Why I don’t like Second Life (by Jacqueline Goulbourne)

Imagine a world where you can make a cartoon avatar of yourself and do whatever you like in an international community of English speakers.

Well, it already exists, in Taiwan where I have spent most of my career teaching,  it's called ‘World of Warcraft‘ and the mission of almost every parent of teenagers there to wrest their kids off of it!  But imagine if something similar existed, primarily for education, business and sex.  That exists too and I’m fairly certain that it’s nothing we’d really want to get students involved in.

I’m sure many of you disagree and are using Second Life in your practice to good effect, so my intent is not to disrespect your work, but to explain the problems I have with Second Life and other such virtual worlds.

I first experimented with Second Life in 2003 when friends of mine had set up an experimental teacher training space.  I didn’t really get interested.  More recently I came across Second Life in a wee teacher training course I’m doing.  I fought against my inherent tendency to not engage with things that don’t resonate with me and decided to ‘join in’ and not be such a negative Nancy.  Although I have an aversion to ‘virtual worlds’ and to speaking through machines in any way (I don’t use telephones) I put this aside in order to try and retrieve any babies in this bathwater.

I Googled up Second Life and was met with this screen:

[screenshot from https://join.secondlife.com/ ]

The user sees this screen with avatars that can be chosen.  Your avatar can be customised later on but I immediately took real exception to the prototype avatars that were presented for customisation.  These include a slightly scary rabbit, a robot and lots of white kids who clearly resembled extras from a 90s vampire film.  The only black woman present is wearing a short dress with a flower in her hair and high heeled shoes - a very different aesthetic to the white women presented.  One of the men has a shirt open to show rippling pecs but generally, the male figures are covered up.  For me, it doesn’t represent an acceptable aesthetic to present to students in my care, particularly young women.

There are two strands to my  misgivings: firstly the absence of ethnic diversity and secondly, the overt sexualisation of young women, in the Second Life avatar choices.   As a teacher joining in, I tried to choose an avatar that could represent my self without making myself ridiculous.  I’m 37, pretty fat, greying, and generally get dressed in the dark.  My choices ranged from avatars that mostly looked like a 14 year old version on myself: pale skinned, bone thin, and dressed in black with lots of eyeliner and it seemed undignified and self-abasing. 

I’m not scarred by the experience. But then I’m a confident, English-speaking adult.  I can articulate why I don’t want to be this 1990 version of myself and tried to change it.  Can we expect young, perhaps not so good at English students to raise their own misgivings to their educators or will they simply go along with what the teacher, or the authority wants them to do?  Thinking back to my time teaching junior high school girls in Taiwan, none of those prototype avatars is of Han Chinese or any other Taiwanese ethnicities.

What’s the message here?

White people (and the token African American) own English. You are different. Go get yourself a white identity to join our English-speaking world!

OK, yes, you can choose to brown/yellow/black up later if you want to, but that’s not the standard issue human in this community.

Don’t we want our students to come and sit at the table as equals? To join the English-speaking communities that they are passionate about?

In my Real Life classes, every kid is a beautiful prototype of the individual they want to become as they are: be they fat or thin, with braces, wearing unsexy clothes - with a wonderful inheritance of Chinese ethnicity, not something to be tagged on later, once they have chosen their ‘core’ avatar.

Am I over-thinking this?

Perhaps, but if we use these tools in the classroom, we are also raising the question of who ‘owns’ English.  We have to ask who funds a lot of these communities and to what business or political ends?  To promote ELT as a British, Australian, White American/European activity?  Why?

Is that congruent with our principles, desirable for our personal teaching contexts?

Cartoon images hurt as much as photographic images.

As a teacher I’m rarely didactic and I know I can’t change the world, but I am absolutely committed to making every child  in my care feel like they can be whoever they want to be and that includes valuing and celebrating every child’s individuality and identity and not promoting certain images as a norm within an educational context.

Jackie has been a teacher for 15 years, around the world,
but mostly in Taiwan.

How to Avoid Overseas EFL Teaching Job Scams

(guest post by Susan Taylor)

Vacationing in a foreign country is wonderful, but it isn't always fulfilling enough. You may visit a new place, completely fall in love with the land, the people, even the food, and want to experience those things on at least a semi-permanent basis. Teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) is one way to do that.

Unfortunately, many EFL teachers can find themselves victims of job scams, which can not only cause them to lose a lot of money, but can sour them on the entire overseas experience, causing them to speak out about their negative experiences. Complaints like this are especially frustrating because language instruction can be a wonderful experience, especially overseas. If you decide to pursue an overseas EFL teaching job, be on the lookout for these red flags.

Up Front Payment Required

It's very rare that you should have to pay any kind of fee for any kind of job, let alone an EFL job. You're the one applying to do the work in order to be paid. Why should you have to pay anything before you get there? Disreputable employers, or scammers posing as EFL employers, will tell you the payment is to cover your travel costs, or for an orientation you must attend before you can begin teaching. 

Sadly, this very thing happens to many hopeful job seekers. One such story involved a woman who lost $2,500 when she wired money via Western Union for travel costs and rent fees with the promise she’d be reimbursed by the employer. When they received it and then asked her for more money, she became suspicious, and found out it was a scam.

Huffington Post columnist and author, Julie Gray, wrote an article about a very similar experience in which she described how even though she considers herself quite savvy, she still fell for a scam. It can happen to anyone.  As the instances above illustrate, if you pay that money, you'll likely never see it again. And you’ll still have to cover your travel. Be suspicious of any company that requires payment up front when you apply for a job with them.

 

It's Too Good To Be True

It's not difficult to find out the average pay for an EFL teacher in your country of interest. That information is available from multiple sites on the Internet, such as EFL businesses, and EFL support sites and forums. Just like most other teachers of any subject, EFL teachers don't go into that career field to become rich. 

Part of the compensation is the opportunity to live in a foreign country, and to interact with the culture and people there.  If an EFL company offers you what seems like an outrageous salary, or one that's much higher than what other companies are offering in the same area, it's probably a scam.

 

Questionable Web Sites

Just about anyone can build a Web site these days with just a little know-how and a Web host. In the cases of Internet scams, it's become the equivalent of a layperson hanging out a shingle that claims they're a physician. Fortunately, there are some things to look for that will help you identify EFL scam sites. 

First, look at the URL. Does it end with an unusual extension you've never seen before? Not to say that all sites with those extensions are questionable, but it's definitely a something to examine a little more closely. 

Also, is the site well designed? Are there a lot of spelling and grammar errors? Is the domain name unrelated to EFL? Any or all of these factors should tell you all you need to know about that supposed EFL employer.

 

Poor English

Think about it. You're applying to English schools to teach English. Doesn't it stand to reason that the people who work there would be very familiar with the language, and would have excellent English skills? One or two mistakes are probably nothing to be alarmed about. You can find errors on a lot of Web sites or advertisements written by people for whom English is their first language. But if the materials you're looking at are rife with errors, there's something wrong. 

It may also help for you to be more familiar with the native language of the country you’re attempting to teach in. For example, if you’re talking with a school in Spain and are worried about the reputation of the program, send out some tweets to people in the area and check teaching groups on Facebook for more information. If you’re rusty on the language of the country, audio-based programs help quite a bit. In this scenario, brushing up on Spanish will help you communicate, be more aware and maybe even help your instruction.

What other advice would you give to a newbie TEFLer?

The Inverted Eagle: A Student's Book Review

I'm super proud to offer you my very first guest post on this blog from one of my students:
Martina R.

Back Story:  

On January 21st, Adam Gray and Marcos Benevides released the World's First Free-to-Share Commercial ELT Textbook.  Martina (an adult who works in banking) and I have been working for some time on her use of connectors in written work - particularly reports and emails - however I decided to invite her to visit the link provided by Marcos on Twitter, as knowing that she loves crime fiction books I thought that perhaps reporting on a story in English might help her to utilize these words in a more natural context.  She downloaded the book and wrote not only a summary of the story but also made notes on what she learned and provided Marcos with feedback regarding the sale of creative commons licensed material via the internet. 

SUMMARY

The story is told by Adam Gray and Marcos Benevides and has 6 chapters. The length of each chapter is comfortable. In the following I will give you a short summary of the content of the individual chapters:


Introduction - Characters:

Mr. Evan and Nancy Reed both are in the fifties, Judith Reed is the mother of Mr. Evan Reed. The Reeds had two children: Kevin and Allison. Lucia Deza was the housekeeper of the Reeds, Miguel was the son of Lucia and was also living in the Reed´s house.  A detective, Eliana Koo, in charge of the investigation. Officer Kazuo Yokota helped Eliana. Eliana’s nickname is Ellie.

Chapter 1

There was a crime in the Reed´s house: a robbery and a drugging. Someone stole all things which were located in the wall safe above the bed of Evan and Nancy. Both were victims. Things of value were kept in the safe: jewelry, some stamps and cash: about $ 80k. Judith and the housekeeper found the Reeds at their bedroom in the morning. 

You should know that the wall safe was opened without the use of force!

Evan and Nancy had to stay some days in the hospital, due to the drugging. But both victims were okay.

Seven people were living in the house of the Reeds: the five Reeds and the housekeeper with her son.  Kevin, the son of the Reeds, was twenty-four years old, and unemployed. His younger sister Allison was twenty-one and a student at Brown University. By the way, she was engaged to marry Derrick Quenton, the son of the owner of the Quenton Hotels. The Quentons were one of the richest family in the country. Miguel was nineteen years old and a pre-med student at Georgetown University. He was born in Peru.

Ellie visited the Reeds and started her investigation.

Firstly, Ellie had a look at the bedroom of the Reeds´ where the crime happened. She made a detailed scan of the whole room and wrote her notes directly into her laptop. An important detail she noticed was a spilled teacup and a large wet spot near the teacup. Then, Ellie talked with Ms. Judith Reed and the housekeeper Lucia to get a first picture of what happened on the day when the crime had taken place. Two important questions were “Who knows the combination of the wall safe?” and “Who had a key to the bedroom of Evan and Nancy Reed?”



Chapter 2: Three Interviews

A lot of questions and many answers as well as an interesting feedback from the crime lab.

The crime lab found out that the tea which the Reeds had got (?) before the robbery was drugged with powerful sleeping pills. Nancy Reed was allergic to these pills.   Ellie had a conversation with Kevin first, the unemployed son of the Reeds. She asked him about his activities last night and where he was.

The second conversation was between Ellie and Allison, the youngest daughter of the Reeds. Ellie asked her the same questions as she had asked Kevin – what did you do last night and where? Moreover, Ellie asked Allison about her fiancé Derrick.

Finally, Ellie wanted to have a talk with Miguel. He started the conversation with “I have something to tell you that will make me look guilty, ….” After his honest statement, Ellie asked him the same questions as the two women.

Two of the three people could have a reason to steal the things out of the wall safe: (a) Kevin – because he was unemployed and needed additional money and (b) Miguel - because Evan and Nancy Reed wanted him to leave the house – and Miguel could be angry about this. In addition, the student was studying medicine, so he knew about the effect of sleeping pills.



Chapter 3 – The Hospital

The first lie: Judith told Ellie that she lied concerning the combination of the wall safe, she gave the numbers to Kevin. Because of her age, Judith forgot, that she also gave the combination to Miguel. After this, Ellie wanted to hear the whole story. Judith started to tell the story which had begun a month ago with the purchase of a beautiful stamp.

At the end of the conversation between Ellie and Judith Reed Yokota, a colleague of Ellie and Kevin entered the room. Ellie saw Kevin and she accused him of lying to her.

The next steps: Elle checked the stories of the involved people and wanted to search the house from the top to bottom.

After that, Ellie drove to the hospital where Evan and Nancy Reed were staying. Nancy was sleeping  and Even was telephoning someone with his cell phone. Ellie stopped in front of the door and tried to understand the call between Evan and the other person. The words (which) she heard were “Brian … investors …. excited about the project – to get money together”. Some / a few seconds after the  call, Ellie went into the room and introduced herself to the Reeds. Then she told the Reeds a part of her investigation. It was surprising, that Evan accused his son of committing the robbery, because the Reeds wanted that Kevin tried to find a job and they had informed him that they were stopping his monthly allowance. Later, Ellie asked the Reeds to describe the occurrences which happened last night separately?

At the end of the Chapter, Yokota called Ellie and told her that there might be a new motive ….

Chapter 4 – The Suspect

The likely suspect was Kevin at the moment – he lied several times: concerning the safe combination, his financial situation and his activities on the day of the crime.

Suddenly, the cell phone of Ellie rang again and Yokota was on the other end of the line. He had an interesting piece of news which would change the current situation and the investigation: The police found the stolen things in the room of ……

Ellie spoke to the person in which room they found the stolen things.

Chapter 5 – Family Secrets

Ellie had a daughter. When Ellie investigated a hot case and needed a lot of time, Sofia –  her daughter – stayed sometimes at her neighbor.

Ellie talked again with Allison. The daughter of the Reed´s didn´t believe that Miguel was a criminal. Ellie discussed again with Allison about the relationship between both and checked the schedule last night. Allison had an advantage, her diary, in which Ellie found the proof that Allison told the truth.

Later Ellie decided to check the bedroom of the Reeds once again and she found new findings.

Chapter 6 – The Arrest

Back at the police station, Ellie made a few phone calls and received some interesting information about Mr. Reed and his financial situation. Moreover, the lab had new findings concerning the stolen things. Finally, Ellie had all information to proof who was the suspect. She went to the hospital and told the Reeds the result of her investigation.

-  0  -

Key words and phrases I learned

The first time I read the story, it was interesting. During the second reading, I marked the words I didn´t know. I translated some of the marked words which I think could be important and interesting for me. For instance: “unconsciously – my donkey bridge = the two people were drugged..”.  The story is realistic, so I can draw pictures in my mind to keep new words. In addition, I have learned vocabulary like “nodded” (nicken), “muttered (murmeln)”, “growled” (knurren), “yawned” (gähnen), “frowned” (die Stirn runzeln), “yelled” (schreien), “urged” (ermahnen), “scoffered” (verspotten / Judith scoffered Ellie.), “annoyed” (verärgert / Ellie looked annoyed).  The word “cane”: A lot of older people being over 70 years need a support when they will go / will move – for example they could use a cane.  “Allowance” – Taschengeld. Children get a fixed allowance per month.   

Furthermore, I reviewed my grammar skills. 

Interesting points of grammar I noticed

The position of an adverb – for example: “Ellie asked gently.” – also possible “Ellie gently asked.” Or “Ellie said politely.”

Best features to this style of writing and exercises – enjoyed most

The style of writing is moderate, the essential vocabularies are understandable and most of the essential vocabulary is comprehensible. The author mostly uses short sentences. The different exercises are helpful as they repeat the content of the chapter and the vocabulary. I especially like the questions, which will result in an answer for an important question. To describe a picture (a room) in a way of adding the missing things is also a good idea.  The story, the exercises as well as the content of the story, all this things are successful but the vocabulary in the story could be on a little slightly higher level - could be slightly more challenging.

If you had to buy this book, what price would be suitable / what is it worth?

I would like to pay around 10 Euros for such a book. The book is worth between 20 and 30 Euros. The ideas / conceptions of exercises are brilliant. But the Internet offers a lot of books and exercises so that I think, people will not pay more than EUR 9.99 for such a learning book which you can download via Internet.

Martina R.

Stuttgart/2 Mai 2010

Oh, by the way, Adam &Marcos - Martina has already started Death on U Street and she wanted me to let you know  that she'd like you to write more books please.

What do you think of Martina's summary?  Would you like to give her feedback on her description or ask her any questions?  Do you think that your students would benefit from reading a summary like this?   

Where are learning materials heading - how long will it be before most textbooks and readers become available online?  What do you think of their bold strategy in allowing the price for download to be determined by the purchaser? 


Useful links

• Whodunnit? by Adam Gray and Marcos Benevides
• Marcos Benevides' blog on Task-Based Learning
• Abax Publishing Blog
• Scraps: a dogme-style textbook?
• Creative Commons 

Best,
Karenne
image credits: Eagles by Alaskan Dude on Flickr.com