"We are the 99.9% in your message" Hi Rob, Thanks for replying. I don't get the message of the above. Matthew ... [Non-text portions of this message have been...
Sorry if my message was cryptic, Matthew. I was playing on the We are the 99% movement, saying that all of us are the 99.9 % of people who learned a language...
Yes. And you can see the linear thing in any set of coursebooks. It's often interesting to look at the beginner books for a good view of this, and to see the...
Hi Mark , all Thanks for the detailled response. My point with Vygotsky was just really to contrast the natural way of learning amongst peers with traditional...
... I've just cited David Block's book, The Social Turn in Second Language Acquisition (2003), over on Scott's A-Z blog, and I found a passage that seems...
Hi Alan, When you write "[t]his has revolutionised our teaching and results to date", which results do you mean? Are you testing or assessing these learners? ...
Hi Rob The school is small (46 pupils) and it is very easy to see that their acquistion of English is much much better than previously. In fact it was almost...
Thanks, Alan. I think your style of assessment can be less stressful for students and often more accurate for teachers. I was curious about this aspect of your...
This short article has me reflecting on my teaching practice: http://www.npr.org/2012/05/19/153075840/parents-and-children-learning-a-sense-of-balance Is...
Hi Rob I think that's the very point about ZPD. It is not fixed or definable on any linear axis or spatial room. In my mind it is dynamic and occurs...
Hi Rob, You quote Rogoff (1995), to define "participatory appropriation", which she defines as "the personal process by which, through engagement in an...
Over on Scott's A-Z blog, I've just posed this question: "Are we unduly influenced by those who have access to the ‘means of production’ in our field?" ...
"Are we unduly influenced by those who have access to the ‘means of  production’ in our field?" Yes because course books are teaching rather then...
Thanks for the reply. I wish I'd said it so succinctly. :-) But what of those arguments that make coursebooks out to be artefacts (tools) that can be used to...
Apologies but Im not sure which those arguments are, unless you are referring to what's written on their back covers. It seems to me that their primary...
Playing devil's advocate, if you'll allow me, isn't that justification enough for coursebooks, ie helping teachers do their job? Rob ... [Non-text portions of...
Sure, but I'd rather learn how to do the kind of teaching in Teaching Unplugged, or indeed in your 'Today in class' posts ________________________________ De:...
Yeah. The course book is useful for minimally acceptable teaching. That is the industry standard. Mark ... -- Mark Johnstone Alfaisal University Preparatory...
Rob, This list will shortly be struck by a diatribe about how English is to be taught on a teacher training course in a north German university. You write: "if...
Dennis, You said, "I think you move the teacher too far off stage." I have a mental image of one of those long shepherd's crooks, reaching out from the wings...
Dear dogme list, GISIG list and other friends and colleagues, I want to share something with you that is "dogme" or GISIG in the general sense that it is...
Dennis, Thank you for the reply. I was speaking from the perspective of the learner, and, of course, we teachers are also engaged in the interaction. But moved...
Hi Bertram, It's not exactly what you're thinking of doing, but I think the following thread might be interesting to you - about using dogme in the teaching...
Thanks for posting this. Apart from the weight training aspect (Swan is really heavy man) the video led me to Luke's IH 2012 reply to Jeremy Harmer's 2012...
Thanks, I am still watching the video. The page has been 404ed. Still wanting to return to A Tale of Two Cities, I thought I would weigh in for a brief...
Yes. Illich is right. Institutions destroy whatever they are intended to protect. This doesn't mean that we don't need institutions: it means we should remain...
