A Global Movement of Teachers is Reshaping Education

Historically, advanced technological and social thinking have erupted concurrently from widely different places at exactly the the same time. One famous example is poor Elisha Gray, a professor at Oberlin College, who applied for a caveat of the telephone on February 14, 1876 the same day as Alexander Graham Bell but a few hours too late to be known as the inventor of the telephone. As for the inventor of the radio, there were several contenders. After much research, heated debate and court cases galore one thing is clear - it was not Marconi. Many of us are old enough to remember the Space Race in the 60's between the United States and Russia to land the first man on the moon. What does this phenomenon of an idea whose time has come have to do with Education?

A Radical group of teachers met on LinkedIn in 2012. Independently and concurrently this original group of ESL/EFL teachers from Canada, England, Hungary, Portugal, Spain and USA not only rejected traditional language teaching methods, they replaced them. Rita Baker from Lydbury England and The Global Approach is good example. While countless teachers have recognized what we have been teaching as English Grammar is not English Grammar at all but a sloppy retrofit of Latin Grammarhow many have done something about it? We have all witnessed learners who study grammar for years without becoming fluent - it's because the course content is widely promoted and grossly inaccurate. Rita Baker is one teacher who took on reform. She distinguished the true nature of English Grammar as a simple system children figure out without lessons. English tenses have nothing to do with time. Rita teaches all ofEnglish Grammar, with no exceptions inside of two weeks. She is the only rich ESL teacher I know. Thanks to the internet The Global Approach is the only wayEnglish Grammar will be taught in the very near future.

My LinkedIn contacts hit 10,000 this month and in my ever-growing ESL/EFL community I'm continually connecting with more and more truly original, truly ground-breaking educators. Imagine my delight to encounter Andrew Weiler from Australia promoting alternative methods to language teaching with exactly the same philosophies as Radical teachers on the other side of the world. In this seven minute video he summarizes the results of a survey that asks ESL students, "What's your single biggest concern as a language learner?" And he provides solutions. I'll give you a hint, the solution is not grammar. Click Here

If you think your school or your program is solid and will not be affected by radical reform - think again. No system, is exempt from the impact of technology or evolution. Here's as good read on the broad reach of inevitable change with something we thought would never be affected. Why the Future of TV isn't TV

Who will be credited with the disruption of grammar based-language teaching? I don't know. All I know for sure is that it's outta here! Bold, exciting, effective replacements are already working for learners all over the world. Find one to add your voice to.

Judy Thompson