How is it possible to make teachers more aware of the role of AL in their teaching practice?
Hello everybody,
I've run into lots of teachers here in Brazil who had had no idea of the benefits of Applied Linguistics to their practice. Some of them disregard how helpful it can be and haven't made no use of it.
Why does it happen? Should the government provide resources for teachers to deepen their knowledge on the subject or should teachers be stimulated and look for more substantial knowledge themselves? How can it be done?
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Cheers.
Hi all,
I think we have touched the core shaky land of educating ELT teachers. Out of personal experience, AL should be introduced in edu-esl-efl-related BA, which is not the cae in most unis.
Not only this, BA students should be made aware of the significance of AL by their professors who should make it relevant to their future career. In other words, uni professors should point out the practicality of AL from an early stage in their teaching.
Molhim
On the other hand, many EFL teachers have not gone through the university route to become a teacher. They will usually have a degree, but often nothing to do with EFL or teaching. There is therefore also a need to feed this message through other channels to reach this section of the industry.
There is no denying the fact that the applied aspect of linguistics can be of great help in the language classroom but a teacher who does a BA followed by teacher training and steps into teaching, as pointed out by Kevin, may not have even an acquaintance with linguistics which implies that its relevance to the classroom may go unrecognized.
Therefore it is important to generate awareness of how it influences many areas related to language learning , be it curriculum design or course book or teaching/learning or testing.These insights in turn can help the teacher to see its practical use for classroom teaching.
Hi Bindu,
It is difficult to claim that only MA holders who study AL are better teachers. Therefor, let's call for more intensive AL elements in TEFL/TESOL short courses. Wouldn't that compensate for the missing link in the intensive teacher training course?
Molhim
I have re-read both my and Bindu's contributions and can't see where we have even mentioned an MA, let alone that it makes for superior teachers. My point, and as I understand it Bindu's too, is that there is a need to spread this message through multiple channels. Given the crowded schedule in TEFL courses, Also, I know lots of teachers who have never had any formal teacher training of any kind. I think it would be difficult to do much more than mention that it might be useful, for example. So it needs organisations such as IATEFL to be more active in this field and not to allow those who continuously say "AL has nothing to do with real life" to remain unanswered.
Kevin
I think you've put your finger on the key problem with Applied Linguistics reearch and langauge teaching. No-one takes responsibility for operationalising research in the classroom. AL researchers often end papers by saying 'This has implications for classroom practice', but rarely do we see an example of what they mean.
I recently wrote a book with two colleagues called EAP Essentials, which was aimed at teachers who were preparing students for university study. It was designed to make the link between research and practice by digesting research into manageable bites and, through case studies and classroom scenarios, showing what it might look like in an EAP classroom.
Although the book has an EAP focus, many of the chapters would be appropriate for General English teachers as well, e.g. text analysis, course design, learner autonomy, and assessment.