SECOND-LANGUAGE TEACHING METHODS
Principles & Procedures
Below
is a description of the basic principles and procedures of the most
recognized methods for teaching a second or foreign language.
Grammar-Translation Approach
Direct Approach
Reading Approach
Audio lingual Method
Community Language Learning
The Silent Way Communicative Approach--Functional-Notional
Total Physical Response
The Grammar-Translation Approach
This approach was historically used in teaching Greek and Latin. The approach was generalized to teaching modern languages.
Classes
are taught in the students' mother tongue, with little active use of
the target language. Vocabulary is taught in the form of isolated word
lists. Elaborate explanations of grammar are always provided. Grammar
instruction provides the rules for putting words together; instruction
often focuses on the form and inflection of words. Reading of difficult
texts is begun early in the course of study. Little attention is paid to
the content of texts, which are treated as exercises in grammatical
analysis. Often the only drills are exercises in translating
disconnected sentences from the target language into the mother tongue,
and vice versa. Little or no attention is given to pronunciation.
The Direct Approach
This
approach was developed initially as a reaction to the
grammar-translation approach in an attempt to integrate more use of the
target language in instruction.
Lessons
begin with a dialogue using a modern conversational style in the target
language. Material is first presented orally with actions or pictures.
The mother tongue is NEVER, NEVER used. There is no translation. The
preferred type of exercise is a series of questions in the target
language based on the dialogue or an anecdotal narrative. Questions are
answered in the target language. Grammar is taught inductively--rules
are generalized from the practice and experience with the target
language. Verbs are used first and systematically conjugated only much
later after some oral mastery of the target language. Advanced students
read literature for comprehension and pleasure. Literary texts are not
analyzed grammatically. The culture associated with the target language
is also taught inductively. Culture is considered an important aspect of
learning the language.
The Reading Approach
This
approach is selected for practical and academic reasons. For specific
uses of the language in graduate or scientific studies. The approach is
for people who do not travel abroad for whom reading is the one usable
skill in a foreign language.
The
priority in studying the target language is first, reading ability and
second, current and/or historical knowledge of the country where the
target language is spoken. Only the grammar necessary for reading
comprehension and fluency is taught. Minimal attention is paid to
pronunciation or gaining conversational skills in the target language.
From the beginning, a great amount of reading is done in L2, both in and
out of class. The vocabulary of the early reading passages and texts is
strictly controlled for difficulty. Vocabulary is expanded as quickly
as possible, since the acquisition of vocabulary is considered more
important that grammatical skill. Translation reappears in this approach
as a respectable classroom procedure related to comprehension of the
written text.
The Audiolingual Method
This
method is based on the principles of behavior psychology. It adapted
many of the principles and procedures of the Direct Method, in part as a
reaction to the lack of speaking skills of the Reading Approach.
New
material is presented in the form of a dialogue. Based on the principle
that language learning is habit formation, the method fosters
dependence on mimicry, memorization of set phrases and over-learning.
Structures are sequenced and taught one at a time. Structural patterns
are taught using repetitive drills. Little or no grammatical
explanations are provided; grammar is taught inductively. Skills are
sequenced: Listening, speaking, reading and writing are developed in
order. Vocabulary is strictly limited and learned in context. Teaching
points are determined by contrastive analysis between L1 and L2. There
is abundant use of language laboratories, tapes and visual aids. There
is an extended pre-reading period at the beginning of the course. Great
importance is given to precise native-like pronunciation. Use of the
mother tongue by the teacher is permitted, but discouraged among and by
the students. Successful responses are reinforced; great care is taken
to prevent learner errors. There is a tendency to focus on manipulation
of the target language and to disregard content and meaning.
Hints for Using Audio-lingual Drills in L2 Teaching
1.
The teacher must be careful to insure that all of the utterances which
students will make are actually within the practiced pattern. For
example, the use of the AUX verb have should not suddenly switch to have as a main verb.
2. Drills should be conducted as rapidly as possibly so as to insure automaticity and to establish a system.
3. Ignore all but gross errors of pronunciation when drilling for grammar practice.
4.
Use of shortcuts to keep the pace o drills at a maximum. Use hand
motions, signal cards, notes, etc. to cue response. You are a choir
director.
5. Use normal English stress, intonation, and juncture patterns conscientiously.
6. Drill material should always be meaningful. If the content words are not known, teach their meanings.
7. Intersperse short periods of drill (about 10 minutes) with very brief alternative activities to avoid fatigue and boredom.
8. Introduce the drill in this way:
a. Focus (by writing on the board, for example)
b. Exemplify (by speaking model sentences)
c. Explain (if a simple grammatical explanation is needed)
d. Drill
9.
Don’t stand in one place; move about the room standing next to as many
different students as possible to spot check their production. Thus you
will know who to give more practice to during individual drilling.
10. Use the "backward buildup" technique for long and/or difficult patterns.
--tomorrow
--in the cafeteria tomorrow
--will be eating in the cafeteria tomorrow
--Those boys will be eating in the cafeteria tomorrow.
11.
Arrange to present drills in the order of increasing complexity of
student response. The question is: How much internal organization or
decision making must the student do in order to make a response in this
drill. Thus: imitation first, single-slot substitution next, then free
response last.
Community Language Learning
methodology
is not based on the usual methods by which languages are taught. Rather
the approach is patterned upon counseling techniques and adapted to the
peculiar anxiety and threat as well as the personal and language
problems a person encounters in the learning of foreign languages.
Consequently, the learner is not thought of as a student but as a
client. The native instructors of the language are not considered
teachers but, rather are trained in counseling skills adapted to their
roles as language counselors.
The
language-counseling relationship begins with the client's linguistic
confusion and conflict. The aim of the language counselor's skill is
first to communicate an empathy for the client's threatened inadequate
state and to aid him linguistically. Then slowly the teacher-counselor
strives to enable him to arrive at his own increasingly independent
language adequacy. This process is furthered by the language counselor's
ability to establish a warm, understanding, and accepting relationship,
thus becoming an "other-language self" for the client. The process
involves five stages of adaptation:
STAGE 1
The client is completely dependent on the language counselor.
1. First, he expresses only to the counselor and in English
what he wishes to say to the group. Each group member overhears this
English exchange but no other members of the group are involved in the
interaction.
2. The counselor then reflects these ideas back to the client in the foreign language in a warm, accepting tone, in simple language in phrases of five or six words.
3. The client turns to the group and presents his ideas in the foreign language. He has the counselor's aid if he mispronounces or hesitates on a word or phrase. This is the client's maximum security stage.
STAGE 2
1. Same as above.
2. The client turns and begins to speak the foreign language directly to the group.
3.
The counselor aids only as the client hesitates or turns for help.
These small independent steps are signs of positive confidence and hope.
STAGE 3
1.
The client speaks directly to the group in the foreign language. This
presumes that the group has now acquired the ability to understand his
simple phrases.
2.
Same as 3 above. This presumes the client's greater confidence,
independence, and proportionate insight into the relationship of
phrases, grammar, and ideas. Translation is given only when a group
member desires it.
STAGE 4
1. The client is now speaking freely and complexly in the foreign language. Presumes group's understanding.
2.
The counselor directly intervenes in grammatical error,
mispronunciation, or where aid in complex expression is needed. The
client is sufficiently secure to take correction.
STAGE 5
1. Same as stage 4.
2. The counselor intervenes not only to offer correction but to add idioms and more elegant constructions.
3. At this stage the client can become counselor to the group in stages 1, 2, and 3.
The Silent Way
Procedures
This method begins by using a set of colored rods and verbal commands in order to achieve the following:
To avoid the use of the vernacular.
To create simple linguistic situations that remain under the complete
control of the teacher To pass on to the learners the responsibility for
the utterances of the descriptions of the objects shown or the actions
performed. To let the teacher concentrate on what the students say and
how they are saying it, drawing their attention to the differences in
pronunciation and the flow of words. To generate a serious game-like
situation in which the rules are implicitly agreed upon by giving
meaning to the gestures of the teacher and his mime. To permit almost
from the start a switch from the lone voice of the teacher using the
foreign language to a number of voices using it. This introduces
components of pitch, timbre and intensity that will constantly reduce
the impact of one voice and hence reduce imitation and encourage
personal production of one's own brand of the sounds.
To provide the support of perception and action to the intellectual guess of what the noises mean, thus
bring in the arsenal of the usual criteria of experience already
developed and automatic in one's use of the mother tongue. To provide a duration
of spontaneous speech upon which the teacher and the students can work
to obtain a similarity of melody to the one heard, thus providing
melodic integrative schemata from the start.
Materials
The complete set of materials utilized as the language learning progresses include:
A
set of colored wooden rods A set of wall charts containing words of a
"functional" vocabulary and some additional ones; a pointer for use with
the charts in Visual Dictation A color coded phonic chart(s) Tapes or
discs, as required; films Drawings and pictures, and a set of
accompanying worksheets Transparencies, three texts, a Book of Stories,
worksheets
Functional-notional Approach
This
method of language teaching is categorized along with others under the
rubric of a communicative approach. The method stresses a means of
organizing a language syllabus. The emphasis is on breaking down the
global concept of language into units of analysis in terms of
communicative situations in which they are used.
Notionsare
meaning elements that may be expressed through nouns, pronouns, verbs,
prepositions, conjunctions, adjectives or adverbs. The use of particular
notions depends on three major factors: a. the functions b. the
elements in the situation, and c. the topic being discussed.
A situation may affect variations of language such as the use of dialects, the formality or informality of the language and the mode of expression. Situation includes the following elements:
A. The persons taking part in the speech act
B. The place where the conversation occurs
C. The time the speech act is taking place
D. The topic or activity that is being discussed
Exponents are the language utterances or statements that stem from the function, the situation and the topic.
Code is the shared language of a community of speakers.
Code-switching is
a change or switch in code during the speech act, which many theorists
believe is purposeful behavior to convey bonding, language prestige or
other elements of interpersonal relations between the speakers.
Functional Categories of Language
Mary
Finocchiaro (1983, p. 65-66) has placed the functional categories under
five headings as noted below: personal, interpersonal, directive,
referential, and imaginative.
Personal =
Clarifying or arranging one’s ideas; expressing one’s thoughts or
feelings: love, joy, pleasure, happiness, surprise, likes, satisfaction,
dislikes, disappointment, distress, pain, anger, anguish, fear,
anxiety, sorrow, frustration, annoyance at missed opportunities, moral,
intellectual and social concerns; and the everyday feelings of hunger,
thirst, fatigue, sleepiness, cold, or warmth
Interpersonal = Enabling
us to establish and maintain desirable social and working
relationships: Enabling us to establish and maintain desirable social
and working relationships:
· greetings and leave takings
· introducing people to others
· identifying oneself to others
· expressing joy at another’s success
· expressing concern for other people’s welfare
· extending and accepting invitations
· refusing invitations politely or making alternative arrangements
· making appointments for meetings
· breaking appointments politely and arranging another mutually convenient time
