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Making “Round Tables” less boring

by Mario Rinvolucri, Pilgrims. UK.

Traditionally a “round table” at an EFL teachers’ Conference is an hour during which a gaggle of experts sit up front and ponderously answer questions from the “floor”.  The format is heavily patriarchal and can often be sleep-inducing for people in the audience.

On September 14th 2001 the 4 day humanistic Conference organised by Daniel Torres of the CEP (Teachers’ Centre) in Malaga, Spain was to close with a round table.  Jane Arnold, University of Seville, organised us panelists to give a new kind of round table.  This is how it went:

-Each of the panelists made their own short statement on their view of the topic under discussion:  Affect  in language learning.
-Jane then asked each of us to comment on the first question that had been submitted from the audience

So far we followed the time-honoured pattern of the authoritarian Round Table with the panelists’ voices booming out  of the loudspeakers all around the hall and with the audience wrapped in stillness and silence.  Jane purposely had us conform to tradition over the first 20 minutes so as not to disappoint ritual expectations.

-At this point things changed.  The last panelist to deal with the question from the floor said his say and then added “Let me illustrate my point with an exercise”.  For the next 4 minutes the hall was filled with the energy of 200 people actively taking part in an exercise in a language they did not know.  The participants had come alive and regained their voice.

-Jane then gave 5 questions from the floor to the five panelists and we plunged down from our stage into the body of the hall and each worked with a block of participants.  Our task was to put the question to our group of participants and listen attentively while they debated the question.  After a 15 minute discussion the panelists returned  to their comfortable armchairs behind the long table on stage and used their microphones to report on the thoughts and opinions of their group in the hall, not their own.  It was marvellous to listen to Grethe Hooper Hansen, Sagrario Salaberi, Jane Arnold, Mario Rinvolucri and Andrew Wright using their eloquence to accurately report what they had heard, what they had learned,  rather than their own  opinions.

The September 2001 Malaga Humanistic Conference closed with a rejuvenated, democratic, respectful Round Table which harmonised with the spirit of the whole event.  Brought up to date and rendered participatory, a Round Table does not have to send you to sleep.