Wednesday, September 23, 2020

DOGME: A Noble Experiment

DOGME: A Noble Experiment


Introduction: Is there an argument for a materials-light approach to language teaching? Well, a group of English teachers in 2001 were disillusioned with the current state of ELT and they got together in an online community (a new concept at the time) and created a radical approach to teaching foreign languages. The named their approach DOGME in honor of an experimental movement in cinema of the same name that had been popularized a few years earlier. Through DOGME, these teachers hoped to put the learners and their needs at the center of the teaching-learning process. 

Scott Thornbury, the group's unofficial leader, stated in his 2006 book An A-Z of ELT, "Dogme ELT argues for a pedagogoy of bare essentials, that is, a pedagogy unburdened by an excess of materials and technology, a pedagogy grounded in the local and relevant concerns of the people in the room (p. 70)"

Task 1: Dogme Manifesto
The DOGME group outlined their core beliefs in the following manifesto. Read each declaration carefully and answer the following questions.

  • What does it mean?
  • What do I think about it?
  • To what degree does it match my own views about language teaching-learning?


The DOGME Manifesto: 2001












Task 2: Group Discussion
  • Which of the statements from the manifesto stand out to you? Why?
  • What could be the authors' rationale for expressing these statements?
  • Which statements have some connection with the topic of didactic materials?
  • DOGME was created in reaction to what these teachers saw as a decline in the effectiveness of ELT. What might these statements suggest about the reality of the teaching contexts in which these teachers were working?
  • DOGME was created before our current online pandemic teaching paradigm. Which of their beliefs might still be applicable in our current context?
  • For many reasons, DOGME is too radical to be a practical approach to language teaching in a formal context. However, what can we rescue from this nobel experiment? 
  • How can some of these ideas influence your own approach to materials evaluation, design, and use?

Bibliography:

Thornbury, S. (2017, June 26). M is for Manifesto. An A-Z of ELT. https://scottthornbury.wordpress.com/2017/06/25/m-is-for-manifesto/

Thornbury, S. (2006). An A-Z of ELT. Macmillan Education. 


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