Editorial
The board, as Glenda Demes da Cruz explains, was invented in the 19th century by a young maths teacher with an uncontrollable urge to write on his classroom walls. It is certainly one of the oldest pieces of equipment that survives to the present day in classrooms all over the world, whether in its old-style manifestation as a chalk-covered blackboard or as a modern interactive whiteboard, putting the endless possibilities of a computer at the teacher’s fingertips. Hailed by Rose Senior in her regular column as the teacher’s best friend, the board, perhaps more than any other item, shows us that there is room for the survival of the old and trusted alongside the new and exciting.
The same could be said of many things in the world of ELT. New ideas come and go, or come and stay, finding a place alongside old ideas and techniques. Russell Stannard surfs the internet to find material for his classes, Annette Margolis finds inspiration on the television, Jamie Keddie takes digital photos of his students and Jon Marks mirrors the modern fashion for speed dating in a classroom activity. But Blanka Klimová, while incorporating the new, insists on the value of the old. The resulting ‘blended learning’ exemplifies the absorbent nature of our profession – its ability to incorporate new ideas and technology without entirely discarding the old ones.
This is also true of the English language itself. The possibility of new varieties of English, the notion of English as an International Language or English as a Lingua Franca are hotly debated around the world, and yet, as Alan Maley points out in conversation with Paola Vettorel, tolerance of infinite variety in language should not mean abandonment of old standards.