Short biographical statement

01.1 CV AND EXPERIENCES

01.2 Anthony's Teacher training CV

01.3 Valentina's CV and Teacher training

 

25 years ago, I was asked to take the children of some friends and teach them English during the holidays. As I am a painter, it seemed a good way to earn some extra money. At the time I was working part time with a builder-carpenter to support myself painting.

One thing lead to another and in the process of this teaching I have made my own mistakes and my own solutions. I have worked by trial and error, and as I sometimes joke to teachers, if I had not done well, no one would have come back to my classroom! An interesting discipline were it transfered to schools! Every year some 30-40% of children in the courses have been to Middlesmoor before. We must be doing something right (see comments of Middlesmoor students)

Generally speaking language learning has suffered too much from "finally, the answer" type solutions. A great help towards sane scepticism is given by a conference paper of Wifried Decoo of Antwerp and Brigham University. See link to read this paper. "On the mortality of language learning methods" given as the James L. Barker lecture on November 8 th 2001 at Brigham Young University by Wilfred Decoo.

As a result of our teaching experience I have been invited to do teacher training. I have written a resource book for teachers "Teacher's Kaleidoscope" and published with my wife a grammar book for Italian high school. ("Make Grammar Talk" Bulgarini Florence) As a result of these experieces we were invited to visit schools for intensive weeks. In this way we have in the last few years taught some 1500 pupils in italian schools. (see student comments). One of the more important parts of this was working for the Istituto pedagogico of Bolzano, for whom we visted 10 schools for 50 hours each. (see progtam proposal) Of all the formats for teacher training, I think that these visits of teaching the class infront of the teacher is the best help. It's practical and the films we make of our teaching serve as extra support.

We have also been invited to many schools independently.

ANONYMOUS STUDENT COMMENTS (see 06.4 - 06.8) ARE AN IMPORTANT RESOURCE FOR TEACHERS. WHAT IS MOST STRIKING ABOUT THE COMMENTS MADE ON OUR TEACHING, IS THAT THEY ARE SO PERCEPTIVE ABOUT WHAT HELPS OR HINDERS LEARNING. YOU REMEMBER THE SAYING, "THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT"!

EXPERTS, SUCH AS an ispettrice della lombardia WHO HAS CRITICISED MY METHODS, SHOULD READ THESE COMMENTS AND CONSIDER WHAT IS BEING SAID. IF THERE IS "HERESY" IN THE METHOD, THE COMMENTS SHOW THAT THE HERESY IS EFFECTING SOMETHING VALID! IN THE THEOLOGY OF LANGUAGE TEACHING HOWEVER, IT'S NOT WHAT YOU DO THAT MATTERS BUT WHAT YOU THINK!!

THESE COMMENTS (see 06.4 - 06.8) IF PLACED ALONGSIDE THE THEOLOGICAL BAD TEMPER OF "EXPERTS", ARE THE PERFECT INDICATOR OF HOW MUCH LANGUAGE LEARNING NEEDS OPEN DISCUSSION, AND PLURALISM.

CLOSED MINDS CAN'T THINK! INTELLIGENT TRIAL AND ERROR IS A MUCH BETTER ASSISTANT THAN PRE PACKAGED THEORY WHOSE AUTHORITY RESIDES SIMPLY IN THEIR FREQUENT AND LAZY ITTERATION.!

• MY PERSONAL CV AND EXPERIENCE.

1962-1965. Degree. Cambridge University in English Literature.

•  Since school. Landscape painter. (see paintings on this site and on www.middlesmoor.com)

•  Taught at Bocconi: 1969 and at Verona University . 1983-5.

•  1978-2004 running Middlesmoor English courses: a summer course for foreign children (11-17) and intensive adult courses. ( www.middlesmoor.com)

•  We ourselves published in 1991 "The Teacher's Kaleidoscope". Teachers' resource book that we felt was necessary in order to make my courses of aggiornamenti of practical use.

•  Teacher training in Italy . 1990 -2004

•  One week intensive courses in Italian Scuola Media. Brescia e Trentino. 2000-2004.

•  In 2002- 04 we carried out a project of visits to 10 schools with the Pedagogico di Bolzano in which we taught in classes in Scuole Media e Superiore. We wanted to show that the present dependence on the typical text book usually leads to very poor results and that there is an alternative. We didn't just want to say so but demonstrate an alternative. (LINK Diary )

•  2002 Anthony and Valentina Bamber: published "Make Grammar Talk" with Bulgarini of Florence: a grammar which represents a real attempt to avoid grammar being left as just abstract rules and which includes many short plays besides the 60 "Cultural pages" to encourage talking.(LINK 5.3) These cultural pages were taken from a much larger project that has interested me for the last 3 years: the making of a conceptual framework of 30 chief categories of culture with many sub categories. The 30 categories were chosen as both important and as having a great potential for cross reference amongst the other concepts. (see "Teenage Thinking")

•  I have a strong aversion to the "European framework" and the accepted wisdom on "natural learning". I think that text book organisation by "Functions" and the "communicative approach" did not work in the real classroom situation of distracted adolescents only vaguely motivated to learn English.

I obviously dislike Portfolio for the same reasons, save that Portfolio is more dangerous and is spreading everywhere. Portfolio is at best the plan for a possible phrase book or a very vague check list of "what language is used to say or describe". Its "descriptors" are very difficult to teach. See "Portfolio" chapter. Above all, it is just another version of that which has failed. It is fueled by the same didactics of pseudo "immersion" and "acquisition".

01.1 CV AND EXPERIENCES

01.2 Anthony's Teacher training CV

01.3 Valentina's CV and Teacher training