Interview
Christina Gitsaki & Richard Taylor
Dr. Christina Gitsaki is an Associate Professor at the Nagoya University of Commerce
and has taught English to students from Asia, Europe, and South America. Her research
interests include vocabulary acquisition and Web-assisted language learning.
Richard Taylor has been teaching for the last ten years at secondary and tertiary level and
currently teaches at Nagoya City University. His main research interests are in the
areas of CALL and teaching methodology. Taylor and Gitsaki are the authors of Internet
English, published by Oxford University Press.
Page 1 | Page 2
On ELT
ELT: How long have you been in Japan and what were you doing before that?
CG: Before I came to Japan, 4 years ago, I was in Australia doing my Ph.D. and working as
an ESL teacher at a private language school. I now work at Nagoya University of Commerce
and teach English Conversation and Computer Skills courses.
RT: I was a high school teacher in Brisbane and now I am a lecturer at Nagoya City
University teaching English Conversation courses. I came to Japan with Christina, after she
finished her Ph.D.
On Writing
When did the concept of writing an English course for the Internet come up?
CG: It all started in spring 1997, when I was asked to teach English courses via computers.
I was expected to teach e-mail and computer skills using English in the computer lab. Since
there was little material I could use, I had to design a course from scratch so there was a
lot of preparation that needed to be done.
RT: At my university we had a CD-ROM course for learning English that teachers kept using in
the computer lab year after year. I had a look at it but it seemed boring and not stimulating
enough. So I started working with Christina developing Web-based projects. These materials
formed the basis of 'Internet English'.
How did the course get published?
CG: We prepared two sample units on the computer using Adobe PageMaker, and a rationale to
accompany the materials. We were very eager to show our work to the publishers and so, at
the Hamamatsu JALT Conference in 1997, we decided to approach them directly. I approached
one publisher and said, "If someone had an idea for a new textbook, whom should they
talk to?" The rep at the stand said she'd pass the materials on but obviously didn't
since we never heard from them!
Then I went to the OUP (Oxford University Press) stand and
that's when I met Chris Foley, the Editorial Manager for OUP East Asia Publishing. When he
saw the materials, he got a picture of what we had in our minds and 3 weeks later he send
us an e-mail.
What happened next? Did OUP give you a set of deadlines and objectives?
RT: We had to go through different stages. The most important stage was deciding the format
of the units. It took 6 months to 'nail down' the unit format! Once we decided the style and
format of each unit we could then work on the content. We had telephone conferences
frequently to set deadlines and to discuss the objectives for the next stage.
What considerations were made when considering the book's style and format? How much
time did you spend on each stage of the book design?
CG: Well, Chris Foley and his team of editors had a very good idea of what would be suitable
for the Asian market, and so we followed their recommendations. Working with an expert team
of editors was very helpful, especially since this was our first textbook.
RT: It took a year to finish the first draft of the manuscript and then it took another seven
months of editing.
Any disagreements with the publisher?
CG: There were disagreements on what ideas were important, and what weren't important. For
example, they know the market better so they would suggest changes on what they perceive the
market needs. In these cases we would conform to that. But if there were any suggested
changes that would seriously affect the focus of the book then we would voice our concerns.
Page 1 | Page 2
<<Back Number | Top |
Recent Issue>>
|
