CSS ENGLISH LANGUAGE PRACTICAL TEACHING PART- 1

Principles for language teaching methodology

1. Focus on the learner:

    A learner-centered classroom is one in which learners are actively involved in their own learning processes. There are two dimensions to this learner involvement. The first of these is the involvement of learners in making decisions about what to learn, how to learn, and how to be evaluated. The second is in maximizing the class time in which the learners, rather than the teacher, do the work.

Reflection

1. What do you think some of the objections to the two dimensions of learner involvement outlined above might be?

2. Brainstorm possible solutions to these objections.

    In relation to the first dimension, it is sometimes argued that most learners do not have the knowledge or experience to make informed decisions about what to learn, how to learn, and how to be assessed. According to this view, the teacher is the boss, and it is the professional responsibility of the teacher to make these decisions. A countervailing view is that ultimately it is the learner who has to do the learning.

    One possible solution to this dilemma is for the teacher to make most of the decisions at the beginning of the learning process. Then gradually, through a process of learner training, begin developing in the learners the skills they need in order to begin taking control of their own learning processes. (See Christison, Chapter 13, this volume.) 

    In fact, it is not an “all or nothing” issue in which either the teacher or the learner makes all of the decisions. In most classrooms it is somewhere in between, with teacher and students negotiating things such as when to submit assignments, whether to do a task in small groups or pairs, whether to do a reading task before a listening task or vice-versa, and so on. However, a teacher who is committed to this principle will look for opportunities to involve learners in becoming more reflective and in making more decisions about their own learning. 

    Here are some ways of getting learners more involved in their own learning process and to gradually take control of that process. Each step entails greater and greater involvement of learners in their own learning processes.

Involving learners in the learning process:

1. Make instructional goals clear to learners.

2. Help learners to create their own goals.

3. Encourage learners to use their second language outside of the classroom.

4. Help learners to become more aware of learning processes and strategies.

5. Show learners how to identify their own preferred styles and strategies.

6. Give learners opportunities to make choices between different options in the classroom.

7. Teach learners how to create their own learning tasks.

8. Provide learners with opportunities to master some aspect of their second language and then teach it to others.

9. Create contexts in which learners investigate language and become their own researchers of language.

10. Give a feedback to the learners.

2. Develop your own personal methodology:

    As we saw in the background section of this chapter, the search for the “one best method” was elusive and ultimately proved to be futile. When researchers looked at what teachers actually did in the classroom as opposed to what proponents of one method or another said they ought to do, they found that teachers had a range of practices that were widely used regardless of the method that any given teacher was supposed to follow. The major difference lies, not in the tasks themselves, but in the ordering and prioritizing of the tasks. In other words, in terms of actual classroom practices the same techniques might be used, but their ordering and emphasis would be different. 

    

    Another related observation is that just as learners have their own learning styles, so teachers have their own teaching styles. They are derived from their professional training and experience as well as their own experiences as learners. While one teacher might correct errors overtly, others might do it through modeling the correct utterance. These two styles are exemplified in the following examples. 

For Example:1

Student: I go home at three o’clock, yesterday. 

Teacher A: No. Remember Luis, the past tense of go is went. 

Example:2 

Student: I go home at three o’clock, yesterday. 

Teacher B: Oh, you went home at three, did you Luis? 

Similarly, one teacher may prefer to give explicit explanation and practice of a new grammar point before getting students to use it in a communicative activity. Another teacher may prefer to introduce the grammar point in the form of a contextualized dialogue and only draw the attention of the student to the grammatical form after they have used it communicatively or pro-communicatively. 

    What is important, then, is that teachers develop their own preferred classroom practices based on what works best for them in their own particular situation and circumstances and given the learners they have at the time. As circumstances, students, and levels of experience change, so will the practices. (If you are teaching large classes, it may not be feasible to do much pair or group work, no matter how highly you think of them.) 

    This is not to say that all practices are equally valid for all learners. Experiment with different practices. Try out new ideas. Record your lessons, observe your teaching, if possible have a peer observe your teaching, and above all reflect on what happens in your classroom. If you have time, keep a reflective journal and set out observations, questions, challenges, and puzzles. Even if you have relatively little experience, you will be surprised at how much you can learn about processes of teaching and learning by systematically reflecting on what happens in your classroom.

3. Build instructional sequences based on a pretask, task, and follow-up             cycle.

    Successful instructional sequences share certain things in common, regardless of the methodological principles or approaches that drive them. First of all, the main task, whether it be a drill, a role-play, or a listening comprehension, is set up through one or more pretasks. Pretasks have several functions: to create interest, help build students’ schema in relation to the topic, introduce key vocabulary, revise a grammatical point, etc. 

    Following the pretasks comes the task itself. This will usually consist of several steps or subtasks. In the communicative classroom, the teacher will seek to maximize the time that the students are processing the language or interacting with each other (although, of course, this will depend on the rationale for the instructional sequence). The teacher will also carefully monitor the students to ensure that they know what they are supposed to do and are carrying out the tasks correctly. 

    Following the task proper, there should be some sort of follow-up. This also has a number of functions: to elicit feedback from the students about their experience, to provide feedback to the students on how they had done, to correct errors that the teacher might have noticed in the course of the instructional sequence, and to get students to reflect on the tasks and engage in self-evaluation.