by chance zufällig
[baI (tSA:ns]
ELT (English Language
Teaching)
[)i: el (ti:]
ESP (English for Englisch als
Specific Purposes) Fachsprache
[)i: es (pi:]
facilitator Moderator(in)
[fE(sIlEteItE]
fluently [(flu:Entli] fließend
freelance [(fri:lA:ns] freiberuflich (tätig)
hooked: get sb. jmdn. nach etw.
~ on sth. [hUkt]ifml. süchtig machen
hubcap [(hVbkÄp] Radkappe
in my day zu meiner Zeit
[)In (maI deI]
point [pOInt] hier: Sinn
polish sth. [pQlIS] etw. polieren
principal [(prInsEp&l] Rektor(in)
take sth. on[)teIk (Qn] etw. übernehmen
take sb. places hier: jmdn. auf eine
[(teIk )pleIsIz] Reise mitnehmen
Thames [temz] Themse
tutor [(tju:tE] Studienleiter(in)62 http://www.business-spotlight.de 2/2014Home
London, the best city in the world. I live
in a flat with a view over the Thames.
It’s a view that always makes me feel
very happy.Other languages spoken
I am ashamed to say that, apart from a
bit of French and German, I only speak
English. It is one of the big disappoint-
ments of my life that I’ve never learned
another language fluently. I’ve tried,
but I am a terrible student!How did you become involved in busi-
ness English teaching?
By chance. In the early 1980s, I was
teaching in north London and the
school asked me to take onsome in-
company business English teaching at
the nearby Soviet trade delegation. It
was a fascinating experience and got
me hookedon “English beyond gener-
al English”. I became more of an ESP
teacher than a business English
teacher, and got particularly interested
in English for tourism.Sprache muss real und aktiv gelehrt werden. Digitale Medien sind dabei ebenso
wichtig wie das klassische Lehrbuch. DEBORAHCAPRASsprach mit Keith Harding,
der als Lehrer, Studienleiter — und Stadtführer in London — tätig ist.What is the role of the teacher?
Lots of things: instructor, facilitator,
helper, guide and so on. It’s one of the
joys of teaching English, that you can
change your role. For me personally, I
believed my main role was to make the
language real and active. It’s why I got
into ESP — and particularly tourism —
because there were real situations in
which my students would be using the
language I taught.So what type of teacher were you when
you taught regularly?
I like to think my lessons were enjoy-
able, a mixture of fun and serious.
When I taught regularly in the UK, I
tried to take every opportunity to get out
of the classroom with my students — or
bring the outside world in. One of the
great things about the digital informa-
tion revolution is that it’s made it so
much easier to do that than in my day.So practising and using the language is
the most important thing?
Yes, I think so. It’s like owning a car.There’s really no point spending all
your time playing with the engine and
polishingthe hubcaps. You’ve got to get
in and drive it. It’s there to take you
places, not just to look at and admire.
It’s the same, really, with the English
language: don’t spend all your time
studying and learning grammar andTake risks and experiment
LANGUAGE TEACHER TALKmediumWho is Keith Harding?
Keith Harding is one of the authors of the new, third edition of International
Express.He has written other books for Oxford University Press, mainly on En-
glish for tourism and ESP. He has been a teacher, teacher trainer, director of
studies and principalin the UK and the US. Now that he is freelance, he spends
a lot of time running ELTmanagement courses. In recent years, this has tak-
en him to countries such as Ecuador, Colombia, Egypt, Iran and Turkey. He is
also a tutoron the Trinity Diploma in ELT Management and a school inspector
for the British Council.62-63 Teachertalk 2_14DD 14.01.14 13:51 Seite 62