DIDACTICS OF ENGLISH
Approach - General belief what language is and how it should be taught
Method - Principles of teaching (the dos and don'ts) [ theoretical ]
Technique - Activities
Communicative competence should be developed in students.
- Linguistic competence (grammar, vocabulary, phonology)
- Sociolinguistic competence (behaving appropriately in a particular situation)
- Discourse (ability to build complex utterances)
- Strategic competence (knowledge of communicative strategies) [ Using strategies to overcome limitations of knowledge (like explaining instead of saying something when you forget a word)
Performance - Actual use of one's knowledge
Language skills : listening / speaking / reading / writing
Receptive
Productive
Language sub-systems : vocabulary / grammar / phonology
We develop accuracy [correctness] and fluency [natural use of the language] in students.
They are mutually exclusive : the more accurate, the less fluent you are.
Learning uczenie się - a conscious process [helps with accuracy]
Acquisition przyswajanie - subconscious [helps with fluency]
Approaches:
Behaviourism: language is a habit [a thoughtless behaviour] learning as a way of habit formation
Stimulus → Response → Reinforcement
Language error is unacceptable in the behaviouristic approach.
The teaching method here is Audiolingual [also called the Army Method]. The method is based on repetition of a correct model [drills] and then using this memorized model to use a grammatical rule.
Nativism: language is an inborn ability [LAD - language acquisition device (an inborn mechanism to learn a language)]
Language learning: hypotheses testing + rule formation.
[children point at an apple and say “apple” and when you give them one they correlate saying it with your response.] Error is necessary.
Cognitivism: Language is a skill. [for example learning abstract vocabulary when you are able to understand abstract terms]. It is learned by consciously experimenting with the language and constructing one's personal meaning of it.
Language learning : conscious development of a language system. [error is acceptable]
Interactionism: language is obtained by interaction
Language learning : mediation [simplifications of the language to the level of one's students ] + zone of proximal development [ZPD] [ a mediator is an important person ].
Mediation is also called negotiation of meaning. It leads to making the language comprehensible.
[errors are acceptable]
TEACHING METHODS
Conventional:
Grammar translation method [ obj. - reading comprehension (techniques: translation / analysis). Requires students to translate whole texts word for word and memorize grammatical rules (as well as enormous vocabulary lists). The main goal of this method is to be able to read and translate texts.
Direct method: There are no lesson plans but the main focus is on conversation. In that way students can form their own rules (based on the INDUCTIVE approach to grammar rules). [obj. communication (tech. Conversation) Nativism
Audiolingual method [obj. language comprehension and speaking]. Its objective is for the students to gain speaking and listening skills by repetition of drills. This method however does not take into account language creativity as the repeated phrases are only several useful formulas.
CLT [Communicative Language Teaching] - [obj. Communication (tech. Role play / simulation / conversation] Interaction is the most important aspect of this teaching method. It is achieved in the second language by trying by all means to achieve communication. Some of the techniques are role play / information gap / games / pair work / learning by teaching.
NON-CONVENTIONAL TEACHING METHODS
Humanistic approach: focus on the learner [making them comfortable] / holistic development [language / artistic skills etc.] / obj. lowering anxiety / they teach the language with different tools (music / physical activity colours) [This method is not very efficient and does not develop communicative skills.]
example : Suggestopedia - tech = baroque music + listening / teaching in mid-sleep [makes memorization more efficient but you do not get any communication practice.]
Total Physical Response [TPR]: tech. = physical activity [best used with small children but vocabulary is limited to action words only]
Concentration span: how long you can concentrate for.
Community Language Learning [CLL]: tech. = speaking and translation [gather in a circle and speaking about trivial every day activities in L1 then the teacher translates it and students can say the same things in L2 later.]
The Silent Way: tech. = speaking with the use of colourful sticks &charts. [the teacher is supposed to be silent].
LESSON STRUCTURE
Warm up: Focus attention / activate vocabulary [the topic useful during the lesson] / motivate /
Contents:
Pre-stage: introduce necessary vocabulary [remove obstacles for the main objective]
While-stage: the main objective of the lesson [general activities connected with a given skill]
Post-stage: detailed activities
Follow up: putting theory into practice [has to be related to what has been done during the lesson]
You always have to go through all these stages. [it's better to make a part shorter than to omit it]
LISTENING COMPREHENSION
Pre-listening stage: we use pictures / conversations / brainstorming which all give us vocabulary presentation. [we realise what the students don't know]
While-listening: marking / ordering / drawing / acting out / cloze test [txt with missing words] / true/false / comprehension questions / taking notes /
1st listening is for gist [general information] 2nd is for detail.
Post-listening: vocabulary practice / pronunciation practice
Follow up: speaking / writing [activities should be natural]
Principles:
Listening material should:
Reflect real life situations
Be comprehensible [not much difficult vocabulary]
Be interesting
Be selective [we don't require students to understand every single word but the message]
Have clear tasks formulated before listening
Focus on the listening skill
Start from general questions to detailed questions
Include “information gap” [if possible] /eg. don't ask for time when you have a watch/
Speaking
Start with a pre-communicative activity which is focused on 2 structures : vocabulary / structures
Grading : when you ask students to speak you start from controlled and move on to free practice.
easier activities in the beginning [for example filling the gaps] and then moving on to practice.
Fluency - oriented - selective error correction [you only correct mistakes that brake communication.] / delayed correction - you correct the student when the activity is finished
Elicitation technique - used to make students speak (asking questions / visual (showing pictures and talking about them) auditory
Role play simulation
Using real life situations (topics connected with real life) practising intentions / styles / forms /
Skills connected with speaking:
communicative value (eg. Getting what one wants)
fluency
appropriateness in specific situations
Conditions for teaching SPEAKING:
appropriate atmosphere in the classroom (lack of stress / no tension in the class)
structuring
use elicitation techniques (for example asking questions) [pictures / words / sounds]
Pronunciation
Sources of pronunciation errors:
sound substitution (thick vs sick)
sound omission
sound addition
stress movement
Principles:
correct model [teacher and recordings should be correct]
listening comprehension is a necessary condition
repetition
you should get rid of students' anxiety [you can do it by choral repetition]
grading : recognition [eg. Same sounds or different / odd one out / matching] Production [imitation / picture / reading aloud]
To teach intonation we need to use graphic representation.
WRITING
Based on the material already practised during listening
Start from guided activities (like copying) to free practice
Start with pre-writing activities.
Students should practice useful texts / cv / E-mail / lecture summary
Techniques : questionnaire'
Parallel writing
Completing sentences or writing/reading stories.
Plan (key words)
Respond (for example to an advertisement.
Grammar
In earlier learning teaching grammar is not as important as training fluency.
Structures with communicative value. [we always tell the students the reason, and which aspect of communication will be expressed by a given structure]
clear purpose
natural situations
activities should be short and varied
developing student's independence [autonomy] [they should be involved in process analysis]
student's should be given clear information when accuracy is important
PPP
Presentation:
inductive approach : first students get the language sample and then themselves are supposed to find out how a structure is used. [sample / analysis / rule]
deductive approach : starting point is the rule given by the teacher. [rule / sample / exercises]
Practice:
Language drills:
Imitation drill [students repeat what the teacher has said]
Substitution
Transformation [changing one structure into another] / ← intermediate level and up
Integration
Production:
real life practice [we develop real life situations in which a given structure has to be used] / “guess what?” / mini drama [a couple of sentences] [ the students see that the structure is useful] / time machine [reading the text and converting it into another tense] / “find someone who” /
Teaching communication
What makes a lesson artificial:
unequal status [in a classroom we have a student-teacher communication so the teacher asks more questions than students which makes it unnatural.]
Control over communication is given to the teacher [which doesn't happen in real life situations]
Unequal speaking time
Unequal turn taking [the teacher decides who takes turns]
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^can be reduced by group work
Predictability [can be reduced by role plays and simulation]
Lack of redundancy [natural language is redundant because we don't hear every sound and some parts of information are repeated a few times.]
No body language
No information gap
No integration of skills
No style differences [formal / informal / neutral] (can be reduced by giving student's authentic materials [those which are not prepared for teaching])
Group work:
Lock step - material presented to the whole class / teacher centred / student speaking time is limited.
Pair work - work in pairs
Group work - groups of at leat 3
^^/ autonomy is developed in studetns
Lowering anxiety
Learning cooperation
Homogenous groups vs heterogenous groups [different people]
When organizing group work, we should:
- Introduce all the necessary grammar and vocabulary,
[in a precommunication activity]
- Give clear instructions
- Define the product. Presenting the text for example
- Assign roles. [the time keeper / a note taker / linguistic, controller / spokesman ./
- Give a time limit.
-You should allow whispering.
- At the end you can [but don't have to] talk about specific errors.
Selective Error Correction:
immediate / delayed
teacher/ peer / self correction
implicit [asking “what did you mean?” / explicit correction - there is something wrong with the language production
TEACHER
Role - the behaviour of the teacher in different stages of the lesson.
manager [organizer] (the main role)
motivator
facilitator
tutor
expert / resource [limited so that students don't rely on you too much]
evaluator
observer
participant
language model
Style - a stable behaviour of the teacher. [approach to group management]
autocratic - strict discipline / the teacher gives all the rules / high student anxiety / students are disciplined
democratic - consult decisions with the students but make them yourself / the most efficient style / students learn to be independent / dependant on the teachers character /
laisser faire - students make decisions for the teacher / motivates the students / chaotic lessons and the teacher may lose control over the classroom.
Competences (skills):
language skills
didactic skills - teaching English
pedagogical skills [dealing with the students / parents / the headmaster] - organizing your work at school
interaction skills
Strategies: the actions of the teacher that prevent conflicts in the classroom.
work therapy strategy (keeping your students busy)
routine strategy (every lesson you do the same thing /extremely boring/kills creativity)
withdrawal strategy - pretending not to see (the worst strategy)
strategy of power - notice everything (even unnecessary things)
fraternization strategy (the teacher becomes a bit of a parent of the students /too much of a friend / there is no respect for the teacher / and there are no teaching results)
Negotiation strategy - balanced (both sides achieve something - the material is covered and students are happy / control is in the hands of the teacher) rules of what can be negotiated are set