Dear HLT Readers,

Welcome to the June issue of HLT. This issue pays a lot of attention to young learners. Two major articles are devoted to them. In their joint article Drama as a Resource to Improve Oral Expression (Verbal and non-verbal) at Elementary School: A Study Through Different Disciplines and Teaching Suggestions, Eduardo Encabo, Juan José Varela, Amando López-Valero and Isabel Jerez show how drama is not only a fun subject at school, but it helps the aquisition and development of the tools needed to improve oral expression. The combination of literature, theatre and language content help to improve the verbal and non verbal skills of young learners. In her article Books for English Children an Inspiration for Teaching English as a Foreign Language, Hanna Kryszewska, analyses children’s literature for native children and points out what inspiration ELT teachers can get from this source. It concerns the presentation of content, the language and its structure as well as other areas such as the cognitive aspect, citizenship, fun element and humour. The subject of citizenship is continued in another article. In T is for Tiger: Eco-consciousness Raising and Patterns of Violence, Renata Suzuki presents a learning unit which she developed for YL to help children question their ‘right’ to exploit animals in various forms, raising consciousness of unrecognized human violence against other residents of our planet. It also invites children to notice or imagine alternative ways to meet various human needs that do not harm animals.

This issue also focuses on the subject of human relationships and psychology. In Be Fair Paul Bress deals with the concept of fairness, how our perception of fairness changes with age, culture and circumstances, including circumstances in the language classroom . In major article 3: Using Transactional Analysis to Train French Doctors to Improve Their Doctor-Patient Communications Skills: Drawing Parallels with the Language Classroom, Judy Churchill introduces us to Transactional Analysis, one of the most powerful communications tools in existence. Eric Berne, its ‘inventor’, wanted to make psychoanalysis accessible to more people by taking out the psychological component, and emphasized the more proactive ‘transactional’ nature of our relationships with each other. Language is for communication, so improving the quality of our relationships in the foreign language and speaking in class is in the centre of the teachers’ attention.

The study of pragmatics focuses on the linguistic and paralinguistic features of communication. In major article 4: Coping with Sociopragmatic Failure: Suggested Activities, Sezgi Sarac-Suzer points out that linguistic and lexical knowledge is not enough to be competent in using a foreign language. The pragmatic and sociopragmatic dimensions are equally important and constitute important features in using a language effectively and in achieving communication. When using language, pragmatic failures can be caused by inappropriate use of linguistic forms as well as lack of awareness of other equally important factors. In Finding My Own Voice and Accent, Ana Maria Ferreira Barcelos writes about the role of pronunciation in communication. She examines beliefs about learning English, especially the belief that we must speak English either with an American or a British accent, and implications of speaking English with a heavy non-native accent.

Another theme of this issue is what I would broadly describe as a journey. In How Relevant is Humanistic Language Teaching Methodology in India? Judy Baker, Rick Cooper, Mario Rinvolucri and Eleanor Watts share with us their impressions and reflections from training teachers in India. The question is how ELT methodology ‘travels’ from continent to continent, from culture to culture, and does it ‘travel’ well. In Teaching Business English in the UK and Abroad, John Feakings looks at similar issues regarding teaching business English. In his article Bitchin` English, Robin Leslie Usher shares with us his experiences from working in Africa while in Joy of Teaching – the Little Treasure Chest, Mark Fletcher writes from Mozambique about the small objects teachers collect while travelling and which come in handy in teaching.

A journey can also mean something else; it can be a journey into other realms. They can be to do with age and maturing (Common Ground: How Old Teachers Reach Young Students by Lou Spaventa), the world of disability (Case Study of a SEN Learner by Celina Wyppich) or passing away. In Arthur Brookes, 1926-2007, Peter Grundy pays tribute to a great mind of a person who is no longer with us.

There are also many practical ideas for the language classroom on using literature in the class (Language and Literature: Teaching and the Visual Arts, Developing Students’ Cultural and Aesthetic Motivation and Strategies by Gratiela Dascalescu), using songs (Application of Popular English Songs in EFL Classroom Teaching by Wang Baoan), using mnemonic techniques (Mnemonics for Vocabulary Learning by Simon Mumford) and teaching speaking (Building Reusable Speaking Resources: A Photo Romance by Gary R. Collins), games (Off the Beaten Path: Party Games by Hall Houston and story telling (Creativity through Strict Timing in Story-telling by Mario Rinvolucri). In the Corpora ideas section you will find A ‘Chunk’ of ELT: the Lexical Approach by Sinan Mısırlı. It offers a very thorough background to the idea of chunking and some practical classroom activities which implement some of the theory.

In the Course outline section you will find a articles with a tone of nostalgia and thinking about the past . In You Must (You think) Remember This Richard Cooper recalls powerful memories from the past, while in What Pilgrims People Write, Mario Rinvolucri writes about the contributions Pilgrims trainers and people related to Pilgrims have made to the publishing world and the impact they have had on ELT. He also mentions briefly the publications we are working on at the moment. Talking about the contributions Pilgrims trainers make to the ELT world, do not miss the Portonovo conference, where some of us will be presenting.

Please do not miss the Readers letters section where the actual exchanges with HLT readers signal or highlight some important issues and problems regarding HLT, including dealing with some unfortunate developments like a case of plagiarism or the publication of the same article, practically at the same time by two different ELT magazines.

If you would like to know more about what is going on in the publishing world, take a look in the Book preview section where two books are introduced: The Grammar Detective by Gillian Hanson ( article by Simone Gilson) and Tell Us a Story ( by Michael Berman). There is more on the world of publishing in the Publications section in Short Book Reviews by Hanna Kryszewska and in Review of Bernard Dufeu's Book: Ways towards a Pedagogy of Being by Michael Hevesi.

Last not least, for your entertainment there are jokes submitted by Claudia Scott (Jokes) as well as poems from David Warr (Poems) and Muhammad Iqbal (Peace was lighted in Narowal). The text A-Z of Humanism: A Plea for the Humanizing Use of Languages by Francisco Gomes de Matos is, in fact, also a poem, a poem about humanism.

I hope you will enjoy the issue.

Hania Kryszewska
HLT Editor
hania.kryszewska@pilgrims.co.uk