- •Alexander kamensky
- •4.5. Conclusions 93
- •5.7. Conclusions 108
- •7.8. Conclusions 163
- •8.7. Conclusions 202
- •9.6. Conclusions 205
- •9.2.2. Grammar 209
- •9.4. Aims of teaching reading in a secondary school 219
- •9.5. How to teach reading 224
- •9.6. Conclusions 233
- •Introduction
- •1.1. Reasons for learning languages
- •1.2. Success in language learning
- •1.2.1. Motivation
- •1.2.2. Extrinsic motivation
- •1.2.3. Intrinsic motivation
- •He teaches good pronunciation.
- •He explains clearly.
- •He speaks good English.
- •1.3. Motivational differences
- •1.3.1. Children
- •1.3.2. Adolescents
- •1.3.3. Adult beginners
- •1.3.4. Adult intermediate students
- •1.3.5. Adult advanced students
- •1.4. Conclusions
- •2. Areas of a native speaker knowledge
- •2.1. Pronunciation
- •2.1.1. Sounds
- •2.1.2. Stress
- •2.1.3. Intonation
- •2.2. Grammar
- •2.3. Vocabulary
- •2.4. Discourse
- •2.4.1. Appropriateness
- •2.4.1.1. Communicative competence
- •2.4.1.2. Interaction with context
- •2.4.1.3. Structuring discourse
- •2.4.2. Global communicative competence
- •2.5. Language skills
- •2.5.1. Skills and sub-skills
- •2.6. Conclusions
- •3. What a language student should learn
- •3.1. Pronunciation
- •3.1.1. The importance of listening
- •3.2. Grammar
- •3.2.1. The importance of language awareness
- •3.3. Vocabulary
- •3.3.1. Vocabulary in context
- •3.4. Discourse
- •3.4.1. Language functions
- •3.5. Skills
- •3.6. The syllabus
- •3.6.1. Structures and functions
- •3.6.2. Vocabulary
- •3.6.3. Situation, topic and task
- •3.6.4. The syllabus and student needs
- •3.7. Language varieties
- •3.8. Conclusions
- •4.1. Methods of language teaching
- •4.1.1. Traditional learning theories and approaches
- •4.1.1.1. Grammar-translation method
- •4.1.1.2. Direct method
- •4.1.2. Behaviourism: Audio-lingual method
- •4.1.3. Cognitivism
- •4.1.3.1. Structural approach
- •4.1.3.2. Structural-situational method
- •4.1.3.3. Situational syllabus
- •4.1.4. Communicative approach
- •4.1.5. Functional-notional courses
- •Functions and notions
- •4.1.6. Acquisition and learning
- •Intonation
- •4.1.7. Task-based learning
- •4.1.8. Humanistic approaches
- •4.1.9. Self-directed learning
- •4.1.10. Neuro-Linguistic Programming
- •4.2. Foreign language learning
- •4.3. Input and output
- •4.4. A balanced activities approach
- •4.5. Conclusions
- •5. Teaching the productive skills
- •5.1. The nature of communication
- •5.2. The information gap
- •5.3. The communication continuum
- •Communicative Activities
- •5.4. Stages in language learning/ teaching
- •5.4.1. Introducing new language
- •5.4.2. Practice
- •5.4.3. Communicative activities
- •5.4.4. The relationship between different stages
- •5.5. Integrating skills
- •5.6. Speaking and writing
- •5.7. Conclusions
- •6. Typology of exercises in teaching english
- •6.1. What is an exercise: Psychological and pedagogical background
- •6.1.1. Exercise as an item of teaching
- •6.1.2. Teaching curve
- •6.1.3. Structure of an exercise
- •Exercise
- •1. Instruction
- •2. Model
- •3. Control
- •6.2. Different approaches to the problem of classification of exercises
- •6.3. Criteria of classification of exercises: Types and kinds
- •6.4. System of exercises
- •6.4.1. Basic notions of a system, subsystem, complex, series, cycle, group of exercises
- •4 Skills
- •6.4.2. Characteristics of the system of exercises
- •6.4.3. Basic methodological principles of constructing the system of exercises
- •6.5. Conclusions
- •7.1. Speaking as a skill
- •7.2. Aims of teaching speaking in a secondary school
- •7.3. Linguistic peculiarities of dialogical speech
- •7.3.1. Functional correlation of dialogue replies
- •7.3.2. Structural correlation of replies
- •7.3.3. Kinds of dialogical unit
- •7.3.4. Functional types of dialogue
- •7.4. Stages of teaching dialogue
- •7.4.1. Dialogical unit as an item of teaching
- •7.4.2. Communicative situations
- •7.4.3. Four faces of a situation
- •7.4.4. System of exercises in teaching dialogical speech
- •7.4.4.1. Exercises of group 1
- •7.4.4.2. Exercises of group 2
- •7.4.4.3. Exercises of group 3
- •7.4.4.4. Exercises of group 4
- •7.5. Psychological and linguistic peculiarities of dialogic and monologic speech. Types of monologue
- •7.5.1. Psychological characteristics of dialogue and monologue
- •7.5.2. Linguistic characteristics of dialogue and monologue
- •7.6. Functional types of monologue
- •7.7. System of exercises in teaching monologic speech
- •7.7.1. Exercises of group I
- •7.7.2. Exercises of Group 2
- •Verbal sound and illustrative (visual) aids
- •7.7.3. Exercises of group 3
- •7.8. Conclusions
- •8. Teaching the receptive skills: listening
- •8.7. Conclusions
- •8.1. Role and place of listening in teaching English
- •8.2. Listening as a skill in real-life communication
- •8.3. Typology of listening
- •8.3.1. Kinds of listening
- •8.3.2. Types of listening
- •8.4. Types of text for teaching listening in school
- •8.4.1. Authentic and non-authentic listening
- •8.4.2. Structure of texts for listening
- •8.4.3. Types of text for listening
- •8.5. Major premises and conditions for effective teaching listening
- •8.5.1. Major premises for listening
- •8.5.2. Conditions for effective listening
- •8.6. System of exercises in teaching listening comprehension in school
- •8.6.1. Preparatory exercises: Isolating the listening skill
- •8.6.2. Preparatory exercises: Non-isolated listening skill
- •8.6.2.1. Exercises in finding grammatical cues
- •8.6.2.2. Exercises in guessing the meaning of unfamiliar words
- •8.6.2.3. Exercises in understanding sentences containing unfamiliar words which do not interfere with comprehension
- •8.6.2.4. Exercises in anticipation
- •8.6.2.5. Exercises in eliciting different categories of meaningful information (time, space, cause, effect, etc.)
- •8.6.2.6. Exercises in estimating types of cohesion
- •8.6.2.7. Exercises in telling the main idea in a group of sentences
- •8.6.2.8. Exercises in developing auditive memory and attention
- •8.6.3. Authentic listening material
- •8.6.3.1. Authentic listening material at the early stages
- •8.6.3.2. Communicative exercises: Teaching listening as a skill
- •8.6.4. Using listening comprehension dialogues in class
- •8.6.5. How to justify the use of songs
- •8.7. Conclusions
- •9. Teaching the receptive skills: reading
- •9.2.2. Grammar
- •9.6. Conclusions
- •9.1. Reading as perception of information
- •9.1.1. Vocalisation and verbose
- •9.1.2. Redundancy
- •9.1.2.1. Uncertainty and information
- •9.1.2.2. Sources of redundancy
- •9.2. Reading as interpretation of information
- •9.2.1. Surface and deep structures
- •9.2.2. Grammar
- •9.2.3. Learning: Knowledge
- •9.2.4. Three faces of memory
- •9.3. Reading as a skill
- •9.3.1. Reading in real life: Functions
- •9.3.2. Interest and usefulness
- •9.3.3. Purpose and expectations
- •9.3.4. Specialist skills of reading
- •9.3.4.1. Predictive skills
- •9.3.4.2. Extracting specific information
- •9.3.4.3. Getting the general picture
- •9.3.4.4. Extracting detailed information
- •9.3.4.5. Recognising function and discourse patterns
- •9.3.4.6. Deducing meaning from context
- •9.4. Aims of teaching reading in a secondary school
- •9.4.1. Reading as a vehicle of teaching
- •9.4.2. Aims of teaching reading in school
- •9.4.3. Kinds of reading mastered in school
- •9.4.4. Techniques of reading and stages of teaching
- •9.5. How to teach reading
- •9.5.1. Teaching reading aloud
- •9.5.1.1. Three methods of teaching reading aloud
- •9.5.1.2. Grapheme-phonemic exercises
- •9.5.1.3. Structural information exercises
- •9.5.2. Teaching silent reading
- •9.5.2.1. The twin problem of analysis and synthesis
- •9.5.2.2. Semantic-communicative exercises
- •9.6. Conclusions
4.1.1.2. Direct method
The direct method, sometimes called the oral method, or the natural method, was developed as reaction to the grammar-translation method. This is true, but in fact people have been learning languages by this method at least as early as Roman times, when young men were provided with Greek tutors to teach them Greek, the cultural language of Europe in those days and an essential part of one’s education.
The simple idea behind the direct method was that we learn languages by hearing them spoken and engaging in conversation: reading and writing can be developed later.
Practitioners of this method immersed their students in a flow of examples of the spoken language, while actively demonstrating the meaning of what they were saying, if possible suiting their actions to the words. At the same time, they would encourage the students to speak, i.e. to cue them, often by asking questions.
Thus, the main principle of the direct method was to immerse students in the target language. The aim seems to have been to give students a rich sample of the forms of the structural or lexical items being taught, to envelop students in a continuous stream of the language. Some questions are appropriate here: 1) How natural is the teacher’s use of language? (Remember, this method is sometimes called the natural method); 2) What percentage of time do you think would be occupied by the teacher’s voice during oral work? 3) Do you think this type of lesson would be easy to teach?
4.1.2. Behaviourism: Audio-lingual method
It could be said that this method consists entirely of drilling in one form or another. Audio-lingual means ‘listening - speaking’. The method consists of presenting an oral model to the student, either on tape or in the teacher’s voice, and carrying out a series of pattern drills based on the model.
The anatomy of a drill
The drill in the language classroom derives directly from behaviourists’ theories of learning. The behaviourist movement, given birth by the famous Russian physiologists Pavlov, Behterev and Sechenov and the psychologists Watson and Raynor, became extremely influential in the 1950s and behaviourist learning theory was one of their most convincing developments. Mostly this was based on experimental research on animals such as dogs, rabbits, rats, pigeons and even fur coats. In an article published in 1920 by Watson and Raynor the results of the experiments they had carried out with a young baby called Albert were reported. When Albert was 9 months old they discovered that the easiest way to frighten him was to make a loud noise by striking a steel bar with a hammer. At various intervals over the next 3 months they frightened Albert in this way while he was in the presence of various animals (a rat, a rabbit and a dog). The result of these experiments was that after 3 months Albert showed fear when confronted with these animals even when the noise was not made. He even showed unease when a fur coat was put in front of him. The psychologists suggested that they would be able to cure Albert’s fear but were unable to do so because he was no longer available. His parents had withdrawn him from the experiment. Watson and Raynor even discussed the possibility of Albert’s fear of fur coats when he reached the age of 20.
The ethics of this experiment are of course highly questionable but Albert’s experiences are an early example of the idea of conditioning. Watson and Raynor had managed to condition Albert to be afraid of the rat, rabbit, dog and fur coat where before he had a neutral emotional reaction to them.
Behaviourism is still strongly associated with the theories of professor B.F. Skinner of Harvard University and his ‘Verbal Behaviour’ published in 1957. The principles behind behaviourist learning theory are relatively simple and correspond to a common sense view of how we learn to do things. Look at this diagram of a rat in a simple T-shape maze:
Food
Door
Rat Cage
It is not hard to see that if food is always placed in the right-hand side of the maze, the rat will learn after a serious of runs, or ‘trials’, to turn right when it is released from its cage. We could say here that a habit is being formed. Habit formation is the basis of behaviourist learning theory.
The process of habit formation, according to the behaviourist, is developed as follows: A habit is formed when a correct response to a stimulus is consistently rewarded. The habit therefore is the result of stimulus, correct response and reward occurring together again and again. The more frequently this happens, the stronger the habit becomes. Once the habit is established, the subject (animal or human) will continue to respond correctly to the stimulus, even if the reward is not present.
For the behaviourist, both reward and punishment can have an effect on habit formation. Reward has a positive effect; punishment has a negative effect. Both were covered by the term reinforcement. Reward was positive reinforcement, punishment was negative reinforcement.
According to Skinner, reward was more effective than punishment in a teaching situation. He concluded that the students’ task should be so arranged that they had a very good chance of getting the answer right, i.e. of responding correctly. In other words, a teaching programme should be split up into a series of very simple steps. Once the student has succeeded in getting one step right, he could go on to the next. This process is called grading.
Thus, the degree of difficulty of operating language input gradually increases. Each step, or drill, conducted in the classroom is designed in a three-phase way:
Stimulus Response Pupil’s correct answer/T. corrects P.
( Teacher Pupil Pupil/Teacher)
If the drill is performed in a language laboratory, then it is of a four-phase character.
Phases of a drill
Drilling in the classroom normally follows a three-phase scheme consisting of stimulus – response – reward, e.g.:
T : Johnny’s in England. France. stimulus (1)
P : Johnny’s in France. student response (2)
T : Good. Teacher approval (reward) (3)
The advent of the tape recorder as a language teaching device, combined with a belief in habit formation as a fundamental process of language learning, led to the development of the language laboratory. Typical language laboratory drills took the form of four-phase drills, e.g.:
Tape: Johnny’s in England. France. – Phase 1. Stimulus
P: Johnny’s in France. – Phase 2. Response
Tape: Johnny’s in France. – Phase 3. Reinforcement
P: Johnny’s in France. – Phase 4. The 2nd response
In theory if the student repeated correctly in phase (2), when he heard phase (3) and recognised this as being the same as his response (2), he was rewarded by knowing he had got it right. The second repetition (4) makes the habit stronger, or gives the student the second chance if he did not perform well the first time. This drill methodology identified as the audio-lingual method applies the following principles.
First principles
Students should first listen; then speak; then read; and finally write the language. In extreme forms of this method, students had to listen for many hours before they were allowed to speak (The Silent Way; Total Physical Response).
The ‘grammar’ should be presented in the form of model patterns or dialogues. Drilling consisted of forming new utterances on the basis of the original patterns. This was called Analogous Pattern Drilling. That is, the students formed the new utterances by analogy.
Drilling should follow the Stimulus – Response – Reinforcement scheme. Students should always be rewarded when they responded correctly, by seeing that they had got the answer right.
Students should proceed by very easy steps, starting with simple repetition and going on to simple substitution drills, then more complex drills (transformation and (re)production). Ideally the possibility of a student making an error should be avoided altogether because positive reinforcement (reward) was considered more effective then negative reinforcement (punishment). This principle was called error prevention.
By repeating the stages of stimulus – response – reinforcement, students will develop correct language habits. Once a habit had been formed, a student could produce examples of the pattern effortlessly and without thinking about how to do so. The student was then regarded as being fluent in that pattern.
Critics of the audio-lingual method would focus mainly on the fact that much of the method consists of mechanical drilling. Practice activities tend to be repetitive and boring. More serious is the danger that students might produce analogous patterns without realising what they are saying. However it should be said that audio-lingualism was thought to be highly successful in some contexts – particularly the foreign language training of military personnel during the Second World War (the so-called Army method).