No more Pencils, No More books — Putting a name to the methodologies that TalktoCanada.com uses to teach ESL online

by Jillian Zavitz

Since teaching online – I’ve obviously had to adapt my way of teaching to accommodate the different needs and wants of my students.  While the option is there – most students sign up to learn English online and prefer not to use textbooks or a formal type learning scheme.  I always think about that Alice Cooper song School’s out for Summer – “no more pencils, no more books —-” and think – that’s right – he’s got it! Learning online should be like the “summer” FUN – of course it goes on to sing about teacher’s dirty looks – which I assure you TalktoCanada.com teachers are actually quite the opposite

But the main concept here… No more pencils, no more books– those are the basics behind the methodologies that TalktoCanada.com uses with its students,  formally called the Dogme language learning approach.  The basics involve a more communicative approach to English language learning – where textbooks are not used – and students are in charge of and produce their learning.  

In the following posts I will go over some of the finer points of the Dogme language learning approach – the pros and cons, and how TalktoCanada.com uses this method while teaching online.