Dogme: A teacher's view

Jo Bertrand, Teacher, Materials writer, British Council Paris

Dogme is... Dogme is a teaching philosophy. It goes beyond the

standard pedagogical methods that we are so often used to hearing about.

The thinking behind it is that students learn when they feel involved and interested in the subject.

If the material they use isn't relevant to them then the likelihood they'll retain any information is slim.

The solution within Dogme basically consists of removing all irrelevant material to enhance learning. It involves in fact removing all material.

A Dogme classroom is a textbook free zone. To a certain extent we could say that a Dogme space is a classroom free zone as we know it.

Dogme rules (to be bent and

moulded) Resources should be provided by the students or

whatever you come across. If doing a lesson on books then go to the library.

All listening material should be student produced. The teacher should always put himself at the

level of the students. All language used should be 'real' language and

so have a communicative purpose. Grammar work should arise naturally during the

lesson and should not be the driving force behind it.

Students should not be placed into different level groups.

Pros From a teaching point of view it cuts down

tremendously on preparation time. The students feel completely in control of their

learning and are therefore so much more motivated.

It keeps you alert and spontaneous as you never know exactly what could happen in class and so must think on your feet.

You can handle almost anything once you've taught in a Dogme classroom.

Students are constantly aware of the 'why' behind everything they do.

Cons Some students may feel uneasy about it at first,

feeling they're not being spoon-fed a teacher-led lesson.

It might be daunting for a newly-trained teacher to work without the security of a textbook.

Some teachers may be locked into a specific syllabus.

You may be working in very large classes where tables are bolted to the floor.

Some teachers may feel that their role and 'power' is being undermined by this more student centred approach.

Four lessons

(Teaching without materials)

Lesson 1: Meet students . Question each one

individually about their jobs, English learning experience, mainly - about 5 minutes each, very conversational. Ask them to do same to me, but first to prepare questions in pairs. Check questions - write mistaken ones on to board. Class check. Students ask me questions. In pairs/groups they write up a summary about me. Monitor writing and share any interesting errors.

Lesson 2: "Paper conversation" - students in pairs have a

conversation but written, passing paper back and forth (like on-line chat). Monitor and extract interesting errors. Change partners and do this spoken. Introduce "back channel" devices - e.g. showing interest - and they change partners a third time, trying to incorporate these. Students report to class on partner's day.

CLL activity - record students constructing a converstaion round any topics they wish. Play back and transcribe on to board, highlighting areas of interest.

Lesson 3: For homework I have given them different human

interest news stories from websites. They are to read these and prepare to "tell" them to their classmates. After initial class chat about the weekend I model task by telling story about my weekend and asking individual student to tell it back ("non-directive listening"). This is their task with the news stories. First I go round sorting out any problems of vocab. Then sts in pairs tell and tell back their stories. Change partners to repeat this. Choose one of the stories; in pairs they write it from the point of view of one of the protagonists. Monitor and select errors for open class focus.

For homework students have been asked to find interesting news stories on suggested websites.

Lesson 4: Students repeat previous lesson's task with their own

stories - telling and telling back. provide narrative framing devices: "I heard this amazing story the other day…" etc. Select most interesting stories to tell class. Engineer discussion about the story - which develops into a general discussion. towards end, ask students to write a summary of the discussion, as if they were reporting it in a local newspaper. Monitor and correct.

Note that this sequence was not entirely materials free - I had print outs from websites for them - one each x 7 or 8 sts - the idea was that this might act as aspur to get them to bring similar stuff to class. In actual fact, few had done this, but I fortunately had some more up my sleeve for the 4th lesson. But I did feel that this had been a bit of a cheat!