Archive for the ‘Books about teaching’ Category

“While many teachers may attend to the questions ‘Do you like this language? Do you like this class?’, perhaps the more fundamental question for a student is ‘Do I like myself in this class?’”

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I’ve been reading “English as a Lingua Franca: Attitude and Identity” (hence “the ELF” of the post title) by Jenny Jenkins, and although its a much easier read than that Pseuds Corner book title might make you think, the main reaction so far is “Who cares?”

To summarize 37 pages in 37 words, the concept of English as a Lingua Franca is that as more and more English is used between non-native speakers a new variety or varities of English are being created that are just as valid and important as Glaswegian English or even RP and SAE- and much more relevant than those forms to most students studying English. So far, so fascinating- if we are in the process of the language and teaching changing, you can probably tell from the post below that I’d be happy to have something to shake things up. The important little grammar word here, though, is “if”.

Let’s see what Prof Jen Jen has to say about it: (more…)

Following my own advice for automated teachers, I’ve been trying to use my search for something to write about Japan and or teaching English on my blog as a way of expanding my horizons rather than shrinking them. Recent semi-successful attempts include:

I’ve been dipping back into Eastern Standard Time, which was my bible to accessible Japanese culture when I first arrived in Japan (more serious guides to ikebana and what have you might have put me off for life) . Eastern Standard Time is a guide to Asian influence on American culture that has taught me just as much about America as it has about Japan and the rest of Asia, but anyway is highly recommended and is a great way of making sure that the things you learn about Japan are things you can actually talk about and interest people with when you go back home- a difficult task, believe me…

I’ve also just started Culture Matters, a debunking of Guns, Germs and Steel that is considerably more difficult to read but a bit more relevant to those living abroad and wanting to understand and talk about what they see around them and compare to other places. More about this soon now that I’ve remember that I’m reading it.

In exactly the same way, I can’t remember how Orientalism by Edward W.Said made it back from my bedside into my bookshelves, but will have to start reading again soon and let you know if it’s worth struggling through or not.

So, finally to a book I have actually finished recently- “Summerhill School- A New View of Childhood” by A.S.Neill.  A.S.Neill was one of the most famous proponents of free schools- at Summerhill students don’t have to come to lessons and can decide on most of the school rules in school meetings three times a week, where every student has an equal vote with every member of staff. Despite the fact that he supported the child raising theories of Dr (not Mr) Spock (something that Dr Spock himself later said he didn’t if I remember correctly) and had some very odd friends, from his book Neill (as all the staff and students called him) seems to be a genuinely undogmatic and questioning guy who was just trying to do the best for the kids he taught on a day to day basis, and who came up with what seemed to be radical ways of teaching at the time just because he had seen everything else he had tried fail- a genuinely humble approach that is as rare in education as it is in every other field.

The fact that he developed his theories in very particular circumstances means that you have to be very careful when trying to generalise that as principles for education at all, let alone taking it into entirely different fields and using Summerhill as support for changing EFL- but here are some thoughts of how A.S.Neill might have done the TEFL thing anyway:

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With my TEFL.net Reviews Editor hat on, I will be giving a workshop at the Tokyo ETJ Expo and Tokyo English Language Book Fair at Toyo Gakuen University at 3:30pm on Sunday 4 November. When I say ”hat on”, I don’t mean that literally, despite the photos on TEFL.net. In fact, for people who only know me from here this might be your only chance to see me without a hat! (unless there are spotlights, in which case I might have to wear a hat to save too much shine off the bald patches). (more…)

“(Rod Ellis) recommends holding off teaching grammar to beginning students because the early stages of acquisition are primarily lexically rather than grammatically based and because of the evidence from immersion programs that learners are able to acquire word order and ’salient inflection’ without direct instruction” Nick C. Ellis in Form-focused Instruction and Teacher Education- Studies in honour of Rod Ellis
Makes a lot of sense to me. This might be a good place also to make a mention of New Inside Out Beginner (Macmillan), which I had a thorough look at yesterday and was mighty impressed by. It manages to fit in easy bits that are often missed out even at this low level (e.g. colours) and useful language that doesn’t usually get covered properly at any level (e.g. What is your favourite…?/ What is your dream job?) without having the usual bittiness of books that try to fit too many points in (e.g. Natural English).

“It has been found…that CMC (computer-mediated communication) allows a more balanced participation than in traditional classroom settings [and] that its language displays greater complexity and lexical density than… face-to-face conversation” Scott Thornbury

Could “Conversation Classes” become “Chat Classes” in the near future? Personally, I am very dubious…

For many more, click on the “Quotes about teaching” page on the right

“…researchers have also found, however, that the ability to understand the content and to function in (CLIL) classroom interaction does not ensure that students will continue to improve …in areas of accuracy on language… that does not usually interfere with meaning” Patsy.M.Lightbown and Nina Spada, in “How Languages are Learned 3rd Edition” (Oxford University Press)

Not a big enough problem to worry Auntie Alex with, so will deal with this reader enquiry myself:

Some good-looking internet resources on said topic, have no more than skimmed them myself but the sites they are on are well respected.

http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Kilickaya-AutenticMaterial.html

http://www.readingmatrix.com/articles/berardo/article.pdf

http://eltj.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/51/2/144

http://www.amazon.com/Motivational-Strategies-Language-Classroom-D%C3%B6rnyei/dp/0521793777/ref=sr_1_4/002-8179833-2881649?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1185616833&sr=8-4

The last one is the Amazon page of a classic book by a great author with a great name- Zoltan.

“It has been found…that CMC (computer-mediated communication) allows a more balanced participation than in traditional classroom settings [and] that its language displays greater complexity and lexical density than… face-to-face conversation” Scott Thornbury in An A-Z of ELT (Macmillan)

“…teachers who have been told that their students are ‘high achievers’ (even if they are not) tend to get the kind of results associated with high achievement”. Scott Thornbury in An A-Z of ELT (Macmillan)- a very readable and accessible book 

Any comments? Any at all?? Go on go on go on go on go on go on go on go on