Editorial

As we gear up for the main season of conferences here in Japan, I decided to have a think about what I’d ideally like to get from the conference fairy:

New collaborators – I’ve been looking for and continue to look for other teacher/researchers who share a passion for exchanging ideas, working together on classroom research projects, stretching themselves in new directions and building long-term friendships. Specifically, I’m interested in the following areas:

• Fluency in EFL
• TOEFL iBT
• Classroom research
• Learner Autonomy
• Teaching Unplugged

Time to talk – It seems that most of the shop talk takes place after hours, with a beer in one hand, and music filling the room and my brain. I would like more time in sessions to brainstorm and share ideas. Assuming that colleagues at the same presentation share the same interest in that topic, it would be wonderful to have more discussion type sessions, perhaps facilitated by the main presenter.

Opportunities to bond – Months after a conference, I rarely look back at a particular session that I went to, and I almost never have reason to talk about them. However, I often reminisce about things I did with others: dinners, karaoke, sports activities, or collaborations in studying, writing or planning events. These are where the memories remain alive.

Inspiration – Thinking back over the past 4 or 5 years, only two or three presentations or workshops have really inspired me to take action in any significant way: to change something or introduce something new into my teaching. Of course, I make changes every year, but most of those changes come from reading or collaborating online. It would be nice to meet some more inspirational speakers at language teaching conferences.

New types of events – Two close friends went to a recent conference in the States. Neither of them new that the other one was there, but they both contacted me from the conference, telling me that they were overwhelmed (happily) with meeting people who wanted to connect with others. They both said they had never felt this at any conference to that point. Sounds great to me! And it made me wonder if we could have a Collaborators Corner or a Connect over Coffee section set up explicitly for those who want to find like-minded souls.

As I keep learning over and over again, there are different strokes for different folks, so I wonder what you’d like to get from upcoming conferences this season?

Here’s what’s on MY radar (sorry to others):

Sept 17-20 MASH JALT Equinox 2010 in Tokyo (Thornbury/Nation/Helgesen et al)
Sept 23 ETJ-JALT Equinox 2010 in Kita-Kyushu (Thornbury)
Sept 25 MASH JALT Equinox 2010 in Osaka (Thornbury/Nation et al)
Sept 26 27th Annual Hokkaido Conference (Thornbury)
Oct 16-17 The 2010 PAC-KOTESOL International Conference
Oct 31 The 5th JALT Joint Tokyo Conference 2010
Nov 6-7 The 31st Tokyo English Language (TEL) Book Fair and ELT EXPO
Nov 19-22 JALT 2010: 36th Annual International Conference
Nov 28 ETJ Kansai Expo

School administrators want to hire good teachers. Parents want to find good teachers for their children. Students prefer to have classes with good teachers. Teachers want to be good teachers.

But, what is a good teacher? It might depend on who you ask.

Teachers say that they attend conferences and workshops because they want to become better teachers. They want to learn new and innovative techniques to become more effective English teachers. They continue to study English in order to develop a deeper understanding of their subject. So, a good teacher is skilled and knowledgeable.

School administrators (at least in private language schools) want to hire teachers who can attract and retain students. Sometimes this is a case of skillful teaching, but often it's also in combination with personal characteristics that students find appealing. So, a good teacher has charisma.

Parents want teachers who will help their children develop as skillful language users (and perhaps pass exams), but they also want their children to look forward to attending class each week. So, a good teacher is a juggler.

Children want a teacher who is friendly and fun, and doesn’t give too much homework. So, a good teacher is entertaining.

Carl Rogers, an American psychologist, identified three core teacher characteristics of effective teachers:

Authenticity
Being yourself in the classroom, not hiding behind your ego or job title.

Respect
Knowing that each student has value, without being judgmental.

Empathy
Understanding your students, understanding their lives, trying to see things from their perspective.

Who’s right? Are the qualities of a “good” teacher universal? Does it matter whether we’re teaching English in a high school or in a language school? Does it change if we’re teaching children, or university students, or business people? And where does a teaching degree or certificate fit into the picture?

What do you think it means to be a good teacher?

Check in every weekend for a new editorial by David, Steven, Theron or me. We love your interest in EFL and your comments!

I’ve been reading Writing for Scholarly Publication: Behind the Scenes in Language Education, and have been struck by the number of established scholars in the book who share their initial reticence and apprehension regarding the task of academic publishing. Out of the 14 chapters I’ve read so far, only one of the writers shares how he feels empowered, and not disempowered, when seeking publication. Without exception the others share the obstacles they had to overcome, internal and external, in their initial efforts toward scholarly publication. Several even voice their continuing sense of insecurity regarding the practice.

Perhaps part of the story is explained by the fact that the 13 authors who express insecurity are representative of groups that are traditionally underrepresented in academia. They are female, Asian, immigrant, non-traditional, or a combination of several of those. The one writer who doesn’t express a sense of disempowerment is American, male, and white.

I think this says quite a bit about where academia was, where it is, and where it is going. It’s unquestionable that access to academic discourse in the past has been restricted to an arbitrary few, and that those few who benefited (and still benefit) from that privilege take the relative ease of their access for granted. But it’s also true that recently the demographics of those with access to publishing has shifted considerably. It is now much more representative of the authors featured in Writing for Scholarly Publication; there are many more women, minorities, and nontraditional students in academia now.

One thing I still feel is missing, though, is that the dissemination of knowledge remains represented by a central source shining outward rather than an interwoven net. Western countries’ journals tend to hold more clout, and the interests and evaluations of their editors and reviewers hold sway over researcher access to their pages, and thus to the legitimacy those journals embody.

While this bothers me in general on several levels, with respect to language teaching in particular, I feel that many of the researchers who tend to have their papers published in major journals are distanced from the classroom, exploring issues of only vague pedagogical relevance to teachers in language classrooms. This lack of a practical perspective in many cases hurts the field in general, because language teachers feel the journals in the field are too distant from their contexts to be of relevance to them.

One way I’ve tried to shift the balance from theoretical to practical is to encourage teachers to publish research they’ve conducted that’s relevant to them and their context. It’s something I believe in so strongly I’ve included a full scholarship for one participant in the online course I teach, MASH Academic Publishing, in the belief that participants, regardless of income, should have access to the course and the benefits it may offer in helping to have their voice heard. My main objective in the course is to make the occluded process of academic publication transparent for those seeking entry into that world.

When thinking about whom we might like to write a book together with, I was amazed at all the cool people working in our unique EFL context. Here are over 100 people I like to read or hear opinions from:

Thanks especially to JALT, but also to ETJ, MASH Collaboration, Nakasendo, JACET and others for offering a forum for dedicated professional educators to show their stuff.

I haven’t met all of these people, but those who haven’t impressed me in person, have certainly shone in their writing in journals or on blogs, facebook or twitter. It only takes a moment to recognize good people.

If your name is not on the list, I apologize. I did the list off the top of my head - just thinking back to all the events I've attended and the things I've read since deciding to jump into the EFL conversation seriously back in 2006. I'll post the next 100 people sometime next year.

So, whose thoughts and ideas would you like to read? This list could be based on their experience teaching EFL, their writing ability, their innovations, their presentations, or any number of factors.

Check in every week for new thoughts from Theron, Barbara, David or myself – we really love to hear from you.

When you're trying to connect with other teachers in social networks, how private is too private? How accessible is too accessible?

On the one hand, if you stay too private, it's hard to make new friends. If you make yourself too accessible, then spammers and hackers will also find you. So, how can we be open enough to make new friends and protect ourselves from spam and viruses?

I haven't found a simple answer, but I have come up with a few simple guidelines that work for me.

Use the same common sense online that you use with email.

We're suspicious of links we get in email messages. We delete messages from people we don't know. We scan attachments before opening them. We need to do the same with messages we receive through social networks. Friends don't usually send friends links in private messages without some sort of explanation.

Check shortened website addresses before opening links.

Short URLs make it easy to share links, but difficult to know where those links might lead. It's always a good idea to check the original address before clicking on a link. Some programs have a built in function to preview websites, but you can always copy and paste a short URL into Sucuri Security and get the real URL and see where the link will take you, and decide whether or not you want to go there.

Avoid online games and quizzes that ask for your ID and password.

This is a tough one, and I know teachers who enjoy playing games on social sites, and even use the games for language teaching. But I don't feel comfortable with programs that ask for access to my friends, or my private information.The main point is to be informed so that we can choose the balance between privacy and accessibility that works best for us. The ACLU has an interesting quiz if you ever want to see what kind of information quizzes can access: What Facebook Quizzes Know about You. (The ACLU has a privacy policy that prevents them from using any of the information they access--their quiz is an educational tool.)

What about you? How have you found a balance between privacy and access? What tips can you share to help us enjoy the benefits of social networking, but still stay safe?

Check in every weekend for a new editorial by David, Steven, Theron or me. We love your interest in EFL and your comments!

• Adults
• Barbara's editorial (4)
• David's editorial (27)
• Kids
• Steven's editorial (5)
• Teacher development (1)
• Theron's editorial (4)

• Conference Season Begins
• The Good Teacher
• Revealing hidden voices
• Teaching and Learning: It's all about the People
• The Balance Between Online Privacy and Online Access
• Pursuing a fluency based methodology
• Pressing Issues in EFL Japan
• The last chance to take the one-day certificate course
• The Connected Teacher
• The difficulties of teacher on the job training (OJT)

• The Good Teacher
    - Matt Elzweig
    - Barbara Sakamoto
  
• Revealing hidden voices
    - Barbara Sakamoto
    - Steven Herder
    - Colin Graham
    - Theron Muller
  
• Pressing Issues in EFL Japan
    - Bob Sanderson
    - Michael Stout
    - Steven Herder
    - Steven Herder
    - Chuck Sandy
    - Steven Herder
    - Barbara Sakamoto
    - Steven Herder
  
• Pursuing a fluency based methodology
    - steven Herder
  
• The Connected Teacher
    - Marisa Pavan
    - Barbara Sakamoto
  
• Fluency in EFL
    - David
    - Barbara Sakamoto
    - Steven Herder
    - Phil
  
• The difficulties of teacher on the job training (OJT)
    - Phil
    - Theron Muller
  
• The regeneration of the language school industry in Japan
    - Steven Herder
    - David Juteau
    - Paul
    - James Hart
    - Mark
    - Vick L. Ssali
  
• Giving a presentation
    - Mike Bagosy
  
• Online Adventures of a Not-So-Techie Teacher
    - Theron Muller
    - Barbara Sakamoto
    - Anna Pires
    - Barbara Sakamoto
    - Michael Gorman
    - carla arena
    - Barbara Sakamoto
    - Barbara Sakamoto