The Natural Approach Approaches & Methods in Language Teaching

1. The Natural ApproachApproaches & Methods in Language Teaching PRESENTERS: PELİN DULDA MURAT BORAZAN MERCAN SAĞLAM ALİ KASIM YÜCESOY DERMAN BAHAR

2. Contents • Introduction • Background • Approach • Theory of Language • Theory of Learning • Design • Objectives • Syllabus • Types of Learning & Teaching Activities • Learner Roles • Teacher Roles • Materials • Procedure • Conclusion

3. BACKGROUND • Tracy Terrell proposed the natural approach for a new philosophy of language (In 1977) • Naturalistic principles that researchers had identified in studies of second language acquisition. • Terrell developed this approach on the basis of his experiences of teaching Spanish and Dutch to beginner students who are not native speakers of English. • After 1977, Natural Approach was also used in elementary- to advanced-level classes and with several other languages. • Krashen and Terrell published the book The Natural Approach in 1983

4. In this book, they claim that natural approach “…is based on empirically grounded theory of SLA, and supported by a large number of scientific studies…” STEPHEN KRASHEN

5. The Natural Approach is a traditional approach “based upon the use of language in communicative situations without recourse to the native language” • The Natural Approach was inspired by Noam Chomsky’s Language Acquisition theory.

6. Chomsky’s Language Acquisition Theory • Each person has an innate mechanism called Language Acquisition Device (LAD) • Children acquire their native tongue in a short time with the help of comprehensible input and meaningful interaction • Second language acquisition is similar to first language acquisition • Each person is born with an innate ability to discover the essential rules of a language system on the basis of the samples of a language they are exposed to • With the help of comprehensible input and meaningful interaction.

7. Krashen and Terrell state that; “Language is best taught when it is being used to transmit messages not when it is explicitly taught for conscious learning.” • Krashen and Terrell also mention that"Acquisition requires meaningful interaction in the target language - natural communication- in which speakers are concerned not with the form of their utterances but with the messagesthey are conveying and understanding.”

8. NATURAL METHOD VS. NATURAL APPROACH Natural Method - Oral communication skills were organized around question and answer exchange between students and the teacher, - Correct pronounciation and grammar were emphasized. Natural Approach - Less emphasis on teacher monologues, direct repetition and formal questions and answers - Less focus on accurate pronounciatiom of target language sentences.

9. In natural approach, there is an emphasis on; • Input rather then practice • Optimizing emotional preparedness for learning,(= TPR) • A prolonged period of attention to what the language learners hear before they try to produce language • Willingness to use written and other materials as a source of comprehensible input.

10. The Natural Approach, followed by development of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), resulted in less-structured and more natural, communicative and experimental approaches and pointed to the importance of early real-world human interaction in foreign language learning.

11. THEORY OF LANGUAGE • According to Krashen and Terrell, communication is seen as the primary role of language. • NA is regarded as a communicative approach • Teaching communicative abilities. • For Krashen and Terrell, the major problem with earlier methods is that they are not built around ‘actual theories of language acquisition, but the structure of language. • Little attention to theory of language • Superiority of meaning is emphasized.

12. The lexicon for both perception and production is considered critical in the construction and interpretation of messages. • Lexicon in the construction and interpretation of messages is crucial • Language is a tool to communicate meaning and messages. • Messages should be understood in target language. • The natural approach view language learning, as audiolingualism, as mastery of structures by stages and assumes a linguistic hierarchy of structural complexity. • Messages are given the primary importance. • Lexical items in messages are necessarily grammatically structured, and more complex messages involve more complex grammatical structure

13. THEORY OF LEARNING • The theory and research are grounded on Krashen’s view of language acquisition. • Theoretical and research base is unique. • Krashen’s acquisition theories are based on his hypothesis.

14. TheAcquisition/Learning Hypothesis It claims that there are two distinctive was of developing competence in a second of foreign language.

15. Acquisition refers to an unconscious process that involves the naturalistic development of language proficiency through understanding language. • Learning refers to a process in which conscious rules about a language are developed. • Learning, according to theory can not lead to acquisition.

16. VS

17. MONITOR HYPOTHESIS Monitor hypothesis states that learners have two different systems to help them develop their language ability: subconscious acquisition and conscious learning. • The subconsciously acquired linguistic sytsem initates: • utterances in a second or foreign language • responsible for the fluency; • However; • conscious learning can act only as a monitor . • checks and repairs the output of the acquired system.

18. Three conditions for a succesful use of monitor: 1 ) Time : The language user must have enough time to edit, choose and apply the learned rule. Otherwise, monitor use in quick conversations may hinder the communication. 2) Focus on form : The performer must focus on the correctness or the form of the output. 3) Knowledge of the rules : The language user must know the rules. “The monitor does best with rules that are simple in 2 ways. They must be simple to describe and they must not require complex movements and rearregements

19. 3 Types of MonitorUsers • Monitorover-users :UsersalwaysuseMonitor. • As a result; • Speakingwithhesitation, concernedwithcorrectingthemselves, sothelack of realfluency. • Monitorunder-users: • Learnersonlyusetheiracquiredsystem. • Theyhave not learnedortheydon’twanttousetheirconsciousknowledge of thelanguage. • Theydon’tcorrectthemselvesevenifalltheconditionsareavaliable. • Theyjustusetheir ‘feel’ forcorrectness. • The optimal Monitorusers:UsingMonitorwhen it is suitableanddoes not interferewithcommunication.

20. "Optimal Monitor users can therefore use their learned competence as a supplement to their acquired competence." (Wilson, R.)

21. The Natural Order Hypothesis • Grammatical structures are acquired in a sequence and some morphemes and structures are learned before the others.

22. The same order is also valid in terms of second language acquisition • Developmental errors occur in language acquisition processes in every child around the world without regarding what their native language is. • Krashen suggests that there is a certain order of first language acquisition in which some components are learned before the others. • Example of the acquisition process of a child:

24. THE INPUT HYPOTHESIS The Input Hypothesis explains the relationship between input and language acquisition.

25. The thrust of the input hypothesis is that in order for language acquisition to take place, the acquirer must receive comprehensible input through reading or hearing language structures that slightly exceed their current ability. • According to Krashen, learners will go through what is referred toby some as a silent period when learners gradually receive and build enough comprehensible input…

26. Input is supplied via: • Visuals • Audio • Gestures • Emphasis • Slower speech • Teacher talk • Vocabulary • Dialogue

27. This hypothesis involves 4 main issues; 1. The Input Hypothesis relates to acquisition, not learning. 2. Language is acquired from messages that are one level above the current level ( I + 1). This is done with the help of context or extra-linguistic information. 3.Fluency cannot be taught directly but emerges independently with the help of linguistic competence by understanding inputs of the language. 4. When communication is successful, when the input is understood and there is enough of it, “I + 1” will be provided automatically.

28. When interaction takes place between people, that is, when a speaker uses language and the acquirer understands the message, the speaker “casts a net” of structure (I+1).

29. The Model of Input Hypothesis:

30. Foreigner Speech: • In teaching a second language, adults are provided with simple codes and these codes facilitate the second language comprehension. One of these codes is “foreigner talk.” • It is characterized by a slow rate of speech, repetition, restating, simple sentence structure etc. • Its aim is to make messages more comprehensible. In children’s language acquisition: “caretaker speech.” In adult’s language acquisition: “foreigner speech”

31. The Affective Filter Hypothesis • According to Krashen, learner’s emotional states or attitudes are like an adjustable filter.This filter may sometimes let the input pass but sometimes it may block the input necessary for the acquisition.

32. There are three variables of this hypothesis and Krashen believes that these variables affects the acquisition of the second language. These are: • Motivation • Self- confidence • Anxiety

33. Motivation Learners with high motivation generally do better in language learning. In second language learning, Gardner classifies the motivation into two types: - integrative motivation Here, a learner has in interest in learning an L2 because of a 'sincere and personal interest in the people and culture of the other language group. - instrumental motivation Here the learner has an interest in learning an L2 because of the practical advantages of it. According to Gardner,there is a positive correlation between integrative motivation and L2 achievement

34. Gliksman also found in one of his survey on the students learning French in Canadian high schools, the students who had higher integrative motivation also • - received more questions from teachers, • - volunteered more answers, • - gave more correct answers and • - received more positive reinforcement

35. Self-confidence Self – confidence often links to the people’s family backgrounds. - Families who have severe discipline and disapproval of their children’s behaviours, produce people who have a low self-image and little confidence in themselves. - On the other hand, the families who are proud of their children and in which children have a rigth in family discussions produce self- confident children.

36. ANXIETY According to Krashen, anxious learners have a high affective filter which prevents language acquisition. This means that low personal anxiety and low clasroom anxiety make the second language acquisition easy.

37. Learners with low affective filter: • Seek and receive more input • Interact with confidence • Are more receptive to the input they receive

38. In sum, from these five hypothesis we can conclude that: 1- Comprehensible input must be presented as much as possible. 2- Visual aids are useful to enable wide range of vocabulary rather than structure. 3- To focus in the classroom should be on listening and reading; speaking should be allowed to emerge. 4- To lower the affective filter, the focus should be on meaningful communication rather than form and there should be interesting input to create relaxed classroom atmosphere.

39. Design: Objectives / Syllabus • Objectives • Designed to give beginners/ intermediate learner communicative skills. Four broad areas; basic personal communicative skills (oral/written); academic learning skills (oral/written)

40. Objectives • The Natural Approach was designed to help the beginners come to an intermadiate level. • The students are supposed to; • - Understand the speaker of the target language( by asking questions if necessary) • - Be able to convey their requests or ideas in a kind way • - Make a production which is both easy to understand and meaningful.

41. However, they are not suppesed to know every words and there is no need to be accurate in all grammar details while conveying their messages. • Apart from these general principles, the specific objectives depend on learners’ needs, skills ( reading, writing, listenig or speaking) and their language levels

42. SYLLABUS Krashen and Terrell list goals under four areas 1. Basic personal communication skills: oral ( listening to announce­ments in public places) 2. Basic personal communication skills: written ( reading and writing personal letters) 3. Academic learning skills: oral ( listening to a lecture) 4. Academic learning skills: written ( taking notes in class)

43. The Natural Approach is primarily designed to develop basic communication skills - both oral and written • Communication goals may be expressed in terms of situations, functions and topics • The purpose of a language course will vary according to the needs of the students and their particular interests • Content selection should : • - aim to create a low affective filter by being interesting and fostering a friendly, relaxed atmosphere • - provide a wide exposure to vocabulary that may be useful to basic personal communication • - resist any focus on grammatical structures

44. Types of learning and teaching activities • The Natural Approach borrows its techniques and activities from other methods: • Direct Method: mime, gestures and context for questions • Total Physical Response: command-based activities • Communicative Language Teaching: group-work activities And these common activities mainly focus on: -providing comprehensible input -minimizing learner anxiety and -maximizing learner self-confidence

45. Techniques (all acquisition activities) a) Affective-Humanistic activities - dialogues – short and useful - 'open' dialogues - interviews – pairwork on personal information - personal charts and tables - preference ranking – opinion polls on favourite activities etc - revealing information about yourself – e.g. what I had for breakfast - activating the imagination – e.g. give Napoleon advice about his Russian campaign

46. b) Problem-solving activities • - task and series – e.g. components of an activity such as washing the car • - charts, graphs, maps – e.g. busfares, finding the way • - Developing speech for particular occasions – e.g. What do you say if … • advertisements • c) Content activities, e.g. academic subject matter such as maths • d) Games, e.g. What is strange about … a bird swimming?'

47. Learner Roles Learners: • Should not try to learn a language in the usual sense. • Should deal with the actvities which involve meaningful communication and in which they can lose themselves • A processor of comprehensible input

48. The learner’s role changes and develops according to their stage of linguistic development. There are three stages: • Thepre-production stage: In this stage, the learners are not forced to respond in the target language. • Theearly-production stage: In this stage, learners respond short questions, such as either-or questions, use single words short phrases, fixed conversational patterns, such as what is your name, and fill in charts. • Thespeech-emergent phase: In this stage learners are supposed to use complex utterances

49. In the Natural Approach classroom, learners have 4 responsibilities; 1. Provide information about their specific goals 2. Take an active role in ensuring comprehensible input. 3. Decide when to start producing speech and when to upgrade it. 4. Decide with the teacher the relative amount of time to be devoted to them and perhaps even complete and correct them independently”.

50. TEACHER ROLES There are 3 important roles for a Natural Approach teacher. 1- The main source of comphrensible input in the target language Class time is devoted primarily to providing input for acquisition 2- To create a harmonious atmosphere that fosters a low affective filter learning. 3- To decide on classroom activities and tasks Furthermore, the teacher should communicate clearly and compellingly to students the assumptions, organizations, and expectations of the method