Editorial
Andrew G. Scott, IH Journal Editor
Issue 26 of the IH Journal has a wonderfully wide range of topics. Some writers’ names are familiar from past issues while others are new. I would like to welcome all of them and thank them for the time and effort they have put into their articles.
Content and Language Integrated Learning continues to develop and its global spread was discussed at this year’s IATEFL conference in April. Professor David Marsh and Jane Willis give some fascinating insights into CLIL, David answering questions about its current state and possible future direction and Jane describing the process of creating her new CLIL title ‘English and Music’. A review by Mark Lowe (IH Kielce) can be found with the book reviews.
I am also very pleased to include another article by Ron White (see issue 24 for Ron’s first article: Teachers’ professional Life Cycles). Ron’s piece explores the challenging and changing roles of DoSes and his new book, ‘From Teacher to Manager’, has been reviewed by Helen Mitchell (IH Belfast).
Rachel Clark has written an informative piece on the new modular Delta at IH London, explaining why there has not been a better time to become Delta-qualified. Rachel was editor of the IH Journal, with Susanna Dammann, from issue 8 to issue 17 and it is great to welcome her back.
Quentin Crisp said ‘I don’t hold with abroad and think that foreigners speak English when our backs are turned’. The 1,350 million non-native English speakers in the world have given Quentin’s words a subtle twist. English is being spoken with increasing frequency (although not, of course, in the clandestine way in which he suggested). Christina Smolder explores some of the issues of the native speaker ideal and reaches some interesting conclusions. This is Christina’s second article for the IHJ (following her excellent ‘Charting the course – planning a new program’ in issue 25).
This issue also has some superb articles from writers within the IH network. Roger Hunt (IH Barcelona) examines the Common European Framework (CEF) and Neil McMahon (IH Belgrano, Buenos Aries) describes the project that led to the production of the IH CEF activity packs.
Sebastian Taylor (IH Berlin Prolog) looks at the theory behind using video in the classroom, with an article on practical ideas to follow in issue 27. Wayne Rimmer (BKC IH Moscow) examines the prospects for the industry in the light of the current financial crisis and Christopher Holloway (IH Madrid) explains how to add value to business language training.
Naomi Moir, IHWO YL Coordinator, encourages schools to examine their young learner departments and suggests directions for future developments.
Edward Anderson finishes his travelogue, recounting his journey from IH Brisbane to IH San Sebastian. part 1 of ‘Travels of an English teacher’ in issue 25 saw him travel from Australia, through Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia to Vietnam. Part 2 follows him through Vietnam, China, Mongolia and Russia before his arrival in Europe.
Peng Su (IH Xi’an) discusses recent projects, including communicative language teacher training for Mandarin language teachers and two new Mandarin language programs: Chinese along the Silk road and Chinese along the Yangtze river.
In addition to the two titles by Jane Willis and Ron White mentioned above, we also have reviews of the Ben Warren International House Trust prize 2007 shortlist. This includes ‘Blended Learning’, ‘Teaching Teachers: processes and practices’ and the winner, ‘How to Teach English with Technology’. Jane and Dave Willis’ book ‘Doing Task-Based Teaching’ will be reviewed in a future issue of the IHJ. Congratulations to all the authors.
As with past issues, we have received many more contributions than we could include in one issue. Please keep your articles coming and please be patient as we strive to make your journal engaging, enlightening and entertaining.
