Jim Scrivener’s Talk - Uncertainty in ELT
Jim Scrivener, renowned English Language Training (ELT) consultant, teacher trainer, and course leader, talks about Uncertainty in English Language Teaching.
"As ELT professionals, it feels as if we work in a world of increasing certainties. Researchers measure and quantify what we do and make proposals about best practice. Course books (and presumably their writers and publishers) seem to have worked out how best to organize learning content for the classroom. School owners and their management teams tell students that they know how long it will take them to progress through each level – and they tell teachers exactly how long they should take to cover each unit of the book. Inspectors seem to know exactly what they are looking for when they observe our lessons.
So …
Why do I still feel so unsure about everything?"
This talk is an exploration of uncertainty in ELT and the lack of it and its implications for teaching and teachers.
Biography
Jim is a freelance writer, consultant, trainer and course leader. He also works as Teacher Training Ambassador for Bell and Academic Director of the Bell Teacher Campus.
He’s probably best known for his ELT methodology books, such as Learning Teaching, Teaching English Grammar and Classroom Management Techniques. His books have twice won Duke of Edinburgh English Speaking Union Prizes. He has also won the Ben Warren IH Trust Prize, The ARELS Frank Bell Prize and been shortlisted three time for British Council ELTONS innovation awards. His most recent books are for students: Visual Grammar 1 and 2.
Recently, along with Adrian Underhill he has been sowing the idea of a more challenge-rich, engagement-rich, learning-centered teaching that they have called "Demand-High".
Jim has worked in many different countries over the years, including two years in Kenya, three in the USSR and seven in Hungary. He was head of the team that designed the Euro exams, now widely taken in Central Europe. He also designed and implemented the first Online Delta course.
Twitter: @jimscriv.
