Alternative English teaching methodologies

Alternative English teaching methodologies
(Part two)
By KEITH WRIGHT
June 2, 2010, 3:00pm
Over the last six to seven decades, a wide range of approaches to teaching English to speakers of other languages have evolved.
This week, six additional and different methods are briefly considered.
• LEXICAL APPROACH contends that the knowledge of words and phrases is a far better foundation to build a new language than learning grammatical structure.
Emphasis is given to the studies of lexemes, the fundamental units of English. Learners are taught how an English word can sometimes represent one or more than one lexeme, e.g. oxygen = one lexeme (one meaning, one use – a colourless, odourless gas); bank = more than one lexeme, e.g. a bank of computers; an investment bank; the bank of a river, etc.
• NOTIONAL-FUNCTIONAL APPROACH focuses on notions, i.e. time, place, cost, person, quantity, emotional attitudes, beliefs – and emphasizes the use of language for a specific function, i.e. asking, questioning, enquiring, describing, applauding, criticizing, requesting, explaining, etc.
This approach is common in basic conversational language courses and publications where everyday, notional words and functional sentences are used, e.g. What time is it? Is this the train to Paris? My name is Maurtia.
• DIRECT APPROACH places its teaching focus on speech with a major emphasis on phonetics for pronunciation proficiency. Using the principles of visualization, association and learning through the senses, the Direct Approach teaches with pictures, activity and play in a similar way that a child learns their native language.
Grammar is learned by practice rather than by rules or precepts to develop natural, automatic responses. While the Direct Approach advocates that teaching be conducted by a native speaker, it contends that the mother tongue should be avoided in the learning situation as much as possible.
• PHONIC APPROACH teaches the relationship between particular sounds and symbols (letters) or symbol combinations (clusters). A characteristic of the English language is that symbols and symbol combinations can often make more than one sound just as different symbols and symbol combinations can make the same sound, e.g., the sound k… can be made by “c”, “k”. “q” and “ck”.
Phonics is widely used for teaching how to decode written words for pronunciation purposes and spoken words for spelling and writing purposes. While different phonics methods vary in what they teach, their commonality is their teaching how the sounds and symbols of sub-parts of words are connected to form spoken and written words.
The 4S Approach To Literacy And Language is also a phonic-based, teaching methodology but is one that goes to greater heights in imparting literacy and language-related skills. 4S focuses also on the relationship that exists between words in English, on the multi-meaning attributes of numerous words in context, on the symbol combination-syllabic structure of words, as well as on the provision of Keys.
• PRESENTATION, PRACTICE AND PRODUCTION (PPP) adopts a three-stage approach. First, teachers present the context and the language situation when the meaning and the structural form of the new language components are explained and demonstrated.
Second, learners use the new language contextually by practicing making sentences, both verbally and in writing, in a controlled, directed way, using models to work from as required.
It is at the third, production stage that learners are given the opportunity to be more creative in the application of what has been learnt, either working individually or in pairs.
While many teachers use this method today, critics contend the approach can lack flexibility and that lessons can become too ‘teacher-centred’. PPP is also the basis of the traditional method uses for Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) that is commonly known as ESA – Engage – Study – Activate.
• GRAMMAR - TRANSLATION METHOD teaches learners to systematically find equivalent or similar words and grammatical concepts in sentences and word lists in their own native language and then translate them to the foreign language being learned, e.g. English, and vice versa.
Teachers applying the Grammar – Translation Method need to be bilingual with a high level of proficiency in the native language. Some critics argue that the method can stifle learners from getting the kind of natural language input necessary to acquire the language. However, its acceptance and success made it the main language teaching and learning method for two centuries and it is still practiced in many varying forms today, in some cases blended with less systematic literary methods.
Unlike the Literary Method that used classical literary texts to teach learners to imitate the writing style of a foreign language, the Grammar-Translation Method, as its name suggests, sought to expose learners to both foreign and native text that exhibited key grammatical concepts and could be translated in both directions. It was, in part, a system of translation.
Next week: The Silent Way, the Situational Approach, the Suggestopaedia method, Task-Based Learning, the Whole Word, and Look And Say Approach.
To obtain a free copy of PDF teaching Chart: Symbol Combinations That Make different Sounds, e-mail your request to: contact@4Sliteracy.com.au
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