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The Dogme Approach To ELT

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90 views2 pages

The Dogme Approach To ELT

Uploaded by

Laura
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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1.

The Dogme Approach to ELT


1.1 The Concept of Dogme ELT
The term Dogme ELT is used to describe the teaching of English as a foreign language in a conversation-driven
way, with minimum reliance on materials and maximum exploitation of the language which emerges in the
classroom (Thornbury, 2001; Meddings & Thornbury, 2009).

The Dogme approach has been called, variously, a “pre-method” type of teaching, requiring simply a room, chairs, a
board, a teacher and some students (Thornbury, 2001); “a moveable feast: difficult to pin down, endlessly adaptive”
(Thornbury & Meddings, cited in Sketchley, 2011, p. 52); and “a state of mind” (Meddings & Thornbury, 2009, p.
21). Hall has defined Dogme ELT as “both a way of teaching and an overt attitude to teaching” (2011, p. 40). As the
works cited imply, Dogme is clearly not a language teaching methodology per se. Rather, Dogme may be defined as
a philosophy of teaching, which is in no way prescriptive, but which is given coherence by the three core principles
outlined below.

1.2 Principles of Dogme ELT


In the decade following the inception of the approach, three key principles underpinning Dogme ELT were made
explicit (Meddings & Thornbury, 2009), as follows.

1.2.1 Conversation-Driven
The content of a Dogme ELT lesson is not pre-planned around a coursebook supplemented by various printed or
technology-based teaching aids. On the contrary, content emerges from real conversation, which is generated in the
classroom and allowed to take its course (Thornbury, 2000; Thornbury & Meddings, 2001; Meddings & Thornbury,
2009). In other words, the lesson is shaped at least as much by the students, as by the teacher. Thus, Dogme ELT
involves a shift in the balance of power in the classroom, away from the paradigm of a dominant teacher who
delivers knowledge to students who attempt to learn it, to a community model in which learning is believed to be co-
constructed through the communicative interaction which takes place between all the participants in the experience
(Meddings & Thornbury, 2003; McCabe, 2005; Meddings & Thornbury, 2009). Moreover, because the learners
become involved in dialogue which is authentic and relevant to their own lives, interests and needs, it is argued that
they engage more thoroughly with the lesson and the language, and more readily with each other; become more
resourceful; contribute more to the process; and thus learn more effectively (Thornbury & Meddings, 2001;
Meddings & Thornbury, 2009; Meddings, 2012).

The conversation-driven ethos of Dogme ELT is based upon several assumptions, including that “the best way to
learn how to communicate is by communicating” (Allwright, paraphrased by Meddings & Thornbury, 2009, p. 17);
that, in natural language acquisition, fluency precedes accuracy (Meddings & Thornbury, 2009, p. 9); that
conversation involves the construction of coherent stretches of discourse, which provides a better foundation for
real-life language use than would the production of isolated albeit grammatically accurate sentences (p. 9); and that
the dialogic nature of conversation facilitates the process termed “scaffolding” (Bruner, cited in Meddings &
Thornbury, 2009, p.10), whereby the teacher helps the learners to reformulate, repair, or refine the emergent
language, and thus to become more proficient.

1.2.2 Materials-Light
In the article which gave rise to Dogme ELT, Thornbury appeared to advocate a language classroom entirely free of
materials, aids and technology (2000). However, Meddings and Thornbury subsequently clarified their position,
arguing that they were not against coursebooks, materials or technology in themselves, but that the learners’
ownership of the language learning process is impeded by “the prevailing culture of mass-produced, shrink-wrapped
lessons,” and by the notion that “the learning of a language runs along a predetermined route with the regularity and
efficiency of a Swiss train” (Thornbury & Meddings, 2001; Meddings & Thornbury, 2003). In other words, since
Dogme ELT assumes that language learning is organic rather than linear, and that learning emerges not as the
product of artificial communicative activities but through the process of teacher and learners sharing and building
knowledge in authentic conversation, coursebooks and other extraneous teaching aids are regarded as generally
obstructive and unnecessary.
On the other hand, materials which belong to, have been prepared by, or are of personal interest to the learners
themselves are to be welcomed, in so far as they are likely to stimulate real conversation in the classroom. Thus,
Dogme has been characterised as “materials-light” rather than materials-free teaching (Thornbury & Meddings,
2001; Meddings & Thornbury, 2009). “Dogme-friendly” materials might include photos, newspaper items, original
texts written or recorded by the learners, music available on the learners’ mobile phones, etc.

1.2.3 Focused on Emergent Language


Perhaps the most interesting of the core tenets of Dogme ELT is the idea that the language content of a lesson should
emerge from the conversation which takes place between the participants involved (Thornbury & Meddings, 2001).
Since the direction which any conversation may take is unpredictable, it follows that there can be no rigid adherence
to a pre-ordained functional or grammatical syllabus in such a context. On the other hand, while a Dogme approach
to ELT is of its nature conversation-driven, this does not mean that a Dogme lesson is equivalent to a speaking
lesson. On the contrary, the language which emerges in the course of classroom interaction to become the focus of
the lesson may be developed in a variety of ways, using diverse language skills and a range of techniques (see
Section 3, below for more detail).

The crucial point here is that the attention of the learners should be drawn to the language that emerges in the course
of the lesson. In other words, the teacher should mediate the learning process through scaffolding. That is, by
reinforcing and refining the learners’ efforts to engage with the emergent language, the teacher helps them to gain
competence, until they no longer require support here, but may be encouraged to engage with more challenging
language, again assisted by scaffolding (Thornbury, 2005; Meddings & Thornbury, 2009).

Having outlined the core principles of Dogme ELT, the question arises as to how teachers may scaffold the language
which emerges, in practice, in an unplugged classroom.

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