Assignment - Unit 3 The Teaching and Learning of

ESOL

Module 1 The Basic Principles of TESOL

TASKS FOR SUBMISSION TO YOUR TUTOR

Each task should be between 500 and 750 words long.

TASK 1

Using what you have read in this introduction to TESOL and your own
knowledge, what do you consider to be the blocks which may prevent
language learning?

The most common problem that I encountered while teaching is

hesitation on the part of students to speak in class. It is very important
for a teacher to make the students feel comfortable in the class by
assuring them that they will not be judged and it is ok to make mistakes.
This will encourage the students to speak and express freely in the class
and participate in class activities without any hesitation. Another problem
frequently faced by language teachers is that many students have very
high expectations from the course and they get themselves enrolled
thinking that by the end of the course they will start speaking like a
native without putting in much effort. However, it must be made clear
right in the beginning that the amount of success they achieve is directly
proportional to the hard work they put in. Teachers are the facilitators,
not magicians.
Some students feel that learning a foreign language is indescribably
hard. They have this mental block that prevents them from learning a
new skill. Recalling the right word at the right time poses a problem to
many language learners. A learner must understand that language
learning is a skill that tests your patience. You need to be really patient
with yourself and have faith in your ability to learn a new language. Lot
of practice and persistence is the key to acquiring any new skill. It is the
task of a teacher to help students understand this fact and build that kind
of confidence in them.
Lack of motivation and fear of failure are considered to be the major
blocks that may prevent language learning. Students have a variety of
reasons to learn a new language. These reasons can be due to
academic purposes, for career purposes, self interest, travelling
purposes, migration purposes etc. Those who are forced to learn are
very different from those who are willing to learn. Former ones are less
involved with their studies. They are less enthusiastic about learning, not
motivated and have higher chance of dropping out. Students who are
shy and suffer from inferiority complex will fear asking questions and
participating in class activities. Students who learn a language with a
purpose in mind are more likely to stay motivated throughout the course.
They are also expected to learn faster and better than those who are not
goal oriented.

Teaching style, knowledge and attitude of the teacher is another

important factor influencing the learners’ motivation. If the teacher is not
able to teach the lesson in an interesting and enjoyable manner, the
students may feel bored and comprehend less or may even drop out. A
good teacher must acquire the skill to make the lesson fun and engaging
for the students so as to facilitate learning and making it an enjoyable
experience. He/she must plan lessons keeping individual difference in
mind. A good teacher must also try to build good rapport with the
students and be sensitive towards their feeling and moods. At the same
time displaying professional behaviour is of utmost importance to be be
taken seriously and gaining the confidence of the students.
Lessons should be planned in a balanced way ie. They should not be
too easy or too difficult. Success without effort does no good and
continual failure is de motivating.
A class where the students are just passive listeners is likely to have
high number of dropouts than the one where students are active.
Planning a well balanced lesson requires a lot of hard work on part of the
teacher. However, it is a prerequisite to maximise learning experience of
the students.
TASK 2

"............it seems reasonable to suggest that the motivation that students

bring to class is the biggest single factor affecting their success" ( The
Practice of English Language Teaching' Harmer)

From your own experience and from what you have read can you
comment on this statement?

It’s a well known saying that you can take the horse to water but you can
not force it to drink it. It needs to be thirsty to drink water. Similarly, a
person cannot achieve success in any field unless he/she really wants
to do it.
Studies have shown that those who join the course with some goal in
mind are intrinsically motivated to perform better. The mindset they enter
the class with, directly influences the amount of learning happening to
them.
A learner is motivated either intrinsically or extrinsically. Extrinsic
motivation comes from external sources such as the need to clear an
exam e.g. students who are seeking admission in foreign university are
more determined to score high in IELTS and are definitely more
committed to learn. Whereas, students who do not have anything
definite to work towards, may not persevere due to lack of motivation
and may even dropout. However, some students may have other less
well-defined goals such as desire to be able to speak in English, to
increase job prospects or to be able to gain access to the vast resources
in English. A learner, who joins the course with the aim of improving his
performance at work where the lack of knowledge of the language
undermines his performance, is much more motivated to learn.
Some students may be driven by the desire to fit in the society. In
contrast, some individuals might be motivated intrinsically i.e. their
motivation comes from within. They may learn because they enjoy
learning or to make them feel better. Whatever the reason may be, the
more the learner is motivated, the better the learning experience will be.
It may seem that a class full of goal oriented students makes the task of
teaching quite easier. However, the truth is quite the opposite as it poses
a new challenge in front of the teacher i.e. to retain or increase the
motivation levels of the students. It is the task of a good teacher to
develop the love for learning in his/her students. If the teachers can
make their classrooms places where the students enjoy coming because
the content is interesting and relevant to their age and level of ability,
where the learning goals are challenging yet manageable and clear, and
where the atmosphere is supportive and non-threatening, they can make
a positive contribution to the students' motivation to learn. The success
of a teacher is gauged by how well he/ she manage to sustain the
motivation the learner brings to the class. This cannot be done without
working on the affect component of the class. The teacher must be
caring towards the students and must work hard to build a good teacher
– student rapport. Students should feel comfortable and confident in the
presence of the teacher.
Well planned and balanced lesson plans encourage and motivate the
students to continue to perform better. A well prepared and well
presented lesson reposes the trust and faith of students in their teacher.
On the contrary, unprepared and shabbily dressed teacher fails to
arouse the curiosity of the students. When students have confidence in
the teacher, they are likely to remain engaged with what is going on. If
they lose that confidence, it becomes difficult for them to sustain the
motivation they might have started with. A good teacher endeavors to
make the class more and more interactive and engaging for the students
by including a variety of relevant and enjoyable activities in the class.
E.g. role plays, singing songs, monologues, discussions, dialogues,
interviews, predict and end the story, chain drills etc must be included in
the class.
Last but not the least, sometimes letting the students decide what they
want to learn and giving them control of the class boosts their confidence
and motivates them to take interest in the class for longer period of time..

TASK 3

"Knowing a language is not just a matter of having grammatical

'competence' ........ We have seen that we also need to add
communicative competence - that is the understanding of what language
is appropriate within certain situations." (The Practice of English Language
Teaching' Harmer)

Is there any place for teaching grammar in a formal manner? Give

reasons for your answer and include a discussion of what you mean by
‘a formal manner’.

Grammar can undoubtedly be seen as an indispensible part of language

learning. However, just knowing the grammatical structures of a
language is not enough. Learners need to acquire the knowledge of
application of these structures in order to gain proficiency in any
language. Before 1970’s, teachers laid more emphasis on teaching the
grammatical forms in a more formal way. However, these traditional
ways of structured teaching of foreign language was questioned later on.
Attention was shifted towards communicative approach of teaching a
foreign language. Here, students are involved in solving communicative
problems by performing certain tasks. It was based on the idea that
learning would happen out of performance of communicative tasks
rather than memorising the structures. E.g. students are shown a picture
of a monument and asked to describe it in their own words. Based on
the students’ responses, teacher will discuss the grammatical structure
to be used while undertaking the task.
Teachers in new languages could use either formal or informal methods
of teaching. Formal manner of teaching grammar is the concentration on
grammar structure in languages. In this type of teaching, the students
learn the different grammatical structures as well as how to compose
sensible sentences. The method of teaching is based on the assumption
that grammatical requirements contribute greatly to the construction of
correct sentences. Informal manner on the other hand focuses on the
ability of the students to speak in the new language fluently. In this
method therefore, the teacher informs the students of the impact of
different factors in language use such as tonal variations.
One of the reasons why using only the formal grammar teaching method
is not enough is because the formal method leads to the student never
learning how to communicate effectively through that language. In the
formal method, the students only understand the grammatical
requirements of a language. They may therefore not understand how the
placement of a word in a sentence may change the meaning of the
whole sentence. They end up forming sentences based on what they
think is the correct grammatical structure. Consequently, sometimes they
say things that do not necessarily mean what they mean to say. It is
thereby difficult for them to communicate effectively using the language.
Therefore, in order to acquire proficiency in foreign language, it is
imperative to combine it with its communicative use. The formal method
directs the students to construct sentence for formal use alone thereby
failing to equip them to engage in casual conversations. Native speakers
often use phrases that disregard grammatical requirements. The
language learners taught in a formal manner may therefore not
understand what the native speaker is saying or completely
misunderstand the speaker.
To conclude, we can say that it is impossible to divide grammar and
speech, we cannot imagine any form of speech without grammar, and it
is the material basis of speech along with vocabulary and sound
structure. Grammar plays an organizing role. At the same time, it would
be inappropriate to give undue importance to solely teaching of
grammar in ESL classes as focusing on this aspect alone would result in
failure to apply there structures to your communication defeating the
whole objective of language learning. Unnecessarily long explanations of
grammatical rules must be avoided at all costs. At the same time,
focusing only on the task based learning may fail to give in-depth
knowledge of the topic restricting the usage of the concept learned.