Students Take Over

Do they? What about the teacher? What sort of chaos are teachers going to deal with? I agree that the title might easily lead readers to these types of questions. I am not going to give a miraculously recipe because they do not exist, but I would like to write a few lines about the possibility of doing something different in our classes and introducing autonomy into the class successfully.

If our main aim is to help students become more autonomous in their learning process, our attitude towards classroom activities should involve other strategies than teaching linguistic skills. We will have to rely on a more holistic approach to teaching taking into account all those areas that will contribute to our pupils’ development.

We do not want to be kids’ entertainer, but we want them to enjoy the English class, don’t we? We want students to improve in all four skills, but above all we want to encourage communication. We need to emphasize cooperation and group work, to give every single student a sense of fulfilment in the English class, to offer students topics much more related to life outside the classroom, to share their knowledge with other students, to give them the opportunity of working towards an end-product that will make them feel proud of themselves.

The experience can be done with short-term projects, carried out in groups organized by the teacher, towards a controlled output like dossiers or posters. But it can take a step further, or several, and let them have complete freedom to choose the topic they like best and the friends they would like to work with. They will have to decide how deeply they will go into the subject, sort out different work assignments, and come to an agreement about the possible ways of presenting their final product to the class, not to the teacher. The teacher will be there to help, but they will work on his or her own, and the rest of the class will evaluate them.

The teacher will give them complete autonomy but their presentations should include three steps:

- oral presentation

- written work ( dossier, posters, leaflets, etc. )

- activities to engage the rest of the class

Although work can be done outside the class there must be some time devoted to solving problems, revising their oral skills, putting things together and so on during school time. At the same time it will provide an opportunity for teachers to individualize teaching going from one group to another and to assess students’ interest, contribution and collaboration, which I consider of great value when working with projects.

When the time comes for presentations every group will take over during a certain period of time. The teacher will sit among the rest of the class, and therefore the group will have to organize the class, give instructions about what their friends are supposed to do while watching them, present their work in an attractive way, collect the activity sheets their friends will have completed and correct them to give them back on the following day.

There is some work for the “audience” as well:

1. Behave as students and do as they are told.

2. Evaluate their friends’ presentation completing an assessment sheet given by the teacher, following some parameters: interest of the subject, presentation, organization, and level of English

After having been through an experience like this, teachers will realize their students’ capabilities of ”taking over”. It will mean hard work for the teacher, but it will be tremendously rewarding as well. Students will learn to listen to their friends and enjoy watching what their friends have prepared. They will certainly work harder if they know that the rest of the class is going to evaluate them. On the other hand, teachers will have more time to cater for individuals, learn a lot from their pupils’ work, and feel very pleased watching students moving forward and assuming more responsibilities

Interpersonal Intelligence

"They ignored me. They were busy promoting the fight that would kill time and divert from any lesson I might be planning. I moved toward Petey and made my first teacher statement, “Stop throwing sandwiches.” Petey and the class looked startled. This teacher, new teacher, just stopped a good fight. New teachers are supposed to mind their own business or send for the principal or a dean and everyone knows it's years before they come. Besides, what are you gonna do with a teacher who tells you to stop throwing sandwiches when you already threw the sandwich?

Benny called out from the back of the room, “Hey, teach, he awredy frew the sangwidge. No use tellin' him now don't throw the sangdwidge. They's sangwidge there on the floor.”

The class laughed. There's nothing sillier in the world than a teacher telling you don't do it after you already did it. One boy covered his mouth and said, “Stoopid”, and I knew he was referring to me. I wanted to knock him out of his seat, but that would have been the end of my teaching career. Besides, the hand that covered his mouth was huge, and his desk was too small for his body." (1)

How did we teachers handle our first day in front of a class? Did we succeed or fail in the attempt of having the whole group of pupils under control? What went wrong and why? What would we have done if pupils had started throwing their sandwiches at each other? Or if they did ... how would we have responded to the attack?

It was in 1983 when Dr Gardner, professor of education at Harvard University, published his theory of multiple intelligences. This theory suggested that the traditional notion of intelligence, based on I.Q. testing, was far too limited. In a nutshell, what Dr Gardner proposed was eight different intelligences to account for a broader range of human potential in children and adults: linguistic intelligence, logical-mathematical intelligence, spatial intelligence, bodily-kinaesthetic intelligence, musical intelligence, intrapersonal intelligence, naturalist intelligence and last but not least, interpersonal intelligence.

No doubt, interpersonal intelligence plays a substantial role in success because it allows us to affect others by understanding others; without it, we lose the ability to exist socially.

It is this kind of intelligence that makes a person an excellent politician, a leader and, why not, a teacher capable of being adored and respected at the same time and succeeding when it comes to mediating in a conflict.

However, the main problem with intelligence, never mind which type it may be, could be that it is not acquired, that is to say you either have it or you don’t. Any teacher can learn how to cope with certain situations, no matter how difficult they may be, as long as they are predictable and follow certain behavioural patterns. The acid test comes when something unpredictable, something you've never remotely thought might happen, really takes place.

Why do certain people make excellent leaders, politicians and... teachers, while others fail. And when I say teachers I don’t mean the person who stands with his/her back to a blackboard (never mind if it’s the latest digital version on the market) and in front of a group of wild teenagers to try to teach them Maths ,Social Sciences or English! When I say teacher I mean the person who is expected to and should be looking forward to helping all those teenagers grow up while making the most of their schooldays.

According to Gardner, Armstrong and Coleman, among others, it is this interpersonal intelligence, this ability to interact well with others, that helps us to act and respond satisfactorily in front of a class.

I suppose the question is whether this intelligence is somehow intuitive, or if it can be learned. We all know that you can give sound advice to someone failing in a teaching situation, but if they don’t have that innate awareness of what is going on, both within themselves and with their pupils, there’s not much result.

Maybe it is a thing not learned from books and theory, but by trail and error, through experience. Even the very best teachers often begin as hopeless rookies. The question is whether one learns from mistakes, no matter how disastrous, or one gives oneself up to failure. When I look back on my own teaching in secondary schools, the beginning was almost all failure, and the successes seemed to come with age and the years of trial and error… as if by some magic gradually seeping in. Suddenly there came a day when I walked into a class and they all looked up, attentively with expectation (enthusiasm even), as if it was the most natural thing in the world that they should give up their natural individuality to the common good. There’s something also about simply expecting them to pay attention, and because your expectation is so convincing, they seem to have no option. Certainly children and adolescents behave in some ways like animals, and know in their bones whether you expect to be obeyed or not, and on any sign of weakness go in for the kill. Not that it’s much consolation to a fragile beginner teacher flailing about, trying to apply what he/she learned on the best-known training course.

By the way, let me tell you how the sandwich story ended: the teacher picked up the sandwich from the floor, he unwrapped it and ate it. It was his first act of classroom management.

Smart of him, wasn’t it?

(1) Frank McCourt, Teacher Man, Harper Perennial, 2006

APAC Convention: Feedback

Hello,

To all participants in the 2009 APAC Congress we thank you for coming and getting involved in the event.

This is your opportunity to give us all some feedback on your experiences there, what you found positive and what you would improve.

Click on comments below...

Don't miss it. Not this Time!

Internet and the like have changed our societies and they are likely to change our schools. That is why we want to focus in our Convention, this February, on how “To teach the ne(x)t generation”. We have put this central issue at the core of our conference. My first question is: What do we talk about when we talk about technology? We often feel overwhelmed when we hear those technology fetishists discussing how amazing their resources are. What about us, then? We’ve been teaching generations of students alright and we’ve done without the new beast. When we hear talk about technology –at least, at APAC- we want to make sure they don’t forget to remember that it’s teaching that we should be talking about. We want to hear how the wonderful new ICT resources fit into the educational goals we are here to serve. Bearing this in mind we have asked two outstanding lecturers to state their case at the very start of the convention. In the opening session Jeremy Harmer, the author of the now classic “The Practice of English Language Teaching”, will discuss that very archaic sort of technology: candles. Are they really obsolete? Or do they still shed the right kind of light to, well, to spark off the sort of conversations that really matter? You know what I mean. But then, our keynote speaker, Gavin Dudeney, the author of “The Internet and the Language Classroom”, will shed pedagogical light on the world of computer games and what they teach “us” about today’s learners. Quite frankly, having the likes of Harmer and Dudeney to set things in motion sounds like a privilege to me. I’m sure you all agree. It’s hard to imagine a more adequate follow-up to the last APAC monograph: “Technology in English Teaching: Looking Forward”. And don’t forget that our roundtable this time will be a discussion on the pros and cons of ICT with primary and secondary schoolteachers and chaired by our webweaver, Tom Maguire.


And, as usual, more specific areas will be covered: from the role of grammar (Michael Swan) to CLIL experiences in our schools. And there are presentations to cater for educational levels from primary school to university and a great variety of special approaches, like story-telling or drama in the classroom. All in all an exciting prospect that will feature a special presentation of BritLit, the British Council project that involves contemporary writers of English interacting with our students, including very young learners. In collaboration with the British Council, APAC will present a special monograph issue devoted to the great pedagogical potential of the BritLit project to which a number of schools in Catalonia have already been attracted. And last but not least we’ll have the usual display of publishers, examiners’ bodies, educational services, language schools, etc. In the hall at the UPF you’ll find 26 stands with the latest on pedagogical materials and resources.

I do feel we’ll have three days packed with interesting and relevant things for all of us. So here is my advice: Don’t miss it. Not this time!

APAC Convention 2009

Few of us would have believed - 20 years ago - when the use of internet and web-related applications started to enter our lives, that our profession would be so affected by this new development. The spread of internet has been very influential in the consolidation of communicative language teaching and in the introduction of humanistic approaches which require shared responsibilities between teachers and students and imply a shift in power relationships in the classroom.

But some teachers think that things have gone too far, that the tables have been turned on us. Internet has changed our students radically and we find it difficult to adapt to our new context. Today’s students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach. Specialist literature describes us teachers as digital immigrant educators and refers to our students as digital natives, which clearly states our disadvantageous situation. Things have changed, and we need to change in terms of approach and in terms of content. There is no going back.

Past APAC conventions have already addressed a variety of ICT related topics and uses. Our 2009 Convention plans to have The NET as the centre of the debates and sessions. Gavin Dudeney and Jeremy Harmer have already confirmed their participation, and we look forward to learning about the expansion of Second Life and how it may impact our already complicated real life. Other equally experienced EFL speakers have already shown interest in coming.

Finally, we extend a big invitation to attend the Convention sessions at the Pompeu, 26th., 27th., 28th. February next.
See you there!

Grow with the Field, But Don’t Lose Sight of the Basics

The English-language teaching field is burgeoning with new developments. We English teachers can boast of being among the most well-informed, pedagogically innovative instructors in any school or university. But, we’re also faced with logistical limitations that crimp our abilities to be as effective as we can be, such as large classes, hyper-heterogeneous groups, rigid seating arrangements, time constraints, and compulsively talkative students. So, it’s good to frequently step back, take a look at what we are doing from a wider perspective, and make sure we’re at least covering the basics.

Are we overcoming problems in the classroom, or are they overcoming us? Nothing can get done if there are discipline problems. So, in that case, we have to temporarily set aside concern for “affective filters” and lay down the law. A good source of ideas is the book Dealing with Difficulties by Lindsay Clandfield and Luke Podromou.

Once the classroom routine is established and order reigns, we are often daunted at the prospect of doing pair and small-group work with thirty or more students. In theory, it’s possible, and, in fact, it’s quite necessary. So, we have to establish clear routines for getting the students into tasks and bringing them back out again, and we have to circulate among them to make sure they’re on task. Here, bravery, eyes and ears all over our body, and a firm hand at the helm will usually steer us successfully through these dire straits.

Interaction in the target language is crucial for students. But so are other aspects of our lessons. We have to monitor ourselves at least a few times a month and make sure we’re maintaining balance: meaning vs. form; fluency vs. accuracy; development of all the communicative competences, not just grammatical competence; improvement of all of the four skills; stimulation of critical thinking; and consolidation of students’ affective selves and respect for the feelings and views of others.

Of course, we all know this; like we said above, we know quite a bit about pedagogy. But, sometimes we can get distracted by computer technology, project work, exam preparation, games, Halloween and Christmas parties and other activities and materials we incorporate into our classes. So, we have to remember that these are means to an end: language learning. And, as Christopher Brumfit (1991: 140)¹, says, the keys to successful language learning are:

(i) exposure (possibly systematic) to the target language;

(ii) opportunities to use the language (either actively or passively);

(iii) motivation to respond to the two previous requirements.

We’ve got to keep pushing our students along these lines, making sure they’re progressing in their English and in their whole persons, and that they’re not foundering on the shoals of modern-day distraction, adolescent apathy or downright disruptiveness!

¹ Brumfit, C. 1991. “Problems in Defining Instructional Methodologies.” In K. De Bot, R. B. Ginsber, C. Kramsch (Eds.), Foreign Language Research in Cross-Cultural Perspective. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp. 133-144.

JOHN MCDOWELL AWARD

You may be one of those teachers who attend the Opening Session at the APAC-ELT Convention every year and therefore watch the Premi APAC – John McDowell award ceremony. Have you ever dreamt of being one of the winners and receiving one of the prizes? After reading this editorial, we hope you make up your mind and take part in this year’s edition.

Premi APAC-John McDowell started as two separate awards: Premi APAC on the one hand and Premi John McDowell on the other hand. The former was annual and sponsored by the association and the latter was biennial and sponsored by different institutions and organisations such as Direcció General de Política Lingüística, British Council, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Universitat de Barcelona, Consorci per a la Normalització Lingüística, as well as APAC, in honour of John McDowell. John McDowell was a teacher, head of studies at the Barcelona British Council and an excellent teacher trainer who encouraged a lot of teachers into new ways of presenting materials to their pupils. However, the new board, which was elected in June 2001, decided to unify both awards into what is now the annual Premi APAC-John McDowell, since both of them pursued similar objectives.

So, why is there a reason for Premi APAC-John McDowell to exist nowadays? Because APAC is an association which advances and stimulates research and innovation in ELT. It also provides professionals in this field with the opportunity to get together at the convention and share ideas, which is further promoted by means of the web, the quarterly magazine and, of course, this award.

We are sure you identify with the principles of our association and you are willing to tell the world about the research you are carrying out, your treball de recerca, or projects developed in class. There is no excuse preventing you from sending us your piece of work, as there are three categories and you have the chance of winning the prize for one of them. For more information visit the 2008 Awards page.

You know what they say: ‘nothing ventured, nothing gained’.

The Teaching of English

The editorial of La Vanguardia ‘El inglés básico´ caught my attention this summer with its analysis of the low level of English among 4th. ESO pupils. Proposals to improve the situation were not included, though.

The Department of Education has a programme running called CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning). It is based on the theory that languages are learnt through social use. This appears to be a sensible idea since experience tells us that we learned our native tongue by using it to communicate with others who spoke the same language. This is not quite the setting in CLIL but it will undoubtedly boost the number of hours that English is heard in school and is a beneficial option where the appropriate staff resources are available. Equally positive steps would be the promotion of English outside the classroom through subtitling foreign language films instead of dubbing them or creating English summer camps.



One of the reasons put forward by proponents of this new methodology is echoed by the Vanguardia leading article : until now, they say, pupils only learned grammar in English classes. It is certainly true that solid knowledge of grammar is necessary to gain autonomy in a foreign language when learning it in a classroom. On the other hand it is an exaggeration to reduce English classes to grammar exercises. The four skills are included in any English language textbook and complementary material such as graded readers, videos and software are common in English language teaching. Ask any schoolchild which lessons are the most interactive in school. It is more than likely they’ll reply it is the foreign language class.

Pupils leave secondary school knowing how to read, write and understand spoken English in familiar contexts. This has been achieved with only three hours of class a week. Most still lack high fluency. With classes of 30 or more full competence is a pipedream. There is talk of including an oral exam in the foreign language selectivitat in the near future. Perhaps more effort and money could be ploughed into at least one hour of class per week with groups of 15 pupils, at batxillerat level, so that speaking can be properly practised.