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WELCOME . EDITOR’S LETTER
Do you want to actually teach

your young learners to read? The Queen’s English

Queen Victoria is not amused and many of our readers are furious.
Melanie Butler explains why
theteam
The Gazette moved office on the 27th of September and, due to problems
with our new sservice from telecoms company BT, we did not have phones, MELANIE
Graded readers from the innovative new ELT publisher internet, server or photocopier until the first of November. Delivery of the BUTLER,
editor-in-chief,
last issue was delayed, some of our subscribers didn’t receive their copy and
based on the latest research into early reading dozens of people emailed to complain they couldn’t reach us by phone. started teaching
EFL in Iran in
We apologise profusely to everyone and promise you that things are now
1975. She worked
more or less back to normal, though we still have only one phone number for the BBC
World Service,
that actually works. If we didn’t laugh we’d cry. Pearson/Longman and MET
Not that Queen Victoria herself was famous for doing either. She was far too British: Empress
Designed for children whose fi rst language is not English of India, and Mother of the nation, she was the very model of what it is to be British. magazine before taking over at the
Gazette in 1987 and also launching
Except that she was not a native speaker of English. Her first language was in fact German. Study Travel magazine. Educated in
Which means of course that she would be banned from teaching English in a large number ten schools in seven countries, she
of countries, and if she managed to get a job in EFL in Ireland, she was likely to have been paid speaks fluent French and Spanish
and rather rusty Italian.
even less than her native speaker peers, in a country where the terms and conditions, as we
report on page 6, have been described in the senate as ‘terrible’. RON RAGSDALE,
And, as Marek Kiczkowiak points out on page 28, it means that nothing Queen Victoria ever research and
wrote and nothing she ever said would be deemed ‘authentic’ by methodologists like Mark Long, features editor,
gained his MA-
who define authenticity as being something produced by native speakers for native speakers. TESOL at Portland
So, what about Kazuo Ishiguro, JM Coetzee and Wole Soyinka? They may have all won a State University
Nobel Prize for Literature written in English but does the fact that they spoke English as their in Oregon 25
L2 mean we should ban them from the EFL classroom? years ago, and has worked in
Of course not. This strict definition of authenticity not only reinforces the negative ELT publishing ever since, with
stereotype of the non-native speaker teacher, it is also downright silly. teaching stints in Istanbul and Cairo.
In addition to managing teams
Just as silly, in fact, as the recent decision by the UK’s at Pearson and Cambridge ELT,
nothing Queen Nursing and Midwifery Council to drop the need for including as Publishing Director,
native English-speaking nurses from outside the EU to
Ron has worked with Ministries and
Victoria ever wrote get a level 7 on Ielts because the Writing paper was too local partners in over 30 countries.
MATT
and nothing she ever difficult, but to keep the requirement for nurses whose SALUSBURY,
first language wasn’t English. As we report on page 7,
news editor,
said would be deemed they’ve relented a little and dropped the grade required and journalist is
in Academic writing to 6.5.
active with the
• ‘authentic’ Sometimes native English speakers just don’t get it. National Union
Free audio
of Journalists and
Want to get someone to learn English? The native
• speakers have the answer: Just ban them from using their L1 in the classroom. Except as we co-edits Freelance, its newsletter.
For classwork or for one-to-one
He taught English for 15 years
report on page 10, Chinese students set a collaborative writing task in English produced better
in Turkey and the Netherlands,
• work when they were allowed to discuss the work in Chinese than when they were only allowed and ESOL in a North London FE
76% of the 200 most common
College. He is now an EAP tutor
to speak English.
English words in Grades 1 to 4 in English. The neuroscientists have shown how wrong they are. Speaking in two languages at Brunel University London. He
Then there is the splendid belief that as you ban L1, students will be forced to start thinking
is a native English speaker, but
is fluent in Dutch and has good
• simultaneously, as we report on page 11, takes no more neurological effort than speaking one. enough French to use entirely
Detailed notes for teachers and parents
French sources for articles.
But shutting down your L1 expends a huge amount of energy.
Only monolinguals would not have known that, and I’ve never understood why anyone
• Boxed sets with wallchart to record thought letting a monolingual teach a language was a good idea in the first place. GILL RAGSDALE,
research news
reading progress Both the thought leaders we interview for our new feature on pages 26 and 27 are bilingual. reporter,
has a PhD in
And both have solid experience of language learning, which means that their predictions for Evolutionary
• Now with activities and poems how we should be teaching language in the future, though very different on the surface, are Anthropology
rooted in experience.
from Cambridge,
• Pop-out characters for retelling So monolingual native speaker teachers, if you want to understand the workings of the and teaches Psychology with
the Open University, but also
mind of the multilingual teacher turn to Wayne Trotman’s review of a book written by two L2 holds an RSA-Cert TEFL. Gill has
teachers of German who ended up teaching in New York. taught EFL in the UK, Turkey,
Maybe it will give you just a little insight into the authentic experience of learning a language. Egypt and to refugees in the
Request your FREE sample today Calais ‘Jungle’ in France. She
currently teaches English to
email enquiries@innovapress.com MELANIE BUTLER, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF refugees in the UK.
Visit innovapress.com to sample our interactive
digital readers and to browse our full range of titles
INNOVATING LANGUAGE EDUCATION
editorial@elgazette.com 5

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