Language teaching: pedagogiesApproaches, beliefs and methods.

Definitions of pedagogy.

“Method and practice of teaching, especially as an academic subject or theoretical concept” (Oxford dictionary)

“Art, science or profession of teaching” (Merriam-Webster Dictionary)

“the discipline that deals with the theory and practice of teaching” (Wikipedia)

What is teaching?

How do theories of learning connect with teaching practices?

Some perspectives:

Freire on the banking model of education

The blank slate or tabula rasa (Aristotle)

Filling a pail or lighting a fire?

Methods, methodologies and beliefsMacaro (2003) uses the four way stretch diagram to represent the polarisation of

theories of language acquisition:

The horizontal axis represents the polarisation between theories of language input. Implicit input

arises from natural exposure and sub-conscious processing, explicit from teaching and conscious

processing. The vertical axis represents the concept of how language input is processed. Nativist

implies that language learning is an innate skill, interactionist that language is a specialised form

of knowledge that is acquired through interaction with the environment. He adds this observation:

―Of course polarizations are never absolute and theories as well as individuals place

themselves on various stages along the continuum of these axes.(p22)

Where are you?

At the transmission end of this continuum tutors would have positivist views that learning is achieved through the transmission of objective reality. They would see mastery and internalisation of language structure and form to be the learner’s goal.

At the interpretation end, the tutor is concerned to train the learner to become autonomous in language acquisition, more in tune with a constructivist view.

(Wright, 1987)

transmission interpretation

Teacher beliefs:

“teachers change in areas they are already primed to change, and this priming depends on their individual characteristics and prior experiences, which shape their view of the classroom, their students and themselves as teachers. […] Accordingly, attempts to influence teachers’ behaviour will have an impact only in areas where the input in valued and salient to the individual, and where it is congruent with, and interpretable within, the teacher’s own world of thought and action.”

Pennington, M. 1996. In Freeman, D. and Richards,J.C. (eds). Teacher learning in language teaching. Cambridge:CUP.

Teaching is a complex, situated activity

Must take account of:

Distance between L1 and the FL

Students prior learning, experiences and expectations

Constraints imposed by institutional context

Nature of assessments and course requirements

Characteristics of individuals, group dynamics

(adapted from Klapper, 2006. p122. Understanding and developing good practice. London:CILT. )

Language teaching approaches

Grammar translation:

Sees language as a deductive process, conducted largely through writing.

Direct method:

Direct association of objects/concepts with L2, avoids use of L1

Audiolingualism:

Uses audio drills and learning dialogues to train speakers

Communicative Language Teaching: (CLT – strong vs weak)

Chomsky. Emphasis on communication of messages

Form-focused Instruction (FFI; FonF;FonFs)

Draws learner attention to linguistic form/s

Task-based Instruction (TBI)

Meaning based activities closely related to learners’ actual communicative needs

Lewis’ Lexical Approach

•Intensive and extensive listening and reading in the targetlanguage.• First and second language comparisons and translation—carried out chunk-for-chunk, rather than word-for-word—aimed at raising language awareness.• Repetition and recycling of activities, such as summarizinga text orally one day and again a few days later to keep wordsand expressions that have been learned active.• Guessing the meaning of vocabulary items from context.• Noticing and recording language patterns and collocations.•Working with dictionaries and other reference tools.•Working with language corpuses created by the teacher for usein the classroom or accessible on the Internet

Lewis proposes a new model:

observe

hypothesiseexperiment

Krashen’s Natural Approach

Comprehensible input

The seven hypotheses for constructivist language learning

(Chapelle, 1998) :

•The linguistic characteristics of target language input need to be made

salient

•Learners should receive help in comprehending semantic and syntactic

aspects of linguistic input

•Learners need to have opportunities to produce target language output

•Learners need to notice errors in their own input

•Learners need to correct their linguistic output

•Learners need to engage in target language interaction whose structure

can be modified for negotiation of meaning

•Learners should engage in L2 tasks designed to maximise opportunities

for good interaction

Post modern? Post methods?

Where next?

Autodidacticism: learning in the YouTube age

SOLE: self-organised learning – Sugatra Mitra’s Hole in the Wall project

Old theories, new contexts (See Wheeler, 2015. ch 4. Learning with e’s) Affordances of technologies giving new contexts and possibilities.

Connectivism: (Siemens, 2002)

Heutagogy: (Hayes,S. and Kenyon,C. 2000) another way to describe learning more suited to contemporary life?