TEFL 2 – EVEN SEMESTER 2009/2010

LANGUAGE TEACHING METHODOLGY: WHAT IS IT?

Some Historical Background

People began to do language teaching in the last century.

Central to this phenomenon was the emergence of the concept of "methods“ of language teaching.

The method = the notion of a systematic set of teaching practices based on a particular theory of language and language learning.

The concept of method in language teaching is a powerful one, and the quest for better methods was a preoccupation of teachers and applied linguists throughout the 20th century.

LANGUAGE TEACHING METHODOLOGY

TEFL 2 – EVEN SEMESTER 2009/2010

LANGUAGE TEACHING METHODOLGY: WHAT IS IT?

What is meant by “methodology”? Methodology is the links between theory

and practiceTheories of the Nature

of Language; Theories of Learning

Instructi-onal Design Feature

s

Observed

Teaching

Practices

approach

method

techniques

design procedures

principle

APPROACH

METHOD

TECHNIQUE

A set of correlative assumptions dealing with the nature of language teaching and learning. An approach is axiomatic. It describes the nature of the subject matter to be taught.an overall plan for the orderly presentation of language material…………… An approach is axiomatic, a method is procedural. Within one approach there can be many methods.

implementational –that which happens in the classroom.

BEHAVIORAL PSYCHOLOGY

Watson & Raynor (1920) : Theory of Conditioning Theory of conditioning (experiments on

human baby and rats) Stimulus-response-reinforcement model

B.F. Skinner (1957): This theory of conditioning can be applied to the way humans acquire their first language. Language is a form of behaviour in much

the same way as the rat pressing the bar exhibits a form of behaviour

The same model of stimulus-response-reinforcement accounts for how a human baby learns a language

INNATIST THEORIES & COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY

Psychological theory, influenced much by a linguist Noam Chomsky, who strongly rejects the behaviourists view of language acquisition (how a baby learns a language)Chomsky (1959): if all language is learnt

behaviour, how is it that young children can say things that they have never said before? How is it possible that adults all through their lives say things they have never said before?How is it possible that a new sentence in the mouth of a four-year-old is the result of conditioning?

INNATIST THEORIES & COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY

According to Chomsky (1959) every human has a Language Acquisition Device (LAD) which allow children to acquire language and to be creative as language users (e.g. experimenting and saying things they have not said before)

Chomsky’s theory of Language Acquisition Device (LAD)

INNATIST THEORIES & COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY

Acquisition = a subconscious process which results in the knowledge of a language

Learning = the latter results only in 'knowing about' the language.

Acquiring a language is more successful and longer lasting than learning.

Krashen suggests that second (or foreign) language learning needs to be more like the child's acquisition of its native language.

Successful acquisition depends very much on the nature of the language input which the students receive. Input is a term used to mean the language that the students hear or see.

Stephen Krashen’s Theory of Acquisition & Learning

INTERACTIVIST THEORIES OF LEARNING & SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

Allwright “... if the 'language teacher's' management activities are directed exclusively at involving the learners in solving communication problems in the target language, then language learning will take care of itself ... “ (1977b: 5)

Three necessary elements: 1. Exposure2. Motivation, 3. Opportunities to use the language

“Language learning will take care of itself”

In other words there is no need for formal instruction (e.g. the teaching of a grammatical point).

Instead students are simply asked to perform communicative activities in which they have to use the foreign language.

The more they do this the better they become at using the language.

INTERACTIVIST THEORIES OF LEARNING & SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

Prabhu (1987) Task-based Learning if the emphasis in class was on meaning,

the language would be learnt incidentally. The way this was to come about was

through a series of tasks which had a problem-solving element;

in solving the problems the students naturally came into contact with language, but this contact happened because the students were actively involved in reaching solutions to tasks.

HUMANISTIC APPROACH

Language teaching is not just about teaching language, it is also about helping students to develop themselves as people.

the experience of the student is what counts and the development of their personality and the encouragement of positjve feelings are seen to be as important as their learning of a language.

HUMANISTIC APPROACH

Getrude Moscowitz (provides a number of interactive activities designed to make students feel good and (often) remember happy times and events whilst at the same time practising language

Other writers have used similar student-centred activities (where the topic is frequently the students themselves, their lives and their relationships) to practise grammar or vocabulary.

HUMANISTIC APPROACH Others, based on the educational movement of

counselling, attempts to give students only the language they need.

Lozanov develops a methodolody in which students must be comfortably relaxed. This frequently means comfortable furniture and (baroque) music. In this setting students are given new names and listen to extended dialogues. The contention is that the general ease, of the situation, the adoption of a new identity and the dependence on listening to the dialogues will help the students to acquire the language.

Caleb Gattegno develops a methodology the teacher gives a very limited amount of input, modelling the language to be learnt once only and then indicating what the students should do through pointing and other silent means. The teacher will not criticise or praise but simply keeps indicating that the student should try again until success is achieved.

HUMANISTIC APPROACH

Getrude Moscowitz (provides a number of interactive activities designed to make students feel good and (often) remember happy times and events whilst at the same time practising language

Other writers have used similar student-centred activities (where the topic is frequently the students themselves, their lives and their relationships) to practise grammar or vocabulary.

POPULAR METHODS1. The Grammar-Translation Method2. The Direct Method3. The Audio-Lingual Method4. The Silent Way5. Suggestopedia6. Community Language Learning7. Total Physical Response8. Communicative Language Teaching9. Content-Based, Task-Based, and

Participatory Approaches10.Natural Approach

THE END

That’s all for today !!