GRAMMAR-TRANSLATION
AUDIOLINGUALISM
COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING:
THE DIRECT METHOD
THE NATURAL APPROACH
TPR
COOPERATIVE LEARNING
CONTENT-BASED TEACHING
•Originated in the early 1970s
•Author: Caleb Gattegno
•Three basic tenets:
•learning is facilitated if the learner discovers
•learning is aided by physical objects
•problem-solving is central to learning
The teacher should be “silent” in the classroom in
order to encourage the students to produce as much
language as possible.
Presentation of language:
•highly structured approach
•language is taught through sentences
•sequence based on grammatical complexity
•the structural patterns are presented by the teacher--ONCE
•the grammar rules are learned inductively by the learners
•the teacher introduces a new item when needed
•use of cuisenaire rods
The role of the teacher is to “teach, test, and
get out of the way.” (Earl W. Stevick)
CRITICISM:
•apparent lack of real communication
•good for teaching only the very basics of the
language
•rigid structures
•limited to relatively small groups of learners
Originally developed in the 1970s by the Bulgarian
educator Georgi Lozanov
•Based on the power of
suggestion in learning
•Positive suggestion would
make the learner more
receptive and stimulate
learning
To create a relaxed state in the
learner and to promote learning
, suggestopedia uses:
•music
•a comfortable and relaxing
environment
•a student/teacher relationship
akin to child/parent
relationship
MUSIC IS CENTRAL
TO THE APPROACH
There is no apparent
theory of language and
no obvious order in
which items of
language are
presented.
The original form of suggestopedia consisted of:
•Use of extended
dialogues
•Vocabulary lists
•Observations on
grammatical
rules
•Teacher would read the
dialogues aloud to the
accompaniment of music.
•“Concert reading” would
typically employ a piece of
classical music such as a
Beethoven symphony, not as
background, but as the main
focus of the reading.
In theory, large chunks of the dialogues would be
internalized by the learners during the readings .
Criticism:
•little evidence to support the claims of success
•classical music is not stimulating for everybody
•length of the dialogues may confuse rather than
motivate
•the relaxing environment is beyond the means of
most educational settings
Task-based learning is typically based on three
stages:
1. Pre-task stage: the
teacher introduces and
defines the topic and the
learners engage in
activities that help to
recall or learn the
words necessary for the
performance of the
task.
2. “Task cycle” The learners perform the task (a
reading or listening exercise or a problem-solving
exercise) in pairs or small groups. Then they
prepare a report for the whole class on how they did
the task and what conclusions they reached.
3. The learners present their findings to the entire
class in spoken or written form. This is the
language focus stage--specific language functions
are highlighted and worked out.
ADVANTAGES:
•Language is used for a
genuine purpose
•All four language skills
are integrated
•The range of tasks
offers a great deal of
flexibility
If Task-Based
Learning is
integrated with a
systematic approach
to grammar and lexis,
the outcome can be
adapted to meet the
needs of all learners.
Source: Jane Willis (1996). A Framework for Task-Based
Learning
An approach patterned upon counseling
techniques and adapted to the personal and
language problems a person may encounter in
the learning of a foreign language.
The instructorcounselor
becomes an
“other-language
self” for the
client.
The counselors first acts
as a mediator between
the client and the group.
Later, the client becomes
increasingly independent
and speaks directly to
the group.
A communicative approach that stresses a means of
organizing a language syllabus.
(Finocchiaro and Brumfit)
NOTIONS: meaning
elements that may be
expressed through
nouns, pronouns, verbs,
prepositions,
conjunctions, adjectives,
adverbs.
The use of particular notions
depends on three major factors:
1. The functions
2. The elements in the situation
3. The topic being discussed
A situation may affect:
•variations of language
•the formality or
informality of the
language
•the mode of
expression
Functional Categories of Language:
1. PERSONAL
4. REFERENTIAL
2. INTERPERSOANAL
5. IMAGINATIVE
3. DIRECTIVE
The lexical approach
makes a distinction
between vocabulary-traditionally understood as
a stock of individual words
with fixed meanings, and
lexis, which includes single
words and word
combinations that we store
in our mental lexicons.
Lexical advocates
argue that
language consists
of meaningful
chunks. When
combined, they
produce coherent
text.
Taxonomy of lexical items (Lewis):
•words
•polywords
•collocations or word partnerships
•institutionalized utterances
•sentence frames and heads; text frames
Activities used to develop lexis:
•intensive and extensive listening and
reading
•L1 and L2 comparisons and
translations
•repetition and recycling of activities
•guessing the meaning of
vocabulary from context
•noticing and recording
language patterns and
collocations
•working with dictionaries
and other reference tools
The underlying
principle of the
lexical approach is
that language
production is not
a syntactic rulegoverned process,
but is instead the
retrieval of larger
phrasal units from
memory.
(Zimmerman)
Implementing a lexical approach
does not lead to radical
methodological changes, but rather
involves a change in the teacher’s
mindset.
“The best methods are
therefore those that supply
comprehensible input in
low anxiety situations,
containing messages that
students really want to
hear.”
Stephen D. Krashen