On Five Against One, @bealer81 commented:
This is the kind of claim that I was also referring to in ‘Who Needs Dogme?’, Adam. Making the lessons about the learner’s lives is not exclusive to Dogme, it’s the basis of good teaching and is much more prominent on the CELTA courses I train on that any course book is. Dogme allows for a greater connection than what? Bad teaching? I am trying to come around to the idea that Dogme as an attitude / reflective tool has an important role to play in increasing the amount of ‘just good teaching’ that goes on around the world, but then the hyperbole slaps me in the face again and asks me what I’m thinking…
A Muse Amuses 
Hi Neil
The comment was made purely from my own experience of Dogme and in reference to my own very limited experience as a teacher. I appreciate that making the lesson about learner’s lives isn’t exclusive to Dogme or any other approach. Maybe, when I have more teaching time under my belt and I have had the chance to try out some other methods and approaches to teaching I will find that they too can help me make the lesson more learner centered.
I work with a variety of coursebooks and enjoy adapting and using the materials they have to offer. Yet , sometimes I feel they create a barrier between the students and what they really want to talk about. Perhaps my inexperience stops me from finding a way around this problem, but I will continue to try and find ways to do it. Even if this means using a way I like to call Dogme. I enjoy using Dogme. It helps that it has a name. It helps that I know other people are trying the same thing and thinking the same way.
You say eether and I say eyether,
You say neether and I say nyther;
Eether, eyether, neether, nyther,
Let’s call the whole thing off!
(I Gershwin, 1937)
Although, somehow I don’t think you’re going to call the whole thing off.
Adam
Hi Adam,
I tried to call the whole thing off last week…
I agree with everything you say here about giving Dogme a name etc. and will be blogging a mostly very healthy response to the many responses to my original posts ‘From Dogs to Elves…’ and ‘Who Needs Dogme…?’ when I’ve done all the other things on my to do list. What I don’t like is the exaggeration and hyperbole that detracts from the good that the intial Dogme movement and what now seems to be settling into being a Dogme attitude has done and is doing. It’s what created the reaction against Dogme in the first place and it’s what keeps the whole thing going.
BTW, I say both either and either and neither and neither and I wish you’d said ‘Especially if’ rather than ‘Even if’ – Dogme, whatever it is, deserves the courage of your convictions.