{"id":262,"date":"2009-05-13T14:57:11","date_gmt":"2009-05-13T11:57:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/eltweekly.com\/more\/2009\/05\/13\/a-book-review-by-hall-houston\/"},"modified":"2009-05-13T14:57:11","modified_gmt":"2009-05-13T11:57:11","slug":"a-book-review-by-hall-houston","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eltweekly.humbeestudio.xyz\/?p=262","title":{"rendered":"ELTWeekly Issue#19, Subscriber space: A Book Review by Hall Houston"},"content":{"rendered":"

Teaching Unplugged<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0by Luke Meddings and Scott Thornbury<\/strong><\/p>\n

A Book Review by Hall Houston\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

About 8 years ago, I read an article titled “Teaching Unplugged” by Scott Thornbury in\u00a0It’s for Teachers<\/em>\u00a0magazine. The article described a new approach to teaching languages that de-emphasized coursebooks and other teaching materials, and stressed real communication between students. This approach was loosely based on a Danish film movement called Dogme, after which the new approach was named. I found the article fascinating. It challenged me to rethink the role of the coursebook in the classroom.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In April 2009, Delta Publishing printed\u00a0Teaching Unplugged<\/span>, which is part of their new Delta Teacher Development Series. This book gives a reader-friendly introduction to Dogme ELT. Basically, there are three principles to Dogme ELT: teaching should be conversation-driven, materials-light, and focused on emergent language. This approach emphasizes students’ and their needs over technology and techniques.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The book contains 3 sections. Part A is a brief overview of the philosophy and core principles of Dogme ELT. It runs only 15 pages, but it gives a clear explanation of Dogme and includes some intriguing quotes such as “The only questions asked in a school should be by the pupils.” (A. S. Neill). Part B is the longest section of the book. It features almost 100 activities for implementing a Dogme approach in class. The activities are clearly stated and easy to follow. Most require no materials except for pen and paper. Part C provides additional support for certain contexts, such as teaching one to one, teaching exam classes, and teaching with a coursebook.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Overall, this is a useful resource for both new and experienced teachers. I’m looking forward to trying out some of these activities in my lessons this month.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Additional Reading\u00a0<\/p>\n

To learn more about Dogme ELT, read some of the articles on Dogme at Scott Thornbury’s website:\u00a0<\/p>\n

Teaching Unplugged Website<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.thornburyscott.com\/tu\/portal.htm<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Delta Publishing – Teaching Unplugged<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.deltapublishing.co.uk\/html\/books\/Delta_Teacher_Development_Series.html#TEACHUNP<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Teaching Unplugged\u00a0by Luke Meddings and Scott Thornbury A Book Review by Hall Houston\u00a0 About 8 years ago, I read an article titled “Teaching Unplugged” by Scott Thornbury in\u00a0It’s for Teachers\u00a0magazine. The article described a new approach to teaching languages that de-emphasized coursebooks and other teaching materials, and stressed real communication between students. This approach was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","omw_enable_modal_window":"enable","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eltweekly.humbeestudio.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eltweekly.humbeestudio.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eltweekly.humbeestudio.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eltweekly.humbeestudio.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eltweekly.humbeestudio.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/eltweekly.humbeestudio.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eltweekly.humbeestudio.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eltweekly.humbeestudio.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eltweekly.humbeestudio.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}