As promised, here is the inaugural post for the Blog Challenge with the title A Disabled-Access Friendly world: Lessons for the ELTclassroom written by Luke Prodromou, author, teacher trainer, inspired and inspiring conference speaker at conferences and valued friend of old! He is my very first guest blogger and I am very happy and proud to have encouraged him to write this very important post.
From Critical Pedagogy to Disabled Pedagogy
By Dr. Luke Prodromou
I am not sure whether the title of this blog post should refer to ‘Disabled pedagogy’ or ‘Enabled pedagogy’. Either way, the name is designed to echo the well-established ‘Critical Pedagogy’, so let me begin with that and come back to the question of names at the end of my piece.
Critical pedagogy, of which disabled pedagogy is, in my view, one manifestation, is an approach to education which aims to raise awareness of social and political issues and to enable learners to take action in pursuit of a better world.
Both the awareness and the action seem to me to be essential components of critical pedagogy and this clearly chimes with the philosophy and aims of the Thessaloniki-based Disabled Access Friendly campaign:
Philosophy of the campaign
To encourage language teaching that raises awareness of the needs of the disabled
Aims of the campaign
To encourage improvements in accessibility
Critical Pedagogy
Critical pedagogy does not see teachers as mere technicians, connecting learners to language systems and fixing errors in the system when things break down, as plumbers and electricians do. ‘Critical’ teaching is principled – it has a coherent view of society and the role of power in shaping relationships in society. The critical language educator connects knowledge of grammar and vocabulary to knowledge of social problems and how to act to solve these problems. Critical pedagogy is thus the extreme opposite of the ‘empty vessels’ view of education, where the learner is seen as passive and totally dependent on the teacher. In Critical Pedagogy, learners are active agents in the classroom and, by extension, in society. In conventional, mainstream pedagogy, students are exposed to the rules of English (form, meaning and use) and then are tested on them. This is, in a nutshell, the methodology prevalent in most countries and teaching contexts today.
Although ELT has come a long way in the last 40 years, and many radical movements have appeared (and some have disappeared) in ELT in that time, the formal/testing paradigm is remarkably resilient. A cursory flick though the articles and ads in the local ELT press in Greece will confirm the increasing (not decreasing) obsesssion with testing over teaching. How did we reach this downgrading of education in favour of the great paper chase?
To begin at the beginning:
When I started out in teaching in the early 70s, audio-lingual approaches to language teaching were still the dominant paradigm: the first books I taught had titles like: A Guide to Patterns and Usage; The Teaching of Structural Words and Sentence Patterns and A Direct Method English Course. These books were, as the titles suggest, based on the Direct Method, with influences from a structural approach to grammar. The apotheosis of the drill in language teaching was Access to English, where the audio-lingual tedium was relieved by a humorous love story. Along similar lines were the highly successful textbooks of L.G. Alexander such as First Things First and Look, Listen and Learn.
These virtually content-less books were dislodged in the late 70s by functional textbooks which linked language to ‘everyday communicative functions’. This approach opened a window onto the real world but the societal model underlying the texts and exercises was still a nuclear family of able-bodied, heterosexual, white middle-class people, who were generally quite content with their lot. They were occasionally burgled or robbed (to enable the practice of the past continuous being interrupted by the simple past) or they lost their wallet or gloves, so students could practise the present perfect, or whatever. But not much else rocked the boat of average normality.
However, there were other undercurrents going on in ELT at the same time, which have culminated in a focus on content, which in turn makes critical and disabled pedagogies feasible options in the classroom. The main alternative to mainstream approaches were the humanistic approaches (Silent way, Suggestopedia, Community Language Learning) which, for all their differences, had one thing in common: they put people – their experiences, thoughts and feelings - at the centre of the language learning process.
The shift towards the ‘lexical approach’ in the 90s brought a renewed interest in words and phrases and the meanings they carried in the real world. After the functional approach of the 80s, the lexical approach marked a further relegation of formal grammar for its own sake, far removed from the thorny issues of the three-dimensional world.
In recent years, the new wave in language education has been the attempt to integrate content and language, language and content (CLIL). This has meant the extension of topics considered legitimate to include in course materials to include school subjects such as history, geography, art and so on. This is a step in the right direction in terms of opening up the possibility of including the world outside in the bland, sanitized world of ELT.
So where was critical pedagogy in all this?
In education in general in the UK and the USA there were some practitioners of critical thinking and teaching but very few in ELT (eg Auerbach, Norton, Pennycook).
Scott Thornbury’s DOGME / teaching unplugged movement has points in common with critical pedagogy: its emphasis on dispensing with textbooks and beginning instead with the learners’ own words, texts and ideas, opens the way to a more personalized and radical approach where the classroom and society, the word and the world are linked.
Thornbury’s DOGME and, more broadly, Critical Pedagogy, are influenced by the work of the Brazilian educator, Paulo Freire, the father of ‘consciousness raising’ and ‘praxis’ in education: ‘praxis’ in everyday English might be glossed as: ‘action-leading-to-a more-just society’. (1).
Freire begins with the learners’ words and their world and encourages them to think critically about their world and how to transform it. A crucial aspect of Freire’s approach which ties in neatly with the aims of the Disabled-Access Friendly Campaign, is the connection the educator strives to establish between the individual and society, ‘me’ and the group, and to reflect on problems in their social and/or political context. Reflection does not stop with the self or gazing at our navel, it empowers the learner to act, collectively, to bring about change. In its later manifestations, the work of Freire has inspired teachers wishing to harness education in the cause of a more just world for minorities: ethnic, cultural, social. The video clip ‘Disabled Greeks face daily challenges getting around’ (2) informs us that people with disabilities are the ‘biggest minority in the world’. A Freirian critical pedagogy might be a useful framework for developing a coherent approach to Disabled Access Friendly materials. In ELT, for me, Freire has meant moving from the practice of language to the practice of freedom, from the present perfect to a ‘future more perfect’ or, at least, less imperfect. The Disabled Access Friendly campaign is a natural practical application of the principles of Freire’s ‘liberation pedagogy’.
From Critical Pedagogy to Disabled Pedagogy
In this blog post, I have reflected on my assumptions about teaching over the years and the way I approached classes in the light of my long-standing interest in Critical Pedagogy and my newly-discovered interest in applying its principles though Disabled Pedagogy. We have a long way to go, but I see now what for most of my forty years of teaching was invisible to me: that our community has a largely forgotten minority of wheelchair users and that my assumption that they are ‘disabled’ hides the fact that they are actually very able and can be enabled further if we aware of their needs and act to facilitate those needs.
I now see more clearly that the history of ELT methodology has put out of bounds a whole range of important topics that concern the way we live. In making so many social issues ‘taboo’, mainstream methodology has ‘disabled’ teachers: we have been denied access to whole stretches of interesting content that would make language teaching a true branch of education rather than a kind of technical skill, in the same category as plumbing.
We could be language educators but we are language ‘fixers’. Through awareness raising tasks that integrate language and content the negative associations of the prefix ‘dis-‘ in disabled and disability can be transformed into a positive –into ‘enabled’ and ‘capability’.
(1) Freire, Paolo. 1997 (2nd edition). Pedagogy of the oppressed. Penguin.
Luke Prodromou is a freelance teacher, teacher-trainer and trainer-trainer. He has trained teachers in many countries and been a plenary speaker at numerous international conferences.He has conducted teacher training course for Pilgrims, NILE, ESADE and others.. Luke has published numerous articles, and written textbooks for all ages and levels.
He is the author of Smash (Macmillan) and Flash on (ELI). He is also co-author, with Lindsay Clandfield, of Dealing with Difficulties (Winner of the Ben Warren Prize and an English Speaking Union Award and shortisted for an ELTON). Luke graduated from Bristol University and has an MA in Shakespeare Studies (Birmingham University) Dip.TEFL (Leeds University) and a Ph.D (Nottingham University). His book English as a Lingua Franca was reissued in paperback in 2010. He is one half of the English language theatre group Dave’n’Luke.
What are the good things you can draw from each of the approaches labelled traditional?
How have you adapted them or changed them/renovated them and how do you integrate them into your teaching practice?
The discussions during the #ELTchat of November 10 had us running in two directions: there were those colleagues who wanted to leave everything old and traditional behind and there were those who had perhaps a more thoughtful and measured approach, arguing that a sound pedagogy involves sometimes satisfying the learners’ need for explanation or for some more traditional types of exercises…
Please read the transcript of the chat here, some of the major tweets here and listen to a great interview by Jeremy Harmer here if you haven’t.
So, what are the good things I have drawn from different approaches labelled traditional?
The attention to form and accuracy inherent in the grammar-translation approach is something which attracts me, perhaps because I am a teacher of English and studied Linguistics, but I accept the fact that the majority of foreign language learners do not share the same interest in language analysis (but some do), so attention to form and accuracy is something I consider important, although I would not use the same methods as this approach.
From the audiolingual method, which emphasizes controlled oral practice, albeit in the form of mechanical and often meaningless drills, I am attracted to the concept of rehearsal and using meaningful and, more often, personalized oral practices; I do believe they aid the automatization of certain lower level decisions, such as sound and sound linking articulation and the memorization of chunks and holophrases seems quite useful, especially for the beginner learner.
But there are so many activities I like from the different approaches, this post could turn into a rambly personal list. I would rather continue with some ideas of how I have used some of the typical activities in two ‘old’ approaches in a new way.
Grammar Translation
In this method:
A text is read aloud – usually by the teacher
The teacher explicates the text and the vocabulary by offering translations
The teacher analyzes the grammatical patterns in the text
Then the students read the text aloud and translate it
Then they answer some comprehension questions
Afterwards, they do a number of exercises (gapfills, transformations, etc)
Often they do dictations based on the texts
Adaptation 1 – Using translation to improve a text in English
A badly translated text is selected. The example below is from a product found on the supermarket shelf
The students are asked to translate it back into their mother tongue
The students are asked to notice which parts of the text have been badly translated
The students are asked to edit and improve the translation into accurate and natural to the genre English
Comment In this way, the students are encouraged to reflect on the negative effects of translating word for word and practise grammar, vocabulary as well as text editing skills.
An alternative to the text – the video is about a badly translated interview – quite funny but practises listening, too. This one is quite advanced and focuses on tenor as well.
Adaptation 2 – Using mechanical transformation exercises to promote reflection and language awareness
A transformation exercise is given to the students
They have to transform sentences from the active to the passive voice or vice versa
It is impossible for all the sentences to be transformed and to make sense
Even when you can change them, there will be a difference in meaning
Students are asked to discuss how the meaning changes
Example sentences
Many children did not receive their new coursebooks.
“Someone has slept on this bed!”, said the princess.
Her dress touched the ground.
Frances was married to Ed for five years.
etc.
Comment: This is a good activity for showing the learners that transforming sentences is usually not a great idea and that L1 users have specific (although unconscious) reasons for choosing one or the other form. Adaptation 3 – Getting the students to ‘explicate’ and comment on the text (rather than the teacher)
A text is projected line by line on an overhead projector or data projector
The text is constructed in such a way that with each line a new interpretation is possible
The students try to interpret and re-interpret the text with each line which is revealed
Here is an example in a powerpoint. Try to interpret the text and imagine what is happening by pausing before each new line is revealed.
Adaptation 4 – Getting the students to ask the questions (instead of the teacher)
Cut up a suitable passage into two sections.
Assign one to each student in a pair.
Each student reads their part of the text and prepares to summarize it orally
Students present their summaries to each other orally
Tell the students they have to reconstruct their partner’s text
Allow them to ask as many questions as they can/like within a time limit
Remove their texts and ask them to write
During writing it is up to you whether you allow more questions or not
When the writing phase is over, the students can try to correct each other’s work
Allow them access to the texts for a final check
Comment: This activity is a variation of jigsaw reading in which the reading is integrated with speaking, writing, and promotes information sharing as well as quite a lot of grammar awareness, word order, vocabulary recall, etc.Adaptation 5 Getting the students to ask comprehension Questions (instead of the teacher) Give the students a very short text such as the one below. Introduce it as you usually do for other texts with lead in, scanning etc. Here is an immage created by Jenny Gountani, one of my August 2010 CELTA trainees for a great lead in and prediction!
Drawing by Jenny Gountani, August 2010
Divide the students into pairs/groups or teams depending on the size of your class
Get them to ask as many questions which the article does not answer
At the endof time have teams ask their questions and the other teams supply imaginary answers.
Later, you can ask them to select some of the answers in order to write a fuller version of the article.
Comment: This activity encourages question and answer practice, it’s quite a lot of fun to do and if you get the students to rewrite the article, they are practising elaboration, an aspect of creative thinking.Adaptation 6 Translating articles from the mother tongue and adapting them for an English audience
Bring a few local newspapers into class (good for monolingual classes)
Have your students choose an article which is of local interest only
Give them some bilingual dictionaries or access to online dictionaries
Ask them to translate and adapt this article to be published in an English speaking newspaper
Encourage them to make as many changes as they think are necessary to make it suitable to someone who is not familiar with the local culture and customs.
Be available for help with grammar and to confirm lexical choices, idioms etc.
Comment: This activity promotes awareness of the students’ own culture as well as the target language culture.From the Audiolingual approachIn this method:
Students listen to a dialogue
They repeat the lines for memorization
Certain key words are substituted
The students act out the dialogue
Then selected patterns are drilled
Adaptation 1: The students act out a dialogue ‘with an attitude’
Students listen to a dialogue (e.g. from the coursebook)
They listen and repeat for memorization
Then, they choose an adjective or adverb from a poster or the board
Each pair rehearses their dialogue using the attitudes they have picked
Later, they act them out – rest of class must guess which adverbs they picked
made with wordle.net
Comment: This can be done with a dialogue in a PPP lesson too – you can allow variations to the theme of the dialogue or the creation of parallel dialogues which have to be enacted by adopting a new attitude. The rehearsal stage needs some monitoring and it is a particularly useful activity to raise awareness of intonation in its attitudinal function, something which is usually quite difficult to practise in class. Adaptation 2 Using substitution tables as “sentence machines” for sentence competitions
Write or project a substitution table
Organize students in groups or teams
Set a time limit and get them to make as many possible sentences
Untrue sentences are more fun than true ones and students remember them more!
Here is an example I have given to young learners
The bestThe worstThe biggestThe smallestThe cheapestThe most expensiveThe most uncomfortable
CanadaItalyGreeceChinaPakistanThe USAfganistanNicaraguaThe North Pole
Comment: The activity is very mechanical but quite good fun and the crazier the sentences, the better the students remember them! I think should stop here – you get the idea I think that everything can be used in a different way, as long of course as we have a good reason for using the technique with a particular class. I look forward to your comments and more great ideas from your blog posts.
Inspired by the #ELTchat of November 10, 1020, here is a blog challenge to collect and learn how you use traditional practices in your modern innovative class
The topic we discussed was:
When you think of traditional ELT approaches, are they all totally bad? What are good things you can draw from each of them?
You can read the transcript of the #ELTchat here but I would like to highlight some tweets which I thought were turning points in the conversation:
The first one was one of many similar tweets – but I felt this one really expressed well the way I think about sound teaching practice:
Later, Chuck Sandy came out with this great statement:
Then Luke Meddings stepped into the conversation and signed a death warrant for PPP….
Later, I interviewed Jeremy Harmer on the topic of this #ELTchat and you can listen to his comments expanding on this particular statement in the podcast of the interview here .
So here is the blog challenge:
What traditional techniques do you still use in your classes and how have you changed them or adapted them to suit your own style of teaching and the particular needs of your learners?
What are the good things you can draw from each of the approaches labelled traditional?
How have you adapted them or changed them/renovated them and how do you integrate them into your teaching practice?
In some contexts, grammar translation may be the only approach teachers consider traditional, but don’t forget to include other approaches and methods, such as the Audio-Lingual Method, the Presentation Practice Production model of early Communicative Language Teaching and more.
If you decide to take up this challenge, please link back to this post where all the posts collected will be listed.
I look forward to reading and sharing your blog posts. I look forward to learning from you.
Some useful reading about approaches & methods if you need to brush up:
A brief History of Language Teaching from 1853 – 2003 from the IH World journal has a great review of the various approaches and is well updated
Communicative Language Teaching today by Jack Richards (co-author of ) examines CLT in the light of previous approaches and sets the 60′s as the end of Phase 1 (what this blog challenge is about), what we now call traditional approaches.
I am delighted to have received this award, which is part of an initiative called “Vale a pena ficar de olho nesse blog”, which means “It’s worth keeping an eye on this blog”. The chosen blog has to copy the picture above, with a link to the blog from which it has received the award . Then write ten more links to the blogs which you think are well worth a visit. They in turn if they would like to, of course, copy the image above and link to 10 blogs, which shouldn’t be the ones I have chosen below. I was linked into this project by Eva Buyuksimkesya through her blog A Journey in TEFL. I would like to thank Eva for including my Edublog in this lovely initiative.
Here is Eva’s list of favorities which I am not supposed to repeat – but do please check them out as she was there first and put in some of my favorites, too!
Here is my list of 10 blogs which I think are definitely worth having a look at:
As you see, my list of favorites is a real mixture and I am sorry I have no more items left but do please check my blogroll to get an idea of the rest!
Sabrina’s Weblog by Sabrina De Vita – Argentina – Twitter ID @sabridv
So, the thread connects us all from different parts of the world in a great PLN which supports, informs and shares their learning. I am very happy to be part of it and thanks again to all who saw something in this blog and included it in their “Top 10″ !
Follow their blogs and follow the other bloggers on their lists as well – you have so much to gain and nothing to lose!
This is a quick post to publish the links and some of the videos shown to the members of TESOL Greece who attended my talk on March 15.
With apologies to readers who were not present at this talk (if this doesn’t make sense to them)
In the first part of my talk we looked at what online teaching involved and the types of learning situations it might be most appropriate with; then we looked at different types of virtual classrooms where I had some great examples of online lessons in Elluminate very kindly supplied to me by Heike Philips to whom I owe a great big thanks! (These examples cannot be shown here). Below you can see a quick example of some of the things you can do with Vyew, a short screencast I did myself (no Russell Stannard stuff, so please be lenient!)
Example with Vyew
Second Life was also mentioned and as my audience was not familiar with it at all, I tried to show them some examples of lessons as well a short interview which Heike Philp was kind enough to give me the day before.
Second Life & Inteview with Heike Philp
Finally, we looked at different ways in which teachers can promote themselves by joining online learning outfits (listed below) or creating their own promotional material, networking, online CVs, etc.. The examples which follow – of promoting Modern Greek Courses in Second Life – are the result of the EVO course I recently followed and I have not yet used them on my own website, but they were shown as samples of what is possible.
Modern greek in second life promotion material
An example of an online brochure made with Yudu
An example of a promotional video
The promotional video above icludes a few moments of my first ever time teaching a foreign language in Second Life; Heike Philp recorded this lesson and used a few scenes as well as screenshots and various messages. This project was part of an EVO course which I followed with Heike as course leader on learning about promotion tools for online or offline work.
Outline of the talk and related useful Links
Online Classroom Spaces – Where you can teach online
