Middlesmoor Courses - The School That’s A Large Family

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our English TEACHING

We have been running our summer English courses in Yorkshire for 23 years. We have 2 main goals: 

1. that the students return home with improved language, which will then show in their school performance and their motivation, and 

2. that they have the kind of happy (see comments) and stimulating experience that remains with them for years. This we dare hope, having heard from many of our ex-students, now grown up, with what affection they remember Middlesmoor.

For the most part we notice that students have a very limited vocabulary in English, and naturally the circumstances of school give little chance for speaking practice. So, each of the 4 levels into which we divide the children are given, as part of the basic material for the 3-week course, sets of vocabulary and useful phrases that contain grammatical structures to be employed in the daily life in Middlesmoor. This language material can also be found in the Middlesmoor Grammar Book, which is the result of many years of trial and error at Middlesmoor. The Middlesmoor Grammar Book is intended as reference material for the students. Often children suffer too much grammar teaching, and a grammar that is taught confusedly. We have made our book simple and linear and easy to self access. We have excluded every thing that is not central to daily use, yet keeping in mind the requirements of the school curriculum.

We also utilise The Teacher’s Kaleidoscope, our language teachers’ resource book, so as to present the teaching material in interesting and effective ways. 

  • An inportant aspect of the courses and which explians why each year between 30% and 40% retun, is that learning occurs best when people are happy and not bored. The atmosphere of living together in the same house, spending all day with the teacher / helpers and taking part in enjoyable activities together means that more is learnt. I am impressed with the way that childrenare loyal and if they see you working hard on their behalf, they will work too. Simple really, but more difficult to carry out within the setting of schools. 

 

TEACHING IDEAS 

  • GRAMMAR.    Because of the superficial way that the "communicative approach" has been used in text books,  the books are often boring and dispersive despite (or because of!?) all the phots and colours. 

  • It would be better to have a simple reference grammar with example sentences that are of real daily usefulness. The grammar should be organised with larger "islands' of grammar than usual so that the whole can easily be transposed into plays and talking activities. (see grammar   and grammar plays.  ) It is an odd paradox that refernce grammar simpley presented for self access is more creative; more stimulating to independent use of the language than all the ready made stuff offered in an all inclusive text book. 

  • LEARNING BY HEART. Modern teaching doesn't look with favour at "learning by heart' but such things as our grammar plays offer a bridge into autonomous speaking and besides remember to what extent babies are the beneficiaries of incredible memoisation in learning their own mother tongue.  teaching must not be so book dependent otherwise noone is able to step into a world of real langauge use.

  • SPEAKING: all teaching must give the student confidence to speak. They need to really be familiarised with the basic language structures and have a sufficient vocabulary.

  • VOCABULARY: It is extraordinary to me how few words our Middlesmoor visitors have at their disposal.  dictionaries and the open tasks that they suit should be mush more used.

  • TRADITIONAL EXERCISES  instead of being a useful memorising activity can become a ghetto from which the students are unable to escape in order to speak or write independently.

  • FUN AND GAMES.  What we need is not a "natural" method of learning but an intellegently artificial teaching  method that finds indirect ways to imitate the repetitions and narrow focus that helps babies to learn a language. The language activities will have to be fun so that the element of repetition is not boring and they must also be very focused so that the memory is busy with what is central.

 

 

 For adult courses and more on children's courses, return to Middlesmoor home page - more on my teaching ideas - problem of grammar - material for adolescents -

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