Hi Jason,
As someone at the "coal face" I'm really enjoying the to-and-fro debate about "dogme" or "teaching unplugged".
I must agree I don't like the name "dogme" - it reminds me too much of a dog (mongrel) or of being in church. Also, I think "unplugged" is a bit negative - like something has been removed. I'm not sure what other term would be better though. Perhaps "open teaching", "liberated teaching", "selective teaching", "responsive teaching"???
Also, as you say, trying to convince government authorities, administrators, head teachers and parents that it's not necessary to use a coursebook, or to use it selectively, is an uphill battle.
The reality is that some in the EFL world are simply happy with what they know, or feel they are too poorly paid to consider it worth their time changing, or are put off by the likely negative response from above that an "unplugged" approach would induce.
I am not one of them, by the way!
While I don't always stick to the coursebook, at elementary school level I tend to devise other activities (like TPR or skits or story telling) which, though unplugged, aren't exactly spontaneously emerging from the ebb and flow of classroom talk, since that is necessarily limited by young learners' minimal exposure to, and training in, English. So, I use the framework of the coursebook with its specified curriculum, but decide in what ways I will address the content.
I suppose what I am doing is learning about the interests and experiences of students over a period of time working with them, and the indirect feedback I receive from trying particular activities, to build into the design of future lessons. Is that "emergent"?
Finally, I agree that those who have engaged in this debate could well now start consolidating resources, and putting together ideas and practical examples which would help us in the situations in which we teach, such as young learners, and large classes. After all, that probably represents the situation of most ESL/EFL teachers.
Please keep nudging us along.
Posted today at http://jasonrenshaw.typepad.com/jason_renshaws_web_log/2010/10/a-call-to-arms-on-both-sides-of-the-unplugged-fence.html
As someone at the "coal face" I'm really enjoying the to-and-fro debate about "dogme" or "teaching unplugged".
I must agree I don't like the name "dogme" - it reminds me too much of a dog (mongrel) or of being in church. Also, I think "unplugged" is a bit negative - like something has been removed. I'm not sure what other term would be better though. Perhaps "open teaching", "liberated teaching", "selective teaching", "responsive teaching"???
Also, as you say, trying to convince government authorities, administrators, head teachers and parents that it's not necessary to use a coursebook, or to use it selectively, is an uphill battle.
The reality is that some in the EFL world are simply happy with what they know, or feel they are too poorly paid to consider it worth their time changing, or are put off by the likely negative response from above that an "unplugged" approach would induce.
I am not one of them, by the way!
While I don't always stick to the coursebook, at elementary school level I tend to devise other activities (like TPR or skits or story telling) which, though unplugged, aren't exactly spontaneously emerging from the ebb and flow of classroom talk, since that is necessarily limited by young learners' minimal exposure to, and training in, English. So, I use the framework of the coursebook with its specified curriculum, but decide in what ways I will address the content.
I suppose what I am doing is learning about the interests and experiences of students over a period of time working with them, and the indirect feedback I receive from trying particular activities, to build into the design of future lessons. Is that "emergent"?
Finally, I agree that those who have engaged in this debate could well now start consolidating resources, and putting together ideas and practical examples which would help us in the situations in which we teach, such as young learners, and large classes. After all, that probably represents the situation of most ESL/EFL teachers.
Please keep nudging us along.
Posted today at http://jasonrenshaw.typepad.com/jason_renshaws_web_log/2010/10/a-call-to-arms-on-both-sides-of-the-unplugged-fence.html
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