Molly Riley

'You learn a lot in your classes, but you can't learn about human relationships and about life from a book.' -Julie Venci, Washington UniversityIt was a little daunting at first. In fact, I was downright nervous. 'Go out and find someone in the community to do a student profile on.' Find someone in the community' I was already plunked half way across the globe, in a totally different culture attending a TESOL Certification course, and now I had to go out on my own and offer someone an hour-long, free one on one course'oh, my!Conducting a student profile seemed like an impossible feat, but as time progressed I came to realize the importance of one. As described in a chapter from the Diversity Institute: 'In order to effectively choose teaching methods and help students learn,...  [Read more]

You learn a lot in your classes, but you can?t learn about human relationships and about life from a book.? -Julie Venci, Washington University It was a little daunting at first. In fact, I was downright nervous. ?Go out and find someone in the community to do a student profile on.? Find someone in the community? I was already plunked half way across the globe, in a totally different culture attending a TESOL certification course, and now I had to go out on my own and offer someone an hour-long, free one on one course?oh, my! Conducting a student profile seemed like an impossible feat, but as time progressed I came to realize the importance of one. As described in a chapter from the Diversity Institute: ?In order to effectively choose teaching methods and help...  [Read more]

For many years Teachers of English have used the PPP model of Presentation, Practice and Production for the preferred model of teaching. It has worked well. The PPP model falls short however, in that it does not work well when teaching more complex language problems beyond the sentence level or when teaching communicative skills. Jeremy Harmer in How to Teach English (Longman Publishing 1998) proposed an alternative to PPP called ESA: Engage, Study, and Activate. In an article written in The Guardian Weekend, March 15 1997, Bridget Riley complained about the treatment she and her fellow students received at the Royal College of Art. ?We were abandoned when what we needed and what we hoped for was help toward independence in teaching rather than having...  [Read more]

For many years Teachers of English have used the PPP model of Presentation, Practice and Production for the preferred model of teaching. It has worked well. The PPP model falls short however, in that it does not work well when teaching more complex language problems beyond the sentence level or when teaching communicative skills. Jeremy Harmer in How to Teach English (Longman Publishing 1998) proposed an alternative to PPP called ESA: Engage, Study, and Activate. In an article written in The Guardian Weekend, March 15 1997, Bridget Riley complained about the treatment she and her fellow students received at the Royal College of Art. 'We were abandoned when what we needed and what we hoped for was help toward independence in teaching rather than having independence...  [Read more]