Dogme: A teacher's view

What is Dogme?

Dogme is a teaching philosophy. It goes beyond the standard pedagogical methods that we are so often used to hearing about.

• The thinking behind it is that learners learn best when they feel involved and interested in the subject.
• If the material they use isn't relevant to them, then there is less likelihood that they'll retain any information.
• The solution within Dogme basically consists of removing all irrelevant material to enhance learning. In fact, it involves removing all material.
• A Dogme classroom is a textbook free zone. To a certain extent, we could say that a Dogme space is a classroom free zone as we know it.

Scott Thornbury was the main force behind this new approach back in 2001 (see Teaching Unplugged: Dogme in ELT). He and his colleagues realised that too many classes were being dominated by lesson plans, textbooks, workbooks, audios, videos, flashcards and other such tools that the learners themselves were no longer the focus of the lesson. By developing Dogme, they put the learner back into learning.

There are Dogme rules that can be followed, but in true Dogme style they are there to be bent and moulded to your own teaching context. Here are some of the main ones:

• Resources should be provided by the learners or whatever you come across in your daily environment. If you're doing a lesson on books, then go to the library.
• All listening material should be learner produced.
• Teachers should always put themselves at the level of the learners.
• All language used should be 'real' language so that it has a communicative purpose.
• Grammar work should arise naturally during the lesson and should not be the driving force behind it.
• Learners should not be placed into different level groups.

My Dogme classroom

The learners aren't seated behind desks. It's much harder for them to express themselves in this artificial setting. There's no reason why they can't have some paper and pens, but definitely no textbook. I always have a flipchart or whiteboard for them to use, some comfortable chairs if possible, or with larger classes a comfortable floor space and cushions, and some music playing in the background. In a 'pure' Dogme classroom there wouldn't be any music though, unless produced by the learners themselves. The atmosphere should definitely be relaxed. Once the learners understand the concept of autonomy and controlling their learning, I find they are far more willing to participate, lead the sessions and the need for any classroom discipline almost becomes a thing of the past. They soon enter the classroom full of ideas and enthusiasm while you sit back and facilitate the learning process, rather than overwhelm it.

Learner objectives

Before looking at the detail of a lesson itself, I always begin the year by looking very closely at the learners' objectives. With younger learners, the linguistic objectives are more likely to resemble each other, but the older they get, the more aware they'll be of why they're learning English and what areas they need to work on. However, this is not always the case and spending time on this before you launch into a course makes so much sense to the learners themselves as you progress through the year. The advantage of doing this is that each lesson the learners can refer back to their personal objectives sheet and relate everything they choose to do in class to at least one of their objectives.

The lesson plan

I always start a lesson by putting the class into three or four smaller groups. How you organise this stage of the lesson will obviously depend on the number of learners you have in your class.

• Each group decides what they want to work on in the lesson with their objectives sheets close to hand. This could take the form of speaking skills such as 'practising talking in front of other people' or 'improving grammatical accuracy when speaking'.
• Then a spokesperson from each group goes to the board and writes up a couple of the most popular choices from what the group decided. This process should be fairly quick and will become quicker as they get used to it. I prefer to leave the classroom and return when the time limit is up and the notes are on the board. However, for security reasons this is not always possible and with the younger pupils I make it clear that I am not going to intervene at all in this process.
• Then I read what the learners would like to work on and use this information to facilitate the rest of the lesson.
• You may find that some learners want to concentrate on writing, while others on listening. It is up to the learners to negotiate whose objectives they're going to work on in that particular lesson and up to you to have activities prepared that enable them to work simultaneously on different skills. A great example of this is a running dictation, where some people can work on their writing, some on their listening, some on their reading and others on their speaking. 

The Dogme file

I do find it helpful for learners to keep a file of what they learn and I advise them on ways to record their work. It is of course up to them how they organise their files, but it's useful to guide them on the various possibilities at the beginning. I prefer that they keep it a monolingual file as much as possible, but you can decide what is best for your learners.

• For nouns and adjectives, instead of writing the translation next to the English word, I get them to draw a quick picture. For learners to become more independent, they always have access to monolingual dictionaries and can look words up whenever they want. This develops a curiosity for knowledge and they are more likely to remember the word than if I were just to tell it to them.
• One of the ways I advise them to record their language is under different topics rather than alphabetical or chronological order as it's often easier for them to retain and reuse the word if there is a thematic context.

Benefits of Dogme

• From a teaching point of view, it cuts down enormously on preparation time.
• The learners feel completely in control of their learning and are therefore much more motivated.
• It keeps you alert and spontaneous as you never know exactly what could happen in class and so you have to think on your feet.
• You can manage almost any classroom situation once you've taught using the Dogme approach.
• Learners are constantly aware of the 'why' behind everything they do.

Drawbacks of Dogme

• Some learners may feel uneasy about it at first, feeling that they're not being provided with a teacher-led lesson.
• It might be daunting for a newly trained teacher to work without the security of a textbook.
• Some teachers may be committed to following a specific syllabus.
• You may be working in very large classrooms where tables are bolted to the floor, making it impossible to move them.
• Some teachers may feel that their role is being undermined by this more learner-centred approach.

Conclusion

For me, the Dogme classroom is far removed from the preconceived idea of a lazy teacher who hasn't prepared their lesson and walks into the class saying, 'So, what do you want to talk about today?'. It's so much more than an open conversation class. It involves a hidden structure which allows the learners to become autonomous in their learning and gives them complete control over what they learn and how they learn it. You are there to guide the process and watch your learners develop into enthusiastic English speakers.

Further discussion

Have you tried the Dogme approach yourself? Did your learners respond well to it or not? Did they understand the rationale behind it? Were they able to achieve their objectives? And how did you feel in your role as the facilitator of language production rather than instructor? Did you feel lost or exposed without any physical resources? Is it something you intend to repeat with other classes? Why/why not?

We would love to hear your opinions about Dogme, so please share your thoughts and experiences by leaving a comment below.