facing up to your imperial past: the belgians

A lot of countries have had (and still have?) empires. 

How many are looking back on the not-so glorious times? 

If we look at what the British did to India and elsewhere in the British empire things still have to be looked at a little more - and that is happening, whether it's as adventures in art at the British Museum, or considering the British empire past and present, or teaching empire in British schools.

There is much more thought being put into the idea of "decolonizing" - whether it's Britain... Israel... Russia... Canada... Australia... India....

All of these countries are 'big' or have had 'big empires' - but what about the 'smaller' countries?

The Dutch are facing up to their imperial past - although things are rather mixed up in the country: What Is New about Dutch Populism? Dutch Colonialism, Hierarchical Citizenship and Contemporary Populism.

What about their neighbours in Belgium?

The Belgian empire in Africa was particularly brutal:

How extraordinary it was to discover, then, that one of this small state’s kings was also one of history’s greatest mass murderers. Leopold II (1835-1909) wanted his country to join the league of European empires, but the Belgian state refused to finance its part in western Europe’s expensive scramble for Africa. So they outsourced the task to Leopold, who used personal diplomacy to convince the European powers to grant him control of a large portion of the Congo basin. He promised to bring civilisation to the so-called dark continent.

Belgium's Heart of Darkness | History Today

This even has a separate entry in Wikipedia:

Atrocities in the Congo Free State - Wikipedia

Belgians are facing up to this imperial past:

Confronting Belgium's Colonial Legacy in Congo

Leopold II: Belgium 'wakes up' to its bloody colonial past - BBC News

An extraordinary documentary looks at how the Americans took over from the Belgians in 1960 - as the Brussels Times points out:

The murder of Congo’s first post-independence leader Patrice Lumumba took place as famed jazzman Louis Armstrong was touring the country. The two events were not a coincidence, as the acclaimed documentary, ‘Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat’, reveals.

How jazz played out over Congo’s chaotic coup

With more from Wikipedia:

To retain control over the riches of what used to be Belgian Congo, King Baudouin of Belgium finds an ally in the Eisenhower administration, which fears losing access to one of the world’s biggest supplies of Uranium, a mineral vital for the creation of atomic bombs. Congo takes center stage to both the Cold War and the scheme for control of the UN. The US State Department swings into action: Jazz ambassador Louis Armstrong is dispatched to win the hearts and minds of Africa. Unwittingly, Armstrong becomes a smokescreen to divert attention from Africa’s first post-colonial coup, leading to the assassination of Congo’s first democratically elected leader.

Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat - Wikipedia

The filmmaker is Belgian:

Johan Grimonprez (born 1962) is a Belgian multimedia artist, filmmaker, and curator. He is most known for his films Dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y (1997), Double Take (2009) and Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade (2016), based on the book by Andrew Feinstein. Grimonprez wrote and directed the documentary Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat about the promise of decolonisation, the hope of the non-aligned movement and the dream of self-determination.

Johan Grimonprez - Wikipedia

And another couple of reviews:

Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat review – superb study of how jazz got caught between the cold war and the CIA | Music documentary | The Guardian

Coups, colonialism and all that jazz: the film that unravels extraordinary cold war truths | Film | The Guardian

Here's the trailer:

Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat – Official Trailer - YouTube

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ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tr

English is a Germanic language:

Why English Is a Germanic Language | Grammarly Blog

This matters because for centuries the powers that be have effectively willed English to be a Romance language, for reasons predominantly of prestige. Grammatical assessments, for example, almost always included reference to the “future” (and often also to concepts such as the “subjunctive”), which are useful for describing Latin but misleading when used for Germanic languages.

English is a profoundly Germanic language | Ian James Parsley

Here's a nice little video - very helpful for both learners and teachers of English:

Is English Really a Germanic Language? - YouTube

Apparently, the European Union has decided to switch to English as the official language of the union. This will make communication easier for all Europeans and will free up a lot of vowel space.

EU Progress: Official Language Change to "Euro-English

And by 'Euro English', they mean something... as bit more Germanic:

Here's what it'd look like (taken from Reddit): "The European Commission has jus... | Hacker News

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'the english language doesn't exist'

A recent news story about the English language which excited the British press was reported differently, depending on the politics and sense of humour of each newspaper:

Do you think the English language exists? You do, don’t you? That’s quite odd because, according to Bernard Cerquiglini, it doesn’t, and his credentials are probably more impressive than yours.

The English language doesn’t exist, it’s mispronounced French - The New European

A French linguist has controversially claimed that the English language 'doesn't exist' and is just 'badly pronounced French'. Bernard Cerquiglini, a linguistics professor from Lyon, points out that the English language uses thousands of words taken from French about 1,000 years ago.

Ironically, many of these have since reentered the French language but in a bastardised English form – such as 'stew', 'people' and 'shopping'. Professor Cerquiglini, an adviser to President Macron, has already slammed the continued use of English words in French culture as 'distressing'.

English 'doesn't exist' and is just badly pronounced French, linguist claims | Daily Mail Online

Few would deny that English has conquered the world. But the French have always refused to take this linguistic victory lying down.

For centuries, the “immortal” guardians of the French language at the Académie Française, France’s linguistic authority since 1634, have arguably been fighting a losing battle to contain the invasion of anglais. Theirs is a Sisyphean task as they toil in coming up with French alternatives to English words such as “gazoduc” instead of pipeline, or the more recent “icône de la mode” instead of “it girl”, in the hope they will catch on.

'English is not a language – it's just badly spoken French'

There's been a lot of interesting commentary:

L’anglaise n’existe pas : r/DuolingoFrench

France: English does not exist as a language, says Macron adviser - ProtoThema English

English Just 'Badly Pronounced French', Paris Academic Says | Barron's

This is the main point of the book:

The title of the book translates as “The English language doesn’t exist – it’s just French that’s badly pronounced” , which is a quip First World War French President Georges Clemenceau used to make. The author admits from the outset that he’s writing somewhat tongue in cheek. But he’s a distinguished linguist – and he pulls no punches as he sets out his case.

The English language doesn’t exist – it’s just French that’s badly pronounced

Here's a book review - in bad French:

Parlez vous? 
The English language’s debt to French
By Judith Flanders

Bernard Cerquiglini is a former director of the Institut national de la langue française, and the first part of his catchy title quotes the former French prime minister Georges Clemenceau, who was married (unhappily) to an American. The author then backtracks: of course, English is spoken as a first or acquired language by more than a billion people worldwide. But the textbook definition of English – a language descended from a Germanic source – masks “la vérité”, which is that it owes its influence and power to the amount of French it contains.

Cerquiglini begins with a brief outline of the imposition of Norman French on England and the English from 1066 onwards, and the long admiration for France and French among the upper classes. He uses Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe, set in 1194, to illustrate the bifurcation of English: in Scott’s romance there is a French-derived vocabulary for the upper and educated classes, and Anglo-Saxon derivations for the working classes. Anglo-Saxon peasants raise “old Alderman Ox”, which becomes “beef” when the prosperous eat it.

The shift in vocabulary has not always been class-based. The Old Frisian-derived “mouth” describes the facial orifice, but its adjective is the French-sourced “oral”; the Old Saxon “town” is the noun, the French “urban” the adjective. And English’s enormous vocabulary, one of the largest of any language, is in good part based on exactly this kind of doubling of Germanic and French words: ask/demand, buy/purchase, build/construct.

“La langue anglaise …” is interesting, too, on how English today can clarify the pronunciation of vanished Norman dialects. Norman French replaces the “ch” sound with a “q”, which in English becomes a hard “c”. Thus, “car” from char (chariot), “carpenter” from charpentier, “escape” from échapper. Most fascinating of all is the journey from “w” to “g”. Norman French used a “w” for the sound that other French dialects pronounced with a hard “g”, and so it is that our “wardrobe” comes from guarde-robe and “wicket” from guichet. This also solves the mystery of why we have warranties and guarantees, guardians and wardens in English. These words travelled twice from France: once with a “w” during the Norman Conquest, then again centuries later with a “g” in now-standard Parisian French.

Cerquiglini has statistics to hand: 29 per cent of English vocabulary comes from French sources; another 29 per cent from Latin; and only 26 per cent from Germanic sources.…

‘La langue anglaise n’existe pas’ by Bernard Cerquiglini | Book review

"La langue anglaise n'existe pas": C'est du français mal prononcé: Amazon.co.uk: Cerquiglini, Bernard: 9782073056610: Books

Finally, a video discussion:

Is English just badly pronounced French? - YouTube

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the impact of continuing professional development

There are quite a few resources available online for ESOL/TEFL teachers wanting to up their own teaching skills:

Jay Doubleyou: training courses for clil teachers, for overseas teachers, for english teachers

Jay Doubleyou: free esol/tefl teaching webinars

Jay Doubleyou: etprofessional - the magazine for english teacher development

Here's a good guide for those of us just starting up:

Jay Doubleyou: continuing professional development: after the celta

Here's a piece in the EL Gazette looking at a specific MA in Professional Development for Language Education - with some good discussions on the state today of CPD:

Mastering the art of professional development - E L Gazette

And here's a critical look at the whole idea of CPD from ten years ago:

Jay Doubleyou: continuing professional development - a critique

There are a lot of more recent academic studies:

Continuing professional development as lifelong learning and education

Here's one paper from 2020 which gives a good overview

Key findings

The impact of professional development on pupils

• High-quality CPD for teachers has a significant effect on pupils’ learning outcomes. CPD programmes have the potential to close the gap between beginner and more experienced teachers: the impact of CPD on pupil outcomes (effect size 0.09) compares to the impact of having a teacher with ten years’ experience rather than a new graduate (0.11). CPD also has similar attainment effects to those generated by large, structural reforms to the school system (0.1).   
• Evidence suggests that quality CPD has a greater effect on pupil attainment than other interventions schools may consider, such as implementing performance-related pay for teachers or lengthening the school day.
• Teacher CPD may be a cost-effective intervention for improving pupil outcomes: while there are other interventions with a larger impact on pupil attainment, such as one-to-one tutoring (0.28), these programmes are typically far more expensive.
• CPD programmes generally produce positive responses from teachers, in contrast to other interventions. Large, structural changes to the school system, while as effective at improving pupil outcomes, incur substantial costs in terms of staff turnover and dissatisfaction.

The impact of professional development on teacher retention

• Increasing the availability of high-quality CPD has been shown to improve retention problems, particularly for early-career teachers. While factors other than access to CPD tend to be behind teachers’ decisions to quit the profession, there is evidence supporting targeted CPD programmes for teachers in the early stages of their careers.
• Induction training and mentoring programmes are particularly effective for improving retention rates early on. Quality CPD has the potential to alleviate acute retention problems for early-career teachers.

Evidence review: The effects of high-quality professional development on teachers and students - Education Policy Institute

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kolb and experiential learning

Here's a very good start for learning and teaching|:

Constructivism

Main article: Constructivism (learning theory)

Founded by Jean Piaget, constructivism emphasizes the importance of the active involvement of learners in constructing knowledge for themselves. Students are thought to use background knowledge and concepts to assist them in their acquisition of novel information. On approaching such new information, the learner faces a loss of equilibrium with their previous understanding, and this demands a change in cognitive structure. This change effectively combines previous and novel information to form an improved cognitive schema. Constructivism can be both subjectively and contextually based. Under the theory of radical constructivism, coined by Ernst von Glasersfeld, understanding relies on one's subjective interpretation of experience as opposed to objective "reality". Similarly, William Cobern's idea of contextual constructivism encompasses the effects of culture and society on experience.[34]

Constructivism asks why students do not learn deeply by listening to a teacher, or reading from a textbook. To design effective teaching environments, it believes one needs a good understanding of what children already know when they come into the classroom. The curriculum should be designed in a way that builds on the pupil's background knowledge and is allowed to develop with them.[35] Begin with complex problems and teach basic skills while solving these problems.[36] The learning theories of John Dewey, Maria Montessori, and David A. Kolb serve as the foundation of the application of constructivist learning theory in the classroom.[37] Constructivism has many varieties such as active learning, discovery learning, and knowledge building, but all versions promote a student's free exploration within a given framework or structure.[38] The teacher acts as a facilitator who encourages students to discover principles for themselves and to construct knowledge by working answering open-ended questions and solving real-world problems. To do this, a teacher should encourage curiosity and discussion among his/her students as well as promoting their autonomy. In scientific areas in the classroom, constructivist teachers provide raw data and physical materials for the students to work with and analyze.[39]

Learning theory (education) - Wikipedia

Jay Doubleyou: learning theory: a short guide

Which takes us to this: 

It will soon be twenty years old, but the Theory of Experiential Learning has had little presence in ESL. "Experiential" learning is not just "fieldwork" or "praxis" (the connecting of learning to real life situations) although it is the basis for these approaches, it is a theory that defines the cognitive processes of learning. In particular, it asserts the importance of critical reflection in learning. As we shall see, David Kolb was one of the key contributors.

Kelly - David Kolb, The Theory of Experiential Learning and ESL (TESL/TEFL)

Jay Doubleyou: kolb's learning cycle

Or we can see it like this:

With a video:

In Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development (1984), Kolb defined learning as “the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience” (p. 38). This learning experience consists of four stages:Concrete Experience (CE): feeling

Reflective Observation (RO): watching
Abstract Conceptualization (AC): thinking
Active Experimentation (AE): doing
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These four stages, or steps, of learning typically move through a cycle that begins with a student having a concrete experience and ends with them actively experimenting with the knowledge they gained.

Kolb's Four Stages of Learning - Center for Instructional Technology and Training - University of Florida

And a helpful diagram:

Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory & Learning Styles - Educational Technology

With another excellent introductory video:

Kolb's Experiential Learning Cycle: A Complete Guide - Growth Engineering

Which takes us to this:

Kolb's Learning Styles & Experiential Learning Cycle

David A. Kolb - Institute for Experiential Learning

This is in a way a challenge to the rather lazy 'learning styles' approach:

As with any methodology or tool, use VAK and other learning styles concepts with care. The concepts are an aid, not a dogma to be followed and applied rigidly. See the notes for using Learning Styles with young people on the Kolb Learning Styles page.

Howard Gardner: Multiple Intelligences Theory – BusinessBalls.com

Jay Doubleyou: visual, auditory, kinesthetic learning styles

Finally, here's Kolb on Wikipedia:

David A. Kolb - Wikipedia

Kolb's experiential learning - Wikipedia

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evidence-based teaching

There are some very interesting teaching methods out there - some with more 'evidence' behind them than others.

This has a little:

Jay Doubleyou: dogme and emergent language pt 1

This also has some:

Jay Doubleyou: learning theory: constructivism

John Hattie provides definitive evidence of what works and what doesn't - for example, in one particular area:

Jay Doubleyou: students want feedback part 2

Stephen Krashen is not convinced about one very popular approach to teaching English writing and pronunciation:

Jay Doubleyou: a critique of phonics

It is quite difficult - backing up different theories with evidence:

Jay Doubleyou: learning theory: a short guide

So, over the last couple of decades, a more solid approach to approaches to teaching has developed:

Evidence-based education (EBE) is the principle that education practices should be based on the best available scientific evidence, with randomised trials as the gold standard of evidence, rather than tradition, personal judgement, or other influences.[1] Evidence-based education is related to evidence-based teaching,[2][3][4] evidence-based learning,[5] and school effectiveness research.[6][7]

The evidence-based education movement has its roots in the larger movement towards evidence-based practices, and has been the subject of considerable debate since the late 1990s.[8] However, research published in 2020 showed that there is still widespread belief amongst educators in ineffective teaching techniques such as learning styles[9] and the cone of learning.[10]

...

External links[edit]The Evidence Based Teachers Network (EBTN)
Institute for Effective Education (IEE)
researchED.org.uk
Evidence based interventions, McGill University, Canada
Evidence based practice, The Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS), A.S.A Archived 2020-07-02 at the Wayback Machine
Evidence based education, UK

Evidence-based education - Wikipedia

Trinity College has some very good resources:

English language support resources | Trinity College London

Evidence-based teaching poster_English_A3.indd

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trouble at the british council

The British Council certainly has a reputation.

It is an online place to go for excellent resources:

Jay Doubleyou: class journals from the british council

Jay Doubleyou: as others see us - british council

Jay Doubleyou: music lessons from the british council

Jay Doubleyou: monthly lesson plans from the british council

And it is an institution to go to for accreditation:

Jay Doubleyou: private language schools: accreditation and protecting clients

Jay Doubleyou: what's the point of british council accreditation?

However, it is also part of the bigger circuit of language schools - which are all finding it an issue to recruit staff:

Jay Doubleyou: "there is now a massive shortage of tefl teachers across the world"

And if there is a shortage of employees, then the employees can start to get a bit difficult:

English Teaching Jobs in Thailand: High Demand and Competitive Salaries

Our new survey finds schools in England struggle to recruit language teachers | British Council

Here's a very critical piece on the state and status of the British Council today - as Educator and journalist William Grice shares his experience with teacher recruitment through the British Council:

This past summer, the Gazette covered how teachers at British Council Taiwan were considering a historic strike due to stagnant pay rates spanning 20 years. In response to the strike action, the British Council have said they believe their teacher package is ‘very competitive in the market and is reflected in our high teacher retention rates and new full-time applicant recruitment rates’. Despite this, one teacher in Taiwan claimed they could ‘make more as a teaching assistant at the local international school’.

Additionally, 100 teachers were left behind in Afghanistan to make their own way out following the Taliban takeover in 2021. Thankfully, nearly all of them have since left safely. These issues, however, are just the tip of the iceberg. My own experience with teacher recruitment and subsequent investigations revealed further challenges within the organisation...

British Council’s shared services in India: smart cost-cutting or cultural misstep? - E L Gazette

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