Teaching Approaches

Prepared by: Chafik Jellas

 Standards-Based Appraoch o Connections: learners will make
connections with other subject areas such as
According to the English Guidelines for teaching foreign languages in
history, Arabic...
Morocco, this approach is adopted for the Secondary school
o Comparison: learners will gain
(Common Core, First Year, and Second Year Baccalaureate).
awareness of cross-cultural similarities and
Standards-Based Approach addresses what students should know
differences in culture that exist between the
and be able to do and demonstrate at the end of the process of the
target culture and language and their own
language study. There are three types of standards:
through comparing.
- Content standards: it is a statement about what learners
o Communities: learners will extend
should know and be able to do with English.
their learning experiences from the EFL
- Performance standards: shows how the learners have
classroom to the outside world through activities
achieved the standards targeted.
such as the use of the internet.
- Proficiency standards: tell us how learners should perform.
Some characteristics of standards-based
Standards-Based Approach “SBA “is concerned with developing the
classrooms
following five areas C5:
- Classroom climates are
o Communication: learners will communicate in both oral
characterized by respectful behaviors, routines.
and written forms, understand and interpret both oral and written
- The teacher ensures that all the
messages to various audiences for a variety of purposes. The three
components of the lesson (learning activities,
modes of communication are interpersonal, interpretive, and
assessments, homework) contribute to the
presentational communication.
lesson objectives and to the student’s mastery of
o Culture: learners will gain a deeper understanding of their
the standards.
culture and the target culture in terms of their perspectives (ideas,
attitudes, etc.), practices, and products like books, laws, music.

Prepared by: Chafik Jellas

 Competency-Based Approach
The competency-based approach represents a paradigm shift in the
history of language teaching methods because it has shifted the focus
of education from the inputs to the outputs, which mean from the
syllabus (list of contents to be delivered by teachers) to the learning
results (list of performances the student should be able to do).
This approach is adopted for the secondary school(9 Grade Students).
It focuses on the competencies of students; it aims at teaching and
mastering one skill then moving to another skill. For example, In the
Moroccan educational system, English is taught to... to the students
of 13, 14 years old. So they need to know the very basics of the English
language like Alphabets and how to greet each other and so on before
moving to learn how to write complete sentences and speak correctly.
Communicative-Based Approach
The communicative approach is based on the idea that learning a
language successfully comes through having to communicate real
meaning. When learners are involved in real communication, their
natural strategies for language acquisition will be used, and this will
allow them to learn to use the language.
This can be seen as the most preferable Approach for the majority of
teachers in Morocco. It is a learner-centered approach because it gives
the chance to the learners to learn by themselves.
This approach helps the learner to develop not
only linguistic competence but also
communicative skills. As far as fluency and
accuracy they are equally important.
The teacher here is a co-participant not that of an
authoritarian master. The teacher should provide
all the recourses necessary for communication to
be effective in every context.
Content-Based Approach
The content-based approach differs from
traditional language classes because language
comes second to the content. In other words, The
focus here is on the topic or subject matter. Instead
of teaching language in isolation, the target
language becomes the medium in which
important information can be learned.
During the lesson, students are focused on
learning about something using the language they
are trying to learn, rather than their native
language, as a tool for developing knowledge and
so they develop their linguistic ability in the
Prepared by: Chafik Jellas
target language. This is thought to be a more natural way of
developing language ability and one that corresponds more to the way
we originally learn our first language.

Eclectic Approach
It is a mixed process of structural, communicative approaches. If the
topic belongs to structures, the teacher has to follow a structural
approach. If the topic belongs to a speaking activity, he has to follow
a communicative approach. When the teacher teaches grammar
topics, he/she can follow inductive or deductive, depending on the age
and the students' background. If it is a reading topic, he can use the
reading and audio-lingual method. So it is a combination of
traditional modern approaches. It offers better opportunities to learn
language skills. It gives good results without pressure on the learners
Principles:
o It gives a chance to teachers to select different teaching
techniques in each period to reach the aims of the lesson
o It breaks the monotony in one hand and ensures better
understanding on the other hand
o Different kinds of audio-visual and teaching aids lead to a
better understanding
o It saves a lot of time in presenting language activities

Prepared by: Chafik Jellas