Dogme: A teacher's view

1. Dogme: A teacher's view Jo Bertrand, Teacher, Materials writer, British Council Paris

2. Dogme is... • Dogme is a teaching philosophy. It goes beyond the standard pedagogical methods that we are so often used to hearing about. • The thinking behind it is that students learn when they feel involved and interested in the subject. • If the material they use isn't relevant to them then the likelihood they'll retain any information is slim. • The solution within Dogme basically consists of removing all irrelevant material to enhance learning. It involves in fact removing all material. • A Dogme classroom is a textbook free zone. To a certain extent we could say that a Dogme space is a classroom free zone as we know it.

3. Dogme rules (to be bent and moulded) • Resources should be provided by the students or whatever you come across. If doing a lesson on books then go to the library. • All listening material should be student produced. • The teacher should always put himself at the level of the students. • All language used should be 'real' language and so have a communicative purpose. • Grammar work should arise naturally during the lesson and should not be the driving force behind it. • Students should not be placed into different level groups.

4. Pros • From a teaching point of view it cuts down tremendously on preparation time. • The students feel completely in control of their learning and are therefore so much more motivated. • It keeps you alert and spontaneous as you never know exactly what could happen in class and so must think on your feet. • You can handle almost anything once you've taught in a Dogme classroom. • Students are constantly aware of the 'why' behind everything they do.

5. Cons • Some students may feel uneasy about it at first, feeling they're not being spoon-fed a teacher-led lesson. • It might be daunting for a newly-trained teacher to work without the security of a textbook. • Some teachers may be locked into a specific syllabus. • You may be working in very large classes where tables are bolted to the floor. • Some teachers may feel that their role and 'power' is being undermined by this more student centred approach.

6. Four lessons (Teaching without materials)

7. Lesson 1: • Meet students . Question each one individually about their jobs, English learning experience, mainly - about 5 minutes each, very conversational. Ask them to do same to me, but first to prepare questions in pairs. Check questions - write mistaken ones on to board. Class check. Students ask me questions. In pairs/groups they write up a summary about me. Monitor writing and share any interesting errors.

8. Lesson 2: • "Paper conversation" - students in pairs have a conversation but written, passing paper back and forth (like on-line chat). Monitor and extract interesting errors. Change partners and do this spoken. Introduce "back channel" devices - e.g. showing interest - and they change partners a third time, trying to incorporate these. Students report to class on partner's day. • CLL activity - record students constructing a converstaion round any topics they wish. Play back and transcribe on to board, highlighting areas of interest.

9. Lesson 3: • For homework I have given them different human interest news stories from websites. They are to read these and prepare to "tell" them to their classmates. After initial class chat about the weekend I model task by telling story about my weekend and asking individual student to tell it back ("non-directive listening"). This is their task with the news stories. First I go round sorting out any problems of vocab. Then sts in pairs tell and tell back their stories. Change partners to repeat this. Choose one of the stories; in pairs they write it from the point of view of one of the protagonists. Monitor and select errors for open class focus. • For homework students have been asked to find interesting news stories on suggested websites.

10. Lesson 4: • Students repeat previous lesson's task with their own stories - telling and telling back. provide narrative framing devices: "I heard this amazing story the other day…" etc. Select most interesting stories to tell class. Engineer discussion about the story - which develops into a general discussion. towards end, ask students to write a summary of the discussion, as if they were reporting it in a local newspaper. Monitor and correct. • Note that this sequence was not entirely materials free - I had print outs from websites for them - one each x 7 or 8 sts - the idea was that this might act as aspur to get them to bring similar stuff to class. In actual fact, few had done this, but I fortunately had some more up my sleeve for the 4th lesson. But I did feel that this had been a bit of a cheat!