Influencing TEFL

It’s quite flattering that there are a few grammar points for which one of my articles or worksheets comes up on the first page of search results (unless that is only on my computer because Google has tailored my results after it worked out that I’m the kind of person who would need such things to boost their ego), and that some people who find them might cut down their preparation time or have more fun when they click on that link. My present mission, though, is to make them reconsider whether they really want to teach that grammar point or whether they’d be better off doing something else like emailing or telephoning instead.

Unfortunately, I’m never going to have that influence through things I write online, because people only usually click on things that they’ve already decided they’ll like, and something else that more closely matches their preconceptions or the ten minutes they have to prepare is only a click or two away. Worksheets are a partial exception because you can sneak all kinds of radical ideas into people’s classes by giving it to them as a one-page pdf with answer key, but with articles if you want to have a real influence on TEFL it still has to be ETP, MET or ELTJ – paper publications that people still often read cover to cover to get their money’s worth or because they are stuck on a train with nothing else to do. Unlike online articles, they are also often read by influential people and mentioned in other articles and books.

So, as much as it pains me to ask people to pay to read my ideas, I’ve just sent my latest article off to MET for consideration rather than just slapping it up online for Google to deal with as it sees fit.

Am I right? And what are the other good ways of actually affecting this profession of ours?

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 12th, 2012 at 4:17 am and is filed under TEFL. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.