0:00:18.479,0:00:20.362
Good morning. My name's Tim Morley,

0:00:20.362,0:00:23.630
and I'd like to tell you[br]about this innovative,

0:00:23.630,0:00:25.991
somewhat different way of introducing

0:00:26.011,0:00:29.252
primary school kids to[br]learning foreign languages.

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Now, a lot of primary schools in the UK

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now have foreign languages[br]on the curriculum, which is fantastic

0:00:35.389,0:00:38.246
but there's a skills gap:

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we have on the one hand[br]lots of primary school teachers,

0:00:42.337,0:00:45.998
fantastically effective,[br]motivated, trained, super,

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but most of whom don't even[br]speak a foreign language

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let alone have any training[br]in how to teach one.

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On the other hand, we have lots of

0:00:54.393,0:00:56.865
secondary school[br]modern foreign language teachers,

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who do a super job with a GCSE class,

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but put them in front of[br]a group of seven-year-olds

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and they're somewhat[br]out of the their comfort zone,

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and we can forgive them[br]for not wanting to get involved.

0:01:08.403,0:01:14.116
So there's this skills gap, and[br]this project "Springboard to Languages"

0:01:14.116,0:01:19.270
that I've been involved in[br]for the last few years

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aims to do that by teaching[br]Esperanto to primary school kids.

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Now, the title of the talk gives you[br]a flavour of the, shall we say,

0:01:30.962,0:01:34.603
healthy skepticism[br]on behalf of some of the parents.

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"You're teaching what to my child?"

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"What on earth...?"[br]"Is that Spanish?" "Why?"

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All perfectly justifiable questions[br]which I will attempt to answer.

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So, first thing: it's not a course[br]in how to speak Esperanto.

0:01:49.686,0:01:52.304
The aim of this is not to[br]send children out into the world

0:01:52.304,0:01:54.220
as fluent Esperanto speakers to use

0:01:54.220,0:01:56.121
in their everyday lives[br]and in business, and so on.

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That's not the point.

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Most of the children, the vast majority,

0:02:01.747,0:02:04.561
will probably never meet another[br]Esperanto speaker in their lives.

0:02:04.561,0:02:06.922
That's fine, that's not the point.

0:02:06.922,0:02:10.935
So what is it about?[br]It's about all of this.

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Key thing: language awareness.

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Esperanto is a very much simpler language

0:02:20.534,0:02:23.368
than any other that I've ever come across

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and I've learnt a few[br]and I've taught a few.

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It was designed specifically to be[br]simple and quick and easy to learn

0:02:30.900,0:02:34.007
and it is an order of magnitude[br]quicker and easier to learn

0:02:34.017,0:02:36.218
than any other language I've seen.

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And so the kids quickly get past the stage

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where they just have to remember stuff,

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and can get onto actually using[br]the language creatively, which is great.

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It helps to develop all the[br]mental gymnastics that's involved

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in having two languages in your head

0:02:53.820,0:02:56.131
and switching between the two[br]and finding equivalences between them.

0:02:56.131,0:02:59.664
All of those skills get developed[br]with the nice simple language,

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and then all those skills[br]can be carried on

0:03:01.995,0:03:04.017
to study other languages afterwards.

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It's a successful, inclusive experience.

0:03:06.712,0:03:10.312
"Inclusive" in the sense that,[br]in any given class,

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a much higher percentage of that class

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will be capable of getting[br]their heads round Esperanto

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and doing useful things with it than is[br]often the case with other languages.

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And, I dare say, a successful[br]inclusive experience.

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Reactions from the kids, and[br]feedback from teachers, headteachers,

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and from parents,[br]once they know what's going on,

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and I should say,[br]academic assessment as well,

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suggest that this is good. It works.

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Let's have a quick look[br]at Bloom's taxonomy,

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which underpins a lot of[br]curriculum planning.

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We start at the bottom[br]and work towards the top.

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There's a danger with primary school[br]language teaching

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of getting stuck at the bottom.

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It involves lots of remembering,[br]lots of memorising

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of conjugations,[br]of masculine and feminine nouns,

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of spelling, of pronunciation —

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there's lots of memorisation[br]that needs to be done

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before you can get on to[br]the higher order skills.

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In many language classrooms[br]in primary schools,

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where we're trying to teach[br]French or Spanish or Mandarin

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we kind of get stuck at the bottom,

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and we never get on to the creative stuff,

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and there's a danger that children[br]will lose interest before then.

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Esperanto minimises the memorisation[br]that's necessary

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and we quickly get up to the higher order,

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more interesting and exciting skills.

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English literacy — learning Esperanto[br]helps kids with their English literacy.

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I've seen 5-year-olds who were struggling[br]to read and write in English,

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but who discovered that[br]they were capable of reading

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by reading Esperanto.[br]It was so much easier,

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and that gave them the confidence boost[br]that they needed

0:04:51.104,0:04:52.630
to get on with the English.

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I've seen 9-year-old kids,[br]when faced with the task

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"Circle the adjective in this sentence,"

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the first thing they do is to translate

0:05:00.829,0:05:02.881
the sentence into Esperanto in their head,

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because adjectives are much easier[br]to spot in Esperanto.

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So it's helping with their[br]first language literacy too.

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And even numeracy,[br]the way numbers are verbalised

0:05:12.934,0:05:16.895
in Esperanto helps to clarify[br]how the number is put together.

0:05:16.895,0:05:19.527
And when you're 5 and you're learning[br]about adding up

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and tens and units, it's really helpful.

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I've got a few examples of that[br]in a moment.

0:05:22.840,0:05:25.844
So Esperanto brings all of this[br]to the classroom.

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Almost as a side-effect, it can also bring

0:05:28.727,0:05:30.177
contact with foreign cultures

0:05:30.177,0:05:32.478
— obviously a major motivator for[br]learning foreign languages —

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and I've been in classrooms and[br]taken part in videoconferences

0:05:36.660,0:05:38.344
between British classrooms

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and classrooms in Slovenia,[br]in Hungary, in Germany.

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There are a number of Comenius projects —

0:05:46.545,0:05:49.210
Comenius is the name of the grants given

0:05:49.210,0:05:51.943
by the European Commission[br]to primary schools

0:05:51.943,0:05:54.060
to establish links with[br]other schools across Europe —

0:05:54.060,0:05:56.060
there have been a number of[br]Comenius projects

0:05:56.060,0:05:58.481
where Esperanto is used[br]as an inter-language

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between the children, and the adults too.

0:06:00.960,0:06:06.030
So Esperanto brings all of this[br]to the classroom.

0:06:06.138,0:06:09.727
Now, an analogy.[br]How not to get there.

0:06:09.865,0:06:12.488
This guy is a bassoon player.

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He gets an enormous amount of pleasure[br]from playing his bassoon,

0:06:15.284,0:06:16.935
maybe even earns a living from it.

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I would suggest that if[br]you wanted your child

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to become a professional bassoon player,

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the best way to get there is not

0:06:25.607,0:06:28.001
to give a bassoon to a 7-year-old.

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"There you go, Johnny, play us a tune!"

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It's not going to work.

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It's a big, cumbersome instrument[br]even with adult hands.

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With children's hands,[br]it's really really hard to play.

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There's lots to memorise,[br]there are lots of fingerings to remember,

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the reed is really hard to get[br]even a squeak out of,

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never mind a proper note[br]that you'd want to listen to.

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And so, if you were to do that,[br]6 or 12 months down the line,

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the result would be, "I don't like this,"

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"I can't do it." "I'm no good at music."

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"I don't want to do music."

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So of course, that's not what we do.[br]We start simple.

0:06:56.550,0:06:59.768
Quick show of hands: who learnt[br]the recorder in primary school?

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I certainly did.

0:07:02.018,0:07:03.351
Yes, that's just about everybody.

0:07:03.351,0:07:07.295
Who still plays the recorder,[br]for pleasure or in a band?

0:07:07.295,0:07:11.501
Oh, one or two, super.[br]More than I expected!

0:07:11.501,0:07:17.148
A few people carry it on,[br]but the vast majority of us don't.

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So is this some massive failure[br]of primary school policy?

0:07:20.685,0:07:24.686
Why did we all learn the recorder?[br]That's not a useful life skill.

0:07:24.686,0:07:26.171
Of course, that's not the point.

0:07:26.171,0:07:28.984
By learning the recorder,[br]we learn about music.

0:07:28.984,0:07:30.717
We learn major keys and minor keys.

0:07:30.717,0:07:32.118
We start to read music.

0:07:32.118,0:07:34.000
You learn about rhythm[br]and time signatures,

0:07:34.000,0:07:36.003
keeping time with others, and harmonies.

0:07:36.003,0:07:41.401
All of that musical knowledge goes in[br]through the simple instrument

0:07:41.401,0:07:44.561
and then it can be applied to the bassoon

0:07:44.561,0:07:47.118
or the pipe organ or[br]whatever you want to play.

0:07:47.118,0:07:53.018
So, by analogy, French in the classroom[br]is a bassoon.

0:07:53.018,0:07:56.561
Spanish in the classroom is a bassoon.

0:07:56.561,0:07:59.985
Chinese is an extra large bassoon[br]with added tones!

0:07:59.985,0:08:02.493
(Laughter)

0:08:02.493,0:08:06.835
Esperanto is a recorder.[br]That's what it's all about.

0:08:06.835,0:08:08.836
Now, just before I go on,[br]I just want to say:

0:08:08.836,0:08:11.737
I can't be doing with presentations[br]where they put up a wall of text

0:08:11.737,0:08:13.551
and then stand here and read it to you.

0:08:13.551,0:08:15.918
That's not a presentation,[br]that's a report being read out loud

0:08:15.918,0:08:17.734
and it quickly gets dull.

0:08:17.783,0:08:20.635
Having said that,[br]I am about to put up a wall of text,

0:08:20.635,0:08:22.435
and I am about to read it to you.

0:08:22.435,0:08:23.786
Bear with me, there's only one of these.

0:08:23.786,0:08:26.007
It's a quick snippet from a report

0:08:26.007,0:08:28.403
by the University of Manchester's[br]School of Education

0:08:28.403,0:08:31.285
who've been evaluating the[br]Springboard to Languages project

0:08:31.285,0:08:35.237
and in this part[br]they're writing about School A,

0:08:35.237,0:08:38.975
where kids at the time had about[br]18 months of Esperanto,

0:08:38.975,0:08:42.703
and School B where they'd had[br]French for two years,

0:08:42.703,0:08:46.609
and they'd just started the Esperanto.

0:08:46.609,0:08:49.419
They did a French test, and this happened.

0:08:49.419,0:08:53.118
"Does Springboard help[br]to learn other languages?"

0:08:53.118,0:08:55.953
"Pupils were invited to decode[br]the French sentence:

0:08:55.953,0:08:58.118
(French) "Elephant's ears are very large

0:08:58.118,0:08:59.685
and the nose is very long."

0:08:59.685,0:09:01.632
And they observed: "The only children

0:09:01.632,0:09:03.970
to successfully translate[br]the whole sentence

0:09:03.970,0:09:06.086
were, interestingly, from school A -

0:09:06.086,0:09:09.001
the kids learning Esperanto,[br]who've never had a French lesson

0:09:09.001,0:09:09.996
in their lives -

0:09:09.996,0:09:11.953
"These two children used[br]interesting metalinguistic

0:09:11.953,0:09:15.649
decoding strategies -[br]cognates, punctuation, context.

0:09:15.649,0:09:18.861
In other words, the language skills that[br]they'd picked up through Esperanto.

0:09:18.861,0:09:22.088
"School B children, who had been[br]learning French since Year 1,

0:09:22.088,0:09:25.285
performed only marginally better[br]than School A children

0:09:25.285,0:09:26.921
in a test of French."

0:09:26.921,0:09:29.640
So the skills that the kids[br]had got from Esperanto

0:09:29.640,0:09:32.986
helped them to almost catch up[br]in a French test

0:09:32.986,0:09:34.951
with kids who had been learning French.

0:09:34.951,0:09:37.152
So, what's so special about Esperanto?

0:09:37.152,0:09:38.986
Why is it so good at this?

0:09:38.986,0:09:40.404
I'll give you a few quick examples.

0:09:40.404,0:09:42.454
Here, at the top, we've got the numbers:

0:09:42.454,0:09:44.254
(Esperanto): one, two three, four, five,

0:09:44.254,0:09:46.203
six, seven, eight, nine, ten.

0:09:46.203,0:09:48.553
That much, you have to memorise, OK.

0:09:48.553,0:09:50.536
But once you've memorised that,

0:09:50.536,0:09:53.751
you've got everything you need[br]to get all the way to 99.

0:09:53.751,0:09:57.253
There's nothing else to learn;[br]afterwards we just apply it.

0:09:57.253,0:10:00.987
11, 12, 13 is just[br]"dek unu", "dek du", "dek tri"

0:10:00.987,0:10:03.782
literally "ten one",[br]"ten two", "ten three"

0:10:03.782,0:10:07.481
until you get to "dudek",[br]literally "two tens".

0:10:07.481,0:10:10.304
And then it's "dudek unu",[br]"dudek du" and so on

0:10:10.304,0:10:11.574
all the way up to 99.

0:10:11.574,0:10:15.421
So, for children who are learning[br]about hundreds, tens and units,

0:10:15.421,0:10:18.889
actually they translate[br]the number into Esperanto,

0:10:18.889,0:10:20.404
I've seen this happen in the classroom,

0:10:20.404,0:10:25.121
"so... 27... dudek sep...[br]so 'dudek' is 'two tens'

0:10:25.121,0:10:26.405
so that's a '2' in the 'tens' column

0:10:26.405,0:10:28.238
and a '7' in the 'units' column..."

0:10:28.238,0:10:30.288
So by translating the number[br]into Esperanto

0:10:30.288,0:10:33.102
it clarifies what's going on,[br]what that '2' in '27' actually means.

0:10:33.102,0:10:35.916
It's "dudek", it's two tens.

0:10:35.916,0:10:38.732
At the bottom there, "sesdek tri"[br]... anybody?

0:10:39.490,0:10:45.940
"73!" Uh, it's 63, but[br]thank you for the effort!

0:10:48.032,0:10:51.366
And again, this illustrates[br]the minimisation

0:10:51.366,0:10:53.449
of things to memorise —

0:10:53.449,0:10:57.754
when you learn "patro", "father",[br]you can derive "patrino"

0:10:57.754,0:11:01.055
— "-ino" means[br]"female or feminine equivalent" —

0:11:01.055,0:11:02.729
so "patrino" is the word for "mother".

0:11:02.729,0:11:04.415
There's no separate word to learn.

0:11:04.415,0:11:08.218
"Instruisto" is a teacher,[br]and if the teacher

0:11:08.218,0:11:11.370
happens to be female[br]and you want to refer to that,

0:11:11.370,0:11:14.200
you can call her an "instruistino".

0:11:14.200,0:11:18.066
You use the same "-ino"[br]to mark anything as female.

0:11:18.066,0:11:21.651
"Hundo", any German speakers[br]will recognise as "a dog";

0:11:21.651,0:11:27.816
"hundido" is "a puppy".[br]"-ido" is the young, the offspring.

0:11:27.816,0:11:30.552
So from "kato"[br]we can derive "katido", "a kitten",

0:11:30.552,0:11:33.514
and "kuniklo",[br]any Latin or Italian speakers will know

0:11:33.514,0:11:37.833
is "a rabbit",[br]and "kuniklido" is a baby rabbit.

0:11:37.833,0:11:41.068
Now, I've been speaking French[br]for 25 years,

0:11:41.068,0:11:43.684
I've lived in France, and my family[br]is bilingual English/French,

0:11:43.684,0:11:47.535
and I can't immediately recall[br]the French word

0:11:47.535,0:11:49.090
for "a baby rabbit".

0:11:49.090,0:11:51.249
I know the word for a rabbit,[br]but not for a baby one.

0:11:51.249,0:11:54.319
I can't remember the word,[br]but in Esperanto, it's just obvious.

0:11:54.319,0:11:57.364
I can't not know that word![br]It's just obvious, it's there.

0:11:57.364,0:11:59.486
Now, "kontenta" means "happy",

0:11:59.486,0:12:02.199
and "malkontenta" —[br]"mal-" gives you the opposite,

0:12:02.199,0:12:03.399
so it's "unhappy".

0:12:03.399,0:12:06.314
Same with "granda" for "big",[br]and "malgranda"

0:12:06.314,0:12:08.533
is the normal Esperanto word for "small".

0:12:08.533,0:12:10.314
There's no separate word to learn.

0:12:10.314,0:12:14.570
There's always a "buy-one-get-one-free"[br]on adjectives in Esperanto. (Laughter)

0:12:14.570,0:12:17.449
We've literally halved the number[br]of words to memorise

0:12:17.449,0:12:20.084
with the single prefix "mal-".

0:12:20.084,0:12:23.365
So, this is just one little corner[br]of the language,

0:12:23.365,0:12:25.882
but these principles extend[br]throughout the whole thing.

0:12:25.882,0:12:31.598
I've found that learning French[br]and other languages

0:12:31.598,0:12:35.355
is an additive process —[br]I find a new word,

0:12:35.355,0:12:37.082
I learn how to pronounce it,[br]how to spell it,

0:12:37.082,0:12:40.547
what it means, and I've added[br]one word to my arsenal.

0:12:40.547,0:12:43.482
Learning Esperanto is multiplicative.

0:12:43.482,0:12:46.748
Every time I add a new word,[br]it recombines and multiplies

0:12:46.748,0:12:48.598
with everything I've got already,

0:12:48.598,0:12:50.065
so I don't just get one word,

0:12:50.065,0:12:52.965
I get a whole new frontier[br]of expressive capacity.

0:12:52.965,0:12:57.376
And this applies just as much[br]in the classroom with children,

0:12:57.376,0:13:00.265
and so we quickly get to the stage[br]where they can

0:13:00.265,0:13:02.382
creatively use the language,[br]rather than just

0:13:02.382,0:13:05.233
repeating vocabulary[br]and memorised sentences.

0:13:05.233,0:13:08.200
Far more interesting stuff.

0:13:08.200,0:13:10.597
Here's a case in point: I got heckled

0:13:10.597,0:13:14.265
by an 8-year-old,[br]in grammatically perfect Esperanto,

0:13:14.265,0:13:17.314
about 3 months into a course.

0:13:17.314,0:13:20.547
We were doing an activity[br]where I give an instruction,

0:13:20.547,0:13:24.450
the children follow the instruction,[br]and tell me what they're doing.

0:13:24.450,0:13:27.282
So I give an imperative verb,[br]and they use a present tense verb.

0:13:27.282,0:13:32.598
So I say "Staru!" and they all stand up[br]and say, "Mi staras!"

0:13:32.921,0:13:36.664
I say "Sidu!" and they sit down[br]and say, "Mi sidas!"

0:13:36.664,0:13:40.952
I say "Saltu!" and[br]they go "Mi saltas! Mi saltas!"

0:13:40.952,0:13:43.302
So I said, "OK, silentu!"

0:13:43.302,0:13:46.117
And the whole class said, "Mi silentas!"

0:13:46.117,0:13:51.751
apart from little Johnny who shouted out,[br]"Mi ne silentas!"

0:13:51.751,0:13:54.324
But now I've got a dilemma:

0:13:54.324,0:13:57.519
do I tell him off,[br]or do I give him a gold star?

0:13:57.519,0:14:00.187
Because he has just made[br]the whole class laugh

0:14:00.187,0:14:03.135
with a grammatically perfect utterance[br]in the target language.

0:14:03.135,0:14:04.490
From a language teacher's point of view,

0:14:04.490,0:14:07.919
that's a dream come true.[br]That's what we're aiming at!

0:14:07.919,0:14:12.485
So I put on my best "mock annoyed" face[br]and said: "Vi! Silentu!"

0:14:12.485,0:14:14.884
and he said, "OK, mi silentas!"

0:14:14.884,0:14:20.802
But that has never happened[br]in any of my French lessons.

0:14:20.802,0:14:23.686
Now that's not because I don't[br]enjoy teaching French — I do.

0:14:23.686,0:14:27.569
And it's not because the kids don't[br]enjoy learning it — I believe they do.

0:14:27.569,0:14:32.187
It's just that there's so much[br]that needs memorising

0:14:32.187,0:14:35.852
and practising before that can[br]even become possible in French

0:14:35.852,0:14:37.836
— or Spanish, or German,[br]or other languages —

0:14:37.836,0:14:41.620
that it doesn't happen[br]until years down the line,

0:14:41.620,0:14:45.245
and by that stage, unfortunately,[br]lots of kids have lost interest

0:14:45.245,0:14:48.635
and have got the impression that[br]they're no good at languages

0:14:48.635,0:14:50.119
because they can't say anything.

0:14:50.119,0:14:52.169
It's not their fault,[br]and it's not the teacher's fault,

0:14:52.169,0:14:56.086
it's just really really hard[br]to get to the stage

0:14:56.086,0:14:58.597
where you can creatively[br]use a new language.

0:14:58.597,0:15:01.056
Esperanto shortcuts[br]an enormous amount of that

0:15:01.056,0:15:04.258
and allows kids to get there[br]and get the experience

0:15:04.258,0:15:06.324
of having another language[br]and being able to do

0:15:06.324,0:15:08.395
useful, fun things with it.

0:15:08.395,0:15:11.737
And that's why we do it.

0:15:11.737,0:15:15.772
So: Esperanto? In curriculum time?[br]In state schools?

0:15:15.772,0:15:18.668
Yeah, really! It's happening as we speak,

0:15:18.668,0:15:21.919
with lessons delivered by[br]Esperanto specialists like me,

0:15:21.919,0:15:27.185
but also, critically, by class teachers[br]with no prior knowledge of Esperanto,

0:15:27.185,0:15:30.236
who can also pick up the language[br]remarkably quickly

0:15:30.236,0:15:34.590
and go ahead and teach it,[br]so it eliminates

0:15:34.590,0:15:36.235
the staffing issue at a stroke.

0:15:36.235,0:15:38.989
I was slightly embarrassed[br]the first time I discovered this,

0:15:38.989,0:15:42.185
but a class who'd been studying for a year[br]with their class teacher

0:15:42.185,0:15:45.097
whom I had taught[br]a minimum of Esperanto to,

0:15:45.097,0:15:47.852
the kids actually spoke[br]far better Esperanto

0:15:47.852,0:15:49.705
than the ones that[br]I'd been teaching for a year.

0:15:49.705,0:15:51.868
So what's going on here?

0:15:51.868,0:15:57.202
Actually, it's obvious: I only go[br]into the school for 45 minutes a week.

0:15:57.202,0:15:59.986
I do as much as I can in that time,[br]but that's it.

0:15:59.986,0:16:01.835
The class teacher is with them[br]all the time,

0:16:01.835,0:16:04.468
so bits of Esperanto get drip-fed[br]into everything they do.

0:16:04.468,0:16:07.004
It's in the maths classroom,[br]it's in the English classroom,

0:16:07.004,0:16:09.404
it's in the register,[br]it's all the time.

0:16:09.404,0:16:13.360
And so those kids got[br]a huge amount more out of it

0:16:13.360,0:16:17.868
once the class teacher had taken over

0:16:17.868,0:16:21.047
than their predecessors had done from me.

0:16:21.047,0:16:24.599
So that's what we do.[br]It works phenomenally well,

0:16:24.599,0:16:28.625
and I'm pleased and proud[br]to be part of it. Thank you.

0:16:28.625,0:16:30.525
(Applause)