Over the Wall of Silence

Introduction 9

Everything changed when we began working at universities and were suddenly thrust in front of classes of 30 to 50 unmotivated, low-level students. Like Jack, we both got huge shocks -Bruno in his beginner French classes, and Stephen in low-intermediate English. There were quite a few years of frustration and slow progress.

Salvation came from outside, in the form of advice from more experienced teachers who had designed an original, powerful way to teach foreign language communication. This became known as the Immediate Method . Rather than a method per se , it is more of a set of coherent guidelines which allowed us, and quite a few others, to start getting actual results in our speaking classes. We started discussing those guidelines, and the very practical techniques that give them flesh, in journal articles, presentations and the annual Autumn Work shop . We developed the materials and textbooks we needed in our everyday teaching. We received a lot of feedback from teachers who were experimenting with the approach in their classrooms. And over University classrooms are a different kettle of fish