Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching

1. Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching Yueh-chiu Helen Wang

2. Introduction • The actions are the techniques and the thoughts are the principles. It is important to recognize that methods link thoughts and actions because teaching is not entirely about one or the other.

3. You have thoughts about your subject matter—what language is, what culture is—and about your students—who they are as learners and how it is they learn. You have also have thoughts about yourself as a teacher and what you can do to help your students learn.

4. It is very important for you to become aware of the thoughts that guide your actions in the classroom.

5. Everyone knows that being a good teacher means giving positive feedback to students and being concerned about their affective side on their feelings.

6. Learning to listen to themselves is part of lessening their reliance on the teacher. The teacher will not always be there. Also, they will be encouraged to form criteria for correcting their mistakes—for monitoring their own progress.

7. Observing a class will give you a greater understanding of a particular method and will give you more of an opportunity to reflect on your own practice than if you were to simply read a description of it.

8. Ten questions • 1. What are the goals of teachers who use this method? • 2. What is the role of the teacher? What is the role of the students? 3. What are some characteristics of the teaching/learning process?

9. 4. What is the nature of student-teacher interaction? What is the nature of student-student interaction? • 5. How are the feelings of the students dealt with? • 6. How is language viewed? How is culture viewed?

10. 7. What areas of language are emphasized? What language skills are emphasized? • 8. What is the role of the students’ native language? • 9. How is evaluation accomplished?

11. 10. How does the teacher respond to student errors?

12. The Grammar-Translation Method • The Grammar-Translation Method was called the Classical Method since it was first used in the teaching of the classical languages, Latin and Greek (Chastian, 1988).

13. This method was used for the purpose of helping students read and appreciate foreign language literature. Through the study of the grammar of the target language, students would become more familiar with the grammar of their native language and that this familiarity with the grammar of their native

14. language better. Finally, it was thought that foreign language learning would help students grow intellectually.

15. Principles • Learning a foreign language is to be able to read literature written in it. Literary language is superior to spoken language. If students can translate from one language into another, they are considered successful language learners.

16. The ability to communicate in the target language is not a goal of foreign language instruction. • The primary skills to be developed are reading and writing. Little attention is given to speaking and listening and almost none to pronunciation.

17. The teacher is the authority in the classroom. It is very important that students get the correct answer. • Learning is facilitated through attention to similarities between the target language and the native language.

18. Deductive application of an explicit grammar rule is a useful pedagogical technique. • Language learning provides good mental exercise.

19. Students should be conscious of the grammatical rules of the target language.

20. There is little student initiation and little student-student interaction. • There are no principles of the method which relate to students’ feelings.

21. Vocabulary and grammar are emphasized. Reading and writing are the primary skills that the students work on.

22. The role of the students’ native language • The meaning of the target language is made clear by translating the students’ native language. The language that is used in class is mostly the students’ native language.

23. How is evaluation accomplished? • Written tests in which students are asked to translate from their native language to the target language or vice versa are often used.

24. How does the teacher respond to student errors? • Having the students get the correct answer is considered very important.

25. The Direct Method • The Direct Method has one very basic rule: No translation is allowed. Meaning is to be conveyed directly in the target language through the use of demonstration and visual aids.

26. Principles • The reading skill will be developed through practice with speaking. Language is primarily speech. Culture consists of more than the fine arts(e.g. the students study geography and cultural attitudes).

27. Objects (e.g. realia or pictures) present in the immediate classroom environment should be used to help students understand the meaning. • The native language should not be used in the classroom.

28. The teacher should demonstrate, not explain or translate. It is desirable that students make a direct association between the target language and meaning.

29. Students should learn to think in the target language as soon as possible. Vocabulary is acquired more naturally if students use it in full sentences rather than memorizing word lists.

30. The purpose of language learning is communication. • Pronunciation should be worked on right from the beginning of language instruction.

31. Self-correction facilitates language learning. • Lessons should contain some conversational activity—some opportunity for students to use language in real contexts. Students should be encouraged to speak as much as possible.

32. Grammar should be taught inductively. There may never be an explicit grammar rule given. • Writing is an important skill, to be developed from the beginning of language instruction.

33. The syllabus is based on situations or topics, not usually on linguistic structures. • Learning another language also involves learning how speakers of that language live.

34. What are the goals of teachers who use the Direct Method? • Teachers who use the Direct Method intend that students learn how to communicate in the target language. In order to do this successfully, students should learn to think in the target language.

35. What is the role of teacher? • Although the teacher directs the class activities, the student role is less passive than in the Grammar-Translation Method. The teacher and the students are more like partners in the teaching/learning process.

36. What are some characteristics of the teaching/learning process? • Teachers believe students need to associate meaning and the target language directly. Students speak in the target language a great deal and communicate as if they were in real situations. The syllabus is based upon situations or topics.

37. What is the nature of student-teacher interaction? • The initiation of the interaction goes both ways, from teacher to students and from student to teacher, although the latter is often teacher-directed.

38. How are the feelings of the students dealt with? • There are no principles of the methods which relate to this area.

39. How is language viewed? • Language is primarily spoken, not written.

40. What areas of language are emphasized? • Vocabulary is emphasized over grammar.

41. What is the role of the students’ native language? • Students’ native language should not be used in the classroom.

42. How is evaluation accomplished? • The students might be interviewed orally by the teacher or might be asked to write a paragraph about something they have studied.

43. How does the teacher respond to student errors? • The teacher, employing various techniques, tries to get students to self-correct whenever possible.

44. The Audio-Lingual Method • The Audio-Lingual Method, like the Direct Method, is also an oral-based approach. However, it is very different in that the Audio-Lingual Method drills students in the use of grammatical sentence patterns.

45. It also,unlike the Direct Method, has a strong theoretical base in linguistics and psychology. It has principles from behavioral psychology (Skinner, 1957)were incorporated. It was thought that the way to acquire the sentence patterns of the target language was through conditioning—helping learners to respond correctly to stimuli through shaping and reinforcement.

46. Learners could overcome the habits of their native language and from the new habits required to be target language speakers.

47. The Audiolingual Method • The Audio-lingual Method, like the Direct Method, is also an oral-based approach. However, it is very different in that the Audio-Lingual Method drills students in the use of grammatical sentence patterns.

48. It was thought that the way to acquire the sentence patterns of the target language was through conditioning—helping learners to respond correctly to stimuli through shaping and reinforcement. Learners could overcome the habits of their native language and form the new habits required to be target language speakers.

49. Principles • Language forms do not occur by themselves; they occur most naturally within a context.

50. The native language and the target language have separate linguistic systems. They should be kept apart so that the students’ native language interferes as little as possible with the students’ attempts to acquire the target language.