A course in English Language teaching
Chapter 1: English teaching today: What do I need to know?
1.1 Teaching priorities
The balance between fluency and accuracy is a good example of something that has not changed
very much. It is important for students to use English fluently and correctly, so that they can get their
message across effectively. Something that has changed is that the grammatical, lexical, phonological
and spelling conventions are no longer necessarily those of native speakers. They are those used by
the majority of speakers of the language.
Since English is today being used for all sorts of purposes worldwide, it is important for students to
know that there is not just one English style. For example, the students need to know the differences
between informal speech and more formal written discourse. Therefore we need to make sure that
our teaching programmes include exposure to a range of styles in order to raise students’ awareness
of the differences.
A major finding in the past few years is the overall importance of vocabulary knowledge, particularly
for reading comprehension. It appears that acquiring vocabulary simply by reading or listening during
a language course will not provide students with the amount of vocabulary they need.
Writing is often used in language teaching as a vehicle for language practice and testing, rather than
for the sake of the writing skill itself. Communicative writing activities are less common in teaching
material because it has been seen as less useful for communicative purposes. However, the
importance of informal writing for communication has increased immensely in the last generation.
This means that we need to invest more effort in helping our students achieve written, as well as
reading, fluency.
1.2 English as an international language
There has been a shift in the primary function of English language teaching in the last 50 years. It
went from being the native language of nations such as UK and the USA to being mainly a global
means of communication.
A question which many teachers in the previous generation had difficulty in answering was which of
the major varieties of English to teach. This is no longer a relevant question. Now, the question is:
which grammatical form is most likely to be understood and used worldwide?
The teacher who speaks the language as an additional rather than as a native language are the
majority worldwide. Those teachers have probably been through the same learning process as their
students. They have insights into the kinds of problems that are likely to come up and how to deal
with them.
Methodology books of the twentieth century typically talk of the culture of the English-speaking
peoples as the ‘target culture’ and assume that reading texts in course materials should be copied
from texts from English-speaking countries. That has changed. Nowadays, that is not required in
classes. It is more important to foster multicultural awareness on the part of our students than to
teach them particular codes of conduct. We can’t teach them all the cultures of the world, but we
can expose them to a sample through our materials.
It has been taken for granted in the past that the aim of an English course is to make the learners
communicative like native speakers. For most learners, this is an inaccessible goal. The appropriate
model in most cases, is probable the non-native-speaker teacher. For most people nowadays English
is a tool. The first language remains the most important language and the one students identify with.
What we as teachers are aiming for is functional English-knowing bilingualism. There is no particular
reason to ban the use of the first language in the classroom. It is most likely to play a valuable role in
the acquisition of English.
1.3 Language acquisition theories and teaching methodologies
There are a few main ideas on how we acquire second or foreign languages in school:
, - Intuitive acquisition We learn another language the same way as we learnt our first.
- Habit-formation Language is a set of habits. We mimic and memorize and drill the
patterns until we learn to produce the correct forms.
- Cognitive progress Language involves the understanding of underlying rules. If we master
these rules, we will be able to apply them in different contexts.
- Skill-learning Language is a skill. Someone explains the rules, and we understand and
practice until we master them.
The main contrasting concepts underlying these four theories are explicit versus implicit teaching and
learning. The intuitive and habit-formation theories are implicit, which means that you learn through
subconscious acquisition without actually working out rules. The other two theories are connected to
an explicit model, meaning you think we need to understand how the language works in order to
master it.
A methodology is a collection of teaching procedures that accord with and apply a particular
approach. An approach can be defined as a principled model of language teaching/learning, based on
theories of language. There are a few approaches and methodologies that stand out:
- Grammar-translation involves explanation of grammar by the teacher and translation of
texts from and to the target language. It focuses on the written form of the language, usually
formal.
- Direct method largely based on a reaction against grammar-translation. Emphasizes
speaking and bans the use of L1 in the classroom.
- Audio-lingualism Based on the idea that language is a set of habits. Involves a lot of
repetition, drilling and learning by heart. It is most important to learn the spoken form of the
language.
- PPP Presentation, practice, production. Based on a skill-learning theory of LA. it is very
teacher-dominated.
- Communicative approach Based on the assumption that language if for communication
and that we learn best through naturalistic acquisition processes. The classroom is learner-
centred.
- Post-communicative approach maintains the position that the primary function of
language is effective communication. It allows a much larger role for procedures such as
explicit teaching of grammar, vocab, and spelling.
This book is based on the post-communicative approach, because it is the one most teachers work
with nowadays.
1.4 Computerized teaching materials
The huge development that has taken place recently in the material is the increase in the use of
computers and other digital resources. Many students and teachers to still prefer to do most of their
teaching and learning through a book. More recently, computerized hardware is being used in the
classroom. Teaching materials can easily be displayed on a screen.
1.5 Motivation
Motivation is a crucial factor in successful language learning. Integrative motivation refers to the
desire of the learner to learn the language in order to integrate into the community of speakers of
that language. Instrumental motivation refers to the need to learn the language for educational
benefit. A better job for instance.
Extrinsic motivation is based on the perceived benefits of success in learning and penalties of failure.
Intrinsic motivation is that associated with the activity of language learning itself.
Another motivation-associated concept is that of the self and personal identity. How we see
ourselves or wish to see ourselves in the future. Teachers have a crucial role to play in increasing
motivation to learn. We can influence learners’ motivation in three main ways:
- By taking every opportunity to show them how important it is for them to know English
- By fostering their self-image as successful language learners
, - By ensuring that classroom activities are interesting
Chapter 3: The text
3.1 What is a text?
A text in the present context is a piece of writing or speech which we use for language learning. The
reader or listener can understand it without necessarily knowing the context it is coherent, meaning
it has a beginning, middle and an end. A text is usually used for intensive learning. Intensive learning
means that the text isn’t only understood, but also studied in detail. Extensive means that the text is
read or heard for pleasure and/or information, but not studies in detail. The main aim is to improve
reading/listening fluency.
3.2 Teaching the text: The goals
The main goals of teaching the text are
- Comprehension of content:
General gist Make sure students understand the general content
Detailed understanding More detailed comprehension of the different parts of the
text
Reading between the lines Underlying approach
Critical analysis Study the text critically
- Language learning: Vocab and grammar
- Discourse analysis: The discussion of a text as a whole, rather than linguistic features such as
grammar of vocab
- Follow-up tasks
3.3 Comprehension of content
The priority in dealing with a text is to get the students to understand it.
Preparatory work can be extremely helpful for comprehension. Can include discussing the topic,
asking questions etc. It is also a good idea to give info about the content in advance.
Pre-teaching vocab might not be very helpful. Teaching too many words in advance overloads
students’ short term memory, and they won’t remember the meaning of the words. It is important to
motivate students to read the text, arouse their curiosity by giving them questions to discuss.
There are three main ways a new tet is actually read in class:
- The teacher reads aloud and the students read along
- The students read silently
- The students read sections aloud, in turn.
In many cases, a difficult text will be best understood if the teacher reads it out loud. If silent reading
is successful, however, there will be the bonus that the students have read and understood the text
on their own. Asking students to take turns reading may not help comprehension, because of their
pronunciation and because the person reading is trying to get the words right instead of trying to
understand the text. The most common type of text comprehension task is comprehension questions
folloqing the reading. These, however, may not always be very effective. The questions sometimes
echo the text, and you can answer them without thinking. If the questions are worded differently
from the text itself, they are likely to be more effective.
Practical tips:
- When doing preparatory work, tell students to close their books
- Feel free to pause briefly to slip in quick translations
- Provide glosses for unknown words in the text
- Make sure students read through the text more than once
- Ask students to do comprehension questions on their own (or in pairs)
- Adopt the sandwich principle for text comprehension
