The Thammasat University Library has newly acquired a book which may be useful for students who enjoy football and need to learn some English. English for Football is a basic textbook, shelved in the General Stacks of the Puey Ungphakorn Library, Rangsit Campus. Accompanying materials for the textbook are kept at the Circulation Counter of Puey Ungphakorn Library, Rangsit Campus. English for Football by Alan Redmond and Sean Warren is helpful for athletes and fans who want to know what is happening in the English speaking world of football. There have been many attempts to use the popularity of football to teach English language skills. As all Thais know, football is the most popular sport in the Kingdom. Although the professional football leagues are new to Thailand, football was introduced to the nation in 1897. So websites of the British Council and BBC World Service offer information about learning English through football. One of the unspoken suggestions is that for students who find English painful, boring, or difficult can at least enjoy the aspects of the language dealing with something that they are interested in, football. The BBC website offers conversation and vocabulary studies based on football.

The British Council’s Premier Skills effort is an international project to motivate teachers and students through football. As its website explains,

• Since Premier Skills began in 2007, 20,027 coaches and referees have been trained in 29 countries, who in turn have reached over 1.6 million young people.
• 6,000 teachers have received training in the use of the Premier Skills English materials, with 6.5 million views of the materials online.
• Through Premier Skills, young people, including the most vulnerable in society, are given opportunities to become better integrated into their local communities, to develop their skills for employability and raise their self-esteem.
• Premier Skills English helps teachers and learners of English with free, compelling learning materials, drawing on football-based content from the most exciting football league in the world.

Some of these lessons may be too simple for TU students, but football can be an inspiration for readers and writers of English as a foreign language at all levels. The Languagecaster website was established a dozen years ago by teachers who are also football fans. The site features podcasts, forums, and details about football vocabulary. One interesting approach to offer insight about football expressions that have become clichés.

As we know, clichés are convenient little expressions, usually containing few words, that sum up something in a way that is meant to end any conversation. The word cliché derives from a French term referring to a metal plate used in the 1800s to reproduce an infinite number of prints or designs that were exactly the same. TU students of French know that in France, when speaking about a worn-out expression lacking originality, people often use the term lieu commun rather than cliché.

If someone says a cliché, that means there is no need to think about any problem, because the cliché is considered to contain all the possible wisdom about any event or situation. Of course, our understanding of things and events, especially at the university level, can always be improved by additional thought. So it is good to avoid clichés when it is possible. To do so, it is important to know what the clichés are. When writing an academic research paper or thesis, it is also good not to use clichés, because our readers want to think that we have tried to reach our own conclusions about our subject of study. If we use clichés, it seems like we just repeat whatever the common wisdom is supposed to be, and we have added nothing to the general conversation about the subject.

Some clichés are amusing and others are irritating. In all sports broadcasting, including in Thai language, people are paid to speak for a certain time, even when there is nothing to say. So they will sometimes say things that are not very original, and some sports fans may complain that what they have said is not new or especially intelligent. Why are some people annoyed when they hear clichés? If football is very important to them, they may want to hear a fresh comment or explanation about a situation, not the same old tired expressions that they have always heard before. They may consider that each game or situation deserves a new observation. Another reason to be annoyed may be that some clichés were once considered new or up-to-date, but with time they became outdated. So listeners may think that a cliché is too old fashioned or does not describe what is happening now.

By using clichés, the speaker assumes that everything that happens can be predicted and expected, since there are already phrases available to describe it. If we believe that some events are new, they deserve new thinking to try to understand them. If we use clichés is our academic research project or thesis writing, our readers may wonder how much we know about our subject. One of the key elements of knowledge in any field is being able to tell apart what is interesting and original from what is not. If we repeat old sayings that have existed for a long time, we may give the impression that we do not care about what is happening now in research.

Football clichés

One expression that is cited by Languagecaster is

No one is bigger than the club.

This saying is meant to encourage teamwork. Football, like all fields of effort, has its superstars, but the overall work and results of the team are what matter most. Variations on this expression include:

No individual is bigger than the club.

No player is bigger than the club

Another expression which has become a cliché is

A marathon, not a sprint

Broadcasters will often compare the football season to a long-distance race, as opposed to a race over a short distance. It is obvious that a team must win regularly over a long season to do well, so listeners do not really need to be reminded of this fact. Also, the expression, A marathon, not a sprint may also be used to offer false hopes about a team that loses several games at the start of the season. The broadcasters may suggest that what matters is the whole season, not just a few games. In reality, a team that loses at the start of the season may also lose at the end of the season.

Other writers on football have assembled what they consider to be among the most annoying clichés used about the sport. They include:

We have to take it one game at a time.

The other team just wanted it more.

The team is better than their record indicates.

The player really gives 110 percent.

We have to play a full 60 minutes.

They have to take care of the football.

Some others:

You couldn’t write a script like this!

This is a must-win game.

(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)