EA JOURNAL VOL 24 NO 2 EA JOURNAL ... - English Australia

A U S T R A L I A

E N G L I S H

EA JOURNAL VOL 24 NO 2

EA JO

UR

NA

L VO

L 24 NO

2 ENG

LISH A

USTR

ALIA

E A J o u r n A l

A TESOL Publication of English Australia Pty Ltd

Volume 24 Number 2

2008

ISSN 1449-4496

English Australia, acting for and on behalf of ELICOS Association Limited (ABN 86 003 959 037)

Contents

E A J o u r n a l Vo l 2 4 N o 2

E D I T o r I A l 1

A r T I C l E S

Andrew FoleyESL management meetings: a discourse analysis study 3

Paul KebbleMaking movies: an integrated skills task for motivating ESL learners 16

Erica GarveyNurturing diversity in teacher education 27

Barbara YazbeckTowards a new EAP: Managing diversity in University preparation courses 38

B o o K S H E l F 47

Dialogue Activities: Exploring spoken interaction in the language classNick Bilbrough 48

English for the HumanitiesKristen L. Johannsen 50

face2face - Intermediate Student’s BookChris Redston & Gillie Cunningham 53

English Pronunciation in use (Advanced)Martin Hewings 55

EAP now! Preliminary (English for Academic Purposes)Kathy Cox & David Hill 59

English for SocializingSylee Gore & David Gordon Smith 61

English for life (Beginner)Tom Hutchinson, Carol Tabor, Jenny Quintana, Kate Eadie 63

English For life (Pre-intermediate)Tom Hutchinson 65

IV

Teacher’s Book Tom Hutchinson, Carol Tabor & Jenny Quintana 65

From Corpus to Curriculum - language use and language teachingAnne O’Keeffe, Michael McCarthy & Ronald Carter 68

literature Second editionAlan Duff & Alan Maley 71

Thesis and Dissertation Writing in a Second languageBrian Paltridge & Sue Starfield 73

Stay Safe readersNational Centre for English Language Teaching and Research 75

Forbidden Words: Taboo and the censoring of languageKeith Allan & Kate Burridge 77

Teaching and researching autonomy in language teachingPhil Benson 79

The Snow Goose and other StoriesPaul Gallico 82

World Englishes: Implications for international communication and English language teachingAndy Kirkpatrick 84

listen and DoHana Svecova 87

P u B l I C A T I o n S r E C E I v E D F o r r E v I E W 91

F r o m T H E E D I T o r 98

E n G l I S H A u S T r A l I A Publications 100

Guidelines for Contributors 101

E n G l I S H A u S T r A l I A Member Colleges 104

EA Journal advertising 107

EA Journal Volume 24 No 2 V

E A J o u r n A l

Editor

Brenda KrenusMelbourne Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne

Bookshelf Editor

Pauline BaylisSchool of Humanities and Languages, University of Western Sydney

Editorial Advisory Committee

Anne BurnsDepartment of Linguistics, Macquarie University

Jill BurtonSchool of Education, University of South Australia

Anne CampbellDivision of Communication and Education, University of Canberra

Jonathan CrichtonResearch Centre for Languages and Cultural Education, University of South Australia

Jeremy JonesSchool of Languages and International Studies, University of Canberra

Andy KirkpatrickDepartment of English, Hong Kong Institute of Education

David LiDepartment of English and Communication, City University of Hong Kong

Brian PaltridgeFaculty of Education and Social Work, University of Sydney

David PrescottDepartment of English Language and Applied Linguistics, University of Brunei Darussalam

Rusdi ThaibFaculty of Languages and Arts, Padang State University, Indonesia

EA Journal Volume 24 No 2VI

Information and services English Australia provides a full range of information, products and services for ELICOS colleges, teachers and staff.

Visit our website at www.englishaustralia.com.au to access:

Reports, proceedings and information on past and upcoming English Australia Conferences

EA professional development calendar of events and activities being conducted in your state or territory

A diverse range of jobs in ELT in Australia and overseas

Past issues of the EA Journal

EA in-depth analyses of the latest ELICOS sector statisticsand trends (for members)

EA best practice documents (for members)

EA information library (for members).

Not an English Australia member? To learn more about the benefits and value of EA membership, visit the EA website.

www.englishaustralia.com.au

EA Journal Volume 24 No 2 1

Editorial

Dear Readers

As I welcome you to this edition of the EA Journal from the new editorial team, I wish to thank Germana Eckert for her contribution to the journal over the last few years. I also wish to bid a fond farewell to Anna Ciccarelli, Clare McDowell and Ruth Wajnryb who has resigned from the EA Journal Editorial Advisory Committee and to warmly welcome Brian Paltridge and Andy Kirkpatrick as new members of the committee.

In this and subsequent issues, the team and I aim to: interest you in the scholarship and practice of your peers; inform you about key ELT industry issues, debates and research activities; and to inspire your to engage with key debates and in good scholarship by submitting proposals for papers, fully-fledged papers for peer-review and letters to the editorial forum.

In my work as editor, I hope to facilitate more inclusive international conversation on topics that reflect a greater diversity of experience and contexts. Further, I am interested in exploring ways of mentoring new authors. I welcome your contributions and suggestions on both counts.

In this issue of the journal I am pleased to present the following papers: a discourse analysis of senior management meetings by Andrew Foley that should prompt you to reflect on your own experience of, and participation in, meetings as well as to reflect on how you might teach the ‘language of meetings’; a paper by Paul Kebble which details the experience of making movies in the classroom and thus offers some very practical suggestions; a paper by Erica Garvey on a postgraduate TESOL certificate course with a diverse student profile; and a paper which dares to propose an alternative paradigm for EAP and which was the source for some lively debate amongst the members of the editorial team.

EA Journal Volume 24 No 22

Finally, the team and I seek to remind you that the continued professionalisation of the ELT industry rests with your inspirations and aspirations. So, we hope that you will be inspired to read, reflect, respond, research and write.

Brenda Krenus

EA Journal Editor

Kerry Ellerington

Sue Worthington

Vittoria Grossi

Julian Harris

EA Journal Editorial Team


ESl management meetings: a discourse analysis study

Andrew Foley

Centre Manager South Australia College of English in Adelaide

The Australian Centre for Education (ACE), Cambodia recently conducted an action research project as part of an Australian Government-funded initiative aimed at identifying best practice in offshore delivery of ELT programs. ACE’s project involved several action research studies on the utilisation of empirical data, including a discourse-analysis study of the school’s management meetings. The aims of this particular study were to analyse the discourse functions used by the meeting participants in making decisions (especially those based upon empirical data) and to use this information to 1) consider the effectiveness of interaction in ACE management meetings, and 2) make some suggestions regarding meeting structure and format for other educational organisations. Several meetings were recorded and the speaking turns of participants tracked and categorised. The results indicated a considerable variance in the way each participant interacted in the meeting and the influence of workplace role is suggested as one cause. An implication of the study was the need to seek a greater balance in participant contribution. Some suggestions for how a discourse-analysis approach could be utilised by teachers of Business English are provided.

IntroductionIn any organisation, a substantial number of meetings are undertaken, especially in larger organisations where communications systems need to regularised. Furthermore, the higher the position a staff member achieves it seems the greater amount of time they will be required to participate in meetings. Schools are environments in which meetings are regularly programmed. Some of the broad goals of meetings might include: to canvass opinions, to disseminate information, to make decisions and to evaluate the success of previously-decided actions. While there is much anecdotal evidence of the inefficiency and ineffectiveness of many meeting forums, relatively little linguistic study has been conducted into this important aspect of the lives of many professionals, including ESL practitioners, whether teachers or managers.


Much of the framework and many of the approaches used by this study were based on work done in the areas of conversation analysis and critical discourse analysis. One of the major insights, and a basis of conversational analysis, is that it sees discourse as a meaning-making device, and seeks to discover the ways in which members of a society produce a sense of social order. It recognises that conversation exhibits its own order and structures rather than being an offshoot or corollary of “proper” written language.

The nature of the social context is of primary importance in determining the meanings being made; the meaning of a particular utterance can only be considered in terms of its specific context and purpose, as Schiffrin (1994, p. 250) notes:

Speakers produce utterances assuming that hearers can make sense out of them by the same kind of practical reasoning and methodic contextualizing operations that they apply to social conduct in general.

Conversational analysis theory focuses on examining the structural aspects that make up an interaction, such as patterns in turn taking, and considers how participants in talk construct “systematic solutions to recurrent organisational problems” (Schiffrin 1994, p. 252). Thus, the primary tool is a corpus of talk (authentic conversation), and the goal is to search for recurrent patterns of use that address the way the conversation is managed. An important component of these recurrent patterns, according to conversational analysis theory, is the notion that conversational turns make meaning because they are understood as being part of a sequence.Critical discourse analysis theory, such as the work of Fairclough (1989, 1995), provides an extra insight and focus on wider social structures, and their role in the meanings participants make. Critical discourse analysis rejects the notion that participants in conversations are independent actors working cooperatively to achieve goals. What it seeks to examine are the social relations between participants, whether on the basis of power, status, wealth, gender or other factors. It aims to show correlations between variations in linguistic form and social variables such as social strata, relationships, settings and topics. The importance of this for the purposes of this study is apparent when we consider that the interactions are situated in a workplace context, with participants of unequal work status and diverse cultural backgrounds undertaking widely varied workplace roles.The extent to which workplace roles may affect language choices in meetings has been examined by Housley (2000), in his attempt to combine conversational analysis with membership categorisation analysis. He considers the notion that different meeting members “act as filters for external discourses of distinct knowledge” (Housley 2000, p.83), although he contrasts this with an examination of the situated character of knowledge in team talk.


As Candlin (2002) points out, while much of the work done in professional discourse analysis (PDA) has focused on more generic studies, more recently PDA “has started exploring the complexities, dynamism, and versatility of professional practices in academic, institutional, professional and other workplace contexts” (Candlin 2002, p. 49). This study aims to fall within this scope, by examining the language, roles and organisational outcomes of an authentic workplace discourse event.

The studyThe aim of the action research project analysing the discourse of the ACE Senior Managemenrt Team (SMT) meeting was twofold: to examine the patterns of language use and turn taking in order to evaluate the effectiveness of these interactions within the context of the ACE SMT meeting structure and further, to contribute to a model for the decision-making processes of other educational institutions. In order to reflect the goals of the larger project, there was a focus on meeting topics related to the consideration of statistical data.

The SMT comprised of six participants; the IT Manager, the School Director, the Country Director, the Director of Studies (the author of the study), the Resources Manager and the Office Manager. As mentioned in the brief literature review above, an important area of discourse analysis is an awareness of the workplace roles and relative status of the participants of the meetings. The most senior person in the organisation, the Country Director, was involved in broader organisational issues and worked in a separate office in the building. The School Director was the most senior person within the school and, with the Director of Studies (DoS), was involved in more immediate day-to-day issues in school organisation. These three positions were filled by Australian staff, while the Resources Manager, Officer Manager and IT Manager were positions filled by Cambodian staff.

Several of these weekly meetings were recorded on a MiniDisc player, and subsequently transferred to CD for the purpose of analysis. The recordings needed to be listened to with the help of stop and rewind features, and were listened to at least twice to check the plotting of turn taking. Three related topics, which involved the presentation and discussion of data, were considered from meetings occurring in September 2006. The topics under consideration were: firstly, raising test pass marks at a pre-graduation level, secondly, raising the final-level graduating IELTS test score, and thirdly, breaking down graduating student IELTS test scores by macro skill. To elaborate on the third topic as an example of the type of topic under consideration, the goal was to better understand what were the typical language-learning strengths and weaknesses of the Cambodian learner, and how that might affect teaching strategies and the organisation of learning in the institution. Specifically, the SMT was interested in considering


whether one or more of the four macro skills assessed by IELTS tests were substantially weaker than others, and what action might be undertaken by the school to redress weaknesses. For each topic, information was collated on the background of the issue, data requested and discussed, and final decision(s) taken.

A discourse analysis-based approach was used to examine the way in which data was requested, presented and discussed, and how decisions related to learning and outcomes were subsequently reached. The analysis considered the language choices the participants made during their meeting interaction, and the way such language choices might have reflected their workplace status, role, culture, gender or other factors.The approach taken to analysing the discourse was based upon Eggins and Slade (1997), although the functional categories of discourse selected were largely drawn from English as a Second Language (ESL) materials focusing on language skills for meetings, including Goodall (1987, pp 7–8), O’Driscoll and Pilbeam (1982), Sweeney (1997) and Hollet, Carter and Lyon (1989, pp3–4). (See Table 1).

The recordings of the meetings were also tracked by the function of each speaker turn, and the data for the three separate decision-making meeting extracts were subsequently collated into a table which shows the total number of functions per participant (see Table 1) to provide a more comprehensive overall picture for analysing participant discourse behaviour and meeting dynamics. Individual turns were also presented in sequence, allowing the conversational flow to be traced for the purposes of considering how meanings were made.

results and discussion

Discourse Analysis Findings

1) Meeting interaction of individual participantsWhat was striking about the discourse analysis data was the difference in the way each participant interacted in the meeting dynamic, especially when considered in tandem with their workplace role. The two most dominant contributors to the meetings were the Country Director and the School Director, who had the most senior roles in the organisation. However, their form of involvement in the meeting discourse was dissimilar. It is suggested that this contrast was to a significant extent a result of the nature of their workplace roles in general, and of their individual goals during the meetings in particular.

The main discourse function utilised by the Country Director was to interrupt or to seek clarification. The Country Director was not involved in the day-to-day running of


the school, but many important organisational decisions, especially, but not necessarily limited to, those that have a financial implication, required his input and approval. Thus, the Country Director often sought background information regarding topics raised, and furthermore, having the final say, cast a critical eye over any potential courses of action before approval. Apart from interrupting and seeking clarification, which were often achieved in the same turn, the functions prominent in his discourse were expressing agreement or disagreement, suggesting a course of action and, to a lesser (proportional) extent than other participants, giving or justifying an opinion.

Conversely, the participation of School Director was predominantly based on giving or justifying an opinion and providing information. Sometimes this was apparent in presenting a topic or position to the meeting, but also in response to interruptions and clarifications sought by the Country Director. As the senior manager of the school, she was often the person to whom the Country Director turned in meetings when requiring further or more specific information, as can be seen by the large number of times she was required to deal with an interruption. She was also prominent in suggesting courses of action and expressing agreement or disagreement.

The Director of Studies showed a similar form of involvement in the meeting as the School Director, but to a lesser extent: approximately half of the turns of the two more senior managers. Like the School Director, the majority of his turns had the function of giving an opinion or providing information. He was prepared to suggest a course of action and to seek clarification, although to a much lesser extent than the two more senior managers. Interestingly, of all the participants involved in the selected meeting topics, only the two most senior managers expressed disagreement. While this could be construed as a natural result of their senior status and position, it should also be noted that both senior managers would readily admit to having assertive personalities in their workplace dealings.

The other significant contributor to the discussion of selected topics during the SMT meetings was the IT Manager. He introduced all three of the topics, as they were based upon data that he was responsible for producing. The IT Manager gave his own opinion on the significance or implications of the data presented and had to be prepared to deal with interruptions.

The other two members of the SMT, the Office Manager and the Resources Manager had very limited involvement in the discourse data examined, with no turns and two turns respectively. There were several possible reasons to explain this lack of involvement. Firstly, both of them were relatively new in their positions and may not have had the confidence to assume a more assertive role. Secondly, the areas of responsibility of their respective positions were not directly relevant to the topics


discussed, and so they may have thought it inappropriate to be involved in discussions in areas outside their expertise. Finally, Cambodian staff fill these two positions, and while not feeling intimidated, may have felt a little overawed being in a meeting with expatriate managers in more senior roles with more experience.

2. Possible influence of cultural issuesIn the face of the more dominant senior management personalities mentioned above, the local staff members of the SMT may have been wary about their contributions to the discussions coming under critical scrutiny, especially with regard to the high number of interruptions that were a feature of the meeting extracts. In terms of workplace role having an effect on meeting participation, it is not just current positions that may have played a part, but also factors such as perceived security in job position, experience in formal meetings with expatriates, length of tenure, confidence or comfort in role and status prior to current position. It should be noted, however, that the IT Manager was also a Cambodian staff member and his involvement was more prominent. With the IT Manager being male, and the Resources Manager being female, some effect of gender, and perhaps gender within culture, should not be ignored. Respect for authority and highly developed status and patronage relations are a prominent feature of Cambodian society. This could be postulated as having some degree of influence on the reticence, in general, of Cambodian staff to contribute more to the meetings. Seeking to gain greater local staff participation will be discussed further when considering possible improvements to the SMT meetings.

3) Meeting StructureOne aim of the study was to consider the effectiveness of the decision making processes of the SMT meetings, including the potential influence of meeting structure and format on the language choices and turn-taking patterns of the participants. While several observed features were seen as contributing to effective decision-making and are discussed below, other features are postulated as factors in the noted unequal participation by all members of the meeting group. The Country Director was always the chair of the meetings and took the role of creating the agenda at the commencement of each meeting by requesting items from each of the participants. The meetings were held in his office and thus put other participants in less familiar surroundings. The significance of these features is considered further in the conclusions section.

The SMT meeting dynamic as a modelThere are a number of features of the ACE SMT meetings, both in terms of discourse patterns and organisation, which may be put forward as significantly contributing to the effective consideration of issues and to the reaching of decisions which positively impact on teaching and learning outcomes in an educational institution. The postulated organisational factors are:


• Themembersofthemeetinggroupwererepresentativeofdifferentareasofthe school and organisation as a whole, and thus a variety of inputs, points of view and factual information were able to be brought to the decision-making process;

• Themembers of the meeting group provided a balancedmix betweenAustralian and Cambodian managerial staff;

• Sufficientresources,inthiscasetime,wereallocatedtoallowtheregularparticipants of the meeting to allow for preparation, such as data collection or canvassing of views of other staff from their respective areas of responsibility .

More closely related to the data presented in this action research project are the positively perceived discourse features of the meeting dynamic, including:

• Therelativelyshortlengthofeachspeakerturn,suggestingthattherewasalarge amount of speaker interaction, and consequently, a greater emphasis on the transferral of opinions and information, rather than lengthy “grandstanding” by individuals;

• Therelativelyinformalnatureofthediscussion,allowingparticipantstofreely discuss topics and present opinions, without fear of offence of other participants if presenting opposing viewpoints (However, Cambodian participants may have had a higher degree of reticence);

• Relatedtobothoftheabovefeatures,thehighnumberofinterruptions.Inmany conversational contexts, interruptions are seen as a negative factor, offending or intimidating the interrupted speaker and distracting from the conversational flow, as well as being socially impolite. However, in the context of meetings, interruptions are perceived by this researcher as being strongly beneficial, leading to an efficient utilisation of time, and contributing to a more efficient flow of “clarified” information.

Conclusion and implications

Reflection and follow-upWith regards to the aim of improving the SMT decision-making process, the discourse-analysis action research project shed light upon several areas that merited further attention. These areas of concern included:

• The low level of participation of somemembers of themeeting group,possibly linked to their status as local staff;

• Thelackofagendaandhighdegreeofspontaneityoftopicspresentedtothe meetings and consequent lack of preparation by participants;


• ThelimitedtheoreticalknowledgeandbackgroundofSMTmembersinthe use of empirical data;

• Thelackofaformalwrittenrecordofthemeetingsanddecisionsconsideredand undertaken.

A parallel qualitative study which involved surveying staff and students regarding the decisions taken during these meetings highlighted the need for greater opportunity for “bottom-up” perspectives to be available to the SMT (i.e. the opinions of teaching staff), and improved dissemination to teaching staff and students of the decisions taken by the SMT and of the role that data and statistical information had on specific decisions taken by school management.

As a result of the increased awareness of the need for improvement in the above areas, the following suggestions received consideration and some were acted upon:

• TheintroductionofanagendafortheSMTwhichiscirculatedbeforethemeetings, the use of brief minutes, including action to be taken, and the introduction of a rotating chair;

• TheprovisionofprofessionaldevelopmentforSMTmemberstoobtaingreater potential use of statistics and data, and to develop greater awareness of the parameters and limitations of such an approach;

• The provision of professional development for local Cambodian SMTmembers in areas including language skills, knowledge and awareness of meeting procedures and interaction, critical thinking, and assertiveness to build their confidence in a meeting context;

• Increasedutilisationofappropriateteacherconsultativemechanismsasanopportunity to canvas the opinions of teaching staff and assist with the post-decision making implementation process.

While some suggestions have been provided with regards to the structure and format of meetings of other educational institutions, it is acknowledged that there is a wide range of diversity in the context of such meetings. However, the benefit of considering what each participant can bring to the meeting forum, and providing them with the maximum opportunity to participate fully is strongly advocated.

Implications for English teachingBoth before and after conducting the action research project, the author had been involved in teaching a ‘Meetings and Negotiations’ course for higher level students at the school. The experience of designing and delivering this course provided useful background for undertaking the discourse-analysis study. Perhaps more significantly, the action research project into meeting language provided insights that the author was able to subsequently utilise in the classroom. One such practical application was to


have students analyse, in a less complex way, the language choices that their meeting group was utilising. One student was appointed as a “researcher”, and tracked a short section of a mock meeting. The information was then shared in the group to allow speaker reflection. (See Table 2).

It is suggested that the approach taken in this study could be applied to other professional meeting contexts, such as those occurring in a school, to obtain better organisational outcomes. While analysing participants’ language choices is not a simple process, it provides insights into the nature of the meeting dynamic as well as each participant’s involvement, and can be a useful tool for improving the effectiveness of a meeting group.

Further, practising ESL teachers may also find this kind of approach, albeit time-consuming, useful when designing, delivering and evaluating specialist courses which focus on meeting and negotiation skills.


Table 1: Meeting behaviour analysis discourse functions

Senior Management Team meeting discourse functions combined

(three separate extracts, September 2006)

macro function

micro function DoS om Dr CDr rm ITm Total

Manage topics

Introduce a topic - - - - - 3 3

Close the topic - - - 2 - 1 3

Refer to previous topic - - 1 2 - - 3

Seek to influence

Give or justify opinion 9 - 16 7 2 7 41

Discuss options - - 2 - - - 2

Express agreement 3 - 8 4 - - 15

Express disagreement - - 3 4 - - 7

Be non-committal - - - 1 - - 1

Refer to personal experience

1 - 1 - - 2 4

Suggest course of action 2 - 6 6 - - 14

Summarise 2 - - - - - 2

Interrupt 5 - 4 19 - 3 31

Deal with interruption 1 - 8 - - 3 12

QuestionSeek clarification/opinion

2 - 5 15 - 2 24

Request information 1 - 2 2 - - 5

Make decisions

Make decision 1 - - 1 - - 2

Delay making decision - - - 1 - - 1

Other Provide information 6 - 12 - - 14 32

Total number of turns

21 - 40 37 2 21

Functions 202

Turns 121


Table 2: Meeting Behaviour AnalysisMeeting Speaking Skills – Self Analysis Worksheet

Your group is holding a short meeting. Your task is to analyse the language the students use. Make a tick for each person when they take a speaking turn. You will have to be quick!

When the meeting has finished, show the results to the group and discuss the results. Which speaking functions were used a lot? Which were used very little?

Student A

Student B

Student C

Student D

Student E

Introducing a topicClosing the topicIntroducing own opinionAsking someone’s opinionMoving discussion onInterruptingDealing with an interruptionExpressing agreementExpressing polite disagreementSeeking clarificationCriticizing someoneDiscussing optionsDelaying making a decisionSuggesting a course of actionSummarizing


references

Candlin, C., (ed.), (2002), Research and Practice in Professional Discourse. Hong Kong City University: HK Press.

Eggins, S. & Slade, D., (1997). Analysing Casual Conversation. New York: Continuum.

Fairclough, N., (1995). Critical Discourse Analysis. London: Longman.

Fairclough, N., (1989). Language and Power: London: Longman.

Goodall, S., (1987). Meetings. Hove: Language Teaching Publications.

Hollet, V., Carter, R., & Lyon, L., (1989). In at the Deep End: Oxford University Press.

Housley, W., (2000). Category work and knowledgeablity within multidisciplinary team meetings. Text, 20 (1) 83–107.

O’Driscoll, N., Pilbeam, A., (1997). Meetings and Discussions. London: Longman.

Schiffrin, D., (1994). Approaches to Discourse. UK: Blackwell.

Andrew Foley recently returned to Australia after four years as the Director of Studies at IDP Education Cambodia. He is now working as the Centre Manager of the South Australia College of English in Adelaide.


making movies: an integrated skills task for motivating ESl learners

P A u l K e b b l e

Education Doctorate Candidate

James Cook University

In this paper I shall discuss the use of a task-based approach, in the form of making a movie, to re-motivate a group of long-term ESL students. I shall offer an in-depth analysis of my experience of introducing an upper–intermediate class to making a movie. In particular, I shall detail how the movie-making task was instigated, the process of planning and implementing the assignment, and the role of the teacher in preparation and monitoring. I shall also provide feedback from individual students on their experiences.

Task-based learning Task-based learning and teaching is a methodology which utilises specific and meaningful tasks as the principal unit of lesson or curriculum planning (Richardson & Rodgers, 2005) and is based on the constructivist paradigm of the psychology of learning. The focus is on the linguistic requirements needed on all levels to accomplish a task or solve a problem (Harmer, 2003). This can be achieved in both the negotiation and production phase. The premise is that the meaningful communication that occurs between those involved is processed and internalised by the language learner more effectively than in an artificial situation. As Belgar and Hunt have observed, in such circumstances ‘learners analytical abilities will be equal to the task of coming to accurate conclusions about grammatical and lexical usage’ (2002 in Richards & Renandya, 2002, p.96).

Chambers’ (1999) discussion of a project–based approach to language teaching as a divergence from the coursebook concludes that students remained motivated throughout the task, learned and retained material, asked for more of the same, took the responsibility of learning seriously, collaborated with peers successfully in English, and showed more interest when returning to traditional forms of learning.

Making a movie with an intermediate/upper intermediate ESL classIn July 2006, I took over a mixed class of ten intermediate and upper intermediate adult


ESL students. These students were from France (2), Spain (1), Switzerland (1), Japan (3), and Korea (3), and their ages ranged from eighteen to thirty-four. They had been studying English at the James Cook University English Language Centre for between eight and twenty weeks. Motivation appeared to be surprisingly low, considering the level of language ability demonstrated by the group. Class discussion revealed a consensus: the students felt that the course–book was not stimulating enough (some were onto their third level course–book of the same series); that there had previously been little divergence from the course–book; and that topics of study, such as global warming, international relations and cultural diversity, although interesting, had been recycled to the point of tedium. As an experienced ESL teacher I felt strongly that a totally new approach was needed to galvanise these students into a more positive frame of mind towards their English language learning.

To a certain degree, I was naive to the complexities of making a movie and had considered only three stages: planning, performing and production. I had initially envisaged putting the students into two groups, requiring them to come up with a scripted storyline within the first three–hour session. I estimated that performing and videoing the piece would take another three hours, and that editing would take an hour or two. I totally underestimated the demands of such a project, especially as the group was to embrace the task whole-heartedly. This necessitated an adaptation of the initial framework of requirements and outcomes to the actual needs of the group and the task. With the support of the school and the enthusiasm of the students, what initially was to be a two day project turned out to occupy a full week.

The process of making the movies, with retrospective comments1. Introduction: The concept of making a movie was introduced to the class as follows: ‘In two groups, you are to make a five-minute movie on a topic of your choice’. Six stages of production, as I initially saw them, were also introduced: 1) discussion of the topic for the movie; 2) production of the script; 3) pronunciation practice and rehearsals; 4) filming of the movie; 5) editing; and 6) public presentation. This list was revised to include the creation of a storyboard, the division of script practice (pronunciation), and in situ rehearsal.

In hindsight, I feel that it is imperative to discuss the pedagogical implications of such a task with the students as part of the introduction. This strategy will alleviate the negativity that some students will feel from what they may perceive as ‘not real teaching’. Based on this movie-making experience, I would create, through open class discussion, a list of linguistic skills required to achieve the task of making a movie. These can be elicited from the class and should include discussion techniques, topic research through reading, lexical development, lexical pronunciation, authentic


use of English, understanding technical English (editing suite), sentence stress and intonation, and enunciation.

Once the groups had been formed, the group ownership of the task was immediately evident as members enthusiastically embraced the concept and an animated discussion of possible movie topics ensued.

2. Discussion of a movie topic: Discussions in both groups were lively and many ideas were proffered. It was quite evident that in one group a natural leader, who appeared to be coveting the position of director, was emerging. As he continued to show competency in this position the group appeared to accept him in this role. This acceptance was particularly interesting as the student in question had previously been one of the two disruptive elements in the class. However, with this new responsibility he had become highly motivated and motivating and found new respect from his peers and myself alike. My involvement was to listen and make suggestions when I felt that my input would add something to the discussion, which was not often. The main fault that the groups initially demonstrated was to present a concept that was too grand or time-consuming for the limits of time and equipment.

3. The storyboard: One member of the class had had some previous experience in the production of movies and introduced the idea of a diagrammatical storyboard with accompanying notes. The concept of using a storyboard was new to me, but I could see the obvious advantages. I created an appropriate A3 storyboard sheet, allowing the students to plan the scenes of the movie within the provided framework.

The storyboard model was adopted by both groups and acted to galvanise the discussions towards a clear, visual outcome. One group had decided to make a mocumentary on the fauna of Australia named ‘The Wildlife of Australia’. Two acted as interviewers while the others were a variety of fauna, including a koala, kangaroos and coral. The other group had written a domestic relationship murder mystery called ‘Love On Ice’.


The s

tory

boar

d be

cam

e a v

ital d

ocum

ent f

or b

oth

grou

ps an

d wa

s use

d co

nsta

ntly

and

upda

ted

regu

larly

(see

Fig

ure 1

).

•Openingscene,

intro

duct

ion

to

docu

men

tary

•Infron

tofu

niversitygates

signa

ge

•Und

erth

esea–reporting

on d

amag

e by

dive

rs to

co

ral

•3stu

dentsactasco

ral

•Diversw

imsaroun

dto

uchi

ng co

ral

•Coraldies

•Ra

inforest–tre

eand

koala

•Ko

alain

tree,dropsto

grou

nd fo

r int

ervi

ew•

Speaksveryslo

wlydu

eto

eatin

g eu

caly

pt

•2male

Kangaroosfightin

gov

er fe

male

•Interview

with

thefem

ale

kang

aroo

•Winnertakesfemale

away

Figu

re 1

. Exa

mpl

e of t

he st

oryb

oard

for ‘

The W

ildlif

e of A

ustra

lia”.


4. Production of script: This activity was far more involved and time consuming than I had initially envisaged. The students were highly attentive to what they perceived as appropriate language for the circumstances within the storyline. The students demanded much from each other, and from me, to clarify that the lexis in particular was suitable for the situation and acceptable to a native speaker. Individual students were able to bring a variety of ideas to the script from their own experiences, which promoted lively discussions as to what language was most approriate for the scene. Once consensus was reached, thoughts turned to pronunciation of lexical items, and intonation and stress patterns for sentences. My input was crucial at this juncture, and script writers were able to inscribe appropriate patterns within the written text.

5. Practice of lines, with and without script: As the nature of a movie is a sequence of diverse interpersonal interactions, practicing of lines became a confusion of individual requirements. However, there was little that could be done to organise this segment more concisely. The only suggestion I could make was that individuals who were waiting for those who were already involved in practice with another could practice individual lexical items, act as a prompt, or act as audience and give feedback to their peers. This preparation, I learnt later, continued well after school hours and a great deal of time was given to learning and practicing lines. At this juncture I realised just how motivated these students were in producing something that they had really taken ownership of and of which they could be proud. It was also apparent that there was some amount of rivalry between the two groups as to who would produce the highest quality movie. Although there was no prize for the best production, I felt the group rivalry added to motivation.

6. Location selection and rehearsal in the setting: The selection of location for the videoing promoted far more group discussion than I had anticipated. Settings were visited and the pros and cons for a variety of places were debated. Once the desired location was mutually accepted, the actors began to rehearse in situ, with classmates giving advice, on both language and acting. Once again, I observed a great deal of natural interaction. My role was, once more, to make suggestions for improvements, usually on intonation of lines. At this stage of the proceedings it was reasonably difficult for me to alternate between groups due to the physical distance between the two locations. The ‘ Love On Ice’ group had decided to film in one student’s university apartment, the other in the grounds of the university. Using a bicycle, I managed to reduce inter-group travelling time to a minimum.

7. Video recording of scenes: I was able to borrow two video recorders from colleagues, enabling each group to work independently. Scenes were shot repeatedly until those involved were satisfied with the quality. The students brought a maturity to the task and performed very well, both as actors and as directors. Both groups had


decided that all scenes that were recorded were to be stored, even if the scenes were unlikely to be used in the editing process. Filming took a lot of time but the task was very involving and all students participated fully. If they were not directly involved in the scene being recorded they either gave assistance to those who were, or practiced their lines discreetly.

8. Editing: Microsoft’s Windows Movie Maker editing suite was used as it was readily available and quite simple. However, no one in the class, including myself, had any prior experience of movie editing software. The process of understanding how to use the software proved to be an excellent language learning task as students needed to read the help guides to learn the functionality of the software. I had already spent a few hours practicing with the software and had realised that to achieve what the students required was relatively simple. My role was to monitor the group and give guidance when needed. Needless to say, with multiple student input it did not take long for the editing process to be initiated. However, the process did generate much discussion, sometimes quite heated, and was time consuming. This procedure started in a two hour afternoon session and continued well into the evening. Both groups wanted to include a title scene, credits, music, and a variety of effects between scenes. As time went on, long after school had finished, only the really dedicated remained. What they achieved was extremely impressive and their groups were delighted with the outcomes. The next step was to see how the movies would be received by an audience.

9. Public Showing: The whole school (approximately 50 students) was invited to a public showing at the end of the following week and both movies were extremely well received, in fact, two showings of each were demanded. Students from other classes really valued their inclusion and the movie makers showed obvious signs of pride in their achievements. It was clear to all that the project had been a great success.

Revised schedule for the production of a movieFrom monitoring the movie making process, I have produced an organisational framework for supervision of the task (see Figure 2).


Sta

ge

org

an

isa

tio

nS

tud

en

t in

vo

lve

me

nt

Tea

che

r in

vo

lve

me

nt

1In

trodu

ctio

nTe

ache

r mon

olog

ue

with

subs

eque

nt

ques

tions

, ans

wers

and

disc

ussio

n.

•Liste

ntotaskrequ

irements

•Askqu

estio

nsto

clarifytask

requ

irem

ents

•Discussthelinguisticv

alues

of th

e tas

k

•Ex

plain

thetask,with

therequiredste

ps.

•Providea

timetableofrequ

irements.

•Discussp

edagogica

limplica

tions,w

ithboard

pres

ente

d m

ind-

map

.

2In

itial

disc

ussio

n on

m

ovie

topi

c, ch

arac

ter a

nd

mov

ie m

akin

g ro

les

Div

ide t

he cl

ass

into

gro

ups o

f 4-5

stu

dent

s

•To

decideo

ntopicforth

em

ovie

•Discussactingparts

•To

decidespecifi

cacting

roles

•Decideo

nmoviemaking

roles

Initi

ally,

sugg

est r

equi

red

roles

i.e.

dire

ctor

, cin

emat

ogra

pher,

acto

rs, sc

ript w

riter

/s,

pron

uncia

tion

coac

h

3St

oryb

oard

pr

oduc

tion

Stud

ents

prov

ided

wi

th A

3 sto

rybo

ard

outli

ne sh

eet

Ss d

raw

and

write

on

story

boar

d sh

eet.

Inclu

de sc

ene

setti

ngs i

n dr

awin

gs.

Enco

urag

e Ss t

o:•

beim

aginative

•beco

nsiderateo

fallinpu

t.•

considerselec

tionofscenesettin

gs4

Scrip

t pr

oduc

tion

Gro

up ac

tivity

; us

ing

an ex

ercis

e bo

ok o

r a

com

pute

r. Th

e lat

ter i

s mor

e sui

ted

to ed

iting

text

an

d cu

tting

and

pasti

ng in

divi

dual

char

acte

r’s li

nes

As a

grou

p ac

tivity

stud

ents

write

a wo

rd fo

r wor

d sc

ript,

in co

njun

ctio

n wi

th th

e sto

rybo

ard.

•En

couragefullgroup

participation

•Proofre

adtextfo

rcorrectgrammar

•Suggestcolloqu

ialphraseologyorm

ore

appr

opria

te le

xis/r

egist

er


5Li

nes p

ract

ice,

with

and

with

out s

crip

t

Each

acto

r has

a co

py o

f the

ir ow

n lin

es. D

irect

or

orga

nise

s act

ivity

Acto

rs ca

n wo

rk b

oth

in

isolat

ion

and

as a

whol

e gro

upPr

onun

ciatio

n an

d en

uncia

tion

coac

hing

6Lo

catio

n se

lectio

n an

d re

hear

sal

Find

appr

opria

te

loca

tion

for e

ach

scen

e

Gro

up d

iscus

sion

on

appr

opria

te si

tes

Mon

itor,

give

advi

ce an

d m

ake s

ugge

stion

s

7Vi

deo

reco

rdin

g of

sc

enes

Each

gro

up h

as

use o

f a v

ideo

ca

mer

a and

trip

od.

Gro

up d

ecid

es o

n cin

emat

ogra

phy/

er.

Scen

es ar

e rec

orde

d an

d re

-re

cord

ed to

the s

atisf

actio

n of

all

invo

lved

Giv

e sug

gesti

ons o

n or

reac

tion

to an

y as

pect

of

the s

hoot

, if r

equi

red.

8Ed

iting

•

Softw

are

•Video

•Soun

d&m

usic

•Scenec

hange

effec

ts•

Material

inclu

sion/

exclu

sion

•Titlean

dcredits

Stud

ents

from

eac

h gr

oup

use

suita

ble

softw

are

(win

dow

s m

ovie

mak

er) t

o pr

oduc

e th

e fin

al e

dite

d ve

rsio

n fo

r pub

lic

view

ing.

Giv

e gu

idel

ines

on

how

to u

se th

e ed

iting

so

ftwar

e. Th

is in

form

atio

n ca

n be

retr

ieve

d fro

m th

e in

tern

et. Th

e pr

oces

s can

be

tota

lly

colla

bora

tive

if no

one

is fa

mili

ar w

ith th

e so

ftwar

e

9Pu

blic

view

ing

Scho

ol is

invi

ted

to

view

the

finish

ed

prod

uct

Figu

re 2

. The p

edag

ogica

l sta

ges o

f mov

ie-m

akin

g


Discussion of the movie-making task from student’s feedback A week after the task had been completed I asked those involved to write about their experiences. The introduction to this task was: ‘Making Movies… Please write about your experiences of making the five-minute movie. Think about all aspects of the exercise; group dynamics, planning, organisation, English language development, your involvement and your enjoyment.’ I shall quote students directly from their feedback.

First thoughts

• Student A: When I heard about this project, making movies, frankly speaking, it’s not interest for me because I have no idea about making movies and I felt nervous about something to speak in front of some people and a camera, but I had to do it…

• Student E: Before I made a film I thought that it was easy but after it I knew that making a film is hard work and it needs much time.

Social and cultural interaction

• Student H: It’s really good for learning English each other. All of us are from another country, then we have a different way of acting, explaining something based on each culture, that is great to cross cultures.

• Student I: The most useful thing to learn is to listen to the opinions of your classmates, your learn to respect several points of view and tolerate different ways of working.

Movie-making as a motivating task

• Student F: I’m sure that it was a great experience for everybody in the class. It was a very good idea, to break the class’s routine. It’s something new, so it’s very interesting because, absolutely all you are doing it’s new. You can’t be boring because you learn a lot!

• Student H: Most important think to make movie in the class is that everyone have to respect each other, bad behaviour make everyone disappointed.

Movie-making as a language learning exercise

• Student F: It’s very unique because, without realising that, you improve your English skills in several levels. Practicing and acting are really good for our English, and, of course, the pronunciation!

• Student A: We discussed about each character, each scene and gave advice to each other. I think It was very helpful to develop our English language.


Overall thoughts

• Student A: Finally, when we finished the movie, we felt a sort of achievement and I got the courage to speak in front of many people.

• Student D: When I was a little boy I wanted to be an actor, but I’ve never tried anything to be an actor. I had a great experience!

• Student B: It was the first time I’ve ever filmed. We made up a new story, wrote a screenplay and acted. We planned everything connected with a film. It was a so wonderful experience!

• Student E: I think this experience will never leave my mind.

Conclusion

I adopted an open-minded approach to the success of the movie making activity and instigated the concept as an experiment in task-based learning and motivation. From personal teaching experience I believed that task-based learning could create a stimulating learning environment. I had personally enjoyed the process of making an educational English teaching video whilst engaged in my own Master of Arts studies and deliberated on whether the process could be transferred successfully to the ESL environment. So, when the students that I had introduced to the concept of movie making embraced the task so whole-heartedly, it suggested to me that the process is viable both as a tool for motivation and as a linguistic developmental pedagogical activity. Certainly, the students thoroughly enjoyed the experience, which can be seen from their feedback, and they were clearly able to appreciate the linguistic benefits of doing the exercise.

Both movies have been uploaded to YouTube and can be viewed at the following URL: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=paulkeb

references

Chambers, G. (1999). Motivating Language Learners. Sydney: Multilingual Matters Ltd.

Harmer, J. (2003).The Practice of English Language Teaching (3rd ed.). Malaysia: Pearson Education Limited, Longman

Richards, J.C., & Renandya, W.A. (Eds.). (2002). Methodology in Language Teaching: An Anthology of Current Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Richards, J.C., & Rodgers, T.S. (2001). Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching (2nd ed.). Cambridge Language Teaching Library, USA: Cambridge University Press.


Paul G Kebble qualified as a high-school maths and PE teacher in the UK in 1982 and, to assuage a wanderlust, moved in to ESL teaching in 1987. He has lived and taught in eight countries; England, Barbados, Portugal (Madeira), UAE (Ras Al Khaimah), Malaysia (Penang), Japan (Fukuoka), Brunei Darussalam and Australia (Perth, Cairns). After achieving an MA in applied linguistics he became more involved in teacher training and development (on-line DELTA) and school management (Director of Studies). Paul is presently following a full-time Education Doctorate course at James Cook University, Cairns. His research area is the electronic provision of ELT professional development which is culturally and pedagogically empathetic.


nurturing diversity in teacher education

e r i c A G A r v e y

Associate Lecturer

NCELTR, Macquarie University

Meeting the needs and expectations of diverse learners is just as challenging in teacher education as it is in the TESOL classroom. Teacher education programs seem to be increasingly streamlined, with separate courses for experienced or inexperienced student teachers and students planning to teach in ESL or EFL contexts. Diversity is often seen as problematic in course delivery. This paper will examine a postgraduate TESOL certificate course that is inclusive, incorporating students with no teaching qualifications to experienced K-12 and adult education teachers, as well as Australian–born, migrant and international students. They may be studying on-campus or by distance education. The students’ purposes for studying TESOL and the contexts in which they plan to teach vary widely. This diverse profile has prompted many innovations in course design, some more successful than others. Nevertheless, the overall experience in course delivery has been that diversity has, indeed, enriched learning and stimulated positive program innovation.

IntroductionIn a study of a pre-service ESL teacher class at Monash University, Brown and Miller (2006) highlighted challenges facing teacher educators. Chief among these is diversity in the student teacher cohort, as well as increasing diversity among students and programs offered in primary and high schools. This paper examines challenges faced in delivery of a pre-service postgraduate TESOL program to a student group whose future teaching contexts include schools, ELICOS, the adult migrant sector and EFL settings. Innovations aimed at meeting the diverse needs of these students are explored.

Description of the courseThe Postgraduate Certificate in TESOL at Macquarie University offers an initial pathway into the TESOL profession with four units which can be taken full-time over six months or part-time over two years, either on-campus or by distance. Two theoretical units give students an understanding of the linguistic and socio-cultural basis of second and foreign language learning. In the other two units, language teaching methodologies and a practicum, students develop expertise in designing and presenting English language lessons


Student profileThe student profile has changed in the ten years the course has been running. Past students have included retirees, mature age learners returning to the workforce, young graduates wanting to travel and work overseas, professionals wanting a career change, as well as international students from South America, Europe, Asia and North Africa.

The Semester 2, 2007 class exemplified this diversity. In response to a needs analysis, 82% had some teaching experience. This ranged, however, from informal tutoring to five years primary teaching followed by 15 years adult literacy in TAFE. There were six international students in the class from Japan and Korea. Students planned to teach in many locations after graduation. Many intended to teach in Australia but in settings as varied as adult migrant education, ELICOS or primary and high schools. Others planned to teach English as a foreign language, with some of these students hoping to return later to Australia to find employment.

using diversity as a catalyst for innovation

Diversity and adult educationWriters in the field of adult education stress the importance of valuing adults’ experience and accumulated knowledge (Hayes, 2006; Rogers, 2002). This means recognising ‘the lack of homogeneity among learners and learning situations’ (Knowles, Holton, and Swanson, 2005: p.148) and ‘honoring and taking into account diversity and cultural differences’ (Caffarella, 2002: p.27). The challenge is recognising the differences between individuals without ending up with fragmentation which will weaken the program (Hayes, 2006).

A commitment to adult education principles has underpinned the design of the Postgraduate Certificate in TESOL. Changes and differences in the experience and needs of students over time have prompted course innovation. Teaching staff have responded creatively to diversity, ensuring that difference is a source of synergy rather than division in the learning experience. How have they done this? Five key differences have been identified and served as catalysts for innovation. These are teaching experience, age and years away from academic study, language background, future teaching context and on-campus or distance mode of study.

Teaching experienceAccommodating the wide range of teaching experience among students is one of the most challenging aspects of course delivery. Motivating and maintaining the interest of experienced teachers, while meeting the needs of novice teachers, is a constant challenge. Experienced teachers can feel they ‘know it all’ when it comes to lesson


planning or managing classrooms. Helping them recognise differences between mainstream and TESOL classrooms, such as in the quality and quantity of teacher talk and giving instructions is vital. For novice teachers there is ‘so much to learn and so much to remember’ (Senior 2006: p.42). Their priority is mastering the ‘nuts and bolts’ of the teaching/learning process. Fortunately, many experienced teachers enter the course with a great desire to reflect on their own teaching experience, embrace new ideas and share their expertise. Their insights are a great resource for the novice teachers, particularly in classroom discussions. These benefits are not solely one-sided. Experienced teachers often mention the benefits they have gained from interacting with enthusiastic new teachers and the inter-cultural insights developed through communicating with international students.

In order to acknowledge the differences in students’ teaching background a number of initiatives have been taken. Classroom tasks recognise the diversity of experience. For example, students frequently work on case studies and problem solving tasks in groups. The case studies are selected to reflect the teaching/learning experience of the students, for example, covering topics such as teaching large classes or use of learners’ first language in the classroom which are of particular relevance, but not limited to, teaching in an EFL context. Groupings are changed according to the task. Novice teachers, for example, can benefit from preparing a lesson plan with more experienced teachers. Homogeneous groups are used where a task is particularly relevant to students’ future teaching context, such as planning a teaching task for children versus adults. In the methods unit, in particular, students are asked to reflect upon the classroom management strategies they are experiencing. Students analyze their experience and consider whether this is an effective model for their own classroom teaching of diverse or multilevel groups.

Course assignments have been tailored to allow students choices which reflect their experience. For example, in the methods unit students can choose from suggested essay topics or provide their own. Students who pick this latter option are generally motivated by a special interest or to build on current expertise. For example, a recent graduate who teaches visual arts investigated computer mediated communication technologies in the language classroom. A TAFE teacher of Sudanese refugees investigated issues relevant to pre-literate learners.

The teaching practicum is probably the most challenging area in meeting students’ diverse needs, establishing foundational skills for students with no teaching experience while acknowledging and extending the skills of experienced teachers. The practicum was designed initially for students with little or no teaching experience. It includes a range of observation tasks covering basic classroom management issues such as attending to learners and managing pair and group work. Students work with a mentor


teacher to design and deliver a series of language lessons. Assessment is undertaken via a portfolio which includes teaching plans, materials, observation tasks, reflections on lessons from the student and mentor teacher and a reflective journal. A dilemma for staff marking the portfolios was the difficulty of comparing the work of novice versus experienced teachers undertaking the same tasks. It was an uneven playing field with the experienced teachers invariably gaining high grades. As a result of these factors, an experienced TESOL teachers’ practicum was introduced which allowed teachers to tailor their classroom observations to areas of special interest and to investigate an issue or problem from their own classroom, replacing some of the more basic tasks in the practicum .

In contrast, novice student teachers frequently wrestle with anxiety and confidence issues. This is well documented by teacher educators (Senior, 2006; Brown & Miller, 2006) and is probably amplified among non-native English speakers (Garvey & Murray, 2004; Rajagopalan, 2005). Surprisingly, even students with extensive public speaking or professional acting experience have confided how nervous they feel in this new role. Conversation classes have been introduced as part of the practicum to help students overcome their anxiety. This initiative has helped meet the needs of both student teachers and EAP students enrolled in the ELICOS Centre at Macquarie University. EAP students often experience difficulty in finding contexts where they can develop the oral skills essential for academic and social success at university and beyond. Hence, participation in conversation classes has been included in their coursework. Finding sufficient numbers of conversation class leaders has, however, been a problem. Student teachers have moved into this gap, leading five hours of classes with the aim of helping EAP students develop confidence in speaking English in a relaxed atmosphere. In contrast to the formal teaching component of the practicum, no supervisor or mentor teacher is present. Student teachers comment that this allows them to be more relaxed and less self-conscious about making errors, an opportunity which Brandt (2006), in a study of intensive TESOL courses, suggests is important.

Student teachers’ responses to the experience of leading conversation classes have been very positive, while a survey of 106 EAP students revealed that 83 students enjoyed the classes and found them useful. Student teachers encountered issues that later arose in the formal part of the practicum, for example, first language use and error correction. They found that leading the classes gave a trial run in choosing topics, tasks and materials. They tried strategies to encourage participation and became aware of the broader challenges facing international students, such as home stay difficulties.

Student teachers said that the experience gave them confidence to move into the formal classroom. This was particularly significant for several international students who wrote about the conversation classes in their journal. Significantly, one wrote


that she moved from feeling nervous to excited about the practicum. Another wrote ‘conversation group has done so much for my professional growth. I have been able to try out many different activities and forms of group work. At the beginning, one of the first things I realised was how confusing my instructions were. This is obvious when you see blank faces.’ Developing ‘teacher-talk’ skills was a valuable part of the experience for all students.

Age and years away from academic studyWhile all students are adults, they range from new graduates to retirees. A substantial number are women returning to work after raising families. And while students all have undergraduate degrees, some finished their university education before skills in word processing or using the Internet became essential. Support for these learners in returning to study and overcoming fears of new technology has been essential. Workshops orienting students to library databases and online learning have been held. Students are also referred to academic writing workshops to update their understanding of requirements in assignments. The extent of staff support for students is often commented on by students. These measures find support in Milheim’s (2005) discussion about identifying and addressing the needs of adult students in higher education. She mentions the pressures of balancing work, school and family and the discomfort older learners experience in navigating their away through educational institutions today.

At the same time, older learners make valuable contributions to class discussions from their work and life experience. Those with professional backgrounds can often make a smooth transition into content-based or ESP teaching. A number of students with business or accounting backgrounds have taken a practicum in English for Accounting or Business programs and found employment in this area after graduation.

Language backgroundThe language background of students has noticeably diversified in the past eight years. The profile has shifted from primarily monolingual English speakers to the current cohort where 50% (n=32) of students are bilingual, 21% have learnt a foreign-language and only 28% are monolingual English speakers. In a similar methods unit at the University of Western Sydney in 2007, only three in a class of 33 students identified themselves as monolingual English speakers. This reflects on a small-scale the global changes in the spread and teaching of English. According to David Graddol (2001: p.33) ‘L1 speakers of English will soon form a minority group’. Kachru and Nelson (2001: p.18) comment about language teaching worldwide, ‘In most cases it (English) is taught to non-native speakers by non-native speakers’.

Students bring varying levels of awareness about language. International students


usually have a rich understanding of grammar, though their knowledge of the English metalanguage to explain grammar may be limited. Their experience of being a language learner is clearly an asset in the classroom (Garvey and Murray, 2004). In contrast, local students may have had minimal exposure to explicit teaching about English grammar.

Initiatives have been taken which focus on the diverse language learning experience of students, particularly assisting students who are non-native speakers (NNS) of English. Studies exploring NNS student teacher needs have shown insecurity about English language proficiency, teaching expertise and identity (Polio & Wilson-Duffy, 1998; Kamhi-Stein, 1999; Garvey and Murray, 2004; Llurda, 2005; Brown and Miller, 2006). In response to these studies a weekly tutorial for international students was organized to discuss lectures and work on language related issues. While many international students had very positive experiences during their practicum, a considerable number were quite anxious. Hence, an alternative practicum model was also trialed. In this practicum a peer coaching model was used with international students teaching and receiving received feedback from peers and staff in a simulated classroom (Vacilotto and Cummings, 2007). While the students reported feeling less anxious about teaching at the end of the trial, the overall consensus was that they would have preferred a practicum experience in a ‘real’ classroom.

The strengths and contributions multilingual or NNS teachers bring to teaching has been well-documented (Medgyes, 1994; Braine, 1999; Ellis, 2000, 2002; Llurda, 2005). One of these is NNS teachers as role models and mentors for their students. The potential role of NNS teachers in pre-service education warrants further exploration. One initiative in the methods unit has been to invite NNS teachers as guest speakers to share their experience in lectures. Another could be partnering NNS student-teachers with NNS teachers as mentors in the practicum (Garvey and Murray, 2004).

A sensitive area for non-native speaker students can be language proficiency. Entry requirements to the course (IELTS 6.5) have meant that some international students struggle with academic assignments and, also, need a practicum with beginner or elementary students. Teaching staff have recommended an entry level of IELTS 7 be implemented. The issue of proficiency can also arise with overseas trained teachers intending to find employment in Australia and needs to be handled delicately lest there be loss of face and erosion of confidence. Brown and Miller (2006) agree, saying it has received little attention from training institutions, professional associations or teacher registration panels. Bailey (2006) also discusses the issue of language proficiency, stressing the need to respect the language varieties spoken by the NNS teachers we mentor.


Future contextBearing in mind the wide range of contexts in which students hope to teach, students are introduced to resources in the methods class from print based readings to videos showing beginner migrant to advanced EAP classes. However, a limitation of the video material is that it does not provide examples from EFL classrooms. The international students are able to make a valuable contribution at this point, sharing experiences of teaching or learning English from their home countries. It would be ideal to access video material from a range of EFL classrooms to supplement their insights.When students have a clear idea of where they want to teach after graduation, they are encouraged to complete assignments and, where possible, to undertake their practicum in this area. Distance students can complete a practicum in an EFL institution if they are living outside Australia. Visa restrictions mean that international students must study full-time and, hence, complete their practicum in Australia. They are encouraged, nevertheless, to think through applications and adaptations they will need to make when they return home. Not all students are sure of where they want to teach. Exposure to a variety of contexts through class work and the practicum helps in the decision-making process.

On-campus or distance mode studyA great deal of thought and time has gone into strengthening the learning experience of both on-campus and distance learners to ensure that the course is a rich learning experience for both groups. The benefits of both modes are well known, with on-campus students benefiting from the immediacy of contact with lecturers and distance learners enjoying the flexibility that goes with distance learning. Course innovations have included placing course materials online using WebCT linked with a DVD that shows classrooms in action as part of a ‘borderless education project’. In the socio-cultural unit ‘blended learning’ has occurred, with both on-campus and distance students participating in compulsory online discussions. Students have responded positively to this innovation. In contrast, online discussions in the methods unit are optional and available only to distance students. It was felt that students would be intrinsically motivated to connect with classmates, overcoming the isolation of distance learning. However, students’ participation rates have been fairly low and some have requested that the discussions be made compulsory.Another popular program innovation is giving students in the methods unit taped feedback on their assignments. This was introduced to increase the connection between the lecturer and distance students and personalise the experience of distance learning. This distance student’s e-mail was typical: ‘I loved receiving the recording of your feedback! Much more effective than reading them’. Because of the positive response, the idea was extended to on-campus students.


Graduates’ satisfaction questionnaireIn order to discover students’ reflections on whether the course took into account diversity within the learner group a questionnaire was distributed to recent graduates (Appendix: table 1). The questionnaire surveyed five areas of difference within the student group: teaching experience, age, years away from study language background and future teaching context (the on-campus versus distance variable was not investigated as students had given considerable feedback previously in this area). Participants were asked to comment on how much the course took into account diversity within the learner group in these areas.

Overall, graduates were positive about their experience and the responsiveness shown by the course to their divergent backgrounds. In the words of one student, ‘the course

was very sensitive to needs and diversities of learners’. Another wrote, ‘great efforts were made to be inclusive and to demonstrate a variety of experiences: EFL/ESL’. 75% (n = 38) of respondents were positive on the dimensions of teaching experience and age. 65% of respondents were positive about the sensitivity of the course to years away from study and language background. While 65% of graduates agreed that the course prepared them for their future teaching context, a small number requested further preparation for their particular settings, for example teaching EAP.

Stronglyagree

Agree DisagreeNot sure Stronglydisagree

Teaching experienceLanguage background Future teaching context

Years away from study Age

Perc

enta

ge

GRADUATES SATISFACTION RATING

FACTORS

80

60

40

20

0


Conclusion

Managing diversity is, undoubtedly, a challenge that will not disappear from either TESOL teacher education or the language classroom. Responding to changing student profiles and contexts requires flexibility and creativity on the part of teacher educators, introducing innovations across the curriculum within course and institutional constraints. The approach taken by teaching staff in this pre-service TESOL course has been to welcome diversity as a resource to enrich rather than diminish learning. Staff have sought to model the experience of teaching diverse groups, highlighting strategies and approaches which student teachers can build upon in their own TESOL classrooms. A recent survey of graduates asking about course responsiveness to diversity shows that meeting different needs within an inclusive course is definitely possible.

Appendix

Table 1: Postgraduate Certificate in TESOL graduate questionnaireStudents in the Postgraduate Certificate in TESOL have diverse backgrounds, needs and reasons for studying TESOL, whether on-campus or by distance education. Meeting the needs and expectations of different learners is just as challenging in teacher education as it is in the TESOL classroom. This questionnaire is designed to discover graduates’ reflections on their learning experience in the course.

Think back to your time and experience studying in the Postgraduate Certificate in TESOL. Do you think the course took into account diversity within the learner group?


(Please tick your answer)

Strongly Agree

Not Sure

Disagree Strongly

Agree Disagree

a. teaching experience (e.g. primary/high school, children/adults, language/other)b. age

c. years away from academic study

d. first/second language background

e. future teaching context (e.g. EFL/ESL, English for academic purposes, English for the workplace, schools, adult migrant sector)

Table 1: Postgraduate Certificate

Any other comments on this issue are most welcome

references

Bailey, K. (2006). Language Teacher Supervision: a case-based approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Braine, G. (ed.) (1999). Non-native Educators in English Language Teaching. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum

Brandt, C. (2006). Allowing for practice: a critical issue in TESOL teacher preparation. ELT Journal 60 (4):355-364.

Brown, J. and J. Miller. (2006). ‘Dilemmas of identity in teacher education: Reflections on one pre-service ESL teacher cohort.’ In K. Cadman and K. O’Regan (eds.) Tales out of school – identity and English language teaching. Adelaide: TESOL in Context

Caffarella, R. (2002). Planning Programs for Adult Learners. Wiley & Sons.

Ellis, L. (2002). ‘Teaching from experience: A new perspective on the non-native teacher in adult ESL.’ Australian Review of Applied Linguistics 25 (1):71-107.

Ellis, L. (2004). ‘Language background and professional competences in teaching ESOL’. English Australia Journal 21 (2):55-71.


Garvey, E. and D. Murray. (2004). ‘The multilingual teacher: issues for teacher education.’ Prospect 19 (2):3-24.Graddol, D. (2001). English in the future. In A. Burns & C. Coffin (ed.), Analysing English in a Global Context. New York: Routledge.Hayes, A. (2006). Teaching Adults. London: Continuum International.Kachru, B. and C, Nelson. (2001). World Englishes. In A. Burns and C. Coffin (ed.), Analysing English in a Global Context. New York: Routledge. Kamhi-Stein, L. (1999). Preparing non-native professionals in TESOL: Implications for teacher education programs. In G. Braine (ed.), Non-native Educators in English Language Teaching. Mahwah: NJ: ErlbaumKnowles, M., E. Holton and R. Swanson. (2005). The Adult Learner: The Definitive Classic in Adult Education and Human Resource Development. MA: Butterworth-Heinemann.Llurda, E. (2005). ‘Non-native TESOL students as seen by practicum supervisors.’ In E. Llurda (ed.) Non-native Language Teachers: Perceptions, Challenges, and Contributions to the Profession. New York: Springer Science and Business Media.Milheim, K. (2005). ‘Identifying and addressing the needs of adult students in higher education.’ Australian Journal of Adult Learning 45 (1): 119-128.Medgyes, p., (1994), The Narrative Teacher, London, MacMillan.Polio, C. and C. Wilson-Duffy. (1998). ‘Teaching ESL in an unfamiliar context: International students in a North American MA TESOL practicum.’ TESOL Journal 7 (4):24-29.Rajagopalan, K. (2005). ‘Non-native speaker teachers of English and their anxieties: Ingredients for an experiment in action research.’ In E. Llurda (ed.) Non-native Language Teachers: Perceptions, Challenges, and Contributions to the Profession. New York: Springer Science and Business Media.Rogers, A. (2002). Teaching Adults. London: Open University Press.Senior, R. (2006). The Experience of Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Vacilotto, S. and R. Cummings, (2007) Peer coaching in TEFL/TESL programmes. ELT Journal 61 (2): 153-163

Erica Garvey has taught on the Postgraduate Certificate in TESOL at Macquarie University for nine years convening the Language Teaching Methodologies unit and practicum. The course is being rested in 2008. She now teaches in the MA (TESOL) at the University of Western Sydney. [email protected]


Towards a new EAP: managing diversity in university preparation courses

b A r b A r A y A z b e c K

EAP Leading Teacher

La Trobe University International College

Since the early 1990s EAP has been focused on the assimilation of students into the dominant structures of universities. It is considered to be a neutral enterprise, void of any particular ideology, and most EAP courses are designed around a ‘nuts and bolts’ approach to academic study. However, such an approach to teaching inevitably leads to a ‘glossing over’ of differences and diversity as the focus is always on the assimilation of learners. This paper will question the assumption that EAP needs to inculcate learners in order to prepare them for higher education. It will argue that in the future EAP practitioners will need to teach in a way that values diversity and pluralism, focusing less on assimilation and more on individual empowerment of students. Critical EAP is proposed as an alternative paradigm which favours the need to see the discursive practices inherent in all academic discourse.

IntroductionVarious EAP practitioners have noted that university preparation courses seem to lack an awareness of the unique place of international students within the dominant structures of universities. In many respects the fault lies with the way EAP has pre-occupied itself with the initiation of students, aligning it almost completely with the dominant discursive and social practices found in universities. In effect, what EAP as a discipline and as a practice lacks is a theory of difference. Notions of difference as espoused by critics such as Giroux (1991) posit that difference is historically and socially constructed and therefore needs to be understood as a political rather than a technical category. This paper will posit that what is required is pedagogy which not only focuses on the existence of difference per se but which privileges difference and diversity as a site for deconstructing dominant discourses and empowering students traditionally marginalized by universities.

EAP practitioners work with difference and ‘otherness’ on a day to day basis. The EAP teacher straddles an awkward position, at once working with difference whilst espousing ‘sameness’. We aim to prepare our students linguistically by teaching them language but also culturally by teaching them convention. Whilst we acknowledge that


our classrooms are culturally diverse we often fail to critically analyze what difference means, who decides what constitutes difference and how concepts of difference are integral to notions of ‘self ’.

The result is pedagogy that demands assimilation. As a result, teaching EAP is often pragmatic with a decidedly ‘nuts and bolts’ (Allison, 1996:90) approach to academic work. Thus, curriculum becomes overly concerned with form and structure and teaching becomes prescriptive and formulaic. Hence, while we claim to be interested in the development of critical voice, our teaching can often silence our classrooms. As Kress (1993) states, if teaching insists on privileging the knowledge of forms, pedagogy is more likely to be authoritative, teacher-centered and transmission–oriented. The result is pedagogy which is less likely to be inclusive or responsive to diversity.

The nature of languageThe current situation seems to be underpinned by two basic assumptions. The first has to do with the nature of language and the second with the nature of learning. Language in EAP is often decontextualized. Students are often expected to engage in discipline specific language without having yet been exposed to the discipline in question. They are expected to demonstrate academic proficiency before having had the privilege of joining the academic community. In fact, teaching form without content ‘reduces the complexity of language to simple and discrete problems [and] keeps teachers from exploring student’s knowledge and potential’ (Zamel, 2004: p.11). Again, the problem seems to be a monolithic view of language that assumes that discourse is normative and that it can be packaged and reproduced. Such an approach to language makes it difficult for EAP teachers to see the multiplicity present in academic discourse and instead ‘misrepresents and oversimplifies academic discourse and reduces it to some stable and autonomous phenomenon that does not reflect reality’ (Zamel, 2004: p.11).

Canagarajah (2001) aptly illustrates this point in his discussion of ‘Viji’ a Sri Lankan graduate student completing a research paper for a degree in ELT. Viji chose to research English language teaching by missionaries in Jaffna with the intention of showing how successful the missionaries had been as educators of the local population. She set herself the task of writing against the post-colonial grain. She was a teacher with extensive experience and an active member of the Pentecostal Church. For Viji then, the challenge was how to negotiate academic discourse, with its various conventions regarding objectivity, distance and impersonality, with her desire to conduct research about something she had personal experience of and felt very passionate about. Canagarajah (2001) points out that Viji’s challenge was to find a position from which she, as a post-colonial female subject, could articulate a rather orthodox and unfashionable notion about the success of missionary educators. What made her


work exemplary was her ability to negotiate divergent and sometimes conflicting narratives in a way that allowed her to legitimately express her own experiences within the confines of the academic world. Whilst other students moved away from their vernacular discourses by employing univocal subject positions, Viji:

… attempts to find a space and voice for herself in the range of conflicting discourses to encode the messages she desires. Taking seriously the academic discourse, she yet brings into this her non-academic modes of communication to construct an independent text that takes a hybrid shape. This strategy of negotiating proves an effective way of reconciling the discursive tensions periphery students face in the academy. (Canagarajah, 2001: p.129)

This example illustrates the potential of language to generate meaning and the dynamic nature of discourses which are anything but monolithic or univocal. The end result is a coherent dissertation which engages with relevant post-colonial discourses whilst arguing from a very personal position that the missionary contribution to colonial education needs to be re-assessed. The significant aspect here is that Viji was not discouraged from doing research which may otherwise have seemed outdated or biased but rather was allowed to find, through solid empirical research, a legitimate space from which to write. The process of finding such a voice and such a space takes time for most students to develop but as teachers we should be aware that a) alternative voices exist and b) that it is our role to encourage students to find a way to fuse their own discourses with those of the academy. Otherwise, as Canagarajah states, “the uncritical and uncreative use of these univocal discourses” will deny students a voice of their own in their writing (2001: p.129).

In my own experience as a teacher of EAP, I have faced similar challenges of fostering discourses which seem at odds with the discourses of the academy. One such example concerns a mature aged Chinese student of mine, with a decade of work experience preparing to undertake an MBA. One component of our EAP course requires that students complete a self-directed project where they must research an issue related to their future area of study. I had attempted to guide my business students by giving them certain reading to do on ‘corporate corruption’. The reading was general and came from an established ‘issues’ textbook. On reading the chapter and discussing the key arising issues in a seminar style discussion, this student developed a certain resistance to the material and attempted to challenge many of the notions put forward. Instead of quelling his resistance, I attempted to foster it and through round table discussions pushed him to articulate and support many of the negative responses he was having. He was basically reading against the grain and questioning many of


the moral assumptions underpinning the core of ‘anti-corruption’ literature. This prompted me to encourage him to research his ‘gut’ feelings by doing a search on culture and corruption to see if other writers had also expressed some of his doubts. The student stumbled upon a fairly new area of work surrounding the practice of ‘Guanxi’ in Chinese culture. The student was able to argue that practices such as Guanxi have been misunderstood by western commentators and do not constitute authentic instances of corruption but rather belong to a long cultural tradition which serves an important function in Chinese culture. Of course the student was not arguing that corruption does not exist in China but rather that the practice of Guanxi has been misunderstood by the West. The issue of Guanxi aside, this example illustrates how it is possible for students to find and locate positions, engage with texts in ways that are as Canagarajah states above ‘multivocal’, authentic to the student and which do not disown local discourses.

The nature of learningThe second assumption has to do with the nature of learning. Far too often EAP treats students from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds as if they were remedial students. The focus is on trying to remedy ‘difference’, attempting to minimize it so that our students behave as if they were the norm or as close to the norm as we could possibly get them. To be different in EAP is frequently considered a sign of deficiency. As Rose states, ‘concern with deficiency reveals a reductive, fundamentally behaviorist model of [the] development’ (1985: p.341). The deficiency paradigm underpins the concern with assimilation and the reluctance to find new ways of integrating diverse students into dominant structures. It has been noted that treating diversity as deficiency is ‘profoundly exclusionary’ (Rose, 1985: p.342) and could preclude the very participation we aim to achieve. It reduces these students to the status of second class intellectuals destined to remain on the margins of universities. Zamel (2004) notes that, it seems to be widely assumed that these students have little to really offer the academy. In a survey of international students in the US, ‘the majority of students’ responses described classrooms that silenced them, that made them feel fearful and inadequate, that limited possibilities for engagement, involvement [and] inclusion’ (Zamel, 2004: p.9)

It is precisely participation in such ‘construction of meaning’ that led Benesch (2001) to experiment with journal keeping as a means of encouraging students to reflect on the material presented in a first year psychology course on anorexia. Benesch (1998) has noted that the journal allowed for the expression of a range of responses ranging from positive to negative. She observed that some of the boys in the course seemed to react critically to the choice of topic arguing that it seemed to lack relevance and was primarily a gender issue that excluded them. Benesch (1998) challenged the


boys’ perception that the theme lacked relevance by asking them to explore issues surrounding body image and eating habits. She did not deny their right to resist the material but rather encouraged them to explore and expand on their initial reactions. This led to some students maintaining their original position and others modifying or revising theirs. The point is, Benesch realized the value keeping a journal can have in encouraging plurality and diversification of knowledge. In particular, journals encourage the use of the vernacular in terms of language and experience in the process of learning.

Recently a student in my department was told by a colleague that he could not research the war in Iraq as it was an ‘inappropiate’ topic. The teacher directed the student away from the topic because she viewed it as too subjective, having told the student that it would be difficult to remain impartial and that this made it an unsuitable research task. This is perhaps the most blatant example of the push within EAP to stamp out the vernacular. Self- directed tasks, student topic selection and journal keeping can all provide a means of enabling students to use their own identities, languages and experiences to engage with dominant discourses in a meaningful way. Had the teacher had a greater understanding of the multiplicity of language and knowledge she may have harnessed the student’s interest and helped to move him towards a position from which to engage with dominant discourses without compromising his unique subject position. As Canagarajah states, ‘A useful pedagogical strategy is to make students conscious of these discursive tensions, realize the positive potential of negotiating for expression and motivate them to engage with these discourses as they encode and decode texts’ (2001:130).

Other paradigms : critical eap Benesch (1993: p. 2001) and Pennycook (1997) have both criticized the pragmatism of current practices in EAP which they see as resulting in the unquestioning acceptance of ‘explicit and implicit standards, conventions, rules and discourse practices’ (Pennycook, 1997: p.256). Instead, they posit that EAP should be critical in approach. The concept of ‘critical education’ is taken from Paolo Freire writing in the 1970s in Chile. (cited in Shor, 1993) Freire believed it was the teacher’s role to engage students in critical dialogue by posing knowledge as problems. According to Freire, (cited in Shor, 1993) teachers were to pose problems related to student’s lives, academic subjects and social issues. In other words, little was to be accepted unquestioningly in the classroom. He realized that because ‘traditional education orients students to conform, to accept inequality and their place in the status quo’ (cited in Shor,1993: p.28) it was only by problematising the relationship of students to knowledge that students could develop a position from which to engage with knowledge. For Freire, education was transformative and involved the empowerment of the individual. Hence, he considered


that it is only by deconstructing the world around them that students could find a meaningful way to engage with the world.

A critical approach to EAP emphasizes the need to question dominant discursive practices, even as students aim to achieve academic communicative competence by engagement with those practices. Such an approach aims to foster enquiry that will lead to or at least contribute to a student’s search for a critical voice and a ‘real’ position from which to engage with the academy. A pragmatic approach to EAP inevitably silences diversity because it ignores that alternatives exist, it also denies the potential for dialogue between the centre and the margins. Pennycook (1997) points out that EAP may not yet be aware of what an important role it plays in the pluralisation of knowledge. He states, ‘If we want to give space to our students’ cultures and histories, and if we want to challenge some of the standard formulations of academic knowledge, then we can start to see EAP as having a significant role in the pluralisation of our students’ future knowledge’ (Pennycook, 1997: p.264). Pluralisation seems to be a keyword when we consider the real implication of diverse student bodies. Pluralisation refers not only to ways of knowing which must change if there is to be any meaningful engagement between the centre and those traditionally on the margins, but also a pluralisation of forms. Hence, teaching academic discourse as unyielding and unresponsive leaves little room for appropriation by students.

There is an ‘edge’ to critical theory which conservative pedagogy misses. As critical theory is born of a post-structuralist view of language it may not be possible to teach language without teaching social and cultural ‘constructedness’. As yet there has not been a real movement within EAP to factor in difference and to allow for multiple points of view. Without such a theoretical development EAP will remain somewhat pragmatic. It is not merely enough to tell students the conditions which produce texts without inviting them to engage critically and even radically with the deconstruction of those texts. It is this underpinning resistance to diversity which really hinders the development of an approach which takes difference into account. Perhaps it is true that critical theory and post-structuralism have yet to be translated pedagogically (Canagarajah, 2001). Without pedagogy such as this, it is not surprising that students are left with little choice but to merely reproduce texts.

Conclusion

The notion of a ‘new EAP’ interested in issues of difference and diversity would enable a shift from a singular worldview to a perspective which accommodates difference and which values plurality. It would expand the traditional boundaries of language learning by engaging learners and teachers in the dual task of making visible the culture of the


academy whilst maintaining a critical distance from it. Establishing a paradigm that privileges difference requires reflection upon the self and the ‘other’. As most of our students find themselves occupying the place of the ‘other’ in western discourse and in the western academy, it is essential that this process leads to a discovery of a place from where students can participate from an empowered otherness.

references

Allison, D. (1996). Pragmatist discourse and English for Academic Purposes. English for Specific Purposes, 15 (2), 85-103

Benesch, S. (1993). ESL, ideology and the politics of pragmatism. TESOL Quarterly, 27 (4), 705 – 715

Benesch,S. (1998). Anorexia: A feminist EAP curriculum, in Smoke, T. (Ed.) Adult ESL: Politics, Pedagogy, and Participation in Classrooms and Community Programs. NY: Lawrence Erlbaum

Benesch, S. (2001). Critical English for Academic Purposes. Theory, Politics and Practice. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum

Canagarajah, S. (2001). Addressing issues of power and difference in ESL academic writing, in Flowerdew, J. and Peacock, M. (Eds). Research Perspectives on English for Academic Purposes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Giroux, H. (1991). Postmodernism as border pedagogy. Redefining the boundaries of race and ethnicity, in Giroux, H. (Eds). Postmodernism, Feminism and Cultural Politics. Redrawing Educational Boundaries. Albany: State University of New York Press

Pennycook, A. (1997). Vulgar pragmatism, critical pragmatism, and EAP. English for Specific Purposes, 16 (4), 253 -269.

Zamel, V. (2004). Strangers in academia. The experiences of faculty and ESOL students across the curriculum, in Zamel, V. and Spack, R. (Eds) Crossing the Curriculum. Multilingual learners in College Classrooms New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum


Barbara Yazbeck is English for Further Studies Leading Teacher at La Trobe University International College. She has experience of teaching EAP in a variety of university settings including Lancaster University UK. She is currently completing a Master of Applied Linguistics where she has developed a particular interest in writing for EAP. She was a finalist in the EA PEA Award 2007.


Finding the right resource for your course is easy with Pearson Longman…As Australia’s leading publisher of educational products, Pearson Longman brings you the most current and relevant resources for English language teaching.

Drawing on some of the world’s leading ELT authors, we offer teachers and students innovative resources that make teaching and learning easier. From the renowned Longman Dictionaries and ‘Cutting Edge’ books to multimedia courses and interactive websites, Pearson Longman gives you an outstanding selection of resources for all your English language teaching needs.

Visit us today at at www.pearsoned.com.au/elt to view our full range of ELT teaching resources. Or call the ELT Hotline on 02 9454 2350.


Bookshelf

Write a review

Reviewing books is a great start to a career in writing and there are many opportunities to write reviews for the EA Journal. Each of the two issues per year features up to 16 reviews of new books in the field, in several categories. Applied linguistics, teaching methodology and practice, and classroom resources are the main ones, offering scope to potential reviewers with a diverse range of interest and experience. The additional benefit is that you can add the book to your reference library for free.

Classroom teachers with a keen sense of what works in the classroom are in great demand as reviewers to evaluate the huge range of classroom-focused textbooks, workbooks, practice and revision texts which are published each year, and to share this knowledge across the industry via the EA Journal. A good review by an experienced colleague is an invaluable support for a busy classroom teacher looking for new, high quality resources.

We are also looking for colleagues interested to review the more academically-oriented books which underpin and can challenge thinking in the profession. These usually fall into two classes: those which are reference books for the practice of language teaching and those which offer new insights into TESOL from research.

If you are interested to review a resource for the next issue of EA Journal please contact me, your Bookshelf Editor, on 0402 056 269 or by email at [email protected]. An up-to-date list of resources available for review can be accessed on the EA Journal section of the English Australia website, www.englishaustralia.com.au.

Pauline BaylisBookshelf Editor


Dialogue Activities:

Exploring spoken interaction in the language class

n i c K b i l b r o u G h

Cambridge University Press 2007

r e v i e w e d b y A l A n w o n G

For busy teachers looking for practical speaking activities for their students, Dialogue Activities is the essential handbook. This book is part of the Cambridge Handbooks for Language Teachers series, and contains more than 100 different speaking activities designed for different levels ranging from Beginner to Advanced. The highly adaptable activities can be used as they are, or with modifications that will suit different students’ needs. They are aimed at challenging students’ speaking and listening skills through a gradual progression from accuracy to fluency.

There are many recorded dialogues and authentic conversation extracts with transcripts that would inspire any teacher to create his or her own custom-made speaking activities. The layout of the book is concise: specific outline, focus, level, time required and materials to be used are clearly stated at the beginning of each activity with clear instructions on how to use the activity effectively. The nine chapters provide a very adequate range of examples and pictures for use in the classroom. Besides these, the suggested variations, extensions and notes which accompany them are inspiring.

Chapters 1 and 2 are focussed on helping students identify and understand linguistic features not usually highlighted in textbooks of this nature, such as recognising lexical chucks and their uses in context. As well, unlike the traditional approach to developing listening skills in the classroom, where students listen to records, do gap-fill activities and controlled speaking activities, in these chapters, students are asked to create, negotiate for meanings and make decisions in terms of how to form language dialogues. Chapters 3, 4 and 5 offer a range of contextual settings for further activities along these lines. Chapters 6 to 9 are designed to reinforce and encourage students to express their personal ideas in spontaneous dialogue production. Chapter 9 shifts from product to process and from accuracy to fluency.

In the early chapters, learners are encouraged to access dialogues receptively, and to gradually reproduce and create personalised dialogues towards the end of the book. Bilbrough also gives concise overviews of the range of methodologies used in these chapters.

Bilbrough’s strong support for the communicative approach and student-centred


activities is evident in his definition of dialogue as ‘pre-scripted, real, form-focussed, transactional, and interactional (p. 2). In fact, there are a lot of pairwork activities in the resource which are informed by this perspective. Teachers, thus, are viewed as facilitators whose role is to encourage students to negotiate meaning in all activities so that they are able to transfer easily from these authentic, interactive activities to authentic interaction for real purposes in real contexts.

In spite of the widely held view that the communicative approach is superior to other methods for development of L2 acquisition, Bilbrough incorporates earlier methodologies such as Community Language Learning (CLL), Total Physical Response (TPR) and Direct Translation into some of the activities. For instance, on page 144, learners have to repeat what was said and translate it back into the mother tongue, and on page 22, learners run to the board to do tasks. The variety of activities which are suggested enhances the potential appeal of this resource globally, to a wide range of learners, both monolingual and multilingual.

In terms of second language acquisition (SLA), Bilbrough obviously sees using L1 and authentic materials as resources in contrast to the Natural Approach where only the target language (TL) should be used. In the organisation of activities, this book follows the direction of influence from ‘awareness to acquisition to use’. As there is still no empirical evidence to prove which SLA direction of influence is the most effective, teachers should choose different activities from different chapters to form the ideal direction of influence according to their learners’ needs and learning background.

On the whole, Bilbrough provides a lot of tremendous activities that are linked to a range of approaches to and methodologies for language learning and acquisition. The implication for ELT professionals is, therefore, that they should determine the variety of teaching based on specific teaching contexts and specific needs of learners.

To sum up, ‘Language learning is an endless progress of borrowing, adapting, rehearsing and performing’ (p.107). Using this practical book, the teacher can help learners to be aware of linguistic features ie borrowing, to use these features in their personal contexts ie adapting, to practise the dialogue in a supported setting ie rehearsing, and then to really communicate with each other, ie performing. As this holistic view echoes throughout the whole book, readers are bound to explore dialogues in new ways with Bilbrough’s inspirational ideas

Alan Wong is the Director of Studies of TEFL Paris, France and has been involved in Teacher Training and ELT materials writing in the past decade.


English for the Humanities

K r i s t e n l . J o h A n n s e n

Thompson ELT 2006

r e v i e w e d b y P A u l d u F F i l l

Australia and other English speaking countries continue to be popular destinations for international students and overseas-trained professionals. For many of these students and immigrant professionals in English speaking countries, English is not their first language. Enter English for the Humanities by Kristen Johannsen with the rather ambitious aim of equiping intermediate level English language students with the English communication skills to succeed in professional contexts relating to philosophy, languages, fine arts, history and social science.

The compact 106 pages is divided into five units corresponding to the above five disciplines. Each unit contains six lessons and concludes with a group project. Following the five core units is a short review section, and vocabulary and grammar glossaries. Each lesson introduces vocabulary from a specific subject area within a scenario drawn from a professional or educational context. For example, the philosophy unit introduces scenarios and vocabulary related to university enrolment, the first day of classes, and the ethical issues associated with various food and drink companies. The arts unit presents a scenario revolving around the preservation of local art and crafts, and the history unit introduces scenarios centering on the preservation of heritage buildings. This is one of the central strengths of this book: the presentation of humanities-related vocabulary within professional, rather than purely academic, contexts. It is, of course, within these types of work environments that students seeking employement will actually apply the language provided by this book. Roughly half the lessons introduce specific communication skills for the humanities-based workplace. For example, the language unit introduces tips for job interviews, telephone etiquette, and giving advice in English, The social science unit presents skills on direct and indirect questions, communicating schedules and timetables, and how to give a successful presentation.

Each unit contains a mixture of reading, writing, speaking and listening, although the language skills focus rests heavily on speaking. Grammar and vocabulary is directly assessed through fairly controlled exercises such as gap fills, word ordering, and grammar structure drilling. While few reading and listening exercises are provided, even fewer writing exercises are presented (only seven throughout the entire book).


Furthermore, little advice is given as to how these writing pieces should be structured. In a course which aims to give students the professional English language skills for work in the humanities these omissions are surprising. An important skill for many professionals working within the humanities is to be able to rapidly, effectively, and efficiently articulate one’s own ideas within a specified referencing style which often differs from profession to profession. Therefore to prepare students for working in humanities fields not only requires considerable attention to writing, but also to specific referencing systems. To ameliorate this, common styles used within the humanities such as the American Psychological Association (APA), Chicago, Harvard or Modern Language Association (MLA) could be applied and contrasted. As well, more general government report, grant application and general essay formats could be rehearsed.

Another weakness in this book is its uneven treatment of the individual disciplines that make up the humanities. No mention is made of subject areas such as religion, performing arts, visual arts, literature, classics, or architecture. What’s more, very uneven treatment is given to sub-disciplines within philosophy, language, art, history, and particularly social science. Even a cursory coverage of these general subject areas in a mere 106 pages would seem to be an impossible task in a book which aims to ‘empower students with the language and life skills they need to carry out their career goals’. However, a more balanced approach would seem essential for any success at all. For example the philosophy unit focuses almost exclusively on ethics, neglecting fields such as metaphysics, epistomology, logic, aesthetics or political philosophy. Ethics may seem like the most applicable to professional (non-academic) contexts. However, these other branches of philosophy form integral parts of applied fields such as politics, economics, education, the physical sciences, mathematics, linguistics, psychology, computer science, management and organisational behaviour. Some instruction in the vocabulary of these other subdisciplines is required. Likewise, the social science unit focuses almost completely on education to the neglect of professionally significant areas such as psychology, political science, anthropology, geography, sociology, development studies and economics.

A number of supplementary materials are presented after the core five units. Although specific grammar practice is provided in each lesson throughout the book, the only direct grammar instruction can be found in the grammar glossary at the end of the book. This layout could create an annoyance for students, needing to continually flick through the book to find the explanation of a relevant grammar point from a particular exercise. However, along with the traditional presentation of structures in the lessons, the grammar glossary provided here is still a useful resource for students.


Compounding the lack of in-lesson instruction on grammar is almost exclusive focus on grammar revision in each unit review. This is particulary surprising given that the primary aim of this book is to help students aquire the necessary vocabulary and professional communication skills for the workplace. A glossary of humanities-related terminology is, however, presented, which could go some way to supporting students, mastery of the vocabulary for their chosen subject area. But again, this needs to be expanded, along with the main lesson material, to more broadly cover the range of sub disciplines and specialised vocabulary employed within the humanities.

One of the strengths of this book is the inclusion of professional communications skills, which general English courses or academic/vocational courses often neglect. These are generally presented clearly and accurately. However, the student-centred practice and production provided is insufficient for students to confidently apply these skills in the workplace. In fact, the group projects at the end of each unit represent a missed opportunity for students to freely utilise these important communication skills within a group context. Only about a third of the communication skills introduced throughout the lessons are actually relevant to the group project at the end of the corresponding unit. Furthermore, as these skills are evenly dispersed throughout the book, and not specifically related to any one unit topic, an index of these should also be provided. This would enable the teacher or student to quickly locate and integrate the relevant skill within their professional and educational contexts.

The above criticisms notwithstanding, the team projects do present students with opportunities in a variety of situations to take part in group work. This is, of course, an essential skill in many fields associated with the humanities.

To fully complete the leap from a general English textbook to a resource which prepares students for employment in the humanities, Kristen Johannsen’s English for the Humanities would have to contend with the challenges outlined above. As it stands, this book would be a valuable supplementary resource to dip into for many English for Academic Purposes, English for Specific Purposes, and perhaps General English courses. However, because of the use of rather narrow scenarios, and the broad overall humanities theme which structures the book, few individual students will find more than a single unit directly relevant to their own vocational aims. For these reasons and the problems outlined above, this book would probably not be suitable as a complete self study or teacher facilitated course guide.

Paul Duffill is a General English teacher and TESOL trainer at Greenwich College.


face2face

Intermediate Student’s Book

c h r i s r e d s t o n & G i l l i e c u n n i n G h A m


r e v i e w e d b y c l A r e m c G r At h

face2face Intermediate (2006) by Chris Redston and Gillie Cunningham, published by Cambridge University Press (CUP) is also available at other levels from Beginner to Advanced, and targets students undertaking General English courses. It generally follows a communicative approach with a guided discovery twist. Skills work is integrated with structures in sequence but also studded with natural, functional and situational language which is regularly recycled. There is an emphasis on listening and speaking in common social situations, and vocabulary is given more prominence than was common in textbooks of yore.

This Student’s book provides 80 hours of input divided into 12 thematic units, with 4 lessons in each. The themes are similar to those in course books everywhere – travel, work, technology etc – and snappily titled. It also follows a syllabus not unlike most resources at the same level, kicking off with a review of question forms in a range of tenses, and finishing with the third conditional. The Teacher’s Book has 40 hours of extension material in the form of photocopiable resources and ‘extra ideas’, and there’s a Workbook for extra class work or homework and a Reading and Writing Portfolio as well. The website www.cambridge.org/elt/face2face provides downloads and further useful information. The series is compatible with The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, the intermediate level completing B1 and starting B2, so there’s a widely applicable and useful table of competencies for listening, reading, spoken interaction and production, and writing in the Teacher’s Book.

So far, so relatively normal. What makes face2face Intermediate stand out from the crowd I’ve been hanging out with is the CD ROM / Audio CD for students included with the course book, which, as you’d expect, contains exercises, a Grammar Reference, a Word List, and Progress sections and Tests, and also video recording and playback features! What’s more: activities and assessments are customisable. Thankfully, there are photocopiable and not too alarming instructions in the Teacher’s Book. But wait, there’s even more: a network CD-ROM of the Student’s Book for up to 30 computers, and DVDs of the video sequences from – so far – the Intermediate and Upper Intermediate Student’s Book CD-ROMs. Add to this cornucopia of resources


the Classware and Whiteboard software, which presents, for whizz-bang interactive use via computer and projector or an interactive whiteboard, the entire contents of the Student’s Book (including listenings, with the option to display audio scripts, with or without the audio, and give answers) plus the videos from the CD-ROM, and you may be feeling slightly overwhelmed. The software even throws in extras such as a pop-up dictionary, and, while there is, of course, an instruction booklet, it does not appear to need paracetamol to follow it. The prices are generally reasonable, though the cost of some of the items may put them out of reach, for instance the networked CD-ROM is £250. Also, on the publisher’s website, I came across rather mysterious references to packs for some components ‘created specifically for the Italian, Spanish and Polish markets’. I can only guess there may be translations of some sections.

Let’s go back to the basic component of the Student’s Book, where we are on more familiar ground. Each two page ‘lesson’ is packed with tasks, which are quite short but effective. While the task designs are typical of most course books - matching, Qs & As, gap-fills etc, and do not include specifically ‘task-based’ activities, they are focussed and interesting. Both teachers and trainers report that they find them useful and easy to exploit, with clear Language Summaries at the end of the book.

The instructions, labelling and colour-coding make this resource simple to navigate for both teachers and learners. The look is adult – the visuals are attractive and judiciously used, with a range of cultures represented. Any famous faces do tend to be British or American, and this bias is rather unfortunately also reflected in the great majority of the contexts and in the reading and listening texts. On the plus side, however, the content of these texts is appealing. There are helpful tips for skills and pronunciation, and scripts are sensibly included in the Student’s Book. The Teacher’s Book would support new teachers while satisfying more experienced ones, and is straightforward and well-organised – there’s not too much flicking back and forth to follow the trails of advice, answers and extra materials.

Students from a range of countries have responded to the book with enough enthusiasm. I would recommend this book for anyone looking for a new course book, simply as a fresh ‘face’ with substantial ‘body’.

Clare McGrath is a teacher trainer with the Australian TESOL Training Centre, within the Australian College of English.


English Pronunciation in use

(Advanced)

m A r t i n h e w i n G s

(Cambridge University Press)

r e v i e w e d b y A n d r e w F o l e y

Pronunciation is an area of teaching that teachers often treat with some caution or even avoid altogether. The short nature of teacher training courses means pronunciation gets just a brief look-in, and although general course books do include some treatment of pronunciation, these activities tend to be a small proportion of the whole course, and are usually in isolation. Teachers with extensive knowledge of grammatical terminology and usage patterns abound, however, it is hard to find someone in a staffroom prepared to speak forth on the finer points of native speaker connected speech patterns. While there is often the opportunity for teachers to deliver specialised courses in fields such as grammar or exam preparation, it is unusual to see specific courses in pronunciation skills.

That being said, there seems to have been a recent increased interest in the teaching of pronunciation, especially through the concept of bottom-up listening skills, that is, the skills and strategies which language learners need to better understand the way speakers code language into meaningful units in connected speech, to successfully replicate it themselves. Increased interest in pronunciation is reflected in many recently published resources, such as those put out by ABAX ELT Publishers, and the updated New Headway Pronunciation series.

Advocates of this bottom-up approach to teaching listening strategies emphasise the importance of an understanding of pronunciation, not just for speaking, but also for improving listening skills. However, the specialised terminology used to describe the features of spoken language, such as stress, intonation, ellipsis, elision, liaison and intrusion can be quite overwhelming for a teacher new to teaching pronunciation, in the same way that grammatical terminology can be a challenge for novice teachers.

English Pronunciation in Use (Advanced) from Cambridge University Press (CUP) continues on from where the Intermediate level of the same book left off, and is a welcome addition to the field. It follows the well-structured format of CUP’s Grammar in Use and Vocabulary in Use series, where each segmented topic is presented through rules, information, patterns and examples on the left hand page, and then corresponding practice activities are provided on the right hand page. This


approach is easy to follow for students and teachers alike, and also allows the teacher to use the book in a non-linear fashion, for example choosing a particular feature that may have come up in another area of a course. The book is divided into three main sections: Pronunciation of words and phrases, Pronunciation in conversation and Pronunciation in formal settings, although there is also a Getting Started and a Reference section. There are 60 units in total and the book is accompanied by a set of CDs which provide extensive modeling of the presented features as well as activities so students can check their answers against a spoken version.

There is also a CD-ROM User’s Guide, which provides additional interactive activities so that the book can be used more extensively in self-study form.

It is, as the title suggests, aimed at advanced level learners, and it would be prudent for students to have had some exposure to working on some aspects of the pronunciation of speech previously, as the activities are pitched at quite a high level of complexity. I must admit that several of the patterns presented as common in connected speech I had not been consciously aware of myself. I trialled several activities from the book with a high level Business English class, and found the section, Pronunciation in formal settings, to be very well-received by the students, and straightforward to use.

If I were to make a minor criticism of this book, it would be that the majority of the activities involve the students identifying features (completing gaps, matching parts, underlining) and speaking in shorter drills or responses, and there is not very much opportunity for the students to use the pronunciation features in less controlled practice.

I can strongly recommend this book for any teacher working with higher level students who need to improve their communication skills and who would benefit from being more aware of the nuances of authentic speech.

Andrew Foley is the Centre Manager of the South Australian College of English. He has recently returned to Australia after working for several years in Cambodia for IDP Education. His interests are in authentic materials and in personalising the teaching of EAP and ESP.


•

• •

•

• • • •


EAP now! Preliminary

(English for Academic Purposes)

K At h y c o x & d Av i d h i l l

Pearson (Education Australia) 2007

r e v i e w e d b y J A c K i e w o o d s

EAP now! Preliminary is a class text for students’ use and is aimed at an intermediate level for those students wishing to improve their English through an academic pathway. It is designed to develope skills, such as arguments, essay writing, interpretation of data, to enable a student to enter vocational courses at colleges as well as a preliminary preparation towards university entry. The book is accompanied by a teacher’s book and audio class CDs (neither of which were seen for review) which use a variety of voices and accents. The set would be a useful tool for classes whose aim is academic preparation and it is specifically designed for use in Australia.

The book has 12 units of work, each with contemporary international themes such as trade, energy, politics, and including some with a specific Australian focus eg. indigenous people, Australian farmers. Each unit lists the learning outcomes and begins with a speaking activity to introduce the theme. The units follow a similar order of skills development and language input and offer further practice suggestions at the end. The book also includes a good index and a word list of parts of speech and connected collocations for the most common academic words.

This resource would be suitable as a student book for a class at the beginning of preparation for academic studies. There is a broad range of grammatical items suitable for intermediate level. As well, unusual aspects of English grammar such as nominalisation, noun forms of verbs, and colloquialisms are addressed which would aid academic skills especially in writing. Students are given the meanings of difficult vocabulary around the texts they read which could potentially speed up their reading time but may not ensure that full understanding occurs, and which may hinder correct production of the words and phrases later.

As each unit basically follows the same order for learning the skills, it could become repetitive for some learners, though others may enjoy the support the repetition offers. The text covers a wide range of writing skills designed to develop learners’ understanding, with good scaffolding and support for the styles being taught. As productive tasks are left to the end to be done in a holistic way, some learners may find


this challenge too great. Smaller writing tasks could have been included throughout the unit to extend and consolidate each new aspect of learning. To assist the learner with listening tasks, a transcript would also be a useful addition.

Each unit ends with extension tasks focussed on production which require the learner to use the skills, topic and vocabulary covered. This is an opportunity for an authentic language experience with or without the teacher. There are also references for books and other readings, films, and websites, as well as ideas for research for follow up. The appendix at the back of the book, which contains groups of common academic nouns, adjective and verbs, and the list of most common associated collocations are great ideas. There are several other appendices, which will be very helpful to the individual learner.

While the book’s colour scheme, in grey and terracotta tones with no colour photography (though the photos themselves are very interesting) may be a little unappealing for learners accustomed to the more common glossy, highly coloured textbook style, it is, nevertheless, a valuable addition to the Australian classroom as it relates to, and is published, in this country. Without the teacher’s book, it may be a challenging text for a new teacher but an experienced teacher would be able to use it with ease. It could also be a difficult book for student self access, as it doesn’t include explanations for some language skills.

However, it would be a solid core textbook for a class working with academic studies for the first time. Overall, this book is a useful text for the expanding market of students requiring academic English and goes a long way to bridge the gap between general and academic classes.

Jackie Woods is a teacher with the South Australian College of English, Adelaide.


English for Socializing

s y l e e G o r e & d Av i d G o r d o n s m i t h

2007 Oxford University Press

r e v i e w e d b y c A r ly r o b e r t s o n

Contrary to its very general (and somewhat misleading) title, English for Socializing is actually targeted to Business English students, and provides activities and vocabulary for very specific social situations concerning international business relations. Part of the Oxford English Express series, it is a clear and colourful student workbook that could be used as part of a Business English curriculum, or alternatively as a self-study text for higher level students. The CD-Rom includes listening extracts from the activities of each chapter’s, and interactive revision exercises that can be completed separately from the book.

Overall, this book aims to help Business English learners become more confident in everyday workplace language situations, primarily introductions and ‘by the water cooler’ small talk. The content also addresses intercultural issues and ‘soft skills’.

The book is divided into six units: Making Contact, Welcoming Visitors, Getting Acquainted, Entertaining a Visitor, Eating Out, and Networking at a Trade Fair. All essentially address the issue of making small talk with business clients or representatives from foreign countries. Each of the units are nine pages long, and include a starter activity, listening gap fills, vocabulary matching activities, and a reading at the end. The layout is clear, even with many activities packed onto each page. At the end of the book are ‘Partner Files’ for role-play activities related to each unit, an answer key and transcripts, and useful phrase/vocabulary banks. All in all, it’s got everything a supplementary material book needs.

The general idea in teaching Business English is not only to teach the elusive ‘business lingo’ that is the key to successful business relations, but also to raise awareness of the social ‘do’s and don’ts’ in the Western business world, as they differ greatly from country to country. English for Socializing attempts to do both. Firstly, it provides the learner with a (somewhat exhaustive) bank of useful small-talk phrases, found in text boxes throughout each unit. Phrases are listed in categories within these boxes, e.g.Welcoming a visitor, Talking about the offices and company, Offering/Accepting Hospitality. Examples of common mistakes also accompany these lists, e.g. Are you in this location long? WRONG and Have you been in this location long? RIGHT

Secondly, sections at the end of each chapter attempt to raise awareness and encourage


discussion about different cultural norms in the business world. These are in the form of articles, such as ‘Why it’s important to mix business with pleasure’ or ‘Bored with typical small talk questions?’ or example opinions about socializing from business people around the world. There are also good starter activities for each unit, using pictures and questions that will encourage students to think of potential difficulties in this area, and compare ideas about etiquette or social rules in different cultures.

However, while the book ticks all the boxes for a good supplementary resource with communicative activities, vocabulary lists and discussion starters, it lacks a grammatical focus that would pull some of these skills together. As mentioned earlier, the vocabulary provided throughout the book is extensive, but perhaps too exhaustive for a student to learn each phrase correctly. It may overwhelm the learner with too many specific phrases, without teaching how to construct them independently. To combat this potential problem, it would be wise to include a grammar focus (such as modal verbs for polite language) in class, and use the textbook as supplementary material.

The CD-Rom is not particularly exciting, but includes gap fill or vocab-matching activities for students to complete in their own time. It is divided into the same six modules as the book, with three activities for each module. Specific phrases and vocabulary are tested for each module. It could be useful for review, but is not necessary for the course.

This book might appeal to new ESL teachers in the business sector, as it provides an extensive array of activities that could supplement or ‘flesh out’ a course curriculum with speaking and listening activities. Very motivated students may like to pursue the course as a self-study text, but many of the communicative activities would be less effective without a class to practise with. Overall, the content and structure are helpful and interesting enough to complement any Business English course.

Carly Robertson is a teacher of General English and IELTS at Greenwich College, Sydney.


English for life

(Beginner)

t o m h u t c h i n s o n , c A r o l t A b o r , J e n n y Q u i n tA n A , K At e e A d i e

Oxford University Press 2007

r e v i e w e d b y K A r e n c i n i

English for Life is a series of course books catering for Beginner, Elementary and Pre-Intermediate levels. From 2009 it will also support the Intermediate level. At every level it provides around 60 - 120 hours of teaching material, depending on how many supplementary components are used.

The Beginners course package consists of three books, three audio CDs, a test CD and an interactive MultiROM. Both Student’s and Teacher’s book are exceptionally user-friendly. To start with, the contents are divided into four colourful sections, (Vocabulary, Grammar, Skills and English for Everyday Life), making it possible for teachers to find specific topics or grammar points required in the blink of an eye.

Teachers with all levels of experience will find this course material useful. As a main source of material for a class, it is an ideal book for new teachers, while more experienced ones might enjoy using it as part of their supplementary material. Teacher’s notes on how to conduct tasks step-by-step, including a lead-in and a follow-up activity for every lesson accompany each of the eighty units. In addition to this, the Teacher’s Book comes with a six-page introduction to the syllabus as well as fifteen vocabulary activities. These activities can be used in specific chapters or modified as fillers for other lessons. All this is absolutely priceless for any dynamic teacher!

The Student’s Book is divided into eighty, easy-to-follow 45-minute lessons. Each lesson can either be used separately or in a group of four consecutive units, thereby covering Vocabulary, Grammar, Listening and Speaking on the particular theme of the day. Topics include food, daily routines, clothes, travel and other essential vocabulary as well as many expressions required at the beginner level. Functional language is a focus in this book in the ‘English for Everyday Life’ sections and also in the ‘That’s Life!’ episodes, which give lessons a real touch of the outside world. All this is supplemented by the Workbook which can be used either in class or set as homework for further revision after every lesson.

What makes English for Life (Beginner) such a usable resource for teachers is undoubtedly its flexible and modern approach. Minimal preparation is required, thanks to its incredibly well-organized units. The students are first introduced to


fresh terminology, clearly presented with labeled pictures, cartoons and dialogues. The next step focuses on pronunciation and the new sounds are first drilled, then later used more confidently in conversation with their fellow classmates. The authors understand that predictable lesson structure aids in classroom management. This regular cycle will also help the timid beginner to build the confidence required to start experimenting with new language in the real world, outside the circle of comfort found in an ESL classroom.

There are additional worksheets included in the back of the Teacher’s Book with instructions and answers for the teacher who wishes to beef up the normal lesson material or break the regular routine of a class. These activities get the students out of their seats by doing pair work, group work and other fun activities related to the topic or grammar point of the day. As well, a separate CD in the Teacher’s book contains a range of beginner tests and other activities can be found on an accompanying website.

An innovative feature of English for Life (Beginner) is the MultiROM attached to the Student’s Book. Students who require further practice have access to interactive exercises they can do by themselves. The audio tasks are very useful to those with pronunciation difficulties and are extremely valuable to improve listening skills.

English for Life (Beginner) is indeed a life saver for absolute beginners (and their teachers!) in the ESL world. Packed with fun activities, basic grammar structures and essential vocabulary, it offers a complete starter course to students with little or no knowledge of the language. It provides all the language required by beginners to survive in an English speaking environment and positively encourages them to embark on a fun English-learning experience.

Karen Cini (B.Communications, CELTA) is a General English teacher at Greenwich College, Sydney.


English For life

Pre-intermediate

t o m h u t c h i n s o n

Teacher’s Book

t o m h u t c h i n s o n , c A r o l t A b o r & J e n n y Q u i n tA n A

Oxford University Press (OUP) 2007

r e v i e w e d b y i A n s y n n o t t

English For Life, Pre-intermediate is a new coursebook which is part of a four-level general English course from real beginner to intermediate level. The stated target users are adult and young adult learners. The Student’s Book is accompanied by an interactive CD-Rom. There is also a Teachers’s Book, Class Audio CDs and Workbook.

The Student’s BookThe Student’s Book is divided into 20 units, or cycles, each covering a common central topic such as Travel and Transport and Shopping. Each topic consists of a group of four lessons: Vocabulary, Grammar, Skills and English for Everyday Life, giving a total of 80 colourfully presented one-page lessons. These single-page lessons are intended to last 45-minutes and have a clear focus so learners can proceed at a manageable pace, learning one thing at a time.Vocabulary is introduced around the topic in picture dictionary style on the page, as well as on the audio for pronunciation work. The vocabulary session is intended to be the first lesson in each cycle with learners meeting the new lexis repeatedly during the remaining three lessons in the unit. The labelled picture format is appropriate, particularly at lower levels, as it allows learners to go back and easily review new items where necessary.Grammar is clearly presented in short texts or dialogues on the page focusing on one aspect of structure, with a more detailed grammar reference section at the back of the Student’s Book. The particular form is then highlighted and used in the Skills and English for Everyday Life lessons later in the cycle.The skills lessons are well designed to review the vocabulary and grammar from the previous two lessons in the context of a suitably graded reading or listening text, between 250 and 350 words long. Each cycle focuses on two macro skills highlighted


in the lesson heading: Listen and speak, Read and speak or Listen and write.English for Everyday Life lessons focus on functional language and introduce numerous everyday expressons. These lessons alternate between a functional lesson point, such as Booking a hotel room, and an episode of That’s Life!, a ten-part soap opera story aptly designed to engage learners with the characters that appear throughout. The story ends with a delicate cliffhanger in the epilogue, encouraging learners to speculate on the outcome, which is then provided on the audio for them to confirm their predictions.The various lessons regularly include sub-sections such as Your Life exercises where learners personalise the vocabulary, grammar or skills previously highlighted. When used appropriately, this should facilitate the progress of activities and lesson stages from controlled practice to more authentic use. Additionally, frequent English in the world boxes feature aspects of life and society in English-speaking countries. This supports cultural awareness among learners as they are required to think and talk about their own culture and language in comparison. Regular Pronunciation boxes address aspects of English pronunciation and prosody that commonly prove difficult for NESB learners. Examples of these difficulties include minimal pairs, consonant clusters, third person ‘s’, syllable and sentence stress, and intonation. All of these sub-sections appear in the most relevant lesson and present the supplementary teaching points very briefly. They should, however, provide ample opportunity for a competent teacher to extend lessons where appropriate in response to learner weaknesses or course requirements.All eighty lessons have a clear learning outcome, taken from the Common European Framework, which is presented at the bottom of the page in a, Now I can…, box. This is a welcome feature showing learners the real-world relevance of each lesson point and allowing them to continually monitor their progress.The Student’s Book also contains a review section and wordlist at the back for every 2 cycles (every 8 lessons). Wordlists incorporate all the essential vocabulary encountered in that section with phonemic transcriptions. A phonemic chart and irregular verb list is also included. The audio scripts are at the back of the Student’s Book facilitating learner revision and the use of scripts in post-listening tasks without the need for further photocopying.

The Teacher’s Book Invaluable teacher support in lesson preparation, a detailed lesson plan is provided opposite each lesson on the facing page in the Teacher’s Book. These notes incorporate further warm-up and follow-up ideas to extend lessons. Areas of potential problems for learners are properly highlighted, which should encourage teachers to incorporate strategies to address these difficulties into their teaching styles. The introduction to the


Teacher’s Book contains an extensive range of support for less experienced teachers, with detailed notes on the course syllabus and numerous additional ideas for classroom activities, including methodology for the various lesson types, vocabulary games and activities, and guidelines for the preparation and use of flashcards. There is also one page of additional photocopiable communicative activities for each lesson, with accompanying teacher’s notes outlining how they are to be used in class.

Additional ResourcesEach lesson in the Student’s Book corresponds to a page of practice material in the Workbook. There is a short review exercise every four lessons to assess progress. The interactive MultiROM contains extra practice exercises for students to review each unit, plus some additional pronunciation practice. Also, the ‘can-do’ statements from the Student’s Book are listed and there is a learning record where learners can document their progress.

A CD of tests contains 20 progress tests, a mid-course test and an end-of-course test. While the inclusion of tests among supplementary materials is not uncommon for current publications, these tests are particularly useful as they are in both pdf and Word document format so they may be edited and customised to suit the particular class or situation in question. Hence, there is no need for teachers to develop their own tests from scratch when those provided are unsuitable.

English for Life has a website for teachers, where all the usual expected resources can be found. Included are wordlists, tests, assessment records for students and links to OUP online resources. A website for students has resources such as revision tests, additional activities based on the That’s Life story and interactive language games.

Overall, English for Life, Pre-intermediate is an extensive resource which would be well suited as the core textbook for a general English programme. However, the important issue is what, if anything, sets it apart from currently popular publications. The That’s Life story, English for Everyday Life lessons, English in the world and Your Life boxes are welcome innovative features. While the one-lesson per page format, each with a separate outcome, makes it easy to plan and document course progress, particularly for experienced teachers, those less knowledgeable or ill-prepared may move through single-page lessons hastily without the awareness or capability of utilising opportunities to extend and incorporate supplementary activities. In such cases, it is necessary that the Teacher’s Book and Workbook are always at hand. If not used as a core classroom text, the English for Life, Pre-intermediate package would certainly prove an invaluable addition to the supplementary resouce shelf of any teachers’ room.

Ian Synnott has taught various general English and exam preparation training courses in Australia, Japan and Ireland. He currently teaches IELTS and TESOL at Greenwich College, Sydney.


From Corpus to Classroom language use and language teaching

A n n e o ’ K e e F F e , m i c h A e l m c c A r t h y & r o n A l d c A r t e r


r e v i e w e d b y P A m e l A b At h

Even the most avid stamp and train timetable collectors find that their collection needs planning, organization and purpose. The same applies but more so to a collection of words, especially when the goal is teaching words as purposeful language. From Corpus to Classroom does just that - it shows how a collection of words - language corpora ie - can be used in language teaching.

The trend in relatively recent years to focus on the teacher/reader of literature as their own researcher coupled with a focus on how language is actually used in context means that corpora have flourished because they provide a relatively easy way to examine and pick apart various aspects of language use.

The corpus too is another way of objectifying the study of language; making it more data driven, objective rather than impressionistic and anecdotal. Its ascendance as a research tool has been aligned to faster and ‘bigger’ computers with grammar/word crunching programs which allow the storage and extraction of selected aspects of a multitude of text/s more quickly and probably more accurately than has previously been possible.

The findings of corpus-based research in the ESL context may be used to confirm or disprove various theories which in turn can have implications for language teaching and learning as well as for teaching resource and course design. With the current emphasis on authentic language in context, they can also provide a way of examining how language is actually used. This might seem obvious but we have already learnt from transcriptions of spoken language that our assumptions about authentic language use are often wrong.

Therefore, the corpus can position the teacher/researcher as big game hunter sleuthing through text looking for language footprints to provide evidence for the actual existence of what they have theorized or as metaphorical microbiologists closely examining the subject and then reporting what they have seen. In the days of global English, they could also provide snapshots which can function as time machines to examine possible language change.


What a corpus can really prove or disprove will only be as good as the initial design of the research tool itself and the methods used to gather data, so McCarthy and Carter devote the first chapter to background theory and the use and design of corpora, including the question of whether bigger is necessarily better.

As one would expect, they go on to examine the practical applications of corpora in the study of language in relation to, for instance, vocabulary, lexis patterns and grammar but as an intriguing and unexpected bonus, they also include the use of corpora in studying the creative aspects of language, idioms in everyday life and the patterns of academic and business language. (Drill down doesn’t get a mention but there is a section on the concordance of moving forward).

They conclude with a chapter entitled Exploring the teacher corpora which gives further examples and advice on the use of corpora in the language classroom and for professional development. ‘A teacher-made corpus provides a mirror for our own practice which we can hold up to ourselves and learn from what we see;. (p.244). They also predicts that in the near future there will be digital audio-visual corpora so that body language can be examined and codified in conjunction with spoken text.

As the title suggests, the book’s purpose is to underline how and why corpus-based research can enhance our understanding of language learning, and help us reflect on our practice as teachers, so we can make classroom teaching decisions which are informed by proven patterns of language use rather than assumptions and guesswork.

Its numerous examples in various language contexts are engaging enough for the ESL teacher-reader to be tempted to try and design their own corpus, not exactly for fun, but for the sheer interest value of forming a basis for some of their own teaching practices, particular student profile/s and professional development.

The writers have clearly realised that for most people, sitting down to read a whole book on corpora may seem overwhelming, if not dull, so the book’s eleven chapters are each further subdivided into mini topics. This sensible approach makes it very easy for readers to select a subtopic of interest without feeling committed to a full reading, while increasing the chance that they will be tempted to go on to select just one more topic and then another and another in surprise at how interesting and accessible the writers have made the subject.

The book’s coda outlines areas which could be further exploited in order to improve teaching practice, including specifically targeted corpora from various languages in order to provide comparisons of the pragmatics of, for instance, polite requests or asking for information. Increased understanding of how genres and speech acts work in real practice has the potential to improve our classroom teaching.


The appendix gives a list of corpora available on the web.

In conclusion, the writers have been able to present a complex subject containing a wealth of interesting ideas and potential applications in relatively plain, easy-to-understand terms so you don’t have to be a train spotter to read it. In the section on how to make a basic corpus they have succeeded in persuading this reader that corpora are easier to devise and put together than a set of shelves from Ikea.

This text should be recommended reading for anyone researching or teaching in the TESOL area, as corpora-based research has the potential to change our pedagogical theories and practice while the study of corpora design is bound to become a topic of academic interest in itself.

Pamela Bath is the Curriculum Coordinator at University of Western Sydney College


literature Second edition

A l A n d u F F & A l A n m A l e y


r e v i e w e d b y r o x A n A e n e

Publishing a book on literature as a source of teaching is a very courageous thing in this period of time dominated by practicality. Yet the power of literature should not be forgotten. The emotions it gives birth to should make it easy for students to remember the language.

Literature is well organized and it offers the users the chance to understand the culture and the language of Britain (registers, styles, text types) through its literature.

The book is in its second edition and it has been modified to a great extent. It consists of seven sections, each of them divided into sub–units which focus on different skills: speaking, writing, reading and listening; all of them starting from literary extracts in order to introduce the target language, the topic, the grammar point or the communication purpose.

The authors mention that using literature as a source of teaching is not a simple process, but by matching the level with the difficulty of the literary passages or by matching them with the students’ interests, good results can be obtained. Now looking at the other side of the barricade, ie the teachers, it is clear that another element should be added and this is the knowledge, skills and abilities teachers should possess in order to organize and develop these lessons. ‘It is an art that teachers only acquire over time’ as the authors say.

The seven sections of the book are fairly balanced, as the number of sub-units in each unit is generally the same. Each part presents a range of activities for different levels starting with beginners and ending with higher levels (intermediate and above); each activity being created so that it can be modified and matched with the desired level. This is the best part of the book, its flexibility. But everything depends on the teachers’ skills and abilities.

Another feature of the book is its variety. The activities cover topics or tasks symbolically represented by verbs like: discuss, suggest, report, compare, find, read, reconstruct, select, etc. All these activities are accompanied by examples and more importantly by sample worksheets, thus providing a guiding line.


The book concludes with a bibliography related to the purpose of the book, a list of books and authors provided for the teachers to improve their skills and broaden their horizons in this field. In addition, at the end of the book, more information is offered regarding the literary extracts of different poets or prose writers. These passages could easily be used with the activities previously described in the pages of the book. And last, but not least, two pieces of information are added at the end of the book reminding us that we live in the age of Information Technology. One is a list of websites that offer even more details about the above mentioned types of activities, and the other is an index which will definitely help teachers find activities to match the aims of the lessons more easily and quickly.

Overall, though Literature–is a useful book that offers valuable information to General English teachers, it cannot be used for all English language learners. The book is appropriate for intermediate or higher level learners who will still find these activities challenging. Literary sensibility is not something all learners can or even want to achieve in their first language and for international students where English is their second even third language, it can be even more difficult.

Roxana Ene teaches IELTS at Greenwich College, Sydney


Thesis and Dissertation Writing in a Second language

b r i A n P A lt r i d G e & s u e s tA r F i e l d

Routledge 2007

r e v i e w e d b y A n d r e w F o l e y

The title of Thesis and Dissertation Writing in a Second Language succinctly captures the goal of this book: to provide academic supervisors with a guide to better direct non-native speaker students towards successful completion of postgraduate written work.

The increasing number of international students studying higher degrees in English-speaking countries as a result of the internationalisation of education has provided the impetus for this publication. It would seem that this book aims to redress the disquiet that many academics feel about the difficulties that international students encounter in the English speaking higher education context and the effect that this has on the perceived quality of the work that they produce. Although the authors are Australian academics, the examples in the book are drawn from a variety of contexts.

The book is just under 200 pages in length and is divided into 12 chapters. The initial chapters consider various aspects of the difficulties experienced by international students and their supervisors during the process of undertaking and writing up postgraduate research, while subsequent chapters are devoted to the different sections of a dissertation or thesis. For example, there are chapters named Writing the Introduction and Writing the Methodology. The book concludes by providing a chapter listing resources for thesis and dissertation writing, and providing a sample research proposal. There is also a lengthy reference section.

The book is aimed quite specifically at supervisors, and would be less useful for English language teachers, and quite difficult to access for international students themselves. It is written in the same register as an academic text, and utilises a number of tables and charts. It draws considerably on previous research and also provides a large number of direct quotes from students. Being involved in direct entry EAP programs, I was searching for insights that would be useful for pre-University international students, but the resource’s specific consideration of writing a thesis or dissertation makes it too complex and abstract for their needs. What did strike me while reading this book, however, is that many native speaker students undertaking post-graduate study would benefit from its systematic consideration of writing a dissertation or thesis, although there is a wider range of published resources available for them.


I found the second chapter, entitled Working with second language speakers of English particularly interesting in its consideration of the cross-cultural issues that both students and their supervisors face. It was especially refreshing to see Paltridge and Starfield suggest that supervisors should reflect on their approach to guiding international students. They point out that the gap in learning styles and expectations needs to be bridged from both directions and that it is the responsibility of supervisors to make themselves aware of alternative academic cultural conventions. The authors advocate a more hands-on approach by supervisors to their international students,

“Examine your implicit assumptions about second-language students; try to make them explicit and then question their validity.” (p36)

The third chapter Thesis writing in English as a second language takes a general look at the writing process itself, and provides considerable insight into the difficulties encountered by students unfamiliar with the academic conventions of writing in English. The authors examine the nature of writing as a process that requires drafting and redrafting, and, among other key elements, the importance of writers being able to write for their intended audience.

Each chapter contains an Application section that suggests strategies and tasks for supervisors to implement with their students. These sections are quite small compared to the total content of the book, and while they provide practical ways for supervisors to work with their students, a minor criticism would be that these sections are quite directive rather than deductive. They are couched in terms such as ‘Ask your students to explain why…..’, ‘Show your students some examples of…’ One senses that in situations when the students feel unable to fully communicate with their supervisor, these directives may not freely elicit responses and meaningful communication.

That being said, this book is comprehensive and very well-researched, and contains a large number of examples, including quotes from international students themselves, which contextualise the theoretical discussions. Thesis and Dissertation Writing in a Second Language is sure to be welcomed by many academics as a way to better understand and assist their international students to successfully complete their postgraduate written work.

Andrew Foley is the Centre Manager of the South Australian College of English


Stay Safe readers

National Centre for English Language Teaching and Research

on behalf of the Department of Immigration and

Citizenship Commonwealth of Australia 2006


One of our students dragged me into the bathroom. She had no English and didn’t know who I was but she had discovered something amazing and desperately wanted to show someone. With excited gesturing she indicated that she had discovered the hand dryer. She had worked out that it was for drying hands, but she couldn’t find a button to switch it off. She was clearly happily astonished by this machine to dry hands and it certainly put the problems of my day into perspective.

Our lives are full of luxuries such as hair dryers and electric heaters that we take very much for granted. However, many people settling in Australia from non–westernized cultures and countries are completely unfamiliar with these appliances, and more worryingly, unaware of what can happen if they are not used correctly.

Stay Safe Readers were produced in recognition of the need to acquaint people with the domestic equipment they will use in their life in Australia and to ensure that they can maintain safety in the home.

These readers will typically benefit people from a non–westernized, rural background who probably have little or no formal education. Therefore, the readers are designed to be educative for a social purpose while following the principles of beginner reading for adults.

The writers have created patterns in photo layout and text in order to reduce ambiguity and create a scaffold of predictability in conjunction with the safety messages.

The text is limited to one sentence per page and follows the predictable pattern of a negative instruction on the left page with an accompanying red cross on the picture e.g. ‘Don’t put the heater near water’ and a positive one on the right; ‘Keep the heater out of the bathroom’, accompanied by a green tick on the right hand side of the picture. The type face is the same script that they will be initially using to read and write, and there is a photo on each page which shows migrants from Africa in situations which clearly illustrate the cautions and instructions of the text.

The use of photographic models who are representative of the target readers is an admirable example of good practice. Each page is clearly numbered and one page in


each book is left blank to separate the two different rooms of the house. Sometimes objects in the picture are also circled to target the reader’s attention. At the end of each book there is a page of smaller photos with captions for the objects mentioned in the book.

I was fortunate enough to hear some of the NCELTR production team talking about the creation of these booklets at the AMEP 2005 National Conference and the numerous discussions and trials involved in order to produce them. After having gone through all these processes, they have presented us with a final product which could serve as a model for any teacher/resource developer wanting to try creating their own class readers on a settlement topic.

These readers give a socially meaningful message clearly targeted to a particular profile of AMEP learners. Most importantly the safety message is delivered in a way which engages the target group without appearing patronizing. In addition, they could be used to draw out lots of language teaching points and discussions with beginner adult readers. There is a dearth of suitable readers for adult beginners in the AMEP so it is hoped that NCELTR can produce more.


Forbidden Words: Taboo and the censoring of language

K e i t h A l l A n & K At e b u r r i d G e


r e v i e w e d b y m A u r e e n r o c h A

Forbidden Words: Taboos and the Censoring of Language is a theoretical book that gives the reader an understanding of the origins and the different facets of the meanings of taboo and censorship. The book covers many more subjects than the well-known taboos of religion, politics and sex.

The design of the book is clear and each chapter and its sections are easy to follow. Each chapter is roughly about 25 pages long and within these chapters are smaller sections. The layout is appealing. The book consists of ten chapters covering a range of themes. It outlines forbidden language, not just spoken, but written and visual. It discusses the reasoning behind the censoring of language from the point of view of such topics as politeness, culinary camouflage and verbal hygiene to name just a few.

Each chapter begins with a short introduction outlining the topics covered in it. The introductions, although brief, give just enough information to the reader about the unit to get an overview of both the content and the authors’ opinions. The chapters are then divided into smaller sections of more detailed issues and topics. There is a logical progression of themes and ideas through the chapters and often the ideas between the various units are linked. The book provides a fantastic insight into the broad subject of censorship often delving into themes not generally associated with it such as culinary euphemisms. The book is well researched and has an extensive and detailed ‘Notes’ section for further information as well as a reference list and index.

On the whole, the book is a useful supplementary resource to any course book for high level English learners. It can be used to promote discussion in the classroom and is sure to get people talking. It is practical because each section can be used individually. Even though there aren’t any questions to accompany the book, a quick read will definitely get the mind ticking.

The book would be functional in the IELTS classroom or advanced general English as supplementary material. Parts of chapters or even parts of the units within these chapters could be used as a reading or an activity to broaden the students’ general knowledge and vocabulary. Forbidden Words: Taboos and the Censoring of Language


would be a relevant resource to experienced teachers who are able to create lessons from any text.

Anyone who picks up this book and is interested in language will enjoy what they read. The comparisons made cross-culturally are both interesting and enlightening showing different taboos and their meanings. The book serves as a ‘pick-up-and-read’ kind of book, where you are able to flick to the particular theme you are interested in and have a good understanding of it by the end.

Maureen Rocha teaches General English and IELTS at Greenwich College in Sydney.


Teaching and researching autonomy in language teaching

P h i l b e n s o n

Pearson Education Limited Applied Linguistics in Action Series 2001


As with the other three books in this series, Teaching and researching autonomy in language teaching is divided into four major sections which can be summarized as topic definition and state of research, research applications, researching the field and further resources. Benson outlines the structure of the resource as moving ‘from practice to theory and research and back to practice, in a cycle of development of understanding of the field.’ (p.x)

The first chapter: ‘What is Autonomy’ gives some definitions of autonomy including what it is not, and a layout of autonomous learning from a current research perspective, including the history of research and applications of autonomous learning. Most importantly, it also notes what the research does and doesn’t tell us. Benson uses the research as a metaphorical landscape for examining the topography of the topic, including aspects that are so far uncharted. Autonomy, it seems, is quite difficult to define and often confused with its second cousin self-directed learning. The focus on autonomy in language learning has arisen in conjunction with other shifts in language learning theory especially the shift towards a more communicative approach. Benson is clearly an authority on the subject and has been able to link autonomous learning with a wide range of changes in political, economic and social theories and practices over the last 30 years, but he is also at pains to point out that theories of autonomous learning are not at all new, by including in the next section such quotes as the following by Lu Tung Lai (1137-81) from the Sung Dynasty, (p.56). ‘The youth who is bright and memorises a large amount of information is not to be admired; but he who thinks carefully and searches for truth diligently is to be admired.’ This quote is also used to dispute the assumption that learners from certain ethnic groups may find autonomy to be anathema to their traditional expectations of education.

Benson admits that autonomous learning in the language classroom requires effort on the part of teachers to create an atmosphere that is responsive, supportive and student-driven, where students are encouraged to understand the concept and its potential benefits. It is also an atmosphere where learners and teachers are encouraged to reflect on their own learning. Some of the activities aligned with autonomous learning in


the language classroom, needless to say, are better suited to advanced learners for instance, keeping a journal to record and reflect on language learning.

The next chapter examines the existing research in more detail and focuses on a summary of applications, empirical evidence or the lack thereof, and any perceived weaknesses in the theory by examining ‘what needs to be explored and explained’ (p.ix). He provides numerous references to other researchers and their findings which are examined impartially. Also, there are highlighted and boxed quotes from a wide range of scholars and theorists in the field of education, language learning, and psychology and social theory. Furthermore, he is able to demonstrate how the findings of one do or do not relate to another or to findings in other subject disciplines. He deals with a wide range of factors which may impact on learning autonomy as well as discussing its uses outside language learning education.

The second section of the book focuses on autonomy in practice and begins with a section on fostering autonomy, as ‘autonomy is treated as a capacity belonging to the learner…rather than the learning situation’ (p.110). It is an attribute which can be developed and Benson provides an outline of different approaches towards autonomy and then goes on to examine each of them in more detail, including how they have impacted classroom, and their efficacy in improving learning. He also examines the model of levels of autonomy provided by Nunan where learning-to-learn tasks are integrated with content tasks.

As language teachers, we would be familiar with the approaches towards autonomy that are outlined. Many of us would have seen the emergence of individualization in language learning through resource and program provisions such as Individual Learning Centres, students being given a choice of the topics they want to study, the integration of student feedback and the inclusion of learning strategies in curricula. All of this has been in conjunction with the use of Computer Assisted Learning which seemed to hold the potential for students to control much of the pace and content of their learning. Nevertheless, Benson’s overview of approaches to the development of autonomy provides historical background, and is a useful checklist for examination of our own organizational and teaching practices. Furthermore, the book raises some thought–provoking questions about how, and if, some of these approaches work in practice and how students may view them. Benson also points out that although there is research evidence relating to the validity of the concept of autonomy, evidence on the effectiveness of different methods and approaches towards fostering autonomy is much weaker, and it is often somewhat difficult to link these methods and approaches with measurable language gains.

Section III is called Researching Autonomy, and outlines methods and key areas of


research and several case studies including a study that confirms the ‘assumption that student attitudes towards learning are culturally specific and are likely to influence responses to practices designed to foster autonomy.’ (p.198). This is of relevance, as I’m sure that, as language teachers, we have sometimes felt that our approach towards learning which seems so natural in our context, is antithetical to the expectations of some of our students. The section finishes with suggestions for further research. It is interesting to see both how the concepts presented earlier in the book have been translated into various studies in practice and what the results of the studies have been.

Section IV of the book outlines more resources available including email listings, books, journals and newsletters devoted to the topic and websites and self access centres which show lists of their resources online. The author’s website http://ec.hku.hk/autonomy contains an extensive bibliography. However, when I tried to log on to this site, there is a message saying that it is no longer maintained, and another website provided, at the time of writing, did not open. I was also disappointed that the website given in the preface to accompany the book www.booksites.net/benson did not open either.

Initially, when reading the book, I found the lack of immediate and clear summaries of autonomy to be a little frustrating. Autonomy is difficult to describe and define and one analogy quoted in the book seemed very apt – looking for autonomy might be like a blind person understanding soap bubbles – difficult to capture and easily destroyed in the examination process itself. However, after finishing the book I realized that the layout and presentation of ideas was encouraging me to re-question and re-define my own assumptions about autonomous learning. Benson is determined not to present an easy answer but to make the reader analyse, judge, reflect and conclude for themselves while providing them with a wealth of information and ideas on the topic.

These days we can easily become complacent about encouraging language learner independence and skill transference as so many of the approaches have become built in to organisations and programs but this book encourages us to explore and reassess our ideas about autonomy and not just assume that, because particular approaches and methods are in place, autonomy will necessarily follow. Just because someone is sitting in an Individual Learning Centre doesn’t mean they are an autonomous learner and just because they are checking a self-assessment checklist does not mean they are fully engaged and in control of the learning process. An interesting book for all language teachers and program and resource developers and being from New Zealand I loved the photo of the sheep on the cover.


The Snow Goose and other Stories

P A u l G A l l i c o

Penguin Education Limited 2007


This book is part of a series of abridged classics produced by Pearson Longman. It states on the back cover that it is a Level 3 Pre-Intermediate Reader at 1200 headwords. It comes with two CD Roms which contain additional activities and a complete audio recording. In this volume, there are three stories by Paul Gallico: The Snow Goose, The Doll and The Silver Swans.

Having enjoyed The Snow Goose as a child and knowing that these days so much of the material provided to students is focused on practical outcomes and doesn’t engage with imaginitive and spiritual content, I was fully prepared to find this a great adjunct to improving ESL reading while pondering the great themes of love, sacrifice, hope and courage. However, the golden rules of familiarity and relevance in teaching resources are highlighted by their absence from this reader.

In looking for materials to abridge in order to create ESL readers it must be tempting to choose something that is already short; a novel or a short story. However, abridging a writer like Paul Gallico whose stories work largely on nuance and sensitivity presents some challenges and I found that the emotional resonance of the original stories is non existent in these abridged versions which turns them into a simplistic series of events. Novel becomes recount. For example, after reading what is still many pages of fraught to-ings and fro-ings of the snow goose and its human companions, the final paragraph of the story is reduced to : “…Where was the lighthouse? Where was the enclosure? The sea covered the place where the lighthouse stood the day before.” –CL-LUNK!

Unsurprisingly in the work of a classic English writer, the stories are full of references to things English. For instance, The Snow Goose begins with ‘The Great Marsh lies on the Essex coast, between the villages of Chelmbury and Wickaeldroth’ and the story is partly about the battle of Dunkirk. There is an attempt to highlight words which may prove difficult by the provision of a little glossary on the page, but this glossary does not cover all cultural knowledge required to fully understand the story. On page 30 for instance, the words doll and niece are explained when it is very likely that Pre-Intermediate students would already know these words or at least be able to find them in a dictionary but the cultural reference embedded in ‘I went to buy The


Times as usual’ is left unexplained. Similarly, the word ‘bomb’ is annotated but the word ‘Dunkirk’ is left without any reference.

I found the language activities to be quite pedestrian and the illustrations to be children’s picture book in style.

The English is quite old fashioned at times and although we would know that certain structures and expressions are no longer in every day use, students wouldn’t. Would we want students to learn useful expressions like, “Have you some cotton to mend my trousers”? (p58)

In several instances, the emotionally charged nature of the abridged text coupled with the all–things–English context of the stories produces writing which, sad to say, I found quite comical. I can’t resist sharing this from the Silver Swans: “Thetis said: ‘It doesn’t matter. I never wanted to be an actress. I only do it for the money. I can buy octopuses, and live on the Nerine. Do you know what a good octopus costs? Lord Struve held both her arms.’ Thetis can you be serious for a minute?...”

Blimey! There is nothing wrong with students reading fiction, especially literature but I can’t see this reader being useful in an Australian language learning context unless students are particularly desperate for something to read. Perhaps I’m wrong, as it’s been a long time since I read the original Snow Goose but I also can’t help feeling that these versions don’t do the original much justice. Students might enjoy the audio as the text deficiencies are less obvious when listening.


World Englishes: Implications for international communication and English language teaching

A n d y K i r K PAt r i c K


r e v i e w e d b y P A u l i n e b Ay l i s

Andy Kirkpatrick as a former EA Journal editor is both well known to this journal’s readership and knows this journal well. I am sure he would agree that this journal is a very appropriate location for a review of his recent publication, World Englishes: Implications for international communication and English language teaching which is written for TESOL teacher trainers and ELT professionals, and as such is a very valuable resource for TESOL curriculum developers and practicing teachers of international students learning English to communicate in a global context.

As the title suggests, this volume is concerned with the link between English language teaching and international communication, especially in an era where English has become the global lingua franca, and is used more often between non-native speakers than between native speakers. Kirkpatrick’s position, along with other important researchers in this and related fields, such as Jenkins, Kachru and Seidlhofer is that successful international communication through the medium of English today requires a sophisticated and deep knowledge of both the concept of World Englishes and of a wide range of varieties of English. He argues that the teaching of native speaker models of English only is not enough to prepare learners for the cross-cultural communication required in the era of globalisation. World Englishes, or varieties of English, with their specific socio-cultural and linguistic features need to be part of the English language curriculum in order for students to be really equipped to participate in international communication. It is important to add that World Englishes are not static varieties of English which have emerged as a result of the British Empire but ever-changing varieties of English in the emerging economies of the world including Kachru’s so-called expanding circle of countries which have had no former association with Britain.

There are three main sections in this work. Part A (Chapters 1-3), The Framework, introduces and problematises key concepts in the field of World Englishes such as native and nativised varieties, lingua francas, native and non-native speakers, Creoles and Pidgins while proposing a framework within which to think about World Englishes and international communication. Part B (Chapters 4-11), Variation and


Varieties, presents a number of varieties of English, with written and spoken examples, accompanied by a CD and transcripts. These include Australian, British, American, Indian, Nigerian and South African Englishes, as well as the Englishes of South East Asian countries, Hong Kong and China. There is considerable scholarly detail about the socio-cultural and linguistic features of each variety, such as pronunciation, vocabulary, syntax and pragmatic conventions. Part C (Chapters 12 and 13) Implications, considers the controversies and debates associated with the emergence of new varieties of English and their existence alongside other more established varieties. In particular, Kirkpatrick considers an issue which is of considerable significance in the field of ELT in English-speaking countries-the relative roles of native and non-native speaker teachers, and he recognises the importance of multilingual and multicultural ELTs to the profession.

The key concepts outlined in Part A are essential to an understanding of the work. Native varieties of English are defined as ‘traditional’ varieties of English and include varieties such as British, American and Australian English while nativised varieties are varieties which have developed in places where English was not originally spoken and which are influenced by local languages and cultures, such as India, Malaysia, or parts of Africa. Lingua francas are common languages used by people of different language backgrounds to communicate with each other. Kirkpatrick explores the difficulty in defining concepts such as native and non-native speaker, especially in multilingual societies, which he recognises are more common in the world than monolingual societies. He prefers the terms first language or L1 and writes of the phenomena of people with shifting L1’s, i.e. people who are best at different languages in different periods of their lives. He argues that the belief in the superiority of the native speaker held by many is unsupported by evidence, having emerged in monolingual societies where the community as a whole all spoke the same language, which was therefore seen as the norm. He contends that current terminology to describe the phenomena he is concerned with is inadequate, and that linguistic prejudice plays a major role in many of the current views around these terms, a view he illustrates with reference to studies by Giles and Powesland in 1975 on prejudicial attitudes to accents in England.

A recurrent point introduced in Part A and recurring throughout the book is that people are normally able to speak more than one variety of a language and will choose the variety they speak depending on the context in which they find themselves and the functions they want the variety to perform. He holds that language has three functions- communication, identity and, closely related to identity, culture. Kirkpatrick illustrates how these functions determine choice of variety with the example of an Australian businessman in Singapore who is careful to edit out specific Australianisms and modify his accent when speaking to Singaporean business colleagues but who will


use far more Australian-specific vocabulary and cultural references, and speak with a more distinct Australian accent when speaking to his son in Australia on the mobile from Singapore.

It is not a great leap to see that this might be significant knowledge for those learning English to use as a lingua franca. They need to know which features of the variety that they are learning match with the functions of communication, identity and culture. It is also important that ELT practitioners are able to distinguish the particular characteristics relating to culture and identity of their own ‘native’ variety of English when teaching their students. It is easy to deduce that the more varieties of English teachers know the better they will be able to make this distinction.

Part B of this book is an excellent resource for innovative curriculum designers and classroom teachers who want to promote this important dimension of English language learning in the current era, and to show learners that varieties are more complex and more interesting than just accent. The rich linguistic and cultural detail which accompanies the written and spoken examples chapter by chapter, offers the opportunity for comparative study of not only pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar and syntax across varieties but also of the more subtle, sociolinguistic and pragmatic features which lie at the heart of culture and identity, and which can promote deeper intercultural understanding. Upper intermediate and advanced classes are likely to learn more about one variety through the comparative study of others. The written texts, CD and transcripts lend themselves very well to the development of a huge range of learning activities.

It is important that the ELT profession recognises that the world is moving away from the ‘native speaker as best model’ view of English. The implications of the emergence of World Englishes and English as a lingua franca for teaching and curriculum design, and the profession in general are addressed in many of the university-based TESOL courses but may not be finding their way into the shorter, more skills-focussed training programs undertaken by many teachers in the ELT profession.

Parts A and C of this resource will challenge practising teachers to come to grips with some of the emerging issues in this important field, and to see their potential impact on careers in ELT in Australia and other English speaking countries, while Part B with its CD and transcripts and its wonderful detailed analysis of varieties of English is both a curriculum and teaching resource which will enable teachers to increase their own and their students’ knowledge of World Englishes to address the issues.

This is a resource which because of its lively approach to the issues and the richness of its linguistic content should be on the shelves for all ELT professionals, especially those working with international students whose goal is to learn English as a lingua franca.

Pauline Baylis is the Bookshelf Editor of the EA Journal


listen and Do

h A n A s v e c o vA


r e v i e w e d b y m A b e l l e e

Listen and Do is a new resource book in the series Oxford Basics for Children. The book includes a collection of 30 activities for teachers of English to children aged from four to twelve years of age. The aim of each activity is to help young learners to understand language through listening to instructions and performing them with their bodies. These activities are organised into thirty topics that might be of interest to child learners. The themes include Colours, Shapes, Transport, Numbers, Animals, Alphabet, Food, Body Parts, Clothes, Furniture, Housework, Giving directions, Jobs. There is the vocabulary of grammar -Verbs, Adjectives, and Prepositions. Each activity is explained with step-by-step instructions with text and diagrams in two pages, using simple format outlining the target language and age group, the time, resources and preparation needed.

The focus of the book is on improving children’s listening and comprehension skills, taking into account that most young learners learn kinesthetically, using a technique called TPR (Total Physical Response). This technique encourages students to respond to the teacher’s commands using their bodies. Hence, the students learn to understand the language before they learn to speak. The activities could be used with either small group or large classes of learners, in classrooms or in outdoor environments. The length of each game ranges from 5 to 45 minutes. The activities motivate children to learn because of their fun-filled, playful and non-threatening nature. They also help students to be creative and imaginative, and think in the target language.

There is a content page at the front of the book which can be used to find the activities that relate to a topic, however the activities are only referred to by their titles making it difficult to skim read for ideas when planning lessons. A table of contents relating to the target language and skills would have been helpful for teachers.

A detailed introduction is included to outline the target audience, the structure and the required props. There are also instructions on how to use the activities for large and small classes, indoor and outdoor situations as well as some helpful hints for how to adapt and use the activities to encourage young children to learn in a positive way.

The author explained in the introduction that the activities are suitable for children, from very young to primary school-aged, both in ESL and EFL contexts. Although


the activities can be varied according to the age, level, and interests of the learners, it would be helpful to indicate the level each activity is suitable for. There are suggestions in some of the activities for how to vary the rules of the games. All the activities can also be played as a game with a winner and a loser. However, some very young children may not like the idea of being a ‘loser’ in a game. Older children may become too competitive if they are involved in the competitive games all the time. Therefore, a balance between team-building games and competitive games should be apparent in children’s classrooms.

Each activity is explained thoroughly in an easy-to-read format with a clear title and step-by-step instructions. In each unit, there are one to three activities that the teacher can select that may be suitable for the age and level of the students. A suggested variation is often included in each unit so the teacher can make the activity easier or more challenging for their students. The illustrations help to make the book user-friendly and easy-to-understand. The teachers can easily copy the diagrams to use in their activities. This will help to save time for the busy teacher who needs an interesting TPR activity that is appropriate and effective for children to learn English.

There can be an issue with the difficult meta-language used with young EFL learners. For example, the second activity in the book is for children aged four and above. It requires students to understand the rhyme and act it out with actions. The teacher should read, “Oscar goes by train when it doesn’t rain. Oscar goes by plane, when he flies to Spain.” It may pose a challenge for 4 year-old learners who are learning English for the first time. Another example is that the teacher is asked to describe a scene, “Next we are going along the path. The path is very narrow. We have to walk in a line.” This may also be difficult for 6 year-old ESL/ EFL learners.

The activities are perfect for students who are active but who maybe uncomfortable about speaking English. Through the activities, the teachers can encourage the students to listen and perform the instructions with their body. This would assist the students in developing their listening and kinesthetic skills as well as their range of vocabulary through learning different topics. While the use of fairly complex meta-language may not be a problem when the activities are implemented with students in an English-speaking environment, such as an international primary school or primary school ESL class, teachers working with EFL students may have to adapt the language for the children to understand.

Mabel Lee is a teacher trainer with Greenwich College in Sydney.


Teach English in Australia

English Australia is the professional association of quality institutions delivering English Language Intensive Courses to

Overseas Students (ELICOS) in Australia.

English Australia member colleges are seeking suitably qualified and experienced teaching staff for a range of programs including General English, EAP and exam

preparation courses (IELTS, Cambridge etc).

Positions are available around Australia.

For more information go to www.englishaustralia.com.au


Publications received for review

For a current list, please go to the EA Journal page at www.englishaustralia.com.au

Advanced Reading PowerBeatrice Mikulecky & Linda JeffriesPearson Longman 2007Build Up To Countdown (Grammar Book with Key) Megan Roderick OUP 2007 Build Up To Countdown (Student’s Book, Teacher’s Book,Workbook, Audio CD) Jenny Quintana OUP 2007Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (3rd Ed.)CUP 2008Cambridge English Readers – Love in the Lakes (Intermediate)Penny HancockCUP 2008Cambridge English Readers – Nelson’s Dream (Advanced)J.M. NewsomeCUP 2008Cambridge English Readers – One Day (Elementary/Lower-intermediate)Helen NaylorCUP 2008Cambridge English Readers – The Girl at the Window (Starter/Beginner)Antoinette MosesCUP 2007Cambridge English Readers – Wild Country (Lower-intermediate)Margaret JohnsonCUP 2008Cambridge English Skills – Real Listening & Speaking 3 with answers and audio CDsMiles CravenCUP 2008


Cambridge English Skills – Real Listening & Speaking 4 with answers and audio CDsMiles CravenCUP 2008Cambridge English Skills – Real Reading 1 with answersLiz DriscollCUP 2008Cambridge English Skills – Real Writing 2 with answers and Audio CDGraham PalmerCUP 2008Cambridge Grammar for First Certificate with answers (2nd Edition)Louise Hashemi & Barbara ThomasCUP 2008Cambridge Professional English: Infotech – English for computer users Student’s Book (4th Edition)Santiago Remacha EsterasCUP 2008Cambridge Vocabulary for First Certificate with answersBarbara Thomas & Laura MatthewsCUP 2007Cambridge Vocabulary for IELTS with answersPauline CullenCUP 2008Challenges Level 3 Students’ Book Michael Harris, David Mower and Anna Sikorzyńska Pearson Longman 2007 English for the Automobile Industry Marie Kavanagh OUP 2007 English for Human Resources Pat Pledger OUP 2007 English for Life (Elementary) Tom Hutchinson OUP 2007


English for Marketing & AdvertisingSylee Gore OUP 2007 English for Specific Purposes Keith Harding OUP 2007 English for Telephoning – Express series David Gordon Smith OUP 2007 Focus on Grammar (3rd Edition) Marjorie Fuchs, Margaret Bonner & Miriam Westheimer Pearson Longman 2006 Good Practice (Student’s Book) Communication skills in English for the Medical PractitionerMarie McCullagh & Ros WrightCUP 2008Imagine That! Mental imagery in the EFL classroomJane Arnold, Herbert Puchta & Mario RinvolucriCUP 2008Language and the Internet (2nd Edition) David Crystal CUP 2006 Language Leader Coursebook and CD-Rom IntermediateDavid Cotton, David Falvey & Simon KentPearson Longman 2008Language Leader Coursebook and CD-Rom Pre-IntermediateIan Lebeau & Gareth ReesPearson Longman 2008Longman WordWise Dictionary Michael Mayor (Ed.)Pearson Longman 2008More! (1) Student’s Book with CD-ROMHerbert Puchta & Jeff StranksCUP 2008


Multiple Intelligences in EFL; Exercises for secondary and adult studentsHerbert Puchta & Mario RinvolucriCUP 2005New Cutting Edge Intermediate (Students Book, CD Rom) Sarah Cunningham & Peter Moor Pearson Longman 2005 New Insight into IELTS Student’s Book with answersVanessa Jakeman and Clare McDowellCUP 2008New Insight into IELTS Workbook with answersVanessa Jakeman and Clare McDowellCUP 2008New Matrix Pre-intermediate (Work Book, Teachers Book and Students Book) Rosemary Nixon with Kathy Gude and Michael Duckworth OUP 2007 New Matrix – Intermediate (Work Book, Teachers Book and Students Book) Anne Conybeare, Simon Betterton, Kathy Gude and Jayne Wildman OUP 2007 New Matrix – Upper-Intermediate Anne Conybeare, Simon Betterton, Kathy Gude and Jayne Wildman OUP 2007 Objective CAE Student’s Book (2nd Edition)Felicity O’Dell and Annie BroadheadCUP 2008Objective First Certificate Student’s Book (2nd Edition)Annette Capel and Wendy SharpCUP 2008Oxford English for Careers: Commerce 2 (Teachers Resource Book, Students Book and Class CD) Martyn Hobbs and Julia Starr Keddle OUP 2007 Oxford English for Careers – Tourism (Teachers Resource Book, Students Book and Class CD) Robin Walker and Keith Harding OUP 2007


Oxford English for Careers: Nursing 1Tony Grice OUP 2007 Oxford English for Careers: Technology David Bonamy OUP 2007 Professional English in Use – ICT Santiago Remacha Esteras & Elena Fabre CUP 2007Professional English in Use – Medicine Eric Glendinning & Ron Howard CUP 2007Research Perspectives on English for Academic PurposesJohn Flowerdew & Matthew Peacock (Eds)CUP 2001Sounds Good – On track to listening successKen Beatty & Peter TinklerPearson Longman 2008Staying Safe: The kitchen; The living room and bedroom; The bathroom and laundry NCELTR

Tactics for TOEIC – Speaking and writing test Grant Trew OUP 2007 Task-Based Language Education – from theory to practice Kris Van Den Branden CUP 2006 Teenagers Gordon Lewis OUP 2007 The Business Pre-intermediate (Teacher’s Book)Pete Sharma & Paul EmmersonMacmillan 2008The Night Before Essay PlannerBronwyn HallFairfax 2007


Total English Pre-Intermediate (Students Book) Richard Acklam & Araminta Crace Pearson Longman 2007 Young Learners English Test – Movers (Teachers Book and Movers) Petrina Cliff OUP 2007 Young Learners English Test – Starters (Teachers Book and Starters) Petrina Cliff OUP 2007


www.cambridge.org/elt/cge

A stepping stone towards creating more self-aware, confi dent and

precise users of English.Geoff Barton, Times Educational Supplement

The ultimate authority on English as it’s really used


From the Editor

EA Journal is published twice each year, in April and September. It welcomes contributions from those involved in TESOL teaching, training and research.

Guidelines for contributorsDetailed guidelines for contributors may be found on pages 101-103 of this issue. Contributors are asked to refer to these and observe them closely. Copies may also be obtained from the Editor and from the English Australia website. Please direct any queries to the Editor before submitting copy.

Documents should be in Microsoft WordIf you have any queries about submitting your copy on email, please contact the Editor.

Deadlines for copy April issue: 30 February September issue: 30 July

AdvertisingEA Journal is read by professionals involved in TESOL throughout Australia and, increasingly, overseas. Advertising for relevant courses, publications, computer software, hardware or any other products is welcome. Details of rates are to be found on page 107.

For further information please contact:

English Australia (ELICOS Association)PO Box 1437Darlinghurst NSW 1300Australia

Telephone: (02) 9264 4700Facsimile: (02) 9264 4313Email: [email protected]


Correspondence regarding contents of the Journal should be addressed to:The EditorEA JournalEnglish AustraliaPO Box 1437DarlinghurstNSW 1300Australia Telephone: (02) 9264 4700Facsimile: (02) 9264 4313Email: [email protected]

Book review enquiries should go to:Bookshelf EditorPauline BaylisEmail:[email protected]

EA Journal is published by English Australia Pty Ltd


EA Journal subscription

Cost of annual subscriptions – two issues per year: • PostedtoanaddresswithinAustralia $50.60(GSTandpostageincluded)• ExportedtoanaddressoutsideAustralia $64.00(postageincluded;GST

not applicable)Individual copies:• PostedtoanaddresswithinAustralia $25.30(GSTandpostageincluded)• ExportedtoanaddressoutsideAustralia $32.00(postageincluded;GST

not applicable)

order Form

Please supply the following order: (tick applicable) Amount A$

1 year subscription posted to an address within Australia: ..................................

1 year subscription posted air overseas mail: ..................................

Individual volume -indicate volume(s) and number: Vol......... No.............

Name:

Postal address:

Postcode:

Amountenclosed:A$

Signature:

Please post cheques or money orders, payable in Australian dollars, made out to ELICOS Association Limited, to: English Australia, PO Box 1437 Darlinghurst NSW 1300 AustraliaEFT payment may be made within Australia: BSB 082 057 (NAB) Account number: 55 414 3089Please email or fax a remittance advice to the EA Secretariat if you use EFT. English Australia, acting for an on behalf of ELICOS Association Limited (ABN 86 003 959 037)


Guidelines for contributors

Contributors are asked to read and observe these guidelines carefully. The Editor reserves the right to return for retyping and resubmission manuscripts which deviate substantially from them.

ArticlesArticles submitted for publication in the EA Journal should be of a practical nature and should preferably not exceed 3,000 words. It may not be possible to publish without modification articles which are longer than this.

The contents of articles should be relevant and of interest to practising classroom teachers of adult TESOL who do not necessarily have extensive specialist knowledge of linguistics.

Articles which are of a theoretical nature are also welcome but should contain clear and explicit relevance to classroom practice.

The EA Journal is a peer-reviewed journal and each article will be reviewed anonymously by at least two readers.

Please send your articles by e-mail attachment to the editor: [email protected]

Letters to the EditorReaders are invited to write to the Editor on current and controversial issues relating to TESOL, or in response to articles appearing in earlier issues of EA Journal. Letters should be concise and may be edited for reasons of space.

Book reviewsIf you are interested in reviewing new titles for EA Journal, please contact the Bookshelf Editor. Please note that unsolicited reviews cannot normally be accepted for publication. There are separate guidelines for writers of reviews which will be sent to you together with a request for a review.

Originality of materialAll contributions will be presumed to be original and unpublished unless otherwise indicated. Appropriate permission to reprint must be supplied for contributions which have previously appeared in other publications.

Please note that editorial policy is to give preference to previously unpublished material.


StyleContributions should be easy to read, but in generally formal style. Care should be taken that TESOL and linguistics jargon is used correctly and sparingly.

Contractions (‘isn’t’, ‘doesn’t’, and so on) should generally be avoided in the main text of articles, although they may, where appropriate, appear in samples of teaching materials reproduced within an article. Editorial preference is for a neutral pronoun reference system (‘s/he’, ‘his/her’, ‘their’, etc) except where a specific female or male reference is essential to the meaning.

ManuscriptsSend your articles by email attachments to the Editor: [email protected] Manuscripts should comply with the following guidelines.

Layout

• TypeindoublespaceononesideofA4leavinggenerousmarginsonallfoursidesofthe page.

• Numberallpagesandnameyourmanuscriptclearly.• Paragraphsshouldnotbeindented.Leaveanextradoublespacebetween

paragraphs.• Pleaseincludeatthebeginningofyourmanuscript,followingthetitleandby-line,

an abstract (150 words maximum) summarising the main points of your article.• Donotusedoublespacingafterfullstops.• Pointsshouldbemadeusingbulletpointsratherthannumbers.• Usesentencecasefortitlesandauthors'namesexceptinreferences(seenotesunder

References)

Quotations

• Singlemarksshouldbeusedforshortquotations,wordsusedinspecialsenses,etc.Quotations within quotations should be enclosed within double quotation marks.

• Shortquotations(30wordsorless)shouldbeincludedwithinyourtextandshouldpreserve the punctuation and capitalisation of the quoted text: e.g. Littlewood (1984:27) states that ‘There are many instances where it is not possible to decide whether overgeneralisation or transfer is the cause of specific error’.

• Longerquotationsshouldbeindentedattheleft,typedinsinglespacingandseparated from the surrounding text by a blank line above and below.


ReferencesAll original sources must be acknowledged.

Direct and indirect references within the text to their works should be followed, in brackets, by the author, date and, where applicable, page number(s), e.g. (Brumfit 1984 39-40).

List of references: Names and publication details of works referred to in your articles should be listed in alphabetical order at the end of your article under the heading References. The examples following illustrate the preferred style for various types of publication:

References

Graddol, D. (2000). The Future of English. London: The British Council

Skutnabb-Kangas, T. (1999). Linguistic Human Rights: Are you naive, or what? TESOL Journal 8 (3) 6 - 1

Stafford, R. (2001). Media education in the UK. Accessed 14 February 2008 at http://mediaed.org.uk/posteddocuments/mediauk.htmlNotesNotes will not be printed as footnotes at the end of each page, but collated as end notes at the end of the whole article. They should be indicated in your text by sequential numbers (where possible in superscript) immediately after the relevant word(s) or sentence(s), and should appear at the end of your manuscript following the same numbering system.

IllustrationsIllustrations to be included in your text should be attached, each one on a separate sheet of paper. If hand-drawn, they must be clearly drawn in black ink and be camera-ready. They should be clearly labelled and you should indicate prominently in the text of your article where each is to appear.

Biographical detailsPlease supply, at the end of your article, brief biographical details. These should not exceed 50 words, should be written in the third person, and should preferably contain some information about your professional background as well as your present place and area of work. In addition, please ensure you include your e-mail and mailing address.

Guidelines may be downloaded from the EA Journal page of www.englishaustralia.com.au


English Australia member colleges

August 2008

AuSTrAlIAn CAPITAl TErrITorY

ANU CollegeUniversity of Canberra, English Language Institute

nEW SouTH WAlES

Ability Education Pty LtdAcademy of EnglishAccess Language CentreACL Sydney English CentreAustralian College of English (Bondi Junction, City & Manly)Australian Pacific CollegeBilly Blue College of EnglishCentre for English Teaching, University of SydneyEF International Language SchoolsEmbassy CES SydneyGEOS Sydney: St Mark’s International CollegeIH Sydney Teacher Training & Professional CentreInsearch, UTSInternational House SydneyKaplan Aspect SydneyMeridian International School - SydneyMilton CollegeNSW English Language Centre TAFE NSW Hunter InstituteOISE SydneyPacific Gateway International College SydneySpecialty Language CentreSydney College of EnglishSydney English Language Centre (SELC)TAFE English Language Centre, Northern SydneyTAFE International Education Centre, Liverpool TAFE NSW Sydney Institute English Centre (SITEC)TOP Education InstituteThe Centre for Macquarie English


Universal English College (GV Sydney)University of New England, English Language CentreUniversity of New South Wales, Institute of LanguagesUniversity of Newcastle Language CentreUWS College P/LWollongong College Australia

norTHErn TErrITorY

ACL Darwin English Centre

QuEEnSlAnD

Australian College of English - BrisbaneAviation AustraliaBond University English Language InstituteCairns Language CentreCQUniversity Language CentreEmbassy CES Brisbane & Gold CoastGEOS Cairns College of EnglishGEOS Queensland College of English BrisbaneGEOS Queensland College of English Gold Coast (GEOS QCE GC)Griffith University English Language Institute, Brisbane & Gold CoastInstitute of Continuing & TESOL Education University of QueenslandInternational House Queensland English Language College – BrisbaneInternational House Queensland English Language College – CairnsLangports English Language CollegeLanguage Studies InternationalPacific Gateway International College – BrisbaneQueensland University of Technology International College English Language ProgramsSarina Russo Schools Australia English Language CentreShafston International College / University of New England Brisbane CentreSouthbank Institute Language CentreSun Pacific CollegeViva CollegeWhitsundays College of English (SACE)

SouTH AuSTrAlIA

CELUSA (Centre for English Language in the University of South Australia)Eynesbury College Academy of English


GEOS AdelaideIntensive English Language InstituteSA Adelaide Language CentreSouth Australian College of EnglishTAFE SA Adelaide English Language Centre

TASmAnIA

University of Tasmania English Language Centre

vICTorIA

Academia InternationalAMES InternationalChisholm Institute of TAFEDeakin University English Language InstituteEmbassy CES MelbourneGEOS Melbourne College of EnglishHawthorn English Language CentreHolmes English Language CentreImpact English CollegeLa Trobe University International CollegeMelbourne Language CentreMeridian International School - MelbourneMonash University English Language CentreOzford English Language CentreRMIT English WorldwideSwinburne University English Language CentreVictoria University English Language Institute

WESTErn AuSTrAlIAAustralian College of English - PerthCentre for English Language Teaching, The University of Western AustraliaCurtin English Language CentreEducation & Training International (ETI)Embassy CES PerthEurocentres PerthKaplan Aspect PerthMilner International College of EnglishPerth International College of EnglishSt Mark’s International College


EA Journal advertising

TYPE OF AD DEPTH WIDTH COST (GST included)

FULLPAGE 205mm 130mm $220.00

1/2PAGE 100mm 130mm $110.00

Please Note1 These rates are for advertising space ONLY.2 Copy must be submitted in the correct size (i.e. be able to fit within an area

of the above dimensions), as a digital file.3 Preferred format for files to be supplied as PDF.4 A design service for advertising is available at extra cost. Advertisers wishing

to make use of this services please contact the EA Secretariat.5 Payment should accompany your advertisements. Cheques should be made

payable to ELICOS Association Limited. EFT payments may be made:

BSB: 082 057 (NAB). Account number: 55 414 3089 Account name: ELICOS Association Limited

Please fax or email a remittance advice to the EA Secretariat if you use EFT.

6 All correspondence regarding advertising in the EA Journal should be addressed to:

EA Secretariat English Australia PO Box 1437 Darlinghurst NSW 1300 Australia

E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://www.englishaustralia.com.au

EA JOURNAL VOL 24 NO 2 EA JOURNAL ... - English Australia

Documents

Transcript of EA JOURNAL VOL 24 NO 2 EA JOURNAL ... - English Australia