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INTERNATIONAL HOUSE CERTIFICATE IN ADVANCED METHODOLOGY Module 11: Reading and Research
11.1 Im not a theorist, Im a teacher English Language teachers tend to pride themselves on being highly practical professionals who are classroom practitioners and whose main source of input comes from the face-to-face experience of teaching. Although this may be a gross generalisation, I think its the rare staffroom where most of the conversation is about theory: you dont come out of a lesson and say Well, Grices maxims were so evident in todays class, but will probably say instead, I did this great speaking activity from the Reward Pack. Students really enjoyed. Now, it may well be that the writer of the activity was at some level influenced by their own reading / studying of Grice but in the real world of everyday teaching, we tend to be interested more in why and how it works rather than on where the original idea came from. However, on some occasions, and for some people, the theory, the background to the actual activity is what is really interesting. By understanding the principles behind an activity, we learn to understand its parameters: what its potentials are and how we might shape it to achieve more or less. Here is an example: During a listening activity based on a tape, the teacher starts off by asking groups to discuss ideas together before the students listen. Why?

Now, you may remember the more obvious reasons discussed on basic ELT courses such as re-assuring students; preparing them for the task helps to open up schemata; giving them a chance to compare thoughts enables them to adjust answers before they have to speak to the group, etc. All of these are very sound reasons but who came up with them first? What clear evidence is there that this is true? And did you know that there was some evidence in fact that, in certain circumstances, listening is more successful if prepared in groups? When group work was combined with pre-listening activities designed to activate listeners knowledge of the topic it also led to better recall of the task, and to better subsequent performances when the group members listened individually (Anderson & Lynch 1998:59)

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Reading books that attempt to discuss theory gives us the opportunity to look at classroom practice in more depth; it provides us with an opportunity to understand the rationale for what we do and, equally importantly, it provides us with an opportunity to question not only what we do, but what others say we should do. And in this healthy questioning and reflecting process, we need to offer our own evidence for what we believe to be true. So, in this session, we are going to look at the process of reading and researching and how to do both as efficiently as possible. You should find this a useful foundation session for your own writing of assignments and deciding on the focus of a lesson, particularly if you are going to take a DELTA course. 11.2 Choosing what to read First and foremost, we need to read selectively. Although in basic ELT courses, trainees tend to be asked to read only one or two volumes, most trainers will also provide additional reading, either via reference to journals or internet articles or through reference to additional books on selected topics. Most people, though, in their initial year of teaching, tend to concentrate on getting to grips with coursebooks and supplementary ideas books; the theory gets left for later. 11.2.1 A starting point In my opinion, the best place to start when planning to take a course is to review those general books you have already read. Re-visiting a book you read a year or two ago, with all the advantages of experience, will provide you with a sense of achievement (I understand most of this, its now very familiar) but also provide you with a chance to question yourself and the writer: perhaps when you read, for example, Learning Teaching (Scrivener 2005) for the first time, every idea and theory he discussed, seemed to be amazing. With the benefit of experience, you may now wish to question some of his words of wisdom with some evidence from your own experience, which possibly disproves what he has to say. 11.2.2 Keep it simple As soon as possible, all teachers should get into the habit of reading at least one journal on a regular basis. This may sound dictatorial but in fact, its common sense. Teachers tend to be very busy because of the job itself and there is little extra time for research, thinking and reflecting. In addition to lesson preparation, marking, teaching and all the myriad of tasks we are expected to do during our busy weeks, we also need to attend seminars. However, given that were so busy at the chalk-face, our Directors of Studies will often run seminars with a strong practical component to them. Although they will probably provide lots of suggestions on what to read to follow up on the ideas, it is the rare teacher who has the time to do so. But journalsarrive in our staffrooms on a regular basis. Just like all magazines, they tend to have short articles and are therefore easy to pick up and drop as well as having a mixture of practical ideas with a bit of theory it does depend on the journal, of course. They can serve as a starting point for very productive reflection time. They can provide you with inspiration for lessons and assignments (for those on courses); they give you a chance to familiarise yourself with the names of key writers who publish regularly and they lay the foundation for later more in-depth reading.

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11.2.3 Reading theory Whenever possible, read what has been recommended by someone you trust. The more experienced teachers in your school and those who have taken courses will have had to read a lot already so ask them for recommendations. Choose your books on the basis of journal articles youve read and enjoyed; for instance, if you read articles by Scott Thornbury, a prolific ELT writer, you soon realise that he has a very easy style and that his conversational approach to discussing theories is extremely easy to follow. Any of his books is an excellent starting point. 11.2.4 Reading for an assignment Read what you need to read and no more; the best way to choose is to decide on an area that youre interested in and then to read around that. Here is a possible format which shows you how reading and research can be combined right from the start of an observation cycle: Look at your coursebook and predict where you will be when you are next going to be observed. Identify some material in the coursebook that might interest your students and you would like to think about further, e.g., conditionals. Do you like the material as it stands? Is the topic appropriate for the kind of lesson youre about to teach? Discuss this with the person who is going to observe you. If you and your observer agree that the topic is appropriate, try and narrow it down, e.g., which aspect of the area (e.g., conditionals) are you interested in? Are you more interested in the grammatical aspects of the language or the lexical ones? Is the lesson going to concentrate on a skill or language? Which aspects? etc. Having arrived at a focus, ask your observer for a recommendation do they know of any books or journal articles that may be particularly relevant? Do an online search are there any easily accessible texts on this topic? Use those websites which tend to have lots of useful links such as: www.philseflsupport.com; http://www.ihworld.com/ihjournal; www.teachingenglish.org.uk/. Select a maximum of 2 books and 2 articles on the topic for your initial reading prepare a reading programme (more on this in the tasks your tutor will set you) to ensure that you have plenty of time to read what you need. Its wise to initially limit your reading 2 key books on the topic and 2 articles is plenty to start off with. Tell everyone you know that this is your focus and ask them to be on the look out for useful links. Keeping records

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We tend to waste a lot of time by not reading with a focus. Most of the reading you do during a course should have a purpose; you are not necessarily reading for enjoyment so its better to have a very clear sense of why youre reading and what you want to get out of it. To do this, you can start off by writing a possible title for your assignment. Its wise to do this in terms of the following:

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Examples I want to know how I can help my intermediate students understand and use the first conditional for threats. They are a multi-lingual group. They come twice a week. They have been together.

Questions What is the puzzle? What is the context?

What do I know about this area already?

My Polish students had no problems with this because I heard my Italian group make mistakes with I think it was because I have used materials fromwith great success. The form tends to be easy because theyve already encountered it but the meaning Intonation can really hinder communication because

What else would I like to know?

In other words, can you break the puzzle down into smaller components? Sometimes, this only emerges from your reading and research; as you read about the topic, you discover things you hadnt considered previously. Books, journals, colleagues, students This is the practical aspect of your assignment where you show your knowledge of a range of ideas, resources, techniques and materials (based on reading and research) which can help your learners with this specific area.

Where can I find out more about this? After the above, how can I help my students?

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How to make notes

Having brainstormed the above, you are now ready to start reading. As I said earlier, you need to read selectively: keep a notebook with you; make notes as you go along, remembering all the time to note down where you found the information. An alternative to note taking is to keep a set of post-its next to you and to attach one to any information you find relevant (this is only really possible if you can hold on to a book for a long time if you are using a library, remember that you do have to give things back). There are those who swear by mind-maps and if youre not familiar with these, spend sometime looking it up on the following website: http://www.buzanworld.com/. Although this is a commercial website, there is enough free access to introduce you to the idea.

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11.5 Reading and Reflecting At the same time as youre reading, youre probably looking at teaching ideas too. You will need to constantly use the literature to evaluate and consider your own views, the materials available to you, the observation of students (how they use the language, how they react) and what your peers say about this area. On some occasions, this process leads to the confirmation that youve always been on the right track; your approach may well be the one recommended by the experts. On the other hand, you may discover that you have been using an approach which is now considered outmoded. At the end of the reflection process, you may decide to stick with it nonetheless. However, you should now have additional evidence (both theoretical and practical) to justify your decisions. This is perhaps the most exciting aspect of a reading and research cycle: to discover that we know why we do what we do. Bibliography Books Listening, Anderson, A. & Lynch, T., OUP, 1988. Useful websites: Mind-maps: http://www.buzanworld.com/ Grices maxims: http://clipmarks.com/clipmark/3D49A5C8-BAA6-4C50-B026-F138D335B906/ General web-sites with theory: www.philseflsupport.com http://www.ihworld.com/ihjournal www.teachingenglish.org.uk/

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