Winter 2013

Editor’s Notes: What a promising time to move into a shared dynamic future and imagine celebrating not just ETAS’s 30th year but its next 30! There are good reasons for such a wish. Thirty years, after all, is a landmark of admirable persistence for any association: that means a continuity of its goals, and an unending belief of what it could achieve to make, in our case, English Language Teaching an integral part of the identity and transformation of ETAS. As yet, we temper this mood of celebration to look back at our history mindful of those wise words that to inspire our future we need to look back at where we come from. In this sense, anniversaries are useful points for reflection – they provide the perfect occasion to contemplate the connections between our past and present lives.

Three decades have brought lots of changes in ETAS Journal, which began life as cut-and-glue newsletter. Readers who have followed its course over the years will notice how it has become truly global in its coverage, welcoming to its pages writers from various nations around the world. This current issue is no different as we continue to push back against the tendency to be isolated in our own time and provincial in our outlook. In this winter edition of ETAS Journal, we are again showcasing an eclectic mix of articles on various topics such as the ESP coursebook, learning styles, understanding intercultural communication, or cross-cultural discussion forum in the foreign language classroom, to mention a few. This collection thus illustrates not just the diverse approaches and topics that characterize contemporary writing on ELT, but also the diverse cultural and academic backgrounds of their authors, suggesting a marvelous sense of shared purpose, passion, and community. 

Content Overview

Main Articles

    The ESP coursebook: an essential lifeline for CELTA grads / Ros Wright

    Understanding cultural communication / Chia Suan Chong

    Learning styles / Marjorie Rosenberg

    Cross-cultural discussion forums in the foreign language classroom / Fiona Poorman and Theresa Schenker

Voices of Experience

   10 tips for the next stage / Rohun Gupta 

   A classroom full of poets / James Taylor

   Where do your stories come to life? / Maria Luisa Sciamarelli   

   Real beauty / Kieran Donaghy

   From classroom noise to the language of learning / Kevin Stein

   Getting students to talk / William Chaves Gomes

   CLIL and cultural diversity / Vicky Saumell

   Versatile souvenirs / Elsbeth Mäder

   Helping upper-intermediate learners to recognize speech acts and use discourse markers / Roseli Serra

And more…