Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by George Machlan (@myeslfriends). He is an online ESL teacher, founder of My ESL Friends and thought leader of the Edupunk movement.
The previous blog (or one before that) covered some thoughts about Millennials and their differences in learning. Our Edupunk friend, “B” shared an unbelievable Ted Talk (below) that blew me away. But first a few of my own thoughts…
punked from www.generation-me.wikispaces.com
I have thought that learning English as a distinct intellectual pursuit is ridiculous for the normal person. I mean by that, that it can only be learned in a sustainable way as a supportive function of a sustainable intellectual activity. Unless you are a super nerd and on track to your natural talent for either teaching English one day or a naturally inclined linguist. Arkady of Language-Bridge has spoken often about the statistical breakdown of teaching language as if all people were natural linguists. I understood this intuitively in a different way.
I know, from personal experience that I do not learn languages in the traditional school/class mode. Tried it many times and was never able to sustain the effort beyond one semester at most. But, I had learned a lot of German by attending parties with my grand parents who spoke mostly German at those events. To get attention and to participate in the fun, I naturally learned German to connect. A later experiment was in the country of Turkey. As an 18-year-old man who was biologically motivated to meet and “score” with women, I had to learn Turkish. I must admit that I have an above average IQ but the ability to quickly pick up Turkish transcended this. I wanted women and to do so I had to learn Turkish.
Now up to today. Based on those subconscious lessons I instinctively knew that to teach English from a traditional paradigm was a “non-starter” for me. I am ADD and very anti authoritarian (that is another story altogether). I quickly left the semitraditional methods (e.g. Callan Method) and began my own search for something that both worked for me and was natural (and fun) for the learner. The first breakthrough came with “Karaoke ESL” where we take a natural fun activity that is intrinsically entertaining and interesting in its own right (American popular songs) adding some structure and finally just having fun with sing-alongs. Our primary goal or at least the entry point for learning a set piece of material (the song narrative with pronunciation, phrases and words). Then we (student and coach) ran with it for as long as it was fun. This proved my theory that learning English for the sake of English was a mistake.
Several years of growth and experiments seem to substantiate the practical aspects of only teaching English as a support system to the primary task of a social activity. From songs to games and even geeky stuff like how to learn Project Management, the English was always secondary to the motivational (and therefore sustainable) purpose of our meetings (classes). The Edupunk at WizIQ now has formalized this approach. We are an English learning channel but all of our classes are primarily games and fun activities. These activities are “serious fun” they are not for the traditional learner who wishes to work hard and study English. We have yet to prove the long-term results of such a path but we are on our way.
OK, finally to the point of this blog… yes there was a point. There have been many asking if we must change teaching to reach the Millennials. I say Yes and No. Yes, because that is how they are wired. But also no because it is actually how all of us have learned our primary language. If Einstein (aka the move “A beautiful Mind”) would have looked at this question he would have done nearly the same thing as the following Ted Talk. I will not presume to tell you I understand this stuff but it does look cool. They are so far over my head that I got vertigo like on a roller coaster. Please watch closely at roughly minute number 9 and think about the concept “social hot spots”. The second focal point begins at minute number 11 where we are introduced to social media.
I do not have any answers, I do not think these geeks do either. But they certainly do open up some interesting questions. Get comfortable, sit back and be prepared to go into a new world that looks like a sci-fi movie. Bon apétit!
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