Written by Paul Kaye, Materials writer, Bolivia http://www.teachingenglish.org.

uk/articles/pres enting-new-language

In a language classroom, an inductive approach involves getting learners to discover rules and how they are applied by looking at examples. The role of the teacher is to provide the language the learners need to discover the rules, to guide them in discovery if necessary, and then to provide more opportunities to practise.

The inductive approach is often thought of as a more modern way of teaching: it involves discovery techniques; it seeks in some ways to duplicate the acquisition process; it often exploits authentic material; it has learners at the centre of the lesson; and the focus is on usage rather than rules.

In a classroom, a deductive approach means teaching learners rules and then giving them opportunities to apply them through practice. The role of the teacher is to present the rules and organize the practice.

The deductive approach is often thought of as a more traditional way of teaching: it is teacher-led and teacher-centred, at least at the presentation stage; it focuses initially on rules and then use; it often uses input language which is adjusted to the learners and not authentic. These do not in themselves have to be traditional ways of teaching, but they indicate a traditional approach.

 Why

use the inductive approach?

Why

use the deductive approach?

As can be seen, both approaches provide opportunities for learning and address the needs of different kinds of learners and learning contexts. Like almost all the decisions we make in the classroom, we must be guided by our learners aims. The inductive approach may be more attractive to us as teachers but does it support our students learning fully?

The deductive approach may be more controllable but does it give our learners the opportunity to develop their strategies and learning styles? And like many of our decisions regarding the way we teach, the best way forward may be to blend the two, guided by our aims and our understanding of our own learners. For example, it may be useful for a class to start with a deductive approach and then move on to a more inductive way of learning once they are used to analysis of the language and ways of describing it.