Monthly Archives: March 2010

The extraordinary Jaime Escalante (immortalised in the film “Stand and Deliver”) died two days ago following a lengthy battle against bladder cancer. Escalante was clearly as maverick as he was brilliant. He proved what can be achieved with the education … Continue reading →

The Guardian report that English UK are threatening to seek a judicial review of new changes to Government immigration policies which came into effect 03/03/10. We had reported these changes previously on MTG. We were struck, however, by the words … Continue reading →

Even before the highly significant arrival of 26 letters and its quite open anti-statist (left wing liberalism) take on the TEFL industry, we had made a conscious decision to encourage a debate which encompassed a wider anti-capitalist perspective. We have … Continue reading →

It is easy to forget just how revolutionary Diderot’s Encyclopédie was; the fact that a king (roi) be placed next to someone who roasts meat for a living (rotisseur.). By employing the levelling standards of alphabetical order, Diderot was challenging … Continue reading →

The BBC reports today that Stephen Byers, Patricia Hewitt and Geoff Hoon have been suspended from the Labour Party, following an undercover operation by the Times and Channel 4 showing them promising to influence UK governmental policy for between 3000 … Continue reading →

We hope the poem below answers some of your comments made in reply to our recent piece on Dogme ELT. A somewhat unusual step in a polemic, we know, but we didn’t want readers to revisit the same issues in … Continue reading →

In the midst of debates about TEFL, we can often forget about the wider world. With this in mind, it might be useful to pass some time thinking about the tragic death of Rachel Corrie. It was the sixth anniversary … Continue reading →

When we wrote our critique of “stopwatch TEFL” it was inevitable that similarities be drawn with our critique and that of Dogme ELT. Indeed, the excitement many teachers felt/ feel over Dogme ELT is inspired by intense dissatisfaction with the … Continue reading →

Our thanks to a student comrade (she wishes to remain anonymous) for helping us to rethink the term “monolingual group”. We used this term quite unthinkingly in our piece, “Stopwatch TEFL”. Through private correspondence, she reminds us that a relatively … Continue reading →