The lHlournal

o f educationand development
ISSUE NUMBER 4

NOVEMBER 1997

C O N T E N T S

Editorial

Matthew Barnard

Multimedia:Light BlueTouchPaperAnd.,.

GavinDudeney

Authenticity and Artifice

Philip Ken

What DoesMarketingHaveTo Do With Me?

Martin Panott

t0

IcelandicFish Talks - not likely!

CathyEllis

14

Tourists,Citizens& Autocrats

KarenAdams

t6

TestingTimes

JeremyPage

19

Questions& Answers

20

Getting On Top of PhrasalVerbs

Rachel Clark

t)

GoodMorning Egyptl

Glynn Jones

25

Directors of Studies:Are They Born Or Trained?

Maureen McGantqt

28

ReadingAllowed?

Vilja Ll/heatcroft

30

What To Do With Non-ExamAdvancedStudents

Jamie Duncan

32

The Future ls A ForeignCountry...

Tony Duff

34

OlnternatronalHouseLondon 1997
I'ublished by Intemational House London
Edited by Matthew Barnard
Design:Matthew Bamard

ISSN1368-3292

Editorial
Same,or dffirent?
Perhapsyou knou' thc sccncin Monty Python'sLi/b of Briun. A rnultitudchaspoppcdby to hear
Brian speakand aftersonrehesitationhe standsbcfbrcthe throngrvith 'one or trvo thingsto sa.v'
("|'ell us,Muster! Tell us both of them!'). He is clearlydisturbedby thc rvaythis crorvtlsccnlsto
acceptevery4hing
hc saysand doesandlvantsto disabusethem of thc idca that thcy shouldbc
fbllowingany onepersonor doctrine.'You'rc all individuals!'he cries. 'Yes,."veareall
indii'iduals!'they echo. 'You're all different.' 'Yes. u'e are all diffcrcnt'. Then a small.lonc
voicein the crou'dpipesup: 'I'm not'.
The issueofidentity haslong bcencxcrcisingmanagcmcntand marketingteamsthroughoutthc
businesslvorld, u'herecoporate imageis so vital in attractingand keepingclients. The mcssage
there,horvever,is 'rve'rc all thc samc'; it hasto be, becausestandards
mustbc seento be
rvhereveryou buy it. But to what extentdo *'e in ELT
universal,tl.rcproductindistinguishable
not to
sharetliis preoccupation?As membersof the IntemationalHouseWorld Organrsation,
mentionthe other,broaderassociations
wc may bc part of (suchas IAQUALS, LAURELS,
AISI-1,ARELS andso on),arewe not alsosayingthatthereis sonredefiningcharacteristic
uhich
nrakesus all similarbeyondthe rathernebulousguarantee
of cluality?Can u,epinpoint some
intrinsic-lHlassthat wc all sharenow that we haveconredorvnfrom the chandeliers.
as it rvere'l I
thrnk perhapsnot... unlessit is a sharcdhoncsty.'i,hichallowsus to say 'rvc'rc all diff-crcnt,to a
relieson our recognising
degree'.So muchofour principledteaching
the lactthatclientsrvithin
the sarneclass,let alonein differentschools,arc individualsand treatecldifferentl-v,
that it rvould
sccrnabsurdto suggcstwc arc all thc same. Our ability to reactand adaptto idiosyncrasyis our
strength.EvcrrMcDonalds,the motherof all mLrltinationals,
occasionallymakesallowanceslbr
pointed
the locai clientdlc,as VincentVega oncenrernorably
out in his referenceto the Ro_lrr1c
with Cheese.I u'ould like 1othink that rvetakc thingsa littlc lirther and that rvearehappyto bc
thc sane, yet different.
Thc lntcmationalHouscWorld Organisation
hasbccn supplyingthc rvorldo1'ELTrvith rnastcrs
fbr many yearsandproof that we arenot all clonesis readilyavailablein this Joumal. Tlre range
and the opinionsexpressed
not onl.vr,ariedbut, at
ofexperienceofthe contributorsis considerable
timcs,contradictory.I darcsay,for cxample.thcrcaremany schoolsproudofthcir rcccntl),setup
or revampedSelf AccessCentres,but Gavin Dudeneyrs hereto tell us that multinrediais lbr thc
birds. JamicDuncansharesexamplesof authenticmaterialwith us, but Philip Kerr questionsthe
very ideaof usingauthenticmatcrialso much. Martin Parott is conccrncdwith thc rolc of
teachersin the classroom(andhow it rclatcsto marketing)and Karen Adanrslooks at the rolcs of
studcnts.And thcrc arc many othervoicesbesides.
To rctum to thc film, I likc the lronestyof the chaprvhodoesn'tclaim to bc dilfcrcnt. Hc rcminds
ironically
me ofa good many traineesand recentlytrainedteachers.His very perceptiveness,
hope for him to developas an individual.
l1awedthoughit is, suggeststl.ratthcrc is considerable
Vive la diffdrence!

Mattherv Barnard
Directorof Studies.IH London

l : t : . . f t , l t l t , j t t t il l , ) i 1 , . , J l t i t ) t ) i i t ) l l . t : : r ,r : t ; , , : t , : t , , i ) . ,

:,.,.:':t:;

Uy/|ilTEID!
Contributions for

thene*tissug.o.oo.
articles
informationaboutnew
courses
uP-date
information about
authors in all of our
schools

newtitlesappearing
from IH authors
questions...
ond onswers

loerSor,l,a-l"rlntttetyestr
a-ridiieles,tatllangl
niuin,$ au:td
ctlocewtt
rvotr[kin1$
wkceneSJau
ittterestirtg

sta'tistics
PeoPle on the
move
neweducationalproiects
newcourses
etc.

.Atl articles and information gratefulty received.

Please send hard copVr and preferably copy on
disk: llrord for Windows 2, 6 or 7
ANT TIME (but by *Ionday znd Nlarch 1998 for
inclusion in the next issue) to:
The Editor,
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InternationalHouseLondon.
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London WIV gFL
Fax:
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4

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MULTIMEDIA: LIGHT BLUE TOUCHPAPERAND...

GuvirtDudeney, Webmaster.fbr
the InternationalHottseEasternSpuingroup
oJ sc:hools,
erplains why he thinksmultimedialanguagecourseshaveproved
to be dantpsquibsrather thanfirework and, us such,are tloomedto failure...
Swea6'.fingersskip lighth, oyer the ketbourd, un impatient behind squirms in a plctstic cltuir, untl
otttsidethe roon a teaclterlookson itt ttrnuzentenl.
Someoneis usingone oJthe computersin the
self-uccesscentre, und he seens to be having o good time. Closer inspection reveuls thut llrc
sludentin quesliotlhus.jusl installeclQuake on the computer(his otutral home is too old and
Jeebleto run it) a d is having the tinte oJ'hisltfe shootinguliens,blustinghrxliesund x'reuking
httt,ocirr the.fitll screennrcdiaevalshoot-ent-u1t.
Out of the corner of lris q,e Jrccan -iustseethe
dttst-cot'ereclplasllc cdsesof ntultimediu English coursessturing uccusinglt,us he enjo.lshintse\'.
Thevhut,en'lbeennnyetl in ntctttlhs.

nd is that sucha big surprise?Do

your computersget used lor much
else'l And here's thc rhctorical
qucstion to ans\!er your fnrstration: if
multimedialanguagecoLlrscsarc so grcat,if
multimetliatechnologyis so porverfuland
adaptableand erpensiveto implcmcnt- horv
come at least t\\,o national Spanish
ncwspapcrsthis ycar alonc havc givcn such
coursesa\\,ay$,ith the Saturdayedition'l The
answer,I believe,is that they arerubbish.
I can already hear pens being uncappcd,
kcyboardstestily beatcn and fax machincs
rvhirringin my gcneraldirection. That's fine
- I'm askingfor it by sayingI'rn liere to tell
you that n.rultimcdialanguagccourscs arc
d c a do n a r i r a l . A n d n o . l ' n r n o l g o i n gt o
name namcs - just talk ir.rgeneralitics- and
you in turn will scnd mc thc namcs of
wonderful CD-ROM products rvhich are
loved andregularlyusedby all your studcnts.
That's also finc, but this is my space- you
can have yours in
the next edition rve'll
and
probably never
convrncc cach
olhcr anlu'ay.

['m hereto
tell you that
multimedia
language
coursesare
deadon
arrival

Over tlie last

couplcof ycars,it
has
become
patently obvious

to educatorsthat multimedia has larled to

dclivcr on thc prorniseit oncc madc. Thc
feeling is that unlessa radical new approach
is adopted to rlultirledia and language
rnstruction,it runs thc risk at bcst of being
rclegatedto the machinein the comcr of thc
studycentrervhichthc odd studentusesfbr a
garneof solitairebelore class,or at worst as
one of thc bricf fads rvhich camc along alter
languagelaboratorieswent out of lashion.
So jLrst rvhere does multimedia go wrong!
and canany'thingbc donc aboutit'l
Lct's takc for cxamplethc product currcntly
sitting in front of mc. For the sake of
argun.lent
we'11call ft I ? Iinglish, although
it gocs by a diffcrcnt (though r.ro lcss
i n r t l t i n g t n l n r c . I t l r l s l f i n e p c d i g r e ehavirrg bccn put together by thrcc
intcrnationallanguagcinstitutionsof world
renown - and is sponsoredby rntemational
companies. There are twelvc CD-ROMs in
the seriesand they pronrise"an interactrvc
languagccoursc".
Apart from annoyingexercisesthat refuseto
recogniseany answer otlier than the onc
hard-codcdinto thc disc,thc mainstayof this
particular progran is pronunciation. Thc
studcntcan listcnto words and phrascsbcing
pronouncedwhilst viewing an oscilloscopctypc graphofhow it looks. Slhc thenrecords
a versionof the sameand it is comparedwith
the original and markedon a scaleof onc to

I rt r, t rt , t t t r, rt t ; i | | , t t t ' , . 1 t ) | | j | i I I ,| i i i : l t r r t i t t ' i t i t i r i i : . ' ! : ) i l i J : |\ t l

six. Curiously, I found that gnrnting or

moaningin a rva.vnot too dissimilarto u'hat I
imagine a soft pom actor or actressnright
(although I'\'e never actually heard such
soundsmyscll), I could consistcntlyscorc
six. A valuablccxcrcisc.l'm surc you'd
agree. As to lvhy lslior.lldwant to use the
softwarcin this malncr, I u'ould ansrvcrthat
I did it because
I could.
A companyhere in Spair.r.,r4riclrspeciaJises
in distancc lcarning recently asked me to
test-drivetheir nerv CD-ROM courscbcforc
they put it on thc market. With nraterial
writtcn by highly qualificd teachers.and a
quality companyproclucing,I rvas rclativcly
interestedin horv it rvould tum out. Wcll, it
turncdout to bc zicompletenon-evenl,$'ith a
high degreeo1'pedagogical
unsoundncss
to
boot. Target ans*'ers included "She is
always looking at their house l.rcrsclf."and
"The Robinsonslivc in this housenot the
one next door to theirs." Other note$'orth-y
sectiouou
activitiesincludeda three-exercise
'may' and might': in the first cxcrciscthc
'may' in thc gaps,in the
studenthad to type
sccondthcy nccdcd filling rvith 'nriglit' and
in the third you could put eithcr. l,rscful!
This programcrashedconsistently,the vidco
was grainy and had Kung-Fu film style lipsyrrchand therewas no 'exit' option. I rvas
rerninded of a shareu'areprogram called
'Zounds' u,hich I oncc saw reviervedin a
magazinein London. The program rvas a
soundalbumrvhcrcyou could catalogueyour
collectionof sound files. According to thc
reviewerit came with a pitiful collectiono1'
soundfilcs to get you stafied. For $20, said
the revicwer, thc author would send you
another50 sounds.And lbr $40 hc rvouldn't.
Money rvell spent. I felt like enclosinga
chcqucrvith my critiquc, thankingthem for
the laugh,and beggingtliem not to scnd ne
ar.rything
else. To my surprise,three u'eeks
laterthat particularcourscalreadyfiguredin
the advertisingnraterialfor the company.
The truth of the mattcr.so oftcn. is that these
projectshave a teamso{'matcrialsrvritcrs

l I i , I i l t t i ! 1 i 1 : Q l! t t , t t , .

schooledin morc traditionalmatcrials(i.c.

print. dead-treeeditions- call thent rvhatyou
rvill) trying to come to tem'rs u'ith the
possibilitiesand limitationsof multimcdia
matcrial presentation,rvorking rvith groups
of programmcrs
anclmultimediaspecialists
uho have no languagctraining,and littlc
ability to intcract succcssfullyrvith peoplc
tto do. nruchlessexplaintheir side of'the
deal in a wav any non-tcchnical
bod could
understand.1'heydon't u,ork togetherrvell.
and thc cncl product rvorks for nobodl'.
SureJythis rvill change,I hear you sav.
Well. it's been a good ferv years nou', ancl
thcrc's littlc sign of a mcasurablc
improvement. That clapping sounrl or
'hunah' alter a
cheery
conect ansu,eris still
thc norm. and soon bcconrcsannoyirrgboth
to teacher and student; thc I'ascinationof
being able to recordyour r.oiceand comparc
it to a BBC newsreader's
lastsaboutas long
as it takcs to hit thc stop button. lt sin-rply
i s r r ' ti r r l e r c s t i rJr gn .( l\ \ h r l ' i n l ( r r ci m p o r l : r l t .
doesn'tteachmuch.

N{1'theo+is thatf fOUnd that

publishcrs.
schools

ffi";;J '"d.;" gruntingor

organisationsare ffiQflfling

in

l:l';;:i"""""lillu waya soft

by tne pOI[
threalened

aCt0f

might,I
could
consistently
scoresrx

onslaught
ol
'nrultinrcdiaschools'
- u here studentsgo
u'ork
and
on
colrlpu1ers.
occasionallyconring
into contact rvith a real livc huma:r being
rvho givcs thcnl ir 'tutorial'. The-v'rc
nrassivclybig hcrc in Spain,and thcy seem
to havebottomlessbank accounts.The kncc
jerk reactionto these institutionsas far as
languagcschoolsarc concernedrs to open a
self-leec,,secnlrc rritlt cotnputcrs.itt att
attcmptto catch1hesameclients.Publishcrs
inrrnediatelystafi putting togcthcrcoursesor')
CD-ROM to keepthesenew centressupplied
rvith 'ncw' r'natcrial that thcy u,ould
othern'isehar"ebought in the old textbook

fomat. Spcedis of tl.reessence.

so r','hatyou
usually end up with is a badly thought-out
textbook on CD-ROM. lt doesn't bcncfit
anyonc. and it certainly doesn't use the
potential of multimedia beyond its basest
lcvcl.
A classroom is givcn ovcr to this ncrv
facility, computersarc bought, somconeis
despatched
to buy lots of CD-ROMs to make
theroom look exciting,andall this$,ith little
or no rcgard to rvhcthcr thc nroncy bcing
spent is being spent on somethingrvhich is
going to last (hardrvare)and rnaterialu4rich
is going to be useful (software). 1'\'e seen
enoughschoolsjn this situationto rvonderif'
I couldn't make much nroneysettingnryself
golng
up as a'doom-and-gloom'consultant,
roundtellingpeoplervlratthey shouldn'tdo.
I'd savc thcrl a fofiunc, ar.rdthey could pass
somc of that on to me. If 1,ou'reinterested,
pleasegct in touch.
There's no point in criticising sonrething
rvithout offering up a possiblesolution, so
here it is. Major publishers are slorvly
abandoningthe idea oI producingthe 'killerapp'* lbr languageleaming,rc-focusingthcir
time on developing quality reference
matenals on
CD-ROM (dictionaries,
concordanccrs.rcfcrcncc rvorks ctc.) and
looking 1o the constantlyer,olvingr",orldof
the Intcmet for the classroomof the future.
Now I can hearthosesamepeopleas beforc
gnashingthcir tccth at mc and prcparingto
llre oif anothcr missivc accusing me of
buying into anotherfad. Well t disagree,1
think thc Nct is here to stay, cvolving at a
pace rvhich puts r.rrultir.ncdia
CD-ROMs to
shame,and alreadybecomingso much a part
of people'slivcs that cvcryonchas a vestcd
intcrcst in it becomingbigger, better, laster
and more useful.

a closcd pro.jcct. [Jnlimited by the cast-instoncquality of anythingprintcd or prcsscd.

It is the most cxtraordinary library of
rcfcrence nraterial cvcr known - quick,
current, (bcst of all) cheap. Take a look
around,you'll be surprisecl
at just horv much
interactive material for languagc lcarncrs
thcrcis available.
The Intenretand ELT havc a commongoal communication rvhilst mr-rltinredia
positively discourages this by forcing
studcntsto wear headphonesand ntumble
into rnicrophoncs
likc BT hclplinctrainccs.
As tcchnologyimproves,and multinredia
capabiliticsfor the Net becomemore viable
(r'tdeo, audio, livc audio and videoconfcrencing,etc. ,tee (ilynn Jonc.s'urticle
elseu,herein this issue - er./.),there rvill no
longcr be a need for programmersto help
teachersconvey their matcrial to isolated
lcarncrs.r,,'c'll simply get rid of the middle
nran,and teacherswill be back to u4.ratthc1,
knorv best: communicatinglive with real
peoplc. I only havc to look aroundmc at IH
Barcelonato get a glimpseof hou this might
tr.rmor.rt. So I'll lcavc 1,ourvhcrc I started,
hlek rl thc selllrcccss
ecrrtrc..
Thc lonc vidco gamemerchantis still having
a good linre. the multimcdiacourscsarc still
loncly and neglected. I r.vanderupstairsto
my domain- thc Intcmct room - to get somc
rvork done. Everucomputeris occupiedrvith
peoplebusill' typir.rgarvay: happy, smiling
peopletyping irwiry in [nglish. ln thc half
hour I rvandcrround and watch them, they
producemore rvrittcr.r
Er.rglish
than thcy havc
fbr me in classall year. Norv if only I could
get them to do thcir s'rittcn u'ork via cmarl...:i.*dtt dnplifd!ta t)|
.|ltih uru: out tt) b. lfu h$l
lt().qro
in ilt tat(qor| d dukl .tRcsloItll oll,lll llt. .outl)ctitln

The Intemetis vital and constantlychanging.

When 1,oubuy i'to thc Nct, you'rc buying
into a global village full o1'up-to-the-minute
infonration, unlinrited by the 65OMbs of
CD-ROM
space! unlimited by
thc
imaginationof a tcam ol' peoplervorkingon

Ittr, tt itt:r,tiri, ll,'t\,

')
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AAHE ilTICITY AIIO ARTIF'CE

'Thefirst

duty in life is to be as artiJit'ialaspossible.Whutthe secondduty is no

one hasyet disc:overed'.Philip Kerr, Directorof Studicsin IntemationalHouse
London,takesOscarWilde'swordsto heart.and arguesagainstthe continuing
fascinationwith authenticmaterials.
Teachersmust be unafraid of
exposingtheir studentsto real English,

I do notfeel that thereis any needto

justify the decisionto usealmost

at all stages

exclusivelyauthentic language. The

onus restswith thosewhoprovide

simpffied and contrivedlanguage

Michael Lewis
'l
he Lexical /pproach

Dave Willis. TlteLtr.xicalSt llubus

Like manyFnglishlanguagetcachcrs.t first had

to grapple rvith authentic English in the
classroomwhen I startedusing the ('umbridge
English Course. Varied, lively and, on the
u'holc,teacher-fhendly,
it had regularlistcning
activities where learncrs listened to nativc
speakcrsrabbiting on like native speakcrs.
tlntbrtunately, thesc were completely
rncomprchensible.
I had leamt the lesson(and
havepassedit on manytimcs sincc)that a good
teacherwill gradethe task ratherthan the text,
but I couldn'thelp thinkingthat theseauthentic
dialogr.rcs
rverejust not suitablefor a classo1'
beginners.Consciousthat I shouldnot publiclv
admit it, my instinctstold me that the stilted,
scriptedand structure-heavy
recordeddialogues
of StreamlineDeparturesmore closelymct my
students'needs.

EEilUIIIE
L'TJOUrcE
USEO
ITITil
AUTHEilT|C
WAftil TflECLtSSn00n
ls I c0ilTvDtcft0tl tn TERPiS
Sincethen,as a trainerI haveoftenraiseda feu'
cheap laughs by using material taken tiom
coursebooks
publishcdmany yearsago. I have
arguedthat the teachingof 'l hird Clonditional
or
the 'rules'of reportedspeechis suspcctbecause
suchgrammardoesnot accordwith the dataof
real languagcuse. In this, I have gone along
with the generalconsensus
that real or authcntic
Englishis whcrc it is at. Authenticityis good:
leamerscometo [ngland to get a doseo1it and
publishcrsnow useit as a sellingpoint fbr their

lnltrtrtttitnal

I a t e s t l t l e s . C a n y o u i m a g i n ea n e u , c o u r s e b o o k
rvhich proudly proclaims "ALL LINGUIGE
MADE UP BY THE I|ITIIORS"?
l'o be
rcspcctablethesedays, languagelbr lcamcrs has
to conle front native-spcakcrcotpora and bc
thoroughly contextualised.
Horvever, thc lact that wc now have thc
technologyto record and describcreal language
use should not compel us all to jurnp on the
bandwagonof authenticEnglish at any price. It
rs cedainly convcnient firr thosc of us *ho are
-lEfL
native speaker
i n i t r a t c s( o * ' n e r s o f t h e
languageand arbitersof authenticity),but thcrc
are pedagogical and political rvheels to this
bandrvagonwhich deservea closer look. I do
not want to suggestthat unnatural languagc is
nlort, appropriatcto the languageclassroomthan
authcntrc languagc use: only that authentic
examplesof languagcare not al."r'a.vs
inherentlv
bettcr than their contrived cousins. Rogcr Hunt
(tn IH Jotu'nal ,\o. J) may bc right to laugh at
rvhat hc dcscribes as the 'my-tailor-is-rich'
svndrome,but the tact that some materials are
badly contrivcd does not entail that all contriveci
materralsare bad.
'fhe

promotion of authentic English to thc

exclusion of contrivcd classroom Finglish
immediatcly raises the question of which
authentic Englishr.
American?
Indian?
Australian? BritishI And if British, nofih or
south'.)RP or cstuary? For ntany, perhapsmost,
lcamers, these questionsmiss thc point. Their
lntention is ncvcr to emulate native speakersof
whateverhue; the intention rs only to leam the

l l,tu:'.t .l.it; iir:! r,t !.,lur,Lti,n itntl l)t,tal1)lr

t.il

languageup to o (ertdin point. iri order to pass

a n e x a m o r t o c o n d u c t p a r t i c u l a rl r a n s a c t l o n s .
lr),rrl pnrhJhl\ \\ itlt other nr, - tti\ cs
A c q u r r r n gn a t i v c l i k c c o n p c t e n c eu i t h i t l i o n t s ,
cllipsis and othcr rhctorical tleviccs ntav be
n o r e o l ' a h i n d r a n c ct h a n a h c l p . T h c ' l - - 1I .
I i n g l i s h ' r v l u c hp r - o v i d e s u c h a n c a s v t a r g e tf ' o r
'1-onl
m o c k c r v h a s t r c c n d e s c r i b e db v
llo*attr
as'u kind rl liulctt. udopted ht li[,T unl tuught
u.t lhe yttrltt uu.riliury hngtmgc. f...1 un
inltrnalionul ( onnttutli(ulio
st.\lctit t|ilh
o
rt'ul conmunitt rf origin outsidc ELT its(l/ .
'LL'f English'
or 'TEFI-ese'mav lack the
r n p e r i a l p c d i g r e e o f a u t h c r r t i cB n t s p c a k , b u t
l n ( e l n a t i o n aEl n g l i s hi s h e r et o s t a \ ' .

\,'an Lrcr takesthis argument f'urthcr. Audtence

dcsign (1he modillcation ol onc's output to
accommodalethc lislcner l reader').he says. is a
natural lealure o1' languagc usc.
fhcrc is
therclbre nothil)g $'rong u.ith tcaching ntaterials
that arc constructcd to contaill languagc
spccifically lbr the bcncllt of the leamers.
I r ' r s t a n c eost g c n u i n e l a n g u a g c u s e ( s o - c a l l c d
a u t h c n t r ct e x t s )h a v et h e i r I a l u c b u t t h e y a r e n o t
intr-insicallv 'bcttcr'.
Receivetl l,istlom.
rcintbrced particularll, by practiccs on teacher
l r s | I r t l l Li :r r r t r j c s5 .t r ! ! ( : t 5. ' l h c n \i i e .

I uorrltl likc to ntake tr.'"

o lurther points.
\{rchacl [-eu rs and L)avc Wi]lis rvould be
anrong the llrst to agree with the obsenation
t h a t w e s h o u l dn o t a s s u m ct h a t t h c r c i s a d i r e c l
correlation bctrvccn *,hat lcamers leam antl
U a c k i n 1 9 7 9 .t h c t c m t ' a u t h e n t i c ' r v assu b j e c t e d \\'hat \\'e.
as teachcrs.leach thcnr. \Vhy. thcn. is
b y W i d d o r v s o n r t o h i s u s u a l b i n a r l , : r n a l v s i s . there a lcar
that il r,c tcach our learnersrvitlr
H e u s e dt h c u ' o r d ' g e n u i n c ' t od c s c r i b el a n g L L a g e c o n t n \ c d .
u n n a t u r a ln t a t e r i a lt h e l $ . i l l e n d u p
t h a t h a s a p e d i g r e e o u t s i d e t h e l a n g u a g e spcrking like that'l
It is highl,v-'
improbable that
c l a s s r o o m .u ' h e r e a s ' a u t h e n t i c i t ,r"c- 'l t r s 1 0 { h e
rnt learncr uho reaches a high Ievel of
u s c t i r a t a u s c r m a k c s o f l a n g u a g ea n d t h i s i s
i a n g u a u r :p r o t i c i e n c y u i l l h a v e a c q u i r c d i t
c o n n e c l e dt o t h c a p p r o p r i a t e n c sosl ' r c s p o n s c . c r c l u s i r c l r ' i n t h c
c l a s s r o o ma n v w a v . l - h i s
('lassroom languauc is necessarilv di1'ltrent
c o n c c m \ \ ' l l h t h e p r o d u c t o f l a n g u a g cl c a r n i n g
lionr languagc usc else\\'here- judgcd in the
s r t s u n e a s i l r .u i t h b o t h r v r i t e r s 'm a i n c o n c c n t .
c o n t e x t o 1 ' n a t i re - s p e a k e r l a n g u a g e u s e .
r r l t i e l rt . t l r ce n s r J c r t t l r r, r j l c r n r i r r -p I , , ! e \ \ ! : .
c l a s s r o o mi a n g u a g cs e e m su n n a t u r a l .l l o u c v c r .
l ' i n a l l r ' .i s n ' tt h c r r o n v t h a t l e a m e r su i l l a t t c n t p t
i n o r d e r l i r r i t t o b c n t o r e n a t u r a l .i t x o u l d b e
t o L r s c( a n d b e u n a b l et o n l a n i p u l a t c )t h c n t o r c
n c c c s s a r vf b r - p c o p l ei n t h c c l a s s r o o nt o s p e a k
blzarre instanccsof TEFlcsc just a little
a n d r r l i t e a s i t t h c y * c r e s o m e u h c r ce l s e . I n
patrcnislng'l
rurdcr iirr this to happen, thc clrssroolll ntLlst
b e c o n r ei n a u t h c r r t i ca s a c l a s s r o o n r.t G c n u i n e
I s h o u l d s t r c s st l t a t a l l o f t h c a b o v c i s n o l t o
l . r t t r t t t g er r s c d i n J n t u l l t ( l l l L \ \ : t \ I n . l
argue agalnst any use ot natural, genulne
c l a s s r o o m i s a c o n t r a d i c t i o ni n t e n . n s . l h e
l a n g u a g ei n l n v c i a s s r o o m :i t i s m c r c l y t o a r g u e
(iu1'
proposrtion is al.rsurd. [n a recent articlc.
that artitice has its place (along rvrth exp cit
('ook: asks 'rvha{ could be morc urnuturol ,nul
g r a m n r a trc a c h i n g d
. i c t a t i o n t, r a n s l a t i o nr,e a d i n g
ttnuuthanli( (sic) than teacherstrving 1o lbrce
aloud and so on - all o1'rvhrch have been
'compre
t h e n ] s e l v e s- a g a i n s tt h e i r b e t t e r i n s t i n c t s t o
h e n s i v cl v b u r i e d 'a n d r i s c n a g a i n ) . T h e
talk to language lcamcrs as thel' talk to thcir
t l t c l , ' r i r ' , r l ' r r r l c k ui .r rl r r n .h u l t l t s i n t n o r l i t nt to
compatriots'.)' Ile suggcststhat it is entinently
k c c p t h i n g s i n p e r s p e c t i v c .' N a t u r a l ' ',a u t h c n t i c '
n a t u r a l r v h c n s p c a k i n gt o l e a n t c r su i l h a k r *
antl 'real' are terms rcsonant of rnuch
l c v c l o 1 ' c o r n p r e h c n s i o(nj u s l a s i t i s t o \ . o u l l g
c o l l t c m p o r a na d v c r t i s i n gi.n d i c a t o r so 1 ' a p p r o v a l
c h i l d r e n )t o r r s es i m p l i l i c d g r a n t m a r s, l o r i c l e a r
rathcr than of anv rntrinsic qualitl (Cook
s p e e c ha n d t h e s e l e c t i o no l b a s i cr o c a b u l a r r , .
1997)':..

l . o r n n ) r eo n t h r sb
t{)911
]'Scc.Ia|kin.cshop'l.Il.1oUnlll5l'1(JUl]
.1
Stc !.ttlot tio,ti
lptlliL\! Ltnski\tit\\l)l l' lt)tt))
Jl.hfsf|oj|1\x]ellli1dclr\'l-eo\lnld1||nuJn(bin|h.|'|1,gtl|c|'(tf!s|)om\|\
'l.rn!u:rgp
clrr.
5
l r n g l l l g c l r a r n r n gl l r 1 . 1] . l ) L i l l l l - i 1 I l l r l \ l r ) ( ) l ) D t l l J , l l l

I'M A TEACHER: WHAT DOESMARKETING

HAVE TO DO WITH ME?
Martin Parrott, of lnternationalHouseLondon,looksot a sometime.s
jobs.
neglectedside o/'teacher.s'

HOW MUCH DO YOU

KNOW?
How much do you know
aboutyour students?
Look at questionnaires
one
and two and answcrthe
qucstionsfrom your
students'point of vierv,
guessingasbestyou car.r
how an 'average'studentin
one of your classesrvould
answerthem.

QUESTIONNAIREI
Il/hat do yorr value most ahout your
teuchers? Thev should:
bc smartlvdressed
beginclassespunctually
puncturlly
finrshc lasses
crcatca livcly lcamingenvironment
crcatcu frientllvlclming enrirorrment
provideplenty'of oppofiunitieslbr
lntcractlon
correctmrstakcs
givec learerplanalions
correcthonlcworkthoroughly
rcturnhomeu'orkpromptly
give me personalattentionin class

QUESTIONNAIRE2
ll/hat do you value most irr
cltoosing and remaining Ioyal to
a school?
smallchsses
location
decorand premises
facilities(StudyCentreetc.)
teachrng
coursctlme
ldrnrnrstratr
r e elficiency
friendly staff
pflce

u ell-gradedclasses
physicalconrfonin thc classroonl

lnrponanl

rnrp0rtanl

When you havecompleted

go
both questionnaircs,
throughthemwith someof
your students.Any
surpriscs'l
Next. havc a think about
marketing...

HOW MUCH DO
YOU KNOW ABOUT
MARKETING?
Answerthc following
questlons:

rRU' OR FAI.SE?
L
2.
3.
4.

Marketingis aboutpersuadingpeopleto buy.

Marketinginvolveslisteningmore thanspeaking.
Marketingis a disciplinethat requiresspecialskill, krowledgeandtraining.
Teachersshouldleavemarketingto marketers.

Now read on,

10

lttt.ttttttirtrtl i|,ttt't .i,,:',, :

i.,irr,tt ,,':,r;ri l)"'.lr'lL,t,tti

WHAT IS MARKETINC?
'lhe

school and the outsidervorld

f o r m a n v p e o p l em a r k e t i n gh a sa b a d n a r n e e
. t o k r n gt m a g c so f
pushYyoLrngmen rn sharpsul1s.talklng last and persuadlnsus t
b u l t h i n g s$ e d o n ' t u a n t a n dc a n t a l t b r d . W h a td o c sm a r k e t i n q
h a r c t o c l o s i l h l a n g u a g cs c h o o l sa n d . m o s t o 1 ' l l l . l h a t d o e s
markctln!lhar r' to do u ith us as teachers'.)
\ \ ' c l l . r n t h c l l r s t p l a c e .1 1 r e
l t r r s l t r\ ,' o L l n gn t a n r n a s h a r ps u r tr :
p r o b a b l l a s a i e s m a na. n c lr s r n v o l l e d i n s e l l r n g n. o t m a r k e t i n g .
\ , l a r k c t i n gi s t h c o p p o s r l co l p u s h vs c l l i n g :i t r s a b o u tI n d i n g o u t
andanticipatinu
g t a t p e o p l eu a n t . a n d i t i n v o l i ' e sc r c a t i n ga n d
p l t x i d i n g a s e r \ , l c e* h i c h s e e k st o m a t c h a n d s u r p a s st h c s c
expectatrons.
I n r l o s t s c h r x r l st .h e r cr s s o m c o n eu h o h a so r e r a l lr c s p o n s i b i l r t v
t b r m a r k e t i n g .I n a s n r a l ls c l r o o tl h i s m a v b c l h e D i r e c t o r i: n a
larqc school thcre rra\, hc r clcsignatcdmarketrngdepartmcnt.
lh!' nrarkcting
p c o p l e$ r l l h e t h e o n e sr . e s P o n s i bt lber c l c s r g n i n g
a n c pl r o d u c i n gb l o c h u r c .r n d p L r h l i c r tavn dp r o b a b l lt h e s eu j l l b c
t h ! - p c o P l c\ \ h ( ) ! ( ) ( ) L l 1a n r l t i i l k t o t h e h a i n i n , qn r a n a g c r si n
c o r n p a n i c sl a. l k t o l r g c n t sa n dp o l c n t r asl t u d e n t s .
l J u t t h t s r s n ( ) tl ) L r s hs. 'c l l r n . u P
. r L b l r c i tnl e c d st o b e i n t b r r n a t i v c
clcal anii attlrcli|c. br:t r.nostol all needst(l ans\\'erthe rluestions
p e o p l eI r a l c -r n m r n d . l h e c l e s r g on l p u b l r c r t ]m a l c r i a l sn c c d s1 . ,
tak!' ]nlo iiccollnt il kno* lc-dgcol \\ hat lhcsc qucslrons\\ lll l)e
l\,larkctcr-s
necd to knol' lhal peoplc lant. lrquallr. talkrnr:t
colnpanies.agcntsand llotentlalstudcntsis r)ot a r.natlerol arnr
t \ \ ' l s t l n gb u t ( 1 1 ' p r c s c n l ranpgo r t l b l r oo f c o u r s c -cso. u r s cl \ p c sr n ! l
p r - i c r n gs t r u c t L r l e\s\ h i c h a l u a c t t h r o r r g ht h c u ' l L r s \l \ h a 1\ ' o L r \ \ e r e - l o o k i n u - l i r r - n c.s s ( i c t t i n g t h ! - s c l ' a c t o r -nsg h t d c p c n d s
e n t i r c l \o n k n o u r n gn h a t p c o p l cu a n t . a n da l l m a r k c t r n g
h a st h r s
t l o u b l cI-i n c l t o n o l i n l i r r m r n ga n d o l ' c o l l c c t i n gr n l i r r m a t i o nI.1 i s
o l i e n a 1t h i s r nl b m a t r o l r - c o I l c c I i rs. ltlar g et h a tt h e g r e a t e sst k r l l r s
neccssAr\'.\nrnng olhc'rlictors. good nrilrkctcrsrcquirc:
o

ps1'<'hrtlttgiculinsiuht
I t r s r e l a t r v e l ve a s . vt o t i s c o v e rt t a t p e o p l ct h i n k t h c l . l i k .
an.l want. but r',hat is l1that feall) attractsend dclightsthe'nr''

"

sensitivit!'totlte so(iul, polilical und ctonontic eulit'ttttment

urtrlto uuypresanttnd.fitlura lrtnds in lhis e |ironme t
I : o l e x a n r p l cr. t * c p l a n t o d e v c l o pc h i l d r e n ' sc i ) L 1 r s c\s\ '.c
r c c d t o k n o s a n d t a k c a c c o u n to l ' u h a l r s h a p p e n i n ui n
p r i r n a n c d L r c l l i o nl c L r n r c u l L r m
n r.a t e r i a l sa.s s e s s m c nI t .o u r s
o f L n g l r s h )a. n dl h a t c h a n t : cas r ea n t i c r p a t c d1 :o re x a n r p l cr.l '
s e p l l n l o e x p l n d r n - c o n r p a ntve r c l ' r 1 r .ul ge. n e e dt o k n o u
a n d t a k e a c c o L l not 1 l n r ' l r c n d s i n c o m p a n t s i z c . l b r c r g n
o r n e r s h r go.r p r o l c c t c rcl h a n g c st o l c g i s l a t r o na l l c c t i n gt a r
lr)\'cnlr\(. li'r,,rrtlrlnt, ' t,rirrt.l

r t t l r : r it i r L :

Satisfactionand delight
Once a:tudcnt has choscnthc school and rs rn his ol her class.
r r a r k c t i n g i s 1 n r l i o n r o r c r . K c e p i n . rs t l r d e n t si s n o l e s s i l n l l o r l a n t
t h a n a l t r a c t r n gt h c r r r .a n d t h e u r o s t r p o r t a n t l i t c t o r i r ' r p r o m o t i n g
, r . t ys c h o o l r s l l s r e p l L t a t t o n
a r r du h a t i 1 ss t L l d c n l sa n d e \ - \ t u d c n l s
have to sirv about il

tl

Markcting involves lcarnrng liom our students

both hou' rvell u'e are doing at satrsfyrngand
delightingthcm. and also leaming liom thenr in
what rva1,srve can improve and develop our
scrr.ice.We need to satrslyand dehght thcm not
only r.viththc quahty of our tcaching.but l'ith
the rmprcssron\\c create through thc say sc
dress.lith the anrountof homctork \\,c set and
rurark.r'rth all aspcctsol'the schoolliont the lal'
lhcl arc treated in rcccption.to thc cllrctency
u r t hu h i c hl c c o l l c c tt h c i r e n r o l m e nllc c st o t l t e
s p o t l e s s n cos tso u r t o i l e t s .
Thc rvord 'delight is a key one. C)uraim is not
just to meet expcclalronsbut to surpassthem - it
has ol1enbeen calculatcdtl.Iatin any bustness.
most customersu,ho slop bu.vingarc satrsiied
rvith thc product or sen'rce. Satislacttonisn t
enough.Dissatrslactionon thc other hand hrs a
harmiul etiect. It is esttmatcd
disproportronatcly
that ever.vdrssatisfledcustomer tums a$ a) a
furthcr ninc (potential)custotrersthroughword
of mouth.
Where do teacherscome in?
havc \\'ilh the
Thc major contact most stLldents
school rs through thcir leachers.and rr'e are
absoiutclycrucralnot only rn delrghtingstudents
throughthe excellenceof our teaching.but also
r n o b t a r n r n gl n l b r n r a t l ( )ann d t n e u n r e r t n gI
'vrcrv' of the school.
ln the classroom
Our trarnrng usually places entphasts o:r
languagc and pedagogic skills. and manl
teacherstake ibr grantedthat theseare thc ntost
importanll'aclorsfirr our students. But ollcn. a
littlc simple rescarchrevcalsthat studcntshave
other concerns - rf -vou chcckecl out the
questronnaire
at the beginningof this articlervrth
your students.1'ouprobably found not onll.'that
) o u r s n u L l p J l ( Jl t s tr r l p r t o r i l t c\.\ 4 . : o l T l e l i n l c s
rvrong. but also that what studentsthcnsclrcs
variesconsiderablyliom pcrsonto person.
"'alue
Wc needboth to know what studentsr alue.and
to tr),to rcspondto thls rn our teachtngand tn all
0ur contactwlth them.
lf rve are concernedrvith promottng a posltlye
rmageof the school.u'e ma.vneed to take carc.
too. to think abolLt\\'hat\\'c sav tn the classroom
and ensurc that any ftustrationsrve may 1'eel
a h o u t t h e s c h o o l d t r nt . p t l l o \ e r i t t l o o u r
interaction \rlth students. Carelesstalk can
easi)y suggest an unlavourlble viel ot the
school and. in the long run. lose thc school
'l'm soIry thc quality of these
students.
'Ihe
handoutsls bclow the usual high lu'cl.
photocopierlill be servtcedas soon as we can
get someoneto comc' is fine as an apolog)-:lt
takcs responsibiiitl, lbr thc problem and
identiflestl'reteacherriith the school. On thc
' l ' m s o r r l ' a b o n t h e c l u a l i t ro i l h e s e
o t h e rh a n d .

t2

lli lt )|t!it,it)t!l

!{t}/t\,

handouts. fha phrno<rryit't' i;n't wtrking

proparb a.qairr'is a potcntrallydamagrng.nonmarketingorlentatedrenrark.suggcsttngthat the
teachcr docs nol share responsibiJitl,uith the
' l - e t m e a s k C h l s ( D o S )t o 1 l \
s c h o o l .I r q u a l l l ' .
a time to sec you i1'1,ouare unhappvl'ith thc
t i r . n co f t h i s c i a s s . I ' m s u r e u e c a n f i n d a
r c s p o n s el o a p r o b l e n r .
solutron is a }]osltrYC
u h c r c a s Y c s . I k n o u . I o t s i l l ' s t u d e n t sh a v c
sardthat to nre.but r/,c'intvcr do ttnylhingufuat
11 ls nol.

At lrrge
OLrlsidcthe school. uhat u'c leant aboul thc
c n \ l r o n m e n ta n d u h a t l r c s l l a b o u to u r l o r k
a r c a l s or m p o r t a ndt i m e n s l o nosf m a r k e t i n g .W e
need to have our eiirs lo thc grountl.constanll)'
alert to rcmlrks and gossipwe hcrr rvhtch ma1,
('ls it truc
attect the school.ho$'er,erindrrcctl_'"
t h a t ) o u h a V Cd r u g a d d r c t so n t h e s t a l ' l ' a lI I I I ' :
'Wc hclr that
] o u c a n l e l r n F - n g l r slhi i s t c rr n t h c
Runtmrdge Academy': The government ls
g o i n gt o d e r a l u et h e l r a k I 0 ' l i ,a - q a t n st ht e d o l l a r
Iomorro\\'') and.crucralll. t c necdto be alcrt to
s h a t u c h c a l r n t h e c l a s s r o o narn d t h e c o r r i d o r s
o i ' t h c s c h o o l( l d o n t l i k c g o i n g t o t h c S t u d y
'l
C c n l r c ' : l i k e b e i n gi n a c l a s sr v t t ho t h c ro l d e r
studcnts). Havrng hcard thc remarks and the
gossip,wc need to kno* both hou to rcspond
there and then ('None ol'our teachersare drug
'The
addicts:
Runmrdge Academl,may be very
good.hut rrhat rs specialaboutIrs ts X. Y and Z.
and becauseof X l'm sure you rvill learn thsler
'-lell me horv
than vou rvouJdanyrvhereelse':
('el.ltre
u c could makethe Studv
morc uselil and
en;oyableor horv llou uorLld preler to sllend
your trnrc') and uho to rcporl this rnlbrrrationto
i n t b es c h o o l .
\\'hat is neededin order for teachers to takc
their responsibilitl lor marketing seriously?
Thc attltudeof the tcacherand htsr'hcracccssto
Teachers are
inlbrmatron rs crucral.
ol the school.and needto be ablc
representativcs
to rcspondappropriatelyand u,rth aulhority k)
comments and qucslions lrom students and
$ rthin thc communityat largc.
'I

iirr this ncccssartlystarts\\'rth

he rcsponsibilit-v
on thc school'strust tn
school
and
deperrds
the
and commilment to tcachers.tts opcnncssand
'ntarkettng
thc extent to Nhrch it embracesa
holc stafl in
o r r c n t a t i o n(' i . c . i n v o i v m g t h e u'l'eachers
tho
marketlngissucsand decisions).
fccl drssatislledtn a schoollirr u'hatcverreason
may still altcnd passronatelyto the quality ol
thcrr teachingbut are less irkcly to take their
marketrngroic seriously'. Thc imphcationsot
lhc pro1ecteddcvaluationof thc ira,{ rvill on1.v
srnk home il thc tcacherknoxs that the school
hrs investments or outgorngs in lbreign
currcnc)': the teachcr ivill only respond to
c o n p l a i n t sa n d c r i t i c i s m sa p p r o p n a t e l ivf h e o r

s h c l c c l s c o u r m i t t c dt o t h c s c h o o la n d r n l o l v e d
i n e n s u r i n gl n d d e r e l q r i n g i t s r e l ) u t a t j o na n d
prolitabilrtl,.

responsibilitllbr markclrng.and to intcgratcthis

lnto thclr \\'ork.

lirrsl o1'all. teachcrsneed to leel lo] ait.vto the

l , l) r l .
: ; l t , r , r i . 5 r . n 1 1 r 3\ \1r[l 1l ] J n ( l ! . ' n . ' r ' r l D l L n
rnissionand 1ts\\'av ot operatlng.\\'e needto be
in lbrrncd about current ancl prqccte.l
developmentsrnd nrotir,atcdto pronrolc the
s c h o o ls r n t c r c s t s \. \ i c n e c d .l o r c x a m p l e t. o b e
k n o t ' t h c a n s \ \ c r s1 0t h c l i r l 1 o * i n gq u c s t i o n s :

Teachcrsneedto knol \r'ho ltl passinfbrnration

on to. and thc school nccds to have a clear
procedure1br this. lt nccds to be clear u4ro is
responsible lirr absorbing. collatrng and
respondrngto infbrnrallonatroutthe ntarkct and
about sludcnt (c1is)satrsiaction:
teachersneed to
be thankcdlbl rctin-eas an infbrmationcontlurt.
and nccd to be kept rnfbnned rbout horv this
i nltrrmalronis r-rsctl.

lfhul ure 1,our st'hool's main rumpetitiye

odvantuges? ll:hal is y'our school's missiotr?
What happens to queslion,taires lhe sludents
.fill in ubout the school's servitts?
.,\nd ir ortler to act and ar.'r:Lre
responsiblvabout
t h e s c h o o ls r n t e r n a lo p e r a t i o n su. e n e e d t o
knoN thc ans\\,ers
lo thc lir11orr
rng:
ll'hich oJ thc sthool's cout's(s urc lh( tost
proJitable? I{ott' rrtotr).students dre nteded on
u 14urcrnl English classfor it to bruk o'an?
Art lhere tinrcs in lhe lear whcn the st:hool's
intonrc is lessthatr its outgoings?
If the schooldoesn'trecognlsethe rn.rportance
of
involVingl!-achcr\ln markc'tinqthe schoolin its
rvrdestsenscbl nrakrnginibnlation of thrs kurd
public lntl a toprc lirr opcn discussron.thcn
tcachcrs cannot be expcctcd to takc on

Teachcrsand marketing
N{arkctingis tl.rcresponsibilrryof everyonein
thc school. Attractjng.satrsiy'ingand clehghting
studcntsis a tcamresponsrbrlit-v.
and can onl-vbe
achrevedi1 the uhole team u'orks logcthcr wlth
sharcd goals and a common understandingof
\\'hatrs ncccssaryin ordcr lo rcach lhem. Vcry
spccrticalll in rclation lt.r thc classroonr.$c
reallv needto irrorl and act on thc ansrvcrsto all
thc questlons ln the qucstionnairc at the
b e g i n n i n go l t h r sa r t i c l c .
To conclude.let's look again at the questlons
about markctingposetl at thc bcginning o1'this
piece. Do 1,'ou agree \\'ith the suggested
anslers'l 1;i'

Questions

Suggestedansrvers

Marketing is aboul persuading

people to hu)'

Fttlse-i.;h.N'[arketrng
rnvolvesknorvingand undcrstanding
rvhat
qualrq,
people
krndsand
of scrvicc
\\ ant.trving to providethis. and
pror iclrngapproprjatcinlbrmationto enablepeopleto makeinlbrnted
\\ic onlr' pcrsuadepeopleto buy' rn the senscthat wc nccd
r'lrollc.r'.
1oprovrdehonestand accurateinlbrmatronaboutrvhatrve of1'er.And
more importantl\'.\\'hatwc offur nccdsto suttthem betterthan \\'hat
i s o f t e r e db v o u r c o m p c t i t o r s ! l

M tr k clitrg inv oh' es I isteni ng

m0re tltan speaking.

(thc right *ords to thc right pcopleat thc right trmc)

Ii-rrc.Speakin-q
rs alsoimportant.ho$ ever.

illarkeling is a discipline that

requiras special skill,
knou'ledge and training.

Truc and/il.se. Ilven, organlsattonrequiresmarketingspeciahsts.

but the responsrbilit_.',
ibr marketingrests$'lth er,eryonein an
organrsatlon

Tetchersshould Ieave
nttrketing to markelers

lalse. I he professronal
marketershavespecialresponsrbrlit-v,
but rve
all nccd to takc somcrcsponsibrlityIor markcting.

Nlartur Parrott is cun'ently co-ordrnatrnga managementtraining programrnernvolving several

IntemationalHouseschoolsin Eastem[urope. This projectis supportedby thc Bntish govemment's
Knorv Hou' fund.
|.ha]LkIf(hn|Il:\|0\|'nnlll|n||h|:\|l||l|0]|hL'i|s|!g|

l r t , r t i i t t , , t i r t i I i , ' : t . , . . J r t t tnt t l . i l r l i t t i t t i , r L t t t l l ) , ) : ' ) r ' r t . ) 1 1

13

Inllcctions arc thc changcs that wor.ls

r . r r r d c r gi o
n o r d c r t o d c n o t c d i s t i n c t i o n so f

ICELANDIC
FISII

lerl.(. S(rl(l(r. iJ\c

elc.

JII\ iollll)JriiLrll

b c t l c e n t h c t e n s es y s t e mo 1 ' I J n g l i s ha n d ,
s a v . ( a s t i l i a n( a l l t h o s e c n d i n g s ! )c l e a r l y
d e m o n s t r a t etsh e p o i n t a s l ) r a s r c r b s g O .
T h i s l a c k o f i n f l e c t i o n sm e a n s t h a t t h e
s a m el o r d c a n o p e r a t ea s d i l l c r c n t p a r t so 1 '
s p e e c h- t e d r i n k \ \ ' a t e r ( n o u n ) b u t w e
$ a t c r t l l c p i a n t s( r ' c r b ) l y ' o uc a n i i r , c n e a r
) ut r'ou can also
t h c s t a t i o n( p r c p o s i t i o n b
bc ncaringyour lbrtrcthbifihdl! (\'erb):

TALI(s

nrorc innovati',elr'. as heard on lhe T\,

r c c c n t l ) ' ." . . . a n d t h c r c 1 . h a s r c t i c a l d e d
'
L i . r . , , r i g 1 1 c( tJ l l \ o l t l s l t l \ l c l l l \s( ' n J u g J l c
'trr
red card' - I rtd turd. vou rtd
the rcrb
turd, ht'. sht rtr it rttl tunl.v...

not likelyl
Thc first in a series
/-

/-

oI "Cathy
leatures Dv'

EAis

of IH Barcelona
in which we takea
sidewaysglanceat the
languagewntcn ts our
currency. In thispieceshe
looksat somealarming
headlinesand gazesinto
the muddywatersoJ'the
Saxon Genitive.
t

'

he Englishlanguagehas beencalled
rnanythings (ask any student)but it
as
is undeniablya flexiblelanguage.
a result of its almost total lack of in1'lectrons.

1.1

i t t t ,t r t t t t . ) t ' , i il l , , . .

T h i s f ' l e r i b i l i t l i s o n e o l ' l h c l a c t o r st h l l t
can nrakc nc\\'sprperheadiinesalmost
l , ' l . r l l \ l l r . , ' l l l n f r l l e l r . l l r l1. , , r ) , r rtll . r l i \ c
s p e a k e r s .r i h i c h b r i n g s u s b a c k t o t h c
raiking fish of the title. In thc intended
''lish"
r e a d i n g ". l a l k s " i s a p l u r a l n o u n a n d
acts as an adjectrve,or to paraphrasc."fish
t a l k s " n r c a n s" t a l k s a b o u tf i s h " , u h c r c a si n
'1ish"
is a
the l'ar morc intriguing rcading
"
t
a
l
k
s
"
is a vcrb.
n o r r na n d
I l e r e a r e s o n r e n r o r c c x a n r p l c so f t h i s
.journalislicrvortl plar: Gl.{\T \\'AVES
DOWN I tlNNFll. (1oo hool) INCEST
}IORE CONINIO\ I'HA\ THOLIGH'I'
I\ t.SA. and \IACARTIILIR FLIES
BACK TO FRONT. As _voucan see,
nords pile up on each othcr with little
rcgard firr svntax (DEATH
DRUG
RESEARCH C]E\TRE SPY DRAN{A):
nouns are made to do the rvork ol'
a d j e c t i v e sa n d t h e p o s s e s s i v cea s c a l m o s t
disappcars altogcthcr - in lact, one
granrmarian rcports reading in a Flcct
Strcet stylc book "Bervare o1' the
p o s s e s s i v e- i t s h o r v s u p a h c a d l i n e " ,
\\hatever that nrcans. So try this onc,
cluotcd by Eric Partritlge in Usugc' ttntl
.,lhusugeunder thc hcadrng "Ambiguity":
I'I'AI,IAN ASSASSIN BO]\{B PI,OT
D I S A S T E R . V c q r c o n c i s ca n c i d l a n a t t c
but detinitell' ambiguous.especiallv *'hcn
1-ouknor.r'that tl)c assassin$.asn't ltalian.
).lative speakers are so used to thesc

But, to retumto thc porntabouthigheranimals.

$hat about"a bce'ssting"or "an ant'sncst" surelythcscarcn't higheranimals?No. savthe
books,hut the rulesalso apply to some loryer
animals as rvcll. You begin to sec rlfiat M.
Swanmeans.

conventions that we can son out the rneaning

almost imniediately. but to a tbreign rcadcr it's
cnough to put you ofT the languagefbr lifb. So
\i'e conle back to the posscssive.It rvasactually
thc disuster that was Italian. and the bomb plot
c l e a r J vb e l o n g st o t h e a s s a s s i ns,o t o m a k e i t l c s s
ambiguous u'c rvould need to re-arrange the
sentenceto position ltalian next to disasterand
'.!
add an
to assassin...or maybe just read the
article?

Thc conlirsionis not limitcd to animals. We

r.r'ouldalso talk about "Barcclona's trallic
problcm" rather than "the traffic problent of
Barcelona"becausecities arc considcrcdto bc
S p e a k i n g o f t h c p o s s c s s i v c .t h i s a r e a a l o n e
intimatclyconnectedwith peopleand thereforc
seems to causc studcnts a lot of problcms.
in this casefbllou'then:lesfbr people.But thcn
Michael S*an. in Prat ticul Engli.sh (|suga,
*'hat is a "class", if not somethingintimately
d e s c r i b e si t a s " o n e o 1 ' t h em o s t d i l l i c u l t p o i n t s
connected
lvrth people'?Why don't we tell the
in English grammar" and goes on to say
studentto go to "thc class'sbotton" insteadof
"thc bottomof the class",afler all. the first does
somervhat dishearteningly: "unlbrtunately the
exact details arc rathcr complicatcd" (notc the
havea nrorehumanfeel to it... This is becausc
"rather",
usc of
tmly English understatement
|).
rvith expressions
talkrng about dimensionsor
partsof something.
Anthony Harvey, rvriting in Pl7' (Decembcr
we use"of'. So we say"the
1 9 8 9 ) r e m e m b e r s a s t u d e n t e n t h u s i a s t i c a l l y back of the bus" and not "thc bus's back" or
telling him that shc'd bought an expenslve\\'rnc
even,as you might expectafter "the car door",
"the bus back". But thcn rvhy not "the bus
bottle to the paty and then being perplexed by
his reaction - hc was cxpcctlng an cxpcnsrve
back", if you can have "the table leg"'? As
b o t t l e o 1 ' u ' i n e . I f ' h e ' d t o l d h e r s h e r v a sh a v i n g
AnthonyHan'ey says,"soon the problemsand
trouble \\'ith hcr pcriphrastic genitivc. pcrhaps
cxceptionscome flooding in and even your
she rvouldn't have been so bemused?
advanced students arc ol1'cnng you "rvinc
bottlcs".
Thcrc arc three possibrlitieswith the possessive:
the apostrophe "s", or rvell-known Saxon
gcnrtrve, as in "Mary's little lamb"; the
"something of the something". as in "the fiont
ol thc newspaper";and in some cases,the noun
uscd as adjective,or "noun adjective",as in "the
'fhe
car door".
srmple rule is that wc usc the lr
for people and "of' *ith inanimateobjects. So
rve say ".lohn's book" and "Mary's sister" but
"thc story of the castle" or "the King of Rock
and Roll".
ln this rvay, "Livingstonc's
discovcry" rcfcrs to the source of the Congo
discoveredb.vLivingstone,but "the discoveryof
Livingstone" refers to the discovery of
Livingstone by Stanley. But you could quite
conectly talk about "the dog's tail" rather than
"the tarl of the dog" (unlessthe dog in question
is givcn to story-telling) bccausc the dog is
consideredto be a higher animal and therefbre
on a par u,ith us humans. I'henthere's "the hair
of the dog" - I don't suppose it would curc
anybody's hangover to be offered "the dog's
hair". (Sorry. Ihis is actually a red herring as
it's rcally "the harr of the dog that bit you").

Iltirnattt,tittl

As il this wasn't enough,anothercuriositv is

that we can also attach the '.1 to a totally
inappropriate
rvord at thc end of a phraseto
signalthat it rs the wholc phrasewhich is the
orvncrof the firllorvrngnoun; for example,in
"the $'omannext door's husband",thc husband
is obvrouslynot manied to the door but to the
woman - "the woman's next door husband"
mlght suggesta touch of bigamy. The phrase
"ncxt door" getsitself attachedto "husband"as
a u,ay of identifyinghim. as opposcdto hcr
othcr husbands. This is known as the group
genitrve,and leadsto suchgemsas "That's thc
passcnger
thatmissedthe trainu.henit lefi three
minutesearly'sluggagc".Therccomcsa point
*hcn you just have to leavethe grammarwell
alone. Maybe studentswill acqurresome of
thesefiner pointsand maybcthcy won't. Thcy
couldcertainlynevcrleamthem {l

l l,'tttr,.JoLtntal tl I itu

The original version oJ this article .lirsl

appeared in iT's for Teachers, a monthly
mogazine
Jbr teacherspuhlishedin Barcelona.

ortr,n ottl l )t.^ i,tl.tt t tit

1-5

TOURISTS,CITIZENS & AUTOCRATS

Karen Adams,teucheruntl truiner in InternulionulHouseLondon,looks(ltp(ltternsof po*t:r in
lhe clussruomund tliscusses
thepitfulls us well us the desiruhilit.tof .student
choice.
Inragine tlte scenaio. YoLt i ternediate class lruve suid tlnt the) \rtt1l lo inlpt'or'( tlteir speuking. You
huve spenl setttul hours detising u roltpluy, nith llped und luninutt<l rolcturd.sand tlaur stages.ftn'
prepuration. Yct..fi,entirtutesinto the ddiri!\' itseU.set'trul ol yout studenlssur,'f'inishedl',undprocecd
kt distttss l heir plun.s.forthe v'eekend in English, i/ you urt lut ki.
I v,ouldhazctrdct guessth. the siluutionoutlincduhot,chus huppenedto ull Englishlanguugatt'uthersul
(hre/ ll.t' prcparetl plans untl nrult'rials. tlt'signed /br
some point, in ortt' guise or otnlher.
'connnuictrtive
prodiLe', ./hll ut the.first hurdle and leut'elhe tedcherand studants/ecling.l)'t!slrole.l.
Thequestiono.fv'hy this might huppen- untl hrtt tt'emight uvoitl il is, in purt, tht,.suhjattof thisartit:lt.
much more superiicral awarenessof u,hat has
t a k e np l a c e .

CONTMTINICATION V. CO}I}{ I]NI C]ATI\IE

Thc first point to bcar in mrnd is that
c o m m u n l c r l r o na n d c o r n m u n i c r t cr r p r r et i ec u r t
not synonymous.flommunicationbetrveenpeople
requlres a genui e inreresl or need to convcy and
recerve infbrmatron - in short. it involycs thc
participants mentally or emotionally in thc
transmission of messages. Clommunicative
practice,on the other hand, may seek to emulate
thc surlace pattcms of rcal communicatlon(i.e.
gettin!! people to speak to each other) but the
elementol engagementwith the inlbrmationmay
be mrssing. Studenlstaking part in these tasks,
therefore, may be kept occupied without
processingthe rnibrmationin a rvay *'hrch keeps
thcm involved.
CITIZENS AND TOIIRISTS
This involvement/occupationdichotomy is thc
c e n t r a l p o i n r o f R o g e r s a n d I r e r b e r g. l
descriptionsol the rolesof studentsrn the leamrng
process. In order to leam effectrvely.thcy say, a
student must ftel that she is a citizen of the
classroom society. i.c. that her contribution
dircctly affccts what happensin thc classroom.
Rogers typifies this studentas onc rvho, among
othcr attributcs,takcsthe initiativc to rntcractwith
peersand teachers.and providesa rationalefor the
'tourist',
answerss/he gives. The classroom
by
contrast.is a studentto rlhom thingshappen who
does exercisesbecauses/he is told to, rvho gives
ans*'ersrl'hen called on - and rvho obsen'esaction
r a t h e r r h r n r n i l r a t r n gl n r i p r r t i c r p a t i n gi n i t .
development.
therebyleavingthe classroomu'ith a

'

Rogers,C. & Freiberg,H.J.:Freedomto I.carn:

MacMillan (Ncu' York); 199,1.

t6

l\lt.]uili'),,11

llt)tt,t

.i,t.t:;: ti

\\rhat.then,js the role of thc teachcrin promoting

a classroonr enyironment uhere students can
become involved. rather than merely occupiccl'/
The starting iroints are kr considcr thc cxtcnt to
which t'c allo'* studcnts:a) to bccomcinvolvcd in
genuinedecisionmaking and b) to take the lead
ln rnteractlon.
DE(]ISION }'IAKINC; IN THE C]LASSITOONI
Recently.I asked a group of teacherson an jnsen'rcetraining courseto think about the first of
thesepornts. Sone said tirey routineiy drd needs
anal-,,-sis
tasksrvith ncrv groupsrvhilstothersasked
tbr studcntinput rn mid-courscfeedbacktasks to
hclp thcn plan thcir courscs. Occasionally.a
tcachcr u'ould ask hcr studcnts to look at the
conlcntspaqc of thcir ncu, courscbookancldccidc
rvhichlanguageareas/topics
they iirund interesting
group
and a numberof the
asked studer.]ts
to keep
journals and commcnt on thrngs thcl, lbund
dilllcult in class. Altogether.thrs uas a group of
teachersu,ho seemedvery keen to rnr,olvetheir
process. Horvever,
studentsin a dccrsion-making
t\.o points soon became Very clear during our
drscussions. firstl.v. the teacherssarv decrsionmaking as somethingr4.uchhappensat the level
oi syllabusdesign,i.e. at a macrolevel.ratherthan
a principlc underprnnrng all areas of thejr
teaching. Secondly, although very rvilling to
canvassthe students'ideas.the feedbackon those
ideas rvas lncorporated rnto thcir tcaching in a
l-airlycovert manner. N,lostof the teachersfelt
that thcir stutlenlsu'ould bc able to percclve an
elementof thcir ideas in the coursecontent.but
none took time in the classroomto discusshou,
those rtleasmrght rnfluenccthe timctable. As a

,t [.,!t||]|||,i)i titri

l)t'\t lt'l)tjt jti

r c s L r l l l. n a s i t L l a l i o nl i k c t h r s l h c s t u d c n t sa r e
l c n d c r e t ll a r r l l , p o l r c r l c s si n t e r m s o f d c c i s l o n
r.nakrng:therr input ts soLrghtonlv on irntrted
p o i n t sa n dt h e r ei s n o c l e a rr n d i c a t i o tno r n d r r , r d L r a l
s t u d e n t sl h a t t h c i r c o n t r i b u t r o n sh a | e n t a d c a
drll-erenceto thc outcome ot thc lcsson or lhc
course.

n o l u r t h e rd i s c u s s L opr .rrosc e e dc) a n b e l l k c n c dt o a

citizcn \'oting tn a society govemccl by an
autocrat. Thcv providc some input but ha\.e no
lirrthcr sav on hou' thlt inpul is used. ln order to
'democratjsc
t l t e s y s t e n to f d e c i s i o n - m a k i nas t
s ) ' l l a b L rosr t i n r e t a b l cl c v c l , t h e t e a c h e rn e e d st o
cnsurc that shc makes overt the connections
bct\\'een thc studcnts' input and the resulting
P0\\'I]R-SIIARIN(; I\ THE CLASSROO}I
coursc- and to renegolralcclcmentsof tltat coursc
i l n e c e s s a r y[ ').o i n ga n e e d sa n a l y s i si s o n l ] a l l r s t
l h i s r a r s c st \ \ o m a l n i s s u e s . ! r r s t 1 1 .l 1 's t u d c n l s \ t c p . a ' t \ t l l l - \ l u J c n t . l h e o P f o u n r l \ t o r c l : \ \ ( . \ \
ilrc to beconle lirll_,-inr olr,ccl in thc lcarnrng
thelr nceds at Various points throughout the
p r o c r s s .t h e ) , n e e ctlo s c c t h r l t h c i r c o n t r i b L t t i o n s \ , r u l - ( . l n J r . - . P o t t d i nI og t h o s cr e l . . e ' . m t n t . .r s
a r c l a l u c d . S c c o n d l l ,r.l t h o s ec o n t n b u t i o n a
s rc
t h en e x t .
o n l l ' r n l i t e d o n v e r t , r s o l l t c do c c a s i o n st .h c n ' . h e
('0NSTR{INT'S O\ POWER-SHARING
l c r c l o f s r : s t a i n e rdn y o l r c m c n ti s u n l r k e l vt o b e
vcrl high. Ho\\'. tl'rencan se qivc stLldcntsthe
o])portunrt)' 10 hccomc rcll crtrzcns i:r the
I l o u c r c r . u , e n e e dt o r c c o g n i s ct h a t l r l i r s n o t a s
c l a s s r o o mn. o t o n l v a t t h c l e l c i o l ' c o u r s ed e s i g n
sin.]plcas the outlinc aboveassun.rcs.lhcrc arc a
b u t . m o r e i m p o r t a n t l \ . l n t h e d a y - t o - d a v n u m b c ro l c o n s t r a i n tosn t h e $ a y d c c i s i o n - n r a k i n g
crchangcsclurrngthe lesson'.)Both ofthese ideas
at thc level of coursc dcsign can bc a shared
challense the tradrtional assumlllion that thc
vctlture:
. Students neetl to ba ux,ure of tlrc parsrneters
p o w e rt o t l e c i d cr r h a t i s d o n cr' n t h c c l a s s r o o m
lies
l r n L l i l n r ( r l i l l lr\r r l l t t h < l r ' t r . l r , -. r J n J \ . u n t p o n
ol their thoicas.
u'hich *c can tirsguise *ith tltc pseudo[ ] 1 ' a s k r n g" W h a t u o u l d 1 , o ul r k c t o l a l k a b o u t
c o m m u n l c i t t i o n$ ' h r c h i s o t i e n t h e p r o d u c t 0 1 '
i n c l a s s ' l " t. h e t e a c h c r u n s t h e r i s k o 1 ' g c t l i n g
n e e d sa n a l v s e sa n d r o l c p l a l ' sh. L r tu , h i c h .i n 1 a c 1 .
v e r y l r t t l e l e e d b a c ks i r r p l r , b e c a u s teh e r a n g e
can be hcld b_"'even the nrost communlcatrve
o l o p t r o n sr s u n s p e c r t i e d A
. s k l n g s t u d c n t st o
tcachcr.
p r r o r i t i s ei n l c r c s t sa n d t h e n a d d t h e i r o r l
sllggestlonsrs a 1ar better springboardto real
C ' I I ' I Z E N SA N D A T ] T O ( ' R A T S
ncgotratr|)n.
. Students nrc.l to be avare of lhe intplications
'Ihe
cosrretic porvcr-sharingrvhich rcsults from
o.ftheir choices,
o n c - s t a g et a s k s ( e . 9 . \ \ ' h e r es l u d c n t s \ . o t e ' o n
Wc necd to ensure that studentsmake therr
\1hatthev * oLrldlrkc to tlo in classbut lioln u'hich
d e c i s i o nos n t h c b a s i so f i n f o r m e dc h o i c e . F o r
example.thcrc rs little point tn askingstudents
rf thcy fccl pronunclatrontasks in class are
usefulrf thcy havc littlc or no experrence
of the
t
l
r
p
e
s
q
u
c
s
t
r
o
n
.
o f t a s k si n
L J n i n f o r m ccdh o i c c
Iloafwo! TNANTqau ro
rs r.rochoice.
codnuNrcAtc h/rTtl A aENulNe
tN Te-CetT oa t(4d
. lyhol .'onstraints does the sdrool and/or exsnt
fo coNveq AN6
sJ,stenimpose?
Aecct/e
In pnoritising their nccds.are studentsaware
t h/Fo 2 t't AT tON
ot thc rcquircmcnlsu.hrchthe instltutlonor the
llnal eramrnationnrisht de:nandof the course/
StLrdcntstaking FCE. lbr erample. might be
morc $ illing to opt fbr the pronuncialrontasks
mcntioncd above if
they knorv that
pronunciationis ieatureof the marks schcmcin
thc oral c\rnination.
. Aru studenlsprepared to make t clroice?
This is, pcrhaps.lre major constraintwhich the
rcal trrrld imposeson thc thcory of negottated
syllabusesand tir.nctables.For manv students,

i ; : t , r t ' t : ; , , ; , , t 1 i i , j . , , I , t t t I t , t l, ) i l i ! t | , t : i , ' , : , : , . , ; 1 : , ' , . | , : I t ,1. tt 1 1

l7

thc lask of course desrgr.ris part of the

tau<:her's job. and therefbrc not thelr
responsrbility. In asking them to beconre
rnvolved in the process.the teachermay be
asking them to take on a role rvhich they are
unrvillingor unablcto assumc. By rmposinga
system of 'choice' at the macro lcvcl of
tcachingrvithout considennghow this exlends
to the micro levei. therelbre.u'e risk alienating
our students rather than emporvenng them
not unlikc a dictator dcmandrng a 100%,
tumout in elections r"hrch the electorate
bclievervrll changenothrng.

IIorv. then. can \\'e overcomethe constraints

outlined above in ordcr to create a leaming
envrronmentrn rvhich the studentsare reall,".'
citizcns rathcr than mcrcly tourisls'/ I lirmly
bclieve that this process is one u'hich must
bcgin at the level ol' mlnute-to-minute
communicationbetween studentsand teacher
during the lessonif rt is to have a chanceof
succeeding a bottom-up approachto powersharing.rather than top-down. Ilut uJrat docs
this meanin practicalterms'?
As teachcrs,rvc nccd 1o considcr ho* thc
questronswe ask studentsin classcan limit or
subvertinvolr.ement. Asking studentsto rcad
and ansrverquestlonson. sa). a film revieu',
u'ithout givrng them the opportunity to talk
about their reactions to the re\'rew greatly
limits the need tbr involvement\\'ith the text.
S r r n r J a r l lb. y r e s t r r c t r n qg u e s l r o n rl o o n e :
u'hich require studcnts to display thcir
knorvledgeof rvhathas been taughtratherthan
rcflect on rvhat they thrnk and krorv, rve create
a lbrm of pseudo-communication
in rvhichwc.
the teachers.controlboth the questronsand the
answelS_
'1he
ways rn which rve respond to what
studcntssay u,ill help to deflne therr level of
involvement. By takrng an interest in their
opinrons,and invrting reactions lrom other
class members, we show that therr
contnbutions are valued.
In such an
environment, class members rvrll 1'eellieer to
initiate communication - a Vital factor in
promotingcrtizcnshipwithin thc classroom.
l'inally. by asking studcntsto make decisions
at variouspoints in thc lcsson,rvc can help to
pave the way towards greater student
involvement at thc level of course design.
Small-scaledecisionssuchas "Would you lke
to do thrs exerciseaioneor u'ith a partner'?"or

18

"Would 1'ouprei'erto do a rolcplay or have a

discussron?"
can accustomstudentsto the fact
that thc)' harc a choice. As uith a needs
analysis.ho$ever. this nccds to bc infornetl
cholcc.
CONSTRAINTS ON POWER-SHARTNG (rI)
ln promotingmore cflective rnvolvementthrough
impror,edcommunicationrn thc classroom.$'c
ncedto recognisethat thereare strll constralntson
that commLlnicatron.For cxamplc. althoughreal
communicationrequires real questions.drsplay
qucstions arc still important rn checking
understanding. Choral rcpctition rs pcrhaps thc
ultimate in non-communicatrve
speaking.and yet
it rs strll a vcry useful pronuncratron
and nremorl,
ard. There rvill all'ays be studentswho dominate
i n a c l i r . i t r c sa n d i n i n t c r a c t i o n* i t h t h e t e a c h e r .
and rve still need to use strategiesto ensurethat
quictcr studcntsare not lelt out. !rnally. students
mav not make the choicesrvhich u,c. as tcachcrs.
lecl uould be most bcnellcral 1br them
lbr
example.thel rnight decidethat thcv do not \\.ant
to particlpatc in roleplals. hou'ever benellcial
these mlght be in extendulgthe range of therr
a\\'arcncssof dilfcring lcrcls of approprracy.In
sucha case.rl'e needto considerle'rl caretllll,the
h e n e f iot f n r ; ' " r r r.ct u d c n t |sf , f l r c r l \ r lrcn : r ( 1 rr\t r c .
r v h r c ht h c t a c t r v c l yd i s l r k c .
Theseconstrarntsor.rlysen'eto illustratethe most
important clcmcnt in thc promotion rcal studcnt
rnYolr.cmcntin thc classroom that the teacher
nccdsto bc alivc and responslveto her studentsas
peopleas rvell as learners.
THE THREE KEYS
In consrderingthe need lbr powcr-sharingrn the
classroom,therelbre,I f'eel that there are three
n]aln lssues:
r The key to real lcarningis involvcmcntin thc
process.not merelyoccupation.
. Thc kcy to involvcmentis knor,ing that your
contributionhas somevalue. If a studentttels
that rvhat shc says rvill have no effect on thc
progressof the lesson.her needto be involved
r v i l lb c m r n i m r s e d .
o The key to a studcnt'slccling valucd lics in
the teacher's allou'ing for meaningfui
lntcractionto takc placc at all lcvcls in thc
leaming/teachingprocess. This. in turn.
requiresthe lcacherto rcasscsshcr rolc in this
process. She can no iongerbe the autocratin
the classroomsocretyi-,

I I t I t .t i | ! | | i | ) Jt | | | l l , t t t : r . t , , t ' . : r i , i l ) l t t : r i i i t , t I n t l l ) r \ t l t ' / ) ' ) t , . j t i

TESTING TIMES
Jeremy Puge, Direr:tor of Sttuliesot Internotional House LontJon,tacklesthe
issueof'testing and sugge"r/s
on ollernutiveto allowing studentsto moye up
y,illt-nilly.
throush the lettels
ost studcnts like to be testcd (the
i n f i n i t i v e j s u s e d a c h . i s c d l y ) .M o s t
teachersdo not llke to testtheir studcnts
(ditlo), though they may hke testing thcm. This
conllict betrveenwhal sludcntson the one hand
expect and \\,hat teachers on thc othcr hand
oonsrderto be pedagogrcalJyunsoundcreatesa
d i l c n t n t l l i r r 'l r r n g t r u rs: <e h u o l s. l r r r r r r FI o . l l e r i r l c
sintultaneousll,
on the cuttlng cdge of cducational
innovation and rn a marketplace *hrch is
i n c r e a s i n g lcyl i c n t - l c d R
. e c o n c r l i ntgh e l c g r t i m a t e
l . p r r r t i o n .o l t l t e s cl r r o I c r T t t o n (L\ J n - J i u n \
Director of Studresu'ill attcst - be as dauntinga
task as that curcntll lacing the Vaflousparties
aroundthc varioustablesat Stormonl.

accuracy.The broadaims of the asscssntcnt

arc to
cnsurethat studcntsdo not progrcssto the ncxt
level band befbre they arc rcady and to enable
tcachcrs to justrfl, their recommendationthat
students should go into a rentedial class by
identrtyingclear critcria rvhtch they significantly
l a r l t o m e e t .I h i s a l s oh a st h c b c n c f i to l p r o v r d i n g
clcrr goals lbr the ncxt period of study. lhe
problemol rcpcatingmaterialis ovcrcorneby thc
allocatronof a differentcourscbook.u'hrchis used
as onc lcachrngresourceamong man1,u.ithin a
needs-based
iiamcwork.
T l l c s y s t c mi s s t i l l i n r t s i n f a n c ya n d c i e a r i yr s l a r
liom perfect.lt docs not, lbr exantplc.satisfythc
demandsof thc clenrentarystudcntwho yeams to
be antl tnsiststhat s,iheis prc-intermediate.Nor
can rt pretend to pror.rde tl'te kind of
( u r ' 1rref h c r l . r \ cp r , r t ' r l oe l l i n g u r s t r L. u r n p c t c n c e
t h r t t h e( r r n b r r , . l n
p rel i n: u t l c c r u r l r n r t i o nr' s p i r c
to. Its primary valuc lics tn gl\'1ngtltc tcachera
snapshot of her,/his studcnts' colrn'lutllcatl\'e
abrlity both oral and u,rittcn and in establishing
ri ithin broad paramclers rvhen students are
genurnelyready to prollressto a morc demandrng
classand - perhapsmorc inportantly - rvhenthcy
are hkcll to benelltfiom beingthere.

It rs cqullly the case that a famiirar leaturc of

man1,languageschoolsrs thc long-temr student
\\to attendsciassesreligiouslybut. u hile making
below avcragc progress.moves rclentlessJyup
through *'hatever system of lcvcls is in place.
Evcntually si'hc may llnd her/himself in an
advanccd class but lack many or most of the
attnbLrtes
expectedby a tcachcrof thc advanced
l c a r n e r ' .l h r s c o m m o n J h
y a p p e n as s t h er c s u l to f a
lack ol surtable altematives to obliging the
rcluctantstudcntto rcpcal a class\\,lth all that that
i r n P l r cr. r rl c r m , o l ' l u s su j ' n r o t i r l l r o nr.c p c t t t r u n
ol tcachingmatenal and possibJvan unrvelcomc On the evidenceavailabletlte systemdoesseemto
bltp in teacher/studenl
bc rvorkrng. We have lewer problcms rvrth
rclations.
studentsgoing up by defaultinto classesu4richarc
At IntemationalI louse I-ondon$'c havc attcmpled
much too difllcult lbr thcn.rand generallyfind a
to addrcssthc two problemsidentifled above by
grcaterdegreeof homogeneityas a rcsult. Neu'
mtroducrng a systenl of limitcd 'barner level'
students going rnto classes are no Jonger
asscssnent.In practrcethrs means that studcnls
noticeably strongerthan old studcntsuto have
'comc
rvho har.e 'complctcd' a course at Preup through the svstem'. Of course. the
Intermedlate.Mid Intermediateor Pre-Advanced fleribilitl, we enjoy in bcing able to timetable
ler.el arc assessed both ln terms of their
rcmcdialclasseswhcn neededis a luxury availablc
communicativecompctcnccand their ability to
in relatively 1cw schools.Yet other options must
achicyecommunicatir.ewritten tasks.The lbmcr
surely be available fbr thosc studcnts whose
rnvolr.es asscssnrcntof lrstening and spcaking
ovcrall ratc of progressis simply not last enough
skrlls agarnstcriteria rvhich togethcrconslitutea
to allow them to go any furthcrrvithouta periodof
'communicatirc
skills profile' for
the
consolrdatron'lAlter all. fiom a pedagogical
rntcrn.rcdiate.late rnlerrnediate and advanccd perspective.t-ervoptions could be less desirable
studcnt.The lattcrrcquircssludentsto attemllttwo
than classes containing students rvho arc not
dlscrctc colrlnlunlcatrvcwritten tasks.rvhich are
rvavtngbut dro*nrng... and u-hoseflounderingin
thcn assessedagainst oblectrve criteria. Task
thc u'ater may understandablycausc iesentment
achievementi.e. communlcatlonof the intended
amongthcir more appropriatelyplacedcolleagues
mcssagels seen as more importanl than formal
as thcy svnchronise
their srvrmming SJ

I t ' t , r t t r rt t t , t ; i t . ! | , ' r t r , . ! r , t t t r i t i I . r I t r t . t i i r , t t, t i t , , i j , t , i o t , r ' i Ll l

19

pasttlcductionas *'ell as being uscd to refer

to an action completetlat sonreindefinite
tinrc bctu,ccn norv and a knor.vnpoint in
1u1uretime. so long as teachersopenly
acknorileclge
that rulcs can scn,c onlv as
hc)pfulhints. thcn I think *'e can actively
clrarv
our students'
attentionto thcm.

Thecolumnfor peoplewith
somethingon theirminds...
A chanceto air the questionsthat
havevexedVou,and hellJout
othersin a stateof vexation.
Pleaseaddressall correspondence
to: Q&A,TheEditor,lHJournaletc.
etc..TheEditoracceptsno
responsibilitv
for the contentor
accuracvof what follows.
Beforegoingto the new batch,
herearesomeresponses
to
queriesin previousissuesi

Dear Keith,
Thereareexceptionsto rulcs.
With a namelikc kElth I can fully
rr hr yotrurcu Iittl.'l)erturb(d
h\
trrrderslrrrti
thc rxlc that'i' shouldprcccdc'c'cxccpt
afier 'c' u'henllre vou,elsoundis li.l (IH.IED
April 1997).
That said, I have to say that I strongly
believethat one of our roles as teachersis to
offcr stutlentshelpful hints nhich rvill aid
them in their questto conquerthe con.rplcxity
of English. Just as in the casewhich A.
Spcct highlightcd clscwhcrc in thc samc
Q&A colunrn,in rvhicha studer)thad spottcd
that the llture perfect could har,c a usc as

20

The Englishspellingsvstcnris not quitc thc

chaoticnrishmashol'illogicality that manv
teachersbelieveit to be. There is a u'ide
r arictyof hclplul spcllinghintsrvc can ol'l'cr
our studcnts.such as in the examples
Itop>hrtpe,rip-.,'
r1,r",shcrc thc ntagic'c' c:tn
sen'eto makethe vos'el sonncllong. And to
kccp thc voucl soundshorl, srnrplydoublc a
lcttcr to neutralisethat nragic 'e' (writtt,n,
huppen etc.)
If I say a nonscnsc
u,ordaloudto a groupof
natir,cspcakcrs,I llnd that there is a linritcd
varictvof spcllingaltcmatir,csthcy can come
up rvith. lf rvc hcar a nc.,l rvord on a radio
ilrogranrme.ne are nearlv alu,ays able to
look up the meaning o1' that rvorcl in a
dictionarl''. \\'c can gucssat a spclling of a
u o r d b e c a i L socl o u r k n o n l e i l g eo 1 - ab a s i c
I r ' r ! l i s lsrl l r ' l l r nsr r ' t e r t t . l l t e t c i s : r s r s l e t t t .
I r o r r c r . rc u n r p l c r . ( L c t ' s l r c c i t . t r r g l i s l r
qrammarand pronunciation
arcn't altogetlrer
sh-aightfbnvard systems!)\\re teacherscan
takc rcsponsibilityfor hclping studcntstry to
understandit a little betler than they do
alread-v.
Yours.
Derrin Kent
IH Heliopolis,Cairo
(Dcrrin Kenthuppensto he llrc uutfutr of llte
Spell \Ycll series ct/ spelling hook-s fbr
prinun agc schoolchiltlrcn,due.for rcleusc
h.r OrJbrd ( lttit'ersitt Pres.sin I 9981

N{arcoliom Hungary (lFL./21)

April 1997)shouldtakeup
teaching
French.ln just one
'l
courscbook(Bicnvenuecn l:run<'e ontc 1) I

I I t r ' r i t t t l t , \ t , ;|l| t ' t r : , . i , ; t ' : ' . i , i i . t i t i t , i t , ) : i' , r , 1 l t t ' r L 1 , " , ' ; t: :. '

foundrecipesfor Pot-au-Feu,
Quichc
Lorraine,Bouillabaisseand Cassoulet.
Althoughnot specificdin the recipcs,
vindalooporvdercanbe addedliberallyto all
thcsedishesto adtla celtainjc ne saisquoi.
Yours,
Philippe Kerr,
lH London

I readwrthinterest
thc letterin
Issue3 qucryingtheuseof the
lutureperfcctby thelandlady
of a
studcnt.When a colleaguereadthe letterand
tirc responseout in thc staffroom,lherewas a
unanimoLrs
acceptance
of the landlady's
utterancc.Intercstingly.
noneof thepcople
prescnt\\'ere(or rr.rr.s
i1'r.ouprefer)Irish!
Will.6ehg a nrodal,by dcfinitiondoesnot
haveonc lixed relationto time. It conveys
the speaker'svicw that the eventin question
is logicallyrnevitable.That'srvhyit is used
so often in predictionanddeduction.The
landladyuseswil/ to declaresomcthingthat
shebelieyesb be true. As shebelievesthe
eventto havehappencdalreadyshenaturally
electsto usehave+ third fomt ofthe verb.
I feel allotvingstudentsto discoverthe
rntrinsicmeaningof x.i// is morc usefulfor
studentsand more liberatinglor the teachers
thanstickingto tired 'time-based'grammar
rules.
Yours,
Tim Hazel,
IH Poznan

In a numberof articlesand
discussions
recently,teachers
havebeenaccusedof spending

guilty of this myself and my own firm

convictionas to the valueof this topic has
beensomer.vhat
shaken.Talking to some
colleaguesaboutthis in the bar one night, I
realisedthat fcw peopletvouldcommit
themselves
one way or the other. The
verdict,it seemed,was that thercwas
nothingcriminalahoutteaching
certain
thingsjust bccauseyou could and that
anlnvay,cnme vocabularyhassccn
somethingof a renaissance
sincethe
worldwidecoverageof O.l. Is thejury still
out on this, or havethe cynicshijackedthe
argumcntto the extentthat all references
to
crime in classhavebeenoutlawed?
The ball's in your court. I rcst my case,
Yours,
A.H. (Barrister at Law),
IH London

Wht llarrister AT Law ? (ed.1

r-*:=]_-r .do you explarnthe

|l l r'-!\ r | How
..^^
driterencesrn useand meaning
It
, i
I Y
I betweenhowcverand
,il]nF"/"sr? In rheCambndgeInremaljonrl
Dictionaryof Englishhowevermcans
'nevertheless'
(amongotherthings)but
nevertheless
is simply dcfinedas 'despite
what hasjust beensaid' (without referenceto
howeyer).Morcover,in spiteof the fact that
you cansay'...but nevertheless'
whcn
speakrng,
you couldn'tget away$'ith .... but
however'. Notwithstandingthc lact that I,vc
long sincelost thc confidenccof my students
regardingthis, can anyonehelp any.lvay?
Yours,
Lin King (FCE Teacher),
IH Budapest

rtemssuchas crime vocabularysimply

bccausethey can. I haveto say that I am

I;ttLrnatir,ttttI IIott,,t Jrtt.rtnaI o/ [ihrt.orrott

t t t L t lI ) t . t L l o l t t n c t L t

2I

VENES
ONTOPOFPflNASAL
EETIITIO
RachelClsrk, teacherand teuchertroiner at InternationalHottseLrtndon,
looksut tuctl'sof teachingphrasrtlverbsond makesa plea to teachers
throughoutthe organisotion.
ike almost every EL tcacherthat l've
cver met. l've been on thc vcrge of
u'riting 'my book' since around the
cnd of my first year of teaching. I've been
promisingsignedcopiesto studcntsin evcry
countryI'r'e worked in, and mauy I havcn't
Ten yearson, have I put a singlervortl down
on paperyet? Not quite. The thing is, I r/o
knorv rvhat I want the book to be about.
Tl.rat'sa good stalt, I'nr surc you'll agree.
Ar.rdto lollow it up I'd likc to usc thrs
joumal asoatalystto get me really going.

rcnremberu,hichparticlc to use. So, I came

up rvith the follo*'ing soluttons:

Sincc my first FCE course. I've ahvays

wanted to find the perfect v,ut' to teach
phrasalverbs and I expectmany othershave
f'eltthc same. In this article,then,I'd like to
do tu,o things:

lirom studentsl've tauglrtusing this method

l'r'c only ever had extremely posltlvc
leeilback- they all say that for the first time
in their lives thcy actually undcrstandand
t cnrcmbermeaningand vcrb and particlc. (l
have had somc extremclvpolitc studentsin
nl)' time). Howevcr.rvhen l'te cxplained
lhat I do to other leacliers,I've often bccn
laced u'ith the following questlons I
reservations:

I . to shorvyou someo{'thc rvaysI go about

teachingphrasalverbs(PVs)
2. to make a suggestionwhich could bc
beneficialto many of us.
You don't haveto havebeenteachinglong to
realisethat the two main problemsthat every
student has r.vith PVs are not only
understandingneuning, but rcmembenng
which preposition / utlverb is connectcd to
each verb. The books that were availablc
u'hen I first startedout did llot seemto try to
l.relpstudentsto overcomethcse problenrs;
the1,approachedPVs in a rathcr random or
academicrvay. Onc erception tvasMuking
Senseof Phrasal l/erhsby Martin Shovcl,in
which the vcrbs were presentcdboth visually
and memorably. The morc I thought about
this, though, the morc I sensedthat the
disadvantagcof this book was that all thc
verbsrvereprescntedin the samcway. As a
studcnlshad no idca what the
consequence,
root verbsrvereand it didn't help studentsto

22

Presentthe P\rs visLtallrto shos the

mcaninganclto ntakcthentntcntorablc.
. Groupthc PVs underthe root vcrb so that
cach r',:rb has a dilfercnt stylc (see
to
eramplcsbelou'). This hclpsstudents
rvhichverb the),need.
ren.rclnber
in thc
o Includethe particle in sonte .'r'a-"r isual (see cxamplesbelorv) so that
studcnts
kno$'whichparticleto use.

L Doesn't the presentationstage tuke a

Iong tine /
). Istt't it hurd .for the teacher to think of
ideusfor tlte pictures?
3. Hort tloesit help stu(lcntsto knotr if the
ycrhsarc sepu'ahleor insepuruble
!
Let's havea look at somccxamplesof what I
might do, then rve'll come back to thcse
points.
First of all then, I gcnerallygroup thc verbs
as you see below. (Thc ones in the right
hantlcolumn you have to guess- answersat
the end). I oughtto say at this point that I'm
prctty hopelcssat drawing and a class of
studentshas the atlvantagcof accompanytng
gesturcs,grimacesand so on.

In thc llrst sct, all eranples with LOOK, rhc key is in rvherethe eye
(signifyingLOOK) is placedin rclarionro thc restof thc depiction.

"9-1
I,/tN

\7-\
\
\

FleApF f/lFfF OAr

FOp lOAptFlF

SIAR

< /|
,

v---1
\

u{ e^^ P(6Y 6D
PK..LE

look ufter

pooA
P P P L 6

look dotptt ott

'l

hc sanregocs for TAK[,, whcre I use a hand 10 rcprcsentthc verb

(thisis an cxanrplco1'u'here
a gesturehelpsinitially;my drarvingol'a
hand:rctuallytrying to graspsomethingrvith a vicw to rerlovingit
lookedmorc like a bunchofbananas,
so I hadto srn4llifysomcwhat):

f2'-1,
y_-J(

t-t

\_-./

\_-/

F,r(r{64

toN

+';

.1Y1
dul-)

\"-/w \(

l'r1 A MlLLloa..Ar 3

lES. / aeat ele

take afler

You

take over

For vcrbswith PUT I ntaketlrepicturefronr thc particle:

,noe n 0*
,.ot oa

f.ioa

,\aq! t ncYt tg.,

q,
o..1

put o.ff(;tsin lto.stpone)

put someoneup

With Sll I l includethe verbin the pictureand imply the pa(icle too:

rVwgVJlr.g{5

r---l-i

,
l "\

btrtt I
set up

y
\

\_-/

T
l

r-1---r
r
l

]!l

lsl

sel back

i1 |, iitii!|:,iIii: il,,t\,.

JtiIr1!tti ,)l itliit.iittli

rttrri i)t.t.l,ti,t\t.ttI

2l

Simple, isn't it'l You'\'e got thc visuals.

rvhat aboutthe actualpruedure? The main
thingsI'd keepin nttnd are:
l. alwayspresentthem in root verb groups.
As you may haveseen.sonleplcturescall
seemvcry obscure;althoughthcre is an
amounto1'fun to be had lrom guesstngtn
the dark, jt's a lot lessfmstrating*'tth thc
lightson, as it rvere
2. ahvaysestablishrvhateachpictureshorvs
(scc1)
3. ahvays cstablish which verb rs
and rvhichparticlcthe picture
represented
4.
5.

6.
7.

8.

contains/inrplies
lbr the PVs
alwayselicit synonyt.ns
keep recycling the pictures as an alde
memoirc - during the presentatlon,latcr
lessons
ir.rthe lessonand in subsequenl
avoid having studentswriting during thc
presentatron
stagc
if studcntscopy thc pictures into their
books, encouragethent not to rvrite thc
verb next to eachpicture. That lvay, each
timc they look back over their notcs,they
have to go through thc proccssol rcaccessingor rememberinglvhich lerh
and rvhich pttrticle as rvcll as the
nteoning
presentaboutfive PVs at a time (r.e lilc
examplesfiom one root verb)' oncc or
twice a rveck depcndingon thc lcvel of
the studcnts

As I have alreatlymentioned,drar.vingis not

one of my strengths, so I can qultc
conhdently say that this kind of approach
rcally cansuit tlreMiros amongus,as rvell as
the Da Vincis. I'r,e actuallylound obscurity
i n t h e d r r u i n g 1 o b c r n a d r a n l a g rel l i m L s
The more lime (withit reuson!) students
spendtrying to work out what the drarvings
arer thc better chancc they havc o1'
rememberingtlie pictures and thereforethe
meaningand particlefor eachverb.
So, now thc answersto the crilicismsabout
this method fronr other teachcrs r'vho have
not usedlt:

Thepresenlutionslugctukesd long litttc

I agree.but in ntv cxperiencethe c f-folt
andthc tinrearc worth it. sincethcv help
studentsto rcmenlber.
. It'.: hurd.fbr the tcuchertct tlttttkct/irleus
.fbr theptctures
Not so sure. I fbund that otrce I stllt'tecl
thinkrng along thcsc lines. tttote alld
morc rdeascame1()l].lc.
o Stutlents\t on'l k ov i.f llte vt'rhs urt'
scpurublc or Ittst'1tun tl,It'.
'l
nre. BLrl I alu avs tlake surc thnt
and I
studcntshavc eratttplcsentences
llilll\ lcrels havea
find that studenls111
good fccl lbr thc langtragcattd rvhat
soundsgootl. I likc to crlcottralcll)is.
I-ooking at PVs as cxirnlplcsol tlle
of languagcadvocatcdb1 L-orls
cl.runks
'lpprouch seemsto nle [o
Thc
Letitul
in
bc far nrore cff'ectivcthan treatingthcrn
ascomplicatedgrarnmaticalitems.
So. that's nry mctlrod. I rvouldbe very
intcrestedto hearany comntcntsand
thoughtsthat you ntay haveaboutit, lJrrt
rvhatziboutthc suggcstionat the beginling of
tlrisarticlc'llfthis articlchasinspired.vouto
shareyour ideas1orteachingPVs. u h1'not
scndme sonre'l If I only receire a ilrv. I
could at the Yeryleas{gct tllenl onto thc
hrtemetandrvecortldsharclltcnt lvith
schoolsaroundthc rvorld. lf, on thc other
hand,I find that l'm inundatedu'rth repLcs.
I'm rvillingto editthernandsolicit
publishersto seeif thcy rvouldbe intcrestcd
of practicalitlcas
in publishinga collectiott
from teachcrsfrom all over thc rvorld(all
of coursc),\4aybethrsn ill be the
attributed
momentwhcn u,ecanbecomcattlhorsof
intemationalrenown.sttln rakingin thosc
millions andbe ablc to sa)'that u c reall.vare
helpingour studentsto GET oN I'OP Olr
PLIRASIL I,''RRSI *J

..,lrsuerr:

1. look up 10
3. put up wjth

i t i t t ) t t t t i t t ) r . t 1l l!t ) ! 1 : t . i , t i i i i i : i ' r , i i ) , i L t t' r l , : ' t : t t t t i l ) " t , l t ' i ' t ; : , t t i

2. take in
.1. setoff

COODMON,MilOECYPT!
...The challenge of trsining viu video conferencing.
In v,hichGlynn Jones,teocheranclteachertruiner ut hternational HouseLondon,
talksabottl trairtingseriouslylarge groups.
BACKGROUND

TRAINING
CHALLENGES

I lla\c rfceDtl-\'retunled liom [gyl]t \\'herc I \\'as

inrolvecl ir tire training of some 2.000 primary
school tcacherson a 5-cla-'.'
course.This lcat rvasonlv
possible through thc use of r,rdeo conlerencing:
technologv that F.g)'pthas rnvestedrn heavill over
the last flr. I'ear-s. Ihe prolect \\'as funded b1' the
BBC \\'orld Serr.ice.Thc British Councrl. and dre
i'igvptian Ministry ot'Education. My brref, along
\rlth Ailcen Ilcndelson. a traurer at the Britlsh
( ouncil ur C airo * ho clclrrered the second half of
the coulse. was to e\pose non spccialrsltcachcrsto
srrrple cornrnulrcatrre lrethurlologv using thc
ligyptian tertbook Hello trnLlthe BB(' World Sen'ice
supporl rn:Llcnals.rranrclv leaclrer Talkittg Time, a
' ' - | J r r r r . l r r .. ( n u s r r
l r c \ c n p t i r e e o r r r r r r u r r i cer t i r
rrrethodology for te'aclrers,attl Hatnid, Zenab, and
the Genic, a 20 part radio drama (for classroomuse)
about an ligyptian boy rvho leams English uith the
help of an linglish-speakinggenie. ln this story the
nra-giccarpet has been replaced by a 20th century
London taxil l'he support nraterials\!ete rvrittenby
Sarah l3radsharv,radio producer at thc BBC World
Scnice and driving ibrce behind the project. and
Jcnny \lcAslan, u'ho nou rvorks treelance.

I was presented*ith a nuntbero1 thomy challenges:

THETECHNOLOGY
I *as based il the yideo conlerence suite in the
\linistr-v of Education rn Cairo u'jth a group of l5
teaclrers nly guinea pigs 1br demonstratiol]s.Thc
training rvas beamed out to about 2,+ local training
.Ihe
centresthroughout Egypt.
scaie of this is quite
difficult to con.rprehendand the lact you are talking
to a very large audience doesn t really stnl in as
they're not directly in front of you. In each centre
there are t$'o enonrous monitors, one of which is
transmittingthe trainlng. and the otber which has one
oi thc sites on screen at any one time. lhe slte on
screer can communicatel'ith tire command ccntrc in
Carro. I also had acccss to aucliLr,vicieo plal' and
playback. and a scanner,which allorvs you to shov
an-y docLunent,r'isual or even object, sirttply by
placing it on the scanner;a kind of very sophisticated
overheaclpr(Iector. Video conferencing in Egypt
has mostll been used rn lecture fomrat and you can
cefiairLl' see ho} this allorvs training to be targeted
to a ven * ide audicncc.

Exploiting the lull potential of the technology in

orcler to ilclrler a progranxre that rvas variccl.
kept the attcntion of the tcachersancl integratcd
all the course n)aterials. Thc training lastcd for
about three and a half hours cach day and I
wanted to make it as intcractivc as possiblc. I
also rvanted to see thc rcsulls ol' thc training,
insofar as this rvaspossible.
o Balancrngthe use of training through Arabic witlr
tninxrg tlfough English. As I said befbre the
teachersrvere non-specialist,that is to say that
l l ) e ) h . l \ e h e e r rt r r r n e d l o l e r c h u t h e r s u h t e c r s .
'l
heir level of EnglisJrrs very lorv, irr some cases
as lou as elenentary. It rs therettlrea fomridable
lask lor these teachersas they are berng asked 1o
teach a language that they are barely familiar
\r'rth.
o Winnrng the ltearts and r.nindsof the Egyptian
tralners and the teachers ther.nselvesln the
certres. I neededto engagethem. titillate them,
enthuse them and convince them that
conulunicative methodology is possible desprte
tllc constraintsof teaching large classes(.10--50
pupils irr a class), lack of rcsourccs in schools
(orre tape recorder locked a$'ay in the head
teacher'sol1ice).lack of proficrencyrn English of
the teachers.AII in all I wanted to excite the hell
out of then in the hope that teachers would be
iired up to go and try the methodology out and
adapt it to local circumstances and their o\\'l'l
teachingstyles.

PREPARATION
FORTHETRAINING
We hadthrccdaysto prcparcfor thc trainingcourse.
I had mappcdout a possiblcprogramne for the lirst
day prior to rny arrival,but this boreno resemblance
to \\rrat actuallyhappenedlThe first day involved
meetlng the Egyptian trarners, Ensaf. Firry'- anci
l habit, all of rvhon were English cxperts or
lnspcctors,thc Councillor of English, Mr Reda
Fardcl,who hadovcrallrcsponsibility
for the project,
frr.ritless
attempts
to
neet
the
[.lnder
Secretaryfor
and
Education,Mr Mohamed Ragab Sharabi. What
became clear irnmediately rvas that the Egyptian

l t t t , r n t t t t t , t t t t ll / , ' r t r , ' . J r ' t t r n t t l' t l l t l t t r d l t t , t t i t t r l l ) L t L i , t l , t t ; t t r l

25

trainers \\,anted a step by step llroccdllrc for thc

trair]ingon each day. \\filch is \\'hal thct arc rLsc(lto.
'fhis
fleu in the thce of a nrrch nrore llcxible
approach to trainurg rvhich rccks lo cttgage the
leanrerarrclto go rrith /[e.flar'. \eedless to say ur]
actual prcparalion rvas done on that day. Alier
brainstomring on possible approachcs *tth Saral.t
Bradsharv and Arleen Ilendcrson I retired to ttt\'
h o t c l ,r v h e r eI u o r k c d l i o m 1 0 . 0 0p . m . t o ' 1 . 0 0 a . n r . .
thrashingout a fiameu'ork lbr the n-ainrng.
'I

lre next da.v l e all nret at 9.00 a.m. ancl u orkcd

rvith thc Ilgyptian trainers urtil aboLrt2 p.rrr. ihe
process was tortruls and rr ould hale triecl the
patienceof a saint. N'Iy training experienceand thal
of the tlgyptian trairlerswcrc poles apafi aucl lhcre
was a lot of politics surflcing. uttch u as tangential
to the ainls of the trairing corLrsc. I:nonnous
patience, actiYe listening, lots ol [eassLrrance
an(1
negotiationrlttn the dav in the cril. us the lirl)ituing
r i g h to f
d a y w e n t q u l t e s r r o o t h l v( f b l l o * r n u a D o t l t c D
prepanlg r.rnlrl,1.0()l.rr.). I can rot sav thrt I had
manageclto u,rn the heartsanrl ntitttlsol thc l-g1'ptian
tr.ainersat thrs point. but I had nranagcdto build up a
position of trLrst ancl thcrc \\'as a senseof rtsct-rltg
Judgenent. With nrr hca u) nlv boots this is ho*
rve begantt o tlavs latcr.

plans rn Arabrc (aparl liorl lhc tirrge-llarguage. the

laprs irrc rccordccl in Arabic) uhich \\'erL' nrn
tlrrough Lrsing tlre scanner Iacilitl'. \\'e nrrrle it
interactile'bv callinq celllrcsto get teedbackon tasks
aurl \ orkshops thrt lrail bccn sct up. bv
derl]ol'rstratlngactiVities \\,rtl'i telchers in other
centles.and tr),settll)gull lcro teacllinlr. lhe nrrcI0
t c a c h i n ge r a b l c c l L sl o s e c h o w c l l e c l i r r t l r c t r a r r i r g
lrad bccn.
\\'c $ cre able to \lr()\\ tcacll,'rs
demonslratjn!tlhc sanre llrruuage pourt n ilrllerent
-fherc
*as lo iloubt that rre hlrl lreen
ccnlrc:r.
\\'rlll lhc l!'achctswe sr\\'. sonrc oi \\'holrl
srrcccsslrLl
h a d r c r l l o * l c r e l I : r r s l r s l r .T l t c v u e r e e n t h u s i r s t i c .
kccn anil Lrsrn{ sulplc corrrrnunicalive tecliniclLrcs
c l r r r l c l l c c t i r e l r ' . [ r r p l o r t i 1 l gt h c l n t e r a c t i v i t vo l l h e
lechn,.rlogv also llloir crl Lt. to gile tmne ciiatc
l c c r l b a c ko l 1r r ] c 1 1t)c a c l r n Lr re I r l , l s c c n .
A s l ' a ra s h a l a n c i r t gl l r c L r s c( ) 1. \ r . l l ) r . u n L lI r n g l i s hi r r
t h c - t l a i n r n g . t h l s * a s a c h i e r c r l l l r r L , L r ! ltrL r . I c i , . r t t '
i|teryrsling r1 \ arious p()irts. lr.llr.l,llr(rr Lrl
lcn'nin(Jlog)r)l tasks.and the uic ol lhc lJfl( \\'or'ld
Scr\'rccsLrpportnralenals. .\s lhc coursc 1)rogr!'ssed
\\c LrscLlnlole Er-glish as tcachels bccante tintiliar
rvrtli temiinolos\. sonrc ol'rrlriclr is dillicLrltto
trrnslate into \r'abic. \1or.c cotuplex explalatiotts
uere ullslaletl. brrl *ltcrcrcl possible ue tt:cd
simple cleDrclrstralion
lo illLlstrirtcl poltlt.

THETRAINING
Follolring a high prolile press contcrenceto launch
the training. the trainersstood in fiont of the scrcclrs
ancl u'c introclucedourselves lntl tlic aints oi thc
courscto Lgult. I \\'as l()t at all ncrvous.ii arvthlng
I hacla real buzz. I'his l'as realll happcnittgaltl thc
shou,nranshipin ne rose to thc suriace. Herc I sas
tilally. a star iu thc makinu. m-l' t'rce and all ntr'
actiors beameclacrossthe lnr reachesof lr!vpl. ()l'
c o u l s e .i t u a s n o t h i n gs o g l a r l o r o u s .b r t t i t u a s r c r y
cxcitirg. \\,'lrerrwc goi to the qucstlorl anrl lusucr
sessionol'thc lirst da1,'sprogralrrlc. thcrc \\'ilsr reill
thri1l irr being able to say. Calling Alexarulria, ( omc
in ,llex(ndriq, do lvu have dnl qucstio s? ,\l\cr
a l l . t h i s u a s n r ) , l i r s l c x p c r i ! ' n c eo f b t i n g o n l V l l
Thc lccling re|er qLritc$ore oil but lhcn I \\as ortl!
responsiblelol thc lirst 5 da1'sol lhc lrarrtrrtg.
So the c|.restion rs. \\'er{i $e ablc to nleet tltt
challenges ar'rd ho\\' sLrccessiiLl\\ crL' \\'c'.) \\ic
explortcd thc technolog\, lirllr,. rror tng irolr
of these lessitnsby
denonstratlon lessons10 arral_"-sis
u s i n g t h e s c a l l c r l o r v r c $ r r g t a s k st h a t l b c u s e do l l
proccrlurcs arrd lcchnicltics. t- silq thc vrtleo
playback lacrlrty' cnablcd us to rcttar]sr]it the
denronstralrorlcssors uith cliilcrcnt training tasks.
Ar.rdio u as uscrl tbr Zcac,ller Talking I'irrrt' anti
br ]cssott
llatritl, Zcnth & thc Genie lrd sLtpporteci

l()

.'\rrrl ilnalh'. riid rrc lin lrearts rin,.l nrrrLi:.) \'csl

\ \ ' e l l . I u a s c c r l a i n l ve b l c t o c o n \ 1 n c ct h e h g ) , p t i i l D
t r a i l c r s a s t h c l s a * l h c c o u r s eu u f i r l . l r t t d l s t l t e l
b e c l n r e c o n l i , . l c nul i t h t h e r r r - o l ei t t r t . O n c o l ' t l i c
trlincrs. F-nsr1.{rc\\ rr clonnous cotrtidcncs nlttl
\ t l l l l c d l o g l o \ \ r ' , r l hc l t h u s r a s r t tn h e r c l c l i r c l vo l t h c
trainrng. As li)r' li)c teacllcrs.there is no doubt d]rl
\\ltlr tlrc tcachersslro cornnlrnicaletl
rrc srLccecrlerl
\\lth us aI(1 rrlrr rve sa\ tcaclrrng. If Nc l1ralrrlredl(J
c o l r l i l r c cc v c n 1 0 " . nt r l ' l l r e s et c a c l t c r st l i c ' nl c l r l r e
l T e g u nl ] l r t r i r l l r n c r r l a b l r b c t l r e s l L r r rp l o c c - s so l
r l l p r o v l l g t h c s l r n d a r (o
l l l . n l l r s l r l e r r l L r . r gl c l c h r i g
1 l l p l l n r r r l - c d l l c ! l l r o l rr r r [ : $ p 1 . I l o r r c r e r ' . t r r t L c h
u o r k n c c r l sl o b c r k r l e r r rl e r n r so l i i r l l o \ \ u p t l l l r l i r t l l
a r L l r a r s r l q t l r e I : n g l r s l il c v r : l o l t h c s e t c i i c l l e r sa n r l
tl)ere rrc nral! iirancrll problcnts 10 be overconrc.
I h i s n c e c l s t o b e a c h r c rc d t l ' r r ( ) u g hp a r l r c r s l ) r p
pro{lanlmes.such as inrolvecl ur this l)artlcular
prolc'ct.
l l i i s u r s a r c r l ' c h l l l c n g n g h . l i n : n t c x p c r i c r c c1 b l
nrc ltnd. tlthorlgh there \\elc niinor lcchrrcal Ittlclies
s u c l M \ l o s s o 1 ; o t t r d . t n c ot l p r c h c ns rb l e l u t k r t p s .
a n c l t n p p n g o v c r r n i c r o p l i o l r e* i l e s u l t c t t d o i n g
tlemolstration !essons. r rrlco cortferetrcilg ;ts lt
potcntlrll
nrerhunrlirr t|linir,g Ilas cnornrolL5

TRANSIGENC
&

TRANSACTION
INTERNATIONAI,HOUSETIACHER TRAINNC CONFERNCEI998

LATNGUAGE DEVELOPMENT ISSUES IN

TEACHER TR^AINING
FEBRUARY

6th. 7th & Bth T99B

[;ollon inq tl.tcsuccesso1'thcFcbruary1997 conference,TeacherThitrkitrg,it has been decided

that thc InlenralionalHouseLondonTeacherTrait.rinq
Conferenccshouldbe an annualevent.
Thc rnain thcrnc of thc confcrcnccin 1998 is language:hou, it is describedand prcscribcdby
granrnrarians,
teachertrainersand coursebooku,riters,and how this influencesapproaches
usedin
classroontsby teachersrvho havc rcccntly completedteachertraining courses. IIave you ever
rvonderedrvhy, lor example,r,ocabularyto describeclothesis decmcd so essentialto beginner
lerel students'lOr why they needto describervhatcr.cryoncaroundthem happensto be doing at
the n'ronlentof speaking'?I intendthc confcrenceto questlona numbersacredcows in thc arcaof
Iattguagcsclectionlbr syllabusand the rva1,sin which languageis prcsentedto studentsin the
classnrom.Hopefulll somenew ideaswill alsobe olfercd!
You nral-wondcr at thc conlcrencetitle. PerhapsI shouldexplain a brt'. Transactionis in there
bccausewe mostly claim to tcachlanguagefor communication(e.g.:'I'd like a short-sleeved,
pale
blue, checked,button-downcollar shirt, plcase'); Transigencedoes not actually exist in ani/
dictionar-"I havc checked.It is thereto representthe everchangingtrcndsin languagedescnption
and changesin languageitself. Perhapstrunsigencewill enterour lexiconif it getsusedenough
as a resultof tl.risconferenccl
Attendanceat the conferenceis free to lnternational House staff, but therewill bc a chargcof
f20 to cover lunch, drinks, coffcc and tea. The registrationfee for non-lntcmationalHouse
teachersis f95.
I look lbnvard to receivingproposalsfor talks from many of you
conferenccbefore,this is your chance- so get in touch!

if you have not spokenat a

RogerHunf
Director of StudiesTeacherTraining
ConferenceOrganiser

lttt,'rtroirottri

/lrtt:t,JL,trrnolol

l..t/tttorit,tt ilrrl l)trrlolttncttt

21

DIRBCTORS OF STUDIES:
ANE THEY BOHV OB TNATNEI'?
Muureen McGarvey, teuc:herund teut'hertrainer at Interttcttiortu/IIou,se
London antl Pro.jectManager.fot'lhe nev,Diploma in Educationul
Management,addressesthe que.stionrf'v:hether gootl teuchers
necessarihtmake goctdmanagers.
In .Iunuar.t l998 Inlernutionul Llousc st(rls its lilot .\'eor ctf u nex Diplomu in Etlucutionul
Munagenenl (ELT) l).\' I)istulcc Training. Lle ure vtn utrurc of thc nced fr.,r nnn.t Diractors of
Studies to h ve lruini g v'hith is tliret'llt rt,let,unl Io rour torkplutt,untl .tctur sittrutirn. Tht
distance lruining elenent ol'the tourst'allon.s rou to t:.rperiuent tnl tn out n(rr ilets ttt sttu,
v,ith the ucltlel heneJitof not tuking tott uttu.t front thr: school .for tlta purpotts rtl truining! Ihe
course is un cight nonth notlulur progronnk', u hit h lust.s
.fiont .luntmrt to .1u.{u.\/,t ith u runge
process
of
tusksund hund in tusk:;trhich ure suhnitted to IH Lontlon.

Educational management,and ntanagcntcnt

training, are both vcrv cuffcnt issues.\'l ore
and more nranagersarc aware that there is a
need lor training,althoughthey do not alrvays
Itarerrccess
to it. l\lorearrdrrore'rrg:lnislti()ls
are rvilling to invesl in trainingtheir stati But
for cxistingand potcrrtialELT ntanagers.
there
is not so much availablc,panicularlynot b-y
Drstancel raining.That is u,h1 wc haveput 10
togethcrthis course,to allorvthoseofyou rvho
are cuncntlv rvorking as. for cxamplc. a
Director of Studics.to lbllou, a course."r'hile
yolr arc u'orking. Thosc of you rvho are
consideringcnteringeducationalnlanagcntcnt
a fe*' vcars clorvnthe linc marvitlso $ ant to
equip yoursclf rvith solrre background
knorvlcdgeand theory rvhich *'iil gir,e vou
greatcrconfidenccrvhcn you do take up your
first managcmentpost.
The first timc I u'as appointed to a
rcsponsibility
post \\,asin a largcLH. school.
I had been a staff member there for somc
years, and was promotcd as a DOS \\'ith
responsibility lor teacher training.
The
prcviouspost-holder
(amicably!)
had left
and
so I was in the lucky positionof takingover a
set of
n,ell-established s.vstenrs and
procedures. I don't thrnk I did a rnassnc
amountof damagcdurrngmy timc in post.but
I could cenainly havebeen f'armore effective.
My lack of understandingof strategy, of

2E

svstenrs.
of'hori'1otransfernrv tcachingskills
to a managenrentposltlon hcld nrc back
considcrablyin the llrst l'ear. I ntatlc sontc
str.rpidnristakes. I had forgotten that as a
managerI had to tfeat statTdiffcrcntly than I
had to u'hcn I r'"as a stallioom colleague. I
didn't rcalisethat staff r'".ouldcxpectdifferent
things lrom mc - and that maliagcntcntq oulcl
too. I u,as Juckl: I had undcrstanding
collcagucs.a supporlivenranaqcntcnt.
and
sonre uncor.nforlablyhonest fiicnds. Thc
schoolclearll'thoughtlh:rclpotential.or the1,
r.vouldn't
havcoll'erednrethc.job- but it took
me the wholefirst\,earbelbreI evcnbcganto
unilerstand
*'hat thejob * as about.
In nry second responsibrlity post, I \\'as
dctcrminednot to nrirkcthc sanrcnristakes.
And by and largc.I didn't. I did rnakea lot of
ley nrislakes.
horvcvcr,rihich this tinreu.ere
morc to do u'ith lack of culturalscnsitivity,
lackof humilrtyanda dcgrccol'iLrnnel
r.ision..
I also sulltred lionr not har ing cnougl.r
backgrourrd knon,ledge ol' the principles
rvhich underlaythe practiccsI rvas trying to
lnlplement.So. I rvasgcncrallydoing things
right. but I \\'irsn't alrvays doing the right
thrngs.
ldon't think mv experiences
arc uncomnton.
Nlostexrstingmanagcrshavc similar storiesto
te1l.and most cxistingor potentialmanagers

I t t t ' . t t Lrt I i , t t t , t I l l t t t r . ' . 1, )t , t i rt i i i 1 i . , i t t ' . .i t t ') t ; , ; : ,i l t L ' , . i L , i t t ; ;t,: i

arc a\vare that we all need infon--ation,

training and devclopment to help us be
cffcctivein our jobs. The expectations
which
staff, clients and managcmenthold now.are
grcatcrthan they r.vereten or fifteenyearsago.
Our erpectationsof ourselvesare also highcr.
We recognisethc nccd to kccp lcaming and to
keep up to datc. When I have been involved
rn tcachingeducationalmanagcmentcourses,
courseparticipantshavealwavsbeenarvarcof
areaswherethey nccd to locus their attenlion.
They arc arvareof rvhat thetr skills are and
rvheretheir skills gaps lie. They arc kccn to
developgrcatcrundcrstanding
of management
thcories and ne\\' stratcgieswhrch they can
app11,
in their workplacc.
Whenever I have rvorked with cducatlonal
managcrsI have been cnomrouslyimpressed
by this rvillingmcssto lcam ancl to inrprove.
Given thc constraintsand frustratronsrvhich
many o1'thent work rvith, it is all the ntore
remarkable.
Theortes of cducational
managcmcntin the abstractare not ahvays
enough - rvhere people beneht is frorn thc
chanceto cliscusstheir problemsrvith others
and perhapsfind sonresolutions. (lt can also
be comforting rvhen you hcar about other
organisations- vour own *'orkplace may
suddcnly seenrlike not such a bad place to
be!) In thc nerv Diplonra programmc,wc arc
settingup a systemof workingpurtnsr.\. This
mcans that you arc allocateda co-participant
rvith whom you correspondduring the course.
Someof this conespondence
may bc a coursc
requiremcnt(e.g. detailing an rssue 1n your
workplacethat your rvorkingpartncrrcplicsto
wlth thoughtsand comments),somemay be to
do with progresson the course.and somemay
just
be get-it-off-vour-chest type of
correspondcnce. Whatever the purposc,rvc
are kccn to foster the awarcncssthat many
others arc in a similar situationto you, antl
may have ne."vperspectives
they can give you
on issucsrvhichyou may no longcrbc able to
sceciearly. This typc of exchangeis a featurc
of IH Dircctorsof'Studiesconferences,
which
wc are keen to canJ lbnvards into your
rvorkinglife as a ED.Man.Courseparticipant.

l J l t , t r , t t i t t i ; : ; :l l ' . i ' ,

As prolect manager for thc Diplonta in

Educational
Managemcnt.
I'nt obviouslykccn
to encourageas many of you as possibleto
considerapplfing lbr the coursc,eithernotv or
in thc luture. But I also feel very stronglythat
our employinginstitutionsshould seriously
cor.rsrder
the nccd for training ELT managers.
We cannot continuc to assuute that good
'l'hc
tcachcr good nanager.
skills that make
us competentteachersarc not necessarilvthe
skills of good managers.as I found out to my
cost. Bcing promoledto a job on the basisof
a setof skillswhich I didn't nccdto usc in my
nerv lob rvas also rather an odd expcricncc.
Workrngout, by trial and enor, the skills I r/n/
needand beginningthc processo1'acquiring
them.\\'ztscompler and difficult.
Ihopc that this ncrv courservill nrake this
processnrore acccssiblcfor you. And I hopc
that your school supports 1-our application!
Bcttcr trainedand equippedstaff can onl), be
of bencfit to the IntcrnationalHousc rvorld
organrsatronand to the profession as a
whole'

The Diplomain Educational

(ELT)
i\Ianagement
by Distance
training
Tt_:ll1l.*
managers

or potential
educati
onal

.
.
o

yoursclI
Managingyoursctl
rvranagrng
Mana;in;;rhen
Managingsystems

and organisational
y11lSirlCeducational
lssucs
rnrselqnlnlonrnmooularprogramme
nr|ls

lromJanuary- August
Forfurther iiformation contdc{Mauteen
McGarv4 in theEtlucationLlnit.
lnrcrnationul
HouseLottdon.t 06 Piccadilt.v.
Lontlon l{1 119FL

l ' ) t t 1 ) ) t i ti ) l I L l i ' ,. t ; , I

t ) i 1 ii ) . ) . .! , )t ' j j i , ) t l

29

ATIOWED??
]REA]DNNIG
Vilja Wheatcroft of International HouseAveiro challenges the Iong-held
assumptionsobout reudingaloud in class.
purt of a
One rlal' ny post FOE stutlentsrather surpristtl me b)' aski g if the passugeI had sel lheol. 11.\
pre rliscussionactititl', t'oultl be reud oloud bt' then in tunts. E.rpluining to them tlrc generul rtpittion
'lhey
x,antedto dtt it.
that this actirity tyosoutmoded,uulesirableuntl sened no purpose,held no swat.
irt
doing
so v era, utttl
So I let them, \r,ithouthaing ntuch of an itlea v'ht l ]|'u:;leltittg theu, v httl n.t' uin.s
hoping like hell thut thel'wouldn't askne again! Pretf soon,aJiareuchreader had./inishedhi:; or her
se(:tion,theywere estitedll,chattingabouthol\, lhisor thut soLtntlshouldbe prtnounr:ed,tvhereittonut[ul
should risc antl ryhereit shouldfall und ttht' purtiaiar sludc ts had ntisttrulerstoodnettning thrttrrgh un
incorrectintonotionu'stress putlern. I sot theresilentll',feteri.shlt,hoping that our (uftent Lll t'ititor
wouldn't chrnse lr.tv,alk in --hile they read thepussagaout ulrnd again.fi.tru s(rtnd tinrc. GtrlTt!
ConventionalELT wisdom saysthereis littlc
sensein gettingour studentsto readaloud in thc
classroomfor the following reasons:
.
ifthey arc not entirelycomfortablcrvith the
language,their stumblescan bc very
demotivating
. readlngis a silentactivttyand gcttingstudents
to readaloud is not authcntic- u'e rarelydo it
rn reul li/e
o goodreadingis donern chunksand asking
them to rcad
studentto readaloud cncourages
word by word
.
the studentdoesn'tlcam anything
. propercomprehension
of a text oanonly take
placein siience
.
readingaloud hasan elementoftesting to it
.
teachersmay equatepoor pronunciationskills
whenreadingaloudwrth poor readingskills
All of the aboveargumentshavcbeenrvell
documentedin many ELT articles.journalsand
textbooks.ReadingAloud is surelyonc of the
laid doun by teacher
originalcommandments
'l'hou
Shalt Nol...section. When
trainersin the
readingaloud suddenlybecamean issucfor me, I
found myself thinking of morc andmore counterargumentslbr what has, ln recentyears,bcen seen
as an extrcmely old fashionedand
activity. Let's havea look at
uncommunicative
someof them in more detail.
Stumbles cun be demotivating
From my own experience,I've found that in a
happy,supportivegroup studentsenjoy listening
to eachother speakingin the target languageand
rdentify
are ableto activelyand enthusiastically
their own and other students'pronunclatlon crrors.
Ensuringthat studentshave beenpropcrly
preparedby allou'ingthem to rcad the text silently

l0

lnlanttlr)

tlrst asrehearsalandhavtngan initial

sessionon diilicu)t vocabularycan
brarnstorming
m i n i m i s ct h e i r ' s t u m b l c s. l ' i t c h i n ga t c x t a t a
lorverlevcl thanthe studentsare uscdto should
alsomrnimisethesestumblcsand serveas an
excellentconfidcncebooster.
Throughreadingaloudstudentsrvho rvould
normallybc cxcludedfrom speakingactivitles
bccauseofpoor turn-takingskrlls.lack ofsubject
knot4edgeor domrnatinggroup members.havc
the opportunityto practlsethe soundsof the
languageandproducclargelalbeit scripted)
chunksof thc targetlanguage.
Reading aloud isn't authentic
When thinkingaboutmy oxn reading.I rvas
surprisedto discover the numberof times I read
aloudto family. liiends.collcaguesor.1ustmyself.
Thcscoccasionsincludedarticlcsin the
readorit at hometo my husband.
nervspapcr
chunksof lctlcrs trom lamily and liiends,
instruclionson how to put up our tcnt.reading
storres,rcadingextractsftom studenlwork to
colleagucsand so on. It evenextendcdto reading
aloudto mysclf chunksof dcnsctext rvhichI
as if somchow
founddifficult to understand.
scfizg rt enabledme to lbrm a pictureofhow the
'Ihis
must bc a
informationwas organised.
the
theorythat
to
significantcounter-argument
studentscan't comprchendmeaningwhile rcadtng
aloud!
Reulittg tloud encouragesthe slude ts to read
word by word
If, by readingsllcntlr,.studentsarc ableto readin
chunks.then rvhy not u'hile readingaloud? After
all, we rcad in chunkswhenmaktng a speechor
(tn ordcrto look aheadto
givlng a presentation

ul llt)utt-.Lttrrttrtl ol l)itrtrtli)n !tntl l),'\'Llt)l)t]t\'tr!

prepareourselvesfor what is comingncxt). We

alwaysallorvthe eye to takc in more thanjust a
srnglcI'ord at a time. It thereforesecmslogrcal
lbr teachcrsto encourageanil trarnstudcntsto
absorbchunksrvhenrcadrngaloudas rvell as
si)entl1,.
TIre sludent doesn't letrn unything
Having askedstudcnts\a,ltatthcy thrnkthcv are
lcaminrthon] readingaloud.the ovcrriding
o p i n i o nr s t h a tb y r e a d i n gl a r g ec h u n k so f t e x t .
they can hcar their classmates
makingerrors
u hrch the1,thcmselvesunconsciously
makeand rn
dorngs0 they can betteridentifythcrrorvn
pronunciationerr.ors.They arenot only
conccntratrng
on therro\r.nareasoi dilficulty but
are also learning10llstcnto othcrsanoopenry
discusswith onc anothcrr',hy thcscerrors
occurred. Morcover.ther.arelearning1osrmply
e n l o ya n du , a l l o u . i nm a k i n rt h c s o u n d so f t h c
languatethat thev har-econsciouslychosento
learn.
Reading aloud has art elemerftol testing to it
I L e a d i n ag l o u dd o c sh a v ea ' t e s t v ' 1 ' e et o
l i 1a n d
wc. as tcacltcrs.nccd to cxplortthrswhen
c n c o u r a g i nrl e a d i n ga l o u di n t h ec l a s s r o o mI.n
the sarnc\\'ay that \\ c usea Tesl-Teach-Test
approachin otherareasol'languagetcachlng.uc
can explortlt throlrghreadingaJoudwhen
idcntrliing areas1orpronunciationr.r.ork
I.ith a
c l a s s .I t a l s oa l l o u . su s t o c h c c kg l o b a l
undcrstanding
ofa tcxf (aller silentrcading)by
listcnrngto stressand inlonatton.
A s A d r i a nl l n d e r h r l lp o i n t so u t : I t e a d i n qa l o u di s
an lnteracltvcprocessbct\\'ecnrcadcrand text.
'fhe
readcris mcshrnginlbrmationliom the text
rvith existmgkno*]edge. Thc ria1,the readeruses
I n t u r l a l r rt ronh i g h l r g ht rh er n t i r r m r l r usnl r u ( . l u o
r ef
the tcxt can provide1,ouwith a usefulciiagnosis
o1'
her undcrstandrng
o1'thetcxt' /,soltr./
I.oundati o tt.sIleinemann7
Teschersmaf equotepoor pronunciatiotr skills
u,ith poor reading skills
As with any,thing* e do in class.rt is of course
cxtrcmelvlmportantto be arvareof our aims rvhen
asklngstudcntsto readaloudand bc surethat lhc
\ l u J ( n t \ i . i r ea \ \ r r c t | f u l l f , l \ \ e a r ( . e o n c s n l r i t l t n g
on: pronunctatlon.
global understanding.
inf'enrng
authoropinion.intonattonpractice.simplc
enjoyrlentetc. With lhrs in mjnd. hcreare some
s u g g c s t l o n1so rc o n t c x t sr n l h r c h w e r n i g h ts e t
readrngaloud aclrvities:

Storiespoemsand plays. Rehearsethcm

tocuslngon the meaningand the cff'ect
differenlintonationpattemshason mcanrng.
Provrdereaderroles for your studentsand ask
them to varv thcir lntonatlonaccordingly.
.
Film, exhibition, music and restaurant
reviewsrvith sludentstrying ro persuaoeone
anotherto selectthcir particularcl.roiceibr an
et'eningout. Studentsrcad extractslrom their
cltosenrcvlew wrth as much gustoas they oan
mustel
. Any \r'ritten work which has beenproduced
by a student.(Afier all. why shouldrt be just
thc teacherr',hohasaccessto studcnt'swritten
rvork'l)
o Dictations \\'herethc ^rtalcll rcads rather than
l h c t c u c h e r .l h r , c a nb t . d u n er n p a r r so. r
g r o u p sa sa ' r u n n t n g 'd i c t a t i o n_ o n em e m b e r
of the group sitsapartfrom tlte restand rcads
a lcxt scveraltimcs u,hrleothcrslistenandrun
back to therrnotebooksand reproducethe text
as accuratelyas possible.C'hoosetextsrvrth
mrnimalpairs/ i: r'andt r i lirr cxampleor
othcrarcasol drfficulty.
.
Instructions.Incrcasethe 1un.get one student
to readout the lnstructlonslbr puttrngup a
tent (lbr example).lhrlc the otherspcrlbrm
the taskbirndfbldcd.rvith only onc hancl,in
thc dark or not beingallorvedto move fiom
one spot. (makc sureyoll'\'c got a r(d1^,
cohcsir.e.
contidentgroup fbr thrsone!)
o Readrnglbr pleasure.Senairsea rcaderbv
p r r r n g- 1 x d g n 1t h" eo l r p o r t l l n r D
lo rerd
cprsodesto the othcrsat the end of'eachclass.
Il you rvant10glve thc restofthc class
somelhrngto do rvhilelistcnrngfine.but
apprectalethe pleasureand rclaxationthlt can
be derivedfrom the luxury of just being read
to.

Readrngaloudis finding l'avouroncemorc in the

-l
FT ellr"sloom
r n d r . h e r n gr e h o r ni n i r n e \ \ . \ \ a \ .
It no longcrsmackso[ the tradrtionaldogmaof
studcntspasslvclv ploddrngthrough.paragraphs
of the schoolreader.A rvholeu,orldof ideascxists
to makethis an interesting,moti\-attngand
authenticareaof lcaming*hich hasbecn
neglectedtbr long enough. l'd be very rnterestcd
in anv thoughts.idcasor cxpcrrenccs
teachers
havchad ln relatlonto thc lssuesraisedin this
article. I can he contactedar the 1blJo,,ving
e-mail
address pnvmail(a;mail.telepac.pt{i:

/;:t,.;,,a ti,it\:) ti. :,\, .1,)it:titji t)l l..i itt|it,it

,tj).i i)t \, i.)t.tti,.t;:

l1

WHATTODO
WITHNONEXATI
ADVANCED
STADENTS?
Jamie Duncun, Director of Studies
in InternationalHouseBuenosAires,
a problem which.faces
discusses
many of us,ontl suggestsafew ide.as.

Our situation
In BuenosAires the focus at advancedlevelsts on
exam preparation and aimost all classcs are
working tox'ards CAE or CIPE. With several
classesat theselevels.lt is no surprisethat upon
completing the exams students want to keep
coming to the institute so as to maintain thetr
English level. Add to this group a small number
who have no intentlon of sitting an exam and
of an advancedlevel
othcrswho, thoughpossesscd
of linglish. r'ill probably never meet the
requirementsof accuracy or language confol
rcquired in those exams. and you havc a long
waiting hst. What can you do rvith thesestudents?
Thcy olien have varted or imprectseobjectives.
language
odd timetables, dillerences in
competcncewrthin the Advanced band and less
m o t i ra t r o n1 ol t t e n d a 5 r e g u l a r l ya s s o m e o n ei n a n
exam year. Timetablesand spaceconsideratlons
as candidateslbr a
mean that their attractiveness
less
than, say, a First
peak
is
times
class at
Certrl'icate lfoup or lntermediate Adults. Often
there is no set coursecither.

Belgrano branch and occasionallyin the Melo

School),they have usually bcen lumped togcther
in a course c led Advanccd -1. pre- and post
Proficicnciesare togetherrvith a haplessteachcr
rvho, based on a nceds analysis.has to cobblc
together some soft of coursc. This has becn
all around.so in the Melo school,* e
f-rustrating
havebecntrying to lind a satisfactorysolution.
First steps
In 199(rrve decidcdthat rve had to deiine rvhat
Advanted 3 w'as. It rvas ltlt that thcre ]l'are
sufhcient studentsfor a Pre-Proficiencyycat, as
many found thc jump to doing Proliciency one
yearaftcr f'AIi to be too grcat. It allo$'edteachers
to oller an alternattveto maklng rvcak students
repeatCAE or passingthem up to I'roficiencyand
hclpcd resolve problem casessuch as a student
failing our school year but mtraculousl.vpasstng
the cxtemal exam or whcn the studentln questlon
rvasa plodder. Strll left over. howcver.were post
Proiiciencyor post C'AE studentsnot intcrcstedin
going on to Proficiencyu'ho neededsomething
In 1996 we offered a once a week 90 nlinutc
courseon Friday cveningsrvith no coursebookand
no exams -merely advanccd lanlluage pracllce
rvith plenty ol authentic nlaterials. Quite
challenging for the tcacher to prePare. but a
homogcncoushrthtul group of 7 or 8 students
comp)etedthe ycar. Reading,speakingand vtdeos
rverethe staplet'eatures.
Changes
Fccdbackfrom the courseled to changcslbr 1997
The courservasmoved to Tucs.lays9.00 - 10.10
p.m. - a time when the schoolis normally closed.
It has bcen morc successlulin numbers - a flll
group of 12 regularly comc and there has bccn
. t r m es p i l l o \ e r I n t ou l l l e r a l u r c o u r i ( r u n t $ i c c 3
week rn the mornings, rvhich covers sjmilar
groundbut over 3 hours a week. C'oursecontent
was expanded to include litcrature upon lhe
requcstof studentsand this cerlainly hclps flesh
out themes. There is still a lot of reading and
discussionof currenteventsand linghsh languagc
culture.

Buenos Aires has been confrontcd by this

challenge for some years, and as the studentsare
often loyal and guarantced,we want to be able to
offer something. Apart from a hterature coursc
lrun for some years tn the mornings tn our

32

Itltrrtrtti,tnol llru:t

.lrttttttLtirti l)Llnrttit)tt d (! !).\'rlt)lr)tt ttl

Having 2 dilTcrent teachcrs running sinrrlar

c o u r s e sh a s m a d ea b t g d i f l e r c n c ew
. ith exchance
of materralsand co-ordinatedplanning nteanrng
that less time is spent huntins out texts and
prcpanng acti\.ities. The languagcentphasisis
stronglv on skills rvork and vocabularv. and
rcgularrccyclrngactivitiesrn the fom of rvarmcrs
or -qamcshelp studcnlskeep track o1'someof the
Jexisthey are exl.rosed
to. Wnting is sporadic-

usualll' cxtensronsof model tcxts thc_v havc

studied.A I'errstudcntsdo *rittcn hontclrrrk.
We hopeto undertakentore ln thc wav ol projcct
uork andcxcursionse.g.to a gallervor the tltcatre
as the ycar progresses.I:rplorurg the Intcrnct rs
anolherareaof intcrcst. Ilelol' l have listedsonc
of thc coursccontcntand resourccsanclrvoulclbe
happvto hcar lionr peoplerunnrngsintiJarcourscs
clservhereI .

LESS0NACTIVI'IIES

THE\IES

iLeadinu( omprchension
5(nrgs
I)ebatcs
Presentatlons
by studentson lavouritetopics
Drctogloss
Shortstorics
V rr c lb L r l r r _er\ l c n \ t o nf r o m t e r t r
Literaturc
franslatior.r
Speakingr'
l-istenrngintbnration
Stor.,'boardon comllutcr-an extractirom
llteraryte\t
A n a l l s r n gp u b l i c i t l '
Wlitrng
Studcntsmaking their oun audiotapes
Analysrngthe 200,1Olympicscandldatesfrom
materialdownloadcdliom Interner

SOT]RCES

IiuturcTechnologv
Cooking
Educatron
flumour
-fol
n Pla:rnrng
l\,[ad('or. Drscase
I)rivacy
The l'heatrc
B n t i s hl ) r c s s
I l r s t o r y ' l ] r l t a i ni n t ' 1 5 t h + ( l 7 t h
SouthAfiica
Ncu Zealancl
I:ashion
Adr ertising
I'hc l{o1,alFamill
I l r i t r s hE l e c t r o n
S r . n aTl l o r v n[ J K v s S m a l l I o u n I i S
Tire Ilrain
I-I'I'ERATTTRESOTTRCES

British ncu'spapers
lJnglishmagazinese.g.Vanrty liarr
- fapccliiom llritish I'V
Vidcos
- L.xcerptsfront fcaturelllms
(subtrtJes
covcrcd)
- Absoltnely l'-ubulous
Dranatic Monologueslbr Lrstenrrrg
C'omprehension
Local exhrbitions
Local Embassics- for the Indian GoldenJubilce
\\'e go1materialibr a schooldisplal,liom the
Indian F-mbassy
and leachcrsrvho hadbccn to
India spoketo classcsrncludingthc Advanced
groqrs and ansrvered
thcir questrons.
R e s o u r cbeo o k s
Natronal(icographicmagazines

il Stlitdhla]Jor Vikranr Seth on arransecl

marTlages
( 'ranlit
Orlundoby Virginra \Voolf
Booksb1,Nadine(iordimcr. lhL'Sncll o/
.lpples by N,lalktschr
Booksby Bill Brl,son
Lrtcratureand shortstorvbookspublishedtor
ELI'

| , ; : , r t t , ; ' i ' , 1 ' , ;l i , : t . , , . l ) i t ] ) . : : , : ' : t l \ t : 1 . \ | t t , : : . . i

.':..\ .!:tt))i..:jl

THE FUTARE IS A FOREIGN COANTRY... THAT IYENEED TO

GET TO K]VOW
Tony Duff, Director General, reviewst\4)orece t ptthlications dealing with the
worldwide importance andfuture of English as o v,*orldlanguuge.
CRYSTAI, DAVID: ENGLISH AS A GLOBALLANGAAGE,CAMBRIDGE, 1997
GRADDOL,DAVID: THE FUTURE OF ENCLISH? THE BRITISH COLINCIL,I997
There are some respectsin rvhich the two books under
review cover the sameground and othersin u'hich they
are complenentary: they both deal rvith lnglish as an
intemationalor global languageand both speculate,
albeit very tcntatively,on the future of English in thc
q'orld. 'l'his is at once a fbscinatng and important area
of enquiry. especially for those who makc their
livelihood fiom the teachingof English.but as these
b o o l s d e r n o n t l r r t rel l h e r m o r ei s a t i i s u r .
David Crystal'sis the morc pcrsonablebook becauseit
has an identihableauthorial voice calm, reasonable
and judicious. hunrancand civilsed - resonatingwlth
that one expects
all the weight of insightand experience
of the author of The Cambridge Encvclopaedtaof
Language. although thc lcaming rs carried lightly.
Dalid Graddol.a namc prcviouslyunknown to me and
the reviw edition is remarkably reticent liom a
'a
biographicalpoint of vieu'. defines his sork as
bricfing document' with the aim of actrvatlng
consbuctive debate. Ii bears the somcwhat grey
characteristics
of a govcmmentrvhitepapcr.
The provenancesof both works are of some interst.
by the British
David Graddol'shas been conrmissioned
Council as part of its Enslish 2000 project and ne are
told it will "guide the work of the British Council staff
in over 100 countriesas they collateand rcpofi the data
nccdcd lbr making informed predictions about thc role
of Englishalongsideother rvorld languages.The rvork
will be u,elcomedby all who are concemedto see a
strongand vigorousfuture for our language." Thus do
v'e move from identification of intcnded readersto the
exhortatory rhetoric of the \,r'orld of advertising: the
ofany notlon of "our" languageis exactly
slipperiness
one of the targets of both books'l Who is n,e in this
context'l

identlty. and our sqnsc of ourselves.and why it is

of language
almost impossiblcto have an) cltscttssion
without gencratinga sreat senseof 'e11 st|ong fteling.
Foucaultobserves"discourseis thc po$'erto be seizcd"
and both thesebooks demonstratehorv effectivcll' all
i o l o n r s e rr. e a l r s c.d- r r r. dr c t r du p o nt h i \ n c r i u l l i r r n .
In answeringthe questionn'hy Englishhas achievedits
doninant positionboth n'riters unequivocallypoint to
Brrtain'scolonialand imperialistpast. C L"-stalsaysthat
pon'er and forcc are alrvays the root causes of a
languagc achieving an international stalus rrhethcr
(ircck 2000 years ago as a result of thc milrtary
campaignsof Alexander the Great or thc spread olSpanish. Portuguese.and French to thc Amcricas.
Aflica. and the far East. "fhe history of a global
language can be traced through thc successfitl
expedrtionsof its soldier/sailorspcakcrs." Both also
point to th economic and u'orld p<xver status of the
LISA in thc 20'" century- a f'actordifficult to deal rvidr
'British Lttglrsh or
for those bent on promoting
'English in Britain'. As (irystal reminclsus. Btsmarck
in 189Eon being askcd what he considercdto be the
-lhe
fact that
decisiveibctor in modcm history.replied
the North Americans spcak Lngltsh". .,\ contnlent ol
foresightthat thosewho lry to seil the appealof English
in Britarn on a heritage basis uould do rvell tcr
rcncmber.
In atlemptingto suntmatisethe complcx situationof thc
uorld statusofEnglish both (lrystal and Graddol drarv
our attentionto Braj Kachm's (an Amencan lingutst)
three concentriccirclsto rcpresentthe differentrvays
in u'hich the languagc has been acquired and is
currentlyused.

David Crystal in his prel-acetclls us that the suggestion

for his book came from Mauro E Mujica, Chairman of
US English, the largcst organisationwhich has bccn
campaigning for English to be made thc official
languageof the USA, rvho wanted a book "which
would explain- without politicalbias - why Englishhas
achievedsuch a *orld rvide status"; he immediately
goeson to assurcus that the book has"not beenrlrittcn
to any politicalagenda".
This disclaimer reminds us of thc cxtent to \\'hich
languageis involvedwith politics,feelingand emotion,

'lhe

lItlr.tlxtliondl llou\t .lotrntrtl tl l)lutttirtn rtnt! l)LrtlLtltni,'nt

thrce tirtles'

of Enslish

Agamst tlte colonialbackgroun(l.the countcrclalms of

- and the e\tent to \hicir our language
rdentlt_v
is rhe
identitythat constitutcsour \\.avof being in the $.orid
and mutual intelligibility(on an rntematronal
scale)arc
drscussed
and contextualised.I come fiom a countrv.
Ireland. wherc gro*urg up in the 1950s one direct11.
erpencncedand illternaltsedthis conflict. At that titne
the studyof the lrish language(Gaclic)rvascon]pulsory
rn schooisand indccd in orclcrto passrhc flnal school
lcarrng ccrtificate.you had to achret,ea passmark ln
Irishjust as it rvasa requirementto ger a job in thc Irish
('ivrl Service since a notior of olficial
bilin.eualism.
although lcrv could speak Irish *ith any cletree of
competencc.prclailed. Most regardedthis policv as a
benrghtedintposition. In thal inseciuedecadeujrich
the youh of the presentecoDomiccultureof the .Ccltic
Tiger'' uould find dilficuh to imagine. Irish rvas
identifled rvith e\ ervthlng backuarcland rcgressrve_
and u,e ltatedit. lhc Irish hateevcrythingrnposedb1,
authority includrns rhat inrposed bv thc Irish
themselves. (Attttudes to learning Irjsh have noq.
significantlv changed and rr is rellardedas a ralhcr
trendy skill to acquire.) On leaving Irelandin the latc
srxtrcsand becoming involved uitir peoplc learninr.:
English as a foreien laneuageand not feeling at all
lrnglish or British. I realisedrvhenberngaskedb1,rnv
students\.hat bcrnc lrish nught mean. horv natiolal
identity ls larsely constructedby speakinga clifferent
ianguage- that is rvhatdelinedone. David C r),stalsees
the notion "that childfen arc born ready ibr
bilingualism" as tlte possiblesolution,rvhile pointing
clcarly to the itovemment costs invoh.ed jn such
programnes. He prcks his $,av $,ith great care and
throughthe ar.ilunrents
Judiciousness
cunently ragingin
the tJnitedStatcsaboutthc .oillcial English.nor.cment
- almosttoo Duch so. One l.ould like to have
a shalper
sense of rvhere hc himself stands on this question
although in his prelace he oails his colours.in broaci
tcrms, to both the masts of multilineualismand',the
lirndarnental
value" of a common language.At several
pointsin the book hc argueshorv it may be possible,.to
haveonc s cakeand eat it" on many ofthesequestions.
Graddol and Crystal are equally sure about the irnpact
of teclulology.right fiom the trme of the Industrial
Revolutiotr, and its rolc in ensuring the kcy and
domrnantrole of English,althoughthat gcnerallymeans
Amerrcan English. He quotes the follorving lronr
Anatoly Voronot. the Director of Glasnet,an lntemet
providerin Russia:

ln a stjmulatinginter disciplinarycross_overbetwecn
lmgulstrcsand leadershiptheory. GraddoJlnvokesthe
sccnano-planntnp
ideas developedby picrre Schwarz
and Arie de (ieus at Shcll. uhich maintainthat planning
concervedas leaming ensuresa contpanv kceps an
actrveand lntelligenlrvatchon its businessenvironment
and that organisations
needto developtheir capacityto
enlrsronthcir futuresin nanative. It is no more than an
invocatronand a suggestionthat clevelopingscenarros
for the trturc roie of English rn increasinglycomplex
technologicaland cconomic interacttonsurruld be a
usefulexploration.and pcrhapsonc can expecrno more
in a nork of this scope.
Both these books raise interesting and signiticant
questronsfof thc *orld of ELf ftonr both professional
and businessor industrialperspectivcs.They point to
the needfor teachersas practttioners
to det,elopa much
more sophisticatedarvareness
of English as a global
languageand the inlplicationsthat arisc for teaching;
theli polrt to the necd for .thc industry.to practisethc
sccnano p)anning tcchnique in order to scan the
horizon of changeand to be ali'c to the below_the_
surfacc drilrns tbrces in the linguistrc and business
en\'tronmenis. '... a closer examinatronof those
forces suggeststhat the long-term grou,th of the
leanlng of English is less sccure than might at first
appear".(Graddol. p.4). Hc also spcculates\hcther
other languaeesmay come to rival English in global
srgnificance
and leadto its abandonment
as happenccl
to
Latln as an intemationallinguafianca,100vearsago.
These are also prcssingand fbscinatingquestionsibr
International
Houseitself as a key player in the flelclof
language tcaching and teacher uarnrng. As ourproduclservice- English- changcsso dramaticallvand
so constantly.so ntust \\,e develop our capacitl,and
taste1i)rchange,u'hich rvill ensurethc tunrre. Wrllram
Sternhasobservedthat "the basicdriving forceto ever1,
livrng system is the dcvelopment of its inhcrent
potential.' Successthereforemeansevolvin{ into the
bestpossiblehumanbeing or organisationit r ou can be
and, in the process,bcing good at $jrate\er ltvou
h . r p p e rno b e d o r n gi r ro r d c rt o s l l n l \ e . S u . l t . , , , r l r , , , l e
and processcan more than measureup to the filture; tt
cancreateit S

"lt (the lntemet) is the ultimatc act of intellectual

colonralism. The product comeshom AInenca so w!must eitheradaprto Englishor stopusingit. That is the
right of business. tsut if you are talking about a
tcchnology that is supposedto opcn the world to
hundredsof millions of people you are
.Joking. This
Justmakesthc rvorld lnto new sortsof havesand have
nots."

I t t t t , r n a t t o t t r t i J / , t i r . , L , . l , , r t n t t l 0 l J : . r l t uQ r r t , t t o ! n l l ) t \ t , l t ) t t D t . ,
t