"We need to talk about Brazil": Critical Literacy & the use of images

Anyone who is not yet aware of the protests and police violence of the past few days in Brazil, notably in São Paulo, Rio and Brasília... is obviously living on another planet and has no internet connection or TV/Radio... so they probably aren't reading this blog either. The picture above was taken in Germany, just one of several European cities where public attention is being drawn to a complex set of issues that I'd like to discuss in this post.

For a very brief account of what happened during Saturday's inaugural game of football for the Confederations Cup, held at the new and absurdly expensive National Stadium (the most expensive ever built, anywhere in the world), click here.

After seeing images of shocking police brutality against completely unarmed and largely peaceful protestors, (who were trying to raise awareness of the corruption and inadmissible use of public funds to pay for stadiums and other preparations for large sporting events, like the Olympics and FIFA world cup), I was shocked to find that early this morning, on a local news programme, the largest and most influential TV station in Brazil, GLOBO, was being pimped out to the local governor, Agnelo, for the transmission of blatant lies and cynical self-promoting propaganda.

Peaceful Protests in Brasilia

Police firing rubber bullets into the crowd

Agnelo claimed that police had merely 'accompanied' the protests (from a distance!) in order to 'protect' citizens... and that they only acted when protestors tried to break into the the stadium. This is a blatant lie, but fortunately, images (especially video) do not lie... and there is no shortage of footage showing excessive use of force by police on peaceful demonstrators. 

So where am I going with this? 

Well, in addition to simply venting my anger at the way the whole incident was handled by the police (first) then by the press... and expressing my intense disgust at how the Brazilian government can spend billions on building stadiums (not to mention the millions that we all know have been diverted to assorted pockets in and out of government circles), my other aim with this post is to draw attention to the importance of developing critical literacy in our students.

As educators, we have a responsibility to ensure that 'the news' is not taken at face value, without judgment or critical analysis about where the opinions expressed and 'versions' of the truth are coming from.. and why!

A lot has been written about Critical Literacy in ELT and during my stint as Director of English for the British Council in Brazil (2007-2011), I was fortunate enough to have close contact with a number of scholars in Brazil and elsewhere in Latin America, who have become specialists in this topic, but for a brief intro, see this definition and explanation of the concept, with downloadable materials at http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/file-share/critical-literacy-elt

One way to help our learners (or trainee teachers, for that matter) to access different versions of  'the truth' is by the use of powerful images, like the ones in this post, but there are thousands more to be found on the web.

Upon putting-together a training session recently, I delved into some of the possible ways of exploiting images (and reasons for doing so) in connection with another interesting movement in our field... that of 'high-demand ELT' (Scrivener & Underhill, 2013).

Jim Scrivener asks the following questions:

Are our learners capable of more, much more?

Have the tasks and techniques we use in class become rituals and ends in themselves?

How can we stop “covering material” and start focusing on the potential for deep learning?

What small tweaks and adjustments can we make to shift the whole focus of our teaching towards getting that engine of learning going?

I would like to suggest that a great way of doing this is through the use of images, followed-up by asking the right questions and creating a space (and conducive environment) for learners to truly interact and share their personal views/feelings on a particular topic. The kind of feedback the teacher (and peers) give is also key... we should strive for more challenging, meaningful feedback after truly LISTENING to each other, rather than simply producing a generic and standardised 'Very good!' after every student utterance.

On the topic of images, Hancock McDonald has THIS to say:

“A picture is a text without words. This is what makes them invaluable for the language classroom. They provide rich and immediate content, but they leave it up to the student how to put that into words. They can’t ‘cut and paste’ as they can from a text. It doesn’t put words in their mouths”.

Here are some ways in which images can be exploited in the classroom:

Single frame: Spot mistakes (T describes an image, but includes erroneous detail);  Role-play (based on a scene with 2 or more people interacting); Opinions (especially if image has a controversial topic); Detective work (narration); 

Picture-pairs: Spot the difference; Find the difference (Ss describe in pairs); Invent a connection (random pics);

Multiframes: Identify; Matching; Sequencing; Predicting; Invent an order; Continue story; Stop-gap etc.

Source: Hancock, M. (2012) Using Pictures in ELT - http://hancockmcdonald.com/ideas/using-pictures-elt

For an excellent blogpost on Images in the classroom, which rather serendipitously appeared in my feed only this morning, after I'd already decided to write these ideas here... please look at this blog post by my dear friend and colleague, Carla Arena, who is also First Vice-President of Braz-Tesol Brasilia and will therefore take-over the role of President from me in 2015.

I look forward to hearing about your experiences with the use of images, whether controversial or consensual, current or vintage... so please do post your comments below.

The end of an era... or two!

The end of an era is upon us!

And no, I'm not JUST talking about the end of the third season of Game of Thrones! I'm also referring to the final post by Scott Thornbury on his brilliant ELT blog, An A-Z of ELT.

In 'The End', bringing to a conclusion an alphabetical reflection on key issues in our profession (as teachers of English as a foreign language) and more generally about language learning itself, Scott presents a few telling quotes from the 7000+ comments which have been posted on his blog since it began, three years ago.

In this post, I'm going to select just one of these (for now!) and look at it from a personal perspective, whilst drawing on a very tenuous Game of Thrones analogy or two! I hope you find this reflection both interesting and useful.

First of all, then... this is what has been said under the topic "T is for Teacher Development":

"Creating the sense of 'feeling at home', i.e. creating a dynamic whereby students feel unthreatened and at ease with one another and with you, is one of the most important things that a teacher can do".

Whilst few can argue with this, of course, I do think it's worth delving a little more deeply into what the implications of this are for the teacher, and for the student.

What does it mean for a learner of English to 'feel at home'? Well, as Scott himself immediately qualifies, part of it is the creation of an unthreatening environment (in the classroom) and good rapport amongst students and with the teacher. This is all very well for the classroom, and something we all strive for and succeed with, I dare say, to varying degrees... yet the real challenge is to extend that feeling of confidence and comfort beyond the boundaries of the classroom and into the interactions that our learners may have with strange (as in unfamiliar.. but also, yes.. strange!) foreigners visiting Brazil; namely, the people they will need to interact with in English in real life, removed from the context of the classroom.... let's call them the White Walkers, if you will!

I'm sure we've all had the experience of rehearsing phrases and words in a foreign language, perhaps on a journey in a foreign land, or if we're about to meet somebody we know is from another country and doesn't speak our L1 (or L2!).. only to find that when our familiar surroundings are removed and the easy,  close relationship we have with peers, teachers, family and friends is not there (i.e. upon meeting somebody for the first time in a professional capacity)... everything we so carefully planned to say can be forgotten! Or worse... we simply freeze up and 'draw a blank'.

This is common enough for our students even WITHIN their comfort zone in the classroom, so we need only imagine how challenging it must be 'out in the cold'... almost as if they've left behind the warmth of any fire and stepped, say, beyond the North Wall of Westeros!!

One possible solution to this problem is to encourage learners to reach out and make contact with these mysterious creatures from beyond the wall (of the classroom)... a.k.a. internet users!!!! It is both simple and cheap (that is, free!) for learners to connect with speakers of English using tools such as Pinterest, Instagram, Flickr, Tumblr, Facebook, Skype, Twitter and a whole host of other resources, too numerous to mention here. What these tools all have in common is their capacity to place our students in direct contact (through wallposts, tweets, comments and chats etc) with proficient users of English from OUTSIDE Brazil. In this way, Ss gain confidence in using their language skills for real life communication  not just with their classmates and teachers (with whom they feel quite comfortable thank you very much), but also with that most feared of magical creatures... the foreigner!

In case you do feel tempted to experiment with some of these tools to enable/encourage your students to reach out 'beyond the wall', here is a shield of tools, fit for any Ser (or Lady) who thinks they might just have a claim to some of the power commanded by that Iron Throne of communication in English!

Telling our ELT Stories - The First Year

I recently came across this publication of classroom stories (the good, the bad and the unforgettable!) from teachers who were remembering their very first year in the classroom. This actually brought together for me two recent events that I'd like to share with you. The first was an ELT event that was entitled "Telling our ELT Stories" and the second was an invitation to write a short piece for an international ELT publication, describing precisely my own first experiences in the classroom, which took place about 24 years ago!!

As President of the local chapter of Braz-TESOL, here in Brasilia, it was my enormous pleasure just a couple of weeks ago to welcome teachers from all over the region and from other cities (such as Goiânia, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo) who came to share their stories from the wonderful world of ELT. Our opening plenary was given by a renowned specialist in Storytelling (not to mention Puppeteering and just about every other aspect of teaching and training... my dear friend Valéria França, and it was called "A space for stories: Stories in space). There was also another great plenary from the British Council's Fernando Guarany ("Accounts from the Open Road: Lessons and Principles from an ELT Journey"). Clearly, the theme of sharing stories from our experience as ELT professionals was a popular one, and the 150 or so participants were very positive about the lessons learned and shared.

The other recent event that reminded me of the importance of sharing our experiences, and not just the good ones!... was a request that came by e-mail from an international publication's editor, requesting contributions of stories from our very first day in the classroom! The kind of responses they were looking for were to revolve around the following questions:
- What did it feel like back then? 
- Was it a positive or a negative experience for you? 
- What did you do about it? 
- How has this changed you, both as a person and as a professional? 

So here goes part of my response to these questions about my first day as a teacher of English!

IN AT THE DEEP END?

"I first set foot in a real ELT classroom, after only a very brief introduction to the basics of EFL, in 1989 in the NE Brazilian town of Aracaju. I was one of only a handful of foreigners in the city at the time and boasted the tender age of 17!! My ‘baptism’ in ELT was of the 'in at the deep end' variety that was so much more common in those days, when it was often deemed enough to be a native speaker, even without any degree or qualifications! I’m glad those days are gone, for our students' sake! However, contrary to what you might expect, I remember those early days very fondly... with flashbacks to hours of preparation for classes lasting only 50-60 minutes... endless searching for and cutting-out of magazine pictures to be used for flashcards etc. Perhaps the best thing about my early experience was that since I'm one of those people who never says 'NO!', I accepted everything they threw at me, so my classes ranged from VYLs (with all the storytelling and singing, cutting and pasting that goes hand-in-hand with that age group) through lots of teen classes (where I think the Ss were glad to have a teacher only a couple of years older than them!) and adult beginner classes where the sense of achievement and progress experienced by Ss in a short period of time can be hugely rewarding for the teacher... up to Cambridge English (then ESOL) exam prep classes, from FCE to CPE! This willingness to take-on new and different challenges has stayed with me throughout my career. Although I love my role as an ELT Publishing Consultant and teacher trainer, working for the best-known family of language schools in Brazil, Cultura Inglesa, I do miss those intense experiences of reflection on practice as a newbie teacher, with a view to constant development and growth, a lot of which came, in those days, from sharing of stories and ideas in the staffroom!"

Perhaps those of you who, like me, have over 20 years of experience in this field, will have supressed those memories of your first days in class, but maybe they are still as crystal clear to you as other striking/traumatic events (known as 'flashbulb memories' in cognitive psychology!).

Of course, if you have only recently embarked on this profession, you should still have fresh feelings about your first day in class!

Why not share your earliest memories of the classroom in the comments section below?

This is where I am now!

DF 140, Brasilia_DF, a photo by graemehodgson on Flickr.

This post is of a rather different nature... only very remotely related to ELT!

As I've mentioned before on this blog, I'm taking an online course entitled WebTools4Educators, and half the 'fun' is in putting new tools, platforms and ideas into practice.

In this case, the moderator asked all those taking part in the course to post a pic from Flickr to our blogs saying where we are right now, as we work on the online tasks.

Well, as requested (and I've always had a hard time saying NO!)... this is a pic I took from the front gate of my condo, which is about 30 kms from Brasilia city centre.

The 'commute' does take at least half an hour, each way, but it's sooooo worth it to leave the stresses and strains of 'the city' behind and drive into Brasilia's famous 'cerrado' country!

So what does all this have to do with ELT?

According to Aaron Campbell, who was writing in 2007...

"Some language educators are turning to Web-based social networks in an effort to motivate their students beyond the carrot-and-stick methods of the traditional classroom. Social networks bring people together who share common interests and give those participants the tools to produce, collect, share, and re-mix artifacts (Dieu and Stevens, 2007). Such networks provide language learners with opportunities to meet and interact with people from around the world in self-directed ways on personally meaningful topics. They also give learners a chance to construct a space to call their own; a space without any institutional affiliation, giving learners complete ownership and control over their own work. As long as educators give learners the freedom to choose the content and direction of their online activities, participation in social networks can tap into the bubbling fountain of intrinsic motivation that each learner carries within.

Flickr is one such social network that uses photos as the primary content for sharing amongst its participants. Started in 2002 by Ludicorp (Graham 2006), Flickr’s membership numbers grew rapidly. Bought out by Yahoo! in late 2005, Flickr now hosts a pool of around 500 million photos (Arrington 2007)."

In fact, the latest data suggests that today the number of photos to be found, shared and available for pedagogical exploitation on Flickr is more like 9 billion!), with a 71% increase in daily uploads since Flickr redesigned their interface last month.

Whatever the numbers involved, here are just a few of the possibilities afforded by Flickr for using pictures in the language classroom (Campbell, 2007):

1.Searching for Photos
2.Uploading Photos
3.Making friends
4.Commenting/Leaving Notes
5.Joining Groups
6.Exploring Geotags
7.Photo Tours
8.Blogging Photos
9.Emailing Other Flickr Users
10.Creating Slideshows:
11.Using Flickrtoys
12.Using Combinations of the above in Project work.

A picture says a thousand words... or so the saying goes! But is it easier to get our students to produce a thousand words, motivated by just one picture?

What do you see as the main benefits of using resources like Flickr or Pinterest with learners of English?


REFERENCES:

Campbell, A. (2007) Motivating Language Learners with Flickr (available at http://e-poche.net/flickr/)