Teaching English to Young Learners - English Teachers Association ...

V O L U M E 2 8 • N O . 3 • S U M M E R 2 0 1 1
T H E M A G A Z I N E F O R E N G L I S H P R O F E S S I O N A L S
ISBN 9771660650003
SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT
Teaching English
to Young Learners

Contents
ETAS ORGANISATION 4
EDITOR’S NOTES • Ceres Pioquinto 5
ETAS NEWS
ETAS Journal Call for Articles 7
President’s Report • Ann Humphry-Baker 8
ETAS Teacher-to-Teacher Project • Cindy Hauert
News From Matopo Primary School, Zimbabwe 9
Faces of ETAS Support • Ceres Pioquinto
“Time to give something back”: A Conversation with
Peter John Pasquill, Regional Coordinator for Graubünden 11
Faces of ETAS: Teacher Feature • Ceres Pioquinto
“Teaching is a gift...”: ‘Up close and personal’ with Dorothy Sommer 12
Membership renewal information 15
SIGs - clarified! • Stephanie Wimmer 16
PERSPECTIVES
Interview with Urs Raschle, Manager, Zug Tourist Office • Helena Lustenberger 19
MAIN ARTICLES
The evolution of language methods: themes to guide the future • Julie Mangold 20
Metacognitive strategies in second language reading • Julie Mangold 22
Cognitive style and learning strategies • JoAnn Salvisberg 26
VOICES OF EXPERIENCE
Extensive reading for Business English students:
A waste of time? I don’t think so! • Dorothy Sommer 29
SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT:
Teaching English to Young Learners
Foreword • Ruth Benvegnen & Joy Cosslett 31
Am I repeating myself? Yes, I teach Young Learners! • Dorothy Sommer 31
Primary English Language Teaching: a new trend?
• Caroline Briggs Ambrosi de Magistris Verzier 33
What’s in your hand? Using the iPod touch for learning English:
the benefits and challenges of m-learning • Kim Ashmore 34
Teaching English as a Second Language at
Silobi Primary School, Zimbabwe • Teddy Hadebe 36
The learning affordances of picturebooks • Sandie Mourão 36
The ESL pre-school toolbox • Kate Egerton 38
Teaching with Bear: what teachers ask… • Mary Slattery 41
Language learning can be fun! • Diane Simmons-Tomczak 41
Cross-curricular language learning through IMI
– Involuntary Musical Imagery • Carole Nicoll 43
Classroom management and Young Learners • Naomi Moir 44
Responding to the challenges of the YL EFL classroom:
a proactive approach • Ruth Benvegnen 46
Relaxation in the classroom • Marneta Viegas 48
Taking over a language school • Sarah Pralong 48
THE TECHY COLUMN • Illya Arnet-Clark 50
From the REGIONS
Baden Workshop Report: 51
How can diversity help teach English?
Lausanne Workshop Report: 51
Brain-friendly learning and teaching
Solothurn/Olten Workshop Report: 52
Bringing technology into the classroom
CUP ELT Day Reports, Geneva: 52
Cambridge University Press ELT Day: a new profile for Geneva
Warmers, fillers and ice-breakers for Young Learners
Teaching Young Learners: inside and outside the Box
Teacher and student expectations when working in an intercultural environment
Teaching adults ‘real’ English: core, explore and more
Developing decision making and speaking skills through intercultural awareness
Constructing the English Profile
REVIEWS
A Look at Books 55
SERVICES
Membership Administration 56
Library Updates 57
Library Order and Check-out Form 58
T H E M A G A Z I N E F O R E N G L I S H P R O F E S S I O N A L S
Volume 28 - No. 3
Summer 2011
Publisher:
ETAS
English Teachers Association, Switzerland
Rue de l’Hôpital 32, CH-1400 Yverdon
Editor and Publications Chair:
Ceres Pioquinto, Muri
email: publ@e-tas.ch
Copy Editor:
Diane Theobald, Biel/Bienne
Book Reviews Editor:
Nicola Martignoni, Quartino
Editorial Board:
Illya Arnet-Clark, Emmenbrücke
Dorothy Sommer, Zeuthen
Alison Taylor, Wil
Graphic Design:
Ron Sumners
Sumners Graphics, Baar
email: layout@e-tas.ch
Printer:
Kalt-Zehnder-Druck AG, Zug
ISSN: 1660-6507
Price for non-members: CHF 20.–
Circulation: 1350
Advertisements:
To place an advertisement in
ETAS publications, please contact
ETAS Administration
email: office@e-tas.ch
Cover design and photo credits: Ron Sumners
Page 14 Poster design and photos: Ron Sumners
Page 51 Artwork: Mark Fletcher
Page 59 Poster design: Ron Sumners;
Photo credits: Ann Humphry-Baker and
Ariane Dumont
© Each article in this ETAS Journal is the property of its
author(s) and may not be reprinted without prior permission
of the author. Opinions expressed by contributors to this
Journal do not necessarily reflect the policies of ETAS or the
opinion of the ETAS Committee.
Articles, letters and reviews are accepted on the basis of
appropriateness and general interest to ETAS members.
The publication of an article or advertisement does not
necessarily constitute product or service endorsement by
ETAS. The ETAS Journal team reserve the right to alter or
edit for reasons of clarity or brevity.
ETAS Journal 28/3 Summer 2011 3

EDITOR’S NOTES
“To educate as the practice of freedom is a way of teaching that anyone can learn.
That learning process comes easiest to those of us who teach who also believe that there
is an aspect of our vocation that is sacred; who believe that our work is not merely to share
information but to share in the intellectual and spiritual growth of our students. To teach in a
manner that respects and cares for the souls of our students is essential if we are to
provide the necessary conditions where learning can most deeply and intimately begin.”
bell hooks, Teaching to transgress: education as the practice of freedom (1994, p. 13)
In this issue. I have a few sources of
exhilaration in this issue. First, it tells me
that our ETAS community is alive and vital.
Second, this issue is bigger because our
Call for Articles is reaching our prospective
readers and inspiring them to respond
enthusiastically. And third, this issue
contains new sections that I hope will
continue to grow and attract contributors.
The result is this impressive collection of
writings that range from studies with
sound theoretical frameworks to articles
with clear pedagogical implications and/or
applications in the areas of new materials
or materials preparation, innovative
classroom practices, needs assessment,
curriculum design and development,
IT application in learning/teaching
strategies, second language writing and
reading, cultural dimensions of language
teaching and learning, and the impact of
language and educational policies on
classroom practice.
Yet, in the beginning we were not working
toward any overriding theme. However, as
the issue grew, it became clear that the
pieces do speak to one another and the
underlying themes and overt connections
suggest themselves in a serendipitous way.
I have spoken about this notion of dialog
in my previous writings and this issue
reaffirms my belief in ETAS J as a splendid
forum on which the various views on
English language teaching are reflecting and
responding to one another. It is inevitable,
of course, because ETAS J’s mission is to
illuminate and perpetuate this dialog
between and among ELT professionals.
Our aim is to continue to offer our
colleagues in the ELT profession not only
good things to read, but also an enhanced
sense of community, a chance to come
out into the open, and compare notes.
Providing both the inspiration and the
philosophical underpinnings for this issue
are excerpts from three of my favourite
writers: bell hooks, e. e. cummings, and
Toni Morrison. Despite the diversity of their
themes and the variety of genres in which
they thrive, these three writers share a
passionate commitment to a humanist
educational philosophy which favors the
“I would rather learn from one bird how to sing than to teach
10,000 stars how not to dance.”
e. e. cummings
“We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language.
That may be the measure of our lives.”
Toni Morrison
notion that learning is about making better
people and not merely about altering
behaviors. “My hope emerges from those
places of struggle where I witness individuals
positively transforming their lives and the
world around them. Educating is always a
vocation rooted in hopefulness. As teachers
we believe that learning is possible, that
nothing can keep an open mind from
seeking after knowledge and finding a way
to know.” Thus opens bell hook’s wonderful
work, Teaching community: a pedagogy of
hope (2003), in which she deepens her
exploration of the meaning of engaged
pedagogy she earlier developed in Teaching
to transgress: education as the practice of
freedom (1994), in particular the process
of building community in the classroom.
For bell hooks, engaged pedagogy is
about liberation and a specific mode of
thinking about learning: education is not
merely about enabling students towards
self-actualization; teaching itself should
empower teachers and move them further
in that direction. hooks’s notion of
“education as the practice of freedom” calls
for educators to go beyond the ‘teacherly’
selves that they bring into the classroom
and to show their whole selves. In other
words, we as teachers must bring to it all
of ourselves, our own lives a reflection of
the kind of education that is not merely
about knowing facts and understanding
concepts but also about learning how to live
life, and live it to the fullest. When students
experience liberation through learning, only
then will engagement become something
more than “real learning”. “The academy
is not paradise,” says hooks, “but learning
is a place where paradise can be created.
The classroom, with all its limitations,
remains a location of possibility. In the
field of possibility we have the opportunity
to labor for freedom, to demand of ourselves
[...] an openness of mind and heart that
allows us to face reality even as we
collectively imagine ways to move beyond
boundaries, to transgress. This is education
as the practice of freedom” (1994, p. 207).
hooks’s ideas find resonances in the
collection of articles included in the Special
Supplement on Teaching English to Young
Learners. In spite of the variety of their
subjects and approaches, the authors
espouse the central beliefs that (a) every
child can learn in the right circumstances
and that we, as educators, need to adapt
to meet the needs of our children, and (b)
that learning must be engaging, social, and
centered on the needs and strengths of the
pupils. And all of them agree that when
teachers align their beliefs with their
practice, students succeed.
Acknowledgments. This issue once again
demonstrates that collaboration is the stuff
of growth. No journal can function without
the input from authors, production staff,
and Editorial Board members. Therefore, I
wish to express my appreciation and thanks
to all contributors to this edition for their
dedication, patience, and tremendous help
in preparing this issue. Ruth Benvegnen
and Joy Cosslett deserve special mention
for their wonderful efforts in putting together
the Special Supplement on Teaching
English to Young Learners. And they are
every editor’s dream collaborators – for
completing this project remarkably long
before the deadline, they have given a new
meaning to punctuality.
Readers will notice some changes in the
format and content of this volume and I
have Julie Mangold, JoAnn Salvisberg, Illya
Arnet-Clark, and Dorothy Sommer to thank
for paving the way for the rest of our
members to take a more active part in
our publication. Their contributions have
given life to my dreams to introduce
specific sections, beginning with this issue.
For being generous with their time and
expertise, Illya and Dorothy have my
gratitude. Though among the busiest, they
are also the most committed, and they
did not let me down when I requested
their participation in this issue at very
short notice.
A number of friends and colleagues, many
of them I have yet to meet in person,
have sent email or text messages of
congratulations and encouragement for
our work on ETAS J. These heartwarming
messages accompanied the completion
of this issue, providing the much-needed
ETAS Journal 28/3 Summer 2011 5

EDITOR’S NOTES
wellspring of creative energies. Space
prevents me from mentioning them
individually, but they know who they are.
Finally, thanks to Diane and Ron – their
insistence on precision and adherence
to deadlines triumphed over countless
small disasters and my own misguided
administrative impulses.
To readers unfamiliar with the business
of editing and publication of journals,
producing an issue such as this must
seem simple. Moreover, to many, a journal
editor is often seen as a person who
enjoys bringing new writing to the world in
a publication that will be seen, read,
appreciated, and talked about. Well, that’s
only half the truth. What many wouldn’t
guess, however, are the largely invisible
and protracted stretches of hard work
when the pressure of deadlines is at times
unbearable and the work too exacting,
exerting multiple demands on one’s
energies. After several whirlwind weeks of
organizing, soliciting work, editing, finalizing
content, and studiously remaining sane, I
ETAS NEWS
Call for Articles
sometimes find myself asking, “Why am I
here? Why are we doing this? Why do I
care, and why should anyone?” And then I
remember George Bernard Shaw: “Some
men see things the way they are and ask,
‘Why?’ I dream things that never were, and
ask, ‘Why not?’” Reflecting on a life away
from the limelight, the famous American
sprinter, Michael Johnson writes,
“Perspective is in the quiet of a walk, the
wisdom of a good book, or the harmony of
your favorite music. I find it sometimes in the
slow peace of fishing.” For me, perspective
is in every successfully completed project.
Every finished product is a deep and
inarticulate pleasure. Like this summer
edition of ETAS J – just one look at the
Contents page and my weariness dissipates!
How right Toni Morrison is: “…we do
language. That [is] the measure of our lives.”
I hope you will agree that ETAS J
demonstrates variety in both expressive
format and subject matter, and that
ultimately, our issues will not only whet your
appetite for more, but they will make you
want to send us your own articles. Do check
out our Call for Articles for our publication
guidelines and new deadlines for next year.
If you need help in writing your articles,
with special formats, or with our referencing
system, please do not hesitate to contact
me at: publ@e-tas.ch
I began these notes on an unbelievably
gorgeous spring day, and I am filled with
joy. For this gift of beautiful weather and
so much else, I join e. e. cummings in
giving praise:
“I thank you God for this most amazing
day, for the leaping greenly spirits of
trees, and for the blue dream of sky
and for everything which is natural,
which is infinite, which is yes.”
“En ce moment même dans cet ouvrage
me voici.” (In this very moment, in this
work, here I am. Yes.)
Derrida, 1980
Ceres Pioquinto
ETAS Journal invites submission of articles on various aspects of language teaching and methodology, lesson ideas, surveys of
teaching materials, and reports that address language issues in Switzerland or the surrounding region. Book reviews and brief
reports or summaries of work in progress which address similar issues are also welcome. Please adhere to the following guidelines
when submitting your work.
Submission may be in any of these formats:
Full length articles: articles in this category advance conceptual, research-based, or theoretical arguments that bridge theory and
practice in ESL/EFL. Articles must be fully grounded in current literature and must be of relevance to Swiss context. Manuscripts
should not exceed 3,500 words, excluding references, in Times New Roman, font size 12. Referencing system in use should be
APA 6th Edition (citation examples available online).
Voices of Experience: articles in this category feature descriptions of teaching techniques or activities, teaching methods, best
practices, professional development, and other useful information. Articles should specify audience, materials, procedures, and
teacher reflections on procedures. Manuscripts should not exceed 2,000 words, excluding references, in Times New Roman, font
size 12. Referencing system in use should be APA 6th Edition (citation examples available online).
Perspectives: submissions to this section are of the following types: (1) reactions of readers to articles and reviews published in
the Journal, and rejoinders; (2) viewpoints and opinions expressed in the form of a report, commentary, or interview on issues or
topics of current interest. Perspectives submissions should not exceed 1,500 words.
Deadline for the Winter 2011 Edition: 20th October 2011
Deadline for the Spring 2012 Edition: 16th January 2012
Deadline for the Summer 2012 Edition: 12th March 2012
Deadline for the Winter 2012 Edition: 19th September 2012
The Editors reserve the right to make editing changes without prior consultation with the author(s). Authors will be contacted
regarding any major editing or revisions. All contributors will receive one complimentary copy of the ETAS Journal.
Please send submissions, including a short biodata, as a Word document by email attachment to the Editor at publ@e-tas.ch .
ETAS Journal 28/3 Summer 2011 7

ETAS NEWS
President’s Report
Oh, to be in England, now that April’s there…
and, unlike Robert Browning, dear Reader,
I was, though not to admire the coming of
spring in rural England. I was off to the
raffish seaside town of Brighton to attend
the 45th IATEFL Conference and Exhibition.
This is an enormous event, with more than
a thousand delegates, which goes on for
four days. The venue is right on the
seafront, so serious and sober conference
participants mingle with less serious and
sober visitors to Brighton, many of them
on stag or hen parties, dressed somewhat
more excitingly than the people I sat next
to in workshops.
As ETAS President (I’m getting more used
to saying that), I attended the IATEFL
Associates Meeting, the day before the
conference began: here, and at the
welcome dinner the night before, I met
representatives from other TAs (teachers’
associations) from around the world. It’s
fascinating to hear about English teachers’
associations in countries like Pakistan,
Japan, Chile, Germany, and Latvia, to name
but a few. It’s so easy to think that the way
we do things is the only way, but there’s a
lot of diversity out there.
What I discovered at this meeting is that
Past President Amy Jost is extremely active
on behalf of IATEFL Associates and spent
last summer working hard helping to put
together a wonderful manual: Running
an Association for Language Teachers:
Directions and Opportunities. It was
produced with the assistance of the
British Council and contains articles written
solely by IATEFL members. We all received
hot-off-the-press copies as the books
arrived at the last moment during the
meeting – keeping the Advisory Panel
who produced the manual on tenterhooks
as they wondered what had happened to
their baby!
You can find a link to the online version on
the ETAS website. It’s well worth a read.
The view of Brighton Pier as we left the
conference one evening
8 ETAS Journal 28/3 Summer 2011
The conference itself was informative,
mind-expanding, hectic, friendly, exhausting,
but also rewarding. Each morning there
was a plenary talk, followed by workshop
sessions on any subject related to TEFL
you could imagine – and a few you may not
have thought of before. Visit the website
below, and you will be able to see much
of what was on offer.
http://iatefl.britishcouncil.org/2011/
news/sessions-itunes-u
If you’d like to know what frogs and applied
linguists have to do with each other and
TEFL, listen to Catherine Walter’s talk.
You’ll be informed and entertained.
I learnt a lot from the many presentations
I attended, and very much enjoyed
Professor David Crystal’s performance with
his wife Hilary and son Ben on “A thousand
years of words on words”.
The final plenary by Brian Patten, “Juggling
with gerbils – poetry off the stage”, was
a delight and great way to wind up
the conference.
Conference organisers (and I’ve been there
myself) spend countless hours putting
together a programme of talks, workshops,
and entertainment, but strangely enough
what delegates appreciate almost more is
the opportunity to talk to other teachers,
to catch up with old friends, make new
ones, network, and just relax with others
who know what they are talking about.
IATEFL conferences are a great way to
combine all that (as are ETAS ones too!)
with keeping up-to-date with the latest
developments in TEFL and I can only
encourage you to attend the 2012 IATEFL
Conference in Glasgow. Don’t forget you
can join IATEFL at a reduced rate through
ETAS. See the membership renewal
reminder on page 15.
Once again, Ceres Pioquinto has produced
a wonderful Journal, helped by Ruth
Benvegnen and Joy Cosslett who have
put together a mind-provoking Special
Supplement which should be of great
interest and value to all teachers, not only
those who teach young learners.
I’m sure you’ll enjoy reading the interviews
with ETAS members and volunteers Dorothy
Sommer and Peter Pasquill, and reading
about the excellent work that is being done
in Matopo in Cindy Hauert’s report on our
Teacher-to-Teacher Project.
Do you belong to a SIG? You can find out
all about our SIGs – who runs them and
what they offer.
The series of articles Ceres mentioned in
her Editor’s Notes is a welcome addition to
the Journal. I hope you’ll read them and be
inspired to share your knowledge and ideas
with Journal readers.
When this Journal reaches you, you will
probably be looking forward to a summer
break, although I know some teachers work
even harder in the summer. Whatever you
will be doing, wherever it is, I wish you a
happy, creative and restorative summer.
I look forward to seeing you all at ETAS SIG
Day in Zug on 17th September.
Ann Humphry-Baker

ETAS NEWS
ETAS Teacher-to-Teacher Project
News from Matopo Primary School, Zimbabwe
As I write this report, the first school term
at Matopo is just coming to a close. It’s the
end of March, and in Zimbabwe it will soon
be autumn. This often means calamitous
weather there, but spirits are high
nonetheless. Let me share some of the
recent success stories with you here.
Literacy programme
Together with the Federer Foundation, we
launched a literacy programme at all of the
schools at the beginning of the year. Chris
Ferguson, who has been involved in our
project since the beginning, is running it. He
and his wife Norma returned to Zimbabwe
two years ago from Malawi, where Chris
taught English and history, and the timing
was perfect to enlist his help in an ongoing
teacher training programme. Chris’s first
task was to test the reading levels of all
the pupils at all seven schools. The results
were dismaying: many pupils are reading at
a level five years below where they should
be. This situation is the consequence of
the governmental neglect of the country’s
educational system, especially in rural
areas. Despite our efforts to provide
teaching and learning materials over the
past few years, it simply hasn’t been
enough to halt the downward spiral. But
this is where Chris comes in. He has been
busy collecting graded readers from various
sources and working with the teachers at
the schools to help them use the materials
effectively. The programme will include
teacher observations, workshops, and,
of course, lots and lots of support and
encouragement. The teachers so want to
do a good job, but the lack of tools has
hampered their efforts for so long that the
work of addressing the problem will be
arduous indeed.
Classroom resources
Norma has been busy organizing what we
are calling “resource trunks” for each
school. I think an appropriate name could
also be “treasure chest” as they are full
of all sorts of wonderful educational riches:
in Norma’s words, “over 700 simple
readers, 6 posters, crayons, PINK pencils,
small rulers, erasers, and sharpeners!” In
addition, there are the amazing locally
hand-made puppets that I introduced at the
last Teachers’ Workshop Day, plus lesson
ideas for games and drama activities,
which the children love. We plan to keep
topping the trunks up and eventually every
classroom in all the schools should have
its own one. As I keep saying, my motto is,
“Think big, start small.”
Dormitory
As the “Send-a-girl-to-secondary-school”
project is growing, we have plans to seek
funds to build a girls’ dormitory at Silobi
High. This school is ideally located for the
cluster, and there is available space. We
have already got two tenders. Now we just
have to find the money!
Teachers of Young Learners
in Zimbabwe
Be sure to read the wonderful article by
Teddy Hadebe, a Grade 6 teacher at Silobi
Primary School, in this issue’s Special
Supplement. When the co-Editor of the
Supplement, Ruth Benvegnen, contacted
me with the idea of running an article by
a Matopo teacher for the Journal, I jumped
on it right away, and set up a competition
amongst all of the Matopo teachers. It was
really difficult to choose the best article –
they were all fantastic – but I’m sure you’ll
agree that Teddy’s story is incredibly moving.
Want to know more or get involved in the
project directly? I’d love to hear from you.
Cindy Hauert
trea@e-tas.ch
ETAS Journal 28/3 Summer 2011 9

ETAS NEWS
Faces of ETAS Support
“Time to give something back”: A Conversation with
Peter John Pasquill, Regional Coordinator for Graubünden
Ceres: Thank you very much, Peter, for
gracing this issue’s Faces of ETAS Support.
I’ve mentioned in our email conversation
that one of the reasons we do this feature
is to highlight the work of ETAS volunteer.
You are currently Regional Coordinator for
Graubünden. Where did the motivation to
be actively involved in the Association
come from?
Peter: I had stepped down after a decade in
school management and revived my contact
with ETAS as an active member. Graubünden
was looking for a new Coordinator, no one
seemed willing to step in, so I did. Someone
had to do it or the results of all the hard
work of the past few years would have
drained away. ETAS has given me a lot over
the years, and it was time to give something
back (again).
Ceres: While the benefits of being an ETAS
member are obvious, what do you see are
the benefits of being an ETAS volunteer?
Peter: The pleasure of helping to make good
things happen, of making a contribution to
a worthwhile cause. So many people get
lots of fun and benefit from being part of
ETAS. There’s always a buzz in the air at
ETAS events.
Ceres: What are your goals in your term
as Regional Coordinator, and what do you
envision your biggest challenge this year
will be?
Peter: I would like to decentralize the local
branch somewhat and run workshops in
different locations rather than only in Chur.
This is difficult due to the complicated
geography of the Canton and the distances
involved can be great. However, I feel it
would be interesting and enlightening for
members to see the different contexts in
which our members work.
Ceres: I’m sure being a Regional Coordinator
has its share of challenges, not to mention
the huge investment in time. If you were to
do it again in the nearest future, would you?
And would you encourage other members to
do the same, challenges notwithstanding?
Peter: It all depends on one’s personal
situation. I have been doing what I can,
but the day job has to take priority and
sometimes the demands of a full-time
teaching post at a high school are tough.
Finally, you have to limit yourself to doing
just a few things but trying to do them well.
Ceres: Being a member of ETAS for a
long time means you have seen how the
Association has changed over the years.
What would you consider ETAS’s biggest
contributions to ELT in Switzerland to be?
Peter: ETAS has undoubtedly raised the
standard of English language tuition in
Switzerland and helped promote the status
of English language teachers as a profession.
Ceres: Here’s a curious question: how
does it feel being a minority in a
not-just-predominantly-women-but-women-led
Association? If the opportunity presents
itself, would you consider heading the
Association in the nearest future?
Peter: It feels just fine. ETAS has become
the thriving, community-minded organisation
it is precisely because it is women-led. Now
there’s a sound bite! President Pasquill?
The sound bite is not the signal for the start
of my presidential campaign.
Ceres: But going back to the beginning,
how did you first get involved in English
Language Teaching, and where were your
first jobs?
Peter: As a young lad in my early twenties, I
was given a job and trained by Berlitz in their
direct method, which many “communicative”
teachers are rather snooty about. But say
what you will, it opened the classroom door
for me and got me working with learners. It
taught me that there really is no short cut,
that learning and teaching a new language
needs energy, imagination, perseverance, and
dedication. And it showed me that teaching
is communication. I was put in charge of a
new school, but left to do a degree at the
University of Zürich, from where I went into
high school teaching. I joined ETAS, saw
Alan Maley at a Convention, and then knew,
“This is the work I want to do”. Then into
management as Principal of The Bell
Language School, Zürich. Now I am Head
of Second Languages at an international
boarding school in Zuoz, Engadine, after
having led the introduction and development
of the International Baccalaureate
programme at the school for 12 years.
Ceres: Your long professional experience
means you have worked through many
changing trends in English Language
Teaching methodology. What are the major
challenges facing EL teachers in this
country? How do you see the role of the
EL teacher in Switzerland evolving over the
next 5 – 10 years?
Peter: The fundamental challenge is
unchanging: finding the connection to each
learner and then helping them find the right
path to their goal. It is hard to say what the
Switzerland-specific challenge is. Perhaps it
is still the issue of decent pay for what is a
valuable service. Sadly, the market is against
us. Basic training can be completed in a few
weeks, which means that there are lots of
people looking for jobs and most customers
in language schools are willing to pay only
moderate fees for a steadily-improving,
high-quality service. There is a scramble on
for even better qualifications to give one the
edge over rival applicants. It is also important
to try to keep one’s feet on the ground when
faced with the temptations of hi-tech course
materials or Weapons of Mass Distraction!
Ceres: What are your plans for continuing
your professional growth? In particular,
what aspects of your teaching are you
most interested in developing?
Peter: As teachers, I think there are three
things we should always be working on:
our sense of personal well-being, being fully
aware of what precisely we are trying to
achieve, and our choice of possible responses
to what is happening in the classroom.
Methodology, planning, choice of activities,
materials follow. But I don’t always get my
priorities right.
Ceres: Many of us have been lucky to
have mentors who have played profoundly
influential roles in our professional
development. Which writer or scholar has
had the most influence over the way you
understand learning and teaching?
Peter: Without a doubt there are two: Alan
Maley and Adrian Underhill, as teachers and
as writers.
Ceres: Thank you very much, Peter, for
giving ETAS J so much of your time.
Especially, thank you so much for giving
ETAS a part of yourself.
Peter: Thank you for the challenging
questions. I hope the interview is of some
interest to our readers.
Ceres Pioquinto
ETAS Journal 28/3 Summer 2011 11

ETAS NEWS
Faces of ETAS: Teacher Feature
“Teaching is a gift…”: ‘Up close and personal’ with Dorothy Sommer
Thank you so much, Dorothy, for taking the
time to share you insights and experience
with us. Please tell us a bit about your
teaching history, specifically what brought
you to want to be an English teacher.
Well, my teaching career began at the
poolside in my hometown of Pensacola,
Florida. I was on the swim team in high
school and college, where I was a language
major, so it was natural to get summer jobs
as a lifeguard and swim instructor every
year. However, I then moved on to Florida
State University in Tallahassee and finished
my BA in German and Business after having
spent a year abroad, since the general tenor
at the time was that languages alone would
get you nowhere. Along the way, I met a
German scientist, spent seven years in
import/export working for a German
international freight forwarder in Miami and
Düsseldorf, and found myself in the beautiful
Pays de Gex in the French countryside near
Geneva one day with two small children
playing in the yard, my scientist husband
at CERN and an advertisement for a
CELTA course at Bell International in hand.
I finished the course in 1995, started
teaching Young Learners because of the
flexibility with my own children, and have
always wondered how fantastic it is to be
so lucky to have so much fun while at work.
I felt it was very important to learn more
about the theory behind teaching and thus
finished my MA ELT by distance study at the
University of Reading in the UK in 2008.
You are based in Germany and run a
successful English training and consulting
school there. How would you describe the
climate of English Language Teaching in
Germany as a professional field and as
a business?
In Germany, it depends heavily on what area
you are in and your line of expertise. There
12 ETAS Journal 28/3 Summer 2011
are many companies situated in and around
Münich, Stuttgart, and Frankfurt. I believe
Berlin is growing towards that now with the
new Berlin-Brandenburg International Airport
(BBI) opening up next year. Professionally,
Berlin attracts many newcomers to the
field today because it is quite hip and
comparatively inexpensive, yet there are still
many well-situated English teachers involved
in the English Language Teachers’
Association of Berlin-Brandenburg (ELTABB).
As far as business is concerned, there is still
a great need for English in the former East
due to outsourcing, international relations,
and international fairs.
Tell us a little bit about DotSom Business
English Training and Consulting. Which
ELT area do you specialize in and what
sort of courses and ELT-related services
do you offer?
It’s amazing what a website can do for you!
As a matter of fact, this is all very new.
I have been teaching Business English and
Young Learners on a freelance basis since
we moved to this area southeast of Berlin
in 1997 and I find the combination very
rewarding. The children I teach allow me to
build a solid foundation and appeal to my
creative side and make me laugh; on the
other hand, the business people give me the
opportunity to fulfill more immediate needs
for English, allow for interesting discussions,
and a sense of lightheartedness free of
safety issues and demanding parents.
Moreover, businesses are very goal-oriented
and time-conscious and this helps me focus.
I specialize in air transport, logistics, and
financial English, general Business courses,
mostly in-company courses and intensive
training. I also teach general English, exam
preparation, and have prepared numerous
students for overseas exchange programs,
with an emphasis on intercultural awareness.
Other ELT services include German-English
translations and proof-reading.
What was the most challenging lesson
you have had to teach, and how did you
overcome the obstacles?
The first time I opened up a group of
three-year-olds and realized how long 45
minutes can be, I thought I should rethink
my strategy. Although there was a lot of
sweat (on my part) and there were tears
(one little girl named Luzie), I was able to
capture their interest and attention through
songs, games, and storybooks. Their stuffed
animals became part of the class and they
all returned the next week.
What sorts of assessment, both formal and
informal, do you view as being important
indicators of successful performance for
students learning English in your school?
First of all, when teaching adults, I like to
see where they stand at the beginning of a
course by means of a placement test in
order to later be able to evaluate their
progress more precisely. For in-company
training, I always do a needs analysis and
have a questionnaire for the stakeholders.
I value autonomous learning and like to
facilitate my students by finding ways of
learning outside of the classroom due to
time constraints in the classroom. Therefore,
it’s up to the students to make use of the
small library of graded readers I offer, to
watch movies, or go to the English Theater
in Berlin, as well as to use the internet in
order to learn more about certain topics.
Ongoing assessment in the form of a
portfolio and then a subsequent outside
exam, such as a Cambridge ESOL exam at
the end of the course, motivate students to
learn and give them a reason to work hard.
What do you consider to be your strengths
and how do you use them in your teaching?
Describe your teaching style and how you
accommodate the different learning styles
of the students in your classes.
One of my greatest strengths as a language
teacher is that I have studied languages
myself and know what it means to be a
language learner. One of my more obvious
strengths in Business English is my business
degree and subsequent experience working
for a company in two different countries.
In today’s globalized world, communication
in English is of the essence and therefore
I emphasize a communicative approach to
teaching, using state-of-the art books, graded
readers, authentic materials, games, songs,
the internet and more in teaching. Being a
very flexible and creative person, I can
normally tap into the learning styles and
needs of the learners.
What do you envision will be your biggest
challenge this year?
Creating a website for my Young Learners
and perhaps expanding from my kitchen
English to some real premises.
What advice would you give to someone
thinking of becoming an English teacher?
Would you also encourage prospective
English teachers to work in Germany?
Love it or leave it. I believe teaching is a gift
and good teachers must be very insightful,
devoted and able to motivate people to set
goals and strive to attain them. Teaching
can be very exhausting and if prospective
teachers are not careful with their own
resources, it will affect their well-being.
However, as teachers, we are in the field of
education and what better way to motivate
yourself and your students through ongoing
professional development and reflection?
Yes, I would always encourage prospective
English teachers to work in Germany, yet to
choose their work according to what they are
good at and like to do and not to expect to
see a plump salary on their bank account.

What most interests you about ELT at
the moment?
At the moment, I am very interested in two
areas of ELT. First of all, very young learners
and the advantages of starting English early
and secondly, reading and the positive effect
it has on students’ language development.
A final question − and one which highly
fascinates me! Though you are based in
Germany, you are one of the most active
members of ETAS, and one, I heard,
who never misses AGM and SIG Day
events! What drew you to ETAS in the
beginning? Doesn’t Germany have a similar
ELT organization?
Well, it might seem strange, but we lived
near Geneva several times for a total of six
years due to my husband’s work. I value the
friendships that have grown over the years
and I think the ETAS AGM and Convention is
a wonderful event. I have been a member of
ETAS since I first started teaching. However,
as I mentioned earlier, I am also a member
of the English Language Teachers’
Association of Berlin-Brandenburg (ELTABB)
and was the ELTABB Events Coordinator
from 2007 – 2010. This also allowed me to
invite speakers from Switzerland to Berlin.
Since our field is very international and I am
also a member of IATEFL and its respective
SIGs, BESIG and YLTSIG, it seems natural to
stay involved.
What is the most satisfying and rewarding
aspect of your membership in ETAS and
what motivates you to be an active member?
Would you encourage other Germany-based
ELT professionals to join ETAS?
I wouldn’t encourage other Germany-based
professionals to join ETAS, but perhaps to
come to one of the great events! In Germany,
there is an Inter-ELTA which connects the
various ELTAs in Germany, but it is very
loosely-knit and basically a group for board
members to communicate and exchange
information. At ETAS, the greater picture
includes all teachers in Switzerland and
therefore some very interesting and
MeNTOriNg
PRogrAmME
valuable projects have evolved, such as
the Teacher-to-Teacher Project. This is less
likely to happen in Germany since the nine
ELTAs are each run separately.
Dorothy, this has been a great pleasure!
I thank you very much for this time;
especially, thank you so much for graciously
joining our ETAS J Editorial Board this year.
Thank you, Ceres, and I’m looking forward
to working together with you! Oh, and by
the way, Luzie is now in second grade, and
is still in one of my classes and can now
read easy children’s books in English. Isn’t
that fantastic?!
Ceres Pioquinto
Are you ever stumped with what to do next, or how
to deal with a particular class or group you teach?
Maybe you need help in deciding how to upgrade your
qualifications or in designing a course. Or perhaps you
just need someone to listen to your teaching woes and
encourage you a bit. ETAS would like to help you!
We're launching a mentoring programme and all you have
to do is send an email to Cindy Stieger, our Teacher
Development SC, and you'll be one step closer to getting
the help you need. Email her today and find out more
about the scheme. Her address is on page 4 of this
Journal under SIGs. Or look her up on our website
under 'About Us', then 'SIGs'. Help is on the way!
ETAS Journal 28/3 Summer 2011 13

ETAS Forthcoming Event: SIG Day 2011
Join us in Zug, a small but beautiful and international city nestled
between Zürich and Lucerne, for the 2011 SIG Day. We will be hosting
the SIG Day at the GIBZ, Gewerblich-industrielles Bildungszentrum Zug,
for two years, 2011 and 2012. So come out, get yourself acquainted
with the city, and enjoy experiencing central Switzerland two years in
a row while taking in all of the SIG workshop offers at the SIG Day.
Saturday 17th September 2011
Put this in your diary now!

ETAS NEWS
Membership renewal information
Time to renew!
It’s time to renew your membership for another year (July 2011 – June 2012). An invoice (with payment slip)
is included with this Journal.
If you have already renewed for next year, or if you have informed us that you wanted to cancel your membership,
then there is no invoice enclosed (if in doubt, contact us at office@e-tas.ch).
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Thank you for supporting ETAS through your membership this past year. With this support we will continue
to provide the services which ETAS is proud of, such as:
• three excellent Journals
• two annual national events: the SIG Day and the AGM and Convention
• regional workshops organized in the ETAS Regions
• Special Interest Groups (SIGs) and networking opportunities
• an up-to-date website and e-newsletter with international, national and local information
• a postal library service for ELT materials (within CH only)
• a mentoring programme (more info here: www.e-tas.ch/services/mentoring)
Please also note these additional points:
■ Student membership
The student membership is for students at Swiss state tertiary pedagogical institutions. Proof of student status will be determined
at ETAS Administration upon receiving a photocopy or scanned copy of your student ID with the date of validity clearly visible.
■ Retired membership
The retired membership is for retired teachers who have reached Swiss state retirement age. Proof of retirement age will be
determined at ETAS Administration upon receiving a photocopy or scanned copy of your identity card or passport with the date of
validity clearly visible.
■ Joint IATEFL membership
As an Associate Member of IATEFL (International Association of English as a Foreign Language), ETAS can offer Basic IATEFL
Membership to its Individual members for only CHF 40.– (one-year membership / normal price: £46). Conditions:
• Be a current Individual member of ETAS.
• Payment for both ETAS and IATEFL membership must be received by 31st July. Any later payments will not be credited towards
IATEFL membership.
• It is not possible to join that scheme at another time during the year. It will be possible to renew the joint membership next
year at renewal time.
• Please note that the Basic IATEFL membership does not include any IATEFL SIGs.
If you’d like more info about IATEFL, check www.iatefl.org
■ Email addresses
The email address we have for you appears in the central part of the payment slip at the bottom of the membership renewal invoice.
Please check it and send any corrections to office@e-tas.ch. If you haven’t provided us with an email address, please consider
doing so, so that we may also contact you that way if needed.
■ ETAS membership details
Contact details of ETAS members are on a list which is available in printed form to our members. ETAS Associate Members
(EFL publishers, etc.) can buy the list and use it for commercial purposes. If you do NOT wish your name and details to appear
on the list, please inform us (office@e-tas.ch).
We look forward to your membership renewal – by 31st July!
Should you decide not to renew your membership, please let us know by 31st July (office@e-tas.ch). Thank you.
Considering joining ETAS? A membership application form is on page 56.
Any questions regarding your membership? Please contact Corinne Tschumi at: office@e-tas.ch
ETAS Journal 28/3 Summer 2011 15

ETAS NEWS
SIGs – clarified!
I’m sitting in my small garden on an
unseasonably warm Monday afternoon
in Basel. It’s 11th April and I have an
unusually short working week this week as
on Friday I’ll be joining a small contingent
of teachers, trainers, and publishers from
Switzerland and flying to the IATEFL
conference which will take place in Brighton
this year. This isn’t my first IATEFL
conference and it’s worth reflecting on why
it’s still such an exciting event and so many
people I know look forward to it. One reason
is most definitely the way the conference
brings out new ideas or even familiar
ideas from different angles. What I’ve
come to understand over the years is that
experience and qualifications are indeed
important things, but perhaps just as
important is the willingness to keep an open
mind. Within Zen Buddhism there is an
expression, “Zen mind, beginners’ mind”.
As Suzuki Roshi said in the prologue to Zen
Mind, Beginners’ Mind, “In the beginner’s
mind there are many possibilities, in the
expert’s there are few.” As an expert, you’ve
already got it figured out, so you don’t need
to pay attention to what’s happening. Pity.
An “expert” has no desire to learn from
others and as a result can become inflexible,
stagnant, and something of a perfectionist,
a life-long critic. “I already knew that –
what’s new in that?” is perhaps a common
phrase from the “expert mind”, whereas
to have a beginner’s mind is really to be
committed to being a life-long learner, to
acknowledge that even if you have heard of
a particular theory or activity before, each
presentation is something new and fresh
in itself as group dynamics, presenters,
and even an afternoon can never be
exactly the same twice. From a personal
perspective, I’ve often found that the
trainers and professors I’ve learned most
from and been the most inspired by over
the past 20 years have been the ones who
themselves are open, continuing to learn,
and acknowledging that there is ALWAYS
something to take away, even from teachers
with far less experience than them.
So, having the openness of mind to be a
life-long learner seems to be one reason
that propels people to attend conferences.
The other reason, at least in my book, is
simply the joy of connecting with and having
a whole lot of fun with different people. I
actually find the drinks after a plenary or
dinner in the evening as equally valuable
as the programme itself. It’s exactly here
that contacts are made and friendships
developed, and sometimes these can have
an interesting way of seriously impacting
your own career and working life.
With the above in mind, I’d like to invite you
all to this year’s SIG Day in Zug on Saturday
17th September. As I hope is clear in the
Programme and Invitation, Amy Jost and I
have been working hard to ensure that both
aspects of a great conference are covered:
Social and Content. Pretty much everyone
I know is planning on coming to Zug on
the Friday, the night before. The idea is
we spend the evening before having fun
16 ETAS Journal 28/3 Summer 2011
together. Zug has plenty of nice restaurants
and the weather is often beautiful at that
time of year. I confess that the idea of
sitting looking out at the lake while sipping
a cool glass of white definitely features in
my Conference plans this year. There are
quite a few international speakers coming
in for this Conference and I’m sure they’re
going to be blown away by the beauty of
Zug and our friendliness, too!
The content of our Programme speaks
for itself – but let’s just put it this way: I
would definitely travel to a nearby country
to attend this SIG Day, and indeed we
are expecting people from outside the
country to travel to Zug for the weekend
of 17th September.
Of course, SIG Day just wouldn’t exist
without the SIGs. And I thought I’d just
take this opportunity to clarify especially
to newer members just what a SIG is. SIG
stands for ‘Special Interest Group’. We
currently have 11 active Special Interest
Groups in Switzerland. All ETAS members
can join a Special Interest Group (or more
than one) just by emailing Corinne,
our Administrator.
Why join a Special Interest Group? Well,
firstly, you only need to have an interest in
that area, you don’t have to be ‘an expert’.
When you join, you’ll be on the mailing list
and will receive a few newsletters a year
from the SIG Coordinators (SCs) announcing
workshops taking place around Switzerland
that you might be interested in, good articles
in journals, recommended resources, and
internet sites/links. I know that the SCs
would like to meet their members and get
to know them personally, and we hope this
can happen at one of the many workshops
organized by the Regional Coordinators
(RCs) around Switzerland. Of course, all of
these workshops will involve one or more
Special Interest Group.
SCs also use their contacts and know-how
in their fields to scout new talent and
suggest new workshop presenters for
regional and national events. They are a
really wonderful group of very committed
professionals and a pleasure to work with.
If you have any questions or suggestions
for them, please don’t hesitate to email
them directly. You’ll find all their email
addresses at the front of this Journal.
All that’s left for me to do is present each
SC to you here.
Best wishes and see you in Zug!
Stephanie Wimmer
ETAS Teacher Development Chair
SIGs
(Special Interest Groups)
BUSINESS ENGLISH SIG (BESIG)
Cindy Hauert
Business English SIG Coordinator
Business English is perhaps the most
widely diverse and fastest growing area of
ELT. BE is exciting and rewarding, and at
the same time very challenging, so BESIG
is here to help both experienced and new
trainers stay on top of the field by sharing
new methodologies, materials and, most
importantly, ways to network. Our national
events always offer workshops and
presentations from the top names in our
field, and regular newsletters will keep you
updated on regional events as well. So
whether you teach BE as a freelancer or in
the Swiss school system, there’s something
for everyone in the ETAS BESIG.
Cindy started her TEFL career in 1983 in
Paris, where she gave in-company courses
and tutored future English teachers at
the Sorbonne. Shortly after moving to
Switzerland in 1987 (when she joined
ETAS), she went freelance and has given
BE training in many Swiss companies. She
also teaches BE at the Lucerne University
of Applied Sciences and Arts. Having a
foot in both ‘camps’ is very enriching and
helps her to have a good understanding of
what the ETAS BESIG should be offering to
its members.
DRAMA & LITERATURE SIG
Adult as well as younger learners enjoy the
kinesthetic aspect of drama. By involving
all the senses, drama inevitably enhances
speaking and writing skills. The Drama &
Literature SIG is a forum for drama teachers
in Switzerland to swap new ideas and brush
up old ones. It also offers newcomers to
drama the opportunity to become familiar
with this teaching method through
workshops. Everybody is welcome, and if
you would like to have more information,
please contact Gillian Eames.
Gillian Eames
Drama & Literature SIG Coordinator
A native New Yorker, Gillian has taught
English language and literature, Drama
and Movement for the past 15 years to

students aged 7 – 18 in New York, Rome,
and Canton Ticino. While living in Italy, she
acted in interactive bilingual theatrical
productions for young audiences in major
theaters with the Shake Scene Theatre
Company. Gillian moved to Ticino two years
ago, where she has since combined her
teaching and performing experience to form
her own theatrical organization, Act Now,
Performing Arts in English, conducting
theater arts workshops and courses in
English to students of diverse ages and
nationalities. She is currently director and
choreographer of musical productions at
The American School in Switzerland as
well as director and actor with Act Now’s
fledgling Greymalkins Theatre Company.
ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC
PURPOSES SIG (ESP SIG)
Alison Wiebalck
English for Specific Purposes
SIG Coordinator
As the Special Interest Group for teachers
of English for Specific Purposes, our aim is
to provide a forum for ESP teachers where
we can share what we have in common,
swap what we don’t, and provide support
and encouragement to all those setting
out on the ESP road. So if your interests
lie in English for soldiers, sailors, pilots,
IT specialists, doctors, lawyers, whoever
they be, we’d love to hear from you!
Born in the UK, brought up all over the
place, and arriving in Switzerland with
qualifications in English and the Law,
Alison specialises in Legal English.
EXAMINATIONS, TESTING &
ASSESSMENT SIG (ETA SIG)
The Examinations, Testing & Assessment
SIG aims to develop interest in ideas and
approaches in two principal directions.
For many teachers mainstream EFL
examinations, such as the Cambridge suite,
are a major concern, and the SIG offers the
opportunity to discuss problems in this
area, through email contact and through
branch workshops and presentations. The
second main area of interest is for those
teachers who have to produce their own
test and assessment instruments, on
either an institutional or individual class
level. Again, contacts and workshops can
be organised in response to demand.
Nina Blaettler
Examinations, Testing & Assessment
SIG Coordinator
Nina Blaettler is originally from Durban,
South Africa, but has been living all over
the world since she was 18. Switzerland
has been her home since 1995, where she
lives with her husband and two daughters.
A trained English language teacher and
teacher trainer, Nina has taught in many
countries in Europe and was a Cambridge
Examiner and Team Leader for 10 years
until 2009. The owner of The English
Professionals, a language school in Lucerne
which has recently become a test centre for
PTE General Tests, Nina’s special interest
is testing and assessment.
IMMERSION/CLIL SIG (ICSIG)
This SIG is the venue for teachers interested
in learning more about immersion/CLIL
(Content and Language Integrated Learning)
as well as the forum for sharing experiences
and expertise.
Eveline Reichel
Immersion/CLIL SIG Coordinator
Eveline Reichel, born in Switzerland, grew
up bilingually in India and Persia before
graduating in English and French at the
University of Zürich. Eveline has been an
EFL teacher at various Zürich grammar
schools. She has also taught proseminars
at the University and trained secondary
school teachers in EFL. The methodology
course for immersion teachers at Swiss
grammar schools which she set up is
now offered at the IGB, the Institut für
Gymnasial- und Berufspädagogik at the
University of Zürich.
A dedicated EFL teacher with long teaching
experience, Eveline is especially interested
in all kinds of ways to acquire first and
second languages. Believing that practice
makes (almost) perfect, she argues that
the more we are immersed in a language,
the better!
LEARNING TECHNOLOGIES SIG
(L Tech)
For L Tech to be both an effective and
efficient method of learning, learning
agencies today must face the challenge
of bridging the gap between personal
interaction, cognitive understanding, and
computer literacy. The goal of the L Tech
SIG is to assist both teachers and
institutions in achieving a greater
understanding of how people learn and
how this knowledge can be applied in
creating effective CALL programmes.
Illya Arnet-Clark
Learning Technologies SIG Coordinator
Illya was born in America and came to
Switzerland as an exchange student. Now,
over 20 years later, she has a family with
3 boys and 2 cats.
She has been in the language business for
15 years, starting with the difficult job of
German as a foreign language and then
moving back onto the solid ground of
English. After several private language
schools, she now prepares teachers and
student teachers for the CAE.
Illya first did the CTEFLA and then got her
MEd from the University of Manchester.
The last course she took, which was to
have great reverberations (such as her
becoming this SIG Coordinator!), was a
course about online learning. Her
experience and contact with people from
all over the world (beginning with the online
course) have changed the way she feels
about technology in language learning.
She is interested in using the internet to
provide real communication with others
and practice in all skills, including listening
and speaking. As Coordinator of this group,
Illya hopes to be able to share her
experience and enthusiasm for this area
of learning and to continue to learn from
and with others.
RESEARCH SIG (RSIG)
The Research SIG goals are to promote
and support research in English language
teaching, including but not limited to: the
nature of research in ELT, the processes of
doing research, processes of disseminating
research, evaluating research, as well as
the role and relevance of research on ELT
teaching practice and material design.
ETAS Journal 28/3 Summer 2011 17

ETAS NEWS
SIGs (Special Interest Groups)
JoAnn Salvisberg
Research SIG Coordinator
Born in Texas, JoAnn has lived abroad since
the early 1980s, first in Israel for four years
before making Switzerland her home. She
has been actively involved in ETAS since
joining in 1996, serving from 1998 to 2006
as Bern/Neuchâtel Regional Coordinator,
from 2006 as Research SIG Coordinator, as
well as 3 years on the ETAS Committee as
Teacher Development Chair.
JoAnn currently lectures at the Lucerne
University of Applied Sciences and Arts,
School of Business. She has been involved
in TESOL since 1990, primarily teaching
adult learners, before doing teacher training
in 2001. In addition to the CTEFLA, she
completed the MEd in ELT in 2001, and PhD
in TEFL and Social Psychology in Education
in 2007 with a primary research focus on
communicative skills assessment in the
EFL classroom. She also currently serves
on the IATEFL Publications Committee.
Within the field of ELT, she is particularly
curious about English for Specific Purposes
(ESP), oral skills assessment (OSA), and
utilizing technology to enhance the
educational process.
SCHOOL MANAGEMENT SIG
(SM SIG)
Vacant
TEACHER DEVELOPMENT SIG
(TD SIG)
Teaching is a demanding job and even the
best of us feel downhearted and stale
sometimes. The TD SIG offers support for
EFL teachers and would like to help and try
out new paths and new ideas so that we can
constantly approach the job from refreshing
and exciting angles. You are invited to
participate – take on more responsibility
for your own professional growth.
Cindy Stieger
Teacher Development SIG Coordinator
Cindy Stieger grew up in Australia and has
been teaching ESL for about 10 years. She
18 ETAS Journal 28/3 Summer 2011
now teaches at academia in Basel, where
she plays an integral part in academia’s
growing teacher training department. She
is DELTA qualified and did her BA in
languages, a postgraduate diploma in
Education and certificate in TESOL in
Australia, and the CertTEB in Hungary.
Cindy is especially interested in teacher
training and development.
TEACHER TRAINING SIG (TT SIG)
EFL and ESL teachers are among the
world’s most avid learners. Their openness
to new methods and approaches leads
them to constantly explore the nature of
learning, the back alleyways of the mind,
and the interpersonal dimensions of the
teacher-learner relationship. This SIG aims
to quantify and qualify existing avenues of
teacher training and assess potential areas
of related training.
Gigi Saurer
Teacher Training SIG Coordinator
Gigi Saurer grew up in the UK where she
decided to do the Dip. TEFLA (as it was
then called) after graduating from university.
Her first full-time TEFL post was at St Giles
College in Brighton in 1987, where she also
became interested in teacher training. Since
moving to Switzerland in 1992, she has
worked for a number of language schools
in Bern, Winterthur, Basel, and Olten, and
is currently working for the Federation of
Migros Cooperatives, at the Coordination
Office of the Club Schools in Zürich. She
has also been an oral examiner for
Cambridge ESOL for over 10 years and has
more recently become a team leader. Her
continuing interest in maintaining and
improving standards in language teaching
has been fuelled by her eagerness to
develop and share knowledge with others.
TEEN SIG
Everybody goes through it – right after
childhood and just before becoming a
rational adult. Our bodies no longer seem
to belong to us, our parents are out of
touch with our lives, and suddenly everyone
is expecting us to make important decisions
about our future. Is it any wonder we’re
sometimes hard to teach?! In this SIG we
would like to gather together those brave
souls who enter the ring every morning and
try to persuade their teenaged students
that English is an interesting and important
part of the school curriculum. We want to
share triumphs and disasters and explore
ways of making the coursebook exciting,
exams relevant, and (heaven help us)
vocabulary motivating.
Urs Kalberer
Teen SIG Coordinator
“If you can teach teenagers you can
teach anyone.”
Urs grew up in Switzerland and learned
English at the Gymnasium. He teaches
German, French, History, and English at
secondary state schools.
Urs is an active member of the teachers’
union and has excellent insights into the
Swiss state school system. In 2002 he
got his certificate for English at secondary
schools. He finished his MEd in ELT in
2007 and since then has been commenting
on educational policy in Switzerland. His
passion for teaching inspires him to
attend conferences, give teacher training
workshops, and most recently take over
the Teen SIG Chair.
Urs has been teaching teenagers for more
than twenty years and enjoys the challenge
of motivating students, introducing new
materials, and continually keeping abreast
of new methods and technologies. The
teenage years offer a golden opportunity
both for him and for his students.
YOUNG LEARNERS SIG (YL SIG)*
This SIG aims to keep up-to-date with the
latest developments in the area of TEYL
and to provide opportunities for circulating
ideas and materials best suited to this age
bracket through workshops, presentations,
and swap-shops.
Joy Cosselet, the current YL SIG Coordinator,
is a British citizen who has been living in
Switzerland for over 12 years. She currently
teaches English to children ages 2 − 12 at
the Minerva Schulen and The Open Door in
Basel. Her special interest is supporting
children’s physical, mental, and emotional
well-being through holistic teaching
methods. She is the proud mother of a
daughter who is 10 years old going on 18!
Her motto is, “Be the change you wish to
see in the world.”
*Due to personal circumstances, Joy will be
stepping down as Young Learners SIG
Coordinator. We thank Joy for the excellent
job she has done as YL SC and in particular
for her very enthusiastic presence.
Young Learners is a popular SIG and the
position is now vacant. If you feel you have
a little bit of time to give and would like
to apply for this role, please contact
Stephanie Wimmer.

PERSPECTIVES
Interview with Urs Raschle, Manager,
Zug Tourist Office
On a bright spring afternoon recently, I met
Urs Raschle, Manager of the Zug Tourist
Office, at one of the many lakeside cafés
and restaurants, where we had a view of
the ‘volières’ (birdcages) and the lake
cruisers which have been freshened up for
the new season. Urs found time to talk to
me after a busy day at the Cantonal
Parliament, in which he represents the
interests of ‘his’ tourist office, but also
furthers indirectly the cause and interests
of the international community of Zug. The
ETAS LOC Zug has been working very
closely with local authorities and particularly
the tourist office in order to ensure that SIG
Day on 17th September 2011 will be a day
to remember.
I asked Urs why he thought having SIG
Day in Zug for two, or possibly three, years
running was a good idea. Firstly, he said
that he felt it was an honour for Zug to be
chosen as a venue for such an event and
he would do everything he could to ensure
that visitors would enjoy their trip to this
city. Zug’s central location means that it
is easily accessible from all parts of
Switzerland by rail and road. Travellers by
rail are greeted in the evening with a light
installation by Turrell in the modern railway
station, with its efficient national and local
train and bus connections. Within five
minutes you can be at your hotel or down by
the lake, admiring the famous Zug sunset.
The Zug Tourist Office is located in the main
hall of the station, and the friendly staff are
pleased to help with information, tips, and
brochures on where to stay, how to get
around, and what to do while you are here.
Uniquely in Switzerland, Zug Tourist Office
does not just welcome and help visitors to
the region, but is also very committed to
informing the local population about the
wonders of the Canton and especially to
involving the international community in the
myriad activities and attractions on offer.
The Cantonal Government and the Tourist
Office alike value the presence of the large
international community in Zug and work
closely with the local Men’s and Women’s
Clubs to ensure that everyone feels
welcome, whether they are on a short-stay
secondment or among the growing number
of people like me who come for three years
and stay forever. A new law on integration
is currently going through the consultation
process after being drafted by a broad
cross-section of the population, which
included yours truly as the representative
of the English-speaking community,
exemplifying the commitment to involve
‘us’ on every level. Brochures and leaflets
are available at the Zug Tourist Office in
English on local attractions but also
sports activities, bike trails, and the like,
aimed also at residents. The popular Zug
After 6 events are attractive to visiting
businessmen and women and outgoing
locals alike.
When questioned on why visitors to SIG
Day should come a day early and “make a
weekend of it,” Urs replied that a weekend
in Zug was as enjoyable and relaxing as a
weekend away could be. It is like having a
mini-holiday and being transported to
another world, the moment you walk down
to the Old Town. Zug is small but has every
facility and amenity you could desire: small
specialist shops, galleries, bars, cafés, and
restaurants offering local and international
specialities scattered among ancient
cobble-stoned, traffic-free streets dominated
by the Burg, the medieval castle, and the
astronomical clock tower – and all within a
few minutes’ walking distance of each other.
The local population is used to having
international visitors and residents, even
though Zug is not a traditional tourist town
in the way Lucerne is, and they are helpful,
welcoming, and friendly. It is worth coming
to Zug for the weekend and finding time to
explore and relax. September is an ideal
month for this as it is not too hot but still
pleasant to dine outside or have a drink or
ice cream at a lakeside gelateria. You will
not encounter hordes of tourists with red
umbrellas or cameras but a warm welcome
in a surprisingly Mediterranean atmosphere
north of the Alps.
Helena Lustenberger
ETAS Journal 28/3 Summer 2011 19

Cognitive style
General characteristics
Category width broad categorizers put too many items in
a group and/or in wrong group; narrow
categorizers exclude appropriate items
Reflectivity/
Impulsivity
reflective people tend to weigh all the
evidence before making a decision;
impulsive people tend to make snap decision
Aural/Visual people with aural cognitive style prefer
listening to input; people with visual
style prefer visual aids (e.g. texts, charts)
Analytic/
Gestaltic
Tolerance of
ambiguity
Left-brain/
ambiguity
analytic learners are rule-formers, more
accurate than fluent; gestalt learners are
data-gatherers, more fluent than accurate
high tolerance accepts experiences that are
out of the ordinary, low tolerance prefers
conventional ideas and reality
in most people the left-hemisphere is
where analytical, logical, intellectual,
mathematical, and linear processing
takes place; the right-hemisphere is
intuitive, and processing is more
holistic, integrative, and emotional
About the Author
JoAnn Salvisberg currently lectures at the Lucerne
University of Appled Sciences and Arts, Hochschule
Luzern, School of Business. Previously, she served on
the ETAS Committee as Teacher Development Chair
and presently as Research SIG Coordinator.
Implications within the SLA context
broad categorizers make more errors of
overgeneralization; narrow categorizers ‘formulate
more rules than are necessary’ (Larsen-Freeman
and Long, p. 195)
reflective learners are generally slower, but are more
accurate/make fewer errors than impulsive learners; fast
accurate (good guessers) are considered best learners
although many learners are considered bi-modal, others
perform better when taught in their preferred style in
class; aural people have difficulty with speed reading tasks
analytic learners tend to analyze words and phrases
before stringing them together into meaningful utterances;
gestaltic learners take a more holistic approach, take risks
a high tolerance of ambiguity is positive in regard to
language inconsistencies and L1 interference, but learner
may not be able to puzzle out the rules and subsume them
with other cognitive data; low tolerance learners tend to
reject inconsistencies, but may become too dogmatic
left-brain dominant learners prefer a deductive style of
teaching, deal better with abstract concepts, tend to
break language bits down and analyze them; right-brain
dominant learners prefer inductive style of teaching, are
better at dealing with whole images/meanings and
generalizations
ETAS Journal 28/3 Summer 2011 27

Teaching English
to Young Learners
SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT
30 ETAS Journal 28/3 Summer 2011

Teaching English to Young Learners
FOREWORD
Welcome to our Special Supplement on
Teaching English to Young Learners (YLs).
First and foremost, a huge ‘Thank you’
to all of our contributors. We have been
graced with some excellent articles
providing views into YL teaching from all
angles. Contributions have come from
Switzerland, but also from Germany,
Norway, Portugal, the UK, and Zimbabwe,
adding to the culturally rich diversity of
our Special Supplement on YL teaching.
It has been approximately a decade since
the last YL Special Supplement so it was
definitely time someone did something
about that. It was wonderful to work
together on this project to give you ETAS
readers a rich insight into our colourful
corner of the profession.
This YL Special Supplement includes
thirteen articles. There are nine articles on
useful teaching resources and ideas for
teaching YLs. Dorothy Sommer presents
some theoretical background on how
children learn, and gives suggestions on
how to teach very young children and what
we can do to support learning beyond the
classroom. Caroline Briggs Ambrosi de
Magistris Verzier discusses what makes
an effective Primary English Language
Teaching program. Kim Ashmore gives us
a host of web links and ideas for using
that up-and-coming language learning
resource – the iPod touch. An interesting
contrast is Teddy Hadebe’s contribution
about teaching English at Silobi Primary
School in Zimbabwe and how teachers
manage with limited resources. Sandie
Mourão writes about using picturebooks
to enhance interest and develop authentic
language use while Kate Egerton offers her
suggestions for a pre-school ‘toolbox’ to
dip into when teaching little ones. Mary
Slattery discusses using ‘Bear’ in the YL
classroom in the article called Teaching
with Bear: what teachers ask… . Diane
Simmons-Tomczak writes about fun
learning with suggestions of games and
activities, and we can go singing and
chanting along with Carole Nicoll and her
ideas on how to help children remember
useful vocabulary.
A Special Supplement on teaching children
would not be complete without suggestions
for classroom management. Naomi Moir’s
article argues that teachers cannot
successfully teach English to children
without good classroom management and
suggests ideas on how to manage YLs,
highlighting the importance of routines in
teaching children successfully. Using a
case study, Ruth Benvegnen illustrates how
teachers can respond to challenges in the
EFL YL classroom by adopting a proactive
approach to problems. And lastly, Marneta
Viegas stresses the importance of
relaxation in the classroom and how it
can help young learners focus and develop
their creativity.
The Supplement concludes with an article
about a private extracurricular YL
language school. Sarah Pralong gives
an honest account of her experience of
moving from teaching to running her own
private YL school.
We very much hope that you enjoy reading
through the variety of articles in this
Special Supplement and are able to extract
ideas to use yourselves. By no means are
all the suggestions to be confined to use
with only young learners. We believe that
with slight adaptation, many of these
ideas are highly suitable for teaching in
some of the other branches of EFL.
Please feel free to give us any feedback
about the Supplement and contact the
contributors directly if you are interested
in learning more about their topic.
Ruth Benvegnen
Regional Coordinator for Lausanne
Joy Cosslett
YL SIG Coordinator
Am I repeating myself?
Yes, I teach Young Learners!
Dorothy Sommer
Advantages and disadvantages of
getting an early start
Many parents are interested in giving their
children an early start in English language
learning, and here in Germany where I
teach, there are even schools that offer
courses for children together with their
parents from infancy to three years of
age. However, I am particularly interested
in very young learners between the ages
of three to five in their pre-school years.
One of the main advantages of starting
early is that children become accustomed
to the intonation and sounds of the new
language. Moreover, for many children
who do not live in a multicultural family or
setting, learning about other languages
and countries can be an exciting discovery.
Introducing them to special festivities in
the English-speaking world, in particular
such holidays as Halloween or special
culture-specific stories about Christmas,
will broaden their horizons even at a
tender age. Cameron (2004, p. 10) argues
that “…young learners develop better
pronunciation and listening skills” when
they begin at an earlier age. In most
cases, children do copy their teacher’s
gestures and words when repeating
rhymes and songs although all the while
trying to understand the content.
In my experience, some of the problems
and disadvantages come later when
children start English in school and have
to re-learn the same topics that were
already at the core of their early learning
lessons. For example, a child who has
been introduced to colors, food, and farm
animals for two years no longer needs to
start from scratch in school. Unfortunately,
there is often very little room for this kind
of flexibility in the curriculum. Cameron
(2004) mentions that this and the overall
duration of English learning might cause
problems in sustaining motivation over a
long period of time.
Nevertheless, children are not just learning
a second language, or about foreign
holidays, but also more about the world
around them through English. Carol Read
(2003, p. 6) also notes that younger
learners are not only more flexible and
can easily be motivated, but are also at
a point in their development that could be
beneficial for language learning.
How children learn
Nonetheless, every child has a tremendous
potential for learning. Psychologists Wood,
Bruner, and Ross (1976) introduced the
term “scaffolding” to describe the tutorial
interaction between an adult and a child.
The term was used to explore the nature
of the support system provided by a
ETAS Journal 28/3 Summer 2011 31

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT
Teaching English to Young Learners
teacher or more knowledgeable peers to
children learning how to carry out a task
they could not perform alone. Similarly,
Vygotsky’s concept of the Zone of Proximal
Development or ZPD (1978, cited in
Brewster, 1994, p. 3) also supports the view
that children are able to achieve more by
working together with an adult or someone
who can help them. This concept is also at
the root of Carol Read’s C-Wheel towards
whole learning where the child remains the
center of attention (1999, pp. 33 - 39).
Therefore, it is our task as teachers to
create a classroom set-up where children
feel comfortable within their group, are
respected and respect others, are
interested and eager to learn, and feel
that English is a part of their lives.
So, how do we help children to enjoy
learning English and how do we keep up
their motivation? Children, according to
Holden (1980, cited in Brewster, 1994,
p. 7), “…cannot concentrate on one thing
for a long period”. Anyone who has children
of their own knows that a child’s attention
span is short. Moreover, children go through
phases and also have expectations of their
own. As teachers of young learners, we
need to keep in mind other issues that
affect youngsters, such as family, safety,
health, comfort, the weather, and even the
time of day.
So, first of all, we can support children’s
learning by creating a friendly environment
within the classroom and making them
feel comfortable and happy to be there.
Secondly, by allowing for plenty of learning
opportunities outside of the classroom and
getting parents and grandparents involved
in the process, children will be proud to be
a part of the English-learning world.
Lessons in the classroom
A typical topic-based lesson plan for
a 45-minute lesson for a group of
three-to-five-year-olds will rely heavily on
listening and speaking skills because
children at that age do not yet read or
write. Brewster (1994, p. 13), for example,
suggests a framework for topic-based
lessons, and here are a few components
which I have related to my own teaching:
What can you teach the very young learner?
Listening skills: songs, rhymes, teacher
or other children reading storybooks to
the children
Speaking: repeating what the teacher says,
repetition of songs, rhymes
Vocabulary: introduction of vocabulary;
recycling vocabulary over long periods of
three to six months and longer
Functional phrases: idiomatic or fixed
expressions, for example: Take off your
shoes; Hang up your jacket; Please, sit
down; Cut the fish out.
Discourse: Ready, listen, and one, two,
three…; Hello, how are you?; Here’s
the glue.
Grammar: embedded grammar, including
word order and different tenses: Listen!
32 ETAS Journal 28/3 Summer 2011
Please hang up your jackets!; Oh, it was
your birthday on Monday, Lucy?; I am
talking now; It’s your turn! (Simple
present, present continuous, past tense)
Sequencing of a lesson should include many
rituals and plenty of repetition. A typical
lesson could look something like this:
1. Saying/singing Good morning/Good
afternoon
2. Taking roll call
3. Storytelling in a special corner
4. Coloring, arts and crafts, or making
something special
5. Action game, DVD, or playing the guitar
and singing
6. Playing games such as memory, bingo,
or dominoes
7. Saying goodbye
Cameron (2001, pp. 9 - 11) stresses the
importance of routines and predictability
when teaching young learners as these
allow children to build their vocabulary and
extend lexical chunks as teachers use them
and expand their language in the classroom
over time. As a result, children understand
lexical chunks, discover embedded grammar,
and also increase their vocabulary.
Learning outside of the classroom
As mentioned earlier, it is important to
allow for plenty of learning opportunities
outside of the classroom. Since the number
of lessons per week in the classroom for
very young learners is normally quite
limited, why not involve parents in their
learning process?
1.) Here are the contents of a folder I have
prepared for parents:
• advice for parents
• information about local English
theaters for children
• useful websites for ideas, games,
and videos
• ideas for birthday gifts
• wordlists
• lyrics to songs
• rhymes
• a CD with songs (recorded by my
guitar teacher and me)
2.) A small library in the form of a large
wooden box includes various items children
can pick and choose from at their leisure
before or after class:
• storybooks
• storybooks with a cassette or a CD
• videos and DVDs
• games to play with the family in English
• CDs and cassettes with songs and
rhymes
Conclusion
In summary, there are manifold benefits to
starting English early. The obvious benefits
of better pronunciation from the start,
improved understanding, and more
developed listening skills over time are
at hand. By soliciting parental support
and widening the opportunities for learning
to take place, children can make good
progress. Why should we hold back
youngsters who are ready and eager to
learn? All in all, what really counts is
happy children having fun learning English.
This fosters a positive attitude towards
language learning in general and prepares
children for their future endeavors in our
globalized world.
Some useful websites:
www.funwithspot.com
www.bogglesworldesl.com
www.weesing.com
http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/
short-stories
www.britishcouncil.org/kids
www.britishcouncil.org/kids-topicsfantasy-animals
www.manythings.org/e/easy.html
References
Brewster, J. (1994). What is good primary practice?
In C. Brumfit, J. Moon, & R. Tongue (Eds.), Teaching
English to Children: from Practice to Principle.
London: Nelson English Language Teaching.
Cameron, L. (2001). Teaching languages to young
learners. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cameron, L. (2004). Challenges for ELT from the
expansion in teaching children. In G. Ellis & K. Morrow
(Eds.), Year of the young learner: Special Collection.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Holden, S. (Ed). (1980). Teaching children. London:
Modern English Publications.
Read, C. (1999). Towards whole learning. IATEFL CATS 1,
pp. 33 - 39.
Read, C. (2003). Is younger better? English Teaching
Professional, 28, pp. 5 - 7.
Reilly, V. & Ward, S. (2000). Very young learners.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Vale, D. & Feunteun, A. (1995). Teaching children
English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Vygotsky, L.S. (1978). Mind in society: The development
of higher psychological processes. Cambridge,
MA: Harvard University Press.
Wood, D., Bruner, J., & Ross, G. (1976). The role of
tutoring in problem solving. Journal of Child
Psychology and Psychiatry, 17, pp. 89 - 100.
About the Author
Originally from the USA, Dorothy Sommer is a freelance
teacher for young learners and Business English in
the Berlin/Brandenburg area. She holds an MA in
English Language Teaching, a BA in Business and
German, and the RSA Cambridge CELTA, which she
completed in Geneva before starting her teaching
career in Geneva and nearby France. A long-time
member of ELTABB, ETAS, and IATEFL and their
respective special interest groups, Business English
(BESIG) and Young Learners (YLTSIG), she has been
active in the teaching profession since the mid-1990s.
As the ELTABB events coordinator for three years
from 2007 – 2010, she was responsible for inviting
internationally-renowned speakers within the ELT
profession to Berlin, organizing numerous workshops
and a number of social events.

The Techy Column
Illya Arnet-Clark
L Tech SIG Coordinator
learning-tech@e-tas.ch
First edition
Dear ETAS Journal readers
This is the first of a regular column of The
Techy, dedicated to educational technology
and the many facets that go along with it.
As this is the first column, the path it will
take is open with many highways and
byways up the road. I invite you, dear
Reader, to join me on this journey and take
an active part by voicing your thoughts and
opinions on the etasblog.
In every magazine these days you find
brilliant articles with authors presenting
websites and suggesting relevant ways of
utilizing them either directly or indirectly
for teaching.
And this one? Well, as a start I’ll give you
three reasons why you should be paying
attention to digital technologies:
1) You are a teacher and as such it is a
teacher’s job to stay informed. This is
implicitly expected by your learners.
Technology is here to stay and its
special lexis has embedded itself into
our society, changing the way we
communicate with each other. And, after
all, it’s English.
2) It is a useful tool your learners can use
both in class and outside the classroom
walls. Isn’t this just what we have been
wishing for? And you can do the same,
be it to prepare, brush up on the recent
developments in the English language, or
simply stay in touch with other English
teachers. Technology might not make
your teaching seem any easier, but then
don’t you take the extra time to work
yourself into a new coursebook? A little
investment in time and energy can
ultimately go a long way.
50 ETAS Journal 28/3 Summer 2011
3) Just as you shouldn’t use any kind of
technology simply because it is there,
the opposite also holds true. Avoiding
technological developments, be it out
of principle, fear, or laziness is, in my
humble opinion, not much better
than using it without any didactic
considerations. An exception might be
made for teachers who decide to teach
the Dogme way – using only the learners
and what they bring with them to class.
But wait, what is that little black box
making funny buzzing noises?
So where can you start? First, by looking
at the technology around you. I assume you
have a computer. Do you write worksheets
on it and then print them out?
Have you ever looked for a
picture to use in class
because the ones in the
coursebook seemed a bit
outdated? Have you ever
looked for information with
Google? Do you use it to
send your learners emails?
What about your mobile
phone? Have you ever sent a
text message to a student to
say you’d be late, or received
one from a student? Look
around and you’ll see a lot
of technology being used.
How do you already use
technology? Perhaps you are a ‘believer’
and use the internet and many websites
already. If so, I have a challenge for you.
Go back to the roots. What is the most
basic way of using it for teaching or learning
purposes you can think of? I’d be interested
to hear from you, dear Reader, what this
may be. In fact, consider this an invitation
to turn on the internet and go to
http://etasblog.wordpress.com. Click on
‘Comments’ and let the other readers and
myself know.
And if you feel you would like to contribute
an article yourself, be it about your own
experiences with educational technology
or any other topic, please feel free to
get in touch with the ETAS Journal at
publ@e-tas.ch. We’d love to hear your voice!
I can’t wait to ‘read’ you there! Oh, and
see you next time in the second edition of
The Techy. U

From the REGIONS
Workshop Reports
BADEN
W O R K S H O P :
How can diversity help
teach English?
P R E S E N T E R : Patty Jehle
D A T E : 4th March 2011
V E N U E : TLC - The Language
Company, Baden
The objectives of this workshop were to
demonstrate how the notion of diversity can
be incorporated in language teaching and
how educators can use material from the
DEW (Diverse Europe at Work) Project,
which focuses on people, diversity,
difficulties that may crop up in daily life or
the workplace and how to overcome them,
showing students how diversity can be
used as a benefit in their lives and what
to do if they are in a difficult situation.
The first six participants were given a book
and DVD on the DEW Project. We got the
opportunity to look at some excerpts from
the DVD and, combining it with the book –
which includes a lot of useful material for
our teaching – we came up with various
teaching ideas. Patty did a great job of
guiding us through the videos and gave us
a lot of tips on how to use them, sharing
with us her personal experience from a
course she attended in Antalya, Turkey, on
the DEW Project.
A highlight of the workshop was when we
were given poster paper and markers and
were asked to choose from four videos we
had watched. Our task was to build a
lesson plan around the chosen video, at
the level we preferred to present. We
worked in pairs and then got a chance to
present our lesson plans in front of the
whole group. Some excellent ideas were
heard and we all found it fascinating to see
how each pair had developed their lesson
plan. A lot of sharing followed! It was
interesting, as we teach different levels
and ages – we all came up with ideas we
can use with flexibility in our classrooms.
Many thanks to Patty for introducing us to
the DEW Project and providing us with a
multitude of ideas on how to use diversity
while teaching English!
Vicky Loras
LAUSANNE
W O R K S H O P :
Brain-friendly learning
and teaching
P R E S E N T E R : Mark Fletcher
D A T E : 24th March 2011
V E N U E : UNIL
Mark warmly greeted all participants
individually as we arrived for his workshop
on brain-friendly learning. He had prepared
three topics to cover in the two-hour
time slot:
• Quick tour of your amazing brain
• Fun with phonology
• Activating vocabulary
Mark started by making us aware of some
of the basic facts about our brains by
comparing it to a walnut with its two halves.
The brain has a logical left side and a more
holistic right side – and we’re designed to
use both sides. He soon had us doing
brain-stretching exercises from singing
nursery rhymes to chanting rhymes with
kinesthetic actions to stimulate our brain
reflexes. Did you know you should raise
your pulse level every 30 minutes to keep
the brain fed with oxygen in order that it
can learn? As Mark put it, the sort of thing
all teachers (and students, parents, Prime
Ministers, etc.) need to know!
We then moved on to phonology. Mark
explained that this is an area that is often
overlooked in the classroom, which is a
shame, as it is so important. We practised
some wonderful pronunciation and intonation
exercises using rhymes, visuals, and
kinesthetic activities in groups and in pairs
that had us all smiling and wanting more.
Finally we looked at motivating vocabularybuilding
activities for different levels. Mark
handed out a simple picture with various
words scattered over it. Where most people
would merely list words into categories as
an exercise, Mark had so many more ideas
on how to exploit this: choose three words,
find somebody else who has chosen those
three words, or make a story incorporating
those three words; tell us five things about
one word; personalise a chosen word, and
talk as though you are that object, and so
on. Suddenly the scope of activities we
could develop for our own classes with this
one sheet of paper seemed endless!
Mark has an engaging manner and he
speaks with ease and humour. He had us
all hanging on his every word. He has a gift
for making all participants feel personally
welcome. The two hours of this whirlwind
workshop raced by, and we couldn’t believe
it was time to stop. At this point, we were
raring to rush off to teach, using our
new-found knowledge. We had hardly taken
notes as we had become so involved in the
activities, but this didn’t matter as Mark
gave out great handouts most of which
he had illustrated himself. He can draw
too, but so can we all. Just use the right
hemisphere of your brain!
Lucy Kottsieper
ETAS Journal 28/3 Summer 2011 51

From the REGIONS
Workshop Reports
SOLOTHURN/OLTEN
W O R K S H O P :
Bringing technology into
the classroom
P R E S E N T E R : Jayne Herzog
D A T E : 5th March 2011
V E N U E : Tagesschule Mittelland,
Solothurn
Are you a Digital Immigrant, or a Digital
Native? Have you grown up with computers,
video games, mobile phones, and text
messages, or are you someone who breaks
out in a sweat at the idea of using any
of these?
The fact of the matter is most English
teachers are Digital Immigrants. We were
not born in the digital age, and we have
had to learn and struggle to work with
laptops and video projectors. Our natural
tendency is to keep things as simple as
possible in the classroom - and this usually
means the typical handouts, whiteboards,
OHPs, and books.
Jayne Herzog, Area Manager for Oxford
University Press, kindly met with our ETAS
chapter to discuss and show us ways to
integrate technology in ways that will
benefit our students, those Digital Natives.
Jayne got the discussion started by asking
us what types of technology we are currently
using with students (the most common
answer: laptop and video projector).
However, many teachers pointed out that
there are no video projectors or internet
connections in their classrooms, and this is
the main reason that so many of us remain
inexperienced with the technology.
Jayne stressed that there are ways to work
around this, mainly by giving email and
internet research homework assignments,
and using the websites that many publishers
have set up. She also acknowledged that
we have to work with the roadblocks that
we have, but encouraged us that it is
possible to get around them and integrate
this technology into our classrooms!
Putting our laptops and video projectors to
good use, Jayne showed us how to use the
CD and DVD-ROMs that many coursebooks
now include in the classroom, turning
them into interactive group practice. She
suggested using a wireless mouse, which
can be passed around the room to increase
student participation in these activities.
And, of course, once you have been able
to introduce the CD-ROM in the classroom,
you can then assign the activities as
homework, as well.
We viewed and talked about various teacher
and student websites and blogs, the various
activities that they offer, and how to use
them for maximum effect and productivity.
We also considered the future of the Swiss
classroom: interactive whiteboards (IWBs)
and the increasing use and availability of
technology in lessons.
52 ETAS Journal 28/3 Summer 2011
Thought-provoking and useful, the workshop
was a success. By the end of it, we were
all focused on the fact that as teachers,
we have the responsibility to invest time in
researching and practicing with these
resources, and to promote increasing
interactivity and student output in our
classes. Ultimately, the payoff is tremendous
for both the students and us.
We would like to thank Jayne for taking time
to make classroom technology less daunting.
Michelle Zuber
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS ELT DAY:
A NEW PROFILE FOR GENEVA
The first Cambridge University Press ELT
Day in Geneva took place at l’ifage on
12th February 2011. Some 50 participants
attended from as far afield as Zürich, and
from their feedback, it is clear that practically
everyone was satisfied or more than
satisfied with the event, the presentations,
and the speakers.
This was particularly satisfying because
until recently, the last place that anyone
would have thought of putting on such an
event was Geneva. Publishers have been
shy to put on events on a similar scale
perhaps because Geneva was perceived to
be too far from other parts of Switzerland.
Perhaps, too, because until recently people
in the area have been reluctant to get
involved. Credit for turning things around in
a very short space of time must go to Sarah
Pralong, the ETAS Regional Coordinator for
Geneva. Rebecca Mantle of Cambridge
University Press also deserves a public
thank you for organising and promoting it
so solidly. Hopefully, the success of the
first CUP ELT Day will change people’s
perceptions in both respects forever.
The suggestions on what people would like
to see at a future CUP ELT Day were rich
and varied and should leave us with no
problem finding a suitable theme for next
year’s event. Here are reports on the day’s
events. We look forward to seeing you at
next year’s one.
Paul Henderson
W O R K S H O P :
Warmers, fillers and
ice-breakers for
Young Learners
P R E S E N T E R : Sarah Pralong
This lively, interactive workshop had the
room full to brimming with participants.
They did not leave disappointed but full of
some great ideas to get students learning
or revising. Sarah got us into small groups
to be able to demonstrate all the activities,
starting, obviously, with some ideas for
ice-breakers like using pictures about
ourselves to stimulate questions or
using different shapes for young learners
to write in.
Moving on to warmers, she captivated us
all by using the opening scenes of a DVD
to ask for rooms and everyday activities,
leading onto a miming activity, which worked
(incredibly well) to help us remember lists of
activities, before suggesting how we could
then follow up into a lesson. Other activities
included drawing monsters, showing us the
potential for eliciting information from
students about the pictures, and using props
to help students remember vocabulary. It
was easy to imagine how young learners
would love the activities.
The fillers, priceless for fast finishers,
included using flashcards, dice, spinners,
and even egg boxes (for word or sentence
stress and verb tenses). At each stage we
were asked and encouraged to also share
some input on how we could adapt the ideas
to different levels or for different topics.
At the end, Sarah was kind enough to give
us all some copies of her materials as well
as a handout bursting with ideas to take
home and start using straight away!
Everyone left with some fresh inspiration
for warmers, fillers, and ice-breakers,
having thoroughly enjoyed such a dynamic
workshop. Thank you, Sarah, for your
enthusiasm and great ideas!
Sarah Gillett
W O R K S H O P :
Teaching Young Learners:
inside and outside the Box
P R E S E N T E R : Gary Anderson
Every little thing she does is magic by
Sting and the Police was playing in the
room as participants waited eagerly for a
demonstration of the tricks and tools in
Kid’s Box, used to teach young learners
aged 6 to 12.

Gary Anderson, well-known teacher/trainer
for Cambridge University Press, referred to
his mother’s motto that “a teacher should
be like a magician”. What she meant by that
was a teacher who could mould students
into good, timid, and fast learners. Maybe
not the same thing Sting had in mind in
the song. What teachers today need are
effective methods in their teaching materials.
Gary said no coursebook is perfect and no
student or teacher is perfect, and that’s why
there’s a need for a book inside the box and
course materials for outside the box: books,
readers, electronic stuff, DVD-ROMs, and an
interactive whiteboard.
Besides the fact that no student is perfect,
they all learn differently – something we
teachers have known since the beginning.
But what types of learners are there?
A plethora, it would appear: there are
those who learn with words (linguistic),
through analogy and abstraction (logical),
by manipulating objects and who have
good hand-eye coordination (visual spatial),
through rhythm and music (musical
intelligence), and through body movements
(body kinesthetic).
Gary led us all through a variety of activities
from Kid’s Box, demonstrating who we were
in terms of learners and showing us that
the method did indeed have elements for
each type of learner. He didn’t have time
to do everything, he said, amidst groans
from those who wanted to do everything!
The activities from e-learning include an
i-dictionary, i-box and lots of games and
stories on the interactive whiteboard, a
relatively cheap and imaginative tool, given
all the things you can do with it and all the
things you can create with it. The digitalized
form of the book provides a very attractive
effective and affective learning device.
Those of us who use it already didn’t have
to be convinced.
As a magician and real pro himself, Gary
may have given this talk a hundred times,
but the audience was excited and
enthusiastic even though the workshop
followed the lunch break. He left us with
the idea that you can really reach out and
touch someone and have fun learning
through Kid’s Box.
Diana Gordy
W O R K S H O P :
Teacher and student
expectations when working in
an intercultural environment
P R E S E N T E R : Chris Goddard
Chris Goddard is a cross-cultural trainer,
specializing in English and Chinese
differences. He works in companies both in
the UK and China but also runs courses for
EFL teachers, the field in which he started
his career. Even though Chris had to cram
his normal four-hour talk into 90 minutes,
he succeeded in giving us an insight into
possible cross-cultural issues in the English
classroom in an engaging and humorous
way. His talk raised our awareness of
differences in values, attitudes, and
behaviour in students who come from
different cultural backgrounds, which can
result in a mismatch between students’
and teachers’expectations.
To demonstrate these differences Chris
combined personal anecdotes with statistical
charts comparing various attributes of
different cultures. According to the ‘Iceberg
Theory’, somebody’s outward behaviour is
the tip of an iceberg, which consists of
a vast mound of cultural values and
assumptions, coming from a person’s:
• history
• religion
• social environment
• parents
• school
• media
To illustrate, Chris took the differences in
religion between, for example, Christianity
in Western culture and Confucianism,
Buddhism, and Taoism in Chinese culture,
showing differences in values in the two
cultures that relate to:
• group/individual leadership
• systematic vs people organisations
• importance of face
• ‘who I’m with’ determining behaviour
• truth vs harmony
• rules vs relationships
We saw tables and graphs showing how
different cultures are positioned with regard
to these. For example, in Chinese culture,
harmony is more important than truth
whereas the reverse is true in the UK. The
audience looked at their own knowledge of
different cultural norms through a quiz and
then shared their own experiences of
working with students from different cultures.
Discussion of differences included the kind
of activity students felt comfortable
participating in, their behaviour towards the
teacher, the way they expected the teacher
to dress and behave, their preferred learning
style, expected behaviour in class,
punctuality, and ultimately how they
evaluate the course. A possible reason for
a student being unhappy with a class is
that their expectation on some aspects
does not coincide with the teacher’s, both,
of course, being based on the individual’s
cultural norms.
This talk reminded me to be aware of the
reasons why learners might behave in a way
that surprises me and why they might not
seem to be satisfied with a class. Being
open and flexible is what we should aspire
to! Chris succeeded in getting this message
across in an entertaining and profound way.
Tessa Osborne
W O R K S H O P :
Teaching adults ‘real’
English: core, explore
and more
P R E S E N T E R : Gary Anderson
Gary Anderson’s session focused on a
presentation of the new coursebook English
Unlimited, aiming to introduce key features
of the books whilst exemplifying good
teaching practice in the way he gave
his presentation.
He first drew the attention of the 20-plus
participants by playing music, a way he likes
to begin classes. Via Jimi Hendrix’s Are you
experienced?, he asked us to put ourselves
in the position of our learners, and to
consider what previous experience –
language learning and otherwise – they
bring to class, and how this affects the
way they learn. He emphasized that adult
learners need more than just core language.
They have personal life experiences and
need the means to put these into words.
He then invited us to consider whether
deductive or inductive learning is a better
approach. After receiving our ideas, he craftily
suggested a third alternative: seductively.
This, he suggested, is the approach used
in English Unlimited, a Cambridge series
which came out in Spring 2010. He
explained that the texts in the book feature
authentic language, produced by both native
and non-native speakers. The recordings
are unscripted, full of “messy” natural
language, and expose learners to signposting
phrases, the vague language used in real
life, and a variety of accents. Keywords
chosen for analysis in the books are chosen
based on corpus analysis and frequency,
rather than a particular writer’s preferences.
Through his PowerPoint slides, Gary showed
us how the books present grammar and
vocabulary. We also saw some of the
electronic resources available for students
to learn autonomously outside the
classroom, and also watched some videos
from the series.
He ended by reviewing both what he had
shown us during the session and the
manner in which he had done it. Use of
realia and cartoons to emphasize key
points and using songs in class were
some ideas we could take away with us
to use in our classes.
Michelle Mayes
W O R K S H O P :
Developing decision making
and speaking skills through
intercultural awareness
P R E S E N T E R : Paul Henderson
Paul started the session by getting the
participants to rank the results of a survey
ETAS Journal 28/3 Summer 2011 53

asking people what they feared the most.
The most common fear was flying, followed
by public speaking, and then death. As
Jerry Seinfeld said, “This means to the
average person that if you go to a funeral,
you’re better off in the casket than doing
the eulogy.”
Even more terrifying than making a
presentation in your own language is
making a presentation in something other
than your mother tongue. Paul showed us
that the things which are intimidating about
public speaking also frighten and inhibit
people in normal conversation in a second
language, and offered advice for learner and
teacher behaviour to alleviate these factors.
The most important thing for any public
speaker to do is to focus on the message.
Speaking in a foreign language is always
difficult and errors are inevitable. By
remaining focused on the message rather
than absolute linguistic accuracy, the
speaker has an achievable goal which is
shared by the audience. An expectation
of perfect language use is unrealistic even
for native speakers, and failure leads to
frustration, anger, embarrassment,
confusion, and further errors.
So, how can teachers get this message
across to our students? Many of us are
guilty of error correction during and after
oral exercises, and many students expect it.
This sends a very clear message to the
students that even when we ask them to
complete a task, the errors are still the
things we notice first. We need to make an
effort to clearly separate task-achievement
feedback from error-correction feedback so
the students know why we are listening.
But if we aren’t correcting their errors,
how will our students improve? Thinking
and preparation time are crucial in reducing
errors, as are opportunities to practice
and repeat. By providing initial support
and then slowly increasing the student’s
independence, confidence in their own
abilities is established, they find themselves
completing the basic task, and then adding
in more detail as they start to internalize
the main parts.
Error correction is still useful as long as it
is discrete and never directly after a task or
even at the end of the lesson. Furthermore,
task-achievement feedback should be
student-focused. It must be clear beforehand
what the criteria are, whether they are
determined by the tutor or the students,
and the students should also have an
opportunity to evaluate their own
performance and their peers’ performances.
The workshop finished with several useful
activity suggestions for increasing both
accuracy and fluency: thinking and planning
activities, collaborative group tasks,
student-designed tasks, text memorization
54 ETAS Journal 28/3 Summer 2011
games, and active listening activities.
Participants left with a wealth of information
and ideas to try in their classrooms.
Ben Hoyt
W O R K S H O P :
Constructing the
English Profile
P R E S E N T E R : Annette Capel
Annette told us all about the English
Vocabulary Profile project that she has
spent the last few years of her life working
on, which is one of three strands in the
English Profile programme, along with
research into grammar and functions.
The EP is a valuable resource for authors,
editors, syllabus designers, teacher trainers,
researchers, and examination writers.
A long-term web-based research programme,
it sets out to understand what the Common
European Framework of Reference (CEFR)
actually means for English by investigating
what learner English is really like and
developing reference descriptions for each
level of the CEFR. The English Profile
programme builds on activities/skills
identified in the CEFR ‘can do’ statements
to provide much more linguistic detail in
terms of vocabulary, grammar, and functions.
The questions being addressed by the
English Profile programme are:
• Which grammatical constructions are
being used at each CEFR level, and at
what point are they used accurately?
• What lexical range do learners have at
each level?
• How does the language being used
compare to native speaker English?
• Which linguistic features characterise
and distinguish the six levels?
EP projects are conducting corpus-informed
research to find out what learners can
do. Corpus-informed research:
• provides real language data
• highlights what is frequent
• clearly shows typical patterns:
structures, collocations, phrases,
phrasal verbs, idioms
• captures change over time, as a corpus
is constantly updated
A vitally important tool in this research has
been the Cambridge Learner Corpus, jointly
developed by CUP and Cambridge ESOL,
currently with over 43 million words,
180,000 exam scripts and 130 first
languages. It contains over 20 million words
coded for errors using 88 different error
codes to allow for finely-tuned research
and analysis. It has been searched
alongside spoken and written native speaker
corpora, the Cambridge ESOL Vocabulary
Lists (KET & PET), Breakthrough, Waystage,
Threshold & Vantage syllabi, the Cambridge
Readers wordlists, wordlists in current
coursebooks and vocabulary books, and the
Hindmarsh English Lexicon.
The English Vocabulary Profile project has
set out to identify what learners can do
from A1 to C2 levels of the CEFR by finding
out what meanings of words they are
familiar with. At the C levels, extra sources
have been made use of, including the
Academic Word List (Coxhead, 2000),
the Academic Formulas List (Ellis and
Simpson-Vlach, 2010) and research
into phrasal expressions (Martinez, 2010).
Annette told us about some of the issues
that have needed to be addressed when
compiling the EVP, such as the existence
of a large number of polysemous words in
English (words with multiple meanings).
To give a flavour of what this involves, try
to answer the following questions:
• How many meanings does the English
word case have?
• Which is the most frequent meaning
for first language speakers?
• Which sense is likely to be taught first
to elementary learners?
• Which sense is the most important in
Academic English?
Other complex issues relate to affixation
and word families, an important part of
language teaching and testing. Determining
at what level learners could be said to be
familiar with affixes and suffixes is being
decided by examining frequency and
transparency of meaning. The suffix
‘-able’ for instance has an ‘easier’,
more transparent meaning in words like
downloadable/enjoyable than in others
such as changeable/knowledgeable.
While the Cambridge Learner Corpus has
been an invaluable tool, it is a corpus of
written learner English, so learners’ spoken
uses of words are not captured by it. The
language that it contains was generated
in response to examination tasks and
may not, therefore, provide a full picture of
learners’ knowledge. The development of
the English Profile Corpus is intended to
address these two issues by providing 10
million words of non-exam learner data
(20% spoken and 80% written). Data
collection is via the English Profile website.
Annette told us how institutions that wish
to can get involved by visiting the EP website
and contributing to the data collection
project. Students who contribute will get a
chance to win Cambridge University Press
learning materials. Simply visit:
http://www.englishprofile.org
Many thanks to Annette for telling us about
how this magnificent project is going to
shape the way in which courses and exams
are constructed in the future.
Paul Henderson

REVIEWS
A Look at Books
Nicola Martignoni
Book Reviews Editor
bookreview@e-tas.ch
Working with Images:
A resource book for the
language classroom
Ben Goldstein
Cambridge University Press (2009)
ISBN 978-0-521-71057-2
242 pages plus CD-ROM
Using digital images has become
second nature to most EFL
educators as the visuals inspire
and engage learners in activating
and building on their language
knowledge. Working with Images,
one of the newest additions to
The Cambridge Handbooks for
Language Teachers series, provides over 75 practical teaching
ideas for the language classroom.
The author has collected a wide variety of useful training tasks,
such as picture storytelling for fluency and odd one out for
vocabulary training, which require one or more images. These can
be related to a range of topics and used among learning groups
of all ages. Each activity includes: a specific focus, level, time,
materials and preparation, procedure, etc.
Divided into two sections, the book offers numerous activities
and tasks. The first section offers types of activities such as
describing, interpreting, creating, and imagining. The second
section deals with image types. While the topics addressed in
this book focus on culture, business, and advertising, the
activities deal with a wide range of tasks ranging from Google
image searches to developing cultural awareness through the
use of symbols.
Accompanying the book is a CD-ROM of images, compatible with
Windows 2000, XP and Vista, as well as Mac OS 10.4.6 and
higher, carefully selected for each task. Due to the .pdf image
format being somewhat awkward to edit and incorporate into
a text document, as opposed to more commonly used JPEG
files, teachers are encouraged to project the images through
the computer.
Furthermore, unlike many other pair and photocopiable books for
speaking activities, materials are not quite ready-to-go, and require
teachers to invest time in preparing the material for the lesson.
On the other hand, what the resource book does offer in great
measure are adaptable ideas, and the teacher saves time not
having to troll through the internet searching for appropriate
images to support the task.
Overall, while the formats of the images may seem awkward,
the book provides numerous possibilities for supplementing a
curriculum which encompasses the skills of reading, writing,
and speaking.
Benjamin Haymond and JoAnn Salvisberg
To find the complete list of our most recent
Books to Review, visit the Book Review
page of the ETAS website:
http://www.e-tas.ch/services/books-to-review
If you would like to write a review for
the ETAS Journal and earn the review
copy, please contact Nicola Martignoni
at bookreview@e-tas.ch
ETAS Journal 28/3 Summer 2011 55

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SERVICES
Author(s)/
Number Title Description Editor(s) Publisher Year Category
Approaches and
Methods in
Language Teaching
Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts
Bringing Creative
Teaching into the
Young Learner
Classroom
Drama and
Improvisation
ETAS Journal
Spring 2011
Vol. 28, No. 2
Exploring Learner
Language
How to Teach English
with Technology
Rules, Patterns
and Words
Teaching Unplugged
The Developing Teacher
Uncovering Grammar
This new, 2nd edition surveys the major approaches and methods in
language teaching, such as Grammar Translation, Audiolingualism,
Communicative Language Teaching, the Natural Approach, Multiple
Intelligences, Neurolinguistic Programming, the Lexical Approach, etc.
Explores the wide world of new, easy-to-use web publishing and
information-gathering tools. Written for educators of all levels and
disciplines. With plenty of practical advice on how teachers and students
can use the web to learn more, create more, and communicate better.
(3rd edition)
Enables teachers to implement a child-centred approach through
activities which can be personalized to the needs of learners aged 6 – 12.
Contains 150 classroom activity ideas, and explanations of the theory
behind them. Includes sections on assessment and motivating children
to learn.
Will help teachers who are interested in using drama in the classroom
but who may not have had time to create their own activities. Designed to
enliven English classes through drama activities and to activate students'
imagination and creativity. Includes easy-to-do activities, ranging from
elementary to upper-intermediate.
With reports from ETAS's 27th AGM and Convention in Lucerne, Jan. 2011
Provides a hands-on introduction to the study of language used by
learners of English as a Second Language. With video interviews with
six ESL learners (and full transcripts), explanations of Second Language
Acquisition theory, and exercises on the language as used by the
speakers on the DVD. (Workbook + DVD)
Practical guide for teachers who wish to use new technology in the
classroom. Looks at the current applications and helps you prepare
for the future. Includes a CD-ROM with practical demonstrations,
information on how to set up internet-based project work, etc.
This book illustrates a new way of describing the grammar of spoken and
written English. The author demonstrates how the lexical phrases, frames
and patterns provide a link between grammar and vocabulary, and how
the different aspects of the language require different teaching techniques.
First book to deal comprehensively with the approach in English Language
Teaching known as Dogme ELT, which advocates teaching unplugged:
materials-light, conversation-driven and focusing on the learner and on
emergent language.
Practical activities for professional development. Ideal for teachers who
wish to take control of their own development. Contains three parts which
focus in turn on theory, practice, and development.
Challenges the traditional view of grammar as a thing to be learned,
suggesting it is more like a process that emerges. Re-examines traditional
approaches to teaching grammar and shows how to create the right
conditions for students to uncover grammar.
To order books from the
ETAS mail-service Library,
simply fill in the ETAS Library
Order Form found on page 58
Richards J.C. &
Rodgers T.S.
Richardson W.
Cameron L. &
McKay P.
Wilson K.
Pioquinto C.
(Ed.)
Tarone E. &
Swierzbin B.
Dudeney G. &
Hockly N.
Willis D.
Meddings L. &
Thornbury S.
Foord D.
Thornbury S.
Cambridge
University
Press
Corwin
Oxford
University
Press
Oxford
University
Press
ETAS
Oxford
University
Press
Pearson
Longman
Cambridge
University
Press
Delta
Publishing
Delta
Publishing
Macmillan
2010
2010
2010
2008
2011
2009
2008
2009
2009
2009
2005
Methodology and
Linguistics
Resource Books
Resource Books
Resource Books
ETAS Journals
Methodology and
Linguistics
Methodology and
Linguistics
Grammar and
Language Practice
Resource Books
Resource Books
Grammar and
Language Practice
ETAS Journal 28/3 Summer 2011 57

Library Order and Check-out Form
I am an Infrequent User and have enclosed CHF 7.– in stamps
I am a Priority User and have paid into the ETAS postal account: Zürich 80-43533-3
CHF 35.– for 6 lots
CHF 70.– for 12 lots
(Up to three items, plus accompanying books and/or cassettes/CDs, may be ordered at any one time.)
I’ve enclosed a self-addressed adhesive label
Please send me the following items from the ETAS Library for 23 days:
Catalogue No. Title Return by (please leave blank)
If any of the above items are not available, please send me the following instead:
Name and Address:
Tel: Fax: Email:
Date: Signature:
Please return to: ETAS Administration, Rue de l’Hôpital 32, CH-1400 Yverdon
Tel: +41 (0)24 420 32 54, Fax: +41 (0)24 420 32 57, email: office@e-tas.ch, website: www.e-tas.ch
How to use the ETAS Library
• All current members of ETAS with an address in Switzerland can use the ETAS mail-service Library.
• You can order books in two ways:
1) As an Infrequent User, you fill in the printed Library Order and Check-out Form (see above) and return it to
ETAS Administration with CHF 7.– in stamps (to cover postage costs) and a self-addressed adhesive label.
2) As a Priority User, you pay for postage costs in advance - CHF 35.– for six lots or CHF 70.– for twelve lots - into
the ETAS postal account. You can then order books online (www.e-tas.ch, click on ‘Services’ then ‘Library’) or
by using the paper form as in 1) (but you don’t need to send stamps).
• Ordering books online is reserved for our Priority Users.
• One order consists of up to three items (including any accompanying books and/or cassettes/CDs).
In case some books are out on loan, feel free to give additional titles.
The first three items that are available will be sent to you.
• If a book you wanted is out on loan, a form will be sent to you enabling you to reserve the missing book,
should you still require it. The book will then be sent to you when it is returned to the Library.
• Books can be borrowed for up to 23 days.
• To request a renewal, please contact ETAS Administration before the return-by date, quoting the title,
catalogue number and return-by date of the borrowed items. If the books have not been reserved by another
reader, you will be given a new return-by date.
• Personal viewing is possible by appointment.
• The full list of items is available on our website (www.e-tas.ch).
An update with recent acquisitions is in each ETAS Journal.
58 ETAS Journal 28/3 Summer 2011

28th AGM and Convention
Join us in this beautiful spa town...
Yverdon
28th –29th January 2012
Please contact the National Events Chair by mid-July if you wish
to be considered for a workshop.