I just finished my research here in KL at EMS Languages. As I take time next week to reflect on my fourth and second-to-last research location, I will write about the patterns and singularities I noticed at James Cook Languages in Prague.
Next week I will need to start outlining my paper for this trip and project–my oh my, how to encapsulate the experience in mere words!
I copy the ever-important blurb from my first research summary post:
As a reminder, I am studying different approaches to English as a Second Language (ESL) teaching with a focus on accent training.The different schools I will observe differ with regard to two main features: first language backgroud (i.e. Spanish in Peru) and program centralization (how many locations the school has vs. how standardized or regimented their curriculum is).
“Accent Training” is a loaded term. I will not study accent correction or accent coaching, which is when a student seeks to “improve” or “neutralize” their so-called foreign accent in, for example, thier English. Everyone has an accent: you, me, our President, the neighbor down the street. My accent, the Californian accent, happens at this moment to be a prestige accent in the world; therefore, many ESL learners want to speak with my accent. But what about in 50 years? What will the prestige accent be then? My point: while everyone has an equal accent, society constructs a valuation system that categorizes accents within a heirarchy.
Instead, what I will study is a metric called accent differentiation, or the frequency and amount of different accents students hear, For example, students who hear many different accents very often have a higher degree of understanding for an additional language than students who hear one accent (their teacher’s) and no other accents with any frequency. I inquire in my world study whether ESL teachers are listening to this key bit of language acquisition research.
Main Points from Prague:
– Though the school trains teachers centrally, there is no set coursebook that instructors must use. Instead, there is a list of acceptable coursebooks to choose from, and the teachers are also able to create their own materials or bring in authentic sources (e.g. YouTube videos, audiobooks) as they wish. James Cook is the most centralized language school I will study, with four locations in central Europe; thus, I expected a tighter control over the curriculum.
– The school offers a wide variety of courses, including specialized courses for businesses. In that way, the school is able to cater to the differing needs of its students: students from major companies have different goals from the community members I will mention in the following bullet. I observed one business course with an A1-level student, and I found that the student had already encountered teachers with several different accents. The student experienced a high level of accent differentiation with the school as they worked on their English in company training.
– Jipka, a satellite school of James Cook, also offers community courses for people who live in Prague and want to improve their English. From what I understand, the lessons are free or very cheap. They also did not work (in fact, they did not meet) during the pandemic, as people who attend the community courses attend them for the social aspect of them, rather than to improve their language skills. For these courses, it is common for the same group of students to have the same teacher for several years, meaning that during that period they expeirence a low level accent differentiation.
– The student population includes a high number of first language Czech speakers, though there are some Ukrainian and Spanish speakers in the courses as well.
– The teacher retention, unlike in Cusco, is extremely high with the teachers I observed having lived in Prague for between 2-12 years.
General Patterns:
– I have not discussed the teaching materials in the other two summary posts. Yet, materials matter. Audio materials or the use of other speaking resources can heavily impact the environment for accent differentiation in the classroom. The classrooms I saw in Cusco and Prague were “low-tech” in the sense that there was a reliance on whiteboards and handouts. However, the accent differentiation was still high in some cases due to influences from teacher turnover (meaning the often low rate of teacher retention in ESL generally) and teaching materials.
– As in Spain, there were several teachers who had learned English as their second or third language. The opinion about certain teachers over others varied, however. For example, the administration found it better to pair a first language Czech teacher with lower-level students.
– I have thought a lot about English as a commodity in the language schools I study. It remains true in Prague that the market for English courses (and the content of those courses) caters to the students’ demands. For example, I observed two online courses during my observations, as they became extremely popular with business courses over the pandemic.
Cheers,
MEG