Inequality in ELT – my thoughts on Jeremy Harmer’s blog post

My answer to Jeremy Harmer’s blog post. I decided to share it here to see what your thoughts are:

As an English teacher from Slovakia, living and working in the Czech Republic, I consider myself a part of the “common” teaching crowd (and I don’t use this term in a negative way – it’s just the way it is and, to be honest, I feel happy where I am, so do not send me any VIP plenary speaker invites jest yet, please!;))

Of course, there are hierarchies and structures.

I feel that most critical voices stem from the fact that language teaching is considered to be one of those noble, “selfless”, egalitarian occupations and, naturally, any mention of “profit” is bound to be sneered at, even if it’s deserved.

Also, unfortunately, foreign language teaching is very much undervalued within too many political systems around the world. Organisers there have a difficult task balancing quality of content, number of participants and satisfaction of all parties involved.

While there surely are brilliant minds all over the world that aren’t given due respect or reward, the brilliant minds that are invited to conferences and are respected in the world of ELT (whether thanks to intelligence, personal charm, a bit of ‘egotism’, etc.) have something to give. Neither they, nor the organisers can be blamed for “unequal” treatment, even if “profit” is involved (and where isn’t?).

We do live in an unequal world, after all. Hopefully, thanks to language teaching, the possibilities are becoming equally open to everyone.

At the same time, however, I am a little concerned about a different kind of inequality, still existing in every-day teaching situations in many countries. I’ve got personal experience from a prestigious state-owned bilingual grammar school in Slovakia, where I used to teach English with some of my native-speaking colleagues. Here, the pressures from parents to have more native-speaking teachers were so high that the school management had to offer many more advantages, both in terms of pay and other perks, to “attract” native speaking teachers. The parents saw this as absolutely acceptable and were willing to provide separate funds to provide more finances for native speaking teachers. It goes without saying that, while the local teachers were automatically expected not only to do their teaching job well, but the majority of paperwork, organise parent-meetings, as well as be held responsible for the success of the students at exams, even so, they were paid much less.

What we need, I feel, is change the existing discriminatory attitudes that put “native” teachers above their non-native speaking ELT colleagues.

What do you think?

When I was “boring myself”

i really was. this isn’t an example of incorrect usage of the phrase “be bored”. this is what it felt like when my ELT experience had lost ‘the juice’ of enjoyment and routine had set in.

i resorted to the required minimum, worked on autopilot, and, what was worst, everyone went along with it. no one seemed to care.

no alarms and no surprises (please).

it went on for some time, then it became a norm.

i found myself yawning inside my own head, while wearing (literally) my interested face, listening to some students’ dialogue for an N-th time, asking those bland questions about the weekend, presupposing their mistakes with cold accuracy.

i’ve seen it many times. failing to ignite any interest in my own work, i saw the same bland look in their eyes, perfectly mirroring mine…

What a horrible, horrible dream it was…..

E-elt and 33

the journey begins here:

i’ve decided to become a more connected, more effective and more inspired English teacher.

thanks to the overwhelmingly influential world of web2.0 – although not fully understood or utilised yet – we don’t need to travel or leave the comfort of the home or office anymore. all the brilliant inspiration, action and information is available right here, wherever and whenever in the world it might be.

while i’m doing my first steps on the virtual e-way, see my ESP blog and Twitter account, the flagships of my endeavours, i feel a little cautious about the one negative side-effect it’s having: the ever-widening devide between the Web “haves” and “have nots”.

nevertheless, one can’t but admire the pioneering minds that drive this incredible movement forward.

what will it all bring in the long run, positives or negatives? can it improve the critical state of affairs worldwide with ecosystems threatened, human rights ignored, wealth and opportunity unequally distributed and E-waste piling up, to name but a few?

the world has changed a lot since i started my journey in elt and i’m not THAT old (33, fyi).

33 is an age that bears a lot of weight. in biblical times, men were considered fully mature only after they’ve reached 33. jesus was crucified at 33. it’s half-way towards 66 and quarter of the way towards 99.

so this is where the world and i are now.

whatever happens next, today feels great again, with opportunities, freedoms, collaboration and ideas shared online in a way never seen before.

whatever the outcome, it’s great to be here, realising the potential for good.

hope at 66, and perhaps at 99 too, i’ll look back to the present moment with warmth and great feeling of achievement.

i really do.

Realizations

few things in life could bring a more persistent feeling of sorrow and doubt than realizations about missed opportunities. wasted potential. wasted days. wasted time.

how many times have i heard the words of wisdom, encouragement, threat, or just plain and simple truth that the time, powers and capacity for making things won’t last forever.

talent needs time, nourishment, careful and meticulous care, consistent attention. wasted moments are those when we don’t look after our selves and our talents. losing a connection with one’s true self is like disappearing. neither here, nor there.

opportunities present themselves always. there’s no blind reward scheme for luck. what looks like pure luck is at core readiness to accept possibilities as they present themselves. they are everywhere, hidden if we’re careless, but blossoming out beautifully like snowdrops in spring when we pay attention.

it takes time to do things now.

time is all it takes.

time and your self.

p.s. written as a little “rant” on behalf of some of my students who seemed to have lost their belief in doing things for themselves

The lesson today

i did it today. out of all days, this one seemed right. a lot of different factors converging into one moment of inspiration, decision, spontaneous action.

spontaneity.

freedom, no limitations of preparation. no sticking to routine.

i’m aware sustained spontaneity in itself is impossible and will turn into monotonous unreadiness in the long run. laziness and lack of organisation result in sameness of action. individual decisions, however spontaneous, are always based on the same characteristics,  same traits of personality, same habits, same mannerisms, same customs, same bringing up.

still, if to be spontaneous and free results in sameness, i rather choose this than the constraints of meticulous preparation.

what happened today was a culmination of a series of personal revelations and the realisation that all important memories are formed by form, not content.

miles davis said that. it’s all about form.

he was so very right.

it’s feeling that lasts, not fact. it’s manner that inspires, not logic. function is language without heart. how many different ways can you say ‘yes’ and change the meaning completely.

how many feelings can a word express.

how many times silence spoke louder than grammar.

there is to be direct link between person and point. feeling and face. word and warmth.

if a situation creates an emotional reaction, its memory lasts.

how many grammatically correct words are in my best memories?

to become one with word is to fulfill its function. no space for doubt. no explanation.

just feeling.

so what happened was this. all was good. i did things that made me present. dialogues, realisations, reflections. music. nathan fakes the sky was pink, the elation and elevation to the level of the ground.

we keep the treasure within. guard it, measure it. judge it.

we make the price.

so we sat in a circle, did what a warm up does. warmed up. soon, the ideas, questions, curiosity and excitement was in everything. every word charged with its current, giving extra boost to meaning, feeling.

still not sure if i should mention my students by name, as this is all so very abstract and highly subjective.

in any case, it was thanks to those who feel that it all worked. the AA thursday. the proof that what really matters is people, us. and so minutes and the full hour seemed to fly by, while we remained in the circle, wired to one another, impossible to move, impossible to break free, excited to be inside.

then, in the afternoon, with four, the tv, the programming techniques, the vocabulary and reading.. that was good too. wonderful indeed.

and above all that, the spring was in the air..

Happiness

it all boils down to doing things and meeting people.