DEVELOPINGTEACHERS.COM NEWSLETTER

Welcome to the February Newsletter.

The following article popped up last month:

Ethical guidelines released for English language teachers Liz Ford, Tuesday January 3, 2006

A draft code of ethics for the ELT profession was published online this week.

The code, which sets out the responsibilities and legal obligations English teachers should have towards their students, fellow teachers and the profession at large, is published by the Tesol Law Journal partly in response to a wave of recent bad publicity about the conduct of teachers.

The code is believed to be the first of its kind.

Although teachers in state-run schools are required to follow ethical guidelines established by governments, many private schools and language centres around the world are not bound by any such codes.

The three major international English teaching societies (Tesol, IATEFL - the International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language - and AsiaTefl), for example, have no established guidelines for members.

The Tesol law draft puts an onus on teachers to give "foremost consideration" to the wellbeing of students, act with justice and fairness and "exercise authority in accordance with the law of the land".

It also states that teachers should not lie about qualifications and competence when applying for jobs, should not bring the profession, school or department into disrepute and should comply with the immigration laws of the country in which they reside.

Although the code will not be legally enforceable, Paul Robertson, one of its authors, hopes it will have "persuasive powers" to make teachers act more professionally and encourage employers to take the industry more seriously.

The publication of the guidelines follows a year in which the ELT industry has come under close scrutiny following the high-profile arrests and deportations of teachers in South Korea, who were found to be working illegally. The Korean government is keen to promote English language learning in its schools and seems increasingly anxious to rout out the thousands of teachers working in the country on tourist visas and without the required qualifications.

Writing in the January edition of the Tesol Law Journal, Robert Dickey, the academic and former president of Korea Tesol, said it was clearly time for a code of ethics to be established.

"In the field of Tefl, where expatriate teachers may change employers or even countries frequently, the need for a global standard that can accommodate local conditions is critical," he said.

Dr Dickey, who has been calling for a system of ethical guidelines for EFL teachers, particularly in Asia, for the past 10 years, added that "the mere process of considering and developing a code is an important aspect in the development of a sense of professional ethics, even for those aspects that are never adopted".

The draft code, which went live on January 1, is available for comment for three months and can be viewed at http://www.tesol- law.com/codeofethics. Organisers hope to publish a revised, final code by the end of the year.
http://www.tesol-law.com/codeofethics.php

What do you think? Opinions, feelings & ideas about the guidelines, post them in the Forums at:
http://forum.developingteachers.com/viewtopic.php?t=814

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This month we are joined by Dubravka Celinšek and Irena Kuštrin from Slovenia with an article on the LSP & problem-based learning. There is also a summary of a talk that Graham Hall gave on Critical Pedagogy in ELT. Hope you find them both interesting& useful.
There is a new recommended book, 'Extensive Reading Activities for Teaching Language' (Cambridge Handbooks for Language Teachers) by Julian Bamford & Richard R.Day (CUP), plus the usual sections.

Happy teaching!

Alistair

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INDEX

1. THE SITE
2. FORUMS
3. TEACHING LINKS
4. DAYS OF THE MONTH
5. BOOK REVIEW
6. WEEKLY TEACHING TIPS
7. PS - Internet/computer-related links
8. THE BIT AT THE END

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1. THE SITE

ONLINE DEVELOPMENT COURSES

The online courses are hosted at one of our sister sites, Developing Courses.com (http://www.developingcourses.com ). The individual, personalised courses develop with the experience, needs & interests of each participant at their own rate.

We use Moodle, an excellent course management system, each course having its own password so only the individual participant plus the trainer can gain access. The central focus on the courses within Moodle is the forum & where there may be three or four different threads going on at the same time. Attached to these are a variety of resources. All are very easy to operate in Moodle.

For more information, get in touch & check out
http://www.developingcourses.com

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Problem-based learning in an LSP classroom at higher education
institutions by Dubravka Celinšek and Irena Kuštrin from The
Slovene Association of ESP Teachers Slovenia

To view the article

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Thinking Locally: Addressing the dilemmas raised by Critical
Pedagogy in ELT by Graham Hall

To view the article

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Lesson plan

There's a brief integrated skills lesson plan centred around the recently deceased Wilson Pickett.
To see the plan

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Thanks to Dubravka, Irena & Graham.

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ARTICLES - If you've given a course or seminar or have a lesson
plan & would like to give it a public airing, do get in touch.

ADVERTISING - We reach more than a few thousand teachers every week with the Weekly Teaching Tip & the same each month with the Newsletter, not to mention the 2000+ unique visitors a day to the Site, & the site has the Google PR5. If you've got a book, course, job...anything that you'd like to advertise, then do get in touch.

TO GET IN TOUCH

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2. FORUMS

A couple of recent posts:

Young-Won Kim:
In Korea (and other countries), there are many books and many people/universities, which so distinctly/variously/differently (from each other) suggest how to pronounce English. Most (English-phonetics) people seem to be so assured of their own theories, since they have completed the pronunciation test (but, what if improperly/imperfectly?) over their own theories (at least) with (none other's than) their own mouth; so, they seem to even deny any hearing of other people's (different) views or any (open/public) review on whether their self tests etc. are really right/meaningful or not.
http://forum.developingteachers.com/viewtopic.php?t=761

Kesking would like to know:
is there anyone giving information about silent way method in elt?
http://forum.developingteachers.com/viewtopic.php?t=807

persianpower would like to find out:
What is the quickest/easiest way to get fired from an ESL language center in Asia? My friend wants to know how to get booted from a 1 year standard contract.
http://forum.developingteachers.com/viewtopic.php?t=799

One of many job ads from Joy ETEC:
Hi, my name is Joy from ETEC (English Teachers' Employment Connection) agency, S.Korea. An institute in Gwang ju is looking for teachers for March. (description follows)
http://forum.developingteachers.com/viewtopic.php?t=804

One of many job ads from karen98:
ETEC (English Teacher's Employment Connection) will help you find a teaching job in a popular city, Il san and we are looking for two foreign teachers who can start to work end of Feb (ASAP). This is ample opportunity to mix with many minority peoples and explore a truly multi-cultural part of Korea. The position is to train younger school students oral English. There are 25~30 teaching hours a week ( M~F) and class sizes are from 5~12 students. Fully furnished apartment and return flight provided by the school. Pictures of school are available upon your request.
http://forum.developingteachers.com/viewtopic.php?t=810

People Recruit advertises:
People Recruit is a fully licensed and accredited ESL recruiting company licensed by the Government of South Korea, and has been well established in the ESL recruiting industry since 2002. We are currently seeking highly motivated, open-minded individuals who are interested in teaching English in South Korea! Our goal is to provide good and reliable English schools in South Korea that will enable our teachers to make an informed decision. If you would like to live overseas while saving money, learning a new language and culture but don't know where to start, here is the fantastic opportunity for you.
http://forum.developingteachers.com/viewtopic.php?t=805

Lots of different Forums to choose from. Check them out. Post your jobs, your CV, your questions, finds on the net, ideas, activities, questions, grumbles, suggestions, your language courses, your training courses...they are there for you to use.
http://forum.developingteachers.com/

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CONSULTANCY

At Developing Teachers.com we occasionally carry out consultancy work. The different projects have included tutoring DELTA candidates by email, offering advice on curriculum design & materials choice & short training courses in person & by email. If you would like us to help in any way, please do not hesitate
to get in touch.

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3. TEACHING LINKS

If you have visited a site that you think would be beneficial for all or would like your site to appear here, please get in touch. Thanks.
http://www.developingteachers.com/contact/contact.htm

http://www.english-4u.com/
'English-4U is a website run by ESL teachers for ESL teachers. We offer free, ready-to-use lesson plans in PDF format based on current news stories and lyrics of songs.'

http://www.englishmaze.com
English Maze - 'A unique website for students, teachers and schools learning English. The English Maze contains hundreds of dynamic Speaking, Listening, Reading, Writing & Grammar activities. Plus Chat, E-pals, Discussion boards, lesson plans + many other free resources.'

http://ocw.mit.edu/index.html
MIT's OpenCourseWare - 'a free and open educational resource for faculty, students, and self-learners around the world. OCW supports MIT's mission to advance knowledge and education, and serve the world in the 21st century. It is true to MIT's values of excellence, innovation, and leadership. MIT OCW: is a
publication of MIT course materials, does not require any registration, is not a degree-granting or certificate-granting activity, & does not provide access to MIT faculty.' The Linguistics courses link:
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Linguistics-and-Philosophy/index.htm

http://itunes.stanford.edu/
Stanford University lectures on itunes.

http://edupodder.com/
Edupodder.Com - Podcasting in education

http://www.eduref.org/
'The Educator's Reference Desk builds on over a quarter century of experience providing high-quality resources and services to the education community. From the Information Institute of Syracuse, the people who created AskERIC, the Gateway to Educational Materials, and the Virtual Reference Desk, the Educator's Reference Desk brings you the resources you have come to depend on. 2,000+ lesson plans, 3,000+ links to online education information, and 200+ question archive responses.'

http://lyricsfly.com/
Lyrics search engine.

Boydegg writes in the forums to tell us about Grammarman - 'a comic for EFL/ESL teachers and their students. Here's the site that supports the comic: http://www.grammarmancomic.com There are lots of resources on the site - all free. Hope you and your students enjoy them. Brian. Also comics for grammar practice
http://www.grammarmancomic.com '

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4. DAYS OF THE MONTH

A few days to plan your lessons around in February:

1st - US Black History Month
2nd - Groundhog Day
14th - Valentine's Day
V Day plan:
http://www.developingteachers.com/newsletterplans/News_lplan_feb2001.htm
From Your Valentine:
http://www.developingteachers.com/tips/pasttips63.htm
Chocolat lesson plan:
http://www.developingteachers.com/newsletterplans/april1_2002.htm

To see the list of Days

Wikipedia's excellent focus on days of the year:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_anniversaries

http://www.holidayorigins.com/home.html
Some holiday origins.

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5. BOOK REVIEW

Extensive Reading Activities for Teaching Language (Cambridge Handbooks for Language Teachers) by Julian Bamford & Richard R. Day (CUP). An excellent array of activities to start, support, maintain & exploit this important activity.

To read the review

BUYING BOOKS
If you're going to Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk then please go through our Books page. You will pay the same & we will receive a few pennies to keep the site & newsletters free. Thanks.

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6. WEEKLY TEACHING TIPS

Free weekly practical teaching tips by e-mail.

Recent Tips have included:

- Newsletter projects - ideas on using newsletters.
- Scaffolding - a look at how this metaphor can help us.
- Martin Luther King Day - some lesson ideas.
- Thank You - writing ideas with same texts punctuated differently.

To see the Past Tips

To sign up to receive them

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7. PS - Internet/computer-related links

A few computer use rules of thumb:
- make copies of all-important files
- run scan disk & then defragment the hard drive
- use firewall software
- use a virus scan & update the files every week
- install security patches that software providers offer
- update your DirectX files regularly
- don't open attachments without scanning for viruses first
- don't respond to spam - just delete & forget
- don't send personal or bank information by email
- turn off your computer at night

http://participate.net/
Join in & make a difference.

http://intelligence-test.net/part1/
24 H in a D = 24 hours in a day - test yourself with the rest!

http://www.archive.org/details/movies
Public domain films at the Internet Archive.

http://map.pequenopolis.com/
'If I dig a very deep hole, where I go to stop? - Another stupid application for Google Maps...'

http://toolbar.google.com/send/sms/index.php
Send a text message from your computer to a mobile - US only.

http://www.cnet.com/4520-6022_1-102337-1.html
CNET's top 100 products.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/12/1216_051216_
top_video.html
Top Ten Videos of 2005 From National Geographic News

http://www.worth1000.com/cache/gallery/contestcache.asp?contest_id=646
Photos without essential bits.

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8. THE BIT AT THE END

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Has to be.

Disclaimer - all of the recommendations for computer-related software are personal recommendations. We take no responsibility for anything that might go wrong when downloading, installing or running them - not that anything should, but you never know. It's your decision, your responsibility. The same applies to the jobs mentioned above. And anything else that you can think of that we might be responsible for as a result of this newsletter!

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