English teaching methodology

English Teaching Methodology
Class 2
What you should know about English tea
ching
?
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Reference Books
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Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching, Diane Larsen-Freeman, Oxford
University Press.
Principles of Language Learning and Teaching, H. Douglas Brown, Prentice Hall
Regents.
Teaching by Principles, H. Douglas Brown, Prentice Hall Regents.
Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching, Jack C. Richards & Theordore S.
Rodgers, Cambridge University Press.
An introduction to Second Language Acquisition Research. Diane Larsen-Freeman
& Michael H. Long.
The Practice of English Language Teaching, Jeremy Harmer, Longman, Ltd.
Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language.
Celce-Murcia, M. H&H

Second Language Teaching & Learning. David Nunan. (1995). H& H.

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I. A Framework of TESOL
• English language teaching and learning: language,
education, psychology
• Theoretical Underpinning: First language education,
second language acquisition
• Research methodology
• Linguistics
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II. English as a global language: cultural im
perialism or intermixing?

• the place of English: as a lingua franca
• the number of English speakers: 600-700 million speak
English; in Asia alone, 100 million children are learning
English.
• How English got there: a colonial history, economics
(globalization), travel, information exchange (academic
discourse; the Internet), popular culture (music, movies)
• Varieties of English: inner circle, outer circle, and expanding
circle; for specific or general purposes

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III. Reasons of learning a 2nd/foreign languag
Academic:
to pursue
degrees
e• and
what
goals
of oritcertificates (* only a small portion in fact)
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Non-academic:
(a) to survive in Target Language community e.g. talking to neighbors,
helping children at school, or carrying out daily functions effectively
(b) English for specific purpose (ESP): to learning the lg as to apply in
work
(c) Culture: to know about the target community
• Miscellaneous: to learn for pleasure, for integrating into a culture or to be
forced to
To understand students’ need and motivation of learning a language is
crucial for successful learning and teaching.

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IV. Research findings on SLA
(a) Adults and adolescents can acquire a L2
(b) The learners creates a systematic IL with the same systematic
errors as the child learning the L1
(c) There are predictable sequences in acquisition

(d) Practice doesn’t make perfect
(e) Knowing a linguistic rule doesn’t mean knowing how to use it
(f) Isolated explicit error correction is usually ineffective
(g) More adult learners fossilize
(h) One cannot achieve nativelike command of a L2
in one hour a day
(i) The learners’ task is enormous since language is complex
A meaningful context is paramount.
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Advantages children benefit from in learning
Children’slanguage:
greater potential for developing accurate
a• foreign
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pronunciation, accent and fluency before puberty
Children’s favorable attitude towards a language and its
culture, either their mother tongue or a second language.
Children’s less mental barriers of learning than adults
Children’s learning two languages simultaneously without
suffering from inter-lingual interference
Listening along with speaking, a preliminary and preferable
role in the natural order of language acquisition for
children

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• But “learners of different ages have different
characteristics” is more preferable than the critical
hypothesis. Besides, accurate pronunciation is not
the most important goal of language learning but a
necessary or desirable goal. There are also other
factors that determine the effectiveness of one’s
language learning such as teacher’s language
competence, the learning environment and so on.

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IV. What is a good English learner
/teacher?
A Good learner of English is
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Willing to experiment
Willing to listen
Willing to ask questions
Willing to think about how to learn
Independent/responsible
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What is a good English teacher?
According to Brown (2001), a good language teacher is
characterized by
i) technical knowledge—understanding linguistics;
grasping basic principles of language learning and
teaching; language proficiencies in speaking, reading,
writing and listening; knowledge about language
learning process through one’s own experience;
understanding the relationship between culture and
language and knowledge of latest development of
language teaching and learning.
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ii) Pedagogical skills---well-informed
language teaching approaches; teaching
techniques; ability in lesson plan design
and other classroom behavior
management skills.
iii) Interpersonal skills.
iv) Personal qualities.
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VI. Important terms in TESOL
• TESOL, TEFL, TESL
• TESOL—an acronym for teaching English to speakers of other
languages, used, particularly in the USA, to describe the

teaching of English in situations where it is either a second
language or a foreign language.
• TEFL—an acronym for teaching English as a foreign language,
used to describe the teaching of English in situations where it is
a foreign language.
• TESL—an acronym for teaching English as a second language,
used either to describe the teaching of English in situations
where it is a second language or to refer to any situation where
English is taught to speakers of other languages.
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ESL & EFL
ESL—an abbreviation for English as a second
language such as in Singapore
EFL— an abbreviation for English as a foreign
language such as Japan
* ph.D: pizza-hut delivery

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• Deductive learning of grammar— is an approach
to language learning in which learners are taught
rules and given specific information about a
language. They then apply these rules when they
use the language. For example, in the grammar
translation method, specific grammar rules are

given to learners and practice subsequently follows
to familiarize students with the rule. The features of
it are time-saving and suitable for adult learners
who can afford abstract thinking. Besides it is
widely used in EFL contexts where exposure to the
target language is limited and the length of
instruction time is short. (e.g. GTM, adult learners,
FI/analytic learners, EFL contexts)
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• Inductive learning— is an approach to language
learning in which learners are not taught grammatical or
other types of rules directly but are left to discover or
induce rules from their experience of using the language.
Language teaching methods which emphasize use of the
language rather than presentation of information about
the language include the direct method, the
communicative approach and counseling learning. The
features of it are time-consuming and applicable to
young learners in natural settings such as ESL contexts.
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Performance and competence
Performance-- a person’s actual use of language;
how a person uses his knowledge of a language in
producing and understanding sentences.

Competence-- a person’s knowledge of a language
People may have the competence to produce a long
sentence but when they actually try to use this
knowledge, there are reasons why they restrict it. For
example, they may run out of breath or their listeners
forget what has been said if the sentence is too long.
Due to performance factors such as fatigue, lack of
attention, nervousness or excitement, their actual use
of language may not reflect their competence. The
errors they make are described as examples of
performance.
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the Acquisition-learning hypothesis by Stephen Krashen(1941-)
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Acquisition vs. learning
Acquisition--the processes by which people
naturally develop proficiency in a language
Learning-- the processes by which people
formally develop language proficiency.

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bottom-up processing vs. top-down processing

Top-down processing—a way in which humans
analyze and process language as part of the
process of comprehension and learning by making
use of previous knowledge (higher-level
knowledge) in analyzing and processing
information which is received such as one’s
expectations, experience, schemata in reading the
text.
Bottom-up processing— a way making use
principally of information which is already present
in the data (words, sentences, etc.) such as
understanding a text mainly by analyzing the
words and sentences in the text itself.
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• Teacher-centered vs. learner-centered teaching
Teacher-centered (fronted) teaching— a
teaching style in which instruction is closely
managed and controlled by the teacher, where
students often respond in unison to teacher
questions, and where whole-class instruction is
preferred to other methods.
Learner-centered teaching— methods of
teaching which emphasizes the active role of
students in learning, tries to give learners more
control over what and how they learn and
encourages learners to take more responsibility for
their own learning. It is encouraged by many
current teaching approaches.

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• Target language vs. native language
Target language—the language which a person is
learning
Native language— a first language or mother
tongue/motherese which is acquired first.

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• Form vs. function
• Form— the physical characteristics of a thing-> in
language use, a linguistic form is like the imperative
• Function— a linguistic form can perform a variety of
different functions:
Come here for a drink-> invitation
Watch out-> warning
Turn left at the corner-> direction
Pass the salt-> request
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• CALL-- computer-assisted language learning
• CAI: computer-assisted instruction
• 3 P- a traditional classroom teaching procedure
derived from the Situational Approach of
presentation, practice and production

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