Humanising Language Teaching
Year 5; Issue 3; May 03

Dear Editor,

This is a short email to express how much I enjoy reading the past editions of Humanising Language Teaching on the Pilgrims website. I think I have been a humanist language teacher without fully realising! For me, I have always been obsessed with making the classroom a more comfortable environment and the activities more meaningful and, where possible, more emotionally significant.

I am in the early stages of writing an MA dissertation on the historical/pedagogical background of the "facilitator" concept and approach in ELT but I might change direction and contrast the differences between a humanist, "facilitator" approach and a conventional "controlist" approach. Perhaps "controlism" is a common human characteristic in teaching and runs counter to the ideals of the "facilitator " model.
Do HLT readers know of any relevant literature I could consult?

Jamie Douglas
Chengdu, China

How to fit humanistic Thought into an academically approved, M.A. Frame.

Dear Mario,

My name is Igna Krastina and I am an EL teacher in Latvia. there are two reasons I am writing to you .

The first: I really appreciate what HLT is doing in the field of humanising language learning. I share your ( and of course many other proponents of this approach ) beliefs about the "learner-as-a-person-centered classroom. These ideas are spreading slowly in Latvia , although there are many creative teachers who apply basic principles and elements of HLT.

I wish it was a quicker process but changing one's thinking takes time and it takes willingness for the teachers to change. At the moment my first priority is to finish my MA paper ( which is not a very humanistic process itself, except having the chance to implement the Humanistic Approach in class) but putting these ideas somehow in a rational, academically approved frame is the most difficult part.

However I feel committed to " walk my talk" also after the defense of the paper in June. I am also aware that I need very strong arguments to convince the committee that the Humanistic Approach is not just "airy-fairy" nonsense. The bibliography and articles you sent me will help.

With Best wishes,

Inga Krastina

Fear of Language Mistakes

Dear Mario,

Do you remember, we met briefly at the British Council Conference in Acireale, before you started your talk on Humanising Testing? During your talk I realised that the whole of my professional life has been stressed by a never-ending testing.

I am not just referring to the competitive exams I had to take in order to become a teacher of English here in Italy, and I can assure you that they are really heavy, but to the occasions when I have to speak with native speakers of English.

One of the worst times was when I came to do an NLP course at Pilgrims in Canterbury. I am not exaggerating when I say that the first lesson on that course a nightmare. All my classmates were very fluent speakers of English and there was poor me! Two of them were actually native speakers.

Whenever Judith, our marvellous tutor, asked me to join her in an experiment or simply asked for my impressions of the work we had done, I felt so deeply embarrassed that, despite the thousand ideas I felt the need to communicate, I could not find the words that fitted the images.

I started to imagine that everybody in the class was waiting for me to make mistakes.

Judith probably understood this and she tried to put me at my ease every time I managed to get something out.

Naturally, my NLP "outcome" was to become as fluent and correct as a native speaker.

Little by little, thanks to Judith, I came to realise that my outcome could not be achieved: I am not English.

When I got back to my classes I realised that to be a good teacher the main thing is to get good rapport with your students, teach them what you know, and forget about not being linguistically perfect.

And yet occasions like the conference where we met make my uneasiness from the past flood back. Sometimes I wonder if this is due to the demanding English teachers of English I had at University or perhaps to my weak sense of self-consciousness? I am still thinking this one over.

Elisabetta Valente

ps: I am just thinking about you reading this letter and mistakes you will probably find.