Jim Scrivener
Books
Books
Learning Teaching: The Essential Guide to English Language Teaching.
Straightforward (6-level coursebook series) Student’s books, Teacher’s books, Portfolios.
Business One: One Advanced: Class Teacher’s Book, Audio CDs.
Business Result: Advanced.
The Straightforward Guide to Presenting Grammar.
The Straightforward Guide to Roleplays.
The Straightforward Guide to Dictation and Translation.
The Straightforward Guide to Common European Framework and Learner Autonomy.
Classroom Management Techniques.
Personal Best (Multi level coursebook series & digital classroom) (Series editor)
Jim Scrivener
Recommended books
English in Situations
Robert O’Neill
This kind of detailed structural work seems to be so out of fashion these days – but there is a lot here to admire and learn from. Essentially a collection of meaning-focussed drills with excellent concept checks and attention to common traps.
Straw for the Fire – From the Notebooks of Theodore Roethke
Theodore Roethke
A poet’s muddled notebook of random thoughts – but he was also a teacher and the curious insights into the daily job of teaching are beautiful and thought-provoking.
Freedom to Learn For the 80s
Carl Rogers
Changed my teaching completely. Threw everything upside down. But it’s repetitive. You don’t need to read it all. I was most caught by chapters on the Challenge of Teaching, “Can I be Myself?” and the Politics of Education.
Grammar Games: Cognitive, Affective and Drama Activities for EFL Students
Mario Rinvolucri
The first activity recipe book I met that challenged me not to stay on the safe straight and narrow path of obvious practice. A subversive and dangerous book that has had a profound influence on ELT in general. Don’t come here looking for straightforward pair work.
How We Learn and How We Should be Taught Volume 1: An Introduction to the Work of Caleb Gattegno
Roslyn Young, Piers Messum
An inspiring survey of Caleb Gattegno’s thinking on education – centring on the key notion of “subordinating teaching to learning”. (I found this book much more approachable than the man’s own writings). The kind of book that makes you seriously reevaluate all that you do. Sadly, there is no Volume 2.
Place in HLT
Together with his friend Adrian Underhill, Jim has proposed the idea of “Demand-High Teaching”, a suggestion that very small changes in teachers’ attitudes and classroom techniques might lead to significant improvements in student learning. The key change is for teachers to become more aware of learning itself and to start noticing when it is (or isn’t) happening in their lessons. While he proposes a teaching style that focuses on learning over teaching, at the same time he argues that good teaching does intervene, where appropriate, to gently push students to upgrade and improve their language skills. He contrasts this with much contemporary ELT that seems to hope that progress will somehow happen “by magic” after a certain amount of pair work.
As part of Demand High's commitment to changing learning culture, the approach poses questions such as: Are my students capable of more? Could they be challenged more? Would demanding more lead to more learning? Has the ELT class become too ritualised? In place of the constant need to cover more and more material, might more learning take place if the teacher focused on the potential for a deeper kind of learning? What small tweaks or shifts can the teacher make to what they are already doing to transform the focus of teaching towards bringing about an upgrade in the student’s performance?
Jim and Adrian have proposed two key ways to increase the challenge for students and ultimately to improve their learning. These approaches revolve around how teachers provide feedback and how they handle language exercises in class.
Over time, Jim’s conception of the role of the teacher has evolved: traditionally considered as a ‘giver’ in a teacher-led classroom, the teacher is now seen as someone who provides ‘learning-centeredness’ in a learner-centred environment. When he talks with teachers, he suggests that they prepare their lessons, but not plan every step; he asks them to give themselves enough freedom and time to listen and respond to the learners.
