Ayça Nur Aydın

Dr. Xiaoli Yu
Approaches to English Language Teaching (FLE238)
29 November 2020
CIRCLE THEORY AND LEARNER CHARACTERISTICS

Although English, as every over language, has developed within a particular society, since

it became the 'lingua franca' of our modern world, it has been devolved on the cultural flow

of numerous societies. The variety caused by this has led to the emergence of the idea of

‘World Englishes’ by Braj Kachru. In 1988, he defined English in various contexts and

divided them into three circles, each of which having a different characteristics in the aspect

of language variety and teaching; the inner, outer and expanding circles.

The inner circle refer to the countries in which English is used as the primary means of

communication such as Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States. In these

contexts, the students of the English language are the people who are coming to the inner-

circle countries as refugees, immigrants and international students, which comprises the ESL

learner community. There are several types of learner characteristics according to the amount

of time since they arrived at the host country, their educational background and exposure to

English.[CITATION Mur11 \l 1055 ]

The young members of this group may have had no or little formal or literacy education in

their home country, so it is possible that they acquire the vernacular language of the

community they settled in by hearing until they end up in mainstream education. This type of

learners' needs in English language education are between the needs of first and second

generations of the ESL community. Although they have some level of ability to use the

language, they may need language education in order to maintain their academic studies since

the community language they acquired through interaction and exposure may be insufficient.

Having an English language education course for a certain amount of time before they get to

the mainstream education or getting supplementary ESL education focusing on more

academic skills parallel to their regular education can be useful ways to help young ESL

learners.[CITATION Mur11 \l 1055 ]

The people joining the ESL community in high school level often have limited time to

acquire enough proficiency in English to finish their studies in that grade. The fact that the

education they got might have differences from the one they are receiving in the host country

might make their condition worse for them. Supplementary or remedial English courses can

be of help for this group too.

Adults of this circle often learn English to maintain better life standards, in other words

getting better jobs. They usually attend English courses in the times left from their works, and

the process of learning a language may be an addition to their already tiring lives. They may

require class-based ways of developing English skills because expecting them to do extra

things out of the class times may put extra pressure on them.

The students, on the other hand, come to inner-circle countries to improve or develop their

English skills or continue their education in an English dominant school. Their motivations

vary, but usually, it is the fact that job opportunities expand when one knows English.

Although ESL community have the advantage of more opportunities of exposure and

interaction, the psychological effects of migration or being a refugee or individual

preferences such as refusing to adopt a foreign language, thus a part of a culture, can also

hinder or affect English instruction in inner circle countries.

Although ‘grammar translation method’ and ‘audio-lingual method’ had been used in ESL

history, nowadays ‘the communicative method’ has developed as the method of instruction.

This method is based on the idea that making use of the home language, rather than

restricting the usage of it, can actually facilitate learning. In the modern world, it is also
possible to get bilingual education which is an excellent opportunity for people who do not

want to lose their cultural identity and language of their ancestors.

In the outer circle, which contains the countries in which English is used as a secondary

means of communication, and expanding circle where English is learned as a foreign

language, the English language education is a part of formal education or, in adult contexts,

subject-based. The controversy here is that which English should be taught in these circles.

Even though there are lots of varieties of English around the world and the non-native

speakers of it outnumber the natives, the control of the norms of ELT is still in inner circle

countries' hands. [ CITATION Bho15 \l 1055 ] However, it is a matter of fact that a proficient

speaker of English should be able to recognise the diversity of the English language and their

systematic and legitimate status.[CITATION Can10 \l 1055 ]

Learners belonging to this community, as they start to learn English as a part of their

formal education, may not actually be eager to learn a different language as they may tend to

see English as just another school subject and see no use in doing so because it is not used in

daily life in their countries. It may be the first aim for the teacher to gain the students the

awareness of English as a necessity in our modern world.

The medium of instruction varies in the education of this circle. There are countries which

provide their education in both English and the local language. The communicative method

may be hard to implement in EFL contexts since it is a part of mass education and teachers

may tend to prioritise grammar and vocabulary, however, due to the availability of the media

for expanding numbers of the people, it is now not impossible to support the development of

students’ skills in communication.

Although there have been controversies about the circle theory, there is some reality to the

idea that learners' characteristics and needs do vary depending on the context they are taught
English and so should the instruction accordingly. It is impossible to do so when we, as

teachers, are unaware or ignorant of the differences and if we do not see the opportunities

stem from differences.

References:

Bhowmik, S. K. (2015). World Englishes and English Language Teaching: A pragmatic and humanistic
approach. Colombian Applied Linguistics Journal , 142-157.

Canagarajah, S., & Said, S. B. (2010). English Language Teaching in the Outer and Expanding Circles.
In The Routledge Companion to English Language Studies (pp. 157-170).

Murray, D. E., & Christison, M. (2011). What English Language Teachers Need To Know. New York:
Routledge.
 STRATEGIES IN TEACHING LISTENING AND ACTIVITIES

The process of language learning, as a whole, is a process of acquiring a skill just as

learning an instrument. It takes long times dedicated to practice to gain sufficient proficiency

needed for using the language actively in communicative settings. As we human beings

mainly use our vocal-auditory channel to communicate, the aim of the language teaching is

eventually gaining the ability of listening and speaking at an acceptable pace and

intelligibility. The development of this skill first bears itself as understanding what others say

in the target language; in other words, involving passively in the language so that the skills

needed for active involvement can be progressed. Even though a skill cannot be taught as in

terms we are used to; teachers can indeed use some strategies to improve their students'

listening skills. These strategies are divided into two categories according to the focus of the

listening.

The first category is top-down activities which are focused on the listeners’ knowledge,

that is, knowledge about the topic, context, text type and the language they used to decode the

ideas within listening texts. In these activities, students listen to summarise, draw inferences

or try to reach the main idea. [ CITATION DRe14 \l 1055 ] Show and tell activities can be useful

in having students use top-down strategies.[ CITATION Don07 \l 1055 ] Especially in higher

levels when students learn to listen and talk about more advanced topics such as art and

philosophy, it would be an excellent way of not only developing language skills but also it

would contribute to the cultural development of the students. The lecture may even turn to a

conversation which can turn this activity to a speaking opportunity too. Another activity for

top-down activities can be true-false listening. This activity requires students to understand
the ideas in the listening and decide which of the statements the teachers provide them are

true false according to the text. This would also increase the attention students pay to the

auditory language input and thus enable them to open more knowledge through this type of

language data. Problem-solving activities can also help in the development of making

inferences from different contexts and combine them with students' own perspectives to solve

the problem.

Bottom-up strategies, on the other hand, focuses more on the usage of language in the

listening texts. The students pay attention to speech sounds, words, grammar to understand

the messages. They concentrate on specific details and word order[ CITATION DRe14 \l 1055 ].

The most popular bottom-up activity is dictation. It is usually recommended for lower-level

learners as it is also useful in improving writing skills such as spelling and punctuation

[ CITATION Don07 \l 1055 ].

There are also useful activities which are using both strategies mentioned above. One of

them called 'dictocomp'. It is similar to dictation but involves the learners' understandings too

rather than solely focusing on linguistic properties. It may also be a good solution for

teaching reduced forms which are widely used in everyday English but not in academic

English. The inability of detecting and understanding reduced forms cause inability in using

invaluable media resources such as movies, songs and also understanding the conversations

between native speakers[ CITATION Don07 \l 1055 ]. Storytelling can also be an entertaining and

engaging way of teaching listening because students would listen not because it is required in

the course but because they are genuinely interested.

The main problem with the process of practising listening skills would be the inexistence

of reciprocity; in other words, they are unilateral. This may cause resistance in engaging in

listening activities in students. However they are useful, some activities such as listening to
talks and lectures and press conferences, may not appeal to especially students of younger

ages. Instead, it would be more efficient to use storytelling, show and tell activities that

involve more reciprocity in listening practises of these students. Another example of these

activities can be ‘total physical response’ activities which involve giving physical responses

to the speech rather than spoken ones, creating reciprocity by responding in actual actions.

The listening practices should not necessarily take place only in class. In our technology

era, we are surrounded by opportunities for finding innumerable amount of listening

materials. There are three main benefits of using recordings in listening practice. The first one

is it provides students with more realistic conversations in the target language. Second, the

students can have control over the flow of the audio material. Third, the pace would be more

realistic than the text provided by the soft-hearted teacher in class. To sum up, media and

recordings provide students with more realistic and natural speech [ CITATION Don07 \l 1055 ].

The problem here may be a reluctance to spend time listening to recordings in a foreign

language. It is essential to keep learning motivation high to have students spare time for

language practices out of school. The solutions may be using appealing material in the class

so that the students would want more of it or, maybe the most important one, creating

awareness on language learning and importance of practice in acquiring skills. This may not

be easy to achieve in classes of younger learners, but they would be delighted when they

understand someone's remark in another language. Providing opportunities for students to

feel the achievement can successfully create a source of motivation for learners in every age.

The possibilities in skills education are endless when it comes to activities if teachers

evaluate their students' levels and conditions correctly and adopt new methods or crate and

adapt activities to enhance them. The key point is motivation and continuity. Continuous
practise only makes perfect when planned cautiously and done enthusiastically, especially in

gaining a skill.

References:
Renukadevi, D. (2014). The Role of Listening in Language Acquisition; the. International Journal of
Education and Information Studies, 59-63.

Snow, D. (2007). From Language Learner to Language Teacher. TESOL Publications.