Video of Alan Maley’s talk.
Title: Where do New Ideas Come From?
Date/Time/Place: Wednesday, Nov. 24th, Kochi Women’s University, Eikokuji Campus, Meeting Room 1 (1st floor – 5 meters from the main entrance) Time: 6:30-8:00
Abstract:
In my 40 years in ELT, I cannot recall a time when ‘new ideas’ was not on the agenda! I shall suggest five possible sources for such new ideas. I shall also suggest that this search, though it may ultimately lead to dead ends, has an important motivational and developmental function for teachers and trainers. Along the way, I shall suggest how some of these sources might be linked to Action Research projects. The five sources are:
1. Teacher Interaction: Here I shall explore the various kinds of interaction which often produces innovative ideas – ranging from formal training contexts, through semi-formal professional contexts such as conferences, to informal exchanges in staff rooms.
2. Heuristics: By heuristics, I refer to basically simple ‘rules of thumb’, which, when applied inevitably change the teaching interaction. I will deal in some detail with John Fanselow’s ‘do the opposite’ (Fanselow, 1978). I shall also point out the heuristic basis of the ‘designer methods’ (Suggestopoedia, etc.). Other heuristics, such as ‘withhold information’ will also be mentioned.
3. Re-explorations of Traditional Techniques: Here I describe some areas which have been renovated by creative thinking; dictation, homework, vocabulary, reading and grammar, and suggest some others ripe for re-development, such as repetition, questions, dialogues, drills and translation.
4. Borrowing from Feeder Fields: These fields will include NLP, Multiple Intelligences, Music, and Art. I shall suggest that there are potential benefits to be had from considering areas such as Neuro-science, the psychology of Consciousness, and Creativity theory itself.
5. New Developing Areas: The most obvious (with certain caveats) is Information Technology. I shall also refer to Literature, Global Issues and CliL as content-related areas, and to Young Learners and Advanced Learners as areas for development. Recent renewed interest in ‘Flow’ (Czikszentimihalyi, 1990) will also be included.
Speaker Profile:
From 1962-1988, Alan Maley worked for the British Council in Jugoslavia, Ghana, Italy, France, China and India. He was Director-General of the Bell Educational Trust in Cambridge from 1988-1993 and then worked as Senior Fellow at NUS, Singapore until 1988. From 1999-2003 he set up and ran the graduate programme in ELT at Assumption University, Bangkok. He is currently Visiting Professor at Leeds Metropolitan University, UK, a freelance writer and consultant. He has published over 40 books and numerous articles.