ELT News Think Tank

Panelists: Curtis | Marc | Chuck | Chris
Date: January 2006

Topic: "What was the best idea you had in the last year?"

Curtis Kelly

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After that day, it did not matter what I did in class. The class was theirs. In fact, it did not matter if I even showed up. They had important things to explore and discuss. Without any prompting from me, they made a blog site to continue their discussions, had dinner meetings almost every week, and spent hours in my office after class talking about more intimate problems. My role became just providing a few concepts from psychology to guide their discussions and giving them an occasional activity, such as “Finish this sentence: ‘Love is _____ .’”

Interestingly, less than half of the discussion (done both in English and Japanese) was on romantic love. Most of it was on how to deal with friends, family members, and others. They seemed to be committed to sorting out a wide variety of relationship problems, and some led to tears. I remember one student asking me if she was capable of ever loving since she had not been loved as a child. On telling her that her deciding to take part in this class was already the answer, she burst into tears. I also remember the odd feeling that everyone was a little sad when the end of class came, something that almost never happens in a regular English class.

Teaching this class was an amazing experience. Maybe I was the greatest learner. We often talk about the importance of using language topics related to student interests ­ fashion, movies, and sports ­ but I learned that there is something superficial in the way we handle “interest.” It is not the topic that counts. It is the underlying need to grow, of which interest in that topic is merely a symptom. If we can make these underlying areas of need ­ love, confidence, and autonomy ­ the targets of our teaching, instead of the side effects of those needs ­ exploring love through movies, gaining confidence through sports, or expressing autonomy through fashions ­ we are doing something far more worthy than just teaching language.

Love. It is a word that used to make me a bit uncomfortable (a curse laid on most English-speaking males), but not anymore. It is something to study and learn from. It is a life philosophy and the center of good pedagogy. And bringing it into the classroom was my best idea of the year, maybe the best of all my years.

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Panelists: Curtis | Marc | Chuck | Chris

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Curtis Kelly, Heian Jogakuin University

Author of Writing from Within

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