Interview

Henry Widdowson

Page 1 | Page 2

You are credited with introducing the idea of Information Transfer back in the early 1970s. I understand this to be the interplay between verbal and nonverbal material, such as graphs, tables and so on. Can you tell us a bit about it?
This was a procedure that Patrick Allen and myself devised when we were developing ESP materials in Edinburgh in the early 1970s, which resulted in the English in Focus series. We noted that technical and scientific writing typically made use of visual devices like diagrams, graphs, charts and so on which supported and complemented the verbal text in various ways. It occurred to us that since these were an alternative and non-language specific means for conveying information, they could be used as a prompt for developing abilities in English. Thus students could be asked to demonstrate their understanding of a verbal passage by means of a diagram, chart or whatever (a comprehension activity), and conversely could be asked to compose or complete a verbal text by reference to such visual devices (a composition activity).

Although these information transfer activities were originally developed for teaching ESP, they can clearly be used more generally, and would seem to be particularly appropriate for task-based teaching. Anybody interested can find a detailed discussion of these information transfer activities in my book Teaching Language as Communication (OUP, 1978 - details here).

I greatly enjoyed the presentation you gave at the JALT conference in 2002 (Creativity and Conformity in English Teaching) as well as the Oxford Debate that you chaired the following day. In both cases, your humour provided a very nice balance to the academic nature of the events. Have you found humour to be an important aspect of your work as a teacher?
Teaching is an interactive process which naturally depends very much on establishing rapport with learners, and humour can be a very effective way of doing this. Humour can also be effective in making ideas more accessible and more readily retained. Amusement does not preclude serious thought. On the contrary, it can stimulate it, as satirical comedy makes clear. People are more likely to take note of things if they find them amusing, and I think that a lot of theoretical work in our field would have more impact on teachers if it were more entertaining. You do not have to be solemn to be serious..

You may be aware that the Japanese government set up a panel to consider whether or not to fully integrate English in the elementary school curriculum. If you were on that panel, what would your advice be?
Since I know next to nothing about English teaching in Japan, I would be in no position to offer advice on this particular matter, which would need to take local conditions into account. All I could do as an outsider would be to raise certain general questions about the rationale for introducing English at that stage, about how it would be taught as a subject, what language abilities would be focused on and why, and so on.

The ELT Journal Web site mentions a ‘famous debate’ between yourself and Michael Swan. What was that about?
It was about the communicative approach to language teaching. Michael Swan had written two articles in the English Language Teaching Journal which I took objection to on the grounds that instead of evaluating the basic principles of the approach, he simply reduced it to absurdity. Anybody interested can read our exchange in Currents of Change in English Language Teaching (OUP, 1990). Since then, Michael Swan and I have recognised that much of our disagreement was apparent rather than real, and mellowed by age and friendship, we have either resolved our differences or have become reconciled to them.

Vienna ranked third in a recent survey of the world’s best places to live. How do you find living there, especially as (I presume) a non-native German speaker?
I love living in Vienna. You can walk in streets untroubled by traffic, you can go almost anywhere safely by bicycle ­ along the Danube as far as Bratislava if you are so inclined. And it is the only city in the world where you can get a tram in the centre of town and find yourself in a wine tavern among vineyards half an hour later. Where else would one want to live?

Page 1 | Page 2

<<Back Number | Top | Recent Issue>>