Dogme principles (emergent language, affordances, scaffolding) can improve coursebook use. ‘Ambient language’, the useful language around an exercise’s target items, is an affordance most teachers walk past.
Procedure
- In any exercise, spot ambient items beyond the target (in a copula-verb exercise: broke down, split up, upset).
- Pick one (e.g. spa) for a 2-minute personal speaking slot.
- Board reformulated learner sentences (“I had a massage, which was very relaxing”). This recycles grammar too.
- Apply Teaching Unplugged’s repeating, recording, researching, reviewing, recycling.
- Then do the target exercise and move on.
Where he disagrees with Dogme
- Rejects the claim that students are “most engaged by content they have created themselves” as “spurious and unverifiable”.
- Values scripted texts pitched slightly above level.
- Pure Dogme needs an “incredibly alert” teacher and risks domination by talkative students.
Apply in my context (Claude)
- This is the practical middle ground for the school-wide coursebook ladder: no extra materials, and the coursebook becomes the language source rather than the lesson script.
Connections
Dogme ELT - materials-light, conversation-driven teaching · Dogme and TBLT share a philosophy, not a methodology · Round-ups, gapped boardwork and reformulation