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January 11, 2008
Who needs English
I'm sure the new England football coach Fabio Capello has many attractive features but there are two that stand out above all others, especially to an English teacher. They are his need to learn English in a hurry and his £3 million a year pay packet.
Just in case I'm persuaded to take the job I've started planning the course.
Of the four skills of reading, listening, writing and speaking the latter two are the most important. There is little need for a manager to listen to anyone else or read what the papers are saying about him but speaking both during training sessions and news conferences and writing team lists are vital so to cut down on time I'll concentrate on these areas.
I'll start with some football vocabulary i.e. 'ball', 'kick', 'pass' and obviously 'goal', moving on to 'party', 'drink', 'hangover' and phrases such as 'throw up', and 'more money'. I would also start with the present simple. 'You kick ball' 'you tackle him' and finally building up to the imperative 'kick ball in goal', obviously a new direction for the England team.
Apart from grammar, functional skills will be needed especially at news conferences. Skills such as 'apologising' and 'making excuses' will be vital and my course would enable Fabio to work towards structures such as the 3rd conditional. This will allow him the chance to explain the latest defeat with such memorable excuses, as 'We would have won the match if the pitch had been better' or the classic 'If we had scored more goals, we would have beaten them'.
These advanced structures though are for the future, in the mean time we will be focusing on just enough words & phrases so that he does not totally confuse the team as to what the formation is and what their roles are within that formation. Mind you this has been the apparent problem with the last few managers all of whom have been good English speakers so perhaps a good grasp of English is not a requirement after all. I'd better let him keep his money and just get on with it and sit back with that optimistic feeling of hope I always have at the start of a match but which soon disappears once things get under way.
Posted by Andy Mason at January 11, 2008 11:19 PM