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Guided discovery
View of language: language has patterns of meaning and use.
View of language learning: learners learn language best if they work out patterns and rules of language themselves rather than being given them by the teacher.
Classroom practices:
@ The teacher gives learners examples of a target language area, e.g. a text containing several examples of the past tense, a recording containing several sentences each with different patterns of sentence stress. The teacher then asks the learners to work out what the rules of use seem to he for the target: language.
© The teacher often gives the learners the rules after they have worked them out or asks them to complete gapped rules.
© This approach is often used together with PPP, Task-based Learning and the Functional Approach.
Content-based learning
View of language: grammatical, lexical, functional areas and skills are all important.
View of language learning: language is learnt best if presented to learners through interesting topics which help them increase their knowledge of the world.
Classroom practices:
The syllabus focuses on grammar, lexis, functions or skills.
Used mainly in primary and secondary schools.
Language is presented through topics related to school subjects or learning about the world.
Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL)
View of language:
Language serves to communicate meaning.
0 All aspects of language help communicate meaning, e.g. skills, discourse, lexis, g ra mina r, fu nctio n s.
View of language learning:
m Language is learnt mainly through acquisition and through using it. Language does not need to be obviously focused on.
® Language is learnt best when you use language to learn something else.
Classroom practices:
m The syllabus is based round learning about the subject matter and cognitive {thinking and learning) skills related to a school subject, e.g. maths, history, art.
0 The school subject is taught in the L2 (L3/L4).
m The spe ci fi с к i n ds of la n g u age 1 e a rn t a re t h e 1 a n g u age need ed fo r learning about the subject:.
Lessons focus on the subject rather than on language.
As you can see, the approaches outlined above vary in how specific they are about views on language and language learning and their typical classroom practices. Some are more developed in some areas than others. While these features are typical
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Unit 15 Approaches to language teaching
of these approaches, they are not always totally accurate descriptions of them, as approaches change and individual teachers use them differently.
Many language teachers these days do not nse one single approach. They may use one approach one week and a different approach the next, or they may indude in one approach practices typical of another. For example, yon sometimes see lessons in which the teacher asks learners to carry out a task before giving a PPP lesson on the same area, or you see a communicative lesson in which the learners are asked to do a drill on a common mistake. This Jmix and match' approach is called an eclectic approach, i.e. an approach which mixes techniques from different approaches. Many teachers, coursebooks and syllabuses use an eclectic approach because they think that it is not dear exactly how languages are learnt, so it may not be helpful for learners to use only one approach. Also, different learners have different learning styles and different ideas about how language should be learnt. Using an eclectic approach can allow the teacher to teach learners more appropriately. Experience shows that some approaches work better in some contexts than others. What works in one teaching context may not work in another.
Key concepts and the language teaching classroom
Read these tips and tick the ones which are most important for you.
Many teachers want to know which approach to teaching is best. But in fact it is difficult to say that one approach is better than another. For example, for a group of motivated upper-intermediate 18-year-olds who are learning English for their future jobs in the tourist industry, a communicative approach may well be very useful. However, for another group of 18-year-olds taking a grammar exam to get into university a Structural Approach might be more suitable.
The best approach to use depends on who your learners are and what your teaching conditions are. Consider learners' age, level of English, motivation to learn, expectations of learning, previous learning experience. Think, too, about the aims of the course your learners are on, what resources are available to the classroom, class size and number of hours of English in the course.
Some people believe in an eclectic approach which uses classroom practices from a variety of approach.es/methods. This can be a successful approach, but it needs to be used carefully. If you are constantly changing your methods and approaches, your learners may become confused and begin to think that you are riot very sure of your teaching style. It is important to mix techniques in a way which is coherent, so that all activities develop well out of one another and work towards the lesson's aims.
See Unit 10 for the differences between acquisitioni /ntemction andiacus on formi Units 13: and ц for: different characteristics and needs of learners, Unit 16 for ways to present language, and Unit 1/ for ways of focusing on and practising language, and for examples of communicative tasks.
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Module 1
(See page 241 for answers)
Which teaching approach would be best for these learners? Match the learners (1-5) with the approaches A-C.
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