigo.AI 

Twee.com

Padlet.com

Anke.com

Wordwall.com

Zengengo.com

Bloggers that are fantastic for resources:

MMMEnglish – Emma : https://youtu.be/ybUZJco3pnY?si=J65RKvVO-X40Pt7B

Emma prononciation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPjq4ahkIj4&ab_channel=PronunciationwithEmma

English with Lucy:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3KeD06ti6c&ab_channel=EnglishwithLucy

Bob the Canadian: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQUW4T0w2zY&ab_channel=LearnEnglishwithBobtheCanadian

Excellent English language Vloggers for students listening, grammar, pronunciation, and practice

Teachers training:

Jo Gakonga:  https://www.elt-training.com/

Russell Stannard: https://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/ 

 

How do you tailor your teaching strategies to accommodate varying proficiency levels within the same class?

To keep the different levels engaged, interested, and motivated their needs to be a creative social component.  I make sure they have plenty of opportunities to work in groups with friendly time-based competitions so everyone can work together, and have a chance to show their skills, at their appropriate levels.  For example, Word searches, puzzles, is the sentence true or false, etc.  Also, it has been shown that working in small groups helps keep students motivated and engaged.  For example, role-playing for speaking practice is great for showing students’ ability to be creative and stimulates written and verbal skills.  Finally, I always focus on making engaging videos to practice speaking, or for pronunciation or role playing.  For example, I make short 3min videos where students practice following along with me as I show how speech should sound, which is subtitled in English.  It’s an example of learning through mimicking.  I make sure to slow the speed down or change the angle of the camera to show how to get sounds correctly.  Then I have the student follow along and repeat the video as many times as needed, great practice and a super confidence booster.  

 

What is the most common challenge that language learners face, and how do you address it?

The most common challenge my students face is the confidence to speak.  99% of my students express they lack the confidence to speak with native speakers or in public speaking situations (STATE problem).  As 75% of my clients are senior management professionals, they need to be functional fast (MANAGABLE objective).  This means the tools to create real speaking situations and with immediate feedback and explanations, on their pronunciation, vocabulary used, and grammar forms are critical (ACHIEVABLE).  To deal with confidence building, I get them to practice their expected task in front of me and I only comment once they have completed, and they express how satisfied or dissatisfied they are.  From there I work with them on a scale of 1 – 5 on what they wish to work on first, then what they need to be completed by what deadline and we work forward from there (REALISTIC).  It often requires written timeline objectives, daily practice, weekly videos of their practice, timed practice and checking realistically what they can manage in the time frame (TIME based) SMART goals are a fundamental aspect in my teaching.  One of my favorite quotes is: “I believe the bottom line in “great teaching” isn’t how far we advance ourselves but how far we advance others. That is achieved by serving others and adding value to their lives.” John Maxwell: 21 irrefutable laws of leadership.

 

Could you share a memorable success story from your teaching career?

Where to begin, I have a 50 success / 50 attempted (100%) track record for successful exam preparations from A2 – BEC Vantage exam successes.  Some took longer than others, but all were successful.  I think the most memorable achievement was a student who thought he wanted to do B1 level general English but decided mid-course he wanted to do the BEC Vantage B2 level while studying at the University of Vienna, political science.  We had programmed it would take 65 Lessons (hours of course work) + 65 hours of self-study homework + 65 hours of self-study speaking practice + 65 hours of self-study exposure to the target language.  This is my general prediction based on the effort needed to achieve level testing.  In exactly 62 lessons the student achieved his BEC Vantage B2 and was 2 points away from achieving the C1 level certification … A fantastic achievement!!! 

Another great quote by a great author: “Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice, and discipline.” Jim Collins; Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t.

 

How do you measure the effectiveness of your teaching methods?

Excellent questions, showing students results is essential for motivation and inspiration, the right method for the right situation.  As the focus of my students’ work is often based on production, speaking (pronunciation, role plays, functional language skills) and writing I have them test themselves weekly with small quizzes that grade their progress after each unit.  This quizzing step is a non-negotiable part of the requirement if they want to work with me, where they can use a formal grading program (online testing based) or in video production, presentations at work PPT, or written emails corrected together in class.  

Many of my students, for example, shared their feedback on my methods at the end of each 20-lesson cycle, I take on board any suggestions or improvements they would like to see.  I keep the flow open to improving my methods, testing, and courses every cycle.  For example, they are encouraged to give me feedback on a “real life” situation they had every week, this shows them immediately how they improved, or are feeling better in some aspects of their language journey, this small movement is often enough to start the ball rolling, and it shows me how much more confident they become from week to week.  If they don’t have opportunities, we find ways to create them by Video mimicking or joining an English-speaking group online or face-to-face (as is often necessary in their professional lives) I always encourage my students to expect they will succeed if they trust the process.  Let me share another great quote whose words are inspiring and powerful: “Enjoy making decisions. You must know that at any moment a decision you make can change the course of your life forever . . . If you really want your life to be passionate, you need to live with this attitude of expectancy.” Tony Robbins; Awaken the giant within. 

 

What advice would you give to other language teachers striving to improve their teaching effectiveness?

That’s a big question!  How do we strive to improve as individuals (stealing from home) and improve effectiveness for our students (bringing it to work)?  That is also somewhat philosophical and perhaps only answered in bits and snippets from the Buddha himself =).  If I had to sum it up in a nutshell, if we as teachers can learn to bring into a learning situation humility and understanding (for their struggles), then use our superpowers to find tools to help students understand their strengths and their weaknesses, matched with a peppering of deduction to find their learning preference and just enough motivational tasks to keep them moving forward, one step at a time.  I always remind them:  that it is ESSENTIAL to FAIL and LEARN what to do better the next time. Michael Jordan said it best “To learn to succeed, you must first learn to fail.”

It sounds like leadership skills + meditation wisdom + experience + humility wrapped up in a profession =) Most importantly, I guess as a teacher my takeaway is “Do not be embarrassed by your failures, learn from them and start again.” —Richard Branson