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Learning Centered Methods

1. The document discusses learner-centered language teaching methods like the Natural Approach and Communicational Teaching Project. These methods focus on meaning over form, comprehension over production, and incidental learning. 2. Key aspects of these methods include using information-gap, reasoning-gap, and opinion-gap activities; providing comprehensible input; integrating language skills; and making incidental corrections. 3. The theories emphasize interaction, participation, and sharing experiences through activities like role-plays, interviews and dialogs. However, these methods still leave questions around task design and evaluation.

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Gabi Oliveira
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82 views20 pages

Learning Centered Methods

1. The document discusses learner-centered language teaching methods like the Natural Approach and Communicational Teaching Project. These methods focus on meaning over form, comprehension over production, and incidental learning. 2. Key aspects of these methods include using information-gap, reasoning-gap, and opinion-gap activities; providing comprehensible input; integrating language skills; and making incidental corrections. 3. The theories emphasize interaction, participation, and sharing experiences through activities like role-plays, interviews and dialogs. However, these methods still leave questions around task design and evaluation.

Uploaded by

Gabi Oliveira
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Learner-centered Methods

Learning-centered
Methods
PROF. SANDRA SANTOS
UNIVERSIDADE DO ESTADO DE MINAS GERAIS - IBIRITÉ
Learner-centered methods: CLT Theoretical
Principles: Theory of language teaching
Teachers’ responsibilities:
a) develop the knowledge/ability necessary to manipulate the linguistic system
and use it spontaneously and flexibly in order to express their intended
message;
b) understand the distinction, and the connection, between the linguistic forms
they have mastered and the communicative functions they need to perform;
c) develop styles and strategies required to communicate meanings as
effectively as possible in concrete situations;
d) become aware of the sociocultural norms governing the use of language
appropriate to different social circumstances.
(Littlewood, 1981, p. 6)
Kumaravadivelu, 2008, p. 120
Theoretical Principles: Theory of language
teaching
Teachers can foster communication by:
 Designing and using information-gap activities where when
one learner in a pair-work exchange knows something the
other learner does not;
 Offering choice of response to the learner, that is, open-
ended tasks and exercises where the learner determines
what to say and how to say it;
 Emphasizing contextualization rather than decontextualized
drills and pattern practices; Kumaravadivelu, 2008, p. 120
Theoretical Principles: Theory of language
teaching
 Using authentic language as a vehicle for communication in
class;
 Introducing language at discoursal (and not sentential) level;
 Tolerating errors as a natural outcome of language
development;
 Developing activities that integrate listening, speaking,
reading, and writing skills.

Kumaravadivelu, 2008, p. 120


Classroom procedures: Interaction
Activities
 In class surveys (find someone who);
 Information gap activities;
 Jigsaw reading;
 Roleplays;
 Games;
 Discussions;
 Debates;
 Line dialog.
Kumaravadivelu, 2008, p. 123
Classroom procedures: Interaction
Activities
 “Classroom procedures of learner-centered pedagogy are
largely woven around the sharing of information and the
negotiation of meaning”;
 We still have the PPP sequence, but “learner-centered
pedagogists present and help learners practice and produce
grammatical as well as notional/functional categories of
language.”

Kumaravadivelu, 2008, p. 123-124


Learning-centered
methods
Methods focused on this section:

 Natural approach
 Communicational approach (CTP)
The Natural Approach

 Proposed by Terrel to teach Spanish students at


the University of California;
 Based on the Monitor Model, by Krashen;
 “NA is premised on the belief that a language is
best acquired when the learner’s focus is not
directly on the language.”

Kumaravadivelu, 2008, p. 134-135


The Communicational Approach

 Based on the belief that grammar construction can take


place in the absence of any explicit focus on linguistic
features.
 Initiated and directed by Prabhu, who was an English
Studies Specialist at the British Council, South India.
 Was named Communicational Teaching Project (CTP)

Kumaravadivelu, 2008, p. 135


The language learning theory of
learning-centered pedagogy
1. Language development is incidental, not intentional.
2. Language development is meaning focused, not form
focused.
3. Language development is comprehension based, not
production based.
4. Language development is cyclical and parallel, not
sequential and additive.

Kumaravadivelu, 2008, p. 137-142


Theory of Language Teaching
It’s a theory of language teaching predominantly teacher-
fronted, and therefore best characterized in terms of
teacher activity in the classroom:
1. The teacher follows meaning-focused activities.
2. The teacher provides comprehensible input.
3. The teacher integrates language skills.
4. The teacher makes incidental correction.

Kumaravadivelu, 2008, p. 142


Content Specifications
 It adheres to a process-based syllabus defined exclusively in
terms of communicative activities.
 Revolves around unpredictable classroom interaction rather
than preselected content specifications, so not much
attention is paid to syllabus construction.
 Learning-centered pedagogists advocate a syllabus that
consists of open-ended topics, tasks, and situations. Ex:
Personal identification; description of school environment;
asking for directions; etc.

Kumaravadivelu, 2008, p. 142-146


Classroom Procedures
The meaning-focused activities advocated by learning-
centered pedagogists include what Prabhu (1987, p. 46)
has called
(a) information-gap
(b) reasoning-gap
(c) opinion-gap activities

Kumaravadivelu, 2008, p. 146-149


Interactional activities
Interaction as a Textual Activity
Learning-centered pedagogists attach a very low priority to
negotiated interaction between participants in the classroom event.
According to them, two-way interaction is not essential for language
development.
To encourage learner participation and early production, Krashen
and Terrell (1983) suggested several procedures including what they
call openended sentence, open dialogue, and association.

Kumaravadivelu, 2008, p. 150-154


Interactional activities
Interaction as an Interpersonal Activity
Interaction as an interpersonal activity offers participants in the L2
class opportunities to establish and maintain social relationships and
individual identities through pair and/or group activities.
NA introduced affective-humanistic activities involving the learner’s
wants, needs, feelings, and emotions. These activities are carried out
mainly through dialogues, role-plays, and interviews.

Kumaravadivelu, 2008, p. 152-154


Interactional activities
Interaction as an Ideational Activity
Interaction as an ideational activity is an expression of one’s own
experience of the real or imaginary world inside, around, and
beyond the classroom.
It pertains to sharing personal experiences learners bring with them
and is measured in terms of cultural and world knowledge.

Kumaravadivelu, 2008, p. 154


Questions unanswered
 How to determine the cognitive difficulty and the communicative
difficulty of a task, and, more importantly, the difference between the
two;
 How to formulate reasonably acceptable criteria for developing,
grading, sequencing, and evaluating tasks;
 How to design relevant summative and formative evaluation measures
that could reflect the learning-centered pedagogy, not only in terms of
the content of teaching but also in terms of the process of learning;
 How to determine the kind of demand the new pedagogy makes on
teachers in order to design appropriate teacher education measures.
Kumaravadivelu, 2008, p. 156-157
References:

KUMARAVADIVELU, B. Understanding Language Teaching:


From Method to Postmethod. New Jersey/London:
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2008. pp.114-157.

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