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Ways of dealing with emergent language

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Adapting Dogme EFL activities for Creative writing

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Applying Dogme 95 to teaching

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A bit of background

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Principles/pillars of TU

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Getting our feet wet first

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The goal of the Dogme collective is to purify filmmaking by refusing expensive and spectacular special effects, postproduction modifications and other gimmicks. The emphasis on purity forces the filmmakers to focus on the actual story and on the actors' performances.

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ELTchat Podcast Phil Longwell on Mindfulness

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ELTchat Podcast Phil Longwell on Mindfulness

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The ELTchat podcast contains all the latest news from the world of English Language Teaching. Made by teachers, for teachers, it will keep you up to date with everything that is going on in ELT, concentrating on our twice weekly Twitter chat, #ELTchat. Go to eltchat.com for more information.

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ELT_ Resourseful posts about Dogme, Rachael Roberts

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ELT_ Resourseful posts about Dogme, Rachael Roberts

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To start this summary of the ELTChat on Learner-generated content, which took place at 12pm on 16th January 2013, I'd like to include this extended quote from a seminal article by Adrian Underhill, writing in the late 80s. @theteacherjames found the link, and commented that it had been a huge early influence on him.

'Most teachers invite students to write stories and dialogues. Well, why not take their creations one step further and use them as the basis for all the types of elaboration, consolidation and practice which at the moment is done using the coursebook material? Instead of processing material written by someone else they can create their own material based on what they want to say and what they are able to say.

This yields two over lapping phases. Creation, which roughly corresponds to what the author usually does, and Exploitation, which roughly corresponds to the things we usually do with a coursebook.

So, If we want a dialogue we write it,

If we want a text we write one,

If we want a picture we draw one,

If we want a tape we make one,

If we want questions we write them,

If we want an exercise we construct one,

If we want to work with vocabulary we put ourselves in the position of needing it,

If we want a dictation we write one, or choose it from the reader,

If we want a role play we improvise it, or else we plan and write the parts.

If we want answers, we turn to resource books, especially the monolingual learners' dictionary,

And if we need published text or tape material, then we find it.

We take this raw material and negotiate its correctness, we hone it and refine it, practise it, record it, tell it, act it out, draw it, summarise it, extend it, transform it, improvise it, and so on. In all of this there is a workshop atmosphere. with our own everyday life events and interests as the source material.'
http://www.thornburyscott.com/tu/underhill.htm Working towards a definition
The chat began by sharing how we might define learner/student generated/created content (settling on the terminology was a challenge in itself!)

@teflerinha For me, LGC is about getting learners to do as much of the work as possible (not in a lazy way)

@AlexandraKouk: also involves creativity and choice of topics, content etc. To which @Marisa_C commented So ss choose topic and content? @theteacherjames responded I suppose we could use almost anything from the students with some creativity. @AlexandraKouk replied they can vote for topics, of course, or decide what kind of materials format they'd prefer.

@efl101 Isn't student generated content anything sts do, say, write etc.?

@pjgallantry LGC can range from sentence -level and upwards to full-blown modules - depends on lesson focus.

There was some discussion about how far the term could be stretched:

@Marisa_C For example - would showing a S's written work and generating some language awareness work fit the bill ? or not?

@efl101 Isn't student generated content anything sts do, say, write etc.?

@Florentina_T Anything that the student can contribute to the class as a _person_ rather than a unidimensional learner ?

@majorieRosenbe I have created worksheets based on the mistakes that come up on tests. Does that count?

And there seemed to be some crossover with other concepts such as learner- centredness:

@OUPELTGlobal There's something about SGC that places the student in the role of the teacher - ? I think SGC brings the learning back to the student, using the language they are learning to communicate about them to others

@AlexandraKouk replied , the roles are not so clearly delineated: everybody teaches and learns at the same time

@yitza_Sarwono also saw similarities with the Montessori context in which she teaches.

@Marisa_C also pointed out the crossover with TBL.
Benefits and drawbacks
It was generally agreed that LGC has many benefits for learners, and teachers:

@shaunwilden So benefits include motivation, learning from each other....anything else?

@teflerinha Less preparation time?!

@Florentina_T All students know something that the T and other Ss can learn (from). Sharing in the L2 builds ownership and fluency

@AlexandraKouk Developing creativity and critical thinking skills?

@yitza_Sarwono Giving learners confidence and voice?

@OUPELTGlobal Agreat benefit for me is that sts pay more attention to the language they use as they are communicating to friends

@theteacherjames One of the benefits of LGC is that it gives an extended life to the material that students will be possibly producing anyway

@teflerinha Lessons in FE context in UK (where I teach now) are usually 3 hours- so at least element of LGC very helpful

However, there were some downsides too:

@shaunwilden A teacher needs to be at the top of their game to handle LGC, don't they?..you don't know where you might end up.

@teflerinha If students don't produce much, then you don't have much to work with #lessonplandownpan

@debzi_f have to be careful with sgc that other students don't just focus on negatives of peers though

@jankenb2 wondered if some schools might not like SGC, though @efl101 responded would hope most schools would not object to sts creating things?

@efl101, OUPELTGlobal and @Marisa_C agreed that LGC might work well as something to add onto a core cyllabus rather the necessarily providing the syllabus.

@shaunwilden wondered Are all sts happy to work with LGC isnt there an expectation of the teacher leading and telling them what to do? But @teflerinha felt it's about the content rather than the methodology isn't it? And @theteacherjames commented The teacher will still be telling them what to do: Produce material and then do something else with it.

Towards the end of the chat, the topic shifted towards feedback, but as this is a possible topic for next week, I won't include it here.
Examples of Learner Generated Content Activities
The Language Experience Approach is one example of how to create and exploit learner-generated content.

@Marisa_C When I taught advanced ss in the past i used to get them to write stuff/ projects for lower levels - can done with other levels too @yitza_sarwono I usually get them to do booklet of selected topic in a month's time

@michaelegriffin I love bringing something out the next week/class- @teflerinha Yes, shows you've paid attention to what they're producing.- @michaelegriffin Exactly...and I think it tends to have a carry over for next time because Ss know that things will be re-used... And related is using something from loooong ago....and hopefully Ss can see clear progress

@kevchanwow I like to take the funniest sentence, deepest sentence, etc of the week and put them on handout for the class.

@majorie_rosenbe We created cooperative crosswords on vocab for other classes to solve. Great exercise and practice.

@teflerinha Before students read a text, give them the comprehension questions and as them to write their own text using the questions as a guide. They can then read each others' texts and answer the questions, before they start on the original text. Finally they can make comparisons between their texts and the original.

@kevchanwow When I have Ss summarise texts, one step in the process is generating questions for each other which I then use as comp check questions

OUPELTGlobal I have my students make wordsearch puzzles for a reading text. Then, give it to a friend to solve - student reading text 2x

@majorie_rosenbe Just gave HW to write 6 questions for others on material coming on test, then played snakes and ladders with the questions.

@theteacherjames Quick example (1:1 Bus Eng): St gives presentation, recorded, watch the video back &amp; analyse their own performance. Self feedback

@Marisa_C On an English for Teachers course we used Pecha Kuchas - each presenter responsible for Qs to audience while listening @Majorie_Rosenbe added We are holding session on how to use Pecha Kucha in classroom at BESIG PCE in Liverpool at IATEFL.

@jankenb2 If you have access to a course page ask Ss for Youtube to preview a wk prior. Assign selected to Ss pair to generate novel lang exp. Also suggested Giving ss a rubric for a writing task, e.g. "write an invite to a party include time, place, location & welcome note" and asking them to write 3 answers: a good one, a satisfactory one, and one that needs more work.
Links and Further Reading
There are three main books that I know of with specifically learner-generated ideas, though of course Teaching Unplugged is along very similar lines.

Lessons from the Learner: Shelagh Dellar- Longman

Learner-based teaching- Campbell and Kryszewska- OUP

The Minimax Teacher- Jon Naunton-DELTA Publishing

All three of these are written in the 'recipe book' format, and are useful additions to a teacher's library.

A link to an article by @ddeubal on student created content was offered by @michaelegriffin
http://ddeubel.edublogs.org/2010/04/27/student-created-content-its-about-learning-not-teaching/
Also a link to the ESL Learners Output Library, a forum for sharing work ESL students produce. http://www.esllol.org/

@AlexandraKouk suggested this article which looks at LGC taking webtools into account http://learnonline.wordpress.com/2006/03/13/learner-generated-content-or-the-best-way-to-learn-is-to-teach/

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To start this summary of the ELTChat on Learner-generated content, which took place at 12pm on 16th January 2013, I'd like to include this extended quote from a seminal article by Adrian Underhill, writing in the late 80s. @theteacherjames found the link, and commented that it had been a huge early influence on him.

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ppt

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A Dogma for EFL

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Back in March 2000 Scott Thornbury, inspired by the Dogme95 Danish filmmaking movement, published the seminal article A Dogma for EFL, which in turn started what's also known as the Unplugged movement in language teaching. He deplored the way EFL had been 'hijacked, either by materials overload, or by Obsessive Grammar Syndrome (OGS)'. Many thought he seemed to be advocating not only a conversation-driven, materials-light approach, but also a tech-free one. However, in June this year, in the post M is for Manifesto from his amazingly encyclopedic blog An A-Z of ELT, he states that 'While the idea of taking students to the bar or library is clearly impractical, technology now allows us to bring the bar or library into the classroom'.

I've been using an unplugged approach for some years now, and I love the freshness it has brought to my teaching. Developing the lessons from my learners' life experience, interests, worries, dreams, etc, and 'locating' them in the here-and-now of the classroom has afforded me and my students a measure of freedom and enjoyment I rarely experienced when I used textbooks and all their paraphernalia of workbooks, DVD-ROMs, IWB digital editions, etc. that buried 'the inner life of the student', the real story that unfolds from genuine conversation.

I enjoy this stripped-down, back-to-basics way of teaching, this celebration of the people in the classroom as the source of the learning adventures we embark on. Although I usually do have some sort of lesson starter up my cuff, I'm more than happy to go with the flow when something crops up. Actually, the first thing I do when I walk into the classroom is observe: watch and listen. Ideally lessons just 'happen', and that's really magical. Like when I walked into the classroom once and noticed two learners having a whispered conversation and that unfurled into a whole two-hour lesson in which we discussed the pronunciation of voiced and unvoiced consonants and ended up inventing stories featuring words containing the 'v' sound.

But far from being solemn, my Dogme ' vow of chastity' is pimped up by the use of EdTech. We use web tools and mobile device apps to edit texts collaboratively, do activities around images and record audio and video tasks. Most importantly, we use other tools as the online component of our particular blended approach. This year I'm using Padlet with my beginner groups and Google+ communities with my B2.1's for this. We use the rich possibilities these web tools afford us in various ways:

They provide us with an online or virtual space for the group where the conversation started in the brick-and-mortar class can go on.

The language that emerges during the lessons is captured and lesson summaries (or 'post plans') are shared on those tools. [1]

Homework tasks (text, audio, video) are posted and shared there.

Links to media related to the themes dealt with and the language uncovered during the lesson can be freely shared by any members of the class, including the teacher!

The Wikipedia page for Dogme language teaching lists its key principles, on of which is the empowerment of both students and teachers 'by freeing the classroom of published materials and textbooks'. The web 2.0 brought about a ground-breaking change in making everybody not only a consumer of Internet content, but a producer. According to this blog post, 'Web 2.0 encourages participation, collaboration, and information sharing'. Padlet is a user-friendly online digital board where everybody who has the URL can post; Google+ is the Google social media tool. I see the adoption of web 2.0 tools like these as a way of giving learners agency. The most important element in the learning process are the people, and the learners are the main characters in the story: they're the ones doing the learning! I believe that by enhancing my unplugged approach with the addition of these EdTech tools I'm only affording my students more opportunities to communicate, to interact, to tell their true stories.

[1] I owe the concept of 'lesson summaries' to Ceri Jones (check her amazing blog, Close Up) and that of 'lesson post-plans' (love the oxymoron!) to Luke Meddings.

I'm a teachet of EFL based at EOI Castello. Interested in EdTech, unplugged teaching, creativity and lexical approaches. I love music, reading and cycle-touring. View All Posts

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My pimped-up unplugged teaching approach

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Back in March 2000 Scott Thornbury, inspired by the Dogme95 Danish filmmaking movement, published the seminal article A Dogma for EFL, which in turn started what's also known as the Unplugged movement in language teaching. He deplored the way EFL had been 'hijacked, either by materials overload, or by Obsessive Grammar Syndrome (OGS)'.

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Dogme ELT

In his article A Dogme for EFL, Scott Thornbury called on fellow teachers to join him in an effort to 'restore teaching to its pre-method "state of grace" - when all there was was a room with a few chairs, a blackboard, a teacher, and some students, and where learning was jointly constructed out of the talk that evolved in that simplest and most prototypical of situations' (2000). From these stirring words Dogme ELT, or Teaching Unplugged, emerged and these three guiding principles evolved: teaching which is conversation-driven, materials-light and focuses on emergent language (Meddings and Thornbury, 2009).

Despite focusing on fluency, Dogme does not abandon accuracy. Dogmetists maintain that, language 'rather than being acquired - will emerge' (Meddings and Thornbury, 2009). Teachers must react to this emergent language and it should be more memorable as it comes from students' desire to communicate.

The rest, as they say, is history. Since Thornbury's call for a 'vow of chastity', Dogme has been fiercely debated within EFL circles and an increasing amount of teachers, including myself, are beginning to implement it in their teaching.
My Project
Having spent time in an institution without coursebooks, I believed many of my teaching frustrations stemmed from a lack of materials. However, on moving to another institution, I was overwhelmed by published materials and realized I wanted to become more able to react to my learners. Dogme seemed to be the answer.

On looking into it, I wondered what my experience as a teacher would be.

What are the day-to-day challenges of being a Dogmetist?

What is my role within a Dogme classroom?

What is the role of planning in Dogme lessons?

Do many teachers already teach unplugged without using the label?

To answer these questions, I undertook a small scale Action Research project gathering information from teaching an advanced course as well as from colleagues. I kept a diary and asked colleagues to observe two videos in which Luke Meddings demonstrates unplugged lessons.
Emergent Language
Dogme does not advocate teaching language items in advance of communication, but rather, in response to it, as and if the need arises i.e. language emerges from conversations.

I quickly realized the challenge this presents. A lot of Dogme literature focuses on its origins, its principles, the arguments for and against it and so on. However, a relatively small amount is dedicated to dealing with emergent language. This is despite the fact that many would agree that this is a huge teaching challenge.

I initially had issues identifying emergent language and filtering the raw material I was provided with from my learners' conversations. To this end, a blog post by Anthony Gaughan proved useful. He describes emergent language as being 'distinct from the rest in its newness for learners, its riskiness, or its unfamiliarity' (2012. Emphasis my own). Using these aspects as guidelines, I was better able to listen to and identify emergent language.

Despite feeling more able to identify and filter emergent language, I had a tendency to give affordances to emergent lexical items rather than grammatical structures due to my insecurity or inability to deal with the language effectively. As Jason Renshaw states 'most challenging, however, is the intuition and language knowledge required to be able to understand, pinpoint and work with emergent language "on the spot"' (2010).

'Emergent language is all very well... but what if it doesn't emerge?' (Harmer, 2012). My learners tended to play it safe with their language. A colleague also pointed out, on watching the video lesson, especially in the current economic climate, that 'It seems very indulgent and when students are paying for their course I find they are demanding of input'. This leads me to question whether this could be an argument for a more eclectic approach rather than one that totally depends upon learners' emergent language.

On the whole, emergent language appeals to me as a teacher. I found it liberating to learn of an approach which acknowledges the complexity of the language learning process and found myself no longer listening to learners with exasperation while saying to myself 'they should know x structure by now', agreeing with Thornbury and Meddings' claim that 'there is no research evidence to suggest that such lists [of grammar structures found in coursebooks] match the manner nor the order in which language is learned' (2000).

Planning

'Winging it elevated to an art form' (Meddings and Thornbury, 2003) is a charge often given against Dogme. As a meticulous planner, I found it complicated to let go of a need to know where a lesson is going.

I found the general lack of structure to be exigent. I usually depend on planning and removing that security was, at times, overwhelming. A colleague, who viewed Meddings' video, and who has been teaching for 35 years, commented that she taught unplugged in the past and that it was 'a time I would prefer not to revisit because it was exhausting on teachers and students alike'. Thornbury acknowledged this challenge. 'Does Dogme need more structure?...not just in terms of the lesson but in terms of the overall curriculum... Do people really feel like they're going somewhere if it's just spinning along nicely out of conversations and I think that that is the question we need to address' (2012). Addressing this issue may lessen the misplaced notions of Dogme teachers making the lessons up as they go along.

Dogme does not advocate no planning, but rather to reflect upon the lesson in an in-depth way afterwards to shape the course. Although I personally found it difficult to refrain from pre-planning, post-planning facilitated a more in-depth reflection into the lessons than I would usually undertake. This helped to give me a greater sense of structure to the course and time to consider the emergent language in greater detail.

Is Dogme new?

'...the only thing about Dogme is that Dogme just gave a label to something that people did anyway but in a sense it validated it and that's all...' (Thornbury, 2012). In that case, do many teachers have these "Dogme moments" without labeling them as such and if so, is Harmer correct in saying that '...it's not Dogme, it's just teaching, what teachers do, what teachers have always done' (2012)?

Many of my colleagues did not find Dogme a drastic departure from their usual teaching. Asked in what way the lesson they observed (Meddings' lessons) was similar to their own, some gave the following responses, indicating a strong link to Dogme:
'...it's a method that I use all the time when not doing exam prep.' '...the art of conversation as the ultimate classroom tool, using what's at hand to stimulate language, learning together...'
Working with my group, I realized that perhaps I had always previously had Dogme moments. To forego references to the learners' own experiences or to not utilize the language that they provide strikes me as very forced and unnatural. This leads me to the conclusion that I tend naturally towards having Dogme moments and that there are probably many teachers who are teaching unplugged but may not realize it or simply have decided not to label it as such.

Dogme as a mindset

On initiating this project my strongest initial reaction was frustration: frustration at the lack of framework. However, this frustration dissipated once again on reading the inspiring words of Anthony Gaughan. 'For me, Dogme is an attitude, it is a mindset and it is therefore not a pedagogic movement primarily speaking but a political one...Dogme ELT or teaching unplugged is essentially trying to change, on an individual basis, through teachers and their experiences with learners, society to make us as a whole, or I think, more attentive to each other, more reliant on ourselves, less dependent on external supports or resources for our own development and progression...' (2011).

On reading this, my attitude towards Dogme changed completely and I began to view it not as a methodology to follow but rather as a mindset which can be adopted by teachers who take issue with the proliferation of published materials or feel overwhelmed with a plethora of coursebook supplements. Those teachers who want their learners to seek out ways of finding their own learning experiences in the everyday and to actively listen to and learn from their conversations with classmates can implement a Dogme attitude. Also those teachers with limited resources or whose learners cannot afford coursebooks can choose to adopt a Dogme mindset and validate materials-light classes.

By looking at it in this way, I felt liberated to adopt Dogme to the extent to which it suited my context and my teaching beliefs. Instead of completely abandoning published materials, which would be impossible within my institution, I can balance those coursebook activities of interest to my learners with Dogme moments. Dogme as a mindset allows teachers to consider it, decide to what extent they agree with it and adapt it to suit their context rather than view it as a methodology which must be wholly subscribed to.
References
Gaughan, Anthony (2011). Dogme vs Principled Eclecticism Round One. Available at: http://iasku.wordpress.com/2011/10/04/anthony-gaughan-dogme-vs-principled-ecclecticism-round-one/ (Accessed 22 September 2012)

Gaughan, Anthony (2012). E for Emergent Language. Available at: http://teachertrainingunplugged.wordpress.com/2012/02/03/what-makes-a-lesson-great-part-3/ (Accessed 22 September 2012)

Harmer, Jeremy (2012). Teaching Unplugged beats Acquisition? Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJWT0oaX9V0&feature=relmfu (Accessed 22 September 2012)

Meddings, Luke and Thornbury, Scott (2009). Teaching Unplugged: Dogme in English Language Teaching. Surrey: Delta Publishing.

Renshaw, Jason (2010). The Trouble with Teaching Unplugged. Available at: http://jasonrenshaw.typepad.com/jason_renshaws_web_log/2010/03/the-trouble-with-teaching-unplugged.html (Accessed 22 September 2012)

Thornbury, Scott (2000). A Dogme for EFL. Available at: http://www.thornburyscott.com/tu/Dogma%20article.htm (Accessed 22 September 2012)

Thornbury, Scott (2002). Teaching Unplugged (or that's Dogme with an E). Available at: http://www.britishcouncil.org/portugal-inenglish-2002a-teaching-unplugged.pdf (Accessed 22 September 2012)

Thornbury, Scott (2009). Methods, post-method and métodos. Available at http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/articles/methods-post-method-m%C3%A9todo (Accessed 22 September 2012)

Thornbury, Scott (2012). IATEFL interview with Scott Thornbury.Available at: http://iatefl.britishcouncil.org/2012/sessions/2012-03-21/interview-scott-thornbury (Accessed 22 September 2012)

Thornbury, Scott and Meddings, Luke (2000). Dogme and the Coursebook. Available at: http://www.thornburyscott.com/tu/MET3coursebook.htm (Accessed 22 September 2012)

Luke Meddings' video demonstrations of unplugged lessons:

The Sounds of Silence with Luke Meddings http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=br8clQYcDU4&feature=relmfu

British Council Live Lesson with Luke Meddings http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/seminars/live-lesson-dogme

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Dogme: A Teacher's View by Lisa Dold " IH Journal

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In his article A Dogme for EFL, Scott Thornbury called on fellow teachers to join him in an effort to 'restore teaching to its pre-method "state of grace" - when all there was was a room with a few chairs, a blackboard, a teacher, and some students, and where learning was jointly constructed out of the talk that evolved in that simplest and most prototypical of situations' (2000).

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Twenty steps to teaching unplugged:  Create reference points

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Uploaded by British Council English and Exams on 2015-02-06.

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20 Steps for Teaching Unplugged  by Luke Meddings

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20 Steps for Teaching Unplugged  by Luke Meddings

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Uploaded by British Council English and Exams on 2015-02-06.

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Incorporating Dogme in an ELT Lesson Prezi

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Incorporating Dogme in an ELT Lesson Prezi

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Incorporating Dogme ELT in the Classroom

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A presentation on Prezi presentations that will amaze and inspire your audience.

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Engage your students in Creative Writing by using Dogme inspired activities RESERVOir DOGME Creative Writing meets Teaching Unplugged November 26, 2017 University of Macau 3:25 to 3:45 E 3-3033 f...

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Dogme language teaching is considered to be both a methodology and a movement. Dogme is a communicative approach to language teaching that encourages teaching without published textbooks and focuses instead on conversational communication among learners and teacher. It has its roots in an article by the language education author, Scott Thornbury.

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Here is a collection of practical no-nonsense ways for setting up an Unplugged lesson and getting it going. Once you're up and running and conversation is rife, you need some effective ways of working with emerging language. This is what it's all about - the fine line between aimless conversation and real teaching.

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British Council conference 2016 Armenia, Thornbury demonstrating Teaching Unplugged

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British Council conference 2016 Armenia, Thornbury demonstrating Teaching Unplugged

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The British Council Armenia within its 2016 Teacher Development Programme hosted Scott Thornbury the renowned and acclaimed teacher educator, writer, and speaker in Yerevan to deliver talks and training sessions for Language Teaching specialists in Armenia.