The map is not the territory: grammar as control.

Constrained as we teachers often are by the various demands of the syllabus and the end of year exam, we can find ourselves in a situation where we have a class-full of students who can all get an “A” in the grammar exam but who can get very frustrated when it comes to actually producing any language for themselves.
As Widdowson (1978) famously argued, “the ability to use the language effectively and appropriately is not the same as the ability to manipulate its forms.” In this session, we examine how productive competence—particularly in speaking—can be nurtured for communicative success beyond the classroom. Grammar, while essential, should function as a means to an end: real-world communication.

Learning Strategies: encouraging our own education.

“Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country”. When John F. Kennedy said these famous words, he might well have been talking about teaching – just try replacing the word “country” with the word “education”. Many of the methods and approaches we have been taught to practise, seem to create a culture of dependency. And, therefore, how can we make our students more autonomous, when, as Holec states, autonomy itself “is not inborn” (1981) and must be acquired? This session seeks to redress the balance and show how, in providing our students with ways of working things out for themselves, they can become more autonomous learners, and do as much for their own education as we can.