English classes can be boring for native speakers of the language, and as ESL teachers around the world know, non-native speakers can find those classes even more dull and difficult when they’re expected to learn long lists of words or practice phrases they’d never use in real life. ESL expert Richard Graham saw this during his time teaching English in Japan, and decided to come up with a new and better way of helping children learn English. We asked Richard about the strategies he uses to make learning fun.
UV: In Japanese, the word “genki” can be translated as “full of life,” which brings up an image of a classroom full of noise and activity, rather than one that’s filled with rows of children sitting quietly at desks, bent over pieces of paper. Does that describe some of the classes you’ve taught using the Genki English method?
RG: Absolutely! And this is how humans naturally learn, by moving, communicating, asking questions and actually using the English. It’s just sad that most schools still teach in the industrial education model where the first thing they learn is “sit down, shut up.” In Genki English we start with “stand up” and “I can do this!”
UV: Using songs and games definitely gets children interested in a topic, but some teachers aren’t used to that format. Do you provide help for teachers who might be uncomfortable at first with this style of teaching?
RG: As long as the teacher has the passion and motivation to learn more and try new things out for their students then we have “baby steps” for everything, with videos, photos, animations and lots of support. In fact it works out a whole lot easier to teach because the kids are doing all the work!
And to be honest most of the great teachers in the world already teach using games, songs and all sorts of crazy innovative ideas.
UV: Your materials are a huge help to English teachers around the world, but not every child has the opportunity to go to an ESL class. Can parents use the resources on your website to give their children extra help with English language skills?
RG: Yes indeed, and we have many parents buying the materials and using them at home. It also works out great for the parents as they learn English as a bonus for free!
UV: The materials on your website all have brightly-colored illustrations that will be attractive to younger children. Can older children, teenagers, college students, or even adults use the program to learn English?
RG: We actually get our best feedback from kids aged 13 to 18! The fantastic research Harvard did on Genki English was also with teenagers.
Plus quite a few of the games I actually learnt from very high brow business workshops!
If you think about it, every super serious business person has Angry Birds on their phone, so everyone loves bright, colourful, cool images. The trick is all in how you present it, to add in something “serious” and “boring” to make it feel like work, then switch to Genki English where, ironically, they’ll actually be doing all the learning!
UV: If someone wants to learn English, would you recommend that they learn how to speak English first, or to read and write in English? Or do these two aspects always go together?
RG: Definitely 100% learn to speak first. You wouldn’t teach the alphabet to a baby, and it’s just the same for children or adults.
Half my year is in different countries doing workshops and you can instantly tell people who have learnt to speak first and are super confident, and those who have spent years learning reading and writing together but can’t say a word. It’s like night and day.
Plus once you can speak well the reading/writing becomes super easy.
So we always say, speaking and confidence first, then reading (which is easy with a good phonics programme) and finally writing. Although in this day and age that last step should really be “typing” if you really want to up your salary and productivity!
Be genki,
Richard
