Interview with Helen Myers about the opportunities offered by the REAL network

Why are you a member of a language teacher association?

I have always felt that it is very important to be a member of a professional association for a variety of reasons. I would hate to work in isolation and so have always enjoyed being able to collaborate with others within my school on teaching strategies and resources. Being part of an association means that I can collaborate with even more people in different schools and institutions; there is so much we can share, whatever language or age group we teach. What’s more, I think it’s important that people responsible for making decisions about national policy consult associations which represent teachers, and I think it is really important that teachers get their voice heard by becoming a member. An association can provide a forum for articulating different points of view and providing some sort of synthesis which can be presented in a coherent way to those who have to make decisions.

What is your connection to the REAL network and why is the REAL Network important to you?

I am a member of the Association for Language Learning (ALL), a network for primarily UK-based teachers. Now thanks to ALL’s participation in REAL, I, as a teacher, have an automatic connection to a vast Europe-wide network. I am very keen that there should be practical ways of helping each other which are thought through from a teacher’s perspective. I really look forward to making even more contacts with other teachers across Europe to share ideas and resources. For me, an association like this allows for a more personal contact with fellow professionals from other countries. After all, it is the personal, potentially face-to-face, contact which can really make a difference.

What are the benefits of a European network of language teacher associations?

There are so many aspects of running a national organisation which we must have in common with other European associations. It seems to make sense to share our experience and ideas, so as to learn good practice from each other, and hopefully make us all the more effective. I’m particularly interested in the opportunities provided on REAL’s website as a space to access news about languages in Europe and to exchange with other teachers.

What is the biggest challenge for language teachers in the UK in your opinion?

One of the biggest issues for all language teachers I feel is the dominance of the English language as a lingua franca. This presents us with the challenge of promoting learning languages other than English. This issue is obviously more pronounced in England, but I know that for example teachers of German in France, or teachers of Spanish in Italy are facing the same issues. It would be interesting for us to work together on how to present the case for learning languages other than English.

Helen Myers

Teacher of French and senior manager at a state secondary comprehensive school in the UK. She was previously President of the Association for Language Learning (ALL) and is currently Chair of its London branch.