BACKGROUND TO

LANGUAGE TEACHING

METODOLOGY

Cristina Martín Redondo

HOW PEOPLE LEARN LANGUAGES

ACQUISITION & LEARNING

COMPREHENSIBLE INPUT: Exposed to language above their own level.

INPUT HYPOTHESIS, Stephen Krashen

EXPOSURESubconscious process

More than one language in childhool

Age Important factor

We do it CONSCIOUSLY

Grammar – functions - vocabulary

The language we learn consciously is different from de language we

acquire through comprehensible input

Learnt language could not become acquired anguage.

PROBLEMS

Not have the opportunity to live in a foreign country.

Children are not ready to learn language (STUDY) because their age.

Effort to acquire a new language. Activities of language-learning lessons:

focused on acquisition/on learning.

4 METHODS TO LEARN

LANGUAGES

GRAMMAR-TRANSLATION

AUDIO-LINGUAL METHODOLOGY

TASK-BASED LEARNING

(TBL)

THE COMMUNICATIVE

APPROACH/ COMMUNICATIVE

LANGUAGE TEACHING (CLT)

Target language own language

- People get language if they have opportunities to use it.

- Focuses on CONTENT.

Speaking practice by using habit-formation DRILLS.

•Theory of BEHAVIOURISM

Stimulus-response-reinforcemente

Language study comes after the task.

SYLLABUS

STUDENTS MAKE MISTAKES

Why?

DEVELOPMENTAL ERRORS (try to work out

how language system work)

OVER-GENERALISATION (use the new rule too widely)

INTERFERENCE (use the first language knowledge)

INTERLANGUAGE

FOSSILISED (mistakes are left uncorrected for

too long)

KINDS OF MISTAKES

SLIP

Result of tiredness/speak

quickly and careless.

ERRORS

Learn something incorrectly.

Developmental or interference

factors.

ATTEMPS

To say things beyond their

language.

CORRECT IT APPROPRIATELY

TEACHERS SHOULD SCAFFOLD STUDENT’S LEARNING

LEARNING AT DIFFERENT AGES

Children are better language learners than other age groups.

VYGOTSKY

Children learn best when they are in the ZONE OF PROXIMAL DEVELOPMENT.

Adolescents need PEER APPROVAL The good opinion of their classmates

Tips for teaching young learners:

- Change activities frequently

- Combine learning and play

- Use appropriate activities for

different kinds of students

- Make the classroom an attractive,

light and convenient learning

environment

- Pay special attention to your own

English pronunciation

Tips for teaching adults:- Find out what interests

different student individuals appropriate lessons- Be prepared to explain

things- Discuss the best ways of learning- Provide clear short-term

goalsTips for teaching teenagers:- Encourage teenagers to have opinions and to think critically

and questioningly about what they are learning- Use the students’ own knowledge and experience as much as

posible- Treat the students like adults but remember they are still

children- Encourage the students to have agency- Be organised- Be consistent whe they are discipline problems

STUDEN-CENTRED TEACHING

PERSONALISATION: think about the right language to use to express their own ideasand talk.

AGENCY: learners have some responsability for their own learning.

LEARNER TRAINING: get students to think of the best ways of doing things.

Some adults…

Are not keen on COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING, want to translateevery word into their own language and have some problems with memory (necesary to RECYCLE and REVISE).

Some teenagers… Need to understand the LESSON OUTCOMES we expect for them, have unresolved problems with SELF-ESTEEM, are far more likely to enjoy lessons and want to know that their teacher is interested in their progress.

LEARNER CHARACTERISTICS

Try to guess when they don’t know something

Try to get their message across even if their knowledge of the language isn’t very good

Are prepared to make mistakes

Try to figure out how language works

Practise whenever they can

Analyse the way they and others talk

Have a good self-image and confidence

TH

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APTITUDE depends on MOTIVATION

Theory of MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES

Everyone has the same intelligences, but we are all differents.

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

Ability to understand and deal with our own emotions and the emotions of others

Students are categorized according to the LEARNING STYLES.

Neuro-linguistic programming has been used to explain learners differences:

Different lessons for different kinds of student preferences

Try to encourage LEARNER AUTONOMY by offering LEARNER TRAINING

DIFFERENT CONTEXTS, DIFFERENT LEVELS

We can do a NEEDS ANALYSIS to find out what future contexts learners will need to use English in.

DIFFERENT KINDS OF ENGLISH LEARNING

GENERAL ENGLISH

Learning the language for no special reason

ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSE (ESP)

BUSINESS ENGLISH

ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC PURPOSE

(EAP)

ONE-TO-ONE CLASSES(one student, one teacher)

CONTENT AND LANGUAGE INTEGRATED LEARNING (CLIL)

Specially at primary and secondary Marries the learning of new language to the learning of school-curriculum subjects

DIFFERENT STUDENTS LEVEL

advanced

upper-intermediate

intermediate

lower-intermediate/pre-intermediate

elementary

real beginner false begginer

begginers elementary intermediateadvancedv

false begginers

pre-intermediate upper-intermediate

A1 A2 B1 B2 C1 C2

LARGE AND MIXED-ABILITY CLASSES

In large classes is IMPORTANT:o Be very organisedo Give very clear instructionso Make it clear when we are moving for one stage of a

lessono Establish clear routineso Maximise the use of pairwork and groupworko Use choral repetition

MOTIVATION

⋆ EXTRINSIC MOTIVATION: comes from outside the learner.

⋆ INTRINSIC MOTIVATION: comes from the task it self.

⋆ INTEGRATIVE MOTIVATION: language learner wish to integrate into the target language culture.

⋆ INSTRUMENTAL MOTIVATION: language learner is studying because some materialistic reason.

The students’ motivation may be affected by a number of factors (society, people around them, their learning experiences…).