Classroom Activities

[Admin]

I would say I use a mix of materials that include required textbooks, personally created materials through which I try to promote plurilithic views (like discussion questions based on aforementioned TED talks, or student-centered activities involving creative use of vocab), and ideas taken or adapted from various online resources. I find that textbooks tend to focus on English as a monolithic system, for a variety of reasons.
Some ways in which materials implicitly or explicitly promote monolithic views are by not including varieties of English other than Standard British or American in the examples they give, in the grammar or vocab they present, or in the listening exercises where you only hear RP accents or whatever rhotic, TV American accent is widely considered as "most American". (Side note, I was recently watching a comedy TV show where in a conversation between an Irish speaker of English and an American from Los Angeles, the American mentioned how much they loved the Irish accent and when the Irish speaker returned the compliment the answer was "We don't speak with an accent." I found that funny as it is a commentary on how silly that is and of course everyone HAS an accent.)
Perhaps one way to start embracing some plurilithic views would be to add one chapter called World Englishes, to acknowledge their existence and introduce students to them. Maybe there are already are some? Does anyone have any knowledge that materials are promoting pluritihic views of English out there?

[sameerco1971]

I think any teacher can adapt textbooks and materials to the plurilithic views. As a teacher I prefer to take the role of a host party or a guide or a facilitator. I don't like to be the only source for information to my students. I agree that the teacher is the manager in class but with more flexibility and more democracy. After a long experience teaching students, I know their needs and interests without asking them.

[Kunlong Jin]

I agree with the people above mentioned about mix of materials in one class. Well, I just try to explain how I employ songs in my recent class to teach grammar points. Songs are a fantastic way of introducing students to grammar points, as these can allow students to connect knowledge they already have with new target language, and allow them to access and enjoy more songs in English. For example, I always choose a song that mainly uses a single grammar structure or one that uses several different tenses or grammar points. My students can identify and practise these by looking at the lyrics or listening to the song.

Well, there are hundreds of materials there. However, I found songs are quite effective materials because students are easy to pay attention to and the willingness to participate is very high. Materials should be fun, engaging and informative.

[severoc]

Besides the texts and the grammar books, it's always interesting to implement the use of songs or tv shows. Students are more likely to focus when the approach is this dynamic.

[Daniel Palmer]

May 13, 2020 17:12:38 GMT Admin said:

I would say I use a mix of materials that include required textbooks, personally created materials through which I try to promote plurilithic views (like discussion questions based on aforementioned TED talks, or student-centered activities involving creative use of vocab), and ideas taken or adapted from various online resources. I find that textbooks tend to focus on English as a monolithic system, for a variety of reasons.
Some ways in which materials implicitly or explicitly promote monolithic views are by not including varieties of English other than Standard British or American in the examples they give, in the grammar or vocab they present, or in the listening exercises where you only hear RP accents or whatever rhotic, TV American accent is widely considered as "most American". (Side note, I was recently watching a comedy TV show where in a conversation between an Irish speaker of English and an American from Los Angeles, the American mentioned how much they loved the Irish accent and when the Irish speaker returned the compliment the answer was "We don't speak with an accent." I found that funny as it is a commentary on how silly that is and of course everyone HAS an accent.)
Perhaps one way to start embracing some plurilithic views would be to add one chapter called World Englishes, to acknowledge their existence and introduce students to them. Maybe there are already are some? Does anyone have any knowledge that materials are promoting pluritihic views of English out there?

Unfortunately, I'm unaware of any materials which promote the plurilithic view, outside of lampooning these varieties. I've certainly found it to be the case that textbooks invariably promote either US or UK standard English, which really does under-represent and to an extent devalue outer circle and even some other inner circle Englishes.

[erenkenny]

I see a textbook a guide in the classroom. I often adapt different teaching materials in the classrooms such as Youtube videoas on different topic but appropriate with group age, culture etc., authentic reading text such as an extract from a local newspaper, comedy programmes, any movies they like, etc. We discuss anything interesting they found in the videos or reading texts. They all enjoy visual teaching materials rather than speaking hours and hours or copying from the board.

[andrea scabbia]

May 20, 2020 11:35:22 GMT sameerco1971 said:

I think any teacher can adapt textbooks and materials to the plurilithic views. As a teacher I prefer to take the role of a host party or a guide or a facilitator. I don't like to be the only source for information to my students. I agree that the teacher is the manager in class but with more flexibility and more democracy. After a long experience teaching students, I know their needs and interests without asking them.

I agree with you

[andrea scabbia]

May 22, 2020 14:17:50 GMT Kunlong Jin said:

I agree with the people above mentioned about mix of materials in one class. Well, I just try to explain how I employ songs in my recent class to teach grammar points. Songs are a fantastic way of introducing students to grammar points, as these can allow students to connect knowledge they already have with new target language, and allow them to access and enjoy more songs in English. For example, I always choose a song that mainly uses a single grammar structure or one that uses several different tenses or grammar points. My students can identify and practise these by looking at the lyrics or listening to the song.

Well, there are hundreds of materials there. However, I found songs are quite effective materials because students are easy to pay attention to and the willingness to participate is very high. Materials should be fun, engaging and informative.

Songs are a wonderful  tool for leraning languages! With my older kids we have a songs project, in which we sing The Doors, Queen, Louis Armstrong, The cure, Bob Marlley and the Beatles...they sing, dance, have fun, ... and learn and reflect and use...nice!

[marian]

While the textbook is a guide and a tool to organise your lessons, bringing other material is essential. These could be songs, TED talks (I've noticed many of us love them!), brochures, newscasts... the sky's the limit

[evarojo]

The problem is that the textbook offers a very monolithic point of view of Englishes. I personally try to give my students as much exposure to different accents as I can so that they become aware of Englishes in the world. In Spain most of textbooks offer British or American English vision of the world of English, and most of native speakers are from those countries. So my duty is to open their minds to different Englishes through internet and social media. As Marian have said, many of us love TED talks, one that I use in my classroom is Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's We should all be feminist:
www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_ngozi_adichie_we_should_all_be_feminists
A clear example of a different English from the textbook

[Ulla]

I can think of one textbook that presents many varieties of English in the audio materials (First Choice, Cornelsen). This is always fun - learners notice the different accents , and I always ask about their reaction (how easy/difficult to understand, but also emotional reactions). The storyline in the book (it is a coursebook specifically for adult learners) follows a businessman on his travels, so it makes sense that he encounters different Englishes.

I use TED talks a lot, and before we even talk about the content, I ask students what they think of the speaker's English. This is often a springboard for a discussion of what they perceive as 'good' English, which is great for goalsetting.

[miabae]

As much as I support the plurilithic approach, the system (and the students' mindset!) are monolithic, at least in parts. We use coursebooks by Oxford/Cambridge University Press that have tests at the end of each unit. There is no getting away from at least some 'standard' English for us

[Anita]

I do not follow a textbook and like some of the members in the discussion forum, I use a mix of texts from various sources, and embed videos and audios. Although the emphasis is on Standard English, students understand the plurilitic function of the language.