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tesl 553 language cognition and esl/curriculum development content 7 7.1 overview of second language methods a characterizing the essentials of methods -how would you teach 1 a read a story and talk about it or b talk about the story and then read it 2 a show a book and let the students identify the object or b say that libro means book and show the book 3 aexplain that a sentence has a subject verb object ordering or b show a sentence and let the students identify the order 4 a provide the students a lot of drills or b spend more time over speech 5 a analyze a simple order of word classes b discuss the syntactic or semantic relation that underlies the sentences language teaching methods are characterized according to the following five principal dimensions 1 language focus speech communication vs literacy 2 meaning learning direct experience vs translation 3 grammar learning inductions vs explication 4 psychological orientation mentalist vs behaviourist 5 linguistic orientation mentalist vs structuralist © sistema universitario ana g méndez 2012 derechos reservados.

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tesl 553 language cognition and esl/curriculum development language focus speech communication vs literacy speech communication speech-based methods attempt to provide a speech environment in which students may learn the target language literacy the principal aim is to get students to be able to read and to read literary works meaning learning direct experience vs translation translation grammar-translation method is used to provide the meaning for the target language direct experience meaning here is to be learned through direct experience and not by the use of the native language to provide translation grammar learning induction vs explication explication involves explanation in the native language of the grammatical rules and structures of the second language induction students would have to discover the order of constituents on their own through analysis psychological orientation mentalism vs behaviourism mentalism for a mentalist a sentence is more than a sequence of overt words for underlying those words is an abstract mental structure that involves a lot of abstract operations in its formation behaviourism a behaviourist would prefer to mechanically drill students on sentences there is nothing for a learner to think about only habit formation is important linguistic orientation mentalist vs structuralist © sistema universitario ana g méndez 2012 derechos reservados.

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tesl 553 language cognition and esl/curriculum development structuralist is the counterpart of the psychological behaviourist according to them a sentence would be analyzed as a simple order of word classes mentalist would explain these sentences by discussing the syntactic or semantic relations that underlie those sentences b traditional methods 1 grammar-translation gt a it involves two components -explicit explanation of grammatical rules -use of translation to explain the meaning of vocabulary and structures b translation is the oldest of the components and is probably the oldest of all formal teaching methods c modern form of gt is an attempt to devise a method of foreign language teaching for the purpose of mass education d howatt 1984 explains that significant change occurred from understanding the meaning of entire texts to that of the individual sentence as the basis of language education e the teaching of grammar went hand-in-hand with translation for the teaching of a l2 f rules are explained by the teacher then memorized recited and applied by the student g aims were to study classical greek or latin and the development of analytical skills through grammar h orientation to literature remains with its emphasis on reading and writing in the second language i modern textbooks using gt include -a reading passage in the target language -list of vocabulary with their translations © sistema universitario ana g méndez 2012 derechos reservados.

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tesl 553 language cognition and esl/curriculum development -explanations in the native language of important points of grammar exemplified in the text -translation is done from the target language to the native language j advantages of gt are -non-fluent teachers can teach large classes method can be applied by teachers who lack verbal fluency in the target language and by teachers who have an incomplete knowledge of the language -self-study students can study on their own outside the classroom -adaptability to changing linguistic and psychological theories gt adapts to changing linguistic and psychological theories k success and failure many students do learn a good part of a l2 through gt some students often come out unable to comprehend or utter sentences gt cannot be used with young children because they cannot read or write and are unable to understand grammatical rules 2 the natural method a it developed as a reaction to gt and was the outgrowth of scientific thought of the nature of language and language learning b inspiration came from comenius 1568 -rousseau 1780 pestalozzi 1801 and other theorists c nm became firmly established through the writings of sauveur 1878 and gouin 1880 © sistema universitario ana g méndez 2012 derechos reservados.

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tesl 553 language cognition and esl/curriculum development their observation of children learning language with the context of meaning-related situations was applied to l2 teaching methods for children and adults d this method stressed the value of introducing a l2 to a learner exactly as the native language had been experienced e it follows the natural sequence of the childs acquiring its l1 speech comprehension -speech production -reading and writing -natural order of language learning f grammar is not taught directly g teachers would not use prepared situations or materials h method is totally orientated towards the acquisition of oral skills i advantages and disadvantages learners could acquire a speech capability both in understanding and production one problem is that it requires the teacher to create interesting situations so that students may be naturally exposed to language teachers must be fluent in the target language class size must be kept small 15 3 the direct method o o the direct method develops from the natural method appears in the late 19th and early 20th century © sistema universitario ana g méndez 2012 derechos reservados.

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tesl 553 language cognition and esl/curriculum development -emphasizes the learning of speech acquiring meaning in environmental context and learning grammar through induction o o only uses the target language in class the name direct method refers to the direct connection between the second language and meaning o although the advocates of dm approved the natural approach they sought to improve upon it providing systematic procedures based on scientific knowledge of linguistics and psychology -harold palmer 1992 was perhaps its most articulate and eminent advocate o direct method advocates natural learning but with graded materials is mentalistically oriented o o o relies in learning the language by induction no explicit grammar rules should be given language materials are explicitly preselected and graded on the basis of linguistic complexity o o dialogue and action materials devoted to oral communication the purpose of language learning is communication language is primarily spoken not written o o first speaking is taught and then only reading and writing elementary social dialogues are introduced almost immediately and commands for actions sometimes oral pattern drills and memorization were included o the learner should be actively involved in using the language in realistic everyday situations o o o students are encouraged to think in the target language few translation is allowed no native language should be used in the classroom requires teachers with high fluency in the second language © sistema universitario ana g méndez 2012 derechos reservados.

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tesl 553 language cognition and esl/curriculum development o can be used in large classes of even 40 students with teachers getting students to speak in chorus o o some school systems may find it difficult to find a sufficient number of such teachers dm was crushed with the advent of audio-lingual method 4 the audio-lingual method o the audio-lingual method is an approach that drills students in the use of grammatical sentence patterns o founded around 1950s and 1960s al was based on structural linguistic and behavioral psychology the way to acquire the sentence patterns of the target language is repetition of dialogues about every day situations that are imitated and drilled to make the response automatic o o o it was advocated by such theorists as fries 1945 1049 and lado 1957 structural linguistics language is a system of structural related elements like phonological units grammatical units and lexical items for the transmission of meaning ooooo so to learn the target language is to master the elements of the target language system chomsky 1957 1959 pointed out there were other serious problems with the theory structural theory could not account for a speakers ability to generate grammatical sentences of no fixed length or number nor could it account for sentence synonymy john sang then he danced and john sang then danced o structural ambiguity the shooting of the hunters was terrible behavioral psychology o the alm incorporated behaviourist psychology watson 1924 thorndike 1932 skinner 1957 o they regarded mind and thinking to be irrelevant for the understanding and production of speech o language learning-stimulus and response © sistema universitario ana g méndez 2012 derechos reservados.

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tesl 553 language cognition and esl/curriculum development o o language learning is habit-formation mistakes the bad habit should be avoided o features of audio-lingual method o pattern drills o dialogue memorization o here is a typical procedure in an audio-lingual course students hear a model dialogue students repeat each line of the dialogue certain key words or phrases may be changed in the dialogue key structures from the dialogue serve as the basis for pattern drills of different kinds the students practice substitutions in the pattern drills success of audio-lingual method teachers used the alm to teach second language university of michigan 1950 was the centre of the alm universe fries and lado emerges in u.s.a by the 1930s because of a growing disillusion of professors and experts on the results of the direct method and on the other hand as a consequence of the necessity of a second or foreign language communication not common for their military or diplomatic activities it use was extended or spread to the teaching of european languages in america and the teaching of english as a second language in europe during the 1950s it strength consisted on the mastery of the oral language and continuous contact of dialogues of the studying language it lacks the importance of meaningful comprehension therefore the cognitivist approach emerges c chomskyans revolution © sistema universitario ana g méndez 2012 derechos reservados.

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tesl 553 language cognition and esl/curriculum development chomsky noam american linguist and political writer born on dec 7 1928 in philadelphia pennsylvania the attacks on structural linguistics audio-lingual method and behaviouristic psychology based on repetition and stimulus/response lacked of the importance of meaning made by noam chomsky in the 1950s and 1960s were so devastating that virtually single-handedly he was able to bring down both paradigms he argued for a grammar that required mind and mental operation he stressed that all children go through the same stages of language development regardless of the language they are learning in 1957 he published his first book syntactic structures where he outlined his system of transformational grammar grammar consists of surface structures ­ the sounds and words in a sentence and deep structures that contain the meaning of the sentence this meaning is converted by a transformation ­ any of an ordered set of rules ­ to surface structure he says that children are born with a knowledge of all languages and this inborn knowledge explains the success and speed which they learn language d offbeat methods appear then disappear since the downfall of the audiolingual method in the 1960s a number of new methods have arisen however only a small number have managed to survive and fewer still have managed to thrive four that have not survived are cognitive code community language learning silent way and suggestopedia cognitive code arose in the 1960s as one of the reactions to the audio-lingual method and one of the first to apply chomskys ideas to the teaching of a second language it rejected behaviourism and put emphasis in the learning of rules through meaningful practice and creativity © sistema universitario ana g méndez 2012 derechos reservados.

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tesl 553 language cognition and esl/curriculum development it came to the fore in the1960s as chomsky released his early works on first languages and universal grammar it consisted on the following a the teaching of grammatical rules was permitted through both inductive and explicative means i there was no strict sequencing where speech had to precede literacy b there was no speech order to reading writing and speaking c the teacher could mix them by saying sentences and writing those sentences on the board d theorist associated with this code are ausubel 1964 chastain 1969,1971 donaldson 1971 they are typically mentalists in their philosophy advocates of generative grammar in their linguistics and eclectic in their methodology now these ideas are used to support other methods which advocate the use of meaningful language ­ used for learning community language learning charles a curran · was a counselor therapist and priest who regarded second language learning from the point of view of small group dynamics and counseling · · · · he originated the method of community language learning cll curran 1972 1976 the teacher takes the role of counselor the learner takes the role of client the clients are to interact independently the counselors role is only to foster that interaction © sistema universitario ana g méndez 2012 derechos reservados.

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tesl 553 language cognition and esl/curriculum development · · · the client says in his native language what is he/she wishes to say the counselor translates into the target language whatever the client wishes to say to one another the client utters that translated piece of the target language to one or more of the clients who are in turn obligated to respond · discussion of grammatical points are kept at a minimal the silent way -the silent sw way was developed by gattegno 1972,1976 -it is based on the radical notion that the teacher should be as silent as possible -learners employ their own abilities to discover and create the language themselves -the method is based on creative aspects of the language learning -learning is viewed as a process of discovery or creation on the part of the student -the students are to guess on their own the grammatical rules and structures which are inherent in the situation presented suggestopedia -suggestopedia purports to produce in students an altered state of consciousness which is conducive to learning this state termed hypermnesia super memory is brought about by certain relaxation techniques which serve to build the confidence of the learner and thus to break down the antisuggestive barriers -relaxation is achieved through listening to certain specified passages of classical music the music must be played at a specific tempo to enable it to induce the desired state of mental readiness role of the teacher the confidence of the learner is built up by what the teacher says and does the teacher is to suggest things to the learner and to act in a highly authoritarian and confident way © sistema universitario ana g méndez 2012 derechos reservados.

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tesl 553 language cognition and esl/curriculum development -teaching involves the presentation of dialogues and vocabulary which the student is only to study and memorize the materials are presented first in written then in spoken form a translation is offered along with the written form the unique aspect of teaching lies in the way materials are then presented in conjunction with certain learner behavior and environmental events d contemporary methods 1 total physical response o tpr is based on the premise that the human brain has a biological program for acquiring any natural language on earth including the sign language of the deaf the process is visible when we observe how infants internalize their first language o tpr are methods developed by dr james j asher a professor of psychology at san josé state university to aid learning second languages o the method relies on the assumption that when learning a second or additional language that language is internalized through a process of code breaking similar to first language development and that the process allows for a long period of listening and developing comprehension prior to production o students respond to commands that require physical movement tpr is primarily intended for esl/eal students although the method is used in teaching other languages as well james asher 1970 founder of tpr o asher,kusudo and de la torre consider tpr to be a unique characteristic for a learners performance of physical actions in response to the teachers commands in the tl o in the classroom the teacher and students take on roles similar to that of the parent and child respectively students must respond physically to the words of the teacher the activity may be a simple game such as simon says or may involve more complex grammar and more detailed scenarios © sistema universitario ana g méndez 2012 derechos reservados.

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tesl 553 language cognition and esl/curriculum development tpr can be used to practice and teach various things it is well suited to teaching classroom language and other vocabulary connected with actions it can be used to teach imperatives and various tenses and aspects it is also useful for story telling o because of its participatory approach tpr may also be a useful alternative teaching strategy for students with dyslexia or related learning disabilities who typically experience difficulty learning foreign languages with traditional classroom instruction oooo according to its proponents it has a number of advantages students will enjoy getting up out of their chairs and moving around simple tpr activities do not require a great deal of preparation on the part of the teacher tpr is aptitude-free working well with a mixed ability class and with students having various disabilities o o it is good for kinesthetic learners who need to be active in the class class size need not be a problem and it works effectively for children and adults 2 communicative language teaching wilkins 1972 proposed a system of diving communicative speech in two aspects functions and notions a functions are things like requests denials complaints excuses etc b notions are expressions of frequency quantity location etc o communicative language teaching presume that students want to communicate and it enables them to do just that o lessons often start with everyday situations such as greetings and buying © sistema universitario ana g méndez 2012 derechos reservados.

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tesl 553 language cognition and esl/curriculum development o there is total reliance on situations and the students desire to communicate within those situations o since this kind of teaching stresses communication it has developed a flexibility which allows anything in to the classroom so long as it will further the communicative ability of the students o o later there might even be an explanation of the grammar involved or structure drill there is some similarity here to the counseling role suggested by curran in community language learning o clt as compared to speech oriented methods direct method tpr natural approach permits reading and writing almost immediately grammatical explanations and translations o as an eclectic method it borrows aspects of other methods grammar-translation audio-lingual and tpr o o o the concern of clts advocates is to get people to communicate by any means possible clt has become one of the most widespread teaching methods in use today the following are clt interconnected characteristics as a definition -classroom goals are focused on all of the components of communicative competence o language techniques are designed to engage learners in the pragmatic authentic functional use of language for meaningful purposes o fluency and accuracy are seen as complementary principles underlying communicative techniques o in the communicative classroom students ultimately have to use the language productively and receptively in unrehearsed context 3 the natural approach o o the natural approach was established by stephen krashen and tracy terrell it came to have a wide influence in language teaching in the united states and around the world © sistema universitario ana g méndez 2012 derechos reservados.

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tesl 553 language cognition and esl/curriculum development o krashen and terrell refer to their method of picking up ability in another language directly without instruction in its grammar as done in the traditional approach o natural approach is defined as a method for developing basic personal communicative skills oral and written o combination of a comprehensive second language acquisition theory with a curriculum for language classrooms o the most striking proposal of the na theory is that adults can still acquire second languages and that the ability to pick up languages does not disappear at puberty the affective filter o the affective filter hypothesis states that acquirers with a low affective filter seek and receive more input interact with confidence and are more receptive to the input they receive o anxious acquirers have a high affective filter which prevents acquisition from taking place o it is believed that the affective filter e.g fear or embarrassment rises in early adolescence and this may account for children s apparent superiority to older acquirers of a second language o proposes that a mental block caused by affective or emotional factors can prevent input from reaching the students language acquisition device o the affective filter hypothesis contends that affective variables like self-confidence and anxiety play a role in language acquisition o when the filter is up ­ that is when negative emotional factors are in play ­ language acquisition suffers when the filter is down it benefits krashen claims o learners with high motivation self-confidence a good self-image and a low level of anxiety are better equipped for success in second language acquisition o low motivation low self-esteem and debilitating anxiety can combine to raise the affective filter and form a mental block that prevents comprehensible input from being used for acquisition © sistema universitario ana g méndez 2012 derechos reservados.

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