Humanising Language Teaching
Year 4; Issue 1; January 2002

1. IT's MAGAZINE
2. Brief reviews

Spain Pts 875, US $5 Europe E5.25 UK £3.35
Published by iTs Magazines, Barcelona. www.its-magazine.com
Issue reviewd, #81, Autumn/Fall 2001, approx 55, pp. Size, A4.

Seth Lindstromberg, UK.

On page 7, iT's is described by its editor, Robert Campbell. He says, among other things, that-

• "iT's Magazine is a quarterly…for learners of English around the world. In [it] you'll find articles and activities designed to help you improve your English."
  
  
• "There is learning material for all levels…To check if a feature is suitable for your level, look for your colour in the level key…The key also tells you if the text is written in British…or American...English."
  
  
• In the middle of the magazine there is a 16 page supplement of exercises and language notes. (The key is on page 45.) This, by the way, has the look of a very superior sort of workbook. I haven't used any of this material myself but it looks very promising. It seems to link very well with material in the main body of the magazine both in terms of theme and language.
  
  
• "Many magazine features include a glossary…" I had a look at some of the glossary sections and think there could be some improvement here. To give just one example, on page 8 hostile (adj) could be better glossed as 'very unfriendly' than as 'if someone wants to attack you they are hostile' (= violent? angry? dangerous?…). But iT's Magazine has plenty of company here. I have encountered few glossaries that are as good as they should be.
  
  
• Many also include "a web-links key of additional online material available to subscribers www.its-online.com" (Each subscriber has a number and password.)
  
  
• Some subscriptions include access to iT's "premium sites" where there is "interactive online material" and "activities for every day of the year". "You can also create your own English homepage…"
  
  
• "In each issue…you'll find a selection of messages from people around the world wanting to exchange letters with students of English. At www.its-myworld.com you can find more messages and leave a message of your own." In this issue there are about 30 letters categorized by age—12-17 and 18+. And here we have a clear clue as to the age of reader for whom the magazine is intended.
  
  
• "The Study Info section of the magazine includes our A to Z of learning English as well as information for learners. You can use the information request form to find out more about studying abroad, or to receive information from our advertisers." In this issue I see that the A-Z is about American English. It mentions a couple dozen differences between AmE and BrE in choice of noun (e.g., aubergine/eggplant) or meaning of noun (e.g., football).
  
  
• "If you're a teacher of English, make sure you're using the teacher's edition of the magazine, which comes with a teaching notes supplement." The issue Mario gave me included this. A quick read through it gives me the impression that it is well thought out and likely to be quite useful for use with reasonably well-motivated groups of teenagers, especially at intermediate level. Interestingly, these teachers' notes are largely (wholly?) addressed to student readers.

The table of contents lists the following features—

• 'Bits' (A photo-rich double page spread). Here there is a note to the reader explaining (1) that the original intention had been to devote this whole issue to New York City and (2) that this intention was altered somewhat owing to the events of 11 September. In looking through this issue I see quite a lot on New York City anyway and quite a bit too on cities generally. This 'Bits' section comprises a few short texts and one label/photo matching activity, all of which broach the topic 'my city'. (Of course, not everyone reading this magazine will live in a city despite the galloping urbanization of the last several generations.)
  
  
• 'It's my city' (Two brightly coloured, photo-rich double page spreads.) The first spread consists mainly of four short texts, each one on a different famous city. Readers are asked to guess (on the basis of a few clues) which city each text is about. Finally, they are invited to write about their own cities. ("Turn to the middle pages of the magazine and find out how you can take part in the its-mycity project.") The second spread gives more information about each of the four cities and also says which cities they are."
  
  
• 'Make your own home page' (A double page spread with reproductions of computer screens showing key stages of home page creation.) This is all about what you can do if you have a 'premium' subscription.
  
  
• 'Summer blockbusters' (Another photo-rich double page spread). "Did you go to the movies this summer? If you did then you probably saw one or more of the films pictured here. All of these films were released in many countries during the summer months. How many can you identify? Match the movie titles with the pictures. Then select one of the movies and complete the form by choosing the correct information from the sections above. Finally, if you have seen the movie, give it a star rating." There is a 'web extra' of interactive material. (This section was almost certainly put into this issue instead of originally planned material on New York City.)
  
  
• 'The writing's on the wall' (Two double page spreads). Spread 1 includes photos of 8 famous walls. At the top are 19 statements, each pertaining to one of 8 named walls. Readers are invited to match statements, names and photos. At the bottom of this spread is another task description—"The wall pictured on the next page isn't famous. We found it on the corner of Houston and Mercer in New York. Someone had recently painted it white to cover some graffiti and we thought it would fun to let you cover it with graffiti! Like a true graffiti artist, you can express yourself and leave a record of who you are and how you feel on the wall. To help you, here are some ideas. Choose at least ten of the prompts and then write or draw your answers, thoughts and feelings…By the way, the day after we took this photograph, the wall was covered in graffiti again!"
  
  
  This seems to me to exemplify particularly well two characteristics of iT's Magazine. (1) An interesting visual is used to encourage readers to express themselves in a way that is very public, on the internet for example or, as here, in imitation of a way that is very public. (2) iT's Mag strives to appear to be on the side of youth. We are, for instance, not invited to sympathize with whatever killjoy adult sourpuss it is who wants his or her wall to stay white.
  
  
  
• 'The family tree' (A double page spread). Here there is a leafy family tree with 20 white blanks in which to write names of people in your family. Here, incidentally, we meet another key feature of iT's M—it is highly pc, witness this blurb. "The structure of families has changed a lot in recent years, and family trees have changed, too. In the past, family trees had a very rigid structure [here there is a reference to a text in the 'Study Centre'], but these days there are many alternative family structures. Today it is common for families to be multiracial, multicultural, and with single parents, divorced parents, or surrogate parents. There are families that include children from different marriages, and families in which children are raised by grandparents or foster parents." One might think what I am shortly going to say is grouchy and curmudgeonly since the above is an increasingly accurate depiction of families in the industrialized West (though it depends on what you mean by 'common'.) And in some respects it is a fairly accurate description of family life in places like Jamaica. But there are other very populous corners of the world--I mention China as just one of them--for which it is highly inaccurate and likely to remain so for quite a while. Just as an aside, I think we have here is a fine example of how ready Western liberals are to project onto the rest of the world aspects of Western society which it is by no means clear that non-Westerners will wish to emulate. I notice, in this connection, that the text makes no mention of polygamy (more aptly, polygyny) and other as yet non-Western practices relevant to family life.
  
  
• 'Find your roots' (A double page spread). Thematically, this follows on from 'The family tree'. Probably intended for the would-have-been issue wholly on New York City, this section includes a few short texts (plus four photos) on the Statue of Liberty, immigration into the USA, Ellis Island as a memorial to immigration, family histories and migration. There is a particularly interesting discrimination exercise in which the reader is invited to say for each of thirteen states of affairs (e.g., unemployment) or desiderata (e.g., better housing) whether it tends to 'push' or to 'pull' people to migrate.
  
  
• 'A work in progress' (another double page spread) carries on the theme of migration. This is one of the sections most rich in reading material (roughly 1,000 words). It is about refugees and the year 2001 being the 50^th anniversary of the 1951 Convention on Refugees. We are asked to look at a UNHCR website (www.unhcr-50.org) which, among other things, includes refugee biographies, new ones being posted each week. Some have been reproduced here in this section of the magazine in an interesting way: Six mini bios have been divided into 'pasts' and 'presents'. Readers are invited to put them together again. All six bios are of refugees who have done well. So this is uplifting and very pro-immigration/pro-multiculturalism but not remotely as accurate as it might be about either the tribulations of migrants or the wider consequences of the mass movement of peoples. (If a huge and controversial topic is introduced why not give some idea of its various facets?)

Overall, iT's Magazine strikes me as highly appealing visually, very well compiled, and topically interesting (though its treatment of some topics is one-sided). It contains plenty of suggestions for tapping into resources on the internet. I am particularly impressed by the nature and design of the exercises found both in the body of the magazine and in the supplement. I have no doubt that there are many teenage learners (and teachers) who would find iT's Magazine an entertaining and valuable resource.

Reviewed by Seth Lindstromberg

We wish to thank our sister publication, The Teacher Trainer, http://www.tttjournal.co.uk for permission to reprint these reviews.

This column picks out publications which are relevant or interesting to modern language teacher trainers and swiftly describes them so that you can gauge if they are interesting enough to look at or buy.

Teachers in action by Peter James (2001) CUP ISBN 0-521-59689-0. Intended mostly for experienced and inexperienced trainers working in in-service education and development of primary and secondary non-native teachers of TESOL. The tasks and resources are presented in six chapters: exploring teachers' knowledge, identifying topics to investigate, exploring a topic, investigation in class, evaluating learning, resources for trainers. Tasks are clearly written up with aims, preparation etc in recipe style.

Counselling for managers by Nigel MacLennan (1996) Gower ISBN 0-566-08092-3. All managers find themselves counselling occasionally yet few receive training in this demanding aspect of the job. Cartoons, humour and exercises aim to reduce the gap between learning skills from a book and actually putting them into practice. This honest and accessible book debunks myths and strips the task down to an eight stage model which actually looks workable!

70 activities for tutor groups by Peter Davies (1999) Gower ISBN 0-566-08000-1. An A4 collection of 70activities developed through a research project at the University of Huddersfield especially for tutors working in discussion-based subjects. The activities are designed to stimulate discussion via imaginative group work even in areas such as abstract ideas, numerical data and primary documents. The first section considers activities by genre such as display, games, worksheets, group work and role play.

SEDA publications

If your job includes staff development and you work in higher education, you will probably know about SEDA, the Staff and Educational Development Association, and its conferences, qualification routes and publications. These last include A4 spiral bound paperbacks on e.g. 'Good practice working with international students', 'Getting to grips with assessment', 'Academic tutoring', and 'Effective peer tutoring in further and higher education'. The one I have found most useful is 'Staff development in action', by Sally Brown and Phil Race (1997) ISBN 0-946815-79-8. It's a collection of SD resources including originals for display and suggestions on how to use them. All are available from SEDA, Selly Wick House, 59/61 Selly Wick Road, Selly Wick, Birmingham B29-7JE.

Designing language courses by Kathleen Graves (2000) Heinle and Heinle ISBN 0-8384-79009-X. As other books in the TeacherSource series, this 300+ page volume draws together three strands: Teachers' voices (verbatim quotes from practising teachers), Frameworks (the author's view of key concepts and issues) and Investigations (tasks for the reader to use to personalise the material) each highlighted with a margin symbol. The author teaches course design at SIT, Vermont, USA and uses a flow chart of descriptive verbs (assessing needs, formulating goals, developing materials etc) as the basic organising principle for her work. Plenty of examples, tasks and further reading throughout.

Planning lessons and courses by Tessa Woodward (2001)CUP ISBN 0-521-63354-0. In the Cambridge Handbooks for Teachers series. 250 pages of practical principles and ideas arranged around real life questions such as; Who are the students? How long is the lesson? What can go into a lesson? How do people learn and so how can we teach? What can we teach with? What are our freedoms and constraints? Plenty of photocopiable material, lively visuals and thought-provoking analysis throughout.

Innovation in ELT Eds D.Hall & A. Hewings (2001) Routledge ISBN 0-415-24124-3. This reader contains 22 essays from different institutional, geographical and cultural contexts, one fruit of the collaboration between the Open University UK and Macquarie University, Australia in order to develop new curriculum materials for study at Masters' level. The topic is choices made within constraints when designing and evaluating curricula. 280+ pages of small type, well-referenced.

Primary teacher education Eds. C. Richards et al (1998) Falmer Press ISBN 0-7507-0845. This collection of articles challenges recent UK policy in primary teacher education and development. Five sections include discussion of the changing context, the National Curriculum for initial teacher education, pedagogy in primary T.Ed. and mentoring issues.

The mentoring manual by M.Whittaker and A.Cartwright (2000) Gower ISBN 0-566-08147-4. Using wide- ranging examples from business, education and the voluntary sector, this book offers ideas and photocopiable material for mentors to adapt while planning their own mentoring scheme. Clear, well-laid out, lots of bullet points.

The practice of ELT ( 3rd edition) by Jeremy Harmer (2001) Pearson Education Ltd. Aimed at practising teachers and those studying on in-service training programmes and postgraduate courses, this edition, a genuine and large revision of previous editions, includes chapters on the world of English, describing language, learners, teachers, popular methodology, mistakes and feedback, managing classes, focusing on language, the four skills, designing, planning and evaluation.

Stress free teaching by Russell Joseph (2000) Kogan Page ISBN 0-749431148. Pocket-sized, practical book to help managers and teachers to identify causes and effects of stress and to consider the best stress reduction strategies for them personally. Contains hints such as 'Learn to be firm, not angry' and some case studies.

2000 tips for teachers Eds N Packard & P Race (2000) ISBN 0-749431822 Kogan Page Mainly for new primary and secondary teachers and in association with the Times Educational Supplement, this collection of practical tips presented in bullet point format and under sections such as tips across the curriculum, IT, special education needs, primary, secondary has the feel of the kind of real, tried and true strategies you get from seasoned colleagues when you start teaching. Recommended.

Let's set up a youth camp (1996) and Our English class (1999) both by Montse Irun and Neus Caufape Pages Editors. ISBN 84-7935-36-0 and 84-7935-621-9. Although a tiny percentage of the text of these locally produced paperbacks is in Catalan, they are still extremely useful if you are trying to get English camps and clubs for 12-13year olds going in your area. Full of interesting activities and tasks with extensions and evaluation suggestions.

Zero prep by L. Pollard and N. Hess (1997) Alta Books ISBN 1-882483-64-2. Icebreakers, listening, speaking, reading, writing, vocabulary and structure activities are the main chapters and they are for really busy teachers with several different classes a day who, whilst having a clear vision of where they want to go, don't always have the time to do lots of preparation of materials. Also for teachers trying to learn not to work so hard and to listen to learners more.

Teachers' voices 6: Teaching casual conversation Ed Helen de Silva Joyce. (2000) Macquarie University. ISBN 1-86408-615-7. This series offers first person accounts by teachers of their involvement in collaborative classroom- based action research. This particular project involved nine teachers whose accounts are prefaced by a background paper on casual conversation with implications for teaching. There follow sections on, e.g materials for lower level learners, student performance, teaching casual conversation for work and at a distance.

Practical strategies for living with dyslexia by Maria Chivers (2001) Jessica Kingsley Pubs. ISBN 1-85302-905-X Tests for dyslexia available for children from the age of 4.5 years are discussed. Many dyslexics also have ear and eye problems that go undetected. The book lists possible remedies available such as tinted glasses, nutritional supplements, exercise, multi- sensory teaching methods and NLP and provides useful contact addresses and further reading leads.