I’ve been browsing the latest edition of this TEFL Diploma reading list classic by Diane Larsen-Freeman and Marti Andersen and was surprised to find that I didn’t get one mention.
Only joshing! I was slightly surprised that Dogme hasn’t yet made enough impact to get even a listing in the index, but as I’ve written before it can certainly be argued that its position online is not really reflected in the real world out there where PPP can seem like a radical revolution to those stuck in Grammar Translation. I was more disappointed that there is still no mention of the two approaches that do compete with PPP and Grammar Translation out there in the real world, if with even less theoretical justification than those two:
– Free con(versation)
– Read a text and then talk about it
Don’t know where they came from or why, but in my experience those two “approaches” are thousands of times more prevalent than the Silent Way etc that get written about all the time. How do they manage that while being totally ignored? And any others who have also slipped in under the radar in this way?
TEFLtastic 
I assume that they are ignored (in favor of continued attention to fringe humanist approaches) because they don’t come in the handy “package” like things like the Silent Way. Not easy to describe/characterize due to the lack of standardized procedures, and certainly no single name to pin the thing on (like Gattegno).
The two ‘approaches’ you mention are a bit amorphous, aren’t they? (Though I completely agree that they are far more prevalent than things like Suggestopedia, which get far more “air time”)
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I found all the approaches and methods section of my Diploma course utterly futile and boring beyond belief.
The Richards and Rogers book was a struggle to wade through.
Frankly – I think examing what passes for teaching (free con/freetalking and text plus talk are good examples) and asking why they don’t work and how they could be replaced or built on would be far more relevent.
The often pseudo-academic syle of the Dip is the worst side of it – it is meant to be practical not academic. Leave that for those MAites.
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Oops – examINing.
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As far as the book goes, to be fair it is called “…and principles”, and all the ones they deal with seem to have both (of some kind). However, it is often the writers imagining what the principles must be from observing the approach in action, as it would have to be in the case of grammar translation as it just kind of happened in the same way as free con has.
In the book and the Dip they try to justify expecting a link between theory and practice, and while you’re reading it it seems to make sense, and then you get back in the classroom and…
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I guess there should be a link between theory and practice – shouldn’t there?
But we naturally fall into a pattern of doing what the students enjoy doing rather than trying to make them do what might be more use. There is also the question of how much time/energy/resources/motivation/imagination we have for planning.
I tend to feel that a less theoretically justifiable activity the students will do with enthusiasm is better than a perhaps theoretically much better activity that they will not do at all or in a half hearted manner because they don’t enjoy it or don’t get the point.
I’ve always found it quite hard to get students to really commit to doing anything in class. Task based learning in all it’s convoluted task cycle glory is a case in point. Wonderful in theory but the students usually won’t do it. Process writing is another great idea that they can’t be bothered to do.
When I learned French I meticulously worked through all the texts we got in class and looked up the vocabulary, writing meaningful personalised examples with it. This really worked for me, but I’ve never managed to persuade any students to do this for any length of time.
I have a vehement hatred of ‘freetalking’ as it seems to be known in Korea. Not only is it useless it is tedious for the teacher and can lead to some offensive views getting aired. If it’s ‘freetalking’ it’s hard to stop students from asking the teacher loaded questions.
I’ll add another often done but ignored in the Dip. The hear/read and repeat/memorise a dialogue activity. This is a staple of the school text book lessons but not something many would consider perpetrating in their observed dip lesson….
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It would be nice if we could indeed properly link theory and practice, but ELT is has neither the theories nor research to justify demanding such an approach, and teaching instinct and common sense are much more important. What the idea that everything should be based on a theory ends up with in reality (both on the Delta and generally) is:
– Dodgy schools like CIE and Laughing Coyote School of English using random phrases like “science” and “Chomsky” to justify taking your money off you
– Teachers deciding what they want to do in the classroom and then desperately looking for a theory or famous person to back them up afterwards
– Theories which turn out to be wrong (or at least an incredible over-simplification), e.g. Behaviourism, overpowering people’s common sense
– Very dubious links between the theory and the practice
– An idea that the links between the theory and the practice should be things that sound logically correct or support from someone famous, rather than experimental evidence
However, I do think teachers should take an interest in the theory, and perhaps they won’t unless they can at least pretend to themselves that it can be tied to their teaching…
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The comments have “inspired” me to write a couple of other posts on the topic, first one just posted. Thanks!
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That’s an interesting transition point in a teacher’s career, I think. The point when you cease pursuing things(a new theory, technique, whatever) for the express purpose of direct/immediately tangible impact on your teaching, to the pursuit of new ideas to plug holes in existing background information, or to make sense of experiential learning, etc., without seeking an immediate influence on day-to-day lessons.
Can I coin a new term for this and make my fortune off it? “meta-impact”, perhaps?
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