My Experience of a Team English Workshop

Last week (end of November 2007) I was invited by Ian Smith to take part in one of his Team English workshops run at his school in Klaeng. Before I start, let me give you some background information. I used to work with Ian at a school/college based in Laem Chabang, Chonburi province. I was a teacher there. Ian was Head of Studies. It was at Laem Chabang that I became familiar with some work that a workmate and colleague of mine, Zina Thiravithul, was doing with her friend Maggie MacDonald. It turns out that this early work was in fact the beginning (or birth) of Team English. I was teaching business at the time, so I only had a passing interest in Zina's work, but I was intrigued by what she was doing, particularly an activity she showed me that revolved around the use of basic phonics. It seemed so remarkably effective and it was so ideally suited to teaching young children to read.

Shortly after that, Zina moved to America. I went to work in Bangkok and I later returned to England for a year. While in the UK, I kept in contact with several of my colleagues, including Ian. I became interested in the huge amount of work he was doing (and is still doing) to develop Team English into what it has become now - an innovative method of teaching, which can be seen to work in practice in the classroom, and something that not only benefits students, but also teachers and the schools as a whole.

So, this brings us to the present time when I was invited to the workshop at Klaeng. The workshop, run by Ian, lasted three days. Apart from me there were three Thai teachers taking part: Khru Pueng from Wat Nongkankroo School, Klaeng; Khru Lek from Bansongsalung School, Klaeng; Khru Noi from Banthalambit School, Klaeng; and also, an Australian university student, Meg OConnell from Sydney.

Before we started the workshop, although I had an idea of what Team English was, I had never before seen it work. My understanding was that there were two main aspects to Team English: One, it is different to the traditional method of learning, and two, it can inspire motivation (and therefore classroom control). And both these aspects of Team English provide benefits.

The traditional method of learning is largely based on memory. Students remember individual words that they are told to remember, either verbally, or words that are written down. Quite often these words (or short sentences) are chanted and recited over an over again. The results are immediate. The drilling will ensure that the students can remember those words. But the major problem, which is not immediately obvious, is that the students' learning is limited to only those few words and sentences. If the students see another word that they have not been taught before, they have no idea what is says. Not only does the Team English learning method help students to read, but it also helps with their correct pronunciation - using the alphabet (not the alphabet that is traditionally taught: 'c' as is in see, 'a' as in aye, 't' as in tee etc. but 'c' as in cut, 'a' as in apple and 't' as in tut, so that students in recognising letters, and when applying certain taught phonic rules, can learn to build words themselves - c...a...t = cat). I must point out that what I am writing is based on my own understanding and observation. Other people may identify other important aspects of Team English.

The second aspect of Team English aims at student motivation and classroom control. By dividing the class into teams and appointing captains and vice captains, students identify with their team and are encouraged to ensure that they get maximum points from any games and activities - and also from good behaviour. You see, much of the learning revolves around team learning activities that fosters fun competition between the teams. Students earn points for their team (or lose points in the case of misbehaviour). Team English ensures that the students work together as a team, by helping each other to perform. (The role of the captain is therefore very important in providing leadership). In varying each lesson with different activities, games and role play, students can maintain concentration for longer without becoming bored.

All this sounds great in theory, but at the beginning of the workshop the question remained in my thoughts, will it work in practice? Over the three days, we took turns applying some of the activities to different classes with different age groups. Games such as 'Lucky Dip, and 'Matching relay', were used to teach graphemes, days of the week and months of the year. It was good fun and we all seemed to enjoy it - not just the students, but teachers too. Another activity, 'Team Coaching', encouraged members of the teams themselves to do the teaching, with the teacher simply acting as supervisor or onlooker.

I suppose it could be argued that in the workshop there were so many teachers in the classroom it was always going to be easy to maintain classroom control. So the question is, would Team English help to maintain classroom control in a large class with only one teacher? I put this question to the Thai teachers. They said that maintaining discipline in a large class of students was not easy. What they strongly concluded in unison was that the success of the Team English aspect in maintaining classroom control was largely dependent on the strength of character of the team captains. In fact, they seemed to be suggesting that the team captains were pinnacle to any chance of it being allowed to work properly. They said it was essential, especially in Thai culture with its recognisation of values and respect to hierarchy. As Pueng said,
"Good team captains will make all the difference. If they can control their teams like teachers, there will be few behaviour problems in the class. But if not, there will still be some big problems which may affect the working of Team English. Captains must be trained to have good leadership skills. Then Team English can work well."

I was interested to know what the other Thai teachers thought about the workshop in general:
Khru Noi said,
" In our schools we have very little time to develop our skills as we are so busy with so many jobs. But the workshop has helped us to learn so much, to develop our teaching and develop ourselves as people. The opportunity to do this workshop is very valuable because we, our students and our school will benefit."

Khru Lek said,
" The workshop has enabled me to meet new and interesting people, both foreign and Thai. We have been able to share our knowledge and ideas. The activities will be very useful."

Kru Pueng said,
" The traditional style of teaching uses textbooks and white boards and the children can lose interest quickly because they are only sitting and repeating, so the can get bored easily. This method of Team English has opened knew ideas and the activities help to increase learning in a huge way."

To answer my own question: will team English work in practice? Well, my observation was that Team English provided both immediate and long term benefits - to the students, the teachers and the school. The children enjoyed the activities. And we the teachers enjoyed the teaching.
What was also very satisfying to know, was the fact that children had not just learnt individual words that they the may or may not remember in the future, but with the Team English method they had learnt to build the words themselves. Thus, they had been equipped with the skills to read, for example, the month 'October' - and this benefit would remain with them for the rest of their lives.