On October 19th, Luke Meddings will be coming to our London Central ELT Library to give a workshop on Teaching Unplugged. It will take placed in Room 104 at the school from 6.30 – 8.00pm. Tickets cost £5 (or free to St Giles teachers). Complementary refreshments will be served from 6.00 – 6.30pm in Livio’s Café.
Below is some information about this event, and about the ELT library.
What happens when we unplug?
Unplugged teaching focuses less on published materials, and more on the lives and language of the people in the room. This can be very motivating for students, especially young adult and adult learners who have been on the ‘grammar treadmill’ for years without enough opportunity to talk – a key sector within the UK ELT market.
But what are the broader implications of an unplugged approach? One is the opportunity it gives teachers to reflect on their practice – both ‘in action’ (to use Donald Schön’s notion) because of the need to think on our feet during lessons, and ‘on action’, because of the need to capture retrospectively what has emerged in each class.
Another is the challenge of integrating new and developing practice within a broader school system.
This interactive session uses hands-on activities to explore the theory and practice of dogme ELT, before inviting participants to reflect on how it can most usefully be applied in their own classes.
Luke Meddings has been working as a teacher, writer and teacher trainer in ELT for over 20 years. After training and teaching in London he worked as Deputy Editor on the EL Gazette, before leaving to manage an experimental language school. In 2000 he was a co-founder with Scott Thornbury of the dogme ELT movement, and subsequently wrote a monthly ELT column for the Guardian online. His first book, Teaching Unplugged, co-written with Scott Thornbury, was published by Delta in 2009 and won a British Council ELT on award for Innovation in 2010. He now writes and trains extensively on unplugged approaches.
About the ELT Library
The St Giles Central London ELT library is a free resource facility open to all members of the ELT profession. The library also hosts a Teachers’ Tuesday Club. The club is a twice-yearly programme of continuing profession development workshop sessions and seminars, aimed at post-CELTA level.
The ELT library is located in our London Central centre, close to Russell Square underground station, at the following address: 154 Southampton Row, London, WC1B 5JX. The library is open from 1pm until 5pm Monday to Friday.
Please contact eltlibrary@stgiles.co.uk if you would like more information about visiting the library, or the Teaching Unplugged event.
