Interview
Steven Gershon
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On Japanese Students (cont'd)
What activities or exercises do you do for a class you have met for the first time?
Do you have a personal favorite?
I walk into class and don't say anything, I just stand in front of them. I then tell them
my first name and ask them to just look at me carefully. I then ask them to write down
three statements about me that they think are true, e.g., 'Steve likes Sports' or 'Steve
is British'. I remind them not to write statements that are obvious facts, like 'Steve
has brown hair." Students then compare their statements with a partner and select
the ones they agree with. I then get various students to make the statements outloud to
me and I tell them if they are correct or not.
Finally, I ask students to pair up with
someone in class they don't know very well. They then make statements about their
partner. Students usually have a lot of fun with this activity and they have the
opportunity to learn something about their teacher and each other. It's also a good
activity to drive home the point that you "can't always tell a book by its cover."
On Publications & Presenting
How did you get into writing course textbooks?
The usual way. I was teaching and having varying degrees of success with the published
materials I was using, all the while supplementing with activities of my own. Eventually,
I got the idea that I could write something at least as good as the stuff I was using.
So a colleague (Chris Mares) and I tinkered a bit with some ideas, got some information
about what publishers expect from a book proposal, cobbled together a proposal along
with a sample unit, and took it to one of the major publishers at a JALT conference.
Millions of hours, thousands of faxes, two different publishers, two bruised egos
(ours), and countless drafts later we were given a contract to write Online for
Heinemann (now Macmillan). Then the real work began.
What advice would you give to prospective textbook/material writers? What essential
points must be covered before submitting proposals and ideas to publishers?
Though there is some variation between publishers on what format they require for a
proposal, generally speaking all publishers will want a survey of the competition to
show you have thought about where your book might fit in their list, a rationale for
the book in terms of its approach and/or methodology, an overview of its distinctive
features in terms of what will make it unique in relation to the competition, a
syllabus of at least the first level of the book, and finally a sample unit.
This all seems very daunting to the budding writer, especially when he or she has a
full-time (or many part-time) jobs impinging on their time. However, it is important
to do this groundwork, as it shows the publisher that you are serious and willing to
make a commitment -- and it is a serious time commitment. That said, most publishers,
if they see a spark of something they like or something that may fit well with their
upcoming publishing plans, are more than willing to work with the prospective author
to bring the proposal up to the required standard for submission.
What resources (e.g. books, web sites, teacher organizations) have been beneficial
to your professional development as an educator? What resources would you strongly
recommend to a teacher?
It's difficult for me to pinpoint just a few, as I've been teaching for more than
twenty years now. However, a few of the books that have had an impact on my view of
language teaching have been: "Fundamental Concepts of Language Teaching" by
H.H. Stern; "Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching" by Richards and
Rogers; "The Communicative Approach to Language Teaching" by Brumfit and
Johnson; "Communicative language Teaching" by W. Littlewood; "Foreign
and Second Language Learning" by W. Littlewood; "Exploring Spoken Language"
by Carter and McCarthy.
I also belong to JALT and TESOL, and keep up with what's going on both in research and
in the professional aspects of our field through their monthly and quarterly publications.
These days as well I find myself logging on more and more to excellent ELT web sites
such as TESOL, ELT News, etc. All in all, there are so many good and useful publications,
web sites and resources, it can all be a bit daunting to the busy teacher looking for
ways to stay tuned with developments in ELT. Nonetheless, I do keep trying.
How many presentations do you give every year? How do you select the theme of your
presentations? What themes are you going to cover in future events and conferences?
This past year I gave somewhere around 20 presentations, which was rather a lot.
Normally, I'd say I do around 10-15 presentations a year, mainly at conferences like
JALT, TEL, Korea TESOL, Thai TESOL and ETAROC (Taiwan TESOL). However, I also sometimes
do workshops at colleges or schools for teachers who are using one of my textbooks, and
this past year I was fortunate to be able to join in the English Educators' Professional
Development lecture tour and the Yomiuri--Macmillan Language House Seminar series.
The themes I cover in my workshops and presentations generally concern either my work at
Obirin University or my textbooks, areas such as curriculum design, oral language testing,
teaching conversation skills, developing listening skills and teaching about culture.
Whatever I present on, I try to aim for a good balance of principles, theory and practice.
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