We kicked off with a chat about multilingual and monolingual classes and reflected on the potential internationalism of online courses (reflecting initially on a member’s current experience tutoring on a DipTESOL course). We remembered back to days of summer schools in the UK where we didn’t necessarily know our learners’ first languages, where an “English only” environment seemed natural and it was always “always fun” (or maybe that’s some rose-tinted spectacles there!) At those summer schools we were able to see all sorts of Englishes in action.
We went on to talk about the monolingual classroom and the advantages of students having a shared first language. We talked about the potential efficiency in occasional translation and possible uses of L1 within a predominantly English-speaking framework. We thought we shouldn’t rush into using the L1 and also acknowledged the need for nuance when we have the L1 available. Should we pretend we don’t speak the students L1? We thought not, it’s good for language teachers to show they are language learners too. We recognised the need to give students all the tools we can as language students and also noted the classroom management issues (in YL classes and beyond) with a controlled approach to L1 use. We acknowledged the differences between younger learners and the teenagers, the latter likely to suffer from more self-consciousness. We wondered whether using the L1 actually does students a disservice, robbing them of the chance to develop their communicative skills.
What then of translanguaging? (A popular topic on the Hub!) We agreed that a careful, thoughtful approach is best. If students are struggling with a task, we can perhaps ask students to create a model in their L1 and then transfer to English. The example we used was describing a photo to encourage speculative thinking and imagination. This kind of thing might be particularly effective at the start of the year where we can and perhaps should just ease in to the year and try to avoid stress, instead we should build routines and give our students the framework and the tools they need.
Talking about the beginning of a course, the writers were asked about how much freedom they had, how much things come from Language Acquisition Theory and why do books always seem to start with the present simple and present continuous?! I use “and” here rather than “vs” as we mused on why we set up a fight with “vs”. Whatever the arrangement might be in the book, we agreed on the need to “fore-shadow” the language before they officially meet it; we can sprinkle it into the routines and then teach 7 year olds, “Would you rather…?” type structures.
We moved on to our role in helping students prepare for exams. We want to explain to our students that speaking examiners are like detectives looking for evidence of language use. We rued the fact that it’s so easy to see students who haven’t been trained in the exams. Later on we wondered if we are too focussed on exams and therefore limited linguistically. We agreed that we can and should all still do natural English and that is all part of our students’ linguistic development.
We noted that for teachers with less experience and less confidence, it’s often easier and perhaps advisable for them to stick to the book and from there we can lift the language off the page, bring it to life and extend. A good teachers’ book is a thing of joy, full of guidance and extra ideas, it can really help us all. And of course we need to think about selecting what’s best for our students, adapting the materials and supplementing where necessary.
We talked about how newer teachers really need to be given help and support around planning; planning the lesson, the unit, the term and the whole year. We reflected on the need for that for our students too, they need to be able to see what they’re trying to do. We talked about mini-plans on the board with some assessment/evaluation at the beginning and the end of the lesson. We want students to be able to understand and evaluate what they’ve done in the class. We also admitted that sometimes we don’t have a proper plan but we can still evaluate what the learners achieved.
This brought us on to more philosophical matters; how do we know if students have really learnt something? John Hattie was mentioned in relation to these big questions. Hattie works in mainstream education trying to find out what really makes a difference in learning. We thought that learning languages is more like training for a sport rather than learning a series of facts. Silvana Richardson speaking on Continuous Professional Development at the Future of English Language Teaching Conference was given high praise.
We talked about ourselves doing courses and developing. We shared the excitement of learning new things and also acknowledged the decline in enthusiasm and the feeling of needing more. Is CPD like a drug? Is the Hub your supplier?! 😉
And talking about current trends in ELT, we dived back into another Hub favourite topic, inclusivity. We agreed that representation in materials is a great place to start. We wondered whether books with international reaches would ever be as inclusive as they should? Should materials be more country or more context specific? Could there be extra online materials for these different contexts? Are things getting better? On the whole, yes, there is still much to do (especially around gender and sexuality) but it’s getting better. In recent exams there are pictures including people in wheelchairs but it all still feels very binary. There are more and more mainstream examples of representation and inclusivity and we believe that our students will notice if it’s in the mix. We need to let our students know that we are including and addressing them. It can be dolls of different colours, boys as dancers, etc, etc. and always 3D characters. Asking children to draw things can be so revealing and they can be so open to so much. Is society becoming less binary in general? Perhaps that depends on which society we’re talking about, identity is built ealy on and we can give broader choices. We are in the middle of so much change.
In many parts of the world there is a discussion about inclusive language and it is invariably met by the dismissal that it’s just playing politics but then we are language teachers, so we are interested in the power of language. Other questions hang in the air; are we imposing our values on the classroom? Is this ideological colonialism? The UN defines rights and arguably that gives us a blueprint to follow. We agreed that we should present possibilities wherever we can.
How can we get involved and help move towards an inclusivity in ELT? One way is to to engage with publishers and the representatives at all levels on social media, at conferences, etc.. Simply by asking how inclusive a book is has the potential to make a difference. We can also ask questions to those who choose the books in our schools and in our training courses, ask about inclusivity and offer alternatives (like Raise Up!). Another thing is to make changes to how we do things; we use different images in our classes, instead of using one picture of a family, use 20 with different family types. Presenting things as normal makes them normal. And what if students giggle or mock? Well, that gives us the space to talk about it. Look for similarities rather than differences, open dialogue.
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