The Surf Training Method
Jake Creber
My Teaching Approach
I believe that when learning anything, be it a language or how to surf, creating a comfortable environment and knowing the students needs and goals are both key to successful learning. Creating the right environment isn't just about the physical environment, but also the atmosphere. Stress and negative emotions are known inhibitors of learning. Creating a friendly, happy, stress free environment, goes a long way productive learning.
Getting to know your students, will not only create a relationship, but will also help you to discover theirs needs and the best way to teaching them. Everyone is different, and will have individual needs. Creating a connection with the students will allow you to decipher what learning style suits them the best, be it, visually (by seeing), auditorily (by listening) or kinaesthetically (by doing). There is no right or wrong way to learn as each style is suited to different people. As a teacher it is our job to assist the students by any means at our disposal. It’s important that we recognise each of the students needs and assist them as much as possible.
Because of this belief, I think that is it important at the start off each course to get to know everyone. The first session should simply be an opportunity for the students to interact with each other as well as the teacher. The students would then be asked to fill out a quick questionnaire asking them what they hope to achieve from the course and anything specific they would like to learn.
The Surf Training Method
By using my teaching philosophies and beliefs mentioned above, I endeavour to use the Surf Training Method(STM) to provide opportunities for those who wish to teach surfing to english speaking students. The objective of this method is to give the students a thorough and comprehensive course in learning everything surfing, in english. By the completion of the course, it is expected that the students will be sufficiently equipped to be able to take a surf lesson in english. To do this I have derived the STM from communication teaching methods such as The Berlitz Method, Total Physical Response (TPR) Method and the audio-lingual method, just to name a few. By focusing on a communicative approach, this method will help the students improve there speaking and listening.
The main role of surf instructor is be able to communicate with their students; Through giving advice, instructions and corrections. Due to this is the course will focus heavily on the macro skills of speaking and listening. It is expected that the student will learn the reading and writing aspect of this course inductively, as it is not of the utmost importance for their careers.
The STM will use English as the taught language in all of its activities and classes. As this class is aimed at those who already have an intermediate level of english, not teaching in the students mother tongues will allow them to learn the correct pronunciations and context of the TL on top of providing a valuable opportunity to improve their conversational english. The end goal is to be able to teach in english, and it is my belief that if you are training to teach in english, you must first be able to learn in english.
Students will be expected to do a lot of the talking whilst participating in this method, with an aim of 80% STT. Once the students have learnt the TL they will then be expected to put in into practice, both with the teacher and other students in simulations, related to surf instructing. For this to occur the teacher will need to act as a facilitator and know how to get the students talking more and lead the conversation with probing and exploratory questions, encouraging them into conversations using the target language.
When teaching someone a new ability, such as surfing, that could potentially turn dangerous, it's a must that the teacher is able to give clear and concise instructions. As a results this course will focus mainly on accuracy of the TL, with a lesser emphasis on fluency. Though Fluency is important, during this course it is of greater importance, to focus on accuracy and pronunciation. As is is required the student have some prior knowledge of english, the fluency with the TL should come naturally.
As the course will mainly focus on accuracy, it important that the teacher is correcting that students, whenever a mistake is made. By adopting this approach with correction, the mistake will be picked up and corrected immediately.
In my experience when learning in a group environment, students can often get lost in the crowd. Due to this the class sizes will be no greater then 5 students. This allows for each student to get the necessary attention as well as being small enough that the students are able to co-learn, and converse without each discussion getting out of hand. There is no minimum number of people that are required for each course, but I believe that this method would work the best, with at east 2 students. This would create a better dynamic, where the students can interact with each other as well as the teacher. In my experience with learning other languages, having another students that is of a similar level, can greatly enhance the learning experience.
When learning a language, I believe that repetition is key to remembering new topics and TL. Due to this, at the start of each sessions, a revision class will take place. It will go over and making clear all that was learnt the previous day. By having this revisions class in the morning, the TL will still be fresh in the minds of the students, and the revision class will help the students put the TL into their long term memory.
The second session of each day will be when the new TL is introduced. During this time, the students will be doing different activities both with the teacher and each other, to learn and understand new TL and it pronunciation.
The third and final session of the day will focus on contextualising what was learnt in the previous session. This is to be achieved through activities that simulate situations that would occur on a day to day basis. By using this method it will assist the students in creating a connection with the new TL and the context its used in , leading to greater retention of the TL.
Target Market
The surf training method is targeted at those who wish to teach surfing in english and are over the age of eighteen. This method is specifically an ESP method and is not suitable for beginners wanting to learn english. Rather, this is method is for those wanting to learn specific TL related to surf instructing. Therefore, this course is targeted at those whom already have an intermediate working knowledge of the english language, but wish to have a better understanding of the english language within the surfing culture.
Assessment
After many years of study, I have come to realise that assessment often doesn't show the true development of students. Due to this, there will be no official assessments or exams during this course. However, at the midway point of the course as well as just before the end, the student will sit a quiz, not for the purpose of assessment, but rather for the teacher. This will allow the teacher to see exactly what each students has or hasn't picked up allowing for then teacher to then cover the material the students have not understood. By adopting this method, it is hope that the stress levels will be kept to a minimum, whilst retaining a comprehensive and fun course.
Example Syllabus
|
Week |
Topic |
Content |
Objectives |
|
1 |
Into/Equiptment |
Get to know everyone, Learning all equipment i.e types of boards, fins, waxes, wetsuits etc. |
|
|
2 |
Water Safety |
Reading the ocean, Rescue, First Aid, ‘what if’ situations. |
|
|
3 |
Wave knowledge/ Manouvers |
Wave size, directions, type of waves, types of swell, turns and tricks |
|
|
4 |
Teaching practices |
Teaching techniques and practices. |
1) To be able to assess each student/class and teach accordingly.
|
Typical day
|
Time |
Activiteis |
Objectives |
|
Morning (9:00-10:30) |
|
1) To revise and completely understand the previous days TL.
2) To clarify anything that they are still unsure about .
3) Get the students thinking critically about TL. |
|
Break (20 mins) |
N/A |
N/A |
|
Lunch (10:50- 12:20) |
|
|
|
Break (40 mins) |
N/A |
N/A |
|
Afternoon (1:00-2:30) |
|
1) To be able to use the learnt TL in role play of event that would occur in day to day life of a surf instructor. |
I am a TEFL qualified teacher who has experience teaching children and adults at all levels both individually and in groups. As well as teaching English, I was also an instructor at Portsea Surf Lifesaving Club where I taught in both the cadet and bronze camps, with students aged between 13-30. Before becoming an English teacher I worked in the Business sector after completing my Bachelor of Biological sciences as well as my Masters of Marketing.
Creo que es importante conocer personalmente a cada estudiante. Conocer las necesidades de cada estudiante, las metas y por qué desean aprender inglés me permitirá crear un curso de inglés específico para ellos. Soy parte de una comunidad de enseñanza que ha construido un sistema cuando no se usan libros de texto, y cada clase es diferente y dinámica, lo que permite un aprendizaje rápido.
