Teaching unplugged

2-No recorded listening material should be 

introduced into the classroom: the source of all 

“listening” activities should be the students and 

teacher themselves. The only recorded material

that is used should be that made in the 

classroom itself, e.g. recording students in pair

or group work for later re-play and analysis.

3-The teacher must sit down at all times that the 

students are seated, except when monitoring 

group or pair work (and even then it may be 

best to pull up a chair). In small classes,

 teaching should take place around a single table.

4-All the teacher’s questions must be “real” 

questions (such as“Do you like oysters?” Or 

“What did you do on Saturday?”), not “display” 

questions (such as “What’s the past of the verb

 to go?”or “Is there a clock on the wall?”)

5-Slavish adherence to a method (such as

 audio-lingualism, Silent Way, TPR, task-based 

learning, suggest opedia) is unacceptable.

6-A pre-planned syllabus of pre-selected and

 graded grammar items is forbidden. Any 

grammar that is the focus of instruction should 

emerge from the lesson content, not dictate it.

7-Topics that are generated by the students 

themselves must be given priority over any

 other input.

8-Grading of students into different levels is 

disallowed: students should be free to join the 

class that they feel most comfortable in, whether 

for social reasons, or for reasons of mutual 

intelligibility, or both. As in other forms of 

human social interaction, diversity should be 

accommodated, even welcomed, but not proscribed.

9-The criteria and administration of any testing 

procedures must be negotiated with the learners.

10-Teachers themselves will be evaluated 

according to only one criterion: that they are 

not boring.