Theoretical Papers

The Method-in-Use in Qatari Secondary Schools
Based on TESOL ARABIA Conference Paper (AL-Ain UAE, March, 1995)
(Published in the Selected Papers of the Conference Proceedings 1995 & 1996 - In Holbrook. A, C. Coombes and S. Troudi (eds.) 1997 pp. 1-29)
A detailed report on the preliminary findings of a research project to describe the 'Method-in-Use" of a sample of Qatari Secondary school teachers. It illustrates an original model for describing classroom method, focusing on discourse structure, turn-taking procedures and discourse topic. The model is used to describe the classroom roles that underlie the actual method-in-use. As a result, it was possible to record a huge discrepancy between the actual classroom method being used and the named method, the so-called 'communicative approach' said to be in use in Qatari schools.

The Purposes of Language Teachers' Questions
International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching (Vol. 37, Issue 1: Feb. 1999: 23-42).
This paper illustrates an intercultural analysis of classroom language teaching, encouraging a more international perspective in language teaching ideology. An illustration of a three-level analysis of classroom discourse as a means of examining in detail the implications of characterizing language teachers' questions as "display" questions. In particular it attempts to demonstrate that the characterization of teachers' questions as display questions because they are non-referential is only relevant on one level of analysis. By using a three-level analysis, it has been possible to challenge a negative characterization of the exchanges initiated by teachers' questions, which were said to be purposeless in one pedagogical setting.

Designing Rating Scales for Small-Group Interaction
(ELT Journal - OUP pp.169-178 Vol. 54 Issue 2 April, 2000
http://www3.oup.co.uk/eltj/hdb/Volume_54/Issue_02
This paper reports the design of rating scales for language classes at Kochi University. Classroom activities in small-groups provide opportunities for practising important intercultural interaction skills such as distributing and competing for opportunities to speak, holding the floor, adjusting to the contributions of other speakers, and negotiating real understanding when exchanging information, opinions, feelings and attitudes. A set of original rating scales is proposed here as a practical means of addressing the difficult task of assessing both the level of a particular communicative performance in a small group and the general ability to perform in small-group conversations over time. This paper argues that theoretical difficulties of designing and using rating scales for this purpose, while requiring serious consideration, are outweighed by practical advantages. Rating scales not only report test performances. They can also guide the teaching process, defining the principles for the construction of both assessment and classroom tasks and providing teachers (and students) with achievable goals, which they themselves have formulated in writing.

Language Learning across Boundaries - Negotiating Classroom Rituals
TESL-EJ Journal Vol. 5, No.2 (pp. 1-16) September 2001 http://www.kyoto-su.ac.jp/information/tesl-ej/ej18/a1.html
This paper, modified from a presentation at the BAAL 2000 conference, re-examines the nature and purpose of teacher-fronted classroom interaction, looking in particular at the relationship between ritual and negotiation in classroom data samples in order to re-evaluate some useful purposes and some limitations of teacher-fronted classroom discourse in language lessons.