All posts by David Meddows

AI: More Than Human?

Still No1: The Human Factor

4 days. 32 lecture slots. 500+ lectures.

With the latest news for you from the world of English language teaching, we’re just back from the international IATEFL teachers’ conference. What a difference a year makes. In last year’s conference guide there was only 1 mention of AI. This year there were 46. The good news is that despite the rise of AI, The Human Factor is still No 1. Here’s why:

3 takeaways from the world’s biggest English Language Teaching conference:

The skills that make us Human make us more employable

1 of 3 > Making students more employable:

43% of Gen Z are worried about jobs being lost to AI.

However, Mike Mayors, Senior Director of Pearson’s Global Scale of English identified that the very soft skills that make us human are those that hold the key to students’ future employability:

  • Collaboration
  • Critical Thinking
  • Communication
  • Creativity
  • Leadership
  • Self-Management
  • Social Responsibility

Read more:

Effective strategies for teaching any language with Scott Thornbury

2 of 3 > “Reward communicative competence rather than accuracy”

Any teacher who has studied the CELTA (teaching qualification) will have read teaching methodology books by Scott Thornbury. Exploring the question of whether learning English is different from learning other languages (spoiler: it isn’t) he concluded with 4 main points relevant to teaching any language:

  • Reward communicative competence rather than accuracy
  • Teach grammar responsibly and at the time it is needed
  • Encourage memorisation of high frequency exemplars
  • Project your enthusiasm for the target language

Wise words from the grandmaster himself!

For teenagers experiencing life in an international community on summer school nothing is more joyful than learning new skills and exploring the world together, which is why at More Than English we put meaningful communication at the very heart of our programme from morning to night. Yes, we work hard on helping students develop accuracy and their knowledge of the language. However, what is equally important as how much English they know is what they can do with their English and that requires a whole extra set of ‘human skills’ (see next point).

Read more:
Meaningful Communication @ More Than English (pp10-21)

Chia Suan Chong: “it is relationships & trust that underlies successful communication.”

3 of 3 > Mediation and the power of human relationships

Legendary National Geographic course book writer Chia Suan Chong was clear: “it is relationships and trust that underlies successful communication in today’s world of fast and overwhelming information and AI.” And successful communication requires ‘mediation’ skills, or, in other words, building bridges between people:

Teaching mediation:

  • Transactional: mediating texts
  • Interpersonal: mediating communication
  • Evaluative: mediating concepts

At More Than English we are not just teaching students the language they need to have everyday conversations. We are training them to communicate across cultures and explore the world of ideas from different perspectives. We are training them to work effectively in international teams to develop new skills and deliver projects from Model UN debates to panel discussions and theatre productions. We know, because we have seen it so many times, there is no limit to what our teenagers can achieve together, and for the forseeable future, AI will not come close.

Read more:
Subjects & Specialisms at More Than English (pp10-21)

More Than English founders David Meddows & Claire Norwood @ the 2024 IATEFL conference in Brighton

We’d love to talk with you on any topic from teaching methodology to airport transfers!

76 million reasons

76 million reasons to be positive in 2024:

Let’s be honest, if you turned on the TV news during 2023, you may be starting 2024 with a feeling of trepidation.

Let’s start the New Year with some good news:

100 trees

To celebrate the New Year, working with our partners at Ecologi, we’ve decided to fund planting of 100 extra trees this month. These will be part of a reforestation project in the Mau Region of Kenya (read more).

5,700 hectare reforestation project

Will it make a difference?

Working with people like you and us, Ecologi has already funded 76 million trees.

Want to create more good news?

Discover how your business or your family can become part of the solution with a subscription to Ecologi (read more) or kindly gift more impact from just £15 (GBP) (click here) .

Offset your carbon for the price of a weekly coffee & pastry

You might be surprised

A subscription with Ecologi is more affordable than you think. A family can offset their carbon emissions for about the same price as a cup of coffee & a pastry per week.

100 trees for the new year!

Small changes add up

Imagine: 76 million trees planted as a result of a simple subscription. Proof perhaps that small choices and simple actions made by individuals as consumers, voters, employees and citizens can add up to big changes. That’s all the reason we need to say:

Happy New to you all!

Let’s fill the world with possibility, positivity and progress in 2024.
David & Claire
Founders of More Than English

Create more good news:

Learn more:

Summer School Is Terrifying

Is summer school in the UK scary?

YES! There’s no doubt about it. Summer school in England is terrifying.

  • Travelling to a foreign country.
  • Learning to use develop new skills with other teenagers from 20+ countries
  • Surviving the Black Death.

This year brave students from South America, Asia and every corner of Europe came to More Than English. Watch the video to see how many survived:

As you can see there are so many reasons to feel brave:

1) We have friendly staff

For every 4 students there is 1 member of staff. As you can see in the photographs (below), they are very friendly.

 

2) You will sleep in a building that is only 300 years old

Everybody knows that there are never any ghosts in 300 year old buildings. At Halloween and when there is a full moon, you might see a lady in white looking for her fiance, but only if you are unlucky.

3) You will never do anything scary.

We prefer activities like making tea and picking flowers. We promise you’ll never do anything scary at More Than English.

You see? We told you so.

Still feeling brave? Good: we look forward to seeing you this summer. Our friendly staff will be ready to welcome you:

Find out more about what study options are available at summer school 2024 here. Or, click here to see our excursions & activity programme.

Still feeling afraid? Please watch this extra video to feel much better. See you in July/August 2024:

 

 

Jump into the first days of summer 2023

Jump into the first days of summer 2023!

Dear Parents!

You made the dream possible. Now you can share these precious moments.

For a small flavour of what happened in Week 1, 2023 click on the video.

Enjoy! And thank you.

Claire, David & Team More Than English.

Specialisms

Teaser Trailer

Take a ‘behind the scenes’ look at what our students did on Monday, which was Day 1, Week 1 of afternoon Specialisms.

English as a tool

Specialisms provide an opportunity for our teenagers to work with professional coaches to follow their passion or try something new. Improving their collaborative skills and learning to communicate across cultures, this week our students are using their English to:

  • create a dance show
  • develop their sports skills (Golf, Tennis, Football
  • write stories in English (Creative Writing)
  • learn how to storyboard, script and shoot a movie.

Take a peak

Take a peak at Day 1 of our fast paced four-day Specialism projects. At the time of writing it is Thursday. Tomorrow is Friday, how far will they have progressed? We’ll find out! 

Discovering Oxford 2023

Here we are with the class of 2023 discovering Oxford: the city of dreaming spires.

Come on parents… let’s jump in:
Francesco from Italy with David Meddows (More Than English co-director).

It’s busy. It’s international. It’s inspirational and it’s ours for the day. More Than English co-director David Meddows used to be a lecturer at Oxford Brookes University, so he was our guide for the day.

The Bridge of Sighs, Oxford, named after the Ponte dei Sospiri, Venice.

We got off the coach by the Ashmolean Museum and from there walked past Trinity College and under the Bridge of Sighs, named after the Ponte dei Sospiri in… where else (?) Venice.

Venice has gondolas. Oxford has punts.

Venice? So what do Venice and Oxford have in common? Well, while Venice’s waterways are on an altogether bigger and more dramatic scale, Oxford nevertheless has its own proud tradition of leisurely travel by waterway. In Venice they have the gondola. In Oxford, we have the punt.

Alexi from Mexico discovering the ancient backstreets of Oxford.

Winding our way through the ancient back streets, we walked half-way across the compact city centre ‘soaking in the atmosphere’ of the university colleges (that together make up the University of Oxford) and arrived at Magdalen Bridge for a punt on the river. This activity is in the tradition of Oxford University students who take picnics on punts and reflect on notions of philosophy, art and science.

**Warning: this video contains scenes of a duck attack on our students!**

Crossing the road we immediately entered the vast campus and lands of Christchurch College, you know, the one whose dining room features in the Harry Potter movies.

From there a leisurely walk brought us to the Covered Market where students enjoyed looking around the boutique shops. Our final destination was inevitably the Westgate Shopping Centre which provided students with a well-earned opportunity for retail therapy and a chance simply to relax and spend time together conversing in their linguafranca: English.

A fantastic day: congratulations to all our students.

Important: no ducks were harmed in the making of this video.

Home is where the heart is: a light game of football back in the spectacular grounds of Moor Park to finish off the day.

What’s for dinner chef?

A journey through food

Part of ‘feeling at home’ is having healthy and delicious food that makes you feel good.

Let’s take a quick look at what is happening in the kitchen:

Our team of chefs’ mantra is “locally sourced, globally inspired.” That means your children will try food from around the world including some British food.

British day

On Sunday we enjoyed that most traditional of English dishes: the roast dinner including Yorkshire Pudding.

Tacos without chillis?

Can you imagine Mexican tachos without the heat of chillis? The British cannot imagine roast dinner without gravy: it’s the ‘sauce’ that contains all the flavour.

The same day we enjoyed English breakfast (eggs, bacon, hashbrowns, tomatoes and toast) with an English picnic for tea by the lake in the spectacular 20-hectare grounds of Moor Park.

Bite-size snacks

Do you remember when your mother used to say ‘don’t eat too much now or you’ll spoil your dinner?’ Mother, of course, was right.

That’s why every day we also have ‘bitesize’ snacks at 1100am. Can you see the brownies in the photo? Deliciously ‘choclatey’ but with reduced sugar so everyone eats well at lunch.

To keep students ‘powered up’ during their busy day we also have snacks at afternoon break during Specialisms and  something light to eat at supper.

We’ll be visiting the kitchen again very soon! 

 

 

What are we going to learn?

Powerful life lessons

On the morning of the first full day, we asked students: “what are you going to learn” on summer school?”

Here’s what your children said:

Confidence:

The students told us how much they will miss their parents. They also told us that travelling independently without parents is an opportunity to gain self-confidence. We couldn’t agree more.

Communicating across cultures:

Our students understand that communicating with other teenagers from other cultures is a challenge, but also richly rewarding. While misundertandings can and will happen, gaining lifelong friends from the other side of the world is an opportunity not to be missed.

Global issues

Brazilians are experiencing climate change in one way. French in quite another. The students commented on the rich possibilities to look at global issues from the perspective of other teenagers in different countries.

Critical Thinking Skills

Developing language skills is of course important, but just as important as ‘how much English you know’ is ‘what you can do with the English you know.’ By exploring world issues and finding solutions to problems, our students will be developing their Critical Thinking Skills.

Collaborative Skills

10 hours to create a dance show. One week to learn the language of speech making then research and deliver your own speech. 4 afternoons to make script, shoot and edit a film. Looking after each other in the residence. Working together to keep bedrooms tidy. Our students understand that ‘no man is an island’ and together we achieve more.

Confidence

In their own towns and cities our students go to school with other teenagers they have known their whole lives. Here on summer school there is a golden opportunity for our students to redefine and expand their idea of who they are and who they want to be.

Any group of strangers who face a challenging new environment together become very close to each other as they travel that journey together. Being on summer school brings out the best in most teenagers helping them to develop their kinder more supportive side. Maybe the thought of speaking on stage in front of the whole school back home is terrifying. But here, with your new international friends who have joined you on the very same journey, suddenly you feel like you are with people who have ‘got your back’ and will support and applaud you to the very rafters.

Got a presentation to deliver in class tomorrow? No problem.

Language Skills

Naturally, all of this collaboration, thinking and doing will add up to rapid advances in English Language fluency. Very soon our students will be dreaming in English. But, if and only if, they apply everything that they told us on the first day.

Our students know what they have to do and what the benefits are. Together, we can make this summer a time of life changing moments. Thank you parents for giving us the opportunity to make this magic happen. You are superbeings too.

The Superbeings have ARRIVED!

Image

They came. They made friends. They impressed.

Thank you to our incredible team

A huge thank you to ou incredible team. You never stopped smiling despite some huge airport delays.

The power of youth

What was our first impression? Delight, to see children from countries including Mexico, Spain, Italy, Romania, Brazil,  France, Belgium and Czech Republic almost immediately using English to play board games as if they known each other for years.

Even after those long journeys, the children did not seem tired at all! So, they needed a short game of football to finish their arrival day.

Lights out!

Time to sleep zzzz. Good night everyone.

 

Oman Revisited

The Sultanate of Oman

More Than English founders David & Claire were teachers at the British Council in Oman between 2006 and 2008. 15 years later, they’re back…!

Quick facts about Oman

  • The most important thing to know about Oman is that when you arrive you’ll receive a warm welcome. More on that later. 
  • Oman is ruled by the royal family.
  • The country is greener than you might think. In fact, Salalah in the south has green hills and cows.
Reunion between David & Claire with former colleagues Tariq and Mahmoud at The British Council

A  very personal journey

Between 2006 and 2008, More Than English founders David and Claire were teachers at the British Council in Muscat. Teaching hundreds of students and going on trips into the countryside at the weekends, they came to love the country, the landscape and most of all, the warmth and generosity of the people.

2008 was quite a long time ago: 15 years ago the iphone was a new gadget and people were not as connected as they are now. Sadly, David and Claire lost touch with their colleagues at the British Council.

A heartwarming reunion

However, this month, February 2023, David and Claire knocked on the door of the British Council where they used to teach English, They felt a little nervous and wondered if anyone would recognise them. They need not have worried: four old colleagues were there on that very day.

Reunion between David & Claire with former colleagues Nasser, Mohammed, Mahmoud and Tariq at The British Council

Meeting our old colleagues was an incredibly heartwarming experience and later in the week we met some of the old teachers who until recently had been working at the British Council teaching centre also.

His Majesty Sultan Qaboos

If you ever go to Oman, you will quickly understand the word “Sultanate”.

When His Majesty Sultan Qaboos acceded to the throne in 1970, Oman was very undeveloped with few roads, no real education system and a tiny economy. His Majesty Sultan Qaboos was revered by the people of Oman because he transformed the country developing the economy and infrastructure plus the education and health systems.

His Majesty Sultan of Qaboos: beloved leader of Oman from 1970 until 2020

In Western countries there is a generally held belief that democracy is the only correct form of government. However, Sultan Qaboos provided a masterclass in an alternative form of government that was very stable and which worked in the interests of the people.

On his death in 2020, his Majesty Sultan Qaboos was succeeded by His Majesty Sultan Haitham bin Tariq Al Said and the people say that the new leader is walking in the same footsteps as his revered predecessor.

Education agents Mohammed Luqman and Usama Salim plus Paul Gallina from Southbourne School of English and Claire Norwood from More Than English

Old acquaintances & New friends

Visiting Oman was an opportunity to spend time with old friends such as  education advisers Kate Clarke and Majid Al Ghusaini plus Khalil Al Balushi from the Ministry of Education.

It was also an opportunity to meet other education leaders including education agents Mohammed Luqman, Usama Salim, associate professor Dr Ahmad Hosseini and, from the Ministry of Education, Amira and Salim Al Kharousi.

Special Thanks

Special thanks to Andy and Geraldine Buckland from Gulf English for inspiring our visit and organising a fantastic weekend of events and meetings. Special thanks also to Dr Ahmad Hosseini fpr a wonderful afternoon and to Khalil Al Balushi fpr everything he did for David and Claire including taking them at the weekend through epic desert scenery to Rustaq Castle where they also visited the ancient home of Zakiya.

Respecting the past

Zakiya Al Lamki is famous in Rustaq for renovating the 300 year old family home which she had lived in when she was a girl but which had been unhabited for 28 years. Her work preserving this historic building provides the perfect example of how his Majesty Sultan Qaboos guided the people of Oman to develop the country while preserving its rich heritage and character.

Welcome Omani students to England

Teenagers from 20+ country come together at More Than English every summer. This year, we hope to welcome the first Omani students to summer school so that they can introduce the culture and history of this incredible country to the rest of the world. Welcome to Oman! 

Quick facts about Oman

  • Oman has modest reserves of oil which have helped the country’s development and it is set to become a leader in green hydrogen fuel production
  • The best time to visit is December to February when temperatures are a pleasant 25 degrees.
  • Oman is a very cosmopolitan country: a bridge between east and west with people from Oman, Europe and Asia.