© 1992 by Oxford University Press
Articles |
ELT and EL Teachers: matters arising
H. G. Widdowson is Professor of English for Speakers of Other Languages at the University of London Institute of Education and Professor of Applied Linguistics at the University of Essex. Prior to this he was a lecturer at the University of Edinburgh, where he received his doctorate. He has also worked in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh with The British Council. Professor Widdowson has published extensively in the field. He co-edited both the English in Focus and the Reading and Thinking in English of the journal Applied Linguistics. His most recent books include: Aspects of Language Teaching (1990), and Practical Stylistics (1992), both published by Oxford University Press
Preamble
These comments were originally made at the concluding session of the ELT Journal 45th Anniversary Symposium (October 1991) which was entitled ‘The changing roles and nature of ELT’. I made the point on that occasion that in concluding the proceedings I did not wish to be conclusive but on the contrary to indicate issues which seemed to be problematic and to call for further enquiry. I suggested that there had been a tendency in the past in our profession to package ideas up too neatly. What I wanted to do, therefore, was not to wrap things up, but to take them apart. Here, then, are a number of problematic matters arising from the symposium concerning the nature of ELT and the role of EL Teachers.