3 comments

  • The first time I heard anything about Dogma was at the VI ACINNE Conference in Salvador (Brazil) last weekend. ACINNE is a conference which gather English Teachers from the North and Northeast of Brazil from the Cultura Inglesa Institute.

    I’m really looking forward to learning more about Dogma. Its principles: coursebook light; conversation driven and based on the teacher’s and the students’ experiences, caught my attention.

    What an enriching interview.

    I’ve got a question: Is this approach used in which levels? I don’t think beginners would succeed with Dogma due to the lack of language. Am I right?

    Regards,
    Iury Paz (@iury_ELT)

    • Hi Iury, I think it’s great that you have discovered Dogme so early in your teaching career. You might like to check out Dale Coulter’s blog (languagemoments.wordpress.com) for an example of a relatively new teacher using Dogme effectively.

      Lots of people think Dogme is only for high level conversation classes but this is not the case. At beginner/elementary level, Dogme may look a lot like Community Language Learning (AKA Counselling Language Learning) – Scott Thornbury just made this point over on his blog too.

      Obviously the teacher needs to shift their mindset to focus more on recognising what the learners want to say, and then help them say this. While this may not look very structured on the surface, it may be that human interest and needs provide a more rational framework for language study than a typical grammatical syllabus as embodied by a coursebook might. And of course, no one says you have to be Dogme all the time!

      Thanks for stopping by; looking forward to reading more about your work over on your blog!

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