Getting a high score on the TOEIC (Test of English for International Communication) is an important goal for anyone interested in getting ahead in today’s global marketplace. The TOEIC focuses on business and is an essential requirement for being hired by many multinational corporations. Students aspiring to overseas universities also need to focus on the TOEFL (Test Of English as a Foreign Language), and the IELTS (International English Language Testing System) will open doors for school admissions, work opportunities, and more in Europe and around the world. In short, English is the language to learn, and people like Chris Williams are the ones to go to for quality instruction. At his school in Thailand, Chris helps people learn English and join the 21st-century workforce.
UV: You have been working as a trainer and instructor for many years, and started focusing on teaching English more recently. How did you apply what you learned in the IT and business world to the needs of ESL (English as a Second Language) students?
CW: Back in the mid 90’s I started teaching people how to use complex business systems such as SAP. I did a lot of research and found out about a new technique called “role based training”. We role based training, instead of teaching the users every aspect of the software; you teach them the basics of the interface and then how to do their job with the system. This makes the learning much simpler for them and also less scary as they already know how to do their jobs.
I use the same approach for teaching Business English by teaching learners how to do their jobs in English. I also use the technique to teach Academic English, for example when teaching difficult subjects like noun, adjective and adverb clauses I like to give lots of examples within a limited subject area. For instance, if I am teach IELTS writing task 1 focused on charts I teach them lots of clauses specifically related to the task. This helps to focus them on how the clauses work rather than having to also try to relate to many subject areas.
UV: You use a system called “Fobble Phonics” to teach younger children how to read and speak English. How did you come up with this approach, and what does it involve?
CW: About 4 years ago I became interested in developing my own system to teach children English. Over the years I tried many different ideas and many different types of software technology. About 2 years ago while researching best practice in teaching; I realized how important Phonics was becoming for teaching children in the UK. I decided to focus on phonics and based by system design on the UK governments guidelines for teaching phonics. A year later the government changed and they came up with a new and much more tightly focused way for teaching. I built these changes into my model which actually made the software development much easier because the task was now better defined.
My basic idea for the system revolves around the idea of building words and decoding words by moving the letters sounds around. The idea for Fobble Phonics comes from the word game scrabble. Instead of using letters I make tiles that have the phonic sounds such as “oa”, “ai” etc. I have recorded all of the Phonic sounds and when you touch or move over any of the tiles they sound out their phonic sound. The tiles are all drag-able and so can be used to build words. With just the 44 phonic sounds I can build just about any word in the English language. I even use it to teach university students how to pronounce difficult words such as psychology.
The system is designed primarily as an in-class teaching aid but can also be used by individuals. It can also be used by non-native English speaking teachers. I hope to get the system accredited by the UK Ministry of Education.
UV: You place a lot of emphasis on spoken English, and offer a very popular series of conversation-based classes. Do you ask native English speakers to lead the conversations?
CW: I teach in Thailand where the students are very shy and also where there are relatively few native English speakers for them to practice with. I do generally use native English speakers but I mainly use high quality audio visual materials. I try to get the students to learn whole sentence rather than words and grammar in isolation to they get word and sentence stress right. A good non-native can speaking teachers can teach using these sorts of materials. I like to create my own Flash based teaching interfaces to make it easier for teachers to use the materials rather than rely on CD players.
UV: In your Basic English class the teachers use the Thai language to explain the English language. Does this make more sense than an “immersion” approach in which only English is spoken?
CW: Children in England learn the language over a long period of time through extensive use. In Thailand teaching resources are too scarce and too expensive to make this possible. A way to speed up the process is to use their own language to explain concept and grammar.
In my phonics system I help the children to recognize the letter sound by using their own phonic alphabet. The Thai alphabet is very similar to the phonic alphabet with 44 sounds. By the age of 4 children know their own alphabet and the sounds. They can use this knowledge to give them a framework for understand the English phonic alphabet.
UV: As well as your on-site classes, you offer free English resources via your website. Is on-line education going to be your next focus?
CW: I started teaching at the time that computer based training was introduced; I became an e-Commerce project manager and trainer in the year 2000 and trained worldwide using the internet. A few years later I set up my own company developing and selling business web portal systems to small businesses. In 2004 and 2005 I won awards from the UK Department of Trade and Industry for the Best Use of Tele-working. We Used home-workers to outsource tasks from small business owners. We used many different forms of internet based training as part of this.
My Fobble Phonics program already runs on the internet and Android devices and most of my in-class Academic English teaching and Business and TOEIC is delivered using Flash on the internet. So yes, the next move will be to develop a secure site and payment system to host it. To do this I need to find investors with a passion for this type of activity.
