Terminology
 Approach: a description on the theory or philosophy underlying how a language should be
taught.
 Method: A way of implementing the approach (syllabus, progression, kinds of materials).
 Technique: Techniques describe specific practical classroom tasks and activities.
Example:
The Commmunicative approach retains that language is best learned through communication. The
materials used to achieve this goal are worksheets, dialogues, recordings and videos (methodology). A
very useful technique is to have students to do pair-work (technique).
 Synthetic syllabi: a syllabus made of linguistic units, such as grammar structures, vocabulary
items, functions, etc. The units are usually ordered logically, in a sequence from linguistic
simplicity to linguistic complexity.
- It is the learners’ responsibility to synthesize the linguistic units for the purpose of
communication.
 Analytic syllabi: a syllabus organised in terms of the purposes for which people are learning
language and the kinds of language performance that are necessary to meet those. Rather than
learning language items one by one in a specific sequence, learners work on relevant content
texts and the language of the texts. The syllabus is composed of tasks, not a sequence of
linguistic items.
- Second language acquisition (SLA) research supports the use of analytic syllabi
because such research shows that learners do not learn linguistic items one at a time.
Instead, they induce linguistic information from the language samples they work on,
and they acquire language items only when they are ready to do so.
 Critical discourse analysis: the study of how identity and power relations are constructed in
language. Critical discourse analysts observe and comment on how language is linked to
social practice and the implicit message that is sometimes conveyed.
- In other words, texts are not ideologically neutral. The lack of neutrality extends to
other aspects of identity besides race. Gender discrimination occurs, for example,
when language teaching materials present women as always being subservient to
men.
Grammar-Translation (Classical Method)
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Through the study of the grammar of the target language, students would become more
familiar with the grammar of their native language and that this familiarity would help them
speak and write their native language better.
It was thought that foreign language learning would help students grow intellectually
It was recognized that students would probably never use the target language, but the mental
exercise of learning it would be beneficial anyway.
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Direct Method
No translation is allowed. In fact, the Direct Method receives its name from the fact that
meaning is to be conveyed directly in the target language through the use of demonstration
and visual aids, with no recourse to the students’ native language.
Audio-Lingual Method
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It has a strong theoretical base in linguistics and psychology. Charles Fries (1945) of the
University of Michigan led the way in applying principles from structural linguistics in
developing the method, and for this reason, it has sometimes been referred to as the ‘Michigan
Method.’
Principles from behavioral psychology (Skinner 1957) were incorporated. It was thought that
the way to acquire the sentence patterns of the target language was through conditioning—
helping learners to respond correctly to stimuli through shaping and reinforcement, so that
the learners could overcome the habits of their native language and form the new habits
required to be target language speakers.
The Silent Way
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An example of a Cognitive Code Approach.
Learning is a process which we initiate by mobilizing our inner resources (our perception,
awareness, cognition, imagination, intuition, creativity, etc.) to meet the challenge at hand. In
the course of our learning, we integrate into ourselves whatever ‘new’ that we create, and use
it as a stepping stone for further learning.
Desuggestiopedia
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The reason for our inefficiency in learning second languages is that we set up psychological
barriers to learning: we fear that we will be unable to perform, that we will be limited in our
ability to learn, that we will fail.
It is belived that we may be using only five to ten percent of our mental capacity.
In order to make better use of our reserve capacity, the limitations we think we have need to
be ‘desuggested.’
Desuggestopedia, the application of the study of suggestion to pedagogy, has been developed
to help students eliminate the feeling that they cannot be successful and/or the negative
association they may have toward studying and thus to help them overcome the barriers to
learning.
One of the ways the students’mental reserves are stimulated is through integration of the fine
arts, an important contribution to the method made by Lozanov’s colleague Evelina Gateva.
Community Language Learning (Language Councelor) - CLL
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A language counselor does not mean someone trained in psychology; it means someone who
is a skillful ‘understander’ of the struggle students face as they attempt to internalize another
language.
The teacher who can understand can indicate his acceptance of the student. By understanding
students’ fears and being sensitive to them, he can help students overcome their negative
feelings and turn them into positive energy to further their learning.
Total Phisical Response
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The fastest, least stressful way to achieve understanding of any target language is to follow
directions uttered by the instructor (without native language translation).
Communicative Language Approach
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Some observed that students could produce sentences accurately in a lesson, but could not
use them appropriately when genuinely communicating outside of the classroom.
Others noted that being able to communicate required more than mastering linguistic
structure, due to the fact that language was fundamentally social (Halliday 1973). Within a
social context, language users needed to perform certain functions, such as promising,
inviting, and declining invitations.
Students may know the rules of linguistic usage, but be unable to use the language.
In short, being able to communicate required more than linguistic competence; it required
communicative competence (Hymes 1971)—knowing when and how to say what to whom.
The word function is key here.
Such observations contributed to a shift in the field in the late 1970s and early 1980s from a
linguistic structure-centered approach to a Communicative Approach (Widdowson 1990;
Savignon 1997).
Content-based instruction / content and language integrated learning
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Language is seen as the medium for learning content.
Task-based language teaching
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Tasks are meaningful, and in doing them, students need to communicate. Tasks have a clear
outcome so that the teacher and students know whether or not the communication has been
successful.
Comparison with communicative language teaching: while the task in our CLT lesson in was
designed to get students to practice making predictions (a communicative function), the taskbased lesson we have just observed did not focus on a particular function, or even a
particular form of the language. In fact, the teacher used a wide variety of linguistic forms, the
meaning of which was made clear by the context.
The Participatory Approach:
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Based on Paulo Freire’s theory of critical education. The central premise of Freire’s approach
is that education and knowledge have value only insofar as they help people liberate
themselves from the social conditions that oppress them.
The goal of a Participatory Approach is to help students to understand the social, historical,
or cultural forces that shaped a particular context, and then to help empower students to
take action and make decisions in order to gain control over their lives in that context.