Teaching English Archives - English Lessons Brighton

When do language rules matter in English?

Phil Williams — Tue, 16 Jul 2024 10:00:00 +0000

As I mentioned in my last article on the difference between objective and subjective, I’d like to share some thoughts on when language rules should be strictly followed and when they may be flexible. This is essentially the difference between objective (provably true) rules and subjective (personally preferred) techniques.

In short, there are some areas of English that should be observed closely, to ensure the best understanding, but others may be varied, to fit different purposes or show specific personality.

Questions of Style

A good part of this issue is covered by the matter of style in English; that is all those areas of writing that may be flexibly decided. I’ve already got an article about this taken from my Advanced Writing Skills book, so please read that here.

In summary, style is the term we use for decisions made on variations in language. This can include the way we use punctuation, spelling, or the presentation of writing. Style covers regional variations, capitalisation, the way we write times, and much more. By establishing style rules, we decide a consistent pattern of English for specific written documents. This isn’t to say these decisions are objectively correct overall, but they should be consistent within that piece of writing.

For example, in a piece of fiction if we decide to show dialogue with double quotation marks, it would then be incorrect, within that document, to use single quotation marks. Why is this important? Because if we establish a consistent pattern, deviations from it suggest a different function.

However, forming decisions over style are clearer in writing, where it may be done as a formal process by writers and editors. In everyday English, such decisions aren’t necessarily made consciously, so we find even more variety. Style also tends to account for things that won’t necessarily affect understanding: it’s more about the pattern and display of English.

It may sometimes consider grammatical quirks, but not to the degree that we encounter them in spoken English.

Language Rules or Language Patterns?

In everyday English, our variations of language are established through learning in schools, through dictionaries, via teachers and (perhaps most of all!) through communication with peers. Attempts are made to cement the rules of language, but there will always be exceptions in practice, because everyone adapts the way they communicate.

This is because, quite simply, different people express themselves differently – and that’s a good thing. To go a bit deeper, though, it’s also a case of different people using the same tools for different jobs, and interpreting their uses differently.

Yet there is a balance to be struck here between two conflicting ideas: on the one hand, language needs to be as homogenous as possible for the best possibility of wider understanding. That is to say, if we all use the same rules consistently, the same spellings and definitions and grammar patterns, then everyone will understand each other more effectively. On the other hand, however, language must be open to interpretation to adapt to changing times, or the uses of different cultures, and sometimes rigid rules can actually restrict effective communication.

There are rules that I believe are important to stick to, but even these I might alter if it fit the style for a specific piece of writing. Part of the reason for this is that almost everything, when it comes to effective communication, depends on context. Within given contexts, there are areas where we can say it is objectively important to maintain certain rules, but in different situations this might not be true.

As such, I have one simple rule myself to decide whether or not any given rule is objectively justifiable: is an error here likely to lead to misunderstanding/miscommunication?

If breaking a ‘rule’ overall will not cause misunderstanding, and creates a variation in English that may be unconventional but will likely be understood, I’d suggest the ‘rule’ presents a helpful pattern (i.e. a common/popular way of doing it) rather than a strict rule.

On the other hand, we have to consider exactly what might cause misunderstanding/miscommunication in any given situation. Comma usage overall is a good example of this in practice: we have certain ‘rules’ about where commas should appear, and some of these will directly affect the understanding of a sentence, for example a comma before ‘who’ can establish if a clause is defining or non-defining. At other times, commas might just help break up a long sentence in positions where they’re not always required. It’s perfectly possible, though, that in some circumstances not including a comma with a non-defining clause will make no difference in how it’s understood, or a seemingly flexible comma might be absolutely necessary to break up a long sentence that could otherwise be misunderstood.

You might guess that this a topic that could be expanded to discuss pretty much most of English and its details, so I think I’ll have to revisit it again and expand on some examples (honestly, I could probably write a book on this). For now, though, I hope these thoughts go a little way towards encouraging a little extra consideration of the nature of language rules…

If you found this article useful, check out my book, Advanced Writing Skills for Students of English, for more advice on writing and editing.

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What is the Dogme ELT approach or Teaching Unplugged?

Phil Williams — Thu, 27 Apr 2023 07:49:43 +0000

Today, I’m delighted to host a guest article from fellow ELT teacher, Charlotte Parsons, who is generously delving into a specific approach to lesson planning and teaching. Charlotte and I taught together at English First in Brighton many years ago, so I know she has a wealth of experience!

And the approach she’s presenting, “Dogme”, has a lot of hallmarks of what I typically look at here on ELB: it treats English (and language learning) in an adaptable, flexible and practical way. Read the article below to learn all about it, and be sure to check out Charlotte’s free ELT materials.

What is the Dogme ELT approach or Teaching Unplugged?

Scott Thornbury came up with this approach in 2000, following on from an article he wrote questioning the reliance on coursebooks and other classroom staples. I didn’t come across this method myself until I was doing my MA in Applied Linguistics and TESOL and I wish I had come across it sooner. I still get flashbacks to manic summer seasons of teaching back-to-back lessons with limited time to prepare, outdated textbooks, frantic queues for the photocopier with other harassed teachers and the perpetual paper jam or ink explosion all added to the mix – but the Dogme approach really helps.

This new approach put value in the real-time emergence of language that occurred in the classroom. He posited that the copious variety of resources hindered real life conversation and communication. The name Dogme, comes from the film movement instigated by Lars Von Trier (Dogma 95) where film-makers rejected the slick effects and trickery used in Hollywood films which were said to produce inauthentic responses by audiences and instead opted for more gritty, real methods.

Luke Meddings, co-founded the movement with Thornbury (2009) and together they came up with three pillars for the approach:

Text-led teaching (written and spoken) – the focus being on co-construction of language between teacher and student. Key importance is put on finding out about your students’ interests and sharing things about yourself.
Materials-Light – Allows for the teacher to centre lessons on the students’ needs and interests.
Emergent language – Language emerges through classroom activities that encourage collaboration between students, and language that has not necessarily been taught emerges also. The teacher actively helps facilitate the emergence of language, as well as motivates students to engage with the new language critically.

4 Steps to an Example Dogme Lesson

This has been created using a variety of teacher training workshops by Luke Meddings and Scott Thornbury and the Conversation Activation Teaching framework by Ken Lackman in his article, CAT: A Framework for Dogme.

Step 1

Have students pick a topic for the lesson after a brainstorming session, I’ve created some lesson plans here, which you can adapt quite easily depending on the topic.

Timing – 10- 15 mins

Rationale – Creates collaboration and competition, and focuses the learning experience on the students’ interests and needs, motivational.

Step 2: Pair-work or Groups of Three

One student asks questions about the topic to other student/s.

Switch roles so that every student has a go at asking questions.

Timing – 10 mins

Rationale – Focus on fluency.

Step 3: Interaction – Allow for Emergent Language

This could include role-plays, discussions, debates, running dictations, summary writing, feedback to teacher.

Allow the lesson to develop based on the needs and interests of your students. Allow more time on tasks if they are engaging with them, equally if the activity isn’t working, then bring it to a close and move on. Provide a level of competition if you have students are reluctant to engage with an activity.

Rationale – Activities are language productive, language students use informs how the lesson moves on to the next stage.

Step 4: Language Focus and Critical thinking

Throughout the lesson, encourage students to critically think about the language they are using or learning. For example, if students were writing down questions and responses and expressions used to answer those questions, ask students to tell you what they wrote and copy it onto the board, giving them variations on questions they could use. For example:

What is your favourite music / film / TV show?
What do you like to do at the weekend / in the evening/ in your spare time?
I enjoy going to the cinema / going to the beach /going to the cinema.
I like to meet up with friends / I like to watch movies at the weekend / I like to sleep all day at the weekend.

Pair Work 2

Get students into different pairs or groups and use the questions and responses written on the board. They can feel free to use other language also, so monitor and take notes of anything useful or interesting that you hear that you can bring up after the activity to share with the class.

Rationale – Provides students more freedom to express responses to questions and also in how they ask questions.

Another key principle to consider here is the importance of retrieving instances of learner language and analysing them. Viewing learners’ errors as learning opportunities is a useful way to really hone in on your student’s specific difficulties as well as helping others in the class that share the same difficulties. Recording, reviewing and recycling instances of learner language is a great way for students to critically think about the language that emerges.

Why Use this Method?

So, why would someone who creates ESL materials encourage the use of a materials light approach? For me, I consider the materials light approach freeing, and I find it allows language to emerge in a natural way, all you need is a good hook and the lesson plays out like a story. That is not to say that using textbooks, technology and other types of lesson materials class is not useful too. In fact, I think variety is the spice of life, a “principled eclecticism” (2017) approach to teaching is likely the most effective. Always ask yourself why a method aids in a positive learning experience and improved and effective language learning for your students. As I do most of my teaching online now and 1:1, I find it works best with intermediate level students. I will be working on creating some material or steps for using Dogme online and with 1:1 lessons over the next few months, but I feel that the lessons I’ve created can already be adapted for that context. I also have other lesson materials that follow a more presentation, practice and production approach for younger learners and teenagers in presentation slides which work well for online lessons but could work for the classroom too.

To learn more about this and download my free materials, and to keep up with how I’m developing more lesson plans, visit my website here.

References

Meddings, Luke; Thornbury, Scott (2009). Teaching Unplugged: Dogme in English Language Teaching. Peaslake UK: Delta.

Thornbury, Scott (2000). A Dogme for EFL.

Thornbury, S. (2017). Scott Thornbury’s 30 Language Teaching Methods: Cambridge Handbooks for Language Teachers (Cambridge Handbooks for Language Teachers). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

The post What is the Dogme ELT approach or Teaching Unplugged? appeared first on English Lessons Brighton.