an interview with my mentor: jack
c richards-by Nilda Reyes I had the great pleasure of interviewing
Professor Jack C. Richards, my mentor in a four-month RELC course of years back
and now my fellow worker in the Specialist Department at the Regional Language
Centre, Singapore. Presently, Professor Jack C. Richards is an adjunct professor
at RELC and co-editor of Guidelines He is based at the Centre from July through
December each year. " There
is more to language teaching
today than simply teaching language."
-Jack
Richards
NR: How
long have you been associated with RELC? JCR: I first worked
at RELC from 1973 to 1975, and again from 1977 to 1979, when I was sponsored by
the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs. From 1979 to 1997 I worked at various
universities in the Asia-Pacific Region when I decided not to continue with full
time University teaching and administration and spend more time on classroom teaching.
RELC provides a wonderful base for teaching and writing. NR: What
makes RELC unique, in your opinion? JCR: Firstly, the course
participants, who come from many different countries and bring a great deal of
collective expertise and experience to the courses. RELC is indeed quite a unique
institution and has an exciting and challenging mission, one which I think is
becoming more and more important within the region. The calibre of the academic
staff and the fact that it has perhaps the finest library of its kind in the world
make it a stimulating place to be based. NR: You have seen many
changes in language teaching during your career. Would you care to comment on
some of them? JCR: One area where I have seen many changes taking
place is in the area of knowledge and skills teachers are expected to have. Teachers
today are expected to be excellent teachers and experts in their chosen areas
of specialization, whether they be writing specialists, teachers of children and
adults alike, or teachers of business English.
Further, the opportunities
for training have expanded enormously with the hefty influx of undergraduate and
graduate level degrees in the field as well as the options of doing distance and
web-based courses. These opportunities have greatly increased professionalism
in the field. NR: Have teachers' roles changed as a result? JCR:
Yes I think so. Today, teachers are not merely viewed as transmitters of knowledge
and skills. They are now expected to be course planners, classroom researchers,
reflective practitioners and mentors of other teachers. In terms of their learners
they may see their role as encouraging learner autonomy, developing awareness
of strategies, or empowering their learners in different ways. So there is more
to language teaching today than simply teaching language. NR: What
distinguishes expert teachers from other kinds of teachers? JCR:
Research on teacher expertise suggests that the development of expertise involves
constantly going beyond current areas of knowledge and constantly seeking new
solutions to problems. This doesn't happen to everyone. Some people over time
simply become more fluent as doing the things they know how to do but do not move
beyond current knowledge to develop higher levels of expertise. NR:
Do you think every teacher should become a researcher? JCR: Not
in the sense of collecting data to verify hypotheses and so on. But in the sense
of exploring one's own teaching and one's own classes in order to better understand
one's own teaching processes, yes. This is what many people mean by "reflective
teaching". NR: What is the current status of grammar in language
teaching, in your opinion? JCR: This depends on whether one is
talking about syllabus design, the teaching of writing, the development of oral
fluency and so on. Different grammar-related issues arise in relation to different
areas of teaching. So, for example, in relation to the teaching of writing, the
issue might be about the writers' way of using grammar as a resource to produce
different kinds of texts. With respect to the development of oral fluency, an
issue might be on the learners' way to avoid fossilised grammatical errors and
continue to expand their grammatical resources as their fluency develops. I don't
think grammar plays a less important role in teaching today than it had in the
past. I think we have a better understanding of the complexity of grammar-related
questions and hence the need to avoid simplistic solutions or responses. NR:
Someone once said that "textbooks are the major obstacles to the achievement
of educational excellence." What is your response to this claim? JCR:
I would first want to know how textbooks could be said to play such a role. Perhaps
if teachers are over-dependent on textbooks and simply teach to the book rather
than teach to their class, the textbook could be a hindrance to good teaching.
But I think barriers to the attainment of educational excellence lie elsewhere
- in inadequate curricula, in badly designed tests, in poorly written course books,
ininadequate teacher-support, in lack of adequately trained teachers, and in bad
teaching. NR: If you were given a second chance to choose your
field of academic specialization, would it be language teaching? If not, what
would it be? JCR: Since I have been fortunate to have worked
in some very stimulating contexts, such as Hong Kong, Hawaii and Singapore and
to have had the opportunity to publish a variety of successful course books as
well as professional books, I have no regrets about having specialized in TESOL.
However, there is life beyond TESOL, and I have active interests in music and
the decorative arts. Perhaps in my next reincarnation I might have the opportunity
to pursue a career in one of these areas. In the meantime I continue to find teaching
and writing activities that are rewarding in many different ways. | 
