Dogma

Dogme is seen on the one hand as a methodology of foreign language teaching and on the other as movement. Dogme is a communicative approach to language teaching that calls for the use of textbooks to be avoided and instead a communicative exchange between students and teachers. Dogme goes back to an article by language educator Scott Thornbury . The Dogme approach is also known as “Dogme ELT”. This name expresses its origins in the field of ELT (English language teaching). Although the name "Dogme" is an analogy to the film manifesto Dogma 95 (Danish Dogme 95) initiated by Lars von Trier , the connection is not seen as very close.

Main principles of dogme

The dogme approach has ten main principles.

1. Interactivity : the direct route to learning is to be found in interactivity between teachers and students, as well as between the students themselves.
2. Involvement : Students are particularly involved in the learning process when it comes to content that they have created themselves.
3. Dialogical processes : Learning is understood as a social and dialogical process in which knowledge is collectively built up.
4. Co-construction (of learning) : Learning takes place through conversations in which the learner and teacher bring together knowledge and skills.
5. Origin : Language and grammar emerge from the learning process. This is a clear difference to the idea that the learners would "acquire" an already existing language.
6. Offer character : the role of the teacher is to optimize the offer character of language learning by directing attention to emerging language.
7. Voice : The learner's voice, beliefs and knowledge are recognized.
8. Empowerment : The banishment of professionally published materials and textbooks from the classroom empowers students and teachers to teach and learn independently.
9. Relevance : the materials used (e.g. texts, audio documents and videos) should be relevant to the learners.
10. Critical use : Teachers and students should deal with professionally published materials and textbooks in a critical way that takes into account that such materials contain cultural and ideological tinting and biases.

Central tenets of Dogme

Three basic rules can be derived from the ten key principles.

Teaching through conversation

Within the framework of dogma, conversation (conversations, conversations) is considered to be the basic resource for language learning because it is the "fundamental and universal form of language" and can be viewed as the "language in use". Since conversations in real life tend to be interactive rather than transactional, the Dogme approach places particular emphasis on communication that favors and promotes social interaction . Access to language, which characterizes dogma, is more at the discourse level than at the individual sentence level, because it is believed that such an approach better prepares learners for communication in real life, where conversation as a whole is always more important than the analysis of individual statements. Dogme assumes that the acquisition of skills and abilities is a co-constructed process that takes place in the interaction between the learner and the teacher. In this sense, teaching is to be understood as a conversation between these two parties. In this respect, the dogme concept reflects Tharp's view, which states that "in order to teach truthfully, one must entertain oneself; to entertainly entertain oneself means teaching" .

Reduced material approach

According to the dogme approach, materials produced by the students themselves are preferable to ready-made work materials and textbooks. This goes so far that teachers are asked to take a vow of chastity and to completely forego the use of textbooks. The Dogme teaching method has therefore already been criticized for not allowing teachers to use the full range of available materials and aids. The position is even taken that dogma is hostile to textbooks and technology. Meddings and Thornbury see the main points of criticism of textbooks in their tendency to place the study of grammar above the acquisition of real communication skills, as well as in the cultural biases and biases that are often found in these works (especially in those intended for global marketing). Dogme can indeed be viewed as a pedagogy that takes into account the lack of availability and affordability of professional classroom materials in many parts of the world. Proponents of the Dogme approach argue that it is less against materials and primarily for the learners and agree on this point other forms of learning-centered teaching methods and critical pedagogy .

Language origins

The Dogme approach sees language learning not as a process in which a language is acquired or appropriated, but as a process in which the language is newly created. Dogme shares this view with other approaches to language learning, e.g. B. task-based learning . It is assumed that language arises in two ways. For one, the activities in the classroom lead to cooperative communication among the students. On the other hand, the learners produce language that they were not necessarily taught. An important part of the teacher's job in this process is to facilitate and support the emergence of language. However, the role of the teacher in Dogme is not limited to creating the right starting conditions for the emergence of language. The teacher must also encourage and encourage students to study the new language to ensure that learning is actually happening. He can do this in different ways, e.g. B. by means of reward, repetition or evaluation. Since language arises rather than being acquired, it is not necessary to follow an externally prescribed curriculum . In fact, it is rather the other way around, because the content results from the learning process.

Pedagogical Foundations of Dogme

Dogme has its roots in communicative approaches to foreign language teaching (Dogme actually sees itself as an attempt to restore central importance to the aspect of communication in communicative approaches). Dogme has attracted attention for its connectivity to reflective teaching and for the intention to “humanize the classroom through a radical pedagogy of dialogue”. Dogme shares much in common with the task-based approach of foreign language teaching and differs from it more in terms and methodology than in the underlying philosophy. There is limited scientific research and evidence for Dogme, but Thornbury believes that Dogme is likely to produce similar results because of its similarities to task-based learning. An example of this is the finding that engaging with communicative tasks induces learners to interact, produce language and construct their learning collectively.

Dogma as a Critical Pedagogy

Although Thornbury notes that Dogme does not in itself seek social change and thus does not meet the generally applicable criteria of critical pedagogy , Dogme can certainly be viewed as critical with regard to its anti-establishment approach to language teaching.

Dogma, technology and the web 2.0

Thornbury is of the opinion that dogme teaching is not fundamentally opposed to the use of technology, but only criticizes those forms of technology that do not enable learner-centered teaching based on authentic communication. More recent attempts to apply the Dogme principles to foreign language learning with Web 2.0 tools (under the designation “Dogme 2.0”) are then also seen as evidence that Dogme is in a process of transformation and is very well compatible with new technology. It is true that there is no clear consensus among dogma teachers on this issue; however, the prevailing opinion is that maintaining traditional classroom settings is preferable to replacing physical presence with communication via digital technology.

Criticism of dogma

Dogme has come under criticism due to its perceived rejection of the use of both professionally published textbooks and modern technology in language teaching. Furthermore, the initial call for a textbook vow of chastity is viewed as unnecessarily puristic; A less strict approach to the dogma principles, so the critics, would give teachers the opportunity to freely choose aids according to the requirements of the respective lesson. Maley also presents dogme as an approach that “places additional restrictions on teachers.” Christensen notes that introducing dogme practices in non-European countries like Japan could be more difficult for cultural reasons. Questions have also been raised about appropriateness of Dogme for resource-poor contexts and for the preparation of students for exams that require the completion of certain curricula.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Meddings Luke: Throw away your textbooks. In: The Guardian. March 26, 2004, accessed June 22, 2009 . 
2. ^ Scott Thornbury: A Dogma for EFL. (PDF; 126 kB) (No longer available online.) IATEFL Issues, 153, 2., 2000, archived from the original on April 19, 2009 ; Retrieved June 23, 2009 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
3. ↑ ^{a b c d} Scott Thornbury: Dogme: nothing if not critical. Teaching English, June 10, 2009, accessed June 23, 2009 . 
4. ^ ^{A b} Scott Thornbury: Dogme: Dancing in the dark? (PDF; 246 kB) (No longer available online.) Folio. 9/2, 3-5, 2005, archived from the original on November 22, 2009 ; Retrieved June 23, 2009 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
5. ^ Scott Thornbury & Luke Meddings: Teaching Unplugged: Dogme in English Language Teaching . Delta, Peaslake UK 2009, ISBN 978-1-905085-19-4 , pp. 8-10 .
6. ^ ^{A b c} S. Gill: Against dogma: a plea for moderation. (No longer available online.) IATEFL Issues, 154, 2000, formerly in the original ; Retrieved June 23, 2009 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.    
7. ^ Scott Thornbury & Luke Meddings: Teaching Unplugged: Dogme in English Language Teaching . Delta, Peaslake UK 2009, ISBN 978-1-905085-19-4 , pp. 13 .
8. ↑ ^{a b} B. Templer: Reflective Teaching in the Low-Resource Classroom. Humanizing Language Teaching, 6, 3, 2004, accessed June 23, 2009 . 
9. ^ Scott Thornbury & Luke Meddings: Teaching Unplugged: Dogme in English Language Teaching . Delta, Peaslake UK 2009, ISBN 978-1-905085-19-4 , pp. 18-20 .
10. ^ Scott Thornbury & Luke Meddings: Dogme and the Coursebook. (No longer available online.) Modern English Teacher, 11/1, 36-40, 2002, archived from the original on August 15, 2009 ; Retrieved June 23, 2009 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
11. ^ Scott Thornbury: Scott Thornbury. (No longer available online.) Delta Publishing Blog, 2009, archived from the original on June 21, 2009 ; Retrieved June 23, 2009 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
12. ↑ ^{a b} Scott Thornbury: Where's your evidence? (No longer available online.) Delta Publishing Blog, May 11, 2009, archived from the original on May 14, 2009 ; Retrieved June 23, 2009 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
13. ^ Scott Thornbury & Luke Meddings: Teaching Unplugged: Dogme in English Language Teaching . Delta, Peaslake UK 2009, ISBN 978-1-905085-19-4 , pp. 17 .
14. ^ Scott Thornbury & Luke Meddings: Teaching Unplugged: Dogme in English Language Teaching . Delta, Peaslake UK 2009, ISBN 978-1-905085-19-4 , pp. 12 .
15. ↑ Scott Thornbury: Dogme in Transition? (No longer available online.) Delta Publishing Blog, May 1, 2009, archived from the original on May 16, 2009 ; Retrieved June 23, 2009 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
16. ^ ELT Dogme Yahoo Group. Retrieved March 14, 2019 . 
17. ^ A. Maley: Developing Materials for Language Teaching . Ed .: B. Tomlinson. Continuum, 2003, ISBN 978-0-8264-5917-6 , Creative Approaches to Writing Materials, pp. 190 .
18. ^ T. Christensen: Dogme in language teaching in Japan. (PDF; 2.7 MB) (No longer available online.) The Language Teacher, 29 (1), 15–18, 2005, archived from the original on July 11, 2009 ; Retrieved June 23, 2009 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
19. ↑ Online Forum Report: Dogme. ELT Journal, 59/4: 333-335, 2005, accessed June 23, 2009 .