GI Newsletter 2009 Summer

GLOBAL ISSUES
Integrating global education into language teaching

SIG
Issue 24
Summer 2009 Issue 24

Committee
Coordinator: Mike Solly
Deputy Coordinator: Maureen Ellis
Newsletter Editor: Claudia Connolly
Assistant newsletter Editor: Xiabing Wang
Website manager: Nik Peachey
Discussion moderator:Muhammad Iqbal
Price £4.50 Free for GISIG members ISSN: 1026-4310

1

G L O B A L IS S U E S
In te g ra tin g g lo b a l e d u c a tio n in to la n g u a g e te a c h in g

S IG
IATEFL’s Global Issues Special Interest
Group (GISIG) was created in 1995 and aims
to provide a forum among ELT practitioners to
stimulate awareness and understanding of
global issues, and to encourage the development of global education within language
teaching.

only £13.50 per year.

Institutional membership of IATEFL costs
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IATEFL Voices 6 times per year, the attendance
of 4 staff to IATEFL events at member rates,
and the other associated membership benefits
listed above. There is also the opportunity for
your institution to join a SIG (e.g. GISIG) and
Membership of GISIG offers:
receive 3 copies of each GISIG newsletter for
•
A bi-annual GISIG newsletter, packed £25.
with discussion and practical ideas for
teaching Global Issues and addressing The easiest ways to join are on-line at http://
possible constraints in low resource con- www.iatefl.org/join.asp, or by telephone
texts together with the latest theories and IATEFL on +44 1227 824430, fax +44 1227
824431.
book reviews.
•

Occasional other publications, for example proceedings of and papers from our
events.

•

Reduced rates to GISIG events.

•

Social networking:

http://global-issues.ning.com/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gisig/
•

GISIG website at http://gisig.iatefl.org

•

The opportunity to become involved in
the running of the Global Issues SIG,
learn about organizing conferences, help
to edit newsletters and web sites, and
enhance your professional development.

How to join
Individual membership of IATEFL costs £43
(with reduced student and retired rates). This
includes free membership of one Special Interest Group (e.g. the Global Issues SIG) and the
associated membership benefits listed above.
If you are already a member of IATEFL but not
a member of GISIG, SIG membership costs

2

Letter from
the coordinator
Dear Colleagues,

jointly with the BC and a representative from GI SIG, and there was also
a GI SIG reporter at the event (see
article in this edition of the newsletter).
Global Issues SIG also played a significant role at IATEFL Cardiff, with
the second event of the year being a
Pre-Conference event (run jointly
with Teacher Development SIG)
which was a very practically based
day long event on overcoming difficulties in teaching in different and
challenging contexts, a lively Open
Forum, several presentations on
Global Issues by committee members, and a leading role in an
IATEFL signature event (Equal Opportunities and Diversity in ELT:
Getting it right). In addition it was of
course, as ever, an excellent opportunity to gather ideas and opinions for
future activity for the SIG.

A warm welcome to our latest, and
new look, newsletter.
The last few months have been very
active for the Global Issues SIG with
two successful events, two moderated discussions on the discussion
list, and a recently launched interactive web presence on a new platform
http://global-issues.ning.com In addition, we are revisiting the aims and
purpose of the SIG and we hope that
our broad aims will be taken up by We look forward to your continued
IATEFL generally and more for- interest and involvement in the SIG.
mally.
If you would like to submit an article
to the newsletter please contact
The first of this year’s two events, ([email protected])
held in central London in February, and if you have any suggestions for
was a two-day symposium on the SIG, or for future events please
Equal Opportunities and Diversity contact me.
in ELT with the British Council.
This followed on from the initial SIG Very warmest regards
event held last year also in conjunction with the British Council . The Mike Solly
event was attended by around 100 GISIG coordinator
people and included 2 former [email protected]
IATEFL presidents among its five
speakers (Catherine Walter and
Adrian Underhill). The construction
of the programme was drawn up

3

Content

IATEFL Global Issues Aims

Editor

P.7

Greater diversity and the need for
differentiation in classes.

Samantha Deans

P.9

Reigniting, Retooling and Retiring
in English Language Teaching.

Neil Mc Beath

P.11

Nik Peachey

P.14

David Valente

P.15

Claudia Connolly

P.19

Michael Berman

P.22

A course book for the Chinese
market

Xiaobing Wang

P.24

Getting it Right,

Xiaobing Wang

P.25

Nik Peachey’s Blog

Raising Teenagers’ Global Awareness via Extensive Reading
Teaching Human Rights with
children

The Doctor Lukman

British Council and Global Issues
Sig Symposium

4

General Committee member: Paul Woods

12 Reasons why you may want to
read HLT
It is a free website magazine.
It offers a wealth of articles every two month.
You can read nine years worth of articles from
the HLT archive.
You can download or print out your favourite
articles.
You can keep in touch with recent trends and
developments in ELT.
The contributors come from all over the world
offering new perspectives.

Hiroshima Peace Media Centre
http://www.hiroshimapeacemedia.jp/mediacenter

You can find practical ideas as well as more
theoretical papers.
The Hiroshima Peace Centre is seeking to advance
It can help you in your TT education if you are
the abolition of nuclear weapons and a braoder
in pre-service.
peace in the world. It is the only madia agency in
the world dedicated exclusively to the coverage of
It can help you in training future teachers if
peace related concerns. Launched in January
you are a teacher trainer.
2008 by the Chugoku Shimbun, Hiroshima’s Daily
Newspaper. The Hiroshima Peace Media Centre
It will help you improve your own teaching.
maintains a bilingual English Japanese website
It will help you reflect on your own teaching.
with local and International news.
It is a great tool for self-development.

For more information contact: Adam Beck
[email protected]

If you would like to contribute some articles, contact:
Editor’s e-mail: [email protected]

5

Global issues is always looking for articles, book reviews and teaching material from individuals who are interested in sharing their diversity and experience within ELT. Send your articles to: [email protected]

Global Issues IATEFL
Publication advertising rates, 2008
If you would like to place an advertisement in one of the Global Issues
newsletter please contact the GI Newsletter Editor

Claudia Connolly
[email protected]

6

SIG

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IATEFL
Global Issues
Aims

•

To equip learners with the knowledge, skills and values which can
help them confront both local and
global problems.

•

To promote a less Eurocentric perspective within ELT.

The Global Issues SIG, created in 1995, •
aims to provide a forum among ELT practitioners to stimulate awareness and understanding of global issues, and to encourage the development of global education within language teaching.

We are currently reviewing our aims and
would like to invite readers to join our on
line
discussion
at
http://globalissues.ning.com/ to help us redefine
them.
These are our current aims:
•

To assist in the exchange of information and ideas surrounding issues within ELT such as peace, justice and equality; human rights and
social responsibility; globalization
and world development; social identity; and the role of the English language and English Language Teaching in the world.

To provide a counterbalance to the
idea of language teaching as necessarily high tech and profit generating. For example, we hope to provide a forum for those developing
successful methods of teaching
large classes with minimal resources - typically working within
poorly funded state systems in the
developing world, where the majority of students learn English.

Redefining:
Bill Templer, one of our members has
suggested the following to help us redefine our aims:
We seek a more global and socially inclusive perspective within ELT, sensitive to
local diversity. We hope to empower
learners to become more critical citizens. To this end, we strive to exchange
ideas and information on a broad array of
social issues, including education for
peace, justice, and equality; human
rights, social responsibility and social
change; globalization and a sustainable
environment. We explore ways to improve
EFL teaching and learning among the
world's social majorities, where often
only minimal resources are available, and
to integrate inventive high-tech approaches wherever possible.

•

To exchange ideas on integrating
peace education, human rights education, development education and
environmental education into language teaching.

•

To help members fulfil the two roles
a language teacher has in society:
the conveyer of linguistic knowledge and the educator to enable stu- Join in the discussion and let us know
dents to understand better how the what you think, we hope that our aims
might be taken on and reflected broadly
modern world functions.
within IATEFL as a whole. Have your say.

7

Greater diversity and the
need for differentiation in
classes.
By Samantha Deans
Learners are not a homogenous group. They can
differ greatly in terms of linguistic, educational,
cultural and socio-economic background. These
factors and many others including age, work experience, length of time in the UK, immigration
status and experience of learning English can
affect language learning. Learners also come to
a class with different expectations (of themselves,
of the teacher, of teaching and learning), goals,
interests, confidence levels, needs, learning
styles, abilities and of course, personalities.

greater diversity and the need for differentiation in
classes. Learners with very little basic education
and/or literacy in their mother tongue may share
lessons with educated professionals.
Given the wealth of ELT materials that already
exist, it would seem easy to cater for such wide
diversity within classes. However, the traditional
target audiences of many EFL resources differ
greatly from the profile of EFL and ESOL classes
today. A lot of EFL materials are aimed at young,
educated, affluent Europeans who are in the UK
for a short period of time, not people who are
planning to settle in the UK or who have already
been here for a significant period of time and
more significantly, not refugees who have come
from war-torn countries and interrupted education. References to Elvis Presley and Madonna –
the stars of many an EFL course book – fall on
deaf ears in an ESOL class.
What’s your favourite pop group? A question
guaranteed to orchestrate a lively discussion in
an EFL summer school class of European teenagers fails to generate a single note in an ESOL
class of Somali housewives .Of course, we can’t
assume shared cultural knowledge and values in
any class, not just in an ESOL class, and it is up
to the teacher to choose materials which are of
interest and relevance to his or her students.
Does this mean the only place for Headway et al
is the archives of ELT? No, but it does mean a
certain amount of adaptation and inventiveness is
required.

The following are possible failings of EFL course
books and ways to overcome, or at least adapt,
Teachers may be finding more and more EFL them.
learners studying alongside ‘traditional’ ESOL
learners (asylum seekers, refugees and immi- •
Very busy pages with many activities writgrants from settled UK communities) leading
ten in different fonts. Select one activity
from a page and retype it in a clearer font
8

with fewer distractions on the page.
•

•

If one side of the activity shows the utterances in
their entirety (but in the wrong order) and the
Socially or culturally inappropriate content. other shows the correct order (with missing
Take the idea of the activity (e.g. a find words), learners are able to check their own ansomeone who … mixer) and edit the irrele- swers at the end.
vant content, changing “Find someone who
… has done a bungee jump” to something Writing activities
more accessible and likely.
Provide sentence cues or a jumbled model examLack of diversity in course book characters ple for less confident learners. Alternatively, ask
and cultural information. Ideally, materials provide learners with a template with missing inshould reflect the various cultural back- formation to be filled in.
grounds and ethnic groups of the learners.
Provide learners with the language and Speaking activities
tools needed to discuss the similarities and
In role play activities, provide a model dialogue or
differences between their different counflow chart of suggested utterances for less confitries and their home countries and the UK.
dent learners. Learners can then substitute information as necessary.

Does this mean the teacher has to plan lessons
for each individual learner? No, but is does mean
a certain amount of adaptation and inventiveness
is required to cater for all learning styles,
strengths, weaknesses and abilities.
The following is a list of ways in which different
abilities and learning styles can be catered for.
Grouping
•

Pair less confident learners with more confident learners. Stronger readers, for example, can read vocabulary cards aloud
while the less confident reader listens and
finds the appropriate card or image giving
both learners a sense of knowledge and
achievement.

Allocate roles in role play activities according to
strengths and weaknesses.
Reading activities
Make comprehension questions more challenging
for stronger learners by jumbling up the words
within the questions. Learners have to unjumble
the words to make the questions before finding
the answers. Ask learners with lower literacy to
scan for information rather than read for details
(for example, How many job advertisements are
on the page? How many jobs are full time?).
Similarly, provide question cues rather than the
whole question for stronger learners. Learners
have to make the questions before finding the
answers. Adapt comprehension questions into a
question and answer matching activity for less
confident learners.

Pair less confident learners together so
they can divide tasks between them before Vocabulary
sharing their answers.
Vocabulary gap fill exercises can be easily
adapted to suit more confident and less confident
Listening activities
learners. Provide gaps for the missing words for
A listening comprehension activity clearly benefits stronger learners (for example, The opposite of
students with a preference towards auditory tall is ____________) while supporting less confilearning and those with good receptive skills. dent learners by providing some of the missing
Learners may have lived in the UK for a consider- letters (for example, The opposite of tall is
able period of time and consequently, have rea- s____t). In both cases, provide the missing vosonably good listening. However, some of these cabulary answers at the bottom of the page. This
learners may struggle with writing, especially un- can be folded over if necessary for stronger learnder time pressure. For them, filling in gaps while ers and left unfolded for less confident learners to
listening to a tape is very challenging. One sup- refer to.
port strategy is to provide learners with the tapescript in the form of jumbled sentences which Alternatively, lay out vocabulary matching exerthey have to number. On the other side of this cises in two columns. More confident learners
exercise, provide something more challenging can fold over one side of the page to make the
such as a gap fill exercise. A double-sided activ- activity more challenging. Fill in some of the missity allows learners to decide for themselves which ing letters in crosswords for less confident learners.
version they work on.
•

9

General ideas for differentiation
Provide learners with a certain number of tasks
(for example, 10). Tell learners that a proportion
of these tasks (for example, 5) must be completed and that the additional tasks are optional.
If learners succeed in completing the obligatory
tasks, they will feel they have achieved the objective rather than failed to answer everything. The
additional tasks can be completed by ‘fast finishers’ or assigned as homework if necessary. Use
project work as a way to allocate tasks to learners
according to their ability, learning styles,
strengths and weaknesses. Try to provide differentiated versions as double-sided worksheets.
This not only saves paper, but allows learners to
choose from a selection of activities if they are
feeling below par or up for an additional challenge.

and has recently been working on ESOL specific
resources for the UK market.

Summary
Providing differentiated worksheets and support
strategies (sentence or vocabulary cues, having
access to examples and so on) allows learners to
work towards the same outcomes, rather than
having a whole class working on different things.
Differentiation increases motivation, interest and
relevance while providing more opportunities for
achievement and success.
If you would like to try out some of the teaching materials mentioned here, please contact Sam directly at
While there is a huge industry devoted to the publication of EFL materials, there seems to be much [email protected]
less in the way of ESOL resources. As the number of ESOL students grows, so does the need
for ESOL appropriate materials.
More and more publishers are beginning to produce teacher resource books based on existing
EFL textbooks.
Such resource books have
adapted, simplified activities based on the exercises in the original course books. Until more of
these photocopiable resources are available,
teachers may have to continue adapting tried and
tested ELT materials.

Biodata
Samantha Deans teaches English at the British
Council in Paris, France. She has taught EFL
and ESOL in Germany, Japan, the USA and the
UK. She is interested in materials development
10

paper is now offered with passages in bold italics,
indicating where changes have been made, or material
inserted, in an attempt to make my meaning clearer.

Then; Igniting and tooling up.
In the preface to The Language Teaching Matrix,
Richards (1990), states “Teaching depends on the application of appropriate theory, the development of
appropriate instructional designs and strategies, and
the study of what actually happens in the classroom.
Because these ingredients will change according to the
teaching context, effective teaching is continually
evolving throughout one’s teaching career.” (P. vii).

Reigniting, Retooling and Retiring in English Language
Teaching.
By Neil Mc Beath
This paper was originally written as part of a chapter
for a book of the same title which is to be published by
the University of Michigan Press. When I submitted
the chapter, I was unaware that, back in the early
1970s, the UAE editor had been a member of the
steering committee responsible for the original RSA
Certificate in the Teaching of English as a Foreign
Language to Adults. He took exception to some of my
criticisms, and returned what I had written, together
with no fewer than thirteen comments, including suggestions that my arguments were unclear. I, in turn,
rebutted his criticisms, whereupon he informed me
that he was ”reluctantly” rejecting my submission. The
11

Today, few people involved in education would disagree with those sentiments. They are the essence of
reigniting and retooling. When I began teaching EFL,
in 1974, however, Richards’ comments would have
been close to heresy.
In those days, the Royal Society of Arts’ Certificate in
the Teaching of English as a Foreign Language to
Adults was based on what Richards (1998; 46) describes as the “noncompatible view, which is based on
the belief that a particular teaching conception is valid,
and that others are unacceptable and should be discouraged.” The RSA beliefs were firm. “Good” teaching was presentation-practice-production. No language
other than English should ever be used in the classroom. Choral drilling was effective. The RSA Certificate was a “highly esteemed qualification”(Richardson
1977), and its holders needed no further training.

In fact, Richardson’s praise for the RSA Certificate
was hardly impartial. The quotation comes from the
RSA Examinations Boards’ report on its own activities
for the years 1976-77. At that time the Certificate had
been in existence for only two years, and 477 candidates had successfully completed the course. It was far
too early to say how the qualification was regarded,
because at that stage it had only rarity value. A further
1334 had been referred in the written section; referred
in the practical; failed outright, or failed to complete
the exam. Their views are not recorded, although one
disappointed candidate was later moved to describe
the process as “dishonest and unfair” (Cooke; 1979)

I failed the Certificate. According to my assessor, my
personality “was in general unsuitable for teaching”.
That might have been a good time to retire, but I questioned the assessment. I was already a qualified and
experienced teacher of English literature. I felt I was

“unsuitable” because of my age and my gender.

“unsuitable” because of my age
and my gender.
On my RSA course there had been 14 women, 2 men,
and I had been the youngest by at least a decade. In the
1970’s in England, EFL training was something undertaken by middle-aged, middle-class ladies; people who
wanted to be qualified for a few hours part-time teaching in local Further Education centres. The colleges, of
course, encouraged this. For them, the RSA Certificate
was a license to print money. The low pass rate, together with the referral system, allowed for repeat
business. The teachers-in-training could be used as
unpaid instructors on day release courses, thereby saving the cost of a qualified teacher, and teacher-training
allowed full time staff to claim a higher grade of responsibility, which reflected well on their Head of
Department. Even so, teaching EFL was not a career;
it was not a job for “proper teachers” (Gillett 2008)

I, however, wanted to make it a career, and so I abandoned the RSA approach. I took a year’s sabbatical
leave and taught for one of the Association of Recognised English Language Schools. I also took the Trinity College Diploma in TESOL, which was more rigorous than the RSA Certificate. I had to study compulsory phonetics, and take an oral examination as well
as a practical teaching test – but I passed.

Now; reignited and retooled
I teach in the Language Center at the Sultan Qaboos
University in Oman. This is my second period in
Oman. From 1981 to 2005 I was a Flight Lieutenant in
the Royal Air Force of Oman, teaching English to Air
Force and Army personnel, including officers and
other ranks. At different times I worked with Artillery,
Ordnance, Armour Brigade, Force Medical Services
and Signals personnel. I taught Air Force Cadets, Aircraft Engineering Technicians and Ground Support
personnel. In those days I taught English for Specific
Purposes (ESP), or, more accurately, English for Military Purposes (EMP). Every new course meant retooling; becoming familiar with new workplace texts,
mastering new language domains, and new registers of
address. Professional development courses – M.Sc. in
ESP from Aston University in England; Masters of
12

Applied Linguistics from Macquarie University in
Australia; a Certificate in Using the Internet for Teachers aided the retooling process.
Now I teach English for Academic Purposes (EAP);
another acronym that was unknown in 1974. Then,
there was just English for Overseas Students. The concept of ESP waited for Robinson’s (1980) pioneering
work. Varieties of English waited until Kachru’s
(1992) publication. The concepts of needs analyses;
concordances; appropriate registers; language domains
were equally futuristic to my RSA Certificate tutor so
in terms of theory, we have made major advances. No
one, today, would be able to offer a course of “tricks
for teachers” and claim that this was teacher training.

In simple practicalities, moreover, there have been
similar advances. On a daily basis, my students are
urged to search the internet for relevant information.
At the end of their foundation year, they are expected
to have the ability to make a powerpoint presentation.
ICT is an integral part of our daily lives. In 1974, technology was a bolt-on extra; it meant using a reel-toreel tape recorder, and a once a week visit to the Language Laboratory.

IATEFL, TESOL Arabia and the Materials Development Association provide further logistic support, as
do their Special Interest Groups (SIGS). Now we have
a choice of professional journals, SIG Newsletters, online SIG communities, the cyber-journal Humanizing
Language Teaching, and Dave’s ESL Café. In 1974,
there was only the English Language Teaching Journal
and IATEFL, falsely described by my RSA Certificate
tutor as “an organization for senior academics only!” –
a sort of round table at which only Chomsky, Halliday,
Quirk, Leech, Svartik, Greenbaum and Crystal would
be welcome.

Retiring – in the sense of leaving
the field.
I am not ready to retire, but there is evidence that
many EFL teachers have long since given up. At the
40th IATEFL International Conference, Swan (2007)
looked back to the first ATEFL conference and remarked how significantly the organization had grown.
In one sense he was correct. IATEFL connects far
more teachers than it could ever have imagined doing
at its foundation. Its associate teaching organizations
span the globe. And yet…. at the First Conference
there were 90 delegates. At the 40th, there were about

1000.

these gains, then we will have lost the battle. EFL
teaching must cease to be a job; it must become a career.

Given the exponential rate at which EFL has developed globally, and the criticism that its expansion has
aroused in some quarters (Phillipson 1992) surely [email protected]
there should have been far more delegates? The increase just quoted represents an annual gain of only
25 people a year. Why do so few EFL teachers join
professional associations? Or, perhaps more cogently,
why do EFL teaching associations currently attract so
few practitioners?
References.
Could it be that EFL is in the position described by
McCourt (2005) where those who actually teach, the
practitioners who interact with students on a daily basis, are left behind? These people are the backbone of
the profession, but the rewards go to those who leave
the classroom, and move into administration. Tennant
(2008) points out that there is something seriously
flawed about a system that allows beginners to be
taught by inexperienced teachers. I would suggest that
there is something equally flawed that promotes good
teachers out of the classroom, and into managerial
positions for which they may have shown no aptitude.

Gillett, Carly. (2008) A proper teacher. IATEFL Voices 205. P.
15
Kachru, Braj. (1992.) The Other Tongue; English across Cultures.
Urbana. University of Illinois Press.
McCourt, Frank. (2005.) Teacher Man. London. Fourth Estate
Phillipson, Robert. (1992.)
Oxford University Press.

Linguistic Imperialism.

Richards, Jack C. (1990.) The Language Teaching Matrix. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press.
Richards, Jack C. 1998. Beyond Training.
bridge University Press.

Why, moreover, is it possible for Tajama (2007; 6;
2008;159) to report that, in Vietnam, language schools
are still hiring “’backpacker teachers who visit ……
and teach English to cover their air fare and travel
around Vietnam or ‘expat wives’.“ This situation
should have changed years ago. In a country as politically regulated as Vietnam, there is no excuse for allowing language school proprietors to increase their
profit margins by employing cheap, unqualified labour.

Oxford.

Cambridge

Cam-

Richardson, E. 1977. Report on the Society’s Examination Board
for the Season RSA Journal No. 5256. P. 727.
Robinson, Pauline. (1980.) ESP (English for Specific Purposes)
Oxford. Pergamon Press.
Swan, Michael. (2006.) The first and fortieth (I)ATEFL conferences. In Briony Beaven (ed) (2007) IATEFL 2006; Harrogate
Conference Selections. Canterbury; Kent IATEFL. Pp. 10-11.
Tajana, Tina Hiroko. ( 2007/2008). English in Ho Chi Minh City;
Vietnam.
JAFAE Newsletter 23, P.6. Reprinted in World Englishes 27/1, Pp.
158-159.

These so-called “teachers” perpetuate the myth that Tennant, Adrian. (2008) Why are we standing on our heads?
any speaker of a language can also teach it. They also IATEFL Voices 205 P. 19
short-change their students, offering simplistic views
of language, and “rules” of doubtful validity, frequently based on prescriptive attitudes to language
which are not supported by any data. Most importantly, however, they depress salaries for ALL teachers, and in particular for those non-native speakers
from the host nation; people who have trained and
qualified only to find that their efforts go unrewarded.

The RSA ladies of the 1970s have retired. The professional demands on EFL teachers have been transformed almost beyond recognition, and there is a network of support to retool serving teachers and reignite
their motivation. If, however, we do nothing to protect
13

do each day to help improve their English
and digital literacy.
Nik’s
Quick
Shout:
http://
quickshout.blogspot.com/
This site includes news, tips and links
resources for educationalists interested
in what is new in learning technology and
ELT. There almost 200 short postings
which cover a range of free technologies,
software and websites.

Nik Peachey’s
blogs

Access to free technologies coupled with
the knowledge of how to use them to improve teaching and learning will be a corner stone to developing high educational
standards and offering our students the
best possible chance of a better future in
the 21st century.

Not every teacher and student in the
world has access to the internet, but
where they have we should be doing
everything in our power to help them to
realise their educational aspirations, enOver the last two years I have been rich their lives and share their culture
working to try to help English language through language.
teachers and students access online
technologies to develop their English
through digital literacies.
This is my small contribution to that goal.
The main thrust of this work has been
through my blog publications. I regularly
publish free non commercial materials on
three blogs. These are:
Nik’s Learning Technology Blog: http://
nikpeachey.blogspot.com/
This site includes almost 100 articles on
different web based technologies. The
articles include evaluations, video tutorials and teaching suggestions to help
teachers and teacher trainers exploit
these free technologies.
Nik’s Daily English Activities: http://dailyenglish-activities.blogspot.com/
This site is for autonomous EFL | ESL
learners. Here they can find more than
100 simple online activities that they can
14

This is my
small contribution to
that goal

had observed more broadly while living in Thailand, whether taking the plane, sky train or socialising with Thais - reading outside of academic /
professional environments for pleasure, i.e.
“extensive reading”, is neither widespread nor
commonplace in Thai society. Many children and
teenagers do not acquire good reading habits
from parents / carers further exacerbating the
challenges facing English language teaching in
primary and secondary schools, which as
Mackenzie (2009) highlights, include:

Raising Teenagers’ Global
Awareness via
Extensive
Reading

•

absence of literate print environments
due to insufficient resources

•

lack of good models of reading from
English teachers (as many as 80% are
non-English language graduates)

•

limited teacher training without focus
on developing learners’ literacy skills

This was the context for my previous post as
Head of Young Learner Programmes at British
Council, Bangkok where I approached the task of
enabling Thai young learners to read extensively.
Focus groups with parents / carers who enrolled
their children in after-school and weekend English
courses indicated they were very keen to see
tangible improvements in their children’s reading
skills for the following specific purposes:
•

an increase in Content and Language
Integrated Learning (CLIL) - reflected
in a growing number of university subjects taught through English medium

•

a good IELTS score required for further / higher education abroad and for
some Thai university programmes

•

to play a meaningful part in world business

•

to access knowledge and interact
online

By David Valente

Socio-cultural / wider educational background These reasons are shared by many parents / carers worldwide and being a ‘good reader’ is clearly
essential to being a key player in today’s globalIn early 2008, I took a 10-hour bus trip from
ised world, where English has become a lingua
Bangkok to Nongkhai, in the north-east of Thaifranca (Jenkins, 2007) for educational advanceland. During the journey, I curiously glanced
ment and international business, as Ellis (2004:1)
around to see how many of the travellers on the
maintains, “to be active and informed citizens our
full coach were reading, and, if so, what materipupils need reading skills.” As English teachers
als. I noticed quite a few texting on their mobiles,
of young learners, I believe it is crucial that we
others skimming newspapers while I (the only
take our broader ‘educator’ remit seriously and
non Thai onboard) was the sole person reading a
act as agents of change to enable our learners to
book. This anecdotal example confirmed what I
15

participate in the highly competitive global market.
M a in st r e a m in g
‘G lo b a l
Aw a r en e s s ’
The remit I refer to above is closely linked to the
British Council’s goal to increase the use of English as a tool for international communication and
intercultural understanding which also includes
encouraging respect for human rights and democratic values. For me, this involves increasing
learners’ ‘global awareness’ via three key
strands:
•

international view

•

global citizenship

•

intercultural dialogue

I have adopted the following ‘working definitions’
of the above concepts to concretise and make
them directly applicable to the classroom context:

International View

The world in which we all live is a world of
differences – differences within cultures as
well as differences between cultures. Intercultural dialogue acknowledges that differences
exist and seeks to develop mutual trust and
understanding between people with diverse
opinions, viewpoints and values.

To develop these three strands I applied the British Council’s “mainstreaming” approach by embedding key aspects of global awareness
throughout the English language syllabus. We
cannot lose sight of the fact that we are first and
foremost language teachers and, rather than delivering one-off, stand alone lessons on aspects
of global awareness, we need to build them into
the language and skills focus of a lesson series.
In this way, learners are developing their linguistic
ability while simultaneously increasing their global
awareness. This follows the principles of up-todate thinking on how children learn and contemporary YL teaching, including cross-curricular and
whole-learning approaches. Embedding global
awareness within language and skills focus also
ensures challenging issues around equality and
diversity, for example, are presented within the
scope of the learners – according to their ages
and language levels.

This encompasses what Ellis (ibid:2) calls
“universal themes” which challenge learners to
play with ideas and feelings and address important issues.
These include climate change,
friendship and tolerance, love, family, loneliness,
personal and cultural identity, gender, ethnicity,
sexual orientation, disability, religion or belief and
age.
To exemplify how this worked in actual classroom
practice, I will outline a lesson series I used while
Global Citizenship
teaching an Intermediate level teen class at British Council, Bangkok between 2007-8.
According to Oxfam Education (2008:2) the
Global Citizen is someone who:
My class profile

● is aware of the wider world and has a sense of My class consisted of fourteen Thai female and
their own role as a world citizen
male teenagers aged between 12 and 14. As a
result of parental / carer pressure, they attended
● respects and values diversity
English class throughout the academic year every
Friday evening after a long week at school. Per● has an understanding of how the world works
haps not surprisingly, they lacked motivation and
interest in the set coursebook which did not ap● is outraged by social injustice
peal to their ages or cultural backgrounds. Both
● participates in the community at a range of lev- informal oral feedback (during reflective reviews)
els, from the local to the global
and formal written feedback (during mid course
surveys) indicated they preferred a more ‘fun’
● is willing to act to make the world a more equi- approach to learning related to their interests
table and sustainable place
which they identified as sports, music, celebrity
lives, ICT and design. All members of the group
● takes responsibility for their actions
stated that they were not very interested in literature or reading texts in general. This lack of interest is highlighted by Ellis (ibid) who explains how,
“some [learners] may be reluctant readers in their
Intercultural Dialogue
first language so tackling a novel in a foreign language with perhaps 200 or so pages of dense
For the British Council (2008:3), intercultural dialogue recognizes that:
16

ext, no illustrations and many unfamiliar words
can be daunting.”

terial. I also incorporated these principles forwarded by Ellis (ibid:5):

I was therefore faced with the multi-layered challenge of meeting their parents / carers’ expectations of improved reading skills; my pedagogical
obligation to enable my learners to access reading materials and inspire them to read for pleasure; my educator remit to raise their global awareness, all the while making sure the lessons remained fun and relevant to my teens’ interests…
I’m sure this is a familiar scenario for those of you
who teach teenagers worldwide!

Pupils have to be stimulated to recognise the
value of bringing their own expectations and
experiences to bear … Opinions and interpretations must vary, and their exchange and
evaluation is a vital part of the interactive
learning process, involving language development, cultural awareness and growth in overall educational terms.

An integrated approach

The web on the next page shows the broad areas
I selected as springboards for activities and these
can be applied flexibly and adapted to suit any
materials. It also depicts how the three strands of
global awareness I mentioned earlier have been
‘mainstreamed’ throughout the reading materials
in an integrated manner. However, as Read
maintains, while this is a valuable tool for initial
planning, (ibid):

Clearly then, for my ‘reluctant readers’ a highly
creative approach to fostering good reading habits was required. Given that my ultimate goal was
to encourage my learners to read for pleasure
and select their own books outside of the classroom I needed to set up thorough “scaffolding”
inside to make this an achievable reality. According to Read (2008:6):
… scaffolding is a temporary construct which
can be put up, taken down, reinforced and
strengthened, or dismantled piece by piece
once it is no longer needed, and as children
[and teenagers] develop language and skills
which enable them to act in an increasingly
competent, confident and independent way.

As they were reticent to work with contemporary
teenage novels, I quickly realised that my selection of extensive reading materials could not be
confined to written texts and needed to incorporate the interests they expressed during needs
analysis and feedback to be sufficiently engaging
and build confidence. Ellis (ibid:5) argues that,
“we need to recognise the value of any media
that enhances or encourages reading” and with
this principle in mind, I decided, rather than starting with extracts from books, I would draw on a
range of teen-relevant media as scaffolds, including DVD versions of books, teen blogs, webquests, social networking sites, animations etc. I
then developed the framework on the following
page to plan a syllabus around extensive reading
materials using Read’s (2007:237) topic-web approach. The methodology I adopted can be characterised by what Ellis (ibid) refers to as “reader
centred” where activities provide plenty of opportunities in class for learners to discuss and write
collaboratively about their personal responses to
the reading materials. In my experience, these
individual interpretations are absolutely essential
in enabling learners to raise their global awareness surrounding the issues embodied in the ma17

In order to develop a coherent learning sequence, the activities need to be planned in
detail and ordered in a logical way. This involves linking them so that each activity consolidates and builds on what is to follow…
[learners] experience a seamless series of
classroom events. The activities lead progressively to new learning in a way which is both
challenging and achievable.

A Flexible Framework for Syllabus Planning

songs, raps
and chants

intercultural

language

dialogue

systems
global citizenship

international
view
Extensive
Reading Material

teamworking

drama /
role plays

a reading
challenge

DVD / ICT links
language

art, craft and
projects

skills

If you are interested in using some of the teaching
materials mentioned in this article, please content British Council (2008) Intercultural Dialogue Booklet http://
David directly at :
www.britishcouncil.org/new/Global/
intercultural_dialogue_booklet.pdf

[email protected]
Biodata
David Valente is a tutor for the Cambridge ESOL
CELTYL / CELTA awards. He is currently a Senior Trainer on a CLIL project with British Council,
Qatar. His special interests include whole language learning and intercultural dialogue in ELT.

BritLit website: http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/try/
resources/britlit
Cattell, B. & Agard, J. (2006) Butter Finger Frances Lincoln
Dhami, N. (2004) Bend It Like Beckham Welcome Rain
Publishers
Ellis, G. (2004) Motivating lower secondary pupils to read In
English! British Council magazine for teachers of English in
Portugal
INDIE website: http://www.britishcouncil.org/indie
Jenkins, J. (2007) English as a Lingua Franca: Attitude and
Identity Oxford University Press
Mackenzie, A. (2009) CLILing Me Softly in Thailand: Collaboration, Creativity and Conflict Onestopclil CLIL Teacher
Magazine http://www.onestopclil.com/section_magazine.asp?
catid=79 Retrieved: 28/2/09

References
British Council (2009) Equal Opportunities and Diversity The Handbook for Teachers of English
www.teachingenglish.org.uk/try/resources/books/equalopportunities-diversity-handbook

Oxfam Education (2008) Global Citizenship A Guide for
Schools:
http://www.oxfam.org.uk/education/gc/files/
education_for_global_citizenship_a_guide_for_schools.pdf
Read, C. (2007) pp 236-239. 500 Activities for the Primary
Classroom Macmillan Education
Read, C. (2008) Scaffolding children’s learning through story
and drama IATEFL Young Learner

18

Lesson Plan Section

Teaching
Human Rights
with Children
By Claudia Connolly
Why the story book?
Story telling is a shared, whole class event which
engages children’s attention and imagination.
They can also develop language skills in a holistic
way. The story book is flexible to different intelligences and learning styles and it can bring embedded social values to the heart of the classroom. It works with aspects of emotional intelligence – that of relating to others and this lesson
plan shows how empathy can be encouraged.
The following lesson plan uses the book:

19

‘We are all born free’ is an illustrated Declaration
of Human Rights for Children. All the royalties
from the sale of this book go to Amnesty International.

Lesson Plan
Learning Objectives
Grammar:

We are all different but we all have
the same needs

To understand and use:
I need / So do I
Social :
To show empathy towards others.
To grow respect for difference and diversity.
To build strategies for conflict prevention.
To develop critical thinking and understand different view points.
Vocabulary:
Everyday needs: a home, family, clean water, clothes, school and a hospital

Activity one (Plenary)

20

Ask students to look at the two illustrations
from, ‘We are all born Free’ and elicit some
ideas and vocabulary from the images.
Prompt answers from features in the illustrations; a home, family, clean water, clothes,
school and a hospital .Let the students give
you a range of vocabulary, including personal
objects, let them have fun with this and evoke
some of their favourite toys.

Students stand up and make a circle. Explain
to students to take it in turns to step into the
circle and say what they need, recalling items
they saw in the illustrations Peace and Home.
Once a student has stepped into the circle
invite other students who have the same need
to step into the circle too and say: I do too!

Questions:

Example:I need my family. Invite all the students who have the same need to step into
the circle and say: so do I!

Peace

Continue:

What can you see?

I need my dog! So do I !

What colours can you see?

I need my friends! So do I!

Do you like the picture?

At the end of the activity explain that ‘we are
all different but we all have the same needs’.

Home
What can you see?

Any comments or suggestions about the above
lesson plan, I would be pleased to hear from you:

What sort of homes can you see?
Biodata
Do you like the picture?
What do we all need?
Activity Two (Circle Time)

Claudia Connolly MA Education. She is a
trained primary English language teacher and
materials writer. She teaches children at the British Council in Paris.

Circle time is a democratic and creative ap- [email protected]
proach developed by Jenny Mosley in which
the whole class sits in a circle to look at issues or problems which can include personal,
social, moral and health education. It can explore relationships, feelings, reflections and
emotions. In L1 discuss the rules. The rules
aim to ensure emotional safety for the children, making sure they feel safe to participate
without fear of ridicule and not forced to
speak. It also structures participation and listening. Three basic rules:

•

Only one person speaks at a time and others must listen.

•

You can pass if you don’t want to speak
about something.

•

Show respect for everyone at all times.

(You might want to extend this activity to designing a poster as a visual reminder for the
class) .

21

The Doctor
Lukman

“That is good advice. In gratitude for it I will instruct you of the most sure remedy for a headache. As soon as you have a headache, lie down
on a highway, rolling yourself into a ball, pressing
your head to the ground and closing your eyes.
Simply lie motionless, trying to sleep, not paying
attention to anything. After about an hour the
headache will pass completely.”

By Michael Berman
“Thank you friend”, said the snake, and it crawled
into the bushes, in order to instruct all the snakes
of the remedy for headaches.

Man had hardly appeared in the world, before he
began to think how not to die of hunger, how to
get warm on a bitterly cold day and how to find
medicine against illness. The more people there This is why snakes, even today, after rolling
were, the more illness appeared.
themselves into a ball, settle themselves in the
middle of the road; and people, creeping up to
them, kill them.
So, around that time, there also appeared a doctor by the name of Lukman. He conceived the
idea of relieving the suffering of people, of finding
a remedy for illness. Lukman searched for various medicinal herbs and roots in the fields, in the
ravines, along banks of rivers and streams, and in
mountain pastures. For the healing of wounds he
found akhurbgits (plantain), for the treatment of
Siberian ulcers, ashkhardan (a medicinal root),
for the relief of malaria, adjakva (a winter multiflowered plant), and he discovered the medicinal
properties of a great many other herbs. With flowers, with leaves, with roots he cured people of all
kinds of ailments. There was only one that he did
not know about: how to cure a toothache.

On one occasion a snake crawled to him and began to beg him, “I frequently have terrible headaches, cure me!” Lukman agreed to help him, but
at the same time he asked whether he knew a
remedy for toothache. “If it is not possible to
soothe the tooth with medicine, then it is necessary to pull it out, since there is nothing worse
than this suffering”, answered then snake.

On one occasion, Lukman, after pelting rain,
wanted to get across a river which was a swollen
torrent. The narrow little bridge, thrown across it,
was slippery, since the water was coming up
through the cracks from below. Lukman slipped
and fell into the river. With difficulty he managed
to clamber out on to dry ground. Most of the
medicines, which he was carrying with him, were
lost, and only a few items were deposited by the
current on to the bank. Lukman gathered up the
surviving medicines, and with them he cures people even to this day.

The story was taken from Bgazhba, Kh.S.
(1985) Abkhazian Tales, Translated from the
Russian, with new Introduction by D.G. Hunt.
(Russian edition published by Alashara Publishing House, Sukhumi). The collection can be
found in the University College of London library,
and it was donated to the library by the translator.

Notes for Teachers
“Yes, I understand”, said Lukman, “but the trouble
is that I do not know with what and how one
ought to pull the teeth”.

Pre-listening: Have you ever stopped to ask yourself why illnesses exist? Once upon a time there
was a cure for every known illness but unfortu“You can pull a tooth with something similar to my nately many of them got lost. How did this come
head, with a contraption that would be able to about? In groups write a story to explain how this
open and close”.
happened.

22

Post-listening: What alternative remedies do you
know of for some of the everyday illnesses and
complaints that people suffer from? Working in
small groups, make a list of them. Then make
sentences about them using the structure IS (or
ARE) BELIEVED/ CLAIMED/SAID/SUPPOSED/
THOUGHT/ TO BE. For example: Guarana from
the Amazon is said to give you an energy boost
and drinking camomile tea is claimed to be a
good cure for a hangover.

***

Michael Berman BA, MPhil, PhD (Alternative
Medicines) works as a teacher and a writer. Publications include A Multiple Intelligences Road to
an ELT Classroom and The Power of Metaphor
for Crown House, and The Nature of Shamanism
and the Shamanic Story for Cambridge Scholars
Publishing. Shamanic Journeys through Daghestan and Shamanic Journeys through the Caucasus are both due to be published in paperback
by O-Books in 2009. Michael has been involved
in teaching and teacher training for over thirty
years, has given presentations at Conferences in
more than twenty countries, and hopes to have
the opportunity to visit many more yet. For more
information, please visit

www.Thestoryteller.org.uk

23

Place your
advert
here

Book Review

A course book
for the Chinese
market
By Xiaobing Wang
The “New Standard English” series are the
most popular English textbook for primary
and middle school students in China. The
first eight books for senior school students
are compulsory teaching materials for the
senior high students. The eight books for
senior schools have some problems in regard to equal opportunities and diversity.
Firstly, 80% of the materials in these books
are about the United States and Britain, and
none is about Africa or any other developing
countries in Asia except China. In one typical
case, a module called “War and Peace”, the
reading passages are “WWII Normandy
Landing” and “Saving Private Ryan”, as well
as a speech by Winston Churchill without
mentioning any other countries or events.
Secondly, religions in the world and China
are missing in the textbooks. Christianity is
closely related to the development of English. And world religions and belief systems
are also critical issues in today's world. Students should be exposed to these issues for
a better understanding of global issues.
Finally, the publishing company offers online
audio and video materials and PPT for
teachers to download. But a considerable
number of the teachers outside urban centers don't have the internet access and can’t
make use of those supporting materials.
In a word, both of the policy makers and publishing companies need to take equal opportunities and diversity into account for the
benefit of the teachers and students.
24

Publisher: Foreign Language Teaching and
Research Press ISBN：7-5600-4304-6/
G.2228

Biodata
Xiabing Wang's is studying an MA in
TESOL, in the Institute of Education,
University of London. She is currently
executive officer in the Students’ Union
and chair of the TESOL SOCIETY in IOE.
Before coming to London, she taught
English in secondary schools in China
for 8 years. She is a member of IATEFL
and was invited to give a presentation
on ‘Dilemmas Facing Chinese Female
English Teachers’ at IATEFL, Exeter, the
article was later published in the VOICE
magazine.

Getting it Right,
British Council and Global Issues Sig

diversity-and-equal-opportunity-elt-

British Council Symposium on
Equal Opportunity and Diversity
in ELT: Getting it Right - took
place on 20/21 February 2009 at
the British Council, Spring Gardens in London - This symposium
brought together managers, leaders and
practitioners from the UK and around the
world to discuss and share understandings
for new perspectives in ELT. We have included here summaries of the four principle
speakers during the symposium, kindly put
together by Xiabing Wang.
You can find the talks as video clips online
http://iatefl.britishcouncil.org/2009/voices-

25

signature-event
Session 1: Fiona Bartels-Ellis OBE –
Head of Equal Opportunity and Diversity,
British Council

•

Session 2: Fiona Bartels-Ellis OBE –
Head of Equal Opportunity and Diversity,
British Council

•

Session 3: Dr Catherine Walter – Senior Lecturer in Education, Institute of Education, London

•

Session 4: Chris Lima – Hornby
Scholar, University College of St Mark & St
John, Plymouth

•

Session 5: Adrian Underhill – Consultant &
Series Editor, Macmillian Books for Teachers

Interviews: You can also listen to recorded buy-in from ELT practitioners, culture sensitivity, and lack of guidance or support such
comments from a selection of delegates
as absence of EO&D in training and coursebooks. The good news is that the British
Council has introduced the ‘Diversity Assessment Framework’ (DAF) in order to monitor
EO and D in its ELT operations.

Session 1and 2

Equal Opportunity and
Diversity in ELT - the legal,
ethical and organisational
framework

Fiona Bartels Ellis is Head of Equal Opportunity and Diversity at the British Council. She
is a member of the Higher Education Academy and the Professional Mediators Association. In 2002 Fiona received a Mainstreaming Diversity Award from the European Federation of Black Women Business
Owners and in June 2005 was awarded an
OBE at the Queen’s Birthday Honours for
her equality and diversity work. In July 2008
she won the Ghana Professional Achievers
(GPA) Award for humanitarian services to
the UK and Ghana.

Fiona offered 10 case studies relevant to
EO&D issues for group discussion. It generated considerable reflex ion and highlighted
the complexity of the subject. Finally, Fiona
concludes that the promotion of EO&D is a
process rather than an event.

Session 3
Equal Opportunity and
Diversity in ELT
—connecting with Disability

Catherine Walter is a Lecturer in Education
and an Equal Opportunities Coordinator at
the Institute of Education, University of London (IOE), as well as a writer of awardwinning
English
language
teaching
In this talk, Fiona firstly reveals the definition books. She won the ‘Higher Education
of ‘Equal Opportunity and Diversity Academy National Teaching Fellow’ in 2008.
(EO&D).In the field of ELT, ‘equal opportunity’ responds to the discrimination of special Catherine delves into the legal and social
groups and ‘diversity’ concerns a range of definitions of ‘disability’, and points out the
differences. She also includes what EO and latter is not something inherited in the indiD is not: it is not about reducing standards, it vidual but barriers created by people’s interis not a distraction from more important is- action and environment which can prevent
sues, it is not about tokenism and political them from participating in activities. In that
correctness and it is not about removing our case, anyone might be referred as ‘disabled’
prejudices-it is about recognising that they in some specific context.
exist and then questioning them before we
act.
Catherine engaged wittily with the audience
in focused activities about the participants
The British Council’s frame work of EO&D related experience in real life, followed by a
consists of three strands: business, moral question time. The first activity was to ask
and legal, covering the dimensions of; sexual the audience to make a list of the kinds of
orientation, gender, religion or beliefs, ethnic- disabilities learners have had in their experiity, age, disability and work-life balance.
ence and discuss in 5 groups what sorts of
adjustments they have made for those learnFiona highlights the variety of elements con- ers. One question raised here was what if in
tributing to what is driving the EO&D agenda some countries, there aren’t any relevant
in ELT. Among others are the ever-changing laws available. Catherine suggested in that
global context, changing needs and expecta- situation, the government and organizations
tions of customers and staff, legislation and may possibly try to find some volunteers to
the managing of financial and reputational assist and help the disabled in local commurisk. Then some concrete challenges facing nities. The concern in the second activity
the EO&D agenda are elaborated, including
26

was about the recruiting for teacher training
courses. The audience was discussed when
was the appropriate time for the applicants to
disclose their disabilities. Finally it was
agreed that the applicants should have full
freedom to disclose their disability or not. We
can’t judge someone’s future. What we
should do is to assess their competence of
the course itself in some carefully designed
way and to encourage disclosure as early as
possible.
At the end of the talk, Catherine appeals for
more pressure on the curriculum designers
for teacher training courses in order to build
awareness and facilitate disabled learners
needs.

learners to identify with English in this world?
Chris scaffolds five aspects which help translate critical literacy into classroom practice.
Firstly, the relationship between teachers
and learners, materials and resources, understanding of language, global issues
knowledge, and teaching objectives and
practices.

Integrated with EO&D, critical literacy in the
classroom setting urges teachers to start
where the students are ‘at’. It combines language teaching with local and global issues,
at the same time offering open spaces and
open minds to make sure different voices are
heard.

Session 4

Some questions about the nature and the
management of the classroom were asked
after the group discussions. Chris responded
that every class is diverse and that teachers
should encourage learners to think and answer the possible problems rather than give
their own answers. Existing conflicts can
never be avoided, but we can try to facilitate
learners to discuss and negotiate the conflicts. At last Chris stresses that teachers
should be sensitive to their students’ needs.
The only criteria of the choice of topics in the
classroom is whether it is something benefiChris Lima is an active moderator of the
cial for both their language learning as well
IATEFL Literature, Media and Cultural Studas building humanist values.
ies SIG and of the Associação de Professores the Ingles do Rio Grande do Sul Discussion List. She is the Project Coordinator
of the BC ELT e-Reading Group and the editor of the Critical Literacy in ELT Project
Online Publications. Currently she is based
in Plymouth, Devon, in the south of west of
England where she is doing a Masters in
Trainer Development in ELT.

Equal Opportunity and Diversity in ELT
—connecting with critical literacy and classroom
practice

Session 5

Equal Opportunity and
Diversity in ELT

In this talk, Chris juxtaposes critical literacy
and EO&D. She underpins the way Global
changes go hand in hand with changes in
the nature of education. In this century, English, as a lingua Franca, is becoming a basic
skill for literacy in the world with huge implications. The definition of critical literacy Chris
employs is an educational practice which
emphasizes the relationship between language, social practice, citizenship, intercultural relations and global / local issues. As
ELT professionals, how can we prepare the
27

—bring enquiry and reflective approaches to teacher
training and practice
Adrian Underhill is a past-president of IATEFL
and founder of the IATEFL Teacher Development Group. He is also a consultant and coach in
leadership development, and Training Consultant
to the International Teacher Training Institute at
Embassy CES in the UK. He is series editor of
the ‘Macmillan Teacher Development Series’ of

handbooks for teachers.
To begin with, Adrian reflects on the framing of
EO&D as a leadership activity. He distinguishes
the post-heroic leadership as ‘influencing the
community to face its problems…’. In order to
fill in the gap between what people value and
what is actually happening, he emphasises the
need to hold open opportunities in order to encourage others to contribute. He reiterates
Wheatley’s belief that we should ‘depend’ on
diversity.
Adrian illustrates Bill Torbert’s idea of tour territories of experience which teachers can choose to
examine in their work development: values and
purposes, thinking and planning, actions and behaviours, and impacts and outcomes.
In regard to developing EO&D awareness and
commitment in teachers, Adrian formulates three
strategies. Firstly to get conversations going
among trainee teachers on whatever aspects of
EO&D have been experienced or have personal
meaning. Encourage reflection, discussion and
actions. Notice what is going on in the interaction, and especially something trivial in detail.
Last but not the least, develop a culture that
strives to be more richly informed and empathetic
regarding learner experience. Listen to the differences without immediate judgement or correctness.
Adrian proposes that in training rooms and
staffrooms people should surface assumptions
and recognize how they look at others, as well as
give insight on how they are different from others. Adrian refines the teachers’ role as a facilitator, challenging situations under the principles of
empathy, acceptance and congruence.

28

29

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30