Interview with a DELTA Teacher

In this interview*, questions will be put to a highly qualified DELTA (Diploma in English Language Teaching for Adults) teacher covering the DELTA course, teaching, and more.

        1) What inspired you to do a DELTA course?

I sort of rolled into English language teaching by moving abroad and not being able to pursue the subject I had studied at university (classics). I found I enjoyed it very much and learnt a lot during my first job as a business language trainer in Italy. After a few years, when I moved to Germany, I did my CELTA, which taught me a lot about the background behind the techniques I was already employing and confirmed that what I was doing in class made sense. It was around this time I decided I wanted to become a professional English teacher. A number of years later, I moved to Chile for family reasons and found myself in a situation where I could not get a work permit. At this time, I managed to find part-time language training work with various international organizations (mostly United Nations), which raised the standard I was being held to. I felt I needed more knowledge of and experience in various teaching techniques including learning more about adapting materials and tailoring my classes to students with specific business-related needs. The combination of feeling I needed to increase the quality of my teaching and having time on my hands due to having a part-time job enabled and encouraged me to start the DELTA.

        2) How was your course structured (face-to-face, blended or online elements)?

As the DELTA course was not offered face-to-face in Chile, I did modules 1 and 3 online through The Distance Delta. These were extensive courses requiring one to two days a week for three months each. This was a very good experience. Although these preparatory courses are not required, they did a good job preparing me for the Module 1 exam and guiding me through the steps of organizing and setting up the course plan for Module 3. The combination of working and studying to become a better teacher at the same time was stimulating, especially as I got to use my real students as guinea pigs. Although I did not put the whole course plan into action, I was able to use various lesson plans and activities I had designed and adapted with my target group. When I travelled to Europe to visit family the following summer, I added six weeks in Cambridge to my trip to do Module 2 face-to-face at the Bell School of English there.

        3) In your opinion, what are the most challenging aspects of the course?

Time management. I think the hardest part was the pressure you are under to deliver your lesson plans and teach your classes during Module 2. The course is intensive and requires a lot of work, including in the evenings and on weekends. Fortunately, I have always been good at planning. To me, leaving my normal work environment and doing Module 2 in a place I did not have any social or work obligations was a very good choice. I remember doing my CELTA intensively in Berlin where I was living, and still being required to do early morning and evening courses around the CELTA course. As the CELTA course was also quite demanding, this put a great deal of strain on me and greatly diminished the time I could dedicate to the course – and my enjoyment of it. While I was doing Module 2 in Cambridge, I noticed there were a number of people who were residents there or had travelled from their hometowns. They would need to take care of their families, get sucked into social or work obligations and most of them struggled to meet the deadlines set by the programme. I had to work in the evenings and on weekends as well, but was free to dedicate time to the programme whenever I needed it. As a result, I managed to plan in time off to go sightseeing and enjoy being in Cambridge in spite of the heavy course load. As opposed to many other DELTA trainers, I would not recommend doing Module 2 in the place where you are based or close to friends and family.

        4) What did you enjoy most about it?

It was an honour to study under language teaching gurus and authors Jim Scrivener and Benita Cruickshank. I had the pleasure of being coached by them while doing Module 2 in Cambridge. It was fascinating to see them in action and learn from their many years of experience.

Besides that, the opportunity to work with experienced peers was also stimulating. I am sure I stole a lot of activities, teaching ideas, approaches, gestures, ways of correcting and other tools from the teachers who were doing Module 2 with me. I hope they managed to get something out of me as well!

        5) In terms of what you learned during the course, what has been most useful in your professional life?

Specializing in Business English was important, as it directly impacted my work at the United Nations. I got to study task-based learning in-depth and experiment with adapting authentic materials, which is very effective in training experienced and highly-educated and skilled workers on the job. I have since designed and taught a specialized writing course for UN staff using different types of documents in daily use at the organization and discussion courses about the Sustainable Development Goals that form the 2030 development agenda.

        6) Out of all the principles of ELT (English Language Teaching), which most closely resembles your own style of teaching?

Communicative Language Teaching. I focus on communicative competence and try to discourage students from striving for perfection in pronunciation, use of expressions and little things such as dependent prepositions. Communication is the goal, even if one’s diction or grammar is not perfect. As such, I focus on confidence and ironing out errors that lead to miscommunication rather than demanding perfect English pronunciation etc.

        7) If you had to take one methodology book to a desert island, which would it be?

Doing Task-Based Teaching by Willis & Willis

        8) Where do you stand regarding the use of translation to help students learn English?

I think it is important to speak your students’ native language, which is doable when working in mostly monolingual classrooms in your students’ home country. The digital age also allows for quick looking up of terminology in dictionaries online and I actively encourage my students to use their phones and computers to look vocabulary up in the classroom rather than using me as a dictionary all the time. A lot of the terminology they need is industry-specific. I see it as my role to guide my students to the specific reference works and manuals designed by the UN to facilitate their independence. I also think translation is useful when comparing structures, e.g. conditionals, pointing out similarities and differences between English and my students’ native languages (mostly Spanish, Portuguese and French, in my case).

        9) In your view, what makes a good EFL (English as a Foreign Language) Teacher?

The ability to shut up and listen. I think a teacher should first and foremost be a listener and facilitator. Rather than explaining grammar rules or use of vocabulary, I prefer guided discovery methods that involve a lot of discussion. I am not doing the work, my students are. I do a lot of speaking pair work in my classes, which frees me up to monitor and coach students individually with grammar, vocab and pronunciation issues. This way, I can deal with various levels and stimulate individual learning within the group. I believe figuring things out by yourself is much better for the learning process. Collective learning is guaranteed by turning the individual issues into a group language review at the end of every class.

        10) How have other jobs you’ve done helped you in your professional life?

I have done editing and translating on the side. This is also something I just rolled into while helping friends in academia to polish up their papers to get them ready for publication. I have acquired a number of clients I work with regularly over the years, which is a nice addition to my teaching income. Nowadays, I mostly work on reports and papers that deal with world issues and are often written by researchers working as consultants for the United Nations. Working on topics the UN works on and focussing on UN style and language requirements has added to my knowledge of the system and the particular language criteria they use. The latter has in turn added to my skills in language teaching for UN staff.

        11) You published your own novel called The Little Lord of Life and Death in 2015. Can you sum up the book in a few sentences?

Combing my background in classics and my current work as an English language trainer, this book links my education, interest in history and mythology and professional development. It recounts the myth of Venus and Adonis rewritten as a coming-of-age novel from the perspective of Adonis. It is set in the distant past to account for the different versions of this myth among the different people and cultures living around the ancient Mediterranean, and describes a mythical magical time when there was still direct contact between the world of the gods and the human world.

        12) Can you think of somebody who has inspired you in your life and fill us in?

My mother. In spite of having a child at a young age and later going through a divorce that left her poor and made her work very hard to be able to provide for us her children, she managed to finish school, get a university degree and raise us very well. She always had time for books and stories and instilled a love of languages and literature in me as well as the knowledge that you can attain a good life by hard work. I combine this knowledge and this love in my teaching by encouraging my students to work toward their goals and have fun playing with language while doing it.

        13) If you could change one thing about the education system in your country of origin, what would it be?

At secondary school, we studied the literature of both my native language (Dutch) and the foreign languages we were studying (English, French and German). Over the years, we had to read a number of books in each language and analyse them and relate them to the period and place they had been written. In Dutch, we were asked to go far too deep into these books and were the strangest questions about the smallest, most insignificant details. We were asked to overanalyse every character’s every action and thought to the point where this became nauseating. This not only distracted from the actual stories we were reading, but it also permanently destroyed any desire I could have for any book written in Dutch. The freer, more open encouragement to read in the other languages and relate them to history and the origins of those books did not destroy my love of reading but stimulated healthy debate and a desire to read more. Studying literary history is important, but one should never lose sight of the purpose of reading, which is enjoyment while learning.

        14) If you could meet anybody who is alive or dead, who would you choose?

Eve (of Adam & Eve), assuming there ever was such a person. I would like to know how much the stories in Christian mythology are different from her life.

        15) Can you tell us about a film that made a strong impression on you?

Atonement (2007) directed by Joe Wright based on the novel by Ian McEwan. The concept of writing a book to make up for a mistake with disastrous consequences and sharing such a difficult part of yourself with the general public has always fascinated. There is also a beautifully filmed scene of almost 10 minutes depicting conditions on the beach at Dunkirk during the allied evacuation early in WWII with a single shot.

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*NB: the line of questioning somewhat differs from an earlier interview called The DELTA Teacher (https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/delta-teacher-daniel-israel/) as since the earlier piece was written, the interviewer had successfully completed DELTA Module 1 (https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/delta-module-1-survival-guide-daniel-israel/) before writing the questions for this one.