Tropical English Teacher [INTRODUCTION] Tropical English Teacher Vol I Page 1 [INTRODUCTION] Introduction Greg Keaney, CfBT, SM SMJA, Editor Welcome to Tropical English Teacher All good people agree, And all good people say, All nice people, like Us, are We And every one else is They: But if you cross over the sea, Instead of over the way, You may end by (think of it!) looking on We As only a sort of They! Rudyard Kipling This is the first volume of Tropical English Teacher but is also a continuation of the CfBT Matters series of journals that were published by CfBT in the 1980s and 1990s. The false dichotomy of ‘over here’ and over there’, of ‘Us’ and ‘Them’ as portrayed by Kipling in the poem above, are the antithesis of the truly educated and yet ‘tropical’ teaching offers challenges and opportunities that differ significantly from those in the major ‘temperate’ cities of the UK, Canada, the US, New Zealand and Australia and which seek a forum, a space, for discussion and perhaps resolution. The aim of Tropical English Teacher is to provide such a space ­ a space for thinking about teaching, teaching English, teaching in the tropics, the value of learning English, the limits and possibilities of classroom teaching, the joys and anguish and all the assorted bits and pieces that go into tropical English teaching. It is a space for both theory and application. A space for learning, teaching and sharing. Any English language teacher who watches the world with interest or is occasionally disturbed by what they see around them feels the need to to work out the relationships between their work and their milieu. In 1866 Patrick Manson, a young Scottish doctor fresh from medical school, left London to serve in the ‘Far East’. In 1899, at the twilight of his career and as the British Empire approached its zenith, he founded the London School of Tropical Medicine to investigate tropical disease and was instrumental in discovering the means by which malaria was transmitted. Page 2 © CfBT Brunei Tropical English Teacher [INTRODUCTION] Imperialist or pioneer? Part of the problem or part of the solution? Tropical English Teacher is an intentional echo of the dilemma that faced the medical profession in Manson’s time. It would seem that the professional and personal dilemmas that tropical environments presented outsiders in Manson’s time are no closer to being resolved in our own. I hope that this first edition of Tropical English Teacher is the start of a journal that will help all of us improve our teaching and motivate us to share what works and what doesn’t with our colleagues. I hope that the 2010 edition will be bigger and better with many more contributions from the many wonderful English language teachers here in Borneo and beyond. I grew up in a large household with many brothers and sisters, friends and relatives around. My Mum had a sign in the kitchen ‘My house is clean enough to be healthy and dirty enough to be happy’ – I hope that this first issue of Tropical English Teacher reflects those sentiments ­ with the right mix of the intellectual and banal, the theoretical and the practical, the interesting and the informative, the magnificent and the mundane to help you enjoy and reflect upon your own tropical teaching experiences. Hope you enjoy the journal and that you are rewarded with a few new ideas, a little bit of stimulation, a little bit of joy and a little bit thought. Happy reading. Dr Greg Keaney Bandar Seri Begawan December 2009 Copyright Notice Tropical English Teacher is a journal publication sponsored by CfBT. The views expressed herein are those of the respective authors of the articles and are not necessarily those of the sponsoring organisation. All effort has been made to acknowledge copyright where required of materials used in the journal. If you believe however that copyrighted material has been unwittingly used to which you have copyright entitlements please contact the editor at [email protected]. Requests for republication of materials herein should be addressed in the first instance to the editor. Tropical English Teacher Vol I Page 3 [CONTENTS] Contents Introduction ................................................................................................................................................... 2 Reading The Imaging Blog! ....................................................................................................................................... 7 Ian Wiseman, CfBT, SMPDSM Mentiri Empty Reading Syndrome ....................................................................................................................... 15 Fareeda Bibi Ismail, CfBT, SMSH Bangar Temburong The Proof is in the Pudding .................................................................................................................... 17 Robert Vohan, CfBT, SR Tanjong Maya / SR Lubok Pulau The People’s Choice Sentence Awards ................................................................................................ 19 Lance Jackson, CfBT, Maktab Sains PSBS Technology The Blogger that wants to Moodle ....................................................................................................... 22 Jean Kiekopf, CfBT, PAPHRSB New Definitions of Literacy: Multi­Literacy in a Changing World ............................................ 24 Andrea Giesbrecht, CfBT, SM Sultan Hassan Passionate Interests ................................................................................................................................. 27 Lance Jackson, CfBT, Maktab Sains PSBS Research Student Attitudes to Peer Correction .................................................................................................. 32 Linda Galbraith, CfBT, SM SMJA Action Research comes to Mumong ..................................................................................................... 34 Alan Douglas Fletcher, CfBT, SM PJNPH Abu Bakar Mumong Placing Teaching under the Microscope ........................................................................................... 43 Sandra Denise Schuler, CfBT, SM Perdana Wazir Page 4 © CfBT Brunei Tropical English Teacher [CONTENTS] Over Here From the heart of Borneo... .................................................................................................................... 49 Peter Boyce, CfBT, PTEB Teaching English in Brunei: Creating a Critical Context... .......................................................... 53 Clayton Barry, CfBT SM Masin Over There Teaching in Japan ...................................................................................................................................... 71 Sarah Woodward, ISB Teaching in China ...................................................................................................................................... 73 Sarah Woodward, ISB CfBT Education Trust around The World .......................................................................................... 75 Dominic Morley, CfBT SE Asia Professional Development A course is a course of course: Further study externally… ......................................................... 77 Toni Mills, CfBT, SM PDS Maharaja What’s the point? Process Teaching… ................................................................................................ 81 Greg Keaney, CfBT, SM SMJA Tips for writing and publishing in ELT ............................................................................................. 73 Lesson Ideas Play that funky music right: Music in ELT ........................................................................................ 86 William Crawford, CfBT, SM Sayyidina Umar Al­Khattab Tropical English Teacher Vol I Page 5 Tropical English Teacher [READING] The Imaging Blog! Ian Wiseman, CfBT, SMPDSM Mentiri, The use of imaging to improve reading comprehension The use of imaging is an important part of comprehension although it remains unacknowledged by mainstream sources of information for teachers seeking to enhance their teaching. Imaging, while naturally occurring for some readers, can also be enhanced in a number of ways resulting in improved comprehension. Simple techniques such as the use of more concrete texts, attending to illustrations, and instructions to image can all improve understanding and recall of written texts. The findings of empirical studies on imaging and reading provide support for Dual Coding theory. Day One Hi there. Welcome to my blog. I would love your feedback! I have been thinking about how to improve my teaching. When you think about it, there are only a few ways to do this. From most common to least common, I think teachers can do the following things: 1. Reflection ­ who knows how much of this goes on? Teachers are often too busy to stop and think. Ironic eh? This may morph into action research ­ but do teachers do action research if not studying for post­graduate qualifications? That is a study in itself perhaps. 2. Professional chats. But how many teachers discuss how to improve things in the class? More commonly they just complain about how “thick” 4D is. 3. Professional guidance ­ from your HOD or an advisory teacher etc. 4. Professional development. Some schools are good at this, others are... 5. You could look at teacher reference books ­ if you have such books available. Often schools may not have books on pedagogy available for teachers to refer to. Instead teachers often use textbooks as a source of ideas for teaching practice. 6. Through further study. Try