Teaching and learning context

SLA theory and methodology

 Outcomes

You’ll gain a basic understanding of:

• the factors involved in the teaching and learning context
• second language acquisition and teaching methodology
You’ll be able to:
• describe a teaching and learning context with consideration of learner factors
and the wider educational context to determine appropriate teacher’s roles
and teaching methodology for the given context
 Contents
• Outcomes
• Project and Presentation
• Introduction
• Educational Context
• Learner Characteristics
• Personality
• Educational Background
• Styles and Strategies
• Learner Needs
• Teacher Roles
• Motivation
• L1 and L2 Learning
• Exposure and Focus on Form
• Background to SLA Methodologies
 Project and Presentation

• Describe a familiar teaching and learning context

• Work in class with access to resources and guidance from tutors
• Present to your classmates on Monday AM
 What’s involved in the teaching and learning
context?

• Learners
• Teachers
• The wider educational and societal context
What was the most surprising / interesting /
unexpected thing you discovered about a
classmate?
 Foreign Language Learning
vs.
Second Language Learning
Foreign Language Learning Second Language Learning
• In a country where the target language is not • In the target country
widely spoken
 English for specific purposes

• Business English
• IELTS – Band 7
• Aviation English
• EAP
• OET – Occupational English Test – Medicine
 English as a lingua franca
/lin gwa frank a/

A language which is used as a medium of communication between speakers of

different languages
Levels
CEFR and IELTS
 Curriculum

• ELLP English Language Learning Progression

• Governing Bodies e.g. NZQA / Universities NZ / Cambridge
• National Exams / Qualifications e.g. NZCEL
 Learner characteristics

• age / maturity
• personality
• educational background
• learning styles
• learning strategies
 Age / Maturity
Becoming grown up physically, mentally and emotionally

Children: not able to sit for long, need to move, short attention span, visuals, learn by doing, not afraid of
making mistakes, not able to self-control

Teenagers: able to sit for longer, not as much need to move, concentration is develop., start to understand
abstract concepts, sharing ideas, may worry about what others may think, more self-control
 
Adults: able to sit and concentrate for longer periods of time, by choice/option, able to control impulses,
not so willing to take risks / some may be very afraid of making a mistake.
 How do children, teenagers and adults differ ?

• Physically
• Mentally
• Emotionally
 Personality
> Adjust methods and teaching techniques based on the Ss personality:
• Shy – no talking, participate, afraid of making mistakes
• Outgoing – outspoken, not shy, joking, manipulate the lesson, challenging to stay
on topic, loud and disruptive
• Patient – waits for information
• Curious – ask (too) many questions (on/off topic?)
• Sensitive – might feel easily offended, chosen topics
In what areas of language learning would you expect more extroverted people to do well?
- Speaking:
not scared of making mistakes or sharing their views
can be opinionated
not shy
like to show off
like to control
like to have the power of the word
In what areas of language learning would you expect more introverted
people to do well?
- Grammar / Writing

fear of public speaking

fear of making mistakes
prefer to take notes and express through words
prefer not to be noticed (more discrete)
shy
 Educational background

Learners all bring their past experiences to the class:

• First language: their mother tongue (knowledge, past learnings)
• Target language ability: current level of the new language
• Preferences: what they like/are interested in
• Learning styles:… (to be cont…)
 What are the implications for teaching?

• First language: how they learned their own language

• Target language ability: overall level of the Ss / level of different skills
(LRWS, G/V)
• Preferences: teach what they are interested in, adjust your lesson/materials
> engaging the students
• Learning styles:
 Learning styles and strategies

Styles Strategies
• The way a learner naturally prefers to take in, • The ways learners choose and use to learn
process and remember information and skills (language)
 Styles

• the physical sense we prefer to use

• our way of interacting with others
• our style of thinking
How do you like to learn?
 What can a teacher do in a lesson to help all
the learners and support their preferred styles?
 Strategies

• ways to help ourselves identify what we need to learn, process, remember

and use new language
• help us be less dependent on the teacher - autonomy
What are some strategies you use to learn
language?
 What are some strategies you use to learn
language?
• repeating new words in your head until you remember them
• experimenting and risk taking by using new language in conversation
• asking the teacher and others for feedback on your language use
• using the language as much as possible
• recording yourself speaking, then listening and judging fluency, pronunciation
• asking a speaker to repeat what they’ve said
• selecting and learning relevant vocabulary
• thinking about how to memorise new words from the lesson
• displaying vocabulary on your fridge
• Paraphrasing: saying the same using different words
 Learner needs

Personal needs Learning needs Future needs

 Learner needs

Personal needs Learning needs Future needs

• security • learning styles Specific:
• challenge • target language • subskills
• support
• language subskills
• praise
• vocabulary
• exam strategies • grammar
• movement
• goals
• learner autonomy • functions
• learning expectations
• working at a suitable level • text types
 Consider reasons for these needs

Personal needs Learning needs Future needs

• security • learning styles Specific:
• challenge • target language • subskills
• support
• language subskills • vocabulary
• praise
• exam strategies • grammar
• movement
• learner autonomy • functions
• goals
• learning expectations
• working at a suitable level • text types
 How can the teacher address learners’ needs?

• Personal needs
• Learning needs
• Future needs
What is a teacher?
 Remembering teachers you have known.

Think about some teachers you have had in your life.

What do you remember about:
• any specific lessons
• teacher’s manner
• teaching techniques
• how you felt in their classes
• atmosphere in their classes
To what extent do you think your teaching style may be based on these models?
 Teacher Roles
Teacher roles = different ways of behaving in and managing a class.
• Number of different roles adopted at different stages in a lesson
• Roles chosen depend on:
Teaching approach
Learning styles
Learner needs
• Can you think of any teacher roles?
 Teacher roles

• Planner > ALL • Diagnostician > T, A

• Manager > A, T • Language resource > T, A
• Monitor / Observer > • Assessor > T, A
ALL
• Facilitator > ALL C • Rapport builder > ALL C
 Frequently adopted roles: Planner

• Prepares and reflects on lesson before teaching

• Anticipates problems
• Selects, designs and adapts materials
 Frequently adopted roles: Manager

• Organises the learning space

• Makes sure everything in the classroom is running smoothly
• sets up rules and routines for behaviour and interaction
 Frequently adopted roles: Monitor/Observer

Goes around the class during individual, pair and group work activities
Checks learning and provides support as necessary
 Frequently adopted roles: Facilitator

• Provides opportunities for learning

• Helps learners to access resources
• Helps learners to develop learner autonomy
Frequently adopted roles: Diagnostician

Works out the causes of learner difficulty

Frequently adopted roles: Rapport builder

• Tries to create a good relationship with and between learners

Frequently adopted roles: Language Resource

• Can be used by the learners for help and advice about learning
 Frequently adopted roles: Assessor

• Evaluates the language level and attitudes of the learners by using different
means of informal and formal assessment
• Learner training
• Flexibility
• Important to take on appropriate roles – not always comfortable
Teacher roles in different educational contexts

What roles would you employ with:

• young learners?
• teenagers?
• adults?
 Motivation

the thoughts and feelings that make us want to and continue to want to do
something (and which turn our thoughts into action)

• why we do something
• how long we work at it
• how we work to achieve it
What factors can you think of that influence
motivation?
 What factors can you think of that influence
motivation?
• Usefulness of the target language to us (job, study, life)
• Interest in the target culture
• Success / feeling good about learning
• Confidence / independence
• Encouragement and support
• Wish to communicate with people who matter (business | romance | friends)
• Interest in the learning process
Motivation mind maps
 In what ways are Cinzia and Elizabetta similarly
motivated?
How is Carlo’s motivation different to the others?
Cinzia Elizabetta Carlo
Cinzia is a doctor. She needs ELizabetta works in sales. She Carlo loves English culture and
to learn to read medical uses English to communicate visits England as often as
journals written in English and with many of the important possible. He is desperate to
she also occasionally attends clients she deals with on a learn as much English as he
conferences at which English daily basis. Her company has can so that he can talk to
is the dominant language. She sent her on the course, people more easily when he
sees English as an essential although she is not sure she visits.
way of furthering her career. needs to improve her English.
 How can the teacher influence motivation in
the classroom?

• The teacher • Interest

• The classroom atmosphere • Autonomy
• The task • Personal relevance
• Rapport • Goal / Target
• Self-confidence • Culture
First language acquisition and second
additional language learning
 What differences can you think of between
first and second language learning?

• age
• way of learning
• context
 Exposure, Interaction and Focus on Form

• Hearing, reading language all around us without studying it

• Interacting and communicating with others
• Looking at the grammar, pronunciation, how it’s written
 3 ways of learning language

Exposure Interaction Focus on form

• picking it up • express ourselves • meaning
• exposure • trial and error • features:
• surrounded by it • paraphrase pronunciation
word order
• interesting • experimentation affixes
• just beyond our level grammatical structures
How can students get exposure to language in
and out of the classroom?
How can students get exposure to language in
and out of the classroom?

• recordings of stories or songs

• magazine articles
• graded readers
• internet

With or without tasks?

 Comprehensible input

• Language has to be at the right level

• i+1
 Silent period

• Time to acquire the new language / structure

• Cannot learn immediately

• Learning language is a slow process that involves making mistakes

 Language to interact

• Language is communication
• with classmates or teacher
• opportunity to experiment
How could you get your students using
language to interact?

What
Where
When
Why
Who
How
 How could you get your students using
language to interact?

• Pair and group work

• Problem-solving activities
• Project work
 Focus on form

• Presenting new target language to students

• Asking them to find certain grammatical patterns in a reading or listening
• Pointing out useful language before or after completing a task
• Correction
 How do you prefer to learn?

• Acquisition
• Interaction
• Focus on form
 Second Language Acquisition Methodologies

• Classroom practice informed by research

• New methods proliferated through the 20 century
th

• Some were accepted widely then replaced by newer more appealing

methods
• Some adopted universally
 Approaches to language teaching

• Our view of language

• Our view of how language learning takes place
 Methods of language teaching

• ways of teaching in the classroom informed by approaches

 “Approaches and Methods”

• views of language and language learning and the classroom practices that
correspond to these views
 Approaches and Methods

• The term Approach “refers to theories about the nature of language and language learning.
These provide the reasons for doing things in the classroom and the reasons for the way they are
done. An approach describes how language is used and how its constituent parts interlock... It
also describes how people acquire their knowledge of the language and makes statements
about the conditions which will promote successful language learning” (Harmer, 2015).
• Method = “the practical classroom realisation of an approach” (Harmer, 2015)
• Methods include procedures and techniques

• Procedure= an ordered sequence of techniques (“First you do this, then you do that….”)
• Technique= a single activity e.g. finger modelling
 Approaches and Methods
Approach

Method
Procedure

Technique

• Different educators use these terms to mean different things. For example,
some writers use approach and method interchangeably, while others call a
procedure or a technique a method.
 Language is grammar.

• Learn the rules and use them to work out the meanings of texts through
translation
 Language is communication.

• Use language to communicate in activities that focus on fluency

 Structural Approach

View of language View of learning

• Language is a system of structures used to
communicate meaning
• Language learning is a matter of habit
• Language is learnt through controlled practice
of simpler structures, then more complicated
ones.
• Mistakes should be avoided
 Lexical Approach

View of language View of learning

• Vocabulary is the most important aspect of • Learn chunks as units
language
• Chunks need to be noticed to be learnt
• Vocabulary consists of words and chunks
 Functional Approach

View of language View of learning

• Functions are the most important aspect of • See it, practice it, use it
language
 Communicative Approach

View of language View of learning

• Communication is the most important aspect • Don’t just learn about it, use it
of language
• Language as a tool for communication
Information Gap activity

- communicative approach
- task-based
 Grammar-Translation Method

View of language View of learning

• Language is made up of grammatical rules • Analyse and apply grammatical rules
 Audiolingual Method

View of language View of learning

• Language is behaviour • Constant repetition teaches language
behaviour
• Stimulus – response –reinforcement
(behaviourism) • Emphasis on accuracy
 Total Physical Response (TPR)

View of language View of learning

• Grammatical structures and vocabulary is the • Exposure
most important aspect of language
• Recognition precedes production
• Silent period
• Physical movement
• Relaxed
 Guided Discovery

View of language View of learning

• Language has patterns of meaning and use • Students work out the patterns and rules
themselves
 Task-based Learning

View of language View of learning

• Language as a tool for communicating
meaning through use of functions, vocabulary,
structures, discourse
• Language is learnt by using it
• Performance of meaningful tasks central to
learning
 Content-based learning

View of language View of learning

• Grammatical, lexical, functional areas and • Language presented through interesting
skills are all important aspects of language topics
 Content and Language integrated Learning
(CLIL)

View of language View of learning

• Language for communication • Language learned through acquisition and use
• All aspects of language help communicate • Learn language to learn something else
meaning
 Eclectic Approach

• ‘Mix and match’

 PROCEDURE
Presentation, Practice, Production

View of language View of learning

• Grammatical structures and functions are the • See language in context
most important aspect of language
• Practice language in controlled conditions
• Use it in freer conditions, with less support

Gradually remove the scaffolding

 Which is best?

Motivated, upper intermediate 18-year-olds learning English for their future

jobs in the tourism industry

18-year-olds taking a grammar exam to get into university

Migrants in New Zealand