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Teaching, Learning, Leading CONFERENCE 2005 |
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| Jack Richards, RELC Singapore Language Teaching in Changing Times |
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| Language teaching responds to two kinds of influences - external and internal. External influences are those that arise from outside of the profession and which require a response from the profession. Internal pressures are those that arise from within the profession, and often reflect changes in trends and educational traditions. Both these types of influences will be discussed and their impact on the profession illustrated. External influences include changes in the status of English worldwide as it takes on the role of an international language, and changes in language teaching policies that result from government mandates. Internal influences include changes in understanding and application of communicative methodology as well as changing views of the teaching of grammar and the four skills. The impact of these two kinds of changes will be discussed and illustrated. | |
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Biodata: Jack Richards has been active in language teaching particularly in the Asia-Pacific region, for over 25 years. He has held senior academic positions in Universities in Hawaii, Hong Kong, and New Zealand and written widely on different aspects of language teaching and learning. Many of his books and articles are classics in the field, particularly Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching (with Ted Rodgers). He has also written many successful ESL classroom texts, including the best selling series Interchange (now in a 3rd edition). |