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Language Teaching Methodologies

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Sussan Roo

on 10 June 2014

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Transcript of Language Teaching Methodologies

A journey through language teaching history
Language Teaching Methodologies
I. The Grammar-Translation Method
II. The Direct Method
III. Audio-lingual Method
IV. Humanistic Approaches
A. Suggestopedia
B. The Silent Way
C. Community Language Teaching
D. Total Physical Response
V. The Natural approach
VI. Communicative Language Teaching

Learning L2 the way we acquired our mother tongue
Learning :L2 the U.S. Army way
Not learning, but acquiring the language
as infants do.
Departing from language acquisition theories
and focusing on affective and emotional factors
Building communicative competence through interaction, authentic language and meaningful content.
Before starting...
The grammar-translation
The Direct Method

Audio-lingual Method
The Natural Approach
Humanistic Methods
(70's & 80's)

Language Teaching Approach
(1980- )
What do the next concepts mean?
Are they used to refer to the same thing? Discuss it and decide.
Main characteristics
Classes are taught in the students' mother tongue.
Vocabulary is taught in the form of isolated word lists.
Elaborate explanations of grammar are always provided.
Reading of difficult texts is begun early in the course of study.
Little attention is paid to the content of texts.
The only drills are exercises in translating disconnected sentences.
Little or no attention is given to speaking and pronunciation.

It is one of the most traditional methods.
Students translate but do not produce their own sentences.
Little contextualization of the grammar for real communication.
Focus on accuracy can be harmful to the students’ learning processes.

Translation: Students are asked to read a literary passage and then translate the target language into the native language.
Deductive application of grammar rules: Students understand the rules and then apply them.
Memorization: Students are asked to memorize lists of new words, grammatical rules and verb conjugation.
Reading comprehension questions: Are asked in the native language and students must answer them in the target language.
Learning L2 like in ancient Rome and Greece
The Direct Method
A.K.A. The Berlitz Method, this method taught learners directly (without translation) and conceptually (without grammatical rules and explanations).
Based on the notion that a second language learning is similar to the first language learning
Classroom instruction was conducted in L2
There was an inductive approach to grammar
Only everyday vocabulary was taught
Concrete vocabulary was taught through pictures and objects
Abstract vocabulary was taught by association of ideas
Communication skills were organized around Q&A exchanges btw. teachers and students
Speech and listening comprehension were taught first
Correct pronunciation and grammar were emphasized

Q & A: Teacher asks, students answer.
Dictation: The teacher chooses passage and reads the text aloud.
Reading Aloud: Students take turn reading sections of a passage, play or dialog out loud.
Self-Correction: Students self-correct by teacher offering choices between what they said and the proper pronunciation/structure.

L2 was learned the same way L1 was acquired - by total immersion technique.
It rejects use of the printed word - but this objection is illogical since students already have reading/writing skills.
Selection, grading and control of language presentation lacks logical structure, especially with vocabulary and grammar
Required native speakers as teachers.
Its success depended on teacher’s skill and personality more than on the methodology itself.

Outbreak of the World War II heightened the need to become orally proficient in other languages.
A.K.A. “The Army Method” (an oral-based approach to L2 learning)
Charles Fries and Leonard Bloomfield (structural linguists) identify the grammatical structures and the basic sentence patterns.
Students practice these patterns by systematic attention to pronunciation and intensive oral drilling

Dependence on mimicry and memorization of set phrases
Teaching structural patterns by means of repetitive drills
Use of tapes, visual aids and language labs
No grammatical explanation
Focus on pronunciation and accuracy
Immediate reinforcement of correct responses
Learning vocabulary in context
No use of mother tongue

Dialog Memorization
Backward Build Up
Transformation Drill
Complete the Dialog
Communicative competence is not ‘acquired’ through habit formation and ‘overlearning’ dialogues in a language lab
Errors are a natural part of the learning process. Not to be avoided, but used as learning opportunities
There is more to language than just structure, e.g., collocations, register, inferencing, etc.

Following an initial "silent period", comprehension should precede production in speech, as the latter should be allowed to emerge in natural stages or progressions.
Lowering of the Affective Filter is of paramount importance.
Only the target language is used in class, introducing the "total immersion" concept for the very first time.
Errors in speech are not corrected aloud.
Now enters the era of glossy textbooks, replete with cultural vignettes, glossaries, vocabulary lists, and glazed photographs. A deliberate, conscious approach to the study of grammar is considered to have only modest value in the language learning process.
Originally developed by Tracy Terrell and Stephen Krashen, this acquisition-focused approach based on Krashen's language acquisition theory, sees communicative competence progressing through three stages: (a) aural comprehension, (b) early speech production, and (c) speech activities, all fostering "natural" language acquisition, much as a child would learn his/her native tongue.
Pairing off of students into small groups to practice newly acquired structures,
Visualization activities with the help of pictures and slide presentations,
Activities such as word games, dialogues and contests,
Use of realia which might include the use of charts, maps, graphs, and advertisements.
Now the classroom becomes more student-centered with the teacher allowing students to output the language more often on their own.
Formal sequencing of grammatical concepts is kept to a minimum.
If the learner is not asked to produce language, the teacher cannot know what her needs are, and therefore cannot provide appropriate material. So,we need output in order to provide the input.
Researchers suggest that the learner needs to produce language in order to learn it. If we stick to the natural method, the learner will understand the language only at a superficial level.
Monitoring is seen as simply being a post-learning process, a tool for use of language, but reaserchers consider it as a basic learning strategy.
A. Suggestopedia
B. The Silent Way

Used relaxation and breathing techniques as means of retaining knowledge and material
Music plays a pivotal role (Baroque music with its 60 beats per minute and its specific rythm created “relaxed concentration” which led to “superlearning)
Students listen to texts and represent different roles using the L2.
Students are flooded with oral input which they have to learn inductively
The activities are designed so that they involve the students’ interests in such a way they do not provoke mental blocks.
Interaction is also employed so that learners are able to use what they have unconsciously acquired.

The Silent Way
In this method, the teacher remains silent while pupils output the language on cue through perpetual prompting.
This is the production before meaning school of thought and practice.
A color-coded phonics (sound) chart called a fidel, with both vowel and consonant clusters on it, is projected onto a screen to be used simultaneously with a pointer, thus permitting the pupil to produce orally on a continuous basis in the target language, vía a sequence of phonemes or sound units.
Community Language Learning
Curran noticed that propensity to anxiety in adult language learners and focused on building a warm and supportive ‘community’ among learners gradually moving from dependence on the teacher to complete autonomy.
Humanistic position: Avoidance of anxious situations
Conscious learning
Learners as clients: whole-person approach
Learners: active participants in teaching process
No grammatical analysis
No a priori syllabus
Translation, recording and analysis techniques
Self-correction is fostered
Emphasis on group-work
C. Comunity Language Learning
D. Total Physical Response (TPR)
Total Physical Response (TPR)
Asher focused on several characteristics of L1 acquisition to develop this method: 1)children have to comprehend a lot of input before they learn how to speak and 2) children receive input in which a lot of physical manipulation and action is involved.
This association between movement and language facilitates spontaneous acquisition because of the association between stimulus and response. This model has a clear audiolingual orientation.
Asher also incorporated some humanistic principles: it is essential to eliminate affective filters such as anxiety or stress, which could affect acquisition.
It is a way of teaching a language which is based on systematic principles and procedures, i.e., is an application of views on how a language is best taught and learned.
Theoretically well-informed positions and beliefs about the nature of language, the nature of language learning, and the applicability of both to pedagogical settings.
It is considered as a "style" of doing things, more than a set of steps to follow.
Any of a wide variety of exercises, activities, or tasks used in the language classroom for realizing lesson objectives.
Pedagogical practices in general.
Whatever considerations are involved in "how to teach" are methodological
Welcome to the post-method era!
(1980's - )
Toward informed approaches
In this era, we learned to be cautiously eclectic and to make choices of teaching practices that were solidly grounded in language learning and teaching theories and research.
Coming up...
Stay tuned...
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