Page 19 - ELG1903 Mar-Apr Issue 464

SPECIAL FEATURE
Class struggle
Class struggle on the agenda?on the agenda?

ust as we were going to we have seen the emergence The UCLan Masters But when, last Christmas, Irish
press on this IATEFL of CLIL, the subject not only students we interview on page teachers who were left unpaid
issue, a story broke: staff of an IATEFL plenary session 28 ask why native speakers of and out of work appealed to
Jat the British Council in by Aleksandra Zaparucha from English struggle with their own IATEFL to signal its support,
Italy were striking over job cuts Poland, but of our interview, language. We ask why these they got no response.
(see Stop Press page 6) on page 32, with Xavier Gisbert, teachers did first degrees in Some SIGs sent messages of
As my twitter feed filled the mastermind behind the the English language, became support, as did several affiliates,
with more pictures in the Madrid bilingual schools. fully qualified and taught even some members of the
Italian press of more teachers Across the world, another for an average of four years board. But from IATEFL as an
marching down more roads content-based methodology before anyone told them about association, there was not a word.
waving more red flags, I thought is fast emerging. As Trevor Second Language Acquisition A teaching profession which
to myself once again: why are Grimshaw reminds us on page theory? puts the classroom on the
teachers and their concerns so 23, English as a Medium of Meanwhile, Mark Krzanowski, agenda, but refuses to engage
rarely featured on the IATEFL Instruction represents a paradigm writing from China, points out with the staffroom, does so at
agenda? shift in what we teach, how we the difficulty of getting the right its peril.
The question of what teach and what language(s) we staff, with the right training
should be on the agenda, not teach it in. qualifications and experience
only of IATEFL but of the ELT orthodoxy is also being to teach EAP in a whole-new
ELT profession as a whole, is questioned. On page 24, Lindsay knowledge culture.
the theme of this conference Clandfield asks why our classes So, in the end all our new DIEGO PH/UNSPLASH
special feature: and a very are topic-led, and why digital agendas come back to one place:
crowded agenda it has turned learning has become something the staffroom.
out to be. we use for homework. On A profession is built on the
The entire way in which we page 26, Gill Ragsdale argues expertise of its professionals.
have taught English for the last that ELTs’ refusal to engage And if those professionals are
three decades or more is called with cognitive overload theory under pressure, underpaid and
into question by the emergence means we are making learning under zero-hour contracts, they
of content-based methodologies. more difficult for our low-level may turn to their professional Supporting teachers is
In the schoolrooms of Europe students. association for help. a bright idea.

editorial@elgazette.com 19