TheIH Journal

ofeducationanddevelopment
I S S U E N U M B E R 2

N O V E M B E R 1 9 9 6

C O N T E N T S

Editor ial

MatthewBarnard

ATaskBasedAppr oachtoOr alWor k

PeterMoor

SelfAssessmentandEvaluation:ThePr ogr essPr ofile

SteveHenty

TheTr oublewithDrills

PhilipKerr

16

WhatsinaName:TheUseofLiter atur einClass

J eremyPage

18

Computer GamesinLanguageLear ning

DaveTucker

20

TheAdventofCELTA

WendyColeby

22

TheIr on,theWhichandtheWar dr obe

RogerHunt

26
28

QuestionsandAnswer s
Lear ner Cultur e,Lear ner Style

J ohnCutler

29

GettingReal:Explor ingtheBoundar iesofSimulations

MauriceCassidy

32

J ohnHaycr aft:anObituar y

TonyDuff

34

InternationalHouseLondon1996
PublishedbyInternationalHouseLondon
EditedbyMatthewBarnard
Coverdesign:MatthewBarnard

Editor ial
Howoftenissometimes,usually?
Perhapsthatsnotaquestionyouhaveeverhadtoaskyourself.Iprobablywouldnthavedoneso
myself if it hadnt been for a certain trainee on a course I was working on who put this very
conundrum to his group of Beginners. They were a little bewildered, not having quite come to
grips with the meaning of any one of the adverbs of frequency by this stage, and I guess the
helpless(yetsomehowsupportive)laughterfromtherestoftheTPgroupdidntdomuchtohelp.
But,whenmyownchucklinghadsubsided,itgotmethinkingabouttheimportanceofcontextin
everythingwedoandsay.
Onthefaceofit,itseemedlikeaprettydaftquestion(especiallyinthecontextoftheBeginners
class),butyoucanseewhathemeant.Ihavesinceposedthesamequestiontomyownstudents
who,afterawrysmile,havetakenthethingquiteseriouslyandbeenabletodiscussatlengthhow
the relative frequency of things, or expected frequency, does affect ones choice of adverb. For
example,youaskastudenthowoftentheygodancingandtheysaynotveryoftenpressthemfor
more detail and they might say once or twice a month. Well to me thats alarmingly frequent.
GiventhatIamtodancingwhatBorisYeltsinistosynchronisedswimming,ifmypartnerwereto
askmetogooutdancingonceortwiceamonthIwouldcomplainthatwewerealwaysgoing.
The world of ELT is full of such ponderables. It must be said that a good many of us remain
profoundlyincurioustothem,havingquiteenoughtodoasitis.Fortunatelywefindourselvesin
anorganisationwhereplentyofpeopledo,nevertheless,stilltaketimeouttoquestionandanalyse
whatisgoingonaroundus,andindoingsokeepusallinformed,uptodateandinterestedinwhat
we are doing. These are the individualswhofillthepagesofthisjournalforus.Theydosoina
greatvarietyofwaysandtonesinthisissuealonewehavetopicsrangingfromlearnerstylesand
selfassessment, to computer games in class and good old drilling. In terms of methodology, we
havetheholisticaswellastheatomisticintermsoflanguage,wehavewhatmightbetermedreal
language (which comes up in Peter Moors article about TaskBased Learning, Jeremy Pages
about literature and the report from Maurice Cassidy) and unreal language (if you agree with
RogerHuntsargumentaboutwhatcoursebookswouldhaveusteach).Contributorsandreaders
will not alwaysagreewitheachother,buttheresnosurprisethere.Wejusthopetosparksome
debateandtoprovideafewpracticalideasfortheclassroom.
ThisisonlythesecondissueofTheIHJournalbutImpleasedtosaythattheresponsehasbeen
veryencouraging.Asyouwillsee,thejournalhasalreadyevolvedslightlysincethefirstissue,and,
dependingonthefeedbackweget,itmaywellcontinuetodosoforsometime.Idontenvisage
changingitstitleforeveryedition,however.
Thankyoutoeveryonewhosentmessagesofsupport,andtothosewhoincludedvaguepromises
of articles for future editions, dont think they went unnoticed! We look forward to receiving
articlesandinformationthroughouttheyearforthosefutureissuesandhopetokeepthisjournal
open to everyone in the organisation, whether they publish their thoughts often, sometimes,
usually,orhaveneverdonesobefore.

MatthewBarnard
DirectorofStudies,IHLondon

FORTHENEXT
ISSUE...
articles
informationaboutnewcourses
updateinformationaboutauthorsinallofourschools
newtitlesappearingfromIHauthors
paperstobegivenbymembersofstaff
questions...
andanswers
personalinterestarticles,talkingaboutlivingwhereyoulive
interestingstatistics
peopleonthemove
neweducationalprojets
newcourses
etc.
Allsuchinformationandarticlesgratefullyreceived.
Pleasesendhardcopy,andpreferablycopyondisk:Wordfor
Windows2,6or7(PCorMac)by Thursday13thF ebruary1997,
to:
TheEditor ,
TheIHJ our nalofEducationandDevelopment
Inter nationalHouseLondon,
106Piccadilly,
LondonW1V9FL
Fax:
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email: 100733.511@compuser ve.com

ATASKBASEDAPPROACHTOORALWORK
In this article Peter Moor of International House London sets out to provide a
working definition of what is meant by oral tasks, discusses what makes a task
productiveorusefulforstudentsandofferspracticaladviceonhowtomakethem
workbetterinclass.
TalkandTasks
Silence, as anyone who has ever watched a late
nighthorrorfilmwillknow,tendstobeabitscary
forELteachers it seems particularlyso,assilence
so often indicates confusion, a lack of interest or,
perish the thought, inactivity on the part of our
learners. After all, students repeatedly proclaim
that theywant tospeaksoitseemsonlyfairthat
we give them maximum opportunities to do so.
This has led to something of a keepem busy and,
above all, keepem talking culture among ELT
trainers and teachers, who have for so long
regardedS.T.T.(StudentTalkingTime)asagood
thing and, conversely, T.T.T. (Teacher Talking
Time) as a bad thing. As I remember one trainee
teacher admonishing his students I wanna hear
plenty of chatterinright?.Well,yes,wedowant
tohearplentyofchattering,certainly,butthemain
questionsshouldsurelybewhatisthepointofthis
chattering and what should the students actually
bechatteringabout?
Thedangeristhatstudenttalkcomestobeseenas
goodforitsownsakethestudentsaretalking,the
teacher isnt,solearningmustbetakingplace,the
thinking goes. In certain cases it may be true that
justtalkingisenough,forexamplewhenlearners
havelittleornoopportunitytouseEnglishoutside
class, or are particularly reticent when they are in
class.Butthereisadangerthatweendupwithof
the kind of activity which one writer has tartly
describedasturntothepersonnexttoyou,whom

youhardlyknowandlikeevenlessandtalkabout
any damn thing that comes into your head while
theteacherwandersaroundtryingtolookuseful.
Certainly students need to talk and will do this
casuallyinthecourseofeverylesson(onehopesin
English) and in many cases in the coffee bar and
outsidetheschool.But inorderforthestudentsto
obtain maximum benefit from oral activities, I
believethatamorestructured,taskbasedapproach
isuseful.

class, reporting back to the class on a group

discussionwhichhasledtosomesortofdecisionor
agreement, or recording a spoken activity onto
video or audio tape. The danger of the kind of
activity described above is that it enables the
learner to coast along using the language they
alreadyknow,even,onoccasions,simplifyingitin
ordertogetthemessageacrossquickly.Atask,on
theotherhand,shouldencouragelearnerstostretch
themselveslinguistically.

Whatmakesanoraltasksuccessful?
(Note: a list of possible oral tasks is included at the
endofthisarticle.SeeAppendix1)

I believe a worthwhile oral task should have a

numberofcharacteristics:
1.Intr insicinter est
Itshouldgowithoutsayingthatanoraltaskshould
be something which is worth doing in itself. Of
course, topics cannot be guaranteed to be of
universalinterest(asanyonewhohastriedtoleada
heateddebateonthetopicoftheenvironmentofthe
environment will attest), but there arecertainones
(personal anecdotes, favourite stories, discussions
where there is a problem to be resolved , for
example) which are tried and tested and seem to
work well in most cases. Searching for gimmicky,
different things for students to talk about can be
counterproductive.Althoughitisdesirablefororal
tasks to reflect reallife language use where
possible (as is the case with relating an anecdote,
for example), it is worth noting that the real
lifeness does not itself guarantee interest: the
familiar Solve the Murder roleplay, found in
Headway Upper Intermediate (and just about
everywhereelseit seems)is utterlyunrealistic,but
inmyexperienceusuallyengagesstudents,whereas
doing aroleplayinashoeshopis (forlearners in
an Englishspeaking environment at least) more
realistic, but can appear somewhat unengaging,
unlesstheyareparticularlyinterestedinshoes.

An oral task, according to my definition, is a

spoken activity which leads to some kind of
recognisableoutcomeorproduct.This might bein
the form of a minitalk to be given in front of the
5

2.Theexistenceofanoutcomeor endpr oduct

As mentioned above, the task needs to have some
kind of end product which the students work
towards. The problem with much oral interaction
(particularly conversations in pairs which the
learners do not report back on) is that a few
minutesaftertheconversationwecannotremember
what was said, or how, or what (if anything) was
decided. If the task is recorded, however, (in the
class,thelaboratory,orbythestudentsthemselves
at home), or if it is performed in public, there are
twoimportantimplications.
Firstly, students should be able to measure their
progress more accurately,particularlyiftheyhave
a learners cassette on which they record
themselves speaking regularly. Students are often
unaware of the progress they are making in their
oral work because they cannot hear themselves.
The achievement of specific oral tasks provides
more objective proof of whether or not they are
actuallyprogressing.
Secondly, using the language becomes more of an
event. Although giving talks in front of theclass
or recording ones voice may prove to be too
daunting for some, I have found that the gentle
application of pressure can produce surprising
results.Studentsmayactuallywelcomethiskindof
pressure and respond positively to it it may even
beafeatureoftheirowneducationalsystem.
3.Pr ovisionfor languageinput
Languageinputcancomefromavarietyofsources
atanypointduringthepreparationstageaslongas
sufficient time is given over to it. As well as
providing thinking time, preparation can involve
askingtheteacheraboutanylanguagepointswhich
require clarification, rehearsing the task with a
partner/the teacher or both (depending on time
constraints),andreceivingfeedbackwhichtheycan
put into practice later. In this way language input
might be obtained from a variety of sources,
including the teacher, reference books and fellow
students.
Unlike theSolvetheMurderroleplaymentioned
before (which is clearly geared towards producing
pastmodalsofdeduction),theoraltaskshouldnot,
in my opinion, be freer practice of a particular
grammatical point which the teacher presented
earlier. In taskbased learning the language is
geared to the task rather than the task to the
language, and the onus for providing language
inputcomesmuchmorefromthelearner.Ifweask
the student to, for example, give a short
6

presentation to the class about their favourite

hobby,theactuallanguagetheywillneedtodothis
is only partly predictable certainly you can bank
on phrases like Im keen on, or I spend alot of
timeingcomingup,butmanyoftheotheritems
willbepersonaltothelearner.Doingthistaskonce
with an Elementary class, two of the items the
students needed to know were lace making and
bonsai trees not items usually found in
Elementary coursebooks, but words which were,
nevertheless, important to these learners and
consequently more easily retained and used by
them.Thereshould,however,beabalancebetween
tasksofthistypewhicharepersonalised,andthose
whichrequireno personalinput.
4.Oppor tunitiesfor silence,spontaneousspeech
andpr epar edspeech
Students need silence in order to reflect on what
they need to say andhowtheyaregoingtosayit.
This brings us back to that fear of silence I
mentionedatthebeginningofthisarticle.Teachers
used to a constant hubbub of comforting
conversation may find recourse in the odd music
tape here! Students will also feel less inhibited
about asking questions if there is something to
break the silence while they plan what they are
goingtosay.
Just as a successful communicator will rehearse
what they are going to say when making an
important phone call, or a successful writer
producevariousdraftsofherworkbeforereaching
a final end product, so giving time to plan their
speech should produce more ambitious language.
Too often teachers assume that learners have
instant access to their thoughts and ideas just a
few momentstothinkbeforeanyspeakingactivity
canmakealotofdifference.

CaseStudy:AnOralTaskInAction
Toconclude,Iwouldliketogiveabriefaccountof
one taskbased lesson which I have used, as this
mayhelptoclarifysomeofthepointsmadeearlier.
The particular task I have chosen is simple,
provides what I hope is a clear illustration of the
taskcycleinactionand(incaseteacherscaretotry
itforthemselves)providesabout90120minutesof
lesson for a few minutes of preparation. The task
itself is to Tell the story of a childhood memory
and was done with a rather weak Early
IntermediatemultilingualgroupatIHLondon.The
taskcycleitselflookslikethis:

MODEL

PLANNING/INPUT/REHEARSAL

Model
I gave the model myself based on one of my own
childhood memories of falling off a bicycle, and
how this helped my relationship with my class
teacher. (Sorry, but further details are strictly
betweenmeandmyEarlyIntermediateAclass).Of
courseteacherscouldfindsomepublishedmaterial
to fulfil the same aim, but it is less likelytobeof
real interest to their students. In planning and
giving the model a few things are worth pointing
out:
i) IexplainedthatIwasgoingtotellthemastory
about my own childhood and that, later in the
lesson, they would be asked to do something
similar.Thishelpedthemtoseetherelevanceofthe
storyandtofocustheirattentiononcertainaspects
ofpresentation.
ii) I spent less time planning it thanIwouldgive
to the students (no more than 5 minutes) and
workedonlyfromapieceofpaperwithbriefnotes
and a few key words which I showed to the
students. This helped convince them it wasnt
necessary to plan every word. The talk should be
nomorethanabout4or5minutes.
iii) Thetellingofthestoryshouldnot betooslick
orpolishedasthismayintimidatestudents.Onthe
other hand, it should beinterestingenoughtohold
theirattentionandsparkideasintheirownminds.

Planning/Input/Rehearsal
On being told they will be asked to do something
similar, students may often appear reluctant or
daunted. I have found that patience and keeping a
coolheadcanpaydividendshere.Ofcourseitmay
taketimeforthestudentstodredgeupachildhood
memory (or at least one that they are prepared to
tell the others!) but nearly everybody comes up
with something in the end. In order to structure
their anecdote more I gave them the option of
writing some key words on paper and suggested a
wayoforganisingtheanecdoteintofivesections:a
short statement ofwhat thestorywillbeaboutan
introductiontothecharacters,settingetc.themain
event how it was resolved and the moral-. It
was up to the studentstodecidewhetherornot to
use this structure. I gave the students a maximum

TASK

of30minutestoplantheiranecdotesonreflection
this was probably toolongas somefinishedearly.
During this time they were free to ask me about
how to say particular things or to check if things
were right. Predictably, some students were very
concerned with accuracy and wanted to check
everything, while others wanted to get on with
tellingtheirstoryalmostimmediately.Dealingwith
the students questions can be quite taxing for the
teacher among questions I was asked by this
particular class were: Can I say mudballs? (if
youcanhavesnowballs,whynot!)HowdoIsay
when animal crosses road and car goes...(sound
effects:splat!)...thecatwas...?(runoverseemed
to be the appropriate word here). As part of the
rehearsal students were then able to try out their
talkwithapartnerorme.Thelistenerineachcase
was asked to provide feedback, particularly in
pointing out aspects of the story which were
unclear or confusing, rather than listen for
individualerrors.

Task
Oncethehalfhourhadelapsedit was timeforthe
students to go public and give their talk to an
audience.Ichoseonthisoccasiontohaveanumber
ofstudentsgivetheirtalktothewholeclass,rather
than tell their stories in small groups, and then
select the best, partly to see what effect this
pressure would have on individuals. My entirely
randomselectionofstudentsmeantthatalearnerI
shallcallYumiko,whohadseemedveryshyinthe
first few lessons, was chosen to do the first talk.
Despitemuchembarrassmentandnervousgiggling,
sheacquittedherselfwell,withatouching,ifrather
morbid, recollection about how the apparently
constantprematuredeathsofherchildhoodpetsled
toherbecomingamedicalstudent.Iwassurprised
byanumberofpoints:
i) InherdiaryYumikonotedthatWhenIspoke

atfrontofclassIfeltstress,pressure.Itwasgood
experience for me. Here at least was one student
who seemed to respond well to the gentle
applicationofpressure.
ii) Her language was far more ambitious than
anything I had heard her produce previously
7

(including the phrasal verb run over , the

significanceofwhichnowbecamecleartome).
iii) In apublicsituationthis student was farmore
willing to reveal information which was quite
personal to her, and did not freeze as one might
haveexpected.
Obviously,itwouldbewrongtoreadtoomuchinto
what was one individual case, but this did bring
home to me what seem to me to be some of the
most important features of applying this model of
taskbasedlearningtooralwork:
Firstly, that if the learners are not coming up
with ideas and language immediately, the
teachershouldnotpanic.Planningandreflection
time are crucial if learners are to produce a
worthwhileendproduct,andtoooftenIfeelthat
Ihavenotallowedthemenoughofthis.
Secondly,theproductofataskbasedlessonwill
never be the same with two different classes. I

have done the Childhood Memory Story with

students (and trainees) in a variety of different
contexts,andbecausethestorieshaveneverbeen
thesame,Ihavenevergotboredwithit.
Finally, students (particularly in the context of
IH London) frequently complain about lack of
challengeinlessons,whichmaybearesponseto
thefactthatwhentheyarealreadyfamiliarwith
the language that is being presented, they feel
thatthey knowit(whetherornottheycanuseit
correctly and appropriately!). Withataskbased
lessonitisuptothelearnerhowchallengingthe
lessonis,sinceit is she,ratherthantheteacher,
who decides what she wants to say. That is
probablyworthseveralminutesofsilence.

Appendix1
AlistoforaltaskssuitableforIntermediatelevel
Interviewandintroduceafellowstudenttotherestoftheclass
Tellastoryaboutachildhoodmemory
Choosethebestcandidateforajobandprepareashortstatement
Makearadioprogramme,perhapsonaparticularthemesuchasentertainment,reviewsetc.
ExplainalistofsocialDOsandDONTsforvisitorstoyourcountry
Giveashorttalkaboutanobjectwhichisspecialtoyou,orsomethingyouwouldparticularlylike
Tellastorytotheclassfromamenuofpossiblesources(folktales,personalanecdotes,rsumofashort
storyetc.)
Aradiophoneinwhereapanelofexpertsgiveadvicetocallers

Bibliography
ThephraseusedbyBatston,Rinhis talkTeachersGrammarandLearnersGrammar:Bridgingthe
Gap,givenatIHTeachersCentre,March1995
-See McCar thy,M: DiscourseAnalysisforLanguageTeachers,C.U.P.1991
Alsoofinterestforanyonewishingtoknowmoreabouttaskbasedlearning:
Foster , P: Doing the task better: how planning time influences students performances chapter 12 in
Willis,J &D(eds.): ChallengeandChangeinLanguageTeaching,Heinemann1996
Willis,J : AFrameworkforTaskBasedLearning,AddisonWesleyLongman1996
PeterMoorisateacher/teachertraineratInternationalHouseLondonandauthorofseveralsupplementarybooks.
HeiscurrentlyworkingontaskbasedmaterialswithSarahCunninghamforAddisonWesleyLongman.

SELFASSESSMENTANDEVALUATION: THEPROGRESSPROF ILE

SteveHentyfromIHSerranogoesinsearchoftheperfectsystemofevaluation
This piece of action research was prompted by the
results of a student questionnaire in which students
expressed concerns and doubts about their progress.
Some students said that they didnt know if they had
made progress, others rated theirprogressaslowand
some just put a question mark. It was clear that
something needed to be done about making students
awareoftheprogresstheyhadmade(orinsomecases
thelackofprogress).Ifstudents(ortheirteachers)are
unhappywiththeirprogressinthemiddleofacourse
they need to know what can be done to improve the
situation. The Progress Profile is about giving a
frameworktoacoursewhichwillfacilitatetheflowof
information between individual students and their
teacher and so offer a way of breaking through the
traditional dynamics of the Teacher Class
relationship where feedback about progress is
normally unidirectional and comes solely from the
authorityoftheexpert.
A comprehensive system of teacher assessment
involving checklists, assessment tasks, tests, exams,
individual progress review tutorials sounds like the
perfect solution. With care it can ensure reasonably
valid and reliable results and has the advantage of
being objective in the sense that the teachers
subjectivity is the only judgement called into play.
Unfortunatelyitisallverytimeconsuming.Asystem
of selfassessment and evaluation can easily involve
much less reliable and valid information and is by
nature highly subjective, but it does have possibilities
for raising learner awareness, increasing student
responsibility for learning and, hopefully, motivating
students to learn more. Ideally the system would
involve some element of formative assessment
(informing the next step in teaching or learning) and
summative assessment (demonstrating a final level of
proficiency), be integrated into (rather than added
onto) the teaching / learning process and would be
flexible, accounting for a nonlinear model of
progress.Itshouldalsobesystematic,clear,practical,
andaboveallmeaningfultothestudents.

Learning to Learn English1 has some good ideas for

doing this. It is a complete course involving a lot of
useful activities. For every skill, students are taken
throughaseriesofsevenstepsrangingfromHowdo
youfeel...,Howwellareyoudoing...toHowdo
youorganise....Unfortunatelythesystemprescribes
the criteria of assessment for the students, leaving
little room for teachers or students to assess
personalisedcriteria.Inanycase,itwasimpossiblefor
me to incorporate such a comprehensive system into

my classes. It was just too time consuming, more so

eventhanteacherassessment.
Continuing my search for the perfect selfassessment
andevaluationsystemIcameacrossanevaluationofa
published system called the Progress Profile used in
the teaching of adult literacy in England2. The
research found that the students definitions of
progress differed from those of their teachers. While
teachers viewed progress in terms of reaching
cognitive goals, their students expressed progress in
terms of attitude: feeling better, more confident.
Balliro (1989) (cited in Holland & Street) found that
whatstudentsreportasprogressandwhattheyciteas
evidenceismostlyintermsoftheaffectivepartofthe
curriculum,anareaneglectedbytraditionaltests3.
Accounting for this model of progress based on
student confidence the Nottingham research project
developeditsentireassessmentsystemhingingonthe
measurement of how students felt they were doing.
This of course needed heavy guidance from the
teacher. A more detailed account of the Nottingham
research project can be found in Holland & Street
(1994)pp229249.
ThePr ogr essPr ofile
Ihavetriedtoadapttheadultliteracy ProgressProfile
to the needs of ELT. The ELT Progress Profile
integrates systematic assessment, based on cognitive
andaffectivedevelopmentintotheteachingprocess.It
providesaclearandsystematicrecordofachievement
and progress, and encourages / trains learners to be
responsible for and interested in their learning. The
system sacrifices some reliability, validity and
objectivityforthesakeofteachertime,classtimeand
a flexible, nonlinear model of progress based on
confidence.Ithelpsbothteachersandstudentsdecide
onthenextstage(orcourse)inlearning/teachingand
has the advantage of highlighting trends of strengths
and weaknesses in the teaching process. Unlike the
Nottingham project it is not intended to replace the
traditional assessment procedures of tests and exams
(thisismainlyduetostudentexpectations),butrather
to complement them by providing the teacher and
student with hitherto unrecognised but equally
importantinformation.
The following notes are by no means intended to be
exhaustivenorprescriptive.Thesystemisdesignedto
beflexibleineveryrespectpartscanbechangedor
2

Ellis&Sinclair(1989)CambridgeUniversityPress.

HollandD.&StreetB.(1994)AssessingAdultLiteracyinBritain,
in:HillandParry(eds),From TestingtoAssessment:Englishasan
InternationalLanguage,Longman,pp229249
3
Ibid.

IvestartedbutIvestillgotalongwaytogo.

Imabouthalfwaythere.

Imalmostconfident.Imnearlythere.
Imconfidentaboutthisnow.
Appendix1

justtakenawaytosuittherequirementsofaparticular
course or teacher. Although the notes refer to using
the Progress Profile on an intensive course with
classes every day of the week, thereisnoreasonwhy
thismaterialcantbeadaptedslightlytobeusedover
a less intensive course. I would be very interested in
hearingfromanyoneexperimentingwiththesystem.
(It is hoped that the full set of notes and assessment
chartswillsoonbeavailablefromCentralDepartment
asaseminarpacked.)

1.Per sonalGoals
The students complete their Personal Goals Sheet on
the first day. The sheet can be a standard form or
personalised, written by the teacher or the students
(with some suggestions from the teacher), and the
systemofrecordingtheanswerscanbeasthatshown
inAppendix1.Theyneedtobeencouragedtorealistic
about where they are now and where they want to be
by the end of thecourse.Aseverystudentislearning
for a different reason this will affect the decision to
concentrate on particular areas. A good fluency
activity related to thiswouldbetoaskthestudentsto
prioritise each area and compromise together in a
pyramid discussion. The way of recording this
informationisverysimple:
As the nature of progress is nonlinear the students
shouldbepreparedtomoveupanddownthisscaleat
any time, so it is essential that the students complete
these parts in pencil. This system of r ecor ding is
usedthr oughoutthePr ogr essPr ofile.
2.TheStudyRecor d(Appendix2).
This is completed by each of the students and the
teacher at the end of every class by writing the
vocabulary group(s), pronunciation point(s) and
structure(s) they studied and shading the first boxfor
each.Theycanthenwritethetopicstheyhavecovered
forspeaking,listening,readingandwriting.Ifindita
10

very useful routine to end the class with. Then,ona

regularbasis,everyweekforexampleorafteratestor
a revision activity, the students are asked to think
about ow confident they are feeling about each
vocabulary group, structure, pronunciation point they
have studied and also each of the skills. They then
shadetheboxesaccordinglyusingtheabovekey.This
list provides a very useful list for revision purposes
and helps to make explicit, graphically and
immediately, all the things they have studied, all the
things they are confident in, and all the things they
need to work on. So if a student misses a class he or
shecanfindoutwhatsheorhemissedbyreferringto
someoneelsesStudyRecordbuts/hecantshadethe
firstboxuntils/hehasstudieditathome(!).Itisalso
helpful for student selfstudy, and for informing the
nextstepintheteachingprocess.
AquestionthatoftencomesupatthispointisWhat
does the teacher do if a students rates her or his
confidenceasafourbuttheteacherthinksitshouldbe
more like a two?. This can clearly be a problem for
the teacher. But doesnt this happen anyway, without
the Progress Profile? Students misunderstandings
canquiteeasilygoundetectedforsometime.Atleast
the Progress Profile highlights these discrepancies
early on giving the teacher plenty of warning, time
and information to help him/her make the right
decisionabouthowtodealwiththesituation.

3.ThePr ogr essReviews(Appendix3)

ThisisreallytheheartoftheProgressProfile.Thisis
themomentwhenthestudentshavetheopportunityto
see the valueofalltheseformstheyhavebeenfilling
in. The Progress Review sheet could be completed by
the students every Friday on an intensive course or
every month or term on an extensive course. I have
found that a lot of students find this activity very
difficult and need a lot of guidance until they get the
hang of it. They tend to need clarification of the
connectionbetweenwhattheyneedtoworkonand

StudyRecord

Name:

Inter nationalHouse

VocabularyGroups

Pronunciation

Listening
Speaking:Fluency
Accuracy

Writing
Reading

Appendix2

Structures
11

ProgressReview:

Name:

Week:

Inter nationalHouse

Whatdoyoufeelyouneedtowor konnextweek?

Whatar eyougoingtodoaboutit?
Imgoingto:
participatemoreingroupspeakingactivities
speakmoreinpairs
takeoutavideo
takeoutareader
gototheselfaccesscentreanddosomelisteningpractice
gototheselfaccesscentreanddosomepronunciationpractice
gototheselfaccesscentreandwatchavideo
gototheselfaccesscentreanddosomegrammarpractice
catchuponallthehomework
goandseeafilminEnglish
stayinthebarafterclassandreadamagazineoranewspaper
putupanadvertisementforaonetooneconversationclass
buyagooddictionary/grammarreferencebook
studywhatwevedonealready
meetupwithanotherstudenttopractisespeaking
Other?
Imgoingto
.........................................................................................................................................
.....
.........................................................................................................................................
.....
.........................................................................................................................................
.....
.........................................................................................................................................
.....
Student:...............................................Date:................................
Teacher:...............................................
Date:................................
12

Completed?YES/NO
Date:.....................

Signed:..................................

Appendix3

13

what they are going to do about it. For example it is

not uncommon for students to say that they want to
concentrate on their grammar but then say that the
only thing they are going to do about it is go and
watchafilminoriginalversion.Itisbesttotakethem
through this slowly using their Study records as a
guide to what they need to work on and, if possible,
completed in individual tutorials with the teacher.
They need to be encouraged to be as specific and as
realisticaspossible,asthiswillhelpmakeexplicitthe
concrete the steps they are making in the progress of
theirlearning.
The contract is then signed by the student and
witnessed by the teacher.Oneweeklaterthestudents
are asked if they have completed all the things they
saidtheyweregoingtodoandsignandcircleyesor
no.
It will probably need clarifying that while Course
Evaluation Sheets are about the teacher, the Progress
ReviewSheetsareaboutthestudents.
4.EndofCour seRepor t
Alsoattheendofthecoursethestudentsareaskedto
think about what they have done well on the course
and what they need to concentrate on in the next
course, again they should try to be as specific as
possible. The chart for this is a slightly adapted
version of the Progress Review (see appendix 3),
wherethesection:Whatdoyoufeelyouneedtowork
on next week is substituted with the two questions:
Whathaveyoudonewellinthiscourse?andWhat
do youfeelyouneedtoworkoninthenextcourse?.
Thisisbestcompletedinindividualtutorialswiththe
teacher using the information gathered in the Study
Record, Progress Reviews, Personal Goals sheets,
Confidence Charts, exam / test and compositions the
student has written.Thisroundsupthecoursewitha
sense of both achievement and direction for the
students, facilitating the transition into the next
course. I havefoundthatstudentswhoneedtorepeat
a course are completely aware of the fact that they
need to repeat and, more importantly, why they need
to repeat. The concept of failing or passing a
course seems to disappear and be replaced by a real
understandingofwhatitistheyneedtodotoimprove
theirEnglish.

LondonCalling!
(...tothefarawaytowns?)*
IfyouliveandworkintheCzechRepublic,Lithuania,
Poland, Romania, Russia or the Ukraine, you may
have already come across the latest in the BBC
WorldServicesELTprogrammes.Runninguntilthe
end of the school yearin1997,twonewprogrammes
areonoffer,broadcastinEnglishwithacommentary
14

in mother tongue. Both are designed for selfstudy,

with accompanying coursebooks, tapes, practice
books, etc. Materials are available from local
publishers,andthishashelpedkeeppricesdown.
English One to One, jointly written byAlanMcLean
and exIH hands, Richard Acklam and Sue
Mohammed, is a General English course starting at
Beginnerslevel.Thestorylinerevolvesaroundaradio
station and feeds in the usual menu of structure and
vocabulary through a series of communicative
activities. The package is very complete with radio
programmes, coursebook, grammar practice book,
readers, etc., giving students a range of options
accordingtotheirneedsandinterests.
Victors Venture (a.k.a . Viktoro sumanymas in
Lithuanian!) is a low level Business English course,
which also has a cast of heroes and villains who
managetocombineplansfortheParisBeijingrally
with a functional syllabus for teaching Business
English. Again, the language areas covered are all
that one might expect, with grammar presented in a
functional framework and the vocabulary
contextualisedwithinthestory.
Whatsinitforme,youmayask(or Kasmanisto?
if you come from Vilnius). Most obviously, here are
twopackagesofcontemporarymaterialtorecommend
toyourstudentswhoarekeenonselfstudy.However,
in the classroom, too, you may find that thematerial
in these packages will be a useful mine of ideas and
supplementary tasks. Because of the predictability of
thesyllabusinbothbooks,itiseasytofindyourway
around and select items that maybeofusetoyouas
alternativesorsupplementstoyourusualcoursebook.
ItmaybethatthematerialfromVictorsVenturewill
offeryouamorecommercialslantifyouhaveaclass
ofadultswhofindtheadolescenttopicsofmanylow
levelcoursebookshardtodigest.
The use of mother tongue in the teaching of foreign
languages seems again to be a matter of debate. In
the learning of foreign languages, students
preferences, at least when it comes to selfstudy, are
clear. These titleswillbeaverytemptingpackageto
your students, and possibly for you, too. My
conversational Lithuanian has come on leaps and
bounds.Ar yr aklausimu?

For more information about broadcast times and

wheretogetholdofmaterial,contact:
AnielaGrundy
BBCEnglish,BushHouse
POBox76,Strand,
LondonWC2B4PH
Tel.0171.257.8107
Fax.0171.257.8255

*Canyounamethattune?(ed.)

TE AMWORK
or How to be fulltime Directors of

Studies at IH and write a series of

coursebooksinyoursparetimebyDaves
Spencer &VaughanofIHSer r ano

Whendoyouneeditby?
This was the first question we put to the editor
of this Journal when he asked us for an article
about how we wrote (and are still writing)
Teamwork,aseriesofcoursebooksaimedatthe
12 16 age range (Beginners to Intermediate
levels). It suddenly made us realise that the
question When do you need it by? is as
fundamental to the ELT author as It doesnt
matter if you havent finished is to the ELT
teacher. Time is calculated, not in terms of
minutes or hours, but in terms of deadlines
deadlines for draft manuscripts and rewrites of
StudentsBooks,deadlinesfortheActivityBook,
Tests, tapescripts, summaries of talks at
conferences...andoccasionalarticlessuchasthis
one.
So, how do we find time tobefulltimeDOSes
and meet the deadlines? Good question. We
stilldontreallyknowbutwethinkitsmaybea
combination of basic hard work, patience,
teamwork (of course!), keeping calm under
pressure,andbeingslightlymad.Soundslikethe
lotofmostELTteachers,really.Buttheninour
case of course, the promise of fame and vast
amounts of money might also be important
factorsintheprocessasawhole.
In fact, now that half of the series is
commercially available, were already very
encouraged by the results. Teamwork 1 and
Teamwork 2 were launched 18 months ago and
are now being used in more than six thousand
SecondaryschoolshereinSpain.
AsforourworkhereatIHSerrano,wedliketo
think that the daytoday, fulltime contact we
continue to have with students, parents, and
teacherscomesacrossinthebookstoo.Howdo

wewriteandworkforIHfulltimetoo?Maybe
itsjustaquestionofenjoyingwhatwedo.
Anyway,havewemadethedeadline?!
The Teamwork series, published by
Heinemann,willsoonappearinternationally,
alongwithphotocopiableResourcePacksand
Teamwork Hits a tape withoriginalversion
popsongsandactivitiestogowiththem.
Other coursebooks for younger learners by IH
authorsinclude:Fountain1&2byRogerHunt
andJimLawley,publishedfirstbyHarperCollins
(1992), then by Nelson (1995) and currently by
Addison Wesley Longman it seems everyone
wantsabiteofthatcherry.
Also widely available is One World, by Tim
Priesack, Director of IH Torino, and Terry
Tomscha, exdirector of ITTI. This is a four
level course for 11 14 year old secondary
school learners published by Prentice
Hall/Phoenix (1991/2) with editions in both
BritishandAmerican.

PRACTICAL
IDEAS:
VOCABULARYBUILDING
FCESTYLE
s e e o p p o s i t e p a g e
Theyre great revealers those vocabulary building
exercisesyougetinCambridgeExambooksthesort
of thing that really sorts the sheep from ships, as it
were.But howmanyofthemcanyougetawaywith
doing in class, or even for homework, if your class
isntstudyingfortheexam?
Heres a simple idea from Trevor Udberg of IH
Newcastle. With a basic grid along these lines you
can help students record vocabulary more
systematicallyaswellexplorecollocationandshifting
stress. Vary things by having classroom grids
(blowingthemuptowallchartsizeandfillingthemin
over the duration of a course), or providing
15

personalizedonesforeachstudent,givingthemoutas
classworksheetsorforselfstudy.
Then theres the whole communicative angle, using
differentlyfilledingridsasinformationgapactivities.

Flexible and userfriendly, with possibilities for

extending into pron. work, as well as collocation
exercises,itswellworthtrying.

PRACTICAL IDEAS: The vocabular y building wor ksheetcumwallchar t fr om

Tr evor Udber g

verb

adjective

ofunwanted...carefully
ofthecorpse/body

noun

nappies

disposable

ofs/onesargumenteasily

camera

disposal

lighter/income
machinery

obsolete

method/approach

builtin........

obsolescence

planned

wayofthinking

invent

contribute

develop

anewmachine

player

aweird............

analibi

mind

abrilliant............

anexcuse

imagination

anew.................

asong

song/by........demand

mass................

s/oneelsesthoughts

person/teacher

astyleof.........

newspapers/decision

worldwide............

enormouslyto........

factor

amajor........

fundsto...........

causeofdeath

asubstantial........

toamagazine

negligence

afinancial............

afilm/symptoms

country

innercity............

economy

unexpected............

arundownarea

nation

latest............

intosociety

transportsystems

racial .............

exprisonersbackintosociety

circuit

social............

anargument

developed/ing

integrated

newprogrammes

popularity

shortlived............

school
freshness

longlasting

friendship

ofthe(elephant)

longevity

affair
casing
material

consumerdurables

durability

ofincredible............

peace

combine

replace

toformacoalition

assault

lock

aholidaywithbusiness

operation/effect

awinning........

(businesswithpleasure)

harvester

3possible.........(s)

onepartwithanother

tyres

parts

thebookontheshelf

parts

ourfileswithacomputer

temporary

aguestto....x

introduce

anewsystem
newguidelines
Xmasistoo......(ed)

commercial

vehicle

international...........

break

chamberof..................

success/venture

revolutionise
16

asystem

thinking

anonviolent.........

acountry

movement

abloody

aprocess
on waterinsummer

economic

totightenoutbelts
toscrimpandsave
afilm/play

technological...............

crisis/situation

ThirdWorld...........

structure/plan

economical
productive

200torchesaweek
theU.S.(...)alotofwheat

approach

produced

economics

short/longterm

car/method

home................

meeting

targets

workforce

mass.................

mass

over...............

THETROUBLEWITHDRILLS
Philip Kerr, Director of Studies at IH London, offers a new slant on thedebate
surrounding the use of drilling. Should such examples of behaviourist teaching
beburied?
My fourweek course prepared me well for
drills.Inanexampleofloopinputbeforethe
termwascoined,mygroupwasdrilledinthe
rudimentsofbeatingthestressanddirecting
controlledpractice.Bottomsin,chestsout
no slouching, young man negative
reinforcement was doled out in liberal
portions, until one day, something clicked in
T.P. and I learnt to conduct my marker
sentencewithconvictionandprecision.

Drills, however, have survived. Some of the

Direct Method Schools continue to flourish
(and not only because of their advertising
budgets) and the dominant model ofteaching
inCTEFLA/CELTAcoursesstillfindsaplace
for drilling in the initial practice (after
presentation) of lexis and structure,
particularly with lower level students. It is
often seen, too, as having a place in the
teaching of pronunciation. But these models,
too, are coming under sustained attack and
MyfirstjobwaswithaDirectMethodschool
the ghost of behaviourism has not yet been
inBrussels.Aoneweektrainingcourse
laid to rest. Drilling is often a stage in the
schooledmeinrepetition,substitution,
cycle of PresentationPracticeProduction
transformationandtheweavetechniques
(PPP) and it is the most
andIgraduatedtoayears
behaviourist
employmentofdrillingfrom Dir ect Method Schools overtly
stage
in
the cycle,
theMethod,occasionally
supplementedwithmaterials continue toflour ishand althoughthemodelinits
fromtheOralDrillsbook. the dominant model of entiretyremainsbasically
behaviourist:itseeksto
Itwasajob,butlittlemore,
teaching in CTEFLA/ shape the language
andonedayanother
produced by learners so
graduateoftheoneweek
CELTA
cour
ses
still
that it conforms to that
coursetookoverUnit15of
findsaplacefor dr illing demandedbytheteacher
theMethodfromwhereI
(Willis,1996:44).The
leftoffwhenIcouldtakeit
in the initial pr actice of model, as article after
nomore.
article in the ELT
lexisandstr uctur e
TheAudiolingualand
magazines point out, is
DirectMethodgotaverybadpressfrom
discredited: it reflects neither the nature of
somesectors.Premised,astheywere,on
language nor the nature of learning (Lewis,
behaviouristmodelsoflearning,theyhadlittle
1993:190)
hopeofsurvivingtherubbishingofSkinner.
If behaviourism is so discredited, should
Learningalanguagecametobeseenasmuch
drilling
techniques
be
jettisoned?
morethanasetof conditionedresponsesto
Notwithstanding the sustained assault,
stimuli,anderrorswereseenasanatural,
experiencesuggeststhecontrary.
fundamentalpartofthelanguagelearning
processtheyshouldnot,andindeedcould
For some learners in some contexts it seems
not,bedrilledoutofexistence.Whatplace,
to work. Many learnerslikeit,requestit,say
then,fordrillsinsuchaclimate?
theyneedit,andmystudentsinBrusselsmade
17

demonstrable improvements in learning the

language. It could be argued that this
progress was made despite my drilling, but
sinceIdidnothingelse,itseemsreasonableto
assumethatthedrillshadsomepositiveeffect.
If behaviourism cannot provide an
explanation, it must be possible to find an
alternativewayofdescribingwhattakesplace.
Parallel distributed processing (PDP) or
connectionist models of cognitive psychology
may provide a solution. In this model it is
suggested that the memory consists of a
network of simple processing units joined by
weighting connections. The weight of the
connections determines the degree to which
one unitactivatesorinhibitsanother.Wecan
visualise a particular unit functioning when it
receives input from a series of connecting
points. This will generate the activation of
output connections to other units, and the
processcontinuesactivatingotherconnections
in the network. In some ways the model is
similar to behaviourism (Gasser, 1990: 183)
but in the behaviourist model processing
actions take place one at a time in a linear
fashion.
Connectionist models refer to pattern
associations. A pattern associator, writes
Gasser (1990: 192) is a network which
learns to associate inputoutput pairs, where
each input or output consists of a pattern of
activationoverasetofinputoroutputunits.
Gasser gives as an example the way that
particular smells have a tendency to result in
particularvisualimages.Whenanetworkhas
been trained on a particular association of
patterns, inputs and outputs may become
closelylinked.Asthenumberofconnections
grows and the network develops, some
connections become redundant but the
relationship between inputs and outputs
remains more or less the same across the
networkasawhole.
Themodelisseductivebecauseitoffersaway
of understanding how the brain learns
grammatical (and other) rules, andhowthese
rules are represented neurally (as particular

18

configurations of patterns). Importantly, the

strength or weight of connectivity between
unitscanbeconstruedaslearnedassociations
(Sokolik,1990:688).
Thisbringsusbacktowhattakesplaceinthe
classroom: how can what we as teachers do
affect the development of neural networks?
Practitioners of NLP (neurolinguistic
programming)seektodevelopthesenetworks
bytappingintoandbuildingparticularpattern
associations. The techniques they use are a
farcryfromthoseofmydrillinstructoronthe
fourweekcourse,buttheintendedandactual
result is the same. Through repetition,
substitution and transformation, drills may
train the brian to build particular associations
that may work on syntactical, lexical and
phonologicallevels,aswellasontheaffective
domain.
Theprecisenatureoftheconnectionbetween
inputs and outputs will perhaps never be
understood: individual differences mean that
quantifiable, generalisable connections can
never be established. Given what we do not
know,andgivenwhatwemaybebeginningto
know, there seems no reason for the present
tofightshyofsayingrepeatafterme....

Gasser,M.1990
Connectionism
and
Universals of Second Language Acquisition
in Studies in Second Language Acquisition
12/2(pp.179199)
Lewis,M.1990
TheLexicalApproach
(LTP)
Sokolik,M.E.1990 Learning
without
rules: PDP and a resolution of the adult
language learning paradox, in TESOL
Quarterly24/4pp.685695)
Willis,D.1996
Accuracy, fluency and
conformity in Challenge and Change in
Language Teaching, eds. Willis & Willis
(Heinemann)

WHATSINANAME?
Jeremy Page, Director of Studies in IH London, compares the roles of
literatureandLiteratureintheclassroomandofferssomepracticalideas.
At International House London we recently changed the name of a onehour Special class from
Literature to Reading and Discussion. The result was remarkable. Or wholly predictable,
dependingonyourpointofview.Aclassthattraditionallyattractedlownumbersofstudentswas
transformed into one that students were falling over themselves to sign up for. Why? Surely the
onlyexplanationcouldbetheconnotationsoftheLword.Literature.Awordtostriketerrorinto
the hearts of language students everywhere (and not a small number of teachers). Literature:
difficult, intractable, unfathomable, uninspiring, boring. Milton, Browning, Tennyson Blake and
Shakespeareifyouwereverylucky.Literatureneededanewimage.Wegaveitanewname,and
thatseemedtodothetrick.
Sowhyuseliteratureinthelanguageclassroom?Theusualcasehasbeenmadeoftenenoughnot
toneedrepetitionhere.Butitseemstomethatthe1990sareprovingtobeaveryexcitingtimefor
Englishliterature,particularlyintherealmofpoetry,whichinmanywayslendsitselftoclassroom
exploitation more readily than the novel or fulllength plays. Vast quantities of poetry are being
written in the idiom of today. Some of it is bad, much of it is very good, but in many ways the
sheer volume is the problem. How many hardpressed language teachers have time to trawl
throughthemassofpublicationsthatteemrelentlesslyfromthepresses?Notmany,Iwouldguess,
andthedifficultyiscompoundedifyoureteachinginLvivorTimisoaraorMinsk.
SoIllstartwithafewnamesandthensuggestafewwaysinwhichonecontemporarypoemmight
effectivelybeexploitedinthelanguageclassroom.
SimonArmitage,EleanorBrown,SophieHannah,KitWright,WendyCopeandoldfavouriteslike
Roger McGough and Brian Patten all seem to me to be writers whose work offers infinite
possibilitiesforclassroomuse.Ofcourse,theirpoetrycanbeusedforthedevelopmentofvarious
reading skills, but I think anequallyvalidandpotentiallymorevaluableuseisforwhatmightbe
termedlexicalenrichment.Forexample,thefollowingpoembySophieHannahlendsitselfvery
sweetlytosomefairlyintensiveworkoncollocationwithanadvancedclass:
Symptoms
Althoughyouhavegivenmeastomachupset,
weakknees,alurchingheart,afuzzybrain,
ahighpitchedlaugh,amonumentalphonebill,
afeelingofunworthiness,sharppain
whenyouaresomewhereelse,aguiltyconscience,
alonging,andadreadofwhatsinstore,
apulseratefortheGuinnessBookofRecords
lifenowisbetterthanitwasbefore.
Althoughyouhavegivenmearagingtemper,
insomnia,arisingsenseofpanic,
ahopelesschallenge,boutsofintrospection,
raw,bittennails,avoicethatsstrangelymanic,
aselfishstreak,afearofisolation,
asillysmile,lipsthatarechappedandsore,
arunningjoke,arisk,aninspiration
lifenowisbetterthanitwasbefore.
19

Althoughyouhavegivenmeapremonition,
chatteringteeth,agoal,alottolose,
agrantedwish,mixedmotives,superstitions,
hangupsandheadaches,fearofawfulnews,
abubbleinmythroat,adaretoswallow,
acrackoflightunderaclosingdoor,
thecrude,fantasticprospectofforever
lifenowisbetterthanitwasbefore.
SophieHannah

Ibeginbywritingaglobalcomprehensiontaskontheboard:Whichofthesethreestatementsbest
summarisesthemessageofthepoem?
1. Youmakemeanxious,nervousandmiserable.
2. Lifewithyouislesspainfulthanlifewithoutyou.
3. IwashappyuntilImetyou.
I then read the text aloud, after which the students discuss what the poet is saying. Having
establishedthis,Ihandoutavocabularymatchingtaskconsistingofvariouscollocationsfromthe
poeme.g.

chatteringknees
chappedandsoreheart
rawandbittenbrain
fuzzynails
lurchinglips
weakteeth

In pairs or groups the students explore possible

collocationswiththeaimofarrivingatthoseusedin
thepoem.Thetaskcan,ofcourse,bemademoreor
less easy depending on the level of the class. I then
read the poem aloud again and they check their
answersagainstthetext.
At this point I finally allow the students to see the
poem, reading it aloud for a third time while they
simultaneouslyreadandlisten.

I then hand out a vocabulary task which requires the deduction of meaning from context, for
examplethequestion:
Ifyouhavealurchingheart,youare...
a)extremelymiserable

b)inastateofnervousexcitement.

Withaweakerclassitmaybeadvisabletoallowtheuseofmonolingualdictionariesatthisstage.
Finally I give the students the opportunity to practise the language they have been exploring by
handingoutapicturestoryonaromantictheme.Photolovestorieswiththewordstippexedout
are ideal for this purpose (and are, in any case, highly entertaining in their own right). A post
fluencyfeedbackandcorrectionslotallowstheteachertoreview,consolidateandclarify.
None of this in itself, of course, is especially innovativeorradical.Itissimplytheapplicationof
tried and trusted techniques and approaches to a different kind of material. In my experience
studentsenjoyit,finditstimulatingandappreciatetheopportunitytoexplorecontemporarytexts
and,atthesametime,enrichtheirvocabulary.
Onetip:dontmentionLiterature.Wementioneditonce,butwethinkwegotawaywithit.

20

Computer GamesinLanguageLear ning

or F indinganExcuseforPuerilePastimes
InwhichDaveTucker,ofIHCoimbra,suggestsawayofcombiningoneofhisown
tediouspastimeswithsolidclassroompracticeandendswithanalluringplea.
As DOS of a school of approximately 1300
students, a fair proportion of my time is spent
having artificial and stilted conversations with
new students.Theseconversations,beingthus
frequent, have called for their own addition to
the plethora of jargon which litters the ELT
playground,soovertheyearstheyhavebecome
known as Placement Tests. Placement Tests
follow patterns which would baffle your
average discourse analyst the most obviously
lacking feature being coherence. A typical
extract from a Placement Test may be as
follows:
DOS: So, Ana, have you got any brothers or
sisters?
Ana: Yes, Ive got two brothers and a sister
theyreallolderthanme.
DOS: (Thinks: Whoa!Impitchingthisabit
low.Letshitchupthelevelabit) Isee
...andwhatdidyoudoforyourholiday
thissummer?
Ana: Oh,thesameasusualwewenttothe
beach for a week, and then we stayed
atmy grandparents house in the
country.
DOS: (Thinks:
Whoa! Past tenses no

problem! Time to hit her with a

conditional question ...) I see ... So if
you could choose any job you wanted,
whatwouldyoumostliketodo?
Ana: I liked to be (DOS scribbles furiously)
acomputerprogrammer.
At this point sly grin creeps across the DOSs
faceasherealisesheisonthevergeoffindinga
topic of conversation which will not only
remain coherent and cohesive but which can
also bring in all the structural areas under the
sun, from present simple to past perfect, from
pastpassivetoembeddedquestions.Thistopic
is, of course, Talking About Computer
Games.

I first became aware of the huge potential of

TalkingAboutComputerGamesinELTwhen,
thirsty for new materials to explore in my
classroom, I went out and bought myself a
Gameboy. Disappointed by the paucity of the
language I was able to glean from the game
Tetris which came with the machine (block,
drop,shit!,GameOver ),Ipushedmyselfinthe
new areas and made a career investment in
Super Mario and the Six Golden Coins. As I
was thumbing idly through the instruction
manual, a voice started calling in my head:
Dave! Dave! it said, this is the real world
calling, it wasnt the real world, it was the
ELT world, but thats as close as I get most
daysjustlookattheseinstructions!Theyre
nearlyallusingfirstconditional!Andslapme
if it wasnt true! Just get a load of these
examples:
If Mario finds a mushroom, he will turn
intoSuperMario!
If Mario finds a fire flower, he will turn
intoFireMario!
If Mario catches a star, he will become
InvincibleMario!
Even if you jump on the SkeletonBee,it
willcomebacktolife.
IfMariojumpsonthisowlshead,itwill
wakeupandgivehimalift.
Be careful! The bubble will burst if you
touchthewater!
IfyoufindallsixGoldenCoins,thecastle
doorwillopen.
I used these (slightly adapted) examples for
controlled practice with my preintermediate
group,alongwiththepicturesattheendofthe
article,andIhad,foronce,theraptattentionof
the hormonepowered noise machines that
made up my Junior 4s. For homework they
wentawayandinventedanothergame(byclass

21

consensusitwastobecalledMarioinBanana
Land which gave no end of possibilities for
innuendoes involving sitting on bananas etc.)
and came back with reams of incredibly
complicated rules, but all using exactly the
targetlanguage.
Thisisonlyonelanguagearea,butitstartedme
thinking on how to squeeze other highly
contrived, but intrinsically fascinating language
practice activities out of computer games.
Along with Matthew Barnard (DOS of IH
London and Editor of this Journal) I am
founder member of the Sad Obsessive
DegeneratesSociety,allofwhosemembersare
addicted to a particularly vicious game called
Fury of the Furries. Let me talk you through
theaimsofthegames:
A spaceship containing a number of fluffy
beings called furries has crashed on an
alien planet. One of their number has
beenkidnappedbyabigbadfurry,andso
his chums (or possibly her chums its
difficult to tell) have to traverse various
hostileenvironmentstosecuretherelease
of said furry. The chums are different
colours,andhavedifferenttalents:yellow
furry can throw fireballs, blue furry can
swim, red furry can chomp through rock
andgreenfurrycanswingfromtheceiling
on a rope. Only when youve been
through 10 levels of 9 different
environments can you release the poor
captive chum from the clutches of the big
badfurry.
NowIamgoingtocraveyourbeliefinthefact
that I wrote this without any planning (true!),
and look back at what structural areas were
involved. Weve got present perfect, passive,
obligation, infinitive of purpose, modal verbs
and inversion. With a little deviousness, you
could expand each of these areas to provide
practice on discrete language areas, or in line
with a multifunctional whole, why not chuck
thewholethingatthem,usingitasadictogloss,
gapfill, or consciousnessraising exercise,
focusing on a relatively simple task, while
providing the students with exposure to a
whole glut of bits and pieces, which some
would have us believe, the students will notice
and take on board without having them
22

formally presented. No vast leaps forward in

ELTmethodologyhere,admittedly,butIfirmly
believeinthepowerofcomputergamestohold
theattention,oratleastsparktheenthusiasmof
groups of Younger Learners, when other
situational presentations disappear in a welter
ofarmpitfarts.
Ofcourse,themainaimofthisarticleisnotto
promote consciousness raising as a pattern for
classroom study. Nor is it, to be perfectly
honest,toexpoundtheadaptabilityofcomputer
gamelanguageinourlessons.Itis,ofcourse,
totrytorecruitmoreSODsfortheSociety,as
Im stuck on level 3 of The Machine, and I
cantgetpastthefloatingskullthatspitsgreen
slimeballsatme.Pleasehelp.

THEADVENTOF CELTA
WendyColeby,DirectorofStudiesforTeacherTrainingatIHLondon,shedslight
ontherevisionstotheRSA/Cambridgepreservicetrainingcourse
October 30 1996 heralded the formal
launch of CELTA, the revised
CTEFLA course. For IH London and
many other teacher training centres
around the world, this was the
culmination of one of the most
extensive consultation exercises ever
devised within the ELT profession,
involving manycentresandindividual
trainers in intensive piloting and
feedbackonallaspectsofthesyllabus
and assessment over a number of
years. The result: a course which
trulydoesseemtoreflectandextend
the best of current practice and to
respond to the perceived needs of
centres, employers, candidates and
ELT professionals internationally
(Syllabus & Assessment Guidelines
forCourseTutorsOctober1996).
Thelaunchwasmarkedbyadinnerin
EmmanuelCollege,Cambridge,where
a select numberofthosemostclosely
involved in the project were able to
meet,breatheacollectivesighofrelief
and anticipate the next stages of the
CILTS scheme, of which CELTA
forms only one part (c.f. CELTYL,
CTFA, CTGA, CTIA, CTSA,
DELTA, to name but a few of the
prolificacronymstowhichCILTShas
given rise). Needless to say, IH
London had a strong presence at the
dinner, marking our significant
involvement with theCELTAproject.
This involvement will of course
continue,notonlythroughourrunning

of courses, but also through future

reviewing.
In preparation for the running of IH
Londons own first CELTA course,
which starts on 25 November, we
have revised all our course
documentation and have begun to
integrate
course
materials
systematically into a computerized
teacher training materials bank, the
latterbeingalongtermprojectforall
ourteachertrainingcoursesthiswill
no doubt see us well into the
millenium! We are also holding a
seriesofCELTABriefingMeetingsto
ensure all our trainers are fully
informed and comfortable about
running the new course. Although
many facets of CTEFLA are carried
through into CELTA, there are a
numberoflargerandsmaller,butstill
highlysignificantchangesthatallofus
need to be aware of to ensure the
effective running of CELTA courses.
OneoftheactivitiesthatIdevisedand
have used at the Briefing Meetings is
the CELTA Quiz: our collective
knowledgewhenworkingthroughthis
had some surprising gaps, which
highlighted usefully and in timely
fashiontheneedforregularupdating
and checking of trainers knowledge.
A modified version of this quiz
appears below for you to try. How
much do you know about CELTA?
Answers will be given in the next
editionoftheIHJournal.

23

T H E C E L T A Q U I Z
1. Whattwonewpiecesofinformationmustyougivetocandidatesatthestartofthecourse?
Wherecanyoufindthesepiecesofinformation?
2. WhatistheCELTACandidateprofile?
3. WhatistheUCLESdesignedrecordsheet?Howisitused?
4. Whoisresponsibleforkeepingalltheevidencesupportingthefinalassessment?Whatdoes
thisevidenceconsistofandhowlongshoulditbekept?
5. WhataretheFwordandtheBword?Whoshouldusethem?
6. Whatkindofrecordshouldbekeptoftutorials?
7. WhatattendancerequirementissetbyCambridge/RSA?
8. HowmanyhoursofTPmusteachcandidatedo?
9. Howmanyhoursofobservationofclassesintheschoolmusteachcandidatedo?
10.Whatistherequiredminimumtotalnumberofcoursehours?
11.HowwilltheAssessorsrolechange?Whenwillthechangesbeintroducedandthenewrole
implemented?
12.ForwhatreasonmustyoucontactyourAssessorattheendofyourcourse?Whendoyou
arrangethis?
13.Whatchangesarehappeningwithregardtoselectionprocedures?
14.HowmanytopicsareasdoestheCELTAsyllabusinclude?Whatarethey?
15.HowdothesedifferfromtheformerCTEFLA?
16.Howmanywrittenassignmentsmustyouset?Onwhattopics?
17.Candidatesarenowallowedtoresubmitwrittenassignments.Whatdoesthismean?
18.WhatdoesSLPstandfor?
19.WhatdoesLAstandfor?
20.Whatisfinalgradingbasedon?

24

TEACHERTRAININGCONFERENCE:

TEACHER THINKING
TeacherThinkingseemstomeanslightlydifferentthingstodifferentpeople.Whatever
you take it to mean, as dedicated professionals in the world of ELT it does seem to be
fairlycentraltowhatwedo,whichiswhywehavedecidedthatshouldbethetitleand
themeofthenextIHLondonTeacherTrainingconference.Soifyouwanttoknowwhat
othersthink,orifyoudliketoletothersknowwhatyouthinkcomealong!
TheconferencedatesareFebruary28th,March1st&2nd(thatisFridayevening,allday
Saturday and Sunday morning) and any number of luminaries from the world of ELT
have already offered talks. If you havent already offered to talk yourself, there is still
some time to submit a proposal as we are very interested in having speakers from IH
schoolsaroundtheworld.
Ther eisnofeefor IHteacher s/teacher tr ainer s,ofcourse,butifyouhavefriendsor
colleagueswhomightliketoattend,thefeeis95.00,andthatincludesabuffetsupper
onFridayandlunchonSaturday.
Ifyouwouldlikeanymor einfor mationcontactRoger HuntatIHLondon.

INTERNATIONALHOUSETEACHERTRAINING
CONFERENCE
Inter nationalHouseispleasedtoannouncethefor thcoming
Teacher Tr ainingConfer ence:TEACHER THINKING
Dates:
Cost:
Venue:

28February,1&2March1997
95.00
InternationalHouseLondon
106Piccadilly
LondonW1V9FL

Contact:
Tel.:
Fax:
email:

RogerHunt
00441714912598
00441714950689
100733.511@compuserve.com

25

THERSA/CAMBRIDGECERTIFICATECOURSE
INENGLISHLANGUAGETEACHINGFOUNDTO
BE COMPARABLE TO SIX SEMESTER HOURS
STUDYINTESOLATGRADUATELEVEL
PONSIandRegentsCollegeoftheStateUniversityofNewYorkProvideA
MechanismforAwardingTESOLGraduateCreditstoCESCELTAHolders.
NewYorkNovember5,1996TheNationalProgramonNoncollegiateSponsoredInstruction
(PONSI)oftheBoardofRegentsoftheStateUniversityofNewYorkhasfoundtheRSA/
CambridgeCertificateCourseinEnglishLanguageTeaching(CELTA)asgivenattheCenterfor
EnglishStudies/InternationalHousetobecomparabletothecompletionofsixgraduatecreditsin
TESOL.
AnevaluationofthecoursethatincludedasitevisitwasconductedbyaPONSIpanelofthree
TESOLprofessionalsMiriamEisensteinEbsworth,CoordinatoroftheDoctoralTESOL
programatNewYorkUniversityMihriNapoliello,CoordinatoroftheMulticulturalCenterof
JerseyCityCollegeandKamalSridhar,AssociateProfessorofLinguisticsandESLDirectoratthe
StateUniversityofNewYorkatStonybrook.
CertificateholderswhohavetakentheCELTAcourseattheCEScanreceiveatranscriptforthe
creditsfromtheRegentsCollegeoftheUniversityofStateofNewYork.Thecredit
recommendationisretroactivetoJanuary1,1995.
Theevaluationofthecourseasworthyof6graduatecreditsinTESOLhasgiventheCELTAthe
recognitionitdeserves,declaredBruceSharpe,DirectorofTeacherTrainingandVicePresident
oftheCenterfromEnglishStudies.ThoughtheCertificatehaslongbeenrecognisedabroadasa
basicqualificationforteachingEFL/ESL,itisrelativelynewtothiscountry.Itoffersaviable
alternativetothosewhowishtofocusimmediatelyonthecraftofteachingtobefollowedby
employmentinalanguageschoolorhereorabroad.
Thecourseisgivenatcentersallovertheworld,Sharpewentontosay.Forthemoment,the
creditrecommendationhasbeenlimitedtothecourseasgivenatTheCenterforEnglishStudies.
ButIamsurethatothercentersgivingthecourse,especiallythoseinTheUnitedStates,willsoon
calluponPONSIforanevaluationoftheircourses.
TheCenterForEnglishStudieswasfoundedin1980toteachEnglishtospeakersof other
languages.ItwasaffiliatedtoInternationalHousein1987.Eachyear,over2100studentsfrom
numerousforeigncountriesstudyEnglishatitsschoolsinNewYork,SanFrancisco,andFt.
Lauderdale,Florida.TheCELTAcoursesgiveninNewYorkCitytrainabout120teacherseach
year.
Forfurtherinformation,contact:
BruceSharpe
TheCenterForEnglishStudiesNewYork
Tel2126297300
26

TheIr on,theWhichandtheWar dr obe

Roger Hunt, Director of Studies for Teacher Training at IH London, questions
whatcoursebookswouldhaveusteachandmakesapleaformorereallanguage
intheclassroom
When was the last time you went up to a
friend,anacquaintance,orsomeoneyouhardly
knew and said: Excuseme,whattimedoyou

get up? What time do you brush your teeth?

Have you got a wardrobe? Where is your
wardrobe? My wardrobe is next to the
window!
Perhaps,likeme,youhaveneverdoneso.And
yet a good many of us ask our students to
indulge in such questioning, validating our
behaviour by saying that we are creating an
information gap, a reason to communicate
letsfaceit,Ireallydontknowwhattimeyou
brush your teeth, whether or not you have a
wardrobe and, if so, where it is. All well and
good,butitdoesrathersmackofthemytailor
is rich, the monkeys in the tree, and my
mothersinthekitchensyndrome,doesntit?
SyllabusandMethodology
Suchamethodologicalconsiderationdoesnot,
in my opinion, excuse a syllabus selection
destined for nowhere. The aforementioned
language points are usually inflicted on
Beginners (Present Simple for daily routine,
have got, furniture lexis etc.). But why? To
takeanotherexample,whenwouldaBeginner
ever need to say I like your, shortsleeved,

bluechecked shirt which is made out of

cotton?ButperhapsIamgoingtoofarhere,
after all, the relative clause at theendismore
likely to be tagged on at Elementary or Pre
Intermediatelevels,whichbeingsuchatricky
wordasweallknow!
Syllabusandcommunication
IHschoolsusuallyclaimtoteachlanguagefor
communication. They also usually follow
coursebooks rather than a syllabus. Daily
routines and wardrobes are invariably present
in coursebooks but I fail to see how they
facilitate communication. The word went, on
theotherhand,isquiteadifferentmatter.Went

typically does not appear until somewhere

between units 9 12 in most Beginners
coursebooks. Yet can you imagine getting
through a day in English without using the
word went? Surely even a Beginner could be
expected to answer the questionDoanything
last night? along the lines of Yes I went to
the cinema / a restaurant / for a drink /
swimming/toJanes...
Why is it then that went, if it is so frequently
used, comes so late in the usual coursebook
syllabus? Some would argue that you cant
havewentbeforeyouvegotgo,butsurelyitis
perfectly simple to understand one without
knowingtheotherinthesamewayasonecan
understand (and respond to) Hi! without
knowingHello!.Thereseemstometobeno
justification in the argument that you cannot
have an irregular past form beforeyouvehad
the infinitive, yet this false assumption
pervades any number of commonly taught
languagepoints.
Rationale
My point here is to question the rationale (or
apparentlackofit),behindsyllabusselection
why we teach what we teachwhywechoose
to teach at very low levels such
communicatively useless items. In many low
level coursebooks I have seen lexical items
suchasarmchair,sofa,chair,parkbench,stool
and evenchurchpew.Ifweeverneedaword
to describe something to sit on, it is usually
seat as in: Have a seat (c.f. Have an
armchair!) or Is this seat free? (c.f. Is this
sofa free?), Your seat is at the back of the
planeontherightorWouldyoulikeanaisle
orawindowseat?etc.
There issoundrationaleforchoosingtoteach
seattoourstudentsithaswidecoverage(i.e.
lots of things are seats) and occurs frequently
in natural discourse. However, it does not
seem to get much of a look in in most
27

coursebooks, the writers/editors of which

persistwithsofas,armchairsandthelike,even
though the only advantage in doing so is
because they facilitate the likes of: Wheres
the cat? Under the sofa/on the armchair
etc.Imustadmit,thecatisundertheseatis
communicativelyabitvague.
Buildingblocksandlexicaldialogues
Ifweareteachinglanguageforcommunication
we need to teach language that is
communicative. In my opinion, the argument
that wehavetoestablishasoundgrammatical
basis first simply does not hold water in this
instance. Compared to many other languages
English is essentially lexical, and it is quite
effective without any grammar at all but with
wordsalone.Considerthefollowingdialogue
between a native speaker (NS) and a student
(S). Key words, those which are normally
stressedinspeechbynativespeakers,appearin
boldinthenativespeakersutterances:
NS:
S:
NS:
S:
NS:
S:
NS:
S:
NS:
S:
NS:

Hello.YourenotEnglish,areyou?
No.Brazilian.You?
Yes, Im English. Where are you
from inBrazil?
Recife.
Oh! Wheresthat?
NorthEast.Beautifulbeaches!
Really! And what do you do in
Recife?
Doctor.You?
Oh Im an English teacher. Would
youlikeacigarette?
Nothanks.umm....doctor!
Oh!Yes,ofcourse. Sorry!

If you now eliminate all parts of the NS

utterances not in bold you will find the
dialogue is still perfectly understandable.
Communication is effected by key words, not
grammaticalitems.
In my own teaching at low levels I begin by
putting my students in situations in a

Q&A

WELCOM
E

28

restaurant, at the doctors, inviting someone

out, asking for directions, talking about
last/next weekend etc. and asking them to
have lexical dialogues. I help out with any
essentialvocabularyandwetapethedialogues,
thenpadthemout,asitwere,addinggrammar
and functional exponents. In other words we
dothecommunicatingfirstthenconcentrateon
improving the linguistic aspect of what was
communicated.(PeterSkehancallsthissortof
thing
lexicalisation
followed
by
grammaticalisation
ie:
words
and
communicationfirstthengrammar.)
Conclusion
Books on lexical approaches to ELT are
gaininginabundance,butsofartheyhavenot
been particularly influential with regard to
what we teach (syllabus) and how we teachit
(approach/methods).Thesituationremainsthat
materials are more concerned with the
grammatical (the cat which is under the
table...), and the easy to label/teach (the iron,
sandwich toaster and washing machine, the
wardrobe and church pew), rather than the
communicativelyuseful.Imnotadvocatinga
MeTarzan,youJaneapproach,asshouldbe
apparent by the grammaticalisation of the
lexical dialogues I suggested earlier. I am
suggesting that if we claim to teach language
for communicative purposes we need to
reconsider an awful lot of what we find in
coursebooks that consequently represents an
awful lot of what goes on in an awful lot of
classrooms.
Footnote
Communicating in speech involves speaking
andlistening.AgreatdealofwhatIhavebeen
talkingabouthereisveryboundupwithwork
on listening skills, as effective listening means
being able to identify key (stressed) lexis
withindiscourse.Ihopetoaddressthisinthe
nexteditionoftheIHJournal.

totheallnew
Questions&Answers

column a space for you to air all those knotty

issues that have been worrying you for years.
Dont suffer alone: who knows, maybe theyve
beenbuggingsomeoneelse,too.Perhapssomeone
elseout therehas ananswerforyou.Answersin
whatever
form,
(witty,
knowledgeable,
loquacious, even correct) will all be gratefully
received, as will any further questions. Please
send all of them to The Editors, International
House Journal of Education and Development,
c/o International House London. Sadly the
committee here did not have time to suggest
answers to all of the following questions, so if
you have a clue, or you disagree with those
already submitted, drop us a linebeforethenext
edition.

If it in: She bought a cat and took it

home is an anaphoric reference
referringtocat,whatarethetwoitsin
Its a nice day today, isnt it?
Presumably a cataphoric and an anaphoric
referencereferringtotoday.JustastheitinIts
raining must be an exophoric reference to the
clouds,orrather,thecloud,becauseitssingular.
SusanS.

DearSusan,
With the possible exception of those
commonly found in steam rooms,
cloudsarealwaysoutsidesotherefore
anyitreferringtotheminatextmustclearlybe
exophoric. Your confusion over the singularly
pluralaspectdoesremain,however.
JeffryL.

Why is it that in British English we

doubletheLintravelledandrebelled,
whilst in American English the L is
doubled in rebelled but not in

Q
traveled?

Archibald,SanFr ancisco

YoumayaswellaskwhyAmericansspell
colour, honour and mum incorrectly.
Rephrasethequestion.
JohnM.

syllable always doubles thefinalconsonante.g.

begin beginning refer referred. Uncle Sam
adheres to this rule relgiously, whereas, being
quirky,Tommydoesnot.
Randolf
Whyisitthatthefirstthatinshesaid
that she couldnt go that day is
unstressed, whereas the second is
(stressedthatis)?
Tense,IHMoscow(Diplomastudent)

DearTense,
The first that is a relative pronoun,
and as such adds nothing to
communicatedmeaninginthiscontext.
The second that is a demonstrative and is
essential to communicative meaning in as much
as it differentiates day from today, yesterday,
Saturday, Sunday etc.. As with all words which
contribute to communicative meaning, it is
thereforestressedtoadegree.Youmightliketo
think about other purely grammatical words
which are generally unstressed for similar
reasons.(Ornoted)
MichaelS.

Whyistheefromcourageretainedin
courageous,but not theefromfame
in famous?
Anxieous,IHNewcastle

Q
Q

I recently completed my CTEFLA

course and one of the things I was
always being picked up on was
drilling I never seemed to do enough.
Two weeks ago Iwas observedbymyDOSand
she said that I was going way over the top, that
drillingwasoldhatandawasteoftime.WhodoI
believetrainerorDOS?
B.Decker,Poland

DearB,
Lets face it, if they dont get you for
one thing, theyll get you for another.
Have a look at Philip Kerrs article
The Trouble with Drills elsewhere in this
edition of The Journal. Maybe that will shed
somelight.Meantimekeepbeatingthestress!

DearArchibald,
As a general rule, a two syllable verb
which is stressed on the first syllable
does not double a final consonant e.g.
visit visited open opened, whereas a two
syllable word which is stressed on the second
29

LEARNERCULTURE,LEARNERSTYLES
In this article J ohnCutler,ofIHLondonExecutiveCentre,definesavarietyof
learningstylesandlooksatthelinksbetweennationalityandlearningstyle
AsIpreparemyprogrammesforourshortintensiveBusinessEnglishgroupsIamalwaysintenselyawarethatfew
of our Executive students enter the centre free of expectations astowhatandhowtheywilllearn.AsaBusiness
English trainer I also, consciously or unconsciously, have my own expectations and beliefs about the utility and
relevance of the materialIuseandthetrainingtechniquesIfavour.Yetwheredotheseexpectationscomefrom?
Moreimportantly,howcanIpredictifthestudentswillfeelcomfortablewith,andlearnfrom,myfavouredmaterial
andteachingmethods?
We are trained to think of learning as a universal
process in which everyone can benefit from our role
plays, our books and our grammar tables. Yet a
momentsreflectiontellsusthatnotallofourstudents
takeadvantageofeveryactivityweundertake.Isthere
a teacher who has failed to see two learners, matched
forage,intelligenceandneedemergefromaclasswith
very different feelings?Thefirstappearsenthusiastic,
well able to articulate and implement what has been
learnt. The second unhappy and convinced the class
has been worthless. The next day with different
material and a different approach the roles are
reversed.
In trying to explain why this phenomenon occurs we
oftenclassifyindividualsasbelongingtosomeorother
grouporcategoryofperson.Wesaythatanindividual
is extrovert or introvert, confident or lessselfassured.
Trainers and teachers working from a background in
NLP or Experiential Learning will attribute an
individual with a particular learning style which tries
toexplainwhythelearnerbenefitsfromsomeactivities
andnotothers.Thesestylestellusabouttheparticular
ways in which a student likes to learn. Underpinning
theassumptionsofpersonalityandlearningistheidea
thateveryindividual,regardlessofhisorherorigin,is
equally likely to demonstrate one or other preference.
In other words we assume the same mixture of
personality types or of learning styles will exist in a
groupcontainingRussians,Spaniards,Japaneseorany
othermixtureofnationalities.
I thinkmosteducationprofessionalswouldacceptthat
each individual client brings with him/her an
experience of learning that owes much to his/her
differing cultural origins. And yet consciously or
unconsciously we act as if the way in which an
individuallearnsdoesnotchangepredictablyfromone
countrytoanother.
In an attempt to examine the validity of this
hypothesis, I have tested the learning styles of 194
students from 17 countries attending short intensive
General or Business English courses at the Executive
Centre. The test consisted of a Learning Styles
Questionnaire (LSQ) designed by Peter Honey and
Alan Mumford, Management Development
Consultants working in this field. TheLSQdrawson
30

the Experiential Learning (ExL) model of human

learning, adaptationanddevelopment,whichhasbeen
hugely influential in the areas ofAdultEducationand
ManagementTrainingandDevelopment.Experiential
Learning theory, most powerfully described by David
Kolb, has its origins in the UnitedStatesinthe1970s
and has as a central metaphor a view of man as a
scientific inquirer, constructing and testing a unique
setofchangingbeliefsabouttheworldaroundhim.
InKolb'smodeltheprocessbywhichlearningoccursis
described as a 'learning cycle', or perhaps more
appropriately as a neverending spiral in which one
learningcyclefollowsanother.Anidealisedpictureof
a learning cycle contains four stages. Firstly we
receivethroughoursensesaconcreteexperienceofthe
world around us. By its very nature, this concrete
experience is personal and intimate and not open to
description or classification. At the next stage in the
cycle we reflect internally on this experience, observe
and review it from a number of angles. We listen to
other peoples opinions or imagine what others might
say about it. This reflection is disconnected from the
external world and consists wholly of internal events.
Next we draw conclusions, tentative at first, but then
firmer as we attempt to integrate our new experience
into what we already know. At this theoretical stage
ourknowledgeisnotintimatebutanalytic,abstractand
conceptual.Wecandescribeandelucidateamodelof
whattheexperiencemeansintermsofwhatwealready
know. Finally we plan how to try our new modified
theories out in practice. In planning and
experimenting on the external world we ask ourselves
ifthetheoryworksinrealityandisusefulorhelpful.
Itisthissamemodelthatunderliesactionresearch,the
process of scientific inquiry, creativity, decision
making and problem solving. However, research has
shown that we do not all favour all parts of this cycle
equally. Instead we have developed over our years in
education and at work the tendency to focus on or
prefer one or more parts of this cycle to thedetriment
of others. It is these preferences knowledge as
abstract conceptualisation or concrete experience, and
thetransformationofsuchknowledgethroughinternal
reflective
observation
or
external
active
experimentation that we can call ourlearningstyles.
So how can we classify and measure learning styles?

TheLSQprovidesascoreoftheextenttowhichany

31

individual favours a particular stage of the cycle and

describes the characteristics ofeachstyle.Asyouread
thedescriptionsyoumaywishtoconsiderwhatkindof
style(s) best describes you both as a learner and a
teacher.

scale do best in structured learning activities with a

clear purpose and context where they can explore the
associations between language and situations in a
logical methodical way. They like to know what they
are doing, why they are doing it and exactly how it
connects with what you did in class
yesterday. What is important for them is
that language fits together well, everything
explicable and in order. People who hate
intuition, insist on understanding every
word in a listening exercise, jump to
conclusions, and feel uncomfortable with
anything ambiguous probably score highly
on this scale.Asindeedwouldthetrainers
who value explicit rules and feel happiest
with Grammar Translation teaching
techniques.

ahigh
Pr agmatist
scor er will
gener ally
ignor e
gr ammar
completely

Think first of those learners who throw

themselves fully into a roleplaying
exercise, competitive teamwork task or
discussion. The people who say 'I'll try
anything once', yet are bored and
dissatisfied when they are not involved at
the centre of the action. Those often
challenging students who are exasperated
bydetailedexplanations,errorcorrectionor
repetitious exercises, but who seem topick
things up intuitively as they go along.
Chancesarethosestudentsarehighonthe
ACTIVIST scale, they favour the
conscious, concrete intuitive top part of the learning
cycle.Peoplewhoneveractontheirintuitionortheir
feelings and shy away from first hand experiences are
liable to score low. With its emphasis on sub
conscious learning and lack of interest in explicit rule
making it may be that exponents of the old Audio
Lingual teaching methods would score high as
Activists.

Consider now the learners who like to stand back,

watch, listen, and above all think before they
communicate.Thosewholiketoseeawordorphrase
manytimesinmanycontextsbeforetheyriskusingit.
Theindividualswhohateroleplaysorgivingopinions,
especiallyiftheyhavenothadenoughtimetoprepare
their ideas, and do nothavecutanddriedinstructions
astohowsomethingshouldbedone.Assemblinglists
of collocations and identifying similarities and
differences in language structures are appealing
activities for them. Whether these activities are
practically useful or even relevant is not often an
important consideration. These observers and thinkers
favourthethereflectivestageofthelearningcycleand
score high on the REFLECTOR scale. For them
learning takes place as they struggle to juggle things
around in their own minds. Someone who jumps
straight from seeing something to deciding exactly
what it means without bothering tothinkaboutitfirst
probably needs to improve their reflector score.
Reflectorsbothlearnersandteachersprobablyprefer
materialproducedundertheLexicalApproach,withits
focusonthebuildingoflexicalstructuresasthekeyto
learning.
Individuals high on the THEORIST scale thrive
where what you teach is part of a theory, model or
concept and favour the abstract conceptualising stage
of the learning cycle.Rationalityandlogicareprized
andgrammarisparticularlyappreciated.Thesearethe
individualswhoknowverywellthat'sank'or'sunk'are
pastformsof'sink'andcannotcomprehendwhy'thank'
or 'thunk' do not follow 'think'. People high on this
32

Finally,thePRAGMATISTscalemeasures
thetendencytofavourtheactiveexperimentationstage
ofthelearningcycle.Thinkofthosepeoplewholearn
bestwhenwhattheystudyisintimatelyconnectedwith
a real problem or need in their lives. When they are
enthusedandinterestedinclass,itsbecausetheythink
your techniques and material address their real needs.
Functional and colloquial language is greatly
appreciated for its usefulness in solving problems and
especially so where it fills an immediate recognisable
gap. Feedback and error correction is strongly
appreciated, however learners may not be particularly
interested in knowing why they made mistakes if it
involves too muchtheoreticalgrammar.Indeedahigh
Pragmatist scorer will generally ignore grammar
completelyifitinterfereswithwhatheorsheistrying
to get across. Their learning arises mainly from trial
anderror,actingnotexperiencingandrarelyfromany
personalorintrospectivethinking.
Of course, the descriptions above are pure types, and
likeallstereotypesrarelyexistinreallife.Mostpeople
show a combination of two or even three styles,
depending on their life history and particular
circumstances they find themselves in. Nor should a
style be thought of as fixed or entirely permanent.
People can and do develop in their lives, and in
developingmanymovetowardsfavouringallthestages
of the learning cycle fairly equally. Nevertheless
research on the LSQ has shown that styles are
relatively stable over the time scale involved in
language teaching. Also, given the choice, individuals
will choose to continue to learn in thewaystheyhave
learntinthepast,andrejectteachingtechniqueswhich
conflict with their preferred styles. Make an Activist
sitthroughalongvideoandtheywillbebored.Puta
Theorist in an unstructured situation without a clear
goalandyouwillhaveaverydissatisfiedstudent.
So what evidence did I find for predictable cultural
variations across cultures? In the box below you will
find the average ranking for several nationalities on
eachofthedimensionsdescribedabove.

learning because how to teach or learn is as much a

productofournationalbackgroundasthepracticeofa
Pr agmatist
HighScor e

LowScor e

Activist

Reflector

Israel
Switzerland
Scandanavia
France
SouthAmerica
Italy
Spain
UnitedKingdom*
Germany
Hungary
Japan
Portugal

Scandanavia
Portugal
Hungary
Italy
Israel
UnitedKingdom*
Germany
SouthAmerica
Spain
Japan
France
Switzerland

Therankingsshownherearerelative.Theyrepresent
*FiguresfortheUKfromotherresearch
comparativescoresbetweencountrieshighscorersare
well above the international average and low scorers
wellbelowtheinternationalaverage.Thesescoresare
averages only so not all individuals from all these
countrieswilldemonstratethepatternoflearningstyle
preferencesshown.Italsoneedstobepointedoutthat
thevariationinlearningstylesonotherfactorssuchas
age,professionandsexisjustasgreatasthatbetween
nations. I hope to be able to highlight these other
resultsinfuturearticles.
It is interesting to speculate where the origin of these
differencesmaylie.MartinMcClean,aLectureratthe
Department of Comparative Education at the Institute
ofEducationinLondon,hasidentifiedanumberofkey
differences between national education systems. In
particular he has shown how the concept of what
constitutes the 'knowledge' that academic education
triestoimpartvariesfromcountrytocountry.Inmany
Latin European countries knowledge is 'Rational
Encyclopaedic'. What needs to be learnt are facts.
Logic and structures are taught deductively and
memorisedoftenbyrotelearning.Notfornothingare
French philosophers and French logic famed
throughout the world. In Germany and Scandanavia
facts are important but so are practical applications.
The superb German system of vocational education
shows that knowledge is more often about action than
theory. In the United Kingdom in contrast our
knowledgebaseismainly'Humanist'.Wearetaughtto
look carefully at evidence and draw our own
conclusions aboutwhatitmeans,learningisprimarily
inductive and intuitive. From an early age British
children are taught to give their own opinions much
more than might occur in other systems. In Japan
individualshaveamoralresponsibilitytolearnandall
formsofknowledgeareprized.
What Martin McClean has shown is that our own
assumptions about the best content and techniques of
teachingarefundamentallyboundupinwherewegrew
upandwenttoschool.Myownresearchsupportsthis
conclusion. There is no one best way of teaching or

Theor ist
Portugal
Israel
Scandanavia
SouthAmerica
UnitedKingdom*
Hungary
Germany
Italy
Spain
Switzerland
France
Japan

UnitedKingdom*
France
Israel
Scandanavia
Italy
Portugal
SouthAmerica
Switzerland
Spain
Hungary
Germany
Japan

supposedgenericprocess.Thedebateastotherelative
worthofDeductiveversusInductivelearningbecomes

meaningless as we see that the effective operation of

thelearningcycleentailsboth.
I do not intend to suggest how these results might
impact on you and your classroom practice with
mixedculture and singleculture groups. However, I
will say that those of us slavishly following one or
other teaching method or approach are liable to be
doingso
because we feel comfortable with it, not necessarily
because itisthebest.Ourownlearningstylespredict
our teaching styles. If your students are comfortable
withyou,thenyourteachingstylesareprobablydiverse
andcreativeenoughtomatchtheirdiversityoflearning
styles you encounter sitting in front of you. A
successfulteacherwilladapt.Thisresearchshowsthat
one way of knowing how to adapt is knowing where
yourstudentscomefrom.
Conclusion.
As teachers we sometime forget that learners make a
choice to be at our premises and on our course.
Underlyingtheseschoicesarethelearner'sconsciousor
unconscious beliefs that we will provide learning
activitiesthatsuithisorherstyle.Chancesarethatthe
learners who leave the Executive Centre happy have
not only found a teacher who taught the way they
wanted to learn, but also go home reinforced in their
opinionthatthatwasthebestifnotonlywaytolearn.
Equally the learners who return to their countries
unhappy,arequitelikelytosay'theydon'tknowhowto
teach', the truth being that we did not know how to
teach them in the way they were accustomed to being
taught. My results indicate that an individual's
nationality is, at least, predictive ofhowanindividual
will learn best. If this is the case how much more
likely it is that by taking cultural origin into account
and treating it seriously, our learners will leave us
happy, content and confident that we really are good
professionals.
33

AuthorsNote:
The research described above forms part of a
Dissertationforthe'MscInTraining'attheCentrefor
Labour Market Studies at the University of Leicester.
Mythankstothemfortheirhelp.

34

GettingReal:ExploringtheBoundariesof
SimulationsinBusinessEnglish
Maurice Cassidy, Director of Studies in the Executive CentreIHLondon,reportson
an activity carried out by Andrew Hudson, Andy Goodhall, Angela Ilievski and
DominiqueVouillemininvolvingbringingoutsidersintotheclass
This is a brief look at how an outsider from within the
teaching organisation can help provide the focus for
intense business language practice of a nearauthentic
nature.Thekeyareasoutlinedbeloware:
howtocreatearealactivity
the format for handing it over productively to the
classes.
Themotivatingforcesbehindthisverysuccessfulactivity
hadtheirrootsinthenatureofthebusyAugustperiodat
IH Londons Executive Centre. High student numbers
had caused us to take four rooms in the nearby
WashingtonHotel,anditwasherethatthefourmorning
andafternoonbusinessEnglishgroupswerelocated.The
groups ranged in level from Intermediate to Advanced.
As the hotel provided no shared coffee facilities, which
would automatically have brought participants together
informally, we felt that some catalyst was needed to
createthevibrantsocialdimensionthatissoimportantto
allourcourses,especiallythoseinthesummer.
The ideawhichthefourteachersinvolvedcameupwith
was that of a problem solving task, based around a
genuine issue, as opposed to a simulation or role play.
These,howeverinvolvingtheycanbe,arealwaysatleast
one step removed from reality: the emphasis in our
approach was going to be on bringing reality into the
classroom, and using ittodissolvetheboundariesofthe
classroomitself.
The problem we posed was this: how to successfully
market IH London Modern Language courses to two
target groups: on the one hand, the general public
(especially those in office work in CentralLondon),and
ontheother,incompanystudents.Thetimescaleforthe
project was three hours on a Thursday afternoon, with
teacher liaising and briefing a day beforehand, and
language feedback in individual groups the following
day.
The relevancy of this exercise to the needs of the group
was one of the first considerations. There were twenty
twostudentsinthefourgroups,withonlyonemarketing
specialist in each. However, the integration of business
communicationskillssuchasthoseinvolvedinmeetings
and giving presentations was such that all students felt

there was likely to be a gain from the activity, and

committedparticipationwassecured.
WeenlistedthehelpofSimoneReesintheIHMarketing
Department.SheprovidedexistingIHbrochurematerials
and suggested a notional budget of 50,000. The
afternoon for which we had the C2 conference room
began with Simone giving a presentation of the
problem and setting the marketing tasks. These were
to devise a media plan and present the USPs (Unique
Selling Propositions) to her after a strictly delineated
timeperiod.
The groups were recombined into four mixedlevel,
mixednationality teams to work on the task and were
given access to OHPtransparenciesandpens,aswellas
flipcharts.Theobjectivewasdefinedas:

1) drawing upabudgetandspendingscheduleforthe
marketingprogramme
2) creatingamediaplan
3) designingalaunchevent
4) detailingthetargetaudience
Eachofthefourteachersassignedthemselvestoateam,
providing language input and feedback as needed. More
covertly,theyweremonitoringandeasingalongtheflow
of crosscultural communication within these newly
formed groups, making sure that each individual
contributedasmuchaspossible.
All through the activity, the groups were very engaged.
ThedeadlineforthepresentationbacktoSimoneseemed
very real, almost to the point of being tangible. There
was a deep sense of having to be extremely focused on
the task in hand, while the fact that the teams were
created for a specific task appeared to heighten the
students abilities to negotiate around the usual hurdles
and pitfalls of crosscultural communication the same
barriers that are often found in the real world of
internationalbusiness.
After one hour, each group presented its proposals to
Simone through a spokesperson. This stage of the
afternoon was the most animated, and the intergroup
feeling that emerged was very similar to the
competitivenessfoundinrealadvertisingaccountteams
ontheeveofanewaccounttender.
35

The winners were judged by the teachers, who

deliberated as to what extent each team had met the
briefinmarketing
terms. Interestingly, the students came up with an
unforeseen problem, that of IH Londons corporate
identity, which, through the varied nature of its
brochures, appeared to lack a uniform style. As it
turned out, Simone had been aware of this, although
she had not articulated it during her initial
presentation.Fromthisandotherinsights,theteachers
gained a much higher impression of their students as
communicatorsinabusyprofessionalenvironment.
Feedbackwasonseverallevels:
language feedback to students by teachers the
followingday
feedbackontheactivityitselfframedandcollatedby
theteachers
a feedback to the whole staff in an educational
meetingonthemeritsofsuchanexercise.Here,the
valueofthisapproachasastaffdevelopmenttoolis
veryclear.

the

THEREVISED
INDEXOFELT
M A T E R I A L S
Richar dAcklam

Summar yofstudentfeedback:
55%rankedtheactivityasverygoodorexcellent
85% would like to see this type ofactivityincludedin
thecourseprogramme
Someindividualstudentcomments:
Ilikedworkingwithpeoplefromdifferentcountries
Giving a presentation in front of 20 people was a
valuableexperience.
I learned we can improve our presentation
techniqueshavingfun.
Welearnedmarketingskillsandvocabulary.
Its difficult to speak in public but we can be
understoodifwespeakslowly.
Weneededmoretimetoprepare.
Menweretoodominant.
I came here to learn English, not to change a
personsbehaviour.
The final comment above was made by one student
alone, but raises a point which Business English
teachers are particularly concernedwith:howtostrike
the most effective balance in the classroom between
language,psychologyandculture?Watchthisspace.
The activity described was conducted on 15th August
1996 by Andrew Hudson, Andy Goodall, Angela
Ilievski and Dominique Vouillemin. Simone Rees
provided the marketinginput.Thankstoallofyoufor
your creative energies, but especially to Dom for her
centripetal force and Angela for her powers of
recollectionwhichwerethefoundationsofthisarticle.
36

Thelongawaitedrevised
editionoftheIndexofEFL
Materialshasarrived!
Lovinglyupdatedand
extendedbyitsoriginal
compiler,RichardAcklam,
TheIndexwillprovemore
usefultoteachers,trainers
andtraineesthanever!
Aneasytouseindexofthe
mostpopularELTmaterials,
enablingyoutofindtheright
pieceofmaterialfroma
rangeofcoursebooksand
supplementarybooksto
presentandpractise
language.
AnInternationalHouseLondon
publication,availablefromthe
BEBCBookshop,106Piccadilly,
price8.99

J OHNHAYCRAFT
John Haycraft was an inspiring teacher and
animateurofpeople.In1953,togetherwithhis
wife,Brita,hefoundedtheInternationalHouse
World Organisation, which more than any
other single private institution has influenced
and shapedtheevolutionoftherelativelynew
professionofEnglishlanguageteaching(ELT).
A pioneer, he was an early advocate of
exploitingthewidercontextoflearningoutside
the classroom by bringing people together in
social and dramatic situations. For him
language learning and teaching were aboveall
about
communication,
theatre,
and
understandingbetweenpeople.
John was born on the 11th December 1926.
His early life was spent travelling in Europe
with his mother and brother, Colin (the
publisher), following the violent death of his
father whilst serving in the 5/8 Punjab
Regiment in 1929. His mother, a champion
tennis player, supported her family on a small
army pension. The unconventional early
backgroundoftravelinFranceandItalywasto
prove a formative influence on John, whose
career was truly international in scope. He
developed an early interest in other countries,
cultures, and people. He was educated at
Wellington,where,despitehisdistasteforrigid
structures and anyone who sought to crush
individualspirit,hequicklyshowedhisnatural
leadership qualities and became Head Boy.
For just under three years, John was in the
armyandspent1947thelastyearoftheRaj
inIndia,anechoofthecareerofthefatherhe
had never known. In 1948 he went up to
Oxford to read History, which remained a
lifelong interestandculminatedinhisbookIn
SearchoftheF renchRevolution in1989.
With no certain plans other than a general
sense of wanting to write, like so many who
have made a career in ELT, Johncametothe
business almost accidentally. After a post
graduate course at Yale, he was guiding
tourists around Toledo and teaching students
privately. Following their marriage in 1953,
John and Brita set off for southern Spain

which he saw as a dramatic environment

andstartedthefirstInternationalHouseschool
in Cordoba. John and Brita spent six years
there, teaching and writing, a period he
described in his first autobiographical book,
BabelinSpain (1965).Althoughexceptionally
well received in most quarters, this book
resulted in his being declared persona non
gratabytheFrancoregime.
ReturningtoLondonin1959,alwaysworking
collaboratively with Brita, John developed his
two big ideas: raising the standards of the
teaching of English through a network of
affiliated schools around the world and the
practicaltrainingofteachersfortheclassroom.
At that time, training for ELT, especially of a
practical kind, was virtually nonexistent and
the Haycrafts hadtheideaofsettingupshort,
intensive, highly practical teacher training
coursestopreparepeopletofacemultilingual
classes with confidence and skill. They were
earlyexemplarsoftheideaofbeingareflective
practitioner, that is, by thinking about and
reflecting upon their own work in the
classroom, they extrapolated the essence of
what was effective with foreign learners of
English and presented this knowledge and
experienceontheteachertrainingcourse.This
originalshortcoursebecametheblueprintfor
the Royal Society of Arts/University of
Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate
qualifications in the teaching of English as a
foreign language to adults and, indeed, many
other initial training courses. Over aperiodof
more than thirty five years, more than thirty
thousand people have taken this course and
have invariably seen it as one of the most
powerfuleducationalexperiencesintheirentire
lives.Ithasbeentheprimaryshapinginfluence
for most of the key figures in ELT today and
one could even say, in a sense, that John,
through International House, invented the
modernprofessionofELTteachertrainer.His
was a huge, pioneering initiative, which has
had the most farreaching effects in the
development of a profession often unsure of
itself.
37

Johns second big idea was that standards

couldmosteffectivelyberaisedbysendingthe
teachers trained in London to schools around
the world which espoused his educational
standards and ideals. That first school in
Cordobawastheseedwhichhasresultedinthe
existence today of more than one hundred
International House schools in twenty
countries, a trulyinternationalcommunitythat
expressesJohnsspirit.
Thefinalfloweringofhistasteforstartingnew
things and his inclination for moving across
boundaries often in difficult circumstances
was in his collaboration, after his retirement
fromInternationalHousein1990,withGeorge
Soros to establish schools in Central and
Eastern Europe, a project characteristic of his
sense of new prioritiesandselflessgenerosity.
John Haycraft was not among those who
retire.

career as a writer, which he regarded as his

vocation.Hisbooksshowthesameinterestin
people, eye for colour and drama in everyday
life, and impatience with bureaucracy and
pettiness that he expressed in hisInternational
Houselife.
JohnHaycraftswasafreespirit,andonethat
touchedmanylives.Notacommitteeman,he
followedhistrueinstinctsandtransformedthe
worldofEnglishlanguageteaching.

John Stacpoole Haycraft, CBE, pioneer in

ELT,writer,born11December1926,married
1953 Brita Langenfelt (two sons, one
daughter)diedLondon23May1996.

TONYDUFF
Editorsnote:Theoriginalversionofthisobituaryfirstappearedin The
Independent inMay1996

While so significantly influencing the

development of ELT, John pursued a parallel

THEBENWARRENINTERNATIONALHOUSETRUSTPRIZE
Thisprize,whichhasbeenestablishedasamemorialtothelifeandworkofBen
Warren,whowasoneofthekeyfiguresinthegrowthanddevelopmentof
InternationalHouse,willbeawardedforthefirsttimein1997.
Theprize,whichisworth2,000,willbeforworkinthefieldofTeacherEducation.
Forfurtherinformation,pleasecontact:
BenWarren InternationalHouseTrustPrize
InternationalHouse
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38

INTERNATIONALHOUSE
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39