Sir Ken Robinson on Changing Education Paradigms

by Jürgen Kurtz, Karlsruhe University of Education, Germany

Two years ago, I wrote on this blog: “It is really heartbreaking to see how education is increasingly transformed into an economic enterprise by external stakeholders, how commercially exploitable competences and skills are turned into commodities, and how the principles of lean production are applied to schools …” (click here to continue). Yesterday I discovered the following thought-provoking video lecture on Youtube which I think fits in nicely with this ongoing discussion:

I also like this inspiring RSA animate which was adapted from Ken Robinson’s talk:

PS.: As I did two years ago, Ken Robinson speaks of a “mass-production mentality” which is outdated and  harmful to our children and youth (for more on this, click here).

The Role of the Textbook in the EFL Classroom (7)

by Jürgen Kurtz, Karlsruhe University of Education, Germany

At the 44th Annual IATEFL Conference in Harrogate earlier this year, OUPELTGlobal interviewed a number of prominent ELT authors on the role of the texbook in second/foreign language education. It is quite interesting to listen to what they have to say. Please click to watch.

PS.: There are some more of these three question interviews with other ELT authors available at YouTube. I picked out these three – simply because I personally think they are the most  interesting.

24th Biennial DGFF Conference 2011

by Jürgen Kurtz, Karlsruhe University of Education, Germany

The 24th Biennial Conference 2011 of the German Society for Foreign Language Research (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Fremdsprachenforschung, DGFF) will be held September 28 to October 1 at the University of Hamburg, Germany. The conference theme is: Globalization – Migration – Foreign Language Learning and Teaching (Globalisierung – Migration – Fremdsprachenunterricht). I have created a link to the official conference website  (which is still under construction). If you are interested in getting to know more about this event, please click here.  

Workshop 8, organized by me, focuses on the following topic: “Enhancing Young Learners’ Developing Concepts of Self and Other in the Primary FL Classroom / Interkulturelles Lehren und Lernen im Fremdsprachenunterricht an Grundschulen“. More detailed information is available on the official website now, both in German and in English. If you wish to issue a brief statement on this, please contact me via the conference website.

Martin Cortazzi: Transcultural Issues in TESOL (TESOLacademic.org)

by Jürgen Kurtz, Karlsruhe University of Education, Germany

Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) academic is a knowledge dissemination site which links the work of TESOL-based academics to teachers, teacher-trainers, teacher-trainees, decision-makers and other researchers. Edited by Huw Jarvis, it provides a global forum for people to talk about how their published research, or an aspect of it, impacts on language pedagogy. TESOLacademics.org only posts talks about research which have gone through the peer review process and this ‘guarantees’ the quality of the submissions. 

In the following video webcast, Martin Cortazzi focuses on some fundamental transcultural issues in teaching English to speakers of other languages (click on image to view):

David Little: Issues in Learner Autonomy (TESOLacademic.org)

by Jürgen Kurtz, Karlsruhe University of Education, Germany

Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) academic is a knowledge dissemination site which links the work of TESOL-based academics to teachers, teacher-trainers, teacher-trainees, decision-makers and other researchers. Edited by Huw Jarvis, it provides a global forum for people to talk about how their published research, or an aspect of it, impacts on language pedagogy. TESOLacademics.org only posts talks about research which have gone through the peer review process and this ‘guarantees’ the quality of the submissions. 

In the following video, David Little focuses on some fundamental issues in learner autonomy (click on image to view):

The Role of the Textbook in the EFL Classroom (6)

by Jürgen Kurtz, Karlsruhe University of Education, Germany

Here’s another voice in the ongoing debate on the role of the textbook in the EFL classroom – “My Take on the Unplugged/Dogme/Coursebook Debate”  (Dave Dodgson):  

“After a week or so reading some very interesting posts detailing various people’s stances on the ongoing discussion about the usefulness of coursebooks, the merits of an unplugged/dogme approach (assuming those terms can be used interchangeably) and everything in between, I thought I’d pitch in my two pence with some reflections on what I’ve taken from it all. Of course, this discussion has been going on for much longer (and will probably continue for a while yet!) but recent posts on the blogosphere have really got me thinking.” Click here to read more.