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LECTURE 3: Basic methodological terms in Foreign Language Teaching
Plan:
1. Basic methodological concepts in methods of Foreign Language Teaching. The notion of the term "approach"
2. The meaning of the term "method"
3. Techniques and ways of teaching English
Basic methodological concepts in methods of foreign language teaching
It is worthwhile discussing Briefly the difference between three words which are often used when talking about teaching F.L. Techniques, Methods and approaches.
When we use the word “approach” we mean that an idea or theory is being applied that whatever the teacher does certain theoretical principles are always born in mind. When we talk about a “technique” we mean a procedure used in the classroom.
A “method” will consist of a number of Techniques probably arranged in a specific order. The word “approach” so much more general and has the implication that whatever methods or Techniques which the teacher uses he does not feel bound by these, but only by the troy in which he believes. It follows from these that referent approaches may the same Techniques and even the same methods and different methods may share the same Techniques.
We have already introduced the scheme of behaviorist learning theory. In this case it makes sense to talk about the behaviorist approach but the audio lingual method. We can also talk about different drilling Techniques.
Methods of teaching include those things that are done to stimulate learning. Method may be defined as a way of governing or guiding the learning. This interrelation is carried out through methods. The main function of the teacher is to help pupils to learn namely;
The teacher organizes their learning
He instructs and educates pupils
He provides evaluation and checking of pupils learning
Making use of what he learns in the act of communication developing language skills.
Each Method is realized in Techniques. We mean an individual way undoing something in ganging a certain goal in teaching process. The choice of Techniques is of great importance for effective teaching since the Techniques the teacher uses may produce poor or good effect on pupils learning.
The choice of the Techniques for each methods dependence, mainly on the methodological principles the teacher observes. When organizing pupils acquisition of a new material the teacher thinks of the Techniques which are more suitable for his pupil he takes into consideration pupils age, their progress in language L., their intellectual development, the conditions under which pupils learn. It may be concluding that methods include organized by the teaching and carried out by the pupil in the process of learning a foreign language. Consequently, the choice of Techniques in determined by the methodological principles which govern the teaching of foreign language in schools.
One more important task should be emphasized in teaching learning process. When the pupil uses the material learnt in the act of communications in hearing, speaking or reading, the teacher checks the pupil’s ability to communicate in the target language. New knowledge is acquired by illustration and object teaching, by pictures and maps, by Explanation, and by stimulation of the thoughts.
Each method is realized in Techniques. We mean an individual way in doing something, in gaining a certain goal, in teaching learning process; for example, while organizing pupils pronunciation of a new sound the teacher can use either demonstration of the pronunciation of the sound or an Explanation of how the sound should be pronounced in the target language, or he uses both demonstration and Explanation to help pupils to grasp this sound and produce it correctly as an isolated element then in a word in which it occurs and in various sentences with the word.
What is a method? About four decades ago Edward Anthony (1963) gave us a definition that has admirably withstood the test of time. His concept of “method” was the second or third hierarchical elements, namely approach, method, and technique. An approach, according to Anthony, was a set of assumptions dealing with the nature of language, learning, and teaching. Method was described as an overall plan for systematic presentation of language based upon a selected approach. Techniques were the specific activities manifested in the classroom that were consistent with a method and therefore were in harmony with an approach as well.
To this day, for better or worse, Anthony’s terms are still in common use among language teachers. For example, at the approach level, a teacher may affirm the ultimate importance of learning in a relaxed state of mental awareness just above the threshold of consciousness. The method that follows might resemble, say. Techniques could include playing baroque music while reading a passage in a foreign language, getting students to sit in a yoga position while listening to a list of words, or having learners adopt a new name in the classroom and role-play that new person.
A person who starts studying Methods will be puzzled by the variety of “methods” he may come across in books and journals and, of course, there are good grounds for this. At different periods, depending on the aims of teaching and learning foreign language, new methods sprang up. In each case the method received a certain name; sometimes its name denoted logical categories, for ex.: the synthetic method (synthesis), the analytic method (analysis), the deductive method (deduction), the inductive method (induction), Sometimes the method was named after the aspect of the language upon which attention was focused as in the case of the grammar method, the lexical method, the phonetic method. A third set of methods received their names from the skill which was the main object of teaching. Among these are the Translation method (Translation), the oral method (oral language). Sometimes the method got its name from the psychology of language learning: in this category the following names occur: the intuitive method, the conscious method, the Direct method. Finally, the method was sometimes named after its inventor. Thus we find: the Amos Comenius method, the Jacotot method, the Berlitz method, the Palmer (West, Fries) method.
In some cases the methods bear coupled names: they represent two sides of teaching, for ex., the leading aspect of the language and the skill the pupils acquire (the grammar-Translation method), or the name of the by author and the language activity which is the main aimin teaching – “Fries oral method”, the method of teaching reading by West. We may find even such names as “hear-say-see-say-read-write method” and others.
It would be impracticable in a short chapter such as this one to give a classification of methods. All that one can hope to do is to select for comment those methods which have had a long history and have influenced the contemporary methods of foreign language teaching, and live on in them.
A couple of decades later, Jack Richards and Theodore Rodgers (1982) proposed a reformulation of the concept of “method”. Anthony’s approach, method, and technique were renamed, respectively, approach, design, and procedure, with a superordinate term to describe this three-step process, now called “method”. A method, according to Richards and Rogers, was “an umbrella term for the specification and interrelation of theory and practice”. An approach defines assumptions, beliefs, and theories about the nature of language and language learning. Designs specify the relationship of those theories to classroom Materials and activities. Procedures are the Techniques and practices that are derived from one’s approach and design.
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