Setting up an ELT collaborative self-help group at the Universidad Autnoma de Guerrero 2009

Sandra Luz Avila Toscano Andrs Uribe-Alpizar UAG-Acapulco, Gro. MXICO. 2009 Abstract The purpose of this project is to describe the different stages leading to the setting up of a collaborative self-help group for teachers of English as a foreign language at the foreign language center of the Universidad Autonoma de Guerrero in Acapulco, Mexico 2009. The successes, setbacks, difficulties and ways to solve them in setting up the group. The project included several teachers of English as a foreign language both native and nonnative speakers of English working at the language center. Our role in the group was basically as participants and facilitators of self-development activities leading to encouraging the teachers of the language center, ourselves included, to explore as many ways as possible to develop ourselves in whatever way or direction each participant may have decided to choose. Some of the teachers decided to choose Action Research in collaboration with another colleague in order to increase their understanding of classroom teaching and learning, and to bring about change in classroom practices; Other practitioners worked on answering and exchanging ideas on a Beliefs Questionnaire, exploring their differences as a valuable experience to clarify- and sometimes changetheir ideas. This project was based on an ethnographic study of the setting up of a collaborative self-help group taking a qualitative research approach producing a wealth of detailed information about a small number of people and cases. The data collection included the recording of each and every session of the self-help group, an open-ended beliefs questionnaire, an account of the action research done by one of the teachers, and at the end our final session, the teachers who took part in this project were interviewed and asked to evaluate the experience. The results of this study would suggest that the idea of teacher development through self-development takes many forms, has different contextual meanings and that it operates from a variety of implicit and explicit beliefs of the practitioners undertaking thus, different forms of action. It would also appear that practitioners involved in a collaborative self-help group, given the right conditions can in fact, create a facilitative climate that strongly fosters the possibility of self-development. And finally that further research would in fact be necessary in order to continue studying and analysing all the implications that teacher development through self- development may have in the language classroom.

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Introduction and background

Development means Change and Growth (Underhill. 1986)

Most ELT practitioners at our language centers prepare their classes and teach them based on different approaches and methodologies according to their beliefs and rituals as learned during their training years at their B.A. programmes, and yet, there is very little communication or exchanging of information among teachers as to how they do things or feel about trying out new ways in their teaching, as a result of this, the proliferation of different methods, approaches, and ways for teaching is always present at the language center. One could view this situation from two different angles: on the one hand so many different ideas and innovations would be very positive as it could very well mean that the tremendous efforts of ELT specialists to finding new ways for becoming more efficient practitioners and learners is being exploited in our school. On the other hand however, so much information and such a wide variety of rituals, beliefs and the repertoire of techniques and activities inherent to each and every single methodology could lead to confusion and bewilderment if practitioners are not in possession of some sound theory of SLA; Our language center seems to be fractured into atoms or individual units with a mlange of teaching definitions, goals, and indicators of success. Teachers are isolated from colleagues, and the more isolated the language center and its practitioners, the more inevitable their pedagogic pluralism, therefore where teachers do their practice in isolation they show little concern for the professional needs of their colleagues; It is not that the practitioners seldom talk to one another, but rather that such conversations almost never center around a codified and shared discourse of pedagogical and mutual concern. Even in the year 2009 and despite the technological improvements in the field of SLA over the last three decades, in reality, there is still much uncertainty among EFL practitioners about the nature of teaching and this situation is made worse at our language centre, due to the isolation and lack of communication among teachers and administrators in our school; we have been working and living in shelves driven to rely, in our teaching, on a pre-scientific mixture of speculation, common sense, and the insights derived from experience. We have been working largely by hunch, concealing our ignorance under a screen of jargon in a permanent, and perhaps, comfortable isolation; the continuous lack of results as well as the persistent

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dissatisfaction among our learners however, do suggest that we are far from getting the job done

WHAT TO DO AND WHY

Wherever you want to go, you have no choice but to start from where you are. (Popper. In Head & Taylor, 1997).

Taking into account the original situation at the UAG Language Centre where we work, we started reflecting on the possibility of promoting changes in order to improve our conditions. Our main concern was the lack of communication among practitioners not exchanging ideas, tips, feelings of anxiety, successes or setbacks and not talking shop at all. On the other hand our idea also had to do with how to establish somewhat of a forum where we could all discuss issues leading to continue with our professional development beyond our B.A. training; We sincerely felt that everybody would benefit from this new idea of updating our ways for teaching and continue growing as teachers. On the one hand, our institution would have the quality assurance of teachers very much involved in becoming the best kind of teachers they can possibly be by improving their ways and knowledge on ELT and on the other hand, practitioners themselves would have the opportunity of improving their professional practice by keeping up with the idea of teacher development through self- development, concerning the search by each individual practitioner for a way of teaching that may help them discover and exploit their potential to facilitate a quality of learning that may be more significant, more effective, more personally engaging and much- more rewarding for both practitioners and learners, as well as for the institution and the community they work in.
NO TEACHER IS AN ISLAND Isolation is ultimately a barrier to professional development ( Reed 1993)

The first step we took was to promote among the teachers in our language centre, informal meetings that some of the practitioners attended voluntarily; during those two informal meetings we eventually had, the twelve teachers who showed up were asked to share out of their free will, what they considered to be important issues of common interest to improve our teaching

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conditions, major areas of concern and possible solutions. Teachers complained about the large size of the classes, the lack of air-conditioning in most of the rooms and some of the students attitudes such as being late for class, or not having their books or the lack of rapport with learners due to classes being too large; some possible solutions and suggestions for solving such problems came up during both sessions. One of the teachers suggested that It would be a good idea to have this kind of meetings on a more regular basis. We made the proposal of the possible setting-up of a self-help group with the purpose of continuing our teacher development through selfdevelopment by exchanging and discussing ideas with our peers trying to solve problems related to our field, getting together to talk shop and keep up with the tremendous amount of research and useful information in the field of ELT. Conditions were favorable and everybody seemed interested in the idea. We all agreed on meeting again to sort of establish the objectives, schedules and formal conditions of our Self-help group at the Celeex-UAG.

The following Saturday five teachers showed up in order to get our SHG started. During our first session We co-ordinated the activities and we all discussed on the importance of Teacher Development (TD) what it represented or meant to each and everyone of us and its possible connection to a Self-help group like the one we were trying to set up. I handed out an ELTJ article called In The Name of The Teacher by Perez Basanta, (ELTJ Journal Volume 50 /3 July 1996. OUP) since I considered necessary to sort of trigger an academic discussion based on a topic of common interest, such an article seemed to be not only interesting as it promoted the idea of going back to re-assess the importance of being a teacher and undertaking new approaches to promote training courses which may indeed focus more on language improvement for non-native teachers, and on teacher development as well, but its reading could also boost morale into practitioners and trigger motivation and get our project started, therefore the SHG members were asked to take Perez Basantas article home and read it so that we could exchange points of view in a subsequent SHG meeting.

SHG General Agreements During our first session some general agreements were reached, such as establishing once and for all that our Self-help group (SHG) of the Celeex-UAG is a non-profit, non-religious, non-

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political, voluntary organization with the sole purpose of promoting among its members the permanent search for professional development through self- development and through activities selected by the members individually according to their needs and- preferences in order to explore as many ways as possible to develop ourselves as ELT practitioners in whatever way or direction each participant and member of the SHG may decide to choose. The SHG members decided that it would be a positive idea to meet three times a week during the summer, and probably once a month during the fall and winter sessions, and they all suggested that our sessions should last no more than one hour every time we should meet to work together and so everybody was asked to be punctual and to adopt a positive outlook in order to work and share positive and meaningful information within the time limits established by the group; we also agreed that during our meetings and as often as possible during coffee breaks and in aisles, practitioners will use English as the language of communication among them. Another important agreement was related to the coordination of the activities of our group; All the members of the group are to share the responsibility for starting a session and contributing ideas in case of absence; All the members of the group as well, are held responsible for getting materials, reproducing them and exchanging them with the other members. Common interest topics will be discussed in our sessions, -and when enough time may have been spent on one topic, the members of the SHG will agree on the next topic in order to determine who will be responsible for getting that discussion started. It was also suggested to finish each and every session on a positive note boosting morale in order to keep up the good work and the enthusiasm in our SHG. Some of the practitioners of the SHG suggested the idea of adopting a name, a banner and a motto to be used as a way of uniting our efforts and ideas. It was a welcomed idea but it was agreed to work on it as we evolved as a group; We all agreed that in our SHG we take responsibility for ourselves and that we deeply respect each others values, ideas, beliefs and opinions, we all have the right to be listened to and we will avoid all negative criticism, particularly destructive criticism aimed at the individual rather than what he or she does. We have decided to come together because we all love and respect life, we sincerely feel the need to improve ourselves as ELT practitioners, we love English teaching our learners and schools, and as one of the practitioners put it: Whatever comes with the territory.

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It was also agreed during our sessions that our SHG will promote among its members a variety of Self-development activities such as: All members of the SHG can read a short article on a topic of interest e.g. ELTJ, FORUM, The English Teacher Magazine, etc. and then meet and discuss such articles in order to consider implications for their own teaching. Teachers who may want to, could invite one of the members of the group to come and observe them teach, then discuss the lesson and consider implications for their own teaching. Some of the teachers may try out some Action Research either alone or in collaboration with one of their colleagues. All members of the SHG could fill in a Beliefs Questionnaire then get together to discuss their responses, bearing in mind that there are no right answers, just different ones, but exploring differences could be a valuable way for practitioners to clarify and sometimes change their ideas. Organize meetings where all the members of the group could come prepared before hand to talk about problems or concerns they may have; they could either talk about a single incident when something went wrong, or talk about problems or concerns they have about an area of their teaching where they feel generally dissatisfied. All practitioners should attend all- year round, as many talks, conferences, and ELT workshops as possible such as the ones promoted by Mextesol, Ademi, The British Council Mexico, and the ones held at the UNAM (Mexicos National University) and then exchange and share information with our SHG teachers.

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Teachers who want to could act as simultaneous translators for international congresses, conferences or lectures given in our university or in the city as a form of language practice leading to professional development. All teachers must try to continue their professional progress by enrolling in a M.A. or PhD programme related to our field.

THE NATURE AND IMPORTANCE OF TEACHER DEVELOPMENT (TD)

TD concerns the overt or covert quest by teachers to be continually in the process of actualizing their own capacities, of becoming the unique and best teacher it is in them to be. (Underhill, 1992 p 71).

A recent trend in SLA regarding teacher development is related to trying to understand teaching in its own terms involving the practitioners themselves, and the actual teaching process to gain better understanding of theses processes by exploring along with the teachers what they do and how they do it. As a result of this there is a new bottom-up approach to teaching - as opposed to traditional approaches very much related to methods and other external or top-down viewsthis new approach is initiated by the practitioners themselves involving the collecting of data about their own classrooms and their roles in them involving the use of such data as a basis for self-evaluation in order to change and with the purpose of becoming better, i.e. to grow professionally. This Reflective Teaching as a basis for teacher development as Richards and Lockhart (1994) put it: Goes hand-in-hand with critical self-examination and reflection as a basis for decision making, planning, and action, in other words, by promoting the role of reflection, self-inquiry, and self-evaluation, practitioners would in fact be promoting their professional development, and the beneficiaries of such promotion would be the teachers themselves to begin with but on the other hand, the very people those teachers are usually most concerned with: their students.

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Some TD Definitions Teacher Development could be defined in many ways, for Freeman (1989) for intance: Development is strategy of influence and direct intervention that works on complex, integrated aspects of teaching; these aspects are idiosyncratic and individual. The purpose of development is for the teachers to generate change through increasing or shifting awareness For Underhill (1986, p. 1) Teacher development is the process of becoming the best kind of teacher that I personally can be, this definition would probably lead some practitioners to ask themselves questions such as: how can I become a better teacher? How can I help my learners more? How can I enjoy my teaching more? In thinking about it and in trying to answer such questions practitioners are in fact reflecting upon developmental ways which may in turn help them modify and improve their teaching practice. Teacher development is inextricably intertwined with the teachers willingness to change focusing on personal awareness to undertake such change. This idea to modify whatever has not been done right is a personal quest. It is found within the very fibers of the practitioners willing to overcome stagnation and poor results, it is a kind of change that has to begin motivated by personal commitment, but on the other hand with other teachers and their schools very much involved in the process as well; as Goodlad (1990b, p. 25) puts it: If schools are to become the responsive, renewing institutions that they must, the teachers in them must be purposefully engaged in the renewal process. Teacher development may help promote such renewal, but how is one to understand Teacher Development? and most importantly, What does the concept of development mean and entail to the practitioners themselves?

Practitioners Self-development
At the heart of teacher development is the idea of self-development (Edge 1992)

How does one start its own self-development as an ELT practitioner? One could very well start simply by focusing on our own reflection on daily classroom events, such reflecting- and thinking about it could be quite informal and spontaneous, what one did as a teacher during one of the classes, re-creating in ones mind the events, the students involved, the activities, and why

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one decided it to do it like that and not otherwise. Such reflections and findings have to be recorded somewhat, either in a piece of paper, a tape recorder, or keeping a reflective diary would work even better, so many ideas and thoughts could easily be forgotten if they are not recorded. Re-reading ones notes and comments do contribute to further reflection and learning. The practitioners reflection must be disciplined in order to be productive, and writing down thoughts and ideas or recording them do help teachers discover what they really mean or are trying to accomplish through such reflection process. Critical reflection has been much discussed and talked about since Dewey (1933) who originally defined it as active, persistent and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of the grounds that support it and the further conclusions to which it tends. Schon (1993, 1987) further developed Deweys notion of reflection with the concept of reflection-in-action:

Reflection-in-action is a reflective conversation with the materials of a situation. Each person carries out his own evolving role listens to the surprises (back-talk) that result from earlier moves, and responds through on-line of new moves that give new meanings and directions to the development of the artifact. (Schn 1987: 31)

On the other hand Richards (1998) proposes the idea of exploiting Reflective Observation which he defines as: Reflective observation, - that is observation that is linked to critical reflection - is one strategy that can be used to help teachers develop a deeper understanding of themselves as teachers and so be better prepared to make decisions about their own teaching Dewey (1904) put it this way: Preparing teachers to be critically reflective about their practice may be more important in the long term than focusing on mastery of the techniques and skills that form the mainstay of much teacher education practice Nowadays different approaches can be taken in order for practitioners to develop a critically reflective attitude to their teaching practice including among others:

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Action Research (AR): Implementation of an action plan designed to bring about change in some aspect of the practitioners teaching practice with subsequent monitoring of the effects of such change or renewal.

Ethnography: A usually non-quantitative and descriptive approach to collecting data.

Case Studies: The careful observation of a class, unit or individual for research purposes. Journal Writing or the use of learning or reflective diaries: Practitioners ideas, projects, reflections, and accounts written down in paper or recorded for them to use as permanent feedback and to document their professional progress.

Reaction Sheets: Short responses written after particular learning activities have been completed with a subsequent exchange of ideas and readings among practitioners.

Language learning experience: Practitioners experiencing the feeling of being learners of a foreign language in order to compare such reactions with those of their learners.

Audio or video recordings: Recordings of a lesson, part of a lesson, or of teachers talking shop, exchanging ideas, or doing self-developmental activities, either individually or in a self-help group.

Observation: Tasks completed by practitioners (or also by students teachers) observing other practitioners, or being observed by other teachers as well.

COLLABORATIVE GROUPS (Evidence of Functionality towards TD)

It is precisely because human beings have learned to work co-operatively together that we have made such astonishing progress as a species. When we work co-operatively we can accomplish infinitely more than if we work individually. This is the principle of synergy that the whole is greater than the sum of its individual parts

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(West, 1994).

ELT practitioners need opportunities to discuss and exchange ideas on whatever it is they are doing in their classes in order to re-examine their beliefs and feelings towards renewal their teaching practice. Reflection on ones own however safe and comfortable as it could be, It is not as fruitful and objective as discussing our situation with colleagues in order to help us sort things out in ones mind. Several approaches and possibilities have come up in the field of ELT as to help practitioners reflect on the possibility of experiencing teacher development in collaboration with peers. SELF-DEVELOPMENT WITHIN A GROUP
Many people instinctively fear situations which may require them to reveal more of themselves than they are comfortable with. (Head & Taylor, 1997:98).

One of the most supportive environments for practitioners, where they can explore real teacher development episodes is the small teachers group. In such groups peers, usually teachers who work in the same school, get together once a week, every fortnight, or once a month, to discuss issues and problems related to their professional practice and exchanging possible alternatives for solution (In-house staff meetings). In some schools these meetings are promoted by heads of departments or coordinators and attending is compulsory.

Another alternative is where a group of teachers themselves take the initiative to set up ELT collaborative self-help groups, meeting once a week, every two weeks, or once a month, to discuss and exchange feelings and ideas to problems and ways for solving them; these kind of groups are voluntary and self-supporting, and in them any member can suggest topics for future meetings, such topics could include issues as: TD itself, grammar and pronunciation updating, relaxation techniques, yoga, materials design, teacher education, updating on SLA, the use of video in classrooms, and almost anything that can contribute to teachersimprovement, both professionally and personally. One of the aims of establishing and attending such voluntary groups is to have the practitioners run and support the groups themselves and decide on their

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own, the ways they can use developmental approaches and activities in order to improve themselves as ELT practitioners and human beings.

Reasons for developing in collaboration with others Head and Taylor (1997: 96-97) suggest that groups can be more effective than individuals in initiating change and growth because: Other peoples views are a primary resource for enabling individuals to increase their selfawareness. In a caring and supportive environment, learning from other people how they see you as a colleague and teacher can also be an important way of building up self-esteem and feeling positive about the possibilities for development. A group of people who meet regularly and are free to decide their own agenda tend to develop strong interpersonal bonds which can support an individual member as the group provides a safe environment in which to explore ones feelings and thoughts about development issues and life. The psychological climate that facilitates teacher development within a group of peers is characterized by interpersonal caring, understanding, and trust along with a shared commitment to the process of intentional development. Reduction of judgement of others makes it esier for a practitioner to open up and discuss ones limitations, fears, anxiety sharing with others freely and honestly ones professional burdens. A group of people with similar ideas and objectives can exert a powerful collective influence on the culture of institutions. To Ur, (1991:320) Informal discussions with a colleague with whom you feel at ease can contribute a lot to your own development, as well as boosting morale. Being a member of a group allows to share your failures and successes with others who may have also experienced similar situations. The awareness that other practitioners may have gone through similar problems and found ways to solve them, may very well encourage ones own efforts to overcome difficult situations; on the other hand one could very well be providing help and solutions to other peers as well. Sharing problems and solutions can contribute to everybodys progress and

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professional growth; although self-development is very much a personal commitment to becoming better carried out by oneself, the presence and actions of other people can play a decisive role in helping us accomplish our goals towards ones development, to help us move towards change and growth, a personal, individual, and permanent change; as Fullan and Hargreaves (1991) put it:
Change is a journey of unknown destination where problems are our friends, where seeking assistance is a sign of strength, where collegiality and individualism co-exist in productive tension.

Developing as a practitioner of English is difficult in itself; it calls for a genuine desire to become a better teacher aware of ones own limitations, needs, and potential, looking for ways of permanent renewal through reflection and critical thinking translated into action. Trying to develop in isolation is even more difficult; an isolated practitioner becomes a devotee of his or her own preferences, beliefs, and ways of teaching. It would seem that where practitioners do their teaching practice independently, they show little interest in other teachersneeds leading thus to a lower cohesiveness in their schools and faculties. As I see it, teacher development through self-development is a must. Keeping up with the winds of change in our profession will help us become better teachers and better human beings. I sincerely believe that a more developed practitioner does make a difference in his or her community by inspiring others to do the same.

RESEARCH AREA Setting up an ELT Collaborative self-help group at the language center of Guerrero State University, in Acapulco Mexico during the summer of 2009.

THE CONTEXT The foreign language center of Guerrero State University (CELEEX-UAG) a public school which offers classes of English as a foreign language to more than 800 students every trimester and a four-year B.A. programme in ELT as well.

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THE JUSTIFICATION The justification of the research was prompted by the genuine desire of the researcher to find out why teachers at the Celeex-Uag work in isolation and to promote the possibility of having teachers come together as often as possible to discuss common interests related to ELT field, talk shop, observe one another, provide supportive feedback, attend seminars on ELT, do Action Research alone, or in collaboration with other practitioners, work towards fostering as many activities as possible leading to teacher development through self- development in collaboration with others, and in the process, the researcher himself would, acting as a participant and facilitator of such developmental activities, initiate his own development as an ELT practitioner.

THE RESEARCH QUESTION The first task in conducting a qualitative study is to raise a question about something that perplexes and challenges ones mind: What do I want to know in this study? In dealing with such a question related to this project, we came up with three questions: Do Self-help groups make a difference in TD through Self-development? Are there existing conditions in my context as to set up an ELT SHG? Would a SHG truly help fight back teachers isolation in their professional practice?

THE SUCCESSES Having lived the experience of trying to set up a voluntary and collaborative ELT self-help group and upon further reflection, we sincerely feel the experience to have been more of a success than a failure, we were able to accomplish several important things such as: Getting together to talk about needs, ideas, exchanging feelings and points of view on our field and profession, and having such meetings after classes and even on Saturdays.

Ever since we set up our SHG there is a feeling of caring and sharing among its members; we learn about other practitioners names, ages, interests, fears, and common problems in teaching as well as suggestions on how to solve them. 103

Ever since we set up our group, practitioners have read a bit more on ELT; In fact some practitioners had hardly ever read on ELT innovations and progress before; Practitioners also write more (In English).

For the Non-native speakers of English, attending our sessions has been a tremendous opportunity to improve our linguistic competence, since all of our meetings were always conducted in English.

We had a series of classroom observations and the practitioners feel differently about the experience now; they realize that observing other peers or being observed is useful not only for evaluation purposes, but also as a truly self-developmental activity.

Most of the practitioners got seriously involved with most of the developmental activities we had agreed to promote and experience such as: attending ELT workshops, reading ELT magazines and articles, working and reflecting on beliefs with the help of a questionnaire, introducing themselves into the reading of action research and putting into practice the experience and feeling good again, or for the first time, about being teachers and helping others learn English.

THE SETBACKS Setting up our SHG has been a very rewarding experience towards teacher development through self- development; however it was not always easy to understand why people would not get involved with what seemed to be a project where all practitioners could have gotten something good and valuable just by being part of it and attending our meetings. There are over 30 practitioners in our institution, the SHG was set up with only five of them; we finish our last session with four practitioners the researchers included. That is quite discouraging, but nevertheless we managed to set up the group and as one of our mentors put it: Dont worry if some participants drop out and you end up with a very small group, better to have two keen ones, than six half-hearted participants. In reflecting about setbacks, We think that at the beginning 104

one of the major problems we had was trying not to step in the practitioners self-development; having the co-ordinators of the language center and the practitioners boss, we were always tempted to have things done our way, if it was meant to be a genuine collaborative self-help group, then it would be important to take turns to lead sessions, so that everybody felt on equal footing, and making everybody feel equally responsible. Some adjustments were made, and we managed quite well in refocusing on teachers helping themselves (i.e. working on their selfdevelopment) but with support from other teachers, and the key issue for us was to find ways how to provide support without controlling everybody elses wishes, wanting to develop in whatever way or direction they might choose.

There were lots of political demonstrations in the streets of our city throughout the Summer and heavy traffic or rather impossible traffic at times because of that; practitioners had a hard time to make it to our meetings sometimes, they were either late, too late, or did not show up at all!. We had to re-schedule our meetings every now and then. That was a bit discouraging, especially if one of the practitioners had prepared a presentation, organized the materials and even bought drinks and snacks.

On Saturday July 30, 2009 We had our last SHG session, all things considered, successes and setbacks, we would really have to say, in truth, that setting our collaborative self-help group was a wonderful experience; witnessing the practitionersefforts striving to change and grow as practitioners and as human beings as well with all their limitations, contradictions, fears and dreams, just in order to move forward, to attain self-development, to become better teachers, more reflective practitioners willing to help others excel themselves.

FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS ELT collaborative self-help group at the Universidad Autnoma de Guerrero in Acapulco Mexico; ELT practitioners members of the group worked together throughout the Summer of 2009 during 12 sessions, sharing ideas and concepts; exchanging and modifying beliefs and ways

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of teaching; working in collaboration during classroom observations, giving one another supportive feedback, discovering and using together Action Research in a classroom miniproject, and updating themselves through readings on ELT and by attending workshops on teaching materials.We will deal now with the findings and conclusions of this small-scale ethnographic and qualitative project.

THE FINDINGS In order to point out some of the findings of this study one would have to go back to the Research Questions as they were posed in the previous chapter:

1.) Do Self-help groups make a difference in TD through self-development?

From the review on literature related to TD it would seem that practitioners interested in promoting their self-development do have a wide selection of possibilities and ways for doing it, but it all starts with wanting to do it based on reflection and inquiry, by asking oneself about our own teaching practice and the always present possibility of improvement and change; it would seem fair to say that Barlett (1990) is accurate when he says: experience alone is insufficient for professional growth, experience coupled with reflection is a much more powerful impetus for development Self-reflection is no doubt important, but when one has the opportunity of reflecting on professional issues with other practitioners working on their self-development too, then the task would seem to be more fruitful and objective as one is confronted with other views and ideas that may enrich ones own way of looking at things.

West(1994) suggests that: It is precisely because human beings have learned to work cooperatively that we have made such astonishing progress as a species. When we work cooperatively we can accomplish infinitely more than if we work individually.

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It would seem as if by being in contact with other people might help us understand and reevaluate our own perspective on professional and personal issues a bit better; a SHG offers the possibility to all of its members to get together whenever they feel they need to, and voluntarily exchange thoughts, ideas, reflections, tips, complaints, problems and possible solutions, materials on ELT and everything around it, affecting thus in a significantly positive way their process of development. As one of the practitioners of the Celeex-UAG SHG put it:

Well for me a SHG obviously of teachers, and in our case of English teachers, can help us all to be better teachers helping other fellow teachers with some individual problems they may have and trying to find solutions together, because we need to have other people to talk about those problems and ideas, to talk about them

In very much the same way, Edge (1992) would seem to agree with the SHG practitioner as when he says: I want to investigate and assess my own teaching. I cant do that without understanding it better, and I cant understand it on my own, I need someone to work with And such help from others seemed to have been present in the SHG of this study as one of the practitioners put it: I really need this kind of sessions to learn from others and share some of my thoughts and fears with others.

It would seem fair to say that self-help groups could in fact, really make a difference in a practitioners process of teacher development, if such groups provide the right conditions for such a development to take place, conditions such as: Deep respect to all the members of the SHG regarding their ideas, values, beliefs, and opinions Total reduction of judgement of others Avoidance of all negative criticism Shared-responsibility and a positive interpersonal caring, understanding attitude

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A shared commitment to the process of intentional development

As Underhill (1992) put it: People in groups can, under the right conditions, provide a facilitative climate that is strongly conductive to teacher development. Feedback from other colleagues offers practitioners opportunities to experience themselves.

It would seem then, that according to some evidence in the study both from the review on literature, and the experiences as lived by the SHG practitioners, that one of the most supportive environments for practitioners where they can explore real teacher development episodes is the small-teachersgroup (SHG).

2.) Are there existing conditions in my context as to set up an ELT SHG?

Head and Taylor (1997: 98) state that: Many people instinctively fear situations which may require them to reveal more of themselves than they are comfortable with That could very well explain why so many practitioners prefer not to join any SHG, or associations of teachers; They may not feel comfortable exposing their limitations and fears, they may feel tired or burnout; but according to Underhill (1992):

As teachers we are disposed at a deep level to want to actualize our potential, and to derive a greater sense of well-being and personal significance from our teaching activities. However, this disposition may be obscured, and even manifested paradoxically by apparent reluctance, resistance, and lack of interest in development.

Taking into account the quote mentioned above, it would seem that all practitioners are willing to undertake some form of improvement to promote their professional development but sometimes people have a hard time trying to find some answers. According to some of the opinions from the 108

practitioners that decided to initiate their own process of development with the help of a SHG it would seem that we have begun to establish conditions for practitioners to come and work in their self-development:

Well, many things have changed in my teaching practice during this Summer. I have learned a lot from our readings and critical thinking, from sharing ideas and tips, and from the feedback I got from you. It works, and I think we should not stop, we should go on

There is a permanent invitation for us to get together and work self-directed towards teacher development; conditions are there, it is up to us to make the most out of them in order to become better practitioners from now onwards.

3.) Would a SHG truly help fight back teachers isolation in their professional practice?

Richards and Lockhart (1994) state that:

Teachers who are better informed as to the nature of their teaching are able to evaluate their stage of professional growth and what aspects of their teaching they need to change.

It would seem that one of the most important reasons that has kept the practitioners from developing themselves and from finding ways to do it together, is the isolation they have come to learn and work with through the years. However, It would also seem that in the view of some of the practitioners, the setting up of our SHG has somehow helped overcome such isolation: Well my experience here in the SHG is now that, I should be more conscious of my work here, Id like to try out new things with my groups, things I discovered in our self-help group. We can invite other teachers in order to know what theyre doing, we could develop the idea of teamwork, and although self-development is an individual task, it is fun to do it with other teachers who want to improve themselves too.

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Our language centre seems to have been fractured into individual cells working in isolation, and as a result of this, there are many teaching definitions, goals, and indicators of success (or failure for that matter). The experience of having set up a small collaborative self-help group and the fostering of developmental activities among its members during the Summer of 2009 recorded in this project would suggest that, in a rather small scale, such isolation has diminished although not very significantly; however with the help of practitioners and administrators, such a group could carry on with its activities leading to teacher development through self-development for the benefit of our institution, our learners, and the practitioners interested themselves.

The conclusions The purpose of the present project was to provide a detailed account of the experience of setting up an ELT collaborative self-help group at the language centre of the Universidad Autnoma de Guerrero, in Acapulco, Gro. Mexico in the Summer of 2009; such description included the reasons leading to setting it up, the original situation of the language centre, the actual setting up with its successes and setbacks, and the results after having established and worked with the SHG for about a month. The group started out with few participants, only five out of thirty two teachers; this would suggest that practitioners at the language centre are not very much involved with their own development. However, literature review suggests that self-development is an individual process that takes time, effort and a lot of reflection and critical thinking, many similar groups all over the world began just like ours, with few but enthusiastic practitioners setting the stepping stones for others to come and benefit just the same.

This project was based on an ethnographic study of a SHG taking a qualitative research approach which produced a good amount of detailed information on a small number of practitioners; the data collection included the recording of each and every session of the SHG (12 in total), photographs, an open-ended beliefs questionnaire, an account of the action research mini-project undertaken by one of the practitioners in collaboration with the researchers, and the writing of reflection diaries and notes, some of which are presented as small quotes within the text. At the end of the final session, two practitioners were interviewed in order to collect their accounts once that the experience of setting up the group had come to an end because of the Summer holidays. 110

The positive outcome of setting up a small self-help group would suggest, as the study shows, that practitioners would benefit greatly from a permanent attendance and participation in their SHG if they are willing to keep it up, engaging themselves with the responsibility of fostering developmental activities on a permanent basis within the SHG, and inviting other practitioners to come and benefit from the experience of becoming better teachers in order to help our learners in a much meaningful and successful way. The present study was conducted in an attempt to provide data leading to the possible setting up of similar self-help groups in other institutions involved with ELT in Mexico. Further research is a must in order to go deeper into the phenomena of ELT collaborative groups working together to promote change and professional growth in their practitioners. The results provided by this type of study may prove to be important in order to analize all the implications that teacher development through a collaborative ELT self-help group may have in the language classroom.

Bibliography Allwright et al. Focus on the Language Classroom 1991. CUP Edge, J. 1992. Co-operative Development ELT Journal 46/1:62-70 Edge, J. 1992. Co-operative Development. Longman Richards, J.C. 1998 Beyond Training C.U.P. Roberts, J. 1998. Language Teacher Education. CUP Schn, D.A. 1993 The Reflective Practitioner London: Temple Smith Scrivener, J. 1994. Learning teaching . Heinemann. Ur, P. 1996. A Course in Language Teaching CUP Ushioda E. 2001. Language Learning at University Trinity College, U.K. Wallace, 1998. AR for Language Teachers. CUP.

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Los autores
Sandra Luz Avila Toscano es profesora-investigadora de la unidad acadmica de Turismo de la UAG desde hace 25 aos. Fundadora del Programa Educativo de la Licenciatura en Ingls en 2001. Profesora TC Perfil PROMEP. MA in ELT and APPLIED LINGUISTICS egresada de la Universidad KINGS COLLEGE LONDON. Examinadora Internacional OE de la Cambridge University para los exmenes KET-PET y FCE desde 1997. Doctorante IPECAL Mxico 2009. E: Andrs Uribe-Alpzar es profesor-investigador de la Unidad Acadmica de Turismo de la UAG desde 1983. Fundador del P.E. de la Lic. en la Enseanza del Ingls en 2001. Profesor TC perfil PROMEP, graduado de la KINGs COLLEGE LONDON con MA in ELT and APPLIED LINGUISTICS. OE de U. de Cambridge para los exmenes PET, KET, FCE. Uribe-Alpizar es egresado del XI Programa para la Formacin de Traductores Literarios Ingls-Espaol de El Colegio de Mxico COLMEX y del Programa para la Formacin de profesores de Ingls del CELE de la UNAM 1995-1996.

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