http://www.eltnews.com/editorial/ en Copyright 2010 Sat, 31 Jul 2010 09:00:00 +0900 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 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! ]]> http://www.eltnews.com/editorial/2010/07/the_good_teacher.html http://www.eltnews.com/editorial/2010/07/the_good_teacher.html Sat, 31 Jul 2010 09:00:00 +0900 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.]]> http://www.eltnews.com/editorial/2010/07/revealing_hidden_voices.html http://www.eltnews.com/editorial/2010/07/revealing_hidden_voices.html Teacher development Theron's editorial Sat, 17 Jul 2010 09:00:00 +0900 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.]]> http://www.eltnews.com/editorial/2010/07/teaching_and_learning_its_all_1.html http://www.eltnews.com/editorial/2010/07/teaching_and_learning_its_all_1.html Steven's editorial Sun, 04 Jul 2010 21:40:28 +0900 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! ]]> http://www.eltnews.com/editorial/2010/06/_p_common_sense_with.html http://www.eltnews.com/editorial/2010/06/_p_common_sense_with.html Barbara's editorial Sat, 19 Jun 2010 20:00:00 +0900 Steve and I are currently working on has involved clarifying for myself just what we mean by a fluency-based approached to teaching English, and what that could look like in the classroom. Having gone through this process of defining and refining what I conceive fluency in the classroom to be with the other editors and authors on the project, I think those thoughts are ready to share with others interested in EFL teaching and research. The conclusions we’ve come to is that in a fluency-oriented classroom the focus is on students understanding and processing language extensively, or with a focus on meaning and understanding, rather than intensively, with focus on form and formal lexicogrammatical rules. The practical classroom implications can be understood by considering how here in Japan the majority of language education is intensive, focusing on sentence and grammatical structure. This leaves students at a loss when they are expected to use or consume language outside of the classroom, as comprehension of grammatical rules does little to help students read a fiction novel, for example. By contrast, one of the fluency-based approaches that largely has its origins in Japan is extensive reading. Using the example of novels, the foundation of the extensive reading philosophy is that there are genre and discourse organization rules that they follow and exposure to reading books written in that genre is critical to developing student ability to read and comprehend those books. Thus an important part of language education should involve encouraging students to read books written at their current language level in order to develop awareness of writing conventions. On our project so far, we've had two or three abstracts submitted dealing with this theme of evaluating the potential benefits of extensive reading, and are looking forward to reading how extensive reading influences the language abilities of students in some of those researches. Our concept for fluency--what we're calling a focus on fluency--is a focus on consumption or production of more text than has been included in language classrooms in many contexts to date. This is somewhat related to Nation's four strands, of which fluency is one. The question that remains unanswered is whether such focuses on fluency are effective in the classroom, and how to go about measuring fluency in research. We hope that our book project will address both of these, but are more interested in the former than the latter. As an example, the research I would like to include in the book investigates whether classroom time devoted to free writing increases the writing rates of my students. Our call for papers is closed, but if you are interested in joining this exciting project and feel you have some research to contribute, please feel free to contact me directly. All the best, Theron Muller Become a regular reader – new editorials every weekend]]> http://www.eltnews.com/editorial/2010/06/pursuing_a_fluency_based_metho.html http://www.eltnews.com/editorial/2010/06/pursuing_a_fluency_based_metho.html Theron's editorial Sun, 13 Jun 2010 17:14:51 +0900 1. EFL is not ESL There seems to be a growing awareness that ESL experts who have been flown in to conferences and training seminars over the past number of years have been toting a message that never quite fit with our context. There was always a sense of taking their advice and trying to fit a round peg into a square hole. As EFL Japan matures as its own distinct context, we are searching for more meaningful approaches in the classroom. The growth of Extensive Reading and various other fluency-related approaches are a positive step in that direction. 2. Balancing accuracy and fluency We often blame the university entrance testing system and its washback effect for the challenges in teaching English in Japan. However, rather than sighing shikataganai (it can’t be helped), it may be an innovative approach to look at promoting a better balance between accuracy and fluency. The six years at JSHS almost entirely focus on accuracy through a grammar-translation and intensive reading method. By comparison, challenging students to work on their fluency may be a timely and easy argument. That has been my experience with high school students as well as first year university students. There are always a lot of heads nodding whenever I ask, “Is your reading too slow?” or “Is it difficult to think and speak at the same time?” I’ve recently measured two areas of their fluency: speaking (words per minute) and reading (words per minute). Their speaking fluency ranged from 36 wpm–100 wpm, and that information gave them two valuable messages: 1) they realized where they were in relation to their classmates, and 2) they could easily set new goals for improvement. 3. Textbooks vs your own materials I’ve had this battle before, and yet, I’m having it again. Once you know the goals of a course, and familiarize yourself with what’s available in published textbooks, is the only justification for continuing to use textbooks the fact that they save prep time? If you invest time to prepare your own materials, does that emotional commitment mean that textbooks don’t stand a chance by comparison? My students are pretty sophisticated, veteran students. Last week, they encouraged me to teach them things that I valued in life, not the academic essays on pruning, irrigation and geothermal energy that we’ve encountered in textbooks this year. What do you think are some pressing issues for language teachers in Japan?]]> http://www.eltnews.com/editorial/2010/06/pressing_issues_in_efl_japan.html http://www.eltnews.com/editorial/2010/06/pressing_issues_in_efl_japan.html Steven's editorial Sun, 06 Jun 2010 12:27:12 +0900
In many countries there are one-month intensive training courses that lead to qualifications that are valued by language schools, but there is little demand for this kind of course in Japan. Most teachers cannot just come to Japan and take a one-month course before looking for work, and hardly anybody can take one month off from work to get better qualified.

This is why Oxford University Press and David English House started the one-day certificate course in teaching Japanese students about nine years ago. Just about everybody can take a Sunday off to attend, and can spare time to write up the assignment afterwards.

Unfortunately, even though the course has built up a tremendous reputation over the years, this June will be the last chance to take it. Thousands of teachers have now taken the course, and most attend once or twice. It is now time for us to start a new course that will be appropriate for those who have already taken the current one.

This year, the courses will be held in Tokyo on Sunday June 20th and in Osaka on Sunday June 27th. Click here for full information and to reserve a place..]]> http://www.eltnews.com/editorial/2010/05/the_last_chance_to_take_the_on.html http://www.eltnews.com/editorial/2010/05/the_last_chance_to_take_the_on.html David's editorial Mon, 31 May 2010 20:57:56 +0900 Online networks give us access to other ELT professionals. For example, when ETJ hosted Paul Nation for the Expo last year, conversations started with teachers at his workshops continued (via the Internet) long after he left Japan, resulting in a collaborative book project with MASH on Fluency in EFL. (The deadline to submit a paper to this project is May 31st.) Scott Thornbury got to know Japan-based teachers on Twitter months before his plenary at JALT 2010. The connections built prior to JALT created a relationship between speaker and audience that enhanced the actual event. Those connections are bringing Scott back to Japan this September for MASH Collaboration JALT Equinox 2010. These same types of connections also create informal opportunities for teachers around the world to share, collaborate, and create with each other on a daily basis. Online connections help classroom teachers get recognition they might not otherwise receive. Cyberspace is full of talented EFL teachers who have gained international recognition for contributions on their blogs, wikis, and websites. Online networks can help level the playing field in ELT. The Internet doesn't make these teachers amazing--it just gives us a chance to find them. One of the biggest efforts to recognize these teachers is Lexiophiles' annual Top 100 Language Blogs competition, which ends Monday, May 24th at midnight CET (Tuesday, 7 am here in Japan). My blog, Teaching Village, has been nominated in the Language Teaching category (along with a bunch of other great blogs--you can vote by following this link) If you are interested in language as a learner or teacher, the competition is an opportunity to discover some excellent blogs related to language teaching, technology, and learning. Check in every weekend for a new editorial by David, Steven, Theron or me. We love your interest in EFL and your comments! ]]> http://www.eltnews.com/editorial/2010/05/the_connected_teacher.html http://www.eltnews.com/editorial/2010/05/the_connected_teacher.html Barbara's editorial Sat, 22 May 2010 09:29:26 +0900 first editorial for ELT News when he reflected, “I shudder to think back to some of the meaningless hoops that I forced students to jump through while I was learning to be a teacher.” And I think that his experience is a rather common one—it reflects my own experience of learning to teach, and in many ways the experience I relive every time I start teaching in a new context. It takes at least one or two cycles of teaching—one or two semesters or years, depending on the course—before I have confidence in how I approach the course, the needs of my students, and what will work (and what won’t) with that group of learners in that context. Yet I wonder about the efficiency of this system. I very rarely teach a new course; it’s often the case that somebody preceded me in teaching the class, and yet I feel myself starting from scratch nevertheless; there is often very little contact with my predecessor, if any, and very little information conveyed from them to me. On a larger scale, I can count on one hand the number of teachers or administrators that have observed one of my lessons. And I can count on one hand the number of teachers whose lessons I’ve observed—and they’ve all been teachers who taught at my private language school. I’ve seen them go through the same difficulty I remember experiencing in orienting themselves toward the students and classes they teach. The concern I have for this common experience of new teachers is twofold—for students and for teaching as a profession. Without support from fellow faculty, potentially gifted teachers may decide to give up on the craft because they aren’t confident in their abilities to go it alone in discovering effective methodologies that work for them. At the same time, it takes one bad experience to turn students off from learning, even if they have years of otherwise positive experiences. And if it’s a reality that the majority of new teachers are going to be learning by trial and error, that means most students will have at least one relatively inexperienced teacher during the course of their studies. So what’s to be done? I’m a skeptic of calls for more time, money, or investment in teacher education. Not because I think that more resources devoted to the profession would be a bad thing, but because it gives the message that addressing this issue effectively is out of our hands as teacher practitioners. Instead, my feeling is that it’s up to individual teachers to help advance and improve the experiences of those new to the profession and their students. I think this means more experienced teachers being available for newer teachers, and for the development and maintenance of informal support groups, such as local ETJ-- or JALT chapters, where teachers can gather and share information about the craft of our profession. I also find that Twitter, as it provides a PLN, helps to fulfill some of these needs. But I don’t think I have the space here to thoroughly answer the issue I’ve raised, nor do I think the answer is the same for any two teachers. With this in mind, I’m curious about your feelings on the topic, and look forward to your comments. All the best, Theron Muller Become a regular reader – new editorials every weekend]]> http://www.eltnews.com/editorial/2010/05/the_difficulties_of_teacher_on.html http://www.eltnews.com/editorial/2010/05/the_difficulties_of_teacher_on.html Theron's editorial Sat, 15 May 2010 19:13:39 +0900 Collins English online dictionary, fluency is defined as: fluent (adj) 1. able to speak or write with ease, 2. spoken or written with ease, In all my online searches, fluency always turns up in relation to speaking or writing output, never as listening or reading input. However, here in Japan, it is widely agreed that the flourishing extensive reading boom is a great source of reading fluency practice, while EFL professionals such as Rob Waring are promoting extensive listening, and I have written my MA TEFL dissertation and presented on extensive writing for many of the same reasons. This topic is on my mind constantly these days. Not only because my colleagues and I have a call for submissions for a new book, Fluency in EFL, open until May 31st, but recently, I see all four skills coming together and benefitting from a fluency-based approach. Nation wrote a piece, Fluency and Learning, 20 years ago and I wonder why it hasn’t taken off or synthesized for more of my EFL colleagues? One major problem is trying to define fluency. No one seems to agree and it simply never ends (see 91 entries on Scott Thornbury’s blog). Linguists are lost on how to test for fluency and often get caught up in trying to measure pauses, hesitations and the like. Fluency also doesn’t get thought about very much in either the EFL or ESL worlds for very practical reasons: in EFL contexts, creating genuine situations for fluency practice to be real and meaningful is rather tricky, if not impossible; in the ESL world, students can get fluency practice opportunities 24/7 and so schools don’t even need to think about it. Undaunted, since April 2010, I’m now experimenting with a fluency-based approach within a TOEFL iBT preparation course at Doshisha Women’s College of Liberal Arts in the International Studies department. I am absolutely amazed at both my focus and the singular focus of the students within our curriculum. My fluency message, in contrast to the previous six years of accuracy focus, resonates strongly with my highly motivated and highly challenged students. In addition to a fluency approach towards reading, writing, listening and speaking, there is also a palpable understanding that other fluency-related skills are very important: so far speed-reading, touch-typing, efficient note-taking and timed exercises are all on my students’ radar. On Sunday, May 23rd, I’ll be presenting on Fluency in EFL at the JALT Pan-SIG 2010 conference. It promises to be provocative at the very least: I’ll share what I’ve been learning about fluency and even attempt my own definition of fluency for each of the four skills. I’ll also make a pitch for a strong fluency-based approach within a TOEFL iBT preparation course. Finally, I will invite my audience to thicken my skin a little with any opposing perspectives. Yikes… Come join me for a little professional development through collaboration. Check in every weekend here for new thoughts by three of my innovative colleagues and me. ]]> http://www.eltnews.com/editorial/2010/05/fluency_in_efl_1.html http://www.eltnews.com/editorial/2010/05/fluency_in_efl_1.html Steven's editorial Sat, 08 May 2010 11:49:33 +0900
But do these figures paint a true picture of the industry? It is certainly true that corporate ELT has declined rapidly. There is also little doubt that the number of adults studying at language schools is a shadow of what it was in the 1990's before the bubble burst, but there is every sign that ELT still has a lot of life in it at a local level.

There are far more children learning English at language schools than there were fifteen years ago, but while adults were willing to travel a reasonable distance to study at a school with a glossy sign in a prime location, many parents prefer their children to study as near home as possible. This is one of the factors that has led to the proliferation of small family-run schools. Another is that the large chain schools are outsiders in the community and have found it increasingly hard to compete with the local teacher who is known in the community and may have children at the local schools.

Where are all these local teachers coming from? There are over 5 times as many permanent residents now as there were in 1997! Another fundamental change began when the visa laws were changed in 1998 to allow native speakers to teach independently. This completely changed the rules of the game. Native English teachers were no longer obliged to work for one school in order to get a visa. The collapse of Nova accelerated this trend - some teachers who lost their jobs went independent - and the collapse of Geos will undoubtedly contribute to the same trend.

ETJ (English Teachers in Japan) alone boasts close to 1,500 small school owners as members, and the number is growing all the time. It is unlikely that many of the students at these schools are included in the Ministry's figures. A new wave of English schools is coming. They are in the community, and they are tapping into the Japanese tradition of learning from the local sensei.

David Paul]]> http://www.eltnews.com/editorial/2010/04/the_regeneration_of_the_langua.html http://www.eltnews.com/editorial/2010/04/the_regeneration_of_the_langua.html David's editorial Mon, 26 Apr 2010 17:37:09 +0900 TESOL's Electronic Village). I was immediately fascinated by the potential of social media for professional development. EFL can be an isolating profession, and anything that helps teachers connect is a winner in my mind. Learning about social media is like learning about language. The only way to understand how social media works is to use it. So, filled with visions of stolen identities and spam, I cautiously created my first online profiles and took my first baby steps into cyberspace. Suddenly I was on Facebook, Linked In, Google, Delicious, and Twitter. I found teacher blogs to follow, and joined even more Yahoo groups. At first it was overwhelming. Everything had a learning curve, and I was at the bottom of each one. But, each day, I met new teachers in different countries. My days began with discussions from my groups and a slew of new tools and resources from teachers on Twitter. I felt like a kid in the education candy store! Social media started to make sense. While I'd used the internet to stay in touch with people I already knew, now I was using it to connect with new people. Amazing people. Amazing people in education. It was like being at a never-ending teachers' conference, or being in a school staff room that's open 24 hours. Next, I started to blog. I had dreams of creating a community of EFL teachers, but secretly feared I'd be a community of one. Luckily, teachers online are really, really supportive and so far more than 25 teachers from 15 countries have added their voices to Teaching Village (including Steven and Theron!). I revived an old column for Teachers Learning with Children, but with a new slant on technology for teachers of young learners. I also gave my first technology-related workshops--about using social media for professional development, and ways to use high tech tools in low tech classrooms. Trying to embrace the openness that defines social media, I created a wiki so that I could make the presentations available after the workshop and to share other resources I found. Writing for ELT News is another first. I'm excited to have this opportunity and humbled to have been asked. The goal in sharing my online adventures is to encourage other teachers to give social media a try. If this not-so-techie teacher can learn how, anyone can! Steven's call is for us to dig deeper. Theron's is to collaborate. Mine is to connect. There's a world full of teachers learning together, attending conferences virtually, and collaborating internationally--just a mouse click away. See you in May. Until then, see you in cyberspace! Barbara Hoskins Sakamoto]]> http://www.eltnews.com/editorial/2010/04/online_adventures_of_a_notsote.html http://www.eltnews.com/editorial/2010/04/online_adventures_of_a_notsote.html Barbara's editorial Sat, 17 Apr 2010 21:22:28 +0900 Noah Learning Center, a private English school in Nagano, Japan and have been involved in editing for JALT's The Language Teacher and the Asian ESP Journal. I've been living and teaching in Japan since 2000, and have been active as a teacher-researcher since receiving my MA in TEFL/TESL from the University of Birmingham via distance education in 2004. As you can tell, I'm a wearer of many hats, but the perspective I would like to concentrate on in this column is that of my role in academic publishing. As both an author-researcher and editor-gatekeeper, I've experienced the challenges and benefits of publishing first-hand. Perhaps my greatest achievement to date was receiving the John Haycraft Classroom Exploration Scholarship, courtesy of International House London, which provided me with funding to conduct research on task-based language teaching in Japan and present the results of my research at IATEFL Cardiff in 2009. That experience drove home for me the fact that while the conversation and discussion surrounding the study of second language acquisition has largely been driven by "center" countries (primarily the USA and the UK), there is a greater openness to researchers and voices from more international contexts, such as Japan, and that it's up to those of us based in these international contexts to take advantage of these opportunities and ensure our voices are heard and our experiences shared. ELT News is one such venue through which to hear about the experiences of fellow teachers based in Japan, but in academic circles the conversation of teaching and learning is driven through academic publications, so while ELT News is an important start toward entering the conversation, I would also encourage you to consider academic publishing. Along those lines, I recently wrote a guest blog for Barbara Sakamoto's Teaching Village about how to get your start in Academic Publishing, and am currently teaching a course along the same theme. If you're interested in finding another venue for collaboration, please consider MASH Collaboration's Facebook page or visit our website. Thanks very much for your time and attention. For my next post in May, I hope to discuss the difficulties involved when teachers learn through on-the-job training, or learn how to teach through teaching. If you don't want to wait until May, you can read more about me and my experiences on my Blog or follow me on Twitter. ]]> http://www.eltnews.com/editorial/2010/04/april_2010_a_brief_autobiograp.html http://www.eltnews.com/editorial/2010/04/april_2010_a_brief_autobiograp.html Theron's editorial Sat, 10 Apr 2010 20:53:21 +0900 Memories: circa 1989 Back in 1989, teaching my small classes or private lessons was less about actually teaching and more about simply giving students some real practice time using English. I began teaching solo at a private junior & senior high school (JSHS) in 1992. The principal told me that a good teacher was strict, but kind. Within days, I realized that in any given class, about 20% of students hated English and they could really cause problems. Therefore, motivating students, learning classroom management and developing my own teaching technique were vitally important. I shudder to think back to some of the meaningless hoops that I forced students to jump through while I was learning to be a teacher. I also remember being told that as I became a better teacher, my students would naturally learn more. All that focus on me actually allowed everyone (including me) to ignore whether any actual learning was taking place in my classroom. My MA TEFL studies led me into a total paradigm shift. The focus is no longer on my teaching, but now entirely on their learning. I spend most of my energy observing classroom interaction (T-S, and S-S), getting them started on something and trying to stay out of the way as much as possible. For many of us, teaching means a never-ending commitment to learning. If you think that you want to get more out of teaching, then simply get more involved and go deeper. You’ll not only grow as a teacher but you’ll get more friends, more confidence and many more happy days at work. I’ve gotten more in the past 3 years through my involvement with the MA TEFL program at the University of Birmingham, ELT News, JALT and MASH Collaboration than I ever could have imagined. That’s why I’ve decided to get more involved here in ELT News. I’m hoping that I can make a bunch of new friends and colleagues in 2010. There are a number of ways to get involved with us: from simply reading around the website and sending in comments to starting your own new column. Make this your decade… Go deeper. Cheers, Steven Herder Become a regular reader – new editorials every weekend]]> http://www.eltnews.com/editorial/2010/04/april_2010_a_new_school_year_i.html http://www.eltnews.com/editorial/2010/04/april_2010_a_new_school_year_i.html Steven's editorial Fri, 02 Apr 2010 23:24:32 +0900

The reputation of the English language teaching industry in Japan has been badly hurt by the dishonest practices of some schools and it has become necessary for schools and independent teachers that strive for higher professional standards and value financial honesty and transparency to get together, agree to abide by a code of conduct, and get the message out that not all schools and teachers put business before educational standards. This is why we have started E-Quality.

This does not mean that all members of E-Quality do everything perfectly. It just means that we are sincerely trying to make things better. The basic level of membership, which is available now, is available to schools and teachers who are willing to sign a basic code of conduct. Higher levels of membership, which will be introduced later, will involve agreeing to more detailed standards, and schools may receive the official endorsement of E-Quality.

All schools and teachers that join will receive benefits that will gradually be introduced over the next few months. Some of these will be free and some will involve a fee. All will be optional.

ELT Books has increased its discount on all English language teaching books that are available in Japan and published by western publishers in order to support E-Quality. The discount will be available for all ETJ members (membership is free) until May 31st, and it will then only be available for members of E-Quality.

Click here to go to the E-Quality web site.

Click here to go to the ELT Books site and receive a 20% discount on books.]]> http://www.eltnews.com/editorial/2010/03/equality_launched_to_improve_t.html http://www.eltnews.com/editorial/2010/03/equality_launched_to_improve_t.html David's editorial Thu, 11 Mar 2010 20:03:37 +0900