LTM and the very big picture

Nota:

• Example: Read the sentences and words of the left. Substitute the words into the previous sentence.   - difficult    Is the course difficult?-easy    Is the course easy?- good    Is the course good?-interesting     Is the course interesting?

Nota:

• Example: "Discovering myself" It had humanistic aims THE SHAPE I'M IN Purposes: Affective To encourage students to think introspectively To learn about oneself by association To note how identical symbols evoke different responses in people Linguistic To practice the vocabulary of shapes To practice the vocabulary which relates to describing shapes To practice the use of adjectives Levels: All levels Size of groups: About six Procedures: Announce to the students that they are going to find out some things about themselves by making a choice from a number of shapes. Tell them that upon seeing the shapes they should quickly decide which one they like best. Then reveal the shapes on an overhead projector or on the blackboard. All of the shapes should be seen at the same time. If they are on the blackboard, have them already drawn and covered by a screen or map, which you pull up to reveal them. As they view the figures, remind them to decide which one appeals to them most. The shapes "are a triangle, a circle, a square' , a hexagon, and a zigzag line. They should be about the same size and depicted like this:
• (▲ ◙ ○ ♦ • ♥) Ask the students to draw on a slip of paper the one that they like best. Then in groups of six, each student should relate to the figure he has chosen by telling how he sees himself in it: "I like the hexagon best. I am like a hexagon because I am neat and orderly and I have many in-teresting sides to me. I am well-balanced. I am also different. There are not many hexagons in the world."

Nota:

• Example: EXERCISE D Definitions of groups of organisms and of anatomical structures Complete these definitions and then write them into your notebook. 1. Autotrophs are organisms which ... 2. Osmotrophs are heterotrophs which ... 3. Photosynthesis is the process in which ... 4. Phagotrophic nutrition is the process in which ... 5. Chlorophyll ... which enables a plant to use light energy. 6. Protozoans are ... 7. Flagellates are protozoans which ... 8. A ciliate is a ... 9. A chloroplast is a structure ... a coloured pigment called ... 10. A cilium is ... which projects from the surface of a cell. 11. ... in certain protozoans which removes water from the cell and discharges it to the exterior 

Nota:

• The process of McDonaldization is evident in the standardisation of teacher training such as the Cambridge CELTA courses and UK PGCE course, where, for example, teacher reflection has seemingly been reduced to routinized exercises – scripts, lacking face validity.

1. Neo-liberalism

   Nota:

   • The proliferation of language examinations may constitute a good example of how neo-liberalism and the market is shaping language teaching materials, a much more significant devel-opment from within the language teaching profession itself has certainly aided the forces of stand-ardisation and centralisation. Motivated by a desire to specify aspects of language competence to an increasing level of (probably mythical) detail, the “Common European Framework” (CEF; Council of Europe, 2001) provides precisely the kind of atomisation that the neo-liberalist logic requires. With its systematic description of levels from ‘basic’ to ‘proficient’ (A1, A2, B1, B2 etc.), the CEF has encouraged the development of countless ‘language products’ all matched to the vari-ous levels, all embracing the ‘added value’ that CEF compatibility offers.
2. To think...

   Nota:

   • We need to start in language teaching, by resisting the manner in which uniformity is being imposed, and by wrestling back curriculum decisions into the hands of those directly involved – teachers and learners. For materi-als designers, this means not being complicit in a scripting of classroom events. It means designing tasks which are open-ended and which have the potential of producing unique outcomes each time they are used. It means developing teacher guides which encourage and support experimenting, rather than providing the familiar blow-by-blow instructions. 
   • Above all, it means imagining lan-guage learning and language teaching as something not locked into neat, prescriptivist listings of packaged levels and competences.