How Michael Jackson’s death will forever affect my English teaching

(Photo by San Sharma)

I have an equivocal attitude to Michael Jackson. I’ve never been a fan of his music anyway, but having said this, the bassline to Billy Jean is a killer and fantastic to jam to in a band.

No, the first thing that struck me when I heard the news today was that I will no longer be able to use him to teach the present perfect tense for describing changes. I’m now forced to find someone else who has drastically changed in appearance over the years to elicit “He has grown his hair”, or “His nose has got smaller”. Now all of the amazing ways that Jackson changed himself have to be reported in the past tense. Bah!

The Queen springs to mind as a possible replacement for Mr. Jackson, but she’s really not as easy to recognise as the king of pop.

RIP Michael as I search for another icon to exploit for pedagogical reasons.

Perseverance is rewarded with this discussion of reading and assessment

Assessing Reading by J. Charles Alderson – Cambridge University Press

Assessing Reading is a look at the process of testing reading in a second language. Comprising of a review of past and current assessments of reading, the book also looks at how reading assessment might change in the future.

The book explores what reading is and how it is assessed in different situations. Alderson is never able to make our understanding of this complete, but this is due to the nature of reading itself. As is made clear throughout, though there are many theories as to what reading could be, nobody really knows exactly what it is. This seems rather at odds with common sense, but Alderson reveals how problematic our understanding is by looking at the social, psychological and cognitive aspects of reading.

I never found out exactly what reading is, but the journey was interesting and valuable in itself. On a more practical level it gave me a better idea of the purpose and structure of formal tests which I prepare my students for, such as the IELTS test. It also helped me think about how I assess my students’ reading level in more informal situations.

There are a few downsides to the book, like very obvious statements such as: “…insofar as students find test situations threatening, we may risk inducing an understanding of the text which is “lower” than the same individuals might be able to achieve in other settings.” – surely not news for teachers. Also, although Alderson probably feels he must provide comprehensive coverage, there is a repetitive feel to some sections, which is only enhanced by the cyclic nature to his vocabulary and sentence structure. If you are able to get over these barriers however, the effort is worth it.

Though the book purports to focus on second language reading, I felt it would be useful for other kinds of language teachers too. Much of the discussion is about reading as a phenomenon in itself, whether in a first or second language. Though not for the casual reader (I found myself assessing my own reading skills at times), if you are involved in test design, preparing students for reading tests, or teaching reading in general, then I think that there is something useful for you here.

Comprehensive guide to good teaching practice

Learning Teaching by Jim Scrivener

With seventeen chapters plus two appendices and running to 430 pages, Learning Teaching is wide-ranging. It is a crucial book for new teachers, as it gives a lot of support that is useful in the first few years of work. As an experienced teacher I found parts of it to be a little redundant. Having said this, if you have a number of years under your belt, it is still worth a look as Scrivener encourages you to try to do things that you may have ignored so far. I thought it very useful for reflecting on my own practice and also for inspiring new ideas.

The good thing about Learning Teaching is that it gets you to focus on your students rather than yourself. This is an important aspect of teaching because many of us are far too concerned with what we are doing as teachers, rather than what students experience as learners. Also, shifting the focus away from the teacher makes classes both more interesting and relaxing.

Apart from this shift in emphasis it is also simply a good reference book. It is jam-packed with ideas; not just in the toolkit chapters and resource sections but throughout. This is a book that you should come back to again and again so as to remind yourself of strategies you have forgotten. Also useful would be to periodically do one of the many observation tasks in Appendix 1.

On the whole this book is fantastic but it does suffer in some sections precisely because it tries to be so comprehensive. While I found the chapter on speaking to be very good, many of the ideas in the reading chapter were simply old hat. One section of the book that really is disappointing deals with teaching large classes. This is a problem that many teachers around the world face every day and drives many of them to despair. Scrivener’s treatment is brief and inadequate, something I wasn’t expecting after the thorough writing elsewhere.

Occasionally Scrivener also seems to enjoy including some rather silly comments, such as in his advice on lesson planning where he encourages you to try dreaming through the lesson. Despite this, he should be commended for his encouragement to try everything, no matter how outlandish. It is only through experimentation after all that new things are learned.

In conclusion, Scrivener’s book is a very positive and encouraging guide to teaching English language. It is an important read for anyone who seriously wants to teach.

Using storyboards to teach English

Check out my interesting and fun lesson plan for teaching English using advertising and storyboards. There is a detailed lesson plan and all the materials you need.

Go to: http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/try/lesson-plans/advertisement-storyboard

Inside Teaching by Tim Bowen and Jonathan Marks

Inside Teaching intends to raise your self-awareness: How do you teach and what do you believe constitutes good teaching practice? As such this is a book for those of us with a few years under our belts. It is especially good if you feel set in your ways and need refreshing a little. This book challenges you to try out new things, and while not an ideas book, does indeed contain a lot of ideas to try.

Divided into chapters dealing with different aspects of teaching, this slim book is far from comprehensive. It is thought-provoking however, frequently prompting insightful and interesting questions of oneself. Lots of quotations from various teachers around world enable this questioning process. Their contributions, while sometimes feeling a little superfluous, give the reader a sounding board, and as such simulate the debate one might have with a colleague. It is clear that the authors have gone to a lot of trouble to find out what teachers actually think about teaching.

This investigation into your own teaching is further promoted by encouraging you to adopt some more formal methods of self-analysis, such as making notes to review your classes and also recording yourself from time to time. Bowen and Marks are very honest about the difficulty that many teachers may have in listening to themselves, but advise you to try and get over this as the benefits can be enormous. Urging the negotiation of goals, strategies and activities with students, this book is a spur to becoming a more transparent professional in general. Although the authors do advocate self analysis, they are realistic about the time available for it. Above all, the advice here is helpful and practicable.

While for the most part the book intends not to be prescriptive, there are times when it seems to definitely weigh in on one side or another of an issue. However, even when the book strongly advocates a particular point of view, I found this to be sensible advice indeed. A prime example of this wisdom is the section dealing with attitudes towards being observed, in which it is advised that a teacher be grateful to an observer for giving up his or her time to watch the lesson. This is certainly something I have tried to bear in mind recently and has helped to put a positive spin on observation. There is also a gentle challenge to become more familiar with areas that you know little about, or have ignored for a while.

The only chapter I didn’t enjoy was that dealing with Suggestopedia, Community Language Learning and the Silent Way, which was far too brief for me. This section, dealing with techniques many teachers find to be difficult or controversial, deserved a more thorough treatment. Having said this it did send me off on a YouTube search for clips of the three techniques. Given that the book as a whole is an encouragement for the teacher to examine his or her practice for themselves, then I guess it served its purpose very well.

On the whole, this is a book well worth reading. I found it really helped raise my consciousness of what I do and to become more considered in my approach, not only to teaching, but also to my continued development as a teacher.