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Woodward, Tessa, Ed.The Teacher Trainer: A Practical Journal Mainly forModern Language Teacher Trainers, 1992.ISSN-0951-762692110p.

Pilgrims Language Courses, 8 Vernon Place,Canterbury, Kent CT1 3HG, England, United Kingdom.Collected Works Serials (022)Teacher Trainer; v6 n1-3 Spr-Aut 1992

MF01/PC05 Plus Postage.Administrator Role; Class Activities; ClassroomObservation Techniques; Classroom Research; ClassroomTechniques; Educational Change; Empathy; EmploymentPotential; English (Second Language); Feedback;Foreign Countries; Games; Inservice TeacherEducation; Instructional Materials; *LanguageTeachers; Second Language Instruction; *SecondLanguages; Student Evaluation; *Teacher Education;*Teacher Educators; Teacher Role; TeachingAssistants; Testing*Spain

This document consists of the three issues of theserial "The Teacher Trainer" issued during 1992. Articles include:"Resistance to Change in Teacher Training Courses"; "Teacher TrainingGames Series: Game 6: Language Bridge"; "How Trainees Can Provide aResource for Staff Development"; "Do Unto Them As They Are To Do UntoOthers"; "Maximizing Learning in an Intensive Teacher TrainingCourse"; "The Crucial Role of Feedback and Evaluation in LanguageClasses"; "A Final 'Anti-Exam' for an In-Service Teachers' Program";"Practical Reflections in Teacher In-Service Training"; "Nine-CardDiamond Technique"; "Observing a Reading Activity"; "Are Our TraineesEmployable?" "The Administrator's Role in Action Research"; "AnotherFlipping Training Aid"; "The Use of Foreign Languages in TrainingTeachers of English"; "Psychodrama, Human Relations Training andLanguage Training"; "Trainer Background: The Centre for Informationon Language Teaching (CILT)"; "Metaplan"; "Training Around the World:Spain"; "The Role of the English Language Assistant and the Teacher'sCentre"; "Fishbowl"; Action Logging: Letting the Students In onTeacher Reflection"; Erroroleplay"; "Teacher Training Game Series:Game 7, Language Dominoes"; "Exploring the Role of the TeacherTrainer"; "One Way of Running a 'Teacher Speaking' Session";"Explanations and Explaining"; "An Examination of the Effects ofUsing Consciously Applied Empathy in Situations of PotentialConflict"; "Things To Do After Teacher Training Input"; "TrainingAround the World: Hungary"; "What It's Like To Be a TravelingTrainer"; and "Uncharted Waters...Reflections of a BeginningTrainer." (MSE)

The Teacher Trainer:A Practical Journal Mainly for Modem Language Teacher Trainers, 1992.

Volume 6, Numbers 1-3.

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EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATIONCENTER (ERIC)

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RAINIA Practical Journal mainly for modern language teacher trainers

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INSIDE

Page

Resistance in learning 4

A training game 7.

Seeing trainees as adepartment resource 10

The affect of evaluation andfeedback on self-concept 15

An anti-exam for workingtrainees 18

'Top-down' or 'bottom-up'reflections 19

Specialised observationcharts for reading classes 22

Are RSA trainees employable? 26

Spot the spoof! 30

ESTABLISHED SERIES

Process options, Observation andfeedback, Trainer background, andPublications received.

Cambridge ELT:the professional choice

New from the Cambridge Language Teaching Libr

Discourse Analysis for Language Ileac'Michael McCarthyThe book begins with the question: What isdiscourse analysis? Different models of analysisare outlined and evaluated in terms of theirusefulness to language teachers. This is followedby chapters dealing with new ways of looking atgrammar. vocabulary and phonology in the light ofdiscourse analysis. The final section of the bookconcentrates on spoken and written language withexamples from native-speaker and learner data.It also considers some teaching approaches basedon the insights of discourse analysis.

Discourse Analysis for Language Teachers contains:reader activities with guidance on appropriate responsesfurther reading suggestions for each chaptera comprehensive list of references.

Other books in this seriesThe Language Teaching Matrix

Curriculum, methodology, and materialsJack C. Richards

Second Language Teacher EducationEdited by Jack C. Richards and David Nunan

Forthcoming early 1992Discourse and Language Education

Evelyn Hatch

For further information on any Cambridge ELT publication. please contact: ELT Marketing,Cambridge University Press, The Edinburgh Building,Cambridge CB2 2RU. CAMBRIDGE UNIVERS]7.,Th 0223) 325846.

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This new series of handbooks for teachers presents practicalideas for the classroom of today within the context of a

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Literature with a small TJohn McRaeAn important exploration of the integration ofliterature and language teaching based on theauthor's practical experience. New approachesand activities are suggested which will stimulateand reassure teachers at all levels.

128pp. 55572 4

Literature on languageChristopher BrumfitAn illuminating collection of literary extractsrelating to the teaching of language in variouscontexts. The passages fall into four thematicsections, 'Schools and tutors', 'LanguageAcquisition', 'Literary Experience' and`Linguistic Insight and Prejudice'.86pp. 56770 6

ForthcomingNew Approaches in pronunciation TeachingFrank Fitzpatrick

Mixed Ability Classes Luke Prodromou

For further information on all Macmillan ELTpublications or for a copy of 1992 catalogueplease contact:Macmillan Publishers, ELT Marketing,Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hams, RG21 2XS.Tel: (0256) 29242 Fax: (0256) 819210

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THE

TEACHERA\ I

VOLUME SIX NUMBER ONE SPRING 1992

Published three times a year

EDITOR: Tessa Woodward

EDITORIAL 3

Resistance to change in teachertraining courses

Fran Byrnes 4

Subscriptions information 5

Teacher training games series:Game 6

Sara Walker 7

How trainees can provide a resourcefor staff development

Antony Peck 10

Do unto them as they are to dounto others

Mario Rinvolucri 12

Maximising learning in an intensiveteacher training course

Lou Spaventa 14

TRAINER BACKGROUNDThe crucial role of feedback andevaluation in language classes

Hana Raz 15

A final "anti-exam" for an in-service teachers' program

Steven Brown 18

Practical reflections in teacherin-service training

Anne Burns

PROCESS OPTIONS: IDEA 18Nine-card diamond technique

Les Embleton

19

21

OBSERVATION AND FEEDBACKObserving a reading activity

Flavia Vieira 22

Are our trainees employable?Vic Richardson 26

Brief abstractsMichael Swan

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED

30

31

PUBLISHED BY: Pilgrims Language Courses, 8 Vernon Place, Canterbury, Kent CT1 3HG., EnglandTel: (0227) 762111 from within UK.

PRINTED: The University of Kent Printing Unit, Canterbury, Kent, England.

For all enquiries concerning subscriptions, advertising and contributions, please contact the Editor.

Views expressed in the articles are not necessarily those of the Editor, or of PilgrimsLanguage Courses.

Page 2 EPTHE TEACHER TRAINER", Vol.6,No.1 Spring 1992

ABOUT THIS ISSUE

Welcome to a new volume and a new colour!This year our plans include a slight sprucingup of the journal by having it word processedrather than typed. As soon as our trustytypist Marion Ricketts has got the hang ofher new machine then all the little glitchesand typing corrections will be "magicked away"!

Our lead articles this time come fromAustralia. Fran Byrnes discusses the natureof resistance to learning and does this mostfairly by reference first to her own resistancewhen back in the role of learner. Some pageslater on Ann Burns discusses the differencebetween 'top-down' and 'bottom-up' approachesto teacher training and gives an example practi-cal task that helps teachers to reflect ontheir own practice.

A newcomer to The Teacher Trainer, wewelcome Antony Peck who explains how placementof two modern language teacher trainees withina school's staffroom for their practicum canreally help the teachers there as well asthe trainees.

Readers involved with the Royal Societyof Arts/Cambridge pre-service certificatecourses will be interested in Vic Richardson'ssurvey of trainees and directors of studies.He attempted to find out how the traineeswere getting on in their first month of real,full-time work and from this, whether the

course needs adjusting in any way.

As usual we try to have some short,practical ideas in each issue as well as longer,more reflective pieces. In this categorythen might fall

Steven Brown's way of forcing' formaltraditional exams onto experienced, workingteachers with their own starting points andgoals.

Lou Spaventa's ideas for expanding thelimited interaction and discussion time, limit-ed number of topics and limited time for read-ing on short, intensive teacher trainingcourses.

The Trainer regularly runs series ondifferent themes. Not all themes appear in

each issue. This time we welcome back:

Observation and Feedback. Flavia Vieiradiscusses her "SORA" or schedule for observingreading activities. Her special insight is

that often the observation charts, grids andschedules that we use are not designed for

lessons of any particular type. Thus she

has designed one for us to use in readingskills lessons.

Process options. Les Embleton is back withan idea for ensuring ideas from everyone ina training group are first considered system-atically and without prejudice and secondlyprioritised.

Also on the subject of process is MarioRinvolucri's article. He discusses the pitfallof choosing a training process which is at

loggerheads with the content offered to

trainees and offers a simple, elegant solution.

Trainer background. Hana Raz discusses theimpact that evaluation and feedback have onour self-concept. She discusses the importanceof defining evaluation and feedback carefullyand then blending them skilfully on languageand training courses.

Thanks are due as usual to all thosewho have contributed to the journal - whetherby writing an article, drawing a cartoon,or typing, pasting, stuffing or by

subscribing to and reading it

I really hope you enjoy this issue!

Tessa WoodwardEditor

ABOUT "THE TEACHER TRAINER"

"The Teacher Trainer" is a journal especiallyfor those interested in modern language teachertraining. Whether you are a teacher who tendsto be asked questions by others in a staffroom,or a Director of Studies with a room of yourown, whether you are a course tutor on an examcourse, or an inspector going out to schools,this journal is for you. Our aims are to pro-vide a forum for ideas, information and news,to put trainers in touch with each other andto give those involved in teacher training a

feeling of how trainers in other fieldsoperate as well as building up a pool of ex-perience within modern language teacher train-ing.

The journal comes out three times a year andmakes use of a variety of formats e.g. article,letter, comment, quotation, cartoon, interview,spoof, haiku ideas. If the idea is good,we'll print it whatever voice you choose toexpress it in.

"7 Dana '1

RESISTANCE TO CHANGE INTEACHER TRAINING COURSESBy Fran Byrnes,A.M.E.S. (N.S.W.)

ABSTRACT: A look at the nature of resistancein learning situations, and in

particular the resistance of

the teacher who is in the roleof a learner. How does this

resistance affect the learningprocess?

Resistance is a way for both

trainers and trainees to measurethe degree of significance of

the issues or ideas being present-ed.

Resistance can be a positiveforce.

How can teacher. trainers utilizeand vork on trainee resistance?

How can we, as teachers or train-ers, work on our own resistance?

In this paper I want to look at learner resist-ance, how this resistance operates, and howteacher trainers might deal with resistancein teacher training and/or staff developmentcourses. I want to focus attention specifi-cally on resistance to change, and make a

distinction between this and the learner non-cooperation or non-involvement which resultsfrom physical discomfort or genuine psychologi-cal or emotional preoccupation, (althoughobviously there is overlap in the way learnersgive both these messages to teachers). For

the purposes of our discussion, then, T defineresistance as a refusal to adequately considernew ideas, methodologies, or approaches present-ed in the learning situation. Extreme resist-ance may manifest itself in outright dismissalwithout even minimal consideration, but resist-ance ranges from extremely subtle to the mostovert.

I want also to focus specific attention onthe teacher as learner, so that our discussionwill concern itself not simply with learnerresistance in general but with resistancein learning when the learners are also teachers.In recent years I have had the opportunityto monitor and analyse my own resistance asa learner, and T have used what T perceiveas the complexity of my own resistance to

illustrate some more rul comments about

the nature and extent Ji resistance in teacher-learners.

WHO DO WE RESIST LEARNING?

The reasons behind learners' refusal to ade-quately consider new ideas o:- techniques aremany and complex: but in general it can besaid that learner ,-esistance to change is

an indicator of learner reaction to somethingwhich is significant or important in its affect.

TRAINEE REsisrANcE.

Often reaction is aroused because the ideas,techniques, or attitudes presented requireor demand that the learner re-aprraise his/her existing knowledge or opinions (both per-sonal and professional). The necessity forsuch reappraisal (even if it were to leadto a reinforcement of existing ideas) is whatleads to resistance or avoidance in the learner.The re-thinking of our ideas presents a chall-enge to, or may seem to seriously threaten,the personal investment that we have alreadymade in the issue. It may also be that thecharge challenges our self concept and selfesteem on either a personal or professionallevel.

TEACHERS AS LEARNERS

Like all adults in learning situations teachers

bring highly developed preconceptions andexpectations to learning, but there are import-ant differences in degree between the resist-ance in teacher-learners and that in learnerswho are not teachers. Teachers are competentand very often confident resisters of change.The resistance faced by teacher trainers is

greater in its scope and complexity, and moreskilled in its expression, than that facedby teachers who are not teaching teachers.

This is especially so when teachers becomelearners in their own field of professionalknowledge, skill and experience, such as happ-ens in Staff Development and Tn-Service train-ing sessions. They have well establishedideas about methods and learning styles, aboutplanning and organisation, and about directionsfor learning, especially when the learningis directly related to their own practicalprofessional development.

Teachers react to:

- the subject matter. The question of

relevance or appropriateness of content/input/method in teacher training sessions goes tothe heart of the concept that teachers have,individually and as a group, of their ownrole. On short training courses, or in-servicesessions (which may be as short as a few hours)teachers are even more concerned to be involvedin determining what is appropriate and/orrelevant, if not at the pre-planning stagethen at least in the course of the sessions.Teachers react to what they perceive as suit-able, both professionally and personally,for their teaching circumstances and withintheir professional capacity to achieve. Thedetermination of relevant subject matter is not

by Leacher-learners as a concession.ut as a measure of the professionalism of.ne learning situation the right of teacher-learners and the duty of the teacher-trainers.

Teacherslearningto, andlearners

the organisation of the learning.

are not threatened by the formalenvironment. They are accustomedpresumably competent in organisingit formal learning situations, in

managing learning. They are aware of the

purpose of the activities they plan for learn-ing and the hoped-for directions or outcomesof them. Teachers react if they feel deprivedof an insight into what is happening and why,and if they feel deprived of responsibilityfor it. Teachers make their own judgementsabout purpose and usefulness of the learningactivity.

- the learning methodology. Teachersof ESL view the learning techniques as suitableor appropriate, on the basis of their professio-nal judgement about the activities per se

but also as these activities are seen to repre-sent theories of education philosophy. Thisincreases the number of levels on which theteacher-learner can react to the learning

activity.

- the trainer. Like all Learners teach-er-learners can react to the person or person-ality of the trainer. In particular whetherthe trainer's conceptualization of the learnersand the learning matches the learner's ownviews of these.

So the complexity, or the force, of teacherresistance is greater than in many other learn-ers because of their capacity to react to

the learning situation on both a personaland professional level. Teachers make judge-ments not only about what is presented tothem but also how it is presented, and whetherthe person presenting it is competent or suit-able to do so.

The professional resistance to the traineris more frequent in teacher in-service sessionswhere it is a colleague who is presentingthe session and who is perceived to have chang-ed status to take on the role of trainer.Resistance in in-service sessions often resultsfrom a difficulty in accepting this status

change in a colleague. The difficulty of

negotiating the learning is often extremewhen attitudes are polarised - the anti-expertview versus sharing our ignorance.

HOW DOES RESISTANCE MANIFEST ITSELF?

Resistance can take a variety of forms andintensities. It can be open and clearly ex-pressed or indirect and disguised. It canalso be conscious or unconscious in the learner.But in all its forms resistance can be describ-ed as a sabotaging of the learning experience.

Perhaps the most frequent form of resistanceis anger, and all its variables: criticism,hostility, dismissal, defiance, rejection.These anger related emotions however oftenmask more vulnerable reactions. Anger is

seen as an acceptable response, where fear,

disappointment or feelings of personal or

professional doubt are not so readily expresseddirectly.

1 r S'- 2007

SubscriptionsInformation

Please support "The Teacher Trainer" It'sthe only publication existing solely as aforum for the modern language teacher trainer.

The cost for three issues a year is:-

Individuals £15.00 including postageOrganisations £20.00 including postage.

Payment is now possible via Visa and Mastercard.

The journal is for a specialist audience andso circulation figures will be considerablylower than for more general teaching magazines.The costs of producing a journal do not, how-ever, sink appreciably just because the circu-lation is small. We have, therefore, settledon the figure above

UK Subscribers please send your cheques, madepayable to "Pilgrims", to the Editor.

Subscribers outside the UK please ask anybank that has dealings abroad, to send tothe Editor, a sterling bank draft drawn ona UK bank. The draft should be made out toPilgrims and sent to the Editor - 8 VernonPlace, Canterbury, Kent CT1 3HG.

We would ask all subscribers please to fillout the following form and send it along withtheir cheque (UK) or bank draft (outside UK).

NAME

ADDRESS

OCCUPATION

I would like to:-

(a) subscribe to "The Teacher Trainer"my cheque/bank draft is enclosed.

(b) contribute an article about

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Page 5

RESISTANCE TO CHANGE IN TEACHERTRAINING COURSES

The absence of overt resistance may itselfbe a complex disguise. The resistance mayexist but the need to make it known to othersis not great.

Indirect resistance can take many varied andsubtle forms. We can all remember such instan-ces in our own lives - as learners and asteachers. The student who always forgetsbooks, the apparently attentive prolofic notetaker who is actually writing a letter or

shopping list. Our indirect resistance mightinclude forgetting, making mistakes, havingaccidents, helplessness and confusion, ignor-ing, distracting ourselves and others, humour-ing teachers, making light of the issues,procrastinating and delaying, lying, rationali-zing, avoiding, withdrawing, silence. Evenindirect manifestations of resistance oftenhave a verbal and conscious dimension, but

non-verbal behaviour and body language canalso indicate resistance.

Activity: How have you sabotaged yourown learning experiences? Think backto the last time this happened to youas a teacher-learner. When was it?

Where? Why?

In my own learning as a teacher, I have notedthat my sabotaging has included changing thedynamics of the learning situation by attempt-ing to take over the role of the teacher,

using my "teaching" techniques to upstageor undermine the learning as planned or per-ceived by the trainer. As a teacher-learner

I show less interest in meeting the standardand objectives set for me than in the questionof my own professional judgement and self

concept.

At times I have also been aware that as ateacher-learner my willingness to participatein the learning is determined by a number

of conditional factors. I take part in the

learning activities only after I make a pro-fessional judgement about its validity or

worth. I look for a meaningful form in thelearning i.e. meaningful for me on both a

personal and professional level. I have obser-

ved that in my role as a teacher I am willingto do things which as a learner I resist verystrongly, for example role-play. It seems

that the issue of control, responsibilityand decision-making about learning activitiesis an important element in my perception andsignificantly influences my involvement as

a learner.

We might say that our reactions as teacher-learners may arise because we find ourselveson the other side of the lectern, the "unfami-liar side" of the formal learning situation.The problem is compounded by the unfortunatebut prevalent notion that in a learning situa-tion the roles are constant throughout: the

teacher always remains a teacher and the learn-er always remains a learner. In the generalperception the roles are not interchangeable.(This is not a comment on methodology or class-room technique but on the perceived nature

and outcome of any learning activity, i.e.

that the learner learns, the learner doesnot teach).

FROM THE TRAINERS' POINT OF VIEW

How should teacher trainers view resistanceto input or to learning activities, and whatcan be done to work on it in a positive andeffective way?

Here then are some thoughts and suggestionsfrom my own experience as a teacher trainer.

- Resistance is something vital tothe learner's integrity. It is not a purelynegative force, to be broken down or ignored.It is closely connected to the learner's pastexperience, and past experience must be acknow-ledged as an active component in learning,a potential resource.

- Hear the resistance. There is a ten-dency for teacher trainers to resist the re-sisters, and to encourage those who give posi-tive feedback. Often valuable comments comefrom the critics and the non co-operators.

- Give the learners time and opportunityto become aware of their reactions, to evaluatetheir personal assessment of what is beingpresented, to look at their reactions op,2nlyin activities or discussion. "What am I react-ing to"? and "Why ?" In this way learners cananalyse and come to understand their own learn-ing behaviour. Resistance works both con-sciously and unconsciously and our own resist-ance often confuses us.

- Resistance to personality can be

reduced by occasionally involving participantsin presenting planned activities to the group.There is usually someone willing to be briefedbefore the session and give it a go. Thiscan also serve as a trilling for the teacher-learners in using new techniques. Presenterinvolvement can be further increased if the'volunteer' is offered a number of techniquesto choose from.

- Don't view the teacher-learner rolesas constant throughout the learning session,allow for shifts, a more complete give andtake. (The obvious danger here is inadequatepreplanning or organisation in an effort to

maximise flexibility. Striking the balancebetween teacher planning and negotiation is

more difficult than is often presumed).

- Don't invest so much in the ideas,activities, planning and outcomes that learnerresistance can be perceived as unfairly person-al and so begin a chain reaction of resistance.

- Don't present personal views as gene-ral truths. I have found that teacher-learnersare far more willing to consider new ideasor approaches when they are presented withpersonal opinions and experiences.

Reprinted with persmission from:

Proceedings from 1st National TESOL (teachertraining) Conference Australia 1985, (ed)

Wajnryb R, and Rizzo, P.

A 10 "liV TrArlIn TRATNFR" Vn1.6,No.1 Snrins, 1992

TEACHER TRAINER GAMES SERIES By Sara Walker

Objective:

Materials:

For a full rationale of the use of games inteacher training and development, as well asfor Games 1 and 2 in the start of this series,please see 'The Teacher Trainer', Volume 4,Number 3. More games in Sara Walker's serieswill appear in the next issue.

GAME 7Language Bridge

to draw trainees' attentionto language awareness as an

important element in training.The game should be played

once without preparation,and repeated later when train-ees have had a chance to pre-pare answers to'the questions.

One old pack of cards per

group of 4 or 6 players.

One set of Rules for eachgroup (this can be mountedon card for re-use). Onecopy of the questions for

each trainee.

Preparation: Hi-tech trainers can print

each question on a computer label and stickthe labels onto the correct cards. Low-techtrainers merely ask trainees to find the quest-ion corresponding to each card on their list:

RULES

1. Choose a partner.

2. The game is played in groups of 4 or

6 players (2 or 3 pairs).

3. Shuffle the cards and place them in

a pile face downwards in the centre.

4, Each pair in turn picks up a card fromthe top of the pile and announces what it

is to the rest of the group e.g. "The nineof diamonds". All the players consult thelist and find the appropriate question. Thepair that picked up the card then try to answerthe question. (Partners can discuss the answertogether). An answer accepted as correctby the other players scores I point. if thequestion is satisfactorily answered, the cardis replaced at the bottom of the pack.

5. If the pair who have picked up the cardcannot, answer the question, the next pair

on their left have a chance to score an extrapoint by answering the same question correctly.

6. A point can only be scored by any pairif ALL parts cf the question are answeredcorrectly.

7. If nobody in the group can answer thequestion, the card should be left face upwardsbeside the pile. At the end of the game,there will be a chance to find out some ofthe answers.

8. The first pair to reach an agreed numberof points (e.g. 5 points) is the winner.

(Alternatively, a time can be set forthe game, and the winning pair is the pairwith the most points when time is up).

Feedback

Each pair should select ONEthe questions that raised doubt infor discussion after the game. Useof questions for research.

Useful reference books:

card from

the groupyour list

SPADES - Grammar questions:English Grammar in Use - Raymond Murphy -Cambridge University Press

- Practical English Usage Michael SwanOxford University Press

A Practical English Grammar - Thompson andMartinet - Oxford University Press

HEARTS Functions:-Function in English Blundell, Higgens andMiddlemiss Oxford University Press

DIAMONDS & crons - Vocabulary & Pronunci:ItionThe Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English- Longman

- The Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionaryof English - Oxford University Press

- Test Your Vocabulary (5 vols) - Peter Watcyn-Jones - Penguin ELT

-Ship or Sheep? - Anne Baker - Cambridge Univer- sity Press

"THE TEACHER TRAINER", Vol.6,No.1 Spring 1992.11

Page 7

TEACHER TRAINER GAMES SERIES

SPADES (grammar questions)

Si. GIVE THREE SITUATIONS/TYPES OF SENTENCEWHICH REQUIRE THE PRESENT PERFECT TENSEAND THREE WHICH REQUIRE THE PAST SIMPLETENSE.

S2. EXPLAIN THE USE OF SOME AND ANY WITHCOUNTABLE AND UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS.

S3. EXPLAIN THE DIFFERENCE IN USE BETWEENSO AND SUCH.

S4. IN 60 SECONDS, GIVE 12 VERBS WHICH HAVEIRREGULAR PAST SIMPLE TENSE FORMS.

S5. EXPLAIN HOW TO MAKE THE NEGATIVE ANDINTERROGATIVE FORMS IN THE PRESENT SIMPLETENSE.

S6. GIVE THREE RULES FOR USING (OR OMITTING)THE DEFINITE ARTICLE (THE).

S7. SPELL THE FOLLOWING WORDS IN THE PLURALAND EXPLAIN THE SPELLING RULE INVOLVED:

SECRETARY DONKEY BOY FAMILY DAY REMEDY

S8. EXPLAIN HOW TO FORM ADVERBS IN ENGLISHAND NAME THREE ADVERBS THAT ARE IRREGULAR.

S9. GIVE THE RULES FOR FORMING COMPARATIVEADJECTIVES (older than/more expensivethan, etc.)

S10. PLACE THE APOSTROPHE (') IN THE CORRECTPOSITION IN THESE PHRASES, AND EXPLAINTHE RULE INVOLVED:

(a) the two boys house(b) the childrens dog(c) the horses mouth(d) Charles Dickens novels

S11. GIVE THREE VERB FORMS THAT CAN BE USEDTO EXPRESS THE FUTURE AND COMMENT ONWHEN EACH FORM IS USED.

S12. EXPLAIN HOW TO FORM INDIRECT QUESTTONS(beginning with: HE ASKED ME ...)

S13. WHAT VERB TENSES WOULD YOU USEa first conditional sentence, b) aconditional sentence, and c) a

conditional sentence?

IN a)

secondthird

Language Bridge

Designed by Sara Walker TBI Brasilia

1111HEARTS (language functions)

Hl. YOUR FRIEND IS THINKING OF DROPPINGOUT OF THE TTC. WHAT WOULD YOU SAYTO PERSUADE HER TO CARRY ON?

H2. YOU ARE PLANNING TO SET UP A STUDY GROUPTO WORK TOGETHER ON TTC READING ASSIGNMENTS. INVITE YOUR COLLEAGUES TO JOINYOU.

H3. YOU ARE NOW AN IBI TEACHER. ONE OFYOUR STUDENTS HAS DONE NO HOMEWORK ALLMONTH. THREATEN HIM WITH AN APPROPRIATEPUNISHMENT IF HE DOESN'T GIVE YOU ALLHIS HOMEWORK NEXT CLASS.

H4. YOU BOUGHT A COPY OF "THE PRACTICE OFENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING" BY JEREMYHARMER FROM YUUR LOCAL BOOKSHOP. WHENYOU STARTED TO READ IT, YOU FOUND SOMEOF THE PAGES WERE IN THE WRONG ORDER.TAKE IT BACK TO THE BOOKSHOP AND COMPLAIN

H5. ONE OF YOUR TTC COLLEAGUES KEEPS ANNOYINGYOU BY FIDGETTING IN CLASS. ASK HIM/HERPOLITELY TO STOP.

H6. YOU SEE YOUR FRIENDLY TRAINER GOINGALONG THE CORRIDOR BOWED DOWN UNDERTHE WEIGHT OF VISUAL AIDS AND MATERIALSFOR USE IN CLASS. OFFER TO HELP.

H7. YOU HAVEN'T MANAGED TO DO THE READINGASSIGNMENT FOR A TTC SESSION. APOLOGISETO YOUR FRIENDLY TRAINER AND MAKE A

SUITABLE EXCUSE.

H8. YOU FIND THIS GAME GIVES YOU A TERRIBLEHEADACHE. REQUEST PERMISSION TO LEAVETHE ROOM TO TAKE AN ASPIRIN.

H9. ONE OF YOUR COLLEAGUES DOESN'T KNOWWHERE THE BATHROOMS ARE IN THIS BUILDING.GIVE DIRECTIONS ABOUT HOW TO GET THERE.

H10. YOU FEEL THAT YOU DON'T REALLY UNDERSTANDTHE RULES OF THE GAME YOU HAVE BEENTOLD TO PLAY. ASK FOR CLARIFICATION.

H11. ONE OF YOUR TTC COLLEAGUES FEELS HE/SHENEEDS TO IMPROVE HIS/HER PRONUNCIATION.ADVISE HIM/HER WHAT TO DO.

H12. ONE OF YOUR TTC COLLEAGUES TELLS YOUSHE IS EXPECTING A BABY. CONGRATULATEHER AND ADVISE HER ON WHETHER OR NOTTO CONTINUE THE TTC.

H13. YOU ARE THOROUGHLY FED UP WITH THE TTC,WHICH DOESN'T MEET YOUR EXPECTATIONSAT ALL. EXPRESS YOUR FEELINGS TO YOURCOLLEAGUES.

Page 8 12 "THE TEACHER TRAINER", Vol.6,No.1 Spring 1992

DIAMONDS (Lexis questions) VDl. GIVE FIVE WORDS FORMED FROM THE ROOT

WORD NATION (BY ADDING PREFIXES OR SUF-FIXES).

D2. WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TOO ANDVERY?

D3. WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN EXPLOREAND EXPLOIT?

D4. GIVE AN ANTONYM (OPPOSITE) FOR EACHOF THESE WORDS:GENEROUS WILD SCRUFFY PERMANENT TIMID

PLACID.

D5. NAME (AND SPELL!) THESE PROFESSIONS:

Someone who:a) fixes problems with the water system

in your house.b) sentences someone who is convicted

after trial.c) arranges dance-steps for ballet.d) runs a funeral parlour and organises

funerals.

D6. GIVE A SYNONYM OR AN EXPLANATION FOREACH OF THESE PHRASAL VERBS:

a) I BUMPED INTO him in the High Street.b) Do you think he'll PULL THROUGH?c) She can PUT you UP.d) They FELL OUT last week but now

they've MADE it UP again.

D7. REPLACE THE NONSENSE WORDS IN THIS SEN-TENCE, SO THAT IT HAS A GENUINE MEANING:SHE HUNGLED UP TO HIM AND RISPED HERTRIGS ROUND HIS CLIMP.

08. GIVE FIVE WORDS FORMED FROM THE ROOTWORD HOUSE (BY ADDING A PREFIX/SUFFIXOR FORMING A COMPOUND WORD).

D9. THESE ANIMAL NAMES CAN ALL BE USED ASVERBS. WHAT IS THE MEANING OF EACHVERB?to wolf to cow to duck to hound

to badger.

D10. EXPLAIN THE MEANING OF THE FOLLOWINGIDIOMS:

a) She gave him the cold shoulder.b) He led her up the garden path.c) He kicked the bucket.d) She's all fingers and thumbs.

DII. PUT A CORRECT PREPOSITION IN EACH SPACE:

He lived ... the nineteenth century.He was born January 10th ... 5.30AM... the year 1837. He died ... theend of March 1898.

D12. REPLACE THE NONSENSE WORDS IN THIS SEN-TENCE, SO THAT IT HAS A GENUINE MEANING:

AFTER GUMPLING ALL HUNDLE, HE GRAVIDLYPLONDED TO YINK.

D13. WHERE WOULD YOU FIND THESE THINGS TO-GETHER?

a) ward bed theatre scalpel sisterh) boot bonnet horn bumper clutchc) vault counter deposit cash alarmd) leader column advertisement

article caption.

"THE TEACHER TRAINER", Vol.6,No.1 Spring 1992

CLUBS (pronunciation) -111-Cl. WHICH IS THE PRINCIPAL STRESSED SYLLABLE

IN EACH OF THESE WORDS:

independence development sincere deter-mined engineer.

C2. HOW WOULD YOU HELP A STUDENT TO IMPROVEHIS PRONUNCIATION OF THE TH SOUND IN

ENGLISH? GIVE 10 WORDS YOU MIGHT USETO PRACTICE THE TWO SOUNDS /E)/ AS IN

THING AND 141 AS IN THEY.

C3. WHICH OF THESE WORDS DO NOT CONTAINTHE SAME VOWEL SOUND AS IN THE WORDBALL (/ot/)?

caught word horse warm fold door

pal bought corn saw.

0 C4. GIVE 5 WORDS WITH THE SAME VOWEL SOUNDAS SHIP (/I/) AND 5 WITH THE SOUND INSHEEP (/i:/)

C5. WHICH PHONEME (OR SINGLE SOUND) TN EACHOF THESE WORDS IS MOST LIKELY TO CAUSEPROBLEMS FOR A BRAZILIAN SPEAKER OFENGLISH?

hat teacher room feel coffee

C6. GIVE 5 WORDS THAT CONTAIN THE SAME VOWELSOUND AS GIRL (/3:/)

C7. WHICH WORDS WOULD YOU STRESS IN THISSENTENCE:

I was having a quick cup of coffee whenthe bell rang for class.

C8. WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING VERB FORMS REQUIRETHE ADDITION OF AN EXTRA SYLLABLE (/ID/)?WHY?

looked wanted intended climbed imaginedbrushed ended.

C9. WHICH OF THESE WORDS ADD AN EXTRA SYLL-ABLE IN THE PLURAL? WHY?

bus/buses cat/cats orange/orangespen/pens wife/wives son/sons bottle/bottles secretary/secretaries box/boxes.

C10. WHICH OF THESE WORDS HAVE THE SAME FINALSOUND AS ENOUGH (/f/)?

though cough tough thorough laugh

rough dough

Cll. HOW MANY SYLLABLES ARE THERE IN EACHOF THESE WORDS?

suspended washed beautifully uglinessexpectations society

C12. WOULD YOU USE A OR AN BEFORE EACH OFTHESE WORDS? WHY?

apple European umbrella universityonion union hour hospital elf orange

C13. WHICH OF THESE WORDS HAVE THE SAME VOWELSOUND AS LOVE (W)?

government company over moneycloth cover cold commonbrother.

Londonhouse

13Page 9

HOW TRAINEES CAN PROVIDE ARESOURCE FOR STAFF DEVELOPMENTBy Antony PeckIn the Spring term, 1990, I placed my tutorialstudents in their Teaching Practice Schools inteams of two. All the Post Graduate studentshad studied German as a main language, Frenchas an equal or subsidiary subject, and each hadhad substantial residence in a German-speakingcountry; some in a Francophone country, also.The purpose of the exercise was to demonstratethat practical advantages accrue to schoolsprepared to accept two students for TeachingPractice, in a single Languages Department.

Preparation

In accordance with our normal practice, we in-vited one teacher from each school to come toa seminar in York at the beginning of December.They are known as "Teacher-Tutors" in recogni-tion of their role in the induction of traineesinto professional life. The seminar allowseach student to meet a member of his or herTeaching Practice school's Modern Languagesstaff, and to discuss matters such as conven-tions for school management, classes to betaught, and textbooks to be used. There isalso an opportunity for teachers to offergeneral and specific advice, and for studentsto ask questions about their conditions ofwork, the school's pattern of support, theiraccommodation, and so on. On this occasion,it also provided a chance for teachers to dis-cuss together the nature of their responsi-bilities as Teacher-Tutors, and to plan jointlyhow they would make use of the Post Graduatestudent resource.

Introduction to school life

During the early period of the 13 weeks ofapprentice Teaching Practice, much time isnormally devoted to students' induction intoschool routine and the parameters of :oeir pro-fessional life. Students familiaris4 them-selves with their new environment, observecolleagues teaching the classes they willeventually take over themselves, follow agiven class throughout its day, study a day inthe life of a specific pupil, and begin toteach parts of lessons under supervision. Dur_ing this part of their Teaching Practice, theteachers responsible for them devote much time

to counselling, advising, and helping themwith lesson-planning. As the period of prac-tice proceeds, however, and the students becomemore self-confident, they can increasingly beallowed to teach without being directly super-vised.

Finding extra time

Each Post Graduate student is given a "halftimetable" consisting of approximately halfthe number of lessons normally taken by aqualified teacher. Two students in a schoolcan, between them, account for approximatelyone "whole" timetable, though they are, ofcourse, taking classes normally taught by seve-

Page 10

ral teachers. Since the two students are.teaching classes, otherwise taken by full-timeteachers, a number of staff members find theyhave an increased number of "free" lessons,during which they can do things in school forwhich there is normally very little time. Withtwo student teachers each accounting for ahalf timetable, the amount of time thus madeavailble to the department as a whole is con-siderable. The extra free time thus found canbe used in many different ways for staffdevelopment.

Plans for staff development

At the December Teacher-Tutor Seminar, theteachers representing the Practice schoolswere invited to speculate on how it might bepossible profitably to use the time made avail- able to them by having two Student Teacherson the staff, working as a team within the de-partment.

Among the ideas that emerged for the teachersto try out in the time created by having twotrainees in school were:

to establish a complete list of thingsthe staff wanted to do within the department,while on duty at school, but not actuallyteaching;

to teach a colleague's class;

to observe colleagues' classes on a re-ciprocal basis;

to deal with general departmental admini-strative work;

to watch and classify satellite TV re-cordings;

to plan the use of computers in class;

to supervise pupils' use of InformationTechnology;

to prepare lessons and schemes of work;

to plan for increasing the number oflanguages offered in the school, and the in-troduction of the National Curriculum;

to prepare for new ways of working withpupils, such as devising methods and materialsto help school students accept an increaseddegree of responsibility for their own learn-ing, thus decreasing their dependence on theteacher (Supported Self- Study); or planning howbest to use different sorts of class organisa-tion, such as group work, individual tuition,or the use of technical aids like video record-ings, pre-recorded cassettes, and worksheets(Flexible Learning);

14 "THE TEACHER TRAINER", Vo1.6,No.1 Spring 1992

to organise the intake of young pupilsfrom Primary feeder schools;

to study and contribute to schemes inwhich innovations in teaching are financed byregional budgets;

to extend existing modular schemes ofwork, where a department agrees to cover a cer-tain number of topics or "modules" in thecourse of a year, from one year-group toanother:

to support pupils with special needs incolleagues' lessons; and

to design and provide help for most,or least, linguistically-able pupils.

How the plans were carried out

Now that the period of Teaching Practice hasbeen concluded, it is interesting to see howthe student-teacher resource was used. Whilethe actual use of time differs in certainrespects from the speculations of the Autumnterm, I believe that there is clear evidencethat a team of two Student Teachers, support-ing each other, acting as "critical friends",both in the preparation and the.conduct oflessons, not only contributes strongly to avaluable apprenticeship to teaching, but alsoprovides a valuable resource for the host de-partment.

Here is an account of some of the ways in whichteachers used the time made available by theteam of student teachers.

1. In one school, it was possible to enrichthe teaching provision in a particular classby introducing an experiment in Flexible Learning, with additional technical resources.

2. In Another school, some of the time wasused to devote resources to the work of beinga Professional Tutor. (A Professional Tutoris a teacher with special responsibility forintroducing trainees to the teaching pro-fession, by supervising how they learn thegeneral duties of being a teacher, such asbeing concerned with students with specialpsychological problems,or how to contribute tostudents' personal and social education. A

Professional Tutor also has the job of assess-ing, in the view of the school, what progressthe trainee has made during his or her appren-ticeship). A programme of induction was workedout, and the student teachers benefitted froma carefully-planned course of lesson observa-tion and subsequent de-briefing.

3. A degree of team teaching became possiblein one school. Two language teachers, able tohelp each other, could introduce the demonstra-tion of conversations, and some dramatictechniques into their teaching.

4. One teacher found it possible to travelwith a colleague on a school trip, due to thepresence of the team, though the trainees werenever without the supervision of qualifiedmembers of the languages staff.

5. A constant theme in the teachers' re-ports is that the time released meant that forum. in their lives, they had something approach

-ing adequate time for lesson preparation andmarking!

6. In one department, the time was used toproduce additional materials for the depart-ment's central resources bank. Schemes ofwork were updated, and statements of accredi-tation were written for individual students.In addition to this, a number of cassetteswere recorded for older students to take homefor additional listening practice.

7. One teacher used the time gained tolearn how to work the departmental computer,and became proficient on the wordprocessor.

8. A scheme of Supported Self-Study was in-troduced in one school, and this could be donewith due care and attention to the needs of in-dividual pupils, in part because of the timereleased by the team of two student teachers.

9. Professional development benefitted fromthe enriched staffing. In one case, it meantthat a teacher, without leaving the studentteachers unsupervised, could attend a one-daycourse on the situation in East Germany, orga-nised by the Goethe Institute.

10. In certain cases, the extra time gainedwas simply used by the staff of the languagesdepartment to get together to discuss commonproblems, or to plan forthcoming events, suchas an Intensive Day of language-learning fora particular year group.

11. One benefit was the possibility of sub-dividing a class into two groups, in order togive special remedial attention to some weakpupils. Since this could be done throughoutthe Spring term, some noticeably good resultswere obtained.

12. One teacher found it possible to enrichthe provision for a certain class by takingthe students on one occasion to a foreign langu-age film, and on another to a lecture. Thoughthe student teachers were "covering" otherclasses, professionally qualified teachers re-mained in charge, but without having to bephysically present in their colleague'sclasses.

13. Student teachers were occasionally askedto "cover" for linguist colleagues who were un-avoidably absent. This not only reduced theburden on other members of staff, but meantthat the students were actually taught Frenchor German, which they would otherwise havemissed.

The final balance sheet

The general feeling about this experiment canbe summed up in the words of one of theteachers concerned in it. "We consider thewhole process of supervising and supportingstudent teachers an essential part of our ownvocation. It requires every teacher involvedto look at his/her own methodology and approachfrom a critical perspective before attempting

to pass any of it on to a trainee. It enablesus to see how others may interpret and learna great deal from our Teaching Practicestudents too '."

"THE TEACHER TRAINER", Vol.6,No.1 Spring 1992 15 Page 11

WHO READS "THE TEACHER TRAINER"

Here is a sample list of subscribers:

The British Council, Spring Gardens, London.Instituto Anglo - Mexicano, Mexico City.The School of Education, Leeds.Davies's School of English, London.The English Language Teaching Office, Khartoum.The Language Centre, Muscat, Oman.Institut fur Deutsche Sprache, Freiburg.The Library, St. Clare's, Oxford.Lecturers inAston University and LanzhouUniversity

Trainers in Ouagadougou, Ljubljana, Sarawak,Goiania-Goias and Al-Jubail.

Bookshops, Holland, Belgium.The Director General, Bell Educational Trust.

4

r

JOURNAL EXCHANGES

"The Teacher Trainer" has arranged journalexchanges with

IATEFL NewsletterEnglish Language Teaching JournalCross CurrentsEnglish Teachers' JournalModern English TeacherRELC JournalThe Portuguese NewsletterForumPractical English TeachingFocus on EnglishTESOL Newsletter

(UK)

(UK)

(Japan)(Israel)

(UK)(Singapore)(Portugal)

(USA)

(UK)(India)

(USA)

and is abstracted by 'Language Teaching',The British Education Index, the ERIC clearinghouse and Contents Pages in Education.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEND SOMETHING IN TO"THE TEACHER TRAINER"?

"The Teacher Trainer" is designed to be aforum for trainers, teachers and traineesall over the world. If you'd like to sendin a letter, a comment, a cartoon, a tapedconversation or an article sharing information,ideas or opinions we'll be very happy to re-ceive it. It's easier for us if the writtenpieces are typed up with double spacing and46 characters a line. The style should besimple and readable and the normal lengthof articles is about 1000 to 2000 words.We can serialise if necessary but this willdelay publication considerably:

DO UNTO THEM AS THEYARE TO DO UNTO OTHERSBy Mario Rinvolucri, Pilgrims

A classical lunacy in teacher trainingis for a well-intentioned person to deliver a50 minute lecture on how the average listeningattention-span is around 10 minutes. It is

easy to con yourself into thinking that you al-ways avoid such obvious pitfalls in your ownwork.

Two years ago however, I noticed that foraround ten years I had been introducing peopleto Gattegno's Silent Approach in ways thatdirectly parallel the schizophrenic lunacy ofthe attention-span lecturer.

The Silent Way approach to languagelearning is based on the assumption thatlearners already know a lot, that much of whatthey don't yet know they can discover on atrial and error basis, and that new informa-tion or a new skill that the learner hasstriven hard for she will retain and be ableto re-use relatively effortlessly. The SilentWay approach sets its face resol,Jtely againsthanding the learner information on a plate.Let me give you a concrete example: say youspeak English and you are learning Modern Greekand I want to teach you to say '4' in Greek.There is no point in my giving you a model andyou repeating it, for you already half knowhow to say '4' in Greek. My job as teacher isto help you to find 'tessera' from your own re-sources, which is not that hard since you al-ready know tetra (as in tetrahedron). All Ihave to get you to dc is to recall tetra and maythen modify it to tessera. (You my notice thatthe last three sentences do not follow SilentWay thinking - I gave you tessera on a plate- you made no effort in the head and may wellnot retain the word.)

For the purposes of this article, ad-dressed to you as a trainer, please set asidewhether you think the SW approach is a good one.,The thing to understand is that Gattegno's pro-posal is for heuristic, discovery learning,firmly in the Montessori tradition.

Now, the people who introduced me toSilent Way always used demonstration as theirmode of input. Lou Spaventa taught us Koreanangrily, fiercely, making me live his emotions.Cecilia Bartoli taught us Italian brilliantly,fast, technically. Suzana Pint taught us Spa-nish lyrically, lightly, like a beautiful'mariposa'. For me Silent Way has always beenintensely bound up with the person of thetrainer.

And I have imitated my trainers and havedemonstrated what was demonstrated to me fromMalmo to Melbourne. And I am as absurd as mythree teachers, for to demonstrate the SilentWay is inconsistent with the philosophy of theapproach. In the Silent Way, the language stu-dent comes to the new language heuristically,discovering step by step with guiding nudges

Page 12 16 "THE TEACHER TRAINER", Vol.6,No.1 Spring 1992

from the teacher. To train teachers to useSilent Way you should logically use the sameapproach: let them find out and make it theirown in their own way and at their own pace.

On a teacher training course in summer1987 I took my first steps in this trainingdirection: I simply asked a Catalar partici-pant, Lourdes, to teach us the vocabularyneeded to label a blackboard picture the classhad drawn. She was to elicit the necessaryCatalan words from us - she was asked not tospeak and not to write the words on the objectsuntil someone in the group had managed to pro-duce each of them reasonably satisfactorilyorally.

Lourdes gave an outstanding lesson. In

her feedback she said: "That was not teach-ing - I was enjoying myself'" Some people inthe group objected that it had been easy forLourdes to find Catalan in the minds of membersof the group since many of us spoke Latin dia-lects (Spanish, Italian, French). To answerthis point Clio from Salonika taught us 1 to10 in Greek. She operated within the samerules as Lourdes had. Again we lived throughan excellent 8 minute lesson. Clio and Lourdesinvented Gattegno's method for themselves andfor this group. I did nothing more than offerthe frame within which they did it.

1 asked Clio and Lourdes to teach some-thing (e.g. the nutibers 1 - 10 in a foreignlanguage) according to a particular set ofrules ("Don't give the words, wait until thegroup produces it"). Thus I asked them toteach X according to rule set Y. This is asimple, elegant rule set that I can use when-ever encouraging a trainee demonstration.

Let me summarise the advantages of pro-voking trainee demonstration of the method,rather than demonstrating yourself:

- the demonstrating trainee is discover-ing the method for herself, in parallel to theother trainees discovering the language beingtaught for themselves there are two paralleldiscovery processes underway and one re-en-forces the other. The trainer is out of it.

- the trainee group know that their"Silent Way" teacher has never taught this waybefore. It is clear to them that what she is

doing they too could do, without too muchdifficulty. The method is not arcane and un-graspable.

- the trainees meet the Silent Way di-vorced from the trainer's person, hating it be-cause they hate her or loving it because theylove her. They meet it within the group, with-out the "parental" colouring that trainer de-monstration rather often entails.

- the first meeting with Silent Way isin one way non-technical; it happens withoutthe paraphanelia of rods and colour-coded wordcharts etc. The principles are lived in asimple, elementary - elemental way.

- the demonstration is really interestingfor the trainer it can go wrong - the trainerdoesn't know how things will turn out and thisis what I personally want in an alive TT situa-tion. If I think I know the end of the road,why walk down it?

Let me take you back to the beginning ofthis piece: it is easy to choose trainingprocesses that are at loggerheads with the con-tent you intend to offer the trainees. Thisis certainly what I did with Silent Way from1977 to 1987: a long drawn-out stupidity.The real problem was that I did not choose howto input Silent Way. I simply imitated thosewho had trained me. I wonder in how many otherareas of my training work the same thing ishappening?

How about you? Why don't you send Tessaaccounts of this sort of glitch in your ownwork. The Teacher Trainer should be abouteverything we do, not just the intelligent, co-herent bits.

Actually, I feel good having got thisone off my chest.

Mario

NEWS

24-27 August 1992: 2nd IATEFL-Hungary Confe-rence and 3rd International NELLE Conference,Pecs, Hungary. Information: IATEFL-Hungary,Budapest 1146, Ajtosi Dllrer sur 19-21, Hungary,or NELLE Secretariat, Bredestraat 12, 6225HJ Maastricht, Netherlands.

27-30 August 1992: 3rd International NELLEConference jointly with AUA-ATE, Prague,

Czechoslovakia. Information: NELLE Secretari-at, Bredestraat 12, 6225 HJ Maastricht, Nether-lands, or Misa BojarovA, AIJA -ATE, Na porici4, 110 00 Praha 1.

"TUE TEACHER TRAINER", Vol.6,140.1 Spring 1992 Page 13

MAXIMIZING LEARNING IN AN INTENSIVE TEACHERTRAINING COURSE By Lou Spaventa Guildford College,Greensboro, North Carolina, USA

Intensive teacher training sessions,all day long and lasting from a day to aweek or more, are often stressful situationsfor trainers and teachers. A lot of informa-tion, ideas about good practice, and theoreti-cal issues are packed into a very short timespan. There are at least three problemsthat present themselves because of the timeconstraints and concentrated nature of inten-sive courses. The first is the limit on

interaction, discussion, and processing time.The second is the tendency to centralizeand topicalize discussion, so that only oneissue at a time is on the floor. The thirdis the need to limit reading and to focuson practice. The following account is a

description of my attempt, with the collabora-tion of the teachers with whom I was working,to address these problems.

In a week-long, six hour per day train-ing course entitled, "Methods and Materials",which is part of a programme for teachersin California wishing to receive a TESL certi-ficate through the University of California,participants are expected to become acquaintedwith some of the major methods and materialsemployed in current ESL teaching. I conductthe course experientially by creating collabo-rative experiences in such methods as SilentWay, Suggestopedia, Total Physical Response,and Community Language Learning. In order

to deepen and broaden participant experiencein these methods, I assign readings, typicallyfour or more for each method. Given that

participants are in a high energy-using enviro-nment all day long, yet despite that, areat a learning peak in terms of curiosityabout methods employed, I have created coopera-tive groups of four individuals each, andasked each member in the group to take respon-sibility for one of the readings. Partici-pants read one article each, and then the

next day they break into "expert" groups,

in which each person has read the same arti-cle. The expert groups discuss the articleand come to a concensus about its meaningand application. They then return to their"base" cooperative group and report on the

article to their group members. In this

way, each group member receives a consideredsummary of four articles.

A second step in this process is to

give participants reading time during the

day, typically by extending the lunch hour.I ask that one time only, each person summa-rize a reading related to the work of theclass, and then bring it into the classroomand tape it to a chalkboard. The chalkboardremains a sort of community newspaper for

the duration of the course. I invite peopleto read the summaries taped to the chalkboardand to write their comments beside them.

As people return from break or from lunch,I make comments about what is on the chalk-board and suggest they might want to have

a look. To give the chalkboard-cum-communitynewspaper more structure, I identify interest

1.4

groups among the class participants, forexample, elementary school bilingual teachers,teachers of migrant workers, teachers offoreign students, and put headings on thechalkboard under which summaries are taped.Participants are also invited to create theirown interest headings.

These activities seem to help deepenthe understanding of the methods being experi-enced in the training session, help focusand contextualize questions about the methods,and give participants the chance to matchtheir own experiences against critiques, expla-nations and descriptions of the methods metin their readings. The community newspaperhelps to create lots of tributary-like conver-sations which have a way of working themselvesback into the experiences of the trainingsessions. The newspaper also invites opendialogue unattached to the trainer. As thetrainer, I make it a point to read thc news-paper because it gives me additional informa-tion about how the people I am working withare thinking.

A third practice I employ is the useof in-class journal writing. I build intomy training course at least two journal writingsessions per day. I try to place these fif-teen minute writing sessions at periods oftime when participants will probably wantto be reflective, such as after a methodsdemonstration and discussion. Because peoplevary in how much and how fast they writeat any given time, this usually means lotsof cross-conversations take place duringthe journal writing sessions. I encouragethese. (Because participants must be gradedin the University of California's ESL Certifi-cate Programme, I assign students the task

of summarizing their journals, incorporatingreadings and discussion, to create a polishedpiece of writing about the seminar, whichI then grade.)

Yet another practice I employ in my

intensive training session is to encouragestudents to take part of the class time to

address the group on areas of special expert-ise and interest. The result of this hasbeen such things as the creation of job boards,the discussion of overseas work-camps, and

perhaps more importantly, the education of

the trainer as to the interests and concernsof the students.

I don't think I have solved the problemof processing, deepening, and broadeningtraining course learning, but I have madesome small s:-.eps toward a solution. I wouldwelcome dialogue with trainer3 and partici-pants as to their own solutions.

Page 14 "THE TEACHER TRAINER", Vol.6,No.1 Spring 1992

TRAINER BACKGROUNDTHE CRUCIAL ROLE OF FEEDBACK AND EVALUATION INLANGUAGE CLASSES By Hana Raz

Teachers are not always aware of thecrucial role of feedback and evaluation in

the learning process. The way we give ourstudents feedback and evaluate their workmay have negative and even disastrous con-sequences, even though we may have the bestof intentions or may just be following anaccepted routine, a time-honoured practice.The more heterogeneous the class, the moreimportant it is to find ways of relating toeach student according to his or her abilityand needs.

Our dearest possession is our self-concept, the view we have of ourselves, indivi-dually. Remember how you feel when you arepraised or criticized, especially by someoneimportant to you. I believe every teacher,every person, should learn about the crucialrole of self-concept in hisiher own life andthat of the students. A low self-conceptleads to frustration, aggression, violence- or withdrawal. A high self-concept hasa decisive effect on motivation: If we expectsuccess, we are more willing to try, to makean effort; if we expect failure, we tend towithdraw.

Expecting success Expecting failure

Many teachers were themselves successfulstudents and so they find it hard to empathizewith those pupils who are fed on a diet ofCs and Ds, and often come to hate Englishand the teacher, the school and learning be-cause of it.

Feedback and Evaluation covers areassuch as: ways of talking to pupils and par-ents; ways of gathering feedback from pupilsabout teaching; self-evaluation of pupilsand of teachers; criteria when making up tests,and analysis of tests and their backlash.All these areas, including the affective by-products of evaluation, need to be dealt withon teacher training courses. Tn this articleI hope to provide some basic insights; trainers

will want to consider possible applicationsto their own teaching and training situationand will have to decide whether lecturettes,group work or role play, possibly in combina-tion, are the best way to treat this subjectarea. But I believe it is a subject whichshould be on teacher training courses.

Definitions of evaluation and feedback

The key to understanding the issue lies,I believe, in making a distinction betweenfeedback and evaluation. Dictionary defini-tions will help us. Webster defines "evaluate"as "determine the worth of". Clearly theemphasis is on value, which involves judging.When we judge, we must have criteria. Wheredo these come from? We speak of 'normative'criteria, but norms also stem from someone'sudgement, principles, aims. 'External' norms

are set by institutions, and again involvepeople with priorities and expectations.They can hardly be considered objective:Classroom evaluation is admittedly subjective;besides our own priorities, our judgementis affected by our experience, personality,prejudices. It seems fair to say that allevaluation is, in fact, subjective.

Feedback is defined in the Concise OxfordDictionary as "carrying back some of the ef-fects of the process to its source or to apreceding stage so as to strengthen or modifyit". For instance, our photocopying machinetells us when the paper has run out, by flash-ing a light. Ideally, no external agent isinvolved; the concept implies objectivity.

What happens between people?

Evaluation Feedback

0-40

Id

Surely there is no need to belabourthe point; the connection with self-conceptis clear.

"THE TEACHER TRAINER", Vol.6,No.1 Spring 1992 19 Page 15

THE CRUCIAL ROLE OF FEEDBACK AND EVALUATION IN LANGUAGE CLASSES

We tend to see feedback as on-goingand formative, evaluation as summative. Butwe must look at classroom realities - thisdistinction is too simplistic. Inevitably,there is overlap. Evaluation also providesfeedback and can come at any time; feedbackby a teacher is inevitably to some extentevaluative. It is rather a matter of emphasis.

I maintain that we should aim at maximumfeedback and minimum evaluation. To supportmy point, I wish to juxtapose the objectives,means and effects of feedback and those ofevaluation.

When we focus on feedback, what are ourobjectives?

We presume the learner is in need of

information about his or her performance inorder to improve upon it. The feedback musttherefore be as specific as possible, to leadto the formulation of clear goals and theappropriate channelling of the learners'efforts. This specific information also pro-vides the teacher with guidelines for teaching:aware of problem areas (such as inabilityto infer meaning of occasional infamiliarwords from context or, inability to use a

specific grammatical structure appropriately)the teacher will be able to adapt methodsand materials to the needs of the learner.Specific feedback also helps parents to givesupport where needed.

I have mentioned the element of object-ivity, characteristic of feedback, but we

must remember the vital role of self-concept.Feedback must encourage the learner to further

effort. It must therefore always be construc-tive and forward-looking. Positive feedbackfrom the teacher, whenever possible, providesincentives which most teachers make use of.But even more valuable is intrinsic motivation

the desire to find out, an inner urge tolearn - stemming from the learner's feelingof making progress and the satisfaction derivedfrom having completed the task successfully.

How can these objectives be achieved?

Gathering relevant and specific informa-tion is a pre-condition to providing effectivefeedback. The information must be relevantto the course objectives, to the teacher'sand learners' aims and priorities. Teachersoften focus on information which is easilyobtainable and measurable (such as resultsof simple vocabulary and grammar tests), neglec-ting far more important areas, such as under-standing speech and spontaneous oral perform-ance or reading comprehension. Moreover,in our zeal to teach the language, educationalaims sometimes take second place and we failto note whether a pupil is learning to co-operate with others (when this is called for)or to study independently, able to cope witha task without constant prompting. We needto observe our students carefully, not merelywrite down how they have done the tests andhomework.

Since we wish to encourage learnersand help them feel they can improve, we musttake great care that the way we give feedbackshould carry this message. Talking with a

pupil individually as often as possible, in

a relaxed atmosphere, listening as he or sheexplains their difficulties, looking togetherfor solutions to problems - this is far morevaluable than "feedback" by way of a "mark"(grade). Feedback can be given verbally ornon-verbally in the classroom; it can be givenin writing, with careful choice of words.To foster intrinsic motivation, feedback canbe built into tasks, by way of self-correction.In extensive reading, learners realize theycan read faster and move on to more difficultbooks, while enjoying the activity and content;thus ample positive feedback is provided,without outside intervention.

To sum up the effects of feedback, whenthe above means are used: The learner knowswhat to focus on, the teacher knows wherehelp is needed, the parents can be calledupon for a specific purpose. Moreover, theindividual learner feels the teacher caresand there is a basis for communication between

them. The learner's attitude to the subjectand the teacher is likely to be positive andinvesting an effort will appear worthwhile.

Evaluation:

Now let us turn to that part of evalua-tion which does not overlap with feedback.As we consider the means, prevalent in mostschools, we find an extensive use of tests,marks (grades), reports. These have objectivesother than providing feedback. An obviousone, which we readily admit, is to make thepupils work and to provide a deadline for

revision. Reviewing is important, deadlinesare useful. However, when we discuss theeffects, the negative by-products, we maywonder whether other means could be found.

Page 16 20 "THE TEACHER TRAINER", Vol.6,No.1 Spring 1992

We ate told tests and grades are neededfor classification purposes. If grades areneeded in the academic trend in the 12th grade,is it really necessary to emphasize them allthe way up the school, in every kind of class?I have been told that some headteachers demandtests as tangible proof that pupils and teach-ers are working ...

Are tests a proof of what has been

learnt? Some are, some are not. Some do

not, in fact, test what was intended; some

focus on the trivial; some are very difficultto construct (for example multiple choice),some are very time-consuming to correct.They take up valuable class-time and the

teacher's lesson-preparation time. I am notsuggesting we do without tests altogether.However, by pointing out the negative effectsof such evaluation procedures, I hope to en-courage teachers to seek out alternative waysto motivate their pupils and provide morevaluable feedback.

The most obvious effect of evaluationprocedures is to play up extrinsic motivation,dependent on outside agents. It has been

found that extrinsic motivation tends to extin-guish intrinsic motivation (1). There areclear signs of this, when children move fromsome primary schools, where feedback is largelynon-evaluative, to larger secondary schools,which tend to use evaluative procedures.Surely we should foster intrinsic motivation,because it is more lasting and makes for autono-mous learners, not dependent on outside rein-forcements.

Preparation for tests usually involves'swotting' and subsequent forgetting, as

many pupils tell us. Many students sufferfrom test-anxiety and are unable to do them-selves justice. Though success in a test

is certainly encouraging, failure is frustrat-ing and debilitating. Unless our tests aregeared to the pupils' differing abilities

and levels, there will always be failure.

Careful preparation can go a long way, but

can hardly bridge all gaps.

Tests promote competition and forbid

co-operation and mutual help, which we areeager to foster. Often random guessing is

a more successful strategy than thoughtfulness,since there is a time-limit. When childrenfeel they must succeed at all costs, they

may cheat: for them the end justifies the

means. Moreover, the teacher, playing the

role of evaluator, is set above the pupils

and a barrier is created. At Oranim, when

we role-play the aftermath of a test, we alwaysfind that "the pupils" end up by blaming theteacher for poor results, rather than any

other factor, such as lack of effort on theirpart!

in my plea for more feedback and less

evaluation I am well aware of the need for

gradual changes, rather than 'revolutions'.Both teachers and pupils have acquired certainhabits that 'die hard'. We tend to blame.'the system', rather than think through howwe could try to influence things. A greatdeal does depend on the individual teacher.

It is up to each of us to decide how muchweight we give the test as opposed to otherinformation we have gathered, how such timeand thought we give to appropriate feedback.I believe that if teachers get together withintheir own school or in area workshops, to

share ideas and suggestions on this importanttopic, they will find ways of dealing withsome of the problems.

A useful way of approaching the topicis for the group of teachers to define theirpriorities at a particular stage and then

consider ways of gathering information abouttheir students' progress in those areas.The students should be made aware of these

priorities and some self-assessment shouldbe encouraged. Though testing will, no doubt,be included in the proposed plan, it willbe only one element in a comprehensive pro-gramme. Moreover, thought should be given

to adequate preparation for tests, the possi-bility of student-prepared tests, multi-leveltests (especially for heterogeneous classes).

self-correction and other ways of decreasingthe negative effects of testing.

[Having said that all this is importantin the language classroom it is, of course,equally important for teacher trainers to

deal thoroughly with these issues on teachertraining courses. This means that throughoutour training courses we should be aiming formore feedback and less evaluation. Exactlyhow we work on this is for readers to consider.Do send in any ideas you have on the subjectand the editor will print them.]

(1) Deci, E.L., "The Effects of Contingentand Non-contingent Rewards and Controlson Intrinsic Motivation" in Organization-al Behaviour and Human Performance,Vol. 8 (1972), p.217-29.

"THE TEACHER TRAINER", Vol.6,No.l Spring 1992 21. Page 17

A FINAL "ANTI-EXAM" FOR AN IN-SERVICE TEACHERS'PROGRAM By Steven Brown

An in-service Masters' program often re- 4. What are "the three P's" and what is thelies on task-based learning. Because the place of each within a lesson?trainees are themselves working teachers, thetrainer's task is not to lecture, but to draw Yes ONoout the information the trainees have and tostructure tasks so that there is maximum time question:for reflection. All trainees will come awayfrom the series of tasks with different ex-periences, based on their starting points and 5. How is discovery learning different fromgoals. Still, a minimal amount of shared in- presentation?formation must be conveyed so that all partici-pants have a common vocabulary and common ex-periences to work from. The problem of "sign-posting" that information so that trainees knowwhat they are responsible for and so thatteachers in other following modules or classesknow what to expect from students,necessitatessome sort of closure/final exam. A traditionalfinal exam implies a sameness of experiences,starting points and goals. It is perhapsb,::ter to let the trainees decide what theyknow about the common vocabulary and what theyneed more information about. The following isa final "anti-exam" designed to let traineesreflect on one particular course; the prin-ciples apply to other courses.

FINAL EXAM

(Suggested time: 40 minutes)

Read the questions below in a group. Don'tanswer them. Instead, ask yourself IF you canyou answer them to your satisfaction. If youcan, check "Yes". If you can't, check "No" andwrite a question you'd like to ask me.

After you finish with this exam, you willattend a whole-group session to discuss thequestions.

1. What is grammar and why is it importantto teach it?

question:

Yes 0 No

2. What place do pair work and small groupwork have in your classes? How can you usethem more effectively?

question:

Yes 0 No

3. What is a task?

question:

Yes No

question:

Yes No

6. Define the following terms:

lockstep

Any problems?

0 Yes

question:

two-way task display question

ONo

7. What's the relationship of grammar tofunctions and notions within a syllabus?

question:

Yes No.

8. Can you define the following terms?

personalization mistake drills

consciousness-raising context

integrating skills

Yes No

questions:

Students viewed this exercise verypositively. Several claimed it gave them achance to show what they knew, not what theydidn't know. Many used it as an opportunityto talk about the issues again. Still otherslooked over the handouts once more to checktheir answers. A final whole-group sessionwent over all the questions and generated furtherdiscussions. Since students do the Exam insmall groups, the teacher can to some degreerely on stronger students helping the weakerformulate their answers and sharpen their under-standing, but, as with any small-groupactivity, the teacher should circulate and beavailable for questions. You needn't maintainan "exam atmosphere".

Biodata:

Steven Brown recently left ,lawn, where he was Director of

the University of Pittsburgh English Language Institute

Japan Program and Instructor in the Coluthia University

Teachers College M.A. IEUX, Pwwan in Tokyo. He is

currently a Teaching Fellow at the University of Pittsburgh.

Page 18 22 "THE TEACHER TRAINER", Vol.6,No.1 Spring 1992

PRACTICAL REFLECTIONS IN TEACHER IN-SERVICETRAINING By Anne Burns

In the 1990's most trainers will wish tothink of ways in which they can incorporatethe practical classroom experiences and thereflections of teachers themselves into teachertraining courses. In-service (and pre-service)courses are moving away from a 'top-down'approach where the 'all-knowing' trainer comesinto the group and lectures the 'unknowing'trainees on better ways to go about theirdaily business of teaching. In this approachthe trainees are viewed as empty vessels to befilled with information. The trainer's assump-tion seems to be that while he or she can pro-vide lots of expert advice, there can be noreal way of finding out how it is applied out-side the training session. It is consideredthe trainee's responsibility to go away andsomehow apply what is learned in the classroom,without necessarily bringing the outcomes backinto the training session. I feel that oftenthis approach results in little or no changein practice as trainees have not engaged in anymeaningful way in integrating what they hearin in-service sessions with what they carryout in classrooms.

A 'bottom-up' approach to training con-trasts with the 'top-down' approach by build-ing in opportunities for teachers to reflecton what occurs in their own classrooms. It

aims to draw on their own experiences of thecomplexities of teaching and learning in wayswhich can make classroom processes more expli-cit and thus more open to critical evaluation.In this approach the trainer sees him or her-self as possessing a certain kind of broadtheoretical and practical knowledge which willneed to be complemented by the particularsituational knowledge brought by the traineesfrom their own teaching contexts. Thus in thisapproach there is a blending of the more idea-lised insights from research and theory withthe daily experiences of teachers 'at thechalkface', where life tends to be far lesspredictable than research may suggest. Thus,there is a collaborative aspect built intothis approach and classroom experience is in-terpreted and, hopefully, reinterpreted in thelight of classroom knowledge.

We can draw some distinctions betweenthese two approaches and these are set out inthe table below. Although the table depictsthe two approaches as polarised, in practiceit is likely that most training courses willbe somewhere along a continuum between entirelytop-down or entirely bottom-up approaches. As

trainers, we will wish to reflect on our ownapproaches and to what extent and how we cancreate a balance between the two approaches,according to the types of trainees we are work-ing with.

TOP-DOWN AND BOTTOM --UP APPROACHES TO TRAINING

THE TOP-DOWN APPROACH

The trainer is the 'knower',the trainee the 'unknowing'

The trainer makes all decisionsabout what trainees need to know

The trainer draws on his/herknowledge to enforce learning

The trainer delivers the body ofknowledge

The trainer provides no/fewopportunities for feedback anddiscussion

The trainer evaluates the trainingfrom his/her own point of view

The trainer repeats the trainingcourse for the next group oftrainees

THE BOTTOM-UP APPROACH

The trainer and trainee knowin different but complementaryways

The trainer and trainee sharein the decision-making process

The trainer draws on thetrainee's knowledge to reinforcelearning

The trainer and trainee worktogether to pool their knowledge

The trainer builds into sessionsopportunities for feedback anddiscussion

The trainer and trainee evaluatethe training from both theirpoints of view

The trainer uses bothevaluations to modify the coursefor the next group trainees

NANO.

"THE TEACHER TRAINER", Vol.G,No.1 Spring 199223

Page 19

PRACTICAL REFLECTIONS IN TEACHER IN-SERVICE TRAINING

Teachers Reflecting on Practice

A practical example of how trainer know-ledge and teacher knowledge can be integratedinto a training course is offered below. Thistraining task was part of an in-service coursefor experienced adult ESL teachers working inthe Australian Adult Migrant Education Program(AMEP). It was designed as a follow-up tosessions where the teachers had been consider-ing theoretical perspectives on classroom inter- action, including such issues as the natureof the learner-centred classroom, second langu- age acquisition, error correction, teacherexplanation and task instructions. In orderto provide an 'action research' element wherethe teachers could investigate these issuesin their own classrooms, they were asked to:

1) Audio-record a segment of their classroominteraction (at least 4 hour)

2) Choose a 'critical episode' from thisinteraction, that is one where somethingunusual or of interest was occurring orone where they detected something theywould like to change

3) Transcribe all or part of this criticalepisode (approximately 5 minutes)

4) Bring copies of their transcription andtheir initial reactions to it to thesession

The session itself was used as an oppor-tunity to reflect critically with other experi-enced peers, on the insights which trainees hadgained from recording and transcribing theirown classroom data. There was a great deal oflaughter and comment on the fact that listen-ing to one's own classroom interaction was some-thing of a shock, but all agreed that the ex-perience had also been extremely illuminating.

In the session, the participants wereasked to form small discussion groups whichcould be used as a sounding hoard and a re-source for developing further teaching strate-gies. The groups were asked to:

1) Present and discuss the 'critical epi-sodes' they had identified

2) Identify any common areas which hadoccurred

3) Develop a range of strategies which couldbe tried out in the classroom to changeany practices they wished to improve

4) Agree on ways of documenting and keepingtrack of these changes

A follow-up to this discussion was afurther session where groups met again to re-view what had happened as a result of thechanges thay had made. Thus a cycle was setup of self-observation, reflection, collabora-tion and action which allowed teachers to en-gage more explicitly and in a practical

situation, with the theoretical knowledge theyhad been considering.

A sample of the teachers' comments indi-cate the types of concerns and questions whichemerged from this action research and whichwere used as the basis for developing strate-gies for change.

'I had no idea I was so teacher-centred.When I look at this it really stands out.What could I do to get my learners toparticipate more?'

'I think I was trying to introduce toomany things at once. The learners arehaving to listen, read and write all atthe same time. How could I have organi-sed this better?'

'I made these instructions far too compli-cated. They didn't know what to do.Give me some ideas on giving instructionsmore clearly.'

'This task was too complicated for thelearners. How could I modify it to makeit easier for them, so that they can com-plete it successfully?'

Drawing on the great range of expertiseand ideas which the various groups of traineeshad to offer, produced a large number of possi-ble strategies which could be tried out inanswer to some of these questions. Theteachers were able to go back to the classroom,use these practical insights in combinationwith the theoretical component of the courseand report back on the outcomes in a latersession. This approach to training has the

advantage of drawing on the daily interactionswhich go on in language classrooms in a prac-tical and realistic way. It also creates a'two-way street' of theory and practice whichcan complement and balance each other for thebenefit of both trainer and trainee.

Page 20 2L1 "THE TEACHER TRAINER", Vol.6,No.1 Spring 1992

ce Options Idewl8NINE-CARD DIAMOND TECHNIQUE

The technique I'm going to describe isone which was mentioned by Dr. Jon Roberts dur-ing an MATEFL course module I attended lastyear at Reading University. I'm afraid I do

not know who originated the technique.

I will first explain the technique andthen describe how I used it on a course forprovincial teacher trainers at secondary levelin Ecuador.

The method ensures that ideas on a parti-cular topic are considered systematically. Thetechnique also demands that ideas are priori-tised, the nine most important ideas beingsystematically ordered.

PROCEDURE

1. Task Clarification

The task is presented on the blackboard or OHPand the group allowed time to discuss the taskto ensure it is fully understood. For example,

groups could discuss what makes for an effect-ive INSET course. (This is discussed in moredetail below). The technique could also beused to prioritise the perceived needs ofcourse participants at the beginning of acourse, either in general or in a specificarea.

2. Individual Listing of ideas in Silence

Individuals list their own private responsesduring a fixed time period long enough to en-sure that this activity is unhurried.

3. Small Group Discussion

Groups of three or four list all their ideasrelated to the task. The ideas could also bewritten along the spokes of a 'wheel', as manyspokes being completed as possible; or in theform of a 'mind-map'. (See The Teacher TrainerVol. 2/3, Autumn 1988).

4. Group Priorities

Each group then chooses the nine ideas theyconsider the most important. These are thenwritten on separate cards and the 'nine-carddiamond' formed as below:

higher

priority

lower

5. Whole Group Priorities

The small groups then move back into a wholegroup and the exercise is repeated to arriveat an overall nine-card layout. (See belowfor an example of how this might work in prac-tice). The most important areas of the topichave now been agreed on. If a consensus isdifficult to obtain then some form of votingneeds to be considered. Each group could givea score out of five, for example, for each ideaand the cards for the nine ideas with thehighest scores arranged to form the 'nine-carddiamond' according to their scores.

AN APPLICATION ON A TEACHER TRAINING COURSE

I used the above technique on a coursefor provincial teacher trainers in Ecuador forthe purpose of determining what they thoughtwere the most important considerations for aneffective short INSET course. The majority hadalready run provincial courses as well as hav-ing attended a variety of courses as partici-pants, and were therefore able to make informedjudgments on the topic.

The small groups used 3 inch by 5 inchcards to form their 'nine-card diamonds'. Theideas were then transferred to larger cards fordiscussion in the whole group session. Therewere 12 participants in all and we opted to layout all the cards on the floor where the cardscould easily be seen by all, and at the sametime vary the normal routine of putting thingsup on the board. Cards were sorted accordingto the basic ideas expressed and one card se-lected as representative of each idea. Thecards with the nine most important ideas werethen formed into a 'nine-card' diamond. In

this particular case there was no problemarriving at a consensus, the whole proceduretaking an hour to complete.

One of the participants then volunteeredto prepare a poster outside class of the 'nine-card diamond', which was then put up on thewall for all to see throughout the course. Aspart of the course evaluation one group wasasked to develop a 'rating-scale' questionnaire,to be given to all participants to evaluatethe course itself in terms of the nine agreedcriteria noted on the poster for an effectiveshort INSET course. For example, one of thestatements the participants were asked to ratewas "The methodology used was appropriate forthe course objectives", this being one of thenine agreed criteria.

FURTHER USES

The 'nine-card diamond' technique is auseful communicative activity in its own rightand it could be introduced as such. However,

the method is most useful where course partici-pants as a group can indicate their prioritieson a topic. Course designers or leaders can

"THE TEACHER TRAINER", Vo1.6,No.1 Spring 1992 Page 21

then take actions based on the agreed priori-ties of the group. It could therefore be usedto determine course participant needs and ex-pectations for a course.

It could also be used as an awareness-raising activity, e.g. participants discusstheir views on language, on learning. A simi-lar activity could take place at the end ofthe course and a comparison made of the result-ing 'nine-card diamond'.

A further use, as part of an end-of-course evaluation, would be in determining themost valuable learning experiences during acourse as seen by the participants.

Its disadvantage is that it is probablynot practical for groups of more than about 20participants if all are to participate at allstages of the technique.

Les Embleton, British Council, Quito, Ecuador

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Obseryand Fe LI

iii

ackOBSERVING A READINGACTIVITY BY Flavia VieiraI hope teachers and supervisors find the propo-sed Schedule for Observing Reading Activities(SORA) useful as a guide for monitoring readinginstruction in general, and particularly in

the foreign language classroom.

GRID A, DESCRIPTIVE

The SORA, presented in Fig. 1, has 2

grids. Information written onto Grid A helpsto provide a descriptive account of a readingactivity and is to be filled in during thelesson by the observer(s). Grid A on theSORA integrates 6 observation areas:

1. Text Type

2. Skills

3. Task Type (including oral/writtenquestioning)

4. Steps (the basis for an analysisof global approach)

5. Students' response (problematicor not)

6. Negotiation (with or without readingproblems)

In filling in this grid, emphasis shouldbe placed on what actually happens, ratherthan what the observer thinks should happen.

SCHEDULE FOR OBSERVING READING ACTIVITIES(SORA)

GRID A. Descriptive account of the activity

1. Text Type 2. Skills

Page 22 26 "THE TEACHER TRAINER", Vol.6,No.1 Spring 1992

3. Task Type

-........--....--"ft..---..----

4. Steps

5. Students' response 6. Negotiation

The Components of Grid A

I will now explainA.

the components of Grid

Text type - By text type I mean, for

example, diary, letter, poem etc. (see

Hedge, 1988 for more examples).

Skills - By skills I mean, for example,

recognising the script of the target

language, understanding relations betweenparts of a text through cohesive devices,deducing the meaning of unfamiliar wordsfrom their context (see Grellet, 1983).

Task type By task I mean the specifictype of exercise being used in class

e.g. multiple-choice exercises, close,

question-answer, true-false etc. It

may be a pre-reading, reading or post-rea-ding task.

Steps - These are the specific proceduresthe teacher follows.

Students' response - Do the students

seem involved with the activity? Do

they have any language or reading prob-lems?

Negotiation - By negotiation I meanthe process of adjustment of interpreta-tions between teacher and students,

especially when reading problems aremet. For example, when a student mis-understands a text because of unfamiliarvocabulary, what does the teacher do

to understand the student and help withthe problem?

GRID B PRESCRIPTIVE

Grid B provides the basis for a globalappreciation of the reading activity and shouldbe used after the lesson by both the obser-ver(s) and the observed teacher together.

It reflects a more prescriptive perspec-tive. It suggests an analysis of the teacher'swork on the basis of a set of 5 criteria.

I. Global Approach

2. Relation between Text/Task andstudents

3. R elation between Text, Skills andTask

4. Instructions5. Negotiation Procedures.

Three performance levels are considered:Weak (W), Satisfactory (S) and Good (G).

Two other situations can be considered: NotApplicable (NA) and Not Observed (NO).

GRID B. Global Appreciation of Teacher Perfor-mance

Areas & Criteria NA NO W S G

1. Global Approach(coherence)

2. Relation between

Text/Task -Students(adequacy to SS' level+background knowledge)

3. Relation between Text

- Skills - Task (coherence)

4. Instructions(clarity+adequacy)

5. Negotiation Procedures

a. non-problematic responses(adequacy+variety)

b. problematic responses("focus" and "impact")

(NA: Not Applicable/NO: Not Observed/W: WeakS: Satisfactory/G: Good)

Suggestions for improvement/recommended reading

Components of Grid B

I will now explain the components of GridB,

Global approach Here the observer and observ-ed will try to reach some conclusions aboutthe coherence of the steps of the lesson.

"THE TEACHER TRAINER", Vol.6,No.1 Spring 1992 Page 2317,

1

OBSERVING A READING ACTIVITY

Was the consequence of reading activitieslogical?

Relation between text/task and studentsAre the texts and tasks appropriate to the

students' level and suitable for their back-ground knowledge of the language and the world.

Relation between text-skills and task - Thiscategory concerns the internal coherence ofone reading activity. Was the text/task typeappropriate for the development of a specifiedskill?

Instructions - Were the teacher's instructionsclear and adequate?

Negotiation procedures - How did the teacherhandle non-problematic responses from students?Was there an adequate and varied response?

SCHEDULE FOR OBSERVING READING ACTIVITIES(SORA)

GRID A. Descriptive account of the activity

1. Text Type 2. Skills

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Page 24

And for problematic responses from students?Two things need to be considered here:

(a) 'Focus' - by focus I mean, does the teach-er focus on the reader, the text or the readingprocess in his/her attempt to deal with readerproblems.

(b) 'Impact' - what impact does the teacher'seffort to negotiate have on the student?Does the procedure that the teacher uses resultin higher levels of comprehension, intensifyreading problems, have no effect at all?Or is the effect of the procedure on the stu-dent left unchecked?

The schedule also includes a final sectionwhere suggestions for improvement can be givenand readings recommended.

Here is an example each of Grid A and GridB filled in:

GRID B. Global Appreciation of Teacher Perfor-mance

Arens & Criteria NA NO W S G

1. Global Approach(coherence)

2. Relation between

Text/Task -Students(adequacy to SS' level+background knowledge)

3. Relation between Text

Skills - Task (coherence)

4. Instructions(clarity+adequacy)

5. Negotiation Procedures

a. non-problematic responses(adequacy+variety)

b. problematic responses("focus" and "impact")

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esso n28 "THE TEACHER TRAINER", Vo1.6,No.1 Spring 1992

(Text used in the lesson observed above)

LE 0 TEXTO:

Harrison Ford is a famous American actor.His address is 29, Beverly Hills, Hollywood.His best friend is Yamaha. He's from Tokyoin Japan. They are partners in the film"Indiana Jones and the Lost Temple".

1. Repara nas respostas dadas por um colegateu as seguintes questoes. Elas estao erradase to vais corrigi-las, sublinhando no textoa informacao de que precisares para o fazer.

a) Is Harrison Ford from USA?

No Iv kio!s orv1Amo rico

b) What's his address?

adrioas i s lc\ ,13awrij1-10110.,00ci ,CciviCkdCA

c) What nationality is Harrison Ford'sfriend?

ekinos_Q

2. Agora vais elaborar mais tres questoessobre o texto.

a)

b)

c)

(actividades elaboradas pelas estagiariasManuela e Augusta, na Escola PreparatoriaFrancisco Sanches)

Like any other schedule, the SORA canbe adapted to suit a variety of situations.Getting familiar with it will imply some train-ing in the analysis. The use of audio orvideo recordings will be especially usefulhere.

Teachers can use the instrument as a

whole or only part of it, according to theirparticular needs. For example, if negotiationis shown to be a weak area of a teacher'sperformance, observation can focus only onit. The SORA can be used as a guide for theplanning of reading activities too.

I would like to emphasise that the effec-tiveness of the use of the SORA depends onthe collaboration between teachers or betweenteachers and supervisors and on their willing-ness to discuss terms, experiences and pointof view. My main aim in developing the SORAis to adapt observation procedures and proto-cols to the type of activity being observedas well as to reconcile the descriptive andprescriptive perspectives inevitably involvedin teacher training. I am interested to showthat what one sees and how one sees it areinter-related tasks.

References

Allwright D. (1988). Observation in the langu-age classroom. London: 1.,ongman

Carrell, P. et al (1988). Interactive approach

-es to second language reading. Cambridge

CUP

Grellet, F. (1983). Developing reading skills.Cambridge: CUP

Harmer, J. (1983). The practice of Englishlanguage teaching. London: Longman

Hedge, T. (1988). Writing OUP. (see "Typesof writing")

Irwin, J. (1986). Teaching reading comprehen-sion processes. New Jersey: Prentice Hall

Lunzer, E. & Gardner, K. (eds) (1979). Theeffective use of reading. London: NEB

Nuttal, C. (1982). Teaching reading skillsin a foreign language. London: NEB

Thomson, J. (1987). Understanding teenagers'reading reading processes and the teachingof literature. New York: Methuen.

"THE TEACHER TRAINER", Vol.6,No.1 Spring 1992 Page 25

ARE OUR TRAINEES EMPLOYABLE? A summary of asurvey of RSA/Cambridge Certificate teacher-trainees andInternational House Directors of Studies. By Vic Richardson1. Introduction

At International House (IH) Hastings it is partof the school policy to periodically employnewly qualified [RSA/Cambridge Certificate]teacher/trainees and have a mix of experiencedand inexperienced teachers on the staff.

Over the last twelve months or so thosetrainees seem to have been experiencing con-siderable difficulty coping with their teach-ing load - and this despite a good, supportiveinduction process.

Their problems seem to fall into the followingthree areas:

1. Teaching Methodology.

The trainees tend to rely on a situationalapproach to dealing with language and on gamelike activities to promote oral interaction.

2. Resources and Materials.

The trainees tend to go to extreme lengths toavoid using the course books and commerciallyproduced materials available.

3. Course Planning.

The trainees find this very time consuming andseem to have great difficulty planning beyonda series of individual, self-contained lessons.

These problems may be unique to Hastings or atleast to UK based ARELS schools, but I thoughtit would be interesting to survey ex-IH Hast-ings' trainees, after their first month's teach-ing to find out if we needed to re-evaluateour own Certificate course. The survey wasthen expanded to include IH London trainees andIH Directors of Studies and thus gain a clearerpicture.

Statistics

As so often with "cold surveys" the initialresponse rate was quite low, and although theresults may provide food for thought I'm notsure how far it is possible to generalise fromsuch a small sample.

[Since the IATEFL conference I have receivedc.50% of the questionnaires sent out and al-though I have not updated the statistics thelate responses agreed/confirmed my "findings"from the original responses. ]

Survey 200 teachers after their first month'steaching.

*34 replies, ie. 17% (of which 85% camefrom four European countries: France,

Italy, Spain, Portugal.

80 Directors of Studies

*18 replies, ie. 20% (of which 85% were

from the same four countries al-though they weren't all from the samecities or schools as the trainees'responses)

Teaching Conditions

Teaching

Syllabus

Full Time 16-35 hours per week

Levels Beginnc.Advanced

Ages Either young learnersmostly 9 years andolder or adults -general English, EOPand one-to-one teaching

All teachers suppliedwith a syllabus &/orweekly timetables and/or a course book tofollow - except thoseteaching EOP and one-to-one.

* 58% of teachers employed in 1989 werestraight from the Certificate course.

2. Trainees' reflections on their firstmonth's teaching

* Most felt their first month had gone welland used adjectives like "invigorating", "chall-enging", "rewarding", and "encouraging" todescribe it.

* A few were disillusioned and were thinkingof giving up teaching.

* All of them found their first month "tough%The majority reported that they were on a fulltimetable of 22-30 hours; teaching any and alllevels and ages - and this while settling in,finding accommodation, etc.

64.r5. /'57)

fosio so

6'1k_

L--Z,

Page 26 .30 "THE TEACHER TRAINER", Vol.6,No.1 Spring 1992

* The kind of support varied considerably fromno support and no resources to an extremelycaring and supportive induction eg.

... I received a little help on how to use thebooks, apart from that I'm left to myself andevery so often someone asks: "How are you

getting on?"

... The educational support is excellent.The DOS helped with all my early lesson plansand is always on hand to give support andideas.

* The majority did feel they were given thesupport they needed. They stressed the signi-ficance and value of informal support and abouthalf seemed to qualify it with "but you haveto ask for it" eg.

... There's a lot of formal and informalsupport in the school but you have to ask forit.

3. Induction procedures for new teachers

With two exceptions all the Directors ofStudies reported that they had been able tofollow their procedures. This is surprisingsince it doesn't really agree with the trainees'responses, but this could be a fault in thequestionnaires.

A composite induction and orientation programme

Areas where they felt their course couldhave been more help [in order of frequency]

1. Teaching Children as young as six, but mostly9 and older. eg.

... the course teaches you classroom techni-ques for dealing with perfect students but un-fortunately "there's nowt worse than kids".It was an immense shock in the early days tobe presented with kids who have spent all dayat school and who are forced, by their parents,to attend extra English classes.

2. Using Course 'looks and Course Planning, eg.

... more work on timetabling would have beena great help. This has probably been the mosttime-consuming and difficult problem.

... more work on getting familiar with diffe-rent books, less on inventiveness.

... more on very practical, effective andquick planning.

... I seem to lose myself in a sea of course/text books.

greater in depth course book analysis.

3. Teaching mono-lingual "untrained classes"eg.

... more on teaching mono-lingual groups.

1.

2.

3.

4.

A reduced teaching load.

An introduction to the school-syllabus,timetabling and resources.

Assistance with timetabling and/orlesson planning.

Attachment to a mentor.

Although the basic TEFL theory still applies,it's hard to motivate students to talk Englishin pair/group work unless they think theteacher is about, otherwise they lapse into Ll,especially to discuss problems.

4. Teaching large classes eg.

... what do you do if you have more than theIH maximum number of students, as is the case

5. Observation of and by other teachers. with company classes here?Observation by Director of Studies orSenior Teacher/Assistant DOS. 5. Teaching English for Business, eg.

6. Informal peer support.... more on English for Business, materials,etc., and how to make it varied and lively.

7. Assistance with accommodation, permits,etc. 6. Teaching one-to-one, eg.

8. Survival language lessons.... preparing for teaching individuals. This

4. Trainees retrospective assessment of theirRSA/Cambridge Certificate Course

* The majority were unstinting in their praisefor the course, eg.

... an excellent grounding in classroom tech-niques, class management, lesson planning andmaterials exploitation.

... it didn't prepare me for the initial shockof starting teaching. However the longer I

teach the more beneficial the course becomes.I use my file like a dictionary or map todirect my teaching.

takes up 60%-707 of my teaching time.

* Throughout there was an undertone of theircourse having operated in an ideal environmentand a focus on it on ideals rather than reali-ties. This was put in sharp relief by theDirectors of Studies.

5. I.H. Directors of Studies assessment ofthe RSA/Cambridge Certificate Course

* The majority were also unstinting in theirpraise and seemed aware of how little can bedone on a 100 hour course with only 6 hoursteaching practice per candidate, eg.

... I feel that new teachers aro as well pre-pared as possible givelthe limitations of fourweeks.

1111101

"THE TEACHER TRAINER", Vol.G,No.1 Spring 1992 Page 27

ARE OUR TRAINEES EMPLOYABLE? to spend 3 hours planning every one hourlesson.

... totally prepared - the course providesnew teachers with the foundations of classmanagement and teaching techniques withoutwhich they could not possibly go into theclassroom.

* When describing the shortcomings of theCertificate course the DOS's were obviously con-cerned with local conditions. However thelocal conditions described seemed to be gene-rally applicable throughout Europe and there-fore should, at least, give us food for thought.

* Areas where DOS's felt the course was inade-quate [in order of frequency]

1. Teaching children eg.

... there should be another week on teaching.children: [heavily underlined & lots ofexclamation marks.]

... it is quite a shock for new teachers, par-ticularly with regard to discipline.

2. Course planning and using a course book,eg.

they a e ill-prepared for the volume ofwork, especeally in terms of time spent onplanning.

... they are not clear on exploiting coursebooks fully and feel somehow that if they don'tinvent all their own materials, they are cheat-ing.

... they think they have to think up their ownactivities rather than thinking about how toexploit the textbooks.

3. Teaching English for Business and one-to-one, eg.

... they are particularly unhappy about teach-ing one-to-one, tending to resort to conver-sation.

... ESP courses are problematic ... manyteachers feel uncomfortable in what they feelis foreign territory.

... they need more exposure to professional-type materials, to develop a more professionalapproach and to have some notion of what one-to-one involves.

... they should at least ha'e read Wilberg!*

4. The gulf between reality and the trainingcourse, eg.

... the main problem is the massive leap fromteaching 45 minute lessons with loads of timeto prepare a perfect lesson to having 2 or 3two hour classes per day.

... a shock to transfer from preparing oneperfect lesson per day to five per day. This

is unavoidable but it can be made clear thatit's a different approach and it's not feasible

... too much of a tendency to accept thecourse as the way to teach. It needs to bemade clearer that it's an introduction.

... there may be a gap between tried and-tested IH methods and more recent, i.e. student-centred, approaches to teaching.

... teachers themselves complain about thegulf between the course and their first jobs.Perhaps you could questionnaire them.

Two final quotes on RSA/Cambridge centres.

... there seem to be big differences in whatis covered [or at least remembered] from centreto centre.

there's a considerable difference betweenteachers who have done it at IH and elsewhere.This is not necessarily a qualitative diffe-rence but they are rather differently preparedfor different aspects of teaching.

6. Conclusions

Maly of the conclusions are self-evident and inHastings we have been reviewing our certificatecourses to take account of them. In terms oforganisation and content:

1. We place greater emphasis on using coursebooks and course planning:

course books play a greater role in TP

* in addition to our input session on usingcourse books and our course book review we havea two hour workshop on planning a series oflessors based on one unit of a course book anda shared course assignment on planning a time-table.

2. We have been able to organise six hours pertrainee of unsupervised teaching practice one-to-one.

3. We now have a two hour input session onteaching children and another two hour sessionon teaching English to professional people.

In terms of bridging the perceived gap betweenour ideal environment and reality

* we are becoming more aware of our hiddenmessages eg. a way vs. the way.

* and of increasing our trainees' awarenessof realistic teaching conditions.

There are, however, other conclusions that canbe drawn, which, perhaps, go beyond the empha-sis placed on particular areas by individualcentres.

One is that despite the "tried and tested"nature of the syllabus, which aims to encapsu-late mainstream ELT, perhaps it is dated andout of step with developments in the profession.For example, with the change of focus from theteacher and teaching to the learner[s] and

Page 28 3;2 "THE TEACHER TRAINER", Vol.6,No.1 Spring 1992

learning how relevant is the PPP model or classmanagement defined as lesson [rather than

people] management? This may not be the timeto evaluate and re-define the syllabus but Ifeel some serious discussion of it would befruitful - a working party to look into it?

A second conclusion I came to concerns theseeming misconception of what the Certificatescheme aims to achieve and what can be expectedof a Certificate level teacher. The DOS re-plies to my survey left me with the suspicionthat wha they'd like from a Certificate levelteacher is what I, as a trainer would expectfrom a Diploma level teacher. This suspicionwas strengthened when I read Hugh Davies'"Evaluative Study of the RSA/Cambridge Certi-ficate" (CALS Reading) and I found myself won-dering if this misconception about the Certifi- cate course being more than an initial train-ing course may account for the condemnation ofit I encountered in Dublin from trainers inHigher Education and Teacher Training Colleges- "you're arrogant enough to think you cantrain a teacher in 4 weeks" [You = the Certi-ficate trainers].

The Certificate syllabus clearly says it is aninitial training course and perhaps having acriterion referenced report, which demon-strates the introductory nature of it would helpincrease awareness, but I feel more could bedone to increase awareness in the professioneg. UCLES could consider supporting the publi-cation of an initial INSET course/book.

One last conclusion I came to concerns thegrowing need for some training for teachingyoung learners. The Certificate may have theword "adult" in its title but since it existsto meet a real need in the profession and sincethe market for teaching children is growingrapidly, I do feel that schools are justifiedin complaining that the scheme does nothing tohelp.

[Ill Hastings ran two week courses, in the UK,on teaching young learners a few years ago, butit wasn't until we started a joint venturewith IH Matero to run them in Spain that theybecame successful. I know a few schools inEurope offer courses and I feel this is onearea where the overseas centres can take theinitiative by focussing their attention on thisarea and, eg. lobbying UCLES/the schemecommittee to consider proposals for a younglearners module etc.]

(This survey summary was initially presentedto the IATEFL ELT Management Special InterestGroup at the IATEFL Dublin conference in March1990).

Reference

Hugh Davies (1990) "Evaluative study of theRSA/Cambridge Certificate". Publisher: UCLES.

Wilberg P. (1980. 'One to One'. LanguageTeaching Publications.

Hildetstone Prilintinuy CertificateCourses for overseas teachers of English

Why Hilderstone?Small groups

Highly experienced teaching staffReasonably priced accommodation

For details write to:Teacher Training, (Dept.TTIHilderstone College, BroadstairsKent CTI 0 2AQ, England

Tel: 0843 69171Telex: 966182 THANET GFax: 0843 603877

Sterntvr

"111E TEACHER TRAINER", Vol.6,No.1 Spring 1992 BEST COPY AVAILABLE Page 29

BRIEF ABSTRACTS(Supplied by the BAAL abstract-abstracting service)

450-11 Aligote, Carlos and Colophon, Eulalia.Tnterlanguage in MA students. SouthShields Journal of Prophylactic Lin-guistics, 22, 3 (1990)

Utterances of Applied Linguistics studentscan be sited along a continuum running frompure Ll forms (e.g. We have to teach themto understand English) to pure TL forms (e.g.Our prime pedagogic task is to encouragestrategies which will enhance learners' capa-city to attend to the pragmatic communicativesemiotic macro-context). The paper offersa choice of five models to account for non-systematic variability in the data, treatingLl, IL and TL as hierarchically independentsemipermeable systems in each case.

450-12 Bangalore-Torpedo, Lieut-Col. AlisonC. Smith, Mohammed K, and Jones,

Jeff. A taxonomy of bibliographies.Zeitschrift fUr Grundsatzfragen(Munich), 111, 1 (1991)

Bibliographies can be classified into epistemic(designed to show what the writer has read)and deontic (aimed at telling the reader whatto read). These categories correlate to someextent with defensive and aggressive approachesto bibliography. Special cases studied includethe cannibal bibliography (which swallows

up smaller bibliographies), the onanistic

bibliography (which lists only works by theauthors of the article to which it is appended)and the autonomous bibliography (whose accomp-anying paper has atrophied or totally dis-appeared). The paper is accompanied by a

comprehensive bibliography.

450-13 Carruthers, Norbert St-C Foulkes.

Phonetician's palate. Colorado Review

of Articulatory Phonetics, 12, 2

1990)

Phonetician's palate has attracted some atten-tion in medical circles recently, since themuch-pulicised case of Professor Solomon Andrexof Knokke, who suffered a spectacular breakdownwhile researching into nasal plosion. It

is now becoming clear that PP is a widespreadcondition, analogous to the degeneration of

the meniscus in 'Runner's Knee'. The palateweakened by years of cushioning tiny but re-peated percussive strikes, loses resilienceand begins to transmit shocks directly to

the brain, with the unfortunate results thatwe see all around us.

450-14 Brisket, Gladys P. Coming clean oncohesion. Reading Research as a

Cottage Industry (South Molton),432, 12 (1991)

If you refer more than once to a person, thing,or event, the second mention can be made eitherby using the same words as before (iteration),other content words (synonomy), grammaticalsubstitutes (anaphora) or no words at all(ellipsis). All of these are cohesive devices.This has led some critics of the theory to

ask what would not count as a cohesive device.The answer is: nothing. Everything is cohe-sive. Life itself is a cohesive device.

450-15 Sackbottle, Caliban Q. Does instruc-tion work? An in-depth study. Occa-sional Papers from the Seville Collo-quium, 16 (1990)

A group of four Spanish-speaking nuns fromTierra del Fuego was exposed to comprehensibleinput containing numerous instances of EnglishQuantifiers over a period of six hours. Atthe same time, they were given explicit instruc-tion in the semantics of English attitudinaldisjuncts. A test to determine whether theircommand of quantifiers had improved more orless than their command of disjuncts was incon-clusive:

X1(1,N=4)=.68,0..25.

450-16 Dzhugashvili, JV. An ice-breakerfor that first session. The HumanePractitioner (Jackson Hole), 1, 1

(1991)

Get all the students to write out name badgesfor themselves. Then collect up the namebadges, shuffle them and redistribute. Tellstudents that they have to find and interview'themselves'; they must elicit three new piecesof information about 'themselves' that theydidn't know before. Having done this, theymust find someone in the classroom who doesn'tlike repairing bicycles, and tell him/herhow they feel about what they have just experien-ced. Identify-transfer of this kind helpsstudents bridge the gap between autocentricand allocentric modes of communication, andprepares the ground for classroom parameter-setting activities.

Michael Swan

(Reprinted with the kind permission of MichaelSwan and the BAAL newsletter.)

Page 30 34 "THE TEACHER TRAINER", Vol..6,No.1 Spring 1992

RECEIVEDOf special interest or relevance to teachertrainers are:

The Cambridge encyclopedia of language by

David Crystal (1987) CUP. ISBN 0- 521 - 42443-

7. This huge book, available in paperback,has 11 parts comprising 65 thematic sections.Each section is a self-contained presentationof a theme in language study e.g. popularideas about language, language and identity,the structure of language, language, brainand handicap. There are maps, diagrams,

photographs, a glossary and a table of the

world's languages and where spoken. A mineof information. This is one for the (strong)bookshelf.

Comparing languages. English and its Europeanrelatives by Jim McGurn (1991) CUP. ISBN 0-521- 33638 -4. A tiny paperback for use in

schools modern language and/or English teach-ing. It comes with a cassette and is clearlymarked for solo, pair and group work. Writtensimply and peppered with cartoons and othervisuals it sets out to give pupils an ideaof how every day English is related to. forexample, Dutch, German, Italian and French.

The anti-grammar, grammar book by Nick Halland John Shepheard (1991) Longman. ISBN 0-582- 03390 -X. A teacher's resource book for

those working with upper intermediate studentswho have already met most of the verb formsof English. it shuns the giving of rulesand favours the student in the role of 'think-er' working through tasks to discover grammatic-al rules and meanings for themselves. it

is thus also useful with native speaker teachertrainers at pre-and in-service level to extendtheir own language awareness and to show howlanguage areas can be presented to higherlevel language students.

Womanwords by Jane Mills (1991) Virago. ISBN

1-85381-274-9. A specialist dictionary, thisbook selects some 300 words that relate to

women and traces their semantic histories.Words such as Authoress, Bluestocking, Dowagerand Harridan are included, as well as muchnaughtier ones.

language change: progress or decay? by JeanAitchison (1991) CUP. ISBN 0-521-42283-3.This book pulls together into a coherent wholea previously rather disjointed and contra-dictory literature on how we know there is

change, how language changes happen, why theyhappen and how and why whole languages beginand end. it is a second edition that nowincludes details of recent research on syntac-tic change, change within social networksand the relationship between children and

change.

MkTraining foreign language teachers by MichaelWallace (1991) CUP. ISBN 0-521-35654-7.After an overview of some current models ofteacher education, Sch8n's model of the reflec-tive practitioner is settled on as a coherentframework for theory and practice. Thereis then an explanation of how a reflectiveapproach can be applied to areas such as class-room observation, microteaching supervision,assessment and course design.

ELT Documents: 133 Research in the languageclassroom Eds: C. Brumfit and R. Mitchell(1990) Macmillan. SBN 512162. A collectionof 12 rather varied articles divided looselyinto 3 sections. A sample of the contentsare "The language classroom as a focus forresearch" by the editors, "The teacher asresearcher" by David Nunan, "Researchingteachers: behaviour and belief" by Tony Lynch,"Classrooms and display questions ".

Management in English language teaching by

Ron White et al (1991) CUP. ISBN-0- 521 37763-3. Aimed specifically at teachers who aremaking the transition into management in EFL,this book has 3 main sections. People andorganisations, (staff selection and develop-ment, curricula, resources, information),Marketing (developing and implementing a market-ing plan), Finance (records, statements,cashflow, accounting). Printed in unfortun-ately small, light type the book neverthelessattempts to adapt general management ideasto an EFL teaching context.

Literature with a small '1' by John McRae(1991) Macmillan. ISBN 0-333-55572-4. A

wordy, chatty and intelligent argument forthe use of all kinds of imaginative, representa-tional material (including songs, comics,readers and visuals) and not just "High Litera-ture" to stimulate reaction and response inthe learner. Practical sections too on howto use the material.

Literature on language: an anthology compiledby Christopher Brumfit (1991) Macmillan.SBN 567706. A personal collection of textsfrom sources including aw-obiographies, novels,historical texts, diaries and letters - onthe subject of 'schools and tutors', 'languageacquisition',' literacy experience' and 'lingui-stic insight and prejudice'. Some womenincluded. Could possibly be useful in trainingsessions as a reminder of the non-specialist'sview of language.

Language in action, An introduction to modernlinguistics by Joanne Kenworthy (1991) Longman.ISBN 0-582-03583-X. Slim paperback with sec-tions on words, sounds, sentences and textsand conversations. A swift accessible tastefor first year undergraduates, general readersor pre-service teachers. 130 pages.

"THE TEACHER TRAINER", Vol.6,No.1 Spring 1992 Page 31

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'LEACHERTRAINER

VOLUME SIX NUMBER TWO SUMMER 1992

Published three times a yearEDITOR: Tessa Woodward

EDITORIAL 3

The administrator's role in actionresearchR.E. Lenzuen and V.R. de A Couto 4

Subscriptions Information

TRAINING AROUND THE WORLD - SPAINThe role of the English languageassistant and the teacher's centreD. Casas, G. Gibson & M.L. MartinezDe Rituerto 15

5 FishbowlMario Rinvolucri 18

Another flipping training aidIan McGrath 7

The use of foreign languages intraining teachers of EnglishMartin Parrott

Psychodrama, human relations trainingand language trainingBernard Dufeu

TRAINER BACKGROUNDInformation on the Centre forInformation on Language Teaching(CILT)

PROCESS OPTIONS: IDEA 19MetaplanNick Shaw

8

10

Action logging: Letting thestudents in on teacher reflectionprocessesTim Murphey

SESSION PLANErroroleplayRosie Tanner

Teacher training games series:Game 7 Language DominoesSara Walker

20

23

26

10 BOOK REVIEWSeth Lindstromberg 30

AUTHOR'S CORNER13 Aleksandra Golebiowska 31

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED 32

PUBLISHED BY: Pilgrims Language Courses, 8 Vernon Place, Canterbury, Kent CT1 3HG., EnglandTel: (0227) 762111 from within UK.

PRINTED: The University of Kent Printing Unit, Canterbury, Kent, England.

For all enquiries concerning subscriptions, advertising and contributions, please contact the Editor.

Views expressed in the articles are not necessarily those of the Editor, or of PilgrimsLanguage Courses.

Page 2-'412

THE TEACHER TRAINER, Vol.6, No.2 Summer 1992

ABOUT THIS ISSUE

The Teacher Trainer has some regular seriesin its pages. Not all these series appearin each issue. This time the following themesreappear:

Process options This series helps trainersnot so much with the content of their sessionsbut with a variety of ways of conducting them.Nick Shaw shares an idea here called "Metaplan"which is designed to reduce the impact of

strong individuals in a group and to enhancedemocracy.

Training around the world The country wevisit this time is Spain. Members of a teach-ers' centre outline the role that a Britishlanguage assistant plays in local teachereducation.

Session plan The idea of this series is

to print in good detail the steps of sessionsthat have worked well for a particular trainer.Rosie Tanner offers us a role play usefulin a session on error correction.

Book review Seth Lindstromberg gives usa frank and friendly review of HectorHammerly's book "Fluency and Accuracy".

Author's corner The space in this regularcolumn is for writers to explain why or howthey wrote a particular book o? how they feelabout it now it's published.

Trainer background is designed to keep train-ers abreast of developments and to fill in

any empty gaps in our knowledge. A shortpiece this time on the Centre for Informationon Language Teaching. But check out thePublications Received page too as some of

the Centre's books are included in it.

As well as the regular series that showup from time to time, each issue of The TeacherTrainer blends well-known names and newcomers,thought pieces and practical ideas, writersfrom North, South, East and West. With thisblend in mind

Rosa Lenzuen and V.R. de A Couto voicesfrom Brazil, help administrators and managersof schools to organise practical support foraction research projects.

Ian McGrath helps us to travel light(but effectively) with a visual aids idea.

Martin Parrott discusses some problems

in using the traditional "foreign languagelesson" on training courses. He also detailssome measures to help circumvent the problems.

Bernard Dufeu, well-known for his workin psychodrama, stresses the importance of

recognising that when we teach and train wetransmit our own ways of communicating.

Mario Rinvolucri, a regular contributor,gives us some flexible adaptations of the

fishbowl principle. And Tim Murphey, writingfrom Japan, argues the importance of allowingstudent reflections in our talk of "reflectiveteaching".

Sara Walker offers us another teachertraining game. This time one that is designedto work on teacher language awareness.

So ... a full issue this time. I reallyhope you enjoy it

Tessa WoodwardEditor

ABOUT "THE TEACHER TRAINER"

"The Teacher Trainer" is a journal especiallyfor those interested in modern language teachertraining. Whether you are a teacher who tendsto be asked questions by others in a staffroom,or a Director of Studies with a room of yourown, whether you are a course tutor on an examcourse, or an inspector going out to schools,this journal is for you. Our aims are to pro-vide a forum for ideas, information and news,to put trainers in touch with each other andto give those involved in teacher training a

feeling of how trainers in other fieldsoperate as well as building up a pool of ex-perience within modern language teacher train-ing.

The journal comes out three times a year andmakes use of a variety of formats e.g. article,letter, comment, quotation, cartoon, interview,spoof, haiku ideas. If the idea is good.we'll print it whatever voice you choose toexpress it in.

THE TEACHER TRAINER, Vol.6, No.2 Summer 1992 43 Page 3

THE ADMINISTRATOR'S ROLE IN ACTION RESEARCHBy Rosa E Lenzuen and Vera Regina de A Couto

Introduction

The Cultura Inglesa-Rio (SBCI-Rio) is a non-profit making organization with sixteen

branches and about 300 teachers. It offersEnglish Language courses to nearly 30,000students. In addition to these courses, it

also offers an extensive and varied culturalprogramme to the community at large.

In the past few years, encouraging an increasein teacher-initiated development has been

our main concern at SBCI. With this in mindwe have set up a project which has as itsmain aim the arousal in teachers a desireto investigate their own puzzles - an actionresearch project.

Such a project involves not only raising teach-ers' awareness of their own implicit theoriesof teaching and learning but also creatingan atmosphere of cooperation and a sense ofjoint ownership of the project. No feelingof obligation or urgency should be felt by

any of the parties involved, since this wouldno doubt defeat the objective of the project.An action research project also involves sett-ing up adequate support systems in order tomake the investigation of teachers' puzzlespossible. Before moving on to the supportneeds that have to be met by an institutionwanting to promote action research, however,

it may be wise to focus for a moment on thenotion of action research itself in order

to throw some light on the framework withinwhich our project has taken shape.

Action Research

The term "research" may sound intimidatingat first, conjuring up images of questionnairesdependent and independent variables and stati-stical analyses of various kinds. What is

central to the notion, however, is systematicobservation and reflection on what has beenobserved, in order to improve one's understand-ing of the focus of observation. Thus, a

research perspective can be integrated into

pedagogy. Teaching can be driven by the desireto understand classroom language learning.This in turn can contribute insights which,interacting with theory-driven research, willenhance our general understanding of the

teaching - learning process. What we arereferring to is therefore not rigorous researchwhich is separate from teaching but systematicobservation of and reflection on what happensin the classroom. As the term "action re-search" indicates - the focus of observation,that which we strive to understand better,is on what the teacher does, what the learnersdo, the teaching and learning opportunitiesthat arise during a lesson, the reasons whysome opportunities are taken up while othersaren't, etc.

The figure below shows the essence of actionresearch as we perceive it.

It is not of the essence to be rigorous interms of research methods. It's more importantto make sure that this research perspectiveis an integral part of pedagogy, rather thansomething added to it (and dissociated fromit).

A final consideration concerns the "startingpoint" of action research: when a teachertakes up a project, she's setting out to ex-plore an aspect of the teaching-learning pro-cess that puzzles her from some reason (notnecessarily as D. Allwright points out

-because it is a problem). Naturaliy,she'llbe starting her investigation from where sheis in terms of her theory of teaching andlearning (whether explicit or implicit).This in turn will to some extent determinewhat kind of research method or instrumentsshe will choose to use.

Setting up our action research project

After two and a half years, and especiallyafter Prof. Dick Allwright's two-month staywith the Cultura Inglesa, we feel we have

been very successful indeed with our actionresearch project. The joint efforts madeby the academic body of the institution andclassroom teachers are beginning to show en-couraging results.

After the first stages of awareness raising(during which the focus was on what it meantto engage in action research and on the system-atization of the observation and reflectionthat were already taking place), we now findthat between 30 and 40% of our teachers arecarrying out projects. What's more, manyprojects are carried out in teams, which meanscollaboration is enhanced and ideas and in-sights shared on a regular basis. As more

Page 4 THE TEACHER TRAINER, Vol.6, No.2 Summer 1992

and more teachers involve their students intheir projects as collaborators rather thansubjects (by asking them to keep diaries orhelp in questionnaire design and analysis,for example), learners' views are being in-corporated more systematically into the pictureemerging from observation thus contributinginformation about classroom language learningfrom their - very important perspective.

The question now is: how can we make oursupport systems more effective in order to

meet the needs of the growing number of teach-ers wanting to explore the issues they areinterested in?

Support needs

The needs of teachers who take up action re-search are varied. Some are of an affectiveor cognitive nature. Some involve more practi-cal issues such as easy access to materialsand administrative support, without whichit would not be possible to draw up and imple-ment their plans.

Affective needs

These include the need for an atmosphere thatpromotes autonomy and self-confidence. Respect

for the teacher's puzzles and the ways in

which s/he has chosen to explore them arecrucial. There would be little point in

suggesting, for the sake of research rigour,methods or perspectives for which the teacheris not yet ready, for example. What can beof value is to listen to what s/he has tosay and to ask for clarification or makecomments in order to help the teacher articu-late her/his own thoughts while showing duerespect for them. This does not mean uncondi-tional agreement but rather the recognitionthat it is the teacher's puzzles and decisionsthat are being discussed and that it is ultimat-ely up to them to manage their explorations.

It is also important to note that - whilesenior members of staff should be availableto discuss action research projects with teach-ers they are by no means the only humanresources around. A forum for communicationbetween teachers doing action research orthinking of doing it can go a long way towardscreeating a "research sub-culture" in whichthey can give each support and encouragementas well as share their insights. More seniormembers of staff ought to see themselves andbe seen as members, not leaders, of this group.

Cognitive needs

The same forum mentioned above will go a longway towards meeting the teachers' cognitiveneeds through the exchange of ideas it makespossible. The expertise of more senior membersof staff can be made good use of in this sense,through their suggesting readings where appro-priate, and research methods that can be usefultools for investigation. Suggestions will

come rather as a response to expressed needsor preferences, but senior staff members haveto be attentive to the opportunities arising

Suiscripi ionsInform. 1 don

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The journal is for a specialist audience andso circulation figures will be considerablylower than for more general teaching magazines.The costs of producing a journal do not, how-ever, sink appreciably just because the circu-lation is small. We have, therefore, settledon the figure above

UK Subscribers p'-.ase send your cheques, madepayable to "Pilgrims", to the Editor.

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THE ADMINISTRATOR'S ROLE IN ACTION RESEARCH cont'd

for suggestions:"

At SBCI we have made every effort to meetthe teacher-researchers' cognitive needs by

making senior members of staff available to

them through meetings both at headquartersand at branches, and office hours during whichthey can come to discuss their projects.

Meetings at branches are also called regularlyand action research is always a point on theagenda. It is important to ncte that teachersare paid to attend these branch meetings.This makes another important resource-timeavailable to them. There is also a regularaction research slot in our annual pre-termSeminar. For this slot we have organizedan Action Research poster session, a colloquiumand a Special Interest Group. Books and arti-cles are also promptly made available to teach-ers through our technical library.

Practical needs

The support systems we've been discussing

include a more practical set of concerns.

It is necessary for materials of all sorts,equipment, literature and facilities such

as photocopying to be available and easilyaccessible to teachers. If administrativepersonnel are needed to help organize an extraactivity, or to type a questionnaire, to getan article photocopied, it is encouragingfor teachers to know that they will be ashelpful as possible. Thus administrative

WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEND SOMETHING IN TO"THE 'TEACHER TRAINER'?

"The Teacher Trainer" is designed to be a

forum for trainers, teachers and trainees

all over the world. If you'd like to send

in a letter, a comment, a cartoon, a tapedconversation or an article sharing information,ideas or opinions we'll be very happy to re-ceive it. It's easier for us if the writtenpieces are typed up with double spacing and46 characters a line. The style should be

simple and readable and the normal length

of articles is about 1000 to 2000 words.

We can serialise if necessary but this willdelay publication considerably:

responsibilities of this kind need to be

clearly allocated and time allowed for them.

At SBCI we're now in the process of evaluatingour support systems in order to refine them.We want to make it even easier for teachersto communicate with each other and with othermembers of staff. As more and more teachersget involved in the project, more effortsneed to be made to make all the resources(including human ones) available to them.Institutional support is crucial. It's an opera-tion that needs to be carefully thought outand constantly evaluated and improved. Butthe results -joint professional developmentand mutual support - are well worth the effortsmade.

SHORT READING LIST

Allwright, R. - 1988 - Observation in theLanguage Classroom, Longman.

Allwright, R. & Bailey K. 1991 - Focus onthe Language Classroom, CUP.

Candlin, C. - 1986 - What is Action Researchin Schools - In Journal of Curriculum Studies10:4.

Cohen, L. & Manion, L. 1989 - Research Methodsin Education Routledge.

Hopkins, D. - 1985 - A Teacher's Guide to

Classroom Research - Open University Press.

Hustler, D., Cassidy, T. & Cuff, T. (eds)

- 1986 Action Research in Classrooms andSchools - Allen & Unwin.

Nunan, D. - 1989 Understanding LanguageClassrooms - Prentice Hall.

Nunan, D. - 1990 - Action Research in the

Language Classroom - In Richards, J. & Nunan,D. (eds) - Second Language Teacher Education- Cambridge Language Teaching Library - CUP.

Taror.e, E. & Yule, G. - 1989 - Focus on theLanguage Learner - Oxford University Press.

NEWS

Third International Jerusalem ConferenceTEFL-TESOL

Date: July 11-14, 1993

Place: Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Organized by: ETAI (English Teachers'Association of Israel)

Conference Convenors: Dovra Ben-Meir,

Evy Ezra

Details from: ETAI, POB 7663,

Jerusalem,

Israel 91076.

4-6 THE TEACHER TRAINER, Vol.6, No.2 Summer 1992

ANOTHER FLIPPING TRAINING AID By Ian McGrathInstitute of Language Studies, University of Edinburgh

The travelling trainer in trouble

As a travelling trainer ("Have OHP transparen-cies, will travel") I have sometimes run intopractical difficulties on overseas trips.

Perhaps you can also identify with this littlescenario ...

The OHP (requested, premised) has not material-ised/is broken/is locked in a cupboard andsomeone has thrown away the key or ...

there isn't a screen or suitable wall on whichto project/the lead is so short that yourprojected image is too small to be seen by

the majority of the participants/ the plug

doesn't fit the socket or ... there isn'tenough electricity to power the machine (withthanks to Jimmie Hill)/the power supply is

variable - now you have an image, now you

don't/there's a power cut/the bulb blows andthere isn't a replacement one/the base plateshatters while you're using it (yes, this

really happened to me:).

Fortunately, there is a good old-fashionedblackboard; unfortunately, the chalk makeslittle visible impression on the rutted surfaceof the board and has a disconcerting habitof disintegrating on contact in anticipationof such an unequal struggle.

What this article is not about

Necessity being the mother of invention, wefind ways of coping with these little trials.This article is not about the techniques wecome up with, which could probably fill an

issue of The Teacher Trainer. Nor is it aboutthe more basic question of the role of visualpresentation in training, though that is a

topic well worth discussing.

What this article is about

It was in Colombia thatI discovered the valueof the flipchart. I had

had earlier encounterswith flipcharts in meetings and at one pointhad even made my own *1 for working withlarge pictures. But it was in Colombia whereI was running week-long seminars for trainersand ran into some of the difficulties listedabove *2 that I became more fully aware ofthe flipchart's potential as a low-cost, high-convenience aid.

Features common to the OHP and flipchart

1. A portable 'blackboard': flipchartsheets, like OHP transparencies, can be usedto present previously prepared input/stimulusmaterials (notes, questions, diagrams, etc.),thus saving class time.

2. Effective presentation: prior prepara-tion allows for consideration of how materialcan be most effectively presented: e.g. layoutuse of colour to link or highlight ideas orsimply add visual appeal; presentation canalso be controlled, by masking sections withpieces of blank paper and Blue-tack or by

using a new sheet for the next phase.

3. Dynamic quality: sheets can be partiallyprepared and subsequently added to by thetrainer or participants.

These three points I was already aware of:

the next two crystallised in the course ofthe first Colombian seminar.

Possible advantages over the OHP and blackboard

4. 'Permanent' record: at the end of a

day's work, there is a map showirg the groundcovered. This can be consulted either by

participants who were absent from a particularsession or by the trainer. It is also possi-ble to go back - to review, extend, make connec-tions - a feature that can be particularlyuseful in a summary session at the end of

a short course. OHP transparencies can be

used in these ways, of course, but rather

less conveniently.

5. Everyone's property: the flipchartand its individual, sheets, belong to everyone:participants may be asked to present their

ideas using the flipchart or add their pointsto those already made by the trainer: indivi-dual sheets may be used to record the resultsof groupwork and displayed around the roomfor a time. Again, the OHP or blackboardcan be used in similar ways; the differences,such as they are, lie in convenience, perma-nence and ownership (a concept that, for me,originated in a Silent Way week-end).

THE TEACHER TRAINER, Vol.6, No.2 Summer 1992 .,1A7 Page 7

While I was in Colombia, I was asked to givea talk at the local British Council officeon 'The Good Language Learner', a topic notdirectly related to the theme of the seminarI was running. Two of the seminar participantscame along to the talk, during which I used

a flipchart. At the end of the talk, I wasdelighted when they came up to me and askedif they might have the three or four flipchartsheets which recorded my ideas and those ofmy audience. I'd like to think that the reasonfor this request was not because they had

omitted to take notes but because they saw

some possible use for the sheets in their

own training sessions.

Final thoughts

I realise that the flipchart has certain dis-advantages when compared to an OHP, particu-larly in relation to portability and storageof transparencies/flipchart sheets, but alsoin terms of the amount of material that canbe presented on a single sheet and the sizeof image. I realise also that the use of

paper for flipcharts might be regarded as

wasteful (one can try to economise by usingthe reverse side of the sheets, but some penswill show through). A glib answer to this

would be that transparencies and the oil-

based pens for use on them also deplete theworld's resources; my own answer would be

that this is yet one more point to take intoaccount when selecting training procedures.

Most solutions to the worst-case scenariosketched at the beginning of this articleare likely to be a compromise. For me, how-ever, the use of the flipchart as a complementto the OHP or blackboard has become a positivechoice. Try it.

"Have OHP transparencies,have flipchart sheets(or can find them on thespot), will travel."

*1 See Clissold, B. 1978. The paperboard(or home-made flipchart). In Moorwood, H.

(ed.) 1978. Selections from MET. London.Longman: 79-80

*2 Colombia is not significantly differentfrom some of the other places in which I'vedone talks and short courses. Indeed, some

of the resources one comes to expect in privi-leged environments were available; the problemwas that they couldn't be relied upon to bepresent/functioning or they couldn't be usedconveniently/efficiently.

THE USE OF FOREIGNLANGUAGES IN TRAININGTEACHERS OF ENGLISHby Martin Parrott

There is a long history of the use of foreignlanguage lessons in teacher training. Fromcourses of initial training to courses leadingto a Master's degree, both in Britain andabroad, foreign language lessons are used

to give course participants the experienceof being language learners (again). The aimis usually to increase their awareness of

what it feels like to be in that position.The lessons ire also used to give course parti-cipants the experience of learning withina particular methodology and to demonstrateparticular teaching techniques and approaches.

Some problems

Problem 1: The use of English itself

With groups of non-native speaking teachersof English or potential teachers, Englishitself is often used as the medium of demonstra-tion. Course participants invariably find

this experience useful. However, they alsofrequently point out that what is appropriateto them as very advanced learners of Englishmay not be appropriate in their own teachingcircumstances. And even where the tutor may,in fact, believe that this is not the case,there is no easy way of overcoming this objec-tion.

Problem 2: The beginners' lesson

With groups of native English speaking teachersor potential teachers, the medium used is

very often a foreign language in which mostof the course participants are complete begin-ners. Although this experience has valuefor the course participants, there is alsothe very real problem that any lesson withbeginners is very different from lessons withclasses at even very slightly higher levels.It is very easy to misrepresent a method bydemonstrating it in this way. The learnersare abnormally dependent on the teacher -

the difficulty of their initiating any communi-cation in the foreign language places themin an unnaturally passive position, whilethe teacher is in danger of assuming an un-naturally god-like role. There is likelyto be unusually heavy emphasis on input, andthe content of the lesson itself is likely

to be determined to a great extent by what

is teachable without recourse to a commonlanguage.

Some measures worth trying: intermediatelessons

Measure 1: experiencing 'methods'

In any group of native English speaking teach-ers or potential teachers there will normallybe some general knowledge of French. and manyteacher training groups contain one or more

Page 8 48 THE TEACHER TRAINER, Vol.6, No.2 Summer 1992

speakers whose ability is sufficient for himor her to 'teach' to others. I have used'mixed ability intermediate' French as a mediumfor allowing groups of native speaking Englishteachers to experience learning by both Commu-nity Language Learning and The Silent Way(see ref.l). In both cases their experienceis radically different from that of beginners.In the former case the 'knower' becomes nota source of translation equivalents, but some-one against whom participants can check theaccuracy of what they have already formulatedin French. In the latter case, participantsare spared the frustration of trying to remem-ber the unfamiliar sounds and sound patternsof the new language. They already have an

internal representation of the phonologicalsystems, and they use the silence and the

listening to refine this. They use theiropportunities to practise the language to

approximate their performance to their ownmental model of the sounds. In my experiencethey acquire a much fairer understanding ofwhat the method involves than they do as begin-ners, and they get less tired and are morelikely to experience and recognise the congru-ence between the practice and the theoreticalbases of the method.

Measure 2: oral fluency

I have also used foreign languages for demon-strating to native English speaking teachersa range of activities designed to promoteoral fluency. The tasks are those intendedfor foreign learners of English (where theyinvolve written instructions these are in

English) and are carried out in small groupswith a common foreign language. In a groupof ,fifteen or twenty, there will normallybe a number of people who speak Spanish, Itali-an and German, as well as those who speakFrench. The activities rotate so that eachgroup has experience of using several of them.The course participants usually find that

they learn a lot about the students' experienceof using activities such as these.

Measure 3: Loop Input

All readers of 'The Teacher Trainer' will

probably be familiar with 'Loop Input' (see

ref.2). If you can find a speaker of Frenchto make a short tape on the topic of listeningcomprehension or to translate a written texton the topic of reading, this lends a substan-tial extra degree of authenticity to the ex-perience. Even if some of the group are ableonly to listen to or to read a version inEnglish, they, too, can benefit from the useof the foreign language. Those who have readthe text in French can report back to the

others on the experiential aspect of their

learning.

Measure 4: raising awareness of personalapproaches to learning

A useful additional advantage of using a

foreign language is that the teachers observetheir own and each others' learning strate-gies, which in itself can give rise to usefulreflection and discussion. This discussionmay arise spontaneously from the activity,

but the tutor may also provoke and structurethis by giving the course participants questi-ons to discuss in groups after the lesson.The questions asked will depend on the natureand aims of the lesson, but the followingprovides some examples of questions I havefound productive:

Describe how you felt when you partiallyunderstood the meaning of a word but werenot altogether sure about it. Did youwant anything from the teacher or fromthe other students?

Describe how you felt when you were unsureabout the pronunciation of a word. Didyou want anything from the teacher or fromthe other students?

Describe how you felt when you were unsureabout the spelling of a word. Did youwant anything from the teacher or fromthe other students?

- What was your reaction to listening to

a tape of which you were able to understandonly a small part? Did you want anythingfrom the teacher or from the other students?

Compare your reaction to repeating somethingthat the teacher was teaching and formulat-ing and expressing something you reallywanted to say.

- What was going on in your mind when otherstudents were speaking?

Measure 5: using a third language

It is not only with native speaking teachersof English that these measures can be used.Many non-native speaking teachers of Englishalso have an 'intermediate' knowledge of a

foreign language. They may have studied a

second foreign language at university (so,

for example, Italian or Spanish teachers ofEnglish often have an intermediate knowledgeof French. Eastern European and older Chineseteachers may know some Russian). And in manyparts of the world, almost everyone has someknowledge of a second language used by a localcommunity (in Central South America Spanish-speaking teachers may have some familiaritywith one of the indigenous Indian languages;Malay teachers may have some familiarity withone of the Chinese dialects; very many Africanshave access to several local languages as

well as, possibly, one of the 'colonial' lan-guages). Depending on the kinds of activitythe language is used for, it is not alwaysnecessary for the tutor himself or herselfto know the language which is used, althoughit is obviously preferable that he or she

does know it.

In working with monolingual groups of non-native English speaking teachers, the thirdlanguage is a resource which can often betapped in the ways outlined above. And evenwith Multilingual groups of teachers, it iswell worthwhile finding out about the compe-tence of the different individuals in secondforeign languages. The group can sometimessubdivide according to their common knowledgeof other foreign languages, in which case

THE TEACHER TRAINER, Vol.6, No.2 Summer 1992 ,149 Page 9

there may also be a group who become 'ob-servers', and are able to focus on what is

happening in the lessons from a more detachedpoint of view.

References

1 Richards, J.C. and Rodgers, T.S. Approachesand Methods in Language Teaching, (C.U.P.)(see chapters 7 and 8 for descriptionsand discussion of these approaches)

2 Woodward, T. Loop-Input (Pilgrims Publica-tions) and also Models and Metaphors in

EFL Teacher Training (C.U.P.)

TRAINER BACKGROUND

The Centre for Information on LanguageTeaching (CILT)

One of the main objectives of CILT is tosupport the work of teachers and other pro-fessionals directly concerned with languageteaching and learning. The way the centredoes this is by conferences, publications,in-service training (in Britain), visitorand enquiry services and library facilities.In case any readers find themselves in Londonat some point, for business or pleasure, youmight like to visit the centre in its homein Regent's Park.

CILT carries teaching materials for French,German. Spanish, Italian and Russian. You

can browse amongst the reference collectionsthere, pick up some free information sheetsand look at the Pathfinder books. The books

are all inexpensive, short and designed to

develop aspects of good teaching practice.

Each book is written by a practising expertand covers one specific topic of interest

such as "Languages home and away" (enhancinghome-to-home exchange visits), "On target"

(teaching in the target language). "Yes.

but will they behave?" (managing the inter-active classroom) and "what do you mean ...

it's wrong?" (a discussion of errors and

mistakes).

GILT was established in 1966 as an indepen-dent charitable trust. It's in Regent's

College, Inner Circle, Regent's Park, London

NWI 4NS. Telephone 071 -486 -8221. When

you or your friends are next in London, why

Hot hop on the tube to Baker Street, between10.30 5.00pm, and squeeze in a visit on

your way to Keltic. Dillons or The BritishCouncil!

(SEE PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED PAGE 321

PSYCHODRAMA, HUMANRELATIONS TRAINING ANDLANGUAGE TEACHINGBy Bernard Dufeu

The four training areas

The training of language teachers, in myview, consists of four areas:

. knowledge of the target language andculture

. methodology and approach

. procedures

. human relations.

We need to make a clear distinction betweenwhat is personal and what is professionalwithout forgetting that the professionalside does sometimes make up for things inpersonal life. There is thus a strong overlapbetween the two, in all areas, as I hopeto show below.

First area: Knowledge of the target languageand its culture:

Contact with the foreign language bringsus into contact with what is foreign andstrange. It has us face the unknown, thenew, and this can arouse fear or curiosityin us, feelings that we may unconsciouslytransmit to our learners. So the foreignlanguage contributes to a meeting or a confron-tation with what is "other". It offersus different ways of thinking and perceivingthe world and we offer these ways to ourparticipants.

Type of teaching that emphasises the firstarea

Classical Teaching of Latin and Greek focussedprimarily on transmitting knowledge aboutthe language and the culture. This, thereforewas the main area in teacher training. A

good teacher was a person with plenty ofknowledge about the language s/he taughtand about its cultural background. Elementsof this attitude are still with us in ourpresent day teaching.

Second area: Methodology and approach:

This second area deals with our ideas aboutlearning, the choice of objectives and content,the setting up of grading criteria, the pro-blem of learning strategies

Our methodological choices are influencedby our conception of life, of human beingsand their evolution and of learning. It

is because of these influences that we aredrawn to a particular methodological approach,or alternatively, distance ourselves from

it.

Page 10 50 THE TEACHER TRAINER, Vol.6, No.2 Summer 1992

Type of teaching that emphasises the secondarea

What I call "Pragmatic teaching" that is,

teaching with language use in mind, (for

example the direct method, the audio-visualmethods, or methods that have come from thework of the Council of Europe) has thoughthard about the methodological training oflanguage teachers. A good teacher is one

who knows a lot about grammatical or lexicalprogression

Third area: procedures:

Here we are talking about practical proceduresthat we use in the classroom. Our personalaction style will often lead us to sympathisewith one practical approach rather than an-other. In this area our choices are guidedby our know-how. Also, the choice of techni-ques that we think of as good or bad forour learners is often governed by how muchwe like the techniques or are nervous of

them ourselves. This is one reason why teach-ers in training sometimes say, "... but thiswould never work with my students." The"students" serve as an alibi for the teachers'own insecurity in the face of something new.

Type of teaching that emphasises the thirdarea

The "communicative" movement has been particu-larly productive in the creation or adaptationof techniques that lead learners to expressthemselves. However, the techniques needto be properly integrated into the teachers'way of working, their ideas about learningand the way they relate to their participants.

Fourth area: Human Relations:

It seems to me vital that as teachers weshould be aware of our way of being and actingand our strategies for communicating with

and relating to others. We should also beaware of our tendency to project, to engagein transfer and counter-transfer, of our

desires, expectations, needs, fears, of theelements that underlie our professionalchoices, of our deep objectives both consciousand unconscious. Sensitivity to how a groupfunctions emotionally is also useful in thisarea. I am not talking here about abstractknowledge of human behaviour but, more direct-ly, of an awareness and a development ofour own way of being.

The four areas mentioned above are inter-connected and mutually complement each other,so it is not a question here of emphasisingthe development of one area to the detrimentof the others, but of stressing the fact

that the fourth area, which up to now hasoften been neglected, forms the bedrock ofour action and our pedagogical impact.

Reasons for working on human relations sensiti-sation with language teachers

In our profession we are continually relatingto each other and the way we relate, especi-ally when teaching languages, affects the

participants' learning style. It contributesto the development or blocking of the students'communicative capacity (particularly their

receptivity and their ability to expressthemselves) and so will increase or reducetheir confidence in themselves.

We are not simply teaching a language,we are conveying more than knowledge and

content. We are transmitting our own waysof communicating.

A pedagogical act goes beyond a simple actof teaching. In teaching we are either invol-ved in widening the participants' autonomy,or the opposite. (When we set up structuresof subordination, or infantilisation). Treat-ing teaching purely technically sometimesleads us to ignore the importance of our

impact on the students.

- Since language, by its very nature, isan essential instrument of expression and

communication for the individual, it playsa major part in our physical, emotional andintellectual development. We cannot behaveas if, when teaching a language, we are simplytransmitting a knowledge object, since we

are dealing directly or symbolically with

an essential tool in the development of thehuman being and also dealing through it.

"... it's important for the teacherto realise how she is communicating."

- In any discipline the relationship betweenthe teacher and the subject matter is, no

doubt, important but in language teachingthis is a particularly sensitive area.

Our own way of being often influences thelearners' relationship with the languagethat we teach. "I don't like English" some-times means that a student once had a fraughtrelationship with a teacher of English.

The more pedagogy focusses on the participant,the more we should focus on ourselves andon the way we relate to the participant.First, what is happening in me? Am I disturb-ing the participants' autonomy, for instance,through some desire of my own for control?In any teaching but particularly in teachingwhich takes serious account of the communica-tive side of things it is vital that the

teacher should be aware of how she herselfcommunicates.

Practical illustration

In psychodrama, rather than talking about

the problems that come up in a group session,you enact them. This allows you to graspthem better by re-living them. "Croup warm-ups" build up relationships between the parti-cipants and/or bring to the surface personalor professional situations which have reallyhappened or which could happen in future.These are then enacted by the participants.There follow three examples, taken from pro-fessional situations, illustrating my approach.

10.10

TIM TEACHER TRAINER, Vol.6, No.2 Summer 1992 ; Page 11

PSYCHODRAMA, HUMAN RELATIONSTRAINING AND LANGUAGE TEACHING cont'd

Marion* has come to a psychodrama weekend

for teachers. It's the second day of the

workshop and she comes up with something

that happened to her the previous week andwhich she remembered while doing a groupwarm-up. She and a colleague run an alterna-tive kindergarten and last week a mother

told her she is going to withdraw her daughter,Carola, from the kindergarten. When Marionenacts the situation we see her almost beggingthe mother not to take Carola out of the

nursery, because she thinks that Carola willbe very badly affected. Gradually it becomesclear that Marion's identification with Carolais very strong. In the psychodrama that

ensues, it's Marion's own story that comesinto view: her mother died suddenly whenshe was five years old and she wasn't allowedto go to the funeral - she was felt to be

too little. What's more, immediately afterthe funeral her grandmother took her to livewith her in another town. This meant thatshe was withdrawn from the kindergarten with-out being able to say goodbye to the otherchildren. This double brutal separationaffected her deeply. Marion now plays outa fictional dialogue with one of her friendsin nursery school to whom she says goodbyebefore going.

(Another psychodrama led her, later, to takeleave of her mother.)

She has lived in her own life the two separa-tions presented in the psychodrama as brutalacts. For neither of them was she allowedany symbolic response such as attendanceat a funeral or a normal leave-taking. Thisleaves her unable to really assimilate andcome to terms with them. In the sessionshe begins to mourn which may, perhaps, helpher to accept more easily other departuresfrom her groups and in her life. At thesame time she is starting to perceive the

shape of certain fears linked to any separa-tion and to overcome them. The psychodramaticenactment here has a repairing effect andalso helps her to structure reality better.

Julia* has come on a personal developmentweek. It is the third day of the workshopand she enacts a scene from her work situation:a woman colleague is invading her space moreand more - first she takes Julia's desk andthen puts more and more things on the seconddesk Julia has moved to. Julia sees herspace shrinking and shrinking and feels worseand worse about it. But she puts up with

it without reacting. This is linked in partto a lack of pleasure in her professionalwork. Her own resigned attitude suddenlyreminds her of identical attitudes in both

her father and grandfather. Neither of themever said "no" but just fatalistically accept-ed what came their way. Now she goes backto the scene with her colleague and this

time asserts her territorial rights. But

it's not just her space that she is defining.she is also beginning to define herself in

terms of her needs and wants.

George* plays out a scene in which he approach-es his boss all smiling, but then beginsto remonstrate with him. His boss reactsnegatively and mainly because he feels he

has been misled by the friendly look on

George's face when he first came into his

office.

George re-enacts the scene, trying this timeto express himself in accordance with hisfeelings. Instead of accusing his boss with"you" (You did this, you said that...),George speaks in the first person and uses"I". (I felt ... and I got the impressionthat...). The accusing "You" led the bossinto a defensive-aggressive posture. Thefeeling "I" allows George to begin the dia-logue in an alternative way and to trainin another way of communicating.

Comment

What are the effects of this kind of workon the protagonists? It is difficult to

say accurately as the work has a direct effecton the participant as well as a wider effecttransposable to other situations. PerhapsMarion can now distance herself from a tenden-cy to fuse with her participants. Perhapsshe will be able to let them develop theirautonomy more freely. Julia can perhapsbe more decisive when she disagrees witha participant or when she feels invaded byher students and so may be able to defineher territory more clearly. She also learnsto listen more directly to her own needsand wishes and to dare to express them.George may come to express himself in waysthat fit him better and that allow him tobe "grasped" better by the participants,colleagues or friends that he meets.

But the most important thing for all threeof them it seems to me, and for the otherparticipants at these workshops, is the sensi-tisation that takes place to forms of communi-cation and to relations that the participantshave with themselves, their students, theircolleagues and those around them. It is

not only work in role as protagonist thatleads them to a new awareness of themselvesand others, but equally well, witnessingother protagonists and taking part in thegroup warm-up exercises which punctuate themeetings. Psychodrama helps develop awarenessof your own behaviour and sometimes of thereasons why other people's behaviour strikespositive or negative chords in you.

For readers interested in training whichintegrates the four areas outlined above..

..Each year I lead a five day psychodrama work-shop which focusses on human relations sensiti-sation. This takes place in the last weekof August at Pilgrims in Canterbury, England.The working language is English.

* The names quoted in this article havebeen changed to preserve the participants'

anonymity.

Reprinted with kind permission of TESOL FranceNews. Translated by Mario Rinvolucri.

Page 12 52 THE TEACHER TRAINER, Vol.6, No.2 Summer 1992

!SCRUTINISED!

UNFREE 1

SMALL I

Pr cess Options Idea 49METAPLAN By Nick Shaw

I would like to start by acknowledging my

indebtedness to Colin Granger. who introducedme to the concept of "metaplanning" by meansof a full-scale demonstration of its possibili-ties for classroom use at the APIGA (Associa-tion de Profesores de Ingles de Galicia)Conference held in Santiago de Compostela(Spain) in April 1989. Since he had adaptedit from its original use as a technique forovercoming hierarchical barriers in decision-making processes in business and industry,

I make no apology for also using it in teacher-training situations. Its versatility allowsit to function as an effective tool for achiev-ing full participation from all members of

a group. It is equally at home in a "top-down" teacher-training session given by a

trainer as in a "bottom-up" teacher developmentgroup session amongst peers.

The essence of METAPLAN is that it strengthensthe role of the group at the expense of theego of the individual members. At the sametime it enables the individual to contributefree from the threat of having his or heropinions and/or experiences derided, ridiculedor shouted down by other members of the group.It can be used in groups of from 10 to 40members from age 10 upwards, and for any kindof topic or problem that calls for open dis-cussion, whether or not it leads to a finaldec'.:ision. The only materials you need aresheets of paper, pens (preferably the JumboMarker sort), sellotape or Blu-tak and a

reasonably large, clear, vertical surface(a wall, blackboard or similar).

INTRODUCTION

A METAPLAN session starts with the groupleader introducing the theme or topic of thesession. For the purposes of this article,I will use that of "classroom observation",since it reflects what went on in a sessionorganised last year in this school. The parti-cipants were my colleagues who would shortlyhave to be observed teaching as part of ourin-service training programme. This wasunderstandably a very thorny topic for them,

since we had never done any direct observationbefore, and for some teachers the last timethey had been observed was during teachingpractice which had taken place up to fourteenyears previously.

The aim was to encourage people to speak freelyabout their experiences, and then to carryon from there to look at different ways inwhich observation could be carried out. Eventu-ally we wanted to arrive at a conclusionas to the best way of minimising the negativeeffects on teacher and class, while maximisingthe degree of positive help the teacher couldgain from being observed. To this end, every-body was asked Lo think back to the times

when they had been observed teaching, and

to try to recall as accurately as possiblethe feelings they associated with the experi-ence at the time.

KEY WORD

The next step is for ALL members of the groupto write down a key word they associate withthe topic. This must be done in large, legiblecharacters, preferably in block capitals.(In cases where the participants are well-known to each other, it helps to have a non-participant available who will transcribethe key words. This increases the anonymityof individual contributions). The sheetsof paper are then pooled or collected in.

At this point the participants should be ex-pressly told that each individual surrendersownership of his or her word to the group,and is forbidden to lay further claim to it.

STICKING UP

When the key words have been pooled, a volun-teer or volunteers (helper/s) stick all thesheets of paper up on the area of free spaceso that everybody can see them. The wordsare stuck up in random order, with no attemptat classification, and the helpers ensurethat they can all be seen and are legible.In our case, the result was:

I ENTROPY

VULNERABLE

INTIMIDATED

KEYED-UP

IMANIC]

MAKING SPACE

SELF-CONSCIOUS

PUT OUT

RESTRIaliD

I REDI

ITENSE I

Now the group has to ask the helpers to tal-,as many of the pieces of paper down off thewall as possible. This is done by askingthe helpers to remove those words which areeither actually repeated or are consideredto be synonyms or equivalents of another word.(In our case, although there were no wordsthat were actually the same, the group decidedthat the following words were synonyms orequivalents:

UNFREE=RESTRICTEDINSECURITY=VULNERABLESMALL=SELF-CONSCIOUSKEYED-UP & NERVOUS=TENSEENTROPY=MANIC).

Whenever a word is "removed", it is essentialthat a record of its existence is maintained.This is done by writing "+1" (or "+2" if 2

4 riTHE TEACHER TRAINER, Vol.6, No.2 Summer 1992:- t.' utj Page 13

VULNERABLE+INT1MIDATED 1

METAPLAN cont'd

words have been removed) near the word that

is retained. In this way nobody's word dis-appears, and all individual contributionsare respected. The group, not the helpers,decide which of the pieces of paper remain

and has the other word(s) added to it. At

the end of this stage, our wall looked likethis:

rRESTRICTED+1 1

ISELF-CONSCIOUSfli

VULNERABLE+1

PUTTING TOGETHER

I INTIMIDATED

SCRUTINISED I

TENSE+I+1

MANIC+1

Once the total number of words has been reducedto a minimum, the group has to pair wordstogether. This is done on the basis of a

perceived relationship between the two words

which is acceptable to the majority of the

group. This relationship may be objective

and semantic, suhjective and associative,

or indeed based on any grounds whatsoever.The proposer of any prospective "marriage"between two words has to explain the reasonsto the rest of the group, and if they arenot accepted then the matching does not takeplace. If the group or an individual memberputs a different interpretation on a word

to the one which its writer initially intended,then this must be accepted. Nobody can say"But that's not what it means:" since this

would immediately destroy the anonymity andcommon ownership vital to the process. When

the group does decide on an acceptable pairing,the helpers then have to put the two wordstogether on the wall. After some discussion,we were left with:

MANIC+RED I 1 SCRUTINISED+SELF -CONSCIOUS i

TENSE 1

GROUPING

Once the maximum number of pairs has been

achieved (and it may happen that you have

more than one word which you have been unableto pair), then the words are grouped togetheron the basis of their belonging to areas orfield of meaning. Thus our words finally

emerged as:

f TaSE f

IMANIC+RED1

VULNERABLE+INTIMIDATED

1SCRUTINISED+SELF -CONSCIOUS_

USING THE WORD-GROUPS

There are now several options open to theparticipants such as labelling the word-groups.weighting them according to their relativeimportance or value, discussing the reasonswhy the words have been thus grouped and soallowing for a possible change of mind andthe consequent formation of new word-groups.In our case, bearing in mind the aims statedat the beginning of the session, we decidedwhich of the above word-groups would bestcharacterise our feelings if we were to be

observed teaching that afternoon. We thenfound colleagues who had chosen a differentword-group to our own, and in small groupsdiscussed why we would feel that way. Bynow everybody had a thorough knowledge of

and respect for everybody else's opinion,and so in the ensuing discussion there wasa very high level of participation. A greatmany positive recommendations were put forwardwhich did in fact make the introduction ofregular classroom observation a much smootherprocess than it might otherwise have been.

(In fact, many of these ideas were also notedby Bill Johnston in his article in The TeacherTrainer, Vol.5 No.2).

Subsequent workshops have used METAPLAN as

a technique for focussing on and clarificationof ideas on a variety of topics, such as teach-ing mixed-ability classes, teaching true begin-ners and the student-centred classroom.

As a preliminary activity in a workshop de-signed to produce specific classroom activitiesor techniques it can take between 10 and 15

minutes, but when used to generate a full-blown discussion such as the one describedin this article it can take up to 90 minutes.

WARNING

Given the nature of METAPLAN, it should beclear that any attempt at domination of the

decision-making process by a "dictator" figurewill spoil the activity, as will the breakingof the "anonymity" rule. If a member of thegroup appears to be dominating the proceedingsand steamrollering his or her opinions through,he or she should be reminded (as gently aspossible) that this is contrary to the spiritof the exercise.

WHO READS "THE TEACHER TRAINER"

Here is a sample list of subscribers:

The British Council, Spring Gardens, London.Instituto Anglo - Mexicano, Mexico City.The School of Education, Leeds.Davies's School of English, London.The English Language Teaching Office, Khartoum.The Language Centre, Muscat, Oman.Institut fur Deutsche Sprache, Freiburg.The Library, St. Clare's, Oxford.Lecturers in Aston University and Lanzhou

University.Trainers in Ouagadougou, Ljubljana,

Goiania-Goias and Al-Jubail.Bookshops, Holland, Belgium.The Director General, Bell Educational Trust.

Sarawak,

Page 14 54 THE TEACHER TRAINER, Vol.6, No.2 Summer 1992

THE ROLE OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE ASSISTANT ANDTHE TEACHER'S CENTRE IN TEACHING TEACHERS

Teachers of foreign languages are continu-ously obliged to keep their knowledge and

skills up to date since their subject is con-stantly (hanging and evolving. This updatingprocess involves extra work, to which time

and sometimes money, must 1.e dedicated. In

Spain, the Ministry of Education and Sciencetries to aid this updating process duringthe academic year by offering courses in the"Escuela Oficial de Idiomas" (EIO) and TeacherCentres (CEPs) and in July by offering coursesabroad and in the CEPs. Unfortunately, thenumber of places available is often outstrippedby an ever increasing demand.

Teacher Centres (CEPs) seem to be the basicmeans of in-service training for the currentteaching staff. Once the local teachers'deficiencies, necessities and interests havebeen &fined. the CEPs should have adequateresources to allow them to make a satisfactoryresponse to the demand presented.

In Valladolid, a large number of teachersregularly attended conversation classes witha native-speaking English Language Assistant,appointed to us by the MEC, for the year 1989-90. By forming several groups it has been

possible to satisfy different interests, assome teachers were concerned with improvingtheir linguistic ability, others wished to

find out about the social, political and cultu-ral changes in the UK, whilst many other teach-ers were interested in learning about materi-als, activities and techniques that couldbe used in the classroom.

At the beginning of the year, whilst thevarious groups of teachers were being formed,we spent two weeks working with the assistant.We believe that much of the later successof the course wa, based on the "tutoring"the assistant received at that time. We tookthe time to explain to this new and inexperi-enced "teacher of Leachers" what his job wouldinvolve, what his pupils would be like, whatlevel of English language they would haveand what their interests would be, Sincethe basic objective of his task was to promoteconversation and motivate the teachers to

exchange Ideas, thus improving their oralfluency, the assistant was shown variousmethods of achieving this goal (working in

pairs, small groups and large groups). At

the same time, the activities for the firstmonth were prepared in detail.

In this way, when the assistant faced a

group of teachers for the first time, he knewwhat to do and had plenty of material, givinghim a sense of confidence. After two or

three classes he felt calm, relaxed and pre-pared for the rest of the course. From thenon, he gradually began to work on his own,

(1) Eel: state run language schools

using "authentic" material (video, magazines,newspapers. advertisements...).

After the initial period of adaptationand getting to know the teachers and the re-sources available for use in classroom, we

net the assistant on a weekly basis to analyzeand direct his work, as well as to suggestideas and materials to improve his work andcover the demands presented by the teachers.

Throughout the year and particularly asthe course drew to a close, the teachers ex-pressed satisfaction with the work carriedout, emphasizing how beneficial and productivethe sessions with the conversation assistanthad been.

As tutors we consider that the assistantis a basic human resource for language teachersthrough whom they can keep their knowledgeof language, customs and events up-to-date.At the same time, an assistant improves contactand communication between teachers, promotinga rich exchange of ideas.

Looking to the future, we believe it isappropriate that education authorities doeverything possible to ensure that CEPs havethis human resource which can so effectivelyaid the in-service training of teachers.

The English Assistant;

A personal view

I are the assistant mentioned above: WhenI received information about my placementfor the "year abroad" of my degree course,I was a little disconcerted to find that I

had been assigned to the "Centro de Profesores"in Valladolid for nobody, in Britain, includingthe staff of my university Spanish department,seemed able to tell me i.hat a "Centro de Pro-fesores" was.

In fact, it was not until the (otherwiseinadequate) induction course, organized by

the Ministry of Education in Madrid, thatI found the following description of the aimsof CEPs taken from the Royal Decree 21 12/84.14 November 1984: "Teacher Centres arc the

preferred medium for in-service Leachei train-ing and the fostering of professionalism..."

I was intrigued, if not a little bemused,by the idea of "teaching teachers" and somewhatincredulous of the idea that teachers wouldcome to the CEP, on a voluntary basis, in

the evenings, after a day at work, to improvetheir English: Initially, I was a littleworried .,bout how the teachers (my pupils)

would react to me; after all they were allolder than me, all qualified, experiencedteachers: Would I appear condescending?Would they be insulted by me correcting theirEnglish, "their subject"? I was also somewhat

erwourimeimai

55

THE ROLE OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGEASSISTANT AND THE TEACHER'S CENTREIN TEACHING TEACHERS cont'd

uncertain as to what role I, a student withabsolutely no teaching experience, couldpossibly play in "the in-service teachertraining and the fostering of professionalism".I decided that before starting, it was necess-ary to slightly alter my attitude to my work:I was not there to "teach" but to "help";I would not be giving "lessons", but ratherholding "meetings" or "sessions", since theformer, in both these cases, implies someoneof superior knowledge and experience impartingit to those who do not have it. This is notwhat work in a CEP requires; the further train-ing of teachers implies mutual effort towardsa common improvement of all those involved.

In the year 1989-90, the CEP in Valladolidoffered an English "course" on two levels;I was involved in Level II the level r thoseteachers actually teaching English, with a

good command of English usage in conversationallistening and reading contexts. There werefour separate groups, each one meeting forone and a half hours per week. The groupsstarted off being a little too big but afterthe first month the average group size waseight, ideal for discussion and conversationactivities.

My spare timetabled hours were taken upby regular weekly meetings with the two Englishtutors at the CEP. The first of these meetingswas used to introduce me to the facilitiesand resources available to me within the CEP:a well-stocked library; audio-visual equipmentand material; photocopying equipment; and,of course, the advice and support of othermembers of staff. There was enough time forseveral of these meetings before the English"course" started, which meant that the tutorswere able to help me greatly in preparingthe first few sessions. They advised me onways of introducing myself (using photos ofmy home and family, andmaps and tourist infor-mation about my home

town) and supplied mewith excellent

activities for

the first few weeks.They suggestedways of presentingdiscussion activitiesand encouraging peopleto talk (pair-workand sub-divisionof the group etc...)

Most importantly,

they told me howgroups had workedin the past and

explained exactly what was expected of me.

These meetings were invaluable for increasingmy confidence before I actually started workingin the "sessions". It was very reassuringto feel that I was not alone, but was workingin a team and could always rely on the supportof the two tutors. As the year advanced,the weekly meetings were used to discuss feed -

CEIVY WALPILE5G.

hack on the "sessions" and ways of meetingthe demands of the teachers, to suggest "follow-up" activities and to look for new and stimu-lating material.

After introducing myself to the groupsthe first thing I did was ask the teacherswhat they wanted to do in the sessions. Had

they been to an English course at the CEPbefore? Was it good? How could it be im-proved? What did they expect to gain fromthe CEP? I wanted to make it very clear,from the beginning, that I was at their serviceand that the sessions could be moulded aroundtheir needs and wishes. Of course, theirresponses were varied: one evening, somebodywould say that video material was stimulatingand informative, the next, someone else wouldsigh, "Oh! I don't want to sit watching a

video all evening ...:"

If the role of an English Assistant, in

a school, is "to help pupils gain necessarycommunication skills", then the role of an

English Assistant, in a CEP, is to help teach-ers retain necessary communication skills.Other than that, in either a school or a CEP,an English Assistant is a "point of culturalcontact", a person who can give up-to-dateinformation about life in Britain.

Taking those two "roles" into account,

it became obvious that I had to offer two

different types of activity: (1) Activitiesto encourage conversation or provoke discussionand (2) activities purely to transmit informa-tion about British life, culture and currentaffairs. To these, I added a third type ofactivity (3) those which could be used in

the teachers' own classrooms.

Of course, these three categories oftenoverlapped, particularly when, over the weeks,

the atmosphere in the sessions became a lot

more relaxed and people felt able to talk

openly and express their opinions.

I felt unable, however, to carry out onetype of exercise requested i.e. to presenta basic activity, then explain how it canadapted for use in various classroom situa-tions. This sort of exercise can only be

presented by an experienced teacher and notby a language assistant.

For the first category of activities, thoseto provoke discussion and conversation, I

originally believed that newspaper articleswould make suitable material. I soon found.nevertheless, that reading an article couldbe very informative but would not necessarilystimulate conversation. I then started usingvariations of some of the popular role-playsand games, which I had initially been reluctantto use, for fear of insulting the teachersby presenting activities which could appearsomewhat juvenile. It was, however, thesevery activities which were, I believed, themost successful. After a day at work, teacherscould relax, talking about a subject in whichthey were not emotionally involved.

mm.,urnUle U

Newspaper and magazine articles were the

main materials used for the second activity,dealing with British culture the way of lifeand current affairs; it is up to the assistantto make as much use as possible of any onearticle: from the point of view of language,an article can be used to practise readingaloud and to expand knowledge of vocabularyand idioms. The language assistant shouldbe prepared to explore semantic groups, explainusages and structures, offer alternativesor comparisons and introduce as many Englishidioms, sayings and proverbs as possible.From the point of view of culture or currentaffairs, the assistant should be able to dis-cuss the topic in question: Is the subjectof the article true of Britain in general,or just of one part of the country or society?Is the point of view expressed generally held?What other points of view are there? Althougha language assistant should be wary of con-stantly "talking at" the group, it is alsoworth bearing in mind that it is when someonestarts talking freely about a subject of inte-rest that they use language in the most natu-ral, fluent way; it is exactly this use oflanguage that the teachers want to hear andimitate.

As for the third type of activity, materialfor use in the teachers' own classroom, this

was often a case of the teachers themselvesadapting the material from the first two typesof activity, to suit their own needs. However,I also presented some short discussion activi-ties, such as "which qualities, in order ofimportance, are needed by a good teacher"or "put the following inventions in chronologi-cal order and say which one has had the mostpositive effect". The teachers tried these

activities in the CEP to see if they couldbe of any use in their own classrooms.

Of course, the "sessions" should not be

too strictly organized and the language assist-

ant should be prepared to let conversation

and discussion develop in a natural way.

Very often my "sessions" simply became an

informal chat (in English, of course) about

subjects of interest to the teachers: the

standing of teaching as a profession in Spainand Britain; the problems of teaching; methodsof teaching English; the Education Reform,

and so on.

How did the teachers react to the Englishsessions at the CEP? I think that one of

the most important considerations that has

to be taken into account is that teachers

are devoting one and a half hours of theirfree time, on a regular basis. They are alsocoming to the CEP after a day's work and willvery often be tired and therefore perhaps

a little difficult to motivate. One teacher,laughing, made a comment which I think is

worth hearing in mind: "We sit in front ofclassrooms full of noisy and naughty pupils

all day long. When we come to the CEP, we

have our chance to be noisy and naughty::"

The teachers who attended the "course"have had ample opportunity to practise theirEnglish, to expand their vocabulary, to keep

up to date on life in Britain and to gainuseful ideas from one another's experiences.What has impressed me most, over the year,

is the incredible sense of camaraderie thatexists amongst teachers. This camaraderie,promoted by the activities in the CEP, canonly serve to increase team-work amongst teach-ers, which, surely, makes them more able to

offer a better service, that is a better stan-dard of education, to their own pupils.

Finally, what has been my experience ofthe English "course"? What role does a langu-age assistant play in achieving the aims ofa CEP? Firstly, I believe that, in a CEP,

a language assistant does not act as an "assist-ant" in the traditional sense. In a school,a language assistant's role is to help a teach-er to give language classes to the pupils;however, in a CEP, the assistant acts as anassistant to all the teachers who attend the"sessions".

A teacher's view

The main reason why I applied for the Langu-age improvement course that the CEP offeredto us, was that I really believe that theonly way a teacher can possibly keep "rejuve-nating" his c- her knowledge of a languageand culture, is by having the opportunityto talk to a "native" on a regular basis.

I was fully aware of the potential thatthe course held, and we all made the effortto attend after our working day at school.

The best way to update English languageskills is by visiting English speaking count-ries or talking to native speakers and thereare few opportunities for us to do this.Through the course offered at the CEP, the

"English speaking countries" come to us, at

least once a week in the form of a nativespeaker of English, and it's something wecan do on our way home from work.

Furthermore, being "noisy and naughty"represents another important function of thecourse, a relaxing reversal of roles and a

chance to exchange notes with other colleagues.After many years in our profession we havealmost forgotten what it is like to be a stu-dent. In our conversation lessons we weregiven an opportunity to experience classroomlife, once again, from a student's point ofview. Therefore the lessons not only helpedour English language communication skillsthey also improved communication between us

and our students.

You're always told you're only young oncebut at the end of each lesson we felt that

we had both regained and updated our knowledgefrom our former student years and perhapsrecovered some of the spirit we had once,

when we were students ourselves.

Domitilo CasasGregory Gibson

Ma Luisa Martinez De Rituerto

Centro de ProfesoresValladolid, Spain

THE TEACHER TRAINER, Vol.6, No.2 Summer 1992 Page 17

FISHBOWLby Mario Rinvolucri

Caleb Cattegno, the inventor of SilentWay, produced, in the late seventies, a seventyhour Silent Way video course in which a groupof beginners learns English on the small screen.On these remarkable cassettes you see:

the whole learning groupthe head of an in...vidual student tryingto get something rightthe teacher's hand or pointera mixture of the above elements usingsplit screen or oval insets for the headsof individual students.

Gattegno proposed that the learning groupshould watch a half hour session of learningon the video and then complete the lesson byactively practising what the screen group hadlearnt. They would have a flesh-and-bloodteacher in the room to help them.

The extraordinary thing that happens whenyou watch a learning process on the screen isthat you yourself often get sucked in. You

find that you identify with one or other of thelearners and you follow their process withattention and involvement. When that personloses concentration, so do you - when they comealive, so do you.

Another extraordinary fact is that quiteoften the people in the watching group under-stand things faster than the learning group onthe screen. The spectators are in a state ofrelaxation and they are shielded from theteacher's attention, love, annoyance, pressure,demands. They are not being required to pro-duce anything so they bubble with productivethoughts.

In making his seventy hour English courseDr. Cattegno has offered a brilliant model forall educational television programmes.

The principle could be summarised thus:

Don't show accomplished models on the screen(in the case of language programmes don't shownative speakers with suave acting skills).

Show real learners grappling with the new sub-ject, concepts, skills. Show the thrill, un-certainty, struggle. (Such programmes are bothaccessible and compelling viewing).

Pses of the fishbowl principle in languageclasses

The same fish-howl principle thatCattegno used in his video teaching can be usedin a language class. All you need is an innergroup working on something and an outer groupgroup observing, thinking, learning, benefit-ing. The rest of the class sit on chairs form-ing an outer circle.

O 00 .1"E C)0 0 d'is,

o ° 07- dflgO

C) C)O

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00 ,,5

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Tell the outer people to be quiet, theirturn will come. Say a time and ask someone inthe inner circle to show it on the clock. If

she does it wrong don't correct it yourself,let someone else in the inner circle help.After some practice like this have the innerfish exchange places with the outer watchersand continue the revision process.

Intermediate Discussion

Have everybody in one big seated circle.If the discussion topic is, say, family lifeask all the first-borns to form an innercircle on the floor and ask each-other what itfeels like to be the first one in the family.The outer circle listen.

Ask the first-borns to return to theouter circle and have a new inner circle formedof middle-born people. Give them four minutesto describe what their situation was/is like.

Repeat the process with the last bornstudents. (Only-children are normally fairlyrare and can be included with first-born).

Now ask the students to form groups offour or five with at least one pe' in from eachbirth order group to continue the discussion.

The use of fish-bowling allows people tolisten and think before they have to speak.It also divides the class group into psycho-logically powerful sub-sets which the fish-bowling format makes spatially clear.

Beginners' Conversation Class

Half the group sit in the inner circleon the floor round an audio-recorder. The restof the class sit on chairs in the outer circle.

When a person in the inner circle wantsto say something to another member of theinner group, she says it to the person and sim-ultaneously records it on the recorder. If she

can't say it in English she calls the teacherover and says it in mother tongue. The teachersays the English translation into her ear. She

then says the sentence in English to its add-dressee and into the audio-recorder.

In this way the inner group produce a 5-10 minute conversation in the target language.

They change places with the outer groupand the latter now try to exactly reproduce theconversation they have just witnessed. This

is also recorded.

Page 18 58 THE TEACHER TRAINER, Vol.6, No.2 Summer 1992

The above procedure is an adaptation ofCharles Curran's Community language learningand is a useful way of getting students toreally listen to each other. I learnt this de-velopment of CLL from Vincent Broderick, Osaka.

Shadow Dictation

Have people sit in two concentric semi-circles:

0 0 0 00 0 0 u0 0 0

0 0 00 0

0O 0 00 0

The people in the outer semi-circle arethe writers. The people in the inner semi-circle are the listeners. During the dictationthe task of the writers is to take the wordsdown - the task of the listeners is simply tolisten.

When you dictate, maintain eye-contactwith the inner circle people. Dictate to them.Encourage students to consult/help their part-ners in the outer circle as much as they can.Pause in the dictation long enough to make thispossible.

At the end of the dictation the listenersshould check their partner's text. (Pair yourstudents carefully at the start of this exer-cise. It often works better to have louderstudents writing and the quieter students li-,ten-ing and helping.)

The fish bowl principle in teacher training

On some teacher training courses the fishbowl technique is almost being used already.In teaching practice, it is often the case thatone or more trainees will teach a group oflearners while other trainees sit at the backand watch. These trainees often 'swap-in',andso on as a teacher with the lesson, hopefullyconsolidating on what the first practiceteachers have found out about the studentsand learning from the work the first teachershave done.

The principle could be used in inputsessions too. Techniques could be demonstratedor input shared by an inner ring of trainees.Later, the outer ring could swap in and see howmuch they could recall and try out. Feedbackon teaching sessions would be another interest-ing time for the fish bowl principle. An

inner ring of people who had taught, could dis-cuss their lesson with the tutor/observerwhilst other trainees watch and listen to thefeedback. Later the outer ring could swap in

and repeat, as closely as possible, the maincomments, discussion and reactions of the firstgroup. This accurate and faithful "role play"

could be astounding to those who had firstbeen in the inner ring.

"Work is wonderful I love watching it."

This sentence is a joke within a fierce,work-ethic focussed culture but it accuratelycaptures a major intuition about learning:one needs to see it happening in others, tohear it, to sniff it, to freely hover over itbefore actively committing oneself to practi-sing. This is the central intuition in StephenKrashen's work and no amount of linguistsniggling about him being sloppy as an academicis going to make the intuition evaporate. Yousee the self-same process at work when a motheris helping a five-year old to read and the 3iyear old picks up the same skill with half thetrouble. No one is focussing forcing him todo it. It just happens because he indepen-dently wants to emulate the five year old.

Maybe we can modify the above sentence a bit:

Learning is wonderful watching it is doingit.

Bio -data

After work in Chile and Greece, Mario Rinvolucri

joined Pilgrims in 1976 and cuaLtmitly works there as a

teacher, trainer and writer. He is consultant to the

Pilgrims-Longman list (1990) and his two most recent books

are Dictation with Paul Davis, Cambridge University Press

1988 and The Q Book with John Morgan, Longman, 1988.

JOURNAL EXCHANGES

"The Teacher Trainer" has arranged journalexchanges with

IATEFL Newsletter (UK)

English Language Teaching Journal (UK)

Cross CurrentsEnglish Teachers' JournalModern English TeacherRELC JournalThe Portuguese NewsletterForumPractical English TeachingFocus on EnglishTESOL Newsletter

(Japan)(Israel)

(UK)

(Singapore)(Portugal)

(USA)(UK)

(India)(USA)

and is abstracted by 'Language Teaching',The British Education Index, the ERIC clearinghouse and Contents Pages in Education.

4111111

AN111111111111111.

THE TEACHER TRAINER, Vol.6, No.2 Summer 1992 5a Page 19

Add U ingLETTING THE STUDENTSIN ON TEACHERREFLECTION PROCESSESSBy Tim MurpheyNanzan University, Nagoya, Japan

Richards (The Teacher Trainer 5,3,1991) de-

scribes many valuable alternatives for stimu-lating reflective teaching. I would like

to suggest one more, student action logging

(AL), in which students simply write down

briefly what happens in class and what theythink and feel about the activities. Teachers

then collect these logs periodically to seehow students reacted to the different teachingsegments. Logs are traces, as other methodsare, of what happens in classes. But they

are traces of what each individual student

is thinking about what goes on. They allow

teachers to grasp what the perceptions of

students are and avoid being trapped in a

narrow feedback loop of their own, or their

profession's criteria. They allow teachers

to see what may have caused problems for theconsumers of their teaching, and what may

have been wonderful but undervalued initiallyby the teacher. And they do make one think.

Many times when I've tried new activities

or approaches I can see students' classroom

reactions somewhat, but I am still in the

dark as to what they really think. However,

the last two years, since using AL, I can

actually read student comments every few weeks.

Several times I have tried things that

thought I would never try again because of

what I saw as a ho-hum reaction from the stu-dents, only to have my mind changed by their,enthusiastic reactions in their logs. (See

box on this page). These students' reflections

are not objective, nor are they informed bylinguistic theory and EFL methodology. But

they do allow me to become more aware of indivi-dual student beliefs and reactions to what

we are doing. And they make me immensely

reflective.

Video and audio allow the teacher to reviewthe lesson and are certainly valuable for

evaluating delivery, teacher talk, and otherthings that we know are crucial in good teach-

ing. But they ultimately still rely on the

point of view of teachers monitoring them,

not the students. And finally, who cares

if you look good on video and to colleaguesif you look had in the students eves. Some-

thing crucial is lacking in this case. Your

feedback and reflection loop is too small.

Written accounts done by the teacher or ob-servers can also lead us to quality reflection,but are also within the confines of our percep-

"I telephoned T and asked her four questions.(a page later) ... After I telephoned andta:.Ked with her, J. telephoned me (next page)..I want to do this homework again. I enjoyedthis homework very much this time."

"Every time I call a classmate, I feel satis-fied that I can make myself understood for

a minute by only language."

"We kept speaking about one and a half hours.At first, for about an hour, we talked in

English!"

"At first, I didn't like the homework whichis 'call the person below you on the list',because I didn't know my classmates well andI felt shy to telephone someone I didn't knowwell. Now, however, I like it and I thinkit is interesting homework."

Telephone lists homework

One of the first days of class, I pass arounda list with their names and ask them to writetheir phone numbers beside their names. I

then copy the lists and give each person onewith the instructions to call someone if theyever miss a class and need to know what toprepare for the next class and what we did.I also give them homework right away to callthe person below their name (the last personcalls the first) and to ask "How do you likeclass so far?" plus two more questions (forthem to think up), and then to write abouttheir telephone conversations in their logs.

So everyone will call someone and be calledby someone, and talk about more or less thesame things and then they will write aboutit. Here again is the recycling of languageand information so that learning may havea chance to go the depth it needs to stay.In class a few days later, I may have themread each other's log entry about the tele-phoning or to tell a partner about their phonecalls. Thus, the information is recycledonce or twice again. So far I've done it

about four times in two months ("Call the

2nd person below you ... 3rd person ... etc.).Each time I have them ask a question or twothat I want some feedback on ("Do you likethe textbook? Are you going abroad? etc.")plus a few that they have to make up.

tions and criteria. Reading student logs

allows us to understand what students thinkis important, things we may have to deal withbefore they accept what we think of as import-

ant.

Page 20 En THE TEACUP' TRAINER, Vol.6, No.2 Summer 1992

MORE ADVANTAGES TO STUDENT LOGS

Logs have a few further advantages. First

of all, they make students themselves reflect-

ive about the course, their learning, and

learning to learn. As the course proceeds,and students get more feedback from the teacher

in their action logs they can become more

valuable observers and collaborators in the

negotiation of what goes on in the classroom.AL teachers show they adapt to their comments.

Secondly, having to write an account of what

happens in class and a reaction to it makes

students more attentive to what's going on,

rather than simply passively existing in class.

When they write their entries, they are review-ing what was covered and what they think was

learned, thus deepening the learning process.They are recycling the content one more timeand increasing their retention by again focus-ing on what happened in class. When students

read one another's log, they are reading aboutsomething they all have in common, the class,and they can gain new perceptions of class

activities. When they disagree and have widelydifferent perceptions, there is the possibility

of sociocognitive conflict (Bell, Grossen,

& Perret-Clermont 1985). Sociocognitive con-

flict simply refers to a destahlizing of

accepted beliefs and perceptions and the oppor-

tunity of trying on someone else's way of

thinking for a moment (something teachers

can do also when they read student logs).

If we also use student perceptions as the

basis for making tests (Murphey 1990), we

strengthen the rapport and amount of learningimmensely. And finally, because the log en-tries are short and only about the class andthe assignments the teacher gives, they make

for interesting reading for the teacher.

They are about shared experiences but with

unique perspectives.

REFLECTIVE TEACHING AND ACTION RESEARCH

A major tenet of action research is the inclu-sion of the students' perceptions and input

in the action research cycle. A loop 7:n which

we reflect upon our work using only our,or our profession's, criteria is like General

Motors continuing to make big American cars

throughout the 1970's while consumers were

buying elsewhere. It's like reflecting in

the mirror, asking "Who's the fairest in the

land?" but with our fingers in our ears so

we can't hear the response. Hopefully teachersdon't have to ask the government to bail them

out before they begin listening to their

students.

Yes, let's reflect upon what we are doing.

in all the ways we can. But let's include

student reflection data for our reflection.And in the process we will help them and usmuch more. And if we can get trainees to

work with AL, we are giving them a generativetool to continue their own teacher developmentand reflection long after they have left us.Each class is a quality control group, a re-search group which can develop its own bestways to learn through interactive reflection.

Allwright, R. 1984. "Why don't learners learnwhat teachers teach? the interaction hypothe-

sis" in Language Learning in formal and in-formal contexts. Proceedings of a joint semi-nar of the Irish and British Associations

for Applied Linguistics 11-13 September

(PP3-18)

Bell, N; Grossen, M; and Perret-Clermont,

AN (1985). Sociocognitive conflict and inte-llectual growth, in M. Berkowitz (ed.), Peer

Conflict and Psychological Growl). New Direc-

tions for Child Development, no.29. San Fran-

cisco: Jossey Bass.

Murphey, T. (1990). Student-made tests, ModernEnglish Teacher 17 (1&2) 28-29.

N.B. A longer article concerning ActionLogging and entitled "Why don't teachers learnwhat learners learn?", with actual actionresearch examples and student excerpts, has

been accepted by the English Teaching Forum(USIA) and should be out shortly.

THE TEACHER TRAINER, Vol.6, No.2 Summer 1992 Page 21

Co Ment

The article by Mario Rinvolucri in The

Teacher Trainer vol.1 no.2 entitled "Why Do

People Attend In-Service Training Courses"

is not only thought-provoking but in my case

it turned out to be action-provoking. My

former experience as a trainee on such coursesand my present involvement in in-service teach-er training have provided me with observationswhich would have remained non-verbalised hadit not been for Mario Rinvolucri's suggestionto exchange views in this area.

So each time I got a group of trainees

I usually left some time in the final weeksof their 4-month course for a workshop devoted

to general problems of motivation. It was

only natural then to discuss the reasons thatbring people to a course.

So why do people go on such courses?

Among the reasons I came across most often

are the following:

To improve (update, refresh) my command

of English.

- To expand our knowledge of teaching methods

and stills, to learn about now strategies.

One trainee with 10 years of experience wrote:"To get rid of cliches ".

- To work in libraries. "It's a real pleasure

with plenty of time on your hands, a good

choice of books and a clearly defined ob-

jective".

- One of the attractions is the big city

itself. Taking into account the vastness

of Russia it is not surprising that peoplewhose home is eight time-zones away enjoythe opportunity to come and stay in Leningrador Moscow for 4 months with their salariesfully paid. As a trainee put it: "Besides.I came here to see famous museums and artgalleries and to give my son a chance to attenda Leningrad school".

- To get rid of the daily routine at home.

- Just because once in five years every teach-er is expected to go through in-service train-ing of some kind.

- To improve one's CV, the underlying reasonsand motivations may be different. For someit is an ambition, for others it is the fearof losing their jobs.

To escape from tensions and responsibili-ties. To experience anew the feeling of beingyoung, instructed and guided.

- To enlarge and enrich social links. Establi

shing friendly and professional contact is

considered an important asset of such courses.

- To do some research, to work on a thesis.

- To make best use of this time and hopefullyto improve one's life in personal dimension.

The comparative analysis shows that onthe whole the roots of motivation are verysimilar in two different countries and cul-tures.

Valeria ShadrovaLeningrad Institute of Electrical Engineering

Page 22 62 THE TEACHER TRAINER, Vol.6, No.2 Summer 1992

SeSSi* T1

ERROROLEPLAY By Rosie Tanner

Teacher Training College University of Warsaw

Role-play had never really been a part of

my teaching repertoire, nor, when I becamea teacher trainer, of my training repertoire.Although I had used role-play successfullywhen I taught secondary school children, I

had always considered it quite childish andfalse and felt rather nervous about handingover a role to someone who might freeze upand then lose their own narve (and thus ruinmy class:). But I decided it was about timeto break out of my own typical teaching patt-erns and to try out some role-play.

While negotiating the contents of their Practi-cal Classroom Techniques option at the beginn-ing of the year, the Polish undergraduateson my Methodology course requested a sessionon error correction. I felt that one possibleway of introducing them' to error correctiontechniques would be for them to experiencedifferent oral correction strategies and todiscuss the alternatives afterwards. This

is the workshop I invented to try to achievethis aim, entitled "Erroroleplay". It involvesgiving the trainees roles as different typesof teacher: each role-playing teacher has

a different strategy for correcting errors,or not correcting as the case may be. Briefly

the roles are as follows. One teacher ignorestheir group and corrects no errors; the secondjoins the task enthusiastically and "forgets"to correct; a third continually intervenes,immediately correcting any learner who makesa mistake; the fourth monitors the activity,writes down any errors made and gives languagefeedback at the end of the task.

I made the roles deliberately extreme and

simplistic, since I think the role-play worksbetter that way (i).

STEP ONEThe whole class is divided into four groups,each of which sits in one of the four cornersof the classroom. Each group is allocateda role-playing teacher (for the specific

roles and tasks, see the role cards below).Each "teacher" has two parallel tasks:

(i) to set up an activity which takes

their group ten minutes (for example,

Mr/Ms Aloof's group's task is to draw a

picture that one of their peers describesto them) and

(ii) to play a role, with special referenceto an error correcting strategy (for exampleMs/Mr Aloof is a teacher who ignores learn-ers totally and never corrects errors).

(i) A colleague, Krzysztof Dabrowski, suggested a varia-

tion: that I should just give the tasks to four teachers.

without focussing particularly on error correction, and

see what happens. This could prove interesting and might

better reflect the complex nature of real classrooms.

All the tasks were done in English, becausethe trainees are learning to be EFL teachersand would, therefore, set up the tasks in

English in their own classrooms.

Learner role:

One learner in each group is also given therole as Ms/Mr Catnap, who role-plays a learnerwith many problems in spoken English. Ms/MrCatnap plays this role throughout the workshop.

ROLE CARDS

TEACFXR 1: MR/MS ALOOF

Your group's task: give your group 10 minutesto complete their task.Give one member of the group the pictureattached. S/he must keep it secret and de-scribe it to the others, who should draw it.They can ask questions for clarification,but cannot look at the picture. Stop theactivity after 10 minutes, when the picturecan then be revealed to them.

***********************************************

Your role is to be the teacher who does notintervene at all in the activity. After sett-

ing up your activity, and making sure allparticipants understand, sit at a table apartfrom the learners and pretend you have nothingto do with the group. Do not correct any

errors.

TEACHER 2: MS/MR MEDDLE

Your group's task: give your group 10 minutesto complete their task.Explain to them that in half an hour the earthis going to be totally destroyed. All themembers of your group have secured places

in a rocket which is to take off in 10 minutes'time and which contains enough food and fuelfor 30 years. There are four people outsidethe rocket who want to take up the final placein the rocket. Your group must decide whichof the following people to take: it must

be a unanimous decision and you can only chooseone extra person.

The four people are:

1. Meena: woman aged 27, pregnant, Pakistani,doctorate in Food Science, good cook, in

good health.2. Harry: man aged 23, nurse, American,

qualified in general medical and psychiatricnursing.

3. Ola: teenage girl aged 16, Australian,very knowledgeable about science, enthusias-tic about life.

4. Tim: science student aged 24, Nigerian,knowledgeable about computers and space-craft, gregarious.

***********************************************

Your role:

You enjoy the activity so much that you joinin. You forget about errors and don't correctanyone.

THE TEACHER TRAINER, Vol.6, No.2 Summer 1992 6;3 Page 23

ERROROLEPLAY

TEACHER 3: MR/HS BUSYBODY

Your group's task: give your group 10 minutesto complete their task. [N.B. You must onlyhave FOUR people in this group. If you havemore than 4, the others should just observethe group and you during the task.]

Your group members have a copy of four setsof pictures each, numbered 1-4. Their taskis to discover which of them have the samepicture. (Only two of the total number ofpictures are the same.) Stop them after 10minutes if they haven't finished.

*****44***1$414*****44*######*#######***#####*#*

Your role is to intervene as much as you can,correcting people's mistakes as they makethem. Be as aggressive and bossy as you can;interrupt as many times as possible, correctinglanguage mistakes.

TEACHER 4: HS/MR EAVESDROP

Your group's task: give your group 10 minutesto complete their task.Your group should draw up a list of 10 piecesof advice for a new teacher about correctingspoken and written errors.

Your role:You should make a note of the errors the stu-dents make as they occur. Just before theend of their task, stop them and take a fewminutes to tell them about their mistakes.

LEARNER ROLE: MS/MR CATNAP

You had a really bad night and don't feel

much like English today. Make lots of languagemistakes as you do every activity. Make sureyou do this for EVERY activity.

STEP TWO

Each teacher sets up their own task with theirown group. They then monitor their activity- or not - according to their role. Afterabout ten minutes, every group should, if

the role-playing teachers have followed theirinstructions to complete their task withinten minutes, have finished their first task.

Before starting task two, they are given a

few minutes to complete the Role-Play Question-naire (see below).

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Page 24

t

ROLE-PLAY QUESTIONNAIRE

After each task, for each of the teacherswho teaches you, write down a few commentsabout how they taught you and the role theyplayed. This could be about their attitude,their qualities as a teacher, their teachingor correcting techniques, etc.

Write each teacher's name in the space providedso you can identify them.

TEACHER 1Name:

TEACHER 2Name:

TEACHER 3Name:

TEACHER 4Name:

STEP THREE

The role-playing teachers now rotate, movingto the next group, setting up their new group'stask and again playing the role given to them;they thus teach the same activity for a secondtime and play their role again, but this timeto a different group. The teachers rotateafter another ten minutes has elapsed, untileach teacher has taught each of the four groups.Immediately after each activity, the learnersare given time to complete their questionnairefor each teacher.

STEP FOUR

A plenary or group work session, where the

different approaches of each role-playingteacher and the advantages and disadvantagesof the various error correcting styles arediscussed.

ISSUES

Some issues which were raised during our plen-ary discussion were:

A. LEARNERS' AND TEACHERS' FEELINGS:

How does the poor learner (Ms/Mr Catnap) feelwhen corrected?

64 THE TEACHER TRAINER, Vol.6, No.2 Summer 1992

How did you feel as a learner when there wasno error correction (in fact, no feedbackat all)?

Which error correcting style did you prefer?How did you feel when the teacher became soinvolved in the activity that they forgotto correct errors?

How did you feel towards the teacher whoignored you?

As a teacher, does it embarrass you to correct?

How much does correcting errors worryas a non-native teacher?

B. TIMING OF ERROR CORRECTION:

C. AMOUNT OF CORRECTION:

How much should we correct our learners?

Any difference in amount according to level?

Any difference in amount according to task?

Should teachers allow any errors to go un-corrected? If so, which and why?

How much monitoring should there be?

you D. STYLE OF CORRECTION:

Should there be any difference between errorcorrection techniques at different stagesof learning (eg. beginners compared with advanc-ed learners)?

When is the best moment to correct an error?

Are there any times when we might correctimmediately a mistake is made?

When might we NOT correct an error? Whicherrors, and why?

1

IY\ MAK

What type of error correction did you prefer?

What type of feedback is useful and appropriate(language/content)?

What strategies can we use to correct withoutdiscouraging our learners too much?

What are the advantages and problems of learn-ers correcting each other?

What are the positive and/or negative aspectsof student-to-student correction?

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THE TEACHER TRAINER, Vol.6, No.2 Summer 19924 ,

1111ININIIF'Page 25

ERROROLEPLAY

Not all of the answers to these questionswere predictable. The trainee playing MsBusybody played her role so well that many

of her peers loved her as a teacher and enjoyedher aggressive interventions: One interestingpoint which came out of the discussions wasthe way that the Mr/Ms Catnaps felt as poor

learners: left out and frustrated with Mr/MsAloof, but attacked and inferior with Mr/MsBusybody.

There were further spin-offs from the Errorole-play; some questions about classroom managementwere also raised, since some of the teachers'instruction-giving had not been very effective.The four role-playing teachers all practisedand improved their skills in the setting-up of tasks, since they had to give theirinstructions four times, once to each group.The group was also introduced to four taskswhich were new to them as teacher traineesand which they could adapt to the level oftheir own learners. Furthermore, part of

the plenary session also included collatingthe results of Ms/Mr Eavesdrop's group task:advice for a new teacher about correctingspoken and written errors.

The Erroroleplay was certainly a fun way formy trainees to learn about error correction.By experiencing different error correctioi,

styles, they could decide for themselves whicherror correction strategy they might choosefor which type of learner.

References:

Bond, T. 1986. Games for Social and Life

Skills. London: Hutchinson.Drawing used in Task 1 found on page 154.

Klippel, F. 1984. Keep Talking. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.

Task 2 adapted from activity 93, "Rescue"

and other sources.

Further readings:

Edge, J. 1989. Mistakes and CorrectionLongman: Harlow. A very useful background

text, short and to the point, which traineesmight like to read.

Acknowledgement

With grateful thanks to Magda Karkoszka for

ner wonderful drawings.

Page 26

1111111k 111111111111111111111111111111111P

LANGUAGUE DOMINOES*by Sara Walker

For a full rationale of the use of games inteacher training and development, pleasesee 'The Teacher Trainer', Volume 4, Number 3

Here are 4 sets of dominoes:

1. Matching the halves of English idioms2. Phrasal verbs with "COME"3. Matching sentences with Functions4. Matching verb tenses and tense names

In a monocultural teaching situation, manydomino games can be made by using translation,e.g. of idioms in Ll and L2, of false cognates,or of technical terms.

Objectives

Advanced language practice and/or identifyingcategories (matching). The idea is more likea cooperative jigsaw puzzle than a competitivegame of dominoes, because if all the dominoesare correctly placed, it should be possibleto form a square, in which the last dominoplaced on the table matches the first one,closing the square.

1 1 _1

Rules

1 1 7 1 1 _I

1. Form sub-groups of 2-3 players. Each sub-group should start with one domino game.

2. Share the domino cards more or less equallyamong the players.

3. Any player may put down the first card.The player who has a card that matcheseither end of the first domino continues,and so on until the square is formed.

4. If the last card doesn't match, the playersmust check back and find the mistake.

Acknowledgement: I first came across language* dominoes in Grammar Games by Mario

Rinvolucri - a book which influenced thiswhole series of TT games.

bTHE TEACHER TRAINER, Vol.6, No.2 Summer 1992

5. If you are in serious doubt about the correctformation, call the trainer'

How to make domino games

1. Use a large sheet of paper or card.2. Divide the sheet into 16 squares. -to3. Write the first half of the first domino

in the squale marked 1 (i.e. the secondsquare from the left), and the second halfin the other square marked 1. Follow thenumbering until you reach the bottom righthand square (no.16). Finish the last dominoin the rop left hand square.

4. If you want more than one set, photocopyyour game before you cut it up. Stickthe copies on card, and cut first downthe centre vertical line, then across eachhorizontal line.

5. Give these instructions to your traineesand invite them to make their own dominoes.

SET 1 IDIOMS

is worth twoin the bush.

More haste,

makes a manhealthy, wealthyand wise.

One swallow

saves nine. Never put offtill tomorrow

has a silverlining. Make hay ...

spoil the broth. A bad workman

makes Jack adull boy.

Don't countyour chickens

make light work.It's no usecrying

without anystraw, Waste not.

119 i 1 2

2 3 S 4.

L. 5 5

7 7 8

9 q to10 I I tt ._12 13 13 14-

11t. I'S t5 ii

less speed. Early to bedand early to rise

doesn't make asummer.

A stitch in time

what you can dotoday.

Every cloud

while the sunshines. Too many cooks

blames his tools. All work and no pia

before they'rehatched.

Many hands

over spilt milk. You can't makebricks

want not. A bird in thehand

THE TEACHER TRAINER, Vol.6, No.2 Summer 1992 6 Page 27

SET 2PHRASAL

VERBS

CAME OVERsurprisinglywell.

The driver is

still unconscious,he

CAME OUTearly next year.

The presidentialcandidate

CAME THROUGH.I was terrifiedwhen the intruder

CAME DOWN withnasty colds.

When I was browsingin the library, I

CAME INTO a gooddeal of money.

A serious problem

CAME ABOUTthrough sheercarelessness.

Thay did aninteresting

experiment, but it

CAME. OUT

in sympathy.

She found Englishdifficult et first,but later herwork began CO

CAME OVER him.

The police arestill hoping thatwitnesses to theaccident

hasn't COME ROUNDyet.

His latest bookwill probably

CAME IN FOR agood deal ofcriticism duringthe campaign.

I had a lovelysurprise whenthe exam results

CAME AT me witha knife.

A lot of childrenin our area have

CAME ACROSS afascinating littlebook on animalbehaviour.

When his grand-father died, he

CAME UP and no-onehid any idea whatto do about it.

The accident

didn't COME OFF,When the doctorsdecided to strike,the nurses

COME ALONG verynicely.

He isn't usuallyso rude - I don'tknow what

COME FORWARD.

She is usuallyrather shy, buther performanceon stage

SET 3FUNC-TIONS

Function:EXPRESSINGPREFERENCE

After that, wevent home.

Function:ACCEPTING ANIrWITATION

Is there a busfrom here toMontevideo?

Function:OFFERING (TO DOSOMETHING)

Good heavens:Did you really?

Function:

APOLOGISING

Don't worry. It

wasn't at allvaluable.

Function:ADVISING

Be careful, thisis a difficult

exercise.

Function:GIVINGINSTRUCTIONS

Ugh: It'sawful:

Function:INQUIRING ABOUTINTENTION

Can you cell mehow to get tothe post office?

Function::PRESSING

GRATITUDE

Let's go to thebeach on Sunday.

Function:REPORTING/

NARRATING

I'd love to.

Function:

INQUIRINGABOUT POSSIBILITY

Shall I open thedoor for you?

Function:EXPRESSINGSURPRISE

I'm afraid I'vebroken your vase.

Function:GRANTINGFORGIVENESS

If I were you,I'd buy a betterdictionary.

Function:WARNING

Write your namein the top lefthand corner.

Function:

EXPRESSINGDISPLEASURE

What are you goingto do about tincar?

Function:ASKING FCRDIRECTIONS

Thank you forhaving me. It'sbeen a wonderfulevening.

Function:SUGGESTING A

COURSE OF ACTION

Honestly, I'drather go to themountains.

Page 28 .'68 THE TEACHER TRAINER, Vol.6, No.2 Summer 1992

SET 4TENSES IMPERATIVE

Our plane leavesat half past sixtomorrow.

PRESENT CONTINUOUS(action happeningnow)

He'll be leavingfor England nextweek.

FUTURE PERFECTShe vent thereS

last week.

PRESENT PERFECTCONTINUOUS

I was just rurRlina hot shower whenthe phone rang.

FIRST CONDITIONAL I'm seeing hison Friday.

PRESENT PERFECTSIMPLE

If I knew theanswer, I'd tellyou.

PASSIVE VOICE,PAST SIMPLE

He'd never seenher before.

THIRD CONDITIONALShe'd beenteaching all dayand she was tired.

PRESENT SIMPLETENSE, EXPRESSINGFUTURE

He's working ina bank at themoment.

FUTURE CONTINUOUSI'll have finisheduork by six o'clock

PAST SIMPLE

She's been livinghere for severalyears.

PAST CONTINUOUS

If you give meyour ticket, I'llEn your flightchanged.

PRESENT CONTINUOUSEXPRESSING FUTURE

I've never beenthere.

SECOND CONDITIONAL It was made in

PAST PERFECT SIMPLE

If you'd seenthe film, you wouldhave enloved it.

PAST PERFECT

CONTINUOUSCome here!

NOW AVAILABLEPerspectives on Second Language Teacher Education

This book contains a selection of the papers presented at the International Conference on TeacherEducation, held at City Polytechnic of Hong Kong in April 1991.

. CONTI:NYS

19 papers on TESL teacher education, by internationalspecialiststheory papers and case studies

papers on teacher decision making, research. programdesign, innovation and change. journals, actionresearch

contributors include Donald Freeman. Nina Spada,Martha Pennington. David Nunan, Tony Wright,Andrew Cohen. Kathleen Bailey. and Diane Larsen-Freeman

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THE TEACHER TRAINER, Vol.6, No.2 Summer 1992

iiwnwitiewecirCity Polytechnicof Hong Kong

Page 29

Bo lk R -viewFLUENCY AND ACCURACY: TOWARD BALANCE IN

LANGUAGE TEACHING AND LEARNING

by Hector Hammerly, (1991)

Clevedon, Avon/Philadelphia: MultilingualMatters. viii + 208 pp. ISBN 1-85359116 -5 (hard cover) ...115 -7 (paperback)

1=-7,

.°4".\. -1,77

I found reading this a bit like gettinghosed down with ice-water on a hot day.Namely, there was a shock, but after a whileI almost got to like it. In fact, (proceedingwith this image) rather than repeat the experi-ence myself, I will now heartily recommend itto certain others for whom I am certain itcould do no end of good.

By reading between the lines I learnedthat Hector Hammerly is one of those non-nativespeakers of English who attained bilingualproficiency through attention to accuracy atevery stage of learning it. Accordingly, heis a tough customer for the wares of StephenKrashen and others. Here, verbatim or in faith-ful paraphrase are Dr. Hammerley's opinionsof a few of cur most sacred cows:

Interlanguage and the necessity for fluencypractice:

"The s,2cond language program should aimat preventing the establishment of an inter-language." (p.33) "Practice makes permanent

... Communicating in a second language withmany errors makes the faulty rules underlyingthe errors permanent." (p.21)

-- Immersion programmes, The Natural Approachand Acquisition in the classroom

Graduates of Canadian French immersionprogram "ies "speak fluent Franglish" (p.17)"The English speaking environment will, ifallowed, force the learner to use (and beforelong internalize) an error laden 'SurvivalEnglish' which he or she may never be able tounlearn. The environmental situation is inimi-cal to the ideal of using the second languageonly as it is learned." (p.155). Mothertongue interference renders it nearly impos-sible for teenagers and adults to acquire a newlanguage in the unconscious way that childrendo, especially given that the input may wellpreponderately be a 'classroom pigin' used byone's fellow learners (pp.7,26). True immer-sion is "being surrounded by language (not aclassroom pigin)". (p.51)

-- A Silent Period:

"A period devoted to just silent listen-

ing is not recommended because there is someevidence that during such periods students en-gage in incorrect silent or subvocal speech ...the students repeat what they hear to them-selves and reach their own conclusions abouthow they would say things in the second langu-age." (p.41)

-- Integration of skills:

Reading and writing are, by and large, bad forbeginner/elementary learners. There should beno unguided creative writing even at the inter-mediate level. (p.143)

-- Vocabulary teaching:

"Vocabulary remains largely to be expan-ded beyond [= after] the program"; the mainwork beyond the first 15 or so hours (whichconcentrates on pronunciation) right on pastintermediate proficiency is learning grammarand morphology.

-- Early use of authentic texts:

Even at intermediate level authentic texts"should be short and carefully geared to whatthe students know" (p.144).

-- ESP:

"The long-term effects of learning a lan-guage for specific purposes are likely to belinguistically disastrous." (p.22)

-- The teacher as resource and facilitator:

The teacher must insist that the stu-dents use the second lanauge to say anythingthey should know how to say". (p.112) "Stu-dents who often want to say things for whichthe necessary vocabulary or structures haven'tbeen taught, should be actively discouraged ..from such unrestrained creativity for it leadsto numerous faults that can't be correctedeffectively." (p.113)

We can do it all in English:

"For over 20 years research in Englishas a local language [. something like ESL] hasconcentrated on a monolingual approach thatdoes not take into account the students' langu-ages well or work with materials that redressany such lack of knowledge on their part.(passim)

The reason this book is worth reading lies inthe way these and similarly unfashionable pro-positions are argued for on the basis of evi-dence and common sense. On pages 3-4, forexample, I find summaries of 6 studies castingdoubt on the effectiveness of the much praisedCanadian immersion programmes.

The method which Dr. Hammerly himselfadvocates, reminds me a lot of the strict (butnot unduly mechanical) audio-lingual Russiancourse I took in 1967. (When I hod to switchto the literature stream I had the best pro-nunciation but felt I could understand onlyabout one content word in ten). -- In Dr.

Hammerly's method pronunciation of sounds comesfirst, with lots of minimal pair discrimination/production work, in fact, about 15 hours ofthi, before anything else. Also, mother

Page 30 70 THE TEACHER TRAINER, Vol.6, No.2 Summer 1992

tongue explanation/translation is the rule atthe beginning, though the mother tongue isnever used to say anything students should al-ready have learned to understand. (Dr.

Hammerly is rather scornful of Direct Methodinductive teaching.) Vocabulary learning doesnot take on speed until intermediate pro-ficiency has been established because earlylexical growth means structural stagnation.

But Dr. Hammerly does not want to be con-sidered an audiolingualist. (I learned fromhis book that there are quite different kindsof audiolingualism anyway.) He calls hismethod "The Cumulative Mastery Method". Headvocates pre-courses on cultural differencesand the nature of language in general. Of thelanguage component itself, he says (with empha-sis) that "from the start, what is learnedshould be used to produce real messages ofgradually widening scope". (p.30) True, heis less than crystal clear just how this worksat the level of technique, but I imagineaddressing this lack could have made the book

much longer. Anyway, he gives a clue in advo-cating a "principled eclecticsm".

Just before ending his book more resolutelyDr. Hammerly sounds this tone (189): "I real-ize that criticism by the foreign-born is un-welcome .. and yet ... It has been sad for meto witness, from within, how North Americanreality has deteriorated. I am not being nost--algic. In education .. as in much else, therehas been a very real deterioration. Has NorthAmerican civilization deteriorated to such anextent that excellence (and all the work it in-volves) is no longer a thinkable option?"

Indeed. It is as he says. However rightor wrong Hector Hammerly may be about acquisi-tion in the classroom, it is the Zeitgeist, notthe evidence, that could well have the finalsay about implementation of anything so rigo-rous as the Cumulative Mastery Method. Justthink of how much teachers would have to learnabout language: And not only their own.

Reviewed by Seth Lindstromberg

Attithies C (1) lit erAleksandra Golebiowska was working at

the Institute of English Studies, at the Univer-sity of Warsaw, Poland when I interviewed her.All the courses there are in English exceptfor Psychology and Philosophy. Students atthe Institute study for 5 years for an MA inEnglish studies. They study US/UK literature,Practical English, Philosophy, Psychology andthe Methodology of TEFL.

Aleksandra had recently written "Let'sTalk", a book for teachers. It contains roleplays, simulations and discussions for Inter-mediate and Advanced learners in the Polishsituation. It was the first Polish book tell-ing Polish teachers about role play. It wasnecessary because there has been both a lackof information on the subject and also a resi-stance from older teachers to the "Communica-tive Approach" because the approach can leadto noisy classrooms, students lapsing intoPolish, furniture changes, and uncontrolledgroup work'. Since our talk the book has beenpublished in English by Prentice Hall.

The book is divided into 3 parts. First,there is the background. What is the Communi-cative Approach, what are role plays and simu-lations. how can teachers and students writetheir own or produce their own superior adapt-ations of published material?

In the second part, there are activitiesand in the third, useft't language functions.Aleksandra had this to say about the experienceof writing the book:

" My basic assumption when writing andproducing the book was that I would be misunder-stood - not deliberately, of course, but mis-understood nevertheless. I made that assump-

tion in order to remind myself that I shouldbe as clear and precise as possible. You see,I know what happens on one-off teacher's work-shops. I prefer long-term courses becausethat's where I'm more likely to get genuinefeedback. On a one-off workshop you get com-ments such as "Where did you get your glassesfrom?", or "What a nice skirt:" These shortcontacts are not very profound. And with thebook, I feel it is also a one-off encounter.For example, the book is not for learners andyet I know sets of books will be used in Poland

for classes: You see, I have limited confi-dence that I'll be understood. I say one thingand people hear another. I have more faith ina face-to-face encounter of a prolonged kindbecause there is time to establish a rapportwith the teacher. I found a comment by MarioRinvolucri (The Teacher Trainer, Volume One,Number Three p.17). "After a teacher trainingsession each trainee has been to a differentworkshop". At least on a long-term course onecan find out what workshop each trainee hasbeen to.

Already I have had some quite unexpectedreactions to the book. A couple of people havecommented that I have used "demoralising" orrisque subjects in my book, "crooks" in fact:Now when I look through the book I realise thatin the role plays and simulations there arecon-men, pranksters and a pupil who gets ateacher pregnant. I suppose there's hardly anhonest person in the book: Is that the pointthough? The situations make learners talk,after all. But the reaction I got, that thebook is immoral and demoralising is typical ofthe sort of misunderstanding I was talkingabout earlier. I can't see the reader face-to-face. It's like a one-off encounter. I'msure I'll be misunderstood: "

THE TEACHER TRAINER, Vol.6, No.2 Summer 1992 Page 31

P LICATIONSRECER EDOf special interest or relevance to teachertrainers are:

The Pathfinder series for language teachers

A series of inexpensive booklets designedto support teachers worling with the NationalCurriculum (UK) and developing aspects of

good practice. Example titles are 'RecordingProgress', 'Reading for pleasure in a foreignlanguage', 'Yes - but will they behave? Manag-ing the interactive classroom', On target.Teaching in the target language', 'Languageshome and away', 'Making the case for langu-ages'. One of my favourites is 'Teachingpupils with learning difficulties' byBernadette Holmes. It includes ideas on usingrap chants, football songs, tangos and block-buster games with unmotivated learners. Fora complete list of publications write to theCentre for information on language teachingand research, Regent's College, Inner Circle,Regent's Park, London NW1 4NS.

A practical handbook of language teachingby David Cross (1991) Prentice Hall. ISBN0-304-33040-X

Designed as a comprehensive training manualthat can be used in self-access mode to helpteachers in unpriveleged settings. Partsone and two on basic language teaching skillsand standard lesson types are for pre-servicetrainees. The last two parts on introducingvariety and developing skills are for in-

service work. The book clearly lays out somefairly traditional step-by-step routines basedon the Direct and Audiolingual methods but

with some communicative and other ideas mixedin for variety.

Survival lessons by Diane Hall and Mark Foley(1990) Nelson. ISBN 0-17-5558965

A resource book of thirty complete 45-60 minutelesson plans of photocopiable students' materi-al with teacher's notes. All the lessonsare based on structural areas (e.g. tensecontrasts, models, conditionals, articles)at intermediate level. They all take the

shape of diagnosis, analysis, controlled prac-tice, freer practice. Aimed at young-adultEuropeans.

Ideas and issues in primary ELT edited byC. Kennedy ano J. Jarvis (1991) Nelson.ISBN-0175552652

A collection of 17 articles from the 'PrimaryEnglish Language Teaching' conference in Leeds1989. Strong names from primary ELT are EdieGarvey, Opal Dunn, Jean Brewster, NormaDickinson. Some topics covered are, approachesto curriculum design, writing primary level

materials and primary level teacher training.

Learner strategies for learner autonomy by

Anita Wenden (1991) Prentice Hall. ISBN

0-13-529603-X

Provides teachers with tasks, data and comment-ary to acquire the skills and knowledge neces-sary to help their students become more auto-nomous learners. Each chapter is based ona question that teachers will need to clarifyas they work in this area, e.g. what learningstrategies do s's need to do a task? Howcan you find out?

Listening in action by M. Rost (1991) PrenticeHall. ISBN 0-13-538773-7

Very clearly laid-out book with careful synop-ses and credit given to many other authorswho have written on 'listening'. The emphasisis on getting learners to become more active,in and out of the classroom, in developinglistening skills. There are recipes withthorough indexing and cross referencing, under-lying principles and more than a casual nodto mixed ability classes and different learningstyles.

Process writing by R. White and V. Arndt (1991)Longman. ISBN 0-582-02444-7

A resource book of procedures and lesson for-mats breaking the traditional mould of demon-strations and model-writing. Priority isgiven to students generating ideas, focusing,structuring, drafting, and redrafting theirown texts rather than having to analyse orcopy the finished products of other writers.The book contains practical recipes and authen-tic examples of student t.citing.

The learner-centred curriculum by D. Nunan(1988) CUP. ISBN 0-521-35843-4

Grounded in what language teachers actuallydo and think as they plan implement and

evaluate their language programmes, the bookaims then to integrate theoretical modelsand come up with a way of planning contentand methodology using resources and evaluatingwork all with learner involvement.

Language transfer by T Odlin (1989) CUP.ISBN 0-521-37809-5

Discusses how much influence a learner's nativelanguage can have in making the acquisitionof a new language easy or difficult. An up-to-date discussion of research into what usedto be called "mother tongue influence".

Corpus Concordance Collocation by J. Sinclair(1991) OUP. ISBN 0-9-437144-1

An account of the recent use of computers

to analyse large quantities of text and of

the resultant emergence of new views of langu-age. Aware that events are changing fast

the book is a clear, if provisional, positionstatement on issues such as the monitor corpus,the connection between pattern meaning anduse, and the typical behaviour of words.

Page 32 72 THE TEACHER TRAINER, Vol.6, No.2 Summer 1992

W110 READS 'THE TEACIDER TRAINER'

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Atn,r- ins materials .rIzers. FK, France.:talv.

Moray isi' 1.:llege of 1I:.1tication.

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isternational France.

Inter-lingua Centre, Dublin. Ireland.American Language insciLute. For-Lugs..Universities of Surrey, Leicester, H3W311,

Limerick.RPC Library, Washington. DC, USA.Teacher Trainers France. Germany, Austria,

is.pain, Greece. Finland.

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INSIDE

Exploring the role ofthe teacher trainer

Training around the worldHungary

What it's like to be atravelling trainer

Page

4

18

21

Unchartered waters ....reflections of a beginningtrainer 22

Interview with John Morgan 25

ESTABLISHED SERIES

Process options, Current research,Session plan, Trainer background,Have you read...?

4?".0-01YWN"Ir77577r77, .."Pnrr7M c ,.11A *A 4.1 glia. is Li VC 14 *a IC,74.11'4..wi tai ItACE

Cambridge Teacher Training andDevelopmentSeries Editors: Ruth Gairns and Marion WilliamsThis new series focuses on the content and process of language teacher

training and development.

Titles in the series include:

Models and Metaphors in LanguageTeacher TrainingLoop input and other strategiesTessa WoodwardThis practical and informative book is about the process of traininglanguage teachers.

Teach EnglishA training course for teachersAdrian DoffA course designed to develop practical skills in teaching English as aforeign language.

Training Foreign Language TeachersA reflective approachMichael WallaceThis title explores the idea of the reacher as a 'reflective practitioner'and examines some current models of teacher education.

Cambridge Handbooks for Language TeachersGeneral Editor: Michael SwanThis series provides a comprehensive 'bookshelf' of the best newthinking on language methodology.

Titles in the series include:

Five-Minute ActivitiesA resource book of short activitiesPenny Ur and Andrew Wright.A collection of over 130 ideas that can be used at various levels in thelanguage classroom. with little or no preparation.

The Inward EarPoetry in the language classroomAlan Maley and Alan Duff

tasLinaring collection of ideas based on the use of poetry to promote,iicimion and co-operative poetry writing in the classroom.

Literature in the Language ClassroomA resource book of ideas and activitiesJoanne Collie and Stephen SlaterIhk hook offers teachers a rationale and a variety of imaginative:cc.bniqueN for integrating literature with language teaching.

or torther intormation. please Lontact:I larketinc_ Canihridue l niversir Press.

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1992

LITERATURE

READING MATERIAL

CHILDREN'S COURSES

SECONDARY COURSES

EXAM PRACTICE

VOCABULARY BUILDING

ADVANCED CONVERSATION MATERIAL

METHODOLOGY

APPLIED LINGUISTICS

The new MET magazine for teachers.

1993

The same level of innovative publishing!

Write for a catalogue/MET subscription form to:

Pauline Munday, Macmillan ELT, Houndmills, Basingstoke RG21 2XSTel: 0256 29242 Fax: 0256 819210

77

THE

11 EACH JRTRAINER

VOLUME SIX NUMBER THREE AUTUMN 1992

Published three times a year

EDITOR: Tessa Woodward

EDITORIAL 3

Exploring the role ofthe teacher trainerAnn Rossiter 4

Subscriptions information 5

SESSION PLANone way of running a"Teacher Speaking" sessionKathy Bird

TRAINER BACKGROUNDExplanations and Explaining

Ann Moore-Flossie andLourdes Glynn

CURRENT RESEARCHAn examination of the effectsof using consciously appliedempathy in situations ofpotential conflict

Paul Bress

6

8

12

PROCESS OPTIONS: IDEA 20Things to do after teachertraining inputMario Rinvolucri 15

TRAINING AROUND THE WORLD -HUNGARYAngi Maldarez 18

What it's like to be atravelling trainerJim Wingate 21

Unchartered watersreflections of a beginningtrainer

Julie Thompson 22

INTERVIEW with John Morgan 25

Teacher training games series:Game 7 (Cont)Language Dominoes

Sara Walker 27

HAVE YOU READ...? Andy Caswell 28

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED 29

PUBLISHED BY: Pilgrims Language Courses, 8 Vernon Place, Canterbury, KentCT1 3HG, England Tel: (0227) 762111 from within UK.

PRINTED: The University of Kent Printing Unit, Canterbury, Kent, England.

For all enquiries concerning subscriptions, advertising and contributions,please contact the Editor.

Views expressed in the articles are not necessarily those of the Editor, orof Pilgrims Language Courses.

Page 2 THE TEACHER TRAINER, Vol.6, No.3 Autumn 1992

ABOUT THIS ISSUE

Welcome to the last issue in the currentvolume. As usual we welcome back someestablished regular series in this issue.These are

Session Plan. The aim of this series is togive in detail the steps of a session thatworked particuarly well for a particulartrainer. The session plan this time is byKathy Bird and is for a slot on "TeachingSpeaking".

Trainer Background. This series tries tofeed teacher trainers with the kind ofbackground information or thinking usefulto our work but for which we usually havelittle time for reading or thinking. Thetopic this time is "Explanations andExplaining" and is a collage taken frompapers written by modern language teachersAnn Moore-Flossie and Lourdes Glynn.

Current Research. This is a relatively newseries. It aims to find out what teachersand trainers are doing in their personaland academic research that is of relevanceto teacher training. Paul Bress describeshis investigations into consciously appliedempathy when listening to others.

Process Options. This series looks at theway things can be done in training course"input" sessions. Mario Rinvolucri sharessome ideas with us here on things to doafter experiential input is over.

Training around the World. A report fromHungary by Angi Malderez describes someinnovations in a new, intensive, three yearteaching degree programme at the EotvosLorand University in Budapest inparticular in the third year teachingpractice component.

Interview. One of our readers spotted aninteresting interview with John Morgan ina Greek TESOL publication and at theirsuggestion we have reproduced it, withpermission, in this issue. John talksabout teacher development and has aninteresting view of trainers "givingadvice".

Have you read...? The last of ourestablished series, this one aims to givean informal view of books writtenespecially for teacher trainers. AndyCaswell has had a look at Michael Wallace'sbook in the CUP training and developmentseries and gives his view.

As well as the regular series that returnfrom time to time we always include a blendof well-known and new writers on thoughtfuland practical subjects. This time wewelcome back Sara Walker with the last ofher teacher training games, a final go atdominoes. And welcome, for the first timein the pages of The Teacher Trainer

Julie Thompson, who describes her firstbash at training two "apprentices".

Jim Wingate, who cartoons for us adisastrous bit of travelling training!

Ann Rossiter, in a more serious mood, looksat ways of discovering and categorising theroles of a teacher trainer.

So another full issue again this time.I hope you enjoy reading it and I reallyhope too that you'll join us in 1993 forVolume Seven!

All the best

Tessa WoodwardEditor

ABOUT "THE TEACHER TRAINER"

"The Teacher Trainer" is a journalespecially for those interested in modernlanguage teacher training. Whether you area teacher who tends to be asked questionsby others in a staffroom, or a Director ofStudies with a room of your own, whetheryou are a course tutor on an exam course,or an inspector going out to schools, thisjournal is for you. Our aims are toprovide a forum for ideas, information andnews, to put trainers in touch with eachother and to give those involved in teacher

training a feeling of how trainers in otherfields operate as well as building up apool of experience within modern languageteacher training.

The journal comes out three times a yearand makes use of a variety of formats e.g.article, letter, comment, quotation,cartoon, interview, spoof, haiku ideas. Ifthe idea is good, we'll print it whatevervoice you choose to express it in.

THE TEACHER TRAINER, Vol.6, No.3 Autumn 1992 Page 3

EXPLORING THE ROLE OF THE TEACHER TRAINERby Ann Rossiter

As trainers we've become accustomed toworking with teachers in developing theirawareness of the roles of teachers andlearners. Now it seems time to ask how wecan develop a similar awareness of our ownrole as trainers.

I would like to discuss one attempt, madewith an international group of trainers andteachers, towards the end of a shortcourse. Experiential learning had been thekeynote of the course philosophy; direct"input" sessions had been kept to a minimumand process evaluation a prominent feature.By process evaluation I mean thatparticipants evaluate the course while itis in progress. The results of theevaluation are then used to shape thesubsequent development of the course. Wefelt it important, therefore, to find anappropriate framework for exploring thetopic of "trainer roles".

Trainers and teachers were thereforeinvited to take part in a piece ofcollaborative research, to discover what weas a group perceived the roles of thetrainer to be. For data collection threeworking methods were outlined: for trainersto use their INTUITION and list the rolesthey were conscious of assuming in theirwork, for non-trainers to either INTERVIEWa trainer and elicit his/her idea of theroles he/she performed and or to LIST theroles they had OBSERVED the tutorsperforming during the course.

The lists were then fastened to anappropriately headed poster for display andfurther additions at leisure, a familiarprocedure used in the weekly evaluationsession.

Ideally the analysis of the data would becarried out by the participants themselves.Pressure of time meant that this was doneby a tutor alone. The results were thenpresented on a handout as material forsmall group discussion.

Both the process and the product can beseen as having value. The processreinforced the philosophy of reflectivelearning which underlay the course,affirming that:

- participants' insights are of value

- other people's insights can enrich yourown

time taken to reflect on what you knowcan bring about a much greater consciousunderstanding.

The product offered feedback to the tutorson the particpants' perceptions of thetraining process and the role of thetrainer. As such it provided us both witha participant-created working document onwhich to base further exploration of thearea, and a mirror in which to view our ownactivities during the course.

The product also provided the participantswith an original survey of trainer roles towhich they were joint contributors. Theuse to which they put the document dependson the position of interests of eachindividual. Possible uses include: achecklist for their own performance, adocument for discussion with colleagues,the basis for further research, input in atrainer-training programme

And the results of the survey? They havelittle statistical significance, but doraise some points for consideration.

Trainer v Non-trainer perceptions

Firstly, in comparing the perceptions ofthe trainers themselves (whether throughintrospection or elicitation) with theobservations of the non-trainers, we noticea high degree of similarity. The claritywith which the participants identify theactivities of the tutor-trainer, doessuggest that awareness of the trainer'srole is indeed built up through first handobservation of trainers at work. This inturn underlines the belief that

"The approach to teaching being put over bythe institution ought somehow to beexperienced as reality by the trainees."(Wallace 91).

The concept of the trainer as theintroducer of the new ideas is stillperhaps unsurprisingly the most commonlymentioned role, for both trainers and non-trainers, although the newer roles oftrainer as "observer" and "listener" appearalso to have struck many teachers. Aspectsof the trainer's role as organizer anddeterminer of classroom experience arementioned frequently by both groups,indicative perhaps of the profession'sincreasing interest in management skills.

We can also learn something from the pointson which trainers and non-trainers differ.The role of the trainer as evaluator,frequently mentioned by the teachers issomething that the trainers do not focuson. The reluctance of trainers to acceptat times a dual role of assessor andadvisor is borne out by this admonition(Wallace 91):

"Far from being "a necessary, evil"assessment can play a positive role in ateacher education course, for example byintegrating different areas of the courseand by developing the trainees' powers ofanalysis and reflection."

His point is echoed by the positive rolesof trainer-as-evaluator listed byparticipants themselves in the second partof the survey. Evaluation was stated forexample to "enable participants to evaluatetheir own progress" or allows the trainerto "adapt the course to the needs of thetrainee."

Page 4 THE TEACHER TRAINER, Vol.6, No.3 Autumn 1992

The categorization of trainer roles

Following Wright (1987) the data wasanalysed into inter-personal and task-related roles. Different levels of inter-personal roles were clearly shown. Thetrainer is at once:

An equal a collaborator with his/her colleaguesa memoer of a team

In a position of power gives trainees moral supportgives professional adviceis a counsellormonitors whet goes on around him/her

Under obligations is available inside andclassroomlearns from traineesis a spokesperson

outside the

....--,..ee,

Task-related roles

For clearer focus, these were classifiedinto organization, PRESET (Pre-service orinitial teacher training) or INSET(Inservice teacher training) focussed,content-related, technical, task-orientedand evaluatory roles. The diagram belowsuggests one way of illustrating trainerroles perceived in task-related training:the assumption of each set of rolesproviding the context for the next.

Involving both tutors and trainees in suchan enquiry into the roles of the trainerraised unconscious knowledge to consciousawareness. Carrying out the survey,introduced the participants to amethodology they could themselves apply intheir own teaching or training programmes.

Bibliography

wallace, R. (1991) Training foreignlanguage teachers. Cambridge UniversityPress

Wright, T. (1987) Roles of teachers andlearners. Oxford University Press

crganitational:

technical

PPESET-or-INSZT focussed:

content related:

talk oriented:

eva uatory: o monitor tn. guailty of learning ano learning pro," eion

to facilitate a.iy of learningthrough direct

ir,olvoment

to enable specific thing11to be learned

to achieve the goals ofparticular phase of traiainy

to facilitate learning throughthe use of appropriate cecnnology

to provide the context 1M whiinlearning can take place

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THE TEACHER TRAINER, Vol.6, No.3 Autumn 1992 Page 5

Sessi it PlanOne way of running a "Teaching Speaking" sessionby Kathy Bird

I would like to report on a session I ranrecently on a foundation course for pre-service trainees, all of whom were non-native speakers of English. The main aimsof the input session were to increaselanguage awareness and to give the traineessome ideas for teaching speaking. Some ofthe objectives included were:

- to improve the trainees' language skillsin all areas, but specifically to includevocabulary and interaction skills

- to encourage the trainees to think aboutthe importance of all areas of teachingspeaking

to encourage the trainees to learn bydoing

- to train using techniques the traineesthemselves could practise in the classroom

- to help them realise how much the bookson their recommended reading list couldreally help them.

There were other objectives specific to theneeds of the trainees on this particularcourse but, although your trainees might bedifferent, I believe this lesson would workfor trainees on various training courses.

I used Tessa Woodward's loop framework*(Ref 1), utilising language classroomactivities for the training process, withthe content dictated by the trainees' ownsyllabus.

The session was divided into threesections, each with a separate activity.The first section follows:

Training Speaking

Handout One

This is the first of three handoutsdesigned to help you with some activitiesto stimulate conversation in English in thelanguage classroom.

First Activity - Sequencing

Read the following list of things that canhelp students develop their speakingskills. Arrange them in order ofimportance in terms of what you considerwill help your students the most.

understanding the spoken- speaking the language- drills- pronunciation practice -

language

words

Page 6:82

- pronunciation practice - sentences- reading aloud from a passage in a book- vocabulary work- a good/accurate model feug students to

copylistening

- learning appropriate responses- controlled practice in speakingopportunities for free expression

- grammar

Compare your results with the results ofthe other groups.

The trainees were put into 3 groups (A, Band C) of about four trainees in each.

Each group had to discuss the list ofthings in Handout 1, and to come to anagreement on the order of importance of theitems. They were given approximatelytwenty minutes to do this.

I asked the trainees to think about thissection in three ways:

1) as teachers2) as students3) also as people not formally learning a

language

in an effort to encourage them to thinkmore widely about learning, and, moreparticularly, to learn from one anotherwhile building on what they already knew.

The groups were then reorganised so thatthere were now smaller groups, eachcomprising three trainees, one from GroupA, one from Group B and one from Group C.These smaller groups then compared theirpriority lists, and were given a fewminutes to discuss any differences.

The trainees were asked to remain wherethey were after this discussion. Three newgroups were formed for the next activity.With this and the previoup moves, thetrainees had the opportunity of speaking toseveral different people during thesession. This gave the trainees an idea ofhow they could reorganise groups in theirown classrooms* (Ref 3).

Second Activity - Modifying statements

Handout Two

Read the following statements:

When speaking English ...... it is important not to make "mistakes"

THE TEACHER TRAINER, Vol.6, No.3 Autumn 1992

one must not hesitateone should never change subject halfwaythrough a sentence.only use absolutely correct grammarstructures.don't paraphrase if you can't rememberthe word you want to use.never say anything that has no purpose.never rephrase what has just been said.don't bother with intonation onlywords have meaning.only stress your words/sentences if youare angry or upset.you will always be completely under-stood by native English speakers.

Work in groups to modify the statements sothat all members of the group agree withthem. When your group has finished,compare your modified statements with thoseof the other groups.

Each new group of about four traineesdiscussed the statements and came to a

consensus about the best way to modify thestatements. Each group nominated a

secretary to write their modifiedstatements on the overhead transparency(+pen) I had provided to each group. (Aflip chart/large sheets of paper - and bigwriting - can be used if you don't have anoverhead projector;.

They were given twenty minutes to do this.

When the task had been completed, eachsecretary was given a few minutes topresent their group's results to the restof the class.

NOTE

I collected their OHT's after the mini-presentations and after the session I typedtheir modified statements up into a sort ofmultiple choice exercise. (Examplefollows).

I've chosen the first and last sentencesfrom the activity to provide examples, bothof the trainee's modified statements, andalso of how I put them together as multiplechoice exercises:

1 a It is important not to make the samemistakes

b It's important to learn from yourmistakesIt is better to make as few mistakesas possible.

10a You won't always be completelyunderstood by native English speakers

b Don't worry if you're not alwaysunderstood by native English speakers

c It is possible that you won't alwaysbe understood by native Englishspeakers

I used this as a short revision task at thebeginning of the next sesgion to remindtrainees of the many different aspects ofteaching speaking they had to consider, andto encourage them to think in the same wayabout other areas they teach.

The trainees were asked which statementthey thought best, and why. It was alsoused to provide them with the opportunityof increasing their language awarenessstill further as they thought about thedifferences between the modified sentences.

Third Activity - Defending an Opinion

Handout Three

Your group will be given a card with acontroversial statement on it.

Spend a few minutes preparing arguments toDEFEND (support) this statement whenquestioned later by the other groups.

The statements that follow were thestatements I provided, all on separatecards. However, they may not be entirelyappropriate for your trainees, so you mayhave to rewrite them.

"The only way to learn to speak a languagewell is to live in a country in which it isspoken."

"Too much emphasis is placed on speaking inthe classroom. If students acquire goodvocabulary and understanding of .jrammar,they will be able to speak."

"I employ untrained native speakers in myschool because I believe it's the only wayto provide my students with an accuratemodel for speaking.'

The trainees were in three groups of fourof five.

The cry that went up when the groups gottheir statements was "... but we don'tentirely agree with this." Hence thisactivity served the purpose of letting thetrainees "feel" what their students feelwhen activities and opinions are imposed onthem.

When trainees had spent about five minutespreparing the defence of "their" opinion,group discussions were stopped and eachgroup took it in turn, firstly, to read outthe opinion they had to defend and then, inresponse to questions or comments made bymembers of the other groups, defend theopinion. Each group had up to five minutesto defend their opinion.

Afterword

Trainees are told at the start of thecourse that "Loop Input" will be used asmuch as possible in their input sessions,and are encouraged, also from the start, totake note of the activities their trainersuse, and to keep a note of them. They arealso always provided with the source/s ofthe activity/ies as used with students atthe end of the sessions. The classroomactivities for this input session came frompages 32 and 33 of "At the Chalkface" (Ref2).

THE TEACHER TRAINER, Vol.6, No.3 Autumn 1992 -83 Page 7

Session PlanReferences

*Ref 1: "Models and Metaphors inLanguage Teacher Training" by TessaWoodward. Cambridge University Press

*Ref 2: "At the Chalkface"Alan Matthews, Mary SprattDangerfield. Edward Arnold.

edited byand Les

*Ref 3: While the trainees were workingin their initial three groups I made aquick note of the names of the peopleworking in each group. At the end of thefirst task I then asked them by name tojoin a different group. This procedure wasfollowed for the next reorganisation too.

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BACKGROU N ID

EXPLANATIONS ANDEXPLAININGby Ann Moore Flossie and Lourdes Glynnedited and with introductionby Tessa Woodward

Introduction

It was back in volume 4 No 1 of "TheTeacher Trainer" that Dr F Gomes de Matosdrew attention to the serious gap thatstill remains in teacher training, namelythat of preparing (English) languageteachers as explainers. His point was thatif learners have the right to receivedecent explanations then teachers have theright to be trained as effectiveexplainers! This set me thinking and so Iwas very pleased to see as a tutor on theRSA Diploma in the Teaching of ForeignLanguages to Adults, (distance learningcourse), that there was a task relevant tothis topic. Part of the task was wordedthus:

"TASK SIX: the value of explanation

"Adults like to organise their learningsystematically. They should therefore begiven such explanation (for purposes eitherof presentation or correction) as theyrequire."

Suppose you had overheard a colleaguemaking this statement. What points wouldyou want to make in a discussion of thevalue of explanation?

Your response should include the following:

- a definition of any key terms such as"explanation" or "correction"

a classification, with examples asappropriate, of explanatory techniques."

The course that I was involved in was runat Hilderstone College, Broadetairs, Kent.*(See Endnote). The participants wereteachers of French, Spanish and Dutch toadults in schools and in adult educationclasses. Together they came up with amarvellous set of papers that taught me alot about explanations and explaining.What follows is a collation of some oftheir points. The resulting article may beuseful to teachers and trainers as aninitial discussion of the topic ofexplanation.

Page 84 THE TEACHER TRAINER, Vol.6, No.3 Autumn 1992

What is explanation?

to "make clear or intelligible withdetailed information etc.... adeclaration made with a view tomutual understanding..." (ConciseOxford dictionary).

The Dutch for explanation is"uitleg". Literally translated thismeans "lay-out" or perhaps "unfold".The unfolding of something is onepossible meaning of explanation. I

like this way of looking at itbecause it seems to imply a gradualprocess, like peeling an onion orartichoke, layer after layer till youget to the heart of it.

Another meaning of explanation isgetting things clear, perhaps throughthe linking of new knowledge andexperience to old knowledge andexperience.

There is in fact a two-part processof explaining and understanding. Onewho gives and one who receives.Traditionally the teacher is thegiver and the student the receiverbut in Brown (see ref.) we see thatthe effectiveness of explanationdepends on the level of understandingbetween the tutor and the learner.Only when the language tutor canplace herself at the level ofknowledge of the student, is a goodexplanation possible.

How can one start to think aboutexplanation?

One way is to consider a series of simplequestions.

Ouestion 1. Who explains?

a.

LI

L2

The learners explain for themselves.

Que hora es?

Son las diez menos veinte cinco

T Is that right Ll?

LI I don't know. I put it there to getthe explanation!

T Son las diez menos veinte cinco

LI So once it's half past, it's "menos".Alright, that's like in French isn'tit?

T I don't know, I don't speak French.

L2 Yes

The learner here sets the problem, receivesan authentic response and draws her ownconclusions. There is also a link toprevious knowledge (Trench) which a peerwas able to provide. Satisfying, we wouldthink for both Learner 1 and Learner 2.

b. Other learners

L2 came to the aid of Li in the exampleabove and this often happens. The morelearners are actively involved in lookingfor explanations and providing them forthemselves and each other, the moreinvolved and responsible they are. Ofcourse it is important for the teacher tobe aware of any "know-alls" who annoy otherstudents and to step in when this happensto avoid clashes.

c. The Teacher

The teacher first has to explain things toherself satisfactorily in order to makesure she truly understands. She will thenhave to try to explain to learners usingnot only her favourite techniques but onesthat work for the learners too.

d. Other sources

There are dictionaries, grammar books,course books, wall charts, radio, TV andcomputer programmes etc.

Question 2. What is explained?

a. What students want or need to know

Here the student initiates the explanation.For example, students at an elementarystage may want to talk about their lastholiday. They might come up with thequestion in their mother tongue. "How doyou say I went to my mother's place?" Thenthe explanation can start. The studentswill pay attention to the explanation.Asking a question is a powerful act thoughand not all students may be capable of it.So it is important to look for other signsof a need being expressed. An English-speaking student of French might say "J'aino bananes" thus expressing the need toknow the negative.

b. What students should know

This depends on the environment the learneris going to use the target language in, thelearner's ability and stage in the learningprocess. The teacher in conjunction withthe students can decide what students thusshould know.

c. What students can know

If you believe that there is natural orderof difficulty in any language ... to dowith length of utterance, number of verbparts, contact with mother tongue etc....then you will decide that certain thingsare not worth explaining at certain levels.For example you might decide not to explainthe fine distinctions of the Frenchsubjunctive to a beginner. However you dorisk a) going against the emotional desireof the student to know b) misjudging a

student's capacity to understand.

Question 3. When is the thing explained?

a. When the learner asks

This is a perfectly valuable rationale for

STHE TEACHER TRAINER, Vol.6, No.3 Autumn 1992 Page 9

TRAINEEBACKGROUNDwhen to give explanation. In practicehowever learners tend to ask auestions atwhat is, for the teacher, a most unsuitablestage of the lesson. That is to say, astudent will, for example, ask for lexicalor grammatical explanation in an exercisewith a focus on phonology or vice versa.Unless the teacher can come up with a

straightforward short. and comprehensibleexplanation this can be' a real nuisance toboth parties. It might therefore be bestto have a file on a wall poster entitled:"Questions to come back to at a laterstage" and to write the student's name bythe question.

b. When the teacher judges the learnersshould know, for the purpose ofpresentation

Through experience or by knowing thecontrasts between mother tongue and targetlanguage, the teacher can predictdifficulties and thus give explanationsbefore an activity starts. The teacherthus presumes that all the students needthe explanation. It may or may notactually help students to avoid errors inthe activity itself.

c. When the teacher judges the learnersshould know, for the purpose ofcorrection

Here, the teacher can make time forexplanation in the middle of an activity inorder to help somebody who has got thewrong end of the stick. It constitutes aninterruption but may prevent somebody fromhaving a misunderstanding for the entirelength of an activity. Of courseexplanation can take place after theactivity too when everybody can discuss theerrors and correct them.

Question 4. How far do we explain?

The question of how much things areanalysed and explained and how much theyare simply acquired, learned, as formulaeor reduced and simplified will depend on anumber of factors. Such as the students'learning style, their level, the frequencyand usefulness of the item.

Question 5. How often do we explain?

Although it may be possible sometimes tounderstand everything about an item all atonce, it may be more common forunderstanding to happen gradually along ascale from "knowing nothing much about it",through "knowing a bit about it" to"knowing a lot about it". A gradualunfolding of understanding or a movementalong a scale from knowing nothing toknowing a lot will necessitate a number ofdifferent types of explanation at differenttimes and a learner and teacher who areprepared to live with partial understandingfor the time being.

Question 6. What is a good/bad explanation?

We all remember people explaining things tous and making us more confused than we werebefore! Some of the characteristics of a

bad explanation are that it is too long,repetitive or complex, tells you what youknow already, assumes you know things youdon't, doesn't explain what you asked for,explains something else, gives too manyexamples, doesn't give enough examples, isdone in an offensive manner, doesn't comeat the right time ... Ry reversing some ofthese features we should be able to seesome of the qualities of a goodexplanation.

Question 7. How do we explain?

This is perhaps the most crucial question.There are many different ways ofclassifying explanation techniques. A fewfollow:

a. Isolation versus context

One tendency in explanation is to isolatethe item under question and to analyse itsparts in detail. Another is to put theitem into a context which is clear andcomprehensible to learners. Many peopleuse both types of technique eitherisolation and analysis followed by contextor the other way around.

Page 10 8.6 THE TEACHER TRAINER, Vol.6, No.3 Autumn 1992

1

b. Visual methods

One category of explanation is visual. Forexample you can use colour, pictures,objects, symbols, diagrams, circles, boxes,gestures to explain things.

c. Words

Some people use spoken or written words toexplain e.g. special terms (like"infinitive" or "conditional")definitions, short example sentences,rules, anecdotes, mnenonics, and byreferring to the personal experience of thelearners.

d. Learner style

Different learners prefer to study, learnand receive explanations in different ways.One way of looking at explanationtechniques thus is first to consider alearning style, secondly itscharacteristics and thirdly theimplications of these for the type ofexplanation used. The table below isadapted from information in Rogers (seeref.).

Final thoughts

To reach every learner in a given group a

Learning style

Analogicalthinking:

Trial anderror:

Meaningfulwholes:

teacher needs to utilise a great variety ofways of handling explanation. The greaterthe variety of techniques a teacherpossesses, the greater her response abilityis to a given situation. Perhaps the mostbrilliant explanation is the one thelearner gives to herself... but it takesskill to bring the learner to that point.

References

Gomes de Matos, F. (1990) "TrainingTeachers as Explainers: a checklist" inThe Teacher Trainer, vol 4, No. 1.

Brown, G. (1978) Lecturing and ExplainingMethuen

Rogers, A (1986) Teaching AdultsOpen University Press

Endnote

For more information on the RSA Diploma inthe teaching of foreign languages to adults(by distance learning) please contact IanMcGrath at the Institute for AppliedLanguage Studies, University of Edinburgh,Scotland. We would also like toacknowledge the part that the D.T.F.L.A.distance training materials played in theformation of this text.

Characteristics Implications forexplanations

uses existingknowledgeand experience,tries to discoversimilarities,parallels,analogies

needs to practiseand adaptknowledge andexperience gainedin otheractivities orcircumstances

needs to build upfrom small unitsthat can beconnected togreater patterns

Imitation: needs clearexamples

recall relevantknowledge andexperience,present new data,point outparallels, orhelp peers todiscoversimilarities anddifferences themselves

explain anddemonstrate, thenpractice andreinforcement.Use pictures,words, objects,roleplay, andother activities.Let errors happenthen give feedback.

explain smallunits and supportlearners to seeconnection withother units.Explain in apattern ofrecognisablesteps. Use diagrams,components of pictures,components of texts.

explain bydemonstration andexamples for eachsituation. Usepictures, tapes,roleplay.

THE TEACHER TRAINER, Vol.6, No.3 Autumn 1992 .(y.;:h

0Page 11

Current Res archAn examination of the effects ofusing consciously applied empathyin situations of potential conflict

by Paul Brees

1. Introduction

In this article I would like to considerhow consciously applied empathy can improvecommunicative performance. By "consciouslyapplied empathy" I mean a deliberateattempt to understand the otherinterlocutor's thoughts, intentions andfeelings. By engaging this mode ofcommunication, the communicator willautomatically pay less attention to a)external stimuli, b) his or her ownpreoccupations, and c) the insistenttendency to speak. Hereinafter the term"subtext" will be used to describe thethoughts, intentions and feelings mademanifest in a person's discourse. Thenotion of "subtext" goes beyond that ofspeech functions, illocutionary force, orpragmatic meaning, as it has emotionalcontent.

The style of discourse I am writing in mayjar with some people, but I hope not withall. As this article is a summary of myM.A. dissertation, the formal style hasbeen kept. That is why its tone mightsound rather academic and impersonal. I

hope it is adequately penetrable!

2. Communicative competence

As a preliminary section (before expoundingand testing my own theories), I would liketo briefly summarise some important pointsrelating to the notion of "communicativecompetence." (Hymes'). I shall do thisfrom the point of view of pragmatics,which, to me, offers the most validinsights, and connects neatly with what Ihave to say later.

According to Grice2, communication may bewith or without all of the following:intention, conversational implicature, andflouting. I shall now try to explainthese. Intentional communication stands incontrast to unintentional communication inthat in the latter the speaker does notintend to communicate anything. (They may,for example, be merely thinking aloud).Communication with conversationalimplicature means that there are no formalcohesive ties to show conversational co-operation - the sense comes, for example,from awareness of ellipsis.

Communication with flouting means thatGrice's maxims are not adhered to - forexample, the speaker may be using irony orbanter. To elucidate, examples ofdifferent kinds of communication have beengiven in the table below:

TYPE OFCOMMUNICATION

EXAMPLE CONVERSATIONALIMPLICATURE

Unintentional (person toself)"Oh god!I'm late!"

No

Intentionalwith overtcohesive ties

A Can you swim?

B Yes I can

No

Intentionalwithoutcohesive ties

A What'sthe time?

B I left mywatch at hometoday

Yes (Standard)

Intentionalmaxims flouted

A to B(sarcastically)Well done!"

Yes

When communication breakdown occurs, thismeans that the message is not accuratelyencoded or decoded. The type ofcommunication, as long as it isintentional, is unimportant, i.e. there mayor may not be conversational implicature orflouting. When speakers are aware that adegree of inaccurate inference orimplication has occurred, steps arenormally taken to solve the problem. Thiscan be done through "communicative repair",an example of which is amplification.However, breakdown can also be avoided atthe outset of a conversation by an activeattempt to understand and/or speak clearly,and I shall turn to this idea now.

3. Actual communication

Communicative competence, like grammaticalcompetence, is thought by Hymes tooriginate both from genetic pre-programmingand adequate exposure to a language.Canale3, meanwhile, takes things a stepfurther by making the distinction betweencommunicative competence and "actualcommunication", which he describes as beingthe realisation of communicative competenceunder limiting psychological conditions.By these, he means, for example,distracting stimuli extraneous to theconversation or preoccupations thatspeakers bring with them to conversations.

According to Canale, strategic competenceis a part of communicative competence, andhe maintains that there are two types.Firstly, there is the ability to effectrepair, and here he appears to be referringto discre'..e, non-subtextual, aspects oflanguage. Secondly, there is the abilityto improve conversations globally by, forexample, talking slowly. This latter

Page 12 THE TEACHER TRAINER, Vol.6, No.3 Autumn 1992

ability may be called a "pre-strategy", asthe interlocutor can decide to engage itprior to the beginning of an interaction.

Canale's distinction between two types ofstrategic competence can be compared withFlavell's distinction between two types ofempathy (Flavell)'. Flavell refers firstlyto the natural empathy which develops as aresult of adequate socialisation (duringwhich communication develops from the"egocentric" type to the "nonegocentric"type), and secondly to deliberate strategicempathy, which can be applied, for example,before sports matches or beforeconversations. Therefore, if one makes adeliberate attempt to understand thesubtt.xt of another person's discourse, I

would consider this approach to be a "pre-strategy",

When should such pre-strategies be applied?I propose they are only applied in"situations of potential conflict", a termI shall now attempt to explain. Conflictmanagement theorists like Brown and Keller'claim that there is conflict in aconversation if there are "real orperceived differences" between thespeakers. This view can be compared withthat of Thomas', whose discussionconcerning cross-cultural pragmaticbreakdown focusses on sociopragmatic(=real) and pragmalinguistic (=perceived)differences. Meanwhile, Gumperz7,Robinson, and Fisher and Ury9 all focus onperceived differences between speakers(which Robinson labels "attributionerrors").

It is difficult to say exactly when aconversation contains conflict or not, andit seems more sensible to talk in terms ofa cline of conflict. That is, if twospeakers have very different life ex-periences and if they have differentcommunicative goals in which they have muchinvested, the result is likely to be a"situation of potential conflict". TheCrosstalk interactions (Gumperz et al'9) aregood examples of these. In contrast, ifthe Life experiences and communicativegoals are similar and there is not much atstake, a global pre-strategy is not calledfor. Rommetweit" calls this latter sort ofsituation one of "cognitive convergence".In short, I suggest that, whenever one isabout to engage in LI/L1 or L1 /L2interaction in which there is much at stake- for example a job interview, a sale, ora political negotiation - pre-strategiesmay be brought into play because differinglife experiences and communicative goalsmight exacerbate the potential conflictwhich already exists.

So if we can engage global pre-strategiesin situations r-r potential conflict, whatare they? I ...It to concentrate on two:"the empathic mode" (hereinafter EM) and"the assertive mode" (hereinafter AM). EMmeans that the interlocutor deliberatelytries to listen and speak according to theother's perspective. AM, meanwhile, meansthat the interlocutor deliberately tries tolisten and ':peak according to his ownperspective - a type of communicationfavoured in many personal growth workshops.

My hypothesis is that EM is morecommunicatively efficient than AM for thefollowing reasons.

a) In EM the speaker endeavours to bridgegaps in life experience (Robinson" hasexperimented with empathic communicationgames, which suggest that empathy keepsconversation going).

b) The experiencing of other people'sperspectives (which Flavell" calls "roleenactment") has been shown by Anderson andLynch' to lead to efficient communication.

c) Conflict in conversation seems to havea tendency to cause egocentric communi-cation, which is manifested in skip-connecting* and poor timing in discourse(both of which are clearly signs ofinefficient communication).

Moreover, both Brownand Keller' and Fisherand Ury9 claimthat a positivecommunication cyclecan be created ifempathy is engagedby one speaker - GO

engaging EM could haveconsequences whichlast beyond the endof the interaction.

4. Experiment

I decided to carryout an experiment toquestion the viewcommonly held by the layperson that to communicate mostsuccessfully one should concentrate onputting over one's own thoughts,intentions, and feelings clearly. Therationale for questioning this view wasthat there already appears to be a naturaltendency to egocentric communication in

conflict situations (Flavell') - and myfeeling was that this type of communciationwas not so efficient. Therefore, I wantedto compare EM and AM and to find out,primarily, which of the two was deemed tobe the most successful by impartialobservers.

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My aim was to film 16 semi-scriptedsimulated authentic conflict dialogues,involving four advanced non-native speakersof English, each of whom engaged fourcommunicative modes: NM (neutral mode), EM(empathic mode), AM (assertive mode), andEM/AM (here the interlocutor tries toconcentrate simultaneously on the accurateencoding and decoding of subtext). Thedialogues were created by using roleinstructions and devising an information

Footnote

*"Skip-connecting" is when there are,virtually, two monologues going on. Bothparties ignore what the other is saying andconstantly refer back to what theythemselves said prior to the other personspeaking.

THE TEACHER TRAINER, Vol.6, No.3 Autumn 1992 8 5Page 13

Current Researchgap. The following table shows which modewas engaged by which actor for eachconflict situation.

SITUATION OFPOTENTIALCONFLICT:

DIALOGUE 1

SELLING

DIALOGUE 2

INTER-VIEWING

DIALOGUE 3

COLLEGE

DIALOGUE 4

PARENT /CHILD

STUDENT 1

STUDENT 2

STUDENT 3

STUDENT 4

EM

AM

EM/AM

NM

AM

EM/AM

NM

EM

EM/AN

NM

EM

AM

NM

EN

AM

EM/AM

The conversations were filmed and shown to20 impartial native speaker observers, whoassessed the communicative performance ofthe actors in a subjective and global way.

The observers had a choice of grades,ranging from A (very effective) to E (veryineffective). I was also interested in thesubjective reactions of the actors(concerning the level of comfort andperceived success in the different modes)and I was keen to find out if there wereany differences between the actors'perception of success and the assessmentsof the impartial observers.

The results were is follows. The actors'subjective reactions were mixed, but it wasinteresting to note that there was sometalk of discomfort in EM. This tallieswith Flavell's view that nonegocentriccommunication is "communicativelyunsatisfying" for the interlocutor

As far as the impartialgrading was concerned, the results, whichare averaged out, are below:

MODES

STUDENT 1

STUDENT 2

STUDENT 3

STUDENT 4

NM EM AM EM/AM

D C D E

B B C C

D A

C A

D C

As you can see, EM scored much higher thanany of the other modes across the board.Indeed, even the actors who expresseddiscomfort at engaging EM received highergrades for that interaction than for

interactions in which other modes wereengaged.

It seems that we can conclude from thisexperiment that there is a differencebetween the image we think we are

projecting when we interact and the imagewhich is perceived by impartial observers.Indeed, it seems that an EFL studentengaging EM can operate at the same levelof communicative performance as one with ahigher communicative competence who is inNM.

5. Application of empathy to TEFL

I shall suggest here a procedure for usingempathy which can be used in the EFLclassroom. As a very rough guide, I

suggest that th.a best time to begin work onsubtextural analysis is at post-elementarylevel. To begin with, of course, only veryshort conversations should be shown.Moreover, if the class is mono-lingual, Llmight be used as the language for analysisand discussion. In this case, I recommend,though, that English is used after solidintermediate level has been attained.

As it is important to rid the mind ofpersonal preoccupations in subtextualanalysis, I think that relaxation is usefulprior to the lesson. This could take theform of meditation or the use of Baroquemusic. The latter method has met with somesuccess in suggestopedia. (Rosel2).

Next comes subtextual analysis in threestages (and here a monolingual classroom isenvisaged). Firstly, there is analysis ofan Ll conflict situation. This involvesmultiple choice questions concerningambiguous parts of texts which carrysignificant subtextual meanings. Answersare compared with those of the dialogueparticipants, which have already beenentered onto a grid. Secondly, there isanalysis of an Ll/L2 conflict situationconducted in English. The procedure is thesame as for the Ll conflict situation.Finally, there is cross-cultural analysis,in which the results of the two previousanalyses are compared.

After this, I envisage controlled practice,which would consist of extremely simplelisten and repeat exercises. Studentscould see, on video, one utterance said inthree different ways (with varying prosodyand on-verbal communication), and then tryto imitate the performance as closely aspossible. The utterances could be takenfrom the text already worked on.

Finally, I propose the use of role plays,and, as with ;:ne subtextual analysis, thiscould be divided into three stages.Firstly, students play the role of theinterlocutor they are likely to becommunicating with in the future.Secondly, students play the role theythemselves are likely to be playing in thefuture. And finally students play theirown future role, but this time using EM.When this final stage is reached, studentsare no Longer practising subtextualanalysis with the benefit of a pausebutton, but actually using empathy forinteractive purposes. If EFL institutionshave the use of a camcorder, all of theserole plays may be filmed and played backfor further analysis.

Page 14 THE TEACHER TRAINER, Vol.6, No.3 Autumn 1992

. Conclusion

If there is a new way of convertingcommunicative competence into succesfulactual communication, I believe this shouldnot be ignored. My feeling is that empathyin situations of potential conflict is avery powerful tool, a tool which cancompensate for a student's shortcomings inlanguage areas such as pronunciation,syntax, and semantics. Finally, I see noreason why the use of consciously appliedempathy cannot be extended successfullyinto other fields of TEFL, such as.teachertraining and trainer training. Forexample, I think that readers of thisjournal might like to consider the ideathat consciously applied empathy canmi-iigate against likely problems inteaching practice feedback sessions, assuch sessions are, in my experience, onesof potential conflict.

References

1. Hymes D. (1972) "On communicativecompetence" in Sociolinguistics (eds.)J. Pride and J. Holmes. Penguin

2. Grice H. (1975) "Logic and conversation"in Syntax and Semantics 3: Speech Acts(eds.) Cole and Morgan. Academic Press

3. Canale M. (1983 "From communicativecompetence to communicative languagepedagogy" in Language and Communication(eds.) J. Richards and R. Schmidt. Longman

4. Flavell J. (1968) The Development ofRole-taking and Communication Skills inChildren Wiley

5. Brown C. and P Keller (1979) Monologueto Dialogue. Prentice Hall

6. Thomas J. "Cross-cultural pragmaticfailure" in Applied Linguistics Volume 4.No 2. Summer 1983.

7. Gumperz J. (1982) Discourse StrategiesCambridge University Press

8. Robinson G. (1988) Cross-culturalUnderstanding. Prentice Hall

9. Fisher R. and W Ury (1981) Getting toYes. Hutchinson

10. Gumperz J. and C. Roberts (1979)Crosstalk The National Centre forIndustrial Language Training

11. Rommetweit R. (1972) "Linguistic andnon-linguistic components of communication:notes on the intersection ofpsycholinguistic and social psychologicaltheory" in The Psvchosocioloov of Language(ed.) Moscovici S.

12. Anderson A. and T. Lynch (1988)Listening. Oxford University Press

13. Rose C. (1986) Accelerated LearningTopaz

ProwSS pt ions !dew 20Things to do after teacher training inputby Mario Rinvolucri

Imagine that a trainer takes some INSETtrainees through an exercise. The exercisecould be done in the language the traineesteach, their. mother tongue or a languagenew to them. They do the exercise aslanguage students. In many training roomswhat happens next is some kind of exchangeof views between the trainees and thetrainer about what has happened, how peoplefelt about it, adaptations and so on. It'sworth wondering if this should be done and,if so, in how many ways it can be done.Here are some alternatives:

1. Zero exchange

People think extraordinarily swiftly andexperienced trainees know immediately whenyou have offered them a winner of anexercise. If the exercise is mediocre ora non-starter for them, that's just the wayit is. Why drag them through a time-wasting exchange-of-views ritual? Whyshould instantaneous inward thought alwayshave to be socialised?

2. Space for digestive thought

Trainees spend two minutes in thought,sitting, stretching or escaping into thecorridor (some need movement and/orsmoke). This is a time for being withthemselves after a socially involvingexercise.

3. Diaries

Each person writes their reactions andfeelings. I have used this system inFinland and in Japan where folk mostlydon't want to shoot their mouths off beforethey have had a chance to reflect.Sometimes it seems appropriate at the endof a training session to ask participantsto go back over their diary entries andcomment to each other in small groups onthings they have thought and felt.

Why not mix feedback systems within onegroup? In a workshop in Osaka I asked aJapanese coleague to demonstrate a teaching

THE TEACHER TRAINER, Vol.6, No.3 Autumn 1992 Page 15

Process Optionstechnique, using the Americans in the groupas guinea-pig students. After the lessonthe Japanese participants wrote down theirthoughts in Japanese while the Americansexchanged thoughts and feelings orally insmall groups. Then the Japanese paired offwith the Americans and listened to learnerreactions. This frame allowed theAmericans to exteriorise and talk while theJapanese could think, write and listen.

4. Letters

People write their thoughts in the form ofa letter to someone else in the group. Theydeliver the letters. The participants getup, mill around the room and talk to thosethey want to.

5. Marketplace

Each trainee writes three main thoughts/reactions on three different slips ofpaper. Everybody then gets up and tries tobarter their slips of paper for those ofothers. A person will only give away aslip/thought in exchange for one she findsattractive or relevant. This marketplacemechanism, that I learnt from RichardBaudains, allows people to move fluidlyfrom one colleague to another withouthaving to listen to people they don't wantto.

6. public feedback led by a trainee

If you have asked a trainee to demonstratea new exercise, it flows naturally for herto then run the feedback session. You, thetrainer, have the pleasure of listening andseeing the group focus on someone otherthan you. Time to relax and notice thingsfrom a new angle.

7. Public exchange led by a trainee in alanguage the trainer doesn't understand

The choice of using a language everybodyapart from you knows gives the group thechance to work publicly but in semanticsecret from you, the parent figure. Youstill belong to the group, see people'smood, feel their rhythms, but aresemantically out of the room, providing thelanguage is fully beyond your ken. I hadthis experience as a trainer on the thirdmorning of an intensive INSET course withteachers of Basque. It was extraordinaryto belong to the group as a sort of two-year-old, feeling very participative andwith firmly reduced parental functions.

8. Public exchange led by a trainee withthe trainer out of the room

Why do trainers feel we want to know whatpeople feel about an idea, an exercise, away of doing things? It's on the table. Itstands proposed. They will, each of them,have understood it differently and havedifferent views about it. Why should weexplore these perceptions and views? Maybethere will be more exchange of thought and

feelings in the relief of our absence.Better perhaps for us to have a tisane, doa yoga exercise, drink coffee, gaze out ofa window, have a cigarette or make a phone

1

_J____ 7A"EANDREWS

call. In the INSET situation are weresponsible for what people think or don'tthink, do or don't do?

9. Public exchange led by trainer

In this parental model the trainer hasplenty of behavioural options.

Here are a few of them:

1. Everyday conversational mode:the trainee speaks and the trainercomments on the things that strikeher in what the trainee says.

In a sense the trainer speaks for herown benefit, when she feels the needto.

2. Empathetic listening mode: thetrainer down-grades interest in herown egoistical instinctive reactionsto what the trainee is saying andtries to see the utterances from thetrainee's point of view. She avoidscomment and may sometimes summariseback to the trainee what the latterhas just said. Speakers are oftenamazed if they get proof that someoneis really paying attention to theirthought. If the trainer does notfollow what she is listening to, sheasks clarificatory questions but notquestions that give the speaker alead. If the trainer is havingtrouble achieving empathy with whatshe is listening to, she may decideto discreetly imitate the trainee'sbody posture, voice-tempo. This hasto be done unobvously and withpractice you can do it entirelymentally. Such 'mirroring' often hasa powerful facirating effect on thespeaker.

3. Checking-out listening mode: thetrainer challenges vagueness in thetrainee's comments, e.g.

Page 16 92 THE TEACHER TRAINER, Vol.6, No.3 Autumn 1992

Trainee: "We all felt..."

Trainee: "I really likedthe exercise"

Trainee: "Felt bored alot of the time"

TrainertMmm,how many ofyou?

Trainer:Which partsof it?Whatspecificallydid you like?

Trainer: Youdid? Whenexactly?What madeyou know youwere bored?

A trainer in this mode has to be ingood rapport with the trainee at thatmoment and challenge in a light,friendly way, otherwise the situationcan turn ugly quite fast. This wayof checking your understanding ofanother person's verbal mapping of arecent experience is based on Sandlerand Grinder's meta model (see notebelow).

4. Confrontational mode: the trainerlistens to the feedback and picks ona particularly significant point tohammer at either in a question andanswer session, as a lecturette orwith an exercise. This was one ofthe techniques much used by the lateDr. Gattegno.

There are many more options than the onesI have listed and some of my colleagueshave added theirs to the bottom of thisarticle. The editor would very much liketo publish any techniques that you haveused or thought of using come and set upyour stall in the TT marketplace.

The techniques outlined above fall for meinto four broad psychological categories:

Parental (9)sub-parental (sibling taking parentrole) (6,7,8)sibling (4,5)individual (1,2,3)

Given that I have written this piece withinthe above mindset I would be particularlyinterested in techniques that don't fitinto it, that question it and break it.Please help me beyond by present pattern.

Mario

P.S. Other ways of sharing reactions:

When Bernard Dufeu is ready for groupfeed-back after an experientialexercise he asks people to organisewhat they have to say into threedistinct phases:

- affective: How did you feel?

- intellectual-technical: What do youthink?

- creative: variations on theexorcise, other,different exercises itmakes you imagine.

Tessa Woodward often asks the groupto recall step by step the exercisethat was noted. As the grouprecalls, the steps are noted on theleft hand side of the board. On theright hand side of the board are twocolumns. One is headed "Why?" andthe other "Assumptions". As thesteps are recalled or, alternatively,after all the steps are recalled,the group discusses why the step/activity was done and whatassumptions lie behind it.

Seth Lindstromberg sometimes asks thegroup to think back to the lastlesson they taught and to imaginewhere they could have used theexercise they have just experienced.If they had known about the exercise,could they have slotted it insomewhere? People then discuss oract out this imaginary past use ofthe activity and also discuss howthey could use it in future lessons.

Bibliography

For an excited, complicated explanation ofthe Meta-model (Neuro-linguisticProgramming) see Bandler R. and Grinder J.The Structure of Magic, Palo Alto, Scienceand Behaviour Books, 1975.

For a concise explanation of the same, seePages 223-233 of Solutions by LeslieCameron-Bandler, Future Pace, 1985.

JOURNAL EXCHANGES

"The Teacher Trainer" has arranged journalexchanges with

IATEFL Newsletter (UK)English Language Teaching Journal (UK)Cross CurrentsEnglish Teachers' J.DurnalModern English TeacherRELC JournalThe Portuguese NewsletterForumPractical English TeachingFocus on EnglishTESOL Newsletter

(Japan)

(Israel)(UK)

(Singapore)(Portugal)

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(India)(USA)

and is abstracted by 'Language Teaching',The British Education Index, the ERICclearing house and Contents Pages inEducation.

mut,. ,rrar.tro nnurtTtarta Vnl f Nn_a Autumn 199293 Page 17

NEW STYLE TRAINING !N HUNGARYby Angi Malderez

THE BACKGROUND

Russian has recently been dropped ascompulsory first foreign language inHungary, and the demand for qualifiedEnglish teachers has risen dramatically. Itwas therefore decided to start a new,intensive, three year, single honours,teaching degree programme 'B.Ed.' atEotvoa Lorand University, Budapest. TheCentre for English Teacher Training (CETT),opened in September 1990 with 100 students,the first year intake, training to be bothprimary and secondary school teachers.Since 1991, the three-year programme atBudapest, and four other universities hasbeen supported by the British CouncilELTSUP (English Language Teacher Supply)project.

There are many innovations in theprogramme, but the one we are most closelyinvolved in is that of setting up thirdyear Teaching Practice, and its support.

In traditional training programmes TeachingPractice (TP) has taken place in specialteaching schools belonging to theuniversity. Trainees (University studentteachers in training) are attached toteachers (teacher-supervisors) within theschool for periods of six weeks altogetherduring which time they observe, and teach15-18 hours. Assessment is normally b,'exam' lesson from the visiting tutor. TheTP supervisors have no special training,though their specified duties include pre-lesson planning, observation and post-lesson feedback and evaluation. Naturally,they only work in these schools becausethey are considered good teachers. Most ofthem take their jobs very seriously, andhave conscientiously developed their ownsupervisory styles.

The new type of institute required a newmodel of TP. The existing one givestrainees very little experience of the kindof independent decision making which leadsto reflective teacher developmentprocesses. Nor do such short periods of TPallow for rcel 'sheltered' practice of thelongitudinal aspects of teaching. Ry'longitudinal aspects' we mean:

a) the course v. the lessonb) the development of the group

dynamicc) the development of reflective

processesd) giving support during the

'survival' year (ref: Bulloughet al '91)

e) what belonging to a schoolmeans

f) evaluation of pupils.

In short, because we believe that teachingis learnt by doing, that there is more to

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teaching than 'the lesson', our third yeartrainees will be teaching a class for awhole school year. Furthermore they willbe teaching in pairs, both for additionalsupport and to foster the process ofteacher cooperation.

As we couldn't use the already over-burdened existing teaching schools, we hadto find new 'teacher-supervisors', (whichwe call co-trainers - COTs). What's more,since the role of these teachers will bedifferent from the existing supervisors, wedecided to devise a course to help thembegin to develop the additional skillsnecessary for sensitive supportivesupervision of our trainees.

THE CO-TRAINER TRAINING (cOTT) COURSE

TEE SELECTION PROCESS

Selection presupposes a sufficient numberto select from. We needed 25 minimum, ifeach COT were to supervise two traineepairs each eventually.

At first, the number of applicants wasdisappointing until we realised that wehad advertised in a journal which arrivedon head-teachers desks, and was rarely readby teachers themselves. We resorted toreadvertising in various papers, and, moreimportantly, making personal appeals atevery teachers' gathering we could find. Wefinally had 38 applicants. Not too many,but as many as we could put through theselection process, given the dwindling timewe had left.

Our curriculum committee was formed - us,a representative of each of the two othersections of our university involved inteacher training, an existing secondaryschool 'teacher-supervisor' and a member ofour staff who had previously been a primaryschool supervisor.

As we needed a clear understanding of thecriteria we were looking for, we firstbrainstormed desirable qualities. This ledto the decision that we would have to bothobserve a lesson and give an informalinterview in order to determine thepresence of such qualities as open-mindedness, flexibility, empathy, a love ofteaching and learning, and so on. Wedevised a lesson observation sheet and alist of possible interview questions.

olf,sur Tr1PUFD TRATNRR. VO 1.6. No.3 Autumn 1992

Then began the long round of selectionvisits. Each teacher was visited by twomembers of the committee, with one'visitor' always constant, although towardsthe end of the semester the 'constant'visitor did a few visits alone. We werenot looking for examples of any pre-definednotion of 'good' teaching - but ratherevidence of sensitivity, caring, beingeager for or already obviously involved intheir own professional development. Thiswas definitely a 'joy'. We learnt so much,personally, and gained a greater awarenessof needs to be met on the course. It wasa privilege to meet so many dedicated andinspiring teachers and head-teachers, manyof whom struggle along isolated with fairlybasic conditions, teaching 26 hours or sofor a salary which they are obliged to'top -up' with second or third jobs.

We became very conscious of most teachers'expectations that we were there to see ifthey were 'good' enough, and theirdesire(?) to be 'evaluated'. Although wetried to time-table visits so that therewas enough time after the lesson to talk,this was very often taken up with briefcomments from the teacher on how the lessonwent from her or his point of view, a

question or two from the 'interview list'and a lot of drinking coffee and explainingthe scheme to head teachers. We thereforedecided to give written feedback. Eachteacher visited received a letter of'feedback' if they requested it (all butone did), in which we attempted to givedevelopmental, alternative-generatingsuggestions based on evidence. This hadthe advantage too of allowing the'visitors' some distance and discussion aswell as to check we really were all on thesame wave-length (we were!). We intend toask participants to reflect on thisexperience during the course! I don'tthink we would say that phrasing thoseletters of feedback was a 'joy' exactly,but we learnt as we went along.

Successful applicants received an'acceptance pack' including: a letter ofacceptance; a copy of the notice allowingthem to join the university library; areading list of the recommenced reading ourtrainees will have read by the end of theirsecond year, a glossary of key terms andconcepts (for those teachers whose trainingwas before 'communicative competence' etc)and a mind map of those terms; amethodology check-list of the topics ourtrainees will have covered by the end ofthe second year and from which COTs wereasked to choose six topics they would mostlike to cover on the course itself, andbring to the first session; and a letter tothe head-teacher explaining theImplications of acceptance on the course ofa member of their staff, and including therights and obligations of all parties ifthat member of staff successfully completesthe course.

Meanwhile we were busy trying to getconfirmation from all the parties concernedof conditions, rights and obligations ofthe COT, the school, the university (ELTE),and our trainees. This has been one of themajor 'problems' largely due to the fact

that a new education bill, including a newnational curriculum, is being prepared aswell as the novelty of the whole concept.

Work continued on the curriculum documentitself. The following is a summary of thecurrent draft.

COTT COURSE CURRICULUM

Course Objectives

By the end of the course:

1. Participants should know about:

specific programmes (rationale andcontent) followed by our trainees whowill soon be in their care.

supervisory stylestypes of observationtypes of feedbackmethods of assessment

teaching materials available, andwhere to find them

anything on the COTT methodologysyllabus they are not familiar with.

their future role as COTs. Theformal features of this role will bedecided by agreement on:- assessment modelmethods of networking betweenSchool, COTs, ELTE staff, andtrainees.

2. Participants shouldand be developing:

have developed,

skills in:observation

- giving feedback- assessing trainee development- listening/counselling- conflict-solving

any skills on CETT methodologysyllabus they feel are Lacking orunderdeveloped.

a greater awareness of the language- for their own development

for their teaching- for their trainees' teaching

Timetable

The 120 course hours will be divided asfollows:

Sat. 22.2 '92 (9-4pm + breaks)Course Introduction. 5 hrs

Weekly thereafter, Input.(Fri 3-6pm) 15 45

Weekly self-study,Reading/Prep. 2 hrs x 15 30

Mon - Fri. 15 -19.6.'92Input/Round-up 5 x 5 25

Throughout the Course:Observations at school/ELTE 15

THE TEACHER TRAINER, Vol.6, No.3 Autumn 1992

4111110111111111111MMINI11111i

25

120

Page 19

Content

Two principles lead us to believe that atthis stage the syllabus can only betentative and 'suggested', and that thelikely outcome will be a retrospectivesyllabus. These two factors are that,following certain of the course objectives:

a) a large part of the syllabus contentwill need to be negotiated;

b) much of the syllabus will involveraising awareness and fulfillingneeds of a specific group of people,as yet unknown.

There are, however, certain elements in thecourse objectives that one can fairlyconfidently predict as being 'new' andtherefore 'needed', namely, those to dowith: 'the COT role'; the 'trainer-training' skills - knowledge anddevelopment; and 'language awareness', ofone kind or another. These, then, are thefixed elements.

As for the 'methodology up-date', this willbe catered for in three major ways:

1) After identifying the (6?) mostpopular areas for inclusion in the course,session-time will be given to those topics.

2) Participants will be asked to attendany of the ELTE methodology sessions onareas they have individually requested butwhich will not be covered in session time.

3) The teacher training procedures usedon the course to impart knowledge ordevelop skills will be 'looped' to someextent and taken from current EFL practice(see ref). Overt discussion of theprocedures/methodology used will beencouraged both in session feedback and inthe Work-book (see below).

Attending methodology sessions in ELTE willhave the additional benefit of allowingparticipants to have a better idea of theformal training their trainees will havereceived. Course-time is allowed for thesesessions, and all participants will attendat least two sessions of this kind.Participants will also be encouraged toattend language practice classes for thepurpose of a) having a better idea of theethos/kind of training their trainees arereceiving; b) practising certain kinds ofobservation skills. They will also beguided in the practice of self and peer-observation, for developmental purposes.

Workbook

We have compiled a work-book which shouldenable the sessions to be experiential or'workshop' in nature. The contents aredivided into four major sections:

1) The first contains what we havecalled 'core reading'. There are threearticles which are interspersed with 'note-making/think' tasks (which we suggest theydo with a 'work partner'). The firstarticle we chose is 'Training the trainers'Bamber ('87). This is to raise some of theissues, and also to give validity to the

Pain. In ,96

weighting of the course content. Wesuspect most teachers, understandably, arekeen to come on the course for the'methodology update' component, rather thanthe 'trainer-skills' part. The secondarticle is 'Developing Perceptions of theClassroom: Observation and Evaluation,Training and Counselling' Bowers ('87).Although issue can be taken with the HORACEmodel, we felt it was a very usefulframework for beginner-supervisors to hangon to. The third article is 'Models ofsupervision choices', Gebhard ('90), asthis expands the range of interactionpossible at different stages of HORACE.

2) The second section contains sessionreview sheets on which participants areexpected to record the content of sessions,as well as the methodology of sessions -activities and organisation. We willattempt to do much covert(ish) methodologyupdate this way.

3) The third section contains aselection of observation sheets for: self-observation, peer-observation, observationof a more experienced teacher. We haveincluded here only those sheets we knowwill be used during the course, as weeklytasks. In the range of peer-observationsheets we suspect some more covert(ish)methodology update will occur. Alsoincluded are a couple of different 'exam-lesson' mark sheets which could beguidelines when we come to develop our ownevaluation sheet.

4) The final section contains someselected supplementary reading onmethodology, the first year of teaching,self-esteem and the non-native speakerteacher - important issues that we fearmight not be covered elsewhere.

Creating this was a 'joy'. We learnt,clarified, visualised, attempted toempathise. We look forward to revising itin the light of this first course.

Evaluation of CoTT course participants

Because the course will result in auniversity certificate, and although everyeffort has been made during the selectionprocess to select only people who are bothwilling and able to meet the courseobjectives, some sort of evaluationprocedure must be used to enable tutors, inthe eventuality of any participant notreaching the required standards, to vetothe issuing of the COT CERT. However, thisis a sensitive area, and the procedure mustallow for 'face-saving'. It is proposed,therefore, that a tutorial system be setup, and a negotiated 'evaluation ofprogress towards meeting course objectives'be carried out at least twice during themain body of the course. This will bebetween tutor and participant, and based,in part, on elements from the participant'sworkbook. If the agreed evaluation is'unsatisfactory', withdrawal from thecourse could be offered as a face-savingoption. Another aspect of the evaluationprocedure will include the continuousassessment of participants during 'traineelesson observation and feedback' role-

THE TEACHER TRAINER, Vol.6, No.3 Autumn 1992

plays. The goal here, as with trainee-teachers, will not be to ensure that we'have produced perfect trainers' but ratherthat we have sensitive knowledgeable,developing trainers who have the will,ability and strategies for continuing tostrive towards becoming 'the best trainersthey can be'.

Process of Course

Considerable efforts will be made to'practise what we preach' in terms of thelongitudinal aspects of a course, and themethodology employed. For this reason, aswell as the tutor system, it is imperativethat the tutor-team should work veryclosely together in the preparation ofsessions, team-teaching etc. In order tocater fqr group processes, and have ONEcourse, the whole group will gather,dividing into smaller work-units atdifferent stages of the session, with bothtutors present at all times. A coursewhere different ,7eople are called in to'do' different topics is not appropriatehere, in contrast to much local practice.

Just as people tend to teach as they weretaught, so we suspect they would tend totrain as they were trained. For thisreason we intend to put considerable weighton the developmental aspect of the course.The COTS will be responsible for thedevelopmental assessment of our trainees,

while university staff will visit for 6 (?)'exam - lessons'.

CONCLUSION

We are excited about this project, and arelooking forward to beginning the course, aswell as tackling the many other processesthere are still to come.

References

Bamber 'Training the Trainers' in ELT DOCS125 '87 MEP/BC

Bowers R. 'Developing Perceptions of theClassroom' in ELT DOCS. 125 '87 MEP/BC

Bullough et al Emerging as a Teacher '91Rout ledge

Gebhard J. 'Models of supervision: choices'in Second Language Teacher Education '90CUP

Budapest, February '92. Caroline BodoczkyAngi Malderez (Adapted from a talk given

at the TT/TD IATEFL SIG conference, inBeilefeld, Germany, on Feb 9, '92)

Woodward, T. (1991) Models and Metaphors inLanguage Teacher Training CUP

WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE A TRAVELLING TRAINERA true story by Jim Wingate

You have to laugh in this job. I arrive atLondon Heathrow:

"You're early" said the check-in woman.

"Early?"

"Yes. This ticket's for tomorrow."

"Aargh! But I'm working abroad tomorrow!"

So then the money I'd carried for four dayswork abroad was completely cleaned out bythe taxi I wasn't expecting to pay for, ...all just so that I could catch the planethe next day.

So I arrive abroad with no money. I showedthe information office the address of whereI was supposed to be working.

"It doesn't exist!"

No, it wasn't on her map, nor on the mapshe gave me, nor on the map on the wall.She'd never heard of it, nor had hermanager.

"OK. I'll find the hotel Hotel Zed".

Another map outside the station showedHotel Zed. I walked to it wheeling mybaggage thinking "At least I can dump myluggage and try to find the workplace."

"No, no one of that name is booked here!"

I tried the names of my contacts and mysponsors.

"No, no, no."

"Ah, perhaps you are in the other HotelZed."

She phoned.

"Yes."

"O.K." I said, I'll go there."

"By car?"

"No!"

"By taxi? By bus?"

"No. I have no money. I will walk."

"Completely impossible! It is not in thistown."

THE TEACHER TRAINER, Vol.6, No 3 Autumn 1992 , Page 21

WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE A TRAVELLING TRAINER

"3.K. ", and I asked her for a map. AtLast, on her map there was the street whereI was working.

I set off wheeling my trolley and followingthe map the street wasn't on with my notesfrom the map thr street was on.

Round and round and round. At last, I

realised what was wrong. Since making themap they gave away free in the station,they had blocked two roads, removed abridge and moved the station.

At last, I'm on my way.

Two hours walk-and-trolley-pull later, I

must be near the workplace, but where's theroad that was clearly marked crossing theroad I'm on on the map?

Round and round and round. An impenetrablehedge of forty foot trees, a fence and wall- the road no Longer crosses the road I'mon. It's been blocked off and hidden.

Round to the arrow, then the building thearrow points to.

"Mr A please ... Oh, then Mr B theorganiser ... Oh, then the exhibition ...Oh, then the conference ...?" Never heardof any of them.

"Ah, their building is at the back of thisbuilding."

At last, Mr A.

Three hours from Newcastle, one hour on theplane, two hours in the taxi, 10 hours inthe hotel, an hour's walk in the capitalcity, three hours on the train, threehours' wait, what for? Only three people

at the teacher training seminar, one ofwhom says

"Oh, I'm not a teacher," and the othersays,

"Oh, I have to leave early, I'll sit nearthe door!"

"There is a train and underground striketomorrow."

"That's all right, I'm travelling today."

"Yes, but it starts this evening."

Will I be stuck here with no money, nohotel and with train tickets I can't use,while my seminar participants are waitingfor me in another city?

Of course, I remain calm throughout!

UNCHARTERED WATERS.......REFLECTIONS OF A

BEGINNING TRAINER

By Julie Thompson

I recently* completed my first period as asupport trainer for two trainees for thepracticum component of a teacher trainingcourse.(Note 1) It was very much unknownterritory for us all and the experience wasa very exciting one for several reasons.

In my capacity as their support trainer,Roni and Mary, were with me for threehours, once a week for seven weeks. Thehours which they spent with me formed partof the two days per week that I taught ona ten week full-time genera). Englishprogram for overseas adult learner..

The brief given to us by the coursedirector was to begin their seven weekswith a three week observation period,during which the support trainers were toguide the trainees' observation with tasksselected by us and designed to dovetailwith the lessons we taught. We were notasked to change the way we taught, but itwas hoped that the c.ainees would see a PPP(Note 2) and a different skills lesson each

Page 22 .38 THE TEACHER TRAINER, Vo1-6, No.3 Autumn 1992

week. A short explanation of the lessonplans and observation tasks took place atthe beginnins of each session together; andfeedback di.cussions after the observationswere also expected. The trainees wereasked to keep a reflection journalspecifically for the practicum, which theirsupport trainers read each week.

During the four weeks which followed theobservation period, the trainees wereexpected to become increasingly involved inthe programming and teaching of the class,with each support trainer designingindividual "immersion" programs to suittheir trainees. This was to culminate inthem planning and teaching an entire PPPlesson in the final week, which we were toassess. It was felt by the course directorthat the trainees should successfullycomplete a PPP demonstration lesson beforetackling one of the four macro skills(Listening, Reading, Speaking, Writing) forassessment purposes.

This represented the half way point intheir four month course, during the secondhalf of which they had another four weekpracticum with a different support trainer.

I should explain that I had recentlycompleted a course for TESOL trainers (Note3) which had left me with a grab-bag ofmixed feelings. Whilst I was filled withanticipation for putting into practice newskills and testing out notions that hadbegun to crystallise during the course, I

was also very apprehensive. Could I do it?Would I be able to handle all the complexissues that inevitably would arise?

We had been reassured during our trainertraining course that many of our well-established teaching skills would betransportable into the training arena, andthat we had developed techniques and guide-lines for dealing with the specifics of theprocess. But would I really be articulateenough to communicate my skills effectivelyto beginning teachers?

Was it going to be a case of the blindleading the blind, or would I be able toanalyse clearly what I had just taught andconvey my strategies well enough to thetrainees for them to be able to apply themodel of good teaching practice that theyhad just observed? Indeed, would we beable to get beyond the mimicking of amodel? I hoped to be able to impart tothem some of my "professional philosophy" -what I know and feel about both languageand teaching. Perhaps even more dauntingwas the prospect of my observing them andthen feeding back in an affirmati "e andeffective manner.

Equally, I felt a formidable sense ofpersonal responsibility towards Mary andRoni, more strongly than I normally feeltowards my language students. Perhaps thiswas a result of the much closer one-to-tworelationship; or perhaps it was simply fearof the unknown. Nevertheless, I continuedto worry: how were all the interpersonal/supportive/critical dimensions going towork out?

TO MY PLEASANT SURPRISE ...

I am very relieved to say that theexperience was not the unmitigated disasterof my nightmares. "My trainees" (as I

possessively, but affectionately, used tocall Roni and Mary) progressed stronglythrough the seven weeks and are now well ontheir way to becoming competent adult ESLteachers. Hopefully I have contributed tothat process, but where have these sevenweeks taken me?

The overriding feeling is one of "See, youcan do it!!", and that is a mighty goodfeeling. A confidence-boosting shot in thearm never goes astray. I certainly feelfar better equipped now than I did earlierto offer constructive guidance (as opposedto "help") to more junior colleagues, asituation which arises not irregularly ina busy staff room.

The possessiveness that I felt towards Maryand Roni stems from a combination offactors. Undoubtedly, they were special tome because this was my first experience asa support trainer. Clearly too, theirsuccess during the practicum left me witha sense of pride.

However, I feel quite certain that the"tutor" role which the on-going nature ofour association implied, gave me the addedsense of responsibility and interest intheir progress, that the more usual role oftrainer as assessing observer alone wouldnot.

Having spent the practicum talking togetherabout selecting materials to be taught onthe basis of student need and an authenticusage of English, as opposed to "what thegrammar book or the syllabus said", I wasdelighted to see a sensitivity in thelanguage awareness of their demonstrationlessons, that was absent in the "well-intentioned" native-speakers, who had beenentrusted to me seven weeks earlier.

I am confident also that this feeling ofprotective nurturing was shared, with Maryand Roni gaining a feeling of security andtrust from our close association. As weknow from our language teaching, thelearning process is greatly enhanced by anatmosphere in which risk-taking is feltpossible. Confident that we were allworking together (and in this I include thesupportive language students as well) thetrainees tried out new ideas and repeatedlypractised techniques about which they feltapprehensive.

AND WHAT OF THE MODEL?

Being analytical about the activities whichI have performed routinely for such a longtime hag led me to all kinds of interestingthoughts about my work. To begin with, I

have a much healthier respect for the rigidformat of the traditional PPP lesson thanI used to have. Left alone in my classroomI now realise that I had headed off on myown tangent without reassessing what I wasdoing in an explicit or systematic way.

THE TEACHER TRAINER, Vol.6, No.3 Autumn 1992 95 Page 23

UNCHARTERED WATERS.......REFLECTIONS OF A BEGINNINGTRAINER

Watching my trainees struggle with the veryfundamental components of the method,forced me initially to adopt an extremelyorthodox approach, making a comparisonbetween this and my usual modus operandiunavoidable and personally challenging.

Not only has this led to a renewed respectfor the methodology. It has forced me tothink through my strategies. I now supportthe use of the PPP model as a sound placefor one to hang the proverbial hat;especially for the beginning teacher whocan be assured that if, followedsensitively, it will allow the languagestudents to experiment with the languagefocussed aspects of the syllabus in arealistic and communicative way (Gibbons,1989). This is not to say that I am notmindful of all the valid objections thatare raised against the PPP model. RecentSecond Language Acquisition theory has muchto contribute about Interlanguage, thenatural order of language learning and theimportant role of unfocussed languageexposure. Nevertheless PPP stands as avalid option for dealing with the focussedside of the syllabus.

Martin Parrot's response to Peter Grundy(1990) (see Bibliography) rightly pointsout in my view, that his "communicationactivities would provide a useful resourcefor language teachers, but neither acomplete nor always appropriate languagelearning syllabus. To adopt this approachexclusively seems to have moved too farfrom the structural/functional basis thatunderlies the current model.

The use of a model in training is only aplace to begin, a kind of comfortingstructure that can give direction to thenewcomer. For many of us pursuing newexperiences can be unsettling until adirection, some sort of handle on thesituation, emerges to give structure to theunfamiliar territory. PPP provides such astructure with its rigid stages andpredictable sequencing of most of themicro-skills needed for successfulteaching. I do not feel it unreasonablethat although we as experienced teachersmay move away from its rigid structure, weshould consider it a valuable platform fromwhich to launch the beginning teacher intotheir career.

Safe within the confines of the format, I

watched Mary and Roni grapple with theother issues which face us daily, neverbeing allowed to fall too far off the trackbut always being pulled back by theconstraints of the next stage in theirlesson plan. For example, when giving anentire PPP demonstration lesson of her own,one of the trainees lost sight of her focusduring the initial exploitation of thedialogue. Unnerved, the lesson progresseddespite her rather than because of her.She had regained her composure by theProduction, but the lesson was considerably

Page 24 .11)

below her usual standard. I feel quitesure that without the often practisedstructured stages of the PPP Model for herto cling to like a life raft, she may wellhave had a truly disastrous experiencerather than a mildly disappointing one.

I am now also far more certain of the ideathat what we do in the classroom each dayhas more to do with skill than instinct.Statements like: "You can tell she's agood teacher" or "Good teachers are bornnot made" used to seem indisputable.Blissfully unaware that I had actuallylearned a lot of my craft, I was surprisedat first to see how slow the conversionfrom non-ESL to ESL has been for twoalready competent teachers. Techniquesthat seem so obvious to me, (like teachinglanguage in context or choosing naturallanguage) have had to be pointed out manytimes.

Granted, some people think more easilyalong these lines than others, but theprocess of language teaching is far moreteachable than I had believed it to be.

Another fuzzy spot had been the need todistinguish between teaching and learning.It came only from watching novicesconcentrating so hard on what they weredoing that they seemed unable to hearstudent contributions or student error,that I realised that a large part of ourtime in the classroom is spent inmonitoring what is happening on thestudents' side of the room so as to pre-empt our teaching choices. Mary and Roniwere initially unable to focus on the otherside of the room; they were still dependanton pre-scripted questions and instructions.This led them into a very inflexibleposition, which while safe, often seriouslydetracted from the potential quality of thelesson.

BACK TO MY CLASSROOM ....

Will this experience be of value to me inthe classroom? I certainly hope so! I

have had to articulate the nitty-grittythings - like why it's useful to put a dashfor each word in a cloze in some situationsbut not in others; whether to write wordson the board or force more carefullistening. As a result, I have beencompelled to consider my own teaching morecarefully. Even if I eventually slide backinto complacency, at least my approach willhave been challenged and reassessed in akind of cleansing process.

What has sobered me the most? Somethingtrivial in a way - my trainees took one ofmy favourite vocabulary techniques andwithout so much as batting an eyelid,adapted it in a very clever way that hadnever occurred to me. The technique mayhave been trivial, but the lesson was not -learning is very much a two way process; Ihad expected to learn a great deal fromthis experience, although not directly fromthe trainees themselves.

When I add to that, the list of things Iwould do differently with my next pair oftrainees, I realise that, as usual, it's

() THE TEACHER TRAINER, Vol.6, No.3 Autumn 1992

going to be a long but refreshing climb upthe learning curve:

NOTES

'SYDNEY ENGLISH LANGUAGE CENTRE (120 hourpre-service teaching) Certificate in AdultTESOL.

=The "Presentation, Practice, Production"sequence commonly used in languageinstruction. For more information see:GOWER, R. and WALTERS, S.: TeachingPractice Handbook: a reference book for EFLteachers in training. Heineman. 1983. pp60-116.

3INTERNATIONAL HOUSE ENGLISH COLLEGE 40hour Certificate in TESOL Teacher Trainingand Course Leadership conducted once a yearat International House, Sydney, by RuthWajnryb.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

ELLIS, R. (1985) Understanding SecondLanguage Acquisition. OUP.

GIBBONS, J. (1989) "Instructional Cycles."in English Teaching Forum, July 1989.

GRUNDY, P. (1989) "Gone to TeachersEveryone" in

The Teacher Trainer, vol. 3 no. 2

Summer, 1989(1989) "When Will They EverLearn?" in

The Teacher Trainer, vol. 3, no. 3,Autumn, 1989.

PARROT, M. (1990) "Acritique" in The Teacherno. 1, Spring 1990.

Critique of aTrainer, vol. 4

WAJNRYB, R. (1989) "Is PPP Passé?" in TheElicos Association Journal, Autumn, 1989.Vol. 7, no. 1

* (This article was accepted in 1990. Itwas then "delayed" down the back of afiling cabinet until 19921 Although it'snow some time since Julie wrote it, we bothagree that the feelings in it are stillrelevant to starting trainers. Ed.)

! NEWS !

RELC Regional seminar on language forspecific purposes: problems and prospects,Singapore, 19-21 April 1993. Informationfrom SEAMEO Regional Language Centre,30 Orange Grove, Singapore, 1025.

John Morgan was interviewed in Greeceby Irene Theotokatou after appearing as aguest speaker in Thessaloniki. Theinterview is reprinted here with permissionfrom TESOL Greece.

I. You were saying before that your maininterest at the moment is TeacherDevelopment.

J.K. That's the jargon phrase. I don'tknow whether I like the phrase TeacherDevelopment, but I would like to usesomething other than Teacher Trainingbecause both for me, and I thinkhistorically Teacher Training has seenteaching as a skill where techniques andmethods, together with the subject matterof whatever the teacher is expected toteach, are controlled by the course. Thatis necessary, but it is not sufficient. Ateacher needs to discover quite a lot aboutherself and needs to not just haveexperience, but needs to analyse and workon that experience to see whether herteaching is something which fits her, whichgives her satisfaction and which enablesher to behave naturally when she is in theclassroom situation. Something thatdisturbs me, for example, is that manyteachers change dramatically at the pointwhere they enter or leave the classroom.I don't say that this is in itself a badthing, but that it's very likely to be sodramatic out of discomfort and insecurityor frustration within the teacher, andthese negative feelings can affect herteaching, can communicate themselves to thestudent, can build up over the years. I

think, now, it is possible to catchteachers when they're young, or to workwith teachers who have been working for along time, on Teacher Development courseswhich are asking the questions: Now areyou in the classroom? What are yourmodels? How did you arrive at thesemodels? It may be necessary to look at theexperience that the teacher had when SHEwas a child, when she was a learner, and toconsider the memories, the pictures thatshe has of teachers, which together formher idea of what a good teacher ought tobe. Can I give an example?

THE TEACHER TRAINER, Vol.6, No.3 Autumn 1992 A.-0 1 Page 25

INTERVIEWI. Please do.

J.M. I was on an in-service trainingcourse in July in Czechoslovakia. I wasworking with a group of Czech secondaryschool teachers. At the end of a seasionin which I was demonstrating and askingteachers actually to work through certainclassroom techniques - it was drama work,in fact - one of the teachers said to me,"I enjoyed the session, but I can't usethis way of working with my students." I

said, "Why?" "Because the conditions arewrong." We had time so I got her to talkmore about it. "The conditions arse wrongbecause there are too many students,because we don't have space to move,because other colleagues would think I wasnot teaching ..." and a set of reasons I'msure are familiar to you. They are to me.This is an example but it's happened manytimes. I asked her, "What is it about theclassroom and the number of students thatwould prevent you doing activities of thetype that I've just been showing you?", andshe said, "I think it would get out ofcontrol. Once things begin like that, I

don't know how they're going to end." Wehad a long conversation the burden of whichwas that she felt insecure in theclassroom, that she was not confident ofher ability to relate to other people. Shespoke to me about her friends, her sister,about her family and it seemed to me to beclear that in the classroom she was able tocreate a world over which she had morecontrol than in her own life. Normally Iam not in a position to ask peoplequestions like that, none-the-less, I thinkit should be possible for teachers toexplore themselves in that way, because thereal answer to the question "How can I dothis in the classroom?" doesn't lie in theclassroom. The answer lies in the teacher,in the teacher's own personality. I thinkthat's important.

I. What advice can you give teachersabout where to begin working on this areathemselves?

J.H. Well, I don't think I can giveadvice. I don't think that that's what'sneeded. But the question which constantlyI ask myself in my work is, "What are myreasons for doing a particular thing in thesession I have animated or the class I havegiven?" I answer the questions in terms ofwhat I get out of it, and that's not aselfish question because, ultimately, themotives for behaving in a certain way inthe classroom are to do with my ownparticular personal needs. Now, one of MYpersonal needs is to give confidence andhelp to the weak and insecure students, andin my Teacher Training work, the teacherswho lack confidence, who have weaknesseseither in behaviour or it language. Thefirst answer would be that I did such athing in order to assist that student orthat teacher, but underneath that is thequestion, "Why did I, John Horgan, addressmyself to these particular people?". The

answer has got to lie in my own experience,that I believe myself to have bean a fairlyunsuccessful language learner. I identifywith the weak ones. My own reasons forcoming into English teaching are not veryhonourable ones. I'm an English teacherbecause I wasn't good enough to be a Germanteacher. Not that I didn't have thequalities to be a teacher, that wasn'tknown. Simply that my spoken German wasn'tgood enough. It was my intention to go andspend a year in Germany to improve myGerman and become a German teacher.Instead I got married, I had children, andI actually found that the second best job,which was as a teacher in a language schoolin Cambridge, was very absorbing and I

loved it. That doesn't let me escape frommy own weakness ... There is no way that ateacher can look at a group of learners andexert equal influence or feel equalresponsibility towards the whole group. I

think we must recognize that our attentionis going to be diverted and we need tounderstand why our attention focuses onparticular types of students. Once werealise that, we can compensate for it orwe can understand ourselves better andcharge perhaps our views of what we do.Does that make sense to you?

I. Yes. The whole idea, then, is thatby discovering things about yourself youbecome better at teaching others.

J.N. I don't think we can make a simpleequation: because I understand myself I ama better teacher. I don't think that'scorrect, but I think that in order to be abetter teacher I have to know why I'mteaching in the way I am, and I can'tunderstand why I'm teaching the way I amuntil I've understood myself better.

I. I think a lot of people go toconferences or even read the newsletter andthey want some kind of recipe for goodteaching, things they can take away withthem and directly apply in their teachingsituation. Am I right in saying that whatyou're indicating is that you shouldconcentrate not so much on the activitiesbut on how YOU can do the activities?

J.H. I think the recipe, the activities,the designs for activities that we learn atconferences like these are very important,but I don't think they're sufficient. I

think we need to discover ways oftransforming these activities so that theybecome our own. A case in point was todaywhen Marissa was giving her 'StoryMachine'. The format of the machineappealed to me strongly, the way in whichshe used it didn't. I enjoyed it as asurrogate student, but I couldn't look atMarissa and see John Morgan working in thatway. John Morgan would work in a differentway. Now what I have to do is take thatactivity which I recognize as valuable andincorporate it into my own way of teaching.

I. To go back to something you talkedabout earlier to do with teachers feelinginsecure in the classroom. You mentionedspecifically insecurity about language.Now I think a lot of Greek teachers are ina situation where they are teaching

Page 26 14)2 THE TEACHER TRAINER, Vol.6, No.3 Autumn 1992

something which is not their nativelanguage, and they quite possibly feel someof this insecurity. How would you help ateacher like that to try and overcome thatinsecurity?

J.M. That would depend on the teacher.One thing I might say is, "What are youraims in teaching English to this particulargroup of students? What quality,performance, use, context of English wouldyou expect from them at the end of yourteaching them?" If the answer is to givethem the ability to communicate with otherpeople for whom English is a worldlanguage, then your use of English,providing it is within certain limitsacceptable and accurate, IS the Englishlanguage.. The English that is spoken by aGreek tp a French person, to a German, aGreek to an English person even is whateverthat person chooses to make of it,providing it is accessible to the other.You are not yourself British or NorthAmerican or whatever. You are not tryingto impersonate a native speaker, andneither will your students be. If you havea Greek accent when you speak English, youhave a Greek accent because you ARE Greek.There is no reason to consider thisinferior for this purpose. But on theother hand, if you are trying to turn yourstudents into copies of British people, ifthey're going to be spies or actresses orsomething, then your English is

insufficient, and that is a job that shouldbe done in another context by somebodyelse. That would be one way. It woulddepend on the person I was speaking to.Another way would be to say, "In what

respect is your English inferior,inadequate? How do you fall short of thegoals you set yourself?" They might say,"Well, I make mistakes in grammar." "Inwhat areas of grammar do you makemistakes?" and we might talk about that anddiscover that these are pseudo-problems,distinctions that the teacher is trying tomake that, in fact, native speakerswouldn't make, or they are problems at avery remote, esoteric level that don'taffect the language they are teaching. Theymight say "Well, my English is narrow.Where I feel British people have a choiceof a dozen things to say, I can only findtwo ways of saying it." "Start by teachingyour students those two ways so that atleast they have some way of saying it inEnglish." On the other hand, a teacher mayactually be performing in English at alevel which objectively is insufficient tothe job. I think one has to be very honestand say, "Your limitations are very grave,and perhaps you need to work much more onyour English." There's no point inbuilding somebody's confidence up falsely.Is that a good answer to your question?

I. That's a very good answer, thank you.

John Morgan has co-written a number ofbooks with Mario Rinvolucri (e.g.'Vocabulary', OUP, 'Once Upon a Time', CUPand 'The Q Book', Longman) and hascontributed a wonderful section to 'TheRecipe Book', Longman 1990, edited byS.Lindstromberg.

LANGUAGE DOMINOES*by Sara Walker

For a full rationale of the use of games inteacher training and development, pleasesee "The Teacher Trainer", Volume 4, Number3. For the first four sets of languagedominoes, please see Volume 6, Number 2.

How to make domino games

1. Use a large sheet of paper or card.2. Divide the sheet intn 16 squares.3. Write the first half of the first

domino in the square marked 1 (i.e.the second square from the left), andthe second half in the other squaremarked 1. Follow the numbering untilyou reach the bottom right handsquare (no.16). Finish the lastdomino in the top left hand square.

4. If you want more than one set,photocopy your game before you cut itup. Stick the copies on card, andcut first down the centre verticalline, then across each horizontalline.

5. Give these instructions to yourtrainees and invite them to maketheir own dominoes.

16 1 1 2

2 3 3 4

4 5 5 6

6 7 7 8

8 9 10

10 11 11 12

12 13 13 14

14 15 15 16

The final set of dominoes below is designedto help teachers in training with phoneticsymbols and words containing the sound.

THE TEACHER TRAINER, Vol.6, No.3 Autumn 1992 103 Page 27

LANGUAGE DOMINOES*

Acknowledgement:I first came acrosslanguage dominoes*in Grammar Games byMario Rinvolucri - abook which influencedthis whole series ofTT games.

foil

dden

Ihltiat/

menheedbetter

1:

feel/fl:l/

de,.,..,cm,

Afwput/pet/

girlweedwarder

LI:

food/fu:d/

headpat

11.1,

aago//

Bothersuncome

afar/fa: /

moth

PaPelock

ea.plate /

poorfewertour

a 1.7/21/

brownfound

'... wd

I 3feerftIN

hacr

care

PEA,

a -ifgo/w/

.2.1.pinmiddle

ehen/ hen /

..t_emeanreceive

D :say/sD:/

book

failcould

3 :her/h3: /

fume

moon

wEllnd

aecat/let/

mainbanana (British

English:)teacher

Acup/kAp/

gardenfathercalm

Dfog /fog/

dIXclaimwelsh

J;aure03/

bet12^2221,

airnow /nlV/

beerSpearpier

e awhere/yea/

m_.1mucake

D Itdrhni

Have ou Re dTraining Foreian Language Teachers - AReflective Approach - by Michael J Wallace(1991) CUP

This book is based on SchOn's model of theteacher as the "Reflective Practitioner".

Knowing little about Schon, I readWallace's book with interest. The basic"esumption underlying the book is that itis important to have a clear, coherentrationale for foreign language teacher.education, the rationale suggested herebeing the "reflective approach". A keyelement of this approach is the trainee/practising teacher reflecting on classroompractice with the help of particulartechniques. Schon and Wallace see thisreflection as crucial in developing long-term professional competence.

Before going any further, I should mentionthat my job involves working on R.S.A./Cambridge Certificate and Diploma coursesin T.E.F.L.A.* and thus, I read this bookwith the aim of seeing what insights I

could gain to help develop these particularcourses. The chapters that I felt would be

of particular relevance were those on inputstyles, observation and supervision.

Chapter 3 in the book explores how"received knowledge" - ie. the input of newideas - can be transmitted, and Wallaceargues that a variety of input styles needsto be adopted to appeal to differentlearning strategies. Drawing from Parkerand Rubin's work who argue that the keyaspects of the academic process areacquisition, reflection, application andevaluation, Wallace provides acomprehensive breakdown of differentteaching and learning modes ranging fromlectures to buzz and cross-over groupswhich would serve to satisfy these keyelements in the process. Generally, I

found this chapter provided a usefulsummary of input styles.

Chapter 5 focuses on classroom observationwhich is central to the reflective approachi.e. how reflection on classroom practicecan lead to professional development. In

* These courses are for pre-service and in-service native speaking teachers of Englishas a foreign language to adults.

Page 28 104 THE TEACHER TRAINER, Vol.6, No.3 Autumn 1992

the chapter, the author provides aninteresting account of differentobservation systems. He starts withdiscussion of full-blown scientific data-based models, such as Sinclair/Coulthard'shierarchy of analysis (Lesson - Transaction- Exchange - Move - Act). As a contrast tothese rather rigid time-consumingapproaches, Wallace mentions a moreflexible system in the "ethnographic"approach whereby an informed outsiderobserves a c) ss over a period of time, andthen, having identified areas of weakness,devises an appropriate form of datacollection.

Having spent several pages outlining thesemodels, Wallace admits that theseapproaches would seem to be unwieldy forthe practising teacher and ends withsomething more accessible which he callsthe "ad-hoc" approach, i.e. devised for aparticular purpose. Here, the trainerdevises his/her own data-based observationsystem depending on the purpose e.g. studyof types of questioning employed by a

teacher with a reading comprehension.

All in all, I found this chapter ratherdisappointing since if, as Wallace admits,the full-blown systems are unrealistic fora practising teacher, why devote so muchtime to them? Why not spendproportionately more time in the chapterdiscussing and illustrating realistic data-based observation tasks that a teachermight be able to use?

Moving on to supervision in Unit 7, Wallacecontrasts a 'prescriptive' approach tosupervision with a 'collaborative' one. Inthe prescriptive approach, the supervisoris seen as an authority figure who adoptsa judgemental attitude towards the lessonobserved. With a collaborative approach,the supervisor, and the trainee, as impliedin the name, are seen as colleagues, andthe former reacts to the lesson in thelight of what he/she thinks the trainee isattempting to achieve; thus, the supervisordoes not impose his/her agenda on thediscussion. Wallace quotes Cogan's 8-phasecycle which involves the teacher andsupervisor planning the lesson together andthen, post-observation, analysing the

events either separately or together. Thisis followed by the "conference" andfinally, a return to the beginning of thecycle for the next stage of planning.

However attractive this approach mightseem, it again would appear to beunrealistic time-wise in the majority ofteacher education situations. A morerealistic and accessible model is providedtowards the end of the chapter in Bowers'6-phase pattern known as Horace, whichstands for Hear - Observe - Record -Analyse - Consider - Evaluate.

My feelings, having read this chapter, aresimilar to my reactions at the: end of theobservation chapter in that I felt somewhatlet down. If the full-blown clinicalapproach is not really feasible, why spendso much time discussing it? Why notexplore Bowers' more realistic model inmore detail?

To conclude, I found the book interestingand informative and the general spirit ofthe reflective approach appealing andcommon sense. I particularly liked the"practise what you preach" approach ofasking the reader to reflect personally atfrequent points throughout the book on theideas being expressed. The particularstrength of the book lies for me in thevery clear and well expressed development,and in the very digestible 'potted'accounts of models and theories.Ironically, for me personally, within thisstrength also lies the main weakness that,in providing this accessible overview ofcurrent thinking and research, Wallaceperhaps falls between two stools in notexploring sufficiently the models that aremore realistic and practicable for thepractising teacher and teacher trainer.

However, I realise that in expressing apersonal view on the book, I have done sofrom the narrow, selective viewpoint of myparticular teacher training situation, andthus may not have done full justice to theauthor who has adopted a wider perspectivein his discussion.

Andy Caswell,Director of Teacher Training,Hilderstone College, Rent

Of special interest or relevance to teachertrainers are:

The Standing Conference on EducationalDevelopment (SCED) Papers and HigherEducation Research and Development Societyof Australasia (HERSDA) Green Guidesavailable from SCED, 69 Cotton Lane,Moseley, Birmingham, 813 9SE. Some 75

papers and guides are available. All ofthem are designed to assist the personaland professional development of Lecturersand educational developers. They are allwritten in accessible English, are short,practical, realistic and inexpensive. Theones I looked at more closely and sharedwith some visiting professors were:

THE TEACHER TRAINER, Vol.6, No.3 Autumn 1992106 Page 29

PUBLICATIONSRECEIVED

Twenty terrible reasons for lecturing -a refutation of the traditional reasonsgiven to justify lecturing and a search forthe real reasons behind this teachingstyle.

Learnina from learners - studentsdescribe their reactions to particularcourses, and the difficulties theyencounter. A view, thus, from the clients'side.

31 idear, for staff and educat_ionaldevelopment - a collection of practical,pithy ideas in straightforward language.

Rewardina excellent teachers - ideasdrawn from Oxford Polytechnic and the W.Australia Institute of Technology. I knowof no other collection of papers on thissubject.

Self and peer assessment - a collectionof 10 papers applying the idea of self andpeer assessment to lecturers, students,groups and individuals.

A very interesting set of guides andpapers.

TEACHERTRAINING

1993

Children in action by Carmen Argondizzo(1992). Prentice Hall. ISBN 0-13-131467-X.Very good to see this creative, experiencedteacher in print! The book is for mono andmulti-lingual groups of young learners,beginners to advanced. The aim is to usenatural strategies from L2 acquisition(such as silence, repetition, nonsensebabbling, L, response to L2 stimuli,telegraphese etc) in the F.L. classroom.The short, lively recipes are divided into6 sections: 'Get together activities','Games children Like to play', 'Educationalactivities', 'Time for reading', '... forwriting" and "... for rewards".

Evaluating second language education edsJ.C. Alderson and A. Beretta (1992) CUPISBN 0-521-42269-8. A series of 8 frankcase studies illustrating the empiricalstrengths and limitations of qualitativeand quantitative approaches to evaluationand the value of combining them. There isan editor's postscript after each casestudy so linking them together and to theguidelines for evaluation at the end. Thecase studies include varied pieces onBangalore, data from UCLA, 'participatory'and 'independent' evaluation, evaluation ofinput-based programmes and of classroominteraction.

CertificateCouives fie Overseas teachers of English

Why Hilderstone?Small groups

Highly experienced teaching staff

Reasonably priced accommodation

For details write to

Teacher Training, (Dept. TT)

Hilderstone College, Broadstairs

Kent CT10 2AQ, England

Tel: 0843 69171Telex: 966182 THANET GFax: 0843 603877

ember,,

Free! 101 USEFUL :CLASSROOM ACITVITES :

Fill in the form to receive a free copy ofIssue One of THE LANGUAGE TEACHERS'

DEVELOPMENT MAGAZINE10 Ways to Get Silence10 Ways to keep to the Target Language 0

10 Ways to Grammar Using Total Physical Response10 Techniques to improve Pronunciation10 Techniques to improve Intonation20 Ways of using visuals plus 16 visuals a

10 Techniques for Pairwork10 Computer Grammar Activities without Computers10 Lesson plans in one sentence plus 10 tips

Name

Address

CountryNumber of copies(e.g. for colleagues)

Please send me LID Issue One Teacher Trainer offer .

Page 30BEST COPY AVAILABLE 10 6, THE TEACHER TRAINER, Vol.6, No.3 Autumn 1992

eBritish Council International Specialist Courseselc Training pre-service EFL teachers: a hands-on experience for trainers

30 August - 10 September 1993, Canterbury

Director of Studies: Tessa Woodward, Lecturer in EFL, teacher training and trainer trainingprogrammes, Pilgrims Language Courses and Hilderstone College.

This course offers teacher trainers an opportunity of hands-on practice with a group of Britishpeople wanting to take their first steps in teaching EFL, followed by tutorial input relevant to

epractice session activity.

This course will be relevant to the following:

o teachers who are committed to becoming trainers or who already have a supportive, helpingrole with teachers;

o lecturers involved with the practical side of pre-service training in teacher training collegesand universities;

o heads of department with training responsibilities for their staff, especially the induction ofnew members of staff;

o inspectors with training responsibilities.

There are vacancies for 24 participants.

Course fee: to be announced.

Teacher supervision and appraisal for ELT<2 12-24 September 1993, Edinburgh

Director of Studies: Mike Wallace, Senior Lecturer, Scottish Centre for Education Overseas,Moray House Institute of Education.

The issues of teacher supervision and appraisal have never been more critical than they aretoday. The whole rationale of teacher education and teacher development is under review. Inevery educational context, teachers are expected to be more accountable to the public. At thesame time, there is a movement within the profession for increased professional autonomy andpersonal responsibility for development. Traditional methods of supervision are perceived bymany to be inflexible and ineffective. Appraisal can be yet another stick to beat a demoralisedprofession, or a means to raise the standard of performance in a positive and helpful way. Thiscourse is intended to throw some light on these and related issues, and to come up with relevantand practical outcomes. The course will be of interest to experienced teacher trainers, supervi-sors, inspect and managers/administrators with a special interest in teacher appraisal.

c.

There are vacancies for 30 participants.

fee:ee: to be announced.e

oooooooo The00.. British Further information and application forms are0000000 available from your local British Council office000000 or from Courses Department, The British Council,000000 Council_ 10 Spring Gardens, London SW1A 2BN

6 6

10?

A

Edited by Geoffrey Kingscott, Nottingham, UK

Language International is a bi-monthlymagazine for the language professions,which keeps you informed of what is happen-ing in the language world.

Language International is geared tothe practical needs and interests of languageteachers, translators, interpreters, lexicog-raphers, terminologists and those, whatevertheir calling, who have a professional interestin languages. An international editorial boardof people active in languages ensures report-ing from all corners of the world.

What can you expect to find in Lan-guage International? First of all, newsnotes and reports of what is happening in lan-guages, giving a wide variety of angles andopinions. Secondly, each issue contains acomprehensive cumulative listing of forth-coming language activities. Thirdly, featurearticles and interviews which are carefullychosen for their relevance of interest. Andfourthly, useful information for the languageprofessional, including reviews of new publi-cations and software, and listings of essentialinformation in the language field.

Language International's classifiedsection and appointment advertisementsoffer a forum for a lively exchange of workand knowledge for companies and free-lances.

Language International builds on twostrong convictions which most of our readerswill share. One is that the post-industrial ageinto which mankind is moving will be the Ageof Information, that is to say information in allits guises will be the most valuable resourceof all; language. processing is a major ele-ment of information processing, and linguistsmust be in the forefront of developments. Thesecond is that while increased specialisationis inevitable, all language professionals dohave interests in common, and they need ajournal like Language International whichkeeps them informed of developments inrelated fields.

In addition to its professional and voca-tional information, Language Internationalwill also reflect something of the fascinationof language and communication.48 pages per issue - 6 issues per year

Selected articles from Volume 3:

Anglicisms in German car documentation(Sverre Vestarhus)

Af-home foreign language courses (Mary1-14et)European translation network (Andrew Joscelyr.e)How co buy in translation work

(Geoffrey Kingscott)Terminology: between meaning and language

(Jean Datta)

Subscription rates for 1992 (Volume 4, 6 Issues), postage Included (airmail)

NLG UK£ US$Private' 100,-- 30.00 57.00Institutions 160,-- 47.00 91.00£ prices only valid for UK residents; S prices only valid for USA residents.

Other currencies accepted according to current exchange rates to the Dutch Guiiiiv%

Private subscriptions must be prepaid, and ordered directly from the publisher.

JOHN BENJAMINS PUBLISHING COMPANYP.O.Box 75577 Amsteldijk 44 1070 AN AMSTERDAM Netherlands Fax +31-20-6739773

108

db

.A.5,1-naatm.a tor .41irstr1. %.1111,a 417.47.103M

..4 2.474 1 i1

PILGRIMS COURSES FOR TEACHERSAND TEACHER TRAINERS 1993

Pilgrims, pioneers of modern and progressive teacher training, are offering a richvariety of courses that will bring your teaching to life this summer.

There will be a wide variety of coursesKent at Canterbury, such as.

ENGLISH FOR TEACHERS

PRACTICAL METHODOLOGYFOR:

Basic teaching skills

Teaching young children

Teaching adults

Teaching business and professionalpeople

to choose from held at the University of

APPROACHES TO TRAINING

NEURO LINGUISTICPROGRAMMING

ACCELERATED LEARNING

SUGGESTOPEDIA

THE CREATIVE TEACHER

THE TEACHER AND TRAINERDEVELOPMENT WEEK

And if you bring a group of language students with you, we can offer you a FREE course!

Special groupsIf these courses don't cover all your needs or the dates don't suit you, please contactJudith Baker who will be happy to tailor make a group course.

We'll come to youIf you can't come to Canterbury, we'll come to you. We can send out trainers to runspecial workshops tailored entirely to your requirements.

Teresa ThomasPilgrims Language Courses8 Vernon PlaceCanterburyKent CT1 3HGEnglandTelephone: 227 762111Facsimile: 227 459027 1C)

PEST COPY AVAIEAREF

1

NEW

EXAM.

TITLES

FROM-

LONGIvIAN

ELT

-Publication

Autumn 1992

CAMBRIDGE CERTIFICATEIN ADVANCED ENGLISH

CAEDVANTAGE

ROY KINGSBURY, FELICITY O'DELL AND GUY WELLMAN

CIA major course to prepare your students thoroughlY.ansystematically for all five papers of the CAE

Includes authentic reading and listening material_

Sophisticated and motivating, for advanced learners

Suitable for post-FCE workAlready available by the same authors:

Longman Practice Exams for the CAEFour complete exams based on the new exam

CAMBRIDGE CERTIFICATE OF PROFICIENCY IN ENGLISH.

.THS TROFICIENCY

HELEN NAYLOR AND STUART HAGGER

Afresh approach to preparation for the five papers of the,.Cambridge Proficiency exam, which allows students arid

teachers to tailor their own programme of study.

Clear and accessible modular approachSuitable for self-studyStrong focus on vocabulary workIdeal for all students at very advanced levelSeparate book of practice exams (with cassette)available 1993

ip

LONqMAN ELT NomFor further information about examination materials from Longman ELT, contact:

The Marketing Department, Longman ELT, Longman House, Burnt Mill, Harlow, Essex CM20 2JE U.K.

HO COPY MANE