Language Teaching

Methods


Dr. VMS
 Approach, Method and Technique in
Language Teaching

 An approach is a set of correlative assumptions dealing with the nature
of language (i.e. linguistic) and the nature of language teaching and
learning; it describes the nature of the subject matter to be taught; it is
more theoretical and forms the basis of any method to be formulated;
an approach is axiomatic.- Edward Anthony
 A method is an overall plan for the orderly presentation of language
material; no part of the method evolved contradicts the principles of the
approach on which it is based; a method is more procedural; within any
approach, there can be several methods.
 A technique represents implementation; it is the actual implementation
of a method in the classroom. It is the particular way of doing things to
accomplish an immediate objective. Techniques must be consistent with
a method, which in turn must be in harmony with an approach
Edward. M (1963:66).
 Language Teaching Methods
 Teaching a language involves a proper approach, method and execution

of the desired content. There are various language teaching methods
available today especially for teaching second/foreign languages.
 Evolution of the language teaching paved the way for inclusion of
special features in the activities especially in accordance with the needs
of the learners. Advanced developments in Computer, engineering and
technology supports the language teaching activity as more innovative,
appropriate, cost effective, easy access and novel.
 Language teachers use various teaching methods based on the need and
appropriateness of the curriculum learners. Teachers prefer not just one
single language teaching method in their classroom activities rather they
use several so as to make the activity as effective and complete.
 Amalgamation of teaching methods based on the suitability of the
learners help creating learner cantered curriculum. The following
section provides the various language teaching methods being practiced
by the teachers from the past to present.
 Various Language Teaching Methods


 Grammar Translation Method
 Direct Method
 Audio-Lingual Method
 Silent Way
 Suggestopedia
 Community Language Learning
 The Natural Approach
 Total Physical Response (TPR)
 Communicative Language Teaching
 Content-based Instruction
 Task-based Language Teaching
 Cooperative Learning
 Grammar Translation Method

 In language teaching the Grammar-Translation Method is not new and
it is used in various names for a prolonged time, once it was called as
the ‘Classical Method’ since it was first used to teach the classical
languages, Latin and Greek. During the early 20th century the
grammar translation method was primarily used to teach the foreign
languages to the students through reading practices.
 This method has the strong motive that by teaching the grammar of
the target language the second language learners can learn the error
free second language. Moreover this method prefers to teach the target
language through the grammatical patterns of the first language.
 The grammar translation method of teaching concerns that the
familiarity and achievement made by the learners in the first language
also be received in the foreign language.
 Grammar translation method

 i. creating the students so as to read the literature of the target
language
 ii. Providing exercises in the target languages will be good
idea to develop the linguistic, cognitive and intellectual
calibres of the learners
 iii. Helping the leaners familiarise and memorise the
grammatical structure of the first language and there by apply
the similar structures in other contexts
 iv. Enhancing the students teacher interaction in a more
traditional way
 v. literary language is given more importance and same is
considered as superior to other language skills
 Direct Method

 Similar to the Grammar-Translation Method, the Direct Method is also not a
new one in language teaching history. Since the Grammar Translation Method
was not very effective in teaching the students to use the target language with
communicative competencies, the Direct Method became popular as an
alternative. The method itself belongs to the natural approach of language
teaching aiming at the learners more communicative in the target language.
 The recent developments in the method of instruction became easier and help
students to communicate freely in the target language. The Direct Method
does not encourage the translation activates rather it focuses on conveying the
intended meaning directly to the receiver.
 This method encourages the learners to receive the content as it is in the target
language and the learners by means of repetitive listening acquire the
pronunciation, grammatical and syntactical patterns. Direct Method ascertains
that the natural way of receiving language through listening activities help the
learners achieve the fluency.
 Direct Method
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 i. learners directly associate with the target language vocabulary
items, grammar and syntactical structures and make meaning of
their own
 ii. Leaners probably have more chances to think and decide on
the meaning and logic of the second language directly
 iii. Learners have more opportunities to listen to the foreign
language and there by improve their pronunciation
 iv. Activities designed in the target language may be helpful for
the learners to use them in real contexts
 v. Target language activities and practices can be arranged at
larger extents and leaners will have more possibilities to speak
and act
 Audio-Lingual Method

 The Audio-Lingual Method was developed in the United States
during WW II.
 It is based on the oral language practices similar to the Direct Method
of teaching. At the same time it is very different, in approach, process
and function rather than emphasizing the vocabulary acquisition
through exposure to its use in situations, the Audio-Lingual Method
trains students in the use of grammatical and syntactical patterns.
 Charles Fries (1945) of the University of Michigan streamlined the
way in applying principles from structural linguistics in developing
the method, and for this reason, it is also referred as ‘Michigan
Method’. Later in its development, principles, approaches and
methods from behavioural psychology (Skinner 1957) also were
incorporated.
 Audio-Lingual Method
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 Teaching spoken language in dialogue forms.
 ii. Direct choral response by all or parts of the class for a
holistic improvement.
 iii. Teaching the use of structure through pattern
practices.
 iv. Guiding the students in choosing and learning
vocabulary items of various lexical categories.
 v. Show how words relate to meaning in the target
language and practice them.
 Audio-Lingual Method
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 Repetition- The student repeats an utterance aloud as soon as he
has heard it. He does this without looking at a printed text. The
utterance must be brief enough to be retained by the ear. Sound is
as important as form and order.
 2. Inflection- One word in an utterance appears in another form
when repeated.
 3. Replacement-One word in an utterance is replaced by another.
 4. Restatement-The student rephrases an utterance and addresses
it to someone else, according to instructions.
 5. Completion- The student hears an utterance that is complete
except for one word, and then repeats the utterance in completed
form.
 Silent Way

 The Silent Way is one of the methods of language teaching devised and executed
by Caleb Gattegno. In this method the colored wooden sticks called Cuisenaire
rods are used for the series Words in Color, an approach to the teaching of initial
reading in which sounds are coded by specific colors.
 The Silent Way belongs to the tradition followed by Direct and Audio Lingual
Methods of teaching, which views learning as a problem-solving, creative,
discovering activity, in which the learner is a principal actor rather than a passive
listener.
 A massive number of people around the world learned languages through the
Audio-Lingual Method, and indeed the same method is still practiced today
several curriculum across the world.
 Even though it is practiced for a prolonged period it has its own shortcoming like
the students’ inability to readily transfer the habits they had mastered in the
classroom to communicative use outside it. Moreover the idea that learning a
language meant forming a set of habits was seriously challenged in the early
1960s.
 Silent Way

 the teacher just oversee and conduct the activities whereas
the learners only perform in all the possible ways and means
to utilise the language skills in practice
 ii. in the teacher-students interaction the teacher is seemingly
silent but very active to make the students perform and to
monitor their activities
 iii. This method provides only language clues for the learners
to perform and not the complete language content
 iv. the language activities focus on the learners use of
pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar and syntactical patterns
 v. learners are not discouraged for the language content they
produce since this activity mainly focus on their language use
 Suggestopedia

 Suggestopedia is one of the language teaching methods developed by the
Bulgarian psychiatrist-educator Georgi Lozanov, which is a specific set of
learning recommendations are derived from Suggestology, which Lozanov
describes as a "science ... concerned with the systematic study of the non rational
and/or non conscious influences" that human beings are constantly responding
to (Stevick 1976: 42).
 Lozanov asserts that the psychological barriers and fear of the learners on
learning are the reasons for their inefficiency. The major aim of the method is to
accelerate the process by which students learn to use a foreign language for
everyday communication.
 This is to be done by breaking down the psychological barriers learners bring
with them to the learning situation. Results show that learners do not use their
full mental powers due to their lack of confidence in language performance.
 According to Lozanov and others, people use only five to ten percent of their
mental capacity and they need to break the limitation of their thoughts in order
to make full use. The learning atmosphere and classroom ambience along with
the teachers’ instruction play crucial role in language teaching activities.
 Suggestopedia
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 1. Show absolute confidence in the method.
 2. Display fastidious conduct in manners and dress.
 3. Organize properly and strictly observe the initial stages
of the teaching process -this includes choice and play of
music, as well as punctuality.
 4. Maintain a solemn attitude towards the session.
 5. Give tests and respond tactfully to poor papers (if any).
 Community Language Learning


 The Community Language Learning method takes its
principles and approaches from the general Counselling-
Learning approach developed by Charles A. Curran. He
found that the adult learners often feel threatened by a new
learning situation that highly affects their learning potentials.
 This method considers the learners as whole persons rather
mere students so as to provide them certain level of
motivational strength. This method has a strong hold that by
understanding students’ fears and being sensitive to them
can help students overcome their negative feelings and turn
them into positive energy to further their learning.
 Community Language Learning

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 Translation- Learners form a small circle. A learner whispers a message or
meaning he or she wants to express, the teacher translates it into (and may
interpret it in) the target language, and the learner repeats the teacher's
translation.
 2. Group Work -Learners may engage in various group tasks, such as
small-group discussion of a topic, preparing a conversation, preparing a
summary of a topic for presentation to another group, preparing a story
that will be presented to the teacher and the rest of the class.
 3. Recording-Students record conversations in the target language.
 Transcription-Students transcribe utterances and conversations they have
recorded for practice and analysis of linguistic forms.
 5. Analysis-Students analyze and study transcriptions of target language
sentences in order to focus on particular lexical usage or on the
application of particular grammar rules.
 The Natural Approach


 The natural approach is a method of language teaching developed by Stephen
Krashen and Tracy Terrell. This method has base of teaching language
naturally and make it more communicative rather than concentrating too
much on vocabulary and grammar practices. It was found that the naturalistic
principles are similar to that of second language acquisition in several
aspects.
 Krashen and Terrell note that such "approaches have been called natural,
psychological, phonetic, new, reform, direct, analytic, and imitative and so
forth" (Krashen and Terrell 1983: 9). This was an attempt to develop a
language teaching proposal that incorporated the "naturalistic" principles
researchers had identified in studies of second language acquisition.
 This approach aims to foster naturalistic language acquisition in a classroom
setting, and to this end it emphasises communication, and places decreased
importance on conscious grammar study and explicit correction of student
errors.
 The Natural Approach


 i. Teaching according to the Natural Approach focuses on
communicative abilities of the students.
 ii. This approach is to help beginners to become
intermediate.
 iii. Vocabulary is considered prior to syntactic structures.
 iv. Natural Approach employs lot of comprehensible input
must be provided.
 v. Use of visual aids and tools help improve the
comprehension of the students.
 Total Physical Response (TPR)


 Total Physical Response (TPR) method of teaching in general was
considered as the Comprehension Approach in foreign language
teaching learning practices. It is called so due to the importance it
gives to listening comprehension practice.
 In most of the other methods it is witnessed that students have
speaking activities in the target language from the first day. In the
1960s, James Asher’s research gave rise to the hypothesis that
language learning starts first with understanding and ends with
production.
 It was strongly believed that only after the learner internalizes an
extensive map of how the target language works, speaking will appear
spontaneously. Asher reasoned that the fastest, least stressful way to
achieve understanding of any target language is to follow directions
uttered by the instructor (without native language translation).
 Total Physical Response (TPR)


 The students naturally develop fluencies in the productive skills in due
course of practices the same as seen exactly how an infant acquires its native
language. A baby spends many months listening to the people around it and
imitates the same for some time and eventually able to utter words.
 The child takes his time to practice and make sense out of the sounds it hears.
It is the natural phenomenon of the child to imitate and speak and makes it
fluent upon attaining the necessary skills even without any instruction from
others.
 The major aim of TPR is to have the students enjoy their experience in
learning to communicate in a foreign language. Learners in Total Physical
Response have the dual roles as listener and performer. Students listen
actively and respond physically to the commands delivered by the teacher.
 Learners of TPR are required to respond both individually and collectively in
accordance with the instruction put forth by the teacher.
 Communicative Language Teaching


 The communicative approach in language teaching starts from the theory of
language as communication. The goal of language communicative language
teaching (CLT) is to develop the communicative competencies of the learners.
 During 1970s the educator began to observe all the existing methods of
language teaching and found that the students could produce sentences
accurately in a lesson, but could not use them appropriately when genuinely
communicating outside of the classroom. Still some others noted that being
able to communicate required more than mastering linguistic structure, due
to the fact that language was fundamentally social (Halliday 1973).
 Learners need to understand the culture, behaviour, custom and societal
manners of the target language culture to certain extent to make the
communication better. Within a social context, language users needed to
perform certain functions, such as promising, inviting, and declining
invitations (Wilkins 1976).
 Communicative Language Teaching

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 Within a social context, language users needed to perform certain
functions, such as promising, inviting, and declining invitations
(Wilkins 1976).
 Students may know the rules of linguistic usage, but be unable to
use the language (Widdowson 1978). Knowing the linguistic
knowledge of the language and social behaviour of the group
needs to be taught to the students at least in the primary level.
 In short, being able to communicate required more than linguistic
competence; it required communicative competence (Hymes 1971)
knowing when and how to say what to whom.
 Such observations contributed to a shift in the field in the late 1970s
and early 1980s from a linguistic structure-cantered approach to a
Communicative Approach (Widdowson 1990; Savignon 1997).
 Content-based Instruction


 Content-based Instruction(CBI) is an approach in which students acquire the
target language through content. Richards and Rodgers (2001) say that “Content-
Based Instruction refers to an approach to second language teaching in which
teaching is organized around the content or information that students will
acquire, rather than around a linguistic or other type of syllabus” (Richards &
Rodgers, 2001, p. 204).
 CBI is an effective method of combining language and content in learning. This
approach has more positive impacts in foreign language learning contexts. Snow
(1991) characterizes content-based instruction as a ‘method with many faces’—
both to make the case for content-based instruction as a method of language
teaching and to portray the great variety of forms and settings in which it takes
place.
 In CBI the students will acquire specific contextual knowledge, and not around
the linguistic or other type of syllabus. CBI method is based on the principles of
Communicative Language Teaching. Apart from teaching language for academic
purposes teaching content language for other specific disciplines also practised.
 Content-based Instruction

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i. Base instructional decisions on content rather
than language criteria.
ii. Involve students actively in all phases of the
learning process. One of the main characteristics
of the CBI classroom is that it is learner-centred,
not teacher-centred.
iii. Choose content for its relevance to students’
lives, interests, and/or academic goals.
iv. Select authentic texts and tasks.
 Task-based Language Teaching


 Task-based Learning (TBL) approach has close connection with the
Communicative Language Teaching method, where the teaching
process is done entirely through communicative tasks. Task-based
Language Teaching is another form of the communicative approach,
where language is acquired through use. Skehan (1998), drawing on
a number of other writers, puts forward five key characteristics of a
task:
 I. Meaning is primary
 II. Learners are not given other people’s meaning to regurgitate
 III. There is some sort of relationship to comparable real-world
activities
 IV. Task completion has some priority
 V. The assessment of the task is in terms of outcome.
 Task-based Language Teaching


 I. A needs-based approach to content selection.

 II. An emphasis on learning to communicate through interaction in the target

language.

 III. The introduction of authentic texts into the learning situation.

 IV. The provision of opportunities for learners to focus not only on language
but also on the learning process itself.

 V. An enhancement of the learner’s own personal experiences as important

contributing elements to classroom learning.
 Cooperative Learning

 Cooperative Learning is an innovative instructional strategy that involves
a lot of motivational strategies to make instruction relevant to the students
and get them involved. Several definitions of cooperative learning have
been offered by educationists based on its theory, function and practice.
 Felder and Brent (2010) define cooperative learning (CL) as students
working in teams on an assignment or project under conditions in which
certain criteria are satisfied. Johnson, Johnson & Holubec (2013) defined
cooperative learning as the instructional use of small groups so that
students work together to maximize their own and each other’s learning.
 It is an instructional programme in which students work in small groups
to help one another master academic content in foreign language.
Cooperative learning essentially involves students learning from each
other in groups regardless their previous learning achievements.
 Cooperative Learning


 1. Positive Interdependence: Team members are obliged to rely on one
another to achieve their goal.
 2. Individual Accountability: All students in a group are held
accountable for doing their share of the work.
 3. Face-to-Face Promotive Interaction: Group assignments should be
constructed so that the work cannot be simply parcelled out and done
individually. Assignments must include work that has to be done
interactively.
 4. Appropriate Collaborative Skills: Students are encouraged and
helped to develop and practice trust building, leadership, decision-
making, communication and conflict management.
 5. Group Processing: Team members set up group goals, periodically
assess whether they are doing well as a team, and identify changes they
will make to function more effectively in the future.
 CALT Programs


 Computer Assisted Language Teaching (CALT) is one of the
approaches through which teaching is done by making use of
computer technologies.
 CALT methods are mostly used for class room presentation,
testing and evaluation of the students’ performance, recording the
scoring patterns and progress of the learners. CALT Packages help
utilising the Information and Communication Technologies in best
possible way.
 Recent developments made in CALT programs provide a good
interactive platform for the learners of second and foreign
languages. The teachers of ESL/EFL can make the computer
oriented teaching and testing as a best resource eliminating the
effort and time significantly.
 Online classrooms

 Developments in computer software technologies to teach and learn
languages are inevitable in recent times. Online classrooms serve as a good
source to teach the students of different locations and also act as alternatives
to the traditional classrooms.
 One of the significant advantages of using computer technologies is due to
easy access and availability of learning sources. Computer assisted language
teaching (CALT ) method will be the most important priorities of the future
generation.
 Due to the impact of recent researches on classroom teaching and learning the
language teaching activities become more valid and appropriate to meet the
current needs of the learners.
 Language learners are from multifaceted disciplines and professions which
make difficulties to follow one single method to teach all. Online classrooms
are the best alternatives for teaching massive number of students with
various modules to suit the learners of all disciplines.
 

Thank You