Wednesday 12 January 2011

About 'Controversies In ELT'

'Controversies In ELT' is both a title and an attitude of mind. Whereas the main focus is on issues relating to English Language Teaching, my aim has always been to go to beyond the normal remit of the ELT author and investigate areas at the fringes of current practice as well as to question some of the time-honoured axioms on which modern language teaching is based.

The book of the same title explores a number of these issues, ranging from the death of the communicative approach and the fallacy of the native speaker teacher to the use of word set maps in language teaching and the birth of the fractal approach, but language teaching is such a vast and varied field that other controversies rage.

Or at least they should.

In my view, language teachers should constantly question the assumptions on which their work is based; improvement comes from debate and controversies fuel that debate.

I therefore urge all language teachers to:

- constantly strive for improvement
- practice critical thinking
- question the nature of their role
- go beyond expectations
- seek the controversial.

Links
Controversies in ELT (book): http://amzn.to/ekmvEh
Controversies in ELT (info): http://www.controversies-in-elt.com/

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