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1:00 Onnuri Hall
Seven Myths in Language Teaching
**(Updated topic)**
Language teaching has often been a melting pot for a variety of assumptions and beliefs about what language is and how it can best be learned and taught. Some of these assumptions are based on folklore, and others reflect discarded theories and viewpoints about language teaching and learning. While some of the ideas we encounter in the language teaching market may be relatively harmless, others can have a negative impact on approaches both to language teaching as well as to the professional education of language teachers. It is assumptions and claims of the latter kind that are my focus here, in which I want to examine seven persistent myths and claims about second language teaching.
Bio
Jack Richards has had an active career in the Asia Pacific region and is currently an honorary professor in the faculty of education at the University of Sydney and at the University of Auckland and an Adjunct Professor at Victoria University. He is a frequent presenter worldwide and has written over 150 books and articles on language teaching as well as many widely used classroom texts including the Interchange and Four Corners series.
Recent publications include:
- Jack Richards’ 50 Tips for Teacher Development (Cambridge),
- Key Issues in Language Teaching (Cambridge),
- Curriculum Development in Language Teaching 2nd edition (Cambridge),
- Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching 3rd edition (Cambridge),
- Language Learning Beyond the Classroom (with David Nunan, Routledge) and
- Creativity in Language Teaching (with Rodney Jones), Routledge.
Jack Richards has active interests in music and arts and supports a number of scholarship programs. In the musical domain he has commissioned numerous works by New Zealand composers.
In 2014, the Jack C Richards Decorative Arts Gallery was opened at the Tairawhiti Museum, Gisborne New Zealand. In 2011 he was awarded an honorary doctorate of literature by Victoria University, Wellington, for his services to education and the arts and in 2014 received the Award for Patronage from the Arts Foundation of New Zealand. In March 2016 the International TESOL organization as part of their 50th anniversary honored Jack Richards as one of the 50 TESOL specialists worldwide to have made a significant impact on language teaching in the last 50 years.
website: www.professorjackrichards.com
