Today I attended Oxford Day 2005 (Seoul) where Michael Swan and Henry Widdowson presented. Swan presented first, followed by a promotional presentation for person to person (which I skipped) and Widdowson presented last followed by a Q&A session. Both presenters were engaging speakers with a good presence on the stage. Swans presentation was the more practical of the two while Widdowsons presentation was more theoretical. On my way to the subway I heard two teachers talking about how Widdowson was interesting but if they wanted theory they would buy a book - clearly they didn’t particularly care for his presentation. I agree that his presentation was more theoretically oriented, but I disagree that theory cannot be applied to the classroom.

Michael Swan
Swan spent most of his time talking about how he developed his book Practical English Usage. When he started out teaching he was asked many questions by learners for which he didn’t know the answer. He initially responded to many of these with answers such as it’s a matter of style or it depends on context but his students were not overly satisfied. (Been there done that)

When consulting a grammar book to help with answers he found that many of the answers were not helpful, enigmatic or sometimes just wrong. Often this was due to the book being designed for native speakers and also being more of a style guide than anything. Ultimately Swan collected questions from students on index cards and prepared proper usage explanations. Over time his collection, with contributions from colleagues and employees at his school, grew rather large and he decided to turn them into a book. The first edition took 2 years of collating and writing and resulted in a 600 gram book.

10 years later, the language had changed. Swan had also recieved letters with corrections and suggestions. Additionally he had learned more about grammar in that time, so put out a second edition of the book weighing in at 1kg (I knew the book was heavy, but hadn’t realized how heavy). This also took about two years to put together. And finally a third edition has been put out with several more corrections and changes to the language. Additionally there are 2-3 pages of common mistakes made by learners at different levels with page numbers next to them - I really think that is a handy resource. Other additions include usage for emails and text messages. Swan didn’t tell us how much this edition weighs, but it feels about the same as the second edition - I took advantage of the 20% discount to buy an updated copy.

We are not here.
Swan also talked about several example sentences he has collected from textbooks around the world, including the title of this entry Has your Grandmother got any Grandchildren?, We are not here., My husband is a man., The oxen are stepping on my feet. When is anyone ever actually going to say these sentences? In the end Swan emphasized that we should be teaching actual English usage rather than contrived textbook grammar.

break time
I skipped the presentation on Person to Person because I had already seen it at the recent KOTESOL national conference. However I did get together with a couple of freinds for papa johns pizza which has got to be the best pizza in Korea - it definitely kicks butt over pizza hut. After that I came back browsed the books and purchased the third edition of Practical English Usage. I additionally spent some time talking to one of the Oxford reps about the possibility of writing book reviews and evaluating teaching materials. I sent off an email to him last night and am waiting to see the response. I do know that he is aware of this blog as I mentioned it and he said he had seen it before.

Widdowson
Widdowsons presentation tackled authentic langauge vs classroom language. He challenged the notion that all language students encounter should be authentic. His basic premise is that authentic language lacks context for many learners. By this he doesn’t mean textual context but rather a greater cultural and societal context.

He stated that what makes a text authentic is the shared cultural and pre-supposed language of both interlocuters. Widdowson also said that speakers are lazy and that they operate on the principle of the least effort necessary. That is the more shared knowledge all participants have the less speaking is necessary. Take for example an operating room where the surgeon says “Scalpel - clamp - swab.” Clearly there is no need to say more as both the nurse and the surgeon know what is expected to happen as a result. Without this shared knowledge the doctor may be required to say something like “excuse me, but if it isn’t too much trouble could you hand me the Scalpel?” long utterances such as this could increase the risk to the patient. I’m sure that I could say something about Grice here, but that is not one of my strongpoints.

Widdowson also talked about how classroom language could be made real by creating more interest. The example he gave was rather weak but with more work I could accept it. I don’t entirely agree with everything that Widdowson talked about, but it was an interesting talk nonetheless.

I would also recommend reading Nathans report which is very long at 1500+ words.