John Irving Moustakas

A Story From My Teaching Career:
It was while I was Academic Manager in Sudan during 2009, that I first began creating interactive teaching programmes. This was in response to the differing requirements of the various types of student & the deficient nature of the textbooks curriculum’s ability to fulfil their expectations.
I presented my proposal to the ‘School Group’s Director/Proprietor’ & began my new creative task with his blessing.
It was part of my contractual duties to do a certain amount of teaching & so consequentially, part of the new programme marketing, was the British manager’s personal tuition.
The very first programme that I created & taught was an interactive series of lessons teaching the ‘Conditional Tenses’. This was so successful that the students from the first class presented me with a certificate following the final lesson. I was so touched that I was made speechless by this exquisite expression of Sudanese hospitality & appreciation. I have never before or since heard of this type of student teacher graduation presentation.
Towards the end of my contract there, the Director requested that I prepare & teach a ‘Teacher Trainer Programme’ to the teachers of the company’s six schools in Khartoum. This was a delight for me to prepare & teach, which ending up being my concluding project in this unique country at the confluence of the Blue & White Nile rivers.
Can you imagine my surprise & joy, when the teachers presented me with a custom carved wooden plaque in appreciation of my tuition, remarking that I had completely changed how they thought about teaching.
My thoughts at that moment were, that this was an experience & gift that money could not buy & that I had truly found my vocation.

The Reason Why I Love My Job:
This episodic story from my teaching career, epitomises what I love about my job.
To assist people in achieving their goals & fulfilling their lives, is a noble cause indeed.
Understanding why individual students are having difficulties & how I can help them overcome their obstacles, I find particularly fascinating.
To receive sincere gratitude & the occasional comment that I have changed a person’s life, is indeed the ultimate in job satisfaction, in my humble opinion.

My Teaching Methods & Philosophy:
My teaching methods are based on my training as a TEFL teacher, Teaching English as a Foreign Language. These acquired techniques are based on the ‘Communicative Language Approach’ methodology, as opposed to the standard ‘Grammar Method’ focused on in most countries’ National Curriculum.
What are the differences between these two methodologies you may well ask. Well the ‘Grammar Method’ was the first in the evolution of teaching foreign languages to a student, where the pre-twentieth century children of the British Empire ruling class, where taught to read, write & understand Latin & Classical Greek text, not to speak a language.
The ‘Communicative Language Approach’ methodology, is a later evolved teaching style, exclusively designed as a communication of English technique for non native speakers. The main idea is for the teacher to present the lesson content to the students & then to get them to use it verbally, as quickly & as often as possible.
But my personal English teaching philosophy, has also greatly evolved during the last fifteen years of my teaching to non native speakers. This evolution is as a result of my practical experience in teaching around the world & online, as well as my further studies in progressive teaching techniques.
What I have discovered, is that the natural way that children learn their mother tongue, is the most effective & enjoyable way to teach & study English; & that traditional schools throughout the world teach English in the completely opposite way, which is unnatural & almost totally ineffective.
So the objective of my English teaching, is for the lessons to be highly enjoyable, really interesting, totally effective & truly cost effective.
My lessons, courses & programmes are tailored to suit the individual student’s requirements, difficulties, predilections & objectives.
I have innumerable successfully tested lessons & programmes already created, or alternatively I can create customised lessons, courses & programmes for any student, if required.

My Students' Achievements:
There have been many varied types of student achievement during my fifteen years of teaching English.
Many of my students have successfully passed their university entrance examinations, such as IELTS, TOEFL, CAE & CPE, to enable them to study at top universities in the USA, UK, Australia & Canada, so that they eventually attain their Bachelors, Masters, Doctorates & Baccalaureate qualifications, before specializing in their individual careers.
I have had many ‘Business English’ students, some requiring very quick & intensive crash courses to prepare them for an upcoming international colleagues meeting in their multinational company; while others have had longer career objectives in their international company, such as promotion & career development. Other ‘Business English’ students were planning a career change & required thorough training in preparation for UK & USA multinational company executive job interviews.
Some of my most specialised ’Business English’ students were lawyers, with differing objectives & time frames, mainly related to contract law, although others were refreshing for re-employment in their individual law specialisations.
Other adult students just wanted general improvement in their English proficiency. For them I provided various cultural courses, to imbibe classical English literature, in the form of poetry & theatre material, which they learnt to present in a thoroughly professional manner.
Some adults had long term objectives for their children & teenagers, for whom I created courses appropriate for their age, preferences & level.
I would like to say that most of my students achieved their objectives & many even surpassed their expectations.

My Hobbies:
Sport has played a large role in my life, having been a young football star at school & later training to become a football coach in my thirties. After suffering a relatively serious football injury that time, I consequently stumbled into Tai chi & was extremely fortunate to train & become a martial arts instructor for a traditional Chinese Wushu school in my home town Southampton.
During my time teaching Tai chi in Cyprus from 1998 until 2003, I was approached by an Indian acarya to teach traditional yoga for them.
So concerning sporting hobbies, I regularly practice Tai chi, kung fu & yoga, as well as daily swimming in the sea here during the summer & autumn months.
English literature in its various forms, interests me greatly, with my mother having trained as a Shakespearean actress at the famous Royal Academy of Drama in London & myself studying classical Greek theatre at university. I am a great admirer of English poetry, especially the ‘Romantics’, whose inspiring work I have developed into English learning programmes, as I have done with some classic speeches of Shakespeare. I like to write & have written three books of poetry, consisting of hundreds of unpublished poems, as well as a half written play & two prepared book projects, one of which is part written.
It would not be inappropriate to describe me as a ‘history guy’, & the further back in history I delve, the greater the fascination for me, as they say, ‘history does not repeat itself, but it sure does rhyme’. This interest of mine has also been incorporated into my teaching, with many historical lessons for teaching English already prepared & tested in my resources library.
After the economic crisis of 2008, I decided to find out for myself what exactly had happened & have subsequently studied in detail economic history, mechanics & theory. I now daily follow economic & geopolitical developments on Bloomberg news, which is of course of great benefit to my ‘Business English’ students, as are the many economics programmes & lessons I have developed.
Comparative religion, is also another decades long fascination for me, with many aspects now incorporated into my life, such as yoga & meditation.
When I retire, I plan to concentrate on my writing, while also developing & editing the very many hours of video I taken, in numerous beautifully interesting countries & cultures. Thereafter I wish to travel again, to enable me to make new film & writing projects.