ELT in Brazil

At the genesis of ELT, we chop the English language into bits.

To be more specific, grammar bits. Then, we order these bits in terms of how difficult they are to teach. Don’t worry if this doesn’t reflect the order in which languages are learned.

We then attach each of these grammar bits to an overarching theme — nothing too creative, fear not. Oh, do add a guilt-the-consumer-not-enterprises environmentally-friendly topic. Y’know, turn off the tap and take quick showers, kinda thing.

Something very safe as well, no PARSNIPs allowed. Add some conservative, white-licensed, checkbox inclusion; perhaps some black folks here and there, but don’t you dare even hint at same-sex couples!

This language is now ready to be packaged! Once packaged into six different boxes, give it a fun name like 1A, 1B, 2A, 2B, 3A, and 3B, and then ship it across the globe! Money money money, honey!

Inside, the grammar bits are found pre-digested and ready to be delivered by the server, I mean, teacher, and swallowed whole by the students. These grammar bits are not very nutritious, mind you, but it’s ok. We know how to make them stick.

Dr. Pavlov taught us how! Practice, practice, practice till you salivate at the sight of the next grammar box!

This is how we deal with vocabulary, too.

“But they’re different entities!”, yeah, so what?

There is some work dedicated to skills, too. For instance, we teach them to read through pre-while-post reading activities.

We do that for listening, too.

“But they’re different entities!”, yeah, so what?

And don’t you dare say that the cycle of pre-activity, while-activity, and post-activity is shallow and generic and kind of laughable if you think about it.

And that’s state-of-the-art ELT for you! We’ve always done it like this, at least since the 60s, and it WORKS — and I can prove it.

I just passed my 3B exam, see?