Chapter 3
The Nature of Approaches and Methods
in Language Teaching
1
Definition of Language
• Language is a system of arbitrary verbal
symbols used for human communication.
(Wardhaugh,1972:3)
• Language is a systematic means of
communicating ideas or feelings by the use of
conventionalized signs, sounds, gestures, or
marks having understood meanings.
• Deductive learning of grammar— is an approach
to language learning in which learners are taught
rules and given specific information about a
language. They then apply these rules when they
use the language. For example, in the grammar
translation method, specific grammar rules are
given to learners and practice subsequently follows
to familiarize students with the rule. The features of
it are time-saving and suitable for adult learners
who can afford abstract thinking. Besides it is
widely used in EFL contexts where exposure to the
target language is limited and the length of
instruction time is short. (e.g. GTM, adult learners,
EFL contexts) 3
Inductive learning
• is an approach to language learning in which learners
are not taught grammatical or other types of rules
directly but are left to discover or induce rules from
their experience of using the language. Language
teaching methods which emphasize use of the language
rather than presentation of information about the
language include the direct method, the communicative
approach and counseling learning. The features of it are
time-consuming and applicable to young learners in
natural settings such as ESL contexts.
4
• Performance and competence
Performance-- a person’s actual use of language;
how a person uses his knowledge of a language in
producing and understanding sentences.
Competence-- a person’s knowledge of a language
People may have the competence to produce a long
sentence but when they actually try to use this
knowledge, there are reasons why they restrict it. For
example, they may run out of breath or their listeners
forget what has been said if the sentence is too long.
Due to performance factors such as fatigue, lack of
attention, nervousness or excitement, their actual use
of language may not reflect their competence. The
errors they make are described as examples of
performance. 5
the Acquisition-learning hypothesis by Stephen Krashen-
(1941-)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Krashen
• Acquisition vs. learning
Acquisition--the processes by which people
naturally develop proficiency in a language
Learning-- the processes by which people
formally develop language proficiency.
6
• Form vs. function
• Form— the physical characteristics of a thing-> in
language use, a linguistic form is like the imperative
• Function— a linguistic form can perform a variety of
different functions:
Come here for a drink-> invitation
Watch out-> warning
Turn left at the corner-> direction
Pass the salt-> request
7
Approaches, methods, procedures, and
techniques
• Your understanding of what language is
and how the learner learns will determine to
a large extent, your philosophy of education,
and how you teach English: your teaching
style, your approach, methods and classroom
technique.
Approaches, methods, procedures, and techniques
• Approach : this refers to “theories about
the nature of language and language
learning that serve as the source of practices
and principles in language teaching”. It
offers a model of language competence. An
approach describes how people acquire
their knowledge of the language and makes
statements about conditions which will
promote successful language learning.
II. Theoretical Views of Language & Nature of Languages
.
Different views on language
1st: Structural View: the view that language is a system
of structurally related elements for the coding of
meaning. The target of language learning is seen to be
the mastery of elements
.
Structural View :
• It sees language as a linguistic system made
up of various subsystem :
• from phonological, morphological, lexical,
etc. to sentence .
• Each language has a finite number of such
structural items. To learn a language means to
learn these structural items to be able to
understand and produce language .
2nd: Functional View: Semantic &
communicative dimension rather than merely
the grammatical characteristics of lg. (meaning
& function)
Functional View :
•It sees language as a linguistic system but
also as a means for doing things.
•Functional activities : offering , suggesting ,
advising, apologizing, etc.
•To perform functions , learners need to
know how to combine the grammatical rules
and the vocabulary to express notions that
perform the functions.
3rd: Interactional View: Language is seen as
a tool for the creation & maintenance of
social relations.
Interactional View
• Language is a communicative tool , the use of
which is to build up and maintain social
relations between people.
• Learners not only need to know the grammar
and vocabulary of the language , but also need
to know the rules for using them in a whole
range of communicative context.
16
• Method : a method is the practical realization
of an approach. Methods include various
procedures and techniques as part of their
standard fare.
17
METHOD
• It is considered the practical realization
of an approach.
• It is understood as a group of • When a method has fixed
procedures, a system that clearly procedures, informed by a clearly
explains how to teach a language
(syllabus organization -contents & skills articulated approach, it is easy to
to be taught-, roles of teachers and describe. However, if a method
learners, kinds of materials to use). takes procedures and techniques
from a wide variety of sources,
• It is understood as a group of
procedures, a system that clearly that is that they are used in other
explains how to teach a language methods or are mentioned by other
(contents and skills to be taught) beliefs, it will be very hard to
continue describing it as a method.
• The method is based on a specific
approach. The approach is axiomatic How should it be categorized then?
whereas the method is procedural.
TECHNIQUE
• It’s each specific strategy that • These techniques must be
we use in the classroom. coherent with the method, and
therefore, they must be in
harmony with the approach.
• It is a tool that is used to
obtain an immediate result.
• Some techniques can be found in
different methods whereas other
• It’s what really happens in the
ones are specific to a given
classroom, in the actual
method.
teaching.
PROCEDURE
• It can be understood as a set of
actions, operations and
• It is an ordered sequence of strategies which have to be
techniques. executed accordingly to a
perception on how to obtain a
• A procedure can be described expected result, in our case on
in terms such as First you do how to increase competition in
this, then you do that… It’s a a foreign language.
lot smaller than a method, but
it’s a sequence of techniques.
Elements and Subelements of Method
• Approach • A method is theoretically
• Assumptions and beliefs about
language teaching and learning
related to an approach, is
• Design organizationally
• Objectives determined by a design,
• Syllabus and is practically realized
• Activities in procedure
• Roles of Teachers
• Roles of Learners
• Materials
• Procedure
• Implementational Phase
