Taxonomy of Language Teaching Techniques

TAXONOMY OF LANGUAGE TEACHING TECHNIQUES
(adapted from Crookes & Chaudron, 1991, pp. 52-54, as cited in Brown, 2001)
CONTROLLED TECHNIQUES
1. Warm-up: Mimes, dance, songs, jokes, play. This activity gets the students stimulated, relaxed,
motivated, attentive, or otherwise engaged and ready for the lesson. It does not necessarily involve use
of the target language.
2. Setting: Focusing on lesson topic. Teacher directs attention to the topic by verbal or nonverbal
evocation of the context relevant to the lesson by questioning or miming or picture presentation,
possibly by tape recording of situations and people.
3. Organizational: Structuring of lesson or class activities includes disciplinary action, organization
of class furniture and seating, general procedures for class interaction and performance, structure and
purpose of lesson, etc.
4. Content explanation: Grammatical, phonological, lexical (vocabulary), sociolinguistic, pragmatic,
or any other aspects of language.
5. Role-play demonstration: Selected students or teacher illustrate the procedure(s) to be applied in
the lesson segment to follow. It includes brief illustration of language or other content to be
incorporated.
6. Dialogue/Narrative presentation: Reading or listening passage presented for passive reception.
No implication of student production or other identification of specific target forms or functions
(students may be asked to "understand").
7. Dialogue/Narrative recitation: Reciting a previously known or prepared text, either in unison or
individually.
8. Reading aloud: Reading directly from a given text.
9. Checking: Teacher either circulating or guiding the correction of students' work, providing
feedback as an activity rather than within another activity.
10. Question-answer, display: Activity involving prompting of student responses by means of
display questions (¡.e., teacher or questioner already knows the response or has a very limited set of
expectations for the appropriate response). Distinguished from referential questions by the likelihood
of the questioner’s knowing the response and the speaker’s being aware of that fact.
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11. Drill: Typical language activity involving fixed patterns of teacher prompting and student
responding, usually with repetition, substitution, and other mechanical alterations. Typically with little
meaning attached.
12. Translation: Student or teacher provision of L1 or L2 translations of given text.
13. Dictation: Student writing down orally presented text.
14. Copying: Student writing down text presented visually.
15. Identification: Student picking out and producing/labeling or otherwise identifying a specific
target form, function, definition, or other lesson-related item.
16. Recognition: Student identifying forms, as in identification (i.e., checking off items, drawing
symbols, rearranging pictures), but without a verbal response.
17. Review: Teacher-led review of previous week/month/or other period as a formal summary and
type of test of student recall performance.
18. Testing: Formal testing procedures to evaluate student progress.
19. Meaningful drill: Drill activity involving responses with meaningful choices, as in reference to
different information. Distinguished from information exchange by the regulated sequence and general
form of responses.
SEMI-CONTROLLED TECHNIQUES
20. Brainstorming: A special form of preparation for the lesson, like setting, which involves free,
undirected contributions by the students and teacher on a given topic, to generate multiple associations
without linking them; no explicit analysis or interpretation by the teacher.
21. Story telling (especially when student-generated): Not necessarily lesson-based, a lengthy
presentation of story by teacher or student (may overlap with warm-up or Narrative recitation). May
be used to maintain attention, motivate, or as lengthy practice.
22. Question-answer, referential: Activity involving prompting of responses by means of referential
questions (i.e., the questioner does not know beforehand the response information). Distinguished
from Question-answer, display.
23. Cued narrative/Dialogue: Student production of narrative or dialogue following cues from
miming, cue cards, pictures, or other stimuli related to narrative/dialogue (e.g., metalanguage
requesting functional acts).
24. Information transfer: Application from one mode (e.g., visual) to another (e.g., writing), which
involves some transformation of the information (e.g., student fills out diagram while listening to
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description). Distinguished from Identification in that the student is expected to transform and
reinterpret the language or information.
25. Information exchange: Task involving two-way communication as ¡n information-gap exercises,
when one or both parties (or a larger group) must share information to achieve some goal.
Distinguished from Question-answer, referential in that sharing of information is critical for the task.
26. Wrap-up: Brief teacher- or student-produced summary of point and/or items that have been
practiced or learned.
27. Narration/exposition: Presentation of a story or explanation derived from prior stimuli.
Distinguished from Cued narrative because of lack of immediate stimulus.
28. Preparation: Student study, silent reading, pair planning and rehearsing, preparing for later
activity. Usually a student-directed or -oriented project.
FREE TECHNIQUES
29. Role-play: Relatively free acting out of specified roles and functions. Distinguished from Cued
dialogues by the fact that cueing is provided only minimally at the beginning, and not during the
activity.
30. Games: Various kinds of language game activity not like other previously defined activities (e.g.
board and dice games making words).
31. Report: Report of student-prepared exposition on books, experiences, project work, without
immediate stimulus, and elaborated on according to student interests. Akin to Composition in writing
mode.
32. Problem solving: Activity involving specified problem and limitations of means to resolve it;
requires cooperation on part of participants in small or large group.
33. Drama: Planned dramatic rendition of play, skit, story, etc.
34. Simulation: Activity involving complex interaction between groups and individuals based on
simulation of real-life actions and experiences.
35. Interview: A student is directed to get information from another student or students.
36. Discussion: Debate or other form of grouped discussion of specified topic, with or without
specified sides/positions prearranged.
37. Composition: As in Report (verbal), written development of ideas, story, or other exposition.
38. A propos: Conversation or other socially oriented interaction/speech by teacher, students, or even
visitors, on general real-life topics. Typically authentic and genuine.

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TAXONOMY OF LANGUAGE TEACHING TECHNIQUES

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