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Methodology questions
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Tue, 03/17/2009 - 13:20
I've had teachers on our short EAP Teacher Development course report that they felt 'de-skilled' when they first started to teach EAP. They felt they had to leave all their good communicative methodology at the classroom door and adopt a more 'chalk and talk' approach to teaching. This may be what puts many good ELT teachers off trying EAP I think.
Have you had this experience? What did you do about it?
Or can you offer advice to new teachers about how to incorporate their communicative practices in an EAP writing class?
Olwyn
Wed, 03/18/2009 - 22:18
#2
Hi,
Couldn't agree more. Not that CLT is the great panacea either: there are definitely times when I would favour other approaches.
Kevin
Wed, 04/08/2009 - 18:21
#3
Hi Kevin and Andrea,
I went to an interesting talk by Anne Burns of Macquarie University in Sydney who has been involved for a long time with the Adult Migrant English Programme in Australia. She was talking about what she called 'visible pedagogy' after Bernstein (1996) - I'm afraid I didn't catch the full reference.
Her point was that Communicative methodology in some of its forms advocates not being explicit to learners about the aims or stages of a lesson or how it fits into the syllabus and curriculum of a course. However, this is often at odds with the experiences and expectations of adult migrants who come from very different educational cultures where these things are made much more explicit.
In order to show these learners that they were getting value in the classroom, she recommended being as explicit as possible about the aims of a lesson, how it was going to be useful outside class and how it fitted into the whole course and the assessment.
This seems obvious to me as an EAP teacher but perhaps it is not. What do you think?
Olwyn
Wed, 04/08/2009 - 23:56
#4
Hi Olwyn,
In my experience, adult learners generally have a need to know what they are doing and why. Young learners are often happy to just go with the flow. I know I have a great need to understand how what I am being taught is relevant to me and my needs.
I think being explicit in this way is also a great discipline for the teacher, as it makes them have a clear idea of what any given activity is intended to achieve. It can be very easy to just drop, albeit interesting, activities into a lesson without really knowing how it moves the students nearer to their goals.
Regards,
Kevin
Thu, 04/09/2009 - 07:39
#5
Hello Kevin,
Yes, explicitness about purpose and method is essential for students to develop autonomy -- they need to understand these why and how aspects in order to become self directing. They also need to understand the why and how in order to develop critical thinking. How can students evaluate the usefulness of a text or task if they don't know its purpose?
On a lighter note, this is mainly why, after 40 years as a teacher, I still use lesson plans. Maybe I'm a control freak; although I should say in my defence that I am always ready to be sidetracked by students if necessary. There is a view that lesson plans are only for trainee teachers. What do people think?
Sue
Thu, 04/09/2009 - 16:58
#6
Hi Sue,
We've often had 'interesting' discussions about the importance of lesson plans :-) and I guess I do feel that an experienced teacher has a number of 'schemata' or 'frames' (not really sure which one of those I mean) in her head for template lessons which she can follow without actually writing down a plan.
Having said that, when I first started experimenting with the Dogme approach I actually needed to write careful lesson plans on the grounds that spontaneity only works if it is carefully planned.
So I don't think lesson plans are only for trainees but I think we need a critical view on when we need them and when we can do without them.
Olwyn
Sun, 04/12/2009 - 00:16
#7
Hi Sue and Olwyn,
I too often use lesson plans, especially when teaching on a highly focussed course, often very intensive, such as a pre-sessional EAP course. I have trouble remembering what I taught yesterday, let alone last week, so I either make notes about what I did, or about what I plan to do and amend them for the reality. Like Sue, I believe that lesson plans help me but I am also willing to deviate from them and go with the flow. I am actually quite suspicious of the "I never write lesson plans" brigade
Kevin
Fri, 04/17/2009 - 06:46
#8
I think it's impossible to teach students without any plans at least in teacher's mind. But the plans can be different from word-ro-word what teacher is going to say and do in the classroom to the framework of actions with the general outline that provides flexibility and transparency in teaching/learning.
In any case, before going to the classroom a teacher should think of objectives for the class/lesson and expected outcomes from the tasks and activities s/he is going to use. Sometimes we need to change our plans in response to what is going in the classroom or even improvise. And I think it's quite natural as we are working with human beings.
I observed some teachers who were following their plans made in advance very carefully. It was rather strange to see that they were going further without paying attention to what is going in the classroom: whether students had problems with the tasks, interested in doing them and sometimes even what students say to a teacher. I'm wondering whether it is due to the low confidence, nervousness...?
Hope, you use your lesson plans for the other purposes.
Hi!! Personally, I believe every class can be communicative, no matter if the course is ESP, EAP or General English. It all depends on how tasks are designed, what gaps are established, classroom management and timing. I guess warmers are a great aid, also activities having a clear info gap, and whatever takes the class away from being an expository class and students to be actors and not mere passive recipients.
best
Andrea