English at Cebit

I know this isn't the current logo, but it's my favourite!

There are times when I consider myself very lucky to do the job I’m in.  I love technology and have the chance to teach it, but my main role is that of English coach and every now and again I get the chance to combine the two.  This week is Cebit in Hanover which, according to the organisers, is the largest IT trade fair in the world.  Of course, the linguist in me wants to know if largest refers to area, exhibitors, or visitors, but hey, who cares?  It’s a big show and there is more than enough to keep you occupied for a day.

Now some of my colleagues are a bit suspicious of my motives for taking my English class to the show.  In the eyes of many of them I’m a geek, so it smacks of self-interest.  (OK, I know half a dozen command line orders in Linux, and I’ve got a fluffy Tux on my desk. If that makes me a geek… )

The real reason I take the English class to Cebit is that it gives them the chance to practice their English skills in a real-world environment – something which isn’t all that easy to simulate in the middle of Germany!  The more you can get the subject out of the classroom and into the real world, the more chance you have of getting the kids to connect with it.  Course books are full of trips to adventure parks and stories of crimes solved by kids which is all well and good, but doesn’t necessarily present the learners with the lexis they will need after they leave school.  In a world where cleaning ladies learn English because the handbooks for their machines are only issued in that language, we have to look more at the subject material of what we teach and ask ourselves if it is really relevant.

The great thing about Cebit, from the English point-of-view, is that there are a huge number of exhibitors (often from the Far East) who don’t speak German.  If you can talk to them in English you have a distinct advantage when it comes to getting information.  In addition, all the companies have English advertising materials which alone provides enough content for months of teaching.  The kids are confronted with different accents and sometimes the exhibitors are not very good at English.  This gives them a real communication challenge.  They see at first hand, classic intercultural competence situations, from handshaking to personal space issues, to eye-contact, to small talk.  They experience that English isn’t a neatly packaged subject which comes in 45 minute blocks, but rather a dynamic issue where knowledge acquired two years ago is suddenly needed now.

The kids have to do presentations on what they found that was interesting or just plain incredible.  Given my reputation for being “technology-aware” they know they will have to search well to find a good subject.  In the past, some groups have even videoed conversations with exhibitors – proof, if I needed it, that they really were using their language skills.  Of course, I don’t expect the kids to go around all day talking English – that’s not the point of the exercise, but they come away seeing that English skills are relevant today and that the requirements go a lot further than ordering a beer and a hamburger on holiday.

What tactics do you have for getting English out into the real world?