University of Burundi

Institute of Applied Pedagogy

Department of English
Subject :ELT Methods
Class :BACII/SEM.I
Credits :3
INTRODUCTION

English and English Language Teaching Today

English language has a complex status in today’s world:

a first language
learned at school,
essential for academic and professional success.
required to study with no immediate need
English means different things to people in different parts of the world
• arouse positive feelings – as the language of pop culture, the media and
social networking
• have associations with colonialism, elitism or social and economic
inequality
English today has a unique status, as a consequence of the role it plays
around the world and its function as an ‘international’ or ‘world language’.
world’s lingua franca
some 380 million people are said to speak it as a first language
600 million people use it, alongside other languages, as a ‘second
language’
one billion people are said to be studying it, at any one time, as a ‘foreign
language
English is learned for many different reasons:
an essential tool for education and business for some learners;

the language of travel and related activities of sightseeing for others;

may be needed for social survival and employment,

be a popular language for the media, entertainment, the internet and
other forms of electronic communication
 Factors promoting the use of English around the world today

The status of English in the world today has nothing to do with its intrinsic
characteristics as a language

Historical Factors
 it was the language of the British Empire, and later, that of American expansion
 legacies of the British Empire under British colonial administration.
 the countries in the Empire were located in many different parts of the world,
Africa ,Asia and the Pacific.
 When colonial administrations were replaced by national ones, English remained as a
major working language, facilitating communication.
 The English took local characteristics, giving rise to the ‘new Englishes’ that we
recognize today, such as Indian English, Malaysian English or Nigerian English.
 Globalization

The fact that English has become the primary language for communication
within international organizations such as the United Nations, the Council
of Europe, the European Union, and the African Union is an example of
such globalization. However, globalization has contributed as much to the
‘idea’ of English as it has to its actual role in communication.
 Economic development

Many countries see English as important to their economic

development.

 countries with poor English-language skills also have lower levels of

trade, innovation and income .
 English is key to innovation and competitiveness.
 Communication

English is a convenient language for communication across national boundaries and in a

wide range of professions

Business and entrepreneurship

 As the United States emerged as a global economic power after World War II,
international trade and commerce became increasingly dependent on the use of English.

 Today, large business organizations are increasingly multinational in their operations,

and English is today the most frequent language used for both written and spoken
communication within such organizations and companies worldwide
 Education

English has traditionally had the status of a school subject,

becoming the medium of instruction, particularly at university level,

Attract an international body of students,

raise their international profiles,

internationalization of higher education through English.

 Travel
o Today’s citizens are often mobile,

o either moving to a new location for tourism or to seek employment.

o The development of tourism within a country is often dependent upon

providing resources in English for visitors, and international travellers

o they need some knowledge of English in order to travel abroad.

 The media

• English is the language used in newspapers

• for an international readership and in international magazines.

• Used by international television networks and television channels.

 The status of English in the school curriculum
• learners in state as well as private schools are required to take English courses at
some stage in their school careers
• it may be a required or optional subject at grade school / elementary school and
a required subject at middle school / junior high or high school / senior high
• a gradual introduction to English is normally provided
• English may be taught as a subject, or it may be used as a medium of instruction
for some or most school subjects.
• English instruction is provided may range from a few hours per week, at grade
school, to one or more hours per day, at middle school and high school.
• courses at secondary level typically focus on grammar, vocabulary and the four
skills, but also reflect teaching trends in local contexts, where in some places,
approaches such as Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) may be
used.
 APPROACHES AND METHODS IN ELT

Throughout history, many different ideas about how best to teach languages
have been proposed,

In the nineteenth century, the grammar-translation method was widely used
up until the end of the century,

In the first half of the twentieth century, the major teaching methods were
the direct method, the structural-situational method, audio-lingualism and
communicative language teaching,

by the latter half of the twentieth century, the nature of language teaching
had changed
diversity of contexts and needs variety of different approaches more
suited to different kinds of learners and for use in different kinds of
teaching situations,

Rather than a focus on ‘general English’ that would be suitable for all
types of learner, specially developed courses were needed for
immigrants, for refugees, for learners needing English for
occupational or educational purposes and for international business or
travel, and for learners needing English for professional or academic
reading or writing.
Global Teaching Approaches and Methods
The Difference Between an Approach and a Method

• A theory of language: An account of what the essential components of

language are and what proficiency or competence in a language
entails,
•
• A theory of learning: An account of the psycholinguistic, cognitive
and social processes involved in learning a language and the
conditions that need to be present for these processes to be activated.
 Approach

• When an instructional design is quite explicit at the

level of theory of language and learning, but can be
applied in many different ways at the level of syllabus
design and classroom procedures, it is usually referred
to as an approach.

Examples: Communicative Language Teaching

Approach and the Natural Approach.
  Method

• When an instructional design includes a specific level of application in

terms of objectives, teacher and learner roles and classroom activities, it is
referred to as a method.

• With a method, there are prescribed objectives, roles for teacher and learners
and guidelines for activities, and, consequently, little flexibility for teachers
in how the method is used. The teacher’s role is to implement the method.

• Examples: Audiolingualism and situational language teaching are methods

 METHODS in ELT
1. Grammar Translation
based on a detailed analysis of the grammar of the language, followed by
exercises involving translating sentences and texts from the mother tongue
into the target language,

The emphasis: reading and writing skills and sentence-level practice, and
little use was made of spoken language in the classroom,

Grammar-translation was referred to as ‘a cluster of practices, including

explicit grammatical explanations, detailed examples illustrating
grammatical rules, bilingual vocabulary lists and translation exercises, and
perhaps a focus on reading literary texts’.
Results:
good understanding of the grammar of the language, but little fluency in speaking
Translation texts typically bore little relation to the way language is used in the real
world, and for many students, language classes meant a tedious experience of
memorizing lists of obscure grammar rules and vocabulary and trying to produce
translations.
• Little about the spoken command of the languages.

Reasons for the continued use of grammar-translation in some countries:

a) the limited command of spoken English of many language teachers,
b) the fact that this was the method their teachers used,
c) the sense of control and authority in the classroom that it gives teachers and
d) the fact that it works well in large classes.
 The Direct Method
One of the first oral-based methods to be developed
 it was based on the idea that the meaning of new language items could be communicated directly through
careful presentation techniques and without recourse to translation.

Typically followed Procedures :

 Classroom instruction was conducted exclusively in the target language.

 Only everyday vocabulary and sentences were taught.
 Oral-communication skills were built up in a carefully graded progression around question-and-answer
exchanges between teachers and students in small, intensive classes.
 Grammar was taught inductively (i.e. without direct explanation or presentation of grammar).
 New teaching points were introduced orally.
 Concrete vocabulary was taught through demonstration, objects and pictures; abstract vocabulary was
taught by association of ideas.
 Both speech and listening comprehension were taught.
 Correct pronunciation and grammar were emphasized.
The direct method is sometimes still used in teaching English to
young children and there are good examples of teachers using the
direct method on the internet,

we probably owe to the direct method the fact that the use of the
mother tongue and translation have been ignored, or downplayed,
in language teaching ever since
 Audiolingualism

Audiolingualism takes its name from the belief that language learning should be
based on the spoken language, through the medium of audio input (hearing)
and spoken output,

Language teaching focused on teaching the basic structures of the language

through a process of drilling and repetition,

It was assumed that language learning meant building up a large repertoire of
sentences and grammatical patterns, and learning to produce these accurately
and quickly in the appropriate situation,

Once a basic command of the language was established through oral drilling and
controlled practice, other uses of language were introduced, usually in the sequence
of speaking, listening, reading and writing
• Techniques: memorization of dialogues, question and answer practice,
substitution drills and various forms of guided speaking and writing
practice.

• Great attention to accurate pronunciation and accurate mastery of

grammar was stressed from the very beginning stages of language
learning, since it was assumed that if students made errors, these
would quickly become a permanent part of the learner’s speech

• little input from the teacher was required

• The teaching of listening comprehension, pronunciation, grammar, and
vocabulary are all related to development of oral fluency,
•
• Reading and writing skills may be taught, but they are dependent upon
prior oral skills,

• speaking skills are themselves dependent upon the ability to accurately

perceive and produce the major phonological features of the target
language, fluency in the use of the key grammatical patterns in the
language, knowledge of sufficient vocabulary to use with these
patterns.
 Types of learning and teaching activities

Dialogues and drills form the basis of audiolingual classroom practices.

Dialogues provide the means of contextualizing key structures and illustrate situations
in which structures might be used

Dialogues are used for repetition and memorization

• Correct pronunciation, stress, rhythm, and intonation are emphasized.

• After a dialogue has been presented and memorized, specific grammatical patterns
in the dialogue are selected and become the focus of drills and pattern-practice
exercises.
Expansion: When a word is added it takes a certain place in the sequence.
EXAM PLE: I know him. (hardly). -I hardly know him.
I know him. (well). - I know him well....
• 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.
• EXAMPLE. This is the seventh month. -This is the seventh month.
• After a student has repeated an utterance, he may repeat it again and
add a few words, then repeat that whole utterance and add more
words.
• EXAMPLES. I used to know him. - I used to know him. I used to
know him years ago. - I used to know him years ago when we were in
school. ...
 Learner roles

Learners are viewed as organisms that can be directed by skilled

training techniques to produce correct responses.
Learners play a reactive role by responding to stimuli, and thus have
little control over the content, pace, or style of learning.
They are not encouraged to initiate interaction, because this ma y lead
to mistakes.
The fact that In the early stages learners do not always understand the
meaning of what they are repeating is not perceived as a drawback, for
by listening to the teacher, imitating accurately, and responding to and
performing controlled tasks they are learning a new form of verbal
behavior.
 Teacher roles

• In Audiolingualism, the teacher's role is central and active; it is a

teacher-dominated method.
• The teacher models the target language, controls the direction and
pace of learning, and monitors and corrects the learners'
performance.
• The teacher must keep the learners attentive by varying drills and
tasks and choosing relevant situations to practice structures.
• Language learning is seen to result from active verbal interaction
between the teacher and the learners.
 Total Physical Response (TPR)

• Total Physical Response (TPR) is a language teaching method built around the
coordination of speech and action; it attempts to teach language through
physical (motor) activity.

• The emphasis on comprehension and the use of physical actions to teach a

foreign language at an introductory level has a long tradition in language
teaching.
 Reduction of Stress
An important condition for successful language learning is the absence of
stress.
The key to stress-free learning is to tap into the natural bio-program for
language development and thus to recapture the relaxed and pleasurable
experiences that accompany first language learning.
By focusing on meaning interpreted through movement, rather than on
language forms studied in the abstract, the learner is said to be liberated from
self-conscious and stressful situations and is able to devote full energy to
learning.
The speech-production mechanisms will begin to function spontaneously
when the basic foundations of language are established through listening
training
 The syllabus in TPR
• The type of syllabus used can be inferred from an analysis of the exercise types
employed in TPR classes.
• the use of a sentence-based syllabus, with grammatical and lexical criteria being
primary in selecting teaching items.
• Unlike methods that operate from a grammar-based or structural view of the
core elements of language, Total Physical Response requires initial attention to
meaning rather than to the form of items.
• Grammar is taught inductively.
• Grammatical features and vocabulary items are selected not according to their
frequency of need or use in target language situations, but according to the
situations in which they can be used in the classroom and the ease with which
they can be learned.
• A fixed number of items be introduced at a time, to facilitate ease of
differentiation and assimilation.
Types of learning and teaching activities

• Imperative drills are the major classroom activity in Total Physical

Response,

• typically used to elicit physical actions and activities on the part of

the learners,

• Conversational dialogues are delayed until after about 120 hours of

instruction
 Learner Roles
• Learners in Total Physical Response have the primary roles of listener and
performer,
• They listen attentively and respond physically to commands given by the
teacher,
• Learners are required to respond both individually and collectively.
• Learners have little influence over the content of learning, since content is
determined by the teacher, who must follow the imperative-based format for
lessons,
• Learners are also expected to recognize and respond to novel combinations of
previously taught items,
• Learners are also required to produce novel combinations of their own.
• learners monitor and evaluate their own progress,
• They are encouraged to speak when they feel ready to speak - that is, when a
sufficient basis in the language has been internalized.
 Teacher role

• The teacher plays an active and direct role in Total Physical Response.
"The instructor is the director of a stage play in which the students are
the actors”,

• It is the teacher who decides what to teach, who models and presents
the new materials, and who selects supporting for classroom use,

• The teacher is encouraged to be well prepared and be well organized

so that the lesson flow smoothly and predictably.
 How to use it in class?
• In the classroom the teacher plays the role of parent. She starts by saying a word
('jump') or a phrase ('look at the board') and demonstrating an action,

• The teacher then says the command and the students all do the action,

• After repeating a few times it is possible to extend this by asking the students
to repeat the word as they do the action,

• When they feel confident with the word or phrase you can then ask the
students to direct each other or the whole class,

• It is more effective if the students are standing in a circle around the teacher
and you can even encourage them to walk around as they do the action.
 When to use it?

TPR can be used to teach and practise many things.

• Vocabulary connected with actions (smile, chop, headache, wriggle)

• Tenses past/present/future and continuous aspects (Every morning I clean my teeth, I make my bed, I

eat breakfast)

• Classroom language (Open your books)

• Imperatives/Instructions (Stand up, close your eyes)

• Storytelling

• It can be adapted for all kinds of teaching situations, you just need to use your imagination!
 Why TPR?
It is a lot of fun, students enjoy it and it can be a real stirrer in the class. It lifts the pace
and the mood,

It is very memorable: it really helps students to remember phrases or words.

It is good for kinaesthetic learners who need to be active in the class.
It can be used in large or small classes. It doesn't really matter how many students you
have as long as you are prepared to take the lead, the students will follow.
It works well with mixed-ability classes. The physical actions get across the meaning
effectively so that all the students are able to understand and use the target language.
It doesn't require a lot of preparation or materials. As long as you are clear what you
want to practise (a rehearsal beforehand can help), it won't take a lot of time to get
ready.
It is very effective with teenagers and young learners.
It involves both left- and right-brained learning.
 The Silent Way

• The Silent Way belongs to the tradition, which views learning as a

problem-solving, creative, discovering activity, in which the learner
is a principal actor rather than a bench-bound listener

• the benefits derived from "discovery learning" under four headings:

• (a) the increase in intellectual potency,
• (b) the shift from extrinsic to intrinsic rewards,
• (c) the learning of heuristics by discovering,
• and (d) the aid to conserving memory
• Similar benefits from learners taught via the Silent Way are claimed.
• The general objective of the Silent Way is to give beginning level students’ oral
and aural facility in basic elements of the target language,
• The general goal set for language learning is near-native fluency in the target
language, and correct pronunciation and mastery of the prosodic elements of the
target language are emphasized,

• An immediate objective is to provide learners with basic practical knowledge of

grammar of the language,
•
• This forms the basis for independent learning on the learner's part,
•
• basic level of proficiency, it is clear that language items are introduced according
to their grammatical complexity, their relationship to what has been taught
previously, and the ease with which items can be presented visually.
 Learner roles

Language learning is a process of personal growth resulting from growing student awareness and
self-challenge.
The learner first experiences a "random or almost random feeling of the area of activity in question
until one finds one or more cornerstones to build on.
Then starts a systematic analysis, first by trial and error, later by directed experiment with practice
of the acquired subareas until mastery follows".
Learners are expected to develop independence, autonomy, and responsibility.
Independent learners are those who are aware that they must depend on their own resources
and realize that they can use "the knowledge of their own language to open up some things in a
new language" or that they can "take their knowledge of the first few words in the new
language and figure out additional words by using that knowledge".
The autonomous learner chooses proper expressions in a given set of circumstances and situations.
"The teacher cultivates the student's 'autonomy' by deliberately building choices into situations".
Responsible learners know that they have free will to choose among any set of linguistic choices.
The ability to choose intelligently and carefully is said to be evidence of responsibility.
• Learners exert a strong influence over each other's learning and, to a
lesser degree, over the linguistic content taught.
• They are expected to interact with each other and suggest alternatives to
each other.
• Learners have only themselves as individuals and the group to rely on, and
so must learn to work cooperatively rather than competitively.
• They need to feel comfortable both correcting each other and being
corrected by each other.
• In order to be productive members of the learning group, learners thus
have to play varying roles.
• At times one is an independent individual, at other times a group member.
• A learner also must be a teacher, a student, part of a support system, a
problem solver, and a self-evaluator.
 Teacher roles
• Teacher silence is, perhaps, the unique and, for many traditionally trained
language teachers, the most demanding aspect of the Silent Way.
• Teachers are exhorted to resist their long standing commitment to model,
remodel, assist, and direct desired student responses,
• the teacher's role in Silent Way is not critical and demanding.
• By " teaching" is meant the presentation of an item once, typically using
nonverbal clues to get across meanings.
• Testing follows immediately and might better be termed elicitation and
shaping of student production, which, again, is done in as silent a way as
possible.
• Finally, the teacher silently monitors learners' interactions with each other
and may even leave the room while learners struggle with their new linguistic
tools
• Teachers are responsible for designing teaching sequences and creating
individual lessons
• More generally, the teacher is responsible for creating an environment
that encourages student risk taking and that facilitates learning.
• The teacher's role is one of neutral observer, neither elated by correct
performance nor discouraged by error.
• Students are expected to come to see the teacher as a disinterested
judge, supportive but emotionally uninvolved.
• The teacher uses gestures, charts, and manipulatives in order to elicit
and shape student responses and so must be both simplistic and creative.
 Types of learning and teaching activities
Learning tasks and activities in the Silent Way have the function of encouraging and shaping
student oral response without direct oral instruction from or unnecessary modelling by the
teacher.
Basic to the method are simple linguistic tasks in which the teacher models a word, phrase,
or sentence and then elicits learner responses.
Learners then go on to create their own utterances by putting together old and new
information.
Teacher modelling is minimal, although much of the activity may be teacher directed.
Responses to commands, questions, and visual cues thus constitute the basis for classroom
activities.
 Procedure
The first part of the lesson focuses on pronunciation.

Depending on student level, the class might work on sounds, phrases,

or even sentences designated on a chart.

At the beginning stage, the teacher will model the appropriate sound,
latter the teacher will silently point to individual symbols and
combinations of symbols, and monitor students’ utterances.

 The teacher may say a word and have a student guess what sequence
of symbols comprises the word.
The pointer is used to indicate stress, phrasing, and intonation.
Stress can be shown by touching certain symbols more forcibly than others when
pointing out a word.
Intonation and phrasing can be demonstrated by tapping on the chart to the rhythm
of the utterance.
After practice with the sounds of the language, sentence patterns, structure, and
vocabulary are practiced.
The teacher models an utterance while creating a visual realization of it with the
colours.
After modelling the utterance, the teacher will have a student attempt to produce
the utterance and will indicate its acceptability.
If a response is incorrect, the teacher will attempt to reshape the utterance or have
another student present the correct model.
 After a structure is introduced and understood, the teacher will create a situation
in which the students can practice the structure.
Variations on the structural theme will be elicited from the class.
The silent way is a methodology of teaching language based on the idea
that teachers should be as silent as possible during a class but learners
should be encouraged to speak as much as possible. There are three
basic principles:
- The learner needs to discover or create
- Learning is made easier by the use of physical objects
- Learning is made easier by problem-solving using the target language

Example
The teacher shows the learners a small red bag and a bigger black one
and says ‘The black one is bigger than the red one'. The learners repeat
this. The teacher then substitutes the bags to produce other models, and
finally encourages the learners to produce their own comparisons.
Community Language Learning

Community Language Learning (CLL) is the name of a method developed by

Charles A. Curran and his associates.
a specialist in counseling and a professor of psychology.
 Community Language Learning represents the use of Counseling-Learning
theory to teach languages.
Community Language Learning is sometimes cited as an example of a
"humanistic approach.“
 Counseling consists of one individual (the counselor) assuming the
internal frame of reference [of the client], perceiving the world as that
person sees it and communicating something
• Counseling is one person giving advice, assistance, and support to
another who has a problem or is in some way in need.
• Community Language Learning draws on the counseling metaphor to
redefine the roles of the teacher (the counselor) and learners (the
clients) in the language classroom.
• The basic procedures of CLL can thus be seen as derived from the
counsellor client relationship.
• Consider the following CLL procedures: A group of learners sit in a circle
with the teacher standing outside the circle; a student whispers a message
in the native language (L1); the teacher translates it into the foreign
language (L2); the student repeats the message in the foreign language,
students compose further the passage in the foreign language with the
teacher's help; students reflect about their feelings.
 The syllabus
• Community language learning is most often used in the teaching of oral proficiency, but with
some modifications it may be used in the teaching of writing
• CLL does not use a conventional language syllabus, which sets out in advance the grammar,
vocabulary, and other language items to be taught and the order in which they will be covered.
• If a course is based on CLL procedures, the course progression is topic based, with learners
nominating things they wish to talk about and messages they wish to communicate to other
learners.
• The teacher's responsibility is to provide a conveyance for these meanings in a way
appropriate to the learners' proficiency level.
• Although CLL is not explicit about this, skilled teachers seem to shift the learners' intentions
through the teacher's implicit syllabus, providing translations that match what learners can
expected to do and say at that level.
• In this sense then a CLL syllabus emerges from the interaction between the learner's
expressed communicative intentions and the teacher's reformulations of these into suitable
target language utterances,
• Specific grammatical points, lexical patterns, and generalizations will sometimes be isolated by
the teacher for more detailed study and analysis.
 Types of learning and teaching activities

As with most methods, CLL combines innovative learning tasks and activities with
conventional ones.
1. 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. Croup 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.
4. 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.

6. Reflection and observation. Learners reflect and report on their experience of

the class, as a class or in groups. This usually consists of expressions of feelings -
sense of one another, reactions to silence, concern for something to say, etc.

7. Listening. Students listen to a monologue by the teacher involving elements they

might have elicited or overheard in class interactions.

8. Free conversation. Students engage in free conversation with the teacher or with
other learners. This might include discussion of what they learned as well as feelings
they had about how they learned.
 Learner roles
• In Community Language Learning, learners become members of a community -
their fellow learners and the teacher - and learn through interacting with
members of the community.
• Learning is not viewed as an individual accomplishment but as something that is
achieved collaboratively.
• Learners are expected to listen attentively to the knower, to freely provide
meanings they wish to express, to repeat target utterances without hesitation,
to support fellow members of the community, to report deep inner feelings and
frustrations as well as joy and pleasure, and to become counselors to other
learners.
• CLL learners are typically grouped in a circle of six to twelve learners, with the
number of knowers varying from one per group to one per student.
• CLL has also been used in larger school classes where special groupings are
necessary.
 CLL compares language learning to the stages of human growth.
In stage 1 the learner is like an infant, completely dependent on the knower for linguistic
content.
The learner repeats utterances made by the teacher in the target language and
"overhears" the interchanges between other learners and knowers.
In stage 2 learners begin to establish their own self-affirmation and independence by
using simple expressions and phrases they have previously heard.
In stage 3, " the separate-existence stage," learners begin to understand others directly in
the target language. Learners will resent uninvited assistance provided by the
knower/parent at this stage.
Stage 4 may be considered "a kind of adolescence." The learner functions independently,
although his or her knowledge of the foreign language is still rudimentary.
The learner must learn how to elicit from the knower the advanced level of linguistic
knowledge.
 Stage 5 is called " the independent stage." Learners refine their understanding of register
as well as grammatically correct language use.
 Suggestopedia

Suggestopedia is a method developed by the Bulgarian psychiatrist-educator Georgi Lozanov.

Suggestopedia is a specific set of learning recommendations 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).

Suggestopedia tries to harness these influences and redirect them so as to optimize learning.
The most conspicuous characteristics of Suggestopedia are the

decoration, furniture, and arrangement of the classroom, the use of

music, and the authoritative behavior of the teacher.

A most conspicuous feature of Suggestopedia is the centrality of music

and musical rhythm to learning, Suggestopedia thus has a kinship with

other functional uses of music, particularly therapy.

 Objectives
• Suggestopedia aims to deliver advanced conversational proficiency quickly.
• It apparently bases its learning claims on student mastery of prodigious lists
of vocabulary pairs and, indeed, suggests to the students that it is
appropriate that they set such goals for themselves.
• Lozanov emphasizes, however, that increased memory power is not an
isolated skill but is a result of "positive, comprehensive stimulation of
personality (Lozanov 1978: 253).
• Lozanov states categorically, "The main aim of teaching is not memorization,
but the understanding and creative solution of problems" (1978: 251).
• As learner goals he cites increased access to understanding and creative
solutions of problems.
• However, because students and teachers place a high value on vocabulary
recall, memorization of vocabulary pairs continues to be seen as an important
goal of the suggestopedic method.
 The syllabus

• A Suggestopedia course lasts thirty days and consists of ten units of

study. Classes are held four hours a day, six days a week.

• The central focus of each unit is a dialogue consisting of 1,200 words or

so, with an accompanying vocabulary list and grammatical
commentary.

• The dialogues are graded by lexis and grammar.

• The whole course also has a pattern of presentation and performance.
• On the first day a test is given to check the level of student knowledge and to
provide a basis for dividing students into two groups - one of new beginners and
one of modified (false) beginners.
• The teacher then briefs the students on the course and explains the attitude they
should take toward it.
• This briefing is designed to put them in a positive, relaxed and confident mood for
learning.
• In the middle of the course students are encouraged to practice the target
language in a setting where it might be used, such as hotels of restaurants.
• The last day of the course is devoted to a performance in which every student
participates.
• The students construct a play built on the material of the course.
• Rules and parts are planned, but students are expected to speak. Written tests are
also given throughout the course, and these and the performance are reviewed on
the final day of the course.
 Types of learning and teaching activities

• The type of activities that are more original to Suggestopedia are the
listening activities, which concern the text and text vocabulary of each unit.
• These activities are typically part of the "pre-session phase," which takes
place on the first day of a new unit.
• The students first look at and discuss a new text with the teacher.
• In the second reading, students relax comfortably in reclining in their
chairs and listen to the teacher read the text in a certain way.
• During the third reading the material is acted out by instructor in a
dramatic manner over a background of the special musical form.
• During this phase students lean back in their chairs and breathe deeply
and regularly as instructed by the teacher. This is the point at which the
unconscious learning system takes over.
 Learner roles
• The mental state of the learners is critical to success, which is why learners must forgo
mind-altering substances and other distractions and immerse themselves in the
procedures of the method.
• Learners must not try to figure out, manipulate, or study the material presented but must
maintain a pseudo-passive state, in which the material rolls over and through them.
• Students are expected to tolerate and in fact encourage their own infantilization.
• In part this is accomplished by acknowledging the absolute authority of the teacher and
in part by giving themselves over to activities and techniques designed to help them regain
the self-confidence, spontaneity, and receptivity of the child.
• Such activities include role playing, games, songs, and gymnastic exercises
• To assist them in the role plays and to help them detach themselves from their past
learning experiences.
• Groups of learners are ideally socially homogeneous, twelve in number, and divided
equally between men and women.
• Learners sit in a circle, which encourages face-to-face exchange and activity participation.
 Teacher roles
• The primary role of the teacher is to create situations in which the
learner is most suggestible and then to present linguistic material in
a way most likely to encourage positive reception and retention by
the learner.
• Expected teacher behaviors that contribute to the presentations.
• Show absolute confidence in the method.
• Display fastidious conduct in manners and dress
• Organise properly and strictly observe the initial stages of the teaching
process-this includes choice and play of the music, as well as punctuality.
• Maintain a solemn attitude towards the session.
• Give tests and respond tactfully to poor papers (if any).
• Stress global rather than analytical attitudes towards material.
• Maintain a modest enthusiasm.
 Procedure
• Previously learned material is used as the basis for discussion by the
teacher and twelve students in the class.
• All participants sit in a circle in their specially designed chairs, and the
discussion proceeds like a seminar.
• This session may involve what are called micro-studies and macro-studies.
• In micro-studies specific attention is given to grammar, vocabulary, and
precise questions and answers.
• A question from a micro-study might be, "What should one do in a hotel
room if the bathroom taps are not working?"
• In the macro-studies, emphasis is on role playing and wide-ranging,
innovative language constructions.
• In the second part of the class new material is presented and discussed.
• This consists of looking over a new dialogue and its native language
translation and discussing any issues of grammar, vocabulary, or
content that the teacher feels important or that students are curious
about.
• The teacher's attitude and authority is considered critical to preparing
students for success in the learning to come.
• The pattern of learning and use is noted (i.e., fixation, reproduction, and
new creative production), so that students will know what is expected.
• The third part - the seance or concert session - is the one by which
Suggestopedia is best known since this constitutes the heart of the
method.
 Situational Language Teaching
• developed in the United Kingdom and known as the structural–situational
method, the oral method, or situational language teaching.

• This approach grew out of the work of British TESOL specialists in the first half
of the twentieth century

• the direct method was a starting point, but developed a vocabulary and
grammatical syllabus to provide the basis for a general English course.

• By the 1950s, it was the standard British method and was used in textbooks and
teacher-training courses in areas of British ELT influence worldwide.
 The main characteristics of the method were:
1. Language teaching begins with the spoken language.
2. Material is taught orally before it is presented in written form.
2. The target language is the language of the classroom.
3. New language points are introduced in situations, rather than as
isolated items of grammar.
4. Vocabulary-selection procedures are followed to ensure that an
essential general English vocabulary is covered.
5. Items of grammar are graded, following the principle that simple
forms should be taught before complex ones.
6. Reading and writing are introduced once a sufficient lexical and
grammatical basis is established.
according to the situational method, a three-phase sequence was often
employed, known as the P – P – P cycle – Presentation, Practice,
Production:
Presentation: The new grammar structure is presented, often by means
of a conversation or short text. The teacher explains the new structure
and checks students’ comprehension of it. Alternatively, the students
may be asked to infer a grammar rule from its use in a text or
conversation.
Practice: Students practise using the new structure in a controlled
context, through drills or substitution exercises.
Production: Students practise using the new structure in different
contexts, often using their own content or information, in order to
develop fluency with the new pattern.
• The P – P – P lesson structure has been widely used in language-teaching materials
and continues, in modified form, to be used today.
• Many speaking or grammar-based lessons in contemporary materials, for example,
begin with an introductory phase in which new teaching points are presented and
illustrated in some way, and where the focus is on comprehension and recognition.
• Examples of the new teaching point are given in a context that clarifies the meaning
of a new form.
• This is often followed by a second phase where the students practise using the new
teaching point in a controlled context, using content often provided by the teacher.
• The third phase is a free-practice period, during which students try out the teaching
point in a free context, and in which real or simulated communication is the focus.
• Lessons thus move from a focus on accuracy (or skill-getting) to fluency (or skill-
using), a format which many teachers and materials developers continue to find
useful.
• However, growing dissatisfaction with P-P-P began to develop as early as the 1960s.
• Others criticized the view of language implicit in P – P – P: it suggests that
grammar is learned incrementally – one structure at a time, through
mechanical practice rather than communicative language use – an issue
that is addressed by advocates of communicative language teaching and
task-based teaching.
• However, since there is little published research on how teachers
actually implemented P – P – P, it is difficult to know if the unsatisfactory
results, frequently cited for the method, were attributable to the method
itself, poor levels of application of it, poor teaching, or were due to
unfavourable classroom-learning conditions that would make learning
difficult, no matter what method was used.
Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)
 Background
• response to the need for a greater emphasis on fluency in spoken second-
language communication

• rethink of approaches to language teaching in the 1960s and 1970s

• the period when the process we now refer to as globalization was beginning
to have an impact on travel, communications, education, commerce and
industry

• The world was becoming smaller, and proficiency in English was becoming a
more urgent priority for countries in many parts of the world
• Communicative competence was said to include the ability to use
language for different communicative purposes (e.g. description,
narration, exposition, complaints, apologies, suggestions) and the
ability to use language that is appropriate to the context of its use, i.e.
the setting, the participants and the activity being accomplished

• soon became widely known and accepted

• In planning language courses within a communicative approach,

grammar was no longer the starting point

• different focus for classroom activities

 Communicative practice
The essence of CLT is the assumption that learners learn a language
through using it for authentic communication

assumed that learning would be an outcome of engaging in meaningful

communication

the use of classroom techniques and activities that required learners to

use their communicative resources and engage in negotiation of
meaning
Activities of this kind made use of collaborative learning in pairs or
small groups, and included:
Information-gap activities: Activities that require learners to communicate
in order to get information they do not possess.

Jigsaw activities: Activities in which the class is divided into groups, and
each group has part of the information needed to complete the activity.

Task-completion activities: Puzzles, games, map-reading and other kinds

of classroom tasks in which the focus is on using one’s language resources
to complete a task.

Information-gathering activities: Student-conducted surveys, interviews

and searches in which students are required to use their linguistic
resources to collect information.
Opinion-sharing activities: Activities where students compare values,
opinions and beliefs, such as a ranking task in which students list six
qualities, in order of importance, which they might consider when
choosing a date or spouse.
Information-transfer activities: These require learners to take
information that is presented in one form and represent it in a different
form. For example, they may read instructions on how to get from A to B
and then draw a map showing the sequence, or they may read
information about a subject and then represent it as a graph.
Reasoning-gap activities: These involve deriving some new information
from given information, through the process of inference, practical
reasoning, etc. – for example, working out a teacher’s timetable on the
basis of given class timetables.
Role plays: Activities in which students are assigned roles and improvise
a scene or exchange, based on given information or clues.
 Types of learning and teaching activities

unlimited, provided that such exercises enable learners to attain the communicative
objectives of the curriculum,
engage learners in communication, and require the use of such communicative
processes as information sharing, negotiation of meaning, and interaction
functional communication activities" and "social interaction activities“
learners comparing sets of pictures and noting similarities and differences;
 working out a likely sequence of events in a set of pictures;
 discovering missing features in a map or picture;
one learner communicating behind a screen to another learner and giving
instructions on how to draw a picture or shape, or how to complete a map;
following directions; and solving problems from shared clues.
Social interaction activities include conversation and discussion sessions, dialogues
and role plays, simulations, skits, improvisations, and debates.
 Learner roles

emphasis is on the processes of communication, rather than mastery of language

forms,
different roles for learners from those found in more traditional second language
classrooms.
no text, grammar rules are not presented, classroom arrangement is nonstandard,
students are expected to interact primarily with each other rather than with the
teacher, and correction of errors may be absent or infrequent
The cooperative (rather than individualistic) approach to learning is stressed
learners learn to see that failed communication is a joint responsibility and not
the fault of speaker or listener.
successful communication is an accomplishment jointly achieved and
acknowledged.
 Teacher roles
has two main roles:
the first role is to facilitate the communication process between all
participants in the classroom, and between these participants and the
various activities and texts.
The second role is to act as an independent participant within the
learning-teaching group.
 The latter role is closely related to the objectives of the first role and
arises from it.
These roles imply a set of secondary roles for the teacher; first, as an
organizer of resources and as a resource himself, second as a guide within
the classroom procedures and activities
the teacher-counselor is expected to exemplify an effective communicator
seeking to maximize the meshing of speaker intention and hearer
interpretation, through the use of paraphrase, confirmation, and feedback
• teachers to acquire less teacher-centered classroom management skills.
• the teacher's responsibility to organize the classroom as a setting for
communication and communicative activities.
• The teacher is a guide for classroom practice.
• During an activity the teacher monitors, encourages, and suppresses
the inclination to supply gaps in lexis, grammar, and strategy but notes
such gaps for later complementary and communicative practice
• the teacher leads in the debriefing of the activity, pointing out
alternatives.
• games, role plays, simulations, and task-based communication activities
• exercise handbooks, cue cards, activity cards, pair-communication
practice materials, and student-interaction practice booklets
• the use of "authentic," "from-life" materials in the classroom.

• language-based realia, such as signs, magazines, advertisements, and

newspapers, or graphic and visual sources around which
communicative activities can be built, such as maps, pictures,
symbols, graphs, and charts.

• Different kinds of objects can be used to support communicative

exercises, such as a plastic model to assemble from directions.
• Teaching points are introduced in dialogue form, grammatical items
are isolated for controlled practice, and then freer activities are
provided.
• Pair and group work is suggested to encourage students to use and
practice functions and forms
SPECIAL/SPECIFIC PURPOSE APPROACHES AND
METHODS
Factors prompting the need for approaches that went beyond CLT

The internationalization of education: Growing numbers of international

students in English-speaking countries
Resettlement: large numbers of refugees admitted to the United States,
Australia and other English speaking countries.
Immigration: Large numbers of immigrants also settled in English-
speaking countries
Globalization: English took on a greater role in international trade,
business, commerce and travel
Science and technology: English became the main language used for
publications in the fields of science and technology
The privatization of English language teaching: The growing demand for
English language skills has led to the private sector taking a greater
responsibility for the provision of language teaching
 English for specific purposes
from the 1950s and 60s recognized that many learners needed English in order to
use it in specific occupational or educational settings

teach the specific kinds of language and communicative skills needed for
particular roles (e.g. that of an engineering student, nurse, engineer, flight
attendant, pilot or biologist), rather more and more general English

This led to the approach known as English for specific purposes, or ESP.

 ESP is not a method, but rather an approach to designing a curriculum that is

built around learners’ communicative needs.

In ESP courses, the communicative approach is generally used but the materials
themselves are personalized to specific needs
• It makes use of needs analysis – the use of observation, surveys,
interviews, situation analysis and analysis of language samples
collected in different settings – in order to determine the kinds of
communication learners would need to master and the language
features of particular settings
• The focus of needs analysis was to determine the characteristics of a
language when it is used for specific, rather than general, purposes

• ESP courses soon began to appear addressing the language needs of

university students, nurses, engineers, restaurant staff, doctors, hotel
staff, and airline pilots and so on
• The methodology used to teach these courses was generally based on
CLT and also reflected the skill-based and performance-based
approaches
 Competency-Based Language Teaching (CBLT)
• an approach to the planning and delivery of courses
• characterizes a competency-based approach is the focus on the outcomes
of learning, as the driving force of teaching and the curriculum
• Because this approach seeks to teach the skills needed to perform real-
world tasks, it became widely used, from the 1980s, as the basis for many
English language programmes for immigrants and refugees, as well as for
work-related courses of many different kinds
• has been the foundation for the design of work-related and survival-
oriented language teaching programmes for adults
• It seeks to teach students the basic skills they need in order to prepare
them for situations they commonly encounter in everyday life
• competency-based frameworks have become adopted particularly for
vocational and technical education
 Features involved in the implementation of CBLT programmes

1. A focus on successful functioning in society: The goal is to enable students to

become autonomous individuals capable of coping with the demands of the
world.
2. A focus on life skills: Rather than teaching language in isolation, CBLT teaches
language as a function of communication about concrete tasks. Students are
only taught those language forms/skills required by the situations in which
they will function. These forms are normally determined by needs analysis.
3. Task, or performance-oriented, instruction: What counts is what students can
do as a result of instruction. The emphasis is on overt behaviours, rather than
on knowledge or the ability to talk about language and skills.
4. Modularized instruction: Language learning is broken down into meaningful
chunks. Objectives are broken down into narrowly focused sub-objectives so
that both teachers and students can get a clear sense of progress.
5. Outcomes are made explicit: Outcomes are public knowledge, known and
agreed upon by both learner and teacher. They are specified in terms of
behavioural objectives so that students know what behaviours are expected
of them.
6. Continuous and ongoing assessment: Students are pre-tested to determine
what skills they lack, and post-tested after instruction on that skill. If they do
not achieve the desired level of mastery, they continue to work on the
objective and are retested.
7. Demonstrated mastery of performance objectives: Rather than in the
traditional paper-and-pencil tests, assessment is based on the ability to
demonstrate pre-specified behaviours.
8. Individualized, student-centred instruction: In content, level and pace,
objectives are defined in terms of individual needs; prior learning and
achievement are taken into account in developing curriculums. Instruction
is not time-based; students’ progress at their own rates and concentrate on
just those areas in which they lack competence.
• CBLT is often used in programmes that focus on learners with very specific
language needs.
• Not teach general English but the specific language skills needed to function
in a specific context is the focus.
• The starting point in course planning is an identification of the tasks the
learner will need to carry out within a specific setting and the language
demands of those tasks.
• The competencies needed for successful task performance are then
identified and used as the basis for course planning.
• The teaching methods used may vary, but typically are skill-based, since the
focus is on developing the ability to use language to carry out real-world
activities.
Content-Based Instruction (CBI) and Content and Language Integrated
Learning (CLIL)
Background

• Another need that emerged from the 1950s was a growing demand for
courses that prepared students to study in English-speaking countries.
• In many English-speaking countries, such as the United States, Canada,
Britain and Australia, large numbers of students whose mother tongue is
not English, international students, and immigrants need English in order
to enter schools, colleges and universities, and to follow content courses
in English.
• This provided the motivation for an approach to language teaching known
initially as content-based instruction (CBI) and, more recently, referred to in
Europe as content and language integrated learning, or CLIL.
• both CBI and CLIL content provides the main organizing principle for a
course, and language is taught through its integration with content, rather
than being taught separately

• Content refers to the information or subject matter that learners learn or

communicate through language, rather than the language used to convey it.

• CBI was also promoted on the basis that people learn a language more
successfully when they use the language as a means of acquiring
information, rather than as an end in itself
 Theme-based language instruction

• Theme-based language instruction involves organizing a course around a theme

or topic, such as sport or pop art, rather than around a language syllabus.
• The topics and themes are selected based on the students’ interests, and can
cover either a range of different topics or deal with one or two topics in depth.
• The teacher uses the topic or theme as a means of developing language and
language skills.
• Although the course is content-based, language development is still the main
goal of teaching and assessment, rather than the content itself.
• This approach is more common in contexts where English is a foreign language
and is not widely used in the surrounding community.
• The course could be taught by a language teacher or, in a team-teaching
situation, with a content specialist.
 Sheltered subject-matter instruction

Sheltered subject-matter instruction refers to situations

where students study content through a second
language, but the class is taught by a content instructor,
rather than a language instructor.
Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL)
Content and language integrated learning (CLIL) is used increasingly in
Europe, particularly when only some subjects in the curriculum are
taught through a second or foreign language
the substantial increase in CLIL-based programmes of different kinds is
part of a policy to promote bilingualism
EU citizens to have competence in their mother tongue, plus two
Community foreign languages’
CLIL in Europe has been described as a response to globalization and
the need for knowledge-driven economies and societies
CLIL goals:

1. Content matter is not only about acquiring knowledge and skills; it is about the learner
creating their own knowledge and understanding, and developing skills (personalized
learning).
2. Content is related to learning and thinking (cognition). To enable the learner to create
their own interpretation of content, it must be analysed for its linguistic demands.
3. Thinking processes (cognition) need to be analysed for their linguistic demands.
4. Language needs to be learned, which is related to the learning context, to learning
through that language, to reconstructing the content and to related cognitive processes.
This language needs to be transparent and accessible.
5. Interaction in the learning context is fundamental to learning. This has implications when
the learning context operates through the medium of a foreign language.
6. The relationship between languages and cultures is complex. Intercultural awareness is
fundamental to CLIL.
7. CLIL is embedded in the wider educational context in which it is developed and,
therefore, must take account of contextual variables in order to be effectively realized.
 Text-Based Instruction (TBI)
Text-based Instruction (also known as Genre-based Teaching) involves explicit teaching
of the structure of different text types,
instructional strategy in which the teacher introduces the text, its purpose and features,
and guides students through the production of texts, through the process of scaffolding.
assisting the learners in the creation of texts and gradually withdrawing teacher support
until the learners can create their own texts.
learners are given practice in performing different kinds of texts until they can produce
them without the teacher’s support and guidance
it aims to prepare learners for real-world uses of English by focusing on how language is
used to achieve different purposes, such as reporting a scientific experiment, telling a
story or explaining how something works
it aims to prepare learners for real-world uses of English by focusing on how language is
used to achieve different purposes, such as reporting a scientific experiment, telling a
story or explaining how something works
The text-based approach has had an impact on both the teaching of English for specific
purposes as well as English for academic purposes
LANGUAGE SKILLS AND SUBSKILLS
 TEACHING LISTENING

The Listening Lesson

Pre-listening, While-listening and Post-listening activities

The pre-listening phase (few minutes to be complete )

prepare the student for a listening activity:
provide essential background information,
present any unknown vocabulary central to the listening task, and which
cannot be guessed from context,
help the student select a suitable purpose and strategy for listening
Choosing a strategy: What kind of information do they think the listening text will
contain? main ideas or details?

Brainstorming: students try to give words they can be related to the topic

Predicting: students predict some of the things they may hear based on the topic

Picture description: Students discuss a picture or pictures related to a text they will hear

Questioning: Students generate a list of questions they think might be discussed in a text
they will listen to

 Story building: students are given a list of action verbs from a text and try to put them in
the form of a story.
while-listening phase

students’ process texts for meaning and respond in different ways, according
to the type of text they are listening to and their purpose in listening

intensive listening practice and also helps students develop strategies they
can use to improve their listening (focusing on key parts of a text and
guessing words from the context)

Activities and tasks should guide students through the listening process and
to help them improve their understanding and use of listening skills and
strategies
• Predicting: Students listen to the first part of a story and predict what happens next.
They then listen to the next part of the text to compare their predictions.
• Sequencing: Students number, in sequence, a series of events that occur in a text.
• True–false: While they listen, students tick if statements are true or false.
• Matching: Students match pictures to things that are described.
• Key words: The teacher stops the audio just before a key word occurs and asks
students what word they think they will hear. They then listen to compare.
• Gap-fill (cloze) dialogue: Students receive a dialogue with one speaker’s part
deleted. They try to guess the missing parts and then listen and compare.
• Check predictions: Students listen and check to see if predictions they made about a
text are correct.
• Chart filling: Students complete a chart as they listen, based on information in a text.
 post-listening phase
opportunity to check students’ understanding of a text, where errors in understanding
occurred, explore what caused them and what follow-up is appropriate
 Analyse problems: The teacher checks comprehension problems with a text and
replays the part of the text that caused difficulty, to identify the problem.
 Extension activities: Students carry out an activity as a response to what they heard.
For example, they may prepare a letter to a newspaper after listening to a discussion
of a problem in their city.
 Language study: The students examine a transcript of a text and review some of the
language that occurred in the text. There may be follow-up written activities to
practise new language.
 Read and compare: Students read a text on the same topic they listened to and
compare information in the two texts.
 Vocabulary development: Students use some of the words that occurred in a text to
complete a gap-fill (cloze) passage.
 Summary: Students prepare a summary of a text they heard and compare
summaries in groups.
 Speaking
Genres
small talk,
casual conversations,
 telephone conversations,
transactions,
discussions,
 interviews,
meetings,
 presentations and debates.
Some genres may be more important for some learners than for others.
 Small talk
• serves the purpose of social interaction
• Small talk consists of short exchanges that usually begin with a greeting,
move to back-and-forth exchanges on non-controversial topics, such as the
weekend, the weather, work, school, etc. and then often conclude with a
fixed expression, such as see you later
• Back-channelling:
 use of expressions such as really, mm, is that right? yeah, etc., nodding of
the head, and, very commonly,
 short rhetorical questions, such as Do you? Are you? or Did you? Such
actions and expressions reflect the role of an active, interested and
supportive listener.
 The use of expressions that show exaggeration, such as way out,
awesome or fantastic, is usually a sign that the two participants are friends,
 Teaching small talk
 Modelling and creating: Students study examples of small-talk exchanges
and create similar exchanges on the same topic.
 Class mingles: Each student has one or two topics on a card. The class
mingles, students greet, introduce their topic, make small talk for one or
two exchanges, close the conversation and move on to a different
student.
 Question sheets:
 Students have a worksheet with ten different small-talk questions.
 They move around the class and take turns asking questions and
responding to their exchanges in small-talk format.
 Conversation

involves longer exchanges following on from small talk and is the more
meaningful type of interaction that results from small talk

involves a joint interaction around topics and the introduction of new

topics linked through each speaker's contributions.
 Teaching conversation

Awareness-raising activities: Students examine examples of conversation,

either recorded (audio or video) or transcribed examples, and look for examples
of how openings, topic introductions, back-channelling, etc. are realized, and
for indicators of casual or formal speech.
Dialogue completion: Students are given transcripts of conversations with
selected features removed (such as openings, closings, clarification requests)
and asked to try to complete them. They then listen to or read the completed
dialogues, compare and practise.
Planning tasks: Students are given topics to include in a conversation and asked
to write dialogues that include them and that also include personal recounts.
They then compare and practise.
Students are given skeleton dialogues or dialogue frames (e.g. containing
Improvisations a sequence of topics or functions they should use in a
conversation) and use them to improvise conversations.
 Transactions
A transaction is an interaction that focuses on getting something done,
rather than maintaining social interaction.
transactions are generally referred to as functions, and include such
areas as requests, orders, offers, suggestion

obtaining goods or services, such as checking into a hotel or ordering

food in a restaurant
 Teaching transactions
• Awareness raising: Studying examples of how typical transactions occur (e.g.
buying a cinema ticket) and what moves are involved. (Comparison with how
similar transactions occur in the learner's culture may be important for some
transactions.)
• Learning expressions and routines: Modelling the language needed for
different transactions and comparing different linguistic options (e.g.
comparing different ways of performing requests in formal and informal
situations).
• Modelling: The teacher demonstrates different ways of completing
transactions.
• Planning: Students plan how they would carry out specific transactions and
what language they would use and might need to anticipate.
• Practice: Students practise transactions in both controlled and freer formats
(e.g. using model dialogues and role plays).
 Discussions

A discussion is an interaction focusing on exchanging ideas about a topic and

presenting points of view and opinions
• Skills involved in taking part in discussions include:
• Giving opinions.
• Presenting a point of view.
• Supporting a point of view.
• Taking a turn.
• Sustaining a turn.
• Listening to others’ opinions.
• Agreeing and disagreeing with opinions.
• Summarizing a position.
 Teaching discussions

Choosing topics: Topics may be chosen by students or assigned by the teacher

Forming groups: Small groups of four to five
Preparing for discussions: e.g. watching a video
Giving guidelines: clarify time, expected outcomes , roles, expectations for
student input and acceptable styles of interaction
Evaluating discussions: suggestions for improvement, Students may
comment on their own performance and difficulties they experienced and
give suggestions for future discussions.
 Examples

• Giving a class report about a school trip.

• Giving a welcome speech.

• Making a sales presentation.

• Making a poster presentation about a chosen topic.

• Thanking a speaker who visited the class.
 Presentations

Refers to public talk: talk which transmits information before an audience,

such as public announcements and speeches.

form of monologues, rather than dialogues,

follow a recognizable format (e.g. a welcome speech)

closer to written language

Not conversational language

 Teaching Presentations

1) building the context (students examine the context in which a text

occurs and consider its purposes and the expectations of the
participants);
2) modelling and deconstructing the text (the text is examined in terms
of its language and discourse features);
3) joint construction (the teacher guides the students through the
development of a new presentation text, during which they focus on an
effective opening, transitions between points and other features);
4) independent construction of a presentation text (students work on a
new presentation, either individually or in small groups [checklist
routines may be used at this stage);
5) presentation (students now make their presentations and receive
feedback from peers and the teacher).
 Classroom Activities
Activity Purpose
• Dialogue work. • Teach fixed expressions and routines.
• Provide example of transactions.
• Provide examples of moves (e.g. openings and
closings).
• Study • Develop awareness of nature of authentic interactions.
transcriptions of • Develop awareness of spoken grammar.
spoken exchanges. • Develop awareness of differences between casual and
formal interactions.

• Information-gap • Develop communication strategies.

activities. • Practise conversational repairs.
• Surveys and • Develop questioning strategies.
questionnaires. • Use follow-up questions.
• Ranking activities. • Express opinions.
• Justify choices.
• Role plays. • Develop routines for handling transactions.
• Practise turn-taking.
• Learn fixed expressions.

• Jigsaw activities. • Give accurate descriptions.

• Practise clarifying meaning.

• Picture description. • Practise recounts.

• Repeating an activity • Develop fluency.
several times. • Use more complex language.

• Record their own • Identify errors.

performance. • Recognize need for more complex language.

• Tasks, such as explain • Present information clearly.

how to prepare a dish. • Practise comprehension checks.
 TEACHING
READING
Pre-reading

Provide background knowledge,

activate schemas and help give a purpose for reading:
Examples:
may be an initial questionnaire or survey, followed by a reading, in which
students compare their responses on the survey to information in the text.
might be a quiz to find out how much students know about a topic they are
going to read about,
students might predict the content of the passage from the title, paragraph
headings, words or illustrations
Activity Purpose
• Discussion questions. Help to relate the reading to a student’s prior
• Pre-writing activities: experience,
• Brainstorming. activating and expanding the student’s content and
• Semantic mapping. formal
• Free writing. schema, building vocabulary and helping to identify
cultural
influences that may affect reading comprehension
or interpretation.

• Prediction activities. • Draw attention to the organization of the text and

to
identification of potential themes and directions the
author
may take.
• Skimming activities. • Provide students with a general idea of the text
themes
and the organization and development of ideas.
• Questions and other activities • Highlight the organization
that and relative importance of various themes in the
focus on graphic text.
cues:
• Titles.
• Chapter headings.
• Indentations and white
space.
• Any visuals and other text
displays.

• Scanning. Highlight key (including technical) vocabulary, as

well as names, dates, places and other important
facts.
• Questions. Focus students’ attention during reading, as well as
motivate them to do the reading.
 While-reading

encourage readers to react to what they read while reading

require readers to revise their understanding and adjust their reading
prompt the reader to keep the overall purpose of reading in mind
Questioning: involve the teacher posing questions as the students read the
text
 while-reading activities
Activity Purpose
• Complete graph. • Help understand the logical relations
• Venn diagram. between ideas in the text, and highlight for
• Flow chart or table. the student what is important
enough to be noted and remembered.

• Guided or controlled writing. • Encourage students to react and reflect

• Discussion question.
upon what
they are reading at key stages in the
process, and
to note confusion or questions they hope to
have
answered at the end of the reading.
• Underlining. • Help students develop more effective
• Highlighting. study skills.
• Note-taking.
• Vocabulary-building activities. • Help students find clues for meaning
within the text.
• Paraphrasing and summarizing. • Encourage students to see how an idea
is developed and a text is structured, to
draw inferences and to effectively
tie new ideas to prior topics.
• Timed activities. • Encourage rapid reading, perhaps
combined with
questions that require skimming for
general
answers or scanning for key
information.
 Post-reading
focus on the text itself, i.e. its vocabulary, grammar or discourse
organization, or elicit the student’s reaction to the content of the text
Activity Purpose
• Vocabulary activities. • Help students to expand their vocabulary
by applying affixes and roots, drawn from
the key vocabulary in the reading, using
charts and tables to illustrate the
relationships between the
words.

• Questions. • Encourage critical analysis and evaluation

of the reading.

• Complete notes. • Help students to summarize the text.

• Partial summaries.
• Cloze activities. • Develop vocabulary, grammar and
• Sentence strip activities. discourse knowledge.

• Journal writing. • Encourage students to reflect on, synthesize

or evaluate what they have read.

• Application activities. • Encourage students to apply what they have

read to some task or activity.
 TEACHING WRITING
Components of a Writing Course

kinds of knowledge and skills learners need to acquire to become effective writers
:
● Content knowledge: topics for writing activities; necessary background
knowledge to write about topics; develop awareness of the influences on
the writing context for the type of writing they engage
● System knowledge: grammar used to support students’ writing
● Process knowledge: ideas and information to use in writing; use of the internet,
group discussion, library research
● Genre and text knowledge: kinds of texts that students learn to write such as
essays, business letters or reports; the principle of organization underlying
different types of writing, such as recounts, descriptions or business letters
 The Writing Lesson

The teacher’s role in the lesson

● Facilitator
● Expert writer
● Cultural informant
● Collaborator (The teacher provides ‘scaffolding’ as the students
develop a text).
● Audience
● Investigator
● Problem solver
● Evaluator
 The learner’s role in the lesson

• students work independently on some tasks,

• in pairs or groups.
• work collaboratively with other students
• students take part both in peer writing,
• students take part in peer feedback.
 Stages of the lesson

 lessons might start with:

• gathering ideas to write about;
• examining an example of a good piece of writing;
• a review of some of the features of a particular kind of text.
 Writing tasks
The kinds of tasks the teacher uses will depend on which type of knowledge the
teacher wants to develop.
Example:
• Generate word lists for writing;
• Combine sentences provided in materials;
• Identify purpose and use of a text;
• Complete unfinished texts;
• Create a parallel text,
• Practise specific rhetorical patterns;
• Revise a draft in response to others’ comments;
• Practise various text types;
• Read and respond to another’s draft.
 Feedback on Learners’ Writing

feedback may include comments on any aspects of a piece of written

work, including spelling, grammar, style and organization.
Do students learn from it, or do they simply pay minimum attention to it
and move on to their next assignment?
Teachers may use checklists in which a score is given for each different
aspect of a composition, such as content, organization, vocabulary,
language and mechanics (spelling, punctuation, paragraphing).
The kind of feedback may depend on what stage in the writing process
(e.g. drafting, composing, editing),
feedback should both encourage students (through praise for ideas,
originality, etc.) as well as guide them towards needed improvements
Peer feedback is sometimes an alternative to teacher feedback

students read drafts of each other’s compositions, and may use checklists or
question sets to help them read and respond to their partner’s writing.

Not all teachers and students appreciate the value of peer feedback

Teachers may feel that students comment on the wrong things or give incorrect
feedback.

Students may not value their partner’s views or comments.

 However, peer feedback does offer a more comfortable feedback process and is
usually supplemented by teacher feedback,
 TEACHING GRAMMAR

Grammar:
Grammar refers to knowledge of parts of speech, tenses, phrases, clauses
and syntactic structures used to create grammatically well-formed
sentences in English.

• Accuracy refers to the learner’s ability to produce discourse that is free of

grammatical errors.

• Fluency refers to the ability to produce continuous speech without causing

comprehension difficulties or a breakdown of communication
 Accuracy Vs Fluency
Accuracy-focused teaching Fluency-focused teaching
•Reflects typical classroom use of language •Reflects natural language use.

•Focuses on the formation of correct examples of •Calls on implicit knowledge.

language use.
•Elicits a vernacular speech style.
•Produces language for display (i.e. as evidence of
learning), calling on explicit knowledge •Reflects automatic performance.

•Elicits a careful (monitored) speech style. •Requires the use of improvising, paraphrasing,
repair and reorganization.
•Reflects controlled performance.
•Produces language that is not always predictable.
•Practises language out of context.
•Allows students to select the language they use.
•Practises small samples of language.
•Requires real communication.
•Does not require authentic communication.
• Learning grammatical knowledge means learning how to create both
sentences and texts in the target language

• The language that learners produce when they are learning English
reflects many their stage of grammatical development
  Teaching Grammar

1. Inductive learning vs. deductive learning

‘grammar first’ to those that can be characterized as ‘grammar last’

• learners should build up knowledge and use of grammar step by step

through activities involving presentation of grammar and controlled
practice in using the grammar, then leading to more open-ended use of
the grammar in simple, guided oral and written tasks.

• using content, texts or tasks as the framework for selecting and practising
language use, where grammar is only taught as it is needed to discuss the
content, create the texts or carry out the tasks.
• Developing accuracy, fluency and complexity

• By providing support prior to the activity

(1) to provide language support that can be used in completing a task,
and (2) to clarify the nature of the task so that students can give less attention to
procedural aspects of the task and hence monitor their language use during their
performance, while carrying out a task.
• By pre-teaching certain linguistic forms
• These forms can then be used while completing the task.

• reducing the cognitive complexity of the activity use on the task.

• One way of reducing the cognitive complexity of the activity is to
provide students with a chance for prior rehearsal. Dialogue work
prior to carrying out the role play
• referred to above might serve the function of introducing students to
the relevant structures.
• Providing support during an activity
 TEACHING VOCABULARY
• Goals for vocabulary teaching
• Vocabulary does not normally constitute the focus of an entire language
course. It is a component of every course, but the emphasis it receives
will vary according to which skills the course addresses, the level of the
course and the learner’s background.
 the goals of vocabulary instruction are not to ‘teach’ vocabulary, but
to provide opportunities for learners to improve their knowledge and
use of vocabulary related to their specific needs.
the teacher’s role is to identify learners’ vocabulary knowledge and
vocabulary needs;
 to select materials that can be used as a vocabularylearning resource;
to designactivities within a course that focus on vocabulary
development and
• retention of wordsthat have been encountered; and to help learners
develop strategies for managing their own vocabulary learning.
• Vocabulary acquisition is a gradual process as different aspects of vocabulary
knowledge are learned,

• Vocabulary instruction is usually integrated into the teaching of other skills, such as a
component of a listening, reading or writing lesson, where it may either be taught
directly or indirectly,

• The learning of vocabulary depends upon the frequency with which learners
encounter words,
•
• vocabulary learning in a reading lesson for example is a good since it involves learning
words from context,

• spaced repetition of core vocabulary is a useful way of learning vocabulary

o meaningful repetition over a period of time is needed.
Planning vocabulary teaching

determining learners’ vocabulary level,

set vocabulary-learning targets,

reviewing the vocabulary content in the course-books,

include a vocabulary strand in skills lessons.

Integrating Vocabulary Teaching into the Lesson

Teach high-frequency and high-utility words,

Teach students to guess words from context,

Teach word-analysis strategies,

Use the resources of technology

Use the learners’ mother tongue as a resource,