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English tactics

Teacher workshop places focus on learning a second language

By Julie O'Shea
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
March 26th, 2008 issue

Clowning around: Teachers at Wattsenglish use fun games and activities rather than traditional sit-down lectures to teach young kids a second language.
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The Watts style: Teachers will be introduced to the Wattsenglish teaching methods during a workshop next month.
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Imagine walking into a workshop on teaching tactics for English-language learners and being greeted by the keynote speaker in Japanese. This is what a group of primary-school teachers can look forward to next month during an all-day event being held at a Žižkov hotel.
Not only does Steve Watts plan to greet attendees in Japanese, he intends to conduct the first part of his presentation entirely in the Asian language. This might seems a little strange given the fact that Watts, a British national, is considered an expert in the field of English-language teaching methods. Watts doesn’t intend on leaving his audience in the dark for the whole afternoon; just long enough to remind teachers what it feels like to learn a second language.
“I sort of want to shake them,” says Watts, who runs Wattenglish Ltd., a relatively new company dedicated to promoting English learning techniques for young children.
Watts spent three years teaching English in Japan before coming to the Czech Republic a few years ago and setting up his own business in which he outsources instructors to local kindergarten classes and after-school clubs to teach children English using what he calls “the Wattsenglish methodology.” Students, Watts explains, are basically taught a second language through games and activities, rather than traditional, straightforward lectures.
“What comes first is communication and then language,” Watts says. “It’s kind of a natural progression.”
Young children who haven’t learned how to talk yet do find ways to communicate without words, Watts notes. It’s a point he hopes to drill into those attending the April 10 teachers’ workshop at the Hotel Prokopka, which is being sponsored by The Prague Post Endowment Fund.    
Learning a second language is no easy feat, which is why Watts doesn’t plan on speaking any English or Czech during the first 45 minutes or so of his planned talk. Teachers will no doubt be confused, maybe even uncomfortable and a little embarrassed, and that’s OK, Watts says. He wants to put teachers “in the environment,” so that they can remember what it’s like to be a student.  
“It’s been a while since they were learning a second language,” he says. “They’ll be thrown into the lion‘s den, so to speak.”   
Watts has a few icebreaker games up his sleeve and some learning exercises he plans to coach teachers through during his three-hour presentation next month. They’ll even talk about karate, a conversation topic that helps teach numbers, according to Watts, who has led a number of these type of workshops for various organizations all over the country. In addition to English, Czech and Japanese, Watts also speaks French.   
By the end of the day, Watts is confident he’ll have won his audience over.
The second half the workshop will be lead by Milan Hausner, the principal of Lupáčova Primary School in Prague 3. Hausner will be talking to teachers about interactive learning.
“The Czech Republic is one of the most advanced in this field,” he says. Still, “some balance between normal teaching and interactive teaching must be set. ... I think it’s quite important to find a real balance.”
Endowment Fund Director Lydie Razsková says she intends to plan more of this type of workshop in the coming months. Future workshops will be listed on the Endowment Fund Web site at Ppef.cz.
While you’re online, don’t forget to fill out a nomination form for The Prague Post’s Best English Teacher of the Year Award. Full-time elementary and secondary school teachers are eligible. The nomination period runs through October. The top 10 winners will be announced in December and receive a 2,000 Kč prize each.

Julie O'Shea can be reached at joshea@praguepost.com


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