International House have begun working with a handful of Premier League club academies over the last year and what follows is a little more detail on the successful introduction of language lessons at Chelsea FC. Our original approach was through Sean Walsh, Head of Post 16 Education at Chelsea’s academy, with the idea of offering language training to those who showed interest. Presentations were initially delivered via Zoom to mostly Under-23 players outlining the benefits of learning a language both within the football world and also beyond. We started providing lessons at Chelsea in September 2021 following these introductory presentations in April. Four academy players were involved comprising of two 1-to-1s, one German, the other Spanish with an additional Spanish group of two boys.
TRAINING OBJECTIVES
The two Chelsea players who were undertaking the 1-to-1 courses already had a basic grasp of the languages, so the aim was to improve their confidence, extend their vocabulary and encourage them to feel comfortable with speaking.
CHALLENGES
The main challenges arose from timetabling due to the ever-changing schedules of the players who could be involved in training sessions/matches at short notice. This meant that it was imperative for the tutors to be flexible. Several lessons had to be rearranged as players were suddenly required to be elsewhere and almost all those requests were accommodated. The other key challenge was to engage these young footballers who had left formal education a few years ago and were not accustomed to lessons.
TRAINING APPROACH
The tailor-made lessons combined general language skills as well as football content, which made the courses more relevant to the players who clearly enjoyed the ability to be able to dis-cuss topics with which they were familiar and could relate to easily. Both a needs analysis and a language level assessment took place through an informal chat with the tutors before the start of the lessons so that the course content was tailored accordingly. The trainers were experienced, qualified teachers used to working with professionals, adopting a communicative approach during the lessons to make them as dynamic and useful as possible.
PROPOSED SOLUTIONS
• Chelsea 12 x 1-hour sessions spread over approximately 16 weeks to allow for changes to schedule and understanding that the timetable may change at short notice.
• Tutors were made aware of the need to keep the lessons as light and as accessible as possible.
• Regular assessments to ensure progress was monitored.
• Access to an e-learning platform where tutors uploaded course content and extra resources for the students to consolidate what they learned between lessons.
RESULTS
Sam Mc Clelland and Ethan Wady impressed their tutors, showing commendable maturity in their approach to learning as exemplified by their diligence in undertaking homework and fully utilising the online resources in between their lessons to aid their learning – see comments below.
Sylvia Dally – Ethan’s German tutor.
Ethan is progressing very well and can now hold a short conversation about day-to-day activities in the present and past tenses and instantly understands the gist of a dialogue spoken at normal speed with the usual linguistic blending. In listening comprehension tasks, Ethan can correctly decode and segment information and grammatical structures. He can then apply them in his own speaking immediately. Perhaps it is the fact that Ethan studied French before and is experienced in learning a new language, but I have never seen someone with such an ability to focus and initial grammatical competence, and an eye for structure.
Victoria Panetta – Sam’s Spanish tutor
Sam is progressing really well. He is learning a lot and quickly and can speak just in Spanish during the lesson. He’s also very committed as he studies between lessons. He is doing exceptionally well. His pronunciation is impeccable, and it is evident that he revises before each lesson as he remembers all content from the previous class. Now he can hold basic conversations about eating habits and training. I congratulated him last lesson because his progress is outstanding.Both Sam and Ethan progressed to the next level and they started a second block of lessons in March 2022. I am happy to say that Ethan is doing extremely well. I noticed a big jump in Ethan’s fluency after we looked at a German online football-related newspaper article (Ethan read the entire article on his own – using Google translation) and since it worked so well, we now work with original German material (tweets, interviews etc.) that is more relevant to his job, to train listening comprehension, building vocabulary and fluency. This might be more challenging initially, but efficient in the long run.”Sam’s motivation is still as high as with the first course. He now seems confident speaking about personal subjects such as describing his family and his daily routine. He has learnt to use reflexive verbs and has increased the number of adjectives in his vocabulary. He is improving every week and his confidence and command of the language is progressing steadily.
FEEDBACK from STUDENTS
Questionnaires – all gave full marks for the quality of the course and their tutors as well as expressing the likelihood of undertaking more language learning with IH.
On what the student would like to be the focus for the next block of sessions: Continuing to broaden my vocabulary and becoming more confident with key words to ask and answer questions. The nuances of the language that differentiates native speakers and people who learn it as a second language. Continue strengthening grammar and pronunciation skills.
Overall comment: I have been incredibly happy with how the course has been going. Sylvia has been an excellent tutor.
*Ethan spoke at a presentation we made at Chelsea Academy’s Cobham base about how much he had personally enjoyed his experience and he stressed to the players how they should use the significant amount of spare time on their hands wisely by taking up the opportunity of learning a language.
FEEDBACK from SEAN WALSH, Head of Post-16 Education at Chelsea
Since the commencement of our partnership with International House in September 2021, we have worked closely to ensure that players are provided with bespoke language courses. International House have supported each player by providing an engaging syllabus, which the players have been fully committed to. IH have fully understood the fluid nature of an elite sporting environment and the commitments that each player has and provided flexibility throughout the delivery of the various programmes.
As a world leading sports academy, we place an immense emphasis on the dual aspiration of every young person who we work with and wish to provide them with an environment and culture where they feel fully supported in the development of their non-athletic identity. International House have enabled players to pursue their personal development and I have no doubt that this relationship will continue to flourish.
Find out more about initiatives like this by contacting us at languages@ihlondon.com.