AN INTRODUCTION TO ENGLIGH

TEACHING METHODOLOGY
Class 1: Background Issues in Language Learning
I. THE MIRACLE OF LANGUAGE
The instinct of children (up to the Adult children & language
age of puberty) to language learning
- Not are taught à acquire language - Instinctual ability to absorb
subconsciously à massive language & context & to transform
exposure to language à act upon them into an ability to understand
what they hear à transform it into & speak perfectly: not last forever
knowledge of the language & - Around the age of puberty: develop
ability to speak it à Have the ability for abstraction à make
powerful incentive to them better learners but less able to
communicate effectively respond to language

However, many theorists & methodologists have tried to see whether we are
replicate the success of language acquisition in language learning classroom
à Look at a number of theories to help them decide what methods &
techniques to espouse
1.1 Acquisition & Learning
Spontaneous capabilities Studial capabilities
- For people who pick up second - For people who study language in
language: simple absorbing it by classes à organise their learning
living in a target-language & apply their conscious knowledge
community with no formal to the task in hand
attention to language study à - Study grammar & vocabulary à
closer to first-language acquisition not available for spontaneous use
 à have ability to acquire language - The only use for learnt language is
naturally and subconsciously à to MONITOR (check) our
brought language into play for the spontaneous communication à
acquisition of the spoken language The more we monitor, the less
à easily use in spontaneous spontaneous we become
conversations as it is instantly
available

à They are DIFFERENT both in character & effect

According Krashen, S. (1984), successful acquisition by students of 2nd
language à bound up with the nature of the language input they received.
• The comprehensive input: i + 1 (information students already have +
the next level up)
Roughly-tuned input Finely-tuned input
Students expose to it in a relaxed Conscious learning with much
setting à as parent-child language à language instructions & specific
subconsciously moderated graded language à conscious learning
à aid acquisition à doesn’t aid acquisition

à Expose students to a large amount of comprehensive inputs in a relaxed setting

à Have students learn language consciously at a later stage for writing
1.2 The Contributions of Behaviourism
- Studying a language: spontaneous capabilities are rare à more learning
than acquisition
Direct - Popular since the end of 19th century
method - Use only English in classroom à use real objects,
pictures or demonstration to show the form and meaning
association à concentrate on form not subconscious
 acquisition à input students receive is the same as their
intake (the language they actually absorb) à take in only
what they are exposed to
-
- Direct method: 1-1 correspondence between input &
output à married to the theory of behaviourism

Behaviourism - The result of a three-stage procedure: stimulus,

response & reinforcement.
Eg: The rat: the light on à goes up to the bar &
presses it à drop a tasty food pellet which reinforces
the rat’s action: press the bar when the light on à
has learnt a new behaviour
A baby needs food à cries à have food à swap
crying to one or two word utterances à have same
effect à learn to refine words to get exactly what is
wanted à has learnt a new behaviour
- In language learning: students are asked to repeat
sentences correctly à are rewarded for the
correctness à new behavior of successful language
production for rewards

1.3 Language Learning Will Take Care of Itself

Traditional method Modern method
- Ask students to study - Expose students to English à get them to use it
grammar, vocabulary (involve them in solving problems in the target
or paragraph language; interviewing people on streets,
organization à searching books in the library, play games …),
 doesn’t seem working give them high motivation to learn à no
& not feel right language training, advice or correction à
students enjoy the process far more à have
more impressive progress
- Shift the attention from the PRODUCT of
learning to LEARNING PROCESS: learn to do
something by doing it
àOffer students chances to say what they
think/feel & to experiment with using language
they have learnt or seen in supportive
atmosphere without feeling threatened.

1.4 Focus on Form or Focus on Forms

Focus on Form Focus on Forms
- Students focus on some features of language like verb - Teachers &
tenses or organization of a paragraph because of the students focus
intervention of the teacher à complete the on all forms
communicative tasks worrying about how to do it or listed in
how the teachers feedback on the task syllabus and
- Is often incidental and opportunistic à growing out course books
of tasks rather than being pre-determined by a book or
a syllabus.
- Grow accidentially out of communicative tasks à Is
more effective than focus on forms
+ Micheal Long (1988:136): classroom activities based on
communicative tasks
+ Sanda Fotos (1998:307): task performance increases
learner awareness of target structures à improve
 accuracy, provide opportunities for meaning focussed
comprehension & production of the target language.
+ Schmidt (1990): learners notice language features for
themselves on advertising billboards, TV programmes,
newspaper or convenience stores à part of successful
language learning.
+ Gerald Kelly (2000:22) & Skehan (1998:49): Salient
things are more noticeable à greater chances of
impinging on consciousness à arrive at the right
moment the learner is ready for them.
à Acquire language most when focusing on it: need it,
come across it, be relevant to them à this kind of
acquisition is intrinsically superior to asking students to
focus on a series of pre-determined forms.
1.5 Making sense of it all
- Make sense of theories and hunches offered to us
Eg. Pre-condition for acquisition: acquire language best by subconscious
exposure to comprehensive input
+ attracted by notion of language conditioning à no sense to let language
takes care of itself
- Krashen(): an exaggerated concern for accuracy à monitor output à
impede spontaneous speech
- Ellis (1982): learning in meaning-focused tasks à sort out things in mind
à make effort to retrieve then use all and any of the language à take
language from learnt to the acquired store
- Swan (2005b: 379): countless people have apparently learnt language
successfully by traditional methods.
- Acquisition & language: separate processes à learners can’t tell the
language they use was learnt (conscious) or acquired (subconscious)
 - Learning success: closely bound with method of teaching, personality &
age of the learner.
E.g. Adult learners in contrast to children: depend on their
considerable intellects to understand grammar à some analyze what
they are learning than others
- Rod Ellis (2006:102): students need to focus not only grammar forms but also
the meanings.
Incidental focus-on-form approach focus-on-form approach
Afford opportunities for extensive Chances to use the discrete forms they
treatment of grammatical problems have studied in communication tasks

To sum up, students need considerable exposure to language à without it: no

chance of any acquisition
+ use language in meaning-focused tasks à try out language and think
through how it works
+ Focus on language à notice on an aspect of language & think about it -
à language is remembered as a result of repetitious practice
+ recognition of the complexity of language learning: play, real, form-
focused, meaning-focused, fictions or facts

CLASS 2 (2.5 periods)

II. THE IMPORTANCE OF REPETITION
Repetition:
+ transfer knowledge from short term memories to long-term memories
+ think about what they are repeating à try to organize it in their heads à
better chance of remembering what they are learning NOT merely repeat it
without thought.
+ repetition is vital à fix things in minds
 + gain from repeating tasks: retell a story à allow them to reuse words,
grammar; reformulating what they said à provoke the structuring and
restructuring of “noticed” language (Batstone 1994: 40-43)
III. THINKING ABOUT LANGUAGE
- Think about the language they are learning: the arrangement of sentence
elements and verb tenses à employ their considerable intellects
- Williams and Burden (1997:24): the development of our conceptual
understanding (not through blind learning but through the process of exploration
à genuine understanding) and cognitive skills is the main objective of all
education à more important than the acquisition of factual information
E.g. Teaching grammar: introduce an example à under the teacher’s
guidance: students work out the form and its usage
Teaching vocabulary: get students to look at a dictionary or surf the Internet
to discover the collocations
- Training in language analysis à make students more able to discover things
for themselves
- Discovery learning: not suitable for all students due to the students’
intuition, items of grammar of lexis as if they are over-complex à difficult to
make any meaningful analysis
In short, getting students to think for themselves is one part of learner-
centredness but it depends on their willing participation & agreement to take
agency for what they are doing.
IV. AROUSAL, AFFECT AND HUMANISTIC TEACHING
- AROUSAL: Meet new language: llistless, disengaged à less likely to
remember than engaged & emotionally open to what it means, how it sounds,
what it looks like à students have an emotional attachment to the word/phrase
- AFFECTS: Students’ feelings go beyond concerns about how they learn
& remember language items à relate to the whole learning experience and
influence how they feel about themselves. Beneficial value of comprehensive
input depends on the students being relaxed, positive and unthreatened;
otherwise, their affective filter is raised and blocks the input from being absorbed
and processed.
- HUMANISTIC TEACHING: Feeling positive about learning à
affective filter is lowered à They need to feel:
§ What they are learning is personally relevant to them
§ They have to experience learning, not being taught
§ Their self-image needs to be enhanced as a part of the process
à Students are emotionally involved in the learning à reflect on how learning
happens & their creativity is fostered.
à Teachers: Minimum criticism but encouraging and feeling good about
themselves à make a language class an issue of personal identity, self-
knowledge, feelings and emotions.
However, not everyone is happy with this humanistic view of language
learning experience:
§ ask students to reveal their inner selves, private nature à teachers
even monitor & nurture their inner selves à cause cultural bias &
criticism à inappropriate in certain situations & limit the range of
language that students can experience.
§ Paying too much attention to affective issues à teachers may
neglect their students’ cognitive and intellectual development
To sum up, it’s better for students to have positive rather than negative feelings
about how and what they are learning à far more likely to learn and remember
effectively
V. WHEN YOU ARE READY
- Scaffolding: Help students to progress through interactions with someone
with better knowledge like teachers, parents, friends … à help to focus on how
teacher & students interact à more problematic with a large classes
 - Learners can only benefit from learning when they are in THE ZONE OF
PROXIMAL DEVELOPMENT à They are just getting to the stage (above their
own current level of knowledge) à ready to learn new things
- Necessary to match the language we teach to an individual or a group’s
apparent level or readiness
VI. LANGUAGE PLAY
- Language humor & language play: songs, games, humor, aggression,
intimate relations & religion à students joking include artful performance,
alliteration, code switching, laughter and variations in pitch
- Language structure repetition, the use of meaning puns à rule bound &
linguistically repetitive
- The right kind of laughter works powerfully à play & humor is co-
constructed à students work together
- Humor & playful activates occupy large amounts of reallife existence à
jokes & dialogues properly designed à extremely useful for student language
development
References
Howatt,A. & Widdowson, H.G. (2004) A History of Language Teaching.
Oxford University Press
Krashen, S. (1984) The Input Hypothesis. Longman
Palmer, H. (1921) The Principles of Language Study. Harrap. Republished by
Oxford University Press 1964
Pinker, S. (1994) Language Instinct. Penguin.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION