Interview
Tom Kenny
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On Professionalism
A significant number of schools in Japan, particularly in the conversation
school sector, don't require teaching job applicants to have any formal
teaching qualifications. Some people argue that knowledge of EFL methodology
is essential in providing students with good quality lessons, others say
that it is not. What are your views on this?
Of course, this begs the question, "Is providing students with good,
quality lessons essential?" Lots of good second language learning
goes on without any lessons at all, just highly motivated, hard-working
students ganbaru-ing. How essential are teachers to the process? A lot
has been written about how to teach, but, in fact, very little is known
about how learners learn a second language. So I don't think that everyone
trained as a teacher can be assumed to be a great facilitator of language
learning.
If there is one lesson that we have learned from the conversation schools,
it's that any native speaker can be groomed to pass as a teacher. I worked
in them, I paid my dues! I worked with some people there who had no business
standing in front of a group of learners. But I also worked with some
very dedicated people who loved teaching, with whom I learned a thing
or two about teaching.
What can I say? It's a mixed bag. And I promise
you this – students get a mixed bag of teachers WHEREVER they go,
universities and high schools are no exception. So,
will knowledge of EFL methodology make a teacher? Probably couldn't hurt.
Is it absolutely essential? No. Should education focus more on the learner
learning rather than the teacher's teaching? Yes.
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?
Naturally, I've gotta say the Internet! The web sites that have cropped
up over the last two years have been immensely helpful in getting teaching
ideas, access to research and keeping people in touch.
As for teaching organizations, I owe a
true debt to JALT, and I encourage everybody to attend their conferences
and to present for themselves. Presenting forces you explain very clearly
to others that which you believe. It makes you develop—and explicitly
state—your beliefs about language, language learning, and your teaching.
If you're looking for some good books,
try David Nunan's 'Second Language Teaching & Learning' and 'Second
Language Acquisition' by Rod Ellis. I also like Michael Lewis' stuff:
Start with his book on practical teaching and then move to 'The Lexical
Approach'. Brown & Yule's 'Teaching the Spoken Language' and
'Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching' by Richards & Rodgers
are a couple of essential classics that should be on everyone's bookshelves.
Thank you for answering these questions.
Not at all! This was great fun! Hope to talk with you again…
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