DON BOSCO UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF SCIENCE AND HUMANITIES

SCHOOL OF LANGUAGES AND EDUCATION

MASTER OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING

“TEACHING TECHNIQUES ANALYSIS”

STUDENTS’ NAME:

• Bonilla Morán, Jocelyn Ivette.

• Chevez Vides, Sonia Guadalupe.
• Velásquez Gutiérrez, Angélica María.

TEACHER: M.A&M.Ed. Maricela Astrid Hernández Tamacas.

SUBJECT: Fundamentals of Teaching Languages.

DATE: February 10th, 2024

 INTRODUCTION

Currently, teaching learning process has been changing due to different factors that are

beneficial for students. Relating to language acquisition process specifically learning a

second language represent a challenged not only for students, but also for teachers that are

looking for finding the right methods, approaches, resources, and tools to conduct the classes,

so teaching methods and approaches have remarkable role in the learning educational

process.

Notably, many teachers are implementing the usage of specific method, but it is not an easy

job to make the right decision choosing which one is the better or at least which provides

crucial benefits to reach the learning aims. Under those circumstances, it is pretended to

appraise what methodologies are providing the necessary tools to help students to develop

the target language.

The following report will present eight different methods or approaches that are highlighted

throughout the history of teaching foreign languages. The objective is to help teachers to have

a guide and determine which one fits the teacher way of thinking to implement the classes.

Besides that, the concept is presented per each of them; additionally, their characteristics, and

the role of input or output and their implementation. Some of the methods are well known

such as Direct Method, Total Physical Response, Audio Lingual Method, but some of them

will be new.
 DIRECT METHOD

This method focuses on teaching a language through communication over explicit grammar
instruction. Also, students are exposed to the target language in context without the need for
translation since the teacher uses other techniques to introduce and explain new words or
phrases.

This method encourages students to think and communicate directly in the language they are
learning, promoting a more intuitive understanding of grammar and vocabulary through the
activities done in class. In this type of classes where the direct method is applied, teachers
often use real-life situations, practical conversations and the culture of the people who speak
the target language to engage students so they can have a better comprehension of the target
language.

This approach places a strong emphasis on oral communication and pronunciation, so the
target language is primarily spoken, not written, and students are encouraged to express
themselves, and with one another, in the target language from the very beginning. Thus,
writing and reading activities are based on what they practiced orally first so that the four
skills (reading, writing, speaking and listening) can be studied from the start as well.

It is important to mention that error correction is done in a supportive and constructive

manner, especially using the self-correcting technique so that it can be promoted a positive
and interactive learning environment.

Regarding the teaching of grammar in this method, we can see that grammar is taught through
meaningful contexts, and the students understand the rules from the examples. Nevertheless,
it may lack explicit grammar instruction, which some students may find necessary for a
deeper understanding of language structures. This can affect the full comprehension of the
target language itself since there are some complex rules which need to be explained in a
detailed way in order to use it correctly.
 AUDIO-LINGUAL METHOD

This method is an oral-based approach, where the teacher only speaks the target language. It
emphasizes the importance of listening and speaking skills in the language acquisition
process through repetitive drills. The intention is that students memorize what they hear
whether it is presented by the teacher (in a dialogue form) or through extensive exposure to
audio materials, such as recordings of native speakers.

The emphasis on the listening skill is complemented by the oral practice, where students
repeat and mimic model sentences. These are called drills and there are many types, such as
repetition, backward build-up, chain, substitution, transformation, and question-and-answer.
The teacher presents them to students so they can follow and practice. In fact, it is assumed
that language learning is a result of habit formation, and by reinforcing correct patterns
through repetition, students can internalize the language structure.

Being said that the rules will be learned from examples and exercises because grammar rules
are often taught implicitly, with a focus on communication rather than explicit explanation
since this method strongly believes that the learning of another language should be the same
as the acquisition of the native language where people do not memorize rules to speak their
native language. Regarding reading and writing, these activities are based upon the oral work
they did earlier. However, they follow the natural order of skills: listening, speaking, reading
and writing.

Error correction is immediate because errors lead to the formation of bad habits, so they are
encouraged to produce accurate language forms immediately. Even though the role of drills
is to immerse students in the target language, without the explicit teaching of rules and other
types of techniques, it can become dull and exhausting for students, with limitations in
fostering creativity and critical thinking.
 DESUGGESTOPEDIA

It is a method that was developed to help students eliminate the feeling of fear when they are
starting to learn a new language since students sometimes set up barriers when learning.
However, the creator of this method believes that these limitations need to be “desuggested”
to help them overcome them using different techniques which will stimulate the reserved
capacity of learning.

This method emphasizes the role of the subconscious mind in language acquisition,
suggesting that a relaxed and confident state of mind facilitates better absorption of
information. In order to achieve that, it is important to create a positive and relaxed learning
environment to maximize the efficiency of language learning.

In a Desuggestopedia lesson, the teacher speaks confidently so students can trust and respect
the teacher’s authority. During this class, it is intended to encourage them while always being
confident and applying the indirect positive suggestion characteristic appeal to the students’
subconscious.

Students engage in a variety of activities, including choosing a new identity and role plays.
Also, the use of classical music is a distinctive feature because it evokes positive emotions.
However, the teacher briefly mentions a few points about grammar and vocabulary because
the students will be able to focus on it during the activities, where the grammar will be already
applied; and when making a mistake, the teacher corrects them gently, in a soft voice,
avoiding a confrontational manner.

The role of translation in the native language in texts is intended to make clear vocabulary
that can be unknown for them. This will facilitate the comprehension of the paragraphs
presented. Moreover, the teacher sometimes speaks in the native language. Nevertheless,
students can get used to it and it can be more difficult to express themselves only in the target
language.
 COMMUNITY LANGUAGE LEARNING

Community language learning is holistic and implies that educators consider not only the
general aspects of teaching, since this method seeks to address fears, trying to get teachers to
adopt the role of linguistic advisors, which means that they must be a perceptive observer of
the challenges that learning a new language internalizes.

The teacher is a facilitator who contributes to comprehensive learning, with excellent

management of the class in a relaxed environment where clear limits must be established in
the activities and these must be structured so that they achieve the expected success, also in
this method. a time of individual reflection where the student internalizes the knowledge, and
the last aspect mentions that the material should not be so easy or so complicated to achieve
a balance in the process.

It considers that its students are a whole person and that not only the intellect but also the
relationships with the students, their feelings, their physical reactions of protective instinct
against fear must be considered, so that the students can learn. In this method, the teacher
teaches word by word, not just phrases, he works together in circles with all the students and
is responsible for repeating until the students systematically acquire, like a computer, the
desired vocabulary or the grammar taught.

A clear example of this method is when the teacher presents the topic through a read text and
allows the students to connect each one by reading a sentence in a circle where everyone
interacts and at the same time they internalize, for example, the profession of their parents
and themselves. saying MY MOTHER IS A NURSE and the teacher repeating the correct
pronunciation until they acquire it in the same way, accompanying them in the process.
 TOTAL PHYSICAL RESPONSE.

This method gives priority to Listening comprehension, here language learning begins with
understanding and ends with production, whether oral or written, after the student manages
to internalize an extensive map of the target language. This method means that the teacher
uses the language at a more advanced level than the students usually have and thus ensures
that their input is understandable, and the acquisition of the language is unconscious or
natural.

The total physical response is used in classes to examine what students observe and their
ability to physically respond to the stimulus through command using vocabulary or phrases
related to the development of a topic, since according to this method memory is activated by
the physical response of the student associating behavior with content. The teacher must be
a leader and learning are more effective when it is fun.

As all methods in this opportunity regarding to advantages and disadvantages, we have that
students should not be encouraged to speak until they are ready. This is good because students
already have the knowledge when they start speaking and that allows them to have a more
confident relationship with the language. In other hand, the disadvantage is that at the
beginning the students are only dedicated to following commands and indicators and their
behavior depends on what the teacher wants to teach without them having interaction in
conversations or role plays to interact through speaking.

A good example about it is that the teacher will give commands about something and do the
actions with the students, such as, for example, they will all point at the door, then at the
chair. Another example is giving the command ''stop'' and everyone gets up, then ''sit'' and
everyone sits down. sit down, after the teacher makes sure that everyone understands and
acquires knowledge of the commands through physical response.
 COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING

In this method, games are important because they are the ones in charge of connecting the
student with the content, associating that communicative event with the reality of the
environment. In this case, the teacher gives feedback in a subtle way, always behaving like a
counselor. Language must always be associated with real contexts. In this method, the teacher
is in charge of giving direction, that is, he must be in charge of giving direct and structured
instructions for the development of the activities to be carried out.

It is important to highlight that in CLT students have the opportunity to express their own
ideas, thoughts and opinions regarding a topic, through descriptions, predictions or
conversations, since the teacher promotes communication by sharing stories or assigning
conversation topics. The teacher is a facilitator of communicative activities and is an advisor
during activities that are carried out in trios, pairs or small class groups. The objective of this
method is to enable the person who is learning a second language to be able to produce real
communication, both oral and written, with other speakers of that foreign language. To meet
this objective, teachers of a foreign language - for example, English - will use texts,
recordings, and various materials with which they will carry out activities that will seek to
imitate as closely as possible situations that the student may experience outside the
classroom. From a basic conversation in a supermarket to exposing your thoughts to a circle
of friends or classmates.

An example may be when students are given a debate about environmental pollution and they
must defend their points of view and give their opinions, pretending to be scientists who must
propose solutions and present problems at a conference. In situations like this you can see
how they put the topic presented into practice in a real context.
 CONTENT- BASED INSTRUCTION.

Learning a second language represents a challenge for those students that have not a
background when they must use the target language. Content based instruction (CBI) is a
teaching method that not only integrates the four skills in the teaching language process, but
also emphasizes learning about content rather than learning about the language at all. In other
words, in CBI language takes the role as a tool for acquiring knew knowledge instead of the
topic. One of the characteristics of CBI is looking for students’ interest, engagement and
motivation taking apart the old schools’ methods and approaches such as traditional method
and repetition method because at this point CBI focusses on the implementation and use of
different contents related with students interests to put into practice the four skills.

Additionally, it is important to mention that in CBI classes the student is the center of the
class instead of the teacher; students do not depend on the teacher because they are involved
in their own learning process. In the other hand, CBI has an impact in the input and output
because learning is not an isolated process, and CBI provides the opportunity to have
meaningful input, so for that reason literature is important due to students can acquire new
vocabulary and structures unknown through readings, visual support, audios etc. from the
content, secondly, they will deal with developing the language skills.

CBI is task-oriented, for example students can be assigned: How to prepare a sandwich? in
this scenario students will learn vocabulary related to food and kitchen from a recipe or visual
material such as flashcards, videos, magazines etc. instead of memorizing rules o extended
lists of vocabulary. and at this point the output has the advantage to be produce because it is
integrated with the concepts and the language.
 TASK-BASED LANGUAGE TEACHING.

As you can see there are different approaches and methodologies that teachers can use during
classes, and now let’s talk about one of the most important and interesting approaches. Task-
Based Language Teaching is a method that follows the idea that tasks are meaningful to learn
or acquire a second language and it has a specific purpose: to probe that student needs tasks
to be encouraged to produce the language, so task base language teaching will provide the
teacher the data to know if the student is learning or not. One of its characteristics is that
language is acquire through the specific task assignation. It is important emphasize that this
method works better when the student has a high level of motivation to speak the target
language as soon as possible; in other words, this method allow students to be autodidactic
and responsible for their own learning construction.

During the application of the method, teachers have an important role to play in the process
of learning, so they oversee introduce the task providing the students with information,
explanation about the topic and an instruction on how to proceed with the assignment. All
activities have a purpose and a chronological order to follow. Besides that, teacher must
provide linguistic elements according to the context. This method seems to be one of the
most successful one, but it is important to mention that one of the disadvantages of it is that
this method works better with advance learner such as B1, B2, and C1 students because they
have a background, and they know how to implement vocabulary in an advance level in a
natural way. Communicative activities are suggested to create an input enhancement which
means that applying grammar structures and particular vocabulary students will be
encouraged to acquire the necessary knowledge and skills to then produce them in the output.