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Thursday, December 4, 2014

UNIT 15 APPROACHES TO LANGUAGE TEACHING

It is clear that Approaches has to do with how Language Learning takes place. There are people who defend their point of view according to the way in which a language can be taught and learned by people, and here are some approaches and their most common characteristics: Presentation Practice Production (PPP), Lexical Approach, Functional Approach, and Communicative Approaches. Also, there is Grammar Translation, Total Physical Response (TPR), Guided Discovery, Content Based Learning, and Content and Language Integrating Learning (CLIL).
In the first approach Presentation Practice Production it is believed that language should be learnt at first by seeing the language in contexts, later there must be practiced by controlled and guided conditions, and finally a free practice activity to develop the outcomes from the students. Moreover, the syllabus focuses on grammatical structures and functions, the teacher inputs the language; however the students do not make decisions about what to learn. Some of the activities for this approach are: At the presentation stage Situational presentations and miming, in the practice stage it is possible to practice with drills, and at the production stage students can produce the language by role-playing and information-gap activities. The Lexical Approach is focus on Functions of the language and has the same strategies and stages as in the (PPP)
Communicative Approaches focus on Communication and meaning is communicated through functions, grammar, vocabulary, discourse and skills. In addition, to learn best the language is appropriate to use it in Interaction. The syllabus is mainly directed to tasks based on learners’ communicative needs. This approach highlights in importance Fluency rather than accuracy, and the use of authentic materials is necessary to encourage students to become active learners in their learning process.
The oldest approach is Grammar Translation. This approach focuses on grammatical rules and its understanding to get the language. Through this methodology, learners are presented a series of specific grammatical patterns of the target code and they should produce the language applying those patterns. Additionally, students translate texts and isolated sentences or words from L1 to L2 and vice versa to make emphasis on grammatical accuracy.
On the other hand, Total Physical Response focuses, and its syllabus, on grammatical structures and vocabulary which can be best leant by the exposition of it to the students where comprehension comes before production of the language. This methodology is commonly applied with young learners who do not reject moving all the time and doing things physically. Even though, they need a silent period to convey the language rather than produce it yet. There is practice through giving and following instructions among learners when they are in advanced stages.
In Guided Discovery the language has patterns of meaning and use. It is believed that learners get the language by building rules by themselves or discovering them. The teacher does not give directly specific rules, he/she provides at first some examples of the target grammatical point and later asks learners what could be the rule used in those examples. It works together with PPP, Task-Based Learning and the Functional Approach.
Content-based Learning has a syllabus which focuses on grammar, lexis, functions or skills and is used mainly in primary and secondary skills. In this approach the language is presented through topics which are related to school subjects or topics about the world.
Content and Language Integrated Learning which is the most modern approach focuses on communicate meaning. This approach is mainly related to skills, discourse, lexis, grammar and functions. The strategy to get the language is by Acquisition the syllabus is primarily focus rather than on language.

As it could be see, those approaches have differences and also similarities, there also can be appreciated the mix and match approach called an eclectic approach, that which combines the best things from different approaches. The course book, teachers and syllabuses use this eclectic approach and the learning experience is better from time to time.

Please go to the following links for more information:
}http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/knowledge-database/approach


BIBLIOGHRAPHY:


TeachingEnglish | British Council | BBC, (2014). Approach. [online] Available at: http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/knowledge-database/approach [Accessed 7 Dec. 2014].

Onestopenglish, (2014). Teaching approaches. [online] Available at: http://www.onestopenglish.com/support/methodology/teaching-approaches/ [Accessed 7 Dec. 2014].




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