Teaching English as a Foreign Language, Second Edition

particular stage. In language work, it is far more important
to be thorough than fast.
We have, then, a scheme of work, with an introduction, a
series of stages and a checklist. There are two other possible
additions. One is a series of sections of advice on teaching
procedures in the classroom, and the other—which is much
more important—is some kind of indication of appropriate
materials to use at each stage. This may mean linking the
stages to particular textbooks (indeed many schemes of work
are based in practice on textbooks), or to exercises in a
variety of textbooks, or to exercises being produced by the
school or neighbouring schools. Either way, the emphasis
should be on the quality of the materials and methodology
used. Good materials, whether published or unpublished,
should be freely available, and teachers need not hesitate to
steal good ideas from textbooks, other teachers or from any
source whatever—but acknowledge the theft!
On the basis of a document such as this, produced by all
the English teachers in an institution co-operating with each
other, the kind of general framework for thinking about
English teaching, referred to above, will be rapidly
established. The document will certainly require revision—
slightly, every year—and a major overhaul should be
necessary every three to five years, but once the basis is set up
the process of revision will be easy. Without such a
document, it will not be possible for teachers to see how their
own work fits in with that of others, nor will it be possible
for outsiders to be shown easily what the school does. Above
all, on the basis of such a scheme, the department will be able
to keep a public record of the varying progress of different
classes and will be able to clarify its own ideas in discussion
on what everyone is doing. Being forced to compile such a

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scheme of work concentrates the mind wonderfully on all
sorts of problems which would otherwise have remained
deep in the subconscious mind.
The scheme of work suggested above may be a useful basis
for the kind of professional discussion which will be going on
all the time in a good English department, but it will not in
itself be enough to ensure full commitment by all staff. They
will only have time to be committed if the administrative
machinery runs as smoothly and effortlessly as possible, and
many of the items discussed later in the section on
administration have a direct bearing on professional
efficiency. Before that, however, there are a number of minor,
but still important, points which need to be made.
Just as the head of department will expect to be able to
spread some of the more routine chores, so he should be
prepared to spread the discussion and policy-making, both
major and minor, in the department. Whether it is discussing
what books to teach from, attitudes to discipline in the
classroom, or who should teach what class, members of the
department have a right to expect to be consulted. But all
these decisions will only make sense if they are taken within a
framework of educational priority and service to the needs of
the students. Discussion of these aspects of the work will
occur inevitably in the course of examining syllabuses and
schemes of work, and on this foundation can develop
discussion of administrative matters. Thus staff have a right
to be kept informed of all matters relating to the teaching of
English, whether it is an important circular from the
Ministry of Education, or a trivial request for students to
enter an essay competition in English. There should be some
sort of file on permanent open access, into which all relevant
items of recent correspondence can be put. At the same time,
there is a great deal of information which should be
permanently in the possession of all English teachers in
addition to the school scheme of work. Copies of external
examination syllabuses and some past papers should be in
the possession of all teachers, lists of all textbooks,
recordings, aids, etc. available, and any information which a
teacher might ever need to ask for. If each new teacher, on
arrival at the school, is handed a file containing all the
information that he needs to know, a great deal of time will

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be saved, and the teacher will at once realise that he is
coming into a professional organisation with high standards.
Even in a big department staff should have the
opportunity to contribute all the time towards the
development of efficient teaching. Small things can help in
this. For example, it is a good idea to have a permanent book
available in which staff comments on the textbooks they use
can be entered, and all staff should be encouraged to
examine and evaluate the usefulness of new books as they
appear. The department should subscribe to some of the
basic periodicals concerned with EFL teaching (a list appears
on page 220), and some discussion of ideas in these may be a
feature of department meetings. Indeed, staff, individually or
collectively, should be encouraged to contribute to these
periodicals if and when they have anything original to say.
The department should meet regularly—probably two or
three times a term. Ideally, these meetings should be informal
but serious (it is probably unnecessary to keep minutes, but
some record should be circulated of what people have agreed
to do, and some check made in subsequent meetings that
what was agreed has actually been done). Above all, the
meetings should not become dominated by the day-to-day
administration. If necessary, hold separate professional
meetings, but make sure that professional matters are
discussed. In a good department the activities of all members
will be discussed with each other, in and out of meetings. The
head of department should be aware through the meetings of
everything that is going on in the department. Existing
methods should be discussed in meetings and suggestions for
improvement of all kinds should be discussed, and perhaps
experiments carried out on improving the work in a variety
of directions. Different members of staff will have different
interests (though there should be no one who is unwilling to
take an interest in every aspect of the work), and while one
may wish to experiment with a method using drama in the
classroom (to report back on the work after a term or two),
another may be developing materials for controlled writing
or listening comprehension. All these activities will be
improved by discussion, observation by fellow-teachers, and
consultation, and the department should make all this as
easy as possible. It may be, also, that some department

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meetings could involve discussion of more theoretical issues,
with or without outside speakers, and certainly members of
the department (including the head) should assume that they
will be expected to report back on courses, conferences and
meetings that they have attended. Each group of teachers will
develop their meetings in a different way, and the nature of
the activity is probably less important than the fact of
activity. The new teacher should feel that he is joining a
community of professionals, and not a group of people who
happen to be working in the same building.