Issue 63 Editorial & Contents

Editorial In our main feature, Chris Payne sees a dichotomy between what many language school teachers, following modern methodological orthodoxy, feel they should be teaching their students and what those students actually want to be taught. He argues that if students, and sometimes their parents, measure progress in terms of the passing of exams, then perhaps we are letting them down by insisting on communicative competence and viewing ‘teaching for the exam’ as necessarily a bad thing. Another dichotomy is identified by Vahid Parvaresh and Saeed Ketabi, who point out that theories of teaching practice, even those put forward by as eminent a linguist as Noam Chomsky, don’t really seem to lead to a clear practical method for language teaching. They suggest drawing on the insights provided by linguists but not trying to base what we do in the classroom too closely on their theories, finding instead what actually works for us. Good advocates of this approach are Paul Bress and John Ryan, who share ways that they have found for making idioms and phrasal verbs more comprehensible to their students and more memorable. As competence in these two language areas, rightly or wrongly, represents the holy grail of language learning for many students, it would seem that they are both giving students what they want and, at the same time, fulfilling their own perceptions of how language should be taught. Charles Mercer, on the other hand, finds productive things to do with business students who don’t know what they want or why they are there, while Tisa Rétfalvi-Schär finds ways of dealing with students who aren’t there at all! Helena Gomm Editor This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it MAIN FEATURE SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT Chris Payne contrasts what we think students need with what they actually need FEATURESA PIECE OF CAKE Paul Bress cooks up a way of teaching idioms ONE CLASSROOM, MANY WORLDS 1 Alicia Artusi and Gregory J Manin increase relevance with real-world references RABBITS, BIRDS AND COUNTRY DANCING Vahid Parvaresh and Saeed Ketabi gauge the gap between theory and practice S IS FOR SPELLING – AND SUCCESS Youssef Mezrigui spells out why we should teach how to spell A STORYTELLING EXPERIENCE David Heathfield gets us all sitting comfortably PHRASAL VERBS? THEY’RE EASY 2 John Ryan makes contact with verbs that take on OVER THE WALL Alan Maley reviews reading that tackles the teenage years AWOL! Tisa Rétfalvi-Schär deals with diminishing attendance THE FUTURE’S BRIGHT, THE FUTURE’S PERIPHRASTIC Edward de Chazal looks ahead TEACHING YOUNG LEARNERS DON’T FORGET TO WRITE! Betka Pislar finds that a school magazine encourages better writing TREASURE TROVE Emilce Vela uses literature to promote reading and writing BUSINESS ENGLISH PROFESSIONAL WET WEDNESDAYS Charles Mercer focuses on unfocused students TEACHER DEVELOPMENT SO MANY JOBS, SO LITTLE TIME Amy Lightfoot ponders freelance possibilities WOULDN’T IT BE LOVELY? Sandee Thompson champions the creation of a special staffroom TECHNOLOGY GAME ON! Hayo Reinders uses computer games to get students writing FIVE THINGS YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT: BLOGS Nicky Hockly examines the online urge to reveal all WEBWATCHER Russell Stannard spots a site for creating animated films REGULAR FEATURESACTIVITY CORNER: PLAYING WITH COMPARATIVES AND SUPERLATIVES Jon Marks PREPARING TO TEACH ... Binomials John Potts QUESTIONING 1 Rose Senior IT WORKS IN PRACTICE REVIEWS