Letter 1 a

Dear Ms Kryszewska,

I was delighted to see my article, "Translation and Humanistic Language Teaching" appear again in the current issue, Year 10, Issue 2. Indeed, this is the third time the article has appeared in HLT. Initially it was in Year 7, Issue 6, and later in Year 9, Issue2. I'm just wondering why it has been published repeatedly. Of course, you may do so as often as you like!!!

James W. Porcaro
Toyama University of International Studies
Japan

Letter 1 b

Hi James

Thank you for your e-mail. I have checked and you are right. I can also see the reason for the mistake. Your article is listed in the catalogue only for issue 2 in 2008. The other two are two references to your article are missing. You see, I use the HLT database to check if an article has already been published. The person who did the cataloguing before was careless and her faulty work misinformed me ( hence I did not see that I myself published your article in issue 2 year 9, 2007, although the name seemed very familiar and I remember checking a few times). As for the other time your text got published, when I took over Mario gave me your article as one to be used in the next issues, not saying that he had already published it in issue 6 year 7, 2005. All the other mistakes are mine. Well, I keep saying to myself that those who do nothing make no mistakes. With a magazine the size of HLT and virtually one person doing the job, things are bound to happen.

I will mend it all as soon as possible and sorry about this. But a mistake is a lesson for the future.

Greetings
Hania

PS. Perhaps it is such a good article we want to publish it again and again :)

Letter 1 c

Hello, Hania.

Thanks for your reply and the explanation. Yes, it is OK to use my email in the letters column. If you don't mind my putting on your editor's hat for a moment, I noticed some typos in your letter which I indicated in ‘red’ and ‘blue’ in the text below, just in case you directly transfer those texts into HLT. In your first message, however, you mentioned, "I will remove the texts." Does that mean you will delete the article from the present or past HLT issues? I was hoping you would leave the article to rest in all three issues as it is. Some readers might have referenced it from any one of the three appearances. As for "time to write a new article for HLT", I think it is. In fact, I've had a half-written piece sitting in a file for some time. I think it might suitable as an HLT Short Article. I will try to complete it soon and then send it to you. Thanks for the spur.

James Porcaro
Toyama, Japan

Letter 1 d

Hi James

You are right. I will leave things as they are and just add an editorial note.

Greetings
Hania

Letter 2 a

Dear Hania,

I've only just discovered the 2001 article, which was reprinted in HLT without my permission. Of course, I'm glad that one or two people will have read it who wouldn't otherwise have done and I'm rather in favour of a republic of ideas, but perhaps this should be declared policy?? (…)

Best!
Peter

Letter 2 b

Hi Peter

sorry about that. The article you are referring to was published in HLT in 2001 which was before my time. Then Mario was the editor of HLT and I am not aware of what was reprinted from where. Would you like me to do anything about it?

Many greetings
Hania

Letter 2 c

Hania

(…) The source was an IATEFL SIG newsletter - the edition that followed the one in which Mario took Scott Thornbury to task for his review of Jane Arnold's book. IATEFL policy is that authors retain copyright on anything IATEFL publishes although IATEFL expects an acknowledgement of the original publication in cases where authors give permission for their work to be reprinted. IATEFL was acknowledged in HLT on this occasion, but I'm pretty certain that whoever was approached in IATEFL would have said that the author owned the copyright and to approach them.

To be honest, I'm in favour of the widest possible exposure, and HLT is obviously helpful here. But there is the principle - if no one asserts their right to intellectual; property, fine with me, but what's not right is thinking twice before reprinting something published by OUP, CUP, etc. where a powerful publisher owns the copyright and not worrying so much about something published by IATEFL where a non-powerful author owns the copyright. In this particular case, I might also have been embarrassed because I'd promised an article on this topic to a conference proceedings in Argentina and had sent them the text. They agreed that I could abridge some of the material for the IATEFL SIG newsletter in advance of their publication coming out, which I acknowledged in an agreed form of words in the newsletter article. Had I been asked if it could be reprinted in HLT mag, I would have had to ask permission from the Argentinian (potential) owner of the copyright. As it turned out, the conference proceedings never appeared. But it goes to show that there may be a history behind things and that it's worth following the conventions.

I suggest we forget about it now. Thanks for following it up.

Best!
Peter

Letter 3

Dear Editor,

In the May-June, 2008 issue of HLT, his article, BE FAIR, Paul Bress suggests that :

The unfair teacher gives preferential treatment to some students

while:

The fair teacher treats each of them the same

Paul is a middle-aged, male teacher. Does he treat an older male student exactly the same way he treats a girl student of 21?

Paul is English. Does he treat a whispering, eye-averting, apparently introverted Japanese student in the same way as he treats an Abu Dhabi student who speaks loud and fast and tends to want to be centre-stage in the group?

Is Paul susceptible to sympathies with students and antipathies? Is he always conscious of his own likes and dislikes?

Will Paul ask any student in the class a language question that he feels is OK for one of the more advanced students in the group?

Will Paul correct all students in his class equally and in the same way?

My suggestion to Paul is that the FAIR TEACHER gives preferential treatment to each student but in ways that maybe only that student understands. Maybe the art of teaching is know how to give preferential treatment to each and every student. One clear way of giving each student preferential treatment is to listen to each equally receptively, to remember what has been said equally accurately and play this back to the student some days later with the same feeling of care and respect.

I like reading Paul’s articles as they force me to do a little bit of the thinking work he has not bothered to do.

Mario Rinvolucri, Canterbury, UK

Letter 4

Hello Hania

Thanks for your message announcing the latest HLT mag but unfortunately there's no link for accessing it as yet - please can you send one as I am keen to read it!

I live near Canterbury (Whitstable) and often pass the entrance to Pilgrims in Orange street with a feeling of awe and have been tempted to venture in a couple of times just to savour the atmosphere . I have been teaching ESOL for two years now and love the work despite my inexperience. HLT mag is so inspiring and I often try out the ideas in my classes. I've just had an e-mail from one of my Cambridge Advanced students who attached her group's contribution to an activity called 'All that Glitters is not Gold' from one of the archived issues. Fantastic when students are so appreciative.

I have thought about writing something as a short contribution but I am reluctant due to being new to ESL/EFL. I could probably manage a few amusing classroom experiences though. I'm learning fast but so far have learned how much there is to know and how little I do know in comparison. It's the students who make it what it is and it's a great priviledge to work with so many motivated people.

I look forward to the latest issue and they are all much appreciated!

Thank you,
Peter Clements

Letter 5

I recently read your article in the archives of the Pilgrim’s HLT Magazine (November 2001) - old.hltmag.co.uk/nov01/sart1.htm. I very much enjoyed reading your opinions about the place of English and other languages in the world. Although the article is several years old, I think the opinions are still very timely and relevant today.

I wanted to point out though that the Terralingua organization working for biodiversity that you mention in point 4 is in fact available at the URL www.terralingua.org. Your article erroneously links to www.terralingua.com, which is actually a private company selling study abroad programs in France. I realize this is quite an old article, but I wanted to let you know of the error in case you have the opportunity to have it corrected.

My best regards,
Kate Bell