The Association of Teachers of English in Lebanon kicked off its fifth annual conference over the weekend with a few words by British Ambassador Richard Kinchen ­ in Arabic.
The conference, held Saturday at UNESCO Palace, attracted about 1,000 English-language teachers, international guests and diplomats.
Kinchen, who delighted the audience by peppering his speech with several Arabic phrases, stressed the importance of English as “a useful tool.”
“It was invented in England, but we have no copyright on it; we even let the Scots and Welsh speak it,” he joked.
Kinchen also addressed more serious matters, telling teachers: “You have contributions to make to the future development of Lebanon … because the more English is understood and practiced in a society, the more successful it is likely to be as the world’s boundaries start to fall.”
He told the audience of his vision for an international debate, to be held in English, as a tool for overcoming international differences.
“However, the process isn’t and shouldn’t be a one-way street, because native speakers of English should learn and study other languages, too, as I learned the Arabic language … in the early 70s, which I hope has helped our two countries understand each other better,” Kinchen said.
Another speaker, US Ambassador Vincent Battle agreed.
“The more languages we speak, the more people we can speak to and ­ perhaps more importantly ­ listen to,” Battle said. “And nowhere is this more evident than in Lebanon.
“Lebanese are recognized worldwide for … speaking two, three, even four languages, drawing attention to themselves and making the world stand up and take notice of this small but important country,” he said.
“Hi, kifak? Bonjourak, how are you? This is very specific to Lebanese and their casual way of mixing Arabic, French and English,” Battle said. “It marks the parents’ belief in the future, making sacrifices for the education of their own children.”
Battle, himself a former English teacher with over 10 years of experience in Uganda and Libya, also had some advice for language instructors.
“Listen to your students,” he advised, “because it will permit you to see their approach to English and their fears about learning it, and thus you will discern their goals and enrich their experience.”
Rene Karam, president of the Association of Teachers of English in Lebanon (ATEL) said that English teachers who need assistance can turn to his organization for advice or support.
Karam said that since its inception five years ago, the ATEL  had managed to become an effective training body as well as a center where instructors can swap expertise and enjoy a network of teaching partners.
“We are an open association which wants to build the best relations with all, especially our American and British friends, despite the turmoil in the Middle East,” Karam said.
ATEL is one of 80 associations grouped under the International Association of Teaching English as a Foreign Language (IATEFL), which helps link, develop and support English-language teaching professionals worldwide.
According to IATEFL president Susan Barduhn, who lectures worldwide on language training, improving one’s skills and techniques depends on awareness during the active process of teaching.
“Teachers need to know that if they ask a question and get no response from students, it could mean a variety of things,” Barduhn said. “They need to evaluate on the spot and have the capacity to recognize and monitor the attention one is giving and the reasons behind them.”
Teaching, she said, was an interactive process stemming from the physical activities teachers choose to teach and the psychological goals they set.
Barduhn said that student involvement, role playing or group workshops might be an option for driving home a lesson on the present perfect, for example.
Teachers can also videotape themselves, take notes and keep journals tracking their thought process in the classroom as a means of improving their skills, she said.
“Novice and experienced teachers’ skills are of little use if teachers are unable to make decisions in ways that result in appropriate application in natural classroom processes,” she said.
David Evans, a writer, broadcaster and English-language teacher-trainer specialist, urged educators to bring useful language to class.
The type of English taught in schools was too domestic, he said, citing lessons that teach parts of the body, rooms of the house, clothes and so forth in what he called “the language of friendships.” In reality, he suggested, English should be “the language of making money.”
“Why do you need to be able to ask: ‘How many dresses does your sister have?’ when … you need to be asking questions like: ‘Where do you come from? What is your job? How do I rent a car? Who do I need to interview?’” Evans said.
“English is now an industrial tool as basic as a screwdriver,” he said, quoting the US magazine Business Week. He also cited European research showing that knowledge of English increased salaries by 25-30 percent. “That’s a lot of reasons for people to learn English.”
Evans also said the differences between the English spoken in Britain, the United States and Australia were minimal.
“In America it’s a sidewalk or elevator, whereas in Britain it’s a pavement or a lift, but the differences in grammar are negligible,” he said.
He added that the majority of the world’s English speakers follow neither the British nor American version of English, but rather an “international” version “that belongs to anyone who speaks it and … is changing ever so rapidly.”

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