In May 2011 I ran an unplugged teacher training course with Nick Bilbrough at Horizon Language Training in Totnes, Devon. This week-long residential course was the first of its kind and it was a real privilege to work with Nick, who combines a deep knowledge and understanding of humanistic language teaching with a passion for dialogue, role-play and drama.

You can see an outline of the course here - we’re running the course again in May, and this post is partly a reflection on what happened last year, and partly – well, a plug for what’s going to happen next time round!

Space to discuss: we used this lovely Elizabethan building

One of the joys of the course from my point of view, and one that has influenced my thoughts on teacher training since, was the team-teaching (or team-training). We decided in advance that I would lead most of the morning sessions and Nick most of the afternoon, with the proviso that either of us could sit the odd session out. But we ended up sitting in on each others’ sessions all week. I think this contributed positively to the atmosphere in the room. It kept the energy levels consistently high and allowed us to participate and reflect with the trainees on the unfolding story of the week.

So much of what happened on our training course reflected what I love about teaching unplugged:

- The organic relationship between the task-light activities and our own lives, including our experience of the immediate environment

- The sense of making an argument by doing – we are sometimes asked how learners respond to unplugged teaching, and I often reply that working with learner lives and learner language makes its own argument for relevancy; this was borne out across the week

- The rich vein of shared reference points that ran through our sessions as laughter: our experience of the town, with its ghosts and green living, summed up as ‘That’s so Totnes!’

- The happy adoption of new and accidental language: do you really need to define a coinage as lovely as ‘she’s very highly-sprung?’

‘Task-light’, incidentally, is a term I picked up from Nick during the course. I think it’s a perfect way to describe the kind of frameworks we adopt for managing interaction – whether spoken or written – in the unplugged classroom. It’s a case of applying ‘just enough’ structure to give a conversation direction.

There is a lot to be said for learning by doing. Trainees relish activity not only because it gives them a new idea to try out, but because it gives them a way to try out a new idea – and a week gives everyone plenty of opportunities to do this.

We’ll be back: unplugged takes to the streets

If you’re intrigued by what you’ve read so far, do check out the course information on the Socrates Comenius website – full funding is available for EU nationals. Totnes is a lovely town and a great place to find some space – mental, physical and emotional – away from the classroom. And hopefully to return to it recharged and inspired, with new ideas to adopt and adapt!

Just one thing – you’ll need to be quick if you want to get EU funding. The deadline for applications is 15^th January. See what you think – if you have any questions, you can email me at lukemeddings@gmail.com or contact Nick direct at info@horizonlanguagetraining.co.uk