Methodology in the classroom
Extract :1
T stands for teacher. S represents a particular student. Ss stands for students.
S1: Tourist, visitor, traveler, student.
S2: Student.
S1: Yeah.
S2: Must be that one, yeah.
T: Why do you think—why is student the odd one out?
S2: Oh, tourist, visitor, traveler ... They are moving.
S3: Yeah.
S1: They are going.
S2: They have something in common, no?
T: Yeah, yeah. But I’d like you to say what it is that they have in common, you know? How would you describe it?
S3: OK, second. Investigate, determine, explore, inquire. I think, determine ...
S1: Determine.
S3: Yeah, because investigate, inquire, explore is ...
S1: Synonymous, synonymous.
S3: ...means to know something. Mmm. OK.
S1: Third. Elderly, intelligent, stupidly, and talkative. Intelligent and stupidly, you know. I think they have, er, some relations between because there is the opposite meanings.
S3: How about, er, elderly and talkative?
S2: Talkative—what means talkative?
S1: Yeah, too much.
S2: Talkative.
S1: How about the elderly?
S3: Adjective.
S1: Had a more experience and they get the more ...
S3: Intelligent, stupidly—maybe that the part of the human being ... which is, I think ... OK. Oh...
S1: Wait. Wait a minute. OK, this is, this is different ad ... kind of adjective that the....
S2: OK, all right.
T: So, which one did you decide?
Ss; Elderly, elderly.
T: Why’s that? S2: Because, er, it’s quite different this, because this match with your age, with your age, and the other one is with your... kind of person that you are.
T: Personality.
S2: Personality, yeah.
S1: Er, utilize, uncover, reveal, disclose. Yeah, this is utilize. Uncover, reveal, disclose—all of them the same meaning. Uncover, reveal, disclose.
S2: Uncover? What’s uncover?
S1: You know, cover and uncover (gestures).
S2: Oh. Reveal. OK.
S3: Good.
T: But how would you define ... how would you define those three words? What is ... what would be the dictionary definition of those three words?
S3: You mean the uncover and reveal? T: Reveal and disclose. What is the ... what is the meaning that they share?
S2: To find something and to...
S1: Uncover, revealed.
S3: And the other one doesn’t have anything to do with find. The other one means the opposite of doing something.
Commentary The sequence is taken from a pretask designed to present and review some key vocabulary that the students would encounter in the task proper—a selective listening task. Here is the handout they were working from:
Extract:1 is interesting from a number of perspectives. The students negotiate and collaborate well to complete the task. The teacher also does a good job of keeping the students on track and pushing them to describe what the words have in common.
In the extract, the two participants have heard two different interviewing committees discussing the relative merits of three applicants for a job. Their task is to share their information and decide which of the three would be the best person for the job.
Extract:2
A: Are you talking about Alan or Geoffrey? Just the first name.
B: Well, I understood I was talking about Geoffrey, yeah? Is that correct?
A: Not at all.
B: Not at all. So I have confused the man, have I? I’ve made a mistake here. Who ... who are you ... can you ... ? What notes do you have on Richards? See if we can get this sorted out first.
A: Were talking about Geoffrey, right? And he’s certainly the man that had a very good report. He knows the job, and I don’t see why we should at all discuss this because it is so obvious to me.
B: Well, it could very well be that I'm confusing the names of the people involved, so let’s make sure we’re talking about the same people. A: How about Alan?
B: But he’s a foreman rather than a supervisor, I understand, and this is basically a union job ...I mean I... my information is that all these people are occupying more or less the same rank.
A: Yes, but I mean, er, I agree, they are all, erm, foremen. Supervisor, by the way, is the same to me. Isn’t it to you?
B: Um, no, it’s not quite the same thing to me. A foreman is, uh, somewhat lower on the range, right?
Reflection:
In Extract 2, the learners seem confused about the identities of the individuals. In what ways does this help their language development? In what ways does it hurt it?
Commentary At first sight, it appears that the teacher in Extract 2 has probably not set up this task very well. There is considerable confusion over the identity of the individuals being interviewed. However, this was exactly the purpose of the task. Both students had different, and slightly conflicting, information on the three participants, and this led to considerable negotiation between the two students. As we saw in the background section, such negotiation is hypothesized to be healthy for language acquisition.
Reflection:
Extract 3 is a feedback session following a task. What do you think the task was? What do you notice about the way the teacher conducts the session? What is the purpose of the follow-up?
Extract:3
T: OK, let’s check your responses. At school?
Ss: Yes, yes.
T: At a party?
S: Yes.
S: No. T: Never been to a party? Oh, you poor thing, (laughter,) At the movies?
Ss: No, no.
T: No? Why not? Ss: (Inaudible comments and laughter.,)
T: What about at a shopping center?
Ss: No.
T: Sports event?
Ss: Yes. No.
T: Why?
S: Not at sports event.
S: What sports event?
S: Baseball game. Stadium.
S: Stadium. Stadium. Yes.
T: You mean watching?
S: Watching, yeah.
S: Or playing tennis.
(There is some confused discussion among the students.,)
T: OK, difference of opinion there. What about at a concert? S: No.
T: No?
(Laughter)
T: What about at a friend’s house?
Ss: Yes. Yes. S: No. (Laughter,)
T: No as well. Don’t you have any friends either?
S: I didn’t meet new people.
T: New people. OK. What other, what other places can you meet?
S: Part-time job.
T: Part-time job.
(Excited murmuring)
T: Yeah! Good one. Yeah. Any more?
S: Church.
T: Church.
(Scattered Laughter)
S; Travel, travel, traveling.
T: Traveling.
S: Some people meet new people at beach or, er, swimming pool.
T: OK.
(Laughter and teasing of student making this remark.)
T: Is this where you meet new people? (Laughter)
S: Huh?
T: Is this where you meet new people? S: Yeah. (Laughter)
T: Any others?
S: Er... organizations.
T: Organizations? What kind?
S: Oh, like, er, environmental group or...
T: Environmental groups—that’s good. OK. I think I’ll have to put some of these on my list because they’re very interesting.
Commentary In this section, the teacher is conducting a debriefing and eliciting feedback from the students. Students had completed a reading task about how and where single men and women in the United States meet each other and then took part in a pair and group work task based on the following worksheet.
6. Conclusion:
In this section, I have provided a basic introduction to language teaching methodology, sketching out how the field has evolved over the last forty years, and then looked at contemporary approaches within the context of a communicative approach to language teaching. This had to be a selective introduction. A comprehensive text on language teaching methodology would be hundreds of pages in length. I hope, however, that it provides a platform you can build on when you read the rest of the chapters in this volume.
Further readings:
Celce-Murcia, M. (ed.) 2001. Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language. Third Edition. Boston, MA: Heinle & Heinle.
This edited volume is one of the standard works in the field. It covers all aspects of
language teaching methodology, and many chapters would be excellent follow-up
reading to the chapters in this volume.
Nunan, D. 1999. Second Language Teaching and Learning. Boston, MA: Heinle & Heinle.
This book provides an introduction, rationale, research basis, and classroom proce
dures for task-based language teaching.
Richards J. and W. Renandya (eds.) 2002. Methodology in Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
An edited collection of reprints on all aspects of methodology, this volume provides
an overview of current approaches, issues, and practices in teaching English to
speakers of other languages.
Helpful Web site:
Center for Applied Linguistics, Washington DC (http://www.cal.org/e riccll)
This Web site has many useful resources, including papers, bibliographies, and
links to other Web sites of relevance to language teaching methodology.
