Review: 52

“This book is not for everyone.”

That is how the first offering from Lindsay Clandfield and Luke Meddings’s e-publishing initiative The Round kicks off - a simple and yet challenging statement that sets the tone perfectly for this collection of ‘subversive activity for the language classroom’.

For those of you who haven’t heard about it yet, The Round is a new addition to the ELT publishing world, which dares to be a little bit different. It aims to ‘bridge the gap between blogs and books’ while also offering a fair deal to authors and readers.

52 also dares to be a little bit different by focusing on ‘the kind of stuff that doesn’t usually get past the publishers’ radar’. The activities openly embrace social and political issues that are often ignored by mainstream coursebooks and resource books. Indeed, the acronym PARSNIP which is often used to list the kind of topics that should be avoided in the language classroom (Politics, Alcohol, Religion, Sex, Narcotics, Isms and Pork) is actually the basis of one of the activities! There is an important message here - we should not assume what is and is not suitable for our classes. Rather, we should include our students by opening up the discussion to them and finding out what they think should (not) feature in their lessons.

But the book is more than just a collection of controversial discussion topics. There are also activities that ask the learner to reflect on why and how they learn (such as one of my favourites which encourages them to prepare ‘cheat sheets’ ahead of a test but actually results in them studying in a more systematic way as they do so!) as well as activities that encourage students (and teachers) to look at traditional tasks from a different perspective (for example, the daily routine of an innocent person in jail or role-playing someone arriving in a foreign country only to find their luggage has been sent to the wrong place). There are activities for teachers too, encouraging them to try something different such as teaching from a different area of the classroom or to reflect on their beliefs about best practice.

The book is a little on the short side (the whole thing can be read cover to cover in about half an hour) but that is in part down to the concise way the activities are presented. There is a welcome lack of detail or rigid step-by-step stages to follow. There are also no ‘suggested levels’ and no ‘target language’ (as you might expect with one of the co-authors of Teaching Unplugged involved) which means many of the activities are flexible and adaptable, even to someone like me who works with young learners.

Speaking of which, I am currently plotting with one of my classes to create posters with subversive educational slogans to be stuck on the walls around the school. Other classes have been discussing and deciding how to re-arrange their classrooms and what additional facilities they think are needed and I’m trying to persuade one of the senior teachers in the department to come in to one to answer the students’ suggestions of how to improve the school. This is definitely a resource you can keep coming back for ideas and inspiration.

So, yes, this book is not for everyone…. but if you are willing to experiment in the classroom or you are looking for a breath of fresh air in your teaching routine, it might well be for you.

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52 by Lindsay Clandfield and Luke Meddings is available in Kindle and e-pub formats. See The Round’s website for details. 

Also, check out the 52 blog www.subversive52.wordpress.com for more subversive ideas.