ELT News Think Tank

This Month's Think Tank Panel

Marc Helgesen

Peter Viney

Chuck Sandy

Panelists: Peter | Chuck | Marc
Date: December 2002
Discuss this topic on our Message Board.

Topic: "Were there any crucial events or people in the development of you as a teacher? Any heroes or bums?"

Marc Helgesen

Heros and bums? Interesting question.

A couple "heroes" occur to me right away. I remember a conference ­ long, long ago. I went to a session by someone who I had heard of but never seen or read. He had a reputation of being good and interesting, but also someone who would make you challenge what you believed. The session was called "The bridge it done begun at the pasar." The presenter was John Fanselow, then chair of the TESOL program at Columbia University Teachers College.

“Figure out what I am doing. Then try something different, just to see what happens. All growth comes from change.”

As it turned out, the session was really three smaller sessions: At the pasar, It done begun and The bridge. John had his handout stapled together backwards. His whole point was to encourage people to figure out what they do ­ and then try the opposite just to see what happens. If you always stand at the front of the room, teach a lesson from the back. If you always start with dialogs or drills and move toward something more open, turn it around. See what happens if you try fluency first. If you always control the recording during listening, put the tape/CD player in the middle of the room and let the learners be in charge of it.

For me, that was an important lesson: Figure out what I am doing. Then try something different, just to see what happens. All growth comes from change. Most of the new things I try don't work (So what? At least I tried something. As Internet guru Esther Dyson says, "Always make new mistakes"). At the very least, it keeps me ­ and, because of that, the learners ­ interested.

So now, I try to choose an idea and see how many ways I can build/ work with /play with it in my classes. A couple years ago, I started doing it with Innervoice, which I've written about in this column. More recently I've been doing it with Physical activity in warm-ups and with Language Planning (see last month's Think Tank). I owe that attitude to John. (You can read about John's ideas his books Breaking Rules and Contrasting Conversations from Longman.)

Another person who changed my life I met a couple years after I came to Japan. In addition to teaching, I had been doing presentations for JALT chapters and writing articles for various ELT journals and magazines. One day someone I didn't know stopped by my school. He introduced himself as Mike Rost. He had a small, independent publishing operation called Lingual House. (Many readers know Mike's name now. He is one of the most respected ELT editors in the business and is responsible for most of Longman Asia's textbook hits. He is also a successful author and teacher/researcher. ­ But this was back in the days before he was so well known.).

Anyway, we talked about teaching, new ideas, Japan, etc. At one point he said, "Marc, if you were going to write a textbook, what would it be like? Think about it." I did. A few weeks later, I sent him a sample unit and some ideas. That eventually became English Firsthand (sort of ­ I don't think any of the sample unit ever actually made it into the book).

But that is what started me thinking. That magic if: If you were going to write a textbook, what would it be like? So Mike is a hero both for challenging me, and for believing I could do it. And the challenge continues. If you count student books, TMs (teachers' manuals), workbooks and new editions, I've worked with Mike on over 25 books. And he's approached all of them with: What can we do that is new? How do we push the envelope? What has no one done? How can we improve ELT? You gotta appreciate that.

The list of heroes could go on forever. Alan Maley and Yoko Nomura Narahashi for teaching me the importance of drama (and drama technique) in teaching. Jeff Bright, a teacher trainer in Chicago for introducing me to the professional organizations (TESOL, etc.) where I found that there really is a lot of support available; you don't have to invent everything for yourself. Richard Day and Julian Bamford to igniting my excitement about EFL reading (and teaching me about graded readers). Brian Abbs and Ingrid Freebairn as well as Michael Swan and Catherine Walters -- They wrote the coursebooks that taught me how to teach (That isn't to say grad. school wasn't useful ­ but I think the classroom is the only place one can really learn how teaching works.). Mario Rinvolucri. Brian Tomlinson. Lots of folks have made me think. And, of course, my co-authors ­ especially Steve Brown since he's the one I've written the most with ­ for keeping at it and working through stuff. (I need to end this paragraph. It is starting to sound like an academy award speech.)

Ah, and then the bums. Very, very few actually. But one story. This isn't about a bum. He was actually a nice guy. But a guy I totally disagreed with in just about every aspect of teaching. And (as the Fates would have it) he was my director. Steve Brown and I had started working for a school that had a curriculum that, in our humble opinions, totally ignored every bit of research, theory and progress that had been made over the previous 10 or 15 years (and this was back in the 80's at the height of the "communicative revolution" when changes were constant and major). A big issue was the books we were assigned to teach. They were deadly. The director used to say, "A real teacher could teach a lesson from the phone book." To which I'd ask something like, "So was this book patterned after a phone book? It is about as interesting."

Anyway, Steve and I decided to try to bring the communicative revolution (the revolution part at least) to the school. We did a classic "good cop/ bad cop." I took the extreme position ­ call it a "Krashen burn." Steve would take the middle ground, "Marc, relax. I think the point you are trying to make..." Steve's position became the reasonable voice of moderation. Within a couple terms, we had pretty much gotten all the textbooks changed. Shortly thereafter, we were both promoted. Steve eventually became director after the old director when back to the States. The point is you can control your own fate. When I see all the complaints on message boards, I have to wonder: is the point just to let off steam or do they want to change things?

Panelists: Peter | Chuck | Marc

Marc Helgesen, Miyagi Gakuin Women's College

Co-author of English Firsthand and Active Listening

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