Jason Anderson

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• Doctor of Philosophy
• Assistant Professor at University of Warwick

The rapid evolution of translanguaging theory from its original conceptualisation to its current form offers evidence that it has been widely accepted by teachers and scholars alike. In this response to Treffers-Daller’s opinion piece (2024), we offer a vision of translanguaging as a Southern practical theory of language that has clear implications...

Expertise exists among all communities of educational practitioners at all levels and in all national contexts. By identifying expert practitioners, learning from them and valuing their professional competence, researchers can support, promote and build upon sustainable, embodied, holistic models of quality in ways that have direct relevance for th...

This article reports on an exploratory study investigating the extent to which affordance-based lesson planning is feasible and useful in pre-service teacher education. After using both affordance-based and outcomes-based lesson plans, trainee teachers in North Macedonia participated in both a survey and interviews. Respondents found both types of...

This paper offers a critical review of terminology used to describe disadvantage in education in the Global South, including ELT/TESOL. It identifies three broad levels at which various terms are often invoked, from micro (relating primarily to the learner) to meso (the institution) and macro (the wider educational system and society). By foregroun...

Translanguaging theory and pedagogy have emerged as central to the recent multilingual turn in educational linguistics and language teaching, including ELT. This article will explore translanguaging from theoretical and practical perspectives, aiming to clarify what it is and is not claiming, and what types of pedagogic practice it advocates, both...

Drawing on Bernstein’s sociology of education, this article offers a critical discussion of the origins, assumptions and values of educational linguistics since its foundation in the 1970s. It argues that the sociohistorical context in which the field emerged led to its areas of focus and mission being based on a number of problematic assumptions o...

This brief investigates the content of textbooks used for the teaching of English to speakers of other languages (TESOL) in basic education (primary and secondary) in the global South. It identifies key challenges in this area of materials development, analyzes current content tendencies in textbooks, and discusses affordances typically available f...

There are many expert teachers working in the global South and we can learn a great deal from them. Neither of these claims should be surprising, yet to date there has been almost no research conducted on expert teachers working in Southern contexts. Instead, the huge sums of money invested in attempting to improve teacher quality in the South have...

As teachers, we don’t always think of ourselves as experts. Yet I believe we should. Just as in all domains of professional practice, it takes years of experience, learning and quite a few mistakes to gain the necessary competencies to keep our students learning and our line managers happy. As a researcher of expert teachers I also believe we shoul...

This chapter offers a detailed description of important similarities and shared features among the eight teacher participants in the case study, discussing these commonalities as both a ‘quintain’ (Stake, 2006) and a ‘prototype’ (Sternberg & Horvath, 1995) of Indian secondary teacher expertise, offering extensive extracts from lessons and interview...

This chapter compares the findings of the author’s teacher expertise case study, conducted in India, with those of prior teacher expertise studies to establish the extent to which ‘family resemblances’ exist within this wider, ‘fuzzy’ grouping of teachers identified as experts in varied contexts around the world. It does this for twelve categories:...

Over the last decade or so, the term ‘translanguaging’ has become a new buzzword in education. There is much written about its transformative potential, its innovative practices and its social justice narrative. However, there is surprisingly little written about translanguaging specifically for those of us who teach English as a foreign and second...

This article, adapted from an earlier blog post (Anderson, 2021), offers the author’s personal perspective on a commonly-referenced perceived disconnect between theory and practice, particularly evident in academia across discourse on education, including English language teaching. After the author’s argument is presented, a number of responses to...

This chapter explores the theoretical and practical challenges and affordances involved in researching, developing and disseminating teacher expertise on a local scale in the Global South. It considers a key paradox that often undermines such efforts: how to develop quality without “importing” models, approaches and practices from northern educatio...

While expert teachers remain a frequent focus of research in education, to date there have been very few attempts to conduct systematic reviews of this literature. This paper presents the findings of the first systematic metasummary of research on teacher expertise in K12 education (primary/elementary and secondary levels), based on analysis of 106...

Case study research is a well-established, widely recognised methodology that enables us to understand phenomena of interest in social sciences through a range of data collection means, often combined (Flyvbjerg, 2011). As such, it is recognised by scholars working across the paradigm continuum — from interpretivist (e.g., Stake, 2006) to critical...

It is a curious fact of history that the term ‘young learners’ is used almost exclusively in the field of English language teaching; it is much more of a concern that it is both ambiguous and decontextualised. This article will argue not only that this is problematic, but that we, as a practitioner community, can benefit from shifting from this rat...

Comments from the reviewers ‘ … very well-written, well-presented, and well-argued, fulfiling the aim of addressing critically an aspect of applied linguistics/SLA about which the author is clearly passionate and challenging the ubiquity, appropriateness and current relevance of the term “second language acquisition”’. ‘An essay which is at once el...

This report offers an overview of the findings of an empirical study of teacher expertise conducted to gain insights into the practices, cognition and professionalism of teachers identified as experts working in Indian schools. Eight expert secondary teachers of English working in government or government-aided schools participated in this study: F...

This paper reports on a comparative case study of the multilingual practices of eight secondary teachers of English from across India, all identified as experts of their contexts using multiple criteria. Both qualitative and quantitative data from classroom observations, interviews and other sources were collected, analysed and compared across case...

Survey research provides an opportunity to reach a large number of respondents in comparatively little time and can collect both quantitative and qualitative data. It is compatible with a number of other research methods as a component of more complex studies. We have found it particularly valuable for gaining an initial understanding of a phenomen...

This paper proposes a framework for multilingual language-in-education policy implementation, offered as a critically constructive response to India's recent National Education Policy 2020 (NEP 2020). Rooted in India's existing educational language policy, our linguistically inclusive 'Languages for Learning' (LFL) framework is, we believe, structu...

https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/continuing-professional-development-experiences-and-needs-english-language-teachers-china

“Teaching in difficult circumstances” (TiDC) refers to teaching in contexts where a number of challenging factors are present (cf. West in Teaching English in difficult circumstances. Longmans, Green, London, 1960).

A resource book written by teachers from 10 countries across Africa for teachers working in English Clubs in the continent. Produced during a British Council workshop, facilitated and edited by Jason Anderson.

This thesis reports on a comparative case study of teacher expertise involving eight teachers of English working in state-sponsored secondary education in varied contexts across India, each identified using multiple criteria. An original, participatory design involved a planning workshop prior to data collection to enable participants to contribute...

This paper reports on a study conducted with the help of teachers within the AINET community using an original qualitative survey tool to produce a “shared beliefs” prototype of the effective Indian teacher of English. This is compared to studies conducted both in India and internationally, and implications are discussed.

Resource book for the British Council English Connects project, developed to support English Club leaders and teachers in low-resource contexts in 12 countries across sub-Saharan Africa.

This article proposes a basic framework for project-based learning for ELT including five stages: planning, introducing, working on, presenting and assessing the project. The article also provides a taxonomy of six project types and identifies several important differences to task-based language teaching that may make project-based learning more co...

This article looks at the role and nature of the activity in learner-centred education (including activity-based, task-based and project-based learning), revealing an important concept - the activity cycle - at the centre of all of these. I argue that effective teaching in a learner-centred classroom depends on our ability not only to select, adapt...

This study explores the beliefs of 75 Indian teachers of English concerning the classroom practices and attributes of an imagined effective teacher of English working in a government secondary school. It uses a qualitative survey instrument to develop a ‘shared-beliefs prototype’ of the effective teacher. The effective teacher that emerges from res...

An often overlooked issue in whole class teaching is how we choose which learners answer the questions we ask. Get it wrong, and you can cause boredom, undue stress, or favour the more proficient learners at the expense of those who need your help the most. Given that we do this many times a lesson, dozens of times a week, and potentially thousands...

Although discussion of reflective thought in education dates back at least to Dewey (e.g. Dewey 1933), it is only since the 1980s that the term ‘reflection’ has become prominent in discussion of practitioner, including teacher, development. Within English language teacher education, reflection is often promoted as an important feature of effective...

The White-backed Black-Tit is a fairly small (13.5 cm), distinctively marked member of the Tit family (Paridae), endemic to a variety of forest and wooded habitat types in the Afrotropical Highlands biome of Ethiopia and Eritrea (the Abyssinian Highlands). Its generally low population density across its range means that it is a poorly known species...

This article proposes a curriculum design framework for instructed additional language learning comprising four phases: Text, Analysis, Task, Exploration (TATE). The framework is argued to be compatible with both natural order theory and skill acquisition theory through its ability to integrate meaning-focused tasks within a task-supported approach...

I thank Rod Ellis (2020) for taking time to read and respond to my critique of his original work (2019). However, while he grasps some of the aspects of the TATE framework that I propose as an alternative (Anderson 2020), there is evidence in his response that he misconstrues it, and assigns my nuanced discussion of explicit and implicit processes...

This article reports on my recent research into Schon's reflection-in-action, examining the potential implications for classroom practice and teacher education. It argues that we can and do learn from interactive (i.e. while teaching) reflection, and that by developing our reflection literacy as practitioners, we can improve our practice and sense...

Have you ever been in a lesson, a workshop or a seminar and been told that you're going to have a debate, then heard something like: 'this side of the class will argue for the motion, and that side will be against it'? If your heart sinks at such moments (as mine does) or if you've done something similar in your own classes, read on. There is an al...

Produced for British Council India, this report provides an overview of the school education system in India, covering K12 education, school ownership, teacher education, government initiatives, educational boards and educational technology in India. Available online here: https://www.britishcouncil.in/sites/default/files/school_education_system_in...

Activities for Cooperative Learning goes beyond the traditional photocopiable resource books valued by busy teachers around the world. Alongside the expected ready-to-go activities and teacher’s notes, readers will also find introductions to cooperative activity types that are explained in generic terms, complete with learning principles, key advan...

This article explores the origins of jigsaw, its role in language teaching and learning and offers a taxonomy of jigsaw activities based on Aronson’s original description. A number of original, practical ideas for using jigsaw activities in the foreign/second language classroom are also provided.

Reports on research conducted into two widely used terms in communicative language teaching; ‘information gap’ and ‘jigsaw’, as part of a wider research project. An interesting finding of this research is that both the jigsaw and information gap activities that today language teachers use mainly to facilitate interaction in communicative classrooms...

This article provides an overview of cooperative learning and its influence on TESOL, including its origins in mainstream US education, its past and current influences in ELT, and the two core principles underpinning cooperative learning. It offers a number of suggestions for TESOL practitioners interested in making use of cooperative learning in s...

My plenary address at the 12th International ELT@I Conference (Anderson, 2017) reported on an exploratory survey that Amy Lightfoot and I conducted (Anderson & Lightfoot, 2018) investigating both translingual practices in English language classrooms in India and attitudes towards translanguaging among teachers surveyed. Respondents reported making...

This paper reports on an exploratory survey investigating both translingual practices in English language classrooms in India and attitudes towards translanguaging and L1 use among teachers surveyed. 169 teachers from primary, secondary, tertiary and adult sectors responded to 33 quantitative and six qualitative items investigating nine research qu...

This article looks at a range of ways in which Google Images can be used in the ELT classroom. When teaching in the UK, I'm lucky enough to have an IWB and internet access, but even if you just have a data projector or a smaller screen you can share, many of these ideas can still be used.

This article reports on a qualitative study exploring the role of initial teacher training courses in the careers of experienced non-native English speaking teachers (NNESTs). Analysis of 19 face-to-face and email interviews indicates that most respondents enrolled for two related reasons: to improve classroom practice and to improve career prospec...

This study reports on the impact of an ‘initial’ certification course (ICC) for English language teachers (the Cambridge CELTA) on the self-reported classroom practices and related beliefs of experienced teacher-participants. Although many participants on such courses are experienced non-native speaker teachers of English (NNESTs), almost nothing i...

This article explores the potential implications of theorizing in translingualism and translanguaging for foreign language teaching and learning. I discuss key terminology and introduce a translingual continuum as a potential way to understand language use practices both within and across communities. I report on an exploratory study into the self-...

Peer needs analysis can be defined as the act of raising the students' awareness of the needs of their co-learners in a class. It aims to turn needs analysis in to a social event, and within the communicative classroom it is likely to be beneficial for several reasons: 1 It provides an opportunity for meaningful communication between the learners,...

Almost all teachers are aware of the importance of context when introducing new language. Whether it comes from a text, images, video or a classroom situation, context helps learners to understand meaning, it provides an opportunity for noticing form , and perhaps most importantly, it shows how the new language can be used. It is a fundamental ingr...

The importance of context in helping language learners to understand new language (structural, functional or lexis) is acknowledged in most, if not all recent approaches to language teaching, including both weak and strong forms of communicative language teaching (CLT), task-based language teaching (TBLT), content and language integrated learning (...

Given the largely undisputed recognition of the importance of context when helping foreign and second language learners to understand new language (e.g. grammar, functional language, lexis, etc.), it is somewhat strange that none of the three-stage paradigms commonly used in preservice language teacher education (e.g. PPP, ESA, ARC, TTT, etc.) make...

In her article ‘Companion guides for lesson planning: a planning template and the lesson plan pro forma’ (2016a), May Pang offers a critique of my earlier article, ‘Affordance, learning opportunities, and the lesson plan pro forma’ (Anderson 2015), in which I call for changes to typical ELT lesson plan pro formas to enable them to be compatible wit...

This study aims to provide an in-depth understanding of the role of initial teacher training courses (ITCs) such as the Cambridge CELTA and the Trinity CertTESOL in the professional development and careers of experienced non-native speaker English teachers (NNESTs). 19 qualitative interviews (5 semi-structured face-to-face interviews, and 14 via...

This article charts the chequered history of the PPP model (Presentation, Practice, Production) in English language teaching, told partly through reference to articles in ELT Journal. As well as documenting its origins at the dawn of communicative language teaching (and not in audiolingual approaches, as some have suggested), I chart its history th...

Most of us are familiar with jigsaw reading activities, and some of us have tried listening jigsaws. The premise behind internet jigsaws is the same as behind all jigsaw activities and all cooperative learning – the information gap. When different learners have different information and need to exchange it to complete a task or play a game, you ha...

This article reports on a study contrasting 41 native speakers (NSs) and 38 non-native speakers (NNSs) of English from two short initial teacher training courses, the Cambridge Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults and the Trinity College London CertTESOL. After a brief history and literature review, I present findings on teachers’ bac...

Jason Anderson shows that lying is a very important social and communicative skill, one which our language learning students will (within reason) can get a lot of fun and practice out of.

This article argues that the most commonly used lesson plan pro formas in language teacher education are inappropriately premised on an outcomes-based approach to teaching, one that is in conflict with what we know about how languages are learnt and how experienced teachers teach. It proposes an alternative, affordance-based approach to lesson plan...

Can language use be simultaneously authentic and yet controlled? Is it possible to have meaningful communication between learners that still retains a linguistic focus? I believe the answer to both of these questions is yes, if we draw upon the unique features and qualities of gameplay to create a dual context for language use in the classroom. Thi...