Hello, there!

O Atlantic Idiomas, lá de Brasilia, tem uma revista super interessante sobre o que acontece na escola, traz artigos escritos pelos professores e na última edição o Henrick Oprea, diretor da escola, fez uma entrevista com o conceituado autor Luke Meddings.

Pedi a permissão para reproduzir a entrevista com Luke aqui no blog. Veja a primeira parte!

Luke Meddings: “The 
English teacher should give opportunities to the students”

Luke Meddings is an ELT writer, teacher and teacher trainer. He was born in London in 1965 and studied English Language and Literature at Oxford University before taking his CELTA and then DELTA in London. As well as being a teacher, he’s been a school manager and journalist in English Language Teaching (ELT), having been Deputy Editor on the EL Gazette and a columnist for Guardian Online. His first book, co-authored by Scott Thornbury, is called Teaching Unplugged, and in 2010 it won a British Council ELTon award for innovation.

HENRICK – It is common to hear people saying that the only way for you to learn a foreign language is by living in the country where it’s spoken. What do you think of that?
LUKE – Well, if that was the only way, a lot of people would either have to give up or move to another country! I don’t think there’s ever only one way to learn a foreign language. In fact, I think many of us learn through a mix of formal tuition, informal exposure (perhaps through films and music to start with) and cultural exchange – including visiting a country where it’s spoken. It’s worth bearing in mind that many people move to another country without becoming very fluent in the language – maybe it’s a question of the quality of attention we give whatever input comes our way, and how inventive we can be when it comes to finding opportunities to practice.

So, I guess we could say that the saying “variety is the spice of life” also applies to language learning?
I think so – variety is so important. And I guess it helps when something makes us feel we just have
to learn a language! It might be work, or a game, or even a new relationship.

A lot has changed in the way that English is taught as a foreign language. What, in your opinion, has driven the shifts in methodology?
Technology is probably top of mind, although the use of technology in itself doesn’t necessarily drive shifts in methodology – it can be used to deliver the same course content in a different way. I think there is a renewed interest in more bottom-up, experiential learning after the very top-down, grammar-driven approaches that dominated in the 1990s. Changes to exams, and the widespread adoption of these exams, can also have a big impact when it comes to shaping student needs. I wonder if learners are increasingly goal-oriented in terms of why they want to learn English, less interested in the broader cultural experience?

Indeed, that is an excellent question – one
which we need to ask learners, I suppose. One thing, though, that we constantly hear is people talking about the wonders of technology and its benefits for learning. Do you think that the use of technology in education is being mistakenly seen as the final solution to all problems we face in education?
I think there will always be a certain mind-set which sees any process as ‘perfectible’. This may be true of some things, but it definitely isn’t true of something as complex as education, where people bring different life experience to the classroom, have different ways of processing input and where in any case our knowledge of how people acquire a second language is partial at best. I do worry that on a certain level – often one that is remote from classrooms and staffrooms – technology is seen as a way of making learning more ‘efficient’. And of course more ‘individualised’, which I’m also a bit dubious about.

I think the most interesting applications of technology are actually social – allowing a class in one country to interact with one from another, for example – and providing more motivating, communicative ways for students to engage with their studies and classmates outside school via blogs and wikis. 
So technology has some very exciting applications. But as I said, it doesn’t necessarily lead to ‘new’ teaching. And we shouldn’t under-estimate the value of face-to-face interaction inside the classroom – Freire’s notion of dialogic teaching, of a dynamic exchange between teachers and learners. And that can’t be too tidy, too perfect. It can even be, to coin a phrase, a bit scribbly!

When you mention dialogic teaching, could we say that one of the key points in favour of such dialogic teaching is the fact that we learn a language to communicate with others?
Absolutely – dialogic teaching is rooted in communicative need. As we put it in Teaching Unplugged:

‘We often talk about learner language as if it waits upon form, but in reality it is brought to life – and shaped in unexpected ways – by context.’

Henrick Oprea is the Director of Studies at Atlantic Idiomas. His passion for education is what drives him on a daily basis. His major interest these days is teacher professional development. He believes teachers are the ones who make the difference in any learning environment, which is one of the driving forces at Atlantic Idiomas. He blogs about education at http://hoprea.wordpress.com, and you can follow him on twitter @hoprea.

Amanhã vem a segunda parte da entrevista!