Contents

Editorial

Page 4

Language Matters
Walking While Chewing Gum by ScottThornbury
A discussion
of FonF

Page5

The Perennial Present Perfect Problem by Rod Fricker

Doesthe presentperfecthaveto be so difficultfor our students?

Page B

A Model Modal Model by MarkLloyd

What you did ought to do when must havingto teach modals.

Page 11

Teacher Training
Go Forthand Be PositivebyMikeCattlin
A discussionof lifeafterthe CELTA.

Page 14

TBL or Not TBL by DerrinKentand Kad Kaliski

lmplementing
teachertrainingcourses.
a Task-BasedLearningparadigmon pre-service

Page 17

Out of the Lion's Den by TrishBurrow

Running
a CELTYL
course.

Page 20

Classroom ldeas
Finding Something Really Useful Down the Back of the Sofa by Jo Cooke
De-stressing
the internet.

Page22

Setting Up Systems by PippaBumstead

Livening
up ExamClasses.

Page 24

Proof of the Pron Pudding by BritaHaycraft

Beginning
a seriesof articles
on theteaching
of pronunciation,

Page27

Management
Quality Matters by JeremyPage
in the ELTworld.
Theimportance
of establishing
a qualitystandard

Page29

What You've Always Wanted to Know About lH Affiliates....AndMore!

Opole,Palma,Serrano,
Snapshots
Lviv
bothvisualandverbalof Cordoba,
Skopje
andIntuition.

Page31

Whats Going on in the Affiliate Network!

Page34

Book reviews:
The Ben Warren International House Trust Prizewinners: ClassroomDecisionMakingby MichaelBreenand AndrewLittlejohn.(C.U,P) How to TeachGrammarby Scott Thornbury
(Longman)Alive to Languageby ValArndt, PaulHarveyand John Nuttall(CUP)
And also - AssessrngVocabulqry(CUP) lnside Ouf (Palfrey)lnnovations(LTP)The New Oxford
Advanced LearnersDictionary (OUP) The New Headway (OUP)

' i h jo c t o b e r ( 3

)2000'

journal of education and development

Rachel Clark
and Susanna Dammann
SubscriptionsManager: Rachel Day
Pippa Bumstead
EditorialBoard:
Michael Garrier
Roger Hunt
Jeremy Page
Scott Thornbury
Editors:

Editorial
Welcometo lssue9 of the lnternationalHouseJournal.lt was
greatto haveso much interestin and feedbackon lssueB. There
'vignettes'about
was also a keen responseto our requestfor
localschoolsas you can see on page31. Thankyou to all of you
who contributednuggetsfor othersto readaboutyour school.lf
you haven'talreadysentone, pleasedo try,Youcan seethat any
formatgoes.

Internetand exam classesto offerideasand advice.And finally,

Mark Lloyd and Rod Frickersuggestways of dealingwith two
perennial
bug-bears:
the PresentPerfectand thosetroublesome
Modal s.

English
The onlythingthat'smissingis anythingaboutTeaching
for Business,This is a pity because it's one of the most
imporlantgrowthareasin the industry.Pleasetry to findtime to
writeand tellus, for example,aboutthe firsttimeyou took on a
How was it the same?
one-to-onestudent.How was it different?
What \,^iasgood? What was terrifying?Another important
'BusinessEnglish'debateis 'StandardEnglish'vs 'lnternational
We would also likeLETTERSon some of the burningissuesour
contributorsdiscussin their articlesand we promiseto print Engiish do we reallyneed to teach the differencebetweenthe
them in issueNumber10. This includesresponsesto reviews PresentPerlectand the PastSimple,whenmostof thetimeyour
and users, client s gorngto be dealingwith peoplewho don't know the
(seepage38)to which,of course,authors,publishers
At++^"^^^^
a+Aarr)
alsohavethe rightto reply,(Emailwould be easiestfor us -ihjour- L . i l l l U l ; e U ( ' l L l ( t l :
n a l @i hlondon, c o, uk)
Youwrllalsonoticethatin thisissuewe havelotsof excitingnews
In addit ion,
i n l H W orl dw i de.
We hope you can see from our contentslist that we are more on pages30-34abouthappeni ngs
on
Conference
than just an 'in-housemag', in that we aim to make a serious we d riketc highlightthe lH LondonEducational
.1C.11th
'Arlifice'('Thecleveruseof tricks
2000.lt is called
contributionto debates on the theory and practice of ELT Feb9
accordingto the CollinsCobuildEnglishDictionary
teachingalloverthe world.We aredelightedto includean afiicle and de',r,ces
.1995)
anc 'f vcu are nterestedin speakingat it proposalforms
from ScottThornbury;throughhis discussionof a symposiumof
p a p e rs , he m ak es hi s o w n th o u g h tfu l a n d e n te rtai ni ng areavaiabe i'onr RogerHunt[Tel020 75186925.Fax020 7518
co.uk).
to the Form versusMeaningargument.lt is also 6921, E i .l ar rccerhLrnt@ i hl ondon
contribution
good to hearfrom one of our foundingfigures,BritaHaycraft,on
boardfor theirideas,
are due to the editorial
Her emphasison Thanks,&So',','?','S
the all-impoftantmatter of pronunciation.
productionand sentencestressmeshesnicely designwork ancJgeneralhelpand to SteveBrentfor hissuppotl
whole-sentence
P utti ng the Journaltogether( in t he
with the lexicalapproach,Jeremy Page's item on Qualityis and encouragenrent.
gives us the
two full-timetimetables)
ieaching
interstices
of
Trustees
and
Directors,
those
DOSes,
for
all
reading
essential
the high standardstheir chance to rneet fasci nati ngpeopl e from throughoutt he
for maintaining
who are responsible
experience.
and exciting
on and rsalwaysan interesting
teacherswould like to be able to offer ALL the timel We know organisat
you
it'
will,
reading
hope
it.
We
lot
fun
had
of
doing
a
we
We've
and
Worldwide
lH
in
managers
many
excellent
that thereare
your
and
your
successes
management
would loveto hearabout
oroblems.

Susanna Dammannand RachelClark

MikeCattlin,and DerrinKentwith Karl

lf you area teacher-trainer,
you
provide
with ideasand food for thought,while
Kaliski,will
points
out someof the thingsteachersand trainers
TrishBurrow
need to be aware of when tacklingYoung Learners.Pippa
with the
Bumsteadand Jo cooke draw on their experiences

The lnternational House Journal of Education and

Developmentis published biannuallyin Spring and Autumn. lf
you would like to ioin our list of regular subscribers,please
contact RachetDay or fill in the form on page 43.

' i h j o c tober ( 4
)2000'

Walking while chewing gum: A review

ScottThornbury
Scoft Thombury is a teacher trainer at lH Barcelona, much in demand as a popular and distinguished conference speaker
His most recent work includes his prize-winning 'How To Teach Grammat' reviewed on page 38
ffhis articlefirst appearedin the November1999 issue of the
TTSIGNewsletter.)
The followingis a roughtranscriptionof an exchangethat took
placein a classof mine in Egypt maybe 20 yearsago. We are
practisingthe previously-taught
pattern"Haveyou done X yet?",
prompts
using
I am supplying:
Me:
H ish a m:
Me:
Mervat:
Me:
Ma g d i :
Me:
Hoda:
Me:
H ish a m

Me:

Visit The Pyramids. Hisham?

Have you visited the Pyramidsyet?
Good. Eat kebab. Mervat?
Have you eaten kebab yet?
Good. See oriental dancer.Magdi?
Have you seen an oriental dancer
yet?
Good. Lisfen Om Kalthoum.[well
known Egyptiansingerl. Hoda?
Have you listenedto Om Kalthoum
yet?
G o o d ...
[surprisedby this referenceto
"insider"culturalknowledgeand
interruptingto ask a "real" question]
Did you listento Om Khalthoum,Mr
Scott?
Hisham! What are we practising?!

As Beretta(1989)put it: "form can best be learnedwhen the

learner'sattentionis focusedon meaning"(p. 233). Enterthe
semanticsyllabusand the (strong)communicative
approach.
Grammar out. Tasks in. A reoresentativestatementof this
sea-changeis Allwright's(1979) claim that "if the language
teacher's managementactivitiesare directed exclusivelyat
involving
the learnersin solvingcommunication
problemsin the
targetlanguage,
then languagelearningwill take careof itself."
(p.170).On the othersideof the Atlantic,Krashenhad takenup
a similarlyuncompromising
position- what Elliscallsthe zero
option:no focuson formor forms,norformalinstruction.
Instead
of frog-marching
my Egyptiansthroughthe complexities
of the
present perfect, we should simply have done some sort of
gameon the themeof travel.
communication

$:$'$r:p
mwsNwsxffiffi
fumm

a'w$xm#
$'wmm&mrw
tI*ni,

l:$$q$"s#wffs
sffiffitrffi#$p

The incidenthas stayedwith me becauseat the time I was $'Xf,$ i;;i,'i*$$".$

dumbfounded
by theapparentinability
of the student(Hisham)
to
transferthe correctform for the meaninghe wishedto express, But more recentlythe evidence has started to trickle in to
when the form would seem to have been optimallyavailable. confirmwhat teachershavealwayssecretlysuspected:no pain,
Most teachers will have had similar experiences- those no gain.Left to their own devices,learnersfossilise,Or, at best,
momentswhen the studentsunaccountablyrefuseto transfera stabilise,With no formal instructionDick Schmidt's"Wes"
form from a contextof learningto a contextof use. lt is as if the achieveda measureof strategiccompetencebut at the expense
studentcan'tfocuson structureand on meaningsimultaneous- of his linguisticcompetence.The "terminaltwos" studiedby
ly - like the US presidentwho supposedlycouldn'twalk and Higgsand Clifford(1982)at the DefenceInstitutein Monterey
chew gum at the same time. For me this incidentmarkedthe had, they suggested,been plungedinto "freeconversation"
at
beginning
of a growingdisenchantment
with what is now known the cost of later proficiency.The products of the Canadian
as a focus on forms. A focus on forms (note that plural)is, immersionprogrammesso belovedby Krashenturnedout to be
accordingto Longand Crookes(1992)"the use of some kindof lessproficient
than claimed.Whatwas missing?
synthetic syllabusand/or a linguisticallyisolatingteaching
"method",such as audiolingualism"
(p. 43). Or, in Ellis'swords Whatwas missing,arguedLong,was a focuson form(singular).
(1994):"Focuson formsrefersto instructionthat seeksto isolate A focus on form "oveftlydraws students'attentionto linguistic
linguistic
formsin orderto teachand test them one at a time.lt elementsas they ariseincidentally
in lessonswhoseoverriding
is found when languageteaching is based on a structural focus is on meaning or communication"(1991, quoted in
(p. 639).Or, to put it very crudely,it is the "today-is- Doughtyand Williams1998, p, 3), A focus on forms (plural)
syllabus."
Thursday-so-we're-going-to-do-the-present-pedect"
school of entailsthe pre-selectionand pre-teachingof discreteitems of
teaching.lt is the schoolof teachingwhich sits uncomfoftably language(it is thus proactive),whereas a focus on form is
with the Hishamsof the world,
essentiallyreactive,entailing "a prerequisiteengagementin
So, what is the alternative?
Well,obviously,
a focuson meaning, meaningbeforeattentionto linguisticfeaturescan expectto be

' i h io c t o b e r ( 5 1 2 0 0 0 '

(Doughty
ibid,p. 3). In termsthat may be
and Williams,
effective"
more familiarto teachertrainers,a focus on forms presumesa
PPP methodology,where presentationof pre-selectedand
pre-gradeditemsprecedesproduction,and whereit is assumed
that fluencyarisesout of accuracy,A focus on form fits better
with a task-basedapproach,where learningis drivensolelyby
the need to communicateand where, as in first language
Re-castin this light,my
acquisition,
accuracyis late-acquired.
lessonwith Hisham,Hoda and Co, might havetakenthe form of
studentsfirst preparingquestionsto ask a visitor about their
experiencesin Egypt;then tryingthese out on me; afterwhich I
providefeedbackand improvements(the form focus) and the
theydo the realthing,

How is a focuson form best achieved?Forexample,shouldit be

unobtrusiveor overt?Shouldthe forms be ore-selected?

But, hangon, isn'tthat lastquestionout of order?lsn'ta focus

How can
on form by definitionreactiveratherthan pre-emptive?
you plan aheada form focus that is supposedto emergefrom
the learner'sown attemotsto communicate?
Aren'twe back in a
focuson formS?Thisis a dilemmathat ripplesthroughthe book,
and is not entirelyresolved,
For example,in their article Long and Robinsonstressthat a
focus on form is "triggered by perceivedproblems with
comprehension
or production"(p, 23). And yet (on p. 5) the
editorsimplythat the teacherhas the option of planningthe
focusa priori.This is verymuch the optionadoptedby DeKeyser
promoting
a focus on in his paper,where he maps FonF on to Anderson'scognitive
Long was not insensitive
to dangersof
form, and warnedagainstshallowlyinterpreting
such a focus as modelof skillsacquisition,
and whereit seemsto be a meansby
vindicating"a return to teaching discrete decontextualisedw hi ch decl arati veknow l edge i s acqui red,i n adva nce of
grammarpoints,plus or minus overt grammarexplanations" proceduralization.
lt'swhatwe usedto callpresentation,
really:"if
"Clearly
p.
grammar
(Larsen-Freeman
is taught, it should be taught explicitly..,
we want to
and then
and Long, 1991, 322).
(p, 5B).We seemto be
inferenceof that kind" (ibid.)But this is shouldbe followedby someexercises,.,"
avoidan unwarranted
seizedupon back in Egypt20 yearsago. The differenceis, however,that the
exactlywhat happened.The "grammarrevivalists"
nature",like
the catchphrase"a focLtson form" in much the same way that exercisesshouldnot be "of a rushedor repetitive
written,the betterto anchorthe new rule
creationistsinterpret"the big bang" as proof of a Creator. drills,but preferably
"so that it is easyto keep
Coursebookshave alreadystarted appearingwith "Focus on solidlyin the students'consciousness
(i bi d.)W elOK
l , ,b utt his
exerci ses"
Fo rm" sec t ions , as if th e y s u b s c ri b e dto a ta s k -based i n mi ndduri ngcommuni cati ve
^+ ^ {^^, ^ ^r
iulrn rr\^J lUel rosl al A
r r tV
y
l l ' i, l^l l^l v L , / l o l t J r , / u J
form.
\JI
l ^A
methodology,
when,technically,
theirapproachis unashamedly ir so nr r o\ _t/ t m
forms-focused.
Nor is inputenhancement
what I wouldcallfocuson form,either.
("Getting
of a collection
of articlesdevotedto the topic Yet it is the subjectof anotherpaperin this collection
So the aooearance
(Focuson Form in ClassroomSecond LanguageAcquisition. the learners'attention"by JoannaWhite).Inputenhancement
Williams(Eds.)CambridgeUniversity takes the form, for example,of highlightinga pre-selected
Doughty/Jessica
Catherine
throughuse
areain a text (e.9.possessive
determiners)
to someof the language
Press.1998.)providesa much-needed
corrective
pens etc, so that it is
highlighting
mythologising
associatedwith FonF (as the editorssomewhat of bold fonts, underlining,
tweelyreferto it),as well as suggestingways such a form focus salientand thereforeconduciveto beingnoticed.Noticing,it is
in that it
for acquisition
The editorsare well qualifiedfor the generallyaccepted,is a precondition
might be operationalised,
task: Catherine Doughty has researched the effects of convertsinput into intake.Enhancingthe input is a form of
"meaning-oriented"
Anotherway of doingthis is by meansof
instructionin what is implicitpresentation,
vs "rule-oriented"
1991)and JessicaWilliams inputflooding- that is, choosingor designingtextsthat havea
a classicstudy(Doughty,
considered
coursewas
paperon the subject(\tVilliams,highfrequencyof the targeteditem.ffhe Streamline
is the authorof a veryaccessible
1995)- essentialreadingfor Diplomacoursetrainees,by the premisedon the principleof inputflooding,althoughwe didn't
way.They haveassembledan impressivecast, not only Michael call it that at the time). Both input enhancementand input
hencesomekindof
Long himself,but also Menill Swain and Patsy Lightbown, floodingassumesome kindof preselection,
as theyare
amongothers.Namessuchas thesearean indicatornot onlyas syntheticsyllabus,henceformS,And, as interesting
to explicitinstruction,a discussionof such
to the qualitybut as to the leveland intendedaudienceof the as alternatives
procedureswould seem more appropriateto a book called
book: it does not makefor lightbedtimereading,let'ssay.
Awarenessand Attentionin SLA or Input and lntake,or some
if you haveunansweredquestionsabout grammar such.. (Mattersare not helpedby the fact that White'sstudy is
Neverlheless,
denseand fairlyinconclusive).
instructionyou should read this book - or at least some of it. statistically
Among the questionsthe editors set out to address are the
metatalk
MerrillSwain'sarlicleon the way that the collaborative
following:
that results from text reconstructionactivities(such as
When should focus on form occur - both in terms of the dictogloss)promotesattentionto form moves us a few steps
closer,and is consistentwith a fluency-firstapproach.But the
lessonand the overallcurriculum?
individual
reallyilluminatingarlicle (for me) is the one on recastingby
Whichformsareamenableto a focuson form?
focuson form").A recastis
ls it likelyto be beneficialin all classroomsettings?ls age, for Doughtyand Varela("Communicative
the
reformulates
the
teacher
wherebv
form
of
feedback
a
consideration?
examole,a

.ihinnlnharf

ltnnnt

learner'serroneousutterance:ideally,it should be done in such a

way that the learner notices the gap between his or her
uttranceand lhe correct form, but not so obtrusjvelythat it
breaksthe flow of talk. To us6 an examolefrom the studv:

Lyster called this negotiationof form, somethingdifierentfrom

the negotiationof meaning that is typical of communicative
language'teaching."
[p. 192]

The book concludes with a long and comprehensive

I think that the worm will go under the soil. summarising
essayby the editors("Pedagogical
choicesin focus
I think that the worm will go underthe soil? on form") which alone is worth the price of the book. Like
(no response)
Lightbown, they urge integrationof attention to form and
I thought that the worm would go under
meaning:this assumesof coursethat learnersare providedwith
the soil.
sufficientopportunities
for meaningfullanguageuse, so that the
Josd;
I thought that the worm would go under the conditionsexistfor integration.
A diet of mainlypresentation
and
so/.
controlledpractice,as in my class in Egypt, is not likelyto
providesuch opportunitiesunlessthe students,like Hisham,
lp. 1241
The researchers
were curiousto see what effectsuch recasts siezethem.Withoutsuchopportunities
theywillneverbe ableto
would have on the languagedevelopmentof a group of walkand talkfluentlywhilechewingthe linguistic
gum.
non-nativeteenagersin an ESL scienceclass in the US over a
sequence of lessons in which they reporled on science References:
experimentsthey had conducted (hence the worms). For
researcnpurposesthey targeted past tense forms, recasting Allwright, R. (1989).Language learning through communicaonly mistakesin this area.Comparedto a controlgroup where tion practice.
no such feedbackon form was given, the students showed
significantimprovements
in theiruse of the past overa six week ln C.J. Brumfit & K. Johnson (Eds.), The Communicative
period,an improvementthat persistedfor at leasttwo months Approach to Language Teaching (pp. 107-lB2). Oxford:
afterthe treatment.lt is importantto note that the studentswere Oxford University Press.
not gettingany form of explicitlanguageinstructionin this class,
and onlyminimalgrammarinstruction
outsideit. lt seemsthatthe Beretta, A. (1989).Attention to form or meaning?Error treatrecastswere sufficientto do the trick.
ment in the BangaloreProject. IESOL Quarterly23: 283-305.
Josd;
Teacher:
Jos6:
Teacher:

The researchers
werealso interestedin the practicalimplications Doughty, C. (1991). Second languageinstruction doesmake a
of this kind of form-focusedintervention
in what were essentially difference: Evidence from an empirical study of ESLrelativizafluencytasks: would studentsbe inhibitedby the recasts,for tion. Studiesin Second LanguageAcquisition,13(4),451-469.
example?They found that the optimal time for this kind of
feedbackwas duringpair or group work. When studentswere Ellis, R. (1994).The Study of SecondLanguageAcquisition.
presentations
doingindividual
in frontof the class,however,such Oxford: Oxford University Press
interventions
were off-putting.They also recommendthat the
focus on form shouldbe briefand immediate,and, importantly Higgs, T. and Clifford R. (1982). "The push towards
"theteachermustrememberto pay attentionto what the student communication", in Higgs f (Ed.) Curriculum, Competence,
is sayingas well as to the formal realizationof the message" and the Foreign Language Teacher, Skokie, lll.: National
(p. 136).Theserecommendations
suggesta possibletraining TextbookCo.
agenda:coachingtraineesin the use of recaststhrough,for
example,observation
tasksand microteaching.
The convention- Larsen-Freeman,D., & Long, M. (1991).An lntroductionto
al wisdomthat teachersshouldnot intervene
in fluencvactivities Second LanguageAcquisition Research.Harlow: Longman.
may alsoneedre-thinking.
Long, M.H., & Crookes, G. (1992). 'Three approaches to
In her articleLightbownexploresissuesrelatedto the timingof a task-basedsyllabusdesign' in TESOLQuarterly26:1,27-56.
focus on form, and comes out stronglyfor the integrationof the
form focus during (as opposed to before or after) Lyster, R. (1994).The effect of functional-analyticteachingon
communicative(i.e. message-focused)
activities.This typically aspects of French immersionsfudents' sociolinguisticcompetakesthe form of correction,but need not precludequiteexplic- tence. Applied Linguistics,75 (3),263-287.
it attentionto form,and she quotesLyster(1994)who describes
a Frenchimmersionteacher:
Williams,J. (1995).Focus on form in communicativelanguage
teaching: Research findings and the classroom teacher.
"who seemed particularlyadept at getting learnersto correct IESOL Journal,4, 12-76.@
theirown errors,The teacherdid this mainlyby askingstudents
perlinentquestionsabout how they thought the language
worked, alwaysin the context of communicativeinteraction.

' i h jo c t o b e r \ 7

)2000'

The Perennial PresenfPerted Problem

Rod Fricker
Rod Ficker has worked in lH Opole since September 1994, although onty in the last two years has he isen to the dizzy heights
of his current post as DOS. He took and passed his CELTAat lH Sahafayeenin Cairo where he worked for the first 1B months
of his TEFL career. ln 1997 he took the DELTA at lH Krakow under the expert tutelage of Jon Butt, Magda Markiewicz and
Rachael Robefts. Last year, he was the highest wicket taker in the tH Opole back-yard cricket competition and also helped Chris
Howell to produce one of the finest web sitesknown to TEFL:www.ih.com.pl/ooole.
This articleis dedicatedto RachaelRobertswho, as DoS of lH considerthe followingvery naturaland possibleexamplesof
Opole in Autumn1995, gave an input sessionon the Present E ngl i sh.
Perfectwhichstartedthe trainof thouqhtsthat led/hasledto the
ideaspresentedbelow.
In the first,someonewantsadviceaboutAmericaand is met by
the response" l ' ve been to A meri ca"suggest ingpr esenr
Why is it that the PresentPerfectcausesso many problemsfor relevance
ie knowledge.However,
two otherpeopleare listening
studentsof English?
Whatrs it aboutthistense*whichseemsto as well,the firstsays"Well,I was therelastweek",suggesting
by
defyall attemptsat clearand unambiguous
definition?
The aim the time referencethat in fact his presentknowledgeis greater.
of thrsarticleis to try to offeran alternative
explanation
to that Thethird,not to be outdone,chipsln with"That'snothing,I used
foundin most grammarbooksand coursebooks,
an attemptto to livethere".Who would you ask? Not, I imagine,the userof
makethis tensenot only easierfor studentsto understandbut the vaguePresentPerfect.
alsoio questionsome of the currentlyaccepted'explanations'
that, as will be seen, do not alwavs corresoondto actual similarlywith the speakingFrenchexample,if someonestated
t^^^,,^^^
ror rgudgu
uJdgu.
thatthey 'graduatedin Junewitha firstclasshonoursdegree'or
that they "livedwith a Frenchfamilyfor two yearsfrom 1g97I999" it is, in fact, exactlythe use of the pasttime expressions
thatare beingusedhere,not to distancethe event,but in factto
;:-;rr.:,rr;
do completelythe opposite,to stressits closeness
to now and
*qlfff',. t, q,* , ",s,ji-i,
*is-litil
its presentrelevanceto the situationunder discussion.
Thus,
presentrelevance
is surelya misleading
and oftenentirelyfalse
'explanation'
for usingthe PresentPer.fect
tense.

g$w-\' i:*$
'ffi'$.*f
;r's'"il

uS* #r r". f d ,r'"* ,r.r1l+

in:

d-+

;t

.'

.,

.,

i.

The problem,as I see it, is that traditional

grammarexplanations
are eithertoo simplified
so that exceptionsconfusethe students
or so complicatedand so disparateas to make learningand
usingthema nightmare.
Let'sfirstof alllookat what someof the
most respected books on the market say and why I am
q u e s t ioning
t hem ,

,sl:s'-:
srq.$'F
$::$,..$T
' $rw$-*-fu$m*e

Swan describesit as a 'kind of presenttense,thinkingof the

presentas wellas the past',Talkingabout pastactionswhichare
not recent,Swan says that the PresentPerfectdenotesthat
theseactionsarestillwith us. So, in hisexample"l'vetravelled
to
America"= | know America.
SimilarlyMichael Lewis in The EnglishVerb looks at three
statementsabout studyingFrenchsuggestingthat the Present
Pedectis usedto stressthat 'l can translatethat lettervou have
in yourhand(now).'

ffwsxww

*$+s $m,gpm$smsp
u SWr,{i"

I"$-w

$fum^ffiywmffisffS
ffi#r;'

Movingon to coursebookexplanations
otherirregularities
occur.
The HeadwayElementary
Teachers'Book statesthat:
"The Present Perfect expressesthe concept of an action
happeningat an indefinitetime beforenow and so it cannot be
usedwhena definitetime is given",lt thengivessomeexamples
of commonmistakesone of whichis 'ln my lifeI went to most
countriesin Europe,but I neverwent to Greece'

Boththeseexamplesare lookingat presentrelevance,

one of the
main explanationsof using the Present Perfect. However,
. I haveusedthe word 'tense'
throughoutthis articleto describethe PresentPer{ectthough I realisethat, strictlyspeaking,it is not
a

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r.vr rJti

^ +

dt

dil.

l l

rihinntnhor

Itnnnt

Now,whileI can see why this may be a mistake,I can also see
quite clearlythat this could be stated by a native speaker
choosing the Past Simple quite deliberatelyknowing that,
although his life continues,his opportunitiesfor travel have
ceased. In a similarway, trying to pigeon hole which time
expression
can be usedwith whichtensesalsocausesproblems
as the followingdichotomyreveals:

futureit wouldeitherbe changedin durationor no longertrue so

this agreeswith the theory above, 'Mike lived in Japan for 3
years' would be an unchangeablestatement.Why? Obviously,
becauseit is finishedand the threevearscannotbe extended.
2. When we are describing recent events: "l've eaten two
packetsof crisps....so
far todav".

I thinkherethat the 'recentevents'is misleading,

ratherit is the
incompleteness
of todaythat is imporlant.But the sentenceitself
"Haveyou smokedany cigarettes
this morning?"
couldclearlybe changedin the timeperiodgiven.In factit is the
"Onlytwo"
useof the presentperfectwhich impliesthat the speakerexpects
the stated facts to change, othenrvisehe would have said "l
Clearlythe choice of tense did not depend on the time ate...today" .
'thismorning'
expression
ratheron the perceptionof the speaker regarding
the possibility
of the eventoccurringagainwithinthe 3. Repeatedactions continuing from the past until now:
statedtime period.Clearly,if the expressionused is completely "We'veseenthreemoviesthis week"
in the past eg 'two weeksago' the speakerwould presumably Cleadythe possibility
that this situationwill be addedto exists.
not believethat the eventcould happenagainwithinthe time The week is not yet overand I am refusingto ruleout the possiperiodand so would not use the PresentPerfect.
bilityof furthervisitsto the cinema,'Wesawthreefilmsthisweek'
is alsopossibleif the speakerbelievesit to be an unchangeable
So far we have only looked at the Present Perfect used for fact,
experienceand for presentrelevance,there are also of course
otheruses,the most commonbeingan eventcontinuingfrom 4. To talk about experience, that is things that have
the past to the present,eithera continuoussituationor a senes happened at some time in our lives:
of repeatedactionsand very recenteventswith 'just', although "We'vebeento Athens".
the FirstCertificateGold grammarreferencelists B uses of the ...andthe possibilityexiststhat I may do so againwithinmy
PresentPerfectin total.
lifetime.
Similarly
the negative"l'veneverbeento Athens"could,one dav,
Therefore,it seems clear that what is needed is an easier no longerbe true.
explanationthat also more accuratelyreflectshow the tense ls
used in everydayspeech.What I shalldo is to set out my idea 5. When we can see a present result of past actions:
and then compareit with traditional
explanations
and examples "Someone's
let the dog in..and thereare paw printsalloverthe
to see how wellit holdsuo.
sofa" What the speakeris talkingabout here is the paw prints
whicharealloverthe sofaand,of course,in the futuretheywon't
Swan saysthat it is 'thinkingof the presentas well as the past' be there.So with presentrelevancestatementswe are not lookand Lewis talks about 'looking back from point now'. My ing at the actualPresentPerfectsentencebut the reasonit was
contentionis that the PresentPerJectlooks not only at the past used.What I am sayingif I say 'You'vehad your haircut" is that
from the point of view of the presentbut also from the point of your hairis differentfrom the lasttime I saw Vouand this may not
viewof thefuture,Thatis thatthe statementmade,or the implied be the casethe next time I see vou.
meaningbehindthe statement,
could,werethe speakerto make
the statementagain in the future, be differentin some way; 6. When we talk about the firsU second time we do something:
alteredin durationor frequency,repeatedor no longertrue,The " That' s the fi rst ti me I' ve tri ed rock cl i mbing"
PastSimpleis usedwhen the statementcould not everchange Cleady,this will alwaysbe the firsttime I go rock climbingbut I
as stated or implied and this is the fundamentaldifference couldneveragainusethat sentence.Therefore,
eventhoughthis
betweenthe two,
is slightlydifferentfrom other usesof the PresentPerfect,in one
way it does fit. lf I ever go rock climbingagain,I will haveto say
"This is the second time l've been rock climbing,"The past
What does this mean,exactlv?
simpleis used if the statementis alwaystrue, perhapslooking
Using the examplesgiven in First CertificateGold, a fairly back on the climb - "That was the first time I ever went rock
comprehensive
list,we can test the theoryto see if it works for cl i mbi ng" .
al lo f th e m ,
Z. When we use the superlative
7. Situations that have continued from some time in the "Mariais the most beautifulgirlI'veeverseen".
past until now: "Mike has livedin Japanfor threeyears".
Clearly,again,this situationmay not alwaysbe true.
Clearlvif this statementwas to be made at some time in the
"Didyou go joggingthis morning,David?"

t'No"

' i h io c t o b e r ( 9

)2000'

Therestillremaina few other usesand difficulties:

a) The choice between "Did you speak to the boss
today?" and "Have you spoken to the boss today?,'
Clearlythis is the differencebetweenan unchangeable
situation
(pastsimple)and one that may change(PresentPerfect)
b) Uses with 'Just'
Fairlyclearlyif I say somethinghas just happened,if I were to
make this statementagainin the futurethis would no longerbe
true.lt wouldno longerhavejust happened.
c) Still/yet
These words imply future change is not only possiblebut
probable,thereforetheir use is easilyexplained.

What we have at the moment are severaluses of the Present

Perfect that are both confusing and which don't always
correspondto reallifeusage.In practicalterms my ideais that

&ff&m$'
ws &ays #f ffie
ffiffi#$sffi#?*
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ffsffiffiffi
ffiff #&m Srmssrlf

ffiws'fuffis.
S$em#
#r# fusft?
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ffiF$T
##?# Wr#XrC$t

Nsxstr'if
w#wys ##rr#sp*r?d

d) Forlsince
Againthesewordsimplya continuation
from a past point,so fit *q:
the rule,although'for' can obviouslyalso be usedto talk about
a finishedtime periodand so can also be used with the Past
Si mo l e ,
we can tell our studentsthat if they see the past action or
si tuati on as i rretri evabl yfi ni shed and unrepeatableor
e)What about situations that stopped a short time ago? unchangeabl e(because of ti me constrai ntsor unst at ed
"l'velivedherefor eightyears"shesaidwitha sighas shewalked implications)
they should use the past tense. lf not, use the
out the door^Herethe situationwon't be true in the future.True, presentperfect.Forgetthe words used;'in my life','thisweek'
the eightyeartime periodwon't change,but the speakeris still or whatever,
Thinkmoreof whatthe speakeris tryingto say.And
implyinga continuation
up untilthe momentof speakingwhich if you readThe EnglishVerb,you will realizethat, althoughI may
won't be true in the future.
havequestionedMichaelLewisearlier,
this is classicLewis.All
utterancesare the resultof a definitechoiceby the speakerand
'rules'.And if your
f) Newspaper reports
are not constrained
by simplified
students,at
the end of the day,stilldon't get it, cheeryourselfup with the
The most difficult
exolanation:
thoughtthat neitherdo the Americansand they're(sortof!)native
speaKers.@
"The Presidenthas been assassinated".This clearly cannot
happenagain,nor can it alterin any way. He's dead. ls this a
stylisticexceptionto the rule? ls it perhapsused becausethe
newsmediawant us to keep reading/listening/watching
and use
the Present Perfect to indicate that oossible future chanoe
demandsus to staytuned?
g) Why do we use the Past Simple with no time
expression?
Earlieron we had a sentencefrom MichaelLewiswhich stated
"l studiedFrench"which he says is a simplestatementof fact.
This is true but it has an unstatedimplication(at university/for
A level)which makesit unchangeable
in the speaker'sview,
"Have
you
film?"
Similarly
seenthe
meanseverand impliesthat
you couldin the futureif not in the past,"Didyou see the film?"
impliesthat the situationis unchangeable.
Why? Becausethe
is 'on tv lastnight'or'duringits recent,now
unstatedimplication
finished,run at the cinema',
Whetherthe abovetheorystandsup to deeperanalysisor not,
hopefullyit may encouragea new look at a pafi of the English
languagewhichseemsto causemoreproblemsthan most.

' i h io c t o b e r( t o ) z o o o ;

A Model Modal Model

A journey through the maze of logic which is "modality"

Mark Lloyd
Mark hastaught Englishin Spainand Portugal,and haswo*ed as CourseDirectoron numeroussummerschoolsin the UK.
He is curently AssistantDirectorof Studiasat lH Madrid (Serrano),wherehe hasworkedfor the lastfour years.
When it comes to teachingmodal verbs, any Englishteacher
knowsthat the possibilities
are endless..,,.,or,
moreto the point,
"possibility"
thewaysin whichtheconceptof
can be usedareendless.Aftera numberof yearsspent successfully
confusingstudents, I have now reached the somewhat self-defensive
conclusion
that it is not simplymy teachingmethodswhichareto
blame- in fact,it is the recklessbandyingaboutof the word "possibility" in countless course books which is the prime
suspect. What follows is essentiallvthe case for the
oro se cu ti on. , . . .

When $Ss#r?x#sfo

Counselfor the defencewould be correctto pointout that thereis

no realriskof misinterpretation
of meaninghere,evenwithoutthe
water-tight
alibiof a clearcontext.Likewise,"lt mightrain","lt may
rain"and "lt couldrain"allexpresslessceftaintyor a lowerprobability.Whetheror not each of these three modals expressesan
equal,greateror lesserrelativeprobabilitythan the othertwo is
beyondthe scope of this article- basically,though,the facts we
are givenin each case are the same and there is littlerisk of the
information
beingmisinterpreted.
However,considerthisexample:
"He mightgo".
OK, so thereis a reasonable
chanceof hisgoing.
The probabilityof his going is between40% and 7OVo,say.But, if
this is true,then logicallythe possibility
of his goingmust exist.lt
must be possiblefor him to go, becauseif it wasn'tpossible,the
probabilitywould surelybe zero. Only a small leap of logic is
requiredto seethatthe act of hisgoingis eitherpossibleor impossible.In otherwords, it is not possiblefor somethingto be only
50% possible,
for example,Somethingcan be possible50% of the
time,but that is a differentmatter.Thus,the phrase"a verystrong
possibility",
whichyou no doubtacceptedunquestioningly
in interpretationc) above,is nonsensical,
and in terms of possibilityit
followsthat "He will go" is exactlythe sameas "He mightgo", lt
hardlyneedsto be saidthat this way of lookingat thingsneglects
a rather imporlant differencebetween these two examples,
namelythe factthat in the secondcasethe orobability
of hisgoing
is somewhatsmallerthan in the firstcase.

feacftfng rmm#mf
wer&ss
#ffy ffmE$$s&*wms$smr
knours fftmf S$ae
psssf&r$sfsms#trffi
gnd$gs,s.rFs**dr
EstablishingThe Facts
I wouldliketo open,your Honour,by referring
to Swan(1995),
who separatesmodalauxiliaries
intotwo groupsaccordingto
meaning:
thosemodalsconcerned
with:

CompellingEvidence;
1. "degrees of certainty..,..used
to say for instance that a
situationis ceftain,probable,possibleor impossible";

What about "He could go"? By the above logic, ladiesand

gentlemenof the jury,this must mean

and thoseconcernedwith

d/ "lt is entirelypossiblefor him to go."

2. "obligation,
freedomto act and similarideas".
An obviousexamplefrom group1, I ventureto suggest,mightbe
the sentence"lt will rain",which could easilybe interpretedas
statingthat

"He could
Also by extensionof the above,in terms of possibility
go" is logically
identical
to "Hewillgo" - onceagainafar fromcompleteinterpretation
of the situation.Of course,we then havethe
fuftherobstacleof the conceptof "ability"- "He couldgo" meaning "He hasthe abilityto go", This in turn couldmean

a) "lrcansay with completecerlaintythat it is goingto rain",

or
b) "Theprobability
that it is goingto rainis 1007o",
or
c/ "Thereis a verystrongpossibility
of rain",

e) "He hasthe abilityto go becausehe possessesthe necessary

know-how";
or
f) "Ne hasthe abilityto go becausethe externalconditionsallow
hrmto" .

'ihj october

G ) zooo'

Thereis a third interpretation,

too:

know aboutthe externalcircumstances

and environment":
f\r

g) "He has the abilityto go becausesomeonehas grantedhim

permission".
q) "He would have had a fair chance of going if the
(eitherinternalor external)had beendifferent".
circumstances
In all threeof theseexamples,though,we are againconfronted
- in each case the possibility
by the notionof possibility
exists, Not Obliged To Say Anything...
althoughit arisesfrom differentsources,namelythroughinternal
p o sse ss ion of t he ne c e s s a ry s k i l l s , o b l i g i n g e x t ernal Evenobligationcan be calledas a witness:
environmental
conditionsor circumstances,
and the grantingof
p e rmi ssion,r es pec t iv e l yWi
. th a p p ro p ri a tei n to n a ti o nand "He hasto go", meaning
stressing
the word "could",the interpretation
becomes
r) "Thereis no possibility
of his not going"
h) "Hehasthe abilityto go, but I wouldreallypreferit if he didn'1",
or
thus expressinga reluctanceto go. which the notion of
"possibility"
totallyfailsto pick up on.
s/ "Therers the possibility
of his not going,but he is strongly
advi sedto go" ,
Past Convictions
and even" H e mustgo" , meanl ng
Up to now,I havedeliberately
avoidedmentionof the past,but if
we ca st an ey e in t h a t d i re c ti o n w e n o ti c e y e t m ore f,)"Thereis the possibilitv
of his not goingbut I stronglyadvise
"He couldgo" translates
complications.
as
h i mt o g o '
i) "Ne usedto havethe abilityto go",

S u m m i n gU p

withanyof the addedinterpretations

e), f) or g) above,but once Practically
everycourse book or grammarbook I have come
agarnalwaysembracingthe conceptof "possibility".
acrosssuccumbsto the temptationto talk about "possibility",
and rn my opinionthis kindof approachto modalverbscauses
Most damningly, perhaps, we have the potential untoldproblemsfor studentsat all levels.Considerthe following
involvementof the perfect infinitive:
"FirstCertificate
accomplices:
Gold"(Acklam,1996)claimsthat
in additionto ability,permission,obligation,necessity,
lack of
j) "Hewillhavegone"(a predictionof an actionto be takenbefore obligationand deduction (which all include the notion of
a pointof time in the future);
possibility,
as we have seen),modal meaningalso extendsto,
yes, that'sright,possibility(whichis furtherdividedinto either
k) "1)ewillhavegone"(asan expressionof certaintyor deduction theoreticalor factual)."Distinction"(Foley and Hall, 1gg3)
abouta pastaction);
attemptsto convincestudentsthat with reference
to presentand
futureactions"must"and "rvill"expresscertainty,
"should"and
l) "Ne mighthavegone" (asj) andk) but with lessconfidenceor "would" expressprobability,
"may",
"might"
and
and "could"
certainty);
express possi bi l i ty." P rofi ci encyMastercl ass"(Gude and
Duckworth,1994)requiresstudentsto categoriseten vaguely
m) "de might have gone" (as a venting of annoyanceand/or contextualised
sentences
accordingto the meaningof the modal
expression
of criticism);
verb in each, and providesgreat potentialfor confusionby
"deduction","futurepossibility"
isolating"ability","permission",
and my personalfavourites:
possibility",
and "unfulfilled
among others,as notionally
distinct
"H eco u l dhav egone" ,m ea n i n g
meanings.
Fromthe examplesI haveseen,the onewhichcomes
closestto the truth is "New Headwaylntermediate"
(Soarsand
n) "lle had the abilityto go but he chosenot to";
Soars,1996),which bravelyadmitsthat "one use of all [modal
verbs]is to expresspossibility",althoughit comes dangerously
or
closeto contemptof court by tackingon the end the words"and
probability".
o/ "Thereis a fair chance that he has gone, based on what I
knowabouthis internalskillsand abilities":
I rest my case.
The Verdict:.Guilty, as charged.
or
p) "Thereis a fair chancethat he has gone, based on what I

' i h j o c t o b e r( t 2 ) 2 0 0 0 '

Passing Sentence

it com*s dangsro{rsfy
close fo ssnfssslpf *f
$offrf by fackrrxE sr? ffie
nd ffie w$r#m *'and
probabfJrfyn'
The intricacies
of modalverbsare difficultfor studentsto grasp,
and thereis no escapingthis fact, However,my proposalis to
adopt a ratherlenientapproachof damagelimitation.By this I
meanthat the use of the conceptof "possibility",
evenwith the
objectiveof simplifying
mattersfor low levelstudents,ultimately
confusesstudentsand masksthe real"meaning"of the modal
verbsin question.So, by avoidingthe conceptaltogether,
the
chancesof misinterpretation
of meaningshouldbe, if not
eliminated,
then at leastreduced,and it followsthat students
will be lesslikelyto makeconfusingor unclearutterancesof
theirown when attemptingto producethe targetlanguage.
I wouldsuggestthat modalmeaningcan broadlybe categorisedinto two groups:

1. Probability
2. Ability
I accept that this might be over-simplifying
matters, so a
possiblesub-division
mightbe:
7. Probability: . deduction(prediction)
about the future
o deductionabout the oresent
o deductionabout the past
2. Ability:

o internalability
o internalobligation(an obligationto do something being seen as inabilityto avoiddoing
something)

: :ff:::i TJiIJ*,".
(incrudins
permission
"CanI openthe window?"beingessentially
the
same as "Am I obliged not to open the
window?")
Thereis stillplentyof scopefor a modalverbto fit intomorethan
one categorywhich I believeis an unavoidable
situation,as well
as being desirablein the sense that students should be
discouragedfrom lookingfor concrete,blackand whiteanswers
in this complexarea of English,I would, however,be extremely
interestedto see if anyonecan come up with an exampleof a
modal verb which does not reasonablvfit into at leastone of
thesesevencategories.
Gase closed, pending appeal....@

'ihj october ( 13 2000'

)

Go Forth and Be Positive

MikeCattlin
Mike Cat in has been Director of Studies at Katowice for two years and recently spent two months at lH London training as a
teacher trainer Last year, he was a successfu/ pafticipant in the lH Diploma in Educational Management.
PerhapsI shouldbeginwith a rationalefor the title.lt stemsfrom optimisticviewsofferedby the "older"age group,someof whom
I wondered if they really would
a comment made by one of the traineeson a CELIA course I sounded so laissez-faire,
pursuetheirinitialgoals.
tutoredrecentlyat lH London.At the end of the last observed ultimately
TeachingPractice,the traineeremarkedon her self-evaluation
form that shefelt she had completedthe course(andcompleted So, what of their hopes for theirfirstjob? This is wheremy real
to teachand shewas intereststaited.As the Directorof Studiesof a largeschool in
but did not feelqualified
it well,incidentally)
hope rather than CentralEurope(thePolesdo not appreciatebeingreferredto as
with
go
world
into
the
forth
to
about
"Go forth and be parl of Eastern Europe these days), I see a lot of straightwas
the
above:
reply
My
written
confidence,
arrivingeveryyearand it is part of my job to
positive""But what is it reallylikethese daysto reachthe end of off-CElTA-teachers
a CELTAcourse and look foru,rardinto the big, wide world? settlethem in and, alongwith otherseniorstaff,supportthem
Platitudesare easilygiven,but how reassuringare they?| invited throughthe initialstagesof theirfirstjob. What do they really
the traineeson the course to tell me about their hopes' wantand expectof us? ls thiswhatwe aregiving,or arewe too
and fears;and theirresponsesdemonstratevarytng wrappedup rn what we thinktheywant?
expectations
mostof them,however,not verypostttve.
of
confidence,
degrees
' , ;$ $ q s
i'T _ff
unceftainfutures.
haveinitially
interviewed
those
The majorityof
immediate
have
any
five
only
who
responded,
Cf the twelve
plans,one for a two week period,one for four weeks,one with
throughfrrendsabroadwhich promisesmore,
an arrangement
and anothertwo outsideELTcompletely.
, . ;l,;,ii*$;$
rt'i.':.:

!,f dsff

were J * " Yi I : " ; ,. : ' l ; \ "

for theirnewlychosenCareer
expectations
Theirimmediate
: s 8 r " . r $d " t ' 5 * 3 u O *
March
that
to
accept
Most
seemed
generallynot veryoptimistic.
was not a goodtimeto get a job and thatthe besttheycan hope
for before Seotemberis to accumulatea small amount of
if needsbe. Onlytwo
in a summerschool,voluntarily
experience
of gettinga job
hope
any
expressed
of the under3O-year-olds
only one of this
is
that
aside
abroadbeforethen. An interesting
joined
profession
for travel On this question,the age factor of the selectedgroup played
the
age group seems to have
exceptionwho statedthat she
prelude
travelling littlepar1.Eventhe one thirty-plus
to
a
aS
reasons,havingdone the course
livingand workingwith
"does
in
an
environment
want
to
be
not
goes.
Times
he
as
aroundthe world, consideringthe options
into her
integrated
prefers
people"
to
become
but
English
other
years.
seemto havechangedin the lastfew
chosensociety,addedthat she "would,at the sametime,liketo
as befits those who have undergonea have the supporl of the DoS/Directorof the schooland other
The thirtysomethings,
the desireto get
majorchangein theirlives,normallyas a resultof considerable teachers".She was not alone in expressing
for "plent y of
l
ooki
ng
i
s
l
ocal
l
i
fe;
another
positive
i
n
i
nvol
ved
generally
more
were
and pocket-delving,
soui-searching
community"
local
with
the
for
involvement
opportunities
initial
my
own
in their outlook,One trainee'sviews mirrored
to a
at aroundaboutthe same age, "lookingforuuard
intentions
job, The feelingbehindthe secondhalfof the abovequote,the parl
previous
my
challengeand a complete change from
sharedby the majority
A relatingto support,was, not surprisingly,
times",
expectingto haveto work hardand to find it difficultat
"PaSS
got
B" V/aSkeen not
a
who
of
thoSe
One
the
trainees,
Of
improving
yearningfor the job, for livingabroadand for
long-time
wantedto teach
also
but
atmosphere,
in
a
supportive
to
be
only
rationale.
her languageskills were also pa6t of this trainee's
somelack
suggesting
Thus
level.
basic
a
fairly
at
classes
smallish
Another expressedmore or less the same ideas, but also
we in
Whilst
effectively.
to
teach
his/her
ability
in
good
confidence
of
expectedit to be both stimulatingand enjoyable,and a
in
copious
often
provide
atmosphere,
the
supportive
Katowice
learningexperience(as a teacher),whilst anotherwas already
the
"small"(if I am interpreting
lookingto SouthAmericaor Asia,often seenas ambitiousdesti- amounts,our classesare rarely
to
up
of
classes
of
timetables
and
correctly)
adjective
nationsfor the newlyqualifiedbut whereschoolsotherthan lH
in
haystacks,
needles
to
akin
are
only
level
intermediate
a nd vari ety
Challenge
s
se e m t o hav e m or e o p p o rtu n i ti e,,.....
laiddown for
for a teacherwho fulfilsthe requirements
we re c om m on t hem e s ; th e re w e re , h o w e v e r,s o me l ess especially

smm
#sff$sw$sffi

wtrffiffiffffiN Mffi rsffw#xm#wffi

#&wywffitrs#ff
Stussx&

'ihi october ( tq ) 2000'

a "Pass 8", i.e, candidates"who have demonstratedin their

teachingpracticea levelof achievementsignificantly
higherthan
that requiredto meet pass-levelcriteriain relationto classroom
teachingskills"(Cambridgehandbook).

simplydid not fit the bill.This is anotherproblemfor the Central

and EasternEuropeanschools,but one which may be out of
proportionwith possiblereality.These are the countrieswhich
havejoinedor are about to join NATO,the EC and other such
internationalorganisations;knowing their languagemay not
lf a memberof the "Pass B" brigadeexpressessuch feelings, thereforebe "useless"- difficultfor a nativeEnglishspeakeryes,
one can onlyassumethe "Passes"are at best similarbut, more but uselessno.
likely,far lesssecure.Thisis backedup by a quickreviewof their
comments;for example,"l want to teachin a good schoolwhere Othershope to discovera "calling"while most just want to get
I can learn a lot"; "well-developed
supporl would be nice"; "l out there and put into practice all they have learnedon the
would liketo work in a supportiveenvironmentwhich will work courseand to consolidatetheirknowledgein the realworld.After
on the knowledgeI haveand buildon this";and "l wantto go to all,as one said,"it'slikelearningto drive- you don't reallylearn
a schoolwhere I can get plentyof supportand help if needed". untilyou do it on your own" (l was not quite sure I agreedwith
Havingheardall too often of schoolsaroundthe world who do the wisdomof that commentl).
Aboveall,theyjustwantto cope
not providethis, I was tempted to offer them all jobs; little with theirfirstjob effectively,
And that, of course,is wherewe at
pointershad to sufficeinstead.
SeniorEducational
stafflevelcome in, to helpthem achievethis
aim,for theirown benefitand, ultimatelv,
the school's.

Snfy f$*rx dfd fie mdsmrff

Thereis one finalquote from this section,and one whichas a

DoS in CentralEuropeI find quitereassuring,
and that is this:
"l see the schoolatmosphere
as beingmoreimporlantthanthe
salaryfor my firstjob". Althoughonly one traineewrotethis in
black and white, I perceivedit as being quite a general
motivationand a good summaryof the overallfeeling.Thereis a
Anotherconcernnotedwas that of providingmotivationto learn
greatwillto developin the newlyqualified
trainee,and it is a will
English
for studentsin a monolingual
environment.
I oftenfeelthe
we can exploitto greateffectand, again,mutualbenefit,
monollngual
natureof guinea-pigclassesin centreslikeours in
Wroclawcan be more realisticwith regardsto what is to come
post-course
for the majority,
but alsomuchtougherfor the rookie-teachertrying desperatelyto get their studentsto "speak
English,please!!!!|".
This is a factor which those of us in the
monolingual
world have to take into accountwhen recruiting
teachers from multilingualcentres; sessions on providing
motivationin our parlicularmonolingualcontext should be up
therein inductionweek.

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Otherssaid they "hoped"they would enjoy it. I wonder how

many others hope, or even hope desperately,that they have
donethe rightthing.My mind goes back to onlylastyearwhen
we took a promisingteacherwith a good referenceoff a course,
broughthimallthewayacrossthe continentand senthimoff into
his roundof lessonplanningand teaching,onlyfor him to knock
on the door threedays latersayingwhat a dreadfulmistakehe
had made.Onlythendid he admithe had not enjoyedthe course
at all,despiteimproving
rapidlythroughoutit, beforetellingme he
would neverset foot in a classroomagain,staftingfrom the one
he was supposedto be teachinglaterthe samehour(andyes,I
do mean"hour").I willcome laterto talk aboutteachers'fearsof
a school'sexpectations
of them;what we must not forgetis their
expectationsof us, whetherthev be realisticand achievableor
not,

And so, on to theirfears,whereage, once again,seemsto play

no part. Surprisingly,
there were fewer responsesto this
question;in fact,two peopleput a linethroughthe wholesection
- whetherthis is becausethey have no fears or simplydidn't
want to think about them on the last day of the courseis open
to question.Those who did answer repeated many of the
argumentsgivenabove, but in reverse;somehow,this is even
moreeffectiveand theirviewsare ones I shallbearin mindwhen
I go to meetthe planecarryingthe nextbatchof new teachersin
September
thisyear,The opinionscan be splitup intoa number
of areas.

First,as I mentionedabove, is the weight of expectationthey

feel,Twoof the trainees,includingone "Pass8", believetheywill
be the objectof greatexpectationswhichtheywill not be ableto
live up to. lt is not just the expectationsof the management
The linguisticaim referredto brieflyabovealso came into playin which are of concern;they are afraidthe studentswill be aware
other comments.One stipulatedthey would like to begin of their newly-qualifiedstatus and will not find them as
learninga "usefullanguage".I suppose"usefulness"
is in the convincingas the other teachers.Holdingthe handsof 20-30
mind of the speaker,but again, I can recallanotherpair of new teachers,as is often the case with us, is simply not
teacherswe had last year who, in breakingtheir contract six possible,but thereseemsan elementof crueltyin shovingthem
monthsearly,expressedthis same desireand statedthat Polish in at the deep end for them to sink or swim ...,,,We find an

' i h i o c to b e r ( 15 ) 2000'

intensivelnductionWeek beforeteachingstarts to be a great Teachingstudents often with little immediateneed for the
help, but there is stillan awful lot of work to be done once the languageand a consequentlack of interestwas of concernto
morethan one. Will they be able to make their lessonsrelevant
academicyeargets underway.
and interestingoutsidethe London scenario?As I said above,
for providingmotivationin a pafticularcontextwillbe
not knowingthe grammarbook suggestions
Lack of knowledge,particularly
them valuablefor them. Only one traineeworriesabout gettinga job
insideout,was anotherfrequentcausefor concern,Telling
theywill pick it up in time and it will all becomemuch easieras where "the teachingmethodsare laid down by the schoolto
they progress,somehowdoes not seem to do the requiredtrick such an extentas to preventme from beingmyself",The value
- they want it all and they want it now, Thesedays, Language of an eclecticmethodologyneed not be stated.
Awarenessseems to take a back seat on many initialtraining
coursesand in-serviceprogrammes;more often than not, it is
the non-nativespeakerswho have been through the system
who are much morein tune with this and the native
themselves
speakers,whose knowledgeis assumed,who are left to suffer
copiesof Swan,Murphy,
intothe smallhoursoverwell-thumbed
Eastwood and the like. In Katowice, we run a Language
AwarenessGroup separatelyfrom compulsoryinput which is
The finalfearexpressedwas one of isolationand an inability
to
voluntary
but helpsthosemost in need.Linkedto the knowledge
relateto peopleat the schooland in the newculture.I cannotsay
after
factoris the sheer,suddenburdenof a 16-30hourtimetable
this neverhappensin Katowice,but in a schoolof 50 teachers,
a two hour teachingweek on the course which took at least
the problemtends to be less frequent.We are not, of course,
threetimes as long to plan as it did to deliver.lt simplyis not
compl acenti n thi s regard:our Inducti onW eek at the end of
possible.But it has to be. They haveto cope, and do we really
new teachersnot onlyto the restof the
Septemberintrodr,rces
rememberhow difficultit allwas?
staff(teachingand administratrve;
and the systems,but alsoto
the l anguage,the cul ture and the l ocal envi ronmentThe
,
Not surprisingly,
a lackof supportwas the most commonlyheld
is therefor themto be occupredfor the entirety
of the
opporlunity
fear, Senior staff and experiencedcolleaguesare worth their
firstweek,shouldthey so choose,beforethey becomefocused
weightin gold,We havesome excellentsecondand thirdyear
sol el y on l esson pl anni ng.Later arrrval snormal l yget an
teachersin Katowicewho have been invaluableto the new
inductionand, wherepossible,a mentor,oftenin
individualised
comers,as much so as the seniorstaff,and this is something
form of a flatmate.
the convenient
which needs to be encouragedyear after year as classroom
Thisshould
in the schoolsimplycannotbe replaced.
experience
Lookingforwardto Septemberand the influxof new teachers,
point
of lH schoolseverywhere one of our
be a majorselling
then, will this year's approach be any differentfrom previous
"almostunique"sellingpointsto good teachers.
years?To some degree,yes, and the abovepointswill be ones
at the forefrontof our planning,
As our trarneesadmitted,they only have a very basic idea of
what theyare doingand thereare some problemsin classthey
Much of the above may seem like stating the blindingly
do not know how to (or do not want to) deal with just yet. This
obvious;I often feel the blindinglyobvioussometimesneeds
rathervague referenceprobablyincludesa multitudeof factors
stating,@
such as disciplineand uncooperativestudents;a more clearly
statedconcernwas that of facingthe sorts of classesthey feel
they havenot been preparedto teach, namelyadvancedclassgroups,BusinessEnglishclassesand Younger
es, examination
Learners,the latterthreeof which normallyreceivea sessionon
a CELTAcourse,but littlemore.And yet in Katowice,some,or
even all of them can be part of a new teacher'stimetablefrom
week one. Havingsaid that, however,once they have got over
the initialshock and with the help of appropriatesuppotl,this
policyoften producesvery versatileteacherswho at the end of
their first year display a level of flexibility and
experiencewell beyond what might have been otherwise
expected.And the teachersthemselvesoften reallyappreciate
the variety,as opposed to the more closeted experienceof
teachinga limitedrangeof levelsand coursetypes,In fact,in the
last academicyear,when we segregatedBusinessand General
from
Englishto a large extent, we actuallygo,t,complaints
teacherswho cravedthe varietywe had previouslyoffered.We
havenow returnedto providingthat variety.

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TBL or not TBL?

lmplementing a TBL paradigm on pne-serviceteacher training courses.

KarlKaliskiandDerrinKent
Karl haslived and wo ed in Barcelonafor tenyearsas a teacher,teachertrainerand materialswriter He regutartyteadsworkshopsand sesslonsall over Spain.Detin has beena teacherand CELTAtrainerwith lnternationalHousein varioustocationsfor
sevenyears.He is the editor of the IATEFLTeacherTra,nelsS/G News/efe/:
Task-basedlearningtl-BL)has been aroundfor some ttme now,
and it's probablyfairto say that it has had an influenceon many
aspectsof EFL.One aspectof EFLwhich appearsto havebeen
less influencedby TBL, however,is pre-serviceteachertraining
courses such as the Cambridge RSA CELTA This article
d es cri b e s t he planning a n d i mp l e m e n ta ti o n o f a
pre-servicecourse (the RSA CELTA)which is built around a
task-based- as opposedto a PPP - methodology.

o input,both methodologyand languageanalysis

o practice(encouraging
implementation
and experimentation
with a TBL modelin TP)
TBL through modelling:

In order to implementand run a pre-servicecourse which is

centredon a task-basedapproach,the firstthingthat we feltwas
The argument for working with a task-based paradigm
neededwas an input session,earlyin the course,presentinga
basic model (or 'lessonshape') for a task-basedclass which
A commonargumentagainstimplementing
a TB approachand traineescouldmakesenseof. FollowingHunt,we adopton our
stickingto the PPP model is that the latter offers traineesa coursesa 'cyclicapproachto time-tabling'
(Hunt1996),starting
degreeof controlover the classroom,and that a pre-selected with inputsessionswhich includewhole lessons,modelledfor
languagepointprovidesthem with somethingto hangon to.
trainees.Theselessonsthen serveas modelsfor the traineesto
put into practiceand experimentwith in teachingpractice.
However,our own experiencesof workingwith traineesis that
this 'control'is boughtat too high a price.We have seen too The class which is modelled for the traineesis a oractical
many classesin which studentsare pushed througha lesson demonstration
of how to builda lessonarounda task,foilowing
with little opportunityto expresstheir own ideas and to use the modeloutlinedby willis(1ggo).we usea personalanecdote
languagecreativelyand communicatively.
We have often found task for this,which involvesrecountinga first-timeexperience.
thisto be frustrating
for both traineeteachersand theirstudents.
The model lessonbeginswith a pre-taskstage introducingthe
We alsofeelthat the PPPapproachreinforcespreciselythe kind task. This involvesbrainstormingtypical first-timeexpenences
of ideasabout languageteachingthat we disagreewith and are and languageused to describehow people feel about these
tryingto wean traineesaway from, i.e. a high degreeof teacher experiences.
This is followedby the task cycleconsistingof the
control;a mechanistic,
causalrelationship
betweenteachingand task performance(traineesdescribingto each other a first-time
experience),planningand reporl back. While listeningto their
learning;and the ideathat secondlanguageteachingought to partner'sanecdote,traineeshaveto choosethe threeadjectives
be grammardriven.Teachers
can't controllanguagelearningto which they feel best summarisethe experience.
The planning
the extentimpliedin the PPP model,and we feelvery strongly and reportback stagesconsistof theirwritingand feedingback
that ri rs imporlantfor our traineesto know this.
on the adjectivesthey havechosenand why.lt is then explained
that with foreignlanguagelearnersa languagefocusstagewould
ln additionto this,far from providingtraineeswith somethingto followthe task cycle,
hang on to, our experienceis that traineeswork much better
when they havea topic,a text and a task aroundwhichto build Havingmodelledthe class,usingthe traineesas 'students',a
the class- theywouldratherhangon to a text aboutfashionthan questionnaire
is givenout for groupand open classdiscussion.
the futureperfect,for example.
The aim here is to draw the trainees'attentionto some of the
ideaswhichunderpinthe classwhichtheyhavejust parlicipated
Designingand timetabling a task-based CELTAcourse.
in. Typicalquestionsaskedat this stageinclude:
We have approachedthe integrationof TBL into our courses . Thislessonincludedtime to preparebeforeyou spoke,why do
from threedifferentpersoectives:
you thinkyou were giventime for this?What would be the effect
of givingstudentsno preparationtime beforethey wereaskedto
. example(i.e,modellessons)
carryout a task?
. The class includedrepetitionof the task. Whv? What are the
benefitsof task reoetition?

'ihj october (t7 2000'

)

textbooks.We stronglyfelt that althoughwe favouredTBL, we

would be doing our traineesa disserviceif we didn'tshow them
how to work with and exploittextbookmaterial,The problemwe
face here is that just about all of the textbookswhich our
teachersare likely to encounterand use are built around a
pre-selectedsyllabusof discrete item languagepoints - the
o Why do we needto balancethe amountof time and attention antithesisof a task-basedapproachto languagelearning.
we giveto thesetwo factors?
Herewe did feel that a compromisehad to be struck:;trainees,
for
a whole host of reasons,do needto know how to deal with
of
sense
making
we have found that traineesare capable of
pre-selected
languagepoint. One approachwhich we adopt,
a
to
anSWerS
these questionsand come up with very reasonable
how to work with a languagepointfrom text.
trainees
show
is
to
here
them. In fact,one couldarguethat the issuesdiscussed
basic proceduresthat have alreadybeen
the
on
builds
This
a
focus
both
task repetition,the imporlanceof
task preparation,
and also providesa strongcontext and
presented
trainees
to
language
on meaningand a focus on form in the foreign
Traineesare also shown how to
class.
language
a
for
topic
layperson'
classroom would make senseto any intelligent
produce guided discoveryworksheetswhich allow students
in languagefocusstages,whiletaking
However,we also feel that the kind of approachwe want to moreactiveinvolvement
- who thenhasmoreopporlunities
to
the
trainee
off
the
oressure
trainees'
the
adopt on our course is probablyquite differentto
pairs
or
small
in
worksheet
the
they
complete
as
students
help
it
is
own languagelearning experiences,and we believe
languagefocus stage
imporlantto draw on these experiencesin order to bring the groups insteadof havingto controla
class
open
open.
the
into
theories"of languagelearning
teachers'"personal
Forlunatelyfor us (l), many of our traineesappearto have had
very mixed resultswith their previousexperiencesof language Input:Languageanal Y si s
'traditionlearning,basedas they oftenare,aroundmuch more
The resultis that they are very TBL arguesthat the role of the teacherisn'tto controlstudent
approaches.
al' grammar-driven
natureof the lessonmodels productionof language,but ratherto motivatestudentsand
to the communicative
responsive
use.Withinthiscontext
for communicative
provideopporlunrties
offered.
a centralaspectof the
and
importance,
is
vital
form
of
on
focus
a
theirthoughts
express
how
to
students
is
to
show
role
s
teacher
Input sessions:working with texts and coursebooks
ways'
sophisticated
in increasingly

. ln generalwe can say that during the class the focus of the
studentsis on eithercommunication(usinglanguageto express
their own ideas)or languageform (thinkingabout the grammar
and vocabularythat they use). can you identifyat least two
stageswhichfocus on each of these?

This introductorysession to working within a task-based

frameworkis followedup with a second sessionwhich offers
traineesa rangeof task typeswhich they could exploitwith their
listing,writing,
students.These includeranking,categorising,
roleplay,problemsolvingand so on.
discussion,

Therefore,a task-based approach requiresthe teacher to

monitor,and providefeedbackon, learnerproduction.In other
words, the treatmentof languagein a TB approachis more
reactivethan pre-emptive(cf PPP).Thisis not a tallorder:trainee
teachersmay struggleto explainwhy a pieceof languagemight
training be rightor wrong,but they do know when somethingis wrong
Anotherkey aspectof our course,as with all pre-service
correctalternatives.
courses,involvesshowingtraineeshow to work with texts. and can usuallysuggest
when
working with texts, it seems to us, is unproblematic
we alsowork on raisingtrainees'awarenessof the
examinedfrom a task-basedperspective- text work lendsitself Neverlheless,
languagesystems- grammar,lexisand discourse.ln orderto
to a task-basedapproach.
verynaturally
devel op trai nees'l anguageaw arenessand to hone t heir
starlingpoint of languageanalysisinput
Cnce our traineesappearto have a graspof basicprocedures monitoringskills,the
generally
activityin which traineesidentifyand
an
is
for workingwith text, we go one step further.A key issuein TBL sessions
text. For
in learner-produced
errors
reformulate
to
is that of how to find and engineeropportunitiesto draw attempt
company"
that
for
working
"For
I
started
reason,
this
students'attentionto languageform within the context of a example:
as "That'swhy I staded""''
'meaning-driven'
mightbe more naturallyreformulated
approachto languagelearning'
to interveneon actual
both
prepare
trainees
This helps
note errorsfor post-task
to
and
(written
production
or
spoken)
Work with texts offers the possibilityof striking a balance
practice.
teaching
during
betweenmeantngand form. we decidedto show traineeshow clarification
language'
for
useful
work,
comprehension
to exploittexts after
point to note here is that in the context of an
Textsare analysedwith the trainees,and discussiontakesplace An interesting
meaningand
to languagelearningwhich prioritises
as to what kindsof languageareascouldbe exploitedand why. approach
difficult,
fewer
pose
many
to
tend
students
Traineesare then presentedwith a range of simpleactivities communication,
might
one
than
teachers
questions
to
language
which they could use for post-text languagefocus work' challenging
and
need
they
language
the
for
ask
to
gap fills, categorrsrng,think.lnsteadthey tend
Exampleactivitiesinclude:underlining,
getonwiththe(communicative)jobathand,whereasina
matchingsentencehalvesand so on'
form-drivenapproach(suchas PPP)studentstoo tend to focus
on
heavi
l
y
j
u
s
ti
fi
a
b
l
y
)
re
l
y
(q
u
i
te
t e a c h e rs
Newly - qualif ied

,ihi oetoher I t8 ) 2000'

on languageand grammar- perhapsa reasonwhy traineesso

oftencome unstuckin open classlanguagepresentations?

used to focus heavily on clarificationduring a language

presentation,now we include error correctionand feedback
stages,clarifyingissuesof form in pre-taskpreparation,
writing
A TBL approach requires that trainees draw on their and repoftback stages,drawingstudents'attentionto language
interpersonal
skillsand developthe abilityto talk and respondto form in post-task/textwork and so on. Traineescontinueto find
- this is a skillwhichrequires
studentsas people,This is a skill which is arguablymore dealingwith languagechallenging
early-acquired
thanthe abilityto managean open classlanguage continuedpracticeand effortafter the courseis over - but they
presentationstage and all that it involves.Simply put, a cope at leastas wellas othertraineeswe haveworkedwith orior
meaning-drivenclassroom with a strong emphasis on the to runningthiscourse.
communicative
use of languagewould appear to play more to
the strengthsof pre-service
Finally,the responsefrom assessorsso far has also been very
trainees,
positive,with a greatdealof interestin the kind of coursewe are
That said, challenginggrammar questionsdo come up in tryingto run:
languageclassrooms,whatevertheir methodological
slant may
be. When this occurs,our traineeshave the same range of "Thisis the firstpre-servicecourseI haveseenwhichpaysmore
responsesavailableto them as do any other trainees:to throw than lip-serviceto task-basedlearning",(Assessors Repoft:
the questionopento the rest of the group,to attemptto answer April 2000)
it, to appealto the trainerfor helpand advice,to promiseto look
for the answerin a grammarreferencebook and so on. In no way We verymuch see what we are doing hereas 'work in progress'
a re tra i n ees wor k ing wi th i n a ta s k -b a s e d p a ra d i gm and the courseitselfis evolvingand beingadaptedas we work
disadvantaged
here.
with it more.We would be very interestedin hearingfrom other
trainerswho havebeendoingsimilarthingsthemselves,
or who
Findingsso far...
would be interestedin experimenting
in a similarfashionwith
theirown trainingcourses.
Much to our relief,our initialfindinghavingrun two RSA CELTA
coursesin thisway is that therewereno disastersand the cours- References:
es didn't fallapartl
o Hunt, R. (1996) Going Round in Circles:A Cyclic, Holistic
Generallyspeakingour trainees have been very responsive. Approach to CELTA; Timetabling Certificate Conference
Many pre-servicetrainees come with little or no teaching Report UCLES
experienceand are open to whatever approaches trainers o Lortie, D. (1975) Schoolteacher: A Sociological Study
suggest,Also, they are quite capableof making sense of the University of Chicago Press
principlesand ideaswhich underpinour approach- providing o Skehan, P (1998) A Cognitive Approach to Language
that they are presentedto them at pre-servicelevel.
Learning Oxford University Press
o Williams,M. I Burden, R.L. (19971Psychologyfor Langauge
On the whole, we have found that traineesrespondwell to a TeachersCamb ridge Universify Press
strongfocus on communication
and meaningfullanguageuse. . Wiffis, J. (1996) A Framework for lask-Based Learning
They can manageclassesbuilt around texts and tasks, and Longman
arguablyrespondand relateto studentsbetteras a resultof this . Willis, J. / Willis, D. (1996) Challenge and Change in
changein focus.
Language TeachingHeinemann
We havealsofoundto date that this type of courseruns much (This afticle first appeared in the July issue of the IATEFL
b et te r th a n we would ha v e th o u g h t p o s s i b l e b a s e d o n IIS/G newsletter.) @
with othertrainers,at conferences
discussions
for example.We
',vonderif there is a kind of flawed logic underpinning
many
responsesto runningthis kind of course.Many trainerswere
trainedthemselves
withina PPPparadigm,and thosewho make
the effortto seriouslytake TBL on boardwork hardto do so, "lf
it is this hard for me, with fifteenyearsexperienceas a teacher
and trainer"so the logicgoes,"how much moredifficultwouldit
be for new,inexperienced
traineesto make senseof this?"
The answer,we argue,is that it is actuallymuch easier,precisely becausetraineesdon't haveyearsof workingwithina different
paradigmto answerto beforestartingthe processof making
senseof a task-basedaporoach.
Whilethe CELTAassessment
criteriaare fairlyflexlble,we have
found it necessaryto re-examine
our attitudesto
and re-evaluate
trainees'abilityto dealwith languageform.Wherewe
assessing

' i h i o c to b e r ( 19 ) 2000'

Out of the Lion'sDen

TrishBurrow
TrishBurrow is a teacher trainer based at lnternational House, Opole
Blutak up noses, fingers stapled to desks, coatstands
flyingout
dismantledand usedto attackthe teacher,dictionaries
of windowsand narrowlyavoidingpassers-by,sulkyteenagers
Theseare just some
slumpedin chairsand sighingdramatically.
fresh off their
qualified
teachers,
newly
problems
that
the
of
into their first
venture
they
when
with
to
contend
have
CELTA,
that
reassurance
the
all
Suddenly,
classes,
Learner
Younger
form
meaning,
clarify
to
contextualise,
able
being
from
comes
practicecan dissolvewhen
and pronand providelearner-centred
startwrigglingand runbut
write,
and
still
sit
don't
the children
a teacherleft feeling
many
and
mayhem
Result:
around,
ning
again'
ever
kids
to
teach
want
never
they

So what can schoolswho want to give youngerstudentsand

theirparentsa good deal do? Lookingaroundthe networkof lH
schools,there seems to be a lot of supportfor both new and
more experiencedteacherswho teach YoungLearners.Lots of
'Young Learners person', induction
the schools have a
programmesand in-housetrainingincludesessionson Young
the lH YoungLearners
Learnerissues,plusteachersCanacCeSS
website at www.clubhomepage.com/ihyoungto get ideas,
go intochatroomsand sharetheirown top tips.
post questions,
For teachers wanting specific training in Young Learners
teaching,there is also the two-weekYoungLearnersextension
to the CELTAcourse.

in Polandwe've been runningExtensioncoursessince

e$ffis?sswssffisxgrmrwHere
ffi$sst#M
February1997.We run the two-weekcoursetwice a year in

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The currentglobalexpansionof the Young Learnersmarketin
countriessuchas Spain,ltaly,Portugal,Poland,chinaand Hong
Kongto namebut a few meansthis:for mostteachers,at some
point in their careerit is very likelythat they will have to teach
children,More and more parentsare enrollingtheir childrenin
after-schoolEnglishclassesat an earlierage. In countrieslike
Spainand Japan this can stafi as earlyas 2 3 yearsof age'
teachersis big
and willingchildren's
Clearlythe needfor qualified
and growing.Whichleadsme to my followingpoint'
schemesgivegood groundingin the
The OELTAand equivalent
teachingof Englishlanguageto adults. To teach children,
teachersneedfurthertrainingon how childrenlearnand how to
cater for this. Primaryteachersin the UK receivea year'sinitial
trainingbeforethey are fullyqualified.New teachersin ELTare
often thrownto the lionsand are left to work out how to avoid
being eaten alive.At best, the kids may get a teacherwho
the area,seekshelpand thinksaboutwhat motivates
researches
Worstcasescenariosincludechildrenrunningwildand
children,
a teacherusingan
feelinginsecureat the lack of boundaries,
,adulty'approachor playinglotsof gamesthat whipthe children
up into a frenzy.The teacher doesn't know what to do' the
childrenare taughtby someonewho, throughno faultof their
theirneedsand'theparentsarepaylng
own, doesn'tunderstand

beforethe starlof the academicyearand duringthe

September,
Last year we also ran a
Winter Break in January/February,
Manyof
parl-timecoursefor teachersin lH Katowice.
nine-week
year
returning
second
the teacherswho do the course are
teachers,though there also some who have only a month's
A typicaltimetablein a post here
previousteachingexperience,
includesat leastthreeclasseswith childrenand teenagersand
teacherscan expect to teach childrenas young as 8, with
teachersin Katowiceand BielskoBiaiateachingpre-schoolage
chi l dren.
To get an idea of what the course can give teachers,I asked
some who had alreadydone the courseand some who are
the followingquestions:
planningto do it nextSeptember,
How did you feel when you found out you would be
teaching children?
parlicularly
aboutteaching
A lot of teacherswereapprehensive,
"Not
happy'","l would have
the children.Commentsincluded:
not to," and "Excited,but alsonervous.I'd had a lot of
oreferred
but could not
Contactwith childrenin other circumstances,
Eventhose
English."
imaginehow I could beginto teachthem
how to
about
who had workedwith childrenbeforewere unsure
transferthisto a teachingenvironment'
what were your initial impressions of the children, their
behaviourand how theY learn?
Positivecommentstended to referto the fact that when things
go well, lessonsare great fun: "Theyare full of enthusiasm.",
"Thereare So manyactivitiesyou can havefun with whichadults
w oul dn' do."
t

oood monevfor this.Not exactlyfair,is it?

tihi nnlnhor

( 2i

l 2OOO'

they ioaked backat the

:i'"i|ff#fl"ffij"Til:1"f:ilffii','#'f"lffffJ}
il il',':fii'[
;#:Ji,ill,'lll***,$rs*naf only fo #ef
;:STl3"H,i#::ffi:;:
buf afso fm
::::: mcf*wrff*sn
,"ffil?,:::ll5:.:1,":,l,:::,l33li:'.ffi:?l:L'.]i
<tremely
noisyand it is difficultto hold theirattention."

S#ff *msprrsfro#?fo fhfnk

eadingthese comments,it was easyfor me to envisagehow

g
reseteacherscould benefitfrom a trainingcoursethat looked
: underlyingprinciplessuch as stir and settle, learnerstyles,
fw children learn language,teaching grammar, measuring The YoungLearnerscourseisn't for everyone,lf the thoughtof
'ogressand classroommanagement,
teaching8 year olds makesyou breakout in a cold sweatafter
with the DoS
fouryearsteachingand two successfully
bargaining
fhy are you planning to do the YL Extension course?
you're
probably
going
wantto do
to
teens,
not
teach
only
then
to
yourbluyou
Not
if
it
meant
entrust
even
could safely
the course.
re mainreasonscitedfor doingthe coursewere:to gaina more tak to learnersunderthe aqe of '18.
dncipledand consideredapproachin teachingYLs; to improve
racticalskillsand to understandmore about the way children However,if you enjoythe energychildrenhaveand want to learn
arn and why theybehavelikethey do. Thosewho had donethe how to use it moreeffectively,
or if you want to work out how you
lurse also said they did it to feel more preparedfor teaching can findyourway out of the lion'sden, this couldbe the course
rildren'sclassesand to qet some ideasfor activities,
for you, And with more and more of the vacancieson the

#F s?#wsnes

ow has it affected your teaching?

he teachersI spoketo saidthey felt much more confidentand
ratthe coursehelpedthem conquerthe fear some of them had
rlt about teachingchildren'sclasses,They also talked about
cw the input and TeachingPracticehad helpedthem process
of YL teachingand how thesewere now ingrained
re principles
pointof view it was very
theirteaching.Froma developmental
terestingto see how the coursestillacted as a referencepoint:
:me said "they looked back at the course not only to get
to thinkof new ones."
:tivities,but alsoto get inspiration

transferliststatingYLs experienceor CELTYLrequiredto work in

Spain, ltaly and Portugal, then having the YL Extension
Cerlificatecould give you the edge and work out to be a very
gooo careermove.
The lnternational House Teacher Training Worldwide
brochure /ists detarls of CELTYLand YL Extension courses in:
lh
lh
lh
lh
lh
lh

Budapest
Rome
Wroclaw
Lisbon
Barcelona
Madrid

Contactcentresfor detailsof dates,pricesand the age band

, - 1 3 y e a r s o r1 1 - 1 6 y e a r s @
)
( e i t h e r 5- 1 1 y e a r sB

'ihj october (21 2000'

)

Finding something really useful down the

back of the sofa
Jo Cooke
Jo is a teacher and teacher tniner at lH London. She has taught in various counties, including Greece, Germany and the Czech
Reoublic.
Whata nebulous,
woollythingthe Web is!lt seemslikemy mind,
fullof uselessinformationgoingoff on tangents,with the nugget
of reallyusefulstuffjust out of reachsomewheredown the back
of the sofa of my long-termmemory. lt's also full of speling
misteaks,So when my colleagues,Carina Lewis, Howard
Ramsayand I decidedto designsome Internetlessons,we were
at a bit of a lossas to whereto start.

to dateon the web than would be foundin a coursebook,e,g.

book/musicreviews,horoscopes,news,etc, as this seemedto
us one of the realreasonsto use the Web as oDoosedto another kindof text.
How much or how little?

On our first attempts we got very excited and found a vast

We thoughtfirstabout reasonsto use the Internetin class.Most numberof web sitesfor eachtooicthe studentschose,Websites
of the old chestnutswere trotted out, about individualisedvaryconsiderably
in the amountof information
theycontain,but
learning
and replication
of whatthe studentsdo in theirown time most haveseveralpagesand linksto otherwebsites.We found
outsideschool.Then we thoughtabout the hard realityof why that pickingone or two reallygood websitesand addingthemto
we shouldusethe internetin classtime,i.e.the studentsexpect Favourites
was much morevaluable
for the studentsthanhaving
it, and also the big boss upstairshas paid for lots of computer more that were of mixedquality.We thoughtaboutthe quality
equipmentandwantsus, quitereasonably,
to do something
with and richnessof the languagethe dtfficulty
of the language,
the
it. Furthermore,
it's a greatbank of authenticmaterials.
intrinsicinterest,and the balanceof text to visualimages,We
were,if you like,spendingthe time findingthe thingdown the
lndividualisedLearning
back of the sofathat the studentsmrqhtwant,

So far, so good. But when we thoughtabout individualised

m$"ggm$W$Wffm &dlu$':
learningin moredetail,we soonfoundthat we came up against
problem.lt'sa greatidea,but in practiceif allthe
a considerable
studentsare beingindividual,
we haveno way of keepingtrack
of what they are doing, and no way of ensuringthat they are
gettingvaluefor moneyon theircourse.

Surfing the Web

We quicklyrealisedthat it was impracticalin the time constraints
of the classroomfor studentsto spend time searchingthe Web
themselvesfor the information
they want. Somestudentsdo not
havetheseskillsand the onesthat do are mastersat goingoff to
anotherplanet.But if we as teacherschoosethe Website,what
do the studentshave?lt
elementof choiceor individualisation
would be no differentfrom givingthem an article(albeita very
long one)from the Guardianto read.

:;g#$?

$Ypffitrffi
ffw$mreei'
s$$"sfffismr$fmr
$ffis:r. ,.$ffi#off

*fim s#r*sspu S$-r ', ff$x#y

rnrsr$$d&e rf gff

,: :l''-,W
ffiff A

SffS# $st # m$m*,

r'1,#ff??

Linguistic Value

One thing we especiallywanted to pre-emptwas the: "We just

playedon the net today"complaintfromthe students.We decided that each lesson should have an overt focus on
language,eitherfrom the texts on the websitesthemselvesor
syllabus, from the teacheror, most commonly,both. We thoughtof each
So we came up with the idea of a student-negotiated
both for the courseitselfand the Web componentof the course. lessonin terms of the tasks that we were goingto ask students
The studentsare told that they can use the Web as an integrat- to do after collectingthe informationon the web and then
ed parl of the course,and that they can choosethe topicsthat focused on this languagebeforethe task was carriedout, to
interestthem. lt helps if the teacher can give them a list to make students aware that they were doing something of
value,
providesomekindof stimulus,and then givethem a set timeto linguistic
choosethe ones they want or a topic of their own, We tried to
guidestudentsto topicsthat are likelyto be'moreinteresting/up

'ihj october

122) 2000'

Linguistic overload?

A framework for designing internet lessons

Whatkindof language
is the sitegoingto contain?Howdifficult t.
will it be for the studentsand how aretheygoingto copewith
the unknownwords?Clearly,no teacherin their right mind is 2.
goingto readeverypageof everywebsitetheylettheirstudents
looseon. Thereis an elementot unpredictability
and loss of
controlin everylessonusingthe internet,and someteachers
mightnot feelcomfortable
with thal. We did, however,thinkit
was usefulto attemptlo predictthe typeand levelof language
that studentsmightcomeacrossandthinkof strategies
to deal
withthem.Forexample,
the studentscouldchoosea maximum 3.
of 5 newwords,lookthemup andexplainthemto a partner.Or
theycouldlookat allthe instances
of "would"and makea note 4.
of theirfunctions.
Wefound,whenwe putthisintopractice,that
studentsweremuchmoretolerantof unfamiliar
ianguage
on the
screen,thantheywouldbe if it wereon a pagein a classroom:
infacttheytendednotto focuson language
at allunlessit direclly impededtheir understanding.
So our strategies{or
problems
overcoming
oftenturnedintostrategies
forpointingout
usefullanguage.
5.
Buildingin Communication

Choosethe topicwithstudents
e.9.Thingsto do at nightin London.
Thinkof anddesignthe task
e.g. Plana nightout in London.
Studenlsin pairssearchfor interesting
thingsto do in
London.
Studentsin newgroupsexplainwhattheychoseto see,
and attempt to persuadeothers to come with them.
Thegrouptogetherdecideswhattheywouldpreferto do.
Searchfor interesting
andgoodqualitysites,andstore
themin Favourites.
Thinkof the language
thatstudentswill/mayneedto do
thetask.
e.9. Functions for suggesting, reaching consensus,
politely.
disagreeing
Language
to describeevents/places
(predictable,
gripping,trendyetc.)anddecideiflwhento
teachit.
e.g. the functionsbefore going on-line,the vocabulary
afteMards.
Designa leadin/warmer,
e.g.Whatcanyoudo at nightin London?
Whathaveyoudonethatyou enjoyed/hated?
Someoneoncetold methatthe problemwithcomputersis that
Howis it similar/different
to nightlifein yourcountM
youcan'ttalkto them.Well,I do. I say,"Hurryup",'Don'tdo that, 6. Planstrategies
for dealingwithlanguage
thatcomesup
for God'ssake",and "NOOOOOOO!jIj"
However,it has yet to
whilstreading/listening.
replyto me,so we alsohadto thinkaboutbuildingin interaction
e.g.studentspick5 phrasesthatwillencourage
peopleto go
to the lessonsso that the studentswouldproduceas well as
to the particular
venueand be prepared
to explainthem.
absorblanguage.
(Dictionaries
We encouraged
studentsto work in pairsat
andteacheron hand)
gapsinto 7. Decide
eachterminal
andwe buiftcommunication
or opinion
on youron-line
timelimit.
thetasksso thatthestudentswouldhaverealreasonsto talkto
e.g.30 minutesmax.
eachotherafterthe information
hadbeencollected.
8. Designa follow-upto the task
e.g. studentsgo out on the plannedeveningandpresenta
Integration
review(oralor written)thenextday.
9. Checkwebsitesandcomputersarefunctioning.
Weteltthatit wasessential
thateachlessonshouldflowsmooth- t0- CROSSYOURFINGERS
AND HOPETHATNOTHING
ly intothe computer
roomandout again,justas usinga tape
CRASHES..,........
wouldbe a padof thenaturalflowof a listening
lesson.Eachlessonincluded
a leadln or ntroductory
activityanda taskthatwas
a logicalextensron
of the reading/listening
itself. Thiswasimpor- t t....andsomeobviousthingswe didn'tthinkof untiltheywent
tant bothfor ralsinginteresyactivating
wrongl
schemaetc. and alsoto
'sell"the lessonto them.We foundthat if we told the students
. Checkthe websitesa shorttimebeforeto makesurethev
our lessonaims,i.e. thatthe task,not the Web itself,was the
haven'!moveci/vanished
intothe ether,
. Checkthatyou havethe softwarerunninge.g.Realplayer
focus,theyweremuchmoremotivatedto readlisten,as they
if youwantto havesoundas wellas text,
knewthattheywouldhaveto "perform"something
lateron.
. Checkthat a studentwho has no ideaof how to usea
We feelthatwiththesecompromises
computersitswithsomeonewho does,
we havecomeup witha
. Checkthat the technicalwizardwill be availableif the
frameworkthat can be usedby teachersto deviselessonsJor
computers
crash.
their students:the lessonswould include the elementof
individualisation,
but still retaina measureof conlrolover the
learningprocessandguarantee
a levelof inputand outputthat And finally some reassurance!
with
the studentswouldbe happywith.Hereis the framework,
Don'tworryif thingsdo go wrong- studentstendto be quitetolan examplelessonfittedintoit.
erantof minormishaps.Mostteacherstryingit for the firsttime
foundit a positiveexperience
for everybody
involved.@

'ihj october (23 2000'

)

Exam Classes,'Settingup Systems

Pippa Bumstead
Cambridge Exam classes present special challengesfor
teachersand learnersalike.The course may be longer and/or
more intensivethan those the learnersare used to; we need to
teach our learnersexam techniqueas well as the languagethey
needto pass- they may be unfamiliar
with the moreholisticview
of language(in terms of lexisand discoursein parlicular)
which
are tested at FCE and CAE; and finally,the amount of input
(especiallylexicalinput) is likely to be much greater than in
generalEnglishcourses.

exam we have covered in the map at the front of their

coursebook,
Thisnot onlyremindsthem of the questiontype,but
also gives a sense of progressas each one is dealt with,
lf you are not using a coursebook,again you could use
Cambridge's
own guidelinesor giveout a listyou haveprepareo
yourself.
IndividualisingLearning and Monitoring progress.
Compositionfeedback forms

Thisarticlewilllookat how incorporating

a set of systemsin exam
C O U T S E SC A N :

o orientatelearnersto the exam format,what each sectiontests

and how best to tackleit
. i n div idualis
e nin g
lear
o helplearners
seetheirprogressthroughthe course
. helpiearners
to organisenew language
o provrdeopportunities
for recyclingnew language
AlthoughonlyFCEand CAEare referredto in this arlicle,most of
the ideasare adaptableto other exam (and non-exam)courses
too.
OrientatingLearners to the Exam.
Glass posters
Creatingclass posters is an excellentway of encouraginga
positivegroup dynamic,as well as beinga more relaxedactivity
with a differentfocus. For example,my learnershave produced
spellingpostersbasedon corrections
fromtheirwritingand which
areaddedto throuqhout
the course.
Anotherideabasedon one suggestedto me by DavidAlberyof
lH Londonis examposters,to helplearners
findtheirway around
the vanouspapers,and laterto focus on exam technique.Near
the beginning
of the course,I cut up a wholepracticetestexam,
havingtippexedout the questionnumbers.I gave each small
groupa largepieceof paper(flowchartpaperis a good size)with
the titleof the exampaperat the top (Reading,
Writing,Englishin
Useetc.).Usingthe examinformation
at the frontof theircoursebook (alternatively,
they could use Cambridge'sown handbook),
the learnerspiecedthe exam back togetheragain,stickingthe
sectionsin the correct order.As we covered each task type in
class,they addedto the postersany new information
on a/ what
was beingtested,b/ examtechniqueand c/ otheractivities
in and
out of classtheyhad found usefulto improvethe skillin question.
The posterswere in use throughoutthe course,and provideda
clearfocuspointwhen it came to revision,
My learnershavealso found it usefulto tibRoff the parts of the

Forme,the markingof compositions

can becomea chore,and a
frustratingone too. lt is one aspectof examcourseswhich puts
manyteachersoff runningthem. I usedto find it difficultto keep
track of learners'writtenperformance;
the notesI made on the
composi ti onsthemsel ves obvi ousl y w ent back t o t he
learners
and were'lost'forever.
And,evenwiththe bestwillin the
world, I found my own parallelnotes tendedto fizzleout or
becomemorebittyas the coursewent on. To cut out the needto
write feedback notes on the compositionand for myself,
I designeda feedbackform.Eachmemberof the grouphastheir
own formwhichis handedin witheverycomposition,
As I mark,I
fillin the detailsof the taskstheyhavecompleted,
commentsand,
lateron in the course,a grade.See belowfor an example,but
bearin mindthe type of notesyou makewilldependon yourown
styleand on the individual's
needs.
The responseI have had from my learnerson this systemhas
been extremelypositive,since they are able to see precisely
wherethey are goingand the progressthey are making.lt is also
useful for the teacher; it can be difficultto rememberwhat
previouscommentshavebeen made,whereaswith this system,
the teachercan see clearlyif a student is havinga recurring
problemwiththe sameaspect.Anotherpluspointis that I cansee
whethera learneris keepingup with the homeworkor not and
take appropriateaction.
Retrospective timetables
Learnersfind these extremelyuseful as an indicatorof their
progress;thesecan eitherbe alreadycompletedversionsby the
teacher,or blankfor the group to completethemselves.
On my
ten week intensivecoursesat lH London,I havegiventheseout
everytwo weeks;for longercoursesabroad,everymonthmight
be a moreappropriateoption.
ln additionto this, I try to give my learnersfrequent,regular
opportunities
for feedback,via questionnaires,
classdiscussions
or individual
tutorials.

'ihj october 24 2000'

\
)

Helping Learners organise their Learning

Pippa's FCE Gronp - March 2000 - Com

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Vocabulary recolds

to your prompt reply')when the learnersare forcedto think not

only about meaningbut also accuracyand style.Anothergame
I often use is 'Put it back': one learner has a minute to
defineas many words from the bag as possiblein
successfully
'Put it
one minute.Whenthe time is up, the otherteam shouts
back!'and the otherteamgetsa go. Thewinneris the teamwith
the most slipsof paperat the end.

It is essentialthatlearnersunderstandthe importanceof keeping

clear,organisedrecordsof the languagethey learnand I have
found that it is betterto be insistentratherthan persuasiveon
this matter:I quoteto a new classthe storyof one studentI had
who spent the whole course intendingto set up an organised
systemfor his notes,finallybeganit a week beforethe examas
the panic set in, and wholly regrettednot taking the original Collocation pelmanism
advice.
The class make their own pelmanism(matchingand memory)
In the first week of the course, I hold a sessionon organising games which can be kept for the whole courseand used as
finishers'activities.They have a set of cards on
vocabularynotes;Wordflohas some usefulsuggestionswhich revision/early
general
write
collocations
they have met (eg:a last-minute
English which they
learnerscan discuss,as do many exam and
war
on); the cards are turned face down and
course books. Nick Hamilton also makes some interesting flight; to wage
'lexical
notebook'in hisarticlein lssueB of this studentstake turns to turn over two at a time and try to find
for a
suggestions
journal.I ask my studentsto buy a ringfileand dividers,
and give parrs.
them the setting-upof the system they have chosen as a
homeworktask, I ask to see the resultsin the followingclass, Using learners'languagerecords in class
and also ask learnersto bringthem to tutorials.This may seem
likea lot of work for learnersat the outset,and it is importantto Learnerscan test each other for exampleon their common
'providing mistakes.
willfindtheir
Parlicularly
in a multilingual
class,learners
refer back to them at regularintervals(see under
FCE
CAEare
task
and
at
for recyclingnew language'for suggestionson typicalmistakesdiffer;sincethe editing
opportunities
practice
they haveat
basedon typicallearnererrors,the more
how to go aboutthis).
this,the better,Theycan eitherborrowtheirpartners'notebooks
Otherrecordswhichcan be set up and used in a similarway are and test eachotherorallv,or writeshortexercises.
'Commonmistakes/Correction'
pageswherelearnersnote their
errorsfrom writing and/or speakingto refer to before a new
and Systemscan take time to set up. On short,intensivecoursesit
non-Germanic
activityor task; my CAE students(especially
non-Latinspeakers)havealsofound it helpfultokeep a separate is especiallyimporlantto get them up and runningas soon as
possibleso that they quicklybecomepart of the courseroutine,
page with formal/informal
of lexicalitems.
equivalents
Learnersdo not always automaticallysee the point, so it is
important to be explicit in your aims, The pay-off from
Providingopportunitiesfor recycling new language
incorporatingsystems such as the ones mentionedhere is
It is imporlantto dealwith revisionin a systematicway; shortbut immense;hugeamountsof time are savedin the longrun both
frequentrecyclingactivitiesnot only help learnerscope with the for the teacherand the learnersand they providea skeletonfor
'hangon'. I havefoundthat they havetransformed
huge quantitiesof new languagethey may encounter,but also the courseto
providea changeof focus and pace in the lesson.lt is wotlh my examcoursesfrom simplyploughingthrougha coursebook
'revisionslots'as wellas usingrevisionactivitiesas and doing exam practice nearer the time into a more easily
timetablingin
coursefor me, and in most cases,a much more
warmersor fillers,and makingthisplanexplicitto the monitorable
five-minute
learningexperiencefor the students,@
learners.That way,they have the chanceto reviewlanguagein satisfactory
preparation
for the class.
I havefoundvocabularybags extremelyuseful:at the end of the
lesson,learnerswritenew itemson colouredslipsof paperwith
Thistask can alsobe
an examplesentenceand/ora definition.
carriedout by early finishers,or set for homework.I have a
separate bag for fixed expressions(eg: there is no excuse
for FCE),
for -ing; makethe most of),phrasalverbs(particularly
phrases(eg:dependon; investin)and singleitems
prepositional
I changethe colourof the slipseach
(eg:a bouncer;standoffish).
week - this remindslearnersmore or lessfrom which part of the
coursethe languagecame - and we use the bags regularlyfor
games.Theseinclude'Back to the Board'wherea
vocabulary
memberof eachteam sits with their back to the boardand their
teammatesdefinea word or expressionI havewrittenon it, This
'l
activityis alsofantasticfor longerexpressionb'(eg:lookfonrvard

'ihj october ( 26 2000'

)

Proof of the Pron Pudding

Speaking with conviction and expression

BritaHaycraft
Brita Haycraft, co-founder of what is now the lntemational House worldwide Organisation, has had a tong and distinguished
career in ELT' She was formerly Head of Speech Training at lnternational House London and still regularly runs pronunciation
workshops there, attended by students and trainee teachers alike.
The troublewith pronunciationis that there'sneverenoughtime
to cover it in the classroom. Grammar and lexis come first,
understandably.So the teacher shelves it or, pricked by guilt,
embarkson the phonemes,but is too rushedto finishthem or to
move on to stressand intonation.

and they can 'feel' the sentence sounds more real. This initial
training needs little extra time if the teacher makes a point of
includingit regulady,With due praise,the studentswill soon pick
up the habit. lt's fairly easy to hear yourselfstress and to selfcorect, and they don't feel self-consciousabout it.

On a GeneralEnglishCourse without.scheduledslots for At first studentstend to stress sounds rather feebly,so the
pronunciation
help,theteacherhasto findwaysof buildingit into teacherneedsto encouragethem to saythe sentenceagainand
languagepracticeactivities,
again,withfirmerstressesand moreconviction,
and morequickry.
This three-par1series looks at easily integratedpronunciation
hel p .
Marking the stresses
Parl One dealswith trainingstudentsto use sentencestressin All the wordswe want projectedshouldbe marked,not onlythe
the normalway and put more intonationand expressioninto nuclearwords;some of the othersalso carrystressand togethwhateverthey'resaying.
er they form the gist of what we are saying.But ignorepostnuclearsecondarystresses,as this only blurs that final main
PartTwo coversEnglishword stress,both in singlewords and in stress.
compoundwords,ideallytaughtwith vocabularypractice,
The marked stresses act as pegs on which to hang the
PartThreelooksat sounds,typicalproblemsand how to solve sentence,and with the stressesfirmlyin place,studentsfind it
someof them in the qenerallesson.
easierto delivertheir sentencesmeaningfully.
lf need be, they
can first practise by saying just the marked stresses,
Basic trainingto shape the sentence
telegramwise
and then say the whole lot, in a naturalway,
Sentence stress
Linking all words and weakening/contracting unstressed
First,separatestressand intonationin your mind,and beginwith structure words
sentencestress.'Sentence'is a betterterm than 'utterance'at
this point as I'm thinkingof the sort of shor.tmain clauses Encouragedto say the sentenceagain more quickly,a student
frequentlyused in text-booksto presenta languagepoint,
will beginto link up the words and say the unstressedsounds
Sentence stress is logical, and probably universal.Unless withoutblinking.To encouragethis process,you can draw links
othenviseindoctrinated,
even a beginnercan tell the imporlant betweenthe words on the board:
words in a sentence.
. What_time_is_it?
So when the target sentenceappearson the board for further
practice,I ask the students'Whichwords do you want to stress . Could_l borrow your mobileJchone?
here?'to show that it is they,the speakers,who decide which
words to stressand thereisn't a rulethev haveto learn.
In the second sentence, speed also helps weaken the
unstressed'your',
eg:
'What time is it?'
False Questions
'Could I borrow your mobile phone?'
A useful ploy to speed up students' speech is to ask a
Evenwhen they have marked the stresseson the appropriate deliberatelyfalse Yes/No question,such as 'ls it Wednesday
words, some studentsstill can't say the sentencethat way, today?'or makea falsestatement'TodaylsWednesday,
isn'tit?',
because they are thinking only about grammhr. But a few in order to provokestudents to contradict'No, it's Tuesday'.
modelsfrom the teacheror fellowstudentssoon puts that right When they reply in protest,their answercomes out amazingly

'ihj october

| 27 J 2000'

with spot-on Stress,true intonation,

quick|yand spontaneous|y,
'it1s'.The falsequestionfeelslikesome sort of
and a contracted
use
remotecontrol.In this game,makesurestudentsdiscardthe
'No, it isn't. - lt's Tuesday"as it takesaway
of the shortanswer
the
the immediacyof theirreaction,and acts as a brake,lowering
short
all
ban
I'd
overallquality of their speaking.Personally,
answersfrom earlylearntng,anyway'

Persor?affY'f'd San altr

shoff ffin$wsrs from
s#rJy $s*rrrfms

(or
the stresses are in place, lts main role then is to add
easily
Students
the
utterance.
conceal)a personalfeelingabout
realisethis when we say a sentencein differentways'
more energy and
So how can we help them to speak with 'moodcards'
prove
two
Here,
practice?
interestin their language
simple
a
with
cards
are
These
of invaluableassistance.
diagrammaticface, happy or gloomy'
'Hatf past two" 'Next to the window" 'Two
Take any utterance:
poundsfifty"'could I borrowyourmobilephone?'andhavethe class
sayit likethe gloomyfaces.Theyhaveno problemdoingthat'

Then show the interested,smilingfaces and havethem say the

theyusuallyplayalongand say
samesentencetnatway,Intrigued,
,HALFPASTTWO!"theirintonation
quiteunaided.
undulating
false
with
them
you
tease
learner of
foreign
much
a
to
students donlt mind how
An utterance of major importance
too'
drilling,
of
form
and
dreary
is
active
less
it
a
as
question,
as
questionslikethis,so it seryes
whateverlanguagemust be a
and leadsto something.
enterprising
lnteractive stress in Pair work
eg. CouldI Dorrowyour mobilephone?
the
adopt
to
for
students
perfect
opporlunity
practice
is the
Pair
'you' or 'your" whenfindingout abouteach
and politeis morelikehabitof stressing
clearly,the speaxerwho soundsinterested
'Yes'
experiencedspeakhave
answer.once students
otner,as ln
ly to get a
the
and liveliness, teacherneed only
ing with more involvement
. "WHEREdo you LIVE?"
prod them now and againto put morelifeintowhateverthey are
live?"
YOU
. "Nearthe centre.And wheredo
saying,to up the qualityof classroomspeaking'
. "WHEN'syour BIRTHdaY?"
o "ln MaY.When'sYOURbirlhdaY?"

Homework

whichis
It is oftenfelt you can't givehomeworkin pronunciation,
and
stress
following
true of certain vowel sounds. But the
this
in
stress
use
told,
if
will,
Any learnerwith GermanicL'1,
intonationworkcaneasrlybedoneathome,inprivacy,andhear
i n t e r a c t i v e W a y a u t o m a t i c a | | y , b e i n g u s e d t o i t f r o m tthe
h enext
i r daYin class:
well'
languages.Slavs and Japanesetake to it at once' as
you ,,Mark
whereasthosewith LatinL1s strugglea little,despitethe fact
the words you'd stressin this sentence.Practisesayingit,
their
in
exchanges
in
can hear stress work similarly
as marked,with interest.Say it quicklywithoutstoppingbetween
to
evenin French.
languages,
words. Draw linksbetweenthe words to remindyourselfnot
good
enough.',
stop' Say it severa|times,untilSloufee|it sounds
The beautyof the interactivestressdevice,(a form of contrastive
s t r e s s ) , i s t h a t i t s i g n a l s c o n t a c t a n d c o m m o n g r o u n d t o o t h'How
e r s . muchis that smallcomPuter?'
iso- 'Could
I havea lookat that camera?
lgnoringit,our students'exchangessoundwooden,likesingle
they 'ls
here?'
lated utterances.whereas, with this stress tool in action,
therea telePhone
'Couldyou giveme the book department,
please?'
so undinf or m edan d i n v o l v e d a n d th e y e n j o y i t' S ohow canteachers resistit?
country)go to a shoP and Put Your
(ln an English-sPeaking
questionsto the test' Betterstill,phone a dePartmentstore and
Better comPrehensionrcsutts
put your questionto them.
Armedwithpaperandpen,studentsarehe|pedbywritingdownthe
see
a tape'
stressedwords (orthe beginningsof them)whib following
For more about these teachtngideas and their rationale,
story'
the
retell
'EnglishAloud 1 and 2'. @
Thosejottingssum up what was said and helpthem
to drive
how
say,
of,
detai|s
the
down
taking
it
when
do
We ourse|ves
prolonging a
to a remore village. And far from
comprehensionexercise,leaningonthestressesshou|denhanceit'
Intonation
with after
The conceptof intonationis made much simpler,if dealt

r:L:

^^+^ir^.

I OA

1 tnnnt

Quality Matters
JeremyPage
Jeremy Page has been a Director of Studies at lH London s,nce 1995. He has taught and trained in the lJK, ttaly, France,
Hungary Bulgaia and Argentina, and ,ies ln Sussex.
lf the qualitygurus,from Demingto Peters,agreeon one thing
aboveall others,it is that qualityis not an option.The pursuitof
quality is an essential,probably the essentialcomponent of
success,In the cut-throatworld of 21st centuryELTthereis a
strongcasefor sayingthat qualityis no longerintegralmerelyto
success:it is now integralto survival.

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are underwhelmedby the courseand schoolthey havechosen

in the UK may well vote with theirfeet (andtheirwallets)but will
ceftainlytell their friends,who will no doubt tell their friends,
wno...
Thereis thusa considerable
onus on languageschoolsto deliver.Organisations
such as ARELSand BASELT(workingwith the
BritishCouncil),
UCLES,Trinityand the fledglingBIELTareall,in
theirdifferentways,workingtowardsqualityassurance,but it is
schoolsthemselves- and everyoneinvolvedin the management
of schools- that must take responsibility
for deliveringa levelof
servicethat at the very leastmeetsand satisfiesthe reasonable
expectationsof customers.And there is a very strongcase for
the viewthat they shouldaim to do much morethanthat.While
the verb 'delight',whichis oftenused,may smacktoo much of
a blue-rinseresponseto The Sound of Music,the notionof
exceedingthe customer'sexpectationswould seem a realistic
aspiration.And the businessof enrollingfor and attendinga
course of study at a languageschool involvesa numberof
stagesat whichthe customer'sexpectationsmay be exceeded,
confounded- or merely met. From initialcontact through
registration
to direct experienceof whateverrange of services
the school provides, there are frequent opportunitiesfor
registrars,receptionists,secretaries,accommodationofficers,
teachersand Directorsof Studies to get it right, or horribly
wrong.

Yeta lackof commitmentto qualityassuranceat the highestlevel

- governmentsin power - has bedevilledELT in the UK for
decades.Startinga languageschooldifferslittlein its essentials
from openinga transportcaf6: you find premises,employstaff,
attract punters.Thereis no requirementfor anyoneopeninga
languageschoolto haveany educationalcredentialswhatsoever. There is no requirementfor the school to be accreditedor
approvedby anyone.Thereis no requirement
for the teachersto
haveeitherqualifications
or experience.
Schoolsmay chooseto
submit themselvesto externalaccreditation,
but there is no
obligation
for them to do so. Hencethe existenceof a two-tier
system:the regulatedsector,in which studentscan expect
minimumstandards
to be met and havemeansof redressif they
a ren't, a n d t he unr egulate ds e c to r, w h e re a n y th i n gg o e s.
S t ud e n ts a t t ending a no n -a c c re d i te ds c h o o l ma y fi n d
themselvesstudyingin a small group with a good teacher
followinga coherentprogrammeof study in premiseswhichare
comfortableand appropriate,but experiencesuggeststhis is
unlikely.Successivegovernmentshavefought shy of regulation, Yet all too often,even in the accreditedsector,the management
presumablyfearingthe loss of incomethat would supposedly of schoolsis seento colludein the propagationof low standards,
result.Anyoneinvolvedin ELT knows that any shorl-termloss usuallyfor reasons of cost. Organisationslike ARELS may
would be morethan offsetin the mediumto long term by larger provide training in various aspects of customer service for
it is
studentnumbersif qualitywas genuinelyassured.As it is, the memberschools,but, wherethereis a financialimplication,
damage done to the reputationand image of British ELT by only too common for the status quo to be allowedto persist.
cowboyoperatorsis easyto imagine,if hardto calculate.In the Teachersmay commit themselvesto continuingprofessional
throughstudyingfor higherqualifications,
globalELTmarketof the 21st century,where lreland,Canada, development
attending
writingarticlesor givingtalks,but the schoolsthat
the USA, Australiaand New Zealand among others are conferences,
es t a b l i sh i n gan ev er m or e i mp re s s i v ere p u ta ti o nfo r ELT employ them are often content to reap the reward without
provision,
the statusquo in the UK is sheerlunacy.Studentswho contributinganythingthemselves,ELT practitionershave rarely

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Hart makesa strongcase for ELTin the UK movingtowardsa

declarationof minimumprofessionalstandardsfor employers.
The EuropeanAssociationfor QualityLanguageServices,with its
explicitlyformulatedstaff charter,has shown the way, and the
ln a recentarticlein the EL Gazette,ChristopherHart made the time has clearlycome for the UK ELT industryas a whole to
point that internal customers benefit as much as external follow.
customers from an organisation'scommitment to quality Therecan be no doubt that thereare some veryrealchallenges
'You cannot on the one hand demand
assurance,He wrote:
facing the industryas it enters the 21st century.Compulsory
higherprofessionalism
from employeesand on the other regard registration
of all Englishlanguagecourseproviderswould seem
them as menialcontractstaff,Whv not? Becauseit is inequitable. a highly desirablefirst step. Other measuressuch as the
establishmentof a cross-sectorforum to reviewstandardsof
educationand employmentwithinthe industryand a projectto
establishthe equivalenceof existing ELT qualificationswith
national
and international
scaleswouldcertainly
to the
contribute
rai si ngof the status of E ngl i shl anguageteac hingas a
professionArguably,however,the most significant
factor in the
future successor othenr,rise
of ELT in the UK is likelyto be a
genuineand industry-wide
to and embracing
commitment
of the
qualityassuranceprocessesthat alreadyexist;and the will to
makethe asprrations
expressedin the BritishCouncil's
Englishin
BritainAccreditation
Scheme Handbook- encouragement
to
maintainhighievelsof qualityand seekcontinual
improvement
Youalsoloseloyaltyand goodwill.Accomplished
individuals
will the minimumstandardsthe industryexpectsof itselfratherthan
not come into the professionand those that remainwill not the expressron
of some loftyideal.Marryingthe needto provide
accept your contracts.The result?You will deprofessionalisecoursesof consistently
high qualitywhileobeyingthe financial
ELT,'The staffingdimensionis fundamentalto the industry's imperative
keep costs as low as humanlypossiblewill surely
to
'comingof age' and the need for the drive for qualityto be
providetne 'rd.lst1with its greatestchallenge.@
is paramount.
embracedat the highestlevelwithinorganisations
been able to aspireto the salariesof, say,estateagents,but it
seems particularlycallousto add to the injuryof low pay and
expectations.
statusthe insultof ever higherprofessional

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What You'veAlways Wantedto Know About

IH Affiliafes,...And More!
ln our last lssue we asked you to send us desciptions of schools in the lnternational House Worldwide Organisation; you
responded with enthusiasm! We had huge fun reading them and laughing over the photos - see the Opole pic; it was good to
be in contact with colleagues from all ovet the world and really gave us a sense of what it means to be patT of a world-wide
community. We hope you will enjoy them as much as we did.

IH Cordoba
What I most like about living here is...

What I most like about the school is...

...theopennessand friendliness
of the people.
...sitting
in the sun in Februaryreadingaboutcold spells
in Britain!
...thesenseof historyof the place,withthe greatArabicmosque,
Romanruins,and the cobbledstreetsin the Jewishquarler.
...the way everyonetakes over the streetsand life goes on
outdoors.
,..thegreatcyclingterrain,with the woods and streamsof the
Sierrahillsonlyhalfan hour away.
...hearing
old churchbellsringearlyon a Sundaymorning.
...May in Cordoba,with street festivals,geraniumsin flower
everywhere,
and Sevillanas
dancingin the city squares.
...travelling
around Andaluciaat weekends and discovering
castlesor pueblos.

.,,getting
on so wellwith everyonein allthe areasof the school.
...working
arounda traditional
by
Spanishcouftyardsurrounded
plantsand whitewashed
walls.
...theconstantexchangeof teachingideasbetweencolleagues.
...Spanish
students'open,participative
nature.
.. workingin a schoolwhichtakesteacherdevelopment
serrously.
...theopportunity
to learnfromveryexperienced
teachershowto
teachsmallchildren.
...meeting
up with teachersfrom lH Seville,Huelvaand Malaga
for seminars.

The lH Opole
Thereis no world without Opole's walls
Actually,
that isn't strictlytrue and the truth is impoftant,I feel.
The question,with this and all those recruitment
brochuretype
articles,is how to give the facts without soundinglike an
elementarylevel 'there is/there are' lesson - "There is a
swimmingpool,therearetwo cinemas".In fact,readingthrough
the informationstuff of most schools,you'd be forgivenfor
processrevolvesaroundthe
thinkingthat the entirerecruitment
varietyof ethnicrestaurants
in the vicinityof each school.
Well, I hope none of my FCE studentsread this - over halfway
throughand I haven'tansweredthe questionyet,The blamefor
that, of course.lieswith Racheland Susannawho werefoolish
enoughto state,"anystyleyou like"and I happento likeaimless
waffle.However,thereareover 100 potentialpieceswingingtheir
ways to the Journalso I shallcurtailmy meanderingsand leave "He who wants to know about lH Opole looks at
you as I started,with a quote,thistimefrom that famousChinese www.ih.com.pl/opole"
philosopher
The people in the photo are - left to right - Andrew Hollins
Confuscious;
(now lH KualaLumpar),Rod Fricke4David Nicholson(both still
lH Opole)and Phil Ladbrook (now IH San Sebastian)

'ihi october ( 31 2000'

)

Passnofes,'lH Madrid Serrano

Well there's a lot of English teaching to be done out there:

adults, kids, business,exams .. you name it, we teach it.

So what'swith the Serranopart then? lsn't Madridenough?

The school'sa bit of a Jack of all tradesthen?

Well, there is more than one school in Madrid, you know.

So tell us more.

No, we're carefully structured, well organised with opportunifles fo develop as teachers and specra/isein any areas that
we're interested in and let's not forget the weekly seminars
which are really useful.

We're dead in the centre of Madrid just off plaza Colon. There
are 42 teachers at the /ast count, from three different
continents...

So they don't just leaveyou to get on with it?

I thoughtsmalland friendlywas the

Soundsa bit overwhelming.
recipefor successthesedays.

No, one of the things the school prides itselfon is the quality
of its teachersupport.

What'swith the managementjargonall of a sudden?

.
That's how it started out and We haven'f /ost that family
feeling. You askany of the teacherswho've been here for over No, really, we've got our Directon DOS, Department Heads,
ten years why they've stayed.
ADOSes,Coordinators...
So what you mean is the staffroom'sfull of old fogeys,
Nof at all, the age ranges from 25 to 45 with the average being
about 30.

Wow,soundsa bit heavyon the managementside.Must be a bit

hierarchical!
No, honestly they're really approachable,helpful, relaxed and
friendlylike everyone else on the staff.

So what do you all do then to pass the time?

lntuition Languages

IH Lviv

Intuitionoffers,as its name implies,tuition in tutors' homes.

and tuitionto a studentin your own homecan
Offeringhospitality
be a most enjoyableexperience,for both teacherand student.
It's a reallyspecialexperiencewhich teacherswelcomefor its
(andthe extraincomefrom providingbed and boardfor
flexibility
very little effort!),You can take students them around your
regularstampinggroundand involvethem in your hobbiesand
We try to make surethereis a matchbetween
sportingactivities.
studentand teacherinterests,We make surethereis a constant
exchange of ideas and viewpoints between teachers at
workshops and social meetings and through a regular
newsletter.

6
Theschoolis smalland friendlywith a staffof 16:the Director,
paft-time.
2
them
At
the
officestaff,the DOS and 8 teachers, of
moment,there are only two nativespeakerson the staff: the
thisfigurewas much highDOSand one teacher,but previously
er, up to B. Our studentsare two-thirdsadultsand one-third
younger learners,who range in age from S-year-oldsto late
teenagers.
Out of 11 classroomsone, "the ButterflyRoom",is
speciallyset for teachingthe veryyoung,and two otherrooms
are equippedwith video,one designatedfor videoclasses.The
school is well-resourcedin terms of books and other teaching
materials,
includinga videocamera.

Business
Englishand
YoungerLearners,
We runGeneralEnglish,
for the TOEFL.
The only other affiliatein centralLondon, InTuitionset up their Preparation
shop withinthe ancientcity walls,in an old warehousebuilding
in one of the most newlyfashionableareas of London.In our
smallstreetalonetherearefour Ar1Galleriesand one of the best
restaurantsin the city. The building next door is an old
de-consecratedchurch,which sells architecturalsalvagesuch
as old pub and churchfurniture.Our officehas a naturalfrenetic
we are
overthe telephone,
buzzlo it, but as our work is primarily
ratherlikeduckson a pond, legsthrashingaroundunderwater
but aboveallappearscalmand serene,

'ihi oetober

IH Mallorca
A Gase of Mistaken ldentigf
You know Majorca,of course,lt's UnionJack swimmingtrunks,
Man UnitedT-shir1s,
and pasty-whitetorsos now glowingvivid
red. lt's a packedbeachof 1B-30sdoing the "Macarena"and
downingpints of NewcastleBrown and sangrla.lt's all-night
discosand all-dayhangovers.
lt'segg and chipsand don't give
me noneof that foreignfood, mate.lt's "Parma"and shoppingin
C&As.lt's"aggro"tourismand don't mentionthe war,Basill
Do you know Mallorca?lt's 320 kilometresof magnificent
coastlinewith hidden coves and hideawaybeaches,lt's a
spectacular
mountainrangewith secretvillageswherethe likes
of RobeftGravescome to live,work and rest in peace.lts 3,640
squaremetresof breathtaking
scenerywith extensiveoliveand
orange groves, and almond blossom flowering in spring.
It'sfarmhousesand countryestatesrestoredto theirformer
glory.lts agrotourism.

- Spanishand Catalan,or is it now four- with English

languages
and German?lt'san autonomousgovernmenttryingto cut loose
rtsapron-strings
with Madrid,

It's InternationalHouse: small in size with its five teachers

(i ncl udi ng,of course, an E ngl i shman,an l ri shmanand a
It's Palma and her cathedral,a "vast rose-tintedcreationof Scotsman),its Dos, Directorand Secretary;but greatin spiritas
Gothicgraceand beauty.Likea mothershe standsby the sea's it maintainsthe standardsof excellencein teachingand training.
e dge,a n dl i k ec hildr en
t hebui l d i n gosf th e c i tyg a th e rb e h i n da nd A smallbut significant
gem in the lH Worldcrown.
at hersides."(7).lt'sMoorisharchitecture
rubbingshoulders
with
Gaudiand NormanFoster.
(1)From"Jogginground Majorca"by GordonWest, 1929
It's the product of intermarriagebetween various types that
includeCarthaginian,
Roman,Moorishand Spanish.lt's two

lH Skopje
Forgetthe selectiveimpression
the mediagivesof the Balkans;
Macedoniais a veritableShangri-La,hidden by mountains,
compellingin its beauty.In the summer,those soaringpeaks
witnessparagliders
vyingfor airspacewith the eagles.In the
winter,skiers weave in and out of packs of wolves and the
occa si o n a ls t r ay bear , and th e u b i q u i to u sd a y g l o mo b.
Meanwhile,
down on the enormouslakespastel-shaded
fishing
boats and men with cormorantssearch the waters for the
delectablefreshwaterfish that abounds here; and when the
summer heat arrives,the beachesare packed out with pagan
sun-worshippers.
At all times of the year,the bars are the social
centresof the cities,flirtation,
tomfooleryand amiableconfabthe
order of the dav.

The school i n S kopj e i s l i kew i se B al kan-i mpervious;

and the dailytoil of inculcating
the maddeningly
difficultEnglish
languageinto the heads of severalhundred diligentstudents
proceeds at a gentle pace, the teachers going about their
businesswith a Buddhist-likecalm. And even when the
demandsof a successfulbusinessrequirea littleget up and go,
it is all achievedwith beatificsmilesand unruffledfeathers.
So, why not pay us a visit?Pack your skis or parachute,lob on
some factor 24 and your personalhangovercure and hopa!
Get on that tableand DANCE! @

'ihioctober( 33 ) 2000'

What's Going On in the Affiliate Network

NewArrivals

Therewas considerable
livelydiscussionr- :-:s3 oointsand a
surprising
amountof agreement.By the e^r -' :^e nreetingwe
took
responsibility
for fullydocume.:^:r .'. .' moreof the
We aredelightedto welcomethe new affiliateschoolsin Coimbra each
points
of discussion
for a presentat
:- :: :,-:^ :1e DOSand
- Santa Clara in Portugal,Shanghaiand Jinan, lstanbuland main
''
-'e
We are lookingforwardto receiving Directors'conferencesin 2001. We inte.-: :.' --: of the new
Valladolid
to our readership.
:r
,'.e hope that
news,views,descriptions
and photosfromthem as soonas they courseswill be on offer after Chnsi--,::
Directorswill agreeto implementthe r:':r:' . ::'- or.ocesses
in
havea moment,
the 2001 academicvear.

WebsiteWonders

IH Partnership
Projects

The Affiliatewebsiteis developingfast. A numberof worksheets

have been collectedfor the first versionof an onlineMaterials
Bank, which will be accessibleto all lH teachersand trainers
worldwidevery soon. Some schools have alreadybeen very
generousin sharingmaterialand the team hope to be able to
add many more in the nearfuture.lf you're interestedin seeing
what'sthere,go to www,ihworld.com
clickon the buttonmarked
'affiliates',
enter your user name and passwordand choose
you want to lookat,
whichmaterials

ThelH Teacher
Training
SteeringGroup

By Steve Brent
SfeveBrentjoined lnternationalHouse *:-:r'
as Directof lH
London in January2000. Srnce htsarn',a ^r ^:s moved office
twice and is this week to be found i. :^. s:*e',vhat spartan
accommodation of the ex-bookshop ^ ':n 2 ::adilly. Of the
many projects he is tackling, lhe :z:':',<^ os between
InternationalHouse and other organtsa::'s ,,,^ :4 he outlines
below, are of specialimportancetc :-: :*,. :cment of the
organisation.
Aston University:Language Studies Unrt (LSU)

Roger Hunt contributes this repoft:

The firstmeetingof the TT SteeringGrouptook placeon the 7th
HouseLondon.Attending
and Bth of Septemberat International
were: HeatherBedell(lH Milan);Jon Butt (lH Wroclaw);Michael
Carrier(AffiliateNetwork);AntoniaClare(AffiliateNetwork);Paula
De Nagy(lH Lisbon);RogerHunt(lH London)and Jim Scrivener
(lH Budapest).

l H Londonhas a si gneda Memora' -r..' ' '

the LSU.The rationalebehindthis lr':'areasof commoninterestand reac^:t-r'-:.the two institutionsmight co-opE'a::
development..."
In practical
termsl^ S -,'

- :r,s:andtngwith
:: : l ...identify
,',a;,sin which
-:

"

-,

a{
\rl

+naal-rnr
tt'dul
lt'l

. Peoplesuccessfully
completingi^= - - , " , l c l o m a i n
gaincrsr:: ' ,' ' : - : s : o n ' s M S C
Educational
Management
The aim of forming the Steering Group is to co-ordinate
TESOL.
withinteachertrainingin the WorldOrganisation lH staffcollaborating
developments
,:,.:s for the MSc
with Astoni: ,',".
'.'.,,.-*l
and to designa professional
developmentpath for lH Teachers,
"'
TESOLtherebyexpandingmodu;te
- , .-:.
McGarvey
TeacherTrainersand Directorsof Studieswhich we hope all
(l HLondon)and P aul ade N agyrl : * ;:
,' : ,' ,'trngdouble
schoolswilltakeon board.At the sametimewe hopeto provide
j -:-.:" ::, '=-oectively,
modulesin Management
and You;lstandardisation
of the InternationalHouse Certificatecourse o Discountsfor lH stafftakingthe lrlS- -i- -: .(whichshouldmakethe qualification
moretransparentto School o Settingup a TeacherTrainingSi-".- : , .:, See Roger's
'adical'on page)with a viewto
Directorsand EducationalAuthorities),
and to implementsome
!o - -i :: "' : :a:cn from
new coursesfor which we feelthere is a need.
Aston of the lH Certificate.
Consequentlyour main points of discussion were:
. A new Directorof Studiescourse which will take place in lH
afterthe DOS Conferencein January.
Londonimmediately
. A re-launchof the IHC (undera new name)with an agreedcore
syllabusand assessmentcriteria,
. The implementation
of a careerpath for teachersusingthe lH
Budapestmodelas a starlingpoint.
. The provisionof three new distancetrainingcoursesintended
for inexperiencedteachers in Teaching Business English,
TeachingYounger Learners and Using Computers in the
LanguageClassroom
. Approvalprocessesand proceduresfor those wishingto train
as teachertrarners.

'ihi nntoher

The British Council

&

#r
Thisvear lH Londonand the BritishC:,.
-.:::.ce
jointlyproducinga CD ROM / ureb-las=-:
Learning
-.;
l-EFLA (nowin
DELTAto replacethe currentDistanceLritsfinalyear).Thisseemeda naturalparlne's^: j ,:r thatapproximatelyhalfthe candidateson the Distarrce
c'l.l-anme are from
British Council TeachingCentres.Subrec::: :ontract, this
programmewill be pilotednext springanc gc li'.ein September
2001,

Watch this space/ o

( A4 I 2OOn'

An honour for Pam Walsh

DouglasS Crawford
Douglas is the CEO of ASC lnternationalHouse Geneva

PamelaWalshwas born, bred and educatedin Yorkshireand AlthoughBritishthroughand through,she has also become
taughtFrenchto the childrenof minersbeforemovingto Geneva acceptedas a leadinglight of the Genevaacademicfraternity,
in the lateSixties.In 1974,she foundedher own school,ASC, due mainlyto her willingnessto share and to work for the
and set aboutpromotingthe teachingof the Englishlanguagein benefitof all.
Geneva,The schoolhas grownsteadilyfrom humblebeginnings
and now providesemploymentfor morethan B0 people,manyof Stillin Geneva,Pamelais also a leadingmemberof GEDS,the
whom areBritishby birth.Hersuccessin businessis an achieve- GenevaEnglishDrama Societyas well as GAOS,the Geneva
ment in itselfbut much more importantthan this is the way in AmateurOperaticSociety,of which her husbandRichardis also
which this successhas been achieved.By naturea giverrather chai rman.
than a taker,Pamelahasspentthe last25 yearslookingafterthe
personal and professional welfare of all of those Outsideof Geneva,she also has two highprofileroleswithinthe
fortunateenough to be around her. Her success in business BritishSwiss Chamber of Commerce.As Chairmanof the
broughtwith it a highprofilewhichshe has alwaysshamelessly EducationCommittee,she has been responsible
for revitalising
usedto helpotherslessforlunatethan herself.
the imageof the BSCCin the eyesof businessand for givingthis
organisation
a much more prominentrolein the fieldof compaHer dedicationto others rather than to self makes her an ny training.Pamelais alsothe Vice President
of the BSCC,the
outstanding
exampleand rolemodelfor allof us.The schoolhas firstwomanto holdthis position- no meanfeat in sucha malegone from strengthto strengthand now offerssix languagesto dominatedenvironment.
all kindsof clients.In purebusinessterms,it could havegrown
more quicklyand couldhavemade much more profitalongthe Allof the abovedoesn'tevenbeginto tellthe wholestory.As our
way but this was neverthe reasonfor startingthe school,lt was DirectorGeneral,she is our visionand our inspiration.
Shesees
to unite a band of highlytrainedand professional
teacners, the best in everyoneand is alwayskeen to help staffto realise
capableof meetingthe often bizarreneeds of the international theirfullpotential.
Evenin thisyearof SilverJubileecelebrations,
and commercial
communityin Geneva,and to offerhigh quality she is busy givingherselflots of extrawork on behalfof others.
serviceand helpto thosewho neededit.
Ratherthan celebratewith lots of expensive,self-congratulatory
parties,Pameladecidedthat the 25th would give us the ideal
Alwaysa championof personaldevelopment,
Pamelahas invest- excuseto ask the wealthy businesscommunityin Genevato
ed vast amountsof moneyin stafftrarningin orderto ensurethat helpus raisefundsto buildand equiptwo girls'schoolsin rural
the teachersin herschoolcan alsocontinueto growand to pass India, Having shared her vision with her staff and motivated
this developmenton to others She has also been extremely everyonearoundher,the school has been busy with a host of
activein givingworkshopsto teachersoutsideof her schooland fund raisingeventsthis year.Pamelavisitedthe sitesin personin
in manycasesto teachersfrom rivalschoolsl
Januaryand hasbeenthe drivingforcebehindthe wholeproject.
A rangeof eventshave been organisedand some havealready
To porlrayPanrelaWalshas a well-meaning
academicwould taken place, the highlightso far being a gala eveningfor
totallyde-value
the hugecontribution
whichshe hasmadeto the Genevaselite in the company of Sir Peter Ustinov,with all
lives of literallyhundredsof teachersand students.Always moniesraisedgoingdirectlyto the projects.
exhausted,alwayslatebecauseshe alwaysbookstoo much into
her diary she puts her causesfirst and her healthand welfare This whole projectis typicalof PamelaWalsh.Gratefulfor her
second.Her causesextendfar bevondthe walls of her school. own good fortuneand her health,her role is to help othersless
fortunatethan herselfand to run a schoolworthyof the name.
A leadingmemberof the church,she will oftenbe foundplaying
the organin churchon Sundayat the end of an exhausting
week. This is the text of the officialpressreleaseissuedwhen the
Pamela was instrumentalin the setting up of the Centre news of her OBE broke:
(CEP)in Geneva,an organisation
d'EchangesP6dagogiques
which bringstogetherschoolsand teachersfrom all sectorsin
We are delightedto announcethat PamelaWalsh,Founderand
order to share knowledge,ideas, inspirationand equipment.
DirectorGeneralof ASC lnternationalHouse Geneva,is to be
Pamelaalso has a leadingrole in the AssociationGenevoise
honouredby the Queenand will receivethe award of O,B,E.
d'EcolesPrivees(AGEP)the associationof Cantonalschools.
News of this honourwas releasedfrom BuckinohamPalaceon

'ihj october( 0s ) 2000'

Saturday17 June and Pamelawill receiveher award from the

Queenin personat the end of October.
This honour recognisesthe huge amount of time and energy
which Pamelahas devotedto her educationalvocationdurino
the last26 yearsas well as her tirelesswork for charitv.

realityand this award pays tribute to their hard work and

dedication.At ASC, we help people to realisetherr own
potentialand from smalland humblebeginnings;
individual
this
commitmentto our studentshasseenour schoolgrowto be one
of the top languagelearningcentresin the 'ayor{d.
To be able to
mix businesswith helpingothersis a wondedutfeetingand I feel
Pamelawas nominatedfor the award by her staffand on being veryfortunatein this respect."
giventhe newswas quotedas saying
Havingraisedfunds to help buildand eo:rc : :rrls' schoolsin
" lt is a wonderfulhonourto receiverecognitionfrom your own lndia(a novelway to celebratethe silverj-j. ? :t ASC)Pamela
countrywhen you havespent much of your lifea longway from now plans to set up a charitablefou":a::^ io help fund
home. I am fortunateto be surroundedby a wonderfulteam of educational
projectsin the poorerareaso' :-= ,,,3r1d."@
people who give their heart and soul to turn my dreams into

The Ben Warren- lnternational HouseTrust

The Ben Warren- International
HouseTrusthas been set up as
a memorialto the life and work of Ben Warren,who was killed
while attending the annual InternationalHouse Director's
Conference
in London,in May 1991. Ben was one of the key
figuresin the growth and developmentof International
House.
He was personally
responsible
for startingor developingfourteen
International
Houseschoolsin Spain,and he also providedan
unquantifiable
amount of help and advice to many other
International
Houseaffiliatesin other parts of the world,Without
Ben's involvementand support, InternationalHouse may not
havedevelopedintothe "powerhouse"in the world of language
teachingand teachertrainingthat it has in fact become,
Ben Warren
Ben was born in TunbridgeWellsin 1943.He took a degreein
Geographyat Cambridgeand then became one of John and
BritaHaycraft'sfirst properlytrainedteachers.His first teaching
post was in lH Algiers,afterwhich he movedback to lH London,
where he met his future wife, Carmen, who was one of his
students.In 1968,at the age of 25, Ben was appointedDirector
of International
HouseTripoli.He was on the vergeof openinga
secondschoolin Benghaziwhen Gadaffi'srevolutiontook place.
Peoplewith nameslike Benjaminbecamethe subjectof round
the clock policesurveillance
so Ben and Carmendecidedto
leave. Ben's next assignmentwas as Director of Business
Englishat International
HouseParis,but it wasn't long beforehe
decidedthat it was time to start a school of his own. This first
schoolwas openedin 1971 in the industrial
town of Sabadell,
near Barcelona.lH Sabadellwas soon a successand over the
nexttwentyyearsBen builta substantialbusinessempirewhich
includedfourteenequallysuccessfullanguageschools,a book
shop, a company promoting languagecourses abroad, a
magazine
for teachersand studentsand a printingbusiness,
Ben
was fortunatein so far as his businessacumenled him to starta
schoolin the rightplaceat the righttime; but he was alsothe
right person in the right place at the right time; many other
peoplehad the sameoppoftunities
as Ben,but nonecame

anywherenear to equallinghis achie'..^'":: 3ens business

successeswere basedon a remarkab
s t:'--:. -:: on of personal qualities.These included almos: '--':,-: energy and a
corresponding
capacityto work hardi:. _'-.;- _-,'s.the abilityto
pick out and retainimportantdetarl.',:^, ..' n::.g rt cloudthe
broaderpicture,an unshakablese.:. ,' ,'.-:.: ,,/asfair and
reasonable,
a commitmentto honesl, '- : '- - :ealings,and a
wisdomwhichwas partlybasedon -: L ' ::- :xperiencebut
also paftly innate. His advice was : ,',::,: "3iaDteand his
judgmentsthoughtfully
made.Wher ^: ,',:: - =: agedjust 48,
he leftan immediatefamilyof a wrfe::-,) '"''=: t^itdren;he also
left an "extendedfamily"which ^:,.-::.: -'l^,., hundredsof
friends,colleagues,
employees
anc ?1 " ',:':: -. cf thesepeople
benefittedin one way or anotherfrc,--.
them have contri buteddi rectl yt:,' ,.-:: :.::-o up t he Ben
Warren- International
HouseTrust
The Ben Warren - International House Trust Prize
The ideaof establishing
a Trustrn 3=' = ":^'3 surJaced
almost
immediately
afterhe was killed,Th: : -:-.: .ar1was to decide
how the Trustcouldbe best usedas I .:- ' . io commemorate
Ben'sworkand consequently,
wha::-: ::,3: uc aimsof theTrust
shouldbe. Therewas no shortage:' s,.j::s:,cnS but eventually
it was decidedthat perhapsthe r^:s: :'3::".,e way to achieve
the desiredaimswouldbe to set uc : '-.-I ,',nichcouldbe used
to finance an award, to be knc,',- :s :.e "Ben Warren
International
HouseTrust Prize r: ,',rs a sc decidedthat the
prizeshouldbe awardedon an a^--,3 :asrs to the authoror
authorsof the most outstanding,,',:'" ^ :ne fieldof language
teachereducation.
Teacher education has always ceer at the heart of the
InternationalHouse World Organrsat
cn. The RSA/UCLES
CTEFLA,which is the most highlyrespectedtrainingcoursefor
EFL teachers ever developed. is based squarelyon the
pioneeringwork of John and Brita Haycraftat International
House,and lH is stillwidelyregardedas the foremostlanguage
teachertrainingorganisationin the world. Ben Warrenwas also

' i h i o ctob.r (gs) zooo'

dedicated to the idea of improvingthe standards of language

teaching through teacher education. The Teacher Training
Department at InternationalHouse Barcelona - which is the
largest trainingcentre of its kind outside the UK - is a vibrant
testimonyto Ben's commitmentto this idea, and so it seemed
entireiy appropriate that the prize should be awarded to
someoneworking in this field.

Intemational House Barcelona, and two more copies ot

both the form and the work to London. The addresses to
which entdes should be sent are as follows:
Ben Warren - lnternational House Trust prize
Ben Wann - lH Trust prize

International House
Trafatgar14, 08010
The prize - which is a cash prize of I2,OOO- is presentedduring Barcelona,
the InternationalHouse Directors' Conference,which is held Spain
annuallyin May. Candidatesmust submit three copies of their
work - which needn't necessarilyhave been published- by glst Afiiliate Network
Decemberof the previousyear A panel of judges consistingof 106 piccadilly
one representative
trom lH London, one representatjvefrom lH London WIJ 7NL,
Barcelonaand a third personwho is not directlyconnectedwith England
lnternationalHouse,evaluatesall the entriesand the finalistsare
announcedat the end of lvlarch.
All other correspondence concerning the Ben Warren _
nternationalHouseTrustshould be addressedto:
ll is our hope and expectationthat the Ben Warren- Internationa
House prize will quicklybecome establishedas the most hjghly The Board of Trustees,
esteemed award in its field. lt will then constitute a suitable c/o lnternational House Barcelona.
memorialto the lifeand work of a remarkableman.
Trafalgar14, enflo., ogolo Barcelona, sparn,
Tet +34 93 26845 11,
To submit an entry for the Ben Warren - International House Fax +94 93 269 02 39,
Trust Prize' please comprete the apprication torm E-mair:ihbarcerona@bcn.ihes.com
@
(opposite), then send one copy of the form and the work to
The Prizewinnerwas announcedby Ben Warren'sson' at the award ceremony,held duringthe lH AffjliateSchools Directors
conferencein lvlay2000. Amid a hubbub of chat it was splendidto hear that the prize had been won by one of the Editorial
Board and a contributorto this issue:Scott Thornbury.

The Ben Warren International

HouseTrustpnze
Application Form
Author(s)Name(s):
Contactaddress:

Telephone:
F ax : :
E - m ail:
Titleof work:
Briefdescription:

/we herebysubmit the enclosed*ork as an entry to, tn" unnrai rni"rnutionurnou"" - g"; wun"n i;;t pri*. y*"
J""a"
"i."unpublished,
:hat I am,/weare the sole authorsof this work and that all quotationsfrom work by other authors,both publishedand
'ravebeen duly acknowledged.
iigned:
)lease rememberto send one copy of this form and your work to InternationalHouse
Barcelonaand two copies of both the
orm and your work to CentralDept., InternationalHouse London W1J 7NL
'ihi october ( 37 ) 2000'

This Year'sShortlist:
Classroom Decision-Making:negotiation and process
syllabusesin practice
Michael Breen and Andrew Littleiohn (C.U.P)2000
Much theoreticaldiscourseon involvingstudents in decision
making regardingsyllabusand process has been availablefor
some time. Finally,Breenand Littlejohnprovidedescriptionsof
this in practice.The book is essentiallya collectionof sixteen
accountsof experimentsinvolvingstudentsin the management
of theirlanguagecourses.The accountscovera verywide range
of contextsincludingprimary,secondaryand teftiaryage groups
and teachereducationfrom the UK, Europe,the USA, South
Americaand Asia.

This short review may make the book sound a bit of a dry
historicalaccountwith littlepracticalrelevance- the book is not.
of actualclass
The sixteenaccountsread as genuinereflections
practice,these experimentshappenedand they are described
with warts and all.Thereis literallysomethingfor everyonehere,
but those teachersthinking of taking the Dip in the not too
distantfuturewould gain a great deal from dipping(sorry!)into
this book. Forotherswho would liketo know wherewe all came
fromand,perhaps,wherewe mightallbe going,havea lookand
try out some of the experimentsdescribedwith your classes.
TeachingOf English,'(Longman
Candlinfl-he Communicative
syllabuswas renderedredundant
1981)said "anypre-designed
from the momentteacherand studentsbeganworking"- if this
strikesa chord with you, you are in good company- particularly
with Breenand Littlejohnand the other authorsin this book,
I enjoyedit I hopeyou willtoo. (RH)
B i bl i ography

The book starts with an excellentintroductorychapter which

includes much that has been said before, see for example
'ProcessAnd Experienceln The Language
Thomasand Legutke
Classroom'Longman1991. However,I have neverread such a
wide-rangingand completeaccount which includesreferences
to psychology,philosophyand politicalhistoryas influencesin
lf youwould
teachingand learning.
the currentworldof language
liketo know how the Frenchrevolutioninfluencedour classroom
practicesthis is the book to read.BertrandRussell'snameis not
as often associatedwith languageteachingas with philosophy
and physics,but here he is. John Dewey is probablybetter
knownfor his thoughtson emergentdemocracythan his ideas
about how to teachgrammarbut herehe is as well.

Candlin- The communicativeTeachingof English.

Longmanr 981t
Howatt- A Historyof EnglishLanguageTeaching,OUP (1984)
and Practicein SLA.OUP(1982)
Krashen- Prrncrples
Process and Experience ln the
Legutke arc T"omas
Longman(1991)
Languagecl assroom,

.il:

H ow to TeachGrammar
Scott Thornbury (Longman1999)

" V o t e da f a v e( e a : : - . - : : ' - - : : a ^ d i d a t e sa g r e a tp o p u l a r i s t
of wideand
w i tha robustand er-ga:^ j .' ". : ' -,rsi vi e.a sti mul ator
Breen and Littlejohncite the more expected contributionsof l i vel ydebate,abl eto l nec:.:: .3:,' .ae^the rvorytow erand t he
such writers as Maslow, Rogers, Stevick and Moskovitz' chal kface,al li n al ldesen.rJ t' : -.' :-3i ' l .ral e
'history'
A.S. Neillis also included.Althoughthe
Summerhill's
this year's
ranges from Vygotsky to David Nunan it is not as ..,,wordswritten by, not ac:,,: S:::: Thornbur1l,
as Howat'sA HistoryOf EnglishLanguage winnerof the Ben Warrenlri::-a: _^a -1ouseTruStPrize,with
all-encompassing
'17th
centurywith his latest title 'How to Teach Grammar', Longman 1999,
Teaching(OUP 1984),which begins in the
with a longlistof c'-,t ---=::a(rclesand booksbehind
NicholasClennard'ssplendidaccount of how he caused his However,
'assailedby Latin,and nothingbut Latin'
the time has
?s r r :'?-. speaker,
students'ears to be
him and a strongreputatron
descrc: - - l; :re workof MichaelLewis
while he 'stood by and made the thing more apparent by comewhenThornbury's
- an earlyform of 'Comprehensible
Input'that sure- shouldnow be turnedon htt-lrse'
gesticulation'
'PrinciplesAnd Practice
ly must appealto StevenKrashen?
ceremon! rr l3r3on, it fellto me, as one of
in SLA'OUP 1982.However,this is not just an historicalaccount At the prize-giving
- the ways in which these writersthoughtshave influencedthe the judgesof the competitior i3 S3ya few words about this
practiceof forms of negotiationis made clear not just in the book. "Disappointing,"
I said anc anrongthe hubbuband the
introductionbut also in the sixteenaccountsthemselves.Breen wine,that is all that some peopieheard,Earlierthisyearat the
in Dublin,Thorrburycompareddiscreteitem
conference
and Littlejohndescribethreemaintypes of negotiation:Personal IATEFL
(howthe student's grammar teachi ng to a packet of C hi cken Mc Nugget s:
(what| -the student-thinkaboutit),Interactive
what you
with the teacher's)and Procedural(howwe put bite-sized,digestible... edible,but not necessarily
ideasinterrelate
it all into effect),Again,much has been writtenon this before, would chooseto eat, all other thingsbeingequal.Provocative
but, in my view, largely from the perspectiveof what the stuff,and I was expectingand hop ng for equalprovocationin
academicthinksis good for the student(andteacher)with no this book. I was hopingfor an eloquenttrashingof a numberof
as
in the classroom.Herewe grammatical
betesnoires,but disappointed
and pedagogical
followup accountof implementation
I was, the great strength of this book is that it eschews
havethosemissinqfollow-upaccounts.
entertainingbut easy diatribes,presentingits case gently,

r:L: ^^+^L^-

| oo

\ 4nnnt

f,

k
s:

coherently,
but forcefullynevertheless.

But even more imporlantly,I am deeply sympatheticto the

questioningnature of the book: as any trainee who has
It avoidsthe heavymodality(needs,musts,shoulds)of so much participatedin one of my courseswill know,I preferquestionsto
applied linguistics(see for examplea recent article by David answers,riddlesto solutions,and hereis a book fullof questions
Nunan on 'Teaching Grammar in Context' in ELTJ), and puzzles,I will ceftainlyuse this book in preparingand
preferring instead to invite readers to make their own delivering
trainingcourses.
judgementsabout approachesto teaching grammar in the
contextof theirown teachinqenvironments.
Aliveto Languageis a seriesof illustrated,interactiveessaysin
LanguageAwarenessfor languageteachers,goingwell beyond
The book is organisedin two ways. On one level,there is a the standardreferenceworks to providea broadview,basedon
textual and topical progressiondealingwith all the areas one languagewithin socio-cultural
dimensions,lt claims to help
might expect:the natureof grammar,reasonsfor teachingit, teachersby increasingawarenessof the way languageactually
w ay s o f te a c hing, pr ac t is i n g ,c o rre c ti n g a n d te s ti n g i t, works.
grammarintothe syllabus.Eachof the ten chapters
integrating
is accompanied
by a photocopiable
worksheet,Some of these But how much help does it actuallygive? ln baldlypractical
will provepopularwith teachersand educatorstrainers.Among terms,preciouslittle,and I do meanprecious.lt helpsto clearup
my favouritesare a task where you are asked to analysea confusion about discourse analysis,with a few easy-totranscriptionof classroominteractionto see how a teacher cope-withdefinitions
whichclarifywithoutover-simplifying;
and it
respondsto errors,and another where you turn a PPP-type sorls out styleand register,I would like to say once and for all,
lessonintosomethingmoretask-based.
but I suspectthat the confusionwillstaggeron.
It also givespracticalhelp in analysingand evaluating
course
However,likelyto provemorepopularwith trainers,traineesand books: I will be makingextensiveuse of the relevantsectionin
teachersarethe lessonplansor frames(sometimes
as manyas Diplomacourses since this is an area where the concise,
6 in o n e c hapt er ) t hat c a n b e fo u n d th ro u g h o u t. succinctbringingtogetherof ideashas beenlongoverdue,
As modelsto imitateor as templatesto experimentwith, it is
these, I suspect, that will find their way, unattributedand Then there is a usefullist of words which teachersuse when
photocopied,to classroorns
and staffroomsaroundthe world.
dealingwith learners'grammar:an excellentstartingpoint for
thi nki ngabout teachi ngand l earni ng,and some si mi l a r ly
The secondway in whichthe book is organisedis throughits excellentfood for thought around alternativeapproachesto
criticalstance,Eachapproachto grammarthat is introducedis teachinggrammar.
evaluatedin terms of economy,ease,efficacyand appropriacy.
With great clarity and precision of argument, the book is Help crossesover to warning,as the authorsremindus how
stimulating
to read,easyto findyourway aroundand immense- grammarbooks don't give the whole pictureor eventhe truth
ly practical,in a theoreticalkind of way,
and, more sombrely,how we teachers must "be alive to
languageand its power,not leastbecause(we)arethe oneswith
Reprintswon't be longin coming- if there'sonlyone thingyou
the languagepower"
readaboutyourwork thisyear,it shouldbe this,
(PK)
But, as I havealreadyhintedby showinghow the help in this
book comes, as often as not, in the form of startingpointsfor
thinking,the authors' main aim seems to be to stimulate
Alive to Language
discussion
and debate.
Val Arndt, Paul Harveyand John Nuttall (CUP)1999

Discussionrangesfrom the philosophical'What is correctand

who says so?' and, more abstractly'What is grammar?'via the
practical'Towhat extentshouldteachersattemptto includethe
socio-cultural
dimensionand to what extentdo learnerswant to
pafticipatein the L2 culture?','To what extent do we have to
compromisein reducingdiscoursefor teachingpurposes?'to
the political'ln what ways is languageinclusiveor exclusive?'
'Whose languageis
Englishanyway'. We are also, perhaps
inevitably,
enjoinedto debateissuesof sexism(or shouldwe say
'genderism'
now?)in language.

I eloved readingthis book and I enjoyedreadingit for several

reasons.I likereadingELTbookswhichattemptto rise
:trfferent
above practicalissuesor which go beyond,in this case well
beyond,researchresults.
Thisis a book with nobleaims.
I also enjoyedit becauseof the range of authenticlanguage
examples- the extractsfrom newspapers,magazinesand a
wide varietyof other text types were usuallyentertaining- and
becauseof the taskswhichl, the reader,was beingaskedto do.
I normallyexecratetheseinteractivebooksfor teachers.But this
time I foundmyselfactuallydoingthe taskswith a will and then
providedwith, or as All noble stuff,then, and, to me, engagingand mind-moving.
becomingabsorbedin the commentaries,
My interestgrows preciselywhere the book movesfar enough
answersto the tasks,
away from the classroomfor echoes of chalk and drillingno

'ihi octoher

( 39 ) 2OOO'

longer to be heard, where no learnercan get in the way of

studious reflectionor interrupt after-dinnerrepartee and
intellectual
discussionwith some severelypracticaldemands.

studentsto recalltheirfirst crush,first kiss,firstbrokenheart.

Topic-wise,
then,this is a littlemoreinteresting
than most.There
is also a more personal and intimate feel to the
I suspect,however,that traineesmight not be so enthusiastic, "personalised
speakingtasks" as they are called:they concern
just as traineesin the coursesI run eventuallyget fed up with dreams,fears,childhood,old age and moods.
being challengedby questionsand problems,beggingfor at
leastsome answersand solutions,
Languageis parcelledinto no-nonsensecategories;it is unusual
to see that traditional threesome, Grammar, Lexis and
I also worry that this book adds, albeitexcellently,
to the large Pronunciation,
usedas a basisfor a coursebook,
and I likeit.
corpusof work that dealswith what we teach ratherthan wno or Naturally
Grammarfocus is exploratoryand studentbased;Lexis
how, The significanceof this addition to our knowledgeand i s, of course, presentedcol l ocati onal l v;
pronunciat ionis
awarenessof languageshould not be underestimated;but attitudinal
(showingempathyetc.)
neithershouldit deflectus from what, I feel,stillconstitutesthe
mainfocus of our endeavours- how to havesome effecron our I haveseenthis book deliveredsuccessfulry
by traineeteachers
learners.(PR)
on prerimnary trainingcourses;and (for all my experience)
I wouldliketo use it myself.(RB)

Other Book Reviews

Assessing Vocabulary John Read. (CUP) 2OOO

Innovations
Hugh Dellar and Darryl Hocking (LTp)20OO

"...aftermanyyearsof neglect,the studyof vocabulary

in applied
This book has caused some heated staff room discussions/
linguisticsis now flourishing"(Aldersonand Bachman,series
On the one hand, from a teacherwho usedit on a TT course.
editors).This book looks at recentdevelopmentsin vocabulary
we have thrsoplnron;
researchin Second LanguageAcquisitionand suggeststhat,
whilein manyways we are movingtowardsa more holisticview
At last,a lexicail,i-:a'-c:::
.c,rrsebooklI havelongbeena believof language,our assessmentof learners'vocabularyis stillvery
er in the lexrcalaccr.a:'- 3'-!1l'r;1r.,s
enjoyedincorporating
it into
much rootedin discreteitem,selectiveand context-indeoendent
my teachingfor ;ea's '-r.:i:1s: :'tevercome acrossa course
traditions.In pafticulat Read takes into account findingsfrom
book from LTP before.Sc ,,.r-e,- drscovered
Innovations
and
computer corpus analysiswhen proposing a framework for
was offeredthe opponunrt\i.t -,S3: i ieailtat it likea shot/ my
expanding the old to accommodate the new. Refreshingly
mouthstartedwateringat lust the i'-tt,ci',tI couldnt waitto get
undogmaticin his attitude,Read covers the backgroundto
'-?"?
my teethinto it (goodlexicaict.rr.r<s
vocabularytesting,researchinto its acquisitionand use and
weighsup the validityof conventional
methodsof assessment
At first sight, its glossycover anc ..? croios' of peoplein
versus that effectedvia the integrativeperformanceof tasks,
(fo,exar-cielhreetoplessmen
up-to-date,interesting
situations
Fourcasestudiesof traditionaltestsare presented,and thenthe
at a rave,women boxersand a severaio is of body piercingand
issues involved in comprehensivemeasures of testinq are
tattoos)makethe book reallyattracti.e At lhe startof each unit
discussed,
- the
is somethingelse which caught n'r),o, c nrmediately
languagestrip:a seriesof statementsretar,ng
to
the
topic
of
the
Thisbook would logicallybe of interestto thosedirecflyinvolved
unitand whichare lexically
ratural(forexamplein
interestrng
arcj
in testing, but also to teacherswho embrace an elementof
the B i g D eci si ons
uni t- ' l t j ustfeel stne rrghrthrngto do ' - or in
lexicalism'in their teachingand want to extend this to their
the Cars and Citiesunit - 'Just ban al cars, full stopl').The
assessmentof students. Assessment-specific
terminologyis
authors offer this as an extra resourceto help the teacher
conciselyand clearlydefined,which helpsto makethis a highly
encourage
studentsto 'notice'the languageGreatidea.
readablebook. (PB)
lnnovations presentsthe new languageIn a wide range of
unusualtopics such as supermarketdating,clearingchewing
gum offthe streetsand chat rooms.Withineachunitwe findtiny
Sue Kay and VaughanJones (Palgrave)200O
paragraphscontainingreferenceto and explanationsof 'real
English'(eg 'dishy','My car cost over two grand'and 'Tellme
In te rm s of gr aphic s th i s b o o k l o o k s b ri g h t, c ol ourful ,
aboutit!')includingappropriacy
of the new tanguage.
i n te re st ing;but all cu rre n t c o u rs e b o o k s l o o k th at w ay.
Yetthereis somethingextrahere;topicsare 'edgier'than usual
The authorsensuredthat the grammatical
itemsthat one would
(for coursebookstend to be bland tn order to cater to an
expectin a coursebook at this levelwere also integratedin the
international
market):Womenwith bloodiedhandsat an animal
syllabus.They have provided lots of opportunityto discuss
rightsdemo,Jack Nicholsonbehavingbadly,rubricthat invites
languageand 'notice'how it works.
Inside Out Intermediate Student's Book

ln additionto the coursebook, there is a workbookwith a vast Another improvementis that these are on blue paper,which
supplyof exercisesthat studentscan work on at home, and a differentiates
them from the restof the dictionaryand alsomakes
very comprehensive
teachers'book, full of suggestionson how the text leapoff the page at the reader.
to use the materialin the coursebook.
The learnercan furtherbenefitfrom the many usefulhelp notes
So, lotsof goodthings.However,
beyondthese,I foundthe book which highlightdifficultlanguageareas(eg 'most' - 'Whatdid
disappointing.
Eachunitfollowsthe sameformatwith very little you enjoy(the)most?''lt was whatshewantedmostof all.''The'
work
skills
and a layoutthat is extremelyhard to use, lt is is often left out in informalEnglish.).
In additionto these,the
possiblyunfortunate
that I choseto use this for the firsttime with learnercan find usagenotes in boxesthat informthem about;
traineessinceboth they,and indeedl, found it problematic
to
timetablefrom, due to a lack of contextfor individuallexical . vocabulary
or grammarissues(eg neither/either)
chunks,minimalpracticeideasand its rather'bitty'feel (other . differences
betweenBritishand AmericanEnglish
veryexperienced
colleagues
who felt positiveaboutthe book all . how to buildon theirexistingknowledgeof culture
mentioned
that it couldbe betterusedas a supplementary
book o how to rncrease
theirwealthof lexis(eoalternatives
to theword
'thing' 'nice').
for this reason).
or
A pityl I was so lookingforwardto devouringtheselexicalchunks
wholeheartedly
with my studerrtsand traineesand insteadwe
cameawayknowingthatwe wouldhaveto supplement
that diet
so heavilythat we wouldloseour appetiteslong beforethe end
nf tho r-nr
l'
- - - rrqo
- - /l-)
r--)

On the other hand from someone who used it to introduce the

lexicalapproachto traineeson a CertTEBcourse, we have this:

The topicsand layoutof the sixth editionhave been updated.

Thereare numerouscolourillustrations
as well as moretopical
bl ack and w hi te ones
I parti cul artyl i ked the detai l ed,
c o m p u t e r - r e l a t evdi s u a l s i n c l u d i n gt h e I n t e r n e t ,a n d t h e
examolesof differenttypes of hairstylessuch as flat top,
permedhairand a man with a ponytail.The study
dreadlocks,
notes sectionnow includesfaxes, memos, e-mailsand CVs
(something
my studentsare alwaysaskingfor helpwith).

A i lac t a n o nor alE nglis hc ou rs e b o o kw i th a l e x i c asl y l l a b u s. But maybebest of all are the real up-to-datelanguageentries
, l ey
' trol
which also managesto integratethe usual areasof grammar suchas ' i n-your-face'
rage' ,' W hatare you on?' ,-' i sh ',
'designer
'multi-skilling'
found in materials
at Intermediate
level.
drugs'and
which havetakenthe place
of pageson the Commonwealth,
chemicalsymbolsand ranksin
The focusis primarily
on lexicalchunks,movingfromthereto an the armedforces.Good decisiontherel
awarenessof grammaticalpatterns. I particularlylike the
i n clusi o no f s o m uc h r eall y c o m m o n l a n g u a g eth a t h a s So, I willdefinitely
continueto recommendthe OxfordAdvanced
beenlargelyignoredby coursebookwriters.
Learners'Dictionaryto my students- and now that the new
Millennium
editionis out, evenmoreso! (RC)
The layoutof the book is user-friendly,
and the lexically
richtexts
m ak e fo r ver y f lex ible m ate ri a l ,a l l o w i n g th e te a c h e r a
considerable
choiceof languagefocus.lf therewas evera book New Headway Elementaryand Pre-lntermediate
designedto genuinelyhelp students to break through the By John and Liz Soars (OUP)2000
plateau,and not simplyto go over the same old
Intermediate
grammar,this seemsto be it. I very much look forwardto using Fol l ow i ngthe up-dati ng of the Intermedi ateand U ppe r it in my own lessons,(NH)
Intermediate
books,Johnand LizSoarscompletethe serieswith
the lasttwo instalments.
Thosefamiliarwith Headway(andwho
isn't?)will still recognizethis old ELT chestnut,but may be
Oxford Advanced Learners' Dictionary (OUP)2000
pleasantlysurprisedby the authors' attemptsto freshenit up
with new texts, brighter pages and, best of all, a Teachers
I have alwaysbeen a greatfan of this dictionaryand constantly ResourceBook.
recommendit to higherlevelstudents. So, when the latest
edition arrivedon my desk, I was keen to see how it could Teacherswhose institutionsuse Headway will no doubt be
possiblybe any better,
overjoyedto have new topics and materialsto work with: gone
Read it, try it, make up your own mind, tell us what you think!

Amazingly,
it is...muchlAs the titlepromises,the focus is more
than everon helpingthe learner.
The dictionary
feelsmuch more
in the increased
user-friendly
sizeof its printand the reductionin
the wordinessof definitions,
Some exolanations
are now done
diagramatically
and a contentspage,which did not existin the
previousedition,has been added to the centralstudy pages.

is Tina Stanley,the whingeingviolinistof Unit 6, HeadwayPre,

and bane of my early-years-post-CTEFlA
lifel The man from
HeadwayElementary
with a job in EnglandAND a job in France
has beenreincarnated
as SeamusMcSporran(honest!),
the man
with thirteenjobs. Titles have replacedthe numberedunits,so
U n i t 1 3 o f E l e m e n t a ri sy n o l o n g e rc a l l e d ' U n i 1
t 3',but'How
terriblvclever!".Indeed.

'ihi october ( 41 2000'

)

The noveltyof these'New' books involvesritflemorethan a fresh and as lead-insto discussion,but there is
stillvery litilewhich
lick of paint,and to be fair to the authors,that is all that was enableslearnersto developtheir sub-skills.
Teachingstillseems
intended.What is disappointingis the authors' claim to have to take precedenceover learningin the New
Headwayseries.
balancedtheir structural-syllabus-with-skills
with "approaches...
which have been developed and researchedmore recenily". New Headwaywill undoubtedlycontinueto
be as popularboth
Presumablythis means includingthe first 'Test' phase in the in the UK and abroadas the old one was;
the structuralsyllabus
Test-Teach-Test
cycle which was also introducedin the New suits many newly trainedteachersas it is easy to handleand
Intermediate
edition- hardlyrevolutionarybut an improvement requireslittlethought,and institutionslove it for much the
same
on the staid Presentation-Practice-And-Now-Here-Are-Somereason- why changethe habitof a lifetime?(pB)
6
Skills format. Vocabularywork is still deart with in terms of
discreteitems; the learner-training
element has actuallybeen
reduced;texts are used as a means of comprehension-testino

'ihi october ( 42 ) 2000'

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