This chapter examines the diversity found in language teaching today, looking at three traditional approaches to language teaching, four communicative approaches, and three innovative approaches. Each approach is discussed in terms of its background, distinguishing features, and the impact on Volunteers’ classrooms and English language teaching. Think back to your own language learning days. Did you ever have a teacher who forced everyone to learn in the same way? Were all the students equally happy with that class? Probably not. The chances are that a teacher who showed no flexibility and appreciation of variety in learning style was not very motivating or successful.
”There is no single acceptable way to go about teaching language today.” This quote from Diane Larsen-Freeman’s writings on language teaching methodology sums up a major trend away from unity to diversity. There has been a growing realization that people learn in different ways, and that approaches which suit one person may not suit another. For example, some outgoing personalities love to experiment and can hardly wait for the chance to try speaking the new language. Others, more reserved, prefer to listen and understand before speaking. Some people find that studying the grammar is an important step for them in establishing a framework for their language learning. Others never study the rules, but find that putting themselves in situations where they have to communicate is enough to trigger their learning.
Against this backdrop, teachers of English have concluded that no single approach or method is appropriate for all learning styles. A good lesson will, therefore, be one in which you use a smorgasbord of activities taken from a variety of sources. By varying your technique, you will give students of all styles the chance to shine some of the time. With this thought in mind, you can begin to appraise the language learning approaches used in the country in which you serve. Each approach has something to offer. Your task is to identify and exploit those elements.
As you become more familiar with your job you will find that you learn to trust your instincts and your ability to judge when to switch techniques. At first, you may need to read about methods and approaches, and you should look for opportunities to talk to experienced teachers about what they think of different methods. Then, gradually as you get to know your students, you will find that you can sense when a class is tired, or confused, or in need of quiet time, or particularly interested. And you will find that you know when to dip into your repertoire of approaches, games, and exercises to find the appropriate activity which suits the mood of your students and which ensures they get the best out of every lesson.
The terms “method” and “approach” will be used interchangeably in this chapter. For example, the chapter refers to the Audio-lingual Method and the Communicative Approach. A number of different ways of distinguishing between methods and approaches have been proposed by experts in the field but the distinctions usually blur. Both deal with the theory of the nature of language and language learning; with syllabus, learning and teaching activities, learner and teacher roles, and instructional materials; and with classroom techniques, practices, and behaviours.
This chapter examines ten different approaches or methods and identifies the choices offered by each of these ten. The approaches or methods are divided into:
(a) Traditional Language Teaching
Grammar Translation Method
Direct Method
Audio-lingual Method
(b) Communicative Language Teaching
Communicative Approach
Total Physical Response and Natural Approach
Competency-Based Approach
(c) Innovative Language Teaching
Silent Way
Community Language Learning
Suggestopedia
In this chapter, the comments on each of the ten approaches or methods are divided into three parts. First, comes the section on background. This section gives a short history of each method and will give you an idea of the developments in English language teaching over the past fifty years. Second, the section on distinguishing features highlights the special features of each method and approach. Third, the section on the impact on your classroom and your teaching concentrates on ideas in each method which may be helpful to you. This section owes much to conversations with TEFL Volunteers like yourself. These Volunteers, having faced initial hesitations about which method to use, have suggested the positive and practical ways in which you can judge the benefits and impact different methods will have on your English lessons.
Traditional Language Teaching
The Grammar Translation Method, the Direct Method, and the Audiolingual Method have been included not to give you a history of language teaching, but because they still strongly influence English instruction in many parts of the world. You will doubtless come across educationalists, now in decision-making positions, who have successfully learned English using one of these approaches. And their thinking on language learning is likely to be influenced by their experience. Belittling these approaches as counter-communicative or out of date may arouse their suspicion of your abilities as a teacher and may diminish your ability to eventually bring about change.
Those of you teaching English as a secondary project may find that your older students want to use the approach they knew at school. Dismissing this attachment will not help you develop the productive relationship you want to establish with your adult students. A fundamental principle in teaching is moving from the known to the unknown. In this case, it means taking into account your students’ previous experience and using some of the activities from methodologies they feel comfortable with, at least in the initial stages.
Many countries have limited funds for buying textbooks. Consequently, you may find yourself working from a syllabus based on a twenty-five-year-old textbook which reflects only one approach. As newcomers, your role is a delicate one. On the one hand, you do not want to offend with your criticisms, but on the other, you do not want to lose sight of your goal to transfer to your colleagues your technical skills and your innovative ideas. A good strategy to follow in the opening stages of your service is to be seen as covering the syllabus? using some of the activities from the prescribed methodology. Once you have established with your colleagues and students that you respect the traditions and good points of the system, you may be more successful in winning their confidence and in bringing about changes which lead to the use of other more effective teaching methods.
(a) Grammar Translation Method
Background: The Grammar Translation Method looks upon language learning as an intellectual activity. Until twenty years ago, this method was commonly used in Europe to teach Latin in schools. Those countries which were closely associated with Britain or France sometimes still bear the traces of this association in the use of modified forms of Grammar Translation in language classrooms.
DistinguishingFeatures: In a typical Grammar Translation class, the main focus is on reading and writing, with little attention being given to speaking or listening. The central text for each lesson is literary. Passages are selected from authors such as Mark Twain, George Orwell, Charles Dickens, or modern writers such as Chinua Achebe and V.S. Naipaul. These passages are read and then comprehension questions are asked and answered, first orally, then in writing. Grammar is taught deductively, through presentation and study of the rules, followed by practice through translations and exercises. Vocabulary selection is based on the reading text used. Words are taught through bilingual lists and memorization. Students are often asked to write the new words in a sentence.
ImpactonYourClassroomandYourTeaching: Many of your students will be used to and may expect Grammar Translation activities. Memorization particularly may be considered a valued teaching tool, especially in societies where oral traditions are strong, or where periods of study in Koranic or Buddhist schools are the norm. In the United States, where the emphasis is placed on understanding concepts rather than memorizing texts, the role of memorization tends to be downgraded. However memorization does not exclude understanding, and as a teacher of languages, it behoves you to play to your students’ strengths. If the syllabus followed in your school includes literary texts and you have presented a poem, explored its ideas and are satisfied that your students understand them, then asking your students to learn the poem is a good way to reinforce learning and one that your students will be used to. Your students may also be used to the style of teacher-student interaction generated by the Grammar Translation Method. In this method the teacher initiates interaction and there are seldom any student-to-student exchanges. The role of the teacher is a traditionally authoritarian one and the role of the student is to obey. Sudden changes to this dynamic can result in near chaos, so any alteration you want to make should be carried out cautiously. You may want to ask your supervisor if you can sit in on a few lessons given by your colleagues. Observing other teachers can give you an idea of the sort of student-teacher relationship which exists in your school and can give you the parameters of a model to follow.
(b) Direct Method
Background: The Direct Method developed in the nineteenth century as educationalists attempted to build a language learning methodology around their observations of child language learning. These educationalists argued that a foreign language could be taught without translation or use of the learner’s native tongue. The Direct Method, therefore, insists on thinking and communicating directly in the target language and does not allow translation. The Berlitz School of Languages is the best-known proponent of this method.
DistinguishingFeatures: The four language skills are taught from the beginning, but a special emphasis is placed on speaking. Classes often start with the reading aloud of a specially graded text which introduces the lesson’s vocabulary and grammatical structure. Practice follows with exercises such as guided conversation, where the teacher asks questions on the text and the students answer using full sentences. Students will then ask each other similar questions. Other practice exercises include filling-in-the-blanks, dictation, controlled composition or listening comprehension exercises. Grammar is taught inductively, that is to say, language patterns are presented and practised, but the rules are not explicitly given. The Direct Method teacher uses mime, demonstration, realia, and visual aids to help students understand grammar and vocabulary.
ImpactonYourClassroomandYourTeaching: The “No Translation” rule can become an issue. Teachers complain that it is sometimes time-consuming to mime vocabulary when a simple translation would do. And some words are difficult to mime. Students become frustrated when some members of the class do not understand the teacher’s explanations and when the whole class is held up until the meaning becomes clear to all. While monitoring carefully the amount of your students’ native language you use in class, you should use your common sense in this question of translation. If you judge that your students are not getting the point, or the meaning of a particular word, if you think that your lesson is straying from its objectives, and if you know the word in your students’ language, then give a translation and get on with your lesson. Many of the textbooks based on the Direct Method, most of which are by now quite dated, were written for Western school children. This can be problematic since the method is heavily dependent on the text, and the texts are not guaranteed to be culturally accessible. A textbook used in Francophone Africa describes children having cornflakes for breakfast, putting on their Wellington boots because it is raining, and catching a double-decker bus to go to school. It is not difficult to transfer this lesson into a cultural context that your students will understand, but it is an additional barrier for your students to overcome. And your role in this process will be to provide the necessary cultural translation.
(c) Audiolingual Method (ALM)
Background: During the Second World War, army programs were set up to teach American military personnel languages such as German, French, Japanese and Tagalog. Strong emphasis was placed on aural-oral training. The Audiolingual Method developed from these programs. This method was also influenced by behavioural psychologists who believed that foreign language learning is basically a process of mechanical habit formation.
DistinguishingFeatures: In the Audiolingual Method, skills are taught in the natural order of acquisition: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Audiolingual classes begin with a dialogue which introduces the lesson’s sentence patterns. The students memorize this dialogue, then practice grammar patterns in drills such as listen and repeat, substitution, chain, and transformation. Accuracy in pronunciation is emphasized and fostered through minimal pair drills where students learn to differentiate between sounds such as the vowels in “ship” and “sheep,” “hit” and “heat,” and “bit” and “beat.” Lessons are sequenced according to grammatical complexity. Translation, considered to cause interference from the mother tongue, is not allowed. Learning is tightly controlled by the teacher, who follows the text closely.
ImpactonYourClassroomandYourTeaching: Many of your students will be familiar with the type of activities described above. For most Americans variety and change is an essential part of their learning experience. Therefore, you may sometimes find yourself amazed by your students’ stamina and capacity to repeat drills in the mantra-like fashion seemingly for hours at a time. To ensure that mindless chanting does not take over, you may wish to emphasize some of the speed and competitiveness promoted by the Audiolingual Method. Some of the games referred to in Chapter Four will help your students focus on speedy comprehension, and a judicious use of group work with meaningful tasks will oblige your students to demonstrate that they are thinking about what they are saying.
Communicative Language Teaching
The late 1960s saw a shift in focus from the Audiolingual Method and its prototypes to communicative language teaching. Figure 2.1 shows some of the differences between Grammar Translation, the Audiolingual Method, and Communicative Language Teaching.
This shift evolved partly as a result of studies carried out by the Council of Europe, which began to identify the language needed in a variety of social situations by someone immigrating to Common Market countries. The studies sought to evaluate how language itself is used-how native speakers of a language express themselves in various situations. The studies had a major impact on the teaching of English as a foreign language. Teachers and curriculum designers began to look at content, at the kind of language needed when greeting or shopping. The emphasis on form, on explicitly learning grammar rules or practising grammatical patterns, was downplayed in favour of an approach designed to meet learners’ needs when using the language in daily interaction.
There is no single text or authority on communicative language teaching. It is referred to as an approach that aims to make communication the goal of language teaching. Several models have evolved around this principle. This chapter presents the Communicative Approach, Total Physical Response, Natural Approach, and Competency-Based Approach. As you will see, these approaches overlap. Communicative activities particularly are impossible to pin down to only one approach.
(a) Communicative Approach
Background: The emphasis is placed on using the target language to accomplish a function such as complaining, advising, or asking for information. Attention is also paid to the social context in which this function takes place. For instance, a different language will be used when complaining to a teacher than when complaining to a close friend.
DistinguishingFeatures: All four language skills are taught from the beginning. In speaking skills, the aim is to be understood, not to speak like a native. In the sequencing of lessons, priority is given to learner interests and needs. This is in contrast to a grammar driven method which may start with verb tenses, and work through from the present simple to the conditionals. In the Communicative Approach, if a learner needs to know how to give advice (“If I were you, I would ….”) then this conditional is taught. An interaction between speakers and listeners or readers and writers is at the root of all activities. Chapters Three and Four give many examples of the kind of activities to be found in a classroom following the Communicative Approach. Learners usually work in pairs or groups for role play, information sharing, or problem-solving. These ads can be used as a basis for communicative activities at all levels. For example, at the beginners’ level, a question and answer exercise could be on numbers. What time is the garage sale? How much does a cord of wood cost? Would a two-year-old be accepted by the daycare provider? At a higher level, the students could guess the meanings of words from the context (“shine,” ‘dumped,” “driveway,” “cord,” “snacks”). Or the advertisements could be used as a springboard for discussion on topics such as child care, natural resources, and student accommodation.
ImpactonYourClassroomandYourTeaching: The Communicative Approach will challenge your creativity to set up situations in which your students can demonstrate their competency in the four language skills. Group work is basic to this demonstration. But you may face difficulties in the logistics of organizing your groups. Lack of space, or complaints from other teachers about the noisy moving of desks, might feature in your first few weeks of asking your class to divide into groups. You will have to consider all of your options. Can you work outside? Is it possible to use the library for your lessons’? Can you set up a reward system to encourage your students to move quickly and quietly into their groups? You may also encounter resistance to group work from your students. Some of the better students may resent having to “share” their skills and grades. Some of the less motivated students may take the opportunity to do even less work. Your grading policy for group work will have to be spelt out and you will need to monitor that everyone is contributing to the group effort. You should also leave the time and the opportunity to earn grades for individual work.
(b) Total Physical Response (TPR) and the Natural Approach
Background: TPR is a language teaching method built around the coordination of speech and action. It attempts to teach language through physical activity. The Natural Approach shares with TPR an emphasis on exposing the learner to hearing and understanding the language before requiring the learner to speak.
DistinguishingFeatures: Language skills are taught in the natural order of acquisition: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Both the Natural Approach and TPR focus on the importance of listening comprehension as the basis for language acquisition. Both approaches believe that language is acquired, not learned. In other words, learners acquire a language through an unconscious process which involves using the language for meaningful communication. Learning, on the other hand, involves a conscious process which results in knowledge about the rules of a language, but not necessarily in an ability to use the language. The learner’s mother tongue is seldom used. Meaning is made clear by mime, drawing, etc. Great attention is paid to reducing learner anxiety. The Natural Approach stresses that self-confident learners with high motivation are successful learners and that teachers should create a learning environment which promotes self-confidence. The sample lesson plan in Chapter Eight contains a TPR activity, where students are asked to demonstrate their understanding by following the teacher’s oral commands. (“Go to the board and point to the drawing of Juan’s sister.”) Action sequences in response to a series of commands are graded and vary from the simple to the intricate. After the first stage of listening to the teacher, the students will be ready to speak. During the second stage, individual students take over, directing the teacher and the other students in parts of or in the whole action sequence. For an example of an intermediate level action sequence, look at Figure, giving instructions in how to design boxes.
ImpactonYourClassroomandYourTeaching: In both of these approaches, the role of the teacher is to generate comprehensible input. This means that when presenting new materials you have to be prepared to speak, mime, draw or use real objects to get your meaning across. Only when you are satisfied that your students understand and are ready to speak do you ask them to do so. Again, the lesson in Chapter Eight contains a Presentation segment where the teacher talks about his/her family before asking the students to talk about their families. In many instances, your students will be curious about life in the United States, and this comprehensible input stage provides a way of satisfying that curiosity and a way for you to build a good personal relationship with your class. These approaches can be useful and fun, especially when you are working with beginners, or with students at a technical or vocational centre who only take one hour of English a week, or with students whose greatest need is for listening comprehension. It is also useful when you lack adequate textbooks. Very few institutions offer courses which use only TPR or the Natural Approach, but many teachers have commented that comprehension-based activities reduce learning stress.
(c) Competency-Based Approach
Background: The Competency-Based Approach focuses on acquiring life coping skills while developing the language to perform these skills. This approach is based on theories of adult learning which state that for effective learning to take place, adults need to know that what they are studying will improve their lives. The approach has been developed and applied in the United States to help immigrants and refugees learn English and life skills at the same time. It is also used in vocational training.
DistinguishingFeatures: The learner’s needs dominate the Competency-Based Approach. Language skills and grammar and vocabulary are sequenced according to the learner’s needs. Translation is used only if necessary for communication. Context is used as much as possible to help the learner deduce meaning. Authentic materials are used and the learner is encouraged to practice the language by performing real tasks outside of the classroom, such as giving a message to another English speaking teacher. Like the Communicative Approach, the Competency-Based Approach bases its activities on interaction. Pair work and group work are used to generate communication in activities such as problem-solving and filling information gaps. In one type of information gap exercise, the learner is asked to find someone with the same information he or she has. In ”Find Your Partners” the teacher hands out eleven pictures to learners and keeps the twelfth. The teacher then describes his or her picture and asks any learners who think they may have the same picture to raise their hands. The teacher questions those who raise their hands. Through this process of asking questions it will become clear that while all the pictures in the group are similar, only one other picture is exactly the same.
ImpactonYourClassroomandYourTeaching: The Competency-Based Approach is a rich source of materials and ideas for those of you teaching English to students in technical colleges, in vocational centres, or on the job. The approach is grounded in specific, useful tasks which cover a wide range of skills as well as language. Figure 2.4 is an exercise taken from Shifting Gears, one of a series of books written for refugees in Southeast Asia preparing to move to the United States. The practical, life skills orientation of the Competency-Based Approach is clearly shown in this exercise. Following this example, you could build an English lesson around giving instructions for your students to follow on changing a tire, building a level wall, making a chair, or making a flashlight. To conduct these lessons you might need to coordinate your choice of topic with the teachers giving courses in woodwork, construction, or auto maintenance. You may need to prepare yourself, checking with colleagues that your technical instructions are in line with those taught in other classes. You will also need to organize the tools and materials your students will need for the class.
Innovative Language Teaching
These innovative approaches have been included in this chapter because in your pre-service or in-service language training you may have been taught by language trainers using the Silent Way, Community Language Learning, or Suggestopedia, and you may have asked yourself which elements of these approaches could be used in your classes. Peace Corps Trainees and Volunteers who have learned languages in these approaches tend either to love them or hate them. Regardless of your feelings on the matter, the important task here is to examine your language learning experience and determine what implications they may have for you as a teacher of English. Feedback from Volunteers who have learned languages using these approaches leads to the following conclusions:
No one method is sufficient on its own. Different learning styles have to be taken into account.
Consideration should be shown for how learners feel about themselves as language learners. Negative feelings about the learning process can block learning. Enhancing a learner’s self-confidence leads to successful learning.
Working together as a group is a vital part of language learning. Group members support each other, and the interaction between them provides a real need for communication and an opportunity to practice the target language.
These are valuable guidelines which you can easily follow in your English language classrooms.
(a) The Silent Way
Background: In the Silent Way learners are actively responsible for their own learning. Learning a language is seen not as a process of habit formation, as is advocated by the Audiolingual Method, but rather a process whereby the learner discovers the rules of the target language and then applies those rules to understand and use the language. In other words, learning is more effective if learners discover the rules for themselves, rather than just remembering and repeating what is to be learned. A basic premise of the Silent Way is that the teacher should talk as little as possible and should encourage the learner to speak as much as possible. Mistakes are considered part of the process of discovering the rules, and the teacher should not interfere in this process by correcting the learner’s mistakes.
DistinguishingFeatures: All four language skills are taught from the beginning, though reading and writing are sequenced to follow what has been produced orally. Special charts are used to teach pronunciation. First, there is a sound-colour chart, containing blocks of colour, each one representing a sound in the target language. The teacher and students point to blocks of colour on the chart to form syllables, words, and sentences. Second, there is the word charts, containing words whose letters are colour coded in the same way as the sound-colour chart. The teacher and students make-up sentences, point to words on the chart and read the sentences they have spoken. Third, there are colour-coded charts which help students associate the sounds of the language with their spelling. For example, “ay,” “ea,” “ei” and “eigh,” which are all different spellings of the sound /ey/ in English, are listed and colour-coded together. Cuisenaire rods (bits of wood of varying lengths and different colours) are used to introduce vocabulary and structures. At the beginning level, they can be used to teach numbers and colours (“Take two red rods.”). At an intermediate level, they can be used to teach comparatives (“The blue rod is bigger than the red one.”). And at later stages, they can be used to teach conditionals (“If I had a blue one, I would give it to you.”). A Peace Corps Volunteer describes the Silent Way activities with rods used to teach her Thai: Our teacher put the rods on the table, picked up each rod and told us the colour of the rod. She used gestures to show when she wanted one of us to give the word for the colour “red” or “blue.” If the pronunciation was wrong she used gestures to get us to repeat the word again. Everyone in the group helped, offering his or her version until our teacher gestured that someone had the right version. When we had learned the colours, she used the same method with the rods to teach us the numbers. She put two rods on the table, said the Thai word for “two” and gestured that we should repeat the word. After that, she asked, for instance, for three blue rods or four green rods. We listened and then gave her the rods she asked for. It sounds pretty simple, but she could keep us busy for hours with those rods.
ImpactonYourClassroomandYourTeaching: The Silent Way is designed to be used with small groups. Its charts are specially prepared by an organization in New York. Teachers using the method usually undergo intensive training in its techniques and philosophy. Given these facts, what can you take from this method to use when teaching classes of forty students? There are some sound pedagogical principles to consider in this method, principles which you can apply in your teaching. First is the idea that what students discover for themselves is retained and owned in a more permanent and meaningful way than are materials which have been packaged and only require students to memorize them. Second is the idea of peer coaching in a non-competitive environment. Having presented the materials, you stand back and let your students experiment with the rules and generate talk in English. Your only role during this group work is to make sure that the group atmosphere is open to the contributions of all its members.
(b) Community Language Learning (CLL)
Background: In Community Language Learning, the aim is to involve the learner’s whole personality. Affective and intellectual well-being are given equal weight. CLL draws its insights and rationale from counselling techniques. The teacher is the counsellor who gives assistance and support to the learners, who are the clients. The teacher’s role is to understand the learners’ fears and vulnerabilities as they struggle to master another language. By being sensitive to the learners’ fears, the teacher can turn the negative energy of those fears into positive energy and enthusiasm for learning. The relationships between the teacher and learner and between the learners themselves, therefore, take on great importance.
DistinguishingFeatures: The focus is initially on listening and speaking. Grammar rules are explained and translations are used when necessary to give learners a sense of security and control over the situation. The syllabus and materials are designed mostly for the learners. A typical CLL class goes as follows: The learners form a small circle. A learner whispers, in his or her native language, what he or she wants to say to the teacher. The teacher translates, and the learner repeats the teacher’s translation. The learner’s repetition is recorded on a tape recorder. This process is repeated with other learners in the group, until an entire group discussion, in the target language, has been recorded. This conversation is then transcribed and the teacher and learners discuss the transcription. Here, for instance, the teacher will point out that in French the adjective comes after the noun, and takes a singular or plural form. The group members then talk about how they have felt about their lesson.
ImpactonYourClassroomandYourTeaching: Like the Silent Way, CLL is a method which works best in small groups and which requires special training for its teachers. But, also like the Silent Way, this method contains useful principles which you can easily implement in your lessons. First, CLL advocates that the teacher should acknowledge the stress and fears which can be found in a language learning classroom. You can lower the stress in your lessons by making your expectations and goals clear, by coaching your students in examination strategies and by providing lively activities which make learning fun. Second, CLL encourages learners to produce their own materials. By helping your students to write short stories which are then published in the school magazine, organizing them to write and act plays or skits, and developing project work, you will accomplish two goals: you will give your students a sense of ownership and pride and you will sidestep the problem of trying to teach with few or inadequate textbooks.
(c) Suggestopedia
Background: The founder of Suggestopedia, Georgi Lozanov, believes that language learning can be made more efficient if the psychological barriers to learning are lowered. He believes that learners raise these barriers and limit themselves because of a fear of failure. In order to make better use of learners’ capabilities, Lozanov has developed a process of “suggestion,” which he has applied to language learning. This process is designed to promote a relaxed frame of mind and to convert learners’ fears into positive energy and enthusiasm for language learning.
DistinguishingFeatures: In Suggestopedia, great attention is paid to the environment. The seating is as comfortable as possible, the lighting is not harsh, and music plays in the background. Colorful posters and charts are pinned to the wall. The posters show attractive sights in the target language country. The charts contain grammatical information which, in casual readings, the students will absorb without conscious effort. The Suggestopedia teacher’s tone is always calm as students are reassured that language learning is easy and fun. At the beginning of the lesson, the teacher briefly presents the vocabulary and grammar. The text for the day is given to the students; in the left column the text is in the target language; in the right column, it is in the students’ mother tongue. The teacher reads the text, while music plays in the background. The students relax, close their eyes and listen. For homework, the students are asked to read the text just before going to bed and on getting up in the morning. The teacher leads the class in role play, question and answer, and other activities based on the text. During these activities, students are invited to use their imaginations and to take on new names and new personalities in the target language. They are encouraged to visualize themselves as successful people in their new identities, with exciting jobs and a good standing in the community.
ImpactonYourClassroomandYourTeaching: One of the main principles of Suggestopedia is that the learners’ environment has a powerful impact on their learning. This principle raises interesting questions for you. When you first visited your school you might have been very conscious that the bareness of classroom walls contrasted strongly with your memories of American schools, where typically the walls are filled with pictures, collages, and examples of students’ work. But maybe by now, you are used to the bareness of the walls. The next time you walk into your school, try to look at it with new eyes. Are you passing up the chance to visually stimulate your students? Can you get posters of the United States from the USIS office? Could your family send you pictures of someone like Bruce Springsteen or Michael Jackson? Do you have artists in your classes who could illustrate the writings of their classmates’? And could you make charts encapsulating the grammar points you have recently presented’? If you are working in a culture where people normally sit on the floor at home, consider bringing in mats to your next storytelling class and asking your class to settle themselves comfortably on the floor to listen. You may also want to bring your tape recorder to the class and to play music in the background. These features of Suggestopedia are easy to imitate, and by introducing them into your classroom you will add enjoyment and novelty to your lessons.
Suggestions for Using Selected language Teaching Techniques
Grammar Translation Method and Audiolingual Method
If your students feel that they must know the rule for a certain feature of grammar, try this adaptation of the Grammar Translation and Audiolingual Methods. Tell your students that they are going to discover the rules themselves. Then have them work through a set of audiolingual pattern drills which illustrate the feature. After they have done the drills, ask for volunteers to try to state the rule. If they have trouble expressing the rule, ask leading questions to guide them.
Direct Method and Audiolingual Method
Conversations, dialogues, or short narratives can be used to exercise the students’ ability to guess the meaning from context. Ask your students to listen for one or two specific words, play a tape recording of a short passage (two to three minutes at most), and ask for guesses about the meaning of the words. Have your students justify their guesses by telling what clues they used. Conversations and dialogues are also an excellent way to practice conversational formulas such as greetings and leavetakings, simple requests, invitations, apologies, compliments, and the like. Such materials are particularly useful in one-on-one tutoring situations.
Communicative Approaches
One of the distinguishing features of the various types of communicative language teaching is that they emphasize the use of language in realistic ways. As you go about your daily routines, be on the alert for ways in which you use English to carry out simple tasks: for example, taking a phone message for a friend, or interpreting for someone who speaks English but doesn’t know the local language. Adapt these tasks for classroom activities which will motivate your students and allow them to demonstrate their use of English in real life tasks.
Total Physical Response
You can introduce new vocabulary to students using this method. It is especially effective with young learners but also useful in action sequences with adults. For example, any time you teach directions, have your students act them out, both with and without repetition of the directions. This will improve both comprehension and retention. TPR activities are also a good way to break up a session in which students have been sitting a long time.
Natural Approach
Borrow some techniques from the Natural Approach for the teaching of vocabulary. Decide on key vocabulary terms to be taught during the presentation phase of the lesson and plan how you will put across the meaning of each of the words. Is it a verb whose meaning you can act out? Can you show a picture to illustrate the meaning? (Many teachers accumulate files of pictures specifically for this purpose.) Can you use stick figures drawn on the blackboard? Can you contrast or compare the meaning of the new word to that of words which the students already know?
Competency-Based Approach
To help your students see how much they are learning, introduce real tasks or competencies and ask them to complete these. For example, see if they can read a bus schedule and choose the best bus to take. Have them order a piece of equipment from a catalogue.
Silent Way
Adapt techniques from the Silent Way for teaching pronunciation and basic literacy skills. If there is no sound-colour chart available, make your own. Ask students to pronounce key words or to repeat sentences from the words that you or one of your students points to.
Community Language Learning
If you want to encourage more of a team spirit in your class, you can borrow some of the activities from Community Language Learning. These will also promote real conversation.
Suggestopedia
Suggestopedia techniques can be used to lower the anxieties of your students and to increase their ability to be ready to take in language, especially vocabulary. You might also try such a session during review before exam time to show learners how much they actually know.
This chapter examines the diversity found in language teaching today, looking at three traditional approaches to language teaching, four communicative approaches, and three innovative approaches. Each approach is discussed in terms of its background, distinguishing features, and the impact on Volunteers’ classrooms and English language teaching. Think back to your own language learning days. Did you ever have a teacher who forced everyone to learn in the same way? Were all the students equally happy with that class? Probably not. The chances are that a teacher who showed no flexibility and appreciation of variety in learning style was not very motivating or successful.
”There is no single acceptable way to go about teaching language today.” This quote from Diane Larsen-Freeman’s writings on language teaching methodology sums up a major trend away from unity to diversity. There has been a growing realization that people learn in different ways, and that approaches which suit one person may not suit another. For example, some outgoing personalities love to experiment and can hardly wait for the chance to try speaking the new language. Others, more reserved, prefer to listen and understand before speaking. Some people find that studying the grammar is an important step for them in establishing a framework for their language learning. Others never study the rules, but find that putting themselves in situations where they have to communicate is enough to trigger their learning.
Against this backdrop, teachers of English have concluded that no single approach or method is appropriate for all learning styles. A good lesson will, therefore, be one in which you use a smorgasbord of activities taken from a variety of sources. By varying your technique, you will give students of all styles the chance to shine some of the time. With this thought in mind, you can begin to appraise the language learning approaches used in the country in which you serve. Each approach has something to offer. Your task is to identify and exploit those elements.
As you become more familiar with your job you will find that you learn to trust your instincts and your ability to judge when to switch techniques. At first, you may need to read about methods and approaches, and you should look for opportunities to talk to experienced teachers about what they think of different methods. Then, gradually as you get to know your students, you will find that you can sense when a class is tired, or confused, or in need of quiet time, or particularly interested. And you will find that you know when to dip into your repertoire of approaches, games, and exercises to find the appropriate activity which suits the mood of your students and which ensures they get the best out of every lesson.
The terms “method” and “approach” will be used interchangeably in this chapter. For example, the chapter refers to the Audio-lingual Method and the Communicative Approach. A number of different ways of distinguishing between methods and approaches have been proposed by experts in the field but the distinctions usually blur. Both deal with the theory of the nature of language and language learning; with syllabus, learning and teaching activities, learner and teacher roles, and instructional materials; and with classroom techniques, practices, and behaviours.
This chapter examines ten different approaches or methods and identifies the choices offered by each of these ten. The approaches or methods are divided into:
(a) Traditional Language Teaching
(b) Communicative Language Teaching
(c) Innovative Language Teaching
In this chapter, the comments on each of the ten approaches or methods are divided into three parts. First, comes the section on background. This section gives a short history of each method and will give you an idea of the developments in English language teaching over the past fifty years. Second, the section on distinguishing features highlights the special features of each method and approach. Third, the section on the impact on your classroom and your teaching concentrates on ideas in each method which may be helpful to you. This section owes much to conversations with TEFL Volunteers like yourself. These Volunteers, having faced initial hesitations about which method to use, have suggested the positive and practical ways in which you can judge the benefits and impact different methods will have on your English lessons.
Traditional Language Teaching
The Grammar Translation Method, the Direct Method, and the Audiolingual Method have been included not to give you a history of language teaching, but because they still strongly influence English instruction in many parts of the world. You will doubtless come across educationalists, now in decision-making positions, who have successfully learned English using one of these approaches. And their thinking on language learning is likely to be influenced by their experience. Belittling these approaches as counter-communicative or out of date may arouse their suspicion of your abilities as a teacher and may diminish your ability to eventually bring about change.
Those of you teaching English as a secondary project may find that your older students want to use the approach they knew at school. Dismissing this attachment will not help you develop the productive relationship you want to establish with your adult students. A fundamental principle in teaching is moving from the known to the unknown. In this case, it means taking into account your students’ previous experience and using some of the activities from methodologies they feel comfortable with, at least in the initial stages.
Many countries have limited funds for buying textbooks. Consequently, you may find yourself working from a syllabus based on a twenty-five-year-old textbook which reflects only one approach. As newcomers, your role is a delicate one. On the one hand, you do not want to offend with your criticisms, but on the other, you do not want to lose sight of your goal to transfer to your colleagues your technical skills and your innovative ideas. A good strategy to follow in the opening stages of your service is to be seen as covering the syllabus? using some of the activities from the prescribed methodology. Once you have established with your colleagues and students that you respect the traditions and good points of the system, you may be more successful in winning their confidence and in bringing about changes which lead to the use of other more effective teaching methods.
(a) Grammar Translation Method
(b) Direct Method
(c) Audiolingual Method (ALM)
Communicative Language Teaching
This shift evolved partly as a result of studies carried out by the Council of Europe, which began to identify the language needed in a variety of social situations by someone immigrating to Common Market countries. The studies sought to evaluate how language itself is used-how native speakers of a language express themselves in various situations. The studies had a major impact on the teaching of English as a foreign language. Teachers and curriculum designers began to look at content, at the kind of language needed when greeting or shopping. The emphasis on form, on explicitly learning grammar rules or practising grammatical patterns, was downplayed in favour of an approach designed to meet learners’ needs when using the language in daily interaction.
There is no single text or authority on communicative language teaching. It is referred to as an approach that aims to make communication the goal of language teaching. Several models have evolved around this principle. This chapter presents the Communicative Approach, Total Physical Response, Natural Approach, and Competency-Based Approach. As you will see, these approaches overlap. Communicative activities particularly are impossible to pin down to only one approach.
(a) Communicative Approach
(b) Total Physical Response (TPR) and the Natural Approach
(c) Competency-Based Approach
Innovative Language Teaching
These are valuable guidelines which you can easily follow in your English language classrooms.
(a) The Silent Way
(b) Community Language Learning (CLL)
(c) Suggestopedia
Suggestions for Using Selected language Teaching Techniques
Grammar Translation Method and Audiolingual Method
If your students feel that they must know the rule for a certain feature of grammar, try this adaptation of the Grammar Translation and Audiolingual Methods. Tell your students that they are going to discover the rules themselves. Then have them work through a set of audiolingual pattern drills which illustrate the feature. After they have done the drills, ask for volunteers to try to state the rule. If they have trouble expressing the rule, ask leading questions to guide them.
Direct Method and Audiolingual Method
Conversations, dialogues, or short narratives can be used to exercise the students’ ability to guess the meaning from context. Ask your students to listen for one or two specific words, play a tape recording of a short passage (two to three minutes at most), and ask for guesses about the meaning of the words. Have your students justify their guesses by telling what clues they used. Conversations and dialogues are also an excellent way to practice conversational formulas such as greetings and leavetakings, simple requests, invitations, apologies, compliments, and the like. Such materials are particularly useful in one-on-one tutoring situations.
Communicative Approaches
One of the distinguishing features of the various types of communicative language teaching is that they emphasize the use of language in realistic ways. As you go about your daily routines, be on the alert for ways in which you use English to carry out simple tasks: for example, taking a phone message for a friend, or interpreting for someone who speaks English but doesn’t know the local language. Adapt these tasks for classroom activities which will motivate your students and allow them to demonstrate their use of English in real life tasks.
Total Physical Response
You can introduce new vocabulary to students using this method. It is especially effective with young learners but also useful in action sequences with adults. For example, any time you teach directions, have your students act them out, both with and without repetition of the directions. This will improve both comprehension and retention. TPR activities are also a good way to break up a session in which students have been sitting a long time.
Natural Approach
Borrow some techniques from the Natural Approach for the teaching of vocabulary. Decide on key vocabulary terms to be taught during the presentation phase of the lesson and plan how you will put across the meaning of each of the words. Is it a verb whose meaning you can act out? Can you show a picture to illustrate the meaning? (Many teachers accumulate files of pictures specifically for this purpose.) Can you use stick figures drawn on the blackboard? Can you contrast or compare the meaning of the new word to that of words which the students already know?
Competency-Based Approach
To help your students see how much they are learning, introduce real tasks or competencies and ask them to complete these. For example, see if they can read a bus schedule and choose the best bus to take. Have them order a piece of equipment from a catalogue.
Silent Way
Adapt techniques from the Silent Way for teaching pronunciation and basic literacy skills. If there is no sound-colour chart available, make your own. Ask students to pronounce key words or to repeat sentences from the words that you or one of your students points to.
Community Language Learning
If you want to encourage more of a team spirit in your class, you can borrow some of the activities from Community Language Learning. These will also promote real conversation.
Suggestopedia
Suggestopedia techniques can be used to lower the anxieties of your students and to increase their ability to be ready to take in language, especially vocabulary. You might also try such a session during review before exam time to show learners how much they actually know.
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