A Cross-cultural awareness workshop: language communication and difference

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The

Teacher Trainer A PRACTICAL JOURNAL FOR THOSE WHO TRAIN, MENTOR AND EDUCATE TESOL TEACHERS

2 8 10 16 20 24

A practical session on cross-cultural awareness Which digital skills do you have? Is guessing words from context actually possible for language learners? Want to jazz up your conference? Try OST Getting two for one value on TT courses Ancient Chinese survival strategies for teachers

Includes regular series: Practical Training Session, It’s a Wired World, Trainer Background, Process Options, News in our Field, Readings for Trainees, Article Watch and Publications Received

A

Publication ISSN 0951-7626

Spring 2011

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Oxford English Grammar Course

Available now

From best-selling authors Michael Swan and Catherine Walter

Available now

Step by step to grammar success www.oup.com/elt e elt

Coming soon



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Contents Practical Training Session 2 A cross-cultural awareness workshop: language, communication and difference Victoria Odeniyi and Gillian Lazar It’s a Wired World A checklist of digital skills for teachers and trainers Nik Peachey

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Trainer Background I haven’t a clue what this word means! What teachers need to know about lexical inferencing Iain McGee

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Editorial Dear Everybody, I know it is very British of me to go on about the weather but, judging by the international news, we have all been having rather a lot of it lately. I hope you are coming out of floods, freezes, thaws and droughts wherever you are. I’d like to proffer a warm welcome to the first issue of 2011.

Process Options 16 Open Space Technology – An alternative form of conferencing Adrian Underhill, Susan Barduhn and Tania Iveson Two for One: Experiential Activities for Trainee Teachers Sarah Mercer

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News in our Field Briony Beaven

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We have lots of great articles as usual! Our first one will help you run a cross cultural awareness workshop for the sort of staff who, whilst often coming into contact with TESOL students, do not necessarily have a TESOL training background, e.g., librarians, computing or audio visual staff. (See page 2) How often do we and the teachers we work with suggest that language learners should try to guess a new word from context? What types of context are there? And is this good advice anyway? The article on page 10 challenges our thinking and practice in this area. In a very balanced article (see page 16) the advantages and drawbacks of the traditional conference are weighed up and a complementary conference format, known as Open Space Technology is proposed. The several advantages of experiential training are described in the article on page 20 and a short book, The Art of War, is interpreted as useful for educators on page 24. News is on page 23, article abstracts on page 28 and thumb nail descriptions of relevant books on page 29.

Readings for Trainees 24 The Art of War: Ancient Chinese Strategy for the Embattled ELT Professional David McLachlan Jeffrey

DON’T FORGET TO COME TO OUR Teacher Trainer journal 25th anniversary conference! Please join us as a presenter or participant, 17-19th August, 2011 at the University of Kent at Canterbury, Kent, England. Contact: [email protected] or look on the web site for more details.

Article Watch

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Publications Received

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In the meantime, I always love to receive your article submissions, adverts, and letters and emails so please do keep them coming! All good wishes and happy reading!

Tessa Woodward Editor [email protected] This is a Pilgrims publication, published three times a year. Editor: Tessa Woodward Administrator: Marian Nicholson The Teacher Trainer, Pilgrims Ltd, Theatre House 4-6 Orange Street, Canterbury, Kent CT1 2JA, UK T: +44 (0)1227 762111 F: +44 (0)1227 459027 E: [email protected] Enquiries: subscriptions, advertising and contributions, please contact the Editor. Views expressed in the articles are not necessarily those of the Editor or Pilgrims. Designed and printed by the University of Kent, Design & Print Centre, Canterbury, Kent, UK.

Seth Lindstromberg Assistant editor

Marian Nicholson Administrator

About “The Teacher Trainer” The Teacher Trainer is a practical journal for those involved in modern language, especially TESOL, teacher training. Whether you are a teacher who tends to be asked questions by others in the staff room, or a Director of studies with an office of your own, whether you are a mentor or a course tutor on an exam course, an inspector going out to schools or a teacher educator at a university, this journal is for you. Our aim is to provide a forum for ideas, information and news, to put fellow professionals in touch with each other and to give all those involved in training, mentoring and educating teachers a feeling of how trainers in other fields operate, as well as building up a pool of experience within our own field. The journal comes out three times a year and makes use of a variety of formats e.g. articles, letters, comments, quotations, interviews, cartoons, spoofs. If the idea is good and useful to trainers, we’ll print it no matter what voice you choose to express it in.

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Practical Training Session A cross-cultural awareness workshop: language, communication and difference By Victoria Odeniyi and Gillian Lazar, UK This article reports on a one day cultural awareness workshop developed over four years by Victoria Odeniyi and Gillian Lazar, lecturers from English Language and Learning Support (ELLS) at Middlesex University in north London. ELLS provides workshops and tutorials in academic writing and English language development to both UK-based and international students studying in Britain. Depending on the student profile, ELLS lecturers draw on the methodologies of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) and academic literacies in trying to meet the needs of each learner. ELLS is located within Learning Resources (LR), which includes library, computing and audio-visual services. Many students who seek out ELLS also frequently come into contact with LR staff members, who might be librarians, computing or audiovisual staff or other members of Learning Resources. Unlike ELLS lecturers, these staff members do not have any TESOL background, and may not be fully aware of the complex linguistic and cultural factors influencing students’ communication and behaviour. Thus, the workshop was initially developed by peers (lecturers from ELLS) to be delivered to peers (staff in LR). While TESOL teacher training focuses primarily on training students to become ESL/EFL teachers, we believe that there may well be a role for TEFL trainers in training other staff in effective ways of communicating with language learners. At times, conflict and misunderstanding had arisen between a minority of international students, and both administrative front office staff and staff originating from the various ethnic minority backgrounds prevalent in North London. This situation was complex as misunderstandings were: 1

Linguistic in nature For example, it seemed that some misunderstanding occurred because of the diversity of learners’ use of English on the one hand, and varieties of spoken English amongst some staff which deviated from ‘Standard English.’ Many of our administrative staff have native-speaker competency in English and are in many cases L1 speakers of English. However, their linguistic backgrounds are broad and originate from places as diverse as Russia, Turkey, Hong Kong, India and Poland. In addition, some staff members may also use a variety of London English. For example, they may use glottal stops in their spoken language (/bɛ?ə/ for ‘better’ and /le
?ə/ for ‘later’) which is often not understood by international students new to Britain.

2

Broadly cultural For example, differences between what kinds of actions and ways of being are expected and viewed as normal by one cultural group, and those actions and behaviours which are seen as different, and, therefore, at times unacceptable. An example of this is time-keeping patterns explored later on in this article.

Aims of the training session 1

To raise awareness of cultural factors as a first step to managing differences which may be the cause of misunderstandings.

2

To highlight the role of culture in communication and the role of language in culture with an audience who may think of culture as high culture, or ‘Culture’.

3

To help teaching and non-teaching staff from the University’s Learning Resources department begin to develop some culturally competent strategies (Papadopolous, Tilki & Taylor 1998) for coping with the day to day reality of working within diverse places of work.

Factors influencing our approach to cross-cultural awareness training In our experience, information giving as an approach to promoting cross-cultural awareness often consists of briefings or inductions that are didactic in nature. We have felt dissatisfied with this approach to training as it often adopts rigid categories as a way of describing cultural difference and makes broad generalisations about the behaviour and modes of thinking of different cultural groups (an etic perspective). For example, there is a belief among some people that Southern Europeans are more emotional than Northern Europeans. An etic categorisation might place all Italians in one category and all Norwegians in another whereas individuals within those counties vary in how they express emotions. Instead, we adopt an approach to cultural differences which can be described as emic as it attempts to explain differences in a more meaningful way without stereotyping. We also make use of critical incident analysis. This form of training draws on social psychological theory to help explain the conflict that arises when an individual makes assumptions about an event or a person which differ from the meaning attached by the other person involved. It is used as a tool for awareness-raising, and has been developed by many for example, Tomalin and Stempleski (1993) and Valdes (1995) in TEFL settings. Finally, we exploit experiential learning as an approach to promoting cross-cultural awareness. This draws on Kolb’s (1984) learning cycle as way of reflecting on cultural experiences and encounters with others during/through classroom learning activities.

An example of a critical incident The following example draws on elements from the approaches outlined above: In an email from an undergraduate student we had not met, one of the trainers was referred to as ‘My dear Victoria’. Our initial response was that this form of address was over-familiar and therefore not appropriate. However, after some reflection we were unsure whether this informal register was: 1

the consequence of a desire to win greater leniency associated with a request for some work to be reviewed

2

a way in which speakers from the writer’s speech community commonly refer to recipients of the same age and gender which had little to do with my professional role

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an experimental use by the writer who was very unsure about the correct form of address to use with me.

This example of a critical incident can be discussed in groups with fruitful and sometimes surprising outcomes. We are careful to emphasise there are no ‘right’ answers or explanations, rather it is the talking through and making sense of the situation which can be helpful, thus promoting emic perspectives. We emphasise that, if as trainers and trainees, we begin with our own perspectives and subcultural membership we are more likely to be able to make sense of the actions and language of others appropriately.

An outline of the day The day is divided into two very broadly: 1

reflecting on and discussing cultural experiences/encounters.

2

discussion of the many and varied linguistic and extra-linguistic reasons for cultural misunderstandings and some possible strategies for either preventing them, or for dealing with them more effectively should they arise.

What follows is an explanation of each of the day’s activities in sequence.

1 Talking through the aims and rationale of the workshop

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4 What do we mean by culture? Next, we present a slide entitled ‘Culture’: Culture: •

Everyone has a cultural background

•

Culture is traditionally associated with national boundaries but [sub] cultures cut across these

•

Many people feel uncomfortable about asking others about their culture

But discussions about our culture can help dispel misconceptions. (Kelly & Meyers, 1992) We acknowledge that definitions and understandings of the term culture are complex and contested. We use Kelly and Meyers’ points above to illustrate our views of culture. These points provide a rationale for the Culture brainstorming activity (see Activity 3) and support our responses to and explanations of participants’ contributions.

5 Cultural metaphors – the iceberg We use the iceberg metaphor to talk about culture as it can be a useful way of highlighting the fact that many cultural perspectives are not visible. For example, what we see, hear and can explain is often above the surface, but we may hold other cultural values which remain below the surface.

The aims and rationale tend to look something like this: •

To reflect on your own culture

•

To develop an awareness of cultural differences which can cause misunderstandings

•

To suggest a few linguistic strategies to help in the workplace

•

To highlight the role of culture in language and communication

We allow time to go through each item explaining what it might mean for the group of individuals we are working with on the day. An important element of this discussion is the importance of mutual respect and confidentiality.

2 Preliminary ice-breaker – Getting to know the group We use the following format: •

Talk to the person next to you for about 5 minutes.

•

Find out a little bit about them and why they have come to today’s session.

•

Aim to pass on one memorable fact or anecdote about your partner to the rest of the group.

3 Culture brainstorming activity We write ‘culture’ on the board and then ask the group to jot down all the words, ideas and associations they have and are happy to share. They do this individually and then share their ideas in small groups. We ask the smaller groups to feedback briefly to the entire group as ideas are collated by the facilitators. This activity can take up to 30 minutes of the day. The aim of the brainstorming activity is to determine the intercultural knowledge of the group. In our experience of working with university staff this was often extensive because many members identified that they were from a country other than the UK, were bilingual and/or bicultural, or through choice have spent extensive periods outside Britain.

continued >>>

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6 Reflecting on our own cultural background Previous activities lead in to the next reflective exercise on cultural background where participants are invited to share as much or as little as they wish about their background, heritage, and idiolect as well as draw on themes and ideas discussed from the previous activities. A – Two lead-in questions are:

7 Adjusting to a new environment

•

What is your cultural heritage?

•

Which cultures form part of who you are?

The previous reflective activity attempts to promote self-awareness while the next task draws attention to factors associated with adjusting or adapting to a new environment. The intention here is for participants to begin to consider the experiences of students new to their place of study as well as their own personal and professional experiences.

B – We present the diagram below:

region

age ethnicity

We provide the following on a slide or handout: socia social background

religion

gend gender

country

family

My cultural profile e heritage

economic status acc accent marital status

1

Think back over one of the following situations:

religion on

class sexual orientation

This part of the day is particularly rich and it is worth noting at this point that verbalised reflections can point to a sense of being caught between cultures or sub-cultures. For example, someone may have lived close to where they were born for most of their life, but, at the same, time feel different to others around them because of family heritage. We emphasise that our sense of who we are changes across time and from one sub-culture to another throughout our lives. Thus, culture is dynamic rather than static.

nationally ally

race

A time when you travelled in a country with a language different from your own. or A time when you lived for a period in a country with a language different from your own. 2

other?

Note down: a) two things that you found surprising about the experience b) two things that you liked

Next, we ask the group to spend some time reflecting on their own cultural background, particularly what is below the surface to continue with the iceberg metaphor. At this point we request that discussions remain confidential within the group as, at times, participants may divulge discomfort or difficulties surrounding particular students, staff members or perhaps their own backgrounds. It helps if facilitators can give an example from their cultural background or membership of sub-culture as a model to begin with. Example: I was brought up in the north of England but have lived within 25 miles of Greater London for over 20 years. As a consequence I now say /baeth/ as easily as /ba:th/). I identify with both regions in the UK and use language to signal which sub-culture or region I feel closer to at a particular time. This sense of overlapping cultures and speech communities is represented by the interlocking ovals above. For example, in past sessions some participants described themselves as being part of the North London community (region), but also as Greek Cypriot (heritage).

c) two things that you found problematic or challenging. Participants are given time to make notes individually. They are then invited to share experiences in pairs or small groups before a whole group discussion takes place. This is an extremely fruitful part of the day. We draw on many of the cultures discussed in Activity 4 (What do we mean by culture?), emphasising that our sense of who we are changes as we encounter new people and new experiences. It is at this point in the day that we begin to shift from participants’ experiences and backgrounds and begin to draw parallels with how our students may be feeling. For example, during student induction, students might feel a heightened sense of frustration and impotence, when for example, a seemingly straightforward transaction such as borrowing a book from the library does not go smoothly. At times, these periods of adjustments can be problematic and we focus on culture shock as an awareness-raising activity.

8 Culture shock

Themes which emerge as a result of discussions will of course vary and are therefore difficult to predict, but might include:

We aim to raise awareness of some of the difficulties which are associated with relocation, change and adjustment.

- the importance of the extended family

In 1960 Oberg suggested there were six aspects of culture shock which we feel still have relevance today:

- obedience to authority - a sense of belonging to a particular place - how an individual feels they are viewed by others

1

Strain due to effort required to make necessary changes

2

Sense of loss and feelings of deprivation in regard to friends, status, and possessions

3

Rejections of and by people from new culture

4

Confusion in role expectations, values, self-identity

5

Surprise anxiety, even disgust and indignation after becoming aware of cultural difference

6

Impotence – not being able to cope

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An example of an international student who may experience culture shock. A student from China who has completed two years of a Media Studies degree in China and is now completing the third year of the degree in the UK. An example of a local British student who may experience culture shock. A mature student who has to make adjustments in terms of status and roles as he/she becomes a student rather than playing a more familiar role of team manager, where status and responsibility was taken for granted. Here the culture shock results from the move from a work/professional context into the university/educational context. The W curve of cultural adjustment

Sample incident 2 You have given a short talk in which you invite questions at the end. Nobody asks any questions at this point. After the session has ended, you get a cluster of students who continue to ask questions as you gather your belongings and try to leave the room. You feel annoyed as they ask useful questions which you feel the whole group may have benefited from. •

Why do some students seem to ask questions once a training session or class has ended?

Sample incident 3 A post-graduate student has booked an appointment with you for some additional help. The student is late. They do not apologise, shrug and simply state that they thought it was scheduled 15minutes later than the time you recall you both agreed. •

How do you feel?

•

Why didn't the student say 'sorry'?

Mood

Next, groups discuss responses to the incidents and questions. We discuss reasons why these incidents may have occurred which may be cultural, individual or specific to circumstance or teaching context. There are many possibilities and we have summarised one or two reasons for each incident below: Table One: Face to face incidents with suggested areas for discussion:

Time (Adapted from Gullahorn & Gullahorn 1963 and Oberg 1960)

Critical incident

Suggested areas for of discussion

Incident one Demanding books

People are not necessarily rude or ‘bad’ at English:

The W curve can be a useful way to make sense of how we feel as we begin to enter and get used to a new place of work or a new county. It helps to explain/illustrate individual differences and the fact that some people do not achieve full adjustment for many years. It also helps to emphasise that entry into a new culture does not necessarily consist of physical or linguistic change and that changes in mood are a normal part of adjustment, as, for instance, when starting a new teaching post.

9 Critical incidents in and around the working environment This part of the day focuses on the analysis of authentic critical incidents and email correspondences. Rather than solidify preconceptions or stereotypes we point to the various linguistic, extra-linguistic and cultural explanations. One or two examples of these have been elaborated upon in Table One below. We also attempt to avoid stereotypes by purposefully removing cultural identity and gender as we do not wish to contribute to essentialist views or indeed create a dichotomised checklist of what certain nationalities and racial groups are like. Our intention is to avoid stereotyping at all costs. Here are some samples of interaction between staff and students from the British university context which have caused misunderstanding, confusion and frustration: Sample incident 1 A student approaches a librarian who is busy putting books away on the shelves. The student points to a booklist from a module handbook, and says: ‘I need this book. Where is it?’ •

How would you feel if a student approached you in the same way?

•

How would you react to the student?

Patterns of pronunciation, intonation and stress (prosody) of many languages differ from English. Politeness formulae adopted by many L1 English speakers such as: ‘I’m sorry to bother you but would you mind if…’ may be viewed as unnecessary in some cultures. Incident two Not asking questions until session has finished

Face saving strategies affect how we communicate with each other: (i) Protecting ourselves: No-one wants to appear foolish or to lose face in front of a group. (ii) Protecting the face of others: Students with useful questions may not want to imply that the teacher has not explained well This ‘face-work’ varies according to the situation and according to cultural norms and values.

Incident three Turning up late, not saying sorry

How late is late? Rules around time-keeping often need to be learned. It is easy to make assumptions about cultural knowledge and assume that all students know and are acting upon the same cultural assumptions as university staff. Saying the actual word Sorry is culturally and linguistically specific.

continued >>>

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10 Analysing emails Many large teaching institutions are increasingly using electronic communication, such as email, to communicate with staff and students. This is why we also use email correspondence as data for critical incident analyses. However, the examples we select to use depend on the interests of the group with whom we are working.

Correspondence two I am nt 2 sure how to do it.

Email analysis activity

Also, with new forms of e-communication, such as Twitter, we are faced with choices much more than we used to be. It can be easy to get it wrong.

We hand-out participants a copy of the following: Imagine you received the following emails from students asking for help relating to an assignment they are working on. How would you feel? How would you respond? How might there be potential for misunderstanding? Sample email extract one Date sent: From: Subject: To:

Fri, 20 Sep xxxx 12:43:02 +0100 xxxxxxxxxxxxxx thank you for the essay work shop [email protected]

Hi Vic, Hello vic my name is xxxxx a first year bsc xxxx student. I am writing you to thank you very much for your Essay writing workshop for student who speak English as their first, second or additional language. The workshop will be helpful to me personally as it will help me to improve on my essay writing. thanks Sample email extract two Date sent: From: Subject: To:

Tues, 12 Nov xxxx 12:27:02 +0000 xxxxxxxxxxxxxx help! [email protected]

Hello, I have a discussion and a report to write for ssc 2001 but I am nt 2 sure how to do it. Could you refer me to a book … that could help me structure'em. They both 1000 words. Tanx Xxxx

New forms of communication Emails and texts have their own special language, or register, just like more formal forms of writing do. The language of emails are different to letters but also different to texts. We need to learn how much of this ‘border crossing’ is acceptable.

11 Concluding the critical incident discussions We underscore that these types of workplace misunderstandings can be due to individual difference, difficulties with language or perhaps misunderstanding what forms of social behaviour are acceptable in specific contexts. This can be made more challenging for newcomers because people do not always make explicit what they know. For instance, strategies for locating how to get hold of a book we cannot find (see Critical incident 1 above). Students need to know the appropriately polite linguistic form to use, as well as what is appropriate behaviour, i.e. to whom this question can be addressed.

12 Factors affecting cross-cultural misunderstandings activity After discussion of a selection of the critical incidents we invite the group to reflect on and share some of their own experiences. We present the following table, and ask participants to discuss how they think these factors might cause misunderstandings, giving examples from their own experience, if possible: Verbal factors

Non-verbal factors

Behavioural factors

•

Prosody: sounds; stress & intonation

•

Proximity

•

•

Gestures

•

Accent

Appropriate forms of address

•

Touch

•

Conversational techniques

•

Time

•

Eye contact

•

Suitable politeness formulae

Table Two: Email incidents with suggested areas for discussion Correspondence one Hi Vic,

We are on first name terms In British universities, it is common for many senior lecturers, professors and researchers to say, call me ‘Jo’ or ‘Chris’ even to first year students. This outward informality can mask an implicit hierarchy. Informality of address (Jo and not Dr. Smith) and dress code can lead to role and status confusion and a blurring of boundaries across registers. It can be easy for someone of a lower status within the institution to unwittingly cause surprise, or even offence, through an overly informal choice of address.

Are there any additional factors which might cause misunderstandings?

13 Strategies for avoiding cross-cultural misunderstandings The next phase aims to support the development of some of the practical strategies listed below: Some Strategies for Avoiding Cross-cultural Misunderstandings 1

Be aware that the student/colleague may not mean to seem rude/over-polite or aggressive/passive, etc. but may be behaving according to their own cultural norms of behaviour.

2

Avoid using complicated grammar in your answers to questions.

3

Avoid using very colloquial or idiomatic language.

4

Avoid assuming that the student will be familiar with the ‘jargon’ of the university.

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For example, User ID. 5

Avoid assuming that the student will be familiar with British cultural institutions.

For example, Bonfire Night. 6

Try to break down long explanations into shorter ones.

7

If you are really stuck, ask the student to write down their request.

8

Smiling seems to be a cultural universal denoting good will, so... ☺?

We believe that the points above are simple, rather than simplistic and we have kept the handout deliberately short for reference at a later stage. It is notable that many of these strategies have an explicitly linguistic component (see, for example: 2, 3 & 4), and that communicating more clearly at a linguistic level can help speakers to avoid exacerbating cultural misunderstandings. This focus on the linguistic is often new to participants in cultural awareness workshops. All the examples can be modified to suit different training and teaching contexts.

14 Follow up tasks As a follow-up to the workshop, we encourage the group to carry out an optional additional task. Here are two examples: Follow up task 1: A language audit of information given to students and staff which may cause potential misunderstandings To introduce the task, we highlight the point that, despite good intentions, we often make assumptions that what is open and friendly will also be more readily understood. In fact, use of politeness formulae that conform to British cultural expectations as well as the use of ‘friendlier’ idiomatic English, may in fact make adjusting to the university more challenging. This section is introduced with examples from around the university campus and again could be modified to suit different training contexts. Participants are encouraged to think about how the language they use, both written and spoken, could be made more accessible to students. For example: Do you need a hand?

➡

Can I help you?

Please refrain from talking.

➡

No talking, please.

I’m sorry, but would you mind doing that in one of the designated areas?

➡

No smoking here. Thank you.

Many trainers are required to collect standard institutional feedback and evaluation. However, we feel that, in addition to doing this, more qualitative feedback can be extremely useful and in the past we have used the following brief handout: Please jot down what you felt you got from the session, and anything you didn't like. Thanks. On the whole feedback has been positive. For example, one trainee who found the day useful chose to attend the training session to make sense of rapidly changing demographics in her street in North London where she lived. What we can conclude is that many participants at the workshop wished to explore cultural meanings as well as language differences, not only in order to making sense of their workplace, but also in understanding their personal experiences better.

Conclusions There are, inevitably, tensions between time and resource constraints, on the one hand, and the desire to develop the training day more fully to incorporate awareness-raising alongside culturally competent strategies. However, we conclude that a university or other educational institution which does not attempt to enhance cross-cultural interaction would be inadequate, as increasing linguistic and cultural diversity impacts upon our daily working life. It may well be the case that TEFL trainers, given their awareness of the cultural and linguistic factors that influence communication, are in a unique position to provide sessions enabling staff with non-TEFL training to better understand cross-cultural interactions.

Notes 1 There are many definitions of culture and it means many different things to different people. Culture is viewed as history, literature, great works of art, architecture and music etc. that a group of people have in common – culture with a capital ‘C’. It also refers to customs, traditions, ways of behaving and thinking that people have in common – culture with a small ’c’ refers to product (things) and practices. 2 Etic: how an insider might explain an outsider’s cultural perspectives. Emic: how an insider might explain their own cultural perspectives. See Holliday, Hyde & Kullman (2006, p.185); Coupland and Jaworski (2009, p.7) and Moran (2001) for a more detailed discussion of emic/etic analysis. 3

Follow up task 2: Behavioural conventions task Draw up a list of guidelines for good practice for your workplace. This time include items that are relevant to both students and staff. For example, in order to make yourself understood: Staff: Reduce the number of idiomatic expressions (eg, Do you need a hand?) Students: Use please and thank you more than you would at home. Generally, British people seem to like it. Again, this task has been introduced with examples relevant to a British university campus but could also be modified to suit different contexts.

There is overlap with Valdes’ (1995) ‘cultural bumps’ and Bennett’s (1998) ‘transition shock’. 4 Essentialism is the tendency to reduce what we think of a person, or a group, to their ‘essential’ categories. Some common essentialist categories are: young/old, male/female, black/white, middle class/lower class, native speaker/non-native speaker and Eastern/Western. We may then use these categories as an acceptable/legitimate explanation for behaviour that we observe. 5

‘Border crossing’ refers to changes in language use which occur when English associated with one situation or text type (for example, a text message) crosses over into another situation or text type (for example, a formal letter), or vice versa.

References Bennett, M. J. 1998. Basic Concepts of Intercultural Communication: Selected Readings. Boston, MA: Intercultural Press. Coupland, N. & A. Jaworski. 2009. ‘Social worlds through language’ in N. Coupland & A. Jaworski, eds. The New Sociolinguistics Reader, pp.1-21. Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan. Gullahorn, J. T. & J. E. Gullahorn. 1963. ‘An extension of the Ucurve hypothesis’. Journal of Social Issues. 19, 3, 33-47. continued >>>

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Holliday, A., M. Hyde, J. Kullman. 2004. Inter-cultural Communication: An Advanced Resource Book. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.

The Authors Victoria Odeniyi lives in the UK and is a senior lecturer in English for Academic Purposes at Middlesex University. She teaches EAP/academic literacies, and has been involved in teaching communication skills to refugee and ethnic minority teachers. Her interests include learner identity, academic practice and cultural differences. She completed an MEd in English Language Teaching at Sheffield University in 2001. Email: [email protected]

Kelly, C. & J. Meyers. 1992. Cross-cultural Adaptability Inventory Manual. Chicago, IL: Pearson Education. Kolb, D.A. 1984. Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. URL: http://www.learningfromexperience.com/images/uploads/processof-experiential-learning.pdf (31.05.2006). Accessed August 2009. Moran, P. 2001. Teaching Culture Perspectives in Practice. Boston, US: Heinle & Heinle.

Gillian Lazar is a Senior Lecturer, English Language and Learning Support (ELLS), Middlesex University. She teaches EAP/academic literacies, and has been involved in teaching communication skills to refugee and ethnic minority teachers. Her interests include online learning, materials writing, metaphorical language and the use of literature in ELT, and she has published in these areas. Email: [email protected]

Oberg, K. 1960. Cultural Shock: Adjustments to new Cultural Environments Practical Anthropology. 7, 177-182. Papadopoulos, I., M. Tilki, G. Taylor. 1998. Transcultural Care: A Guide for Health Care Professionals. Dinton, Wilts.: Quay Books. Tomalin, B. & S. Stempleski. 1993. Cultural Awareness. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Valdes, M. J. 1995. Culture Bound: Bridging the Cultural Gap in Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

It’s a Wired World A checklist of digital skills for teachers and trainers By Nik Peachey, UK It would be hard for anyone involved in education, particularly in ELT to deny the impact that electronic technologies are having on the way a new generation of learners, and indeed teachers, communicate, socialise, entertain themselves, create and of course learn. But are we as teacher trainers keeping up with these developments ourselves? And more importantly are we ensuring that the courses we deliver not only make best use of new technologies, but enable our trainee teachers to critically assess where and when they can use these technologies to support pedagogical aims?

What digital skills do teachers need?

Here is the list I created:

Recently, I was asked to produce a session for the International Association of Teachers of EFL (IATEFL) Leadership and Management Special Interest Group pre-conference day in Harrogate, UK (2010). I decided for the topic of my presentation to look at what digital skills managers should be ensuring their teachers were developing.

A Digital Skills Checklist for Teachers

I started this process by brainstorming a tick list of skills that I felt were relevant to the role of a 21st Century teacher. I took into consideration the demands that developments in blended and online learning are likely to make on teachers as more schools take advantage of online and distance markets. I was pretty surprised to find that, within about fifteen minutes, I’d come up with a list of more than 40 skills. I would like to point out that part of the reason the list is so long is because I have separated the skills of being able to manipulate technology from those of being able to use it to achieve a pedagogical aim. For example; I have separated the skill of being able to create a blog or website from the skill of being able to use a website with students to achieve a pedagogical aim. For me, this is a vitally important point to make. So much teacher training involving technology focuses on the technological side rather than the pedagogical exploitation. I feel this is where learning technology training has failed so many teachers. Teachers often leave training sessions knowing ‘how’ to create a blog or a wiki, but not really knowing ‘why’ they should use one rather than the other, or what they can achieve by using them with students.

Which of these can you do? Can you… create and edit digital images exploit digital images for the creation of web-based learning materials exploit digital images for classroom use find and evaluate authentic web based content exploit web based content for classroom learning exploit web based content for autonomous student learning develop interactive online learning activities or tests (drag, drop, gap fill etc) create a blog or website exploit blogging to achieve pedagogical aims create a wiki exploit a wiki for collaborative learning with students use synchronous collaborative tools for text constructions and editing use asynchronous collaborative tools for text constructions and editing create and edit digital audio

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create online materials using digital audio exploit digital audio in the classroom create interactive audio projects create and edit digital video create screen capture videos for students’ training create an online media-sharing channel (on YouTube / Teacher Tube etc) exploit digital video to achieve pedagogic aims use a webcam for online synchronous and asynchronous communication exploit webcams for the creation of teaching and learning materials exploit webcams for student projects create and deliver asynchronous online presentations / training create and deliver synchronous interactive online presentations / training use synchronous and asynchronous web based tools for students mentoring evaluate and select appropriate digital applications and browser plugins to enhance student learning understand issues related to copyright and fair use of online materials identify online resources that may pose a threat to our students’ e-security identify and use appropriate features of technology to reduce threats to our students' e-security aid students in the use of a range of digital tools to help them set goals, plan and organise their learning use a range of digital tools for time-management planning and administrative purposes utilize social book-marking to share resources with and between learners support students in the development of an e-portfolio exploit social media for your own professional development compile a digital e-portfolio for your own development use a range of mobile devices create mobile learning materials identify materials appropriate for mobile exploitation exploit digital narrative for learning purposes create digital narrative switch on configure and access materials on an interactive whiteboard create and deploy materials for interactive whiteboards exploit an interactive whiteboard in class to stimulate student centered learning exploit 3D and 2D interactive computer games for pedagogical purposes

What digital skills do teachers feel they have? Having created my list, I decided to put it to the test and see how many teachers felt they actually had these skills. I used a free social survey tool called Urtak (http://urtak.com) which enabled me very quickly to create a web-based survey that users could add to and then to collect the information to share online. I distributed a link to the survey through a range of social media, such as ‘Twitter’, social book marking services such as ‘Diigo’ and ‘Delicious’ as well as through a posting on one of my blogs and through various ELT related email based discussion lists.

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The fact that the survey was distributed in this manner means that the results will be collected from among the most digitally literate teachers around the globe. I still think that by comparing some of the results some interesting trends can be spotted.

Some results I will just pick out a couple of results here. For example, more than 40% of the teachers who have responded so far feel unable to switch on an Interactive Whiteboard (IWB) and configure it. Close to 50% feel they couldn’t develop and deploy materials for an IWB. Given that these results come from digitally literate teachers, it’s surprising to see this lack of lack of confidence with Interactive whiteboards, ‘Mobile learning’, that is, any kind of learning that takes advantage of portable handheld devices, such as mobile phones, portable gaming devices, and Mp3 players, was also an area where teachers feel weak, with more than 45% saying they were unable to select appropriate materials for exploitation on mobile devices. The other areas that have come out weakest so far are the use of webcams and the ability to exploit web-based 2D and 3D games. Some of the areas where teachers feel more confident are in their ability to exploit authentic web-based content such as text and images with more than 90% of teachers giving positive answers. For me, one of the most reassuring results to draw from this survey was that more than 85% of teachers feel able to use social media for their own professional development. Again, this isn’t surprising considering the way the survey was distributed, but it does show that a lot of teachers are now taking care of their own development and using technology to do that. You can add your own answers and check the responses of other teachers by going to: http://urtak.com/u/1826

What we need to do Despite the fact that a great many teachers in the survey so far say they are using social networks to look after their own development needs, I think we should still, especially as when working with preservice teachers, ask ourselves about the courses we deliver. Are we helping teachers to utilise digital resources and learning technologies? What can we do to ensure that teachers are using them effectively? I mean not just using the technology efficiently, but in a way that actually helps students to learn.

Author Nik Peachey is a freelance learning technology consultant, trainer and writer. He has been working in ELT since 1992, first as a teacher, then teacher trainer, and later as the manager of British Council websites for teachers. Nik holds an M. Ed in ELT and technology from Manchester University and is also a PRINCE 2 qualified Project Manager. Since becoming a freelance in 2007, he has developed a number of free websites for teachers to aid them in their use of learning technologies. These are: ‘Learning technology blog’, which combines video tutorials with pedagogical suggestions to help teachers exploit free web based technologies. http://nikpeachey.blogspot.com/ ‘Quick shout’ which has teaching tips and information about new and emerging technologies and how they can be used to have an impact on education. http://quickshout.blogspot.com/ ‘Daily English Activities’ which has a range of tasks and activities that EFL and ESL students can use autonomously to develop their English and digital literacy. http://daily-english-activities.blogspot.com/ Nik has also written and published a 53 page manual on Web 2.0 Tools for Teachers which can be downloaded free of charge from: http://www.scribd.com/doc/19576895/Web-20-Tools-for-Teachers

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Trainer Background I haven’t a clue what this word means! What teachers need to know about lexical inferencing By Iain McGee, Saudi Arabia Lexical inferencing, or guessing word meaning from context, is a reading strategy used by all readers, to a greater or lesser extent. Such inferencing might be ‘incidental’, for example when reading a novel, or newspaper; or in a more directed context – for example during a classroom reading comprehension exercise. This article looks at the different types of context an L2 reader may draw on to infer the meaning of an unknown word in a text, and then looks at three variables which affect the reader’s success in lexical inferencing: the word, the text and the learner him/herself. After looking at these, two different learner strategies are explained and evaluated, and the article ends by making a number of proposals for teachers, which, it is hoped, will challenge teachers’ thinking and practice in this area. Guessing unknown word meaning from context (lexical inferencing) is a well-researched subject, having been looked at from L1 and L2 perspectives, and from a variety of angles and research interests (including reading strategy, vocabulary learning strategy, contextual learning effectiveness, and retention). This article seeks to approach the subject from an EFL / ESL teacher perspective. It should be noted that the article focuses exclusively on contextual guessing – not the learning of words from context, and neither does it consider situations where a reader chooses to ignore a new word, rather than attempt to guess its meaning. The focus of this article, therefore, is quite narrow: developing a sound teacher strategy to deal with L2 lexical inferencing.

Classification Teachers tend to use the words co-text and context synonymously, particularly when talking about words in a text. However, the term context, as it is typically used in lexical inferencing research has a much wider meaning than co-text. Context has been variously classified and defined, and the classification provided below is an adapted form of Paribakht’s (2004: 152). It forms the framework for the discussion that follows. Context classification 1

Extralinguistic context

2

Linguistic context A Interlingual B Intralingual i

The word

a Morphology b ii

Orthography

Co-text

1 Extralinguistic Knowledge Extralinguistic context, broadly defined, is what the learner brings to the text. A reader is not a blank, and the idea that meaning is somehow negotiated between the reader and the text is not a new one. With regards to extralinguistic knowledge, research has indicated the powerful role of content schema (i.e. knowledge about the subject matter of the text) in affecting comprehension (e.g. Johnson, 1982). The importance of content schema can be better understood if we consider the sentence below.

The player dropped the cerciss just before he was about to score. Admittedly, this (made up) sentence would be a fragment of a larger text, but nevertheless it serves to illustrate the role of extralinguistic context here. We can reasonably hypothesize that a European reader of the above sentence, coming across the unknown word ‘cerciss’, draws upon a ‘player – scoring’ content schema (assuming that the words ‘player’ and ‘score’ are known). For something to be dropped it has to have been held, and so a football context can be ruled out. However, games which would fit the context would, for example, be rugby, basketball, and handball. It is not, therefore, an unreasonable guess for such a reader to assume that a ‘cerciss’ is a type of ball. If, however, a rural Uzbek or Kazakh reader (of the same language level as the hypothetical European reader noted above) were to read the same text, and like the European reader drew on his or her experience of ‘player-scoring’ frames, then the game of ‘Buzkashi’ (a game played between two teams on horses who have to carry a dead animal (usually a calf) to a scoring point) might well come to mind. If it does, then the reader might then guess that the word ‘cerciss’ is a dead animal. For our purposes here, cerciss = carcass, and so the Kazakh student would have correctly guessed the meaning of the word. It must be stressed that this ‘success’ is not based on the reader’s intelligence, superior reading skills or anything other than the fact that existing content schema coincided (nothing more or less) with the text content. Pre-reading activities typically try to activate schema; but clearly, a reader who lacks the requisite schema, or possesses a similar, but different schema set, is at a disadvantage to the student whose content schema ‘fits’ the content of the text. For example, having a good idea of the game of cricket will help an Urdu speaker comprehend a text written in English about the game, but knowing the rules of baseball may only confuse a Japanese speaker reading the same text. It is easy for a teacher who is not of the same cultural background as the student to overlook this critically important aspect of context when considering the subject of lexical inferencing.

2 Linguistic Knowledge A Interlingual knowledge The second type of context is linguistic knowledge, of which interlingual knowledge is one kind. A student draws on this when the L1, or Ln (i.e., L3, L4 etc.) assists in the inferencing of the meaning of previously unencountered, or unknown words in the L2. The text below is a small extract from a French abridged form of Moliere’s Dom Juan, and is provided to illustrate the role of interlingual lexical inferencing.

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Au contraire, je vous y veux servir, et vous épargner des soins inutiles. Je suis ami de Dom Juan, je ne puis m’en empêcher; mais il n’est pas raisonnable qu’il offense impunément des gentilshommes, et je m’engage à vous faire raison par lui (Jabbour 2004: 143). The English speaking reader of the above can (even with no knowledge of French), because of the presence of a number of cognates, make a reasonably successful guess at the meaning of a number of the words: underlined below with the English equivalent in brackets. Au contraire (contrary), je vous y veux servir (serve), et vous épargner des soins inutiles (inutility). Je suis ami de Dom Juan, je ne puis m’en empêcher; mais il n’est pas raisonnable (reasonable) qu’il offense (offense) impunément (impunity) des gentilshommes (gentlemen), et je m’engage (engage) à vous faire raison (reason) par lui. For a native speaker of Japanese or Korean, (for example), there is no help here: there are no cognate connections on which to draw. It has long been recognised that ‘cognates’ may mislead – in the case of false friends, or faux amis. These can, potentially, be amusing or embarrassing, but more often than not cognate ‘non- or partial equivalency’ is simply confusing. For example, faire, in the above (last line) could be guessed as ‘fair’, and in such a case, interlingual context dependence becomes a ‘liability’ rather than an asset (faire being the French verb ‘to do’). While cognate knowledge may assist, it may also mislead.

The sentence below contains the very rare English word ‘disport’ – unknown to most native English speakers. They disported most of the afternoon, and then returned to the fair. What does ‘disport’ mean? If morphological analysis is employed then either ‘di’ could be segmented (perhaps meaning ‘playing two sports’?), or ‘dis’(perhaps meaning ‘coming out of a port’?). The word actually means to amuse oneself, from the Anglo-French ‘desporter’: des = apart, and porter = carry (desporter = to divert). When to apply morphological analysis and when to ‘hold off’, is, clearly, something of a gamble; however, research suggests that it is more common for analysis to occur than not, particularly with lower level learners (see Qian 2005: 35) and the very real possibility of a ‘misclue’ being taken for a clue must be noted and taken seriously by teachers. Nagy and Anderson (1984) suggested that 20% of affixed words are deceptively transparent: i.e. they do not mean what they ‘should’, according to a strictly applied morphological analysis. b) Orthography Researchers have noted that ‘inaccurate / imprecise’ orthographic analysis is responsible for a number of student inferencing problems. Because of the orthographic similarity of a new word to a word already known, (or the absence of homonym knowledge), readers may assume that words are ‘known’, when in fact they are not. To illustrate this we can return to the French text noted above, and note a few (hypothetical) problematic areas for the English speaking French learner:

B Intralingual Knowledge The third type of contextual knowledge is intralingual knowledge – knowledge that the learner already has of the L2, and can draw upon to assist in guessing word meaning. i)

The Word

Au contraire, je vous y veux (yeux = eyes) servir, et vous épargner des soins (sons = his) inutiles. Je suis ami de Dom Juan, je ne puis m’en empêcher (pêcher = to fish); mais il n’est pas raisonnable qu’il offense impunément des gentilshommes, et je m’engage à vous faire raison par lui.

a) Morphology One important type of intralingual assistance is found in affixation clues: prefixes and suffixes. The following list of words contains just a few examples of how affixation (more specifically prefix) knowledge can assist a reader in working out the meaning of a ‘new’ word, assuming that the ‘root’ of the word is previously known. Defuse

(‘de’ = to take off / away)

Unjust

(‘un’ = not)

Miscalculate

(‘mis’ = to do something incorrectly)

Export

(‘ex’ = to come out of)

Disconnect

(‘dis’ = take away)

Overeat

(‘over’ = too much)

Textbooks are replete with examples of affixation clue training, and most language teachers would, at some time or other, have looked at affixation as an aid to comprehension. Occasionally, books highlight the fact that an affix can be a ‘misclue’, but often they do not. The problem is that morphological analysis, conducted on the basis of general prefix learning, can lead to quite serious comprehension breakdown. If a student applied the above prefix knowledge analysis to the understanding of the words below, serious comprehension problems would ensue.

Of particular interest in the above is the ‘fishing’ reference. This is not an ‘unreasonable’ guess as pêcher = to fish. However, empêcher, the word in the text, means to prevent or stop. If then, the fishing reference is held on to, there are potentially disastrous implications for accurate comprehension of the text. ii) Co-text Co-text is a very important part of intralingual context – indeed this would, for many teachers, be the most obvious type of contextual support available for students to refer to in guessing word meaning. A number of classifications of co-text have been provided, though perhaps the most carefully researched was that of Ames (1966). Ames’ subjects were native speakers, and in his research he substituted a lexical word for a nonsense word every 50 words in different text types. He then analysed the introspective responses of his subjects with regards to their inferencing reasoning. Having analysed these responses, Ames believed that the vast majority of co-text clue types could be categorized to just 14. Below I provide an overview of these co-text clue types and comment on the examples Ames provided.

Detest

(to take away a test?)

Union

(not an ion?)

Mischief

(a bad leader?)

Expound

(to change money from pounds to another currency?)

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Disappoint

(to take away someone’s job or position?)

Oversight

(to look at something too much?)

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The 14 contextual aids of Ames (1966), in which the nonsense word is in bold (followed by the actual word substituted from the original text in brackets and underlined) 1

Clues derived from language experience / familiar expressions

thacing (chewing) the fat with the boys. It is, of course, necessary for an expression to be known in advance for a reader to draw on parts of common phrases or idiomatic expressions for inferencing support. This first type of inferencing is then, not a type of clue that an L2 reader can draw on to infer word meaning, and is something of a product of Ames’ methodology. 2

Clues utilizing modifying phrases or clauses

The …company, operating on the stialx (theory) that all the housewife really wants is high quality at the lowest price, became … In this second type of clue, the reader can infer that the modifying phrase functions as the basis for company action: hence the word ‘theory’ or ‘assumption’ would fit. 3

Clues utilizing definition or description

…no steet (blood) flowed beneath the skin In this example the predicate part of the clause gives information about the subject. 4

Clues provided through words connected or in series

…the sonnets and grods (plays) of Shakespeare In this example the reader recognizes a connection between the two nouns (because of ‘and’) and then uses the other word in the series to help guess the unknown word. 5

Comparison or contrast clues

9

Association clues

…well-recognized diseases as leukemia, cystic fibrosis and fomronan (muscular) dystrophy. What other kinds of dystrophies do readers know of? This example of a highly restricted collocation is, like clue 1 above, not a particularly helpful one for an L2 reader to be aware of, and is, like clue 1, a product of Ames’ experimental methodology (using nonsense words). 10 Clues derived from the main idea and supporting details paragraph organization From 19 small stores…Jenkins has chatratted (progressed) to 98 Publix stores… In this example it is clear that there has been a large increase in the number of stores, and so the paragraph co-text organization requires a verb indicating such expansion. 11 Clues provided through the question and answer paragraph organization And what about franting (writing) itself? The English language has been designed…by right-handers…to be written …. from left to right. In the above, the reader has to recognize that the connection between the question and what follows is an important clue to working out the meaning. This extract is clearly concerned with the English language, which one either writes, reads, speaks or listens to. Ames did not seem to notice that ‘reading’ would be a legitimate inference in the above. It is particularly the presence of a synonym clue ‘written’ which limits the choice – and so this is something of a hybrid example. Note also here, that extralinguistic knowledge about writing in English (i.e. the movement from left to right) would clearly assist the reader.

Will it be a blessing or a fome (bane)?

12 Preposition clues

The key word indicating a contrast here is ‘or’. There are, of course many other words which can indicate comparison or contrast (e.g. ‘like’, ‘similar to’, ‘but’, ‘however’), though an explicit comparison / contrast word is not always required to effect the idea of similarity or difference.

…he sped northward along a California cliotol (freeway)…

6

Synonym clues

Their achievement whodeted (provoked) – and still provokes – a kind of idolatry. The writer’s use of ‘still provokes’ in a parenthetical phrase provides the synonym clue here. 7

Clues provided by the tone, setting and mood of a selection

The most withering insult that can be hurled at a man today is “leftist”…We grish (cringe) as the sensitive ears … pick up such expressions as “left-handed compliment”… Here the strongly abusive ‘hurling of withering insults’, and the use of ‘sensitive ears’ establishes a mood of discomfort and distaste perfectly served by the writer’s use of ‘cringe’. 8

Referral clues

In the next 24 hours 290 babies will die….This is 2½ times the number of lives that will be lost in auto accidents in the same rugoul (period)… In this example, the reader can infer that the writer is using an anaphoric (i.e. backwards-looking) referring time reference, requiring the reader to make a connection with the unknown word ‘rugoul’ and the ‘24 hours’ with which the extract begins. The word ‘same’ plays a critical role in flagging the anaphoric reference, and the reader must notice this to make the inference.

In this example, Ames argues, the reader will note that ‘cliotol’ is the object of the preposition ‘along’, which gives a clue to the meaning of the unknown word. One might argue, however, that in this particular example the grammatical collocation ‘speed along’, rather than ‘along’ itself, is the real clue. 13 Clues utilizing non-restrictive clauses or appositive phrases …a mother’s stay is limited to 24 hours – mantly (hardly) a sufficient period for her infant to “stabilize”. The dash in the above, indicating the writer’s use of a nonrestrictive clause, suggests to the reader that the writer is moving away from the main idea to an extra thought, and the reader must recognize this. There are, though, some additional key words here, which help the reader: ‘limited’ suggests that the writer is critical of the 24 hours, and ‘sufficient period’ requires the reader to make an anaphoric reference to a time. 14 Clues derived from cause and effect pattern of sentence meaning But their agonized acting worried the insurance company sufficiently to cause it to honten (settle) quickly. Here the reader must recognize a cause-effect thought relationship to understand the extract, made clear in the use of ‘to cause’.

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Some of the above, e.g. comparison / contrast, cause / effect, may be more familiar to teachers than others, essentially because more attention is paid to their role in signaling text relations in discourse in EFL reading / writing materials than other discourse markers, or paragraph organization types. Which of the above – extralinguistic, interlinguistic or intralinguistic – is more significant in assisting readers in lexical inferencing? Clearly, interlingual knowledge plays a much more important role for readers who know languages closely related to the L2, than for those who are not able to fall back on cognate knowledge. However, apart from this acknowledged fact, there are widely different views about the relative importance of the different types of context in helping readers guess words, and currently there seems be no real consensus on this matter (see Qian, 2005).

Factors affecting the ability to successfully guess word meaning from context There are three factors which affect the ability of a learner to successfully guess the meaning of a word, and we now turn to these.

1 The word The first factor is the word itself. Clearly, if a word is bringing new information to the text: moving the story on, introducing a new idea, etc., then it will be more difficult to guess than a word which is, to a certain extent, redundant, and for which heavy contextual constraints are placed on word meaning. The second consideration is the degree of similarity of the word to other (known) words. For example, if the reader knows the word ‘scared’, and comes across the word ‘sacred’ or ‘scarred’, then these latter two words may be mistaken for ‘being frightened’. Thirdly, affixation plays a role, and, depending on whether the word conforms to morphological analysis rules or not, this may help or hinder lexical inferencing, as noted above. The fourth element is the part of speech of the word. At least two different views have been put forward with regards to the ease of guessing different word forms. Na and Nation (1985) believed that the order of difficulty of guessing word meaning (ease of guessing from left to right) is verbs › nouns › adverbs › adjectives. Rapaport (2005), on the other hand, believes the order of difficulty to be: nouns › verbs › modifiers

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As can be seen, the above noted authors both place modifiers at the more difficult side of the cline of guessability, and this is significant as a number of researchers who have challenged the usefulness of developing the lexical inferencing skill (on the grounds that words cannot often be successfully guessed) have provided adjective or adverb examples as support for their views (e.g. Beck, McKeown and McCaslin, 1983, and Schatz and Baldwin, 1986). Critically important though, is the fact that these skeptics of the value of lexical inferencing generalised their findings, even though the bulk of the evidence in support of their views came from the inability to successfully guess adjectives or adverbs. Concrete words are more likely to be guessed than abstract words, and this may be the reason why Na and Nation (1985) and Rapaport (2005) rank the difficulty of guessing nouns differently (i.e. the type of noun may affect the difficulty of guessing). Unfortunately, not enough details were provided by these writers for this opinion to be substantiated.

2 The text Regarding the text itself, there has been considerable debate among researchers. An oft-cited classification of context types in terms of the contextual support that they provide for lexical inferencing is Beck et al.’s (1983) cline, provided below, with some comments. Beck et al.’s (1983) Continuum of context types in relation to their support for successful lexical inferencing Misdirective – non-directive – general – directive Misdirective contexts: What Beck et al. mean by this is that the context seems to direct a reader to a totally wrong meaning. Beck et al. provide the example below as a misdirective context (in terms of the ability to guess the word ‘grudgingly’). Sandra had won the dance contest and the audience’s cheers brought her to the stage for an encore. “Every step she takes is so perfect and graceful,” Ginny said grudgingly, as she watched Sandra dance. Beck at al. argue that the above context is misdirective in that ‘... the context would likely lead a reader to ascribe a positive connotation to grudgingly’ (1983: 178). However, this is not necessarily the case: a wider context (in the story) of, for example, personal antagonism between Sandra and Ginny, would prime the reader to expect such a negative reaction. It is true that an author may use an unexpected word for literary effect – but in no way will such a usage be ‘perverse’ – making no sense. An author may lead a reader up the garden path so to speak, to surprise him or her, but this surprise will fit in with the wider context, or plot. Non-directive contexts: A non-directive context is where there are no clues present in the text – and this certainly is possible in the case of adjectives / adverbs, and, one might add, highly technical texts containing very specific technical words. General contexts: A general context is one where there is some clue present as to general word meaning – perhaps with regards to the semantic field or prosody of the word, but where a specific and ‘accurate’ guess is unlikely. For example, context might suggest that a word refers to movement, but not how the movement occurs. Directive contexts: The final type of context, where there are clear clues, and a highly restricted element of choice is, Beck at al. (1983) argue, like the pedagogical text of the classroom, rather than the ‘natural’ text of the real world. This differentiation between the manicured lawn of the prepared text, and the wild jungle of the ‘real’ text is critical: if texts, generally, provide poor support for contextual guessing, then, the argument goes, a focus on developing the lexical inferencing skill seems ill advised.

PB

Scared/Sacred/Scarred continued >>>

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We move now from context types to other factors in the text which may affect the ability to successfully guess a word meaning. The syntactic complexity of the sentence in which the unknown word is found plays an important role in lexical inferencing. More complex sentences, for example those containing embedded clauses, make it more difficult for a learner to guess the meaning of a word. In addition, the distance from the unknown word to the clue in the text, has also been found to be significant in affecting readers’ abilities to successfully guess word meaning (Alavi and Kaivanpanah 2009).

There are a number of interesting elements to this strategy. Firstly, unlike Clarke and Nation’s (1980) strategy, the word part analysis step is not delayed to the end (though it is not the first step). Secondly, step 4 recognises the fact that sometimes a vague idea of the meaning of a word may suffice for a reader, in certain contexts – for example that the word belongs to a certain semantic field, or is pejorative. In addition, the instruction to draw on general world knowledge (step 6) is pertinent in the light of the comments made earlier about the role of extralinguistic knowledge.

3 The learner

What is interesting about both of these strategies is that they are generic, and therefore, not sensitive to the three factors which play a mediating role in lexical inferencing – the word, the text and the learner. The question is, therefore, whether a ‘one size fits all strategy’ is helpful – or whether, if followed, it may actually demotivate a reader because of an insensitivity to the important role of these three factors. In addition, it is important to note that while there is some evidence to suggest that teaching strategy techniques is beneficial for learners there is also evidence that practice alone in developing the skill of lexical inferencing is sufficient without the need to draw on, or follow a strategy (See Walters, 2004).

Regarding the learner, relevant extralinguistic knowledge is, as noted above, a significant help in inferencing, and interest level is also important. In addition, the proficiency level and vocabulary knowledge of the student play a critical role: clearly if the clues are there but not available to a reader, in the sense that they are not understood or noticed as clues, then they are not really clues at all for that reader. Another factor found to affect the learner’s performance in lexical inferencing is the learner’s approach to problem solving. Alavi and Kaivanpanah (2009) found that field dependent (more analytical) learners did not perform so well in lexical inferencing as field independent (more holistic) learners when the clues were found in extended contexts (i.e. far away from the unknown word).

Strategies The most often cited student lexical inferencing strategy is that of Clarke and Nation (1980). While providing a series of steps (noted below), it should be noted that they do not advocate following the order rigidly: 1

Identify the part of speech (by looking at the word and its surroundings)

2

Look at the grammar of the sentence (local context) and try to work out the role of the word

3

Look at the wider context and for possible relationships to the word

4

Guess the meaning

5

Check the guess (part of speech, prefix, root, suffix) and whether the guess fits into the context

A teacher strategy In the light of the above observations, therefore, I would like to propose a teacher strategy (not a reader strategy) for dealing with the subject of lexical inferencing in class with readers. 1

Rationale: the link between vocabulary level and lexical inferencing skill is uncontested (e.g. Qian 2005). Building a solid vocabulary base will make more clues available to a reader when working out word meaning. In addition, affixation training should not be forgotten: Parel (2004) found a significant difference in lexical inferencing success between students who drew on co-text plus morphology clues, as opposed to those who only drew upon co-text clues, with the former doing better. 2

Another strategy, not nearly as well known is Sternberg, Powell and Kaye’s (1983): 1

Look at preceding context

2

Look at following context

3

Look at word parts

4

Ask yourself how definite an understanding is needed

5

Look for specific clues in the surrounding context

6

Use internal, external clues, plus general ideas in passage, plus general world knowledge to construct a coherent definition

7

Check the definition

At Intermediate level, practice developing the skill of inferencing with texts which are of interest to students, and for which they have background knowledge Rationale: Providing students with texts for which they have background knowledge opens up an additional source of contextual support which can be of great value to successful inferencing.

This strategy, though quite old, is still, in many ways the ‘gold-standard’ learner strategy. It is interesting, in the light of the comments above on affixation, that Clarke and Nation (1980) put morphological analysis towards the end of the guessing process (and that is because they believe that such analysis can be confusing, or simply not helpful (p. 215). The point of contention is whether a reader can really suspend this analysis. Fraser (1999: 239) argues that a reader will tend to analyze an unknown word (almost automatically), and may not be able to stop such a response.

Up to intermediate level, work on systematic vocabulary development and affixation training – avoid a focus on lexical inferencing.

3

Encourage intelligent ‘giving up’ strategies. Rationale: In the light of some of the research findings noted above, three factors play a role in affecting the ease of guessing an unknown word (the word, the text and the reader). Readers should be made aware that inferencing may not be a smart choice in certain circumstances. So, for example, where the word is a modifier (i.e., where the problem is a word problem); where the unknown word is embedded in a complex sentence (i.e. where the problem is a text problem); and where there are too many unknown words in the text (i.e. where the problem is a learner problem) then the reader should give up on guessing. Students should be encouraged to inference on principled grounds, and, conversely, be encouraged to pick up the dictionary on principled grounds.

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4

Highlight the fact that affixation clues may be misclues, and stress the need for care in accurate orthographic recognition in reading. Rationale: Recognising that students’ analyses of words (whether principled, or mistaken) can result in problems requires from teachers the provision of a fair overview of the role of affixation support (note proposal 1 above). If Nagy and Anderson (1984) are right, then only 2 times out of 10 will such morphological analyses be misleading. Even so, it is good for students to be aware that such analyses can lead them astray. Further, L2 readers should be made aware of the very real possibility of disastrous comprehension consequences if care is not taken in recognizing the correct spelling of words. A snack is not a snake, and one can well imagine the confused look of a reader if a text seems to indicate (because of the lack of orthographic care) that the driver of a car was eating a snake ( = snack) when she was involved in an accident. Did the snake obscure her view, and what was she doing trying to eat it anyway?

5

Change the ‘you can guess the word’ mentality, to the ‘you might be able to guess something about the word’ mentality. Rationale: It is important to recognize that lexical inferencing success is not an ‘all or nothing’ affair. One might well be able to take something away from an encounter with a word, even if it is not a synonym type understanding, and this is important. Because one of the favourite approaches to testing lexical inferencing knowledge is through multiple choice synonym questions, this can rather warp the concept of lexical inferencing in a student’s mind: the idea that a synonym in the L2 must be provided for the unknown word in the text. It is quite false to assume that synonym style lexical inferencing can be applied to every unknown word in every text. Encouraging the student to get ‘something’ from the target word is an excellent teacher strategy – for example, ‘it looks like a verb’, ‘it seems to indicate something bad’. Such an approach implicitly highlights the fact that there may be more or less context help present, and is, therefore, an important balance to an overly simplistic view about accuracy or specificity when thinking about lexical inferencing.

6

Do not assume the transfer of L1 strategies: expose students to different clue types, and give practice opportunities. Students, either because of poor L1 reading practices, or poor learning strategies may not even be aware that anything can be done, other than turning to a dictionary, when an unknown word is encountered in a text. While I am not advocating the provision of a strategy, or providing students with Ames’ (1966) 14 co-text clue types etc., giving L2 readers wide-ranging practice in reading, and lexical inferencing activities may well be all that is required for them to become more adept at dealing with unknown words in texts.

Conclusion Advances in corpus linguistics in recent years have highlighted the importance of context in determining word meaning. However, ‘determining’ is not the same as ‘defining’. It may be that some teachers have been guilty of making this false assumption. Oversimplification is a continual challenge in the language teaching profession, and I have suggested in the above that a simple reading strategy may be harmful to students, if implemented without due care. Trying to guess a word meaning can be a very frustrating and demotivating experience, and it is not nearly so easy as teachers sometimes suggest. It is all too easy to argue that context will help, when the word is already known to the teacher! It is hoped that if teachers adopt some or all of the above proposals into their thinking about and professional practice in teaching reading, that students will attempt lexical inferencing less often, with a different criteria for precision, but with greater success. Hopefully, the net result will be the building up of greater confidence for the L2 reader.

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References Alavi, S.M. and S. Kaivanpanah. 2009. ‘Examining the role of individual differences in lexical inferencing’. Journal of Applied Sciences 9/15: 2829-2834. Ames, W. S. 1966. ‘The development of a classification scheme of contextual aids’. Reading Research Quarterly 2/1: 57-82. Beck, I.L., M. G. McKeown, and E.S. McCaslin. 1983. ‘Vocabulary development: all contexts are not created equal’. The Elementary School Journal 83/3: 177-181. Clarke, D.F. and I.S.P.Nation. 1980. ‘Guessing the meanings of words from context: strategy and techniques’. System 8: 211-220. Fraser, C. A. 1999. ‘Lexical processing strategy use and vocabulary learning through reading’. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 21: 225-241. Jabbour, J. (2004) Dom Juan. Beirut, Lebanon: Dar Al-Bihar. Johnson, P. 1982. ‘Effects on reading comprehension of building background knowledge’. TESOL Quarterly 16: 503-516. Na, L. and I.S.P. Nation. 1985. ‘Factors affecting guessing vocabulary in context’. RELC Journal 16/1: 33-42 Nagy, W.A. and R.C. Anderson. 1984. ‘How many words are there in printed school English?’. Reading Research Quarterly 19: 304-330. Parel, R. 2004. ‘The impact of lexical inferencing strategies on second language reading proficiency’. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal 17: 847-873. Paribakht, T.S. 2004. ‘The role of grammar in second language lexical processing’. RELC Journal 35/2: 149-160. Qian, D.C. 2005. ‘Demystifying lexical inferencing: the role of aspects of vocabulary knowledge’. TESL Canada Journal 22/2: 34-54. Rapaport, W.J. 2005. ‘In defense of contextual vocabulary acquisition: How to do things with words in context’. Modeling and Using Context: 5th International and Interdisciplinary Conference: http://sra.itc.it/ events/crr05/44.pdf. Originally accessed 6 September 2009. Schatz, E.K. and R.S. Baldwin. 1986. ‘Context clues are unreliable predictors of word meanings’. Reading Research Quarterly 21/4: 439-453. Sternberg, R. J., J. S. Powell and D. B. Kaye. 1983. ‘Teaching vocabularybuilding skills: a contextual approach’ in A.C. Wilkinson (ed.). Classroom Computers and Cognitive Science. New York: Academic Press. Walters, J. 2004. ‘Teaching the use of context to infer meaning: a longitudinal survey of L1 and L2 vocabulary research’. Language Teaching 37: 243-252.

The Author Iain McGee received his PhD from Cardiff University in 2006, and has published in ELT Journal, Applied Linguistics, and Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory. He is an Assistant Director of the English Language Centre, Taibah University, Madinah, Saudi Arabia, and is responsible for teacher training and development in the centre. Email: [email protected]

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Process Options Open Space Technology – An alternative form of conferencing By Adrian Underhill, Susan Barduhn and Tania Iveson of the UK, USA and Canada

Open Space Technology in theory (Adrian Underhill) Conferences are great! You choose sessions to go to according to your interest, there are plenaries by famous people, you have educational and entertaining side shows and publisher events, you catch up with what’s new, meet friends and professional contacts and make new ones, hang loose and gossip, and, what’s more, all these events and the spaces between them are brought together in one beautifully crafted programme which you peruse beforehand and which for a few blissful and stimulating days replaces your diary. What more could you ask? Well, not much! But... wait a minute... if we start to unpack this traditional conference we find that it is indeed really good... at the things it is good at... So much so that we may forget to question the assumptions underlying this structure and the limits imposed by that structure. Here are a few things the traditional conference cannot do so well, things which remain invisible since we do not expect them:

Critiquing the traditional conference

New forms of conference

1

Since talks, titles and content are submitted and vetted a few months or even a year beforehand, they may not represent what is currently hot or topical for that speaker.

2

Since the talks are described in abstract in the programme, they cannot be changed very much during those months.

3

Since the conference programme consists of multiple separate offerings, created mostly in isolation and without knowledge of the other offerings, none can really take into account what happens during other sessions. True, later talks can refer to earlier ones, but they must still follow the title and abstract they have set themselves.

And that’s ok. However there are other forms of conference that have developed in the last ten or twenty years, designed to respond to different needs and to get round some of the limitations above. Such new forms of conferencing do not attempt to replace traditional forms, but to supplement them by offering different services, inputs and outcomes. They tend to try to respond to newly emerging and newly articulated needs such as:

4

Because of the lockstep ‘grip’ of the conference programme (highly desirable for a traditional conference), it is hard either for new conference themes to emerge in the heat of the conference and get amplified as the conference proceeds, or for later sessions to pick up on and run with the outcomes of earlier sessions.

5

It is also difficult for people to speak about what fires them up at the time because they have committed to their topic some time before. Actually the programme exerts negative feedback, nothing can get carried on further because effectively the conference restarts every hour.

6

One other structure of the traditional conference which we don’t think to question concerns the speaker who comes prepared and speaks, and who may invite some interaction in spaces they have also prepared. The speaker does the speaking and tends not to hold open a space for a topic inviting those for whom it is important to fill it.

OK, enough of that. You can see where I’m going even if you don’t agree. What I’m saying is that the traditional conference cannot make itself up as it goes along, in the way that an engaged and energetic conversation can. One session cannot influence what the topic of the next session might be nor who might host it, because it is fixed in this gridlock. A surge of interest, a sort of Mexican wave of topic, cannot really flow through a conventional conference, and this is acknowledged by the thousands of conference goers who say the best bits are the coffee breaks.

“A surge of interest, a sort of Mexican wave of topic, cannot really flow through a conventional conference.”

Connectivity between people with ideas, passions and needs The participatory construction of local knowledge and shared experiential learning The need to respond creatively to the complexities of today’s need for connectedness, constant information flow, and solutions focus. The difficulty of applying universal knowledge to local situations The need to create as well as consume knowledge The need to work with what is urgent, important, or hot at the moment, The need to let spontaneity and response be heard and to allow the outcomes of unfinished, shifting, moment by moment meetings and events to drive whatever happens next, and to do this with an appropriate organisational structure and safety net. Well, one such approach to alternative conferencing is called Open Space Technology (developed by Harrison Owen in the 90’s. Google it, there’s plenty out there). I will try to characterise it in a paragraph and then gloss how it works. And it’s very simple. Open Space Technology (OST) enables groups of any size to address complex, important issues and achieve meaningful results quickly. "Technology" in this case means 'tool' – a process; a method. The aim of OST is to offer a subtle but clear-cut structure that invites dialogues, ideas exchanges, buzz groups, brain storms to take place fairly spontaneously, according to where the energy is at the time. Delegates are invited to generate the meeting agenda as well as participate by leading small group break-out sessions during the meeting time. There is no programme as such, but there is proper publicity and a stated purpose so people know what to expect, and there is a prepared infrastructure which enables the following steps to take place. It can be used for a whole conference, or a significant chunk of it, preferably over three or four OST cycles, allowing the conference to learn itself into and shape the OST methodology around its needs. In fact in the session we describe later we only used it for two cycles, lasting two hours, probably not enough to get the ‘flow’ going unless you’re working with experienced users.

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OST works like this: 1

All participants start by meeting together in the plenary room, for a chaired introduction to the OST session. For the moment let’s imagine about 100 people attend.

2

Anyone who wants to convene a topic, initiate a conversation, exchange views, try out or explore ideas, or sound off on something that is important to them (within the broad parameters of the purpose of the conference) writes a short descriptive title on a ‘post-it’.

3

The post-its are gathered, read out, and arranged on a board. When all have been read out some grouping and merging of post-it topics will probably take place.

4

These are allocated according to the time slots and rooms available for the first round of sessions (of say 50 minutes). If there are enough offers, then a second round may be established. But equally it can be good to wait to see what emerges from the first round.

5

Each participant chooses the session that most attracts them and this is indicated by a show of hands so that any non-starter session can be removed (they can easily reappear in the second round) and people immediately adjourn to their chosen first session.

6

7

8

The session takes place with whoever is there including the proposer. The proposer becomes the ‘convener’ or the host, and may start with a few words about why s/he has proposed this topic. But the host is not the speaker. All are encouraged to speak and some may have more to bring than others. If a lot of people turn up or if two distinct topics emerge, they can agree to split into smaller groups. If on, the other hand ,only two people come, well that’s enough, though they can always go and join another group. During each session the convener ensures that someone fills in a standard report form which says who was there, the topic, and key points / action points. These reports are all displayed on a public notice board immediately after the session, so that everyone can immediately see what happened in each of the other sessions. In one version of OST a participant from each session types the main points of the session onto disc during the break, and the complete set of summaries from all the day’s OS sessions is handed to each participant at the end of the day, or is placed on the website for immediate download by all. In this way everyone has ‘attended’ all the sessions within an hour of the OS finishing. No waiting for conference reports.

The Law of Two Feet This phrase expresses the core idea of taking responsibility for what you feel passionately about. In practical terms, the law says that if you're neither contributing nor getting value in the session you are in, then use your two feet and go to another session that may be better for you. It is also a reminder to stand up for your passion. From this law flow the four principles of an OST session: 1

Whoever comes are the right people.

2

Whatever happens is the only thing that could have happened.

3

Whenever it starts, it starts.

4

Whenever it’s over, it’s over.

How the session will be run is quickly agreed by participants as soon as they gather. For example, the host might outline her/his reason for proposing the topic, followed by a quick round of what has attracted the others to this session, followed by focusing-in on selected issues. You do not come ‘prepared’ to an OST session. You come with yourself, your experience, and your passion for what is important at that time.

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I hope that you have found this description interesting, perhaps provocative. But the next bit is even more interesting, because this is an account of an OST conference that took place in Toronto in November 2009, promoted and hosted by English Central Inc. of Toronto, Ontario. I was the only person with prior experience of OST. My co-facilitator Susan Barduhn, the English Central Inc Director Tania Iveson, and the 200 participants were all new to this. So now you can read the perspectives of Susan and Tania. You can see how the conference progressed, the topics that emerged, the feedback from the participants and also some photos!

Facilitating OST (Susan Barduhn) I am always keen to work with Adrian on any project, anywhere, but this invitation was particularly intriguing for me, because of the focus I have been exploring over the past years on being fully present to what is unfolding at each moment in my teaching (and learning!). Open Space Technology is designed precisely for this – to collect and work with not only what is truly present in each participant’s current development and curiosity, but also with what is happening at each moment in the process. After Adrian’s introduction to the intentions and process of OST, the participants wrote down issues they wanted to explore onto post-it notes. My job was to identify themes, and gather them onto multiple flip charts. It was a big room, with many participants, so there was a certain amount of chaos, which I worked with playfully by running between flip charts, and egging the participants on to decide which topics they felt could be merged and which needed to be kept separate. Deciding on whether a certain issue belonged to one theme or another was a process of negotiation. The buzz in the room was tangible. I understand that most of the participants had only experienced conferences in which they were passive receptacles for the gems of “experts”, so the process of co-creating their own conference was exciting and new.

The hot themes that emerged These were the themes that the group finally decided to work with: Professional Development Critical Thinking Using the Lexical Approach Academic Culture Motivation Admissions Skills Groups Encouraging Students to Speak English in Class Using Technology Evaluation & Feedback Content & Language Course Design It is important, when working with OST, to balance the spontaneity with clear organization. Only if everyone understands the why and how can they trust in the process. Certainly once everyone was in their chosen groups, there was the usual uneven flow of group formation. My role was now observer, so I was able to witness that in some groups a leader immediately emerged, whereas other groups began with negotiation. Different people took on tasks, such as collecting key points to put on flip charts. Later, these were put up on the walls for a full conference gallery walk. (A gallery walk is when each group puts the posters of their work on the walls, with time given for everyone to cruise the room and see everything. One member of the group often stays with the poster to answer questions.)

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18 The Teacher Trainer Vol 25 No 1

On the day... On the day, people were excited, interested and eager to try out the new conference format. Everyone seemed engaged and active and we had lots of immediate feedback from people who were thoroughly enjoying the opportunity to share their knowledge and experiences with others in relevant teaching contexts. This isn’t to say that everything ran smoothly. Apart from some facility-based issues, there were a few folks who commented that they found the ‘messiness’ and spontaneity of the OST troubling. It was so different from what anyone had experienced in the past, and realistically, we, as the organizers, did not allocate enough time for the event.

Feedback from the participants indicated that being able to meet and engage with colleagues around a common area of interest, in such a relaxed, informal atmosphere, was exhilarating. Many wished that they could have spent even more time together, that they would like to meet again. Others suggested they would like to try out OST with their own English language students.

The host and conference organizer perspective (Tania Iveson) Time and time again, at past conferences in Canada, we have heard complaints like, “so little had to do with my teaching context” and “the thing I enjoyed most was having the opportunity to speak to colleagues – and there was nowhere near enough of this!”

At the end of the day, everyone involved in organizing and running the conference pooled their respective observations, impressions and anecdotes, and happily, our impressions were overwhelmingly positive. However to get a really clear a picture of the value of the conference, we sent out a follow-up survey. It became clear within a day of sending out the survey that our participants were very eager to share their opinions and experiences, because what a response rate we got! We heard from people from all sectors of our industry, and the comments were wonderful for the most part, as 86% of our survey-takers felt the Open Space Technology session was excellent to good. Comments included: “OST – I love the idea behind it and it was great networking/discussing these topics with teachers from other institutions.” “The OST was really good.”

So, we dared to dream a little dream. Our dream was of a conference that would provide stimulating input by featuring interesting and prominent speakers from the world of English language teaching and even more importantly, put the experience and knowledge of its participants front and centre stage with a unique format that would facilitate peer-to-peer interaction. And finally, this conference would probe the issues of the day more deeply by narrowing its focus, rather than trying to be everything to everyone. Our aim was to create a conference where all participants had the opportunity to experience, contribute, guide, network, interact and gain something directly relevant and helpful to their daily context. With the fortuitous meeting of Adrian Underhill at the 2009 IATEFL conference, where he introduced us to OST, The Anti-Conference Conference was born and the dream became a reality. For our first foray, we decided to gear it toward issues and concerns in today’s Canadian EAP classrooms. Even more specifically, this conference aimed to address pressing issues of the day such as developing critical thinking skills, the influx of students with a large gap between spoken and written skills, and students with motivational problems. Were we nervous? Of course! We had never experienced a conference format like this and were quite sure none of our colleagues had either. We had no way of knowing how our fellow teachers, trainers and administrators would react. Happily, people were curious enough to see what we had planned and within a few weeks of advertising our initiative, the registrations came rolling in. Almost 100 teachers and administrators attended our first AntiConference Conference!

Example of a poster produced by an open space group

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“The open space technology session was interesting, and I hope to be able to apply the concept in class.”

Authors Adrian Underhill: I am a freelance ELT consultant and trainer, working on staff training and organisational development and I also write articles and contribute to conferences. I am series editor of the Macmillan Books for Teachers and author of Sound Foundations. I have been a teacher, trainer, and director of the International Teacher Training Institute at International House in Hastings and am a past president of IATEFL. Email: [email protected]

“I loved the conference. It was great to use the OST to network.” However, not all comments were purely congratulatory. Many folks also took the time to offer thoughtful and well-considered suggestions for future conferences. Based on this feedback, we decided to commit to an annual conference based around the OST-format, but also to make a few changes to the 2010 Anti-Conference Conference.

Adaptations for 2010 Firstly, we felt that the comments regarding how uneasy some people were about the overall format and the time taken to initiate some of the discussion topics, needed to be addressed. We decided to create a pre-conference survey that would allow people to send in topic suggestions ahead of time. We will not eliminate the initial brainstorming session, but we will present the topics that were submitted beforehand as well as allow some time for people to generate more topics that might have become relevant just that day. We have also decided to extend the OST session. Some feedback indicated that it took a while for people to get their creative juices flowing. Just as some interesting creative ideas began to emerge, it was time to stop! This year we are devoting three hours to OST instead of two as we had last year, and this should help. Finally, to provide a more accessible and manageable way of keeping a record of the ideas, issues and solutions generated, we are going to summarize all topic discussions and send each participant a postconference e-Journal.

Some points for and against Based on our experience, we feel the strongest points in favour of including an OST session are:

Professor Susan Barduhn is Chair of the Summer MA TESOL program at the SIT Graduate Institute. Her global career in ELT has been as teacher, trainer, supervisor, manager, assessor, consultant, and public speaker. She is Past President of IATEFL; former Director of The Language Center, Nairobi; and was Deputy Director of International House, London. Her research interests are teacher development, trainer development and intercultural communication. Email: [email protected] Tania Iveson: I began my teaching career in Taiwan in 1990. Since then I have taught in Spain, Canada, England and Brazil. After receiving my DELTA and CELTA teacher-training accreditation I have been training new teachers at CELTA centres in Canada and England, and more recently, Myanmar. I am passionate about our industry and I bring this passion to my work at English Central, where, amongst many responsibilities, I write the monthly electronic newsletter, create marketing materials and develop workshops I present at conferences across Canada and the USA. Email: [email protected]

•

The networking opportunities

•

The chance for professionals to share ideas across institutions and industry areas

NEW SUBSCRIBERS!

•

The ability for attendees to really feel like participants

Here are some recent additions to our community of teacher trainers, mentors and teacher educators:

The weak points are that: •

not everyone is comfortable with the level of participation expected

•

some people may find it very difficult (if not culturally impossible) to follow the rule of two feet

•

providing a clear record of discussions for all participants will require more time and effort for the organizer

•

It needs careful setting up and enough time to do so.

We did not go into this venture for profit, but were lucky enough to break even, and, even more importantly, do something interesting, engaging and different for the ELT community in Canada. We committed to the new conference format with an open mind, and hopeful that all the participants were as interested in a new style of professional development as we were. After a year of positive feedback from this initiative and with registrations for our next Anti-Conference Conference already rolling in, we would have to say that OST is here to stay.

Carole Nicoll, Scotland

Emiliana Calderelli Italy

Fiona Connolly, Ireland

Dorota Potocka, Poland

Dr Hashem Alsamadani, Saudi Arabia

Mavis Smith, Canada

Culturimex, Vietnam Roy Bicknell, Netherlands

Gaele Morag Macfarlane, Turkey

Cecilia Cabrera, Uruguay

Justyna Martin, Poland

John Donaldson, Virginia

Lucy Norris, UK

Sarwat Masuda Reza, Bangladesh

Marisa Constantinides, Greece

Richard Language College, UK

Andy Barfield, Japan

Jo Gakonga, UK Teresa Martinez, Chile Connie Baques, Vietnam Tuba Aktas, Turkey

Who reads the journal? British Council offices, Teacher Centres, libraries, bookshops, trainers and mentors world wide!

Peter Buckley, Italy

Anna Veronina, Russia Halina Borowiec, Poland

Judith Hudson, Australia Caroline Ambroki de Magistris Verzier, Switzerland Carolina Gonzalez Knowles, Spain Ewa Piotrowska, Scotland Fiona James, Spain

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Two for One: Experiential Activities for Trainee Teachers By Sarah Mercer, Austria At the university I work at in southern Austria, trainee teachers develop a range of skills during their studies in respect to their future careers as English teachers. Firstly, they work on enhancing their English language skills, and many of the students are especially keen to gain confidence in respect to their spoken English. Secondly, they build up an understanding of the theory as well as the terminology associated with their chosen career in order to be able to engage in international debate and professional development. Thirdly, they are encouraged to develop a repertoire of practical teaching ideas and actual teaching experience. We are fortunate enough to be able to offer a range of courses that address all these needs individually. However, in one particular course, I have attempted to develop a range of activities that address several of these needs together to varying degrees and that complement other more theoretical courses. The materials closely reflect current popular methodological approaches to language teaching and serve two main purposes: 1

They allow trainee teachers to engage personally and actively with topics, vocabulary or ideas covered in language teaching methodology classes in an interactive and communicative manner, thereby also enabling them to practise their language skills, especially their spoken English.

2

They enable trainee teachers to learn experientially and gain practical teaching ideas by experiencing task types that are frequently used in language teaching classrooms.

Principally, the activities proposed are to be used on two levels and have a dual aim. Firstly, the exercises work at face value as a way of engaging actively with a particular topic, aspect of course content and/or vocabulary involved in a fun and communicative manner. The activities address content and vocabulary related to language teaching using task types frequently found in communicative approaches to language teaching, such as ice breakers, role plays, surveys, simulations, games, discussions etc. Secondly, in line with an experiential approach to learning, after having completed the activities, learners are then encouraged to reflect on a meta-level about how they responded to doing such a task type, how they could envisage employing such an activity in a language class at various levels, what potential problems or practicalities the task type involves and what they consider to be the underlying pedagogical rationale for such a task. In this way, the trainee teachers engage with the content of their courses on language teaching methodology in a way which should help to reinforce their learning and make it personally relevant. But they also experience first-hand a task type which can thereby help them to generate practical ideas and activities for their future language teaching classrooms. In addition, the learners are also given the opportunity to use and develop their English language skills, particularly in relation to their professional discourse. Basically, any of the common activity formats found in many of the English language teaching materials can be adapted in this way and used in the context of teacher training. It’s a wonderful opportunity for the trainer to be creative and it’s amazing the learning and awareness that these fun activities can generate on various levels. I will now present three types of activities I have used successfully with my trainee teachers in order to illustrate how such materials can be developed, employed and what format they can take.

1. Ice breaker Many of us are familiar with a range of ice breaker activities and all of these can be adapted to the trainee teacher context. A popular form of ice breaker is the ‘find someone who…’ activity (see, for example, Watcyn-Jones, 1993). During the course I teach, students are encouraged to develop their own personal pedagogical manifesto composed of their key principles which they believe will guide their teaching decisions and behaviours. Throughout the course, we discuss the trainee teachers’ beliefs and attitudes towards teaching and learning as well as their own experiences in order to help them to clarify which principles are personally important to them. This is a good activity at the start of a course to get trainee teachers thinking about their beliefs and experiences as teachers and learners and, as always, to help trainee teachers’ in the group to get to know each other and hence break the ice! (See appendix A for an example of the ‘Find someone who…’ statements that I have used in the past with my students – trainers can adapt these as appropriate to their particular trainee teachers and contexts). After we have carried out the activity, we convene as a whole group and discuss some of the issues raised about teaching in response to the statements. Then in respect to the second experiential teaching aim, we consider the type of activity we have just done and how the students felt whilst doing it. Below are examples of some of the reflective questions we discuss in relation to the many different activity types we do: •

Can you explain how you felt whilst doing the task at different stages and why? How might different groups of learners (e.g., level, age, gender, culture, personality etc) feel and why?

•

What do you think are some of the pedagogical purposes underlying the use of such an activity? (In terms of language skills, social/interpersonal skills, communication, authenticity, group dynamics, motivation, language learning strategies etc)

•

What practical considerations need to be kept in mind when carrying out such a task? (Timing, materials/learner preparation, room layout, class size, different cultural contexts, group/partner dynamics, sequencing, outcomes etc)

•

How could this task type be adapted or used in different ways in a language class? (E.g., as a speaking activity, post-reading/listening task, to brainstorm, vocabulary revision, learner-generated etc)

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2. Role play Role plays have been a staple part of the language teacher’s toolkit for many years (see, for example, Klippel, 1984). I have used various role plays and simulations to help trainee teachers to visualise and reflect upon some of the situations that teachers may be confronted with in their future classrooms or institutions. However, I have also employed them in order to help trainee teachers to engage in some of the debates that are topical in the world of ELT. In the example in appendix B, trainee teachers are encouraged to discuss issues related to the use of and standards related to EIL/ELF. I have used it both with trainee teachers who have done prior reading on the subject, as well as those who have had only a brief introduction to the topic and I have found it works well with both sets of students. Again, following the activity we discuss, as a group, issues raised in the discussions about the use of and effects of ELF, EIL and ‘nativespeaker’ norms in English language teaching. We then conclude by considering ‘role plays’ as an activity type. In addition to the more general reflection questions outlined above following the ice breaker task, we also discuss some which are specifically relevant in respect to role plays: •

•

Why might some learners like/dislike role plays? (E.g., expressing opinions that may not reflect their own, being able to take on a ‘role’, being assigned an ‘unsuitable’ role (e.g., different gender, age, culture, religion etc), ability to utilise imagination in this way, issues with interpersonal skills etc) What issues in respect to the level of learners need to be considered with role plays? (Complexity of free speaking, need for wide range of vocab, ability to develop content ideas and visualise/empathise with imagined context, emphasis on fluency etc)

3. Vocabulary game In addition to gaining an understanding of theoretical issues related to language teaching, future teachers also need a command of domain-specific discourse and relevant terminology. There are a whole range of activities that I have used with students such as terminology bingo, crosswords, board games, matching pairs, vocabulary grouping activities, methodological definition dominoes (for vocabulary game ideas see, for example, Watcyn-Jones, 1993, 2001). In appendix C, the cards I use for a popular game of language teaching taboo are included. The rules will be familiar to many from the party game of the same name. The game involves describing a word on a card in bold to your partner (or group) without using any of the other words listed below on the card in italics or any related words. The idea is for your partner(s) to try to guess the word on your card from your description, usually within a specified amount of time, typically within 1 minute per word.

There are many ways in which teacher trainers can adapt popular language teaching materials in their work with trainee teachers, and, thereby achieve two (if not more) learning goals for the price of one. I have found them invaluable as a way of helping trainee teachers to engage personally with a range of topics, issues and content related to their language teaching courses, but also to practise their English and enhance their range of professional discourse and confidence in talking about their future careers. In addition, working experientially with these types of activities can inspire the trainee teachers in practical terms in respect to ideas and issues involved in designing their own future teaching materials. Perhaps most importantly of all, we have found that these activity types have also contributed positively to the motivation, group dynamics and atmosphere in our language teacher training course. Hopefully, our experiences and these ideas may encourage others to develop such dual purpose experiential activities in ways appropriate for their specific contexts and groups of students.

References Klippel, F. (1984). Keep Talking. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Watcyn-Jones, P. (1993). Vocabulary Games and Activities for Teachers. London: Penguin. Watcyn-Jones, P. (2001). Vocabulary Games and Activities 2. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited.

Appendix A: Find Someone Who… You should walk around the room talking to as many different people as possible about the statements listed below. When you find someone whose beliefs fit the sentence, then you should write their name in the gap. Ideally, you should collect as many different names as possible. Take the time to discuss issues raised by the statements with the people you meet. You may find that you cannot fill in a name for a given sentence but don’t worry – just enjoy the discussions anyway. Some of the thoughts and issues raised here may help you to start to clarify your personal beliefs for your own pedagogical principles. Find someone who… 1

can describe their favourite teacher at school and explain why they were a ‘good’ teacher in their eyes. ____________

2

disagrees with the statement “the measure of a good lesson is the student activity taking place, not the performance of the teacher”. ____________

3

believes that it is important for teachers to explain the rationale behind activities to students – no matter what their age/level. ____________

After having clarified any vocabulary/terminology issues that may have arisen during the game, we again discuss use of this particular activity and vocabulary games in general for language teaching. In addition to the general reflection questions outlined above, we also consider some additional specific questions in relation to vocabulary games:

4

believes that the most important role of a teacher is to motivate and encourage learners. ____________

5

finds it difficult to accept that teachers may not know everything about their subject. ____________

•

What effect can games have on group dynamics and atmosphere? (E.g., fun, motivation, variation, help sustain effort, meaningful interactions/cooperation with peers, relaxation, reduce anxiety etc)

6

feels that the teacher/learner rapport is more important than the teacher’s subject competence. ____________

7

•

How effective do you think games are for learning/recycling/reviewing vocabulary? (E.g., issues of contextualisation of vocabulary, words in isolation/phrases, to learn or to recycle, at what stage of knowledge to use, meaningful language use for learner, easier to learn if lowered anxiety etc)

has got more than 3 key reasons why they would like to become a teacher. ____________

8

believes it is unrealistic to expect learners to be able to view teachers as cooperative partners, rather than an all-knowing authority. ____________

9

thinks that the seating arrangement in a classroom strongly influences the success of an activity. ____________

•

When would you use vocabulary games and why? (E.g., at start of class/end, depending on mood, end of term, as variation, use regularly as heart of teaching, as fillers, depending on issues of motivation and dynamics, for different purposes etc)

10 believes that the teacher is ultimately responsible for the success of all their students in learning English. ____________

continued >>>

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Appendix B: Role Play

Appendix C: Language Teaching Taboo

You have just joined the teaching staff of a new language school in Vienna. Your students are primarily older pupils at schools who come for extra language practice before their final school-leaving exams but some adults also attend who work in a range of contexts. The staff are debating standards and discussing what types of language norms the school should adopt for its classes and final exams.

Try to describe the word in bold on your card to the others in your group (or partner) without using the words in italics or any lexicallyrelated words. You have one minute to describe the word.

Read your role play card and get together with someone else in the class who shares your role, in order to generate ideas. After 5 minutes, return to your group and discuss the issue with the 3 other members of staff. You must come to a decision about which form of English your school will take as its standard for teaching and testing. Remember you must begin by representing your opinion but you can change your opinion depending on the issues and ideas raised by your colleagues! Teacher A

Teacher B

Given the differing levels of abilities at the school, you think taking any kind of nativespeaker norm is both unrealistic and demotivating for the majority of learners. You feel that, as many of the students will be using English in international contexts in their future careers, you are pleading for the setting of EIL standards – in terms of pronunciation but also grammar and vocabulary. You feel a native-speaker norm is outdated and no longer reflects contemporary uses of and understanding of English in a global context.

You can sympathise with arguments in favour of international forms of English. However, you believe that some established standard should be taken rather than creating an artificial international form of language. You are concerned that there is insufficient clarity about how exactly these standards are defined and what they are based upon. Given the prevalence of American English both in the popular media and in business, you are arguing for students to aim for and be confronted with American native-speaker norms.

Teacher C

Teacher D

You are undecided in your opinion generally as to whether a native-speaker or international form of English is most suitable for the students. However, you do believe that it is important to raise learner awareness of various forms and varieties of English (including also but not exclusively nativespeaker models), in order to prepare learners for the range of Englishes they will encounter in their future working lives or travels. Yet, given your specialisation in intercultural communication, you are concerned about what specifically to teach in this respect, if an international standard of English is chosen for the school.

You are undecided in your opinion generally as to whether a native-speaker or international form of English is most suitable for the students at the school. You feel that a particular form of English should not be imposed on learners and they should be allowed to express their own forms of English and identities, as long as this does not cause problems in communication with other global learners of English. However, from discussions with some of the more proficient learners in the school, you feel such pupils want to aim for some standard form of perceived ‘perfection’ and that an existing nativespeaker form would serve as a logical model.

Accuracy • Mistakes • Errors • Fluency • Correct • Wrong

Fluency • Communication • Errors • Mistakes • Accuracy • Speak

Motivation • Interest • Passion • Like • Want • Reason

Scaffolding • Sequencing • Difficulty • Build up • First, second, third… • Order

Assessment • Peer • Self • Grade • Test • Exam

Autonomy • Independently • Learner • Individual • Self • Strategy

Receptive • Passive • Reading • Listening • Active • Productive

Realia • Things • Real world • Outside of class • Objects • Authentic

Learning Objective • Lesson planning • Outcome • Goal • Aim • Product

Grammar • Verbs • Tenses • Accuracy • Translation • Syntax

Communicative Approach • Grammar-translation • Fluency • Talking • Speaking • Real world

Learning Style • Individual • Kinaesthetic • Audio-visual • Strategies • Differences

ELF (English as a Lingua Franca) • EIL (English as an International Language) • Native-speaker • Norms • Global • Travel

Coursebook • Textbook • Materials • Unit • Chapter • Syllabus

Genre • Text Type • Writing • Analysis • Style • Format

Pronunciation • Speak • Sounds • Phonology • Vowels • Phonemes

Strategy • Technique • Autonomy • Style • Vocabulary • Training

Portfolio • Autonomy • Reflection • Assessment • Self-study • Collection

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Authenticity • Real world • Graded • Adapt • Motivation • Genuine

L1 • • • • •

Interference Mother tongue Mistakes Contrastive analysis Translation Vocabulary

Vocabulary • Lexis • Words • Learn • Mind-map • Strategy

Feedback • Praise • Monitoring • Constructive • Mistakes • Evaluate

Attribution • Reason • Success • Failure • Locus of control • Exam

Group Dynamics • Class • Learners • Relationships • Atmosphere • Motivation

Author Sarah Mercer has been teaching English at the University of Graz, Austria for over ten years. Her PhD completed at the University of Lancaster investigated the self-concept of tertiary-level EFL learners. Her research interests include all aspects of the psychology surrounding the foreign language learning experience. In her teaching, she enjoys working with experiential learning, humanist methodologies and personalised approaches aimed at enhancing learner motivation, confidence and metacognitive knowledge. Email: [email protected]

News in our Field By Briony Beaven, Germany Hello Teacher Educators,

Conferences of interest to teacher educators

Online resources for teachers and teacher trainers continue to multiply, making it hard to keep up with all potentially useful forums. So in this edition I suggest two online places that may be new to you so you can go to them to express your views, discover what your colleagues are thinking or to look for resources.

15-19 April, Brighton Centre, Brighton, UK 45th Annual International IATEFL Conference TTEd Pre-Conference Day on 15 April : ‘Resources and Resourcefulness in Teacher Training and Education’ Web: www.iatefl.org/events/iatefl-annual-conference-and-exhibition

An online debate The IATEFL Teacher Training and Education SIG (TTEd) will be holding the following online debate in 2011: Monday 27 June – Friday 1 July Guests: Long-term members of the forum Topic: Ten Years On: A retrospective of the TTEd SIG online teacher training and education forum. This discussion will involve a number of long-term members of the forum, as it celebrates its tenth anniversary. Where are its members now? What have they learnt? How has teacher education and training developed over the decade of its existence?

A blog for teacher trainers There are many websites and blogs for ELT teachers, but very few specifically for teacher trainers. However, John Hughes’ blog at http://elteachertrainer.wordpress.com caters for us. Here you can find posts on subjects such as the role of teacher trainer beliefs in training, lesson observation and feedback, becoming a teacher trainer and instant activities for training courses. There are also links to websites and blogs of interest to teacher trainers including a link to back articles from The Teacher Trainer. A recent post concerns the topic, ‘Why teacher trainers need conferences’. After reading that, perhaps you will feel ready to consult the list below!

11–21 May 2011, Radisson University Hotel, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA ‘Expanding Our Horizons’: Seventh International Conference on Language Teacher Education. Organised by: Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition at the University of Minnesota Web: www.carla.umn.edu/conferences/index.html 28 May 2011, Changhua, Taiwan International Conference on EFL Education: ‘Tradition and Innovation’ Organised by: National Changhua University of Education Web: http//icefle.blogspot.com 30 May 2011 to 1 June 2011, Singapore ‘Redesigning Pedagogy’ International Conference 2011 Organised by: National Institute of Education Web: http://conference.nie.edu.sg 17–19 August 2011, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK The Teacher Trainer 25th Anniversity Conference. Web: www.tttjournal.co.uk

The Author Briony Beaven ELT Consultancy, Teacher Training and Materials Development Email: [email protected]

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Readings for Trainees The Art of War: ancient Chinese strategy for the embattled ELT professional By David McLachlan Jeffrey, UAE

Why ELT Professionals need The Art of War May you live in interesting times is an ancient Chinese curse that applies as much today as it did thousands of years ago. The challenges faced by the world today are indeed interesting, but they are unprecedented in terms of their magnitude and uncertainty. English language teachers who are expatriates on short-term contracts in foreign countries and not part of a unionized workforce are especially vulnerable Teachers need to have a strategy to survive the hardship of the challenge and to thrive. However, survival strategies are of little use if they are adopted haphazardly, impulsively or on an emotional basis. They must be rooted in sound philosophy. The Art of War is a short book, written approximately 2 500 years ago, and is the philosophical foundation of strategic thinking based on Taoism. It guides us through conflict to achieve victory efficiently. Although much debate centers on the question of who actually wrote The Art of War, it is generally believed to have been written by Sun Tzu, who later became a successful military general. Can we, as educators, adopt military-based strategies at a time when peace is most needed? Yes, because The Art of War can be adapted to all competitive situations. It has been successfully applied in commerce, politics and sport. The Art of War is appropriate for teachers as success depends not on open confrontation but on negotiation and problem solving. Sun Tzu said: The skillful strategist defeats the enemy without doing battle, captures the enemy without laying siege, overthrows the enemy state without protracted war (Chapter 2). The Art of War states that proper victory can only be gained through a careful management of practical positioning strategies based on sound philosophy to ensure unforced triumph through the aversion of destructive conflict The Taoist Roots of The Art of War: The Tao-te Ching The Art of War is rooted in Taoism, the ancient Chinese philosophy of balance, moderation and harmony. It is based primarily on the concepts and principles of a Chinese classic text known as the Tao-te Ching (The Way and Its Power). The Art of War and the Tao-te Ching were written in very turbulent times, known as the Warring States era (from about 475 BCE to 221 BCE). These were times when hundreds of Chinese provinces clashed with each other in a power struggle for supremacy. The Taote Ching and The Art of War were a reaction to these times, as well as a statement of disapproval made to the warring rulers. Their message to the rulers was that what they were doing was not only unethical, but in opposition to the natural laws of the universe.

Send in an article! Short, practical, thoughtful, different, amusing? See www.tttjournal.co.ukfor guidelines.

Taoism has contributed to the great difference between traditional Chinese perspectives of war and Western perspectives. In the Taoist tradition, ‘black’ and ‘white’ are not two separate entities but are instead closely related through many shades of grey. When applied to a military concept, yielding becomes superior to force, like bamboo that bends with the gale. Conventional Western military philosophy equates strength with something bold and steadfast, like a big tree that stands up against the gale. Thus to the traditional Western mind, war is predominantly about conflict and forceful acts that have the objective of conquering and defeating an opponent. Destruction of the opponent is an integral part of winning a war. To the traditional Chinese mind however, this is the worst possible and least desired scenario of war.

The Art of War for ELT Professionals In the opening chapter of The Art of War which is devoted to planning, Sun Tzu outlines five essential elements of successful planning These are (1) The Way, (2) Heaven, (3) Earth, (4) Command and (5) Discipline. These elements form a multidimensional relationship with each other. Sun Tzu said: Every commander is aware of these five fundamentals. He who grasps them wins; he who fails to grasp them loses (Chapter 1). It is important to plan at the beginning, before embarking on a mission, and to consider where problems might arise. Action can then be proactive and preventive rather than reactive and impulsive. Disaster can then be averted. I will now examine each of these five elements and suggest what they mean for ELT professionals.

The Way The Way causes men to be of one mind with the rulers, to live or die with them, and never to waiver (Sun Tzu) The Way is the most important element of all, by large measure. The Way refers to the path, and the motivation behind the mission. It is vital that the path be moral and righteous. Given the complexity of circumstances facing teachers it is important to consider whether the action is moral and righteous (rather than because of greed or ego). The results are more likely to be positive if they are based on moral principles. The teacher and the students should share the same ideals and expectations. The path they share will then be viewed as moral and righteous. Education is a noble profession. Teachers need be sincere in their efforts to teach. Students will know if the teacher is insincere and they will know when the teacher has not prepared for the lessons beforehand. Teachers need to be respected by their students. Respect should be earned, not demanded. Teachers should know that their role is to teach, and students should know that their role is to learn. They should have a clear perspective and respect for each other’s roles, and students should not try to take on the role of teachers nor should teachers try to take on the role of students. The Way should become the fabric that binds the teacher and the students in a state of mutual respect pursuing mutual goals.

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The means to reach The Way are not daunting or complicated. In fact, conscious and protracted efforts are bound to be counterproductive, as students, by their nature, rebel when tightly controlled. Teachers can make great strides in nurturing The Way by listening more to students (even when they interrupt and are rude) and accepting what is taking place rather than constantly attempting to mould the situation in accordance with how they see it. A good teacher knows when to be quiet, and when to let students have more autonomy. Teachers should not harbor excessive fear of losing control, because the more they do this, the more they will lose control. Teachers do not need to fight every fire, even raging infernos. The more fires are allowed to burn the sooner they go out.

“The more fires are allowed to burn the sooner they go out.” Teachers must not resort to any form of abuse and physical force, as that would be a sure way to lose the battle before it has even begun, because it is counter to The Way. Just as there are no-go areas on a battlefield, and things generals cannot do, teachers should under no circumstances resort to abuse and physical force towards their students. Like good generals, good teachers lead by example, not by brute force. Soldiers follow good generals, and students follow good teachers. Good teachers treat all students with paramount respect.

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Teachers should get to know themselves better. Sun Tzu said: Know the enemy, know yourself, and victory is never in doubt, not in a hundred battles (Chapter 3). As teachers, we need to cultivate the strength to know ourselves as we are. This includes a sincere selfknowledge of our own strengths and weaknesses. We do not need to change who we are to succeed as is commonly believed. Rather, we just need to know who we are. Another significant part of universal timing for teachers is that right now education is growing in importance globally, particularly the growing need of awareness of major issues such as ever increasing poverty, disease, war and climate change. Because of the growing importance of education, it may well be that this century will become the teachers century, where teaching as seen as a ‘labor of love’ by underpaid and undervalued participants will become a thing of the past. Embattled teachers should take heart, knowing that the tide is turning.

Earth Earth is height and depth, distance and proximity, ease and danger, open and confined ground, life and death (Sun Tzu)

Teachers should facilitate, and remain calm no matter how severe the provocation. When a teacher shouts in the classroom, it sends a message to the students that the teacher has lost control. It is similar to a general who loses his head in the heat of battle, and screams at the soldiers. Remaining calm sends a message to the students that the teacher remains in control of the situation. Good teachers gain insight into when to lead and when to yield, and timing is the essence. Teachers should be flexible but not weak, and they should be strong but not brittle. The battlefield for teachers is one that relies not on brute force but on problem- solving and finding the middle ground. Teachers should therefore be like the proverbial bamboo that bends in the gale.

Heaven Heaven is Yin and Yang, cold and hot, the cycle of seasons (Sun Tzu) Timing is a critical element of Heaven (in the same way that it is in The Way), and it is vital to discern when and when not to act. Being human, it is our natural inclination to act impulsively on provocation. However, this is not always wise from a strategic point of view, and often more can be achieved by adopting a state of non-action. Sometimes when action is taken prematurely, it takes considerably more effort to unravel an undesirable situation that has emerged. Thus, the issues of ‘when to’ and ‘when not to’ require careful consideration, because much is at stake. There is collective timing and individual timing. Collective timing cannot be changed, in the same way that the timing of the seasons is constant and cannot be changed. Individual timing, on the other hand, is changeable and relates to personal strategic management For teachers, universal timing presents itself in many ways. One way is in the administrative system that employs them, with all the timetables, rules, regulations and systems which are imposed and have to be accepted as they are. Sometimes it is productive to be proactive and take action immediately, whereas at other times it is productive to wait things out. There is no set rule for which is the most appropriate, it depends on the situation. Teachers should nurture an intuitive understanding of this, and not act on impulse.

PB

A general on a battlefield cannot move a mountain Terrain and resources are decisive to the element of situation. Terrain (the geographical situation) is a constant dimension. It cannot be changed. A general on a battlefield cannot move a mountain or a stream, but must skillfully manoeuver within such a configuration to his best strategic advantage. Likewise, anyone in a competitive situation must turn even what may seem to be a disadvantageous feature of terrain to advantage. The best way to turn constant dimensions to advantage is firstly to accept them, adapt to them, and endure them. Terrain is also about the paradoxes that exist in nature. Traditional Chinese philosophy is based on the concept of Yin and Yang when referring to so-called ‘opposites’. (See ‘Earth’ above) Water is Yin (soft) compared to rock, which is Yang (hard), and is yielding. Whilst it would appear to be the weaker of the two elements, given time water will erode rock. Therefore water is in fact the stronger of the two. Understanding this paradox is vital to strategy, because what appears to be weak could well be what is strong, and what appears to be strong could in fact be weak.

continued >>>

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Resources are not as constant as terrain, but should be handled in a similar way given their finite nature and hence their depletion. Again, adaptation, as opposed to following so called ‘rules’ and ‘truths’, is the key. Thus, to find the greatest weakness of a competitor (of whatever form) it is important to carefully examine what appears to be its greatest strength. Appearances can indeed be deceiving. What may seem a gift can be a curse and vice versa. Sun Tzu said: Disorder is founded on order; fear, on courage; weakness, on strength (Chapter 5). Thus, assets can be derived from liabilities, in the same way that order is derived from confusion, bravery from fearfulness, and potency from flaws. It is important to learn how to accept liabilities for what they are, adapt to them and then to reverse them. Deception, as chilling as it may be at first glance, does have a role in this. Sun Tzu said: The way of war is a way of deception. When able, feign inability. When deploying troops, appear not to be. When near, appear not to be. When far, appear near (Chapter 1). To the Western mind, the word ‘deception’ holds many negative connotations. However, Taoist concepts of deception simply mean that we should not put all our cards on the table, to avoid plans being thwarted. For Sun Tzu, deception meant paradox, and all military operations involve a strong element of deception. Deception does not necessarily mean deceitfulness and fraudulence but rather the creation of paradoxical situations to succeed in battle. The Taoist influence behind The Art of War draws its wisdom from observations of nature, in fact nature was the Tao. Sun Tzu would surely have observed how, for example, green caterpillars on leaves were not green by chance but for a very specific reason. For Sun Tzu, the caterpillars would not have been deceiving the hungry birds, but admirably adapting their color to the environment to avoid being eaten alive. Teachers can be compared with caterpillars for the same reason. As mentioned earlier, the battleground for teachers should not depend on open confrontation, but rather on negotiation, problem-solving and finding a middle path. Teachers are vulnerable, like caterpillars, but need to be extremely sensitive when applying deception in competitive situations. Teacher deception should be used in ways that transcend self-interest and be moral. It should involve long-term goals (rather than short-term perks) and hold the wellbeing of students as supreme. These noble features of deception will greatly increase the chances of survival and success of teachers. Teachers should blend in with the environment like the caterpillars and avoid being eaten by the competition. This is one way that teachers can be deceptive without being deceitful. The ELT profession has become extremely competitive. All ELT institutions are in intense competition to provide the most effective teaching programs and attract students and the best teachers. In addition, there is intense competition between teachers within ELT programs especially for power, for example leadership positions. Given that most, if not all, teachers are on short-term contracts, anxious employment relations add to this competitive atmosphere. Consequently, office politics and continual rumors become widespread in the ELT profession.

Here are some practical examples of how I, as a teacher, have been sensitively deceptive. In my experience of working in several ELT programs in different countries, I have noticed that teachers of one institution tend to unintentionally divulge confidential information to teachers, and employers, of other institutions. Every program, as in business, has ‘trade secrets’ that make it unique to survive the competition, but because of dissatisfaction and lack of loyalty, even fear and insecurity, teachers tend to indulge in gossip and reveal sensitive information. Whenever I am approached by someone whom I suspect to be seeking some confidential information I find that appearing naïve and uninformed (even though I am well-informed) is a good tactic to ensure a psychological advantage. Another example is when I am approached to proof read lengthy and difficult documents for free. Whenever I am approached in this same manner for a ‘favor’, and I sense the prospect of being used, my first impulse is to be rude. Instead, I smile sweetly and tell them that I am too busy. I offer them friendly advice on where they may go to get help. Nobody is offended, everybody is happy, and I keep psychological and material advantage in the situation. There are those with whom games are not necessary, and there are those with whom they are necessary. However, I never play mind games with the students. To be sensitively deceptive means to be able to confuse the competition in favor of the customer. The customer of the teacher is the student. With students there should always be a meeting of the heart. Mind games and deception have no place in it.

Command Command is wisdom, integrity, compassion, courage, severity (Sun Tzu) Sun Tzu recognized the role of high-quality leadership in ensuring advantageous actions. Such leadership is also important in deciding when it is appropriate to advance and when it is appropriate to retreat. The consideration of leadership pertains especially to educators. This means setting personal gain aside and suffering the consequences. Most teachers know about leadership, but not all understand the requirements of effective leadership. Leadership implies a heavy burden. Many are enchanted with the fascinating notion of leadership, but overlook the effort, commitment and accountability that come with it. A good teacher is also a good leader just as a bad teacher is a bad leader, but a bad teacher cannot be a good leader. It requires a great sense of responsibility and duty. Without the support of the followers, leadership is fruitless. Many believe that leadership implies a formal position and inaugurated with pomp and ceremony. However a true leader is someone who, by default, shows people the way and they follow.

“Without the support of the followers, leadership is fruitless.” Good leaders and good teachers listen and consider others’ viewpoints even if they do not agree or act upon them. It is important for teachers to learn how to listen to students. Everybody wants to be heard. Good leaders and good teachers get their hands dirty and are not afraid of sharing in the grime their students face, and this includes what may seem to be the most menial of tasks. If you observe people carefully, you will notice that the way they handle the most trivial of matters is often a good indication of how they will handle the most important of matters. Teachers, in their leadership roles, must cultivate morality, and this cannot exclude discipline and obedience. Not only self-discipline, but also methods of disciplining students. In this regard, consideration should be given to appropriate rewards and punishments. Sun Tzu said: Excessive rewards are a sign of desperation. Excessive punishments are a sign of exhaustion. If a general is by turns tyrannical and in error of his own men, it is a sign of supreme incompetence (Chapter 9).

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Discipline Discipline is organization, chain of command, control of expenditure (Sun Tzu) This statement implies organization, discipline and responsibility. In a way this could be seen as the opposite of Tao, in that it deals with the practical issues of management. However, just as there are no opposites, but rather paradoxes, the two elements are complementary to each other. In the same way, teachers and their employers should be complementary to each other. Some teachers work in countries with cultures other than their own. They have to endure much frustration along with the enjoyment of the adventure. Culture shock is an endemic companion of these teachers, and often the thrill of the challenge becomes clouded with feelings of despair. It is perhaps for this reason that complaining about the administration, the students, the culture, the food, the weather and an almost endless list of other perceived frustrations ensues. Whether justified or not, teachers cannot afford to complain, especially about the administration and especially in front of coworkers and students. Teachers need to thoroughly support the administration or to quit and seek other employers, perhaps in other countries, perhaps in other professions. Teachers, given their role as leaders, should be absolutely committed to the organization that employs them. Soldiers become discouraged by a complaining general on a battlefield, but will become encouraged by a general who supports the headquarters. Similarly, when students see their teachers wholly supporting their employers, they become encouraged because they witness their leader sacrificing self-interest for the good of the organization. It is immoral for a teacher who derives a livelihood with a salary from an organization to criticize it, as this damages the morale of co-workers and de-motivates students. The principles in The Art of War need to be taken seriously by a general on the battlefield because lives are at stake. These same principles need to be taken seriously by teachers in the classroom because the futures of the students are at stake. ELT employers, for example the schools, colleges, and universities, are the supreme commanders at the headquarters of the educational mission and thus hold the ultimate responsibility. They should give every support to the teachers they employ in every way. For those employing expatriate teachers this includes emotional support because of the difficulties such as loneliness that teachers experience working in foreign countries. Employers that do not support their teachers will not last long in the profession, just as a military headquarters that does not support its generals cannot hope to win a war. If a teacher works for a supportive employer, that teacher should be absolutely supportive and loyal. It is the role of all ELT professionals (employers and employees) to serve the interests of others, primarily the students, and put aside concerns of self-interest. As Sun Tzu said: He who advances without seeking fame, who retreats without seeking blame, he whose one aim is to protect his people and serve his lord, this man is a Jewel of the Realm (Chapter 10).

Finally This article is not intended to be a substitute for The Art of War. It is of paramount importance for teachers to read the work in totality, even if in translation, and then to reflect upon it, and then attempt to apply it. This article is only intended to draw attention to The Art of War and its potential application for teachers. A good starting point would be to read Minford’s translation (2003) and his commentary.

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By applying the philosophy of The Art of War you will realize that you can succeed as a teacher simply by being who you are. Therefore, be yourself to avoid unease and apprehension. It may take many years to gain an understanding of The Art of War to the extent where you can directly apply it in daily life. But enjoy the journey of discovery and see it as a process rather than as a means to an end. Suddenly, without even realizing it you will discover that you are able to apply it. It will be a pleasant journey of selfdiscovery. You will also find that being an effective teacher is more about being simple than about becoming complicated. To recondition ourselves from complication to simplicity is not as simple as it seems. It takes great effort and courage to unravel many years of hard-wiring. When you have uncluttered your mind, you will be better able to understand and use the strategic principles of The Art of War to the fullest advantage. The more you are able to recognize opportunities, the more you will be able to seize opportunities, and the more they will grow. Overcome setbacks and move on. All teachers should research this well.

Reference Minford, J (2003) The Art of War: The Essential Translation of the Classic Book of Life. Penguin Books: United States of America All translations of Sun Tzu’s words in this paper are from Minford’s translation which is in turn based on the traditional Shiyijia Zhu Sunzi text. The commentary and opinions expressed in this paper are my own.

The Author David McLachlan Jeffrey is a South African instructor in the Intensive English Program of the American University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. He has taught English as a Second Language in Japan and Saudi Arabia. He has a deep fascination and respect for ancient Far Eastern philosophy, and believes that it can be applied with success by teachers anywhere in the world. His research interests focus mainly on educational leadership strategy, teacher diary studies, student motivation and socio-linguistics.

Journal Exchanges “The Teacher Trainer” has arranged journal exchanges with IATEFL Newsletter (UK) English Language Teaching Journal (UK) Modern English Teacher (UK) English Teaching Forum (USA) English Teaching professional (UK) and is abstracted by ‘Language Teaching’, The British Education Index, the ERIC clearing house and Contents Pages in Education.

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28 The Teacher Trainer Vol 25 No 1

Article Watch Below are brief summaries of relevant articles from other journals. IATEFL TTEd Newsletter. Dec. 2010, issue 2. ‘Teacher stories and teacher trainer stories’, Briony Beaven, pp. 5-10. This article covers the background to storytelling in teacher development, reports on three storytelling mini-projects, and outlines the storytelling plenary session the author facilitated at the TTEd SIG PreConference Event at the IATEFL Annual Conference, Harrogate, 2010. Finally, the author focuses on a number of questions relating to boundaries, preparation, learning value, and follow-up activities in teacher storytelling. Useful reading references too. ‘Trainer perceptions and use of course materials’, Jayne Moon, pp. 16-21. When the author became involved with the British Council as a consultant on a trainer training project in East Asia, she became interested in how the lead trainers would perceive, and respond to, the given materials. She thus carried out a small exploratory study to investigate. This article describes the context, the study, and the findings before going on to discuss these. While materials have the potential to influence teaching positively, they are at the same time actively interpreted and reshaped by their users in line with their own beliefs and cultural experiences, sometimes leading to different outcomes from those intended by the materials writers. The implication is that course materials cannot be left to carry a reform agenda. Modern English Teacher. 2010. www.onlinemet.com ‘Training and professional development’, Roy Edwards, July, 19/3, pp. 56-59. This is the first of a short series of articles exploring the important role of professional development for both an individual teacher and an organization. It examines some differences between training and development while explaining why, in the author’s view, the two have frequently become confused, to the detriment of both.

‘Taking ownership of a development programme’, Roy Edwards, Oct., 19/4, pp. 5054. This is the second article in the series mentioned just above. It looks at ways teachers can design and take responsibility for their own personal development. I checked carefully and, yes, it does say personal, not professional, development. The definition of development in both articles seems to involve “attitudes, values, perceptions, and beliefs about such factors as the job, career, relationships, the environment, and personal life circumstances rather than the mechanics of job performance”. Whether you agree or disagree with the basic definition, you might find the use of Kurt Levin’s force field analysis model and example teacher development plans interesting. ‘Teacher learning through language proficiency’, Linda Hanington, Oct. 19/4, pp. 46-49. The author describes how on teacher training projects she generally used work on language proficiency to help teachers to cope with the linguistic requirement of their teacher training courses and, in the longer term, to improve their language skills so that they can fulfill their professional roles with greater competence and confidence. In addition, now she uses a range of practical activities for student teachers to engage in during proficiency sessions to promote their awareness of what happens in class. These activities are noticing tasks and identifying tasks, and practical ELT activities such as warm ups as well as grouping and correction techniques. After experiencing the activities, the teachers are prompted to reflect on them with questions in discussion, in journals, or in blogs. English Teaching professional. Issue 70. Sept 2010. www.etprofessional.com ‘From TDLL to CPD’, Bahar Gün, pp. 53-56. This short piece describes the evolution of an in-service teacher development programme at a Turkish university in response to trainer initiatives and teacher feedback gained every three years. The programme turned from topdown to bottom-up and eventually to both, and is still being adapted.

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RELC Journal. 2010, April, vol 41/1, pp. 5975. http://RELC.sagepub.com . ‘Investigating teacher attitudes to extensive reading practices in higher education: Why isn’t everyone doing it?’, John Macalister. This article reports on interviews conducted with 36 teachers involved in university preparation courses at language teaching centres in New Zealand. While teachers expressed positive beliefs about the language learning benefits of extensive reading, their beliefs did not generally result in the inclusion of extensive reading in the class programme. If extensive reading is to be more widespread in higher educational contexts, it needs to be promoted through teacher education as well as in other ways. System. June, 2010, vol. 38/2, pp. 262-271. www.elsevier.com/locate/system/ ‘English teachers moderating and participating in OCPs (Online Communities of Practice)’, J. Pino-Silva & C.A. Mayora. The authors co-moderate a local Yahoo group of teachers fromVenezuela and participate in an international Yahoo group of EFL teachers from different countries. By analyzing a) the posts the authors wrote in each OCP and b) the authors’ introspective accounts completed for the purpose of this research, it appears that there’s not much difference in executing the roles of moderation and participation. Because English is the language of collaboration in both OCPs, results suggest that both roles may serve as a deterrent of language loss.

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Publications Received The purpose of these thumbnail summaries of recent publications in ELT and related fields is to broadly indicate topic and points of interest to mentors, teacher trainers and teacher educators. Print size is noted only if unusual. Dimensions are indicated only if exceptionally small or large. E.g., 148pp+ means “148pp plus an informative roman numbered preface, etc”. All books are paperback unless otherwise stated. “Not specifically about ESOL” or “Not specifically about FLT (foreign language teaching)” means that the book in question has a broad focus that includes ESOL (or FLT) in some way. If the book is of a type that requires an index but an index is lacking, the lack is noted. IATEFL 2009. Cardiff Conference Selections. (43rd Int’l Conference. Cardiff. 31.3-4.4.2009) B. Beaven, ed. (2010) IATEFL / Pilgrims. ISBN 978-9010952967. 224pp. The 91 articles are grouped into the following chapters: Conference reviews; Culture, language & pedagogy (international issues); Professional development of teachers; Autonomy & motivation; Methods for learning, methods for teaching; Lexical matters; Specific purposes and approaches (ESP, CBI & CLIL); Assessment & examinations; Literature & literacy (critical issues); Writing & listening; Moodle, MOLE, mobiles, web, & wikis; and The big picture. The longest chapter, with 13 articles, is the one on professional development. The authors and titles are as follows: R. Kiely (‘Understanding the craft of the experienced teacher’), V. Brock & M. West (‘The process of TESOL lesson planning & materials adaptation’), S. Barduhn (‘Cohort-based learning in teacher education’), L. Hermes, F. Klippel, et al. (‘Symposium on Action Research in English language teacher education’), A. Watson (‘Reflecting on reflections on reflection’), M. Kizuka (‘How can teachers become reflective practitioners?’), C. Hayashi (‘An online community for teacher development in Japan’), N. Rosado (‘A researcher’s look at EFL teacher education in Colombia’), D. Nowacka (‘English language teachers & their professional development’), S. Muir & T. Spain (‘Teaching teachers pronunciation’), M. Sprat (‘…the Cambridge ESOL teaching awards framework’), B. Beaven (‘A social constructivist approach to background reading on CELTA courses’), and S. Morris (‘Feedback doesn’t stay the same’). Motivating Learning: Approaches and Activities that Bring English to Life in the Primary Classroom (DVD Teacher Training Series). J. Boylan. (2009) British Council. ISBN 978-086355-633-3. 142pp.; A4; no index. This book is part of a pack that includes two

DVDs. On the first are four programmes (Storytelling, Meaningful Speaking Activities, and Interactive Games, Teaching Aids); on the second are two (Successful Classroom Management and Teacher-Student Interaction). The book furnishes pre-, in-, and post-viewing tasks linked to each of the six programmes. Additionally, there are reflection tasks designed to encourage users to consider their own teaching in the light of discussions relating to the DVDs. The introduction states that pre- and in-service primary teachers can work through the materials on their own, with a partner, or in a small group. Each of the six units is forecast to take about two hours to complete. The author also foresees that the materials can be used by teacher trainers. Trainer’s notes can be found at . The book includes suggestions for further reading as well as pointers to material on the Web. It all looks very useful. The Art of Foreign Language Teaching: Improvisation and Drama in Teacher Development and Language Learning. P. Lutzker. (2007) Francke Verlag. ISBN 9783-7720-8243-6. 478 pp. The author believes that both language teacher education and foreign language learning are best approached in an artistic spirit and in a framework of dramatic art. The book is, and has the look of, a doctoral dissertation, which is to say that the general reader might want to skip over some sections and many of the footnotes. Sections that caught my eye are: The model of teaching as an art, In-service language teacher development, Steiner schools’ in-service training for English teachers, An empirical study of clowning courses, Background to clowning, Clowning workshops for language teachers, Dramatic processes in language teaching, and A case study of a class play. At the time of writing, the author had been an EFL teacher in a Steiner school in Germany for over 20 years and a trainer of Steiner school teachers for nearly 15. Drama and Improvisation. K. Wilson (2008) Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-019-442580-3. 125pp+. In OUP’s longrunning series of teacher’s resource books, this one looks like an essential addition to the collection of any language teacher with an interest in drama activities in the classroom. The major sections are entitled: Hello and welcome!, Classroom interaction and improvisation, Fun and games, Drama club, and Working with scripts. Reflective Teaching: Evidence Informed Professional Practice, 3rd edition. A. Pollard with J. Anderson, M. Maddock, S. Swaffield, J. Warin & P. Warwich. (2002, reprinted 2008) Continuum. ISBN 978-0-

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8264-9340-8. 590pp+. This book – intended for mentors, pre- and in-service teachers, and readers engaged in continuing professional development – is part of a three component resource set which also includes the title noticed just below as well as TTweb (www.rtweb.info). It is billed as a ‘core handbook for school-based professional development’. Among the new material included in this edition is some that relates to the introduction in the UK of a master’s level PGCE (the PGCE being the basic teaching qualification). Although quite UK referenced, there is a great deal in this collection that may interest teacher trainers, teacher educators and mentors around the world. It is peppered with ‘reflective tasks’, with leads to outside sources of information, and with references to readings in the book noticed just below. The 18 chapters cover the following topics: reflective teaching, learning through mentoring, developing an evidence informed classroom, the circumstances of teaching, values and identity, relationships, child development, the development of knowledge and understanding, the implementation of curricula, the classroom environment, classroom management, communication in the classroom, the development of teaching strategies, monitoring learning and performance, social inclusion, school improvement, continuing professional development, and the social implications of reflective teaching. A very accessible presentation of an exceedingly rich body of material. Readings for Reflective Teaching. A. Pollard (ed.) (2002) Continuum. ISBN 9780-8264-5115-6. 416pp+. This book comprises 120 excerpts and short articles ranging from foundational writings by John Dewey, Lev Vygotsky, and Donald Schön to ones dating from the turn into the new millenium. There is a short introduction at the beginning of the book; each chapter begins with a preview; and each reading is preceded by an continued >>>

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30 The Teacher Trainer Vol 25 No 1 introduction of a paragraph or so. The 18 wide-ranging chapters, which mirror those in the title noticed just above, are grouped under three headings: Becoming a reflective teacher, Being a reflective teacher, and Beyond classroom reflection. This collection is a goldmine for aficionados of reflective teaching. More generally, it is difficult to think of topics that this virtually encyclopaedic collection does not address. Translation in Language Teaching: An Argument for Reassessment. G. Cook. (2009) (Oxford Applied Linguistics) Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-442475-2. 177pp+. There are many reasons to like this book. As a survey of ‘TILT’ (translation in language teaching), it is thoughtful, manyfaceted, and richly informative. Cook’s overview of the evolution of English Language Teaching from the 1880s to the present is by itself reason enough to get this book. Cook makes it clear that a number of

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fashionable beliefs are in need of amendment. For instance: (1) his nuanced discussion of the widely scorned GrammarTranslation Approach makes it clear that its complete abandonment entailed serious losses; (2) he has extremely interesting things to say about the generally negative attitude to translation that has been displayed by aficionados of Task-based Learning; and (3) he argues that TILT might be more appropriate in many settings than CLIL. More generally, Cook exposes the weaknesses of arguments that L1 should be banned from classrooms, while noting along the way that these arguments tend to be underpinned by considerations that are commercial and political rather than scientific. At the same time, he builds an impressive positive rationale for TILT in terms of improved learning of the ‘new language’ (his term for L2) and better fit with multicultural, globalized societies. Also, in Cook’s opinion, “The strength of TILT is that

it lends itself perfectly to a marriage of the ‘traditional’ and ‘communicative’ which has been missing from language teaching for so long and is the cause of so many unproductive swings of fashions” (p. 148). One thing, the title of the book probably ought to be Translation in English Language Teaching for reasons that Cook himself makes clear in his introduction (pp. xx-xxi). Activities for Interactive Whiteboards. D. Martin. (2009) Helbling Languages. ISBN 978-3-85272-148-4. A4; 179pp., no index+ CD ROM. This teacher’s resource book presents 95 activities for EFL classes, and there is a useful 7pp+ introduction. The level range is elementary to advanced. The dvd is the vehicle for (dis)playing the various audio-visual materials in class. The activities are grouped into three chapters according to whether they are image-based, sound- & video-based, or text-based. This looks like a very useful resource for fans of teaching with an IWB.

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English language teaching – your future University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations offers flexible paths to teaching qualifications Teaching Knowledge Test (TKT) Modules 1–3 – testing the core knowledge required for teaching English to speakers of other languages TKT: Practical – testing English language teaching ability – the certificate that says: “I can teach!” TKT: Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) – testing knowledge of teaching content through the medium of a non-native language TKT: Knowledge about Language (KAL) – testing the knowledge of English language systems required by teachers TKT: Young Learners (YL) – testing strategies and skills required to teach young learners

For further information, go to www.CambridgeESOL.org/tkt