Humanising Language Teaching
Year 6; Issue 3; September 04

On Mike's Teaching Gospel

A set of humanistic teaching beliefs for new teachers

Gerry Kenny
France

Traditional wisdom tells me that I am responsible for everything that happens to me, however apparently unforseeable, outrageous, wonderful or odd. It is therefore up to me to accept and, when I can, to at least try to learn from what happens. When I thought I had my sights vaguely on maybe teaching a bit of English in order to move on from the manual labour jobs and bits of translation which my first few months in France had brought me, I had no idea things would happen so fast.

The advert proclaimed "Learn how to teach EFL in one week", which sounded good. The price and length of the course being perfect for both my budget and personal circumstances, I enrolled. In a matter of days I was on Pilgrims One-Week Introductory TEFL Course. The 30 or so course participants were all native-speakers of English, all of us of different ages and from a wide-range of backgrounds. With hindsight, though, we did have something important in common: we had all come to a crossroads in our lives and, suitcase in hand, were hoping to flag a ride.

We had three trainers who worked with us in the various workshops: Marjorie Baudains, Sandra Moulding, and Mike Levy. We also had the chance to observe teachers working with real groups of students at the Pilgrims Centre. Then in next to no time it was all over, and a couple of weeks later, after knocking on the doors of all the language schools I could find in Toulouse, I found myself talking to Bonnie Tsai, my first Director of Studies, who knew of Pilgrims, and invited me to join a recruitment training course her school was running. In the three days which followed, I experienced things which, while they echoed things I had done earlier that month at Pilgrims, seemed new, and certainly gave me a new reading of that advert which had started it all. In fact, while I had imagined that the course would train me "how to teach EFL in one week", the course had trained me to "learn how to teach".

I had not looked back over these events in ages when, just the other day, I came across the hand-out entitled "Mike's Teaching Gospel(sic)" which one of our trainers gave us at the end of that one-week starter course in EFL. I think that it summarizes with remarkable conciseness the range of things which its author, Mike Levy, tried to suggest to us that we would now be ready to learn about teaching. It gave clear expression to what all the people who trained us were trying to pass on to us about teaching at the time:

that there was no one single way of teaching,

that coursebooks were tools and not teachers,

that classrooms were places for interaction between people,

that there was always a danger of twisting English out of shape in order to make it teachable,

that the process of learning should be as interesting as the content.

Obviously Mike Levy's text is also a historical document, so the vision of English teaching which emerges is coloured by the late 70s-early 80s period in which he was writing, with both notional-functionalism and the communicative approach latent. However, I believe that if Mike's Teaching Gospel (sic) has survived among all the pieces of paper I have thrown away, it is because it has what teaching needs most: common sense with touches of genius. It is a text which still has sparkle for me 23 years on. And that's the gospel truth.

MIKE'S TEACHING GOSPEL (sic)

Language should be contextualised and meaningful therefore BEWARE of getting correct answers to questions which don't necessarily prove anything apart from an ability to echo structures of getting disjointed 'grammar' exercises which are i) boring ii) do not place the structure in context iii) do not put the student to opt for given structure out of choice iv) capable of being done correctly without any guarantee that the student has understood exacty what he has said (and equally important, what he hasn't said)

In the early stages of language learning at least priority should be giving and enhancing students' communicative ability (not necessarily synonymous with accuracy) and understanding. BEWARE of giving simple grammar rules, as the students may misinterpret them by over-applying them. A totally reliable rule is also likely to be extremely complex. At the same time teacher should know/revise his own grammar knowledge, in order to better isolate different aspects of a structure and differences between structures, to avoid getting himself tied up in knots and the students confused. Better to isolate an aspect of usage and create a context for it to be practised in. Beware of insistent undiscriminating correction of a student taking pains to express himself, as this may stop his flow and ultimately make him clam up - don't feel obliged to correct everything so much as mistakes which impede comprehensibility.

Work sideways from one aspect of a structure to contexts where its use would normally arise and build a lesson around the context. Feed in the structure when its need is felt (and any others as necessary). Once you can associate language functions to given situations (including if possible the students' own) course books as such cease to be an impellent necessity. Books are often an excuse for teacher laziness and can weigh down a lesson. Often the most stimulating lessons come from a combination of teacher's head/personality and the students' own fantasy/knowledge. At the same time books are a fruitful source of ideas for exploitation and could be used by students themselves OUTSIDE the classroom.

Non EFL sources (esp. if of interest to the students) can and should be plundered for use with a class. Songs, newspapers, pictures etc. for looking for use of a structure, practising it, spectulation, prediction, vocab reinforcement and teaching, sentence links, story creation (oral to written and vice versa), roleplays, asking questions etc.

Mastery of English involves a multitude of skills so you should concentrate on those most relevant to the students' needs : Listening (for gist, intensive, etc.), speaking (conversation, speeches, telephone, pronunciation, stress, intonation), writing (note-taking from spoken/written source, essay writing, spelling and correct sentences - for exams?!), reading (skim-reading, intensively for notes, summary etc.). i.e. tailor the emphasis to student requirements.

Some useful books: