ICYMI: Lonehill resident publishes book to assist second language English speakers

Lonehill resident Rhona Wetzke is passionate about teaching English as a second language using rhyme, song, pictures and poetry.

She has recently released an activity book titled Einstein’s Instant English aimed at teaching English grammar in the disguise of fun and games.

Wetzke explained, “I have taught English as a second language for almost my whole life. I have taught it in South Africa, Lebanon, Korea and Germany. I have a passion for languages and also for getting to know other cultures. I believe that meeting people and learning their language is the best way to understand other cultures.”

Her inspiration to write the book came in the 1980s when she taught English to a group of children and adults in Korea and was unable to purchase English books to help her. “I had to try accommodate those who had never learnt English and those who were able to speak it quite fluently in the same class.”

She resorted to song, rhyme and repetition to make classes fun and accessible for all. “Korea taught me the power of rhyme and rhythm. Within a year, my whole class learned to speak English fluently and express themselves well.”

Wetzke said that the students learned automatically through song and rhyme, as children learn their mother tongue. “I found one of the trickiest things to teach was remembering and sounding the ‘s’ for the third person singular – he sings, she swings, it stings.”One day, I stumbled upon a soft toy bee that buzzed when you pressed his tummy. It caused a huge furore when I introduced a loud ‘zzzz’ at the right moment in class. This was such a clever trick, that the perpetrator needed a name. ‘Einstein’ popped up automatically and stuck,” she explained.

Wetzke has used the book for adults and children.Learner Mbali Ndlovu (11) has improved her English dramatically through use of the book and found it fun and entertaining.

Educational psychologist Heike von Ludwig said of the book, “Spelling and grammar train the left side of the brain. Rhyme and rhythm train the right side of the brain. If you learn with rhythm and with rhyme, you’ll speak good English in record time.”

Speech therapist Christien Neser said, “The magic of language development happens when a child catches the grammatical rules as if by magic and applies these to spoken language.”The same principles are used in the Einstein programme, with the added dimension of grammatical rules, giving children the best possible chance of acquiring English as a spoken language.”

Wetzke said, “I’m so excited about this method learning a language that it would be wonderful if it could be used for Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans and other South African languages. I hope that this book can change the way that we are taught language.”

Einstein’s Instant English is available at book stores andwww.porcupinepress.co.za for R150.