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Charlotte y Peter Fiell son dos autoridades en historia, teoría y crítica del diseño y han escrito más de sesenta libros sobre la materia, muchos de los cuales se han convertido en éxitos de ventas. También han impartido conferencias y cursos como profesores invitados, han comisariado exposiciones y asesorado a fabricantes, museos, salas de subastas y grandes coleccionistas privados de todo el mundo. Los Fiell han escrito numerosos libros para TASCHEN, entre los que se incluyen 1000 Chairs, Diseño del siglo XX, El diseño industrial de la A a la Z, Scandinavian Design y Diseño del siglo XXI.

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Understanding the Courses We Teach

The University of Michigan Press

Contents

Part 1. Background1. A Time for Local Perspectives John Murphy...............................................................................................................32. Background and General Principles John Murphy...........................................................................................................113. Precursors to the Understanding Collection John Murphy..................................................................................................274. A Framework for Discussion-Part 1 John Murphy and Patricia Byrd.........................................................................................335. A Framework for Discussion-Part 2 John Murphy and Patricia Byrd.........................................................................................52Part 2. General Purposes Instruction6. English in the Workplace at Goodwill Industries Marjorie Terdal, Janice Ruhl, and Carolyn Armstrong.....................................................717. Families as Curriculum Partners in an Urban Elementary Inclusion Classroom Jo-Anne Wilson-Keenan, Jerri Willett, and Judith Solsken.....................928. Community-Based ESL: Exploring "Critical Citizenship" Brian Morgan......................................................................................1159. Building a Community of Adult ESL Learners Robert A. DeVillar and Binbin Jiang..........................................................................13510. An Australian Adult ESL Settlement Classroom Anne Burns and Pam McPherson..............................................................................155Part 3. English as a Foreign Language11. Videoing Conversations for Self-Evaluation in Japan Tim Murphey........................................................................................17912. FocalSpeak: Integrating Rhythm and Stress in Speech-Pronunciation William Acton........................................................................19713. "Extensive Reading" for Japanese English Majors Thomas N. Robb.........................................................................................21814. English for Engineers in Hong Kong Lindsay Miller......................................................................................................236Part 4. University Courses (Credit Bearing)15. EAP Support for Matriculated University Students Janet M. Goodwin......................................................................................25916. A Theme-Based Literature Course: Focus on the City of Angels Donna M. Brinton..........................................................................28117. Canadian Language and Culture: A Course for Nine Academic Credits David J. Mendelsohn..................................................................30918. Teaching "Writing for Proficiency" in Summer School: Lessons from a Foxhole Dana R. Ferris.............................................................32819. A Course in Grammar-Editing for ESL Writers May Shih...................................................................................................346Part 5. University-Preparatory Courses (Non-Credit Bearing)20. Strategic Reading on a Sustained Content Theme Joy Janzen..............................................................................................36921. Theme-Based Instruction: Fieldwork in a Small Connecticut Town Carol Numrich...........................................................................39022. Academic Speaking: Learning to Take "Longer Turns" Janet G. Graham and Susan M. Barone.................................................................40923. English through Web Page Creation Heidi Shetzer and Mark Warschauer....................................................................................42924. Looking Forward: Connectivity through the Internet John Murphy and Patricia Byrd.......................................................................446Bibliography................................................................................................................................................453Contributors................................................................................................................................................479Author Index................................................................................................................................................481Subject Index...............................................................................................................................................487

Chapter One

My left hand hooking you round the waist, My right hand pointing to landscapes of continents and the public road. -Walt Whitman, "Song of Myself"

Teachers of English to speakers of other languages have interesting stories to share about the courses they offer. Some of the more compelling stories focus on a specific course and reveal details of a teacher's local approach to language instruction. In teachers' conversations with one another, such stories capture the imaginations of tens of thousands of language teachers all over the world. Unfortunately, far too few of our stories ever appear in written form. In this book, English language teachers share stories and understandings of the courses they teach.

Understanding the Courses We Teach (hereafter, the Understanding collection) provides opportunities to examine descriptions of 18 authentic English language courses as composed by individual, or a collaborative team of, classroom teachers. For too long, the field of English language teaching (ELT) has been dominated by generic discussions that fail to illustrate teachers' and learners' actual experiences within specific courses. Individual teachers' firsthand accounts rarely serve as centerpieces in professional development literatures. The Understanding collection is different. It begins with the assumption that current and prospective language teachers are interested in learning even more than they already know about what happens within other teachers' courses. One of the collection's distinctive features is the opportunity it provides to examine experienced teachers' understandings and explanations of their ways of offering language courses.

Anyone reading this book, already interested in the teaching of English to speakers of other languages, has the good fortune of being part of a worldwide cast. Some of the more visible members of the cast include current and prospective language teachers, language learners, program administrators, materials writers, teacher educators, curriculum developers, researchers, and publishers. In actual practice, distinctions between some of these roles and role relationships are difficult to maintain. Many ELT classroom teachers, for example, contribute to the profession as materials writers, curriculum developers, and program administrators. There are many English language teachers who are second language (L2) speakers of English and former ELT classroom learners. In some settings, learners play significant roles as contributors to the planning and development of language courses in which they participate. Thus, the roles that teachers, learners, and other cast members play within contemporary stories of ELT are varied and multidimensional.

One theme that permeates the Understanding collection may be stated concisely as follows: all instances of English language teaching take place within particular sets of circumstances. In contrast, most introductions to the field of ELT center on generic rather than local treatments of teaching. There are serious drawbacks to such generic discussions. In the real world of ELT, acts of teaching and learning are always situated within local settings. Particular sets of circumstances significantly impact plans for teaching as well as teachers' instructional insights, actions, and behaviors. Practicing teachers realize it is within particular settings that we learn to develop, hone, and revise not only our teaching skills but our understandings of instructional possibilities. Beginning and developing teachers can learn valuable lessons from accounts of how other teachers adapt their instructional plans, decisions, and behaviors to local conditions. Throughout the Understanding collection, we use the phrase situated nature of language teaching to call attention to the importance of local contexts in which ELT courses are offered. All of the collection's chapters celebrate this theme. Hereafter, phrases such as local understandings and explanations, own ways of teaching, and personal ways of teaching will signal an individual teacher's approach to ELT as focused on a specific language course and setting.

Here are some of the recurring terms and terminology featured throughout the book. Following widely accepted usage (see, e.g., Brown 1994a), we will be using the phrases/acronyms English as a second language (ESL) and English language teaching (ELT) in special ways. The ELT acronym will serve as a generic descriptor tied to the teaching of English to speakers of other languages in diverse parts of the world, in different kinds of settings, regardless of more specific sets of circumstances. We use the ESL acronym to signal the teaching of English as a second language (specifically) in countries such as Australia, most parts of Canada, Great Britain, New Zealand, the United States and other parts of the world where English is the major language of commerce and education. In places such as these, students of ESL teachers are likely to hear English being spoken on a regular basis in settings beyond the classroom. We reserve the phrase English as a foreign language (EFL) to indicate the teaching of English in regions of the world such as China, Egypt, Japan, Russia, Mexico, and Spain, where English is not the primary language of commerce and education. Such usage is parallel to the teaching of Chinese, Arabic, Japanese, Russian, or Spanish as a "foreign" language in secondary, college, and university classrooms in Australia, Canada, Great Britain, New Zealand, and the United States. As mentioned previously, the phrase English language teaching and its acronym, ELT, will be used for more general topics applicable to the teaching of either ESL or EFL.

Organization of the Book

The Understanding collection's first five chapters are background discussions setting the stage for the local perspectives on ELT featured in chapters 6 through 23. As signaled by the section titles in the table of contents, this series of 18 local-perspectives chapters is arranged in four thematic clusters: (a) general purposes instruction including workplace literacy, community-based ESL, and courses designed for recent immigrants in Australia, Canada, and the United States, (b) the teaching of English as a Foreign Language in Hong Kong and Japan, (c) university credit-bearing courses focused on the teaching of English for Academic Purposes in Canada and the United States, and (d) noncredit university-affiliated courses offered through Intensive English Programs. Each of the 18 local-perspectives chapters begins with a description of the instructional context for the targeted course. These descriptions and discussions of genuine teaching and learning experiences in language courses reveal details of the stories contributors have to share and illustrate that teachers' firsthand accounts have something valuable to offer. Rather than highlighting a skills focus for L2 teaching, an overarching instructional philosophy, or a favorite instructional technique, each chapter's centerpiece is an authentic course as offered by one of the contributor-teachers. The local-perspectives chapters are rich in descriptive details and narrative tones. They resonate with the contributors' personal investments in their own acts of teaching.

The purpose of this initial chapter is to introduce the Understanding collection's scope and purpose. Chapter 2 reviews theoretical underpinnings and intended purposes for the collection as a whole. It traces some of the historic and contemporary developments in the field that launched our interest in making the collection available. For those interested in contemporary theory to support English language instruction, the second chapter concludes with a synthesis, listing, and discussion of 14 general principles of ELT. Following this review of contemporary theory, the third chapter focuses on specific precursors to the Understanding collection's organizing schema and serves as a backdrop for the collection overall. Chapters 4 ("A Framework for Discussion-Part 1") and 5 ("A Framework for Discussion-Part 2") provide a unified discussion of a framework for organizing individual teachers' understandings and written discussions of specific courses they offer. We refer to the framework featured in chapters 4 and 5 as the "Understanding chapter framework" and present it as a conceptual lens for readers to refer to while examining the collection's remaining chapters. In chapters 6 through 23, contributor-teachers apply the framework in modified ways to discuss separate English language courses. Although chapters 6 through 23 are freestanding and can be read in any order, chapters 1 through 5 should be read before them and in sequence. Of these first five chapters, the fourth and fifth chapters are probably the most important since they establish necessary context and may serve as a conceptual lens for more clearly appreciating the rest of the collection.

As it appears throughout the rest of the book, the Understanding chapter framework is organized around contributors' responses to the 13 topics presented in table 1.1. Responses to topics 1-9 were required for inclusion in each of the local-perspectives chapters. However, decisions on how to sequence the topics and whether to include topics 10-13 were left to the discretion of each contributor. As mentioned earlier, each of the components of the Understanding chapter framework is elaborated in detail in chapters 4 and 5. The framework serves as a cohesive story structure tying together the various ways of teaching introduced throughout the collection. A point to bear in mind is that the chapter framework was intended to facilitate contributor-teachers' efforts as writers rather than constrain them. That is, we designed the framework to be flexible enough for contributors to discuss their understandings of ELT courses they offer in ways consistent with their own voices as writers, storytellers, and teachers.

The Contributors' Charge

In chapters 6 through 23 contributors discuss how they plan, organize, and set about teaching specific ELT courses. By focusing on individual teachers' written discussions of their instructional plans, decisions, and experiences, the Understanding collection reflects the wider field's continuing progression away from generic to more specific treatments of language teaching (Brown 1993a, 1993b; Kumaravadivelu 1993, 1994a; Richards 1998, 1996). Through presentation of a range of different teachers' personal understandings and explanations of their work in whole courses, the collection complements other ELT professional development resources. Chapters 6 through 23 illustrate some of the ways in which English language teachers from different parts of the world (including Australia, Canada, China, Japan, and the United States) organize and implement authentic plans for teaching. Overall, the collection (1) highlights connections between theory and practice in contemporary teachers' perspectives on ELT, (2) provides a range of teachers' local approaches to some of the actual courses they offer, and, through provision of context-specific discussions, (3) supports other teachers' efforts to share their own understandings and explanations of ELT. Each of the local-perspectives chapters represents an opportunity to read about one teacher's way of teaching English to speakers of other languages. Since we asked contributors to suppress impulses to generalize beyond their own experiences within a single English language course, these chapters focus on context-specific themes. The clustering of chapters 6 through 23 into different areas of ELT is intended to make it easier to infer points of comparison and contrast across the various courses presented. As a complement to how chapters 6 through 23 are clustered in the collection, table 1.2 provides additional information on the courses that the contributors discuss.

Why should you take the time to examine individual teachers' local perspectives as presented here? Two reasons signal the path followed in this collection. First, the trajectory of the field suggests a pressing need for a collection of this kind. Over recent decades, the field of ELT has been inundated with broad discussions of teaching. Although many of them merit close examination, there are far too few illustrations of individual teachers' local perspectives on authentic courses. Of the illustrations that are available, even fewer are firsthand accounts. To fill this gap, the Understanding collection foregrounds individual teachers' local understandings and explanations of their own courses. A second reason is that current and prospective language teachers naturally are curious about other teachers' understandings and explanations of what they are trying to accomplish in language courses. If our instincts are right, many of the ELT stories appearing in the collection will resonate with potential connections to your current, or future, teaching.

As helpful as we believe their collective presentation to be, we realize that the contributors' stories included in this volume barely scratch the surface. They are indications of an even wider range of stories other teachers have to tell. In this respect, chapters 6 through 23 illustrate ways of sharing local understandings and explanations of ELT that other teacher-writers may be interested in exploring for themselves. If you are an English language teacher, the Understanding collection may serve to support your efforts as a teacher-writer interested in sharing with others your insights into one or more of the courses you offer. If you are a prospective teacher such efforts may seem somewhat distant from more immediate concerns. Over time, however, opportunities to teach, reflect on, synthesize, and learn even more about processes of English language teaching and learning are likely to shorten such distances.

Part of the plan for the Understanding collection is to enable readers to interact with some of the themes highlighted in the book through communications made possible by the Internet. To this aim, the final chapter, titled "Looking Forward: Connectivity through the Internet," introduces an Internet site tied to the collection. By accessing this site on the World Wide Web, readers have the option of using it to learn even more about individual chapters, gain access to additional information and resource materials, and interact with other readers-as well as the coeditors and some of the book's other contributors-via electronic communications. For example, while the book presents a unified bibliography at the end, the Understanding website features a listing of references cited in each chapter along with some additional suggestions for further reading. As will be explained in the final chapter, the collection's Internet site also makes it possible for teacher educators to arrange for students in teacher development courses to post responses to the collection's various prompts for discussion and reflection-as appearing in the book at the ends of chapters 6 through 23-on the World Wide Web. In addition, ELT teachers who are interested will be able to post their own course descriptions on the Internet site. For further discussion of the features and resources made available on the Understanding collection's Internet site, see chapter 24.

We trust that your experience in reading this book will illuminate ways of organizing and offering ELT courses. As indicated by its title, the collection is an opportunity to learn about local perspectives on ELT through contemporary teachers' course-specific accounts. We believe such opportunities to be all the more worthwhile when they remind us of some of the potentialities of our own efforts and experiences as language teachers. In the spirit of Walt Whitman's vision depicted at the beginning of this chapter, we hope the Understanding collection points to landscapes of possibilities for learning more about the teaching of English to speakers of other languages.

Excerpted from Understanding the Courses We Teachby John Murphy Patricia Byrd Copyright © 2001 by University of Michigan . Excerpted by permission.
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