The Future of Education

As a Concept and Graphic Designer, innovation has always been a word I have been familiar with. In design we think creatively and develop this skill thoroughly throughout our career and life. We can use this skill constantly so I am quite aware of it’s benefits. We, as designers look at things from a different perspective most of the time, to find solutions to solve problems to improve our lives.
As an Educator, I set out to “Show How to Speak English” not teach. From day one my motto has been “Learn English Creatively, Speak English Fluently!” and that is how I founded, created and designed a new method of teaching to speak English - Ella’s Style English.
WHY? Because there was a severe English Speaking problem in Istanbul, and as a Designer I wanted to design a solution. As a Designer of 20 years and an English Educator of 10 years I observed the Turkish learners and their speaking problem over the years while teaching all age groups. The fundamental problem was the same. The complaints were the same, “Anliyorum ama Konusamiyorum” which means “I understand but can’t speak.”
So why couldn’t Turkish learners speak English?
I can say:
50% because of the education system.
50% because of cultural differences.
I am an Australian born Turk, who lived and was educated in the English culture as a Native Australian. Then I lived 12 years of my life in Istanbul, so I am bilingual and my know-how of the Turkish language is at an Intermediate level. I am familiar with both cultures and aware of the difference in thinking process of the two cultures and this was my biggest advantage when creating Ella’s Style English.
You see it doesn’t matter if you create the most amazing materials and print the best books. We have to show the change in the way of thinking and the difference in approach when showing how to speak English. We need to adapt a different language learning process and a different language learning thinking process for each culture. This is vital for the Speaking education.
So my question was: How do you teach, how to speak English in the same way to a Chinese, Japanese, Spanish and Turkish learner?
The percentage of English Speaking in these countries (and other ESL countries) with no surprise is at an all low. All have serious formal English Education but the Speaking level is always at a low.
So why?
Having lived in a multicultural society in Australia, I know the advantages and disadvantages of cultural adaptation. In Istanbul when teaching English I realised this more with the language barrier. This is why I designed Ella’s Style English specifically for the Turkish learners.
I collected all the English words and phrases, they use in Turkish. This way they were able to familiarize and understand the connections easier and find a central connection of each culture then build the speaking materials according to that. The fact is the Speaking Language are Phrasal Verbs and you know there are no Phrasal Verbs in the Turkish language so they can’t even translate them so how are they supposed to learn the Speaking language?
For these reasons Ella’s Style English created practical, creative and fun activities for the ‘Turkish’ learners. Instead of memorization we based the method on recognizing the similarity through visual, auditory and kinesthetic learning, which enables a more self confident learner when speaking English.

Keywords: creative thinking, teaching creatively, visual, audio, kinesthetic learning, cultural difference, speaking english, storytelling;