APPROACHES TO THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH

In language teaching theory, a distinction is often made between teaching approaches
and teaching methodologies. For ease of understanding, I will refer to all the following
as methods. I have described the methods in chronological order, starting with
traditional methods and moving towards more contemporary methods. Please don’t
assume that the first ones I describe are the most prominent or ones I recommend.
Grammar translation method
This method was prevalent in schools throughout the beginning of the 20th century; its
use continued long afterwards and many cultures still expect language to be taught
using this method.
The method consists of studying written texts, translating them into the students’ own
language and carrying out a study of grammar. There is little attention given to the use
of the spoken language. I learnt French through this method and whilst I was able to
read and translate complicated texts, I was unable to buy a loaf of bread when I went
on holiday to France.
It has been replaced by methods that focus on spoken language and I advise you to
familiarise yourself with these newer methods and to use them. However, if you’re
going to teach in a traditional culture that values the grammar-translation method, you
could do the occasional activity of that type just out of respect for students’
preferences.
Audio-lingual method
This method grew out of behaviourist psychology. It involves providing a stimulus to
which students respond; if the response is correct, the students are praised in order to
reinforce the correct use of language and ultimately to reinforce learning. Language is
presented in a very controlled way; i.e. one language point at a time is studied and
worked on. Grammar explanations are kept to a minimum and progress is made
through repetition.
In a typical lesson, the teacher might show pictures of people in various situations: for
example 3 people with their possessions; one woman has got a big house, a beautiful
car, etc; one man has a small house and an old car and one man has nothing.
The assumption is that the students know the words: house, car, some and any. The
teacher shows a picture and says “she’s got a big house”, the teacher repeats the
phrase and invites students to repeat. Students are praised if they get it correct. If they
get it wrong, the teacher repeats and asks students to say it again. The teacher then
moves onto the next picture and says, “ he’s got an old car” this is repeated by the
teacher and then students are asked to repeat. The teacher continues with the third
person and the phrase “he hasn’t got any money”. The teacher continues until all forms
have been presented and practised. The teacher might then show pictures randomly
(known as a prompt) and invite students to say what possessions the characters have
got.
Oral prompts can also be given and students are invited to make sentences with the
prompts. For example:
Teacher (T) says: she / big house
Students (Ss) say: she’s got a big house
T: he / old car
Ss: he’s got an old car
T: she / old car
Ss: she hasn’t got an old car
Such exercises are known as drills and are used to encourage automatic use of
language; i.e. students respond automatically without stopping to think about what
they’re saying.
When students have mastered the structure (in the same lesson or in the following
lesson) the teacher might present the question form by showing the picture of the
woman and saying “big house; has she got a big house?”. The lesson will continue in
the same way as above. This description of a lesson has been adapted from the
course book “Streamlines”.
Lessons in this approach are very predictable but at lower levels they provide a familiar
environment where students at least get the chance to produce the phrase orally and
correctly. This method has been criticised for not being communicative; i.e. there is no
real communication; there is no need to say ‘she’s got a big house; everybody can see
she has!
Communicative approach
This approach developed out of a need to have students communicating for real. It is
based on the theory that children acquire language rules by using language rather than
through the study of grammar. It involves creating situations where the students have a
genuine need to say something, just as children do. I’ll illustrate this by describing two
approaches to the same activity.
Let’s say you’ve set up an activity where your students are planning a dinner party.
They’ve decided what food to cook and serve and have the recipes as well as
ingredients and quantities required. They’re about to go shopping and are writing up
their shopping lists. You could give each student the list of ingredients and quantities
and tell them to perform the following dialogue:
Ingredients and quantities:
1kg lamb
1 kg potatoes
500g tin of tomatoes
50g butter
500g apricots
1 pot of yoghurt
Conversation:
How much lamb do we need to buy?
1 kilo will be enough.
Do we need any butter?
Yes, 50g will be enough.
This will provide speaking practice but will not create a real need for communication;
students already know what they need to buy from the shops because they all have
the list.
If you prepare 2 lists – each contains all the ingredients needed but on one list the
quantities for some items are noted and the other list contains the quantities needed
for the remaining items. Thus:
List A List B
1kg lamb lamb
1 kg potatoes potatoes
500g tin of tomatoes tomatoes
Butter 50g butter
Apricots 500g apricots
Yoghurt 1 pot of yoghurt
You can now give list A to one student and list B to another student and instruct them
to carry out the dialogue below in pairs:
How much lamb do we need to buy?
1 kilo will be enough.
Do we need any butter?
Yes, 50g will be enough.
There will be a real need for communication because the student with list A doesn’t
know how much butter is required. Similarly, the student with list B doesn’t know how
much lamb is needed. Such activities are called information gaps because there is a
gap between the various bits of information the students have.
The communicative approach often refers to speaking activities, however the other
skills can also be practised in a communicative way. The essential element is to
ensure that there is a reason for carrying out the task other than just practising
language.
PPP
PPP stands for presentation, practice, and production. It is a fairly traditional way to
structure a lesson that was popular throughout the 1980’s. It proved to be beneficial at
lower levels and is still widely used today.
Presentation involves, as the name suggests, presenting a language point. This is
usually done by the teacher. Presentation might be similar to the audio-lingual
approach through the use of pictures and focused learning. It can also be achieved
through explanation and demonstration (for definitions, see Chapter 3). Practice refers
to controlled practice (see Chapter 1); it involves students using the target language in
a controlled way. This might involve drills, controlled written and speaking activities,
and repetition. Production refers to freer practice; students use the target language in
sentences of their own. They might also combine it with other language they know. It is
not the same as free speaking practice. For example, after studying “have you ever”
question forms to talk about experiences (e.g. have you ever been to Mexico? have
you ever eaten snails?) students work in pairs to ask each other about their own
experiences. The structure “have you ever” will be the same throughout, but the
vocabulary will vary. This is known as freer practice.
Task-based learning
In a task-based lesson, the teacher sets a task for students to do that involves the use
of language not yet studied in class or language studied previously that the teacher
wishes to revise. The language point chosen is known as target language. The task
might be an activity from the course book that was intended as practice of a language
point or an activity from a supplementary source. The teacher sets up the task and
observes students as they get on with it. The teacher pays particular attention to the
students’ performance with the target language. The teacher should note down errors
but not correct them during the activity. For example in an exercise to check students’
knowledge of prepositions of time, the teacher might set up an activity which involves
students deciding when and where to meet. While students are speaking, the teacher
might note the use of prepositions (both good and poor use): on Monday, in the
afternoon, at 5pm, etc.
Depending on how well (or how badly) students performed, the teacher will decide
whether to conduct thorough presentation and practice of the language or whether to
revise and practise it briefly. The decision is made according to performance on the
task. This can then be followed up with a repetition of the original activity or one that is
similar. You and your students can compare performance on the original and final task.
I am outlining the structure of a task-based lesson but I do not advise its use if you are
very new to teaching. It requires thorough knowledge of the language point and an
ability to handle unexpected questions about the language. You will need to know
about it because some course books (e.g. Cutting Edge) follow this format. You can
experiment with this approach when you are more experienced and with a language
item you know well.
ESA
ESA stands for engage – study – activate. Let’s take a look at each individual
component.
Engage involves getting the students’ attention or interest, getting them involved. You
could achieve this through the use of a personal story told by the teacher, a picture
that stimulates discussion or anything else that awakens students’ interest. The idea is
that if students are involved or engaged, they are more open to the learning process.
Study as the name suggests involves focus on a language point. This could be
grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation or how a written text is organised. The
possibilities are endless. It can involve the teacher explaining or students working out
the rules for themselves using examples as a basis.
Activating involves having students use the language, preferably in a realistic context
that is as close to real life as possible. Try to incorporate activities that have students
using any language they know and not just focused on one structure (controlled
language use).
You can use all three ESA stages in one lesson but not necessarily in that order. You
could engage the students, then activate language through a speaking activity and
then study language difficulties arising from the activity. You might also have a lesson
devoted wholly to the skill of speaking; in which case students would be engaged and
language activated. Language study could take place in the previous lesson.
I particularly like this method because it highlights the necessity of engaging students
in what they are doing.
Humanistic
The involvement of the whole person in the learning experience is central to the
humanistic approach. A supportive atmosphere is encouraged in the classroom where
students are listened to, their comments accepted without judgement and they are
encouraged to share their feelings and experiences. Activities are used that involve
students talking about their feelings and experiences. Students may be involved in
fixing the aims for the course or for one lesson. A teacher may enter the classroom
with no plan and just ask students what they want to do that day and the teacher goes
with the flow (maybe not an approach to be adopted by a very new teacher).
Speaking as a Psychology graduate, I think care is needed in this type of approach;
some people or some cultures might be uncomfortable unveiling their feelings in front
of people they might not know well. However, I fully agree with the advantages of
creating a supportive, non-judgemental learning environment.
Lexical approach
The underlying principle of this method is that grammar and vocabulary cannot be
strictly divided as is often the case in traditional teaching methods. A further notion is
that language is made up of lexical items using grammar to support them rather than
being made up of grammatical structures incorporating lexis. Lexical items are words
or chunks of words, which have their own meaning. For example, the following
combinations of words have different meanings to the individual elements that make
them up: by the way, look into, video recorder. Longer structures are also considered
to be lexical items, e.g. I just wanted to say that….
The theory is that we learn a language by learning lexical items and not by learning
grammar. Accordingly, the main focus of the work is lexical items rather than syntax or
grammatical rules. Critics have said that it difficult to know in which order lexical items
should be taught. Proponents of this method counter this by saying that the syllabus is
organised according to collocation. Collocation refers to words that are frequently used
together, e.g. make a phone call, make an appointment, heavy rain, by accident.
A further principle of this method is to teach through: observation, hypothesis and
experimentation. The observe phase involves being exposed to language, for example
a text to be read. Students are encouraged to deduce the meaning of unknown
language (this will be covered in Chapter 3), this phase is known as hypothesis. The
experiment phase involves using the language.
A final word on teaching methods
Of course there are other approaches to teaching, however, the above are the main
ones you should be aware of. I suggest you look at any course book you’re about to
use and see whether it favours one of the approaches above. You will find that after
some time teaching, you will have a preference for one (or more) approach over the
others. You might also find that different approaches work well with different students
and with different levels. Don’t worry too much about methodology at the beginning;
just do what feels right to you and what you see produces results in your classes.