Why HLT Magazine is Worth Reading

Anna Rychlicka

Anna Rychlicka is a teacher of English based in Poland. When she wrote this article she was doing a her teacher training course at Regent Teacher Training College in Elblag, Poland.
E-mail: anna.rychlicka@pl.abb.com

Being a teacher means for the interested party professional updating all the time. The teachers employed at schools have to follow the school curricula that are very often changed, and adjust their personal ideas on material priority to the new requirements. They should also be well-informed about innovative trends and teaching methods as well as new textbooks, and additional materials that may be worth recommending to their students. Therefore, teachers are always in need of some sources of new information, new ideas, new solutions that could be useful in particular teaching situations. No matter whether one is experienced at teaching or just a beginner in this profession, one needs new inspiration, new ideas, and fresh examples that can be applied in their individual teaching practice. A lot of new ideas can be discovered throughout a discussion, i.e. exchange of knowledge and experience with other teachers. We can always learn through mistakes both through our own errors and those made by others. The possibility of exchanging experience is always instructive and may enrich our methods in new ideas and new examples as well as make us learning from the mistakes that have already been made. That is why professional journals are indispensable in teachers’ professional development. They are easily accessible materials and useful sources of professional information, especially in the age of the internet which gives one an opportunity to ‘meet’ teachers from all over the world and take advantage of their teaching experiences without the need to leave one’s home.

HLT Magazine (Humanising Language Teaching) is a professional journal that is worth recommending to all English teachers as a very good source of getting professional information, a very useful device in professional development as well as a rich source of practical ideas to be made use of in a given teaching area. Each copy of the magazine includes regular articles that contain a lot of professional advice. They include for example “Major Articles” – a regular section with articles written mainly by professional university staff, bringing up issues such as the role of translation in the learning process; possible difficulties in preparing different kinds of tests, e.g. tests that provide students with language certificates, discussions on different teaching methods, the methodology of motivation, etc. The articles that belong to the “Major” group have an academic profile which does not mean they are not of pragmatic relevance. Many of them are rich in useful advice and offer sample activities ready to use of in the classroom.

There is another group of regular contributions of called “Short Articles” devoted particularly to practical issues, such as: how to implement idioms, how to get weaker students to speak or what is it that makes a “good teacher” (so called “teacher instinct”). The authors of the articles in this column are chiefly professionally active teachers who have interesting observations and professional experience. Having some problems solved by their own experience they want to share their opinions with others.

The other regular columns in HLT Magazine include among others: “Jokes”, “Readers’ Letters”, “Student Voices”, “Lesson Outlines” (which give some lesson planning proposals that can be useful as a source of ideas for one’s own lesson plans), “Publications” (that introduce new professional titles on the publishing market).

The articles in regular columns and the readers’ letters presented in HLT Magazine deal with very important problems in the teaching and learning processes. Unquestionably, one of such problems is the issue of the relationship between the teacher and the students. The atmosphere in the classroom and the quality of the teacher’s relationship with the students are essential factors in the learning process and contribute greatly to the students’ motivation for learning, and further - to their success in learning. So, one can say it is a basic element in any teaching method.

There is a classic example presented in one of the articles in HLT Magazine in July 2001 (Year 3 Issue 4) that clearly illustrates the importance of the quality of the relationship in the classroom. A teacher from Sweden relates his difficulties in building a relationship with his new class that finally made the lessons almost unbearable for both parties – the students and the teacher. The teacher (the author of the article) is of the opinion that it is a teacher’s responsibility to create a friendly and harmonious relationships in the group. He claims that very often the problem exists because of an improper teaching attitude towards the students. He observes that teachers frequently do not give the students an opportunity to speak for themselves, which he considers a serious mistake. The students need to feel human and not only mere subjects in the teaching process. It is a teacher who should realise this simple but basic rule, if they wish their process of teaching to be successful. His own experience is a point in case. He started to teach a new class at a secondary school. The learners were 14 – 15 years old. There were a lot of “noisy boys and cheeky answers from the girls” in the classroom. The situation was getting worse and worse, which made the teacher feel more like a prison warden than a caring teacher. He decided to ask them directly why they behaved so disrespectfully and why the atmosphere was so bad. He was talking separately with the girls and the boys. Once they were allowed to speak for themselves they made the teacher aware of his own behaviour that was perceived very negatively by the class. The students said the teacher was always “so moody” that they could not predict his behaviour. He was totally stunned, but has become more aware of his own errors and failings. After such an experience he has realized how important the teacher’s body language inclduding gestures and facial expressions is in the process of teaching.

One cannot help agreeing with the above conclusion. The teacher’s body language is a meaningful factor having influence on the students’ behaviour. If a teacher shows irritation, impatience, unconcern or contempt through their gestures or facial expression, the students will send immediate feedback in the form of their body language that reveals their feelings, which creates the whole atmosphere and the mutual relationship. If, on the other hand, the teacher’s body language shows a positive, student-friendly attitude, it is a means to encourage pupils, to make them feel more comfortable, more relaxed, which finally has a significant effect on the quality of the lesson. The teacher’s body language in the classroom is really a very significant element in creating a good atmosphere in the group. It also contributes greatly to the students’ willingness to learn and achieve good results. Since the teacher’s body language can be such an encouraging or discouraging factor in the students reception, it is truly important for any teacher to be aware of such a relation.

Another issue which is crucial in the process of teaching, and so – very important for all teachers is the problem of motivation. There is no success in learning without motivation. It is the basic stimulus which initiates the process of learning and leads to success. There is an interesting article concerning motivation published in HLT Magazine in March 2004 (Year 6, Issue 2). The author (Ian Tudor from a university in Belgium) suggests adopting a holistic approach to motivation, in other words – different perspectives on or different paths to motivation, which can help a teacher to find an appropriate approach to motivate their students effectively - as different students are likely to respond positively to different approaches. Some of them may be most effectively motivated by activities related to their practical needs in the target language (this approach to motivation is called “pragmatic relevance” by the author); others may prefer to make use of their creativity to be motivated (this approach is called “creativity and communication”), and others may be motivated by activities which give a variety of content and focus onn the given tasks. The author of the article emphasizes that the teacher should always look for an approach to motivate, and approach which is learner-centred and diverse, because only then it may be effective. EFL teachers should aim to make their students aware of how “varied and enriching learning a language can be”. Sometimes it is not easy (because of constraints of formal education) but always worth the effort. There are a lot of practical suggestions and sample activities presented in the article that a teacher can use in a certain teaching situation.

What seems to be very important is pointing at the fact that learning a language is very often presented in deficit terms (what one does not know) instead of a positive presentation – in positive terms (how much one is able to understand, to say, etc. in a target language). The evaluation of one’s own abilities in a language in positive terms may be very self-motivating. The teacher should help students to become aware of what learning the target language can give them practically, of the possibilities it can open for them. It should be the teacher who encourages the students in a positive way to learn by highlighting how much students can do in the target language, and not exaggerating their mistakes. Unfortunately, very often one can observe that a lot of teachers seem not to remember about or are not aware of such an approach to the process of teaching.

More examples can be found as the HLT Magazine does not lack good and interesting articles. There are plenty of them, which proves the professionalism and highly substantive values of the magazine, as well as its usefulness in teachers’ professional development and in their daily work. The articles presented throughout different issues of the magazine enrich teachers’ methodological awareness by providing a lot of precious suggestions and enabling teachers to get up-to-date methodological information as well as know what is new in the professional publishing market. It truly helps to be well informed on the issues that are essential in the teaching profession. In addition, the opportunity offered by HLT to exchange professional experiences with other teachers cannot be overestimated.

In general, I have to say that HLT Magazine is a kind of professional journal that makes one creative, that encourages one to improve something in one’s teaching methods, that makes one aware of how much depends on the right approach to students. It sensitizes teachers to what is really important in their teaching profession, the specification of which requires from the teacher not only methodological but also psychological awareness. Professional journals such as HLT Magazine simply help teachers to become better professionals as well as make their lives easier.

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