Humanising Language Teaching
Year 5; Issue 1; January 03

Dear Readers,

Welcome to Humanising Language Teaching ( HLT) Year 5, Issue 1.

Before going on to introduce you to the rich contents of this issue there are a number of other matters I wish to raise, and here is a menu:

A Definition of a humanistic teacher's Attitude

Sometimes people will ask you for a brief definition of what you mean by humanistic language teaching. Here is the way that David Hardisty defines his own belief ( taken from the The Journal, Portugal, No. 4):

The corner stone of my teaching is respect- I try and look for the human being in each student and address myself to that person. I also hope that my students will do the same. As much as possible I try to create a classroom atmosphere that encourages students to treat each other with respect. ……………….

It can be hard to remember to be in touch with our own true self and to recognise this in others, but I feel it is an ideal worth striving for. In the age-groups I have taught ( ten to seventy year-olds) I have certainly found this to be the most effective way of creating a conducive classroom atmosphere, and, yes, overcoming discipline problems.

…… In spite of all the negative aspects of teaching, the knowledge that teaching is my vocational way of expressing love is what keeps me going. It is not just an ideal seldom to be achieved but an inner source of comfort and strength.
I wonder how many teachers David Hardisty speaks for in these clear and self-revealing extracts?

Writing in MET Vol 11, No 4, 2002 the text book author, Peter Viney, writes:

I was looking at a recent textbook, that includes a free dictionary. Under Nationalities, there is a long list of words which includes Kazakh, Guatemalan, Moldovan and Montenigrin. The same list excludes Palestinian, Israeli, Iraqi, Kuwaiti, Afghani, Korean and Taiwanese. To these you can add: Falklands Islander and Gibralterian.
If these were the only words and concepts banned from international textbooks, Viney would be making a minor, though politically important, point, but the truth of the matter is that coursebooks are edited in an intensely " away from" state of mind. The editor's brief is to avoid any ruffled feathers anywhere in globe. No wonder these books are as they are.

Native-speaking EFL Teachers as Language Learners

On 24-10-2002 the Vietnam News carried a report re-published from the Korea Herald under the headline:

Here are some telling extracts from the article that, I feel, describe the language behaviour of many expat American, Canadian, British and Australian EFL teachers well beyond the shores of the Korean peninsula:

" I think foreigners get into a comfort zone," said Arjun Mehra, an East Asian Studies major at Cornell University who is in South Korea for a language immersion program this summer, " It's easy to find each other and form little groups where they speak their own language and don't have to worry about what's outside."

Later in the article the writer quotes a telling Korean proverb:

If you're in another country and you don't know the language, it's like licking the outside of a water melon.

It is not surprising that plenty expat EFL teachers should be powerful supporters of the Direct Method, a didactic position that exonerates them from any blame in failing to learn their students' language. Extremely politically convenient.

Readers who come to this issue of Humanising Language Teaching for the first time, may well think of the site as a traditionally organised teachers' magazine, like Forum, ELTJ, MET, or the JALT Newsletter.
They are right to think this, but if they look through the 26 back issues, starting in February 1999, and using our internal search engine, they will find a growing archive of humanistic thinking and practical exercises.

To illustrate the diversity of the areas HLT covers, I will refer you to the Seth Column, to which Seth Lindstromberg has given the title (Sometimes) against the Grain, since he has been known to outline positions that go against current, received wisdom.
Over the past few issues he has dealt with following topics, among others:

Using Transcripts ( of films) Year 3, Issue 2, March 2001. ( practical methodology).

Are English Prepositions really incredibly idiomatic? Year 3, Issue 3, May 2001. In this article Seth argues that prepositions can be taught and not flabbily consigned to the area of "idiom". This piece introduces you to his book on the noun phrase in English ( the part of grammar that many textbooks skip over fast) English Prepositions Explained, John Benjamins, 1999. ( linguistics)

Total Physical Response for teaching Metaphorical Language Year 3, Issue 5, 2001. ( practical methodology )

Chalkboards versus Computers in the Language Classroom Year 4, Issue 2, March 2002. This piece is a 13 pager that offers you a whole range of blackboard exercises that you can easily do and that do not require massive investment in microchips. ( practical methodology)

Sailing Expressions Year 4, Issue 3, May 2002. ( lexicography: explanations of metaphors)

Formats for Discussion of Public Affairs in Language Classes, a preamble. Year 4, Issue 6, Nov 2002. ( psychology of discussions)

Once you have enjoyed the contents of this Issue, you might find it very rewarding to ferret right back through the HLT archive, using the internal search engine to navigate to the things that you find relevant. So, for example, you have enough jokes from all around the World ( and not just the US ones that flood the English language part of the Web) to run a complete humour elective programme!

A major theme in this January is the usefulness of the Mother Tongue in the foreign language classroom, a theme addressed by three of the major articles:

Where's the Treason in Translation? by David Owen

Using L1 in the Classroom by Lindsay Clanfield and Duncan Foord

A "Diglot-Weave" Experience with EFL University Students Mixed Language Texts, by Carol J. Bradley

Both implicitly and explicitly all three articles attack the tyranny, in some quarters, of the Direct Method, " no Mother Tongue in my classroom". All three articles celebrate the thrill and linguistic joy of comparing L1 and L2 and of working back and forwards between them. These writers join a swelling chorus of academics and teachers who demand that students no longer be (archaic subjunctive) denied the launching pad of the mother tongue as they blast off into the blue sky of L2.

If you are most interested in how to bring L1 judiciously into your English classroom then start with the Clanfield and Foord piece, which is eminently practical.

Under Publications, Sheelagh Deller reviews her own book Using the Mother Tongue, Making the most of the Learner's Language, Delta-ETp 2002. ( Asking authors to review their own books is an HLT policy, based on fierce distrust of the usefulness of apparently democratic peer review.)

You will find plenty down-to-earth teaching activities in this issue. Major Article 4 How and Why EFL Activities evolve goes into the area of dictation. Short Article 2 shows you how to use the Robert Dilts Spelling Strategy ( NLP) for helping students with the systematic chaos of English sound-letter correspondence. Short Article 6, The Funsongs Approach, could be of interest to primary as well as secondary teachers while Lesson Outlines, offered by Henk van Oort gives you ten exercises for people for 4 years old to 10. Under Old Exercise, Laroy and Cranmer give you a marvellous range of musical exercises for use with teenagers and adults. In Teacher Resource Book Preview, Judy Baker offers some exercises derived from NLP. So, as you see, a feast of practicality as we come up towards Chinese New Year!

Under Pilgrims Course Outline, I try to explain how I evaluate the long-term value of our July and August teacher training programmes. This evaluation is based on what participants write to me two, three, four months after the end of the fortnight spent together. Pilgrims is not interested in simply providing people with a jolly good time and a break from stacking the dish washer.

Footnote: a colleague in Australia has alerted me to a website www.simonbarne.com/tefl/home.html that satirises the print magazine, ETp, the humanistic movement and me personally. The Interview with Mario Rinvoludicrous is well written and sufficiently nasty to make quite a good read.
Any satire is a kind of tribute, and it is excellent that humanistically-minded teachers should be drawing this kind of fire. The sad bit is that writers on this site seem to either hate their teaching or to pose as hating it.

Why don't they get themselves a life?