Pedagogy Index
DOGME THEORY
After our discussion in Dogme Gardens I wrote an informal account to Scott and his co-author, Luke Meddings. One of the things I mentioned was that one person had asked about the role of texts in teaching a la Dogme. I pointed out that many people around the world, like the carpet dealer I had spoken to in Istanbul aquired workable English with no use of texts.
Luke had something different to say:
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Hi Dennis
Good to hear from you and thanks for this
I don’t have a problem with text and I'd guess we all feel the same.
If it’s written text, I think as a general classroom rule it can be shorter than we sometimes imagine and more usefully generated by learners (ie imperfect text) than we often assume. Not sure who ‘we’ is but you get the gist.
And I think the distinction between speech and text whcih I assume lies behind the....question...[the one I reported] is often a false or spurious one – it’s often more a case of register, with informal usage mainly spoken and formal usage mainly written. Formal conversation may be on the wane, but there is so much written text that is just conversational (t)wittering, especially these days!
Best wishes
Luke
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I must admit I was surprised but delighted at the discussion that broke out spontaneously in Dogme Gardens last week. And if you examine the photo you will see that there were 10 - 12 people - a goodly number.The secret substance I put in each rose lowering the affective filter and loosening tongues worked. :-)
Since even being in Dogme Gardens was not planned, there is no recording of the discussion, and perhaps that is no bad thing. One can't record everything and our own memories and jotted notes are pretty useful tools that don't need batteries or configuration.
I remember, for example, that there were a number of questions along the lines:
Could Dogme be used for beginners?
Could Dogme be used at university level?
What about examinations and Dogme?
I recently asked Scott through the Dogme list what he would give as Dogme's core principles. He answered:
"Message: 14289 From: scott_thornbury Received: Mi Jul 01, 2009 12:32
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" In our book Luke and I tried to nail them down to three:Dogme classes are classes that are:
1. conversation driven
2. materials light and where
3. there is a focus on emergent language."
I think with these three broad principles in mind it is possible to devise ways of teaching a la Dogme - some of the time, not necessarily all the time.('Dogme moments'.) And why? Well, because adherents of the Dogme approach do sincerely believe that such teaching and learning are highly effective.
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Once again, I'd thoroughly recommend Scott and Luke's book:
Luke Meddings and Scott Thornbury Teaching Unplugged - Dogme in English Language Teaching, Delta Publishing ISBN
978 1 905085 19 4 2009
To give you a taste of the book's style and content, here is a passage on teaching young learners:
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It is generally accepted that young learners - at least those under the age of twelve or so - do not have the cogntive capacity to think of language in purely grammatical terms. Abstract language-specific concepts, like tense and modality are opague and difficult to grasp for them.
Language teaching approach that foregrounds and makes explicit, formal grammar is unlikely to engage them, therefore. Rather, young learners learn by doing - by being involved in language-using activities where the focus is on the functionality of langjage: interacting with other language-users in order to get things done, to enter imaginary worlds, to create things, to exchange information or, quite simply, to play. (Teaching Unplugged, p88)
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And now back to seeing how high I can build in Second Life. It seems the answer is 4095 metres!
Scott's very worthwhile website, with references to many books and articles and PowerPoints of some of his presentations is here:
http://www.thornburyscott.com/
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