From the Pitch to Pedagogy: The Impact of a Lifelong Football Passion on Language Teaching

Can you provide a brief overview of your background and expertise?

I’ve been a language learner and language lover for some 70 years, studying French, German, Latin and Greek at school (all in the same way!), French and German at Cambridge University (still by ‘Grammar-Translation’), did PG research on motivation factors in language learning before learning how to teach and exploring the reality as a teacher of languages and football in a UK comprehensive school, in parallel with reading Freire, Stevick, Rogers and Nunan. I’ve worked as a teacher for over 50 years, as a teacher trainer for 48 years, been a manager (DoS, Principal, Director) for 47 years, but only worked as a full-time member of staff for 2 organisations, the Bell Educational Trust and NILE. I’ve worked in and for some 70 countries, leading projects, delivering courses and speaking at conferences, and learning on the job every single year.

What are the main takeaways or insights you aim to deliver during your talk, and how do you believe they will benefit the audience?

I want to explore with colleagues the extent to which the broadly humanistic values and principles that I have espoused from very early in my career have worked in practice both in the classroom and in wider institutional contexts and whether they remain valid 50 years on as we stand on the threshold of a possible AI revolution in language learning and teaching. What we all take away will depend on how we react to what we share, but we’ll have common ground in wanting positive and worthwhile outcomes.

Can you recall a particularly memorable experience related to teaching or training that left a lasting impact on you?

The realisation as I stood on Munich Station back in the 70s, wanting to buy a bit of lunch from a kiosk, that though I could talk at length about ,Entelechie’ in the work of Goethe and ,Verfremdungseffekt’ in the work of Brecht I didn’t know the words to ask for any of the filled rolls on offer and had to point. That reinforced what I was feeling about traditional approaches to language and what became a lifelong belief in a truly communicative approach to language teaching.

Can you recall a particularly memorable experience related to teaching or training that left a lasting impact on you?

Who? Many colleagues at Bell and NILE, especially some ‘critical friends’, Robin Davis, Philip Prowse, Rod Bolitho, Alan Pulverness and Thom Kiddle, and others I’ve worked closely with, Mario Rinvolucri, Sandra Nicholls, Pauline Rea-Dickins, Kari Smith and Lynda Taylor. In my early reading Freire, Stevick, Rogers, Nunan and Rinvolucri, followed later by Michael Lewis, Elana Shohamy, John Field and Cyril Weir. As managers, Frank Bell, Alan Maley, Brian Clough and Paolo Ancelotti.

What? Humanistic values and principles, learner-centred approaches, LOLA, coaching manuals

Do you have any passion projects or hobbies that contribute to your broader understanding of teaching/learning?

A lifelong passion for football, as a player, trainer and supporter, which has given me insights into how a coaching approach to teaching languages could inform both my classroom practice and the development of institutional cultures. Football clubs and teams can have a recognisable ‘identity’ that strongly influences how they work long term and so can teaching institutions.